Fury From The Deep
The TARDIS deposits the Doctor, Victoria and Jamie near a North Sea natural gas refinery, whose pipelines radiate a disturbing, heartbeat-like sound. When refinery personnel find the Doctor trying to diagnose the problem, the head of the refinery operation assumes that the Doctor is trying to sabotage their operation. But once they’re at the refinery itself, the time travelers quickly learn that something is dangerously amiss. Drilling rigs at sea have dropped out of communication, samples of strange seaweed enshrouded in a pulsating foam have been found, and those who have come in contact with the seaweed have never been the same again. The Doctor offers his help, but when it is refused it puts he and his companions in even greater risk. When the Doctor encounters the seaweed, it takes time for him to realize that one of his companions has the best defense against it.
written by Victor Pemberton
directed by Hugh David
music by Dudley SimpsonGuest Cast: Victor Maddern (Robson), Roy Spencer (Harris), Graham Leaman (Price), Peter Ducrom (Guard), June Murphy (Maggie Harris), John Garvin (Carney), Hubert Rees (Chief Engineer), John Abierni (Van Lutyens), Richard Mayes (Baxter), Bill Burridge (Quill), John Gill (Oak), Margaret John (Megan Jones), Brian Cullingford (Perkins)
Note: The master tapes of this episode were destroyed by the BBC in the early 1970’s, and no video copies exist.
Broadcast from March 16 through April 20, 1968
Notes: Writer Victor Pemberton penned another Doctor Who adventure with a menace spawned from the sea, The Pescatons, the first commercially-released audio-only Doctor Who story, starring Tom Baker and Elisabeth Sladen. This story marked the first-ever appearance of the sonic screwdriver in Doctor Who, and the Doctor prophetically points out that it’ll “work on anything”. This is the final story to feature Deborah Watling as Victoria Waterfield, though the character would return in the fan-made film Downtime in the 1990s.
LogBook entry & review by Earl Green
On a young planet called Earth, an alien intelligence – in the form of a large black monolith – tests the intelligence of a primitive race of primates. It also influences their development into a more ambitious and potentially more dangerous species. The monolith vanishes, having completed its task.
Notes: Actor Ed Bishop lent his voice to many genre animated series, including Gerry Anderson’s Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons and an episode of the animated Star Trek series. He later appeared in the flesh in Anderson’s cult classic ’70s live-action series UFO as Commander Ed Straker, and appeared in the Big Finish Doctor Who Unbound audio story Full Fathom Five. Kenneth Kendall was a BBC newsreader in real life – the first person to do so on camera in the BBC’s history, in 1955. He parlayed that unique historical footnote into appearances – more or less as himself in his familiar job – on The Morecambe & Wise Show, Adam Adamant Lives! and numerous British-made B-movies. The only actors to appear in both this movie and its 1984 sequel are Keir Dullea and Douglas Rain. Director Stanley Kubrick had the elaborate sets built for 2001 destroyed immediately after production to make sure that they wouldn’t be reused in later films (such reuse being a common practice that he felt would cheapen 2001).
