Doctor Who - Documentary s06e05 Episode Script

FRAZER HINES: The Invasion.
A story from Patrick Troughton's final season as Doctor Who.
For eight weeks the British public watched the Doctor battle against the joint menaces of Tobias Vaughn and the Cybermen.
And one week after the last episode was transmitted, viewers were transported to the planet of the Gonds for the first episode ofThe Krotons.
At the time The Invasion must've seemed like just another story amongst Doctor Who's varied offerings.
While The Invasion developed out of behind-the-scenes issues facing Doctor Who in the late '60s, its legacy had an impact on upcoming seasons.
To fully comprehend this situation, we need to travel back to late 1967.
The programme's popularity had waned after the heyday of Dalekmania some years earlier, but was slowly regaining ground.
Troughton, unlike his predecessor William Hartnell, saw himself as a jobbing actor and had little interest in doing interviews or making public appearances.
He did various things when he absolutely had to.
But he was not going to sit down and talk about anything other than his work.
HINES: There was a programme at the time called Dee Time, Simon Dee, shot below us at Lime Grove.
-Here we are, Tony, can we have it off? -MAN: Yes, of course.
-I should -Why not? Yes.
Simon Dee was always asking Patrick and myself to come on Dee Time and do the chat show thing.
And Patrick would never do it.
I told Patrick, ''Please, I want to go on and make jokes and want to'' ''No, no, no, no.
You go on.
'' But, of course, they wouldn't have me on my own.
They wanted Patrick.
And Patrick always said, ''No, the minute I take the bow tie off and the frock coat, ''I'm Patrick Troughton.
'' You don't need to go along the route of having to do every interview, you know You can go to work, you can do your job to the best of your ability, and then when you knock off at 6:00 or whatever, that time is your own.
HINES: Meanwhile, the fifth production block of Doctor Who was in full swing.
However, all was not plain sailing.
The scripts for the Enemy of the World were delivered late, and it was felt that Fury From the Deep needed more time in development, necessitating some re-jigging of the story order.
Patrick Troughton, unsettled by these problems, and increasingly of the opinion that these storylines were becoming repetitive, was also slowly being exhausted by the nonstop production schedule, particularly because pre-filming for the next serial would overlap with the week of rehearsals for the current one.
Upon Troughton's request, it was decided that from the first serial of the sixth production block, the actors would work on only one story at any time.
Soon after, following discussions with his co-stars, Frazer Hines and the departing Deborah Watling, Troughton decided to make the next year his last.
TERRANCE DICKS: He didn't quite as much play himself as perhaps John and Tom did.
You know, he created a Doctor.
Patrick could be very different if you saw him in another show.
It's a question of time, you see, and I think Patrick judged it very shrewdly.
I mean, Patrick was a sort of major, well-established character actor before he did Doctor Who.
And he was a major, well-established character actor pretty quickly after he did Doctor Who.
It didn't do him much harm.
It was my agent that was on at me all the time.
''You've done enough now.
You want to leave.
You've got to leave.
'' I mean, I didn't want to leave at all.
I was enjoying myself so much, that I would say that if Patrick was still alive now, and haven't had this His wife telling him to leave, and my agent telling me to leave, we'd still be there now.
By the start of 1968, Peter Bryant had been installed as producer, and Derrick Sherwin had officially filled the story editor's post.
However, the problems kept coming.
The penultimate story of the production block, The Dominators, hit scripting problems in mid-March, leading to the serial being concluded one episode early, with the odd instalment being added to the beginning of the next serial, Manpower, soon to be re-titledThe Mind Robber.
The script situation on Who was chaotic, you know.
I mean, there weren't enough scripts in.
There weren't enough scripts coming in.
They had a habit, both of them, of going so far with an idea, and then deciding that they didn't like it after all and cancelling it, which meant you hadn't got any scripts, you know.
So we were in quite a predicament, you know, for most of the time.
HINES: Troughton had voiced his script concerns to Bryant and Sherwin, who decided that the series needed reformatting to stay fresh.
The recently transmitted Web of Fear had proved to be a great success, both in production terms and with the viewing public.
Travers.
Travers.
Is it you? I am not frightened by your stupid tricks.
Travers.
HINES: Taking inspiration from the serial, Sherwin elected that the first story of the sixth production block would be a pilot to try out a new direction for the show, involving more cost-effective and action-orientated serials.
The Invasion sort of led on to a lot of the things that happened afterwards, mainly I think because Derrick and Peter took this decision to have the show based on Earth.
I think they wanted to achieve some of the success of the Quatermass series, you know, Nigel Kneale.
It got us into reality, that we could actually go on location, and walk down a street, and breathe real air, as opposed to being in a space station which is made of egg boxes or cardboard boxes or whatever.
We quite enjoyed actually getting out into the real location, and getting away from being studio-bound.
To maintain a certain amount of continuity with The Web of Fear, director Douglas Camfield would return once again to Doctor Who.
The first thing I ever went to on Who, the first official occasion, was when they were working on The Web of Fear, and trying to make the Yeti sound less like a flushing lavatory.
And Douglas They would go (ROARING) And Douglas would say, ''It's no good.
It still sounds like a bloody toilet.
'' He had a fearsome reputation for not taking any prisoners and being quite sort of forthright.
And, of course, I was very inexperienced, but I just had to learn very fast, that was all.
He was a great director.
Whether he Because it was The Web of Fear and The Invasion army, because he was a military man as well, but he worked his location and his scripts in a military manner.
D'OYLY-JOHN: He was incredibly organised and very directional about how he saw things.
So he would always head off a conversation with, ''This is vital information that you must know.
'' And we would all have to sit there and listen to what the vital information was.
NICHOLAS COURTNEY: Douglas could always rise to a challenge.
He did so much homework, I think, probably more than any other director might have.
He worked him.
He was a real workaholic, Douglas.
And he expected everyone else to do their homework, too.
D'OYLY-JOHN: He was very good at getting the right camera lines and camera angles.
He would actually make it much more filmic.
Some directors we had couldn't direct the actors, but they were great at putting the cameras here and the cameras there, and not good But Dougie was good with cameras and was very good with actors as well.
PADBURY: The sort of director that can get things out of you in the most charming way.
When you get agitated and uptight, you don't get the best out of people.
And Dougie had the ability to get the best out of everybody.
If one of us suggested something, he didn't just like Another director, who I won't mention, would go, ''No, stop that, stop that.
'' Dougie would always Have a think about it.
''Okay, you can do that, but don't do that.
'' KEVIN STONEY: I would always trust his judgement rather than my own judgement.
You do need a director who has a good I mean, who realises it's all entertainment, so we want to get the entertainment quality, but not go over the top too much.
Now, Dougie was marvellous like that.
You could trust entirely what he said.
You'd never dispute it.
You always felt at ease with him and he was always encouraging and enthusiastic, but had a very He just had a really easy way about him.
It was lovely, a lovely man to work with.
Dougie was always talking about, ''Come the revolution.
'' And I said, ''Which revolution, Douglas? Your revolution or mine?'' 'Cause he was very, very right-wing and, of course, I was very left-wing in those days.
I remember, Dougie was making this complaint, you see, that he was seen as the practical action man.
And Chris said, ''Well, Dougie,'' he said, ''you're too straightforward and honest.
'' He said, ''Give them a bit more of the old moody,'' he said, ''and impress them that you're a tormented creative genius, you see.
'' But Dougie could never quite manage it.
HINES: As Sherwin worked on his ideas, certain differences from the setup established in The Web of Fear developed.
Instead of using the regular British Army, Sherwin devised a new military organisation for the Doctor to ally himself with.
Derrick Sherwin came up with the idea of UNIT, United Nations Intelligence Taskforce, which is a sort of international force administered from Geneva, and their general brief is to deal with anything strange and unusual, an alien invasion, and whatever, you know.
HINES: To lead UNIT, it was eventually decided to reuse a major character from The Web of Fear, Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart played by Nicholas Courtney.
VICTORIA: Where did the Colonel come from? DOCTOR: Well, I don't know.
When I came to, there was no sign of the Yetis.
I wandered around for a bit and then, as I was on my way back to you, he suddenly popped out from nowhere.
COLONEL: Afternoon.
Captain Knight.
-KNIGHT: Good afternoon, Colonel -Lethbridge-Stewart.
I expect you're wondering who the devil I am, eh? KNIGHT: Well, as a matter of fact, sir, yes.
This dubious Colonel comes in because no one knows whether he is a goodie or a baddie to start with.
The actor who was going to play Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart, David Langton, for some reason couldn't do it.
So having been cast as Captain Knight, Douglas rang up the BBC and said, ''Would Nicholas mind playing the Colonel?'' So I knew I was going to get on with the director, and I liked the script, I liked the character, the way it was going to be developed.
-All right, Benton, thank you.
-Sir.
-NAAFI break, sir? -Very well.
How nice to see you again, Doctor.
It's Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart.
Ah, Brigadier now.
I've gone up in the world.
I wanted to get the humour of the man, the fact that he got things wrong like so many military commanders do.
The humour and the parody.
The deadpan sort of humour there.
Not trying to get a laugh.
I didn't want to be a comedy colonel.
I wanted him to play him for real.
This is hardly a job for you.
Why ever not? Well, you're a young woman.
This is a job for my men.
Well, of all the bigoted, anti-feminist, cretinous remarks This is no job for a girl like you.
Now that's final.
Oh, you You man! We were so pleased to see Nick back because we had somebody else who could play poker with us, or liar dice.
Forget about him being an actor.
Got a TM-45 handy? Yes, sir.
Right here.
-Is that a tank? -Oh, no, no.
My units are on constant alert, so should you find yourselves in any trouble, you can just give us a call.
Jolly good! We pulled his leg unmercifully about his moustache.
''Oh, it's wobbly.
'' ''It's not, is it?'' COURTNEY: Douglas was very responsible, I think, for it, when you think back.
Because he had this conviction that I was the army officer.
HINES: Camfield was exceptionally keen that UNITshould appear a serious military force.
Costume designer Bobi Bartlett created the distinctive four uniforms the UNITpersonnel would wear for their first few stories, whilst help from both the regular British Army and the RAF was afforded to the crew on location.
The basic storyline that Sherwin was developing had originally been submitted by scientist Kit Pedler, who, with Gerry Davis, had originally created the Cybermen.
Sherwin wanted an eight-part story, largely as a buffer to safeguard against the scripting problems that were now hitting later serials.
But Pedler's proposal would have effectively made only four episodes, and Peter Bryant himself indicated, ''We proposed using little of his actual stuff.
'' DICKS: He was always very keen that he should be seen as a creative input as well as a scientific one.
And I remember he wrote Derrick Sherwin a very sloppy letter once saying, ''I want to take part in the creative process.
I'm not just a think-tank to be plugged into.
'' And I thought, ''Yes, you are, Kit.
That's exactly what you are.
'' HINES: The first alien threat that UNIT took on were the Cybermen.
In the absence of the Daleks from the series, the creatures had effectively become the main reoccurring monster of the Patrick Troughton era.
Troughton and the team were happy to see them return, regarding them as a particularly effective enemy.
The Cybermen I found the scariest for us.
Because A: They were taller than us.
They were always played by very, very tall actors.
But they always had this bland, you know, no-emotion look, those round eyes and the mouth.
Could have been playing cards with that guy half an hour before at lunch break, and then he puts his costume on and then it's not Reg Whitehead any more.
It's not, you know, it's You really were frightened of the Cybermen.
Audiences are incredible, really.
Because if you tell them something, and if you relay to them that this Cyberman is an extremely scary and dangerous foe, then they will believe it.
HINES: With the script finalised, Camfield set about casting the major roles.
As always, the talent was led by Frazer Hines and Patrick Troughton.
Actress Wendy Padbury had joined the Tardis crew towards the end of the previous recording block, and had already found her feet as Zoe.
COURTNEY: I don't think his attitude had changed because he was going to leave.
He still gave it full value and if things went wrong on the set, he would diffuse all tension.
HINES: It comes from the top, the star of the show.
If people walk into that room and the star is being starry and demanding, it goes all the way down the line and everybody then starts gripping their chair and they can't enjoy it.
Patrick was just so welcoming.
D'OYLY-JOHN: There was an element of great fun with Pat Troughton.
He was a tremendous professional, and he could make even things which he didn't like doing work on camera just by Simply because of his His sort of He just had a knack.
I mean, he was a terribly good actor.
Huge range of Could play a huge range of parts.
Once he had started, he loved Doctor Who.
It gave him the prominence and the prestige he had deserved for a long time, but had escaped him up to that time.
Patrick had an ease, I think, of just being able to slip in and out of the situation and par excellence inventiveness.
(LAUGHING) I mean, he was often quite dodgy on his lines, but that's by the by.
Weren't we all at times? Patrick would never dry up, because his brain would think of another word.
Instead of going, ''Um, sorry, cut.
What's that word again?'' He'd always think of another word.
I think possibly, of the Doctors I worked with, I think I think he was my favourite because he was funnier.
He was very funny off-screen.
We were together for quite a few weeks on The Invasion, and got to know each other quite well.
People have said, you know, ''What was it with Patrick and I that we gelled?'' Because you're not forced to gel.
With your assistant, or in whatever film or TV you're doing or stage play.
Patrick said in his book one of the happiest times he had was working with me and I have often said that was the happiest time of my career.
Don't know what it was, we After about six months of working together, we could just look at each other and know what the other was thinking.
PADBURY: I think it was a very good story for Zoe.
I mean, it showed her doing what she did best, which was a little bit sort of clever.
I will not be beaten by this brainless tin box! -But you can't do anything about it.
-Can't I? A little problem in ALGOL, I think.
I mean, what fun is that? I mean, how much fun can you have? You walk in and you blow up a computer by talking this language to it that makes it smoke and eventually expire.
(EXPLODING) And telling them that they could actually blow up the Cybermen's ship by doing certain things.
I mean, just brilliant for Zoe, because she was showing exactly what she did best.
HINES: For once, Zoe would find herself teaming up with another young woman during her adventures on Earth.
Actress Sally Faulkner was cast as Isobel.
Well, she was an archetypal '60s babe, wasn't she, really? -Okay, you can relax.
-Oh, good.
I didn't know standing still could be so exhausting.
She was in the fashion business, in the photography business.
She was bright, she was quite lippy, wasn't she? -Fakes? -Yes, I see what you mean.
Oh, charming.
I don't know why I bothered.
She seemed to think, ''Oh, I'm not sure if I believe that.
'' Or ''Yeah, anyway other people won't believe it.
'' And she seemed much more interested in flirting with the Captain than anything else.
-Ah! Here comes my dolly soldier.
-Cheeky.
When the Captain asked her out to dinner and she went Hey, are you stinking rich? It was sort of, disingenuous, rather charming in a way.
She'd probably grow up to be an absolutely ghastly woman.
It was lovely to be To have some fun and to have a friend, you know, a girlfriend, really nice idea.
We got on very, very well and it was a kind of, like, a very girly sort of feel together.
Fun, it was like she was a sister.
And it was quite nice also, as well, having two girls, and there was no rivalry of any sort.
And that was such a departure for Zoe, really, to be, you know, doing something with a feather boa and having her photo taken.
FAULKNER: Of course, miniskirts had just come out and so there we were wearing these same new short skirts.
I know, yeah, people do wear them like that now, but, I mean, then, I mean it was completely new to go around dressed like that.
It was about one of the highest miniskirts I remember, wasn't it? FAULKNER: And, of course, they dressed her in I think they were Ossie Clark clothes, and I remember they were just I mean, I just thought they were wonderful.
It was red, which you can't see on the telly, red and white little coat over a dress.
With all the lipstick There were sort of lipsticks It was quite phallic, really.
It's just really funny watching it, really, as well, because, I mean, actually a lot of us went around looking like that.
HINES: She was very attractive, very beautiful and we all sort of Our tongues fell out a bit and everybody lusted after her.
But I don't know why nobody actually took her out.
Now, Gregory, connect the Professor's machine.
HINES: Foolhardy, misguided or plain evil scientists have featured frequently in Doctor Who, andThe Invasion provided us with two such characters.
Well, Gregory, success? I don't know yet, sir.
We've added narrow bandwidth transducers.
Should make transmission more directional.
Good, good.
Show me.
He knew what he was being asked to do, eventually, and that he was producing stuff to frighten.
I don't think he knew the whole scope of what Vaughn was going to do.
-Mr Vaughn, please -Connect it! He didn't want to go on but he was obviously petrified and thought Well, everybody was.
Perhaps we should try the effects of the machine on you, Gregory! -At full power! -No.
HINES: Originally, the other scientist was to have been Professor Travers as played by Jack Watling.
However, to avoid paying the writers of Web of Fear a fee, Sherwin and Bryant created the new character of Professor Watkins as a replacement.
COURTNEY: Well, Edward Burnham, he had this eccentricity because of his height and everything.
I think he might have been, in a way, better casting than Jack in that particular part.
I've been developing a new kind of teaching machine.
-Oh, yes? A teaching machine? -What's it called? -I call it the Cerebraton Mentor.
-Oh, aye.
The main difference from other teaching machines is that it's able to induce emotional changes in the subject.
BURNHAM: Professor Watkins was a kind of scientific fanatic, who didn't really know what he was playing with.
Morally, I mean.
Morally and socially.
Rather like some of the people who were playing with the atom bomb before it went off.
Obviously, I can't choose but work for you.
If I refuse, you'll torture me, you'll kill me.
I know I can't stand up to torture.
BURNHAM: He was too single-minded about it, and couldn't resist the temptation to develop his diabolical machine.
When the pistol was put to his head, he didn't have a great deal of moral social sense.
HALLIDAY: He had a very bad time, poor old Teddy, didn't he? It was one of my nice and nasty moments when I was able to threaten him with awful, awful With torture.
I'd think about it if I were you, Professor.
After all, she is a pretty girl.
It'd be a shame to spoil all that.
What a vicious sadist you are, Packer.
HINES: To play the sadistic henchman Packer, Douglas Camfield hired Peter Halliday, who had recently worked for him on an episode of the BBC anthology series Out of the Unknown.
I was worried sitting here all alone.
-I wanted to make sure you got there safely.
-Get out of here.
-Now, Jimmy -Get out! Please.
You are the only friend I've got in the world! Friend! I wouldn't call you a friend even if you were the last man on Earth.
(SHOUTING) No! Jimmy, you can't do that! Jimmy! It's inhuman! Well, he's a sort of sidekick to the villain of the piece, and he's a rather incompetent hit man.
Well, what a tough time he had.
I mean, there was a man, Packer, desperate to do some serious, serious harm to somebody, anybody.
Be a good fellow and see if Professor Watkins has finished, will you? Very good, Mr Vaughn.
(DOOR BUZZING) You might even offer him a little encouragement.
Coming, gentlemen.
PADBURY: But he was so thick.
And, you know, every time he got that look in his eye when Vaughn would say, you know, ''Deal with him,'' and he got that look in his eyes, you know, he's going to beatout of somebody.
Seconds later something happened and he looked so dejected.
I knew he was rather incompetent because nobody dressed up in black leather like that.
And that ridiculous helmet towards the end, and brandishing his gun.
You really don't learn, do you? This is private property.
A restricted area! Where's Zoe? Where have you taken her? -Be quiet! -Look, we heard them scream.
If you hurt her I said be quiet! Packer! I think Packer was unlucky that he came up against the Doctor and Jamie.
I think, with anybody else, he could bully and smack around and torture.
Jamie and the Doctor sort of always had one over on him.
Frazer Hines managed to really sort of knock me to the floor once or twice, I think.
-Guards! Guards! -The guards.
Come on.
HALLIDAY: Villains are always fun to play, much more fun to play than the hero.
One can go slightly over the top.
I remember Kevin Stoney saying, ''Playing a villain, ''one mustn't go over the top too much, but then you have the licence in Doctor Who.
'' HINES: To play the lead villain, Tobias Vaughn, Camfield hired Kevin Stoney, an actor who had worked for him before, not least on the epic William Hartnell story, The Daleks' Master Plan.
Patrick quite liked the fact that there was a human opponent in the shape of Tobias Vaughn.
You know, Kevin's a very good, strong actor.
HINES: It's easier to balance off a human villain rather than a monster.
People like Vaughn, you can actually react.
Eyes react.
And when you've got somebody as powerful as Kevin, then obviously you do raise your game.
I think he is just sensational.
No, I have to have power.
The world is weak, vulnerable, a mess of uncoordinated and impossible ideals.
It needs a strong man, a single mind.
A leader.
Vaughn, will you listen? Dougie gave me the script.
It was pretty obvious that this was a very good script.
He told me about the Cybermen and Daleks and things.
I told Dougie that I don't think I knew what he was talking about.
It was only when we got in the studio and I saw these extraordinary things that the penny began to drop.
I need more data about this man you say you recognise.
This Doctor.
COMMUNICATOR: It is enough that you know he is hostile.
He must be destroyed.
I didn't think Tobias Vaughn was utterly real.
He was almost a dream.
Somebody's dream.
But that didn't make him less attractive to play.
One's imagination can take all kinds of leaps when you've got that sort of thought in your mind.
I mean, he's got a fantastic face for a start-off.
I mean, that is a villain's face.
Kevin has got this magnificently sinister quality, you know, which comes through all the time.
If he says, ''Have a cup of tea'', it sounds like a murderous threat.
Your uncle needs to be ''persuaded'' to continue his work for me.
But I can't do anything about that.
No.
But I can.
Now Packer, I'd like you to take care of these two young ladies, please.
He had that lovely sort of charisma, you know.
Actually, when I watched some of The Invasion back, when he is on set, your eyes go to Kevin Stoney.
You're not looking at us, you're looking at Kevin.
You've thwarted my elaborate security precautions twice.
-I'd like to know why.
-Oh, that's quite simple.
I hate computers and refuse to be bullied by them.
The lines said it all.
One just played the lines for what they were worth, you didn't play against them.
They were worth pushing hard.
COURTNEY: Kevin usually was very, very quiet and smiling.
And then when Kevin lost his temper VAUGHN: Oh, Packer, you do disappoint me.
They must have got down the fire escape, sir.
And, of course, you didn't think to have a guard on that! Did I use the word ''incompetent'' with him? -Well, normally -You're a stupid incompetent! I want that Doctor! Put the whole compound on alert! Have every available guard on the job! He, you know ''I'm going to get awfully cross with you.
Do you mind?'' Things like that, you know.
I said, ''I don't mind, scream at me.
'' I can't, you know It's a pretty good situation, because I can't shout back at you.
I suppose we were hardly I won't say fooling around, we didn't have time to fool around.
But we were light-hearted about the whole thing.
Oh, you're a fool, Vaughn.
When they get here, they'll take over.
All Cybermen here are conditioned to obey my orders.
STONEY: He obviously thought he could use them.
He was interested in their power and the strength it could give him when he needed them.
HINES: The Cybermen had undergone extensive design changes since their first appearance in the series.
Each adventure would see at least minor modifications to their costumes andThe Invasion was no exception.
The helmets and chest units were entirely remodelled with a light beam fixed to the crown of the head and a more spacious design meant that the actors could now turn their heads whilst inside.
The body was a two-piece rubber wet suit, painted silver, with piping running up the limbs, which unfortunately was less than robust.
Completing the ensemble were a pair of five-fingered gloves and army boots, also painted silver.
In total, six Cybermen costumes were made.
As with previous designs, the actors found the limited vision from inside their helmet difficult to cope with, whilst under studio lights, costumes could become insufferably hot.
You really had to help the Cybermen by giving them time to have, should we say, breathing space, by taking their heads off and breathing some fresh air, because with this rubber right up against their face, it was really quite a problem for them being in those suits for hour after hour.
HINES: The skeletal Cyber-director would be the main focal point of the story with Peter Halliday pre-recording all the required lines, whilst actor Pat Gorman played the lead Cyberman for the bulk of the filming.
Completing the main cast were Robert Sidaway as Captain Turner, James Thornhill as Sergeant Walters and John Levene playing for the first time Corporal Benton.
Douglas Camfield then assembled his filming crew including film cameraman Alan Jonas and sound recordist Bill Chesneau.
Chris D'Oyly-John was the production assistant for both the location filming and the recording done in the studio.
A production assistant will always listen to the director and also talk to the producer or script editor as to any particular requirements that they had.
The way Derrick Sherwin wrote this material was very obviously filmic and very much location-filming orientated.
It was quite a big thing to stage.
There were certain things within the script which obviously dictate how the location has got to be, but Dougie and I would discuss how he saw the locations and what sort of location he really wanted.
HINES: Location work shot on 1 6-millimetre black-and-white film began on Tuesday, the 3rd of September, 1968.
Running for 13 consecutive days, it was the most lengthy, ambitious and expensive location shoot for the series at that point.
Starting off in Gloucestershire at Williamstrip Farm, the crew first recorded all the scenes involving the Tardis landing and taking off.
Split-screen filming was used to give the impression that the Tardis was invisible, whilst the pole embedded in the ground gave Patrick Troughton a guide to work with.
We stayed for four days down in Fairford and we also had the cooperation of the RAF for filming at RAF Fairford, where we filmed with Hercules transporters.
HINES: The Episode Four sequence where the UNIThelicopter makes a daring rescue of the Doctor and his friends required some very careful shooting and editing, as Chris D'Oyly-John explains.
We couldn't have the helicopter above the actual rooftop, for, sort of, various reasons like health and safety, and being too close to the building.
In fact, the sequence was shot in bits, so the locations were actually split locations.
Douglas made it look and the cameraman made it look as if the helicopter was above the rooftop but, of course, it wasn't.
It was actually hovering above a field.
HINES: That helicopter we used was an Alouette, which is a French helicopter.
And Mad Mike, who we had on Fury From The Deep, was a mad helicopter pilot.
The first day it arrived, Bob Sidaway and I said, ''Can we have a ride in it?'' And he took us up and he was going, ''Er, right'' '''Altitude.
' What does that mean? ''Do you speak French? What? '''Gasoline.
' That must be petrol.
'''Gasoline nought.
''' And he's reading all that.
We went He said, ''No, no, this is a French one.
I've never flown a French one.
'' What? (IMITATING ENGINE) No.
He said, ''I'm only kidding.
'' He'd flown it before.
JAMIE: Right, now quick, up you go, you.
ISOBEL: Oh! You don't think we're going up that, do you? You don't want to be left here with Vaughn and Packer.
Now go on! I'm not very good with heights so I was very frightened.
I was really scared.
I had high heels, slippy high heels and a very short skirt.
And I remember my skirt was blowing up, and then they were saying, ''Oh, God, look, look.
The problem is her skirt's blowing up.
'' And they all go, ''It's one for the dads.
It's all right.
It's one for the dads.
'' HINES: After their trip across the country, the film crew returned to London.
Early on Sunday, the 8th of September, Douglas Camfield and his team ventured out into the heart of the City to shoot what would be some of the most iconic images Doctor Who would ever produce.
I suggested to Douglas that when we had the actual invasion, we should have a well-known London skyline, so the people would know instantly it was London, you know.
So, therefore, St Paul's Cathedral in the background immediately says, ''They're invading London.
'' HINES: I don't know if you could do it nowadays 'cause the City of London is so busy, but I can't recall ever having City of London policemen blocking traffic or keeping people away.
So, you think, maybe there was less people.
They're amazing, amazing shots.
But that was exciting,just sort of seeing that and thinking that they could set that up.
You know, you just sort of think, ''My God.
You know, could they have been like the Nazis ''or some, you know, some other invading power''.
It was just It was sort of quite epic.
What we basically did was film quite early at about 8:00 on a Sunday morning.
Right the way through till about 12.
00, 2.
00 in the afternoon.
Well, we also would post a number of people to just keep people back for the duration of a shot.
Dougie, you know, knows what he's doing but has to get on and is pressurised by the time schedule to get all the shots in.
As I say, 1 2 minutes of setup, you have to be going for it.
HINES: On the same morning, shots were also taken of Cybermen throwing aside special lightweight manhole covers, as well as footage of Jamie, Zoe and Isobel's visit to the sewers.
What do you think you're going down there for, you young idiots? That to my knowledge was a real sewer.
They'd obviously got permission to film down there.
And then I was coming up with the camera and the lens, and they were saying, ''Be careful of the camera, Sally.
Be careful of the camera.
'' I said, ''Wait.
What about me? What about me?'' The camera seemed to be the important thing to save.
-My leg.
-All right.
Hold on, Jamie.
Sergeant! Why that soldier was hitting him on Why he didn't just fire and shoot him, I don't know.
He did a sort of banging on the arm, obviously in the script, but I don't know why Dougie didn't say, ''Just shoot the bugger in the head,'' you know.
But surely a Cyberman would have ripped your leg off.
They were that strong.
But, you know, then Jamie would not have lived to fight another day.
Several locations were used for the various International Electromatics buildings including the Guinness factory at Park Royal in Acton and Associated British Maltsters'premises at Warrington.
The Guinness factory again was a fantastic time for I mean, we filmed a lot of it there.
The railway sidings was at the Guinness factory, that's obviously how Guinness is brought into Park Royal.
The Guinness people were fans of Doctor Who.
D'OYLY-JOHN: They were incredibly helpful.
And the PRO, and I think his name was Jerry Rickman, actually, and he was really helpful.
And he laid on Harp lager and Guinness at lunchtime as well.
So that was a bonus.
In the afternoon, we had nothing to do at all, Patrick and me.
We just had to keep running up and down, running, and we were chased.
Just running up and down.
So the directors of Guinness gave us lots of Guinness and then took us up to the boardroom.
We had some very fine clarets and brandies and cigars, and God knows And we'd sort of go, ''No dialogue.
No.
'' So, very unprofessional, but we got a bit the worse for wear.
But we just had to run around, you see.
And there's one particular shot, we had to look round the corner, and go one head, two head.
Of course, one head, two head, drag the other one out of shot.
One head We just couldn't do it.
So eventually Dougie'd go, ''Come on, fellas.
'' -Now where? -Down there.
JAMIE: Oh, no! Well, we can't go down the lift again, can we? Hello.
There's a fire escape.
Come on.
I'd always had it Not in my contract, that sounds very grand.
I'd always said, ''Please don't shoot Jamie coming down a ladder.
'' Because he is a Highlander and he would not be wearing anything under his kilt.
But of course it's 5:15, it's children's television.
So there was a scene where Patrick goes down this huge side of a building and I follow.
And it was very windy, but the cameraman, bless him, he put two stops down the lens.
So when you look up it's just completely black there.
HINES: Frazer Hines and Patrick Troughton were not the only actors to brave great heights for their art.
Kevin Stoney and a platoon of Cybermen also took to the roofs for their climactic battle in the last episode.
Look out! (ELECTRONIC SIGNAL PULSATING) STONEY: I don't have a fear of heights.
It was only about a floor or two.
When it's one's job to do it, you just get on with it.
You don't think about it.
HINES: TCC Condensers in Acton was the venue where Stoney's character, the evil Vaughn, finally meets his end as he is blasted down by the Cybermen, a sequence which required Stoney to be in close proximity to pyrotechnics.
STONEY: I mean, that thing was shot quite quickly.
I don't think I was particularly stressed about it or worried about it.
I was only worried perhaps that I was not giving too ham a performance.
HINES: For the spectacular finale, Douglas Camfield wanted to make the battle scenes of UNIT fighting the Cybermen look as realistic as possible.
To help achieve this, it was arranged that the British Army would provide a battalion of troops to boost UNITnumbers for filming.
D'OYLY-JOHN: We got a platoon via the MOD and they therefore made all the sort of military bits of fighting look authentic.
Obviously, they handle rifles properly, they get down, they do the crawling along the ground, they do all these things.
It's inherent, it's built-in, because it's their military training.
COURTNEY: They were commanded by a 2nd Lieutenant Lord James.
I remember his name.
He never gave any notes.
Wasn't that kind of him? He would have been entitled to! As I got out of the bus, I was already dressed.
I remember that all the squaddies weren't sure about me at all.
They were saying, ''Do we salute him, sir? Do we salute him?'' Douglas was very good as I say at getting the right film angles to make a small explosion look quite big.
And that was basically because of where he placed the camera in conjunction with the cameraman.
And, of course, in terms of safety as well, because obviously you've got to be very careful with visual effects that nobody is going to get hurt by this explosion going wrong.
HINES: There was also a limited amount of filming undertaken at Doctor Who's regular venue, Ealing Film Studios.
The film inserts of the Cybermen's spaceships were shot here, as well as the scenes of the Doctor and Jamie ascending the lift shaft for Episode Three.
HINES: Lovely set and everything.
Very believable 'cause I'm sure people will think that was a real lift shaft, but it wasn't.
And I wrote, you know, ''Kilroy was here.
'' So, and then Dougie was there and he'd go, ''Who did that?'' I said, ''Well'' ''No, no, no'' I said, ''Well, look, this wasn't built by Cybermen.
'' ''It wasn't built by monsters.
It was built by British workmen.
'' ''And British workmen always have a bit of fun.
'Kilroy was here'.
'' Or ''Sheila's a good'', whatever, you know and ''Yes, yeah, I suppose.
'' And Patrick said, ''Yes, of course.
Workmen always have a go.
'' ''Can we have a Mr Chad as well?'' ''No, no, come on.
Now you're taking the mickey.
You're going too far.
''All right, you can have 'Kilroy was here'.
'' Also filmed at Ealing were the shots of the Cyber-director being destroyed for the final episode.
The results did not please Camfield, who elected to blaze to white when the sequence was telecined in the studio.
With all film work completed, cast and crew started rehearsals for the studio work.
I think we did each episode in a week if I remember correctly.
So we didn't have all that time to go into it too thoroughly.
It was terribly funny.
I remember Dougie used to go and get mad because we used to laugh sometimes, you know, during the actual rehearsals.
We had this snooker table with a carpet across it and we used to play liar dice.
And Dougie came in and leant on the door, ''Are you actors going to come in and do any scenes today?'' And there is Nick shaking his dice, ''Hang on, Dougie.
I've got three kings and I'm passing to Patrick.
''But we know our lines, don't worry.
We know our lines.
'' I just remember we used to have this producer's run, and the producers would come in and watch us, and we'd be doing our stuff.
And often I'd forget my lines and I'd go, ''Oh, Christ.
'' And they'd write down, ''Sally, don't say Christ.
'' Oh, we were allowed sort of a bit of latitude and I think sort of a bit of improvisation came in as well.
When it came to the producer's run, we'd do a dreadful joke, and we'd see all the heads go down.
''Peter Bryant, direction'' And as they were writing, we'd slip in the other joke, you see, the one we wanted to keep in.
And so we were always looking for little sort of ad libs and funny stuff like that, always.
And people like Dougie would say, ''Right, we'll do a comedy run now.
'' ''You're gonna be Irish.
You can be Scottish.
You be Welsh.
'' And you know Or we'd do a fast run to really know if you know the lines.
And we'd just gabble through it, and the whole episode would be about 15 minutes.
HINES: Meanwhile some of the guest artists were coming up with ideas that were perhaps a bit much for the younger viewers of the programme.
Dangerous, is it? Fear, Watkins.
I did have a marvellous idea, because I had woken up some weeks previously in a terrible, terrible scare.
And I'd found myself making an awful noise.
(MOANING) I think it was Derrick who came up to me after and said, ''You better You better not do that.
It'll frighten the customers.
'' HINES: The Invasion was recorded over eight consecutive Fridays from the 20th of September.
The venue was Lime Grove, Studio D, the original home of Doctor Who, but one that was not ideally suited to the demands of the programme.
And the pain about that was getting facilities and the actors and everybody up to the studio 'cause it was up several floors, and it was also a much more cramped space, and the access of getting there and then up and down in the lifts to the canteens and getting people back.
Of course, in those days it was the multi-camera.
So you had four or five different cameras on any one scene.
HINES: Given the extremely expensive nature of the filming already completed, set designer Richard Hunt was given some help in his work through a cunning piece of writing by Derrick Sherwin.
FAIRBAIRN: Vaughn very carefully had his office copied exactly from his London place to the place in the country.
That was a lovely idea of how to avoid paying for a set, but it was clever.
HINES: Unfortunately, not everything else went as easily for Hunt as it seems a thief might have been at work.
On the walls of my studio there were these photographs of me that had been sort of carefully taken, very modelly-type photographs, and they were all around the studio.
And we came in one day to shoot in there and they'd all been nicked.
Douglas had this brilliant idea.
His wife was not unlike me and she was blonde, and so we shoved some photographs of her up instead.
HINES: Viewing Camfield's camera scripts for the episodes, one occasionally comes across the term ''recording break''.
These were pauses in studio which were especially necessary on a serial like The Invasion.
We filmed for Episode One, page one to, say, page 45.
And if the director could get the scene inside the Tardis, then the next scene is inside the lab and back to inside the Tardis again, he'd actually We'd rehearse those three scenes together.
And then you'd do them as of live.
You had to have recording breaks for a number of things.
To move cameras, to move scenery, for costume changes, and all sorts of different reasons.
But one example of where a recording break was needed was the scene where Vaughn gets shot in the chest.
VAUGHN: Shoot! Come on, the gun's loaded, or haven't you got the courage to pull the trigger? There would have been a break after the shooting and then there would have been an insertion of smoking bullet holes, and then they would have started recording again.
Then, when that's all cut together, of course, it just runs as a complete sequence.
HINES: Late on in production, a new scene was added to Episode Six, to replace an aborted location sequence where Professor Watkins was to have been rescued by UNIT forces.
The original scene was to have run something like this.
An IE car containing Gregory, Watkins and three IE guards drives down a country road followed by Corporal Benton in his Jaguar.
Given the cue by Benton, Captain Turner then blocks the road with his Jeep, leaving the IE car boxed in on both sides.
A gunfight ensues between the UNITsoldiers and IE guards.
Professor Watkins takes this opportunity to escape and flees in the direction of Benton.
Gregory sees him and pulls a gun, levelling it at the Professor.
Benton raises his own gun and shoots Gregory dead as the IE guards run off into the woods.
Intent on giving Ian Fairbairn a good death scene, Camfield had a new sequence written as an alternative to be recorded in studio.
When it arrived, he said, ''You've done much better out of it, you know, ''than you would have done had you'' 'Cause it wasn't likely for Gregory to shoot at people.
He wasn't that sort of a person.
On the other hand, me being sent to the sewers to be shot to pieces by the Cybermen was quite a likely end for me.
Kill him! (ELECTRONIC SIGNAL PULSATING) (SCREAMING) There's a voice, Douglas, in the background saying, ''A round of applause for the death.
'' And the whole studio applauded.
HINES: Editing techniques had advanced considerably since Doctor Who had started production.
And several episodes ofThe Invasion were recorded out of sequence, most notably the final instalment.
If you are recording out of order, you've got to have that sort of It's It's not so much a mental discipline as, er, an awareness of where you are in a story.
I suppose because we were used to it from filming, similar with television, you could understand why it had to be done that way.
On the, should we say, the penultimate day of rehearsal before going in the studio, we'd do the thing in story order.
One run-through.
Er, and then the recording order which would inevitably be different for various technical reasons.
HINES: Barring editing, all production work was concluded as the final episode ofThe Invasion was recorded on Friday, the 8th of November.
HALLIDAY: And I thought it was very perfunctory, the way poor old Packer rushes in and waves his pistol and tries to shoot him.
(ELECTRONIC SIGNAL PULSATING) (SCREAMING) I've been killed so many times on the stage and on screen now, it's just getting to be second nature.
HINES: For the serial's score, Camfield turned to a man with whom he had recently worked on Out of the Unknown, Don Harper.
Safe.
Safe.
HINES: Having been provided with copies of the scripts, Harper and his ensemble produced a library of cues of what was effectively story-specific mood music.
Little attempt was made to write to action.
One unusual instrument that Harper employed was the cymbalom, a large hammered dulcimer-like instrument from Eastern Europe with a suitably mournful sound.
In studio, Camfield was able to choose appropriate music to fit each of the scenes he wished to underscore.
And, in fact, not every piece that had been recorded was finally used.
But what was included must stand out as some of the most distinctive incidental music Doctor Who has ever had.
The serial was broadcast between the 2nd of November and the 21st of December, 1968.
Viewing figures generally hovered around the 7 million mark, whilst the improving audience appreciation scores continued the general trend for the series.
I think Invasion, you know, as given in the title, is a good alien invasion story.
You know, I mean, it works very well.
I think at eight parts it's too long, but then I think anything at eight parts is too long.
It would've made a better six-parter and probably a cracking good four-parter.
The Invasion I thought was one of the best ones we did.
We had this lovely shot of the Cybermen in London.
There was St Paul's Cathedral, coming out of the sewers I think the scripts were good.
Eight episodes as well, and I think it stood up.
I mean, some stories, you think after four episodes, you know It could have really been a four-parter, but I think The Invasion actually was one of the best.
And we had one of the best directors, of course, with Dougie Camfield.
The Invasion had been popular with an acceptable audience.
More, importantly, however, it encouraged Derrick Sherwin and Peter Bryant to continue on with their plans to bring Doctor Who firmly down to Earth.
Patrick Troughton, Frazer Hines and Wendy Padbury would continue to star in this series until the final serial of the sixth production block, The War Games, whilst Nicholas Courtney would become a series regular from the start of the seventh.
When the Doctor returned, a new actor,Jon Pertwee, would be the star of a show now made in colour.
Spearhead from Space, Pertwee's first serial, was produced by Derrick Sherwin to the template he had developed in The Invasion.
After this programme, Sherwin would depart, leaving the series in the hands of new producer Barry Letts and script editor Terrance Dicks who would need to carry on the format laid down for them.
I talked to Mac about it, to Mac Hulke.
Mac had a very sort of keen, analytical mind.
And he thought for a bit and he said, ''Well, Terrance,'' he said, ''You've now got two Doctor Who stories.
''Mad Scientist or Alien Invasion?'' And I thought about it and I thought, you know, (BLEEP) me, he's right! You know, it's very hard to come up with anything else.
That was one of our problems.
HINES: Dicks and Letts would eventually mark the show with their own unique style.
But Sherwin's vision brought us some popular stories, such as Spearhead from Space and Inferno.
And UNIT has been a prominent feature of the series ever since.
In line with BBC's policy of the time, all videotapes and film inserts forThe Invasion were junked sometime after broadcast, the videotapes being wiped around May, 1971.
However, 16mm telerecordings of all but Episodes One and Four have survived for us to enjoy today.
Off-air audio recordings of the missing episodes also exist which have now been combined with animation to complete this remarkable adventure once again.
There is little doubt thatThe Invasion is one of the most influential stories in the history of Doctor Who.
But more than that, out of necessity to survive, the production team managed to fashion an invigorating, exciting and involving drama, a testament to the team that created it.