024 - The Celestial Toymaker

Broadcast:

2^nd - 23^rd April 1966

Doctor:

William Hartnell

Companions:

Steven, Dodo

Adversary:

Celestial Toymaker

Written by:

Brian Hayles (Extensively rewritten by Donald Tosh)

Director:

Bill Sellars

Music:

Dudley Simpson

Script Editor:

Gerry Davis

Producer:

Innes Lloyd

Average Viewers:

8.3m (8.0, 8.0, 9.4, 7.8)

Summary: Trapped by the Celestial Toymaker, the travellers must play his games to win their freedom, but will he play fairly?

Continuing Doctor Who's transition, The Celestial Toymaker was the first under new producer Innes Lloyd and with Gerry Davis he wanted to refresh the show and take it in new and exciting directions. However, due to the show's almost constant production they would first have to get past stories inherited from John Wiles and Donald Tosh. The credit for The Celestial Toymaker is given to Brian Hayles but his original draft fell short of what Wiles and Tosh had wanted and was therefore rewritten (with the agreement that Tosh would receive the main credit while Hayles would receive a "From an idea by" credit - this would have been possible because Tosh knew he would no longer be Script Editor when it was transmitted). However, Lloyd wasn't happy with it when he took over and chose to have further rewrites carried out by Davis, including an idea to write out and replace William Hartnell. Unsurprisingly, Donald Tosh was unhappy with the new scripts and refused to have his name associated with it so the credit fell back to Brian Hayles despite bearing very little relation to his work!

While children were watching Steven and Dodo playing the Celestial Toymaker's twisted games, their parents were following political developments as Prime Minister Harold Wilson bolstered his fragile and unworkable majority by winning a snap election with an extra 91 seats. In Russia, Leonid Brezhnev became General Secretary of the Soviet Union, as well as Leader of the Communist Party of the U.S.S.R. while the Soviet space probe Luna 10 became the first man-made object to enter orbit around the moon. Back in the UK, Barry Butler, captain of Norwich City F.C. was killed in a car accident, Ian Brady and Myra Hindley finally went on trial and Hoverlloyd inaugurate the first Cross-Channel hovercraft service. The music charts were topped by "Somebody Help Me" (The Spencer Davis Group) and "You Don't Have to Say You Love Me" (Dusty Springfield), while cinemas were showing the likes of Battle of the Bulge, The Great St. Trinian's Train Robbery (the fourth in the series) and The Ugly Dachshund.

When viewers had last seen the Doctor at the end of The Ark he was fading out and had become invisible so they would have been eager to find out what was going on...

023 - The Ark

Broadcast:

5^th - 26^th March 1966

Doctor:

William Hartnell

Companions:

Steven, Dodo

Adversary:

Monoids

Written by:

Paul Erickson, Lesley Scott¹

Director:

Michael Imison

Music:

Stock, Tristram Cary²

Script Editor:

Gerry Davis

Producer:

John Wiles

Average Viewers:

6.48m (5.5, 6.9, 6.2, 7.3)

Summary: When the TARDIS lands on an ark ship carrying the last of Earth's inhabitants, Dodo's cold puts them all at risk of being as extinct as her namesake. Just convincing her to use a handkerchief is not enough for the Doctor to save all humanity!

The Ark is something of a transitional story. It is the first fully script edited by Gerry Davis, the last produced by John Wiles, the first full adventure for new companion Dodo (who's accent goes through a change of its own!) and the first turn around in viewing figures since The Daleks' Master Plan was approaching its climax (though just like with that occasion it wouldn't last). Greater changes were also around the corner as the incoming producer would make sweeping changes to the cast so really this was just the start of a transitional period.

In the news, the British Government had just announced plans to decimalise the pound (though not for 5 years) and the BBC announced plans to start broadcasting in colour (BBC 2 would be the first in July 67). John Lennon made his infamous "more popular than Jesus" comment (though it would be five months before it caused controversy when it received its American publication), Austria won Eurovision (the UK entry came 9th), US manned craft Gemini 8 made the first space docking and Soviet probe Venera 3 reached Venus (but failed to land successfully). The Jules Rimet Trophy was stolen from an exhibition and found in a garden by a dog named Pickles a week later, the top half of Nelson's Pillar in Dublin was blown up by former IRA volunteers and the Irish Army engineers caused greater damage and disruption when they blew up the remaining stump to clear the unrepairable ruins. Two plane crashes in Japan took 188 lives in two days - the first crash when trying to land in Tokyo at night with poor visibility, the second hit turbulence over Mount Fuji shortly after taking off from Tokyo. Finally, there were protests in America (against the Vietnam War), Indonesia (against communism), and South Vietnam (against government policies)

Cinema releases during this story included The Reptile, Born Free, and Our Man Flint, and the music charts were still topped by Nancy Sinatra's "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'" until The Walker Brothers began their own four week run with "The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore". Oh, and influential and career launching satirical comedy show "The Frost Report" started.

022 - The Massacre Of St Bartholomew's Eve

Broadcast:

5^th - 26^th February 1966

Doctor:

William Hartnell

Companions:

Steven

Adversary:

French Catholics

Written by:

John Lucarotti, Donald Tosh

Director:

Paddy Russell

Music:

Stock

Script Editor:

Donald Tosh, Gerry Davis

Producer:

John Wiles

Average Viewers:

6.43m (8, 6, 5.9, 5.8)

Summary: Steven finds himself in a vulnerable position at a very dangerous and pivotal time in French history with shocks and surprises throughout.

Love them or hate them, historical stories were a standard part of Doctor Who's early years. Love them or hate them, 'Doctor light' stories have been a part of the revived show (though limited to one per series and only for a few years). The point is, love it or hate it The Massacre Of St Bartholomew's Eve is both of these things rolled into one. It is intriguing and dull at the same time, unless you know about 16th century France, but as a lesson aid it draws you into the period atmosphere ready to listen to and understand what your teacher is telling you, or embark on your own research.

The story title gives you a jumping off point for understanding or researching the setting. On the eve of St Bartholomew's day 1572 (the night of August 23rd) French Catholics assassinated a number of prominent Huguenots in Paris and general Catholic mob violence followed with several thousand deaths. A rather poignant coincidence saw about 2000 civilian villagers massacred in Tây Vinh and Gò Dài (Vietnam) during the broadcast of this story.

Lighter news included the Soviet spacecraft Luna 9 making the first controlled landing on the Moon and Australia moving to decimal currency and introducing their Dollar. Topping the music charts were The Overlanders' "Michelle" and Nancy Sinatra's "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'", while cinemas had such films as Never Too Late, Bunny Lake Is Missing, and by another similar coincidence The Great Sioux Massacre.

Since this story is completely missing from the archives, it is unclear how each of the writers and story editors were credited and various memories are conflicting. It is unlikely that Donald Tosh would have been allowed to receive credit for both writing and editing the story and it is presumed that he only has credit (or at least copyright, based on surviving documentation) for writing due to extensive rewrites of John Lucarotti's work and Lucarotti's alleged displeasure at them. Gerry Davis was the in-coming Story Editor and may simply have shadowed Tosh and received the credit because Tosh could not... So if the story itself doesn't leave you confused or bemused then the story behind it probably will!

021 - The Daleks' Master Plan

Broadcast:

13^th November 1965 - 29^th January 1966

Doctor:

William Hartnell

Companions:

Steven

Adversary:

Daleks

Written by:

Terry Nation, Dennis Spooner

Director:

Douglas Camfield

Music:

Tristram Cary

Script Editor:

Donald Tosh

Producer:

John Wiles

Average Viewers:

9.36m (9.1, 9.8, 10.3, 9.5, 9.9, 9.1, 7.9, 9.6, 9.2, 9.5, 9.8, 8.6)

Summary: The Daleks have formed an alliance and are intent on controlling the galaxy but they will have to catch the Doctor first!

The Daleks were big business in the UK. Fans were aching for more and boy were they about to get it! Unfortunately, international interest was not so hot and this epic twelve part story may have been too much for them to chew over, especially with its mature story elements (including what could be called the first and second companion deaths - more on that later) and consequently it became the only story never broadcast overseas (along with its prelude Mission To The Unknown). This all means that while it is among the most desired missing stories it is also among the least likely to be recovered, although viewing copies were sent to Australia so there is a tantalising thread of chance that they are still out there. Hope was renewed as recently as 2004 when a third episode was recovered but episode 7 "The Feast Of Steven" was regarded as a Christmas special, bore very little relevance to the story and was excluded from the international sales package so no viewing copy was ever made. Subsequently, when its video recording was among the first scheduled to be wiped in August 67 it was almost certainly lost forever.

While the Daleks were set on conquering the galaxy, the news was full of conflicts on Earth... The white-minority government of Ian Smith unilaterally declared de facto independence of Rhodesia leading to trade embargoes and the breakdown of diplomatic relations and the Monday after the final episode was broadcast the UK ceased all trade. Central African Republic, Upper Volta (later Burkina Faso) and Nigeria all suffered political troubles and Tanzania and Guinea severed diplomatic relations with the UK. Meanwhile on the other side of the world things were seriously hotting up in Vietnam as the first major engagement between regular US and North Vietnamese forces began, tens of thousands of protesters picketted the White House, the Pentagon advised President Johnson that his planned actions required four times as many soldiers and Philippines President-elect announced he would also send troops.

In lighter news, Craig Breedlove set a new land speed record (600.601 mph), The Soviet Union launched the Venera 3 space probe which would go on to become the first spacecraft to reach the surface of another planet (Venus), NASA's Gemini 6 and 7 performed the first space craft rendezvous (this should have been a docking mission but Gemini 6's intended target vehicle failed on launch so Gemini 7 became its replacement and docking was not possible). In Moscow the "glasnost meeting" became the first demonstration for civil rights in the Soviet Union - ignored by Soviet press but picked up by Western media, it became an annual event.

Back in the UK, the Death Penalty was suspended (and permanently abolished in 1969), The Race Relations Act became the first legislation to address racial discrimination, and the 70 mph speed limit was introduced. More importantly for Doctor Who, Mary Whitehouse founded the National Viewers' and Listeners' Association which would go on to criticise the show and thus proved some of its best publicity!

On television, "Camberwick Green" and "Jackanory" both débuted while cinemas were showing the likes of The Cincinnati Kid, Thunderball, and The Spy Who Came in from the Cold featuring Claire Bloom (who would go on to appear as The Woman voting against Rassilon's plans to free the Time Lords in The End Of Time) and the music charts were again dominated by the Beatles, this time with double A "Day Tripper" / "We Can Work It Out"