4 episodes
Aired between 5th March 1966 and 26th March 1966
Written by Paul Erickson and Lesley Scott
Produced by John Wiles
Directed by Michael Imison
Synopsis
The TARDIS lands in a jungle where it's observed by a green skinned cyclops that looks like a reject from the Beatles.
Dodo emerges from the TARDIS in a medieval suit and immediately begins sneezing because she's caught a cold. Despite this, she rushes off, believing they've took a simple trip in a Police Box to Whipsnade Zoo. Steven fusses around her, trying to make her understand that they might have gone much further than that.
The Doctor however seems to concur with Dodo, stating that the place has similar climate conditions to Earth.
Unknown to the group, they've actually landed on an Ark, a colony ship leaving Earth with a cargo of humans and their slaves, the Monoids (the one eyed green creatures if you hadn't already guessed). The humans take things very seriously, and shrink anyone who breaches their rules and places them back in storage for their seven hundred year trip to Refusis II, the only planet believed habitable by the remains of humanity.
Back with the TARDIS crew, they are beginning to figure out stuff, as creatures from different continents are together.
Oh, and there's a giant metal roof over the jungle. The Monoid who has been silently watching them up to now, signals back to the humans, who order them arrested and brought in for questioning. The Monoids close in on the group and set off an alarm as they try to enter the TARDIS, allowing the group to evade the aliens for a while, but they are ultimately caught and brought in.
The ships commander politely questions the group, but his second in command, Zentos is more aggressive. The crew cautiously accept the time traveler's stories, and explain that they came to be on the ship themselves, because the Monoids traveled to earth following the destruction of their planet, and in turn helped the humans escape Earth as it was being destroyed by solar flares. The only way the Monoids can communicate with the humans is via sign language. Whilst the Doctor is shown the fantastic advances in technology, Mellium, the commanders daughter, shows Steven and Dodo a giant statue of a human that will take the crew seven hundred years to build, well they don't have phones anymore to play Sudoku after all.
As they inspect the statue, another security alarm sounds. The problem isn't intruders however, it's that the Monoids have begun to collapse for no apparent reason. One of the Monoids is brought in on a stretcher, and the Doctor examines him. As he does so, the commander begins to feel ill and collapses. The Doctor looks morosely at Steven and says that the problem is the common cold brought by Dodo, which the crew and Monoids have no resistance to. Zentos overhears the Doctor and announces the revelation to everyone, demanding that they are imprisoned.
Whilst in jail, Steven continues his time travelling angst by confronting the Doctor and asking him if he's infected other civilisations before. Astonishingly enough, the Doctor has never even considered the notion, but doesn't believe so.
Zentos begins to put the Doctor on trial, and in the interests of fairness, appoints a man called Manyak as their defense. Steven takes the stand, as he is feeling stifled and hot in the cells. He slowly gets worse as the trial gets underway, with the prosecution foolishly stating that the TARDIS crew are really Refusians from the planet they're going to; saying that they intended to kill the humans. Manyak offers a bargain to Zentos, asking for the group to be given the chance to find a cure. Zentos declines the offer, but the commander issues the order from his hospital bed to carry out that plan.
Stephen collapses, and Zentos still insists on trying to flush them out of an airlock.
They come to a compromise, with the Doctor being allowed to cure Steven first, effectively using him as a guinea pig, Wasting no time, the Doctor begins ordering Mellium and the other humans around, directing them to find the components he needs to create a cure for the common cold. As soon as the vaccine is ready, the Doctor tells them to give the rest of the humans it, and they do.
Soon after the vaccine is administered, everyone starts feeling better and oddly enough, the Doctor is celebrated for his cure.
The group are sent off like a bunch of heroes on a luggage cart, driven by a Monoid. They arrive safely back to the TARDIS and set off.....
...When they arrive at their next destination, they're dismayed to see that they've not moved anywhere.
Everything looks like they've not traveled at all, until Dodo notices the completed statue of Homo Sapiens, but it has altered from the plan they saw. Now, this statue has a Monoid's head on it.
This discovery leads the Doctor to believe that they've traveled forwards seven hundred years, and the ship must be near Refusis II by now.
The crew begin to look for the new crew and are puzzled to see that there's not much sign of life about. They eventually come across some humans who are now obviously slaves to the Monoids. as they observe the goings on, they themselves are captured by the Monoids, who now incidentally wield heat guns and talk through a translation device.
In addition, the Monoids differentiate themselves by numbers, and thus take the group to see Number One, their leader.
When the group are granted an audience with "one", the alien thanks them for intervening in the ships past, as the cold weakened the humans enough for the Monoids to take control (recently,,,). He gloats and sends them to the security kitchen.
Once there, the Doctor, Dodo and Steven are greeted by fellow human prisoners Venussa and Dassuk. The humans are star struck at seeing the Doctor and co. as they are myths in the ships history.
Meanwhile, "One" is informed that the ship is arriving at Refusis II. He orders a scout ship to go down, with the Doctor and Dodo. He intends to use them to make sure it's safe for the rest of the Monoid race to go. The humans? They won't be going anywhere, ever.
In the security kitchen, with pleasantries out of the way, the group begin to plan their escape, with Steven suggesting that they simply overpower one of the Monoids. Dassuk says its been tried before, but the group are insistent, so they give it another go...and fail again, getting one of the other humans killed in the process.
With the rebellion quelled "two" takes the Doctor and Dodo away to Refusis II, keeping Steven onboard as collateral. The planet itself is full of vegetation but seems deserted. As the group explore, "two" lets it slip that the humans won't be joining them. Dodo begins to incite a riot, which is only stopped when the Doctor announces that he's found a building.
In the shuttle, an invisible figure steps inside and fiddles about with the controls for a bit before going away.
The Refusian building is also deserted, so "two" gets irritated at the lack of hospitality and starts smashing vase's. This draws out the invisible Refusian who overpowers number two, and commands him to stop.
Back on the ship, "one" gloats over his plan to blow up the ship when the Monoids all get to refusis, using a bomb in the eye of the Monoid statue. Maharis, one of the human collaborators, overhears part of this (not the bit where the bomb is) and goes and tells the others in the security kitchen. The prisoners are understandably upset with him, but Steven convinces them to work together.
On the planet, the Refusian explains that their race lost their bodies after a solar flare hit the planet. The Refusians are happy for the Monoids and humans to have the buildings, they don't need them now. "Two" isn't in the sharing mood, and goes back to the shuttle to radio in to "one" with his information and tell them to storm the planet. The refusian's blow up the shuttle before he can get his signal off, stranding the Doctor and Dodo.
It turns out that not everyone wants to leave the humans, and some of the Monoids begin to voice their dissent. "One" is prepared to kill any Monoid who makes their concerns public.
Despite the hostile motives of the Monoids, the Doctor tries to negotiate with the Refusians to let the one eyed aliens, and the humans live on the planet. The Refusians say they haven't a problem, so long as the Monoids behave themselves.
Thanks to Steven the humans escape the security kitchen, and begin searching for the bomb, discovering only that "one" has already taken the Monoids down to Refusis II after setting the bomb to detonate in twelve hours.
As soon as the Monoids arrive on the planet, "one" declares it theirs, and sets off to find the Refusians and kill them. Once they're away from the shuttles, the Doctor, Dodo and Refusians contact Steven, and send some of the invisible inhabitants up to the Ark to rescue him whilst the Doctor aims to find the bomb's location. Sure enough, he and Dodo get themselves captured by "three" and soon find themselves in the midst of a power struggle between the bombastic "one" and the dissident "four". During their heated arguments, the location of the bomb is revealed.
The shuttles arrive at the Ark, and Steven suggests that half the humans go down to Refusis II, whilst the rest search for the bomb. Unfortunately, a few of the humans argue to leave the hibernating humans to die, and take the shuttles themselves back to Refusis II.
Back on the planet, "one" can't accept that he's lost half the Monoids to the cowardly "four" and decides to chase after him and start a civil war, to which the shuttles return, laden with humans.
Maharis, one of the humans who went along, rushes out and is immediately killed in the Monoid battle, and so the rest decide to stay put until it's safe. The Doctor and Dodo manage to reach the shuttles and tell Steven the location of the bomb just in time. Steven is at a loss as to how to stop the bomb, but the Refusians help by levitating it out the airlock before it explodes.
Luckily, the more civilised "four" survived the battle, and between him, the Refusians, and Dassuk, they form a peace treaty that allows them to live in harmony on the planet.
Now the crisis is over, the Doctor, Steven and Dodo return to the TARDIS and set off on their next adventure. However, whilst in flight, the Doctor suddenly vanishes from sight. Dodo worries that it's something to do with the Refusians, but the Doctor is adamant that it's some kind of attack...
Trivia
- This is the beginning of Roy Skelton's love affair with Doctor Who. The voice actor would go on to obtain voice over parts for iconic TV characters such as Daleks, Cybermen and of course, Zippy from Rainbow.
- The elephant arrived a day early, and Michael Imison had to park it in a trailer outside his flat in London, and watch it all night!
- Lesley Scott was the writer's then, wife. Although her name is on the credits, the production notes are at a loss to say what she did to deserve it, as apparently, she did nothing on the story at all.
- If the Monoids aren't shown in closeup, then the illusion works, and they do look believable
- The jungle scenery is rather stunning, again, considering that it was shot in Riverside studio's.
- The elephant was really is a nice touch
- Some of the special effects were really progressive for their age, especially the miniaturization ray and the food pills
What didn't work
- The sign language classes were obviously taught by a squirrel
- Why does Steven get the cold so severe?
- The fact that the humans don't even consider it a bad idea to give everyone the Doctor's vaccine, even though he's only just administered it to Steven, without even waiting for the results!
- Everyone loves the Doctor for curing the cold. Hold on... didn't his group start all this in the first place?
- Security kitchen. Need I say more?
- How daft are the Monoids? Why send the second in command down to the planet unguarded, and then tell the humans in a very obvious way that they're all going to die?
Overall Feelings
Ok, so, we've just come off a story that looked at the struggles stemming from different religions that worked really well. The obvious thing is to then do a story about racial differences. That's pretty lazy thinking, and that's what this show feels like. The central concept of going to a planet twice and having the twist of revolution is brilliant..really, really, brilliant. But you've got four episodes to fill and a concept like that works for two scenes, but that's what this story's success was really pegged onto.
As a result, we get lots and lots of dialogue and not a lot of action. The characters make decisions that have no sense - the sanest guardian on the ship is the one who wants to flush the TARDIS crew out the airlock. The Monoids, whilst effort has been made to show us something different, are just typical bad guys that wouldn't be out of place in any of the Troughton stories. There's just no effort in making them believable, and yet, the special effects are nicely done, and taken in their stride as if people were doing them all the time in 1966.
Overall, this story has a nice concept, but whereas I would say a few of the Hartnell stories are a bit long and could do with being shortened, this one is a bit short and could do with some character development.
Rating
4 out of 10
The concept is brilliant. The execution is boring.
Rewatchability Factor
4 out of 10
The story beside the premise is just recycled. Reused music, reused environments, reused invisible creatures. Better to watch the stories where they were fresh, or at least more interesting
Watch this if you liked...
- The Beast Below (Doctor Who Series 5)
Consulting the Matrix
Should the Monoid's have made a return appearance with their security kitchen, or is one outing enough?
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