The Wheel in Space

6 episodes
Aired between 27th April 1968 and 1st June 1968


Written by David Whitaker
Produced by Peter Bryant
Directed by Tristan De Vere Cole

Synopsis

The TARDIS lands, but the scanner is having trouble picking up anything other than the fact that it is surrounded by metal.  After a moment, the scanner begins to show images of flamingos, a sunny beach and other pretty things.  The Doctor works out that this is a TARDIS defense mechanism and wants them to fly off as there's obviously some great danger awaiting them.  However, before they can leave, the fluid link drains and causes and overload.

The Doctor grabs a device called the time vector generator and forces Jamie out of the TARDIS, following shortly after.

He explains to Jamie that he had to remove the generator before the ship gets too out of hand and blew up.  With the generator removed, the TARDIS' insides have reverted to the same spacial dimensions as the inside of a Police Box in the real world.  They are stuck until they can find more mercury to repair the fluid link.

After looking around their immediate surroundings, Jamie and the Doctor find themselves inside a drifting spaceship.  The Doctor finds an oil trail running across the floor, to disappear under one of the closed doors.  They explore further finding the trail leads inside the ships control room, which is locked.  They soon figure out that the ship is a small cargo freighter, built for a crew of four, but no one is on board, the ship is drifting without power, and annoyingly enough, there is no mercury on board unless it's in the control room.

The Doctor and Jamie decide to take their time, having some dinner from the food replication module and Jamie even uses one of the bunks to have a quick nap.

Inside the control room, a small robot activates and begins making its way through the corridors.  It soon finds the TARDIS, and seals the door leading away from it.  It then returns unnoticed to the control room unnoticed.

Once inside the control room, it starts the ship again, throwing the Doctor off balance and causing him to hit his head.  Jamie is roused and rushes to the Doctor who is dazed.  He says that they need to get back to the TARDIS.  When they go, they find the door sealed.  Jamie takes the Doctor back to the living quarters and puts him on the bed.  The Doctor implores him to lock the door, shortly before he passes out.

Alone, Jamie looks out of the porthole and sees a large silver ship in the distance.

He's too busy looking at it to see the Doctor get up in a daze and leave the room, using energy in the time vector generator to cut through the door to the TARDIS.  As he is doing so, he comes face to face with the robot.  It approaches the Doctor menacingly until Jamie throws a blanket over it and hauls the Doctor back into the living quarters, locking themselves in.

The robot frees itself of the blanket and comes after them, cutting its way through the door.  The Doctor instructs Jamie on how to release the energy within the time vector generator and use it like a gun.

Jamie points the device at the door and shoots through it, destroying the robot.

The Doctor passes out again.

The silver ship in the distance turns out to be a space station.  The crew on board pick up the signal from the small freighter and determine that it's 90 million miles off course.  When they don't get a response from hailing the ship, the base controller - Jarvis - determines its a threat and orders it destroyed.

Unknown to the space station or the TARDIS crew, strange white orbs float from the hold of the tiny freighter and disappear through the space stations hold.

Dr Gemma Corwyn, second in command, tries to convince Jarvis to reconsider as she feels there could be survivors on the ship.  Jarvis is adamant that the ship will be destroyed.

Looking for help, Jamie uses his ingenuity and uses the time vector generator to send a signal across to the wheel in space by flashing its light through the porthole at the ship.

Unkown to Jamie, the generator creates static across the comms. channel which is picked up and nearly bursts the crews ear drums!  With this evidence, Jarvis relents and agrees to send across some men to investigate.

Two of the crew suit up and go across, bringing Jamie and the Doctor back. As they are being checked over, Comms Officer Leo Ryan begins chatting up Astronomer Tanya Lernov.  As they are talking, they get reports of strange magnetic anomalies on the wheel.  Tanya puts these together with the slight dips in air pressure recently and begins to suspect they may be related to the freighter.

Gemma checks over Jamie and the Doctor.  She fears that the latter may have concussion and perhaps a small fracture, but Jamie seems alright.  She asks for their names and other details, which forces Jamie to supply the false name of John Smith for the Doctor, based on a name he sees on the medical equipment.

He lies to her and says he doesn't know what went off in the ship because he fell ill, and the Doctor was left to look after him, adding that up to now, the Doctor hasn't told him what happened to the rest of the crew.  Gemma gives Jamie a glass of water, but he doesn't drink it, he's more interested in taking a tour of the wheel.  Gemma sends him to their Librarian - Zoe.  When Jamie leaves, Gemma gives Zoe a heads up and suggests she keeps an eye on Jamie.

Jamie finds Zoe and soon discovers that she is a walking talking database.

She has an eidetic memory, and is full of information on astrophysics and other disciplines.  The downside to this is that she's got no real empathy with others, and openly laughs at Jamie wearing a kilt until he gives her enough information to reference it.  With pleasantries out of the way, Zoe begins the tour.

Their first stop is to see Bill Duggan, one of the crew that is studying flowers collected from Venus.  The next stop is to show him the X-Ray laser, the wheels main defence against invaders and environmental threats.

Whilst Jamie is out on the tour, Gemma contacts Jarvis and lets him know Jamie lied.  She knows he lied about the names, and his blood test confirms that he hasn't been ill, or in space for long.  She also points out that he wasted the water, one of the most precious commodities in outer space.  This all leads to Jarvis deciding that Jamie and the Doctor are saboteurs.  He rushes off to resume the order to blow up the ship.

Zoe continues the tour with Jamie, explaining the wheel's multi functional purpose of relay station, research centre, and early warning system for Earth.  On their way round, news of Jarvis' orders reach them, and whilst the crew are all getting ready, Jamie manages to slip away.

Jarvis reaches the control deck and finds Zoe, but realises that he's too late to catch Jamie.  He and Bill Duggan rush off to the power room, leaving everyone else to speculate about what's happening.

Meanwhile, the odd looking orbs begin to glow and form something inside of them.  The shell breaks and a mechanical hand appears...the hand of a cyberman!

Jamie finds his way back to the power room and uses a bottle of quick setting plastic to gunk up the workings of the X-Ray laser.  He's soon found by Duggan and Jarvis, who hold him and call for security.

In the control room, Zoe looks over the instruments and accurately predicts that a star in a nearby system is about to go nova.  When this occurs, it's likely to cause a localised meteor shower.

The Cybermen hatch out of their eggs on board the freighter, and communicate with a strange electronic overlord.  They inform their "controller" that they're on board and undetected.

Gemma informs Jarvis of the impending meteor shower, and makes it clear that they will need the X-Ray laser to get the wheel through it unscathed.  This lends more credence to Jamie and the Doctor being saboteurs.

They all go back to the control room, leaving Duggan to check over the machinery.  As he does so, he notices a small metallic slug like creature, that he mistakes for some kind of unusual space pet.

He puts it in a cupboard until he has time to examine it better.

In the control room, Jamie is interrogated, but refuses to be called a saboteur (even though he is).

He puts the blame on the Doctor, saying he told him to.  Jamie is impounded in the infirmary with the Doctor.

When the Doctor regains consciousness, he rants at Jamie for putting them in this situation, but understands that he had to do it to stop the TARDIS from being destroyed (may not be invincible without the time vector generator).  As it turns out, he barely remembers anything else from the freighter.

Meanwhile, in the control room, Zoe works with Leo to confirm the calculations on the star.  He gets cross with her for being so cold and analytical, which upsets her when she realises that it's true, she has very little empathy.

Bill Duggan continues to try and fix the laser, but soon discovers that his newly found pet has gone and eaten all the Bernalium rods, the very thing that fuels the X-Ray laser.

Now he is conscious, Gemma checks over the Doctor.  She begins cross-referencing Jamie's answers to her questions but is interrupted by the arrival of Zoe.  She has turned up because she's done more calculations and worked out that the freighter didn't have enough fuel to get where they are now, from where it was registered to set off.  In addition, it couldn't have possibly drifted that far off course in that short space of time.  The Doctor tries to act nonchalant and defy her logic by saying its wrong, but yet cannot come up with an explanation.

Bill Duggan goes to contact Gemma and fill her in on the loss of the Bernalium.  He leaves one of his crew in there to clean up.  The crewman is attacked by a host of the silver slugs, but before he dies, manages to cover one of them in quick setting plastic.

Once it's discovered, Zoe arranges to bring the creature to the Doctor for analysis.  They set up an X-Ray machine to see inside the plastic (because it hardens like steel and cannot be easily cut through).  They discover that the creature is a Cybermat, and therefore the Cybermen are clearly involved.

Jarvis finds out about the laser and does his nut.  He replaces Duggan with Leo, and puts Tanya on Leo's duties.  Gemma concurs with Jarvis that all the mishaps of late seem to be related to the freighter, and convinces him to once again, send people over there and inspect the ship.

Two of the crew go back over there, and are immediately set upon by the Cybermen.  They are mind controlled and ordered to take the Cybermen back to the Wheel in space.

The metal monsters get inside a crate with a false bottom and hide, whilst the mind controlled humans fill the crate with spare Bernalium found on board the freighter.

The Doctor is permitted to speak to Jarvis and Gemma, to whom he tries to explain the threat of the Cybermen.  Jarvis refuses to listen, stating that they'll never get to the wheel undetected.

The crewmen bring back the Bernalium and are welcomed with open arms.

Gemma gets Duggan to take a look at the X Ray picture and confirms that the Cybermat is what he saw.  The Doctor begins putting the pieces of the puzzle together, speculating that the Cybermen wanted the Bernalium gone, but can't think why.

As the day progresses, the Doctor begins to question Jarvis' sanity, seeing as he refuses to believe anything outside of things working perfectly, and Gemma takes his point, especially when Jarvis announces that the Doctor and Jamie are to be trusted and given the run of the ship, and everything is perfectly fine now.

A while later, one of the crewmen goes to the hold to pick up the newly arrived Bernalium.  he is confronted and killed by a Cyberman and dumped in the incinerator, before the mind controlled humans pick up the fuel and make their way into the wheel.

Tanya picks up on the fact that the incinerator has activated, but Leo tells her to just log it as another anomaly.

The mind controlled humans take the Bernalium to the X-Ray laser and with the help of the Cybermen, mind zap Bill Duggan.  They begin fixing the laser themselves, whilst ordering Bill to go to the control room.

Zoe approaches Gemma and says that she told Jarvis of a miscalculation in the meteor swarm, but Jarvis told her to ignore it and that everything is fine.  Whilst she's there, she takes the opportunity to raise her issues around the lack of empathy she has, but Gemma assures her that it's just a byproduct of her training in the "city" - a parapsychology research centre where she was raised.

Now he has the freedom to move about the ship, the Doctor soon finds out about the Bernalium brought over.  He quickly works out that the Cybermen must have come over in the crate and have likely brainwashed some of the crew.  He confronts Gemma with this, but she assures him that all the crew take specific drugs to combat the potential of mind control.  The Doctor assures her that the Cybermen's powers will be far in excess of that.  As a backup, they have a device called the solinski circuit that can monitor thought waves for mind control.   They use the scanner in the control room and discover as Bill Duggan enters the room, that he is controlled.  Duggan smashes the communications hub and is killed by electrocution.

The Doctor advises them to create a crude device that they can all attach to the back of their necks to interfere with the mind control signals, and sets Leo and Tanya off with creating them.  Zoe asks if she can help, but they refuse to let her.

As they prepare the circuits, the Doctor and Jamie go off to the hold to find the crate of Bernalium.  They're investigating it, when they hear the metallic clump of feet against the stairs.  They hide just in time to see the Cyberman pick up some of the Bernalium and take it back upstairs.  This makes the Doctor ponder the Cybermen's intent, as they now clearly don't want to destroy the wheel.  He reckons they'll just kill the crew instead by corrupting the air.  They contact the control room and get them to close off all the air locks, but are soon confronted by a pair of Cybermats.  The Doctor instructs Tanya and Gemma to quickly set up a frequency to broadcast into the room, burning the small robots brains.  The Doctor holds the destroyed Cybermat up as proof of the threat they now face.

The Cybermen contact their controller and inform it of the death of the Cybermats.  The controller decides that now is the time to take over the wheel.

The Doctor returns with the broken Cybermat and gives it to Gemma who confronts Jarvis with it.  Jarvis is almost catatonic now and has clearly had a nervous breakdown.

He still refuses to believe in it, putting Gemma in a position where she has to take control of the wheel.  She orders a magnetic force field to be placed around the control room to protect them, but doesn't know what else she can do.

Everyone feels helpless, and Zoe confides in Jamie that she regrets not being able to sympathise.  In his own patronising way, he consoles her.

In the laser room, an Irish engineer called Flannigan turns up and sees the mind controlled humans working on the laser.  A call comes in from Leo but they ignore it.  When Flannigan goes to answer it, one of the men pulls a gun out on him.  They end up fighting and one of the controlled crew is shot before Flannigan is subdued and mind controlled.  The Cybermen question Falnnigan about the nature of the force field, but discover it can only be deactivated from inside the control room.

In the control room, Leo panics as they discover that the meteor shower is much bigger than anticipated.  He suddenly gets an incoming call from the laser room.  It's Flannigan.  He tells Leo that the laser is finally ready and they haven't been in touch because of a technical fault.

Hearing all this, the pieces fall into place for the Doctor.  He explains that the Cybermen blew up the star to force the wheel to use the X-Ray laser, but they ensured that the Bernalium was destroyed so that the humans would have to go to the freighter and therefore bring the Cybermen on board.  From there, they can invade Earth.

The Doctor looks around and asks Jamie where he put the time vector generator, but Jamie explains that he gave it back to the Doctor.  They soon realise that it must have fallen out of his pocket back on the freighter.  He chastises Jamie and tells him it's vital to defeating the Cybermen, going so far as to making him return to the freighter and getting it.   Gemma and Zoe volunteer to help Jamie get back to the freighter and head off.  Jamie doesn't particularly like risking their lives, but he's convinced there's no other choice.

When Leo finds out Gemma and Zoe have gone with Jamie, he shouts at the Doctor, explaining that they will be destroyed by the radiation from the laser, or smashed to pieces by the meteor debris.  The Doctor is really apologetic, but says it's vital they get the device back, stopping short of explaining why and where it's from.

Zoe and Jamie suit up, heading out into space whilst Gemma operates the air lock.  Once they're both clear, Gemma hears footsteps and hides.  She watches as a Cyberman and one of the controlled crew enter.  They discuss their plan to turn all the air to ozone and kill the crew.

She contacts the control room and tells the Doctor about the plan she overheard.  She's discovered doing it and is killed by one of the Cybermen as the Doctor watches helpless to do anything.

Out in space, Jamie and Zoe near the freighter, but soon see the meteors hurtling towards them.

On board the wheel, Leo coordinates the attack to destroy the meteors, using the X-Ray laser.  Luckily, Zoe and Jamie make it to the ship through a cloud of debris and dust.

Leo is shocked when he finds out that Gemma is dead and is more perplexed when the Doctor informs him that a Cyberman control spacecraft has just been spotted on the scanners.  They switch over to the emergency (not sexual) air supply, and thwart the Cybermen's plans to suffocate them all.

Jarvis overhears all of this and finally accepts what's going on.  He wanders off, lifting the magnetic shield from the control room and roams the corridors, looking to take out as many Cybermen as he can.  Leo contacts him over the comms. but he refuses to come back, and is quickly strangulated by one of the Cybermen.

Jamie and Zoe find the time vector generator, and manage to home in on the Cyberman communications signal, relaying their intent to find and stop the Doctor who they've identified as a previous threat.

Flannigan contacts Leo and says that he's in the laser room, being attacked by Cybermen.  He's sealed the doors but doesn't know how much longer he can hold out.  The Doctor says he'll go and help him and arranges to meet him by one of the air lock doors.  As soon as the video link is broken, he tells Leo it's a trap and comes up with another plan.

As soon as Zoe and Jamie arrive back on the wheel, they are confronted by a mind controlled Flannigan.  He is overpowered by Leo and they attach one of the small scramblers to the back of his neck, bringing Flannigan back to the good guys side.

The Doctor meanwhile takes the time vector generator from Jamie and goes through the air vents to the laser room and fixes the device to the X-Ray laser, boosting the power, pocketing some mercury he finds on the way.  He jury rigs an electrical field together, and when the Cybermen attack him, they are fried in the process.

Now the Cyber control ship is in range, a horde of Cybermen flap their way through space towards the wheel.

With the boosted power in place, Leo directs the laser to the ship and blows it up.  They remaining crew then shortly fix scramblers to the controlled humans, and destroy the Cybermen by spraying quick setting plastic on them, or repelling them into space with the main force field.

With the threat ended, the Doctor says his goodbye's and goes back to the freighter.  Zoe asks Jamie to come with them as she doesn't fit in on the wheel, but Jamie tells her to stick it out.  She disobeys him and stows away.

Once inside the TARDIS, the Doctor repairs the fluid link and prepares to leave, spying Zoe hiding in a chest just in time.

He gets her out of the box and asks her if she's really certain that she wants to go with them.  She says she is certain.

To make doubly sure, the Doctor goes to one of the roundels on the wall and picks out a headset.  He puts it on and projects a mental image onto the scanner screen, asking Zoe if she's ever heard of the Daleks.

He proceeds to remember one of his earlier adventures and show Zoe the potential dangers of travelling with him.

She eagerly watches the screen.


Trivia

• One of the prevailing myth's of this story is that the Director came in vastly over budget for this story.  In actual fact, he came in under budget, but didn't come back again because he didn't agree with Peter Bryant always being on-set interfering with the production.

• The incidental music was provided by the Radiophonic workshop as they didn't want to bother paying for music.

• The scene at the end was put in to tie in a repeat of the Evil of the Daleks to be shown the following week.

What worked

• The sounds accompanying the Cybermen are pretty good, but will drive you insane by the end of the story.  

• The spheres sliding through a ship are pretty excellent, and the sound effect is even better.  

• For early Cybermen, they look pretty good, having gotten rid of the old school balls on their joints and changing into diving suits

• The callousness of the Cybermen and their willingness to brutally murder adds a lot of tension

What didn't work

• When will the Doctor learn to carry spare mercury inside that TARDIS of his?

• So the TARDIS has warned them of great danger, and they decide to lark about eating Sunday dinner and having 40 winks!

• All that medical examination by Gemma and she never once sees that the Doctor has got two hearts, or anything else unusual about him

• Why take a highly suspicious Scotsman on a tour of the base, and show him exactly where your defences are?

• The scene where Bill Duggan thinks the Cybermat is a pet and puts it in a cupboard

• We get yet another base commander who tries to get the best out of his crew by ranting, raving and disbelieving anything and everything that they say.

• Best line fluff ever - "switch to the sexual air supply"

• The Doctor shows Zoe a scene that he was never in - how did he know it even happened?

Overall Feelings

Ok so, you don't need me to mention the frankly bonkers plot is an issue.  It's obvious that David Whitaker made it complicated, so everyone would stand back and go "whoa that was so complicated, therefore great".  The point that he missed though is that the Doctor even says in the episode that without the time vector generator hooked up to the laser, they stand no chance of blowing up the cyber ship and winning,  That's on top of the fact  that they have enough quck setting plastic to kill two Cybermen at the most.  Why not just go with plan A and storm the wheel?   Well, either that, or if they have enough power to blow up a sun, why not hold the world to ransom, or even better, why do they need the Earth at all?

Despite all the sillyness, some reviews I've read claim that the Wheel in Space is better than the Moonbase because it's improved on it, demonstrating that the scenes we don't get to see used the Cyber threat much more effectively.  When you consider their approach here to walking into an infirmary and eeny-meany-miny-mo-ing which crew member to take, then yes, it is better, but I think that overall, this is just as bad.

Not that I need to try hard to justify this, but...

The TARDIS screen showing happy pictures aside, we initially get a very promising start to the story, but it's quickly brushed aside to watch the Doctor and Jamie eat Sunday dinner and nap.  We then get a full episode of walking round a station, sabotaging equipment and saying you didn't, and telling obvious lies.  Next, we get bonkers plots and commanders going round the twist whilst the handsome people talk about noses and flirt with each other.  None of this is particularly surpassed by greatness shown in the Moonbase; but the difference here is that the Moonbase had japes in it from start to finish.  This was played serious and it is to the shows detriment.

The only scene (I think) where this works is the Doctor's reaction to Gemma dying.  There could have been some good moments with Zoe despairing at her lack of empathy, but they're ruined by Jamie patronising her.  On the up side, at least there wasn't much in terms of making plans only to abandon them like we've had in the last few stories.

Rating

5 out of 10

Just as bonkers as the Moonbase, but without the comedy to make it bearable

Rewatchability Factor

4 out of 10

If the Fury from the Deep is to be watched mainly for Victoria leaving, then there's little to entertain you in this story beyond watching it to see Zoe come aboard.

Watch this if you liked...

• The Moonbase

• Fury from the Deep

• The Ark in Space

Consulting the Matrix

Which is your favourite Cyberman voice?

Fury From the Deep

6 episodes
Aired between 16th March 1968 and 20th April 1968

Written by Victor Pemberton
Produced by Peter Bryant
Directed by Hugh David


Synopsis

The TARDIS arrives somewhere on the coast of the north sea.  For some reason, it appears in mid air and slowly descends onto the surface of the water.

A moment later, the Doctor, Jamie and Victoria emerge, and use a rubber dingy to get to shore.

The Doctor gets into the part and dons a wooly hat.

Jamie reckons they're in England, judging by the weather.  They soon enough find some foam on the beach, and have a foam fight with it until the Doctor spies a huge pipe running from the sea, to the shore.

They realise that the pipe is the source of the foam.  It has a logo on it: EuroSea Gas.  The Doctor locates a control box on the pipe and uses his sonic screwdriver to open it up.

After a little bit of messing about with the controls, he hears a low rumbling inside the pipe, a strange sound like a steady heartbeat.

Victoria begins to sense that they're being watched.  Low and behold, they are.  A security camera with a telescopic sight focuses on the group and fires tranquilisers at them, knocking them all unconscious.

When they awake, they find themselves watched over by armed security guards.

Their boss: a grumpy man called Robson, turns up and accuses the TARDIS crew of being saboteurs.  A fellow scientist, Harris tries to calm Robson down, but Robson refuses to be reasonable, and orders them locked up and storms out.

Harris takes them through what they discover is a shore based complex that monitors a series of interlinked gas refinery rigs, with a central Control Rig.  He's apologetic to the Doctor, stating that Robson is in charge and has been under a lot of stress because one of the gas rigs they control has lost contact.  The Doctor explains the noise they heard in the pipe and assures he's not a saboteur.  He does however recommend that they shut off the gas flow and check the pipe.  Harris says Robson will never agree to it.

Back in the main control centre, technician Price calls Robson in.  He explains that they've just regained contact with the gas rig,  Robson asks the rig commander if everything is alright, and he monotonously answers that everything is fine and not to worry, shortly before the contact is lost again.

After locking the Doctor, Jamie and Victoria in one of the bunk rooms, Harris returns to Robson and explains what the Doctor found.  He adds that the pressure has been sporadic in the pipes for the last week or so, and recommends shutting off the gas to check the pipe.  Robson is scornful of Harris, but agrees to look over Harris' previous reports, if only to prove him wrong.  As Harris opens his briefcase however, he discovers that his paperwork is gone.  He pops home to see if he left it in his desk.

Back in the bunk room, Jamie and the Doctor get to work using the air vent to escape, whilst Victoria decides to use the simple way and pick the lock with her hairpin.  As they are escaping, they overhear Harris talking to his wife, Maggie.  He asks her to go to their living quarters and fetch the report he needs.

Once Harris and Maggie have gone, Jamie makes it out, falling out of the air vent, just as Victoria unlocks the door and steps over him into the corridor!

Maggie returns to her quarters and finds the report her husband, Harris wanted, but discovers an odd sprig of seaweed inside it.  She is somehow stung by the thing.  She curses and throws the thing out of the window, unaware that it begins to bubble and writhe outside.

Back in the control centre, The Doctor and co. watch from hiding as Van Lutyens, a Dutch official approaches Robson with his conerns about the downed comms with Rig B.  Robson via a lot of yelling tells the Dutch official that he'll deal with it as he sees fit.

Once he's dealt with that, Chief Baxter from the Control Rig calls Robson and explains that they've picked up the sound of a heartbeat within the main pipe.  He requests shutting the pipe down, but Robson refuses.  Hearing this, the Doctor and Jamie decide to go to the Control Rig, leaving Victoria to explore on her own.

As she wanders about the place, she ducks inside one of the offshoot rooms when she hears someone coming, and accidentally interrupts a tall, thin, gas masked man who is opening oxygen valves to let them all seep away.  The man rushes past her and locks her inside.  As Victoria uses her hair pin once more, the man flicks a switch to the emergency vent and sneaks away.

The Doctor and Jamie stealthily make their way through the complex until they find a section of the main gas pipe that's transparent. The Doctor explains it's there to check for condensation in the pipe and debris.  The Doctor uses his stethoscope once again, listening for a heartbeat inside the pipe.

Victoria meanwhile begins to call for help as foam floods into the room from the emergency vent, and large seaweed like tentacles move towards her.  The Doctor and Jamie hear her call echoing through the pipes and corridors and rush off to find her as the sea monster draws ever closer.

Victoria panics even more and screams hysterically as the tentacles approach.  The Doctor and Jamie rush into the room and go to rescue her, but discover oddly that the monster has withdrawn.  Victoria explains what happened.  Robson turns up and accuses Victoria of getting rid of all the oxygen but technicians note the presence of some kind of toxic gas, and the fact that the door was locked from the outside.

Meanwhile, Harris goes to see his wife for the file and finds her unconscious.  He brings her round and leaves her on the couch whilst he goes to get help.

Robson, the Doctor, Jamie and Victoria return to the control centre, and are met by Van Lutyens. They are told that the pipe's impeller is slowing down.  Van Lutyens says that it's the same sound he heard in the pipes, and the Doctor too.  Robson is adamant that it's just a mechanical fault and refuses to close off the gas.  Harris turns up and after yet more arguments with Robson, gets permission to take the Doctor to see his wife.

At the living quarters, Maggie  woozily answers the door to two of the technicians: Mr Oak and Mr Quill.

They explain that Robson has ordered them to check their appliances for gas leaks.  She lets them in.  They go about their fake inspection, but when Maggie leaves the room, they open the patio door, letting the foaming tentacles of the monster inside.

Back at the centre, Van Lutyens and the Chief Engineer determine that the impeller is the problem, because the pressure maybe either too high or too low.  Van Lutyens reckons the whole pipe is going to explode if they don't close off the gas, but Robson yells that he knows what he's doing and orders them to burn off the pressure.  This improves things in the main pipe, but the pressure in the relaying pipes from the rigs continues to drop, and the impeller still slows.  Price informs them that they've now lost contact with Rig C.

In her room, Maggie is feeling decidedly ill.  Mr Quill enters and when she turns to address him, he opens his mouth, releasing toxic gas into the air.

Maggie's screams become coughs and gasps for air as she falls to the ground.

The Doctor, Jamie, Victoria and Harris arrive at the living quarters not long afterwards and find Maggie unconscious.  Jamie smashes the window to release the gas.  The Doctor pronounces that she is in a coma, and explains his theory that the gas is not natural.  Harris explains what happened with her in regards to the seaweed, and Victoria finds a sample of it moving.  The Doctor scoops it up, puts it in a bag, and tells Harris to arrange for his wife to go to hospital.  Harris rushes off to find Robson, and Jamie points out that they're no longer under supervision.  The Doctor smiles and leads his friends back to the TARDIS to carry out some tests on the seaweed.

Back in the central control room, Van Lutyens again tries to reason with Robson, who in turn looses it, screaming and yelling that everyone is trying to tell him what to do.

As they argue, the impeller grinds to a halt, and is replaced by the steady throbbing of a heartbeat.

At the TARDIS, the Doctor tests the seaweed's reaction to natural gases.  Victoria in turn, uses an experiment to discover that the weed itself releases the toxic gas.

They discuss that the seaweed is "just as alive as you or me".

Harris gets to the control centre and asks Price to call for medical help.  Robson explodes when he finds out that Harris has left the Doctor unguarded, but Harris tells him the safety of his wife is more important.  After some messing about with the buttons, the Chief Engineer announces that they can start the impeller again, which works for 30 seconds before stopping again.  They all scratch their heads and decide that the impeller is jammed internally.  Robson screams and yells again, storming off in a huff.  Van Lutyens points out that Robson is loosing it and asks Harris to take over.  Harris is reluctant, but spares time to go with Van Lutyens and the Chief Engineer to convince Robson to take action.  They do indeed try to convince Robson, but the boss is angrier than ever.  Van Lutyens has had enough and storms off to call his superiors.

Back in the TARDIS, the Doctor finds a reference to the weed in a book on myths and legends from the sea.

They realise that the weed is escaping from the tank and after Victoria panics, they manage to get the lid back on.  The Doctor remarks that that was a little bit too easy, but he hasn't got time to figure out why.

The weed is obviously entering the pipeline from the sea and needs to be stopped.

Robson's so exhausted from all that yelling that he needs to go and lay down in his quarters.  Mr Oak repeats the old trick of locking him in and opening the emergency vent.  Toxic gas and foamy seaweed enter the room as Robson cries for help.  Harris hears it and comes running.  As soon as the door is open, Robson runs off down the corridor in terror, leaving Harris to see the creature moving back into the vent.

The Doctor and co, go back to the Harris' home, only to find it covered in foam and they are forced to escape through a skylight.

Victoria begins to moan how everything they get up to is so dangerous.

Now Robson has gone AWOL, Harris takes command and calls his superiors in London to let them know what's happening.  They agree to send some inspectors round.  Harris informs Van Lutyens just before the TARDIS crew rejoin them all, and relate their findings on the nature of the weed.  As they update each other, Harris becomes panicked when he hears that his home is full of foam and Maggie in fact hasn't received medical attention yet.  He rushes off to save her, but it's too late.

Out on the beach, Maggie approaches a silent Robson.  She is as much under a spell as he, and explains that there's not much time, but he knows what to do.  He looks onwards as Maggie steps into the sea until she is totally submerged.

The Doctor asks Van Lutyens to take charge seeing as Harris is more bothered about his wife, and the fact that a third Rig has gone down, but Van Lutyens says he has no authority.  They have little option left but to wait for Harris.  Jamie and Victoria go to get some rest.  She once again mentions that she feels unsafe, but Jamie assures her the the Doctor will figure it out.

Harris meanwhile follows Maggie's trail down the beach and comes across the rogue Robson.  He asks him if he's seen his wife, and Robson answers in a sinister tone that he will find his wife soon enough.  He then walks off.

Van Lutyens decides that he's fed up of waiting and prepares to go down the impeller shaft and find out once and for all what's down there.  The Doctor tries to convince him otherwise, but fails.

He dons a gas mask and orders the technicians to lower him down on a lift.  When he gets to the bottom, he finds a service hatch.  When he opens it, he discovers that it's full of foam and weed.  He is attacked and pulled down into the hatch with a hideous death cry.

Hearing the scream, the Doctor and Jamie decide to go in and rescue him.

Once they're down there, Harris returns distraught that he hasn't found his wife, and more on edge when he's informed of Van Lutyen's mission, the Doctor's rescue attempt and the fact that Megan Jones, Chief Executive of EuroSea Gas has arrived, along with her assistant: Perkins.  Harris orders the technicians to bring the Doctor and Jamie back up.  Mr Oak and Mr Quill who are operating the lift look forlorn and say it's too late.

Victoria is fearing the worst and waits for news as Harris leaves to greet Megan Jones and bring her up to speed.  Jones is dismissive of the seaweed nonsense and tries to pass it off as crew stress, but Harris is adamant that he's seen it himself and explains about the Rig's going down.  She relents and agrees to use the company helicopter she's arrived in to fly to one of the outlying rigs and check what's happening.

No one notices Oak and Quill skulk away, leaving the Doctor and Jamie to their fate.

Down the impeller shaft, the Doctor and Jamie discover that Van Lutyens has been gobbled.  The weed attacks them and they rush back to the lift, only to find that it's been raised again.  They begin scrambling up a maintenance ladder and make it out.

In the control centre, the helicopter pilot reports that all three Rigs that have gone down are now covered in foam.  Harris implores Megan to blow them up.  Robson bursts in, having somehow overheard the plan and denies it, yelling that "we will not allow it".   He runs off again as the Doctor joins them in the control centre.

Megan is once again putting it all down to stress, but the Doctor explains his findings and what's happened to Van Lutyens.  Shorly after, Chief Baxter at the control rig contacts them frantically saying that the creatures are all around them, and they are being attacked just before the feed goes dead.

Jamie meanwhile is scouring the base for Victoria.  He finds her unconscious in one of the rooms.  She is unsure how she got there, but is even more upset with things now, claiming that they're not safe and things have stopped being fun for her.

Back at the control centre, the Doctor theorises that the weed intends to cut off the gas supply to England and take over everyone using the gas pipes.  Their only way of defeating them is to find the nerve centre of the weed.  He is interrupted by Jamies shouts and when they rush over to find them, they see a huge seaweed tentacle in the transparent part of the pipe.

Price calls out that they've lost contact with all the remaining Rigs.  Harris repeats his request to blow them all up, but the Doctor says it will simply help spread the weed.  The Doctor takes a logical approach, theorising how the weed was brought up from under the sea by the drilling, and began with the engineers, possessing its way through the crew until its now reached Robson.  He also deduces that the weed must be adverse to pure oxygen, hence what the masked technician was doing when Victoria stumbled upon him.

Robson is found back inside his quarters.  Harris, Jones and Perkins go to see him.  Jones anticipates that her old friendship with Robson will bring him round.  Unfortunately, despite her attempts, there is no useful response from him.

Victoria meanwhile is so worried that she even suggests getting out of the area by jumping back onboard the TARDIS but Jamie refuses,

Harris, Megan and Perkins return, explaining what's happened with Robson.  Together, they all huddle down to think of their next course of action.

In his quarters, Robson suddenly sits up, and nods at the empty air vent.  He sneaks outside and disables the guard with his gas attack, revealing that he has seaweed growing on his hands in the process.

Back at the control centre, they decide to put a guard on the oxygen cylinders, but realise that it's too late.  Jamie and Victoria spy Oak and Quill leaving the area and give chase.  The Scotsman subdues Quill as Victoria panics, whilst Oak gets away.  They go back to the control room and find that the seaweed is cracking out of the pipe,  The Doctor explains that it's expanding, just like it did in the experiments.  As they are investigating it, Robson grabs Victoria, muffling her cries and taking her away.

The weed creature breaks the pipe and begins infiltrating the pipe room.  The Doctor holds the door open just long enough for everyone to get out, realising that Victoria is missing.

Robson drags Victoria to a nearby vehicle and bundles her in, driving off at speed along the clifftops until he reaches a nearby helicopter.

The Doctor contacts Robson on the radio and begs with Robson to bring Victoria back.  Robson gives them an ultimatum: come and join the weed people and they will get Victoria back.

The Doctor convinces Harris to provide him and Jamie with a helicopter of their own so they can pursue.  Harris gives them an hour before he will begin to evacuate.

As the Doctor and Jamie approach the Rigs, they see the Control Rig platform is covered in foam.

He deduces that it must be the nerve centre of the creature.  They use a rope ladder and drop down onto the Rig, leaving the pilot to wait for them whilst they go inside via a hatch.  Once inside, they hear Victoria's cries, but the Doctor holds Jamie back saying its a trap.  They move cautiously through the Rig until they come across the main control room.  when they open the doors, they find the room full of foam, with Robson waiting for them, beckoning them inside.

Whilst Jamie finds Victoria inside the foam, the Doctor occupies Robson, pleading to his human nature.  Robson opens his mouth, emitting toxic gas into the room.  They heroes run away, pursued by Robson,

Victoria screams when she see's him after them, causing him to clutch his ears and retreat back to the control room. It buys them enough time to get out onto the helipad and wave at the pilot.  Unfortunately, they're too deep inside the foam to be noticed.

The Doctor spies Robson's helicopter amidst all the white foam and decides to hijack it.  Jamie and Victoria are worried about his piloting abilities, but he assures them that it's a primitive machine and he'll be fine.

As it turns out, he really IS hopeless at flying helicopters, and takes them on a death defying ramshackle flight through the Rigs, loop-the-loops and all over the place until they're guided down by the other pilots instructions.

After they land, the Doctor, Jamie and Victoria have a quick stop off at the medicare centre to discover the Mr Quill has completely recovered from the possession of the weed.  It turns out that Victoria's screams are the key to combating the monster.

They go back and fill everyone in on this.  Harris still wants to evacuate, but the Doctor asks for half an hour to send recordings of her screams down through the pipe to the Control Rig.  As they prepare the equipment, they are unaware that the seaweed is breaking through the impeller and moving towards the control centre.  They are just about ready when the foam and tentacles begin to bust into the room and flood the place.  The remaining engineers quickly gather speakers together and aim them at the foamy mass.  The Doctor gives the order to flip the switch, but Price has frozen in fear, leaving the Doctor to have to make a mad dash across the room and activate it himself.  Victoria's screams tear into the creature and send it fleeing back to the depths of the sea.

Afterwards, Harris checks that all the Rigs are back online, and Megan gives the TARDIS crew a hearty thank you.  Everyone turns out to be fine.  Van Lutyens, Harris' wife, and Robson are all over at the Control Rig perfectly fine.  Victoria is still down in the dumps though.

Later, after a nice meal provided by the Harris', the Doctor and Jamie make their excuses to leave but turn to see Victoria still seated.  She says she doesn't want to leave them, but she can't carry on with them either.  The Doctor understands and asks the Harris' to take her in, which they agree to do. Jamie doesn't like it at all, but the Doctor makes him respect her decision.  Despite this, he chooses to stay one more night to give her chance to think it all over.

That night, Jamie goes to Victoria and tries to persuade her to leave with them, but tearfully, she says that she's not cut out for life on the TARDIS, and there's nothing left for her in Victorian England, so she would prefer to stay there.  Jamie reluctantly accepts her point and leaves.

In the morning, the Harris' take Victoria to the beach and they watch as Jamie and the Doctor go back to the TARDIS.

Inside the time machine, the Doctor asks Jamie where he wants to go, but he doesn't care.

The Doctor sets the controls and Victoria watches as the TARDIS rises into the air once more and dematerialises without her.


Trivia

• If you've been following these in sequence, you will see that this is the first appearance of the Sonic Screwdriver.  Although, it is suspiciously looking like the same prop used for William Hartnell's pen torch.

• The foam fight at the beginning was completely ad libbed.

• Oak and Quill were meant to be like Laurel and Hardy.  Even their accompanying music is rather suggesting buffoonery.  Interestingly though, the writer must have loved them because he tried to convince the BBC to do a spin off show with these characters.  All I can say is why?! 

• Bit of an odd one, but this is the only story title in all of the second Doctor's run that doesn't start with "The"

What worked

• The hinted threat of something alive in the pipes

• The comedy scene of Jamie escaping through the air vent

• Harris being distraught at the fate of his wife

• Mr Quill's terrifying attack on Maggie

• The tension Van Lutyens builds by saying "it's down there, in the dark, waiting"

• The use of the helicopter stunts seemed cool

• The full on foam scenes with the tentacle are quite good

• Jamie's distraught when they leave Victoria

What didn't work

• The dirty beggars didn't even stop to think that the foam they were playing in on the beach could be pollution!

• Oooh Robson is so mean.  It's to the point where his stupidity is beyond belief, and the scene with him in the foam is stupid too

• Mr Oak's more than necessary posh voice

• All the mention of toxic gases and there's not one fart joke

• In any other story, the Doctor or Jamie would have followed Harris when he ran off to rescue his wife

• The method of killing the creature is a bit daft

Overall Feelings

We've seen many base under siege stories during our time with Patrick Troughton, and we'll see many more before it's over.  You'd think by this point that they'd honed it to a fine art or what works and what doesn't.  It's frustrating then when I can see that Fury from the Deep wants to work but doesn't.

The pace is slow, there's a lot of exposition about how a north sea gas rig works, and tons of characters in it.  With that sort of set up, you'd expect a detailed and pretty complicated motivation from the monster in the first instance, and you'd expect a pretty complicated method of defeating it, using some or all of the information given.  What we get is a mass of telepathic seaweed that runs off whenever anyone gets scared at it.

Robson is just infuriating to watch and it's not until halfway through the story before he's out of the way and people with more common sense can turn up to deal with the situation.  Also, in the Web of Fear, we had loads and loads of plans being made and abandoned, but I could forgive that because the tension was always quite high and there was a mystery saboteur to keep your attention.  In this, it's inexcusable because it slows the pacing right down, and Mr Oak and Mr Quill are a long long way from a sinister pawn  of the Great Intelligence.

It's not all doom and gloom though.  There are some captivating bits like the end conversation between Victoria and Jamie, the terrifying look on Mr Quills face as he attacks Maggie, and some of the scenes with the seaweed tentacles.  It's just not enough to save this from being a very dreary and bland experience.

Rating

6 out of 10

It wants to be better than it actually is.

Rewatchability Factor

4 out of 10

Only worth the watch to see Victoria leave

Watch this if you liked...

• The Macra Terror

• The Sea Devils

• The Terror of the Zygons

• The Waters of Mars (Doctor Who: The Specials)

Consulting the Matrix

The Great Intelligence vs the Weed.  Who would win?