Serial 82 – Pyramids of Mars

I remember this one being another creepy one… another I have not seen in… oh, it’s gotta be 20 years.

Episode 1:

We open in a sandy region, looks Egyptian, as there are tombs being excavated with heiroglyphics. A western man leads his works into sealed room full of treasures. He waxes on about how perfect and untouched everything is.

Set into the wall an Eye of Horus glows bright, frightening the native helpers. They flee, leaving the man alone. He pries at the wall, but it slides open, revealing a secret cave behind. Something deep inside glows and the man screams and collapses.

On the TARDIS, Sarah Jane is showing off a dress she found in one of the wardrobes. It seems it’s one of Victoria’s (companion to the Second Doctor) dresses! (This is one of the things I love about the show, the depth of the canon and mythos and the little touches they put in throughout.)

The Doctor is rather maudlin; he waxes melodramatic about being a Time Lord, not being human, and walking in eternity. He puts his age at “something like 750 years”, and Sarah Jane cracks about him being middle aged. He says he’s tired of being the scientific advisor for UNIT.

Suddenly, there’s several small explosions in the TARDIS console and the ship shakes around. Sarah sees a ghost like face on the wall of the console room, some monster or definitely inhuman thing. She senses that it was “totally malevolent”. (I love that word, malevolent.)

The TARDIS materialises on Earth, at UNIT HQ, but many years too soon, in the original building. There’s an Egyptian sarcophagus and other such items about. The Doctor says that something very wrong is going on.

Elsewhere, a man in a fez (fezzes are cool, so I hear) plays an ornate organ. When his manservant interrupts him, he throws a righteous hissy fit. The Egyptian man, Ibrahim Namin, seems to be residing in Professor Scarman (though we don’t know this yet, the man in the tomb we saw in the beginning) place. A man, Dr. Warlock (greatest name ever), a friend of Scarman’s, has come to find out who this intruder is.

Namin claims to be acting under instructions from Scarman, and provides a letter of authority to prove it.

While they talk, Collins, the manservant is listening. He hears someone trying to unlock a door. On the other side of the door, The Doctor prepares to pick the lock, but they dash away when Collins returns with the keys and unlocks it. The Doctor and Sarah Jane are back where the TARDIS appeared (which it seems is the exact location of The Doctor’s laboratory, or at least, it will be.) This is amusing refered to as The Doctor and Sarah talking loudly, purposefully not hiding, about how the building would be a great location for a paramilitary headquarters, and that room would be a great laboratory location.

Collins demands to know whom they are. The Doctor claims that they snuck in the window, as they though the house was for sale, but Collins is on to them! He assumes they are colleagues of Dr. Warlock (greatest name ever) and advises them to tell the good Dr. Warlock (greatest name ever) to be wary of the Egyptian.

Collins says the Egyptian has only been there a few days and he’s afraid of the man. The Doctor and Sarah leave via the window they purportedly entered through and go for a stroll, promising to pass on Collins’ warning to Dr. Warlock (greatest name ever.)

Collins watches out the window, but the sarcophagus behind him begins to open.

The Doctor and Sarah listen outside the window as Namin and Dr. Warlock (greatest name ever) argue. Namin speaks of ancient powers gathering. Dr. Warlock (greatest name ever) says he’s made inquiries; Scarman’s luggage hasn’t been claimed in Cairo, nor has he been seen in weeks. He threatens to go to the authorities, but suddenly Collins screams.

Namin and Dr. Warlock (greatest name ever) rush to find Collin’s dead body; just before they get there, the sarcophagus closes.

The Doctor and Sarah Jane enter the previous room via the window.

Namin goes on about the old gods, but Dr. Warlock (greatest name ever) says the police must be called. Namin draws a gun on Dr. Warlock (greatest name ever) but The Doctor grabs him from behind and in the struggle, Dr. Warlock (greatest name ever) and The Doctor and Sarah rush off.

Namin recovers and opens the sarcophagus, and gestures with a rather scientific sounding-beeping ring to the mummy inside. I do note the name ‘Sutekh’ spoken by Namin.

The Doctor and Sarah (still in Victoria’s dress, mind you – somewhat out of fashion, as Victoria was from the 1860s) help Dr. Warlock (greatest name ever) but he says he cannot go any further and tells them to find Lawrence, Scarman’s brother, and tell him what’s going on.

Sarah Jane runs on (yes, in Victoria’s dress) as The Doctor picks up and carries Dr. Warlock (greatest name ever), leaving behind his hat, which the camera zooms in on.

Namin is seen searching around, gun in hand.

Sarah hides in the woods from the extremely barrel-chested mummy. It’s obviously something robotic beneath the wrappings, from the dimensions of it and the shape of its head.

Sarah makes it to the village or some nearby buildings at least.

The Doctor and Dr. Warlock (greatest name ever) hide from Namin and the robomummy. Randomly(?), Namin looks up to the sky and says, “The all powerful… descends. Oh noble god, your servant hears you,” and he and the robomummy walk off.

Sarah arrives with Scarman’s brother and they help Dr. Warlock (greatest name ever) back to safety.

Namin returns to the house and prays to one of the sarcophagi.

Dr. Warlock (greatest name ever) is tended to by Sarah while The Doctor and Lawrence Scarman discuss matters. The Doctor says that the police will only hamper his investigation.

Sarah Jane introduces herself to Lawrence, saying she’s really from 1980 – this is the first time I’ve seen that they’ve pinned a date down for her. I know the UNIT era stories were set several years in the future of the actual filming/broadcast year, but it was always left rather vague what year specifically. (And I gather it’s the source of quite the debate in the fan community. Me, I don’t really care. “The near future” is good enough for me.)

Of course, Lawrence finds this incomprehensible. We learn that the year is 1911, which The Doctor says is one of his favourites. He compliments Scarman on inventing a radio telescope forty years ahead of its time. Lawrence says it’s a “Marconiscope”, but when The Doctor says that it’s used to receive signals from the stars, Lawrence is flabbergasted that he knows what it is.

The Doctor asks him to demonstrate it, and when he does, it won’t switch off. Finally, one of the tubes explodes. The Doctor pulls out a small hand-held device that does the same thing, and tracks the same signal the Marconiscope did – a signal from Mars!

Namin plays the organ again. Three mummies walk about in the organ room.

The Doctor decodes the message from Mars, “Beware Sutekh.” He says the name might be better known as “Set”, which Sarah Jane recognises as the Egyptian god. The Doctor says the forces at work are the greatest threat that Earth has ever faced, more dangerous than he has faced himself.

The Doctor slips back into the Scarman house. Namin is playing the organ and through the sarcophagus there, a portal opens. The Doctor watches as Namin prostates himself as a humanoid figure enters and kills Namin…and the credits roll.

(this is the best I can tell – the recording I have doesn’t quite have the full ending)

A very creepy and fun serial thus far!

Episode 2:

The Doctor, Lawrence and Sarah Jane watch as the servant of Sutekh kills Namin. He then transforms into a lookalike of Marcus Scarman, much to the consternation of Lawrence, who The Doctor shushes, lets they be overheard.

Marcus instructs his mummies to set up some devices at the four compass points. The Doctor, Sarah and Lawrence hide as the mummies exit the chamber.

The Doctor explains that the mythology of the Egyptian gods was based on the Osirans, an alien force. Poking about the sarcophagus, The Doctor accidentally triggers the portal and is almost sucked in, but manages to avoid that fate.

A man in the woods with a gun, a hunter moves about quietly, hearing some strange noise. He finds one of the mummies stuck in a bear trap. He watches as the mummy finally figures how to open it and free itself. After it passes, he grabs his catch and runs off.

The Doctor is unconscious and cannot be woken. Lawrence finds a priest hole that he and Marcus discovered as a child and he and Sarah move The Doctor into it.

The hunter runs through the woods, hitting some invisible barrier, knocking himself onto his ass.

Back at Lawrence’s cottage, Dr. Warlock (greatest name ever) hears a noise and calls out for Lawrence, but it’s Marcus (well, the servant of Sutekh in the form of Marcus) instead. Dr. Warlock (greatest name ever) recognises his friend, who demands to know why he is there. After a moment, Marcus recognises Dr. Warlock (greatest name ever), and says he has come to find “the other Scarman”.

“Marcus” learns about The Doctor and the others going to the house. He wants to know who The Doctor is. A mummy enters and is given orders to destroy Dr. Warlock (greatest name ever). He screams in fear, calling out for Lawrence.

The hunter is just outside and, hearing the screams, runs off.

Let us observe a moment of silence for the death of Dr. Warlock (greatest name ever).

The hunter recovers his gun from the woods.

In the priest hole, The Doctor starts to recover, talking about a parallax coil, a trap set. He argues about being in a priest hole in a Victorian building. The Doctor says they need to determine the exact physical location of Sutekh. He realises he can use Namin’s ring to triangulate the frequency of Sutekh’s mental signals to jam them.

Just then, Marcus and three mummies return to the organ chamber. He orders two mummies to dispose of Namin’s corpse, while instructing a third to seek and find the humans within the house and destroy them.

After the mummies depart, Marcus approaches the priest hole, but the hunter, who is outside the window, shoots him. Lawrence calls out stupidly, but they try to hush him. Smoke billows out of Marcus but is sucked back into his body as he walks over to the window. The hunter recognises Professor Scarman and runs off, pursued by two mummies.

The priest hole forgotten, Marcus leaves the room, and The Doctor and others depart the hole. The Doctor says they have to find the Egyptian. They follow a trail on the floor, hiding from Marcus and more of his mummies, the latter whom are carrying some devices for Marcus.

In a storeroom, they find the Egyptian and The Doctor takes his ring. From some of the technological parts they find, The Doctor realises that they’re building a rocket to help Sutekh escape his imprisonment.

When Marcus and the mummies return to collect more parts, they hide in the TARDIS. Lawrence does the “it’s bigger on the inside” bit without actually saying all that. Being a man of science, they say it with bigger words. He’s like a little boy in a candy shoppe.

Sarah asks why don’t they leave; this is the second serial that Sarah Jane proposes just leaving, just running away. The Doctor shows her what the world in 1980 (that date thrown about again) if they leave now. He takes her to a world blasted by horrible storms, no sign of life anywhere.

Enraged, Sarah says it’s a trick. But she eventually says, “We’ve got to go back.”

The Hunter runs from the mummies in the woods.

Marcus reports to Sutekh about the delay of the completion of the missile. Sutekh says that the rocket assembly is of paramount importance, and Marcus says he will recall two of the mummies to assist.

Back at the cottage, Sarah drapes a blanket over Dr. Warlock (greatest name ever). Lawrence can’t believe that his brother would kill his best friend. The Doctor tries to get him to understand that Marcus is no longer alive, just a shell for Sutekh’s power.

The Doctor explains that the rocket the mummies are building is aimed at Mars, and will destroy the power station there, that is keeping Sutekh imprisoned. As The Doctor is putting together a device to block Sutekh’s mental signals, Lawrence tries to stop it, fearing it will kill his brother.

The mummies, having killed the hunter, turn to attack the lodge. Sarah throws the switch and the mummies break in and Sarah screams… and the credits roll.

Episode 3:

Sarah grabs Namin’s ring and uses it to order the mummies back to “control”, but they’ve already destroyed the device The Doctor rigged up to stop Sutekh’s control. The Doctor chastises Lawrence for interfering, trying to get him to understand that his brother is merely an animated corpse.

The Doctor and Sarah leave Lawrence in the cottage.

Sutekh communicates with Marcus, who tells his master that there are humans causing problems, but unless he takes service robots from the construction of the rockets, finding them will have to wait. Sutekh says the primary concern is building the rocket so he can be freed.

The Osiran war missile is almost completed; it looks like a small pyramid. The Doctor and Sarah watch from seclusion and then return to the cottage. The Doctor theorises that if he goes to Sutekh’s tomb in Egypt, he can neutralise the psitronic device that allows Sutekh to power the service robots.

Lawrence tells The Doctor that the hunter had some explosive gel and suggests that could be used to blow up the rocket. Sarah and The Doctor go to find it, leaving Lawrence to unwrap the service robot.

Finding the door in the deflection barrier, The Doctor sets to trying to open it. Sutekh detects the interference in his tomb. He informs Scarman that the barrier to the east has been shut down. He and Scarman deduce that an alien intelligence is at play.

In the hunter’s cabin, Sarah finds the gel and tosses it to The Doctor. The Doctor all but freaks over this, and I find it hard to believe that Sarah would throw a box of explosives. They don’t find any blasting caps or detonators.

Marcus scouts the downed deflection barrier section, seeing the disassembled generator. He then goes to the lodge, where Lawrence has removed the wrapping of the mummy, revealing a wire frame robot. Lawrence is happy to see his brother (really? How many fucking times does he have to be told it’s not his brother? He’s already seen a blasted future, so he knows the shit is hitting the fan, he knows what’s at stake. I find this hard to swallow.) until Marcus turns around, and Lawrence sees the pale, sunken cheeks and eyes of his brother’s corpse.

STILL, he tries to appeal to his brother, believing him to be “ill”. He starts to make some progress, showing him pictures of them as boys. Marcus starts to recall who he is, but Sutekh’s power is too strong in his mind. Marcus interrogates Lawrence over who The Doctor is.

The Doctor and Sarah cautiously bring the explosive gel to the main house, secreting it behind some wood planks. Sarah argues that it’s not going to work as they have no detonators or fuses. They then return to the cottage, where Lawrence is dead. Sarah gives him a hard time for his lack of mourning for Lawrence, but he says one death, the fifth so far, is nothing compared to the millions that will die under Sutekh.

The Doctor has disguised himself as one of the service robots. Sarah Jane follows him with a rifle.

Marcus reports in that the rocket is nearly assembled. Sutekh sends the target coordinates for the pyramid of Mars through the portal.

The Doctormummy and Sarah arrive at the house and retrieve the explosive. The Doctormummy is going to set the explosives on/near the rocket and once he’s clear, Sarah is to fire the gun, intending that the explosives will go boom.

The Doctormummy places the explosives on the unit and departs, but Marcus arrives, with the coordinate selector in hand. He orders The Doctormummy to place it within. He does so and Marcus leaves. The Doctormummy leaves the vicinity and Sarah shoots the explosive, and as the explosion starts, it suddenly stops.

The Doctormummy says that Sutekh is holding it through his mental power; he says he has to distract him.

Marcus is summoned to communicate with Sutekh; the Osiran is having difficulty holding the explosion back and orders Marcus to remove the device immediately. He struggles to speak, the strain on his mind so great, but he describes the device and it’s location to Marcus.

The Doctor (now unwrapped) sneaks in behind Marcus and hides. When Marcus leaves to follow his orders, The Doctor approaches the portal-sarcophagus. He activates it and enters, being transported to Sutekh’s tomb.

Marcus gives the order to a robomummy to remove the device.

The Doctor arrives in Sutekh’s tomb, finding the secret passage to the cave where Sutekh sits. He steps in and speaks Sutekh’s name and this distraction is enough to cause the explosion to happen, blowing up the rocket.

Enraged, Sutekh blasts The Doctor with a mental blast… and the credits roll.

Episode 4:

Sutekh says he will not die yet and demands to know whom he is. He blasts The Doctor again, saying he can choose the manner of his death, making it last centuries if he so desired.

Reluctantly, The Doctor identifies his planet of origin. Sutekh says he knows of the planet and turns to his computer for data retrieval. He learns that The Doctor is a Time Lord, a traveler in time and space. He offers The Doctor the chance to serve him, but The Doctor refuses.

Using his powers, he forces The Doctor to bow before him.

Marcus reports that Sarah Jane has been captured. Sutekh gives the order to kill it, but when The Doctor cries out, Sutekh changes his mind, realising that she can be used to leverage The Doctor.

“Evil? Your evil is my good. I am Sutekh the Destroyer, where I tread, I leave nothing but dust and darkness. I find that good.” – Sutekh, when The Doctor calls him evil.

Sutekh learns of the TARDIS and takes the key from him, sending it through the portal to Marcus, with instruction to take the TARDIS to Mars. The Doctor says that the controls of the TARDIS are isomorphic, they work for him alone. This must be the truth, as Sutekh is in The Doctor’s mind, though why it is has not always been so…

Sutekh consumes The Doctor with his mind, and sends The Doctor back. Sutekh gives Marcus to accompany him with Sarah Jane and to kill her if The Doctor shows any sign of free will. Sutekh gives orders to “dispose” of The Doctor once they reach the Pyramid of Mars.

The Doctor, Sarah, Marcus and a robomummy enter the TARDIS. The Doctor, possessed, pilots the TARDIS to Mars. (Good thing it’s not the Second Doctor, he’d have never gotten there… then again, he’d have piloted them out of range of Sutekh’s power and been free.)

Marcus exits the TARDIS and opens a door. He tells the robomummy to destroy the Time Lord. It chokes him and The Doctor collapses. The robomummy and Marcus go through the door.

Sarah listens to both of his hearts and then begins to cry. The Doctor taps her head, saying he has a respiratory bypass system.

Inside the second chamber, Marcus (guided by Sutekh, who speaks in his head) finds a concealed release switch and opens the bulkhead. Shortly later, The Doctor and Sarah pass through and almost trips the fake switch, but finds the hidden entry lever.

Marcus finds a logic puzzle but Sutekh solves it quickly. They pass through, and The Doctor has to solve it. Sarah mentions that it reminds her of the city of the Exxilons, though she never went inside to face the logic puzzles. He solves it and they pass through.

In the next room, Sarah is trapped in a cylinder crystal. The Doctor struggles to get her out, while ahead of them, Marcus makes the sign of the eye to open a door.

As The Doctor struggles to get her out, two guards appear; a voice tells The Doctor that one lies and the other tells the truth. He’s allowed to ask one of them one question – that old riddle. (They like riddle traps in this show. So far, every Doctor has faced them at least once.) The Doctor figures it out and frees her and they rush on.

Marcus reaches the Eye of Horus and his robomummy fights a Horusian robomummy. Marcus takes on the form of Sutekh, the jackal god with glowing green eyes. He destroys the Eye of Horus through mental will, and cries out, “Free,” before reverting to Marcus, who cries out, “I’m free, free at last,” before collapsing in a pile of ash.

Sarah laments, “He’s won,” but The Doctor says, “No! The time factor!” A series of doors open, revealing a straight path to the TARDIS. They dash to the TARDIS.

In his tomb, Sutekh begins to gloat.

The Doctor and Sarah enter the TARDIS and take it back to the Scarman residence. They dash out, The Doctor carrying some device.

Sutekh stands, narrating the loss of the paralysis that held him there. He stands up, doing more gloating and making proclamations of destroying the cosmos. His helmet disappears and we see the jackal head.

In the organ room, at the sarcophagus-portal, The Doctor hooks up the machine to the portal. As it activates, we see Sutekh approaching. The Doctor is ready and catches him in a “temporal trap”, catching him in the “corridor of eternity”. Sutekh begs him to release him, promising him Earth as a plaything, but The Doctor sends him onward through time, and we see him go off into nothingness.

The Doctor explains that Sutekh was still held for two minutes after the Eye was destroyed – that’s how long radio waves take to get to Earth from Mars.

Suddenly, the sarcophagus portal bursts into flames. Sarah Jane reminds The Doctor that the original building was burnt down, leading to the building of the new structure, that houses UNIT in her time period.

They leave shortly before it explodes. Dashing through flames, they enter the TARDIS and it dematerialises as the building burns… and the final credits roll.

Fun, but a case of trying to stop the bad guy, when in the end, it was as simple as wait for him to escape and then trap him and send him to his death. I know The Doctor doesn’t like to kill (or says he doesn’t, he certainly does a lot of it) but if he had just let them free Sutekh and then done what he’d done, there would have been less deaths – Lawrence, the hunter…

Gabriel Woolf, who played Sutekh, would later voice the Beast in the David Tennant episodes THE IMPOSSIBLE PLANET and THE SATAN PIT.  

Serial 53 – The Ambassadors of Death 2/2

Half way in, all spoilers.

Episode 5:

 The Brigadier comes in at the last moment, firing his gun at the alien. The alien turns to him and The Doctor tells him not to stop it. Another UNIT soldier runs in and the alien touches him, presumably killing him. The Doctor tells the Brig that someone is using them, they’re not acting on their own. The Doctor wonders if they’re being manipulated into thinking the aliens are here for conquest.

 The death of Quinlan seems to have made things harder – more red tape as everyone is jockeying to replace him. Cornish gets the medical report on The Doctor’s physical tests and The Doctor is very quick not to talk specifics – I’m guessing the whole two hearts thing, as well as other physiological differences. 

 Back at the chamber, the three aliens get a new dose. The one alien who was taken on the killing spree is very weak. Reegan brags to Liz and Lennox about what a great killing machine they are.

 General Carrington shows up at Space Control to forbid them launching; he says it’s obvious it’s the beginning of “an alien invasion with the collaboration with a foreign power.” The Doctor presses him, asking him why he is opposed to it. He never answers, just blusters and makes threats to go to the highest authority.

 Lennox leaves, bluffing the guard that Reegan has left behind with Liz’s help. He goes to UNIT but the Brig is busy and has him placed in a cell, since he’s reqeusted ‘protective custody’.

 The Doctor suits up for his trip in Recovery 7 (the radiation faded so they were able to re-use the capsule). The Brig is there to see him off in a scene that makes no sense whatsoever, unless it ties in later. (Not that the Brig seeing him off doesn’t make sense, but I don’t see why it was filmed, what the point was.)

 Reegan finds out Lennox has gone to UNIT and calls in to his superior. Reegan is told to take care of The Doctor while the other will take care of Lennox.

 Fueling continues and The Doctor is in the capsule, running through checks. Reegan sneaks into the launch facility, attacking a UNIT guard who stops him. Reegan fucks with the fuels or something, trying to sabotage the rocket.

 A guard brings Lennox some food, but it’s an open isotope! He signals the alarm in the cell, but the assassin has already cut the wire.

 The Brig, patrolling, comes across the guard Reegan attacked, who tells him what happened. The Brig sees the sabotage.

 The countdown gets down to the final ten, when the Brig arrives to demand they stop the countdown, but Cornish doesn’t react and the rocket launches. There’s too much variant fuel and the rocket is launching much faster than it should. The Doctor has to try to use manual controls, but they’re not responding. He tells them to jettison stage one prematurely, which explodes after separation. The rocket is at normal speeds now, allowing him to avoid going too far, eventually ending in the Sun.

 He achieves orbit, safely and begins adjusting the craft, seeking the Mars Probe 7. He links up with the probe ship. Suddenly, there’s a large unidentified object on collision course with the probe. He looks out the porthole and sees… I guess it’s an alien craft?… and the credits roll.

Episode 6:

 It is in fact, a space ship, one The Doctor says is enormous. He says he’s going to try to evade it. Cornish tells the Brig that he needs to conserve his fuel for re-entry. The Doctor sends a message that he can’t evade, but it’s cut off.

 The Doctor finds himself aboard the space craft – his capsule has been taken inside the ship. They communicate with him, telling him he is safe and to exit the capsule. He does so, stepping out into what appears to be a cave like environment (I wonder if it’s an organic ship) and is instructed to go to the light.

 Three astronauts sit watching a device, acting like they’re watching a game on telly. They obviously think they’re already back on Earth, in the Space Center on quarantine. When The Doctor tells them they’re prisoners in an alien spaceship, they laugh at him.

 There’s a musical tone and strange lights and all three sit down as if hypnotised. An alien appears on a wall, like a video screen. The alien looks like a mummy more than anything else and demands to know why they have broken the arrangement – if the Ambassadors are not returned, they will destroy the Earth.

 At Space Control, they’ve determined that it’s a spacecraft. General Carrington (who was on Mars Probe 6, remember) advocates to destory the alien ship, shoot it down, bang bang bang! Dominator Rago, I mean, Professor Cornish refuses to make assumption that the alien ship is a threat.

 Carrington goes off to recommend an all-out attack to the UN. He leaves, and the Brig tells Cornish that he thinks the general knows a lot more than he’s letting on – and brings up the fact that Carrington was on an earlier Mars Probe mission.

 The Doctor makes a deal with the alien to let him return to Earth and find the ambassadors and bring them back. After making the arrangement, the alien disappears from the wall and the humans return to normal. The Doctor says he’ll do what he can to get them out of quarantine and they ask for some food to be sent in.

 The Americans are planning to launch an unmanned capsule to observe the alien ship up close. Their launch is in six hours. The Brig tells Cornish that Lennox was murdered, and Dominato… I mean, Cornish begins a laundry list of all the things that have gone wrong on the Brig’s watch. So the Brig pulls out his gun and pumps two rounds in Cornish’s head. Hah, consider that my April Fools’ joke on you.

 Cornish DOES list all the things that have gone wrong – astronauts still missing (not sure what the Brig has to do with that one, though), Liz kidnapped, Taltalian killed and now Lennox. The Brig retaliates with a bunch of facts that emphasise that Carrington’s “foreign power” theory is full of bunk.

 The Doctor contacts them to let them know he’s on the way back, but will be radio silent until it is time for the landing instructions.

 Liz is in the chamber, bringing them another isotope. The aliens approach her and one of them removes its helmet to reveal what’s supposed to be an inhuman face, but it looks like a caveman with skin issues. She gets out, visibly troubled, and Reegan, who just returned from errands. He offers her a job, with the alternative of killing her and “buying another scientist”. Reegan gets a call and is instructed to go meet The Doctor.

 Recovery 7 touches down at the launching pad. Reegan has gained access, driving the van again and pulls some hoses out of the van, hooking them up to some pipes outside the “Decontamination Unit”.

 The Doctor is in the Decontamination Unit, getting dressed, as Reegan turns on the gas. He lays down while waiting for the okay to leave, when a smoky gas pours in and he passes out. With a gas mask (the funky ones the men wore in the helicopter) on, Reegan goes in to retrieve him.

 Security in this place is crazy lax, yo.

 General Carrington returns and tries to make The Doctor look to be behind all the troubles. Carrington asks all sorts of questions about The Doctor, but the Brig can’t really give any answers. The general says Geneva is still debating. He tells the Brig and Cornish the it’s a “moral duty” to “arm every missile with nuclear warheads and blast that thing out of the sky”.

 “I think the general’s a bit overwrought.” – the Brig

“I think he’s insane.” – Cornish

 Reegan calls in to his superior, telling them that The Doctor is dead. He’s unconscious on the floor at the place the aliens are being held. Liz is there, and he wakes to see her. Reegan seems to be making his own plans.

 The Doctor rises and sees the aliens and confirms that they are aliens and that he has been on their ship and spoken to their commander. Reegan tells him if he can make a communication device, he’ll let he and Liz live. The Doctor sits down to make a list of components for Reegan to gather, while Reegan leaves.

 General Carrington shows up; it seems he’s the main bad guy, and he says since his instructions weren’t followed, it’s his “moral duty” to kill The Doctor and points his gun at him… and the credits roll.

Episode 7:

 Reegan shows up and argues with Carrington, telling him that they need The Doctor to build a machine to communicate with the aliens. Carrington seems to think this is a good idea.

 The Doctor gets the general talking; he reveals that this was a trap he set up. He met the aliens back on Mars, where they killed one of his crew with a touch. He’s convinced the aliens are planning to invade Earth. The Doctor plays along, agreeing to help. The general tells Reegan to ready one of the aliens, he has a specific need for it, then gives Reegan a list of isotope storages to raid.

 The American satellite approaches the ship but suddenly ceases all transmissions. It is believe the satellite was disintegrated.

 The Brig receives a call that Carrington’s men have captured an alien and they’re bringing it there.

 Reegan takes out the other two aliens, telling The Doctor he had better get the machine done by time he brings the aliens back. Reegan takes the aliens to a facility where they break in.

 General Carrington has brought the alien to the Space Control, to do a live telecast. The tv man asks if this won’t cause a world panic (but as we know, this would only suit the general’s needs.) The general intends to call upon the nations of the world to attack the alien spacecraft.

 The two aliens are back at their holding facility, and The Doctor and Liz are getting ready to test their machine. They mutter to each other about boosting a signal, so they’re up to something. Turns out they’re sending out a morse code SOS, which the UNIT troops (as well as all public service like ambulance, police, etc) pick up.

 Cornish confronts Mr. Wakefield (the tv man) about going through with the telecast for the general.

 The Doctor gets his machine working and Reegan grabs the mic from him, threatening the aliens with death if they don’t do as he commands. The aliens demand to know why they are being used to kill when they came in peace.

 The alien ship contacts the Space Control, threatening total destruction if their Ambassadors are not returned. Carrington is present and uses that to back up his beliefs. Carrington tells Wakefield to speed up the process for the world-wide broadcast hook up.

 The Brig gets a call about the SOS and tells Carrington he’s going to investigate. Again, Carrington accuses The Doctor of working with the aliens, and the Brig to boot, and has his own soldiers arrest the Brig.

 Carrington tells Cornish that he has taken control of the Space Centre.

 The Brig is being marched somewhere, but he beats up the two soldiers escorting him and grabs a car to leave. (HELL YEAH, YOU DON’T MESS WITH THE BRIGADIER!) He returns to UNIT HQ, where he finds out that the SOS was coming from old Army property near the Space Centre – the Brig quickly makes the connection to Carrington.

 They take Bessie (as all the UNIT jeeps are at the Space Centre) to the land. They see the delivery van that Reegan has used. As they pull up, two of Reegan’s thugs come out of the bunker entrance. There’s a firefight, then a REALLY BADLY choreographed fist fight between one of them and the Brig.

 I mean, really, really bad.

 The Brig bursts down, shoots Reegan’s gun out of his hand. After making sure everyone is all right, they haul of Reegan, but not before he suggests using the aliens to break into Space Centre and stop the general.

 There’s this really obnoxious mellow music that plays every time the aliens are walking around. It’s just stupid. The aliens force their way through the front gate.

 Cornish confronts Carrington who has him arrested. The telecast goes live with Wakefield introducing the general. The aliens arrive and the general shouts about being invaded and fires on the aliens. The Brig and his UNIT troops enter the room and the Brig tells Carrington that he’s taken the place and he’s placing the general under arrest. As Sgt Benton takes him off, the general feels the need to emphasise one more time that he had a moral duty to do what he needed to do.

 The Doctor tells Cornish that Miss Shaw will help him communicate with the Ambassadors, and all they need to do is return them to the ship and the human astronauts will be returned. He says his good byes and leaves… and the final credits roll.

 Not a great serial, not too bad. I think it could have been 5 episodes and been the better for it. Another “crazy man in authority” bad guy story. Not my favourite type of villain, but one very popular in the late 60s and early 70s, it seems.  (It seems there were a lot of rewrites on this and that contributed to a lot of the clunky, uneven pacing and writing.)  

Serial 53 – The Ambassadors of Death 1/2

 A serial that (AFAIK) I’ve never seen before. If I have, it’s been so long ago that I have no recollection. I don’t even know what it is about. I’m excited!

Episode 1:

 A man in a spacecraft/shuttle communicates with mission control, adjusting his course towards Mars Probe 7. Apparently there are men believed to be on the probe, which is returning from Mars, though whether they’re alive or not is unknown – there’s been no contact for seven months.

 (Differently from previous serials, this happens after the series intro sequence, with Pertwee’s face, etc, but then the episode title, with a burst of the series theme music and the tunnel effect happens now.)

 In mission control, a scientist (well, he’s wearing a white lab coat, so he must be one, right?) approachs the man that the astronaut (Charlie) has been communicating with. Again, talk about the possibility of the probe being occupied with dead men is brought up.

 Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, who is standing next to the mission control man, asks him what they’re going to tell the public. Then we see a television (or radio, perhaps) announce in an adjacent room, talking to his audience, “In a few minutes we shall know the answer to the question that has been occupying the minds of everyone here at Space Control since Mars Probe 7 took off seven months ago.” 

 It’s a tv announcer, as we then see him talking on a tv as The Doctor turns down the volume. In his lab, we see The Doctor has brought the TARDIS console out of the ship, presumably to work on it easier? Liz asks what he’s doing and he says he’s trying to repair the time vector generator. He warns her where she’s standing, she could be sent into the future, and with a whoosh, she vanishes. He is startled, moves over to where she was, and he, too, disappears.

 She appears, walks to another side, and disappears. He appears, then fiddles, and she re-appears. She seems to have some difficulty understanding or believing. Before they can go any further in their discussion, The Doctor notices the Brig on the tv, and they turn on the volume. (There is a snarky comment by The Doctor about the Brig needing something to do now that he’s “blown up the Silurians”, so it’s good to see that The Doctor is still upset over that.)

 The astronaut’s craft is in the process of linking up to the Mars Probe. Charlie confirms that it is Mars Probe 7 (a confirmation the Brig demanded to know, much to the startlement of the mission control man.) Charlie’s ship is “Recovery 7”. After no response from Mars Probe 7, Charlie links up the two craft. 

 The Doctor watches, fascinated, from his lab.

 As Charlie links up with the Probe, he hears sounds of the crew on the other side of the hatch. He passes into the tunnel and we hear a loud sound (that assaults the ears of the men in mission control) and Charlie’s face contorts in horror and pain. When it ends, they cannot raise Charlie on the radio.

 The Doctor, in his lab, watches the tv in shock. He says he knows that sound, he’s heard it before, but he can’t remember. He and Liz leave for the Space Center.

 (AHAH! I knew the mission control man, who’s yet to be named, looked familiar. He’s played by Ronald Allen, who played Dominator Rago in THE DOMINATORS – he was the lead Dominator, the one who had to deal with the destruction-happy Probationer Toba.)

 The techs at Space Control work to reestablish contact and/or figure out what is going on. The TV man interrogates the lab coated guy, who gets huffy and storms off. The Doctor arrives, yelling about not believing in passes, but the Brig vouches for he and Liz (how they got that far doesn’t quite make sense, but hey.)

 The Doctor insists that the sound is a message and it’s going to be repeated. The mission control (former Dominator) dude is not impressed by The Doctor and insists the Brig have “one of his associates” escorted out. But then the sound repeats and the guy is a bit more open to The Doctor’s assertions.

 Okay, the former Dominator Rago has a name – Professor Cornish. He and The Doctor butt heads and the Brig interjects himself, trying to get them to settle down and work together. He manages to get The Doctor to key down his arrogant lecturing, which does work.

 A third transmission is heard; The Doctor says that was a reply and was not from the capsule. They start working on trying to triangulate where the reply came from, hoping that a second reply is sent. One is and using triangulation narrows in on London – they narrow it down to an abandoned warehouse.

 We see several men in the warehouse, running the message again. Outside, jeeps with UNIT men, led by the Brig arrive and the soldiers rush out. The men inside are alerted to the arrival of UNIT and men move to intercept them. A firefight begins as UNIT arrives.

 The men inside send “the final transmission”. The fight becomes total chaos, men running about, firing wildly. Hand to hand combat and gun play all at the same time. One of the men gets the drop on the Brig, could have killed him easily, but surrenders. UNIT seems to have won the battle, though it seems the men were more interested in delaying UNIT more than anything else.

 The men with the transmission equipment set a self destruct which destroys it as the UNIT men gain access to the room.

 The Doctor is having trouble with the scientist dude over computer access and goes to Professor Cornish. Cornish contacts the scientist (Prof Taltalian) and orders him to give The Doctor complete cooperation.

 Athens observatory reports a solar flare in the next twenty-four hours; the men on the Probe/Recovery would not survive exposure to the radiation. Cornish attempts (again) to contact them, giving them the message.

 We hear Cornish’s communication playing in one of the ships; the camera pans out to show an empty console on Recovery 7.

 The Doctor and Liz hurry down to the computer room, but Taltalian pulls out a gun on them… and the credits roll.

 Interesting start, looks like we have an alien menace, maybe, with humans working with them? Me likey so far.

Episode 2:

 Taltalian demands The Doctor hand over the recording of the message(s) that the time lord is holding. The Doctor offers the tape, but it disappears from his hand. The Brig walks in, but the scientist takes Liz hostage, only long enough to get out of the room, then he shoves her at them. The Brig gives chase, and The Doctor has the tape re-appear in his hand. (Liz thought he sent it into the future, but he says it was “transmigration of object”, something different.)

 Liz puts the tape in an analogue-digital converter while The Doctor and the Brig go to talk to the prisoner they took at the warehouse, the one who could have shot the Brig. They found no personal ID on the man and all his clothing have had the labels removed. The interrogation gets nothing other than that the man is a Sergeant.

 The tv man reports that the two capsules have seperated, and they’re getting further from each other. Recovery 7 i is orbiting Earth, readying for re-entry. The Doctor goes to check on Liz’s progress with decoding, while the Brig prepares to run a security check on the Sergeant they have prisoner.

 As a soldier brings in tea to said Sergeant, he is attacked.

 The Doctor, Liz and Taltalian’s assistant look over the results, each positing why they’re coming up with nonsense. Liz runs a test on the machine, The Doctor telling her to feed it a simple math equation. It comes back with 2+2=5. It’s obvious Taltalian sabotaged it. (Though, The Doctor does make a snarky comment about never trusting those things, so it seems he still holds some of the Second Doctor’s dislike of computers.)

 Recovery 7 is beginning re-entry. The Doctor and Brig have joined Prof Cornish in the control room. It is in range of remote control and they attempt to take over guidance. After several attempts, the achieve the contact needed. The TV man reports as if it is believed the three astronauts (Charlie from the Recovery, the two men from the Mars Probe) are on board.

 Recovery 7 is brought down successfully. A truck rushes out to where it is, The Doctor, Cornish and the Brig leading the approach. Cornish connects a mic to a port on the outside and speaks to the craft. He tells them they are safe and landed and gives instruction to open the hatch.

 In the nearby woods, men watch via binoculars.

 Cornish gets no reply and fears they’re unconscious. They can’t open it from the outside – either the mechanism is jammed or it has been locked from the inside. They can’t cut it open, it’d be too dangerous to the crew. The Brig gets on the radio to UNIT Control to order a clear route from there to the Space Center. The men in the woods, who were the men who escaped the warehouse, listen in on the transmission.

 The capsule is placed on a lorry and hauled off. The Doctor follows in Bessie, but she stalls out and he is left behind. The truck (with the Brig in the cab) rolls on, accompanied by motorcycle patrol (which doesn’t strike me as a particularly secure arrangement.)

 The Doctor gets Bessie up and running.

 Ahead, on the road, a helicopter buzzes the motorcade. The men in the copter have gas masks or some such on. They drop cannisters that explode, creating a smokescreen (or perhaps it’s gas – if it’s just a smoke screen, I’d think the copter would be a bad choice.) The men exit and engage in a firefight with the UNIT forces, though the men have some sort of gas or air pressure weapons – they have cannisters on their backs and thick tubed guns connected to the via tubes. The fight goes on but the men take the truck.

 The Doctor rolls along, coming across the truck as it is heading in the wrong direction. He parks Bessie in the middle of the road and pretends it is broken down. He tells them they’ll have to help move the car and they get out to push her out of the way. As they push, he activates a switched marked “anti-theft device, which makes it impossible for them to remove their hands.

 Back at Space Control, the Brig reports they lost the capsule and The Doctor has gone missing. He and Cornish walk down to where the capsule is; The Doctor informs the Brig that he recovered it and brought it there.

 Liz calls to report she’s on to something and The Doctor goes to see her. It seems the code is pictographic. Dobson, the assistant, calls someone to report that “they’ve started to crack the code”.

 The Doctor and the Brig meet with “the top man”, Sir James Quinlan, who is very dismissive about their concerns over Taltalian and the possibility of others involved.

 After they leave Sir James’ office, Taltalian comes in and Sir James tells him to take a seat. He’s obviously part of the conspiracy, which explains much.

 Back at the capsule, they continue to try to contact inside Recovery 7. After the Brig repeats his feelings they should cut it open, Cornish says he has men with thermal lances waiting and steps away, presumably to call for them. As he does, Liz says she’s got a response on the machine, and he stops.

 Taltalian and Sir James talk about the capsule, wondering how UNIT got it. Sir James says UNIT has quite a surprise.

 Charlie’s voice comes on the communicator, asking permission for re-entry. Cornish gets on the mic, saying they’re at Space Control. Charlie’s response is “we’re not cleared for re-entry.” The voice then repeats the same sequence of responses. The Doctor grabs the mic, asking questions about Australia and beans, but the voice just repeats the same sequence.

 The Doctor turns to Cornish, “Right, cut it open!”… and the credits roll.

Episode 3:

 They cut open the capsule, to discover that it is empty. A tape recording is connected to the communications system. It comes up that earlier (off camera), several men showed up and sent away Liz and Cornish for a security sweep of the area. The Brig didn’t order this, of course, and it seems that is when the astronauts were removed.

 Liz discovers that the interior is radioactive and says that if anyone was in there, “they’re as good as dead”.

 We see three astronauts, fully suited, laying in a chamber. One of the men behind raid on the capsule is dressed in military uniform and gazes at them from outside the chamber. Technicians attend to computers; one of them says they should be dead. When they tried to remove their helmets, the astronauts resisted. The military man, General Carrington, scolds them for trying to remove their protective gear.

 The General tells the scientists to increase the radiation, that the men need it now. The scientists resist.

 The Doctor, Liz and Brig meet with Sir James again. They report to Sir James that the authorisation of the Army was proper and demand to know the truth. He says he’s going to introduce them to the man who can explain things. He summons in General Carrington, head of the newly formed Space Security. Liz recognises him as an astronaut from Mars Probe 6 (ahah, now things start to make a little sense.)

 Carrington says that the Mars Probe passed through unknown radiation and that was the reason of the coded transmissions; UNIT, being an international organisation, wasn’t exactly trusted, which is why the Brig was kept out of the loop. The General says that the radiation is “self-sustaining and highly contagious”.

 The Doctor demands the right to see the astronauts. Carrington is reluctant, but Sir James says it can’t do any harm.

 We see the usual group of thugs escorting the astronauts from the lab, holding the scientists at bay with guns. They shoot the scientists as they leave. As the bus leaves with them in one direction, The Doctor, Liz, the Brig and Carrington arrive in Bessie from the other.

 They enter and find the dead scientists. The Brig calls in to UNIT, as Liz and The Doctor investigate the print outs, discovering the high radiation count; Liz says the men couldn’t possibly have survived.

 The van drives out to a quarry, where two of the thugs (who were made to ride in the back with the astronauts) are dumped – the driver has a radiation suit on. The two bodies and their guns and some paper are deposited there. The van leaves and then the driver activates a switch that changes the license plate as well as the business marked on the side of the van.

 The Doctor and Liz review the information, discussing that that much radiation would destroy human bodies. As the Brig and Carrington discuss who was privy to the location of the lab, The Doctor comes over to say that the astronauts must still be in orbit – whatever came down in those space suits is not human.

 The astronauts (or the space suited aliens, or whatever) are seen lying in another chamber, attended to by other technicians. Doctor Lennox is very upset that the men aren’t in a hospital. The driver who brought them there tells him to attend to them.

 Cornish and The Doctor discuss sending another recovery capsule up, but when Cornish calls Sir James, the politico says there isn’t enough evidence, but Cornish threatens to call a press conference if he doesn’t support them. Carrington is listening in and after the call, the general says that they cannot send a second recovery capsule up.

 One of the astronauts is up and about and collapses, and Lennox is trying to get in there, but the driver stops him. They argue, and Lennox talks the driver into going in to help him. The ‘astronaut’ attacks the driver then exits the chamber and pursues Lennox, who tries to escape. Just as the astronaut is about to get Lennox, the astronaut collapses. The driver recovers and they get the astronaut back. A call comes in, telling them to give the astronauts more radiation.

 Cornish is having trouble getting things put together for another recovery mission. He feels it’s because of Quinlan, but cannot prove it.

 The Brig receives a call about two bodies in a gravel pit that died from radiation.

 The driver gets orders to take care of Liz and The Doctor; he shows Lennox their photos and Lennox says he met Liz once.

 Taking Bessie, Liz goes to the gravel pit, summoned by a message from the Brig. She’s being followed. The Brig arrives back at the capsule and The Doctor explains where Liz went to; it’s obviously a trap, and the Brig goes off to find Liz. Liz tries to evade her pursuers, even ditching Bessie and running on foot. While crossing over water, the men catch up with her and she is flung over the rail… and the credits roll.

Episode 4:

 The men keep Liz from going into the water and take her to where the ‘astronauts’ are. She recognises Lennox and is told that she’s there to assist him.

 Carrington tries to jam up The Doctor and the Brig’s attempts to find Liz, to determine who is responsible for all the interferences. Taltalian is back at Space Control and isn’t being much help to Cornish, who is still trying to set up a second recovery launch.

 While in the computer room, The Doctor receives a call with a message for him to stop interfering or they’ll kill Liz. He goes back to work, as if he didn’t get the call, much to Taltalian’s surprise.

 Lennox helps Liz escape, “dropping” his key to the exit and suggesting that they’ll find him locked in the astronauts’ chamber.

 The Doctor has determined that the impulses are instructions to build some sort of device; the only way to determine what the device is for is to build it.

 Liz runs (of course she does, it’s Doctor Who) to the nearest road, to some incongruous music. She is picked up by Taltalian, who brings her back to where she was being held.

 Taltalian has brought the codes to Reegan (the man overseeing the people with the ‘astronauts’) and explains that The Doctor needs to be taken out – he’s getting too close. Reegan gives Taltalian a briefcase bomb, telling him he’s set it for fifteen minutes (does so in front of him, but then changes it to a shorter time behind his back.)

 The Doctor volunteers to be the pilot for Cornish’s recovery rocket. Taltalian returns, and after Cornish leaves, the two men talk. Taltalian activates the briefcase and it explodes in his face.

 With Liz’s help, they have set up one of the devices to send the commands to the aliens.

 The Doctor lived through the explosion with minor injuries (he has a bandage on his face) – he was on the far side of the room. While cleaning up, The Doctor finds one of the devices he’s trying to build.

 Carrington and Sir James discuss telling The Doctor the truth. They discuss stopping the rocket.

 “If that rocket goes up, it means disaster for the entire world.” – Carrington

 Reegan is on the phone with his superior, someone he calls “Sir”. He’s given orders to take the aliens out on “a little excursion”. He asks Liz if he could use it to receive communication from them, but she says no, though she posits there could be a machine that could do that.

 One of the aliens approaches a security gate. The guard opens fire, though it has no effect. The alien sends a shock through the gate into the man, taking him out. It enters the facility and attacks some technicians working there – it seems to have some form of energized (radioactive?) touch. Another guard opens fire, but he, too, is killed.

 The Doctor has the other half to Reegan’s machine, the one that receives radio signals and turns them into human speech. He receives a call to report to Sir James’ office, to learn “the whole truth”, and the Brig says he’s coming along.

 Meanwhile, Sir James is attacked by one of the astronauts. It opens his safe and destroys whatever is kept in there. The Doctor walks in, unaware that the alien is there, and moves to check on Sir James. As he has his head to Sir James’ chest, checking for a heartbeat, the alien comes up behind him, menacingly reaching out with its hand… and the credits roll.