Doctor Who (1963–1989): Season 2, Episode 8 - The Waking Ally - full transcript

The Doctor's party investigate the Daleks' central control in Bedfordshire while Barbara and Jenny's attempt to reach it are derailed when they are betrayed.

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This episode was first broadcast
on 19 December 1964.

It was seen by 11.4 million viewers.

The Slyther costume was made by Shawcraft,
an independent firm that also made the Daleks.

This Slyther's a little different
from the one you saw in the last episode.

Shawcraft's first attempt
wasn't considered frightening enough,

so the costume was sent back for modification
in the week between studio recording sessions.

The costume fitted its operator,
Nick Evans, closely from top to toe,
like an all-in-one boiler suit.

After this scene, Evans slipped out
of the Slyther and into a Dalek
for his second role of the episode.

16 October 1964, when this episode
was recorded at Riverside Studios,
was a day of national excitement.

There had been a General Election
the day before, and Britain
had a new Labour government.

The immediate impact on the task
of making a Doctor Who episode
was an equipment shortage.



All the BBC's video recording equipment was
tied up by the extensive election coverage,

so the camera output
had to be recorded directly onto 35mm film.

This was uncommon. Of the 255 Doctor Who
episodes made between 1963 and 1969,

only ten were recorded like this on film.

It didn't affect the way
the programme was actually made.

Today's television is recorded scene by scene
or even shot by shot, and then edited together.

In 1964, making television drama
at the BBC was more like recording live theatre.

Most of the action was performed
continuously and recorded in real time,

complete with minor actors' fluffs
and technical imperfections.

There were only a few recording breaks
where the tape would be edited.

in this 25-minute episode, for example,
there were just three such breaks.

For the cameramen,
recording was a stop-go process.

There were normally
five cameras used to record each episode,
with most scenes requiring two or three of them.

This scene, for example,
was recorded with cameras 2 and 3.



While you're watching the output
of one camera, the other cameraman
is moving to his next position,

ready for when the vision mixer in the studio
gallery cuts back to him for the next shot.

Here comes an example
of the process going wrong.

This is camera 3. Camera 2 is also on the move,

but doesn't reach his spot in time!

Perhaps not very surprising - the move had
to be completed in just over four seconds
(or half the time this subtitle is on screen).

The establishing shot
that follows is a still photograph.

It had been hoped to use lighting to simulate
the shadow of a bird flying across the picture.

In the first draft,
there are three old women, described as being:

''right out of Act One, Scene One of Macbeth''.

(That's the scene
introducing the Three Witches.)

In this version,
Barbara and Saida (who later became Jenny)
don't just chance to find the hut;

they are lured there by one of the crones
while the others gleefully watch their approach.

This serial took well over four months to make.

It had already been some time
in pre-production by Thursday 20 August 1964,

when the BBC's press office
arranged a location photo call.

The gimmick was that producer Verity Lambert
and director Richard Martin were out
looking for locations in London,

and were being secretly followed by the Daleks!

''Anything can happen - and probably will,''
promised the press release.

In reality,
the locations had already been chosen,

and four days of location filming
took place on 23, 25, and 27-8 August.

Then, from 14 September
to 23 October, there were six weeks
of rehearsals and studio recording.

Post-production continued
into the winter, with the final episode
being dubbed on 6 December.

It's a tin of baked beans, with
the manufacturer's name carefully covered.

The bucket is actually perfectly still.

The impression that it's going down
is created by lighting.

In the first draft, Robbie (who later
became Larry) reasons that the bucket
wouldn't just stop 12 feet above the ground.

Ian finds a piece of metal
jammed in the descent mechanism,

pulls it free, and the bucket
crashes down the last 12 feet.

In the first draft, the three crones
drug the food with a white powder,
and Barbara and Saida pass out.

The crones tie them up
and deliver them to the Daleks.

Barbara comes to in a white-walled,
featureless room with sliding doors.

''You can see how much you've been worth to us,''
says a crone, showing her cartons of food.

''We're old, child,''
she explains, ''Times are difficult.

''There's only one law now - survive.''

Ian's clothes are now starting
to show the strain. He's split the seam
of his jacket with the exertion.

Keep your eye on it -
it'll get worse in the next episode!

This section of dialogue
was a very late addition.
It doesn't appear in the camera script.

This is where the scene begins
in the camera script.

In the first draft, the wounded Robbie
realises he is a burden and sacrifices himself.

To give Ian a chance, he kills the Roboman.

In revision, Terry Nation
added the twist that it's Larry's brother.

One striking thing about this serial
is the range of human accents on the soundtrack.

Larry comes from the North, Wells
from the West Country, David from Scotland.

The original intention had been to show human
diversity, in contrast with Dalek uniformity,

by using a multi-racial cast,
if only for the background artists.

This was dropped because relatively
few black extras were available in London.

The Roboman's dying recognition
of his brother was unscripted.

This pre-recorded Dalek voice
was supplied by David Graham,

who was soon to achieve immortality
as the voices of Brains and Parker
in Thunderbirds (1965-6).

This horseplay was unscripted business
worked out by the actors in rehearsal.

Tyler is played by Bernard Kay (born 1928),

who had previously appeared with William
Hartnell in the film Carry On Sergeant (1958).

He had a solid acting career,
which later included work
for the Royal Shakespeare Company (1991).

The Doctor was also supposed to say
that the Daleks regard man
as ''a simple, unreliable insect''.

In the first draft, Doctor Who
picks up a handful of earth
to illustrate what the Daleks have come for.

''The most valuable thing we have,''
muses David, ''the basis of all life''.

In the first draft, Terry Nation wrote,
''burrowing like gigantic rabbits
right down into the heart of our world''.

William Russell (born 1924),
who plays Ian, was known
before Doctor Who for his heroic roles,

notably the title characters
in The Adventures of Sir Lancelot (1956-7)
and Nicholas Nickleby (1957).

His later classical theatre work ranged
from Hamlet (1988) to A Clockwork Orange (1990),

and his television appearances
from The Black Adder (1983)
to Coronation Street (1992).

This is one of the Dalek voices
performed live by Peter Hawkins,

who was also well known as the voices
of The Flowerpot Men (1952-4)
and Captain Pugwash (1957-75).

Though he had no dressing to do,
he was given a studio dressing room,

which he shared with Nicholas Smith (Wells).

Barbara and Jenny's attempt to penetrate the
Dalek control room was developed in revision.
It doesn't appear in the first draft.

The BBC had two Dalek props in store
when pre-production began on this serial.

These were refurbished,
and two more built from scratch.

Another two were in the possession
of Dr Barnardo's children's homes.

Director Richard Martin
and a representative from the design department

inspected the Barnardo's pair
in mid-August and arranged to borrow them back.

The rod on the Dalek's ''head'' is operated
by a pull-string inside the casing.

It's supposed to be the Dalek's ''eye'',
and swivels when the creature
is looking at something.

The eyes of the new and refurbished Daleks
followed a slightly different design
from those used in the original props.

This is one of the new ones, with black rod,
silver eyeball and five blue discs in between.

The Dalek erects the eye like a radio aerial
when it communicates with central control.

In the next Dalek scene, see if you can spot
one of the original Dalek props.

You can identify it
by its silver eye rod and black eyeball.

All the Dalek voices
in this scene were pre-recorded,

with unfortunate consequences!

The Dalek on the left
is one of the veteran props.

The other one's harder to spot,

because the whole of him
has been repainted. It's the Dalek Supreme.

Note the tell-tale black eyeball!

The first draft contains more about
the Daleks' plan. The Earth's core controls
the planet's movement in the galaxy.

They need to remove ''the core that gives it
its stability, that creates its gravity''.

''If the Earth stops rotating,
it will deviate from its position
in this constellation,'' explains Doctor Who.

''It will fly helplessly through space.''

The result will be
''the greatest step forward in space travel''.

''The Earth would become a vast spaceship
that could move through the universe
in a controlled direction.''

The Daleks could ''set out on a journey
that might take thousands of years''.

The planet would supply homes and food,
and each generation would take over
from the last until journey's end.

To achieve this angle, the camera
was fitted with a periscope attachment.

This model shot was recorded in real time
in the studio, rather than being pre-recorded.

The non-speaking prisoners were played by:

Nigel Bernard, Jo Calvert, George Dare

Stenson Falcke, Daphne Green, Margo Hanson

Maureen Lane, Rex Rashley

John Sackville West, Don Symons

Alan Wakeling, Tony Walsh, Jan Wills