 This story was the first solo contribution by writer Bob Baker – his final involvement with Doctor Who. He continued writing for programmes including Bergerac and also became script editor on shows like Shoestring and Into The Labyrinth. In the Nineties, Bob Baker garnered acclaim for his work with stop-motion animator Nick Park on the Wallace and Gromit series, which included the Academy Award-winning 2005 feature film Wallace and Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. Since the late Nineties, Bob Baker has also been attempting to spin his co-creation, K9, into his own television series.
The recording of this story marked the return of David Brierly to the show as the voice of K9. After making "The Creature from the Pit" at the start of the production schedule, David Brierly had not been needed for either "City of Death" or "Destiny of the Daleks".
The director for this story was Alan Bromly, who had previously helmed the 1973 Third Doctor story "The Time Warrior". At the time this story was recorded Alan Bromly was largely retired but he still received, and accepted, occasional work from the BBC.
Even though Alan Bromly is credited with directing this story he quit part-way through filming as a result of a huge disagreement with Tom Baker. As a result, Producer Graham Williams ended up having to complete the Director’s duties without an on-screen credit. Alan Bromly never directed another story for Doctor Who and in fact went into full retirement from television soon thereafter. He passed away in September 1995.
It has been reported that it was the situation that occurred during the recording of this story that prompted Graham Williams to decide that he had wished to leave the show.
This story was subjected to severe budget-restrictions in order to have money left over for the season finale, "Shada" and the Paris filming in "City of Death".
More facts about K9 are revealed during this story – including his ability to track The Doctor and that his scanners do not work in a ‘matter interface’. The Doctor is also heard to state that K9 has saved his life many times and has beaten once him at chess.
The Doctor’s ability to suspend his breathing whilst in a vacuum (see "Terror of the Zygons") is again witnessed.
It is revealed that the space liner Empress, with 900 passengers, commutes between Station 9 and the planet Azure in the Western Galaxy.
Space travel within this story appears to be more highly advanced than other stories, which are of a similar time period. For example in the 1969 Second Doctor story "The Seeds of Death" space travel has all but ceased at the end of the 21st Century, with travel only between the Moon and Earth.
This is one of the few Fourth Doctor stories to have a strong moral, in this case against drug abuse and the illegal drug trade. The drug in question was originally going to be called ‘Xylophilin’, or ‘Zip’. However, this was changed to ‘Vraxoin’ so as not to sound interesting to children. Despite this name change K9 still mentions Vraxoin as having the scientific code ‘XYP’.
The drug is a fungus and The Doctor has seen ‘whole planets’ destroyed by the drug which induces apathy.
Tryst’s research it seems hit funding problems due to ‘the Galactic recession’. On his Volante expedition, Tryst mentions visiting the Cygnus Gap and three planets in System M37.
The idea of the Continual Event Transmuter (CET) machine and its stored life-forms recalls elements of the Miniscope seen in the 1973 Third Doctor story "Carnival of Monsters". The CET works by converting specimens into electromagnetic signals that are then stored on laser crystals.
Examples of life, from various planets, stored in the CET include: Eden, Gidi, Zil, Bros, Vij, Darp, Lvan and Ranx.
The Doctor is heard asking whether the CET features a spatial integrator, a transmutation oscillator, a hologistic retention circuit or a dimensional osmosis damper.
More techno-babble is used when it is revealed that Tryst and Dymond plan to smuggle Vraxoin with an entuckor laser.
This story contains a number of anomalies. Including: in the second episode, when K9 seals up the wall panel, a hand emerges to hold the panel in place; then in the third episode the Mandrel that is killed by K9 can be seen breathing while it is still laying on the ground after The Doctor makes sure it is dead and strangely when Della gets shot in the face in the final episode, she is seen clutching her stomach.
Interestingly the tabloid newspaper The Sun wrote that the Mandrels were terrifying monsters. However, the majority of critics were more scathing and many of them saw the Mandrels as being thoroughly unconvincing (particularly The Doctor Who Appreciation Society, which described them as ‘cute rejects from The Muppet Show’).
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The Firsts:
The first solo contribution by writer Bob Baker.
The first Doctor Who story to be directed by Graham Williams.
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(Position = 136 out of 159)
(Position = 167 out of 200)
(Position = 190 out of 241)
