 "The Dominators" was originally intended to be a six-part story but was edited at the script stage down to five episodes as it was deemed too short of content. The fifth episode was therefore rewritten, so as to provide a conclusion, by Script Editor Derrick Sherwin. Because of this co-writers Mervyn Haisman and Henry Lincoln removed their names from the scripts and used the pseudonym Norman Ashby (later, they fell out with the Doctor Who production team over the BBC's merchandising plans for the Quarks and did not work on the show again). Subsequently an additional episode had to be written for the following story, "The Mind Robber", so increasing it from four episodes to five.
"The Dominators" is best known for its introduction of the Quarks - a failed attempt to create a monster with the same merchandising potential as the popular Daleks. The Quarks did though have a long life in the Doctor Who tie-in media. The Quarks in this story were portrayed by school children who had to be accompanied by a chaperone.
Chris Jeffries doubles for Patrick Troughton in all location-shot scenes featuring the Second Doctor.
Ronald Allen, then better known for his starring role in the soap opera Compact and for his role in Crossroads, plays Rago, and Kenneth Ives, was once a HAVOC stuntman, who then went on to become a distinguished director, plays Toba.
Brian Cant, better known as a presenter of children's programmes including Play School, returns to Doctor Who this time playing the minor Dulcian character Tensa. He previously played the part of Kert Gantry in "The Daleks' Master Plan".
Arthur Cox (who played Cully) returned to the show, playing the part of Mr Henderson, in the 2010 Eleventh Doctor story "The Eleventh Hour".
In a reference to "The Evil of the Daleks" – the repeat that bridged the gap between Season Five and Season Six - The Doctor is heard to state that he is a little tired 'projecting all those mental images'.
Zoe Heriot mentions both the Daleks and the Cybermen, hoping that neither will be present on Dulkis.
It is revealed that The Doctor has been to Dulkis before. He remembers the Dulcians as a very advanced, gentle people, and was reluctant to leave.
The Quarks name comes from a family of subatomic particles whose existence had first been theorised in 1964.
A surprisingly gruesome disintegration effect is used for the Quarks' killing of the Dulcians Etnin and Tolata in the first episode. A simpler, but still quite horrific, smoke effect was substituted for later deaths.
Unusually, episode three was recorded on 35mm film rather than the usual 625-line videotape. Also the ‘Episode 3’ caption at the beginning of this episode was also inadvertently omitted.
This story was originally filmed as part of the fifth season bloc. Along with "The Mind Robber", these stories were held over for Season Six.
This story was the last Doctor Who story to be directed by Morris Barry. He worked on programmes like Z Cars before concentrating on producing, overseeing shows such as Poldark. Morris Barry also took on the occasional acting job and so his final contribution to Doctor Who was playing Tollund in the 1979 Fourth Doctor story "The Creature from the Pit". Morris Barry passed away in December 2000.
All the episodes exist as 16mm telerecordings except for episode three which is a 35mm telerecording. The recovered episodes four and five though were originally incomplete. A complete print of episode five was eventually recovered in 1994, while the clips from Australian censors were recovered in 1996 thus completing episode four. However, the clips from episode four have not been merged into the master 16mm telerecording but have been retained separately. Telesnaps (off-air camera photographs) from this story also exist in the BBC archives.
This story was released on VHS in an edited form in February 1991. Episodes four and five are incomplete as this story was released before the scenes, which were cut by Australian censors, were found and then returned to the BBC. This video has not been re-released with the missing footage and this story has not been released on DVD yet.
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The Firsts:
The first story of Season Six (even though it was recorded as part of Season Five but held back).
The first Doctor Who story to be written by Norman Ashby.
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(Position = 148 out of 159)
(Position = 191 out of 200)
(Position = 234 out of 241)
