 This story was originally entitled "The Lords of the Red Planet".
The story that was broadcast varied considerably from the original outline pitched to the Doctor Who office by author Brian Hayles.
Although Brian Hayles is solely credited as the story's author Script Editor Terrance Dicks reworked the final four episodes as the original ending was considered to be lackluster and unworkable. Terrance Dicks did not, however, receive an onscreen writing credit for these episodes but he was co-credited on the sleeve of the VHS release.
Terrance Dicks’ rewrites also had to include last minute changes regarding the departure of companion Jamie McCrimmon. Originally Jamie was to have been replaced by a new companion called Nik by this story, but then, on learning that Patrick Troughton was due to leave the show at the end of the season, Frazer Hines postponed his departure.
Another late change saw the removal of a line in which Eldred reveals that his rocket achieved the first manned moon landing. This was altered to account for the likelihood that NASA would probably soon accomplish this feat (as in fact they did on the 20th July 1969).
This story is notable as it heralds the return of the Ice Warriors – the second of four appearances in the show. It also introduces the concept of a caste system within Martian society. There are two distinct (unnamed on screen) classes of Martians; the Ice Warriors, which were seen in the 1967 story "The Ice Warriors", and the Ice Lords. It becomes clear at the end of the first episode that all of the warriors are subordinate to the Ice Lord Slaar. Moreover, the story indicates that there is even a hierarchy within the Ice Lord class when it introduces the Grand Marshall in the final episode. This is illustrated by the fact that Slaar is seen taking orders from the Grand Marshall once the Ice Warriors had T-Mat under their control. The appearance of the Martians is also connected with this caste system. Whereas the Ice Warriors tend to wear heavy reptilian armour and large helmets, the Ice Lords tend to wear a slender and less bulky uniform with a more decorative helmet.
Patrick Troughton does not appear in episode four as he was on holiday during the recording of this episode. Tommy Laird doubled for him in shots where The Doctor is seen unconscious on the floor.
Alan Bennion plays Ice Lord Slaar - the first story where plays the part of an Ice Lord. He would return as the Ice Lords Izlyr in 1972 Third Doctor story "The Curse of Peladon" and as Azaxyr in the 1974 sequel "The Monster of Peladon".
Sonny Caldinez, who played Slaar's second in command, is the only actor to appear as an Ice Warrior in all four televised Ice Warrior stories. Sonny Caldinez also appeared in "The Evil of the Daleks" as Kemel.
Ronald Leigh-Hunt (who played Commander Radnor in this story) would return to the show as Commander Stevenson in the 1975 Fourth Doctor story "Revenge of the Cybermen".
Steve Peters, who played an Ice Warrior, was billed simply as ‘Alien’ in the Radio Times listing for episode one, so as not to spoil the surprise of the Ice Warriors' return to the show.
Model sequences of the Earth and the Moon are used as a backdrop to the story title, writer and episode number captions at the start of each episode.
Episode five is another rare instance of an episode being captured on 35mm film rather than videotape. Even more unusual for the time, Director Michael Ferguson made use of out-of-sequence recording for all six episodes, most notably on episodes two and three. Michael Ferguson, previous involvement was directing "The War Machines" three years before.
While matter transportation technology first appeared in Doctor Who in the 1965/66 First Doctor story "The Daleks' Master Plan", it was called ‘particle dissemination’. This story calls it ‘T-Mat’, and subsequent stories would settle on the name ‘Transmat’ to describe the technology, which would come to be used within Doctor Who much as transporters are used in Star Trek.
The Astral Map, first seen in the 1965 First Doctor story, "The Web Planet" appears in a Eldred's museum of space flight, though it is not referred to as such.
Zoe Heriot's leather outfit was primrose yellow in colour. Actress Wendy Padbury was allowed to keep it as an addition to her own wardrobe after recording of the story was completed.
This story was released on VHS and Betamax in 1985 in an omnibus format (the first BBC Video release not to feature Tom Baker as The Doctor). This story is one of three omnibus releases that never had an episodic VHS re-release (the other two being "The Time Warrior" and "The Talons of Weng-Chiang").
In February 2003, an unedited re-mastered, version was released on DVD. The story was chosen to represent the Patrick Troughton era as part of the Doctor Who fortieth anniversary releases.
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The Firsts:
The first Doctor Who story to be written by Terrance Dicks.
The first Doctor Who story released by BBC Video not to feature Tom Baker as The Doctor
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(Position = 93 out of 159)
(Position = 111 out of 200)
