Production Code: TT
First Transmitted
1 - /08/1968 17:15
2 - /08/1968 17:15
3 - /08/1968 17:15
4 - /08/1968 17:15
5 - /09/1968 17:15
Plot
The TARDIS materialises on the planet Dulkis, currently under threat from two alien Dominators, Rago and his subordinate Toba, who have landed in a spaceship.
Aided by their robotic servants, the Quarks, and slave workers drawn from the native Dulcian population, the Dominators set about drilling bore holes, through which they plan to fire rockets into the planet's molten core. Their intention is then to drop an atomic seed capsule into the resulting eruption, turning Dulkis into a radioactive mass - fuel for the Dominators' space fleet.
The Dulcian Councillors, being pacifists, refuse to retaliate, although Cully, the rebellious son of their leader Senex, has already joined forces with the time travellers. The Doctor eventually defeats the Dominators by intercepting the seed capsule as it is dropped and placing it on board their ship, which is then destroyed shortly after take off.
Dulkis suffers only a minor volcanic eruption, as a result of the rockets fired into its magma.
Episode Endings
The Doctor and Jamie have discovered the Dominators' spaceship. Jamie points out that they are being observed by two Quarks from a nearby hilltop. Toba joins the Quarks and they ask him if they should destroy.
Zoe and Cully are trapped in the Dulcian survey unit as it is fired upon by the Quarks. Explosions rock the building and rubble crashes down around them.
Toba orders the Quarks to destroy totally the Dulcian museum in which Jamie and Cully are taking cover. The Quarks fire and the building collapses around the two friends. A smiling Toba is informed by a Quark that the task has been completed.
Toba tells his prisoners that they will die one by one unless they reveal where Jamie is. They refuse to answer, and the Dulcian Educator Balan is the first to be gunned down by a Quark. The Doctor is next in line, and the Quarks get ready to fire again.
The Doctor tells Jamie that Dulkis is safe; there will be just a minor eruption confined to one island. Jamie points out that they themselves are on the island and the Doctor reacts in horror as lava flows towards them.
Roots
Aesop's fables (the boy who cried wolf).
Lewis Carroll.
Dialogue Triumphs
Cully : [Speaking of Zoe] "She can't be a Dulcian - she has an enquiring mind."
Rago : [To Senex] "You will provide me with certain statistics..."
Tensa : "Really, sir, I must protest."
Rago : "Protest? You defy a Dominator?"
Tensa : "Senex is our leader, and as such demands respect."
Rago : "I warn you. A Dominator must be obeyed. Your leader means nothing to me. I respect only one thing - superior force."
The Doctor : [Explains his plan to a baffled Jamie] "An unintelligent enemy is far less dangerous than an intelligent one, Jamie. Just act stupid. Do you think you can manage that?"
Continuity
The second Dulcian council under Director Olvin banned the production of all nuclear weapons many years ago. The seventh council under Director Manus approved further atomic research and used the island as a test site. This was subsequently abandoned and the radioactive island has remained uninhabited except for occasional scholarly visitors for 172 years (the island reminds Zoe of 'the old atom test islands on Earth'). The Dulcians have a dual cardiovascular system [like that of the Time Lords]. Dulcians are unaware of extraterrestrial life.
Toba thinks that the Dominators should have visited Epsilon 4 instead of Dulkis in their search for slave labour. The Dominators' ship stores radioactive particles and converts them into fuel. The Doctor uses the sonic screwdriver as a cutting tool.
Location
Dulkis.
Links
In a reference to The Evil of the Daleks repeat that bridged the gap between the seasons, the Doctor states that he is a little tired 'projecting all those mental images'.
Zoe mentions both the Daleks and the Cybermen (The Wheel in Space), hoping that neither will be present on Dulkis.
Untelevised
The Doctor has been to Dulkis before. He remembers the Dulcians as a very advanced, gentle people, and was reluctant to leave.
Trivia
There are some impressive explosions on location, perhaps most notably that of Cully's ship in the first episode.
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 the later deaths.)
Chris Jeffries doubles for Patrick Troughton in all location-shot scenes featuring the 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, once a HAVOC stuntman and now 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.
Myth
The location scenes of this story were shot on colour film as a test exercise. (They weren't. Despite persistent rumours to the contrary, the BBC did no colour filming or recording on any of the sixties Doctor Who stories.)
Goofs
Episode three has no 'episode three' caption.
The rubble over a hatch in episode four vanishes.
Toba [exaggerating?] says that the Dominators are the 'masters of the Ten Galaxies'; Rago says that they control an entire galaxy.
The zip at the back of Zoe's skirt causes her problems on numerous occasions, being open in episodes two, three and five.
There's a whacking great close up of Troughton's location double in episode five.
Fashion Victim
The Dulcians: women in leotards and curtain skirts (which leave little to the imagination).
Men in padded skirts or Roman togas.
Cast & Crew
Cast
The Doctor - Patrick Troughton
Jamie - Frazer Hines
Zoe - Wendy Padbury
Balan - Johnson Bayly
Bovem - Alan Gerrard
Council Member - John Cross
Council Member - Ronald Mansell
Cully - Arthur Cox
Etnin - Malcolm Terris
Kando - Felicity Gibson
Quark - John Hicks
Quark - Gary Smith
Quark - Freddie Wilson
Quark voices - Sheila Grant
Rago - Ronald Allen
Senex - Walter Fitzgerald
Teel - Giles Block
Tensa - Brian Cant
Toba - Kenneth Ives
Tolata - Nicolette Pendrell
Wahed - Philip Voss
Crew
Director - Morris Barry
The Dominators