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| Martian menace? The Doctor (Jon Pertwee) must discover the truth in the new Classic DOCTOR WHO DVD release: The Ambassadors of Death. Images: BBC. |
DOCTOR WHO: THE AMBASSADORS OF DEATH
Written by David Whitaker
Directed by Michael Ferguson
Starring Jon Pertwee as the Doctor and Caroline John as Liz Shaw
Now available on DVD from BBC CONSUMER PRODUCTS
"I don't know what we brought down in Mars Probe Seven, but it certainly wasn't human"
The Doctor
There's traitors, gunfights, hijacks, and kidnapped aliens galore in this spirited and often thrilling third adventure for beaky nosed “light bulb” Jon Pertwee’s serious Time Lord incarnation, now trapped in exile on seventies Earth, in and encounter with The Ambassadors of Death, the latest highly entertaining release of the Classic DOCTOR WHO range from BBC CONSUMER PRODUCTS.
The mystery of Mars Probe 7 and it's astronauts returned to Earth after months far away on the infamous Red Planet soon prove the stuff of nightmares, with potential ramifications for an all-out interplanetary war, as the Doctor and his army comrades at UNIT face a deadly earthbound foe whom seemingly know their moves before they make them, manipulating events towards likely Armageddon. And as violence and skulduggery grow, just who can be trusted, as our heroes ponder the very possible likelihood that a hidden enemy might be at work within their own organisation!
A solid and intriguing sci-fi plot with tense moments and good characters from David Whitaker, one of the very first script editors/genesis makers of the William Hartnell era, emerges from its heavily revised pre-production phase, courtesy of Script Editor Terrance Dicks and his buddy Malcolm Hulke. Some quite adult themes and violence in an epic, genre-crossing story of its time, make the most of the realism and scientific marvels of the modern space programme around them, linked to a complex British-based conspiracy involving an opportunist mercenary and a deranged and xenophobic former astronaut now general.
Amidst the warehouse fights, helicopter attacks and wandering aliens with the killer touch, there’s a wonderful romanticism to this particular story with its mix of science fiction and fact- the lovely idea, so far not to have happened in my lifetime but of which anything goes in DOCTOR WHO’s often skillful storytelling, that one day the UK would be a leading superpower in the exploration of space, celebrating the ambition and dedication of the men then landed on the Moon a year earlier, as the story effectively creates it’s own unique brand of realism, even down to the innovative for its time idea of having a news presenter character (played by Michael Wisher) talking to the camera, to us viewers, about what’s going on during a tense early part of the plot. Also, in an intriguing life is stranger than fiction moment of television history, one of these episodes would also transmission co-incide with the critical attempts being made in reality by NASA to rescue the space-stranded Apollo 13 mission!
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| The Doctor with early colour era companions Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart (Nicholas Courtney) and Liz Shaw (Caroline John). |
In the role that made him a TV legend, Pertwee’s exiled to Earth incarnation of the Third Doctor starts to hit his stride by the near end of his premiere season, shouting at bureaucrats, and laudably showing his skills as a scientist and adventurous action hero, alongside a much underrated at the time companion in scientist Liz Shaw, played with believability by the much-missed Caroline John. John's realistic breath of fresh air portrayal of Liz proves a much better companion/foil to the Doctor when watched in today's modern era of WHO storytelling, with its overall better developed female roles, rather than back in 1970, when behind the scenes the actress/character was seen to stand out uncomfortably with the other more popular screamy companions that would bookend her one year stint on the series.
Alongside the out of this world combo, those alien menace fighting army lads at UNIT are also a much more serious and determined investigative/ fighting force during this superior part of the Pertwee era, with Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, as played by the late, great Nicholas Courtney, now emerging as one of the show’s true iconic figures, before his character changed to become an equally lovable, if not quite as effective, Colonel Blimp type. Ambassadors also witnesses the colour series introduction of faithful Sergeant Benton (cheery John Levene)- later a perfect companion to the Brigadier, and occasionally fun comedy foil in between shooting machine guns unsuccessfully at Daleks and Axons.
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| One of the frightening alien ambassadors of the title! |
Director Michael Ferguson makes fine use of the changing times of television film-making technology to give the story a touch of ambitious and gritty film quality action/adventure reminiscent of late sixties BOND (if on a lower budget than anything Broccoli and Saltzman would ever have been used to!), of which there’s a rawness to it that wouldn’t be out of place in some of the early SWEENEY’s, either, especially in it’s opening and closing episodes. Fists reach their intended impacts courtesy of the impressively staged for their time action sequence makers of HAVOC: a thrill providing stunt team worthily showing every penny of their screen time existence, including Derek Ware (look out for his excellent leap onto a helicopter!), Alan Chuntz, Roy Scammell and Terry Walsh.
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| One of the real Martians! |
Regarded as one of the shows best directors of early colour WHO, Ferguson continues his ambitious work with clever angles and a spirited pace, plus some terrific episode cliffhangers (especially part two’s ominous “Right, cut it open!” finale). Most noticeable is the atmospheric and eerie way he film shoots the alien ambassadors in their outdoors scenes-a genius and scary idea where, with the sunlight behind them, you never see their faces under the astronaut suits until the finale episode. I also love the distinctive opening and ending stings that would become a part of WHO history, and the cliffhanger coming at ya titles-part of the charm of Pertwee’s experimental and exciting first season, and an idea of changing episode title/logo designs currently being paid tribute with similar experimentation by today’s WHO series era under the control of Steven Moffat. The early CSO work on this story is also of a very good standard alongside excellent filmed model shots from classic series effects veteran Ian Scoones.
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| The Doctor and friends in roadster Bessie, along with General Carrington (John Abineri). |
Amongst the bangs and crashes, a fine cast adds weight to the adventure, including WHO stalwart John Abineri, who, with his mercenary army, brings menace and tangible occasional audience sadness to his role as deranged General Carrington. CROSSROADS veteran Ronald Allen is also fine as the British Space boss Ralph Cornish, but probably the best of the bunch, and making a lot out of a relatively thin role, is William Dysart, who impresses as the opportunistic and clever mercenary working with Carrington, Reegan. There’s a touch of the Connery Bond about him-sharp suitedly ruthless and edgy as he makes his own plans to manipulate the captured aliens.
Incidental music begins to make more of a mark on the series with the Pertwee era, and this tale has some of Dudley Simpson’s best music for early seventies WHO, no doubts about it, with the classic theme for UNIT making its debut, and a hauntingly melodic and mysteriously surreal theme for the alien ambassadors of the title as they are forced into doing Reegan’s dirty work.
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| The aliens often prove unstoppable. |
As the story develops over seven episodes (part of a season where the stories were longer than usual so as to make the most of production budgets), Ambassadorsmanages to overall hold its duration, though there's a few plot holes and inconsistencies here and there if you look close enough (mostly due to the many script rewrites that occurred over a long period-it was originally commissioned as a story for the Patrick Troughton B/W era). Episode Five show a little bit of padding, but by the fast paced finale things are wrapped up pretty satisfactorily (notably with some more good UNIT action as the Brigadier gets stuck in with some hand to hand combat! Go Brig!).
Its original colour PAL masters wiped thirty plus years ago, of which only episode one escaped the purge, the colour restoration process to the surviving b/w film copies (courtesy of a colour Betamax tape from an American fan of the mid-seventies), has not been without difficulties. Until such time as WHO’s resident superfan Ian Levine can build a time machine (and I truly believe he has the resources to do it!) in order to go back and stop the stupid BBC executives of 1975 from junking the original colour PAL masters, these are the best quality colourized copies of the story we’re going to get with the current technology available to the dedicated Restoration Team, and they should be congratulated for their remarkable efforts both old and new with this release, especially noteworthy in sections of episodes five and seven. It’s a shame that there's no featurette tribute on the DVD about the Team’s long behind the scenes journey to complete the story, of which its previous official UK BBC VHS release had only been partially completed-a hybrid of colour and B/W.
In a lovely celebration of their careers on the show, the late Caroline John, Nicholas Courtney and guest star Peter Halliday contribute a warm and informative commentary, previously recorded for the eventual DVD release back in 2009. Their contributions pop up within in-depth themed talks from Terrance Dicks, Derek Ware, Roy Scammell and Derek Martin. It’s all well worth a listen.
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| Controlled by outside forces, the alien ambassadors are trapped on Earth. |
Chris Chapman’s thirty minute documentary on the making of the serial concentrates on the story’s most successful elements: notably the quality visuals and stunt work, with contributions from Michael Ferguson and key members of the HAVOC team: Ware and Scammell. Later series Production Manager Margot Hayhoe and Terrance Dicks also add key contributions. The original next week’s new adventure trailer for the story is also given a fun colour restoration, there’s a nice stills gallery (with lots of rare B/W behind the scenes shots, though some classic episodic images seem to have gone AWOL and not made the selection), ever comprehensive production notes text (from walking WHO encyclopedia Martin Wiggins), and PDFs.
Wrapping things up, there’s the continuing featurette series of Tomorrow’s Timesfrom film-maker Marcus Hearn, hosted by Peter Purves, which looks back at the Pertwee era and how well received both the show and its star were at the time by audiences and critics, plus a colourful Coming Soon trailer for the next exciting Third Doctor invasion story, in a brand new Special Edition: The Claws of Axos.
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| Our UNIT heroes, with Derek Ware far right as a solider, communicate with the aliens. |
For years a neglected, often forgotten story, The Ambassadors of Death is a truly under-rated little gem and easily one of the standouts of the Pertwee era, at a time when the show was starting a new life and a new colour Renaissance. Its great to see it fully restored and complete at last. So thanks BBC for the new essential purchase release: to mis-phrase a certain FERRERO ROCHER advert: “With these Ambassadors you are really spoiling us!”
KOOL TV RATING (overall story and extras): 4.5 out of 5
Get The new release here: Doctor Who: The Ambassadors of Death [DVD]: Amazon.co.uk: Jon Pertwee, Caroline John, Nicholas Courtney: Film & TV
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