As Doctor Who fans, we are desperate to find out the truth about the missing episodes. What were those misplaced William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton stories actually like? Were they as good as the novelisations, audio soundtracks and camera scripts make them seem, or were they even better?
Well, one way of getting a good idea is by purchasing the
latest Doctor Who Magazine special, out tomorrow, which features the
‘telesnaps’ of the first six stories of Patrick Troughton’s tenure. I’ve
blogged about telesnaps before; for this magazine I’ve researched
‘commentaries’ for the missing episodes of The Power of the Daleks (sadly, all
of them) and The Moonbase (one and three) as well as writing little
introductions for each story which hopefully will be of interest to readers
both old and new.
Researching the commentaries, once again the process
involved going through each scene of each episode and trying to work out what
line was being spoken at the exact point each telesnap photo was taken.
Sometimes straightforward, sometimes impossible, but for each photo I made my
best guess, based upon the soundtrack and in particular upon the existing
camera scripts. The camera scripts describe who was in each camera shot, and
whether it was a close-up, mid-shot or wide, and by working through each scene
(usually starting at the end and going backwards) it’s possible to narrow down
the possibilities. And then I wrote the commentary based around whatever line
was being said in the photograph, even if it occasionally made my life very
difficult in terms of telling the story; it would be much easier to pretend
different lines are being said in certain photos in order to fit the story
better, but I was determined not to do that.
The problem is that while some parts of each episode have
quite extensive coverage, other parts do not. There are several scenes from The
Power of the Daleks which have no telesnaps taken at all, and others where the
photos miss the crucial action; for instance, in the scene where a Dalek lays a
power cable in Bragen’s office there isn’t a single telesnap which shows the
actual Dalek. Sometimes it seems the film ran out early; for the cliff-hanger
of The Moonbase part three, the last telesnap is from over a minute before the
end, depriving us of shots of the Cybermen walking across the moon (though we
get a good idea what those shots would be from the reprise of part four).
But by far and away the most difficult section to write a
commentary for was the end of part four of The Power of the Daleks, where
Lesterson sneaks into the Daleks’ space capsule and discovers that they are
mass-producing. While there are plenty of telesnaps for this final sequence
(despite the fact that this episode has fewer telesnaps than usual) they don’t
correspond to the shots outlined in the camera script, the shots and the
content diverging quite drastically once Lesterson has entered the capsule. The
camera script, for instance, describes the newly-built Daleks being sprayed as
they pass through an arch (which almost certainly didn’t happen in the
broadcast episode) while it makes no mention of the foam-covered Dalek mutant
in a glass globe that appears very prominently in several of the telesnaps; it also doesn't include any of the dialogue about Daleks being completed or them boasting about being a new race of Daleks. So
clearly, when directing this sequence – a film sequence shot at Ealing Film
Studios – director Christopher Barry went off-script. Unfortunately there
isn’t, as far as I know, a camera script of what he did shoot available
(a list of shots that were developed may exist, but that's all).
So instead I had to perform a little detective work. Fortunately
in addition to the telesnaps the audio for this sequence exists, as well as
three short clips which exist due to having been used in Tomorrow’s World
and/or an Australian TV show called Perspective. Interesting, the clips only
feature the Daleks and don’t show any of the human characters, possibly because
the clips were being used to illustrate documentaries about robots/computers
and possibly to avoid paying Lesterson actor Robert James a repeat fee. It’s
almost as if the makers of Perspective went through the story and picked out
just the scenes with Daleks in.
Previous commentaries of this sequence had just used the
camera script (such as the one for the BBC audio release) but, as well as the
non-existent spraying sequence and lack of mention of the mutants, it also
bugged me that it was never clear quite how Lesterson could see all this
through one window at once. My deductions and observations follow (note: these telesnaps are from the BBC site and are of inferior quality to those reproduced in the magazine):
Starting on page 25 of the magazine, the first three
telesnaps follow the camera script reasonably closely as the first two cover a
scene recorded during the studio sessions. Then:
Telesnap four – Lesterson in the capsule. Note that he is in
a version of the set which will later be used as the Dalek meeting chamber at
the end of the episode (this whole sequence uses sets not seen elsewhere in the
story, save for very briefly in another film sequence in part six). But it’s
not supposed to be the same room; there are white metal struts. However, the
existing clip of the Daleks in their meeting chamber reveals the circles in the
wall to be portholes.
NEW INFO: I am indebted to Simon Ayers who has pointed out that there is, in fact, a porthole in the door leading to the control room, which is visible (albeit covered) in this production photo.
So Lesterson is looking through a porthole in the door.!
After this, I suspect there was a cut back to Lesterson’s reaction,
followed by the (existing) clip of the two Daleks leaving the control room
through the sliding door on the right:
On the audio CD, the Dalek exiting is at one minute into
track 10. We then hear a second door opening at 1.07. This, I think, is the
sound of the door opening beside Lesterson allowing him to enter the control
room, closing after him. He then looks through one of the trapezoid-shaped
panels in the control room (visible in the telesnap and the clip).
Telesnap six – the bottom halves of the Dalek casings on the
conveyor belt. The whirring from 1.20-1.26 is, I think, the sound of the bottom
halves gliding into view.
Telesnap seven – Lesterson looking out through one of the
trapezoid-shaped panels. A Dalek is reflected in the glass indicating that he’s
looking out into the Dalek reproduction chamber (not visible in full until
telesnap eleven, but I suspect this shot comes before or after an establishing
shot).
Telesnap eight – A close-up of the newly-gestated Dalek
mutant in the glass globe. The bubbling gurgling sound at 1.36-1.50
corresponds. For a better view of the glass globe, it’s visible just before it
explodes in one of the existing clips from episode six:
Telesnap nine - One of the Daleks scoops the mutant out of
the globe. It can be heard squealing from 1.55 onwards.
Telesnap ten – The mutant is inspected/measured and –
possibly corresponding with a computer bleep at 2.12 –the mutant is inserted
into a Dalek.
Telesnap eleven – At 2.14 there’s a sound very similar to
the effect used for the door opening, but I think it is actually the sound of
the top half of a Dalek casing being lowered, followed by the completed Dalek
gliding off and another two halves gliding in. The process then repeats, with
the telesnap being taken just after the two halves have arrived; at 2.41 we
hear the gurgling/squealing of a second Dalek mutant. There isn’t a telesnap of
the Dalek mutant being placed in the casing from this episode, but there is
one in the reprise of part five, pictured below (it seems likely the
reprise used exactly the same film sequence, the first two telesnaps of the
reprise are virtually identical to telesnaps from part four):
I base my
inference that the episode must show two successive Dalek mutants being
prepared on the fact that there isn’t a Dalek mutant visible in telesnap eleven and hence it must come from an intervening point; it’s possible, however, that
this telesnap shows the Dalek with the spatula attachment about to collect the
mutant from the measuring receptacle (which is out of shot) and that the
sequence only shows one mutant being prepared (and doesn’t include the top half
being lowered at all). Either way, you have to wonder why neither of the Daleks
notice Lesterson!
Telesnap twelve – A shot of Lesterson in the control room,
reacting, biting his fingers. We know this shot immediately follows a shot of a
Dalek mutant being placed in the casing because telesnap four on page 26 was
taken mid-way through a cross-fade and Lesterson’s face is visible (it seems
the camera pulls out of an extreme close-up to a close-up as he bites his
fingers). The telesnap which follows this on page 26 is virtually identical to
this telesnap. Note that the small panels of indicator lights behind/beside him
in this shot correspond with those in telesnap five and the existing clip of
the two Daleks in the control room; Lesterson is definitely in the same room
the Daleks vacated.
Following this, there is the existing shot of the completed
Daleks on the conveyor belt, which I think coincides with the sound effect from
2.49 to 2.57. Alternatively, it may form part of a montage as the Daleks are
gathering, so it’s possible it occurs after telesnap thirteen and not before.
Telesnap thirteen – Completed Daleks enter the meeting
chamber, with the first entering at 3.02 (saying ‘check’ as it enters). At this
point we’re no longer literally seeing what Lesterson is seeing; he can't see into this chamber.
Telesnap fourteen: Then there is the existing clip of the
Daleks in the meeting chamber, which coincides exactly with the last telesnap
being taken.
If you’ve got this far, well done. I hope this gives some
idea of the amount of time, thought and effort that goes into making sure these
telesnap commentaries are as accurate as possible. Please let me know if you
think I’ve got it wrong (particularly if you remember watching the actual
episode!) Did we see the top halves of the Daleks being lowered or not?
Unfortunately, unless by some miracle the episodes turn up, we
will probably never know. But to get as close to knowing as it is possible to
get, I recommend picking up the Doctor Who Magazine: The Missing Episodes: The
Second Doctor, Volume One, out now.
