Vision mixer

File:Special Feature - Vision Mixing - Doctor Who - The Sensorites - BBC

Clive Doig, Doctor Who's first vision mixer, explains his job.

Vision mixers were regular members of the production crew of the 1963 version of Doctor Who.

During the recording of a programme, they sat in the control booth above the studio floor and decided when to switch between the — usually four – cameras that were being used to film an episode, according to the director's instructions. They were thus "live editors", who controlled when a particular camera was actively recording.

They also were responsible for some visual effects, such as the insertion of pre-recorded material played back into a scene, and indeed the achievement of the original title sequence. Undoubtedly, however, their most important visual effect was that of regeneration, which — as established by Tenth Planet vision mixer, Shirley Coward — was always achieved by some form of camera cross-fade.

Interviewed on The Sensorites DVD extra Vision On, early Hartnell-era vision mixer, Clive Doig, had this to say about his job:

What I'm doing as a vision mixer is cutting to the camera against the dialogue of the [camera script that the director has prepared]."Clive Doig

Because no mainstream DWU show after Survival has been produced in a multi-camera environment, vision mixers essentially haven't been used since 1989. Very brief exceptions occasionally crop up, however, as when characters are seen to be watching television programmes. The clearest examples of vision mixing in the BBC Wales era are perhaps Trisha Goddard's scenes in Army of Ghosts.

Although Survival was the final story of the regular run of Doctor Who to employ a vision mixer throughout its production, the last BBC-licensed story to use vision mixing was The Curse of Fatal Death. It in fact parodied the work of vision mixers in the original series by showing how quick cutting between cameras created the "endless corridors" down which the Doctor and his companion typically ran.

List of vision mixers

Television

Season 1

• An Unearthly Child - Clive Doig (DOC: Vision On)
• The Edge of Destruction - Clive Doig (INFO: The Edge of Destruction)
• Marco Polo - Clive Doig (DOC: Vision On)
• The Aztecs - Clive Doig and Jim Stephens (INFO: The Aztecs)
• The Reign of Terror - Fred Law and Clive Doig (INFO: The Reign of Terror)

Season 2

• Planet of Giants - Clive Doig and Graham Giles (INFO: Planet of Giants)
• The Dalek Invasion of Earth - John Lopes, Ann Smith, Clive Doig (INFO: The Dalek Invasion of Earth)
• The Web Planet - Clive Doig (INFO: The Web Planet)
• The Crusade - John Lopes (REF: The Crusade)
• The Space Museum - Clive Doig (INFO: The Space Museum)
• The Chase - Clive Doig and John Lopes (INFO: The Chase)

Season 3

• Galaxy 4 - Clive Doig (DOC: Vision On)
• The Ark - Clive Halls (INFO: The Ark)
• The Gunfighters - Clive Halls and Joan Duncan (INFO: The Gunfighters)

Season 4

• The Tenth Planet - Shirley Coward (REF: The Second Doctor Handbook)
• The Moonbase - Ian Easterbrook (INFO: The Moonbase)
• The Evil of the Daleks - John Barclay (INFO: Day of the Daleks)

Season 6

• The Dominators - Bill Morton (INFO: The Dominators)
• The Mind Robber - Geoff Walmsley (INFO: The Mind Robber)
• The Invasion - David Langford and John Barclay (INFO: The Invasion)
• The Krotons - David Langford (INFO: The Krotons)
• The Seeds of Death - Chris Griffin (INFO: The Seeds of Death)
• The War Games - David Langford (INFO: The War Games)

Season 7

• Doctor Who and the Silurians - Mike Catherwood (INFO: Doctor Who and the Silurians)
• The Ambassadors of Death - John Barclay (INFO: The Ambassadors of Death)
• Inferno - John Gorman (INFO: Inferno)

Season 8

• Terror of the Autons - Shirley Coward (INFO: Terror of the Autons)
• The Mind of Evil - Mike Catherwood (INFO: The Mind of Evil)
• The Claws of Axos - Mike Catherwood (INFO: The Claws of Axos)
• Colony in Space - Jim Stephens (INFO: Colony in Space)
• The Dæmons - John Gorman (INFO: The Dæmons)

Season 9

• Day of the Daleks - Mike Catherwood (INFO: Day of the Daleks)
• The Curse of Peladon - Michael Turner (INFO: The Curse of Peladon)
• The Sea Devils - John Gorman (INFO: The Sea Devils)
• The Mutants - Mike Turner (INFO: The Mutants)

Season 10

• Carnival of Monsters - Bill Morton (INFO: Carnival of Monsters)
• Frontier in Space - Mike Turner and Shirley Coward (INFO: Frontier in Space)
• Planet of the Daleks - Mike Turner (INFO: Planet of the Daleks)

Season 11

• Death to the Daleks - Nick Lake (INFO: Death to the Daleks)
• The Monster of Peladon - Mike Turner and Nick Lake (INFO: The Monster of Peladon)
• Planet of the Spiders - Nick Lake (INFO: Planet of the Spiders)

Season 12

• Robot - Graham Giles and Fred Law (INFO: Robot)
• The Ark in Space - Mary Kellehar (INFO: The Ark in Space)
• The Sontaran Experiment - Mary Kellehar (INFO: The Sontaran Experiment)
• Genesis of the Daleks - John Gorman (INFO: Genesis of the Daleks)
• Revenge of the Cybermen - Nick Lake (INFO: Revenge of the Cybermen)

Season 13

• Terror of the Zygons - Nick Lake (INFO: Terror of the Zygons)
• Pyramids of Mars - James Gould (INFO: Pyramids of Mars)
• The Android Invasion - Nick Lake (INFO: The Android Invasion)
• The Seeds of Doom - Sue Thorne, Heather Gilder and Graham Giles (INFO: The Seeds of Doom)

Season 14

• The Masque of Mandragora - Graham Giles (INFO: The Masque of Mandragora)
• The Hand of Fear - Nick Lake (INFO: The Hand of Fear)
• The Face of Evil - Nick Lake (INFO: The Face of Evil)
• The Talons of Weng-Chiang - Pat Mordecai (INFO: The Talons of Weng-Chiang)

Season 15

• The Sun Makers - James Gould (INFO: The Sun Makers)
• Underworld - Shirley Coward (INFO: Underworld)
• The Invasion of Time - Shirley Coward (INFO: The Invasion of Time)

Season 16

• The Ribos Operation - Sue Thorne and Fred Law (INFO: The Ribos Operation)
• The Pirate Planet - Sue Thorne (INFO: The Pirate Planet)
• The Stones of Blood - Nigel Finnis and Fred Law (INFO: The Stones of Blood)

Season 17

• Destiny of the Daleks - Nigel Finnis
• City of Death - Nigel Finnis
• The Creature from the Pit - James Gould
• Nightmare of Eden - Nigel Finnis
• The Horns of Nimon - James Gould
• Shada - James Gould

Season 18

• The Leisure Hive - Paul del Bravo
• Meglos - Graham Giles
• Full Circle - Carol Johnson
• State of Decay - Carol Johnson
• Warriors' Gate - Paul del Bravo and Jim Stephens
• The Keeper of Traken - Nigel Finnis
• Logopolis - Carol Johnson

Season 19

• Castrovalva - Carol Johnson
• Four to Doomsday - Carol Johnson
• Kinda - James Gould
• The Visitation - Carol Johnson
• Black Orchid - Carol Johnson
• Earthshock - James Gould
• Time-Flight - Nigel Finnis

Season 20

• Arc of Infinity - Carol Johnson
• Snakedance - Carol Johnson
• Mawdryn Undead - Carol Johnson
• Terminus - Carol Johnson
• Enlightenment - Paul Wheeler
• The King's Demons - Nigel Finnis
• The Five Doctors - Shirley Coward

Season 21

• Warriors of the Deep - Nigel Finnis
• The Awakening - Paul Wheeler
• Frontios - Paul Wheeler
• Resurrection of the Daleks - Paul Wheeler
• Planet of Fire - Dinah Long
• The Caves of Androzani - Dinah Long
• The Twin Dilemma - Dinah Long

Season 22

• Attack of the Cybermen - Nigel Finnis
• Vengeance on Varos - Nigel Finnis and Jayne Beckett
• The Mark of the Rani - Jayne Beckett
• The Two Doctors - Jayne Beckett
• Timelash - Jayne Beckett
• Revelation of the Daleks - Dinah Long
• A Fix with Sontarans - Sue Collins

Season 23

• The Mysterious Planet - Jim Stephens
• Mindwarp - Jim Stephens
• Terror of the Vervoids - Shirley Coward (also Jim Stephens, uncredited)
• The Ultimate Foe - Shirley Coward and Jim Stephens

Season 24

• Time and the Rani - Sue Thorne

Season 25

• Remembrance of the Daleks - Shirley Coward and Fred Law
• The Happiness Patrol - Shirley Coward
• Silver Nemesis - Barbara Gainsley
• The Greatest Show in the Galaxy - Barbara Gainsley, Dinah Long, Julie Mann and Fred Law

Season 26

• Battlefield - Dinah Long
• Ghost Light - Susan Brincat
• The Curse of Fenric - Dinah Long
• Survival - Susan Brincat

Home video

Season 22

• A Fix with Sontarans - Sue Collins

Documentaries about vision mixing

Vision mixing has been the primary focus of two documentaries in the classic Doctor Who DVD range.

Documentary	Released on	Interviewees	Subject
Vision On	The Sensorites	Clive Doig	Basic description of job, as it existed in the Lambert era
A View from the Gallery	Day of the Daleks (2011 DVD release)	Barry Letts and Mike Catherwood	Relationship between the director and the vision mixer, primarily as experienced in the Letts era