The Dominators (TV story)

The Dominators was the first story of Season 6 of Doctor Who.

Synopsis

When two rogue Dominators and their robotic servant Quarks land on the peaceful planet Dulkis, planning to drop a radioactive seed into the planet's core of the planet to refuel their spaceship, the Doctor, Jamie & Zoe must attempt to inspire the non-aggressive Dulcians to resist.

Plot

Episode 1

A Dominator spacecraft lands on an island in the planet Dulkis, having just separated from its fleet. It absorbs the radiation of the island into its power reserves. The two Dominators, Navigator Rago and Probationer Toba, step out of the craft with their robot servants, the Quarks, in search of more fuel for their craft and their fleet. Rago is intent on establishing an energy source by drilling through the planetary crust, which is at its thinnest in this part of the planet. Toba is more concerned about the possible aggression of the natives, appearing willing to eliminate them should they resist. Rago wants to use the natives for slave labour instead. Meanwhile, a Dulcian seacraft arrives at the island for an unauthorised trip. It is piloted by Cully, the son of Director Senex, a high-ranked member of the Dulcian council. The passengers include three Dulcians who think Cully has conned them when they find out that there is no radiation on the island. They step out and are soon killed by the Quarks as ordered by Toba. Cully is not seen by them and thus he survives.

The Tardis crew lands and the Doctor assumes they're in for a nice holiday, having been at 'peaceful' Dulkis before. Meanwhile, the Quarks destroy Cully's craft. The Doctor, Jamie and Zoe find a war museum with old laser guns. They meet Educator Balan and his two students, Kando and Teel, who take the Tardis crew to a survey unit for decontamination, finding to their surprise that the strangers are not radioactive at all. Kando tells them that the only nuclear blast on the island was an experiment conducted 172 years ago, after which all the weapons were banned on Dulkis and the island kept as an observation area for researches and students. Meanwhile, the Dominators have begun to drill through the planet's surface. Cully, having observed the Dominators near the Tardis, finds his way to the shelter and warns people there of these warlike newcomers. The Doctor and Jamie leave immediately to check the situation, but soon find themselves at the Dominators' spacecraft, threatened by Toba and the Quarks.

Episode 2

The Doctor and Jamie are taken prisoner on the Dominators' ship, where they are forced to take part in tests. They are taken as representative of the Dulcians by Rago and found unsuitable for slave labour - their bone structure is apparently too brittle and they fail (intentionally) at every test of intelligence. Cully and Zoe set off for the capital of Dulkis in Balan's travel capsule. There they attempt to make the council and Director Senex understand the threat posed by the Dominators. This falls on dead ears, as Cully is a known con artist. It seems that the council is more intent on debating the matter endlessly rather than actually doing something which might be misjudged.

At the war museum, the Dominators test the Doctor and Jamie with their reactions to the weapons in there. The Doctor states that there are two different types of Dulcians, "the clever ones" who built the now-outlawed weapons and the likes of him and Jamie. This satisfies Rago and they are set free. Cully and Zoe return back to the island in order to find proof to Cully's story, only to have the Doctor and Jamie simultaneously head to the capital in another travel capsule. Teel and Kando have now had verification of Cully's story from the Doctor and Jamie, and leave with Balan to witness this themselves in a very non-Dulcian manner. They are captured by the Dominators, examined and found to be "clever ones", possibly suitable for slave labour. The Dominators set out to search for more slaves. Zoe and Cully arrive at the survey unit, just in time for the Quarks to start their destruction of the place as ordered by Toba.

Episode 3

Rago counterdemands Toba's order and blames his subordinate for wasting the Quarks' power resources. Zoe and Cully manage to get out and are immediately captured by a Quark. The Doctor and Jamie have arrived at the capital. Despite their pleas, the pacifist Dulcians still doubt the aggressiveness of the Dominators. Senex states that the strangers are quite welcome to drill the planet's crust, even though there are no minerals or anything else of value inside the planet. Zoe, Cully, Teel, Kando and Balan are now being tested for their suitability to slave labour and ordered to clear out the area in front of the war museum of rubble with Toba and Quarks guarding them.

Jamie and the Doctor have seen the destroyed survey unit on monitor at the capital and are now rushing back in a capsule to see if Zoe is alright. They realise that Quarks may be waiting for them, hence the Doctor alters the capsule's flight path and lands them elsewhere on the island. They start searching for Zoe and the Dulcians. While continuing the exhausting task at the war museum, Zoe manages to distract the Quarks and Cully sneaks inside the war museum for a weapon. He aims at the Quarks from a small window, but is unable to shoot as his fellow Dulcians get in the way and then Jamie interrupts him. The Doctor has meanwhile been captured by Toba, who now finds out about Cully's disappearance. Cully is spotted inside the war museum and the place is surrounded. Jamie managed to shoot down a Quark, which only leads to the destruction of the remaining part of the museum as ordered by Toba.

Episode 4

Toba is now certain that the rebelling Dulcians are dead. Rago is dissatisfied with Toba's actions and a power feud ensues. Rago wins, and orders Toba to oversee the drilling. Cully and Jamie escaped the collapse of the building to an underground atomic shelter, which has its only air vent blocked. They manage to remove the rubble above the hatch and avoid suffocation. Rago finds out about the Dulcian council from the Doctor, who shows him how to get to the capital inside the travel capsule. The Doctor and Zoe stay behind at The Dominators ship under Quark guard. The necessary diversion is provided when Jamie and Cully, having mapped out the drilling sites and the amount of Quarks on the planet, manage to destroy another Quark by dropping a huge rock on it. Toba and a Quark immediately leave to investigate.

The Doctor and Zoe, now alone on the ship, find out that the ship has no generator, only an atomic storage unit. This explains the disappearance of radiation from the island. Toba has halted the drillings and insists that Quarks seek out the ones that attacked them. Rago arrives at the capital but his improper addressing of the Director is protested upon. Rago orders a Quark to kill Tensa who has been protesting the loudest. Rago queries the council for the Dulcians' suitability for slave labour. The slaves are to be taken to the Dominators' home planet where they will replace Quarks, which are needed for the front line in the war effort. The Dulcians who will not become slaves will die on their own planet. Rago orders Senex to start selecting suitable slaves and leaves. Meanwhile, Toba is interrogating the Doctor, Zoe and the Dulcians on who killed the Quark. Balan is killed when no answer is forthcoming and the Doctor is next to be threatened.

Episode 5

However, Rago arrives and orders Toba to focus on drilling the final hole which hasn't even been started yet. Rockets are to be prepared for the outer bore holes. They also need "a seed device" which is now near critical mass. Teel, Kando, the Doctor and Zoe are taken to a drill site. Jamie and Cully attack a Quark who is guarding the prisoners and manage to take their friends to the atomic shelter. Toba is once again intent on finding the troublemakers, but Rago commands him to use the Quarks only for drilling as their power levels are too low. The Dulcians are now unfit for slavery according to Rago, and they will all die with their planet.

The Doctor, now aware of the drill pattern, explains the Dominators' plan to others. The entire planet is to be converted into radioactive mass for the Dominator fleet's energy reserves. By launching rockets through the four bore holes into the planet's crust which is at its thinnest on the island, the crust will fracture and create a volcanic explosion. Once the atomic seed device is detonated inside this volcano, the entire planet will turn into radioactive magma. Jamie figures out that the centre bore hole is very near the atomic shelter they're in - they only need to dig a tunnel and grab the seed device once it's dropped in. The Doctor prepares bombs from the chemicals inside the medical kit that's in the shelter. Jamie and Cully go outside and try to distract the drilling by destroying Quarks with these bombs. Instead of being distracted, Toba focuses on the centre hole since it's near completion. Rago chases the troublemakers with Quarks and they manage to wound Cully. He and Jamie succeed in getting inside the atomic shelter where their tunnel is near completion. The tunnel is completed just in time and the Dominators drop the seed device into the Doctor's hands - they immediately retreat for takeoff in order to join their own fleet in the orbit.

The seed device turns out to be completely sealed and impossible to defuse. The Doctor needs to get it off the planet quickly before it will do untold damage. He orders Jamie and Zoe to return to the Tardis and the Dulcians to retreat into the capital by travel capsule as the rockets will cause a volcanic eruption anyway, but only on the island. The Doctor runs to the Dominators' craft and manages to place the seed device inside, then he rushes to the Tardis. The rockets launch inside the planet's surface and cause an earthquake and eruptions. The seed device explodes after the Dominators' ship is airborne, destroying it completely. Outside the Tardis, the Doctor looks rather pleased with his achievements but retreats into his ship quickly as Jamie reminds him that molten lava is coming straight towards them...

Cast

Crew

References

The Doctor uses his sonic screwdriver as a cutting device.
Zoe mentions both the Daleks and the Cybermen, hoping that neither will be present on Dulkis.
The Doctor has been to Dulkis before.

Story notes

This story had the working title of; The Beautiful People
Originally a six-part story, The Dominators was edited at the script stage down to five episodes by script editor Derrick Sherwin.
The writer is credited as Norman Ashby; this was a pseudonym for Mervyn Haisman and Henry Lincoln. Script editor Derrick Sherwin also made a significant input to the writing of Episode 5.
Episode 3 was not identified by any caption.
Radio Times credits Sheila Grant as Quark Voices for all five episodes. On-screen credits read 'Quark Voices by:' for Episodes 1 and 2, and Quark Voices for Episodes 3 to 5.
Chris Jeffries doubles for Patrick Troughton in all location-shot scenes featuring the Doctor.
This was one of the stories chosen to be shown as part of BSB's Doctor Who Weekend in September 1990.
Patrick Troughton requested a showing of the Dominators at his birthday party shortly before his death in 1987.

Ratings

Episode 1 - 6.1 million viewers
Episode 2 - 5.9 million viewers
Episode 3 - 5.4 million viewers
Episode 4 - 7.5 million viewers
Episode 5 - 5.9 million viewers

Myths

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.)

Filming locations

Gerrards Cross Quarry, Buckinghamshire
Olley Sand Pit in Trottiscliffe, Kent
Ealing Television Film Studios, Ealing Green, Ealing
Model Shooting: BBC Television Centre Puppet Theatre

Production errors

If you'd like to talk about narrative problems with this story — like plot holes and things that seem to contradict other stories — please go to this episode's discontinuity discussion.

The rubble over a hatch in episode four vanishes.

A boom mike shadow drops into shot in the first War Museum scene in episode 1.

When Teel shows the radiation graph spanning 172 years in episode 2, the decline at the end is far too gradual for such a sudden disappearance of radiation.

The zip at the back of Zoe's skirt causes her problems on numerous occasions, being open in episodes two, three and five.

On certain scenes (especially when the Quarks are recharging) the operators' hands are visible using the Quark arms.

When Rago is testing the supposedly self-charging laser gun, a power lead can be seen attached to it.

When the Doctor is running with the seed device to the Dominators' ship in episode 5, the camera gets too close to the stunt double and we see Chris Jeffries' face instead of Troughton's.

In the exterior shots of the island recorded in the studio, the lighting on the backcloth is so hard that its wrinkles are clearly visible.

Continuity

The end of this story leads into DW: The Mind Robber
The Dominators reappear in DWM: The Fires Down Below.
Quarks frequently appeared in the run of the Second Doctor in TV Comic, beginning on the very day that Episode 4 of this serial initially aired. Notably, they were the proximate cause for the departure of John and Gillian from the TARDIS. The Second Doctor judged the Quarks too dangerous for John and Gillian, and enrolled them in Zebadee University rather than subjecting them to an encounter with the robots. (TVC: Invasion of the Quarks)

The implication of the comic seems to be that Quarks are more powerful than Trods, Daleks, or Cybermen, since John and Gillian had encountered these species on various occasions.

Of the six TVC stories in which Jamie appeared, the Quarks were the enemy in four. Indeed, Quarks were the dominant recurring enemy of the comic Second Doctor's era. However, the Dominators, portrayed as the "masters" of the Quarks in this serial, never appeared in TVC.

Timeline

This story occurs after CC: Fear of the Daleks
This story occurs before DW: The Mind Robber

Home video and audio releases

DVD releases

This story was first released on DVD in the UK on 12th July 2010. The one disc set includes a restored version of the story, as well as the following special features:

Commentary by Wendy Padbury (Zoë), Frazer Hines (Jamie), Giles Block (Teel), Arthur Cox (Cully) and Sylvia James (Make-Up Designer).
Recharge And Equalise
Tomorrow’s Times – The Second Doctor
Coming Soon Trailer
Radio Times Billings
Production Subtitles
Photo Gallery
Easter Egg by Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre (Catalogue Doctor Who)

Editing for DVD release completed by Doctor Who Restoration Team.

Censor clips from episodes 4 and 5 have been restored for the DVD as part of the episodes themselves. They were first found in 1996 and therefore did not make it to the VHS release in 1990.

The Dominators will be released on DVD in the United States at a later date.

UK DVD 2010 Cover

VHS releases

The Dominators was issued to VHS in 1990 in episodic format.

Novelisation and its audiobook

Main article: The Dominators (novelisation)

Novelised as The Dominators by Ian Marter in 1984.

External links

Footnotes

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