Nightmare of Eden (TV story)

Synopsis

The TARDIS arrives on the space liner Empress which has become locked together with a private ship, the Hecate, after colliding with it on emerging from hyperspace.

The Doctor and Romana meet the scientist Tryst, who has with him a Continuous Event Transmuter (CET) machine containing crystals on which are stored supposed recordings of planets that he and his team have visited.

Someone on board the liner is smuggling the dangerously addictive drug vraxoin, and to complicate matters the interface between the two ships allows some monstrous Mandrels from the mud-swamps of Eden to escape from the CET machine - which does not merely take recordings but actually displaces whole planetary areas into its crystals.

The smugglers are revealed to be Tryst and the Hecate's pilot, Dymond. Vraxoin is in fact the material into which the Mandrels decompose when they are killed. The Doctor thwarts this plan, separates the two ships and returns the Mandrels to Eden.

Plot

to be added

Cast

The Doctor - Tom Baker
Romana II - Lalla Ward
Voice of K9 - David Brierley
Tryst - Lewis Fiander
Dymond - Geoffrey Bateman
Captain Rigg - David Daker
Stott - Barry Andrews
Della - Jennifer Lonsdale
Fisk - Geoffrey Hinsliff
Costa - Peter Craze
Secker - Stephen Jenn
Crewmen - Richard Barnes, Sebastian Stride, Eden Phillips
Passengers - Annette Peters, Lionel Sansby, Peter Roberts, Maggie Petersen

Crew

Director - Alan Bromly
Director - Graham Williams (Graham Williams decided to dispense with Alan Bromly's services toward the end of the story's second studio session and directed the remainder himself, without on-screen credit.)
Assistant Floor Manager - Val McCrimmon
Costumes - Rupert Jarvis
Designer - Roger Cann
Incidental Music - Dudley Simpson
Make-Up - Joan Stribling
Producer - Graham Williams
Production Assistant - Carolyn Montagu
Production Unit Manager - John Nathan-Turner
Script Editor - Douglas Adams
Special Sounds - Dick Mills
Studio Lighting - Warwick Fielding
Studio Sound - Anthony Philpott
Theme Arrangement - Delia Derbyshire
Title Music - Ron Grainer
Visual Effects - Colin Mapson
Writer - Bob Baker

References

Vraxoin is also known as XYP, it is a fungus, it induces apathy.
Mandrels when electrocuted turn into Vraxoin.
The Empress, with 900 passengers, commutes between Station 9 and Azure in the Western Galaxy.
Examples of life from various planets are stored in the Continuous Event Transmuter (CET), including Eden, Gidi, Zil, Bros, Vij, Darp, Lvan and Ranx.
Galactic Salvage Insurance, whom the Doctor claims to work for, was formed in London in 2068 and was liquidated in 2096.
Stott is a Major in the intelligence section of the Space Corps.
The Doctor asks whether the CET features a spatial integrator, a transmutation oscillator, a hologistic retention circuit or a dimensional osmosis damper.
Tryst and Dymond plan to smuggle vraxoin with an Enchooka laser.

Story Notes

Vraxoin was originally called 'xylophilin', but was changed so as not to sound appealing to children.
This story had the working title of Nightmare of Evil.

Ratings

Part 1 - 8.7 million viewers
Part 2 - 9.6 million viewers
Part 3 - 9.6 million viewers
Part 4 - 9.4 million viewers

Myths

to be added

Filming Locations

BBC Television Centre (Studio 6), Shepherd's Bush, London

Discontinuity, Plot Holes, Errors

In episode two, when K9 seals up the wall panel, a hand emerges to hold the thing in place.
When Della gets shot in the face in episode four, she clutches her stomach.

Continuity

The CET machine recalls elements of the miniscope seen in DW: Carnival of Monsters.

Novelisation

Main article: Doctor Who and the Nightmare of Eden'

Novelised as Doctor Who and the Nightmare of Eden by Terrance Dicks.

DVD and Video Releases

this episode is currently available on iTunes US

External Links

Template:Season 17