Meglos (TV story)

From Tardis Wiki, the free Doctor Who reference


Synopsis

The Doctor is invited to visit the planet Tigella by its leader, Zastor, who has become concerned about disputes between his people's two opposing factions, the religious Deons and the scientist Savants.

The TARDIS is intercepted by the megalomaniacal xerophyte Meglos, last survivor of the planet Zolfa-Thura, and trapped in a chronic hysteresis - a time loop - but the Doctor and Romana manage to free it.

Meglos, using the body of a kidnapped Earthling, transforms himself into a duplicate of the Doctor and steals the Tigellans' power source - a mysterious dodecahedron. He plans to use this to power an apocalyptic device with which he intends to destroy Tigella.

The Doctor, although hindered by the activities of a group of Gaztak mercenaries hired by Meglos, ultimately brings about the xerophyte's destruction by tampering with the dodecahedron's controlling computers.

Plot

to be added

Cast

Crew

References

  • Romana knows martial arts, and has heard of the screens of Zolfa-Thura.
  • As a result of his brief swim at Brighton Beach in the previous story, K-9's batteries are damaged and now require a recharge every 2 hours.
  • The Tigellans know of the Time Lords.
  • The Doctor wasn't allowed to see the dodecahedron on his previous visit (but did) as he remembers seeing it.
  • Time Lords are Time sensitive enough to be aware of being in a Time loop.

Story Notes

  • Jacqueline Hill previously played Barbara Wright.
  • The working titles for Meglos were: The Golden Pentangle, The Golden Pentagram, The Golden Star, The Last Sol-Fataran and The Last Zolfa-Thuran.
  • The end title's music of each of the episodes has been reduced by 2 or 1 octaves.
  • With the obvious exceptions of season one's The Edge of Destruction and single episode stories (Season Three's Mission to the Unknown), the The Five Doctors , 1996 TV movie and the new BBC Wales series), this is the only story in the series' history in which all the credited cast members appear in all the episodes.
  • The sound effect created for the approach of the Fendahl in Image of the Fendahl is re-used as background atmosphere for the Tigellan jungle.
  • The scenes set on the surface of Zolfa-Thura were realised by way of a new effects technique referred to as scene-sync - a development of the established CSO process. This involved two cameras being electronically synchronised to follow identical movements so that they could be made to track in unison and maintain the composite image (created in the usual way), whereas previously CSO shots had almost invariably been static.
  • Bill Fraser agreed to play Grugger only if he could kick K-9.

Ratings

  • Part 1 - 5.0 million viewers
  • Part 2 - 4.2 million viewers
  • Part 3 - 4.7 million viewers
  • Part 4 - 4.7 million viewers

Myths

to be added

Filming Locations

to be added

Discontinuity, Plot Holes, Errors

  • How exactly would Meglos's species do anything as immobile cacti?
  • In part one the wires holding the planet up over Zolpha Thura are horribly obvious.
  • If he wanted to possess a humanoid, why did Meglos ask for an Earthling rather than a (much closer) Tigellan?
  • Grugger says that he lost 50 per cent of his six man crew on Tigella, but there's more than three of them when they arrive on Zolpha Thura.
  • In part one the Doctor says that he wasn't allowed to see the dodecahedron on his previous visit, but in episode three he remembers seeing it. Since when has the Doctor let the rules get in the way of his curiosity? Just because he wasn't supposed to see it doesn't mean he didn't.
  • The cactus gloves show Tom Baker's wrists quite often.

Continuity

DVD, Video and Other Releases

to be added

Novelisation

Meglos novel.jpg
Main article: Meglos (novelisation)

See also

to be added

External Links

Template:Season 18

TVStub.png
Retrieved from "https://tardis.wiki/w/index.php?title=Meglos_(TV_story)&oldid=186136"