Galaxy 4 (TV story)

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Galaxy 4 was the first story of the third season of Doctor Who. It was the last serial for which Verity Lambert was the credited producer. Its third episode, "Air Lock", achieved the highest ratings of any episode between the final episode of The Web Planet and the final episode of The Three Doctors.

It is the earliest non-historical story to have missing episodes, and is notable for its extreme paucity of surviving material. Although an extended scene from the first episode does exist today, no telesnaps were taken during broadcast. All surviving stills of the actors in costume therefore come from publicity shoots rather than the actual recording sessions.

Actor Peter Purves has been outspoken in his distaste for the serial. He has frequently opined that his character, companion Steven Taylor, was not well-served by the story, which was originally written for Ian, Barbara and Vicki. The hurried rewrite mostly transferred Barbara's lines to him, resulting in a "feminization" of Steven's character.

Synopsis

The Doctor, Vicki and Steven arrive on an arid planet where they meet the occupants of two crashed spaceships: the beautiful Drahvins and the hideous Rills. The latter prove to be friendly, compassionate explorers while the former are a group of mindless cloned soldiers terrorised by a warlike matriarch, Maaga.

Both ships were damaged when the Drahvins precipitated a confrontation in space, but whereas the Rills' is almost ready to take off again (having been repaired by their robot drones, which Vicki nicknames 'Chumblies'), the Drahvins' is irreparable. When the planet is discovered to be on the point of disintegration, Maaga tries to force the time travellers to help her steal the Rills' ship. Instead, the Doctor allows the Rills to draw power from the TARDIS in order to refuel and escape, leaving the Drahvins to their fate.

Plot

"Four Hundred Dawns" (1)

A Chumbley communicates with its masters

The Doctor, Vicki, and Steven Taylor arrive on an eerily silent, unnamed planet and encounter curious small robots which Vicki names Chumblies. It is unclear whether the robots are hostile, when one is disabled by a party of female cloned Drahvins, from the planet Drahva in Galaxy Four.

The travellers are brought to the Drahvins' spaceship. The Drahvins are dominated by their leader, Maaga, who treats her soldiers with bullying contempt. The Drahvins are at war with the reptilian Rills, the masters of the Chumblies, and both races have crashed spaceships on this planet. However, the Rills have told them the planet will explode in fourteen planetary cycles (referred to as "dawns") and, with the Drahvin ship irreparable, Maaga and her warriors are keen to capture the Rill ship, which they believe is almost functional again. She paints a picture of the Drahvins as victims, but the Doctor has witnessed some of the Drahvin behavior and is dubious.

A Chumbley appears outside the ship, but the Drahvins repel it. The Doctor questions the motives of the Rills warning the Drahvins about the planet's destruction, and offers to confirm the information. Maaga gratefully agrees, but insists that one of them remain with them on the ship; Vicki volunteers.

The Doctor and Steven get back to the TARDIS, after watching a Chumbley unsuccessfully try to gain access to it. The Doctor is horrified to discover that the Rills' estimation was wrong: the planet will explode in only two dawns.

"Trap Of Steel" (2)

The Doctor and Steven are prevented from leaving the TARDIS immediately because the Chumblies return, this time trying heavy explosives, but this also fails to gain them access. Once it is safe, The Doctor and Steven run back to the Drahvins' ship to try to rescue Vicki. Upon their arrival, they muse on the inferior structure of the ship.

The Doctor decides not to tell Maaga the truth; he confirms the Rills' estimation. Maaga asks the Doctor and friends to help in their quest to capture the Rill ship. The travellers express their skepticism and refuse to help. Maaga decides to use threat and force, and in so doing forces the Doctor to admit the true situation. He and Vicki, under great duress, are forced to journey to the Rill ship, while Steven is kept hostage.

The Doctor and Vicki work out how to evade Chumbley sentries, and observe what looks like a drill-rig outside the Rill building. The Doctor is most impressed with its structure, musing that the Rills must be far more advanced than the Drahvins. Once inside they smell some sort of gas; it is familiar, and Vicki eventually realizes it is ammonia.

Arriving in a central chamber, they discover the spaceship's outer hull. Meanwhile, as they light-heartedly observe a dormant Chumbley, Vicki turns and lets out a blood-curdling scream.

"Air Lock" (3)

A Rill reveals itself

Alien eyes are peering out at the Doctor and Vicki through a window. With Chumblies moving towards the chamber, the intruders make a dash for it. An iron grille slams down, imprisoning Vicki inside the base. The Doctor decides to try to disable the ammonia gas converter, hoping that its importance to the Rills will allow him to help Vicki escape.

The Drahvin clones want to go on patrol, but Maaga orders them not to. Maaga is disgusted that she is the only one able to think for herself. She imagines being able to escape, while ensuring the Rills and the travellers are destroyed with the planet; she relishes the thought. Maaga then relents and sends one Drahvin on patrol to find the Doctor and Vicki.

Vicki is brought before the Rill leader, the one she saw before, as it sits obscured behind the window. The Rills use the Chumblies to transmit their thoughts; the Rills are telepathic. After Vicki admits what they were charged to do, the Rill reveals that they had offered to take the Drahvins with them. This despite the fact that the Drahvins had attacked them in space, which caused the conflict that made both ships crash. The Rill uses mental projection to allow Vicki to see what really happened: they tried to help an injured Drahvin, but then Maaga appeared, fired at them, then killed the injured soldier.

The Rills are extremely reticent to let Vicki see them completely, believing it best as their appearance would be too shocking. Also, it reveals that they remain behind the window to keep the ammonia that they breathe inside. Vicki, suddenly concerned for the Rills, runs outside and prevents the Doctor from wrecking their converter. After talking with the Rill, the Doctor decides he too will help them, allowing them power from the TARDIS to charge their ship.

Meanwhile, Steven attempts escape from the Drahvins, and half-succeeds. He makes it outside the cabin, but discovers Chumblies outside the ship. Believing he is surrounded by enemies, he locks himself in the airlock of the ship. Maaga cruelly starts to pump the air out.

A Chumbley reports to the Rill about Steven's predicament, and The Doctor and Vicki accompany two Chumblies back to the Drahvin ship. En route, they encounter the patrolling clone, but they take it prisoner after it fires on a Chumbley.

Steven decides he'd rather face the Chumblies... but he can no longer leave, because the air pressure has locked the door. Steven begins to suffocate.

"The Exploding Planet" (4)

A Chumbley fires an ammonia bomb into the ship, and another releases Steven from the airlock. The Drahvins try to retaliate, but the Chumblies have them covered. They remain on guard outside. Maaga plans an escape.

Upon their return to the Rill central chamber, the Doctor notes to his friends there is only about six hours of life left on this planet. Meanwhile, Steven talks with the Rill and his skepticism of their benevolence is evaporated. He helps connect the power at this end, while the Doctor and Vicki head to the TARDIS to connect there. Conversion of power from the TARDIS begins... slowly.

A Drahvin successfully disables the Chumbley guard, and Maaga and her soldiers make for the Rill ship as the first tremors of the planet are felt. The Chumblies are mostly able to fend off the Drahvins, although one is successful in infiltrating the base but is soon dealt with.

The Doctor, Vicki, and Steven are finally allowed to see the Rills completely, as they are. The Doctor is glad of it, and stresses his respect for them, their intelligence, and their character. Once the power transfer is completed, they say their goodbyes. The Rill sends a Chumbley to accompany the TARDIS crew back to their ship.

The Rills safely take off and leave. The Doctor and company safely reach and take off in the TARDIS. The Drahvins are left behind as the sun rises for the last time.

Safely inside the TARDIS, the Doctor pines for time to rest from his wearying adventures. On the scanner, Vicki (nursing an injured ankle) notices a planet and wonders what could be happening there...

It is the planet Kembel. Unbeknownst to the travelers, Jeff Garvey has awakened in a dense jungle, remembering only that he "must kill" . . .

Cast

Crew

References

Story notes

Publicity shot for story showing Drahvins and Chumblies fighting side by side
  • The working title for this story was The Chumblies.
  • All 4 episodes of this story have been lost, with only very limited material being held in the BBC archive.
  • 6 minutes worth of footage exists from "Four Hundred Dawns". The surviving clips come from a number of sources including a "Lively Arts" documentary "Whose Doctor Who"
  • This story was nearly saved by negotiations for the story to be screened at a convention
  • The soundtrack for the serial is intact and has been released commercially, with linking narration provided by Peter Purves
  • The BBC partly own the rights to the Drahvins as they were jointly credited to William Emms and Verity Lambert; Emms created the (originally male) Drahvins, whilst Lambert made them female.
  • The Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band's 1968 song 'Beautiful Zelda' included lyrics about "Beautiful Zelda from Galaxy Four", perhaps inspired by Galaxy 4.
  • The stock music used for the soundtrack was performed by an experimental group called Les Structures Sonorés. They performed their music on glass tubes. Some of the same music was used in The Web Planet.

Ratings

  • Four Hundred Dawns - 9.0 million viewers
  • Trap of Steel - 9.5 million viewers
  • Air Lock - 11.3 million viewers
  • The Exploding Planet - 9.9 million viewers

Myths

  • A late change to the casting of the voice actor meant that Anthony Paul was credited in the Radio Times as providing the voice of the Rills for episode 3 (Robert Cartland was correctly named in the Radio Times)
  • William Emms was a school teacher who wrote in his spare time (Although he had been a school teacher he had been working as a full time writer for the 4 years before writing Doctor Who)

Filming locations

All episodes were filmed at BBC Television Centre TC4, London, UK

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.
  • In Airlock, the Rill twice refers to the robots as "Crumblies."

Continuity

Timeline

Home video and audio releases

  • Video Release - This story has not been released on video due to the limited material which remains available
A reconstruction of this story has been made using the available images and audio by Loose Cannon Productions.

Novelisation and its audiobook

Galaxy Four novel.jpg
Main article: Galaxy Four (novelisation)

Script book

  • In July 1994, Titan Books published the scripts for the serial as part of its Doctor Who: The Scripts line of books.

See also

External links

Template:Season 3 Template:Wikipedia

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