Galaxy 4 (TV story)

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Galaxy 4 was the first story of Season 3 of Doctor Who. It is the earliest non-historical story to have missing episodes.

Synopsis

The Doctor, Vicki, and Steven land on an unknown planet inhabited by the hideous Rills with their Chumbley robots and the beautiful Drahvins. The Drahvins try to enlist the Doctor's help to destroy the "evil" Rills, but who are the real villains?

Plot

The Doctor, Vicki, and Steven Taylor arrive on eerily silent 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. This planet too is in Galaxy Four but is not given a name. The Drahvins are dominated by their leader, Maaga, who treats her other warriors 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 planet will end in 14 planetary cycles and, with the Drahvin ship irreparable, Maaga and her warriors are keen to capture the Rill ship, which they believe has been made functional again. She paints a picture of the Drahvins as victims, but the Doctor has witnessed some of the Drahvin aggression and is clearly not convinced. He also reworks the probability on the planet’s destruction and calculates it will break up in just two days time. He tries to keep this new finding from the Drahvins, but Maaga reveals her true colours and forces the truth from him at the point of a gun.

With Steven held as hostage to ensure their co-operation, the Doctor and Vicki are sent by the Drahvins to try to seize control of the Rill ship. The Doctor works out that the Rills are a very advanced species: when he meets one he is impressed, not least by their telepathy. The ugly, horned, ammonia-breathing Rill explains that the Rills have offered to take the Drahvins away with them but Maaga has refused, preferring to maintain the state of war she caused when the Drahvins shot down the Rill craft. The Doctor tells the Rills of the true life remaining in the planet and promises to help them escape since the solar energy converters on the Rill craft have not gathered enough power to effect a lift-off.

The Doctor and Vicki return to the Drahvin ship to find Steven unconscious after Maaga has tried to kill him by leaving him in a depressurised airlock. They all the return to the Rill vessel, where the Doctor successfully develops a power converter linked to the TARDIS, which charges the Rill craft. Maaga leads the Drahvins in a final assault on the Rill craft but the Chumblies defend their ship long enough for it to power up and leave the planet. One Chumblie left behind to aid the travellers helps them get back to the TARDIS. Once the ship leaves, the planet explodes and the Drahvins die.

Cast & Characters

Crew

Notes

  • 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.
  • This story was nearly saved by negotiations for the story to be screened at a convention
  • The surviving clips come from a number of sources including a "Lively Arts" documentary "Whose Doctor Who"
  • 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

Influences

Ratings

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

Location Filming

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

Continuity

Discontinuity

To be added

Quotes

Rill - "It is easy to help others when they are so willing to help you. Though we are beings of separate planets, you from the solar system and we from another space, our ways of thought, at times, do not seem all that different. It has been an honour to know you and serve you."

Story Arcs

None

Similar stories

References

To be added

More Info

Public Releases

  • DVD Release - This story has not yet been released on DVD.
  • 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. For more information on this reconstruction and the material available click here

External Links


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