The Ambassadors of Death

The Ambassadors of Death is the third serial of the seventh season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in seven weekly parts from 21 March to 2 May 1970. Written by Trevor Ray, Terrance Dicks and Malcolm Hulke from a story by David Whitaker, the serial was directed by Michael Ferguson.

In the serial, the Third Doctor (Jon Pertwee) and the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce (UNIT), including Liz Shaw (Caroline John) and Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart (Nicholas Courtney), investigate the disappearance of astronauts who have lost contact with Earth. They become involved in a conspiracy and meet alien ambassadors who have been sent to Earth, who seem to have ill intentions.

Plot

With the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce providing security, the British space programme under Professor Ralph Cornish oversees the launch of the Recovery Seven probe. This has been sent into Earth orbit to make contact with the missing Mars Probe Seven and its two astronauts, who lost contact with Earth eight months earlier. The pilot of Recovery Seven, Van Lyden, makes contact with the probe but is then silenced by a piercing unearthly sound. The noise troubles the Doctor who travels with his assistant Liz Shaw to the Space Centre to investigate the situation, offering insights into the origin and meaning of the sound, which he interprets as coded messages. He also identifies a reply message sent from Earth and this is pinpointed to be coming from a warehouse seven miles away. Led by Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, UNIT troops attack the warehouse and engage in a gun battle with troops organised by General Charles Carrington.

Meanwhile, Recovery Seven has returned to Earth and while UNIT is transporting it more of Carrington’s troops stage an ambush and steal the vessel. The Doctor relocates it, by which time it is empty. Carrington has ensured the contents – three space suited astronauts – are detained elsewhere, feeding them radiation to keep them alive. Carrington is now introduced to the Doctor by Sir James Quinlan, the Minister for Technology, who explains that he is head of the newly formed Space Security Department, and that his actions were to protect the astronauts as they had been infected with contagious radiation. Quinlan states that they did not want the public to become panic-stricken and so Carrington had been acting with authority in his actions.

By the time Carrington takes the Doctor and his friends to meet the astronauts the situation has changed again. A criminal named Reegan has organised their abduction, killing the soldiers and scientists protecting them. When the Doctor and Liz examine the situation they work out that human tissue could not have withstood the degree of radiation emitted to the astronauts, who are still in orbit, meaning the three space suits contain alien beings instead. Reegan now engineers the kidnapping of Liz Shaw to aid his own scientist, Lennox, a disgraced Cambridge professor, in maintaining the alien beings while they are incarcerated. Together they build a device to communicate with and control the aliens, who are sent on a killer rampage at the Space Centre, killing Quinlan and others. Liz later helps Lennox escape, but his bid for freedom is cut short by Reegan’s merciless revenge.

Despite the obstruction of the authorities, Ralph Cornish is determined to organise another space flight to Mars to investigate the situation. With Quinlan dead, the Doctor now decides to pilot the Recovery Seven probe ship himself. As he prepares to blast off Reegan tries to sabotage the probe by increasing the feed of M3 variant, but the Doctor survives the attempt on his life and succeeds in piloting the probe so that it connects with an enormous spacecraft orbiting Mars. Aboard the spaceship the Doctor discovers the three original astronauts are unharmed but mentally deluded into believing they are in quarantine. An alien being now reveals itself to the Doctor and explains the humans are being held aboard the craft pending the safe return of the alien ambassadors. They had been sent to Earth following a treaty between their race and mankind, but the terms of this agreement have now been broken because of the detention of the ambassadors. The Doctor offers his personal guarantee to help return the ambassadors to their mother ship and resolve the conflict before a state of war is declared, and is permitted to leave the alien craft and return to Earth.

When the Doctor touches down he is gassed and kidnapped by Reegan, who takes him to Liz. Reegan’s real paymaster and the real organiser of the situation is revealed to them: General Carrington. The general reveals his actions have been prompted by xenophobia driven by his own encounter with the alien beings when he piloted Mars Probe Six some years earlier. His co-pilot, Jim Daniels, was killed on contact with the aliens and Carrington signed the treaty with the aliens to lure three of their number to Earth, where he hoped he could unveil their real agenda of alien invasion. The use of the ambassadors to kill people was similarly done to arouse public opinion against them. The next phase of his plan is to force the ambassadors to confess their plot on television. Leaving the Doctor and Liz working on a new and improved communication device to translate the aliens, Carrington departs for the Space Centre, where he aims to unmask the alien ambassador before the eyes of the world – and then call on the powers of the Earth to blast the spaceship from the skies.

UNIT soldiers raid the secret base and rescue the Doctor and Liz, apprehending Reegan and his thugs. The Doctor races to the Space Centre and he and the brigadier apprehend Carrington before he can make his broadcast. He is taken away, protesting he was only following his moral duty. The Doctor arranges for Cornish and Liz to send the ambassadors back to their own people, after which the three human astronauts will be returned.

Continuity

In the first episode, the Doctor makes a reference to the Brigadier's destruction of the Silurians at the end of the previous serial. Sergeant Benton has been promoted from Corporal since his appearance in The Invasion (1968).^[1]

The Mars Probe space programme appeared in two of Virgin's Doctor Who novels. Who Killed Kennedy revealed that the shuttles were developed from technology taken from International Electromatics. In The Dying Days, the programme was abandoned when Mars Probe 13 accidentally encountered the Ice Warriors and it was agreed that Earth would stay away from their territory; however, a 1997 Mars Probe mission precipitates a Martian invasion and takeover.

Production

This story was initially developed to feature the Second Doctor and his last companions, Jamie McCrimmon and Zoe Heriot. As such, it was set well into the future, and did not include UNIT. When all three actors left the programme at the end of the sixth season, it was rewritten to fit the consequential revamp. Original script editor David Whitaker proved incapable of writing for the incoming new format and cast, hence the contributions of Trevor Ray, Terrance Dicks and Malcolm Hulke. All concerned parties agreed to leave sole credit to Whitaker and this was the last Doctor Who serial with his name on it. In an interview years later, Terrance Dicks recounted the experience of rewriting Whitaker's story:

Working titles for this story included The Invaders from Mars (later the title of a Big Finish Productions audio drama), and The Carriers of Death. The opening titles of this story start with the normal music and graphics, yet immediately fade after the Doctor Who title caption. There is a short "teaser" for episode one, and episodes 2-7 feature a reprise of the previous episode's cliffhanger. Starting with the "scream", followed by a zoom-in on the words "The Ambassadors", concluding with "of Death", and a "zap" effect. The experiment was not repeated after this story. This was the first story to feature the sting or "scream" into the end title theme. It was added by Brian Hodgson of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop to improve and shape the closing credits.^[1]

Location filming took place during January and February 1970 at Blue Circle Cement in Kent, Marlow Weir in Buckinghamshire, Southall Gas Works in Middlesex, and various sites in Aldershot, Hampshire.^[1] Studio recording then took place during February and March 1970.^[1] The alien underneath the spacesuit was achieved by layering the actor's face with blue make-up, tissue, latex rubber.^[2][3] Because it was uncomfortable for the actors, the make-up was applied shortly before they had to go on set.^[3] As the story was supposed to take place in the late 1970s, the spacesuit was designed as a futuristic version.^[3] Caroline John's husband, Geoffrey Beevers, briefly appears as a UNIT radio operator, credited as "Private Johnson".^[4]

Cast notes

Ronald Allen had appeared the previous season as one of the eponymous antagonists in The Dominators. Michael Wisher would go on to appear on screen in Terror of the Autons and Carnival of Monsters, as well as being one of the regular Dalek voice artists during the Pertwee era, before becoming the first actor to play Davros in Genesis of the Daleks.^[5] Geoffrey Beevers would later play The Master in The Keeper of Traken. Peter Halliday, who provided the voices of the aliens, and also supplied the voices of the Silurians in the previous story, had first appeared in Doctor Who in The Invasion the previous season, and would later appear in Carnival of Monsters (alongside Michael Wisher), City of Death and Remembrance of the Daleks.

Broadcast and reception

Cultural historian James Chapman has written about connections between this Doctor Who serial and earlier science-fiction TV programmes.^[9] The Quatermass Experiment (1953), for example, has a similar storyline concerning astronauts endangering humanity after coming into contact with extraterrestrials.^[9] Chapman also refers to the 1960s Gerry Anderson series Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons, whose eponymous aliens are another race of malevolent Martians.^[9]

Patrick Mulkern of Radio Times noted that the script revisions caused an "uneven plot" and anticlimax, and wrote that the "narrative feels extemporised, a bumpy, sometimes thrilling ride, but one with no clear end in sight".^[1] However, he praised the cliffhangers and direction as well as the acting of Pertwee and John.^[1] The A.V. Club reviewer Christopher Bahn stated that The Ambassadors of Death was the "weakest" entry in a very good season, noting that it "spins its wheels" in the middle, but filled the time with impressive stunts. He felt that the problem was that Carrington's motivation was not revealed until the cliffhanger of the sixth episode, despite it being obvious since the first episode.^[4] Ian Berriman, reviewing the DVD release for SFX, gave the serial three out of five stars. He described it as a "hit and miss", finding the early episodes "promising" but then he felt the story did not have enough plot to carry on for seven episodes, and keeping track of the conspiracy between the various characters was "tedious and confusing".^[10] DVD Talk's John Sinnot rated The Ambassadors of Death as three stars out of five, describing it as "generally fun adventure" despite it lasting a couple episodes too long. He was positive towards the Doctor's characterisation and the Ambassadors, who he described as "a great low-budget creature that actually looks more menacing than silly", but felt "there are a few too many plot twist and the result is a script with some pretty major holes in it".^[11]

Commercial releases

In print

The Ambassadors of Death

Author	Terrance Dicks
Cover artist	Tony Masero
Series	Doctor Who book: Target novelisations
Release number	121
Publisher	Target Books
Publication date	21 May 1987 (Hardback) 1 October 1987 (Paperback)
ISBN	0-491-03712-0

A novelisation of this serial, written by Terrance Dicks, was published by Target Books in May 1987 and was the final Third Doctor serial to be adapted.

Home media

Although the entire story was made on colour videotape, only the first episode was retained in this format.^[12] In fact, it is the earliest episode that survives in the series' original videotaped format, either in colour or black and white.^[12] The remaining six episodes were retained only as black-and-white film recordings and poor-quality domestic colour recordings made from a US transmission in the 1970s. This recording was severely affected by rainbow-coloured patterns of interference that at times overtook the entire picture.^[13]

In May 2002, a restoration project for the story's VHS release combined the usable colour information from the domestic recordings with the black and white picture from the film prints, creating a high-quality colour picture. All told, over half of the serial's running time is presented in colour, including all of Episodes 1 and 5, and sections from 2, 3, 6 and 7. The remaining footage, including all of Episode 4, was deemed unsuitable for restoration, and so remained in black-and-white.

In 2009, a commentary for the future DVD release was recorded, including Caroline John, Nicholas Courtney, Michael Ferguson, Peter Halliday, Derek Ware and Terrance Dicks. The January 2011 edition of Wired UK magazine, published in December 2010 carried a full-page article on the recolourisation of the story. It was stated in the article that the Restoration Team expected to deliver a fully restored colour version of the story to the BBC "within weeks".^[14] In issue 430 of Doctor Who Magazine the DVD was announced but later set back due to restoration difficulties.^[15] The release was delayed until 2012 when Doctor Who Magazine issue 449 confirmed that the full colour version would soon be out on DVD.^[16] It was later announced that the story would be released on DVD on 1 October 2012.^[17] Among the special features on the DVD is a documentary entitled Mars Probe 7: Making The Ambassadors of Death. Although David Whitaker is the sole credited writer on the actual episodes, the DVD sleeve credits The Ambassadors of Death as being written by David Whitaker, Malcolm Hulke, and Trevor Ray.^[17]

The original soundtrack for this serial was released on CD in the UK in August 2009.^[18] The linking narration was provided by Caroline John.

References

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Third Doctor

• The Ambassadors of Death at BBC Online
• The Ambassadors of Death at Doctor Who: A Brief History of Time (Travel)
• The Ambassadors of Death at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
• Doctor Who Locations - The Ambassadors of Death

Fan reviews

• The Ambassadors of Death reviews at Outpost Gallifrey
• The Ambassadors of Death reviews at The Doctor Who Ratings Guide

Target novelisation

• On Target — The Ambassadors of Death