Season 7, Episode 3 | 7 parts | First broadcast: 21 March – 2 May 1970 | Writer: David Whitaker (script-edited by Malcolm Hulke and Trevor Ray) | Director: Michael Ferguson
Cast
- Jon Pertwee as the Doctor
- Caroline John as Liz Shaw
- Nicholas Courtney as Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart
- Ronald Allen as Ralph Cornish
Summary
When a British space capsule returns from Mars carrying passengers who are not the astronauts who left, the Doctor and UNIT uncover a conspiracy involving stolen radiation-based alien ambassadors, a rogue intelligence officer, and a scheme to provoke conflict between Earth and the alien visitors. As armed hijackings and cover-ups mount, the Doctor races to expose the truth before panic and violence spiral out of control.
Interesting Facts
- This is the only Third Doctor serial in which the Doctor does not encounter the story’s true antagonist until relatively late, giving the tale an unusually paranoid, espionage-thriller tone.
- At seven episodes, its scale and ambition, including extensive location filming and space-capsule effects, made it one of the costliest productions of the season.
- Original writer David Whitaker’s scripts were extensively reworked in production, leading to shared but uncredited contributions from script editor Trevor Ray and Malcolm Hulke.
- The astronauts-turned-aliens plot draws on Cold War-era anxieties about scientific secrecy and government cover-ups.
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