In early 1965, the Daleks popularity had reached a new high.
The plan to expand the Dalek story to twelve episodes came from Hugh Weldon, who was the
managing director of the BBC, reputedly on the advice of his mother-in-law, who thought
the Daleks' presence in Doctor Who should be increased.
By this time, Nation was acting as script editor on a new series called The Baron, and
so it was agreed that Dennis Spooner would script the final six episodes of the story
based on outlines provided by Nation.
Nation's early draft scripts showed some notable differences to the final versions.
The story was originally set in the year 1,000,000 AD and based on the planet Varga.
This was later revised to the year 4,000, and the planet renamed Kemble, but the name
Varga was retained for the Daleks' deadly cactus-like plants.
The character of Brett Vian was originally called Brett Walton, and Marvick Chan, guardian
of the solar system, was called Ban-Hum, president of the solar system.
The Terranium was originally called Vitaranium, but it was feared Hartnell would have trouble
pronouncing it correctly.
The names VX2 and Vitar were also considered as an alternative to Vitaranium, but rejected
the latter because it may have been confused with vitamins.
Douglas Camfield was appointed director of the Daleks' master plan.
The film sequences for the story were shot at Ealing Studios, commencing on 27th September
1965.
Katharina's death scene from episode 4 was actually the first scene actress Adrienne
Hill shot.
There were many problems with the filming due to props arriving late or being unsuitable.
The model shots for Volcano of the TARDIS landing on Tigris had to be restaged three
times before Camfield was happy with them.
Films for the first episode commenced on Monday 18th October 1965 at the Drill Hall on Bulwer
Street followed by studio recording at BBC TV Centre on Friday 22nd October.
Complaints were received from Barry Leroyd, head of design at the BBC, that his designers
were not being given enough time for consultation about the story with the director, and that
as a result they were designing parts of sets that were not seen.
As the seventh episode of the story, The Feast of Stephen, was due to be transmitted on Christmas
Day it was felt that many people might miss it, and so it should have little to do with
the main story plot.
Camfield originally approached the Z Cars production office for permission to use their
police station sets and to use their cast members as guest stars in this episode.
They refused permission and so Camfield hired alternative actors to play the roles.
He also cast his wife, Sheila Dunn, as silent film star Blossom LeFavre in the second half
of the episode.
Dennis Spooner reintroduced the character of the monk into episodes 8 to 10.
Played by actor Peter Butterworth, the monk had previously appeared in the second season's
closing story, The Time Meddler.
For the first time we saw a TARDIS chameleon circuit operating as the Doctor changes the
appearance of the monk's TARDIS.
Various proposals were given for the shapes the TARDIS should turn into, but the final
version was given in the film shooting script as a motorcycle, a stagecoach, a western wagon,
a tank and finally a police box.
Despite the serial success in the UK, it was never shown abroad.
Viewing prints of all but the Christmas episode were sent to Australia, but it was considered
too violent to show.
All copies of the episodes were thought destroyed during the 70s, but in October 1983, film
prints of episodes 5 and 10 were found among a box of film cans in the basement of a London
church and returned to the BBC.
Various brief clips and film sequences have been discovered since then.
These have been combined by the Loose Cannon team with recordings of the soundtrack, publicity
and design photos, newly filmed model shots and specially created CGI footage to reconstruct
the missing episodes.
In 1965 I played Marvick Chen, I know he was called in The Master Plan, and this is a reconstruction
of it, which my friends have done and, well, we offer it to you in the hope that you're
going to enjoy it.