The Dominators (TV story)

The Dominators was the first story in season six of Doctor Who. Although the Dominators were the titular villains, it was the Quarks who later made appearances in Doctor Who in TV Comic.

Synopsis

When two rogue Dominators and their robotic servant Quarks land on the peaceful planet Dulkis, planning to drop a radioactive seed into the planet's core to refuel their spaceship, the Second Doctor, Jamie and Zoe must attempt to inspire the pacifist Dulcians to resist.

Plot

Episode 1

A Dominator spacecraft lands on an island on the planet Dulkis, having just separated from its fleet. It absorbs the radiation of the island into its power reserves. The two Dominators, Navigator Rago and Probationer Toba, step out of the craft with their robot servants, the Quarks, in search of more fuel for their ship and fleet. Rago is intent on establishing an energy source by drilling through the planetary crust, which is at its thinnest in this part of the planet. Toba is more concerned about the possible aggression of the natives, appearing willing to eliminate them should they resist. Rago wants to use the natives for slave labour instead. Meanwhile, a Dulcian seacraft arrives at the island for an unauthorised trip. It is piloted by Cully, the son of Director Senex, a high-ranked member of the Dulcian council. The passengers include three Dulcians who think Cully has conned them when they find out there is no radiation on the island. They step out and are soon killed by the Quarks as ordered by Toba. Cully is not seen by them and thus he survives.

The TARDIS crew land and the Doctor assumes they're in for a nice holiday, having visited "peaceful" Dulkis before. While the Doctor relaxes in a deckchair, Jamie blows up a beach ball given to him by the Doctor. Meanwhile, the Quarks destroy Cully's craft. The Doctor, Jamie and Zoe find a war museum with old laser guns. They meet Educator Balan and his two students, Kando and Teel, who take the TARDIS crew to a survey unit for decontamination, finding to their surprise that the strangers are not radioactive at all. Kando tells them that the only nuclear blast on the island was an experiment conducted 172 years ago, after which all weapons were banned on Dulkis and the island was kept as an observation area for researchers and students. Meanwhile, the Dominators have begun to drill through the planet's surface. Cully, having observed the Dominators near the TARDIS, finds his way to the shelter and warns people there of these warlike newcomers. The Doctor and Jamie leave immediately to check the situation, but soon find themselves at the Dominators' spacecraft, threatened by Toba and the Quarks.

Episode 2

The Doctor and Jamie are taken prisoner on the Dominators' ship, where they are forced to take part in tests. They are taken as representatives of the Dulcians by Rago and found unsuitable for slave labour — their bone structure is apparently too brittle and they fail (intentionally) at every test of intelligence. Cully and Zoe set off for the capital of Dulkis in Balan's travel capsule. There they attempt to make the council and Director Senex understand the threat posed by the Dominators. This falls on deaf ears, as Cully is a known con artist. The council is more intent on debating the matter endlessly rather than actually doing something which might be misjudged.

At the war museum, the Dominators test the Doctor and Jamie with their reactions to the weapons there. The Doctor says there are two types of Dulcians, "the clever ones" who built the now-outlawed weapons and the likes of him and Jamie. This satisfies Rago and they are set free, with a warning to stay away from the Dominators' mining area and the Quarks. Cully and Zoe return back to the island in order to find proof of Cully's story, while the Doctor and Jamie head to the capital in another travel capsule. Teel and Kando have now had verification of Cully's story from the Doctor and Jamie, and leave with Balan to witness this themselves in a very non-Dulcian manner. They are captured by the Dominators, examined and found to be "clever ones", possibly suitable for slave labour. The Dominators set out to search for more slaves. Zoe and Cully arrive at the survey unit, just in time for the Quarks to start their destruction of the place as ordered by Toba.

Episode 3

Rago countermands Toba's order and blames his subordinate for wasting the Quarks' power resources. Zoe and Cully get out and are immediately captured by a Quark. The Doctor and Jamie have arrived at the capital. Despite their pleas, the pacifist Dulcians still doubt the aggressiveness of the Dominators. Senex states that the strangers are quite welcome to drill the planet's crust, even though there are no minerals or anything else of value inside the planet. Zoe, Cully, Teel, Kando and Balan are now being tested for their suitability to slave labour and ordered to clear rubble out of the area in front of the war museum, with Toba and the Quarks guarding them.

Jamie and the Doctor have seen the destroyed survey unit on a monitor screen at the capital and are now rushing back in a capsule to see if Zoe is all right. They realise that Quarks may be waiting for them, so the Doctor alters the capsule's flight path and lands them elsewhere on the island. They start searching for Zoe and the Dulcians. While continuing the exhausting task at the war museum, Zoe manages to distract the Quarks and Cully sneaks inside the war museum for a weapon. He aims at the Quarks from a small window, but is unable to shoot as his fellow Dulcians get in the way and then Jamie interrupts him. Meanwhile the Doctor is captured by Toba, who now finds out about Cully's disappearance. Cully is spotted inside the war museum and the place is surrounded. Jamie shoots down a Quark, which leads to the destruction of the remaining part of the museum as ordered by Toba.

Episode 4

Toba is now certain that the rebelling Dulcians are dead. Rago is dissatisfied with Toba's actions and a power feud ensues. Rago wins, and orders Toba to oversee the drilling. Cully and Jamie escape the collapse of the building to an underground atomic shelter, which has its only air vent blocked. They remove the rubble above the hatch and avoid suffocation. Rago finds out about the Dulcian council from the Doctor, who shows him how to get to the capital inside the travel capsule. The Doctor and Zoe stay behind at the Dominators' ship under Quark guard. The necessary diversion is provided when Jamie and Cully, having mapped out the drilling sites and the number of Quarks on the planet, destroy another Quark by dropping a huge rock on it. Toba and a Quark immediately leave to investigate.

The Doctor and Zoe, now alone on the ship, find out that it has no generator, only an atomic storage unit — which explains the disappearance of the radiation from the island. Toba has halted the drilling and insists that the Quarks seek out the ones that attacked them. Rago arrives at the capital, but his improper addressing of the Director is protested. Rago orders a Quark to kill Tensa, who has been protesting the loudest. Rago queries the council for the Dulcians' suitability for slave labour. The slaves are to be taken to the Dominators' home planet where they will replace Quarks, which are needed for the front line in the war effort. The Dulcians who will not become slaves will die on their own planet. Rago orders Senex to start selecting suitable slaves and leaves. Meanwhile, Toba is interrogating the Doctor, Zoe, and the Dulcians on who destroyed the Quark. Balan is killed when no answer is forthcoming and the Doctor is next to be threatened.

Episode 5

However, Rago arrives and orders Toba to focus on drilling the final hole which hasn't even been started yet. Rockets are to be prepared for the outer bore holes. They also need a "seed device" which is now near critical mass. Teel, Kando, the Doctor, and Zoe are taken to a drill site. Jamie and Cully attack a Quark who is guarding the prisoners and take their friends to the atomic shelter. Toba is once again intent on finding the troublemakers, but Rago commands him to use the Quarks only for drilling as their power levels are too low. The Dulcians are now unfit for slavery according to Rago. They will all die with their planet.

The Doctor, now aware of the drill pattern, explains the Dominators' plan to others. The entire planet is to be converted into radioactive mass for the Dominator fleet's energy reserves. When they launch rockets through the four bore holes into the planet's crust, which is at its thinnest on the island, the crust will fracture and create a volcanic explosion. Once the atomic seed device is detonated inside this volcano, the entire planet will turn into radioactive magma. Jamie figures out that the centre bore hole is very near the atomic shelter they're in — they only need to dig a tunnel and grab the seed device once it's dropped in. The Doctor prepares bombs from the chemicals inside the medical kit in the shelter. Jamie and Cully go outside and try to distract the drilling by destroying Quarks with these bombs. Instead of being distracted, Toba focuses on the centre hole since it's near completion. Rago chases the troublemakers with Quarks and they paralyze Cully's arm. He and Jamie get inside the atomic shelter, where their tunnel is near completion. The tunnel is completed just in time and the Dominators drop the seed device into the Doctor's hands — they immediately retreat for take-off to join their own fleet in the orbit.

The seed device turns out to be completely sealed and impossible to defuse. The Doctor needs to get it off the planet quickly before it will do untold damage. He orders Jamie and Zoe to return to the TARDIS and the Dulcians to retreat into the capital by travel capsule as the rockets will cause a volcanic eruption anyway, but only on the island. The Doctor runs to the Dominators' craft and places the seed device inside, then rushes to the TARDIS. The rockets launch inside the planet's surface and cause an earthquake and eruptions. The seed device explodes after the Dominators' ship is airborne, destroying it completely and killing both Dominators. Outside the TARDIS, the Doctor looks rather pleased with his achievements, but retreats into the ship quickly as Jamie reminds him that molten lava is coming straight towards them...

Cast

Crew

Assistant Floor Manager - Barbara Stuart
Costumes - Martin Baugh
Designer - Barry Newbury
Film Cameraman - Peter Hamilton
Film Editor - Chris Hayden
Make-Up - Sylvia James
Producer - Peter Bryant
Production Assistant - John Bruce
Script Editor - Derrick Sherwin
Special Sounds - Brian Hodgson
Studio Lighting - Sam Neeter
Studio Sound - Richard Chubb
Theme Arrangement - Delia Derbyshire
Title Music - Ron Grainer
Visual Effects - Ron Oates
Writer - Norman Ashby

References

The Doctor uses his sonic screwdriver as a cutting device.
Zoe mentions both the Daleks and the Cybermen, hoping that neither will be present on Dulkis.
The Doctor has been to Dulkis before.
There is a periscope in the bunker among the ruins.

Story notes

Originally a six-part story, The Dominators was edited at the script stage down to five episodes by script editor Derrick Sherwin.
The end of this story leads into TV: The Mind Robber.
The writer is credited as Norman Ashby, a pseudonym for Mervyn Haisman and Henry Lincoln. Script editor Derrick Sherwin also had a significant input to the writing of episode five. Haisman and Lincoln's decision to use a pseudonym appears to have been made at a late stage, as the existing camera scripts for the story bear their own names.
Episode three was not identified by any on-screen caption.
Radio Times credits Sheila Grant as "Quark Voices" for all five episodes. On-screen credits read "Quark Voices by" for episodes one and two, and "Quark Voices" for episodes three to five.
Chris Jeffries doubles for Patrick Troughton in all location-shot scenes featuring the Doctor.
This was one of the stories chosen to be shown as part of BSB's Doctor Who Weekend in September 1990.
Patrick Troughton requested a showing of The Dominators at his birthday party shortly before his death in March 1987.
Quarks frequently appeared in the run of the Second Doctor in TV Comic, starting on the very day that Episode 4 of this serial initially aired.
Jelly babies make their Doctor Who debut — the Doctor eats some from a bag while waiting in the transport capsule.

Ratings

Episode 1 - 6.1 million viewers
Episode 2 - 5.9 million viewers
Episode 3 - 5.4 million viewers
Episode 4 - 7.5 million viewers
Episode 5 - 5.9 million viewers

Myths

The location scenes of this story were shot on colour film as a test exercise. (They weren't. Despite persistent rumours to the contrary, the BBC did no colour filming or recording on any of the 1960s Doctor Who stories.)
This was Patrick Troughton's personal favourite of all the stories that he appeared in. (While he seems to have held this story in high regard and specially requested that it be shown at the convention where his untimely death occurred, various sources indicate that The Evil of the Daleks was actually Troughton's favourite of his own stories.)

Filming locations

Gerrards Cross Quarry, Buckinghamshire
Olley Sand Pit in Trottiscliffe, Kent
Ealing Television Film Studios, Ealing Green, Ealing
Model Shooting: BBC Television Centre Puppet Theatre

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.

The rubble over a hatch in episode four vanishes.
A boom mike shadow drops into shot in the first War Museum scene in episode one.
When Teel shows the radiation graph spanning 172 years in episode two, the decline at the end is far too gradual for such a sudden disappearance of radiation.
The zip at the back of Zoe's skirt causes her problems on numerous occasions, being open in episodes two, three and five.
In certain scenes, especially those when the Quarks are recharging, the operators' hands are visible using the Quark arms.
When Rago is testing the supposedly self-charging laser gun, a power lead can be seen attached to it.
When the Doctor is running with the seed device to the Dominators' ship in episode five, the camera gets a little too close to the stunt double and we clearly see that it is Chris Jeffries and not Patrick Troughton.
In the exterior shots of the island recorded in the studio, the lighting on the backcloth is so hard that its wrinkles are clearly visible.

Continuity

When exiting the TARDIS, the Doctor mentions "mental projection" isn't easy. (TV: The Wheel in Space)

Home video and audio releases

DVD releases

This story was first released on DVD in the UK on 12 July 2010. The one disc set includes a restored version of the story, as well as the following special features:

Commentary by Wendy Padbury (Zoe), Frazer Hines (Jamie), Giles Block (Teel), Arthur Cox (Cully) and Sylvia James (make-up designer).
Recharge and Equalise - Making Of with actors Frazer Hines, Felicity Gibson, Giles Block and Arthur Cox, script editor Derrick Sherwin, co-writer Mervyn Haisman, designer Barry Newbery, make-up designer Sylvia James and Radiophonic Workshop designer Brian Hodgson
Tomorrow's Times – The Second Doctor - Contemporary press coverage
Coming Soon Trailer
PDF materials - Radio Times Billings
Production Subtitles
Photo Gallery
Easter Egg by Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre (Catalogue Doctor Who)

Editing for the DVD release was completed by the Doctor Who Restoration Team.
Censor clips from episodes four and five have been restored for the DVD as part of the episodes themselves. These were first found in 1996 and therefore did not make it to the VHS release in 1990.

The Dominators was released on DVD in the United States in January, 2011, along with the Tom Baker serial Meglos.

VHS releases

The Dominators was issued to VHS in 1990 in episodic format, with episodes four and five in the incomplete form in which they existed at the time (see DVD Releases above).

Audio releases

more information to be added

Tardis