The Art of... The Gunfighters

Donald Cotton wrote the novelisations of both of his own stories, as well as tackling Dennis Spooner's The Romans. In each case, he opted to include a lot of humour, and to play about with the story structure. Homer narrated The Myth Makers, and The Romans was presented as a series of letters and journal entries, and here we have the story as told by a dying Doc Holliday to a journalist.

Quite a few changes are made by Cotton, with a scene of the Clantons attempting to blow up the TARDIS with dynamite, Ringo meeting his end in a hotel bedroom instead of at the actual gunfight, and Ike being captured instead of killed. Kate Fisher is renamed Kate Elder - one of the real Kate's various names.

The book was published in January 1986, bearing cover art by Andrew Skilleter.

A common publicity image of Hartnell is amended to give him a stetson. We also get a gunslinger against a Main Street backdrop, a man who could be either Holliday or Earp. Both dress in black and sport moustaches in the story as broadcast.

1989 saw Star Books release this with The Myth Makers as one of their double volumes. It was the artwork for this story which graced the cover, set in a silver frame.

Holliday fails to feature on the colourful photomontage cover for the BBC Audio soundtrack release. Earp and Johnny Ringo feature alongside the Doctor and both companions. This was released in January 2007. 

Peter Purves plugs the gaps in the narrative and also contributes a short interview. Extra chapters were added so that the full rendition of the Ballad of the Last Chance Saloon could be heard, for those masochistically inclined.

This was re-released in September 2013 as part of a box-set of complete Hartnell stories previously released individually.

The same Hartnell photo from the soundtrack release features on the cover for the VHS release. He's joined by Holliday and Earp, with a backdrop of a generic Western scene at sundown (or sun-up). This is a desert view, complete with iconic saguaro cacti, despite the story itself being totally town-bound and set within buildings or the odd urban street.

The tape was first released in November 2002 as part of a First Doctor box-set (with The Sensorites and The Time Meddler). 

US fans had to wait until October of the following year for this story, when it was released as part of the huge 11 tape "End of the Universe" set.

The DVD release also formed part of a bigger box-set when it arrived in June 2011. In this case, it was accompanied with just one other story, 1984's The Awakening. 

The connection was simply that both stories were set on Earth - hence the box-set title of "Earth Story". Clearly the BBC were keen to get the range finished, thought that The Gunfighters' reputation might lead to it not selling well on its own, and had a leftover Davison two-parter hanging about, so cobbled this set together.

Adopting a similar colour palette to the VHS, it's a fairly busy cover (courtesy of Clayton Hickman), managing to squeeze in five of the guest characters as well as the Doctor. Once again, the Region 1 version allows the cover image room to breathe - though the Region 2 cover allows Holliday to overstep the bottom banner.

The audiobook of the Target novelisation was released in February 2013, and features the original Skilleter artwork. The narrator is an actual guest artist for a change (the majority feature a companion actor or someone totally unrelated who has appeared in "NuWho"). In this case, it is the late Shane Rimmer, who portrayed Seth "Snake-Eyes" Harper.

It was later re-released as part of the second "History Collection" box-set.

What's Wrong With... State of Decay

The fact that this story was originally intended for an earlier season doesn't show very much at all. Where it does, it's the later meddling by Mr Bidmead which shows up. There's all this talk of "the Wasting" for instance, which is never explained and goes nowhere. This was a leftover from when Bidmead attempted to turn the story into a hard sci-fi tale - ditching all the Gothic trappings.

However, director Peter Moffatt only agreed to do the story because of the Gothic stuff, and threatened to drop out. 

Keen to stamp his own mark on the show, JNT wanted no writers or directors from before his tenure, and was already reluctant to use a Terrance Dicks script, but he was keen to use Moffatt whom he knew from other series. He therefore ordered Bidmead to revert to the original Gothic version.

According to the rebels' computer which the Doctor gets working, the Hydrax crashed around the 12th December 1998...

We hear that the war against the giant Vampires took place back in the days of Rassilon, which is supposed to be in the earliest days of the universe. So what is a spaceship from Earth doing flying about in the middle of all this?

Was the Great Vampire capable of changing size? How else could it have infected the three crew and hitched a ride on their ship.

Why did the Three not utterly destroy all that technological equipment if it poses such a threat to them? They simply leave it hanging around for Kalmar and his friends to find and start putting together again.

The Doctor and Romana are a bit slow to realise that the Three are the original crew of the Hydrax and not descendants. The chances of three individuals having three identical future progeny who are still local and connected are surely pretty slim.

And yet they twig that Adric has stowed away almost immediately.

For someone who has lived in a small community on one planet, Adric seems to know a lot about E-Space.

Bit of a coincidence that a ship with -drax in its name should fall foul of Vampires.

The Three Who Rule have been in power for generations, and yet they haven't created a single new recruit in all that time. Aukon then states that the Great One will expect them to have built an army, but all they'll have to show for all those years of rule is Adric - and they don't even manage to convert him.

Aukon acknowledges that they have bred weakness into the population. How long has he known this, and why not done anything about it when he knows what the Great Vampire expects when it awakes?

The captain of guards asks Aukon to supply his bats when the castle comes under attack from the rebels, but the Chancellor refuses - claiming they are needed at the "Arising" ceremony. But when that takes place we see just a single bat attack Romana - with apparently no ill effects to her whatsoever.

The Great Vampire is seen to be moving around long before the ceremony (on the x-ray scanner). It's lying on its front, but when it starts pushing its way up through the ground it looks like it's now on its back.

If the scout ship goes up and straight back down again, shouldn't it crash into the castle where it started from? 

The model work for this shot is very poor.

Other substandard effects this story: the model castle / village is so-so in night scenes, but doesn't convince in daylight. 

The Great Vampire is poorly realised, both as a puppet and as an effects bloke wearing a monster glove; and we see distant stars in front of the TARDIS as it moves through E-Space.

And if E-Space is green - why is the sky on this planet not green at night?

Story 290: Nikola Tesla's Night Of Terror

In which the scientist Nikola Tesla discovers a dead man at his laboratory near Niagara Falls, just as he is trying to tempt investment in his projects. Investigating alone, he discovers that some components from one of his machines have been stolen. He then comes across a floating orb which emits a strange green light. He and assistant Dorothy Skerrit hear movement, and come across the Doctor.

A man named Brady, who had visited earlier as a potential investor, appears - only to be shot by a laser weapon.

The Doctor helps Tesla and Dorothy flee the building, taking to a train which is about to leave for New York. Graham, Ryan and Yaz are here, already in period costume for 1903. The unknown assailant is also on the train, so the Doctor is forced to unhook the carriages to escape from him. He proves to be another of the investors, but is armed with a Silurian weapon and has glowing red eyes.

He is left behind as the train carries the Doctor and her friends on to the city.

Tesla takes them to his city laboratories, but find a demonstration taking place outside. People are warning of his use of AC - alternating current - which they claim is dangerous. The mob are being incited by rumours being spread by rival inventor Thomas Edison.

The Doctor identifies the floating device as an Orb of Thassor, which has recently been altered.

She, Graham and Ryan set off to see Edison, whilst Yaz remains behind with Tesla and Dorothy.

He tells her about his Wardenclyffe project, from where he hopes to be able to broadcast electrical power wirelessly.

Edison tells the Doctor that he has no interest in stealing ideas from Tesla as he has plenty of his own. However, he has a reputation for taking other people's inventions and claiming them as his own after investing in them. Tesla had once worked for him, but left when he wasn't getting sufficient recognition.

They are attacked by the red-eyed man, whom Edison recognises as one of his employees. However, this is a non-human being capable of copying, as the real man is found dead nearby.

A fire is used to keep the being at bay, and they see him alter form into an insectoid creature.

Two other red-eyed beings arrive at Tesla's lab, and teleport Yaz and the inventor away. They find themselves in a cavernous chamber full of giant scorpion-like creatures. They are confronted by their queen, who is more humanoid in appearance, then learn that they are actually in a spaceship, hovering unseen above New York.

The Doctor retrieves the TARDIS, with Edison in tow. They travel to Tesla's lab where Dorothy tells them what has happened.

On the ship, the queen explains that her people are the Skithra. She adapted to Orb to seek out Tesla and gather information about the time period as she needs his help. She wishes him to improve the vessel and its weaponry.

Recalling Tesla's claim that he once picked up a radio signal from Mars, the Doctor decides that everyone should travel to Wardenclyffe once their friends are rescued. 

She uses the TARDIS to scan for the spaceship, and is then able to transport herself onto the vessel - appearing just as the Skithra were about to kill Yaz to force Tesla's compliance.

The Doctor quickly discovers that the Skithra are technological parasites. They have no real technology of their own - simply stealing that of other races, which they then use to plunder other civilisations.

They escape back to Earth, but come under attack by the giant scorpion creatures.

The Doctor realises that Wardenclyffe could be used to beam an energy bolt at the spaceship, crippling it, so all make their way there.

The Skithra lay siege. The energy beam is activated after the Doctor manages to force the aliens back onto their ship. Damaged, it leaves Earth orbit.

Impressed by his work, Edison tries to get Tesla to rejoin him - but is turned down. The Doctor informs her companions that history won't change. Tesla will still die penniless and almost forgotten - until being recognised after his death.

Nikola Tesla's Night Of Terror was written by Nina Metivier, and was first broadcast on Sunday 19th January 2020. To date, this has been the writer's only contribution to the series. She had been a script editor in the previous series, working on The Woman Who Fell To Earth and It Takes You Away.

It's the first of this year's Celebrity-Historicals, featuring as it does the inventors Nikola Tesla (1856 - 1943) and Thomas Alva Edison (1847 - 1931).

The Tesla we have here is only partly historically accurate, though Metivier has obviously done her homework). He did die penniless, having made a fortune but spent it on further researches, but he was never a forgotten figure. He featured on the cover of Time magazine in 1931, to mark his 75th birthday, for instance.

He did think that he might have picked up radio signals form another world - but it was the media who claimed this to be Mars specifically. (It's believed that he was actually picking up Marconi's radio broadcast experiments). He wasn't obsessed with radio transmission as much as with the tuning of radio signals.

The scientist is seen as an innovator who sees the world differently to anyone else and who dreams up new inventions to tackle new challenges. He naturally bonds with the Doctor, seeing her as a kindred spirit. 

He's positioned in opposition to both the Skithra and with Edison, who are both portrayed as scavengers in different ways. The aliens have no technology of their own, and this is very much shown to be a bad thing. They steal what they need and are incapable of even fixing what they have.

Edison was an inventor in his own right, but he has gained a reputation as a man who sometimes exploited the ideas of those whom he got to work for him, or that he simply refined the work of earlier inventors. Tesla is seen as a lone wolf inventor - an individualist - whilst Edison heads a factory / production-line set-up. This was one of his strengths, though it's not treated as such here.

Reference is made to the "War of the Currents". This actually took place in the latter years of the 19th Century and was pretty much resolved by 1903. Tesla had championed alternating current, whilst Edison have favoured DC - direct current. There were stories spread that AC caused earthquakes and other horrors. Edison actually electrocuted an elephant to prove AC dangerous.

However, prior to the events of this episode, Edison had already been usurped as senior shareholder in his own electricity production company, with the new controlling board wishing to look at both AC and DC.

The episode is helped by overseas filming, with the New York street set at the Nu Boyana Film Studio in Sofia, Bulgaria being used. This had previously featured in The Return of Dr Mysterio.

Goran Visnjic was extremely pleased to be cast as Tesla, as he was one of his boyhood heroes. Visnjic came to fame playing Dr Luka Kovac in US medical drama E.R. He has since featured in genre shows Timeless and The Boys.

Playing Edison is Robert Glenister - returning to the series after a 36 year gap as he had previously played Salateen in The Caves of Androzani. That had been only his second ever TV appearance - the first being sitcom Sink or Swim in which he played Peter Davison's brother. He had been a regular in Hustle in the interim, amongst many other roles.

Under a lot of make-up and prosthetics as the Skithra Queen is Anjli Mohindra - Rani Chandra in The Sarah Jane Adventures and partner of new Master, Sacha Dhawan. (The pair featured on the sofa together for The Collection - Season 8 Blu-ray box set). She has played several roles for Big Finish audios, as well as voicing the ruling Mechonoid in the Daleks! animated series.

Dorothy is played by Haley McGee. She has appeared in Canadian period detective drama Murdoch Mysteries - a series which has also featured Tesla and Edison.

The principal red-eyed man is played by Paul Kasey - regular monster performer since 2005 who has now taken on the creature choreographer role once held by Ailsa Berk for the new RTD2 episodes, as well as featuring in recent Star Wars productions.

Overall, a huge improvement on the previous week, with a more conventional pseudo-historical story. Great cast and good monsters. The Skithra are well designed and really ought to be brought back.

Things you might like to know:

• There is a subtle reconfiguring of the companions here. Yaz begins to mirror the Doctor, becoming more of an independent character, whilst Ryan compares notes with Dorothy - both saying how their lives totally changed when they met their respective scientist friends. In Ryan's case he's thinking about his old life - prefiguring his departure at the end of the year.
• The date is never mentioned on screen, but can be worked out as 1903 from JP Morgan's decision not to invest with Tesla, and the completion of the Wardenclyffe project, begun in 1902.
• Dorothy Skerritt (with two t's) was one of three secretaries who worked for Tesla - but did not join him until 1912, nine years after the events of this episode.
• Paul Kasey's character, Harold Green, is named for a real figure - Harold Brown.
• We are told of a tunnel linking Tesla's New York lab with Wardenclyffe, which is in Long Island. That's some 70 miles, so highly unlikely.
• The disguised Skithra saboteur uses a Silurian weapon. Which is odd, as we see them capable of firing energy bolts from their hands.
• In the last decade of his life, Edison became increasingly obsessed with spiritualist matters, and looked into creating a form of "spirit phone" that might communicate with the dead.
• Despite having guest starred in the SJA story - Day of the Clown - which introduced Rani Chandra, Bradley Walsh failed to recognise Mohindra in costume.
• The Skithra spaceship is said to be Venusian. We've never seen them in the series, but the Third Doctor often made reference to them.
• An early draft was simply titled "Tesla" and a scene recorded but then deleted saw Edison save Dorothy using one of Tesla's inventions.
• Other actors who have portrayed Tesla include Nicholas Hoult, Ethan Hawke, John C Reilly and David Bowie.
• Edison has been played by Spencer Tracy and Benedict Cumberpatch (with Mickey Rooney playing the young inventor).

The Devil's Chord - A Review

The second of the new episodes is our first Celebrity-Historical of the RTD2 era. Ruby asks to see the Beatles record their first album, so it's off to Abbey Road, St John's Wood, in 1963.

The street chosen for filming looks spot on - though why there would be a 1967 Volkswagen present I don't know. (It has also been pointed out that London was in the middle of a blizzard when this episode is supposed to be set).

The Doctor and Ruby have donned period outfits and we get some appropriate music - except for anything original by the Fab Four due to the heavy rights costs.

The episode is all about music, much of which is diegetic (meaning it isn't just on the soundtrack, but heard by the characters within the drama themselves. The Doctor even comments on this).

The episode is 10 minutes longer than its predecessor, and this is pretty much taken up by three musical sequences.

In the 1920's a frustrated composer has found the Lost Chord, and when played it unleashes Maestro (Jinkx Monsoon). 

They turn out to be the offspring of the Toymaker. Whilst he was the embodiment of games, Maestro is the embodiment of music. 

Cast a drag queen as an evil god-like figure and you are in serious danger of an over-the-top performance totally unbalancing an episode. Luckily, this doesn't happen. 

It's certainly a huge performance, but the affectations match the nature of the character.

God-like beings are this year's running theme, alongside the secret of Ruby's parentage and identity. How the two will fit together (if at all) is unclear so early on. All we know is that there's a bigger villain (the boss / the one who waits) still to be seen. (And we've been promised a link with UNIT history and a big name guest for the finale).

Maestro's scheme is to reduce the universe to silence, so music is being stamped out. The Beatles record childish nonsense, as does Cilla Black. 

We get a Pyramids of Mars sequence as the Doctor takes Ruby to her own time to show her what will happen if Maestro succeeds.

Much of the episode is taken up with confrontations between the Doctor and Maestro - something which was sorely lacking with The Giggle. Then, the actual meeting of the Doctor with the Toymaker proved underwhelming. Davies makes sure that Gatwa and Monsoon get a better deal than Tennant and NPH did.

Naturally, the climax involves a musical duel. 

With a 1963 setting, there are lots of references to the series' earliest days. The Doctor points out that he is living in Shoreditch with Susan at the same time (though why the First Doctor wasn't already investigating Maestro we'll never know). The Doctor suggests that Susan may be dead - speaking about the Master's genocide of the Time Lords rolling through all of time and space. However, he only thinks this, and isn't sure - which is strange. RTD2 is basically saying that the Doctor hasn't tried to find out.

Look out for the posters for "Chris Waites and the Carollers" - the band which preceded "John Smith and the Common Men".

Actress Susan Twist has been appearing in small roles since the Specials. She was Newton's servant, and the Steeleye Span fan at Ruby's Christmas gig, for instance. Here she is the studio canteen tea lady.

The episode ends with a musical number - one which might have worked better had it been integrated into the story - i.e. part of the duel which defeats Maestro.

This is introduced by the Doctor pointing out that many of his travels often involve a twist in the tail. (The episode has a lot of breaching of the fourth wall, from the Doctor and Maestro, as well as the role of music).

This sequence has resulted in some interesting theories. Does a mention of Susan prefigure her return? Is having "Susan Twist" in every end credit sequence RTD2's way of hinting at her appearance forming some sort of twist in the series - hiding something in plain sight? It was suggested by the Meep that the Big Bad might be two-hearted after all...

There's a hint that we may see Maestro again, as her harbinger / prelude - a young schoolboy - was still around after her defeat.

For me, the musical number was a bit of fun and I didn't mind it in the least. I actually enjoyed it better when I watched the episode a second time. The only thing I will say is that the final sequence on the famous Abbey Road crossing was quite unnecessary. The director simply didn't know where to draw the line.

Some people to look out for: Tom Baker era costume designer June Hudson as the old lady, and composer Murray Gold and Strictly personnel Shirley Ballas and Johannes Radebe cameo in the musical number.

For me, a huge improvement on Space Babies. (I gave that a second watch as well, but it still did nothing for me).

Hopefully something less fantastical next week, as Moffat returns with an episode inspired from a sequence from Genesis of the Daleks. Whimsey and fantasy are acceptable paths to explore, but not all the time. We do need to see some decent hard sci-fi in the series as well.

Space Babies - A Review

Series 14 gets underway with the programme shifting back to its traditional Saturday evening timeslot - or so the non-fan would think. Episodes are now debuting in the middle of the night in the UK (from midnight) to keep Disney+ subscribers in the USA happy. RTD2 has attempted to make light of this - wasting a two page editorial in DWM trying to justify it - but we all know why the timeslot change.

(The "Season One" nonsense is, of course, part of the same issue. We're to ignore all the history to please Disney since it's their first year of the programme - so kowtow to them we must).

If some aspects of broadcast are intended for the new co-producers, then the actual storyline of this opening episode is clearly intended for the youngest members of the audience.

Not only do we have the titular "Space Babies", but the plot revolves around things like snot and soiled nappies - puerile stuff.

We shouldn't expect anything higher from Davies. When it comes to his opening episodes, he always went for light-hearted fluff. They're designed to (re)introduce the Doctor and  / or companion and some of the concepts of the series for newbies.

There may be some darker undertone, setting up the story arc, but it's mostly just a bit of fun.

Unfortunately, Davies elects to deliver his introductions in a most unoriginal manner. Perhaps he thought no-one would remember The End of the World, because he lifts sections of it wholesale. We have virtually identical dialogue - which might have slipped past in different settings. But we get the Doctor and new companion whose name begins with "R" standing at a big window looking down on a planet. The imagery and the words are too familiar. There's also the upgraded phone call to mum, still alive in the past.

As far as the wider history of the series goes, the Doctor delivers a lengthy info-dump to Ruby.

The "stepping on a butterfly" bit comes from Martha's first trip into history.

Ruby thinks about the possibility of the TARDIS enabling her to meet her mother - like Rose with her dead dad in Father's Day.

The Doctor surreptitiously scans Ruby - just as the Doctor did with Amy in Series 5.

For their first proper outing together, the Doctor and Ruby have arrived on a space station which acts as a baby farm. This whole plot bears little thinking about. The planet has abandoned the station for economic reasons, but is happy to let the children exist - until they run out of food and oxygen and presumably perish... It's a really stupid plot, and Davies can't do anything to give it coherent context. He simply has a character claim that the planet is "strange" and leaves it at that.

Why the babies have remained as babies, yet developed in other ways, is also left unexplained. There's no logic to this situation.

In a sub-plot pretty much stolen from Mark Gatiss' Sleep No More, there's a creature roaming around the darkened levels of the station, seen mainly on CCTV monitors. It's known as the Bogeyman to the children and their grown-up nanny Jocelyn and, like the Sandmen, it turns out to be composed of some human organic waste product. The clue here is in the name...

I would rather have seen the creature being a manifestation of the children's fears / imagination, without the toilet humour aspects.

Davies has stated that he has no intention of ignoring developments set in motion by Chibnall. The whole "I'm adopted" shtick is referenced repeatedly.

The idea of the talking babies, even if unoriginal, can be witty and - for the most part - well done. It's a pity they chose to concentrate on Eric so much, as he was the least expressive of the children and the mouth movement simply didn't fit with the rest of his face.

The Bogeyman is a well realised creature, even if its background is silly.

The chemistry between Doctor and Ruby is great, though things are obviously rather rushed here. We really need to see both in more reflective mode to properly judge them. 

Here, the Doctor pretty much brags, Ruby looks and sounds impressed, then the Doctor thinks she's the best companion he's ever, ever had because she does something vaguely brave (despite the fact that all his companions have gone through the exact same cycle, only for him to dump them and move on).

Quite a bit of emotionally manipulative messaging going on, but this seems unavoidable these days.

At the end of the day, Space Babies is never, ever going to be regarded as a classic. It looks good but is  unoriginal and the story is infantile (a Horrible Histories target audience, I suspect) - so a perfect Davies opener. (S**t ending though... Literally).

Treat it as a bit of whimsey and it's fine - but with only 8 episodes this year, I would have expected better of Davies.

Episode 116: Don't Shoot The Pianist

Synopsis:

Unaware that he is walking into a trap, the Doctor wanders slowly down Main Street towards the Last Chance Saloon, where the Clanton brothers and their friend Seth Harper await him...

Not only does Steven have the habit of calling him "Doc", but the gambling gunslinger Doc Holliday has tricked him into carrying a pistol, hoping that he will be mistaken for him.

His girlfriend Kate is unhappy at this manipulation and so sets off to make sure the Doctor comes to no harm. Holliday is forced to follow.

In the saloon bar, Steven and Dodo are being forced to run through their song over and over again - preventing them warning the Doctor. When he finally arrives, he is happy to see that his companions have made new friends - until he detects the threatening atmosphere.

He attempts to clear up the misunderstanding, but Harper saw him earlier in the dentist shop, and he is carrying Holliday's gun.

Kate then arrives and deliberately makes out that he is Holliday. Unseen by everyone at the top of the stairs, the gunslinger shoots Seth's gun from his hand - and everyone thinks the Doctor did it. Hoping to calm things down, he disarms everyone.

Dodo meets Holliday upstairs, and he is forced to take her to one of the bedrooms.

In the bar, Wyatt Earp and Bat Masterson arrive. Earp is also keen that everyone thinks the Doctor to be Holliday, as the gunslinger is an old friend of his. He decides to arrest him, hoping that this will defuse the situation and deflect attention from his friend.

Whilst Dodo is held in the bedroom by Holliday and Kate, Steven continues to argue that the Doctor isn't Holliday and he will try to get him out of jail. He finds the Clantons and Harper agreeing to help him.

As darkness falls, Holliday slips back to his shop - and finds Earp waiting for him. He advises that he needs to get out of town until things blow over.

Steven is given a gun to pass onto the Doctor though the jailhouse window, but Earp sees him openly playing with it.

The Clantons then decide on another scheme - to threaten Steven with a lynching. Earp must release "Holliday" or his friend will die.

Alone in the bar Harper spots Holliday as he returns to fetch Kate, but is shot dead before he can warn the brothers. Holliday and Kate then force Dodo to accompany them as they flee the town - despite her wanting them to save Steven.

Tied up and mounted on a horse, he is positioned under a tree with a noose around his neck. A mob surrounds him, fired up by the Clantons. 

The Doctor can only look on helplessly from the jailhouse...

Next episode: Johnny Ringo

Data:

Written by: Donald Cotton

Recorded: Friday 22nd April 1966 - Riverside Studio 1

First broadcast: 5:50pm, Saturday 7th May 1966

Ratings: 6.6 million / AI 39

Designer: Barry Newbery

Director: Rex Tucker

Critique:

John Henry "Doc" Holliday was born in Griffin, Georgia in 1851. He studied dentistry at the Philadelphia College of Dental Surgery, earning a degree at age 20. After setting up a practice in his home town he developed TB - which prompted him to move to the south western states for their drier climate. In Arizona he set himself up as a gambler - a perfectly acceptable profession there at the time.

Arguments over cards led to a number of confrontations, which is is how he came to earn a reputation as a gunslinger. That reputation was that he had killed up to 20 men, but the reality is that he only killed two or three.

He and Wyatt Earp became friends after the dentist saved Earp's life in Texas.

Wyatt Berry Stapp Earp was born in Monmouth, Illinois in 1849. In 1874 he and his wife opened a brothel in Witchita, Kansas and, despite being arrested several times accused of being a pimp, he was hired as a police officer. Falling foul of a political rival of his boss, he moved on - eventually setting up another brothel in Dodge City. He later became a Deputy Marshal. Following an outlaw named "Dirty Dave" Rudabaugh to Texas brought him into contact with Holliday for the first time.

In 1879 Earp and some of his brothers left Dodge City for Tombstone, which was experiencing an economic boom thanks to its silver mines.

Earp had many siblings, best known of which were Virgil (b. 1843), Morgan (b. 1851), and Warren (b. 1855).

It was Virgil who was Tombstones' Marshal. Wyatt was simply made his deputy in order to help the brothers confront the "Cochise County Cowboys" - an outlaw gang of which the Clantons were part.

Bartholomew William Barclay "Bat" Masterson was born in Henryville, Canada, in 1853. Moving to the US as a young man he became a buffalo hunter and army scout. After a crooked businessman disappeared owing he and his brothers money, he tracked the man down over the course of five years - eventually getting their money back with interest. This took place in Dodge City, where he was later to become sheriff - coinciding with his brother being Marshal there. Like Holliday and Earp, he was a well-known gambler. Whilst well acquainted with the key figures of the Gunfight at the OK Corral, Masterson was not in Tombstone at the time of the event.

As mentioned last week, Kate is based on "Big Nose Kate" Horony, who was born in 1849 in Hungary. Her family emigrated to the US in 1860. Running away from home aged 16, she first made for St Louis. She later became a prostitute - working in a brothel run by Earp's brother James for a time. She moved to Fort Griffin in 1876, where she first met Holliday. Theirs was a fiery relationship, and at one point Kate even signed a false accusation that he had been involved in the attempted robbery of a wagon carrying silver, in which people were killed. No matter how serious, after every bust-up they always reconciled.

Apart from Masterson, all of the above characters were in Tombstone at the time of the events of The Gunfighters, though their actual biographies may vary from their fictional selves.

Donald Cotton positioned them as the "good guys" in his tale, despite them behaving in dubious, self-serving fashion. 

Next week, we'll look at "the opposition".

Like his Trojan War scripts, Cotton ensured a great deal of humour was to be had prior to the inevitable dark turn of the final instalment. The Gunfighters can only lead to the infamous Gunfight, in which some of these characters are doomed to die - but let's have some fun on the way there.

Hartnell in particular gets to indulge in some comedy, getting some nice lines. The mispronunciation of Earp's name - "Mr Werp" - came mainly from him.

It's hard to believe that this is the same Doctor who was so antagonistic towards Ian and Barbara, and who appeared ready to smash a wounded caveman's skull in, just to get back to the TARDIS.

In this episode he comes across as a total innocent, failing to spot the threatening undercurrents of the saloon gathering until too late. Funniest of all is his response to Steven's attempt to spring him from jail. He simply doesn't twig what his companion is trying to do, openly waving the gun about and even showing it off to "Mr Werp". He then protests: "... only people keep giving me guns, and I do wish they wouldn't...". He then tells Earp all about the plan to spring him.

Wednesday 20th April saw the Bulwer Road rehearsal hall visited by a photographer from the Daily Mirror (see below), whilst a journalist was booked to attend the Friday recording session to interview William Hartnell, for a piece that would be published the next day.

Recording moved back to Riverside Studios.

There was a delay in setting things up when the firearms arrived late. Pianist Tom McCall had pre-recorded some of the music for this episode but was not present in studio this week - his place taken by Winifred Taylor.

The Ballad of the Last Chance Saloon is rather too prominent in this episode.

Whilst in his cell, the Doctor is seen to peruse a "Wanted" poster - featuring a guest artist who won't actually appear until next week. We see Laurence Paine as Johnny Ringo. Though photography was well established by 1881, these posters were much more likely to feature an artist's impression of the wanted man or a far less detailed photo.

The way we're introduced to Ringo is a perfect example of the way the language of film has changed over the years. With huge turret cameras in small sets on cramped studios, we see the Doctor seemingly fascinated by the back of the poster - so that the front faces the camera. (It's like the way groups of people always sit in a semi-circle round a square table in sitcoms and most soap operas). 

A number of these posters were printed by Barry Newbery and scattered around the sets.

The recording session saw the arrival of a horse in studio, for the closing sequence with Steven about to be lynched.

High shots of the street scenes were achieved by mounting a camera on a mole-crane, pointing through a fake window pane.

Trivia:

• The ratings actually see a small rise (of only 0.1 million), but the appreciation figure tumbles by six points to bring it below the 40 mark for the first time since The Feast of Steven.
• Competition for the series across the ITV regions comprised Lost In Space, Fireball XL5, Thunderbirds, The Addams Family and Bonanza.
• On Saturday 23rd April, journalist Jack Bell of the Daily Mirror quoted Hartnell as saying "The idea of a Western story was my idea... children will always adore Cowboys and Indians"
• On the Friday following transmission of this episode, Junior Points of View saw considerable criticism of the current adventure. "Since the Doctor has arrived in the Wild West, I have not enjoyed the programme". Another viewer complained about the genre cliches and the "phony" American accents, before adding "PS Steven can't sing".
• Another young viewer pointed out that his older brother had seen Hartnell in the pub sans wig, though he hadn't.
• Rehearsals at the Bulwer Street Territorial Army Drill Hall:

Set To Stun @ Gunnersbury Park Museum

I first heard about this small exhibition whilst it was still in the planning stages. Last year I attended a VFX talk by Mike Tucker at Gunnersbury Park Museum, where the museum curator spoke about it.

West London is the home of the British film and TV industry, and this is a local history museum, so there has been a Voc mask and Cybermen photo on permanent display, alongside Marvin the Paranoid Android from Hitch-Hikers Guide to the Galaxy. We also have displays reflecting the nearby Ealing Studios.

The museum is situated in a large Georgian house in the middle of the park. On entering the main part of the building, past the reception area, we see a Dalek - of the cream and gold variety seen in Remembrance of the Daleks.

Its location work was in West London.

When it comes to exhibitions, these are actually quite rare. I've had a look though my Experience photos and this type of Dalek wasn't seen in Cardiff (though Davros and the Special Weapons Dalek from the same story were).

Remaining on the ground floor, towards the back of the house, is a room devoted to toys and games. This contained Tucker's model which recreated the Dalek production line seen in Power of the Daleks - as seen as an extra on the Special Edition Blu-ray.

Moving upstairs, one of the rooms is now given over for a small exhibit of props, models, merchandise - and an original Moonbase Cyberman costume. Also present are a moon buggy from Moonbase 3 and one of the original models from The Tripods.

The Doctor Who material includes a cast of Terry Molloy and one of his Davros masks, a pair of TARDISes - a large one from Day of the Doctor and a smaller one from 1993's notorious Dimensions in Time.

There are a number of small props like guns, and on one wall are Ian Scoones' storyboards for The Invisible Enemy.

The Cyberman is rather badly placed, stuck in a corner behind glass, but well enough lit. It is an original screen-used costume from The Moonbase, whose filming took place at Ealing.

All that's just the museum proper. Next to the reception area is another room dedicated to the exhibition, and this one has been specially laid out by designer Jeremy Bear (The Mutants, The Seeds of Doom).

He's best known for popularising the triangular plastic wall panels, introduced in his first story and seen in many more thereafter, as well as numerous episodes of Blake's 7.

They feature here, framing a full Voc robot costume from The Robots of Death.

There's a video of Bear on a loop, and some of his design sketches adorn the walls. The room also features the Starbug from Red Dwarf and a Stormtrooper helmet from the Star Wars franchise.

Not a huge exhibition by any means, but certainly quality rather than quantity and worth catching if you're in London over the next couple of weeks.