Tuesday 4 May 2010

A Matter of Time: The Wheel in Space


ORIGINAL BROADCAST: 04/05/1968

Forty-two years ago today, the second Doctor and his companion Jamie landed on a space vessel, where they met up with an intelligent young worker of the wheel, called Zoe Heriot. However, they are all in grave danger when two large pods split open, with Cybermen on the inside. This story starred Patrick Troughton as the second Doctor, Frazer Hines as Jamie McCrimmon, and Wendy Padbury as Zoe Heriot.

The working title for this story was ‘The Space Wheel’. Patrick Troughton did not appear in Episode 2 of this story as he was away on holiday, so a body double was used to substitute for the unconscious Doctor. It is the first time that the Doctor is referred to by the name of ‘John Smith’.

A clip from ‘The Evil of the Daleks’ is used for a sequence at the end of the story, where the Doctor shows Zoe all the dangers that she might face if she decides to travel with them. This was used as a way to introduce the repeat of ‘The Evil of the Daleks’, which would be shown the week following the original broadcast of ‘The Wheel in Space’, in order to prevent a gap between different series.

Please comment and rate below.

No comments: