74-562: The Mind Robber is the second serial of the sixth season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who , which was first broadcast in five weekly parts from 14 September to 12 October 1968. The serial is set outside of time and space in a world where fictional characters and mythological creatures including Medusa , the Minotaur and the Unicorn exist. In the serial,
148-568: A robot as a lover). The theme music was given a faster pace. Series two was broadcast on Thursday nights at 9:30 p.m., beginning with the episode "The Machine Stops" on 6 October 1966. The new series was promoted by the Radio Times , then owned by the BBC, with a front cover photograph of Yvonne Mitchell , star of "The Machine Stops", and an article previewing the upcoming episodes written by Michael Imison. The two most notable productions of
222-519: A Colonel) in The Web of Fear . He would soon make regular appearances in the program beginning with season 7's Spearhead from Space . John Levene makes his first appearance as Corporal Benton in The Invasion . He would continue to make regular appearances, with the character promoted to sergeant, from season 7 until season 13 . Alan Bennion makes his first of three appearances in
296-401: A child's magazine". The production of "Random Quest" led John Wyndham, the author of the story it was based on, to write to its director Christopher Barry praising "the hard work and ingenuity of a great number of people concerned [...] excellent work by everybody – not forgetting the adapter. My thanks to everyone [...] for weaving it all together so skillfully." "Beach Head" was entered into
370-848: A cinema projector in Italy but that may have never been returned. 32 episodes from Series 1, 2 and 3 (except the Asimov stories) screened in New Zealand (in black and white of course since colour television was formally introduced to New Zealand in 1973–1975 and the episodes aired till circa 1970), then the prints were sent to various overseas stations such as Finland in October 1968 and February 1970, Hungary in February 1969, Sweden (March 1970), Sierra Leone (December 1971) and Yugoslavia in June 1973. However
444-426: A combined Film & Videotape Library for the preservation of both media. After the archive purge ended in 1978 only 17 episodes of the series were retained. Series 1 has fared remarkably well, with the fortuitous retention of ten 16 mm film telerecordings made for the purposes of overseas sales. These were discovered at Villiers House, alongside several 60s Doctor Who episodes. Of the other seven, one episode
518-546: A deeply disturbing one" – The Times ) and was awarded first prize at the Fifth Festival Internazionale del Film di Fantascienza ( International Science Fiction Film Festival ) in Trieste on 17 July 1967. Due to the expected complexities of editing, the episode was recorded onto 35mm film instead of videotape, and still exists as this original film negative. It is the only episode produced during
592-515: A dozen. You have no idea how difficult some of these authors are to deal with, and it seems a special thing among SF writers to hedge themselves behind almost impossible copyright barriers, even when they have got a story that is possible to do on television. So many you can't. Either the conception is so way out you would need a fantastic budget to produce it, or the story is too short, too tight to be padded out to make an hour's television". When she had been working on Out of this World Shubik had made
666-638: A mostly negative reaction from viewers, with "just under a third" reacting favourably. The complaints mainly were around the story being more fantasy-orientated rather than the more dignified science fiction, making it seem "silly". Others liked the concept, but felt it was too complicated for children. Paul Cornell , Martin Day , and Keith Topping wrote of the serial in The Discontinuity Guide (1995), "The combination of disturbing images (Jamie having his face taken away), superb literalism ('When
740-499: A new Quatermass story for the series, and contacted Arthur C. Clarke regarding the possibility of adapting his novel The Deep Range . In March 1965 Shubik travelled to New York City to negotiate rights with authors whose works she was considering, to seek ideas from U.S. television, and to obtain more science fiction anthologies from U.S. publishers. During her visit she met science fiction editors and also Isaac Asimov, who granted permission for two of his stories to be adapted on
814-500: A novel by Angus Hall and dramatised by Brian Hayles , was an adaptation. The opening title sequence was changed again, designed by Charles McGhie, employing a variety of techniques, from computer-generated images to real-time visual effects and stop-frame model animation. The music used was "Lunar Landscape" by Roger Roger . Series four was broadcast on Wednesday nights beginning on 21 April 1971. Both ratings and critical reception were positive, although some viewers were disappointed by
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#1732798461852888-607: A one-off. Reviewing "Level Seven" in The Listener (also then owned by the BBC), J. C. Trewin wrote that "the tension was inescapable, the excitement incontestable, more so, undoubtedly, than other thrusts into the future". The robot costumes created for "The Prophet" were later reused in the Doctor Who serial " The Mind Robber ". Despite its positive reception, only four of the thirteen episodes are known to survive. Shubik
962-511: A period of time. Travelling through the location, the Doctor encounters several people, such as Lemuel Gulliver , and a fictional superhero from Zoe's time. The Doctor and Zoe are threatened by a Unicorn, which is defeated as the Doctor reminds Zoe that it isn't real. After Jamie's true face is restored, the team are once again split up as Jamie travels alone, ending up in Rapunzels castle, while
1036-560: A rostrum camera, combined with a face frozen in a scream and a mannequin falling repeatedly through space. The forty-second sequence won a Design & Art Direction Wood Pencil for Television Graphics in 1965. Delia Derbyshire of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop created a theme for the sequence, but it was rejected. The episode "Some Lapse of Time" is notable for having Ridley Scott , future director of such films as Alien and Blade Runner , as its designer. Out of
1110-443: A sixty-minute anthology series hosted by Boris Karloff that ran for thirteen episodes between June and September 1962. Many of the episodes were adaptations of published short stories by writers including John Wyndham , Isaac Asimov and Philip K. Dick . Shubik began work and soon found that gathering science fiction stories suitable for adaptation was a difficult task. She later recalled: "I had to read hundreds of stories to pick
1184-715: A valuable contact in John Carnell , a key figure in British science fiction publishing. He was the founder of the science fiction magazine New Worlds and agent for many of Britain's science fiction writers. Carnell was able to suggest stories and authors for her to consider. Shubik also received copies of science fiction anthologies from British publishers and sought advice from many authors, including Frederik Pohl , Alfred Bester and Robert Silverberg . The latter two admitted to her that they had run into similar difficulties in finding suitable material for television adaptation. She considered asking Nigel Kneale if he would write
1258-436: Is a door not a door?') and set pieces (the mental battle for control of Jamie and Zoe) makes this one of the most memorable stories of the era." In The Television Companion (1998), David J. Howe and Stephen James Walker praised the story's inventiveness, stating that it "remains a hugely enjoyable story, and one that stands up to repeated viewing". However, they said that the various characters that did not contribute much made
1332-614: Is to control everyone on Earth and bring them to the land of fiction, leaving the Earth itself empty for easy colonisation. The Doctor rescues Jamie and Zoe from within the book, and they return to the control room to free 'the Master'. Jamie and Zoe overload the computer and it explodes, with all 4 leaving just in time. The TARDIS reforms and the Doctor, Jamie, and Zoe are able to escape. Working titles for this story included Man Power , Another World and The Fact of Fiction . The Mind Robber
1406-567: The Doctor Who: The Complete History book series, which reprinted Andrew Pixley's 'Archive' features from Doctor Who Magazine and the various Doctor Who Magazine Special Editions , as well as new articles created specifically for the book. Doctor Who (season 6) The sixth season of British science fiction television series Doctor Who began on 10 August 1968 with the first story of season 6 The Dominators and ended Patrick Troughton 's reign as
1480-560: The Daleks for Doctor Who and later of Survivors and Blake's 7 , adapted Bradbury's "The Fox and the Forest", while Troy Kennedy Martin , co-creator of Z-Cars , adapted Pohl's "The Midas Plague". A title for the series had not been decided when production began. Titles such as Dimension 4 , The Edge of Tomorrow and From the Unknown were considered before Out of the Unknown
1554-687: The Second Doctor , Jamie McCrimmon and Zoe Heriot respectively. Troughton and his fellow actors collectively decided that the workload of Doctor Who was exhausting them, and that they would soon depart from the show. From Season 7 onwards the show would never have such a high number of episodes again. The three actors remained with the show until the conclusion of the final season six serial The War Games . Troughton reprised his role in three subsequent special stories, one of which also featured Hines. Nicholas Courtney reappears as Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart in The Invasion , last seen (as
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#17327984618521628-475: The 12-part serial The Daleks' Master Plan from Season 3 was longer. Both of these would be beaten in 1986 by the 14-part season-spanning story The Trial of a Time Lord The Dominators and The Mind Robber were both produced at the end of the fifth recording block and held over to Season 6. ^† : Episode is missing All releases are for DVD Out of the Unknown Out of
1702-528: The Cellar"), Brian Hayles ("1+1=1.5") and Michael Ashe ("The Fosters"). Two scripts, "The Yellow Pill" and "Target Generation", had previously been used in Shubik's earlier anthology series Out of this World . In September 1967 Alan Bromly and Roger Parkes were appointed as, respectively, the new producer and script editor. Bromly and Parkes both had backgrounds in thriller series. A new opening title sequence
1776-650: The Cybermen (1975), playing the Cyberleader . Ian Hines, who plays one of the soldiers, is the brother of Frazer Hines. Although a caption at the end of Episode 5 advertised The Invasion for the next week, it would be three weeks before it was broadcast due to the BBC's coverage of the 1968 Summer Olympics . The story was repeated on BBC2 on consecutive Fridays from 31 January – 28 February 1992, achieving viewing figures of 2.57, 2.64, 1.5, 1.5 and 3.46 million respectively. The BBC's Audience Research Report showed
1850-408: The Doctor and Zoe face Medusa. They finally meet a person called "The Master" who seems to be in charge. It turns out that he is in fact an Earth man abducted and brought to the land of fiction in order to provide creative energies for the unseen aliens who are really in charge. Everything that the Doctor has experienced was a series of tests to prepare him for his role as replacement. The aliens' plan
1924-441: The Doctor with its final story The War Games . Only 37 out of 44 episodes are held in the BBC archives; 7 remain missing . As a result, 2 serials are incomplete: only episode 2 of the 6-part story The Space Pirates still exists, while The Invasion has had its two missing episodes (episodes 1 and 4) reconstructed using animation. Patrick Troughton , Frazer Hines and Wendy Padbury make their final regular appearances as
1998-530: The Engineering Department handled videotape but had no mandate to retain material. Some shows were kept by BBC Enterprises , but they too had limited storage space and kept only material that was considered commercially exploitable. In the mid-1970s BBC Enterprises disposed of a lot of older material for which the rights to sell the programmes had expired, and the Engineering Department routinely wiped videotapes in an era when rescreening potential
2072-566: The English fiction writer "the Master" ( Emrys Jones ), aware of his own advancing age, tries to recruit the Second Doctor ( Patrick Troughton ) to take over his role as the creative power in this realm. After defeating the Dominators and starting off a volcanic eruption, the Doctor, Jamie, and Zoe find themselves and the TARDIS in the path of a lava flow. Upon trying to dematerialise out of
2146-552: The Forest"); Kate Wilhelm ("Andover and the Android"); John Brunner ("Some Lapse of Time"); J. G. Ballard ("Thirteen to Centaurus") and Frederik Pohl ("The Midas Plague"). Two original stories were also commissioned, "Stranger in the Family" by David Campton and "Come Buttercup, Come Daisy, Come...?" by Mike Watts. Among those commissioned to adapt the stories were a few notable names in television writing. Terry Nation , creator of
2220-798: The Sixth Festival Internazionale del Film di Fantascienza in July 1968, in the hope of repeating the earlier success of "The Machine Stops", but did not win. Get off my Cloud included Doctor Who 's prop of the TARDIS exterior and the scenes were recorded in August 1968. Series three is the most incomplete season of the show. While several clips and audio recordings exist for the missing episodes, only one episode, "The Last Lonely Man", exists in its entirety as its original colour videotape master. "The Little Black Bag" exists only partially, since roughly 20 minutes of footage, mainly from
2294-448: The TARDIS explodes and splinters, separating the Doctor, Jamie, and Zoe. After experiencing a series of curious encounters, the Doctor manages to find Jamie and Zoe. He soon deduces that they are in a world filled with fictional and mythological characters. A gun destroys Jamie's face, with the Doctor being forced to put his face back together. However, the first time he attempts this, he does it incorrectly, with Jamie remaining like this for
The Mind Robber - Misplaced Pages Continue
2368-489: The Unknown is a British television science fiction and horror anthology drama series, produced by the BBC and broadcast on BBC2 in four series between 1965 and 1971. Most episodes of the first three series were dramatisations of science fiction short stories . Some were written directly for the series, but most were adaptations of published stories. The first three series were exclusively science fiction, but that genre
2442-452: The Unknown made its debut on BBC2 at 8 p.m. on Monday 4 October 1965 with "No Place Like Earth". Science fiction and fantasy were popular on television, and Doctor Who , The Avengers , Thunderbirds , The Man from UNCLE and Lost in Space were all notable hits at the time. Out of the Unknown , however, was intended to offer more cerebral fare. Initial audience and critical reaction
2516-695: The Unknown over to a new production team. At the same time Michael Imison also moved on to produce Thirty Minute Theatre . For series three Shubik commissioned dramatisations of stories by Robert Sheckley ( Immortality, Inc. ); Isaac Asimov ( Liar! and The Naked Sun (the sequel to The Caves of Steel , which Shubik had dramatised for Story Parade in 1963)); John Brunner ( The Last Lonely Man ); Clifford D. Simak ( Beach Head and Target Generation ); John Wyndham ( Random Quest ); Cyril M. Kornbluth ( The Little Black Bag ); Rog Phillips ( The Yellow Pill ) and Peter Phillips ( Get Off My Cloud ). Original stories were provided by Donald Bull ("Something in
2590-587: The audio segments mentioned above) and clips of some of the missing episodes (except that of Immortality Inc. and The Last Witness ), were released on DVD by the BFI on 24 November 2014 (delayed from 27 October), with audio commentaries and interviews with cast and crew, a new documentary called Return of the Unknown , extensive stills galleries, and a fully illustrated booklet with essays by show expert Mark Ward with full episode credits. As mentioned above, Isaac Asimov granted permission for his stories to be adapted on
2664-581: The boar"). Location filming for The Mind Robber took place in June 1968 at Harrison's Rocks in Sussex and Kenley Aerodrome in Croydon . Other filming took place in the same month in Ealing Studios , while studio recording for episodes one and two also took place in June. Studio recording for episodes three, four, and five took place in July 1968. The white robots that close in on Jamie and Zoe in
2738-596: The cliffhanger to the first episode — in which the TARDIS breaks apart — as one of the greatest cliffhangers in the history of Doctor Who . A novelisation of this serial, written by Peter Ling , was published by Target Books in November 1986. The Mind Robber was released on VHS in May 1990 and released on Region 2 DVD on 7 March 2005, and in North America on 6 September 2005. A special edition of
2812-488: The condition that they could be shown only in the UK: sales to foreign territories were not allowed. A visit to New York became an annual event for Shubik during her time on Out of the Unknown . On her return to London from her first visit Shubik learned that she had been appointed producer and story editor for the new anthology series. She obtained the services of George Spenton-Foster as her associate producer . Spenton-Foster
2886-412: The condition that they could only be shown in the UK: sales to foreign territories were not allowed. Of the six adaptations of Isaac Asimov stories, only two from Series 1 survive. With the rest four being not aired outside UK, the recovery of the missing Asimov episodes from overseas sources remains unlikely. It is alleged that Beach Head was transferred to b/w 35 mm film to allow it to be shown from
2960-406: The disconcerting feeling that there was more than a grain of truth in its fantasy" – Birmingham Evening Mail and Dispatch ) proved particularly popular with audiences and critics alike. BBC2 Controller David Attenborough praised the "overall professionalism that has become a hallmark of the series". By the end of its first run Out of the Unknown was the second-most popular drama on BBC2, after
3034-424: The episode aired on BBC iPlayer on 1 November 2023, in the spin-off Tales of the TARDIS . The episode opens with the characters Jamie and Zoe in the "Memory TARDIS" and talk about past adventures, the episode is then played in full. A book length study of the serial, written by Andrew Hickey, was published as part of The Black Archive series from Obverse Books in 2016. The serial was covered in volume 13 of
The Mind Robber - Misplaced Pages Continue
3108-695: The episodes for overseas broadcast. They were restored in 2014 using Richard Russell's colour recovery process, which uses colour signal information (commonly referred to as chroma dots) embedded in the 16mm black and white film recordings, to recreate the colour part of the original signal. Neither any audio and/ or video extracts nor any tele-snaps exists from the Series 4 episodes Taste of Evil , The Sons and Daughters of Tomorrow , The Chopper and The Shattered Eye . The only remains from these episodes are some production stills and brief summaries of these episodes. Plans were made in 1990s to release two episodes from
3182-543: The episodes from Season 3 Something In the Cellar , Random Quest , Little Black Bag , 1+1=1.5 , The Fosters , Yellow Pill , Target Generation , Get Off My Cloud (all from Season 3) have no "fate" recorded against them in the TVNZ archive files, so it is possible these might still exist somewhere in New Zealand. Some uncertainty still surrounds the fate of the last episodes of Series 4, The Chopper and The Shattered Eye apparently documented as being dispatched to Dubai in
3256-480: The first act, is missing. The fourth series of Out of the Unknown began production in early 1970. Encouraged by the BBC's Head of Plays, Gerald Savory , Bromly and Parkes sought to recast the show as "not straight science fiction, but with a strong horror content, all starting out from a realistic basis". The decision to move towards psychological horror came about partly because of the difficulties involved in finding suitable science fiction scripts, partly because
3330-629: The first and final episodes missing. Of the forty-nine episodes of Out of the Unknown only twenty survive in their entirety, mainly from series one. Until 1978, when the BBC Film and Videotape Library was created as a permanent archive for all its television programmes, the BBC had no central archive. The videotapes and film recordings stored in the BBC's various libraries were often either wiped or discarded for recording new programmes and to free storage space to reduce costs. The BBC Film Library kept only some programmes that were made on film, while
3404-575: The first two seasons of the Second Doctor from which only two complete serials ( The Tomb of the Cybermen and The Enemy of the World ) survive. The missing two episodes of The Invasion have since been reconstructed using animation and released on DVD. The War Games , which was the final serial of the season, and the last of Patrick Troughton's tenure as the Doctor, was also the second longest serial up to that point, spanning 10 episodes – only
3478-533: The fourth series was judged to be a success, the BBC chose not to renew Out of the Unknown for a fifth series. With the exception of the Play for Today spin-off Play for Tomorrow , no regular lengthy science fiction anthology series has been made by a UK broadcaster since Out of the Unknown went off the air (in 1981 Ian Levine planned a 13-part fifth series, but nothing came of it). Of the eleven episodes produced during its final year, only five are known to exist, with
3552-547: The imported Western The Virginian . Series one holds the distinction of being the only series to have its first and final broadcast episodes still in existence. Series three and four are missing both, while series two is missing its final episode. In parallel with preparing for the second series of Out of the Unknown Shubik was producing another anthology series, Thirteen Against Fate , comprising adaptations of short stories by Georges Simenon . To assist her she
3626-496: The move away from hard science fiction – a typical comment was that of Martin J. Pitt, who wrote to the Radio Times that "it will be a pity if the opinions of people like Alan Bromly rob television of the opportunity to present intelligent and exciting science fiction". "To Lay a Ghost" was a particularly controversial production at the time due to its "somewhat questionable" depiction of rape and sexual repression. Although
3700-583: The production team felt that their budgets could not compete with those of 2001: A Space Odyssey or Star Trek (the latter had just begun to be broadcast in the UK at this time), and partly because it was felt that science fiction could not compete with the real-life drama of the Apollo Moon landings then occurring. Another major change for series four was a move away from adapting novels and short stories. Only one episode of series four, "Deathday", based on
3774-434: The role for The Space Pirates . Derrick Sherwin took over as producer from Peter Bryant for The War Games . Season 6 is the most complete of all the Second Doctor's seasons, with only seven episodes missing (compared with thirty-three from Season 4 and eighteen from Season 5 ), none of the season's stories missing in their entirety and only two stories ( The Invasion and The Space Pirates ) incomplete. This compares to
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#17327984618523848-452: The series on VHS, but the plan was shelved. All surviving episodes of Out of the Unknown , as well as reconstructions (the first three– Beach Head , The Naked Sun and The Yellow Pill – were reconstructed using original audio, publicity photos and CGI, while The Uninvited has the surviving audio has been synchronized to a copy of the camera script due to the lack of photographs and The Little Black Bag has some sections reconstructed with
3922-508: The series playing an Ice Warrior . In this, his first appearance, he portrays Lord Slaar in The Seeds of Death . Kevin Stoney makes his second appearance as a villain in The Invasion as Tobias Vaughn. Louise Pajo and Ronald Leigh-Hunt guest star in The Seeds of Death . Terrance Dicks took over from Derrick Sherwin as script editor from The Invasion , with Sherwin resuming
3996-414: The series were "The Machine Stops" and "Level Seven". "The Machine Stops", directed by Philip Saville , was a particularly challenging production, later described by Shubik as "the most complex and technically demanding script I have ever had in my hand" —requiring large and complex sets, including construction of one with a working monorail . The adaptation was met with good reviews ("A haunting film – and
4070-522: The series' most genre-breaking and forward-thinking stories", with the various elements "creepy and frightening" rather than played for camp . While he noted the confusion of where reality ended and the Land of Fiction began and the ambiguous ending that did not seem to affirm if they had escaped it or not, Bahn felt that it had a "weird effect" of strengthening the theme of the danger being the Doctor's ongoing story. In 2010, Charlie Jane Anders of io9 listed
4144-444: The show's black and white era that exists in its original broadcast format. "Level Seven" was adapted by J. B. Priestley and directed by Rudolph Cartier . Priestley's script had begun life as a potential screenplay for a feature film and condensing it down to Out of the Unknown' s standard running time of 50 minutes proved impossible. In the end Shubik convinced the management of the BBC to allow "Level Seven" to run to 60 minutes as
4218-505: The story "a bit of a jumble", and the fact that the serial was elongated by an episode had added padding. Howe and Walker also felt that the story went "downhill" after the "wonderful" first episode. In 2009, Mark Braxton of Radio Times praised the story's "brave" premise and its "delightful" but subtle humour. He also wrote that the inhabitants of the Land of Fiction were "well cast", despite being "middle-class" and "bookish". The A.V. Club reviewer Christopher Bahn described it as "one of
4292-767: The technical problems it involved. When the special effects designer Jack Kine indicated that he had a solution to the technical challenges, the script was brought back into production for series two. Five further adaptations were commissioned: John Rankine 's The World in Silence , Henry Kuttner 's The Eye , Frederik Pohl's Tunnel Under the World and Isaac Asimov's " Satisfaction Guaranteed " and " Reason " (dramatised as "The Prophet"). Three original stories were also commissioned: "Frankenstein Mark II" by Hugh Whitemore , "Second Childhood" by Hugh Leonard and "Walk's End" by William Trevor . In response to Kenneth Tynan 's use of
4366-736: The void outside the TARDIS had been loaned from a previous use in the British science fiction television series Out of the Unknown . Bernard Horsfall later played a Time Lord in The War Games (1969), Taron in Planet of the Daleks (1973) and Chancellor Goth in The Deadly Assassin (1976), all were directed by David Maloney . He also played Arnold Baynes in the audio play Davros . Christopher Robbie appeared in Revenge of
4440-399: The way, the TARDIS experiences a fault in the fluid link. At the insistence of Zoe and Jamie, the Doctor uses an emergency unit that takes the TARDIS into another dimension outside of reality. The TARDIS rematerialises into a spacial void. Both Jamie and Zoe are tempted out into the void by images of their homes being displayed on the TARDIS scanner. After a confrontation with a group of robots,
4514-401: The word " fuck " on the satirical programme BBC-3 Sydney Newman issued directives to his producers regarding language and content. In the case of Out of the Unknown this led to particular attention being paid to the scripts for "Second Childhood" (about reawakening of sexual desire when an elderly man undergoes a rejuvenation process) and "Satisfaction Guaranteed" (about a woman taking
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#17327984618524588-469: Was George Harrison of the Beatles , who can be seen discussing the episode with his bandmate Ringo Starr in the film Let It Be . Scheduled opposite the very popular ITV drama series The Power Game , the series suffered in the ratings and met with mixed reviews. The Daily Express found the series "most erratic", sometimes "wonderfully inventive" but at other times "as silly as a comic strip in
4662-569: Was a science fiction fan and his wide experience of BBC television production proved invaluable to Shubik. By this stage she had found the twelve scripts she needed for the first series: ten episodes were adaptations of stories by John Wyndham (" Time to Rest " and its sequel " No Place Like Earth ", dramatised together as "No Place Like Earth"); Alan Nourse (" The Counterfeit Man "); Isaac Asimov (" The Dead Past " and Sucker Bait ); William Tenn (" Time in Advance "); Ray Bradbury ("The Fox and
4736-969: Was assigned a script editor, initially Rodney Gedye and then, after Gedye left following clashes with Shubik, Michael Imison . As with series one, finding suitable stories for adaptation remained a problem. On her annual visit to New York Shubik placed an advertisement looking for stories in the Science Fiction Writers Association Bulletin. One author who answered the advertisement was Larry Eisenberg , whose stories The Fastest Draw and Too Many Cooks were commissioned. Two further adaptations, of E.M. Forster 's " The Machine Stops " and Mordecai Roshwald 's Level 7 (dramatised as "Level Seven"), were scripts that had been offered to film studios for some years without success. Another script, adapting Colin Kapp 's Lambda 1 , had been commissioned for series one but shelved, owing to
4810-527: Was from Series 2, one episode from Series 3, and five episodes from Series 4, all retained in their original broadcast format ( The Machine Stops in 35 mm telerecording in the Brentford library, and the rest in 625 line colour 2-inch Quadruplex videotape ). Recovery of the missing episodes had often been in the form of clips, either audio or video. The recovered visual clips from series 3 and 4 were in black and white since they were from 16 mm t/r of
4884-586: Was hurriedly replaced by Hamish Wilson for episode 2. This also meant that a scene had to quickly be written to explain Jamie's sudden change in appearance. On both occasions before Jamie gets turned into a cut-out, he shouts, "creag an tuire". Frazer Hines joked on the DVD commentary that this is Scottish Gaelic for " vodka and tonic ". It is close to the MacLaren clan's slogan " Creag an tuirc " ("the rock of
4958-406: Was implemented, essentially a green and orange colourisation of the original. This was created when colourisation was a relatively uncommon process, particularly for television, so the results of each image vary. Series three, the first series of Out of the Unknown to be made in colour, was broadcast on Wednesday nights beginning on 7 January 1969 with "Immortality, Inc." One viewer of this episode
5032-425: Was in the middle of her third visit to New York in early 1967 when she received a call from Sydney Newman offering her the opportunity to co-produce, with Graeme McDonald, BBC1's most prestigious drama slot, The Wednesday Play . Shubik accepted the new post, but insisted that she be given time to commission a full third series of Out of the Unknown scripts before moving on to The Wednesday Play and handing Out of
5106-404: Was limited. The wiping policy officially came to an end in 1978, when the means to further exploit programmes by taking advantage of the new market for home VCRs started to become apparent. The prevailing view had also begun to shift toward the attitude that archive programmes should, in any case, be preserved for posterity and historical and cultural reasons. The BBC Film Library was turned into
5180-404: Was mixed, but improved as the series went on. "Andover and the Android" ("It's not until intelligence, humour and gaiety break into television that you notice what tasteless pap we've been living on" – Daily Mail ) and "Some Lapse of Time" ("It was not surprising to hear from Late Night Line Up that there had been many complimentary telephone calls after the play [...] it left the viewer with
5254-400: Was mostly abandoned in the final year in favour of horror-fantasy stories, with only one story based around science-fiction. Many videotapes of episodes were wiped in the early 1970s, as was standard procedure at the time. A large number of episodes are still missing, although some have resurfaced: for example, " Level Seven ", an episode in series two originally broadcast on 27 October 1966,
5328-520: Was originally composed of four episodes, but the preceding serial, The Dominators , was reduced from six to five episodes. This resulted in a sparse first episode being written, as they had to use the limited budget of the replaced episode. This stretching of the story also resulted in the first four episodes only running between 19 and 22 minutes in length, and Episode 5 being the shortest Doctor Who episode ever at slightly over 18 minutes. During production, actor Frazer Hines contracted chickenpox and
5402-454: Was returned to the BBC from the archives of a European broadcaster in January 2006. Irene Shubik had been a science fiction fan since she was at university. In 1961 she suggested to Sydney Newman , then head of the drama department of ABC Television , an ITV franchise contractor, that the company create a science fiction version of Armchair Theatre . This became Out of this World ,
5476-496: Was settled on. The title music was composed by Norman Kay and the title sequence was created by Bernard Lodge . It was intended from an early stage that, as with Boris Karloff on Out of this World , each story would be introduced by a regular host. Christopher Lee and Vincent Price were approached, but neither was available and the idea was dropped. The opening title sequence was designed by Bernard Lodge, using stock shots and specially created optical illusion patterns filmed on
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