Hello there!

This preview is intended as a sampler of the book that’s due to bereleased in September.

It can be pre-ordered at www.miwk.com

The book is larger than our normal range (Royal size) and over 400pages, illustrated throughout.

Here we have two entries from the episode guide section. The book isstill being typeset and a final proof is yet to be done (yes, we’re VERYclose to our deadline!).

What you see here is by no means final and is presented as close to ataster of the final book as we can at this stage.

Miwk will be present at Regenerations September 2012 in Swansea,Dimensions November 2012 in Newcastle and the Independent CultPublisher’s Expo in October 2012. Justyce Served will be available atall these events.

You can keep up to date with Miwk releases by following us on Twitterand Facebook, or keeping an eye on our website.

Thanks for your support, and we hope you enjoy this sampler.

p u b l i s h i n g

www.miwkpublishing.com

A Small Start With A Big Finish

JUSTYCE SERVED

Alun Harris and Matthew West

Justyce Served : A Small Start With A Big Finish

This edition first published September 2012 by Miwk Publishing Ltd.Miwk Publishing, 12 Marbles Way, Tadworth, Surrey KT20 5LW

ISBN 978-1-908630-03-2

Copyright © Miwk Publishing Ltd 2012

The rights of Alun Harris and Matthew West to be identified as the authors of this work havebeen asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced intoa retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical,photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the publisher.Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable tocriminal prosecution and civil claim for damages

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Cover and book design by Robert Hammond. Cover cassette artwork by Tim Keable.

Typeset in Garamond and Trajan Pro.

Printed and bound in the United Kingdom by the MPG Books Group, Bodmin and King's Lynn.

Paper stock used is natural, recyclable and made from wood grown in sustainable forests. Themanufacturing processes conform to environmental regulations.

This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not be, by way of trade or otherwise, belent, re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any formof binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar conditionincluding this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

www.miwkpublishing.comThis product was lovingly Miwk made.

5

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to extend their thanks and appreciation to the following people for theirinvaluable assistance and contributions:

Jim Mortimore, for being the catalyst that got this book off the ground, without his encouragementit may never have happened and his Big Green Box is now the stuff of legend. His kleptomaniacalOCD with paperwork has seen this book illustrated beautifully.

John Ainsworth, for his enthusiasm and mediation.

Gary Russell for seeking me out in Swansea and being so generous with his time on his birthday ofall days!

Nick Briggs for sparing his time and for being our Doctor.

Bill Baggs without whom …

Tim Keable, for the stunning new cover art which he provided so quickly, and for his lovelyillustrations.

The following for dredging their memories so willingly and so helpfully: Nigel Fairs, Alistair Lock,Steve Wickham, Linda Baker, Steve Bowkett, Andy Lane, Richard Marson, Patricia Merrick, NickLayton, Chris Corney, Paul Lunn, Nabil Shaban, Heather Tracy, Anthony Townsend, Nigel Peever,Deborah Marson, Matthew Morgan, Sandra Fleck, Mark Ayres, Shaun Ley, Fleur Whitlock, JohnRyan, Marc Platt, Mike Collins, Stephen Payne, David McMaster, David Banks, Helen Stirling,Steve Berry, Amanda Hurwitz and Lorraine Croft.

For their assistance in other things: Steve Roberts, Ed Stradling, Robin Prichard, RobertHammond for his stunning, beautiful design, Andy Davidson, Phil Ware, Stephen Broome, GlennHarrison, Florence Vulture (Fleur, you owe me a fiver), Richard Molesworth, Barry Piggot, KevinDavies, Andrew Rubio, Jonathan Potter, Alan Hayes, Alan Stevens, Paul Hanley, Gary Gillatt,the lovely chaps at Panini, specifically Doctor Who Magazine, Richard Bignell, Barry Delve, MattJones, Big Finish Productions and all their merry wizards, Andrew Trowbridge, Nick Goodman,Jan Vincent-Rudzki, Rob Mammone, Colin Brockhurst, Andy Swinden and all at Galaxy 4, AlexMallinson, Paul Spragg and Steven Duckworth.

We owe a massive debt to Jeremy Rayner (www.justyce.org) for allowing us to make use of theamazing work he’d already done, there’s a lot more on his website than can be found in this book.

Matt West would like to dedicate this book to: Jo West, for her unending patience, tolerance andlove and to Torie for paying for half the plays and labelling them all so neatly.

Alun Harris would like to dedicate this book to: Colin Brockhurst, for getting me into all of thisproperly in the first place, and to Bryan, Shauno and Emma: the three best friends a man could have.

Audio Visuals On-Record – Sides A & B

A note about pseudomyns

SEASON 1

SPACE WAIL

THE TIME RAVAGERS

CONNECTION 13

CONGLOMERATE

CLOUD OF FEAR

SHADOW WORLD

Season One Overview

SEASON 2

MAENAD

THE MUTANT PHASE

DESTRUCTOR CONTRACT

VILGRETH

THE TRILEXIA THREAT

MINUET IN HELL

BLOOD CIRCUIT

Season Two Overview

SEASON 3

SECOND SOLUTION

SECRET OF NEMATODA

ENCLAVE IRRELATIVE

MORE THAN A MESSIAH

SWORD OF ORION

CARNY

PLANET OF LIES

Season Three Overview

Contents

SEASON 4

DEADFALL

REQUIEM

CUDDLESOME

ENDURANCE

MYTHOS

TRUMAN’S EXCELLENT ADVENTURE

SUBTERFUGE

GEOPATH

JUSTYCE

Season Four Overview

SEASON 5

MORE FROM AUDIO VISUALS

BURNOUT

COVER ART

SCARECROW CITY

SCRIPTS UNMADE & DRAFTS UNUSED

COMIC STRIPS

PISCES

BBV

VIRGIN’S NEW ADVENTURES

BIG FINISH

Afterword by Jim Mortimore

Contents

22

As anyone who has heard the plays will know; or indeed anyone who doesn’t will soon find out, theAudio Visuals team members frequently employed pseudonyms when making the plays.

Rather than rake over these pseudonyms in each entry we instead provide a key here for all thepseudonyms used during the run. There’s a very good chance we may have missed a few, but we’vedone our best.

BILL BAGGS JOHN VANCEBILL FRENCH

NICHOLAS BRIGGS ALAN LOVEDALEARTHUR WALLISPATRICK TRETHUISAMUEL FLINTERICA GALLOWAYDAVID SAX

GARY RUSSELL ANTHONY DEXTERWARREN MARTYN

NIGEL FAIRS NEIL DOUGLAS

JIM MORTIMORE ED TAYLORJONATHAN BOOTHROYD

JOHN AINSWORTH TIMOTHY HOLBROOKE*

HEATHER BARKER TRACY SHARPE

DEBORAH MARSON EMMA LINDLEY

RICHARD MARSON CHRISTOPHER RHYS

*In fact Timothy Holbrooke, credited as the author of The Trilexia Threat is an amalgam of Ainsworth, Laytonand Briggs.

It’s also worth bearing in mind the lengths to which these aliases were kept real, with Arthur Wallisactually being interviewed during the On-Tape section of Minuet in Hell. In fact Arthur Wallis ledto some embarrassment for Jim Mortimore in the early days:

“No-one told me that Nick Briggs had a million pseudonyms for ages, because I was very fondof saying how much I liked Arthur Wallis’ scripts, and always wanted to meet him, to everyone’samusement!” Jim Mortimore

a note regarding

pseudonyms

“When we finally revealed to Jim that I was Arthur Wallis Jim still didn’t get it. We were saying“Arthur Wallis is here!” and he was looking around the pub saying “Where?” and he justwouldn’t believe me and I had to do the voice to convince him. It’s actually just my badimpression of Terrance Dicks.” Nicholas Briggs

Briggs’ alter-egos crop in his later work as well, notably in the BBV film he scripted; The AirzoneSolution where Briggs himself plays Sam Flint and Jon Pertwee takes on the role of Oliver Trethewey,a minor corruption of “Trethui”. But there was method in his schizophrenic nom de plumes:

“I felt that the Arthur Wallis stuff was more quirky and potentially surreal, whereas SamuelFlint was action and adventure through and through. The joke came when Subterfuge waswritten by Arthur and Samuel, because I felt the story borrowed from both approaches. I thinkI wanted both their names in the credits, because, at that time, Gary was only going to let mewrite one story! After that, I got too egotistical to hide my own name.” Nicholas Briggs (interviewed by Jeremy Rayner)

“The reason I used pseudonums for things, and this has been born out of my experience withBig Finish, is that if I revealed I was doing so much people would find fault with the otherthings I was doing because they wouldn’t think I could’ve concentrated on all those things atonce, and that certainly happened with Big Finish. Once you become ubiquitous people startto find that a reason to criticise your work. Where’s the weak link? Where’s the thing he’s notgood at?” Nicholas Briggs

Finally, for ease of reference to anyone that didn’t bother reading the intros, from now on HeatherTracy is quoted by her maiden name Heather Barker.

Ad from Celestial Toyroom, February 1985

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1 34

5 6

2

7 8 9

1 Dominic May

2 Robbie Moubert

3 Stephen Payne

4 Richard Marson5 Chris Corney (holding a manual outflow

pipe from a Hoover twin tub washing machine)

6 Bill Baggs

7 Sally Baggs

8 Graham Woods

9 Marilyn Layton

THE SPACE WAIL

27

Stephen PayneRichard MarsonSally BaggsSally BaggsDominic MayRobert MoubertGraham Woods Marilyn LaytonMarilyn LaytonChris CorneyGary RussellMichael WisherNick Layton, Bill French

Warren Martyn Brian MarshallBrian MarshallNick Layton, Chris CorneyGary RussellNick LaytonWilliam Baggs

The DoctorGregory HolmesNadiaAllanahCommander GrycJnr Commander LotinNitonSukkiBABEDag SolomonGuard JobaThe JudgeGuards

ScriptMusicSeries ThemeEditors

DirectorCover ArtProducer

On Homeworld, a judge passes sentence on a gang of criminals lead by Niton. Their crimes, toomany to mention, can only be dealt with by one penalty: death. They are to be transported on aprison ship to the outer colonies where they will be executed.Niton, his family (wife Sukki, daughters Allanah and Nadia) plan with their five comrades, led byDag Solomon, to escape. They manage it, but the four unnamed gang members are gunned downand the survivors are recaptured.On Earth, the TARDIS materialises on a school playing field. The Doctor meets Greg Holmes, aseventeen year old student who is looking for a lost football. They briefly talk. The Doctor thenwanders off.On board the prison ship Despair things are not going to plan. The ship’s computer, BABE, killsguard Joba and drains his mind. First officer Lotin finds the body.Back on Earth the Doctor has returned from his wander, having realised he’s erred with thecoordinates in his bid to see some quality cricket, and has now managed to lose the TARDIS. Hebumps into Greg who offers to help him look for it. When they find it, and the Doctor tells Gregjust what it can do, Greg refuses to believe him. The Doctor offers him a short trip as proof. Greg

Episode One (27’20”)

28

asks to be taken to the courtyard, and they dematerialise. Missing the courtyard by some distancethey land on the Prison Ship Despair and decide to investigate.BABE, now behaving strangely, informs Commander Gryc that there are intruders on board. Grycand Lotin set off to locate their intruders and quickly find the Doctor and Greg, swiftly accusingthem of sabotage and the death of Joba. The Doctor protests his innocence, but the sadistic Lotinrefuses to believe him, threatening to use the mind drain. Greg is mystified by the term, but theDoctor explains that computer would drain their minds and upload them to a central computerbased elsewhere.Niton and his family somehow escape their cell and gain access to BABE. Their plan is to takecontrol of the ship. BABE’s plan is rather different: it intends to drain their minds and it does,killing all bar Nadia in the process who manages to escape just in the nick of time.Hearing the death screams of the family, the Doctor runs off to help them. Gryc and Lotin shootat him…

They miss. Greg suggests they leave, but the Doctor is concerned by the screams. They meet Nadiawho tells them what has happened. She runs off and the Doctor and Greg find their way to centralcontrol and the bodies. They are swiftly discovered by Gryc and Lotin. Just as the Doctor is accusedof more murders, BABE comes online and explains what is happening. It transpires that the methodof execution Homeworld has chosen is to drain the minds of their prisoners and then blow up theships transporting them. As BABE waxes lyrical about its abilities, revealing that it freed theprisoners in order to drain them, even claiming to be Creation itself, the Doctor realises thecomputer has been corrupted by the criminal minds it has amassed. He also realises that Gryc hasalready been brain drained, and is merely a walking corpse reanimated by BABE. As BABE tries todrain the Doctor, Greg and Lotin, the Doctor manages to briefly deactivate the computer. They flee,just as BABE comes back online and begins to resurrect more of the walking dead.Back at the TARDIS the Doctor and Greg find Nadia. After a discussion on morality the Doctorrealises BABE cannot be allowed to survive. He must shut down the insane computer. He arrivesjust as BABE kills Dag Solomon and Lotin. He urges Greg and Nadia to return to the TARDIS.Realising that its plan has failed, BABE decides to self-destruct. The Doctor reverses the polarityso that the ensuing explosions will feedback and destroy the master computer on Homeworld. Hereturns to the TARDIS just in time, and they watch as BABE is destroyed. They hear thereverberation of BABE’s destruction, caused by the Doctor’s sabotage which destroys the mastercomputer on Homeworld. Unfortunately, the death of the computer blows up the core of the planetkilling everyone on it.Greg decides to stay with the Doctor rather than going back to school. With nowhere else to go,Nadia decides to stay too. The Doctor offers to take them on holiday to Cassiopeia.

Episode Two (17’11”)

29

Notes

n Nadia mentions the destruction of Homeworld in the next two stories. No other references tothe story are ever made.

n Audio Visuals are remarkable amid fan productions for making very little use of continuityreferences, a direct reaction to the attitude taken by the TV production team. The Space Wail istypical in that other than the Doctor and TARDIS (and the Doctor being a Time Lord) the solecontinuity references to the TV series are a passing mention of the Eye of Orion and the Doctorreversing the polarity. (Although the TARDIS hum, scanner noise and materialisation anddematerialisation sound effects are spot on.)

n An impressive body count for the first Audio Visuals story. It opens with a death sentence, takesin ten deaths during the running time (Gryc dies off-mic) and ends with the loss of, presumably,several billion people. The production team would continue as they began.

n Greg has 9 ‘O’-Levels.n The sound effects for the prison guards’ lasers are Gallifreyan stasers.n Later copies of this tape, and Connection 13, feature an introduction from Nicholas Briggs

explaining the theft of master tapes and the quality of the audio:

“What you are about to hear is the first Audio Adventure in Time and Space. It was recordedin the summer of 1984 by a group of Doctor Who fans. Indeed, its cast contains some of theleading lights of British Doctor Who fandom. DWAS founder member Stephen Payne, noweditor of Starburst magazine, plays the Doctor. Doctor Who Monthly writers Gary Russell andRichard Marson also feature, along with DWAS executive members Robbie Moubert andDominic May. The whole venture of The Space Wail was embarked upon as both fun and anexperiment. An experiment to see what people thought of Doctor Who audio drama. Theresponse was surprisingly enthusiastic and lead to a whole series of plays. [Except from Planetof Lies]. In late 1986 a number of master tapes were stolen from Audio Visuals. Most of themwere remixed, but the two early plays The Space Wail and Connection 13 were not because oftechnical difficulties. As a result of this and because of our feelings about the primitiveproduction values of the two plays The Space Wail and Connection 13 were withdrawn fromsale. However, due to popular demand, we have rereleased the plays. What you will hear is thecopy of a second generation master recording. In all honesty the sound quality isn’t very good.Nevertheless we hope you will enjoy the somewhat imperfect results of our earliest efforts.”Nicholas Briggs (Introduction to The Space Wail remixed re-release)

Dialogue to Rewind For

BABE: This may cause you pain. For that I apologise in advance.

GREG: You never know, maybe somewhere out there there’s a race of aliens but instead of littlegreen men with two heads from Mars they’re little round footballs from Saturn. For themoment though I’d be grateful for finding a white and black one from Courtsfield SportsHall.

30

In Their Own Words

casting the Doctor …

“I had no idea what I was doing casting Stephen Payne as the Doctor. You have to remember thatI was just 17 back then and I made a fair few mistakes. In retrospect it was a huge learningexperience for me.”Bill Baggs (interviewed by Jeremy Rayner)

“I’d done some radio work before for BBC shows that wanted to talk about TV and that, so Iwas fairly comfortable with a microphone, but I much prefer to be behind the scenes if possible.” Stephen Payne

“I couldn’t stand it when Bill would get someone involved who was just absolutely useless. Iremember the first play we did, just thinking it was a disaster He’d sweet-talked and charmedStephen Payne into being the Doctor, and I understand the reason he’d done that; he wantedsomeone who was older and a bit quirky, and Stephen was quite eccentric in his way, and hehadn’t started his business at that point [Visual Imagination], he was into photography andthings. He was just seen as an older figure and seemed to be what Bill wanted but Bill neverthought to get him to read anything. And Steve really wasn’t looking to do it, he had to be reallyheavily persuaded to do it, and in the end I think he was partly persuaded because Bill smiledhis pearly smile at him. But it was fairly obvious right from the first line that Steve was to actingwhat myxomatosis was to rabbits, it was just a disaster” Richard Marson

“Steve was undecided about doing it, he was no actor, he had no ambitions to be an actor andI think he was as bit perplexed as to why he’d even been asked. My recollection was that at thetime Bill felt that it would be good to have a “known name” and at the time Steve had helpedto set up the DWAS. I thought Bill’s theory was nonsense, but that was his choice. I rememberSteve asking me if he should do it and I said yes, it’d be good fun. He wasn’t very good; he didn’tthink he was good. I don’t think he was particularly sorry he wasn’t asked to do another one.”John Ainsworth

“I was discussing this with Jan Vincent-Rudzki the other night because I have a feeling he wasasked first but he doesn’t remember it that way. Jan was the DWAS president and I was the co-ordinator so that’s my memory as to why I was asked. I don’t think I was chosen particularly formy acting skills or anything like that – it was just a question of going along and doing it.” Stephen Payne

“I didn’t really think it would go anywhere, but Bill was determined. He didn’t think “Oh we’vegot a dire Doctor” he just said he’d recast him. I do remember laughing at the time at how he

31

very tactfully told Steve he didn’t want to keep him on. I think if he’d phoned Steve up andsaid “That was pretty awful wasn’t it? Let’s not go there again”, Steve would’ve agreed and thatwould’ve been the end of it. But Bill had that natural instinct to sort of schmooze, so he charmedhis way out of it and suddenly Nick was with us.Nick is a proper actor and he’d been to dramaschool and he has a lovely voice. He’s made thathis stock in trade.”Richard Marson

“Nick was much more suitable than me because Iwas so far away that if they needed a line redoingit was a huge trek. Nick was an actor. He was farbetter. It was fun to do – I wasn’t that reluctantto do The Space Wail but I wasn’t particularlykeen to do any more.” Stephen Payne

“I remember it wasn’t done as I’d have liked so Iwas pretty reluctant to do any more. I wasn’tterribly impressed with the production andwould’ve preferred the opportunity to read thescript beforehand. But also I was already heavily committed with DWAS and was teaching, andif you’ve ever done any teaching you know you end up with an awful lot of work outside of yournormal hours, I just didn’t have time to travel to Southampton to do another one.” Stephen Payne

Companions …

“I thought Greg, the character, like all Doctor Who companions, wasn’t really a character at all.They were just there to ask questions. They used to fall into two categories. They were eitherpermanently stroppy with the Doctor or they were wide-eyed innocents. I was obviously of thestroppy variety, and that’s quite difficult to do as a boy.”Richard Marson

“I wanted to write nice people. I wanted a Doctor and companion that were a sort of antithesisto what was on television at the time. I really wanted a Doctor and companion that liked eachother. I certainly didn’t want Nadia to carry on as a companion. The family in that were in therefor whatever reason, but it was Bill’s sister so she had to carry on. She’d never acted, didn’t wantto act, had no interest in acting. It was so obvious on the day of recording The Space Wail thatshe was going to die in Connection 13!”Gary Russell

Stephen Payne © Kevin Jon Davies

“William told me I was in the play. I’m not a fan of DoctorWho. It wasn’t very well organised for one thing. The twoparts I played, Nadia and Allanah, I don’t think anyonereally knew what sort of people they were or how theyshould be played.” Sally Baggs (interviewed by John Ryan for Zero Room)

“Bill got his sister, Sally, to play the companion Nadia.Again she had one of those voices that just didn’t work forwhat we were doing. It wasn’t her fault; she was just hissister and got roped in. She didn’t like Doctor Whoparticularly. My sister got roped into it too. I think most ofthe girls who got dragged into it in those days were kindlyindulging their brothers or friends, and they were probablysquirming a bit.” Richard Marson

writing the script …

“It was probably the first thing of mine anyone would pay to hear. I’d done things at school andwhen I was about eleven my friend Jon Petter and I got a cassette player and we decided we’drecord an audio play between the two of us, and then my brother got involved and rewrote thescript. I’d never written anything of that length or seriousness before. I’d written fiction formyself. We had the Aim Club at school, just like Target had had The Target Club. Me and sixothers would write Doctor Who novels, do covers and bind them which we did for years. TheSpace Wail was my first thing that others would see or hear.“ Gary Russell

“I’ve been sitting in on some of the editing sessions done by Nick Layton and it’s very interestingto hear how it’s all shaping up, it’s also very strange to hear it without all the effects. Because ofthe way it’s recorded, simple things like doors opening and closing aren’t even done at the time.So really you’ve just got a bare soundtrack there of people talking. It’s really quite hard to see howthe story’s progressing when you hear it like that. I think there are a few technical problemswith recordings, but I think I got a better idea of what the whole thing was like when I read thescript. I think it gets a bit lost toward the end; it should’ve ended quite sooner. Twenty minutesin things are going very well and you think the end is nigh, BABE’s going to suffer whatever fateshe may suffer. But that doesn’t happen, suddenly you get a lot of running in and out of theTARDIS and up and door corridors and that’s great for television, but for radio or audio it’smore difficult to follow. All-in-all I’d say it’s an experimental script. It may sound patronising;I don’t mean it that way, but a good first go. Better than one would’ve expected.” Nicholas Briggs (interviewed by John Ryan for Zero Room)

“There’s a character in there called Gryc who’s solely there for that “Beware Grycs bearing gifts

32

Sally Baggs © Nick Layton

line” in fact so much of the play may have stemmed from that one line.”Gary Russell

“The computer, BABE, I came up with very early on. I can even picture now how I wanted theface to look, all pixelated on a big screen. The idea of the “space wail” meant I had to shoe-hornin something sonic.”Gary Russell

the recording

“My role on The Space Wail; I helped with the actual recording. We choose a location, usuallyChris Corney’s living room; we set up the equipment which consists of a reel-to-reel, linkedwith a mixer deck which allows so many inputs to go into the mixer desk, and then two outputsto reel-to-reel. This has to be set up for every scene. I supervise the recording, checking levels.The first thing we do is record the actors and then take away our tape with all the dialogue, mixit down onto what’s called a Portastudio, which is a four track portable studio. On the finalmaster tape, one track could be for the dialogue, another track could be for the effects and infact two tracks for music because you want stereo music. From that you don’t just leave it there,you mix it down onto a reel-to-reel to get the final mix down article, some levels will needchanging even at that late stage in the production.” Nick Layton (interviewed by John Ryan for Zero Room)

“It was Gary’s script wasn’t it? I seem to remember cringing at some of the words. I don’t thinkI saw it beforehand. I’m pretty sure I drove down to Southampton with Richard Marson andwe were shown the scripts for the first time and asked to read it. There was no time to readahead, digest it and take in what it was all about. I remember one of Richard’s lines clearly:“Here ball-y, ball-y, ball-y” – it was all a bit ramshackle from what I remember.” Stephen Payne

the cast

“Bill Baggs came to see an amateur production I was involved in, we had a chat afterwards andhe asked if I’d like to be in one of his plays. I didn’t really want to get involved to begin with. Itwould be childish and unprofessional, not because it was Doctor Who but because it was asDoctor Who script written by an amateur. In amateur dramatics I’ve only ever playedprofessional scripts and I suppose it frightened me. I kept backing off of it. I was caught in a weakmoment and said yes. I liked the script, but I particularly liked BABE.” Marilyn Layton (interviewed by John Ryan for Zero Room)

“I was initially apprehensive about acting in Audio Visuals as I had no acting ability at all, andthere’s me saying Stephen [Payne] couldn’t act. But I was persuaded somehow, it probablyinvolved chocolate. I was shy then which gradually lessened as I got to know people.” Chris M. Corney

33

“I played Suki and I played BABE. BABE’s a computer, Brainwave Absorption BiologicalExperiment. She was a deliciously nasty piece of work and lots of fun, lots of scope. They useda vocoder, it breaks up sound so that you get a funny effect on your voice.” Marilyn Layton (interviewed by John Ryan for Zero Room)

selling the plays

“We had dealers’ tables at most conventions where we’d meet regular fans and encourage newones. My shabby, but direct approach was much improved by John Ainsworth and Paul Lunn.They built a display unit to put the cassette tapes on. We would always take a portable cassetterecorder to these events and get prospective purchasers to listen to the latest productionstempting them to part with the cash. I think The Space Wail sold well, possibly in excess of two-thousand copies.” Bill Baggs (interviewed by Jeremy Rayner)

Gary Russell, Richard Marson, and Stephen Payne during recording of The Space Wail in Chris Corney's back garden.

82

Nicholas BriggsGary RussellLiz KnightTim BeckerlegNadir MeerzaPaul CleverlyNigel DaviesDavid Sax, Bill French

Nick BriggsSamuel FlintNick LaytonJim MortimoreNick LaytonWilliam Baggs

The DoctorGreg HolmesRiaPtolemDeloresLeumClerkDaleks/AdditionalVoices

Editing & DirectingWriterRecordingMusicCover ArtProducer

A spaceship leaves hyperspace at its destination, the planet Analyas 7. But the planet has gone. Theship is contacted by Analyas control who confirm its identity. With the correct codes transmitted,the crew are amazed when the planet appears before them.After the ship has landed, Delores, a native of Perseus Major, disembarks. She meets a local, Leum,who offers her guidance. She doesn’t seem to know why she is there, but she was certain she had tocome. Leum takes her to the settlement centre. She hands over her biochem analysis papers and isassigned 56 Lime Tree Court as her new home. Leum is impressed: it’s a prestigious address. Heoffers to take her there.On board the TARDIS, Greg is feeling restless: “It’s strange. I feel as though I should be doingsomething, but I can’t remember what.” As Ria has been learning how the console works, and hasfound the direction fixer (a device the Doctor seldom uses because it takes all the fun out of travel)the Doctor decides to cheer Greg up by letting him type in random co-ordinates (“The illusion offree will becomes reality,” says the Doctor). They arrive on a beautiful planet, surrounded bycountryside. Greg instantly starts to feel better. Ria spots a city in the distance and the Doctoroffers to make a flask of tea so that they can go for a ramble. He and Ria head back into the TARDIS.Delores is thrilled with her lovely new home. “Your biochem analysis must have been top notch,”notes Leum. But she still doesn’t know what she’s supposed to do. Leum assures her that she willdo better than her predecessor, who lasted barely a week…When the Doctor and Ria leave the TARDIS they discover that Greg has disappeared. They beginto look for him.Greg is being given a lift to the city by Leum. Leum asks many questions: does he have his biochem

Episode One (23’50”)

THE MUTANT PHASE

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analysis? How did he get there? When Greg mentions the Doctor and the TARDIS it transpiresthat they are being monitored. The Dalek monitoring them is surprised. “The Doctor is a knownsaboteur of Dalek operations. His interference in the Temperos Project endangered the purificationof the Dalek race. His presence cannot be tolerated.”Leum discusses Delores with Ptolem, a scientist. Delores isn’t doing very well after all. Ptolemorders him to prepare her deportation papers.While looking for Greg, Ria and the Doctor meet Leum. He offers to take them to Greg. Theyboard his craft.Delores is informed that “the potential of your biochem analysis has not been realised by furtherexploration of your genetic properties.” Weak and confused, she is alarmed when her house key istaken from her. She is to be deported.Greg is given his new home: 56 Lime Tree Court.As Ria and the Doctor fly over the city the Doctor notices how busy the place is. Ria notices howmany of the people there look exactly like Leum. As they land at the government offices, Leumexplains that he is a clone. His previously friendly manner quickly disappears. Ria is taken to theterminus where she is questioned, and having refused to answer questions she is told that she will berelocated.Prodding the Doctor in the back, Leum takes him to the Daleks. “You are the Doctor?” theydemand. “No,” replies the Doctor.“You are lying.” “Yes.”The Dalek execution squad exterminates the Doctor.

Ptolem arrives with instructions from the Dalek Emperor, angry that the Doctor is dead. Ptolemhas direct authority from the Emperor and the Emperor, displeased with the Doctor’s death, executesthe Dalek responsible for giving the order to exterminate him. Ptolem asks for the Doctor’s bodyto be transported back to Skaro.Ria comes to the aid of a tired-looking woman as they board their transport ship. The woman isDelores. Delores tells Ria that she is a failure, though she isn’t sure why she failed. She isn’t even surewhy she came to Analyas 7 in the first place; she just had to be there, much as Greg did.

Episode TWO (24’41”)

Original strip artwork by Tim Keable

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Greg arrives for his first day at work. His biochem analysis is quite remarkable and he is given anintelligence test. The results are given to Ptolem who is impressed by Greg’s readings: “They indicatea genetic suitability unparalleled by any offworld immigrants.”Ria’s ship docks and the passengers are offloaded into a death camp run by the Leum clones. Riademands to see the governor and is taken, by the Leums, to a Dalek. Ria insists that she shouldn’tbe there, but the Dalek is aware of her friendship with the Doctor. It tells her that he has beenexterminated and that she will be “utilised as a source of short-term immuniser.”Greg is taken to Ptolem who tells him that he is from Skaro. He says Greg has a lot of potential forhelping the universe. He has an “immunity to a disease which might engulf every living being.” “I really am some sort of galactic penicillin,” says Greg as Ptolem takes him to Skaro.Ria is taken back to her fellow prisoners, discovering that they are being individually attached to adevice in the cell, a device which seems to be devastating them. She insists that they escape.On Skaro, Daleks report to each other: The Thal scientist, Ptolem, has a specimen of the immunity.The Dalek city is under siege and infestation on all levels is increasing. The immunity is neededimmediately.Ria tries to keep Delores conscious, telling her of her encounter with the “governor”. She instinctivelyknows that the Doctor is not dead and will be able to help. The machine they are attached to seemsto be draining their life force, but Ria has an idea …Ptolem leads Greg through a time tunnel to Skaro. The Dalek city is in poor condition and Ptolemrealises they don’t have much time. On the way to his laboratory they are attacked by a huge worm.Ptolem kills it.Ria is attached to the machine. Her bizarre genetic makeup causes the machine to explode and thesurviving prisoners flee, heading for the ship. The Dalek security team is in quarantine and unableto stop them. The ship takes off with Ria as the pilot. They head back to the capital of Analyas 7.As Ptolem shows Greg his lab he explains that the worm is a symptom of the disease Greg is goingto cure. Greg sees a Dalek on a monitor and realises things are very wrong. The Daleks insist Ptolemproceed with all haste, but Greg refuses to work with Ptolem. “Something is on the brink ofengulfing the universe... It’s something far worse than the Daleks,” explains Ptolem as the Doctorappears. It transpires that the Leum clone who prodded him had injected him with a formula thatwould boost his natural defences against the extermination ray. All of the Leums are cloned fromPtolem’s cells. The Doctor is to be Ptolem’s counterplot against the Daleks. Branded a traitor byhis Thal brothers, Ptolem has no choice but to help the Daleks fight against the disease affectingthem and the Doctor will help him.In Dalek control, reports are not good. “City bulkhead erosion irreversible. Infestationunstoppable,” reports a Dalek. “Incidents of Dalek infection increasing beyond medical control.” Asa Dalek gives further reports it begins to malfunction. “This unit is infected.” As the Dalek beginsto mutate it screeches “the mutant phase” before a transformation of some kind takes place…

The other Daleks exterminate their colleague as the Kaled creature inside mutates horribly, a giantworm bursting through the Dalek casing. At the same time, Ptolem is showing the Doctor and Greg

Episode three (24’57”)

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what has been happening. The Daleks’ genetic makeup is unstable and their tampering, such asthat on Temperos, has caused a further mutation. The Kaled mutants are turning into giant worms,but these are only the larval stage of a further development: giant flying insects. The insects aredeadly and operate only on instinct. An infestation of them would damage a world rapidly, andthey are capable of flight through space. Immunisation can keep the infection at bay, but the Daleksneed a more permanent solution, one Greg will be able to provide. Ptolem’s fear is that having curedthe disease they will use Greg to make themselves invincible, which is why he needs the Doctor’s help.The Doctor is concerned by the results the experiments will have on Greg, and Ptolem confesses thathe does not know what will happen. Greg insists that he help, and the Doctor is sent back to Analyas7 by Ptolem to stop the Daleks there. As the Doctor leaves, the Daleks communicate with Ptolem,urging him to work faster as his laboratory is now in danger of infestation.Ria’s ship runs out of fuel and she manages to land safely on the government building just in time.The Daleks recall a distant security patrol, Security Squad 9, to the capital as Ria and her comradeshead inside. For reinforcements, the Daleks send in the clones. At the same time the Doctor arrivesin the government building and uses a map Ptolem gave him to locate the genetic code transmitter.Ria and her mob are ready to run amok, but instead they run into the Doctor. Monitoring theirmovements, the Daleks direct the clones to their position. There is a firefight just as the Doctor andhis friends arrive at the genetic code transmitter room. They barricade themselves in.The genetic code transmitter has been sending impulses into the universe, influencing people suchas Greg and Delores to come to Analyas 7. The Doctor plans to shut it down just as the Leumsbreak in. The Doctor uses his knowledge of Ptolem to convince the Leums that they should aid himrather than the Daleks: “Your loyalty is to Ptolem. Obey him.” The Leums agree to help.Concerned by the behaviour of the clones the Daleks send in a different group of clones, the scientistLeums. One of them argues with the security Leum in charge and then pretends to go along withhim. He goes in to help the Doctor. Security Squad 9 arrives in the city.The Doctor is adjusting the genetic code transmitter to turn it against the Daleks. The Leumscientist offers his assistance and goes to locate some tools. As he leaves, the security Leum says thathe does not trust him. The scientific Leums have always been different to the others.Greg feels “a bit light-headed”. He’s being probed to isolate his genetic makeup. He drifts in and outof lucid consciousness. He feels that this is “only the beginning.”Scientist Leum arrives at Dalek control to inform them that Ptolem is now working against them,as are his security clones. The Daleks decide to send the scientist back, “but first we must prepareyou”. They inform Skaro of the developments.Ptolem’s tests are complete as the Daleks burst through and order him to come with themimmediately. They leave Greg in the machine, his molecules still being bombarded and excited.The Doctor is beginning to wonder where the scientist Leum has got to just as Delores finds onlyfifty yards away the very equipment he had gone to get. They realise they have been betrayed justas he returns. They knock him out and start to check for bugs.Security Squad 9 enters the government building.Ptolem gives the immuniser to the Daleks, but they know of his duplicity. They take him to theEmperor. As the Emperor’s booming voice bids Ptolem to enter, Daleks swarm around him.

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On Analyas 7, the Doctor discovers a device implanted in the unconscious Leum just as SecuritySquad 9 arrives. The Doctor quickly tries to adjust the genetic code transmitter as the securityLeums take on the Daleks.“Already the Doctor has disrupted Dalek operations on Analyas 7,” booms the Emperor. He ordersPtolem back to the planet. If he can persuade the Doctor to return his life will be spared.The Doctor is distracted by the implant in Leum and unable to complete his adjustments of thetransmitter. He realises the implant is a bomb. He tries to remove it but lacks the necessaryequipment. As Leum wakens they let him go out to the Daleks, much to the Doctor’s horror (hehad wanted to save him). The Doctor gets his Leum forces to drop back as the Daleks shoot scientistLeum. There is a massive explosion. The Doctor is sickened by the violence, but Delores has ananswer: “You haven’t spent time in a Dalek death camp, Doctor. Objective morality doesn’t survivelong there.”Ptolem appears and asks the Doctor to come back to save Greg. They all leave as Greg’s voice echoesfaintly behind them: “Only the beginning.”On Skaro all Daleks are undergoing immunisation. “The mutant phase has been stopped.” Theyset off to eradicate all the parasites.Ptolem lures the Doctor to the lab as the Daleks pick up readings of another life form in the city,one completely unknown to them.Greg isn’t there, and Ptolem confesses his duplicity. He and the Doctor check the probe chamber,but Greg isn’t there either. The Doctor asks what the probe did. “It explores and isolates all theinnate genetic tendencies in a subject.” “Exposure to a machine like this might induce some ratherbizarre side effects,” the Doctor notes. He sends Ria and everyone else back to Analyas 7 to destroyall the Dalek machinery, telling Ria, he’ll “See you in the TARDIS. I’ll make you a cup of tea.”The unknown life form is evading the Dalek patrols. The Doctor and Ptolem are on their way tothe Emperor and the life form is heading to intercept them. It’s Greg. He is disembodied and hasevolved to a higher plane. The Doctor wonders if he could help them by blowing a few Daleks up,but Greg cannot: he can only bring life. The Daleks catch them and they are taken before theEmperor. The Emperor informs them that they will be the first of a new race of Daleks. “That mustnot happen,” says Greg. He begins to mutate the Daleks, giving them all rapid genetic acceleration.As they succumb to the mutant phase the Doctor and Ptolem flee and Greg reverses the mutation.He couldn’t kill the Daleks; he could only buy time for the Doctor and Ptolem.The Daleks chase after them, shooting wildly. They hit equipment, damaging it just as the Doctorand Ptolem make it through the time barrier. The resulting explosion seals off the barrier and causesa chain reaction within the city, killing many Daleks in the process. But the Daleks swear that theyshall survive.Back at the TARDIS, the Doctor and Ria discuss Greg. The Doctor thinks he’ll be fine on his new,higher plane. Delores and the others will also be fine, using the Dalek machinery to make Analyas7 what it was supposed to be: a good place to live.

Episode four (22’08”)

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Notes

n Recorded before Maenad when Richard Marson wasn’t available, Gary Russell plays Greg. Greg’srole is perhaps reduced as a result of the re-casting.

n This would be Liz Knight’s only appearance as Ria. n A good story for tea, this one; there’s a flask of it made in the first episode and the Doctor says

he’ll have some ready for Ria in the last episode.n We’re told that there’s a thousand Leums on Analyas 7. Given the frequency with which they die

in the story, there can’t be that many left by the end of it. At least ten Leums die during the shoot-out with the Daleks (all of them with what sounds suspiciously like the same Wilhelm scream!)Several of the prisoners are drained of life completely in the second episode. At least three moreof them die in the third episode when the Leums open fire on them. As Delores says, “they musthave killed millions of people”.

n Almost uniquely for an Audio Visuals companion, Greg doesn’t die. n Greg reads Nadia’s old book of linguistics (mentioned in The Time Ravagers).n Amid some lovely small continuity touches, the Psionovores are mentioned.n Thals, Skaro and the Emperor all appear (and it seems to be the same Emperor as the one from

The Evil of the Daleks).n Ria’s unique DNA is mentioned.n Two trailers are included on later copies of the tape for The Secret of Nematoda and More than a

Messiah.

Dialogue to Rewind For

RIA: I don’t suppose it’s the first time someone’s asked you, but don’t you suspectthat you might be a little unhinged?”

THE DOCTOR: No. It isn’t the first time I’ve been asked that.

THE DOCTOR: Where are you? We can’t see you. Don’t tell me invisibility is the fate of thesupreme being?

GREG: Oh I’m not supreme. I sit at the vanishing point of a different perspective. THE DOCTOR: Well, you’ve done well for yourself haven’t you?GREG: YesTHE DOCTOR: Er … the thing is though, can you help us?GREG: Help?THE DOCTOR: You couldn’t blow up a few Daleks could you?GREG: I can only bring life.

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EMPEROR: We meet again, Doctor.THE DOCTOR: Still you, is it? Hasn’t there been an election yet?

In Their Own Words

The first two-taper

“I prefer the longer stories, I really like the grand adventure stuff and in fact we’ve got onecoming up in the next season called The Mutant Phase which is possibly, more than likely goingto be expanded into a two tape release.” Nicholas Briggs (Interviewed by Jim Mortimore for Sonic Waves tapezine, 1985)

Dalek voices and sound design

“Michael Wisher was invited back to do the Dalek voices again but he said “No, not the Daleksagain?” He was happy to do stuff for Audio Visuals but didn’t want to do Daleks, which is whyhe ended up in Minuet in Hell. I think they worked him quite hard on The Time Ravagers forthe voices, more so than the BBC ever did! But more importantly, The Mutant Phase is the firsttime Nick ever did Dalek voices” John Ainsworth

“I remember we had this idea on The Mutant Phase to do the Dalek voices live as we wererecording it and Bill had bought these plastic cup things to stick over the microphones. But itjust sounded worse than Resurrection of the Daleks. So I redid them all in post-production. That’sprobably when I learned to do Dalek voices because I did a lot of practising on my own.” Nicholas Briggs

“When we were working on season four I listened to The Mutant Phase again and I remembersaying to Nick that while it’s still good, I realised if we were to do the sound design on it now itwould be much more sophisticated. For example there’s a scene where someone pours a glass ofwater and there’s no sound effect for water pouring, and I know that by season four Nick woulddefinitely have put that in.” John Ainsworth

A new musical style

“Originally, Brian Marshall had been commissioned to compose the music for this story; sincethe Audio Visuals team felt its epic nature needed Brian’s dramatic touch. However, relationswith him became stormy when he delivered a total of less than five minutes of music for episodeone rather late. With a tight release schedule in mind, Bill decided that Jim Mortimore shouldreplace Brian. Adding an Ensoniq Mirage sampler to his array of keyboards, Jim producedalmost wall-to-wall music for the story. Using orchestral samples and aggressive rock drum-

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based tracks, he created, what was at the time, a revolutionary style of music for Doctor Who.One thing was certain, music for Audio Visuals stories would never be the same again!” (Uncredited, from The Mutant Phase re-release sleeve notes, 1992)

Introducing Liz Knight as Ria …

“Liz had something very sparky about her which didn’t comeacross on radio. She just sounds very moany. Liz had been inScarecrow City and I fancied her so I was acting up a bit. It tookme ages to realise just because I fancied her didn’t mean she wasany good. I thought she was equally bad as Trish but in a differentway, but at least Liz would say her line when it was her go! Shewas very upper middle class and quite posh. She was intelligentand able to read aloud with confidence. Trish was intelligent too,but she seemed very shy and out of her depth.” Nicholas Briggs

Greg’s farewell …

“If you look at it from the point of view of the character it’s actually rather nice what happensto Greg, but yes it does cause him to leave the series. It’s nothing dark, or romantic or slushy butwe think it’s a reasonably novel way of getting rid of a companion. There are just two reallybland alternatives, they either say “Well, goodbye, Doctor” or KAPOW! They get blown topieces, sometimes they might have a row and walk out, but we thought that was pretty boring.We thought Doctor Who is science fiction, let’s do a science fiction-like thing to a character toget them out of the series.” Nicholas Briggs (interviewed by Jim Mortimore for Sonic Waves tapezine, 1985)

“I went to University in October 1984, and in fact that was why eventually I finished doingthem because I was up in Durham so it wasn’t really round the corner anymore.” Richard Marson

“I really wanted Richard to stay, but he just got more and more difficult to get hold of. We reallygot the impression that he couldn’t be arsed which was quite hurtful to us. I actually thoughthe was a drop of gold. I would’ve loved us to have just carried on with that character because hewas so funny and nice and brilliant to work with and I loved what he did.” Nicholas Briggs

“As 1984 rolled on I found I had big problems honouring my Marvel commitments. I used tohave to get the National Express coach on Friday morning, come back five hours on the coach,get back mid-morning London, go and do an interview or whatever I had to do in London, I’d

Nicholas Briggs & Liz Knight on location for Scarecrow City © Chris Corney

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also come back for studio recordings, then I would stay at the weekend and go back late Sundaynight. I was really struggling to do that, the University work, the plays, and then Bill would say,“Can you block out that weekend to come down to Southampton?” I got to the point where Ijust couldn’t do it anymore; the priority had to be the Doctor Who work which paid money. Iremember saying to Bill once “Can’t you do any of them in London?” and he must’ve thought“What a wanker!” And I’m all too aware that if I did say that it might well have soundedarrogant, like it wasn’t about me. It did come to the point where I was supposed to do one whereI was due to be there and I just couldn’t do it. We’ve all been there in that shitty situation whereyou’ve had to let someone down at the last minute. It wasn’t great, and I don’t think I wasforgiven for that, and I think they were quite rightly fucked off. I know certainly Nick Briggswas” Richard Marson

“Nick was furious. We did that on a Saturday/Sunday and it was on the Friday that Richardrang up. He didn’t speak to Nick, he spoke to Bill. He said he couldn’t make it and could he berecorded separately.” Gary Russell

“I personally remember feeling hurt that it was of no consequence to him. But I was putting somuch into it. I think he probably made us feel like we were piffling around. I certainly don’t holdany resentment about it; I just remember being disappointed because he was so lovely.” Nicholas Briggs

“By the time I started working at the BBC I was quite willing not to have any more DoctorWho in my life. It coincided with the fact that Doctor Who was no longer successful, so it waseven more embarrassing. You couldn’t say it was a peak show, it was declining and I just hatedDoctor Who [on the BBC] then and didn’t think it worked at all” Richard Marson

“When you’re doing stuff for fun you get hurt when people let you down. I still get hurt evennow if I want to cast an actor and the agent says they can’t do it for the money or their availabledates don’t match ours. But now I just get on with it! Just ask someone else. But when you’redoing it as a far-too-old gang of kids it’s different.” Nicholas Briggs

“And Nick, with the fallout from missing that recording, I think with having all those otherfish to fry, I didn’t treat that fallout and that situation with the respect it deserved. I don’t thinkI gave them the respect that I should’ve done. I made it sound like just an inconvenience to mebecause I was just starting out on something, but I didn’t consider what it meant to them becausethey were well into it by then.” Richard Marson

“Bill came in: “Richard’s not coming tomorrow so we’ll do all his stuff separately” and thisnuclear explosion went off in the corner. As I recall Nick took his anger out on Bill. Nick Laytonwas also cross and I was trying to pacify the situation and Nick turned around and said: “Wellyou’re playing Greg then.” And Bill saying “That’s a great idea” which left me sitting there saying“No, I’m not even supposed to be here!” I was roped into it. I hated every minute of it. Didn’tknow the script, hadn’t read it, didn’t understand. I read it that night panicking.” Gary Russell

“It’s sad. You know in life when you’re very young and something doesn’t end well or is messyor painful, you think “Oh well, I don’t care” – but actually you do, otherwise you’re a bit of apsycho. As time goes on, those things matter to you more. I can honestly say most of the thingsI did over the years, regardless what they are, that I know weren’t handled well – even simplethings like not returning someone’s call – the message you’ve sent to someone is that you weren’tinterested enough to do that, but maybe what they wanted to talk to you about really wasimportant to them – it’s things like that that you reflect on.” Richard Marson

Recording …

“Nick was in a really bad mood during the recording. There was a scene where we’re all in a liftand we’re heading to danger and Nick’s direction was “You’re all in this lift and you could bepanicking” and there were quite a few of us doing it. I very camply said “Oooh … could be nasty”– this carried on as an in-joke well into Big Finish. Every time someone was meant to be doingcrowd scenes or something Nick would turn to me and say “Oooh … could be nasty” and it allcomes out of that recording.” Gary Russell

“I got roped into it and absolutely hated it. It was against my will and I think I did a terrible jobof it. I didn’t sound like Richard anyway. I’m camper than Richard, more nasal than he is, butjust generally a lot less comfortable. I wasn’t comfortable doing audio acting.” Gary Russell

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Top: CT advert for Maenad and TheMutant Phase, March 1986

Above: Artwork for The Mutant Phase byNick Layton

Left: The many covers for The Mutant Phase

Above: Artwork for The Mutant Phase by Nick Layton

Right: A flyer for The Mutant Phase