Episode 83 (T2): Trap of Steel

In late June, during rehearsals for A Battle of Wits, filming was also taking place for Galaxy 4 at Ealing Studios with Mervyn Pinfield, who was to direct the serial. In the event Pinfield was taken ill, and never had another opportunity to direct the show; drafted in to replace him was Derek Martinus, who had just completed his directorial training. He probably had little idea of the minefield into which he was being parachuted.

Writer William Emms has gone on record as being very happy with the way his script was accepted largely unchanged, in contrast to many he had submitted for other programs. William Hartnell and his co-stars were less happy. Maureen O'Brien complained that some of her dialogue did not sound like Vicki, while Peter Purves - stuck with many of Barbara's lines - considered his character to have been emasculated. Hartnell also wanted changes, and ended up in a loud argument with Emms. This was effectively the first serial produced by Verity Lambert's replacement, John Wiles, while Lambert concentrated on her final episode; Wiles stepped into the fracas, supporting Emms and telling the cast to perform it as written. When Hartnell still objected, Wiles threatened to sack him.

The fallout from all this is going to have consequences quite a way into the future of this marathon, but one immediate consequence is the decline in Hartnell's performance I noted last time. He's pulled himself together a little for this episode, but listening to it I realised that I have never heard him say "hm" so often!

Still, for me Hartnell is probably the highlight of an episode where the plot largely consists of people walking from place to place. The way he tells Maaga "I never kill anything" is great - he's such a liar! Tell that to the Daleks, Doctor.

Maureen O'Brien gets some time in the spotlight, but I do think what she's given is not quite Vicki-like. Her deduction that the Chumblies can only hear in front of them - and how does that work, exactly? - comes out of nowhere, much like the distrust of the Drahvins last time.

As for Peter Purves... well. This is where the fact that he's stuck with Barbara's lines starts to bite. Purves has said that he wishes they'd played up the sexism angle further, that Steven should have wanted to be captured because the Drahvins were attractive women; and you can hear him trying to put a little of that into his performance. It's not enough, though.

This is the first of two episodes which are entirely absent, and that definitely affects my enjoyment. Loose Cannon put a lot of effort into the reconstruction - they had to, because there are no telesnaps available for this serial. The landscapes and cast are composited from various photos (the recon having been completed long before the discovery of the third episode), and a loving recreation of the Chumblies provides much of the motion. This completely distorts the balance of shots, though; if you can create interesting images of cute robots chuttering, chumbling, and jinking about the place, of course you're going to use that instead of the umpteenth repeat of a still showing the actors in not quite the right pose! It's indisputably the right decision, as well as evidence of why I don't personally get on very well with recons. For such a visual story as this, though, I still find them superior to my (generally preferred) narrated soundtracks.

Ironically, Galaxy 4 is probably the last serial to be junked before the BBC changed their policy in 1978...

Broadcast:
Date: Saturday, 18th September 1965
Viewers: 9.5 million
Chart Position: 22
Appreciation Index: 54

Rating:
3/10.

Next Time:
Airlock.