Meglos (TV story)

Meglos
Doctor:	[[doctor::Fourth Doctor]]
Companion(s):	Romana II K9 Mark II
Main enemy:	Meglos General Grugger
Main setting:	Zolfa-Thura; circa 1980 Tigella; circa 1980
Key crew
Writers:	John Flanagan and Andrew McCulloch
Director:	Terence Dudley
Producer:	John Nathan-Turner
Release details
Story number:	110
Release number:	Season 18
Premiere broadcast:	27th September - 18th October 1980
Format:	4 25-minute episodes
Production code:	5Q

Synopsis

The Doctor is invited to visit the planet Tigella by its leader, Zastor, who has become concerned about disputes between his people's two opposing factions, the religious Deons and the scientist Savants.

The TARDIS is intercepted by the megalomaniacal xerophyte Meglos, last survivor of the planet Zolfa-Thura, and trapped in a chronic hysteresis - a time loop - but the Doctor and Romana manage to free it.

Meglos, using the body of a kidnapped Earthling, transforms himself into a duplicate of the Doctor and steals the Tigellans' power source - a mysterious dodecahedron. He plans to use this to power an apocalyptic device with which he intends to destroy Tigella.

The Doctor, although hindered by the activities of a group of Gaztak mercenaries hired by Meglos, ultimately brings about the xerophyte's destruction by tampering with the dodecahedron's controlling computers.

Plot

The Doctor is mistaken for Meglos who looks exactly like the Doctor. The Doctor learns that Meglos plans to destroy the planet, and only the Doctor can stop him.

Cast

• The Doctor - Tom Baker
• Romana - Lalla Ward
• K9 - John Leeson
• Meglos - Tom Baker
• Lexa - Jacqueline Hill
• Zastor - Edward Underdown
• General Grugger - Bill Fraser
• Earthling - Christopher Owen
• Lieutenant Brotadac - Frederick Treves
• Caris - Colette Gleeson
• Deedrix - Crawford Logan
• Tigellan Guard - Simon Shaw

Crew

• Assistant Floor Manager - Val McCrimmon, Karen Loxton
• Costumes - June Hudson
• Designer - Philip Lindley
• Executive Producer - Barry Letts
• Incidental Music - Paddy Kingsland, Peter Howell
• Make-Up - Cecile Hay-Arthur
• Producer - John Nathan-Turner
• Production Assistant - Marilyn Gold
• Production Unit Manager - Angela Smith
• Script Editor - Christopher H. Bidmead
• Special Sounds - Dick Mills
• Studio Lighting - Bert Postlethwaite
• Studio Sound - John Holmes
• Theme Arrangement - Peter Howell
• Title Music - Ron Grainer
• Visual Effects - Steven Drewett

References

K9

• As a result of his brief swim at Brighton Beach, K9's batteries are damaged and now require a recharge every 2 hours.

Objects

• The Doctor wasn't allowed to see the dodecahedron on his previous visit (but did as he remembers seeing it).

Races and species

• The Tigellans know of the Time Lords.
• Time Lords are Time sensitive enough to be aware of being in a Time loop.

Romana

• Romana knows martial arts, and has heard of the screens of Zolfa-Thura.

Story notes

• Jacqueline Hill previously played Barbara Wright.
• The working titles for Meglos were: The Golden Pentangle, The Golden Pentagram, The Golden Star, The Last Sol-Fataran and The Last Zolfa-Thuran.
• The end title's music of each of the episodes has been reduced by 2 or 1 octaves.
• With the obvious exceptions of season one's The Edge of Destruction and single episode stories (Season Three's Mission to the Unknown), the The Five Doctors , 1996 TV movie and the new BBC Wales series), this is the only story in the series' history in which all the credited cast members appear in all the episodes.
• The sound effect created for the approach of the Fendahl in Image of the Fendahl is re-used as background atmosphere for the Tigellan jungle.
• The scenes set on the surface of Zolfa-Thura were realised by way of a new effects technique referred to as scene-sync - a development of the established CSO process. This involved two cameras being electronically synchronised to follow identical movements so that they could be made to track in unison and maintain the composite image (created in the usual way), whereas previously CSO shots had almost invariably been static.
• Bill Fraser agreed to play Grugger only if he could kick K9.

Ratings

• Part 1 - 5.0 million viewers
• Part 2 - 4.2 million viewers
• Part 3 - 4.7 million viewers
• Part 4 - 4.7 million viewers

Myths

to be added

Filming locations

to be added

Production errors

If you'd like to talk about narrative problems with this story — like plot holes and things that seem to contradict other stories — please go to this episode's discontinuity discussion.

• In part one the wires holding the planet up over Zolpha Thura are horribly obvious.
• The cactus gloves show Tom Baker's wrists quite often.

Continuity

• The Gaztaks appear in PDA: Warmonger.
• The Doctor previously faced a villainous doppelganger of himself in DW: The Enemy of the World.

Timeline

• This story takes place after ST: Checkpoint
• This story takes place before DW: Full Circle

Home video and audio releases

Released on VHS in the UK in March 2003.

VHS UK cover

VHS Australian cover

VHS US cover

To be released on DVD simultaneously in regions 1, 2 & 4 in January 2011.

Novelisation and its audiobook

Main article: Meglos (novelisation)

• Novelised by Terrance Dicks in 1983.
• The novel answers the question of how Meglos's species would be able to advance technologically as immobile cacti by their ability to take over the minds of other beings, implying that, despite what was shown, they are able to do it without technological adjuncts.
• Also explained is why Meglos asked for an Earthling to use as a Host body rather than a (much closer) Tigellan? The novelization claims that Meglos considers Earthlings to be more "malleable".

See also

to be added

External links

• Meglos at the BBC's official site
• Meglos at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
• Meglos at Shannon Sullivan's A Brief History of Time (Travel)

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