Mat Irvine On Bringing Words to Life

A spaceship waits on its launchpad
outside a lunar penal colony

Special Effects work has always demanded hard work, quick thinking, and ingenuity on the part of their practitioners. The Doctor Who story "Frontier In Space" proved especially so. In Science Fiction terms, author Malcolm Hulke's story occupied the sub-genre known as Space Opera. The events portrayed in "Frontier In Space" may not compare favorably with the interstellar journeys and battles in a novel by Peter F. Hamilton, but the story was pretty fantastic for its time. 

Unsurprisingly, "Frontier In Space" proved one of producer Barry Letts' costliest stories. Over six twenty-five minute episodes, the Doctor and Jo embark on numerous space journeys, get embroiled in several space battles, and encounter an Ogron-eating monster whom the Ogrons worship as a god. There's even a short appearance by the Daleks. Events take our heroes to Earth, the Moon, Draconia, and the Ogron home world. So, even if the Doctor and Jo repeatedly get locked up in cells by Humans, Draconians, Ogrons, and the Master, they also get out of them and have plenty to do to keep us interested and entertained.

The Doctor even stretches his legs in two spacewalks during the course of the story. 

Thousands of people are typically needed to create the special effects for today's blockbuster Sci-Fi movies, many more than would have been involved in the entire production of this 1973 TV serial. Producer Barry Letts had to stretch his budget to the limits to pay for elaborate twenty-sixth century sets, costumes, location filming, and of course, the special effects work. The latter involved an enormous TV wall-screen in the Earth President's office, the Draconians' makeup, battles involving laser pistol and rifle fire, and of course, all the events that take place in space. 

Despite the enormous scope of the story, the Special Effects team only received a fraction of the days they had requested to film the space sequences. Thankfully, the BBC had purchased a lot of spaceship models from Gerry Anderson's Century 21 Productions. While the Special Effects team weren't allowed to film any of the models, as they were too well known from TV shows such as Fireball XL5 and Thunderbirds, they were allowed to cannibalize the models for spare parts. So they built all the spaceships and sets required in the script, and hoped for the best when their short period of filming took place.

On one precious filming day, Mat Irvine realized that the size of the Master's Earth Police ship was too large to work with the set of the lunar penal colony. With only half-an-hour before the scene was due to be filmed, he set to work with a ping pong (table tennis) ball, bits of tubing, balsa wood for the wings, and some of the plastic parts cannibalized from the Century 21 models. He cut, assembled, glued, and painted the required model, and managed to set it down on the lunar set before the camera was ready to roll. It may not be the most impressive model ever built, but it helped draw viewers into the story, and make them believe that the Doctor and Master were really on the Moon.

Hard work, quick-thinking, and ingenuity, such as he demonstrated in "Frontier In Space," is what Special Effects work is about. Isn't it amazing, how an author like Malcolm Hulke can create enormous vistas that Special Effects teams have to spend so much money and time to recreate on the TV or movie screen? It makes me all the more impressed when I read novels such as The Reality Disfunction, and wonder if the aliens, space battles, sentient biospheres, and galaxy-sweeping events Peter F. Hamilton created with a few words could ever be brought to life on movie screens.

But then, we all know that words hold tremendous power, don't we?

Dragon Dave

Malcolm Hulke on Dragons & Distrust: Part 2

An SM-64 Navajo cruise missile
reminds us of an earlier era in Florida, USA

When Malcolm Hulke wrote "Frontier In Space" for Doctor Who in the early 1970s, war between the world's superpowers, the United States and the USSR, seemed inevitable. Indeed, it was already taking place. As the Cold War progressed, year after year, both sides circled each other like snarling dragons. While they occasionally belched fire on each other, for the most part they "defended" themselves by building huge stockpiles of weapons--including nuclear weapons--for a war they believed was inevitable. A war to end all wars, in which no one on our planet might survive.

As I watched the story last week, "Frontier In Space" reminded me of a more recent war. The United States believed that Iraq had stockpiles of WMDs, or weapons of mass destruction, which they could supply to terrorists. A few officials argued otherwise, but government leaders were swayed by overwhelming "evidence." So in March of 2003, President George W. Bush declared war, and the United States invaded Iraq. Two months later, he declared "Mission Accomplished." The United States had won its war. Unfortunately, it never secured the Peace. After eight years of constant violence, the United States pulled out of Iraq, but the violence and instability in that country continues.

Thankfully, few of us need to decide whether we will declare war on others. Or do we? Life brings conflict, setbacks, and disappointments. Each day we have to assess the statements and actions of others. Can we believe what they say? Can we trust them to act in our best interests? It doesn't help if they've lied to us in the past, or if we gauge their actions as unethical. It's easy to adopt the attitude of the Earth President, or the Draconian Ambassador, and demand proof of what the other person says before we believe them. In other words, judge them guilty until proven innocent. 

Skepticism and cynicism are easy attitudes to adopt, and safe positions to hold. But shutting others out limits our daily actions, and curtails our potential achievements. No "victory" ever comes without cost, and afterward we will face the long term consequences of our actions. The world is still dealing with the aftereffects of the 2003 War in Iraq. Likewise, the world is still affected by the Cold War, as aging weaponry and nuclear material find their way out of Russia. Can we believe that our own little interpersonal wars will not cast similar ripple affects through the ponds of our lives for years to come?

In "Frontier In Space," the Doctor's nemesis, the Master, developed a way of projecting sound that acted on the fear centers of the Human and Draconian brain. This caused crew members of ships on both sides to "see" those they most feared (members of the other superpower) instead of the Ogrons. After the Human and Draconian fleets had pounded each others' planets to rubble, the Master planned to send in the Daleks to conquer the survivors. In his egomaniacal mind, he no doubt believed that, at some point, the Daleks would exhaust their resources, and he would end up ruling the Human, Draconian, and Dalek empires. Until the Doctor and Jo stumbled on his plan, he was succeeding brilliantly. After all, how could any Human ever trust a race of people who looked like Dragons? How could the Draconians ever trust a race of people who looked so different from them? How likely is it to believe that a third party must be initiating or intensifying the conflict between them? 

Thoughts to muse upon, courtesy of the late, great Malcolm Hulke.

Dragon Dave 

Malcolm Hulke on Dragons & Distrust: Part 1

The Draconian Ambassador to Earth

What causes two nations to go to war? Sometimes, the decision may be traced to a clear aggressor, a government that wishes to exploit another country's resources. But often, the reasons are more complicated, and only emerge in the years or decades following the conflict. It is the latter situation that British author Malcolm Hulke explores in his 1970s Doctor Who story "Frontier In Space." 

As the Doctor and his companion Jo travel through the time-space continuum, the TARDIS materializes in the path of a spaceship. By quickly adjusting the controls, the Doctor lands inside the ship's cargo hold instead. He sets about trying to get his bearings: what century they've landed in, and the region of space they are traveling through. He quickly discovers that the freighter belongs to the Earth interstellar empire of the twenty-sixth century. This ship is transporting flour, and other foodstuffs, from colony worlds where it is grown, to feed the hungry population of Earth. 

When Jo hears a strange sound, she looks out a porthole to see another spaceship approaching. She hears clunks against the outer hull as the other ship docks with the Earth vessel. Weapons begin to burn through the door. The Human crew rush into the cargo hold to defend their vessels against the pirates attempting to board their vessel. Then Ogrons, a tall, powerfully-built simian race of mercenaries, burn through the outer door. The Human crew shout "Dragons!" and reach for their guns. Amid the ensuing firefight, the Doctor is shot, and Jo screams as he slumps onto the deck.

When the Doctor recovers, Jo tells him that all the flour and other foodstuffs have been stolen. Oh, and the Ogrons also took the TARDIS. Then the Human crew wake up, and lock the Doctor and Joe in a holding cell.

While the two great empires of Draconia and Earth once fought an interstellar war, they have enjoyed a period of peace. Until recently, that is. This attack on the Earth spaceship is only the latest in a series of raids by "Dragons," an unflattering nickname the Humans apply to Draconians. On Earth, the World President questions the Doctor and Jo, whom she suspects are Draconian agents. The Doctor and Jo claim some third party is trying to set the two empires against each other. Jo describes the hypnotic sound she heard before each attack, which caused the Human crew saw their attackers as Draconians. 

The Earth president has trouble believing their story. She has never heard of the Ogrons, a race whose members hire themselves out as mercenaries. She finds the idea of their tiny spaceship (the TARDIS) materializing inside an Earth vessel preposterous. And then there's the testimony of the Human crew, who saw Dragons invade their ship. She decides that the Doctor and Jo must be Draconian agents, who somehow coordinated the pirate raid on the freighter. She orders for them to be locked up, and wonders what she can do to prevent Earth from entering into another war. Draconian pirate attacks have disrupted the population's food supply. Members of the Senate, responding to worldwide riots and demonstrations, have added their voices to the military. It seems as if every person on Earth, aside from herself, wants her to declare war. She wishes that she could believe the Doctor and Jo's story. 

This growing interstellar conflict is hardly one-sided. Draconian ships have been raided too. When their crews returned to Draconia, they testified that Humans had attacked them and stolen their cargo. The citizens of Draconia also rely on regular grain shipments to supplement their overstretched resources. Given the testimony of those aboard raided Draconian vessels, and lacking any proof of the Doctor's story, the Draconian Ambassador believes that Earth's claims about their own ships being attacked are complete fictions. This places him in a delicate position, as he is not only the Draconian Ambassador to Earth, but also a son of the Draconian Emperor. He knows his citizens back home are demanding his father take action. He fears that if the Draconian Empire doesn't declare war on Earth soon, the nobles of the court and the military may find a way to cast his father off the throne.

It's a situation that neither side can allow to continue. War seems inevitable, unless the Doctor and Jo can find a way to stop it. But how can they? The Doctor and Jo hold no valid credentials, and the President's most trusted advisors point to a mountain of evidence to remind her why she must declare war on the Draconians. The President would like to believe the Doctor and Jo, but how can she? Isn't her desire for Peace merely wishful thinking? 

It's a dilemma no one should have to face. Should she believe her friends and advisors, and declare war on the Draconians? Or should she believe the story of complete strangers, who urge her to believe in Peace a little longer, and investigate their claims? All of us face times when we must decide to believe in friendships or sever them. We must choose between isolating others, or continuing to believe in them, and thus keep them in our lives. What we do in those situations shape our futures. So what do you think the Earth President should do? What would you do in her situation?

Dragon Dave