Behind The Scenes

The Doctor- Custom

Original cast

The story began filming in 2004 under very different circumstances. See drafts below. While the story and characters remained the same the figures to be used were a little different, Stubbs and Kale were played by Action Force Space Force Pilot and Commander. 8D8 was the same. The scenes with the computer were not filmed so she was never cast.

It was also to feature Sarah Jane Smith. Her previous appearance in Type Forty had been in her Planet of the Spiders outfit. Here she would have been wearing her combats from Revenge of the Cybermen.

	Paper Robots
	The robot sentries were originally planned to use the Star Wars Disney Star Tours figure DL-X2 but having seen the figure, I realised that it would be just as good (not to mention cheaper) to make my own. (photo from rebelscum.com)

Character Names

The characters of Stubbs and Kale were only given their names while the story was being edited. Until that point they were referred to in the script as Bates and Stratten- two characters from Attack of the Cybermen. They were never intended to be those characters, just a pair of names that I'd plucked from the air. Poor 8D8 never even gets a name and was called 8D8 through the script.

Romana- Custom

K-9- Custom

D Type Warder- 8D8 (Star Wars)

Stubbs - Ric Ollie (Star Wars)

Kale - Bo Shek (Star Wars)

The Computer- Sly Moore (Star Wars)

Former Governor- Ikira (Xyber 9)

Corpse- Deadite (Army of Darkness)

Creepy Computer

The inclusion of Sly Moore as the computer was a very late decision. The computer was originally going to be just lights in the ceiling but I felt she needed to be a physical presence in order

to be more creepy.

With more time she would have been custom made or at least altered more than she is. However I think the figure has just the right level of creepiness for the character.


Originally shown September 2007. This is the first time the story has been shown online- about nine months later than originally planned. the cover is based on artwork by the superb Daryl Joyce.
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The story was originally written for the 4th Doctor and Sarah Jane.
The story began filming in 2004 but was subsequently shelved (see shooting below). When we came back to the story in 2005, we considered rewriting it, keeping the basic elements. At one point Thadius Torchwood was set to make an appearance but we eventually decided to revert to the original story but with the addition of K-9.


	Filming on 'Story 13' began in 2004 with Sarah Jane as the companion. The story was shot with the intention of making flash inserts as with Plastinate but the effort of making and editing that story put the mockers on any future flash stories so Story 13 was shelved.
	By 2005 we had just made a figure of Romana 1 and were eager to put her in a new story. We took the original concept of 'Story 13' and looked at reworking it.
The original sets were made from old biscuit containers creating a very dark and grungy ship.
The sets for the 2006 reshoot were based mainly on sets for The Robots of Death and The Nightmare of Eden with the intention of giving it a 'period' season 16 feel.
Filming on the second version began in 2005 with all the corridor scenes but it wasn't until 2006 that the rest of the story was completed.

The original opening scene with Sarah Jane went like this:
The TARDIS appears.
SARAH	Doctor this doesn’t look like UNIT HQ.
DOCTOR	Maybe it’s night time.
SARAH	Well night time or not, no place on Earth in 1980 has metal walls
DOCTOR	Oh I don’t know. Maybe we’re in a night club. Or on an oil rig.
SARAH	Doctor. We’re not on Earth are we?
DOCTOR	Let’s just take a quick look around.
As they go, there is a sinister red glow. A robot with a red eye is watching them

The story has never been able to keep a title. It began life as 'Story 13' and 'Prisonship' and was eventually dubbed The Ship of Fear. But never being comfortable with what is really quite a generic title, I toyed with the mantle A Dangerous Mind for quite a while before settling for the classic if not typical Dr Who style title.

The finished product uses its speech bubbles to denote different ways of speaking. The humanoid characters speak using white bubbles with black writing while the robotic warder and the computer speak differently. This is a first for the Dr Who AFT. A similar method was employed for Sapphire & Steel.

The story is set after The Armageddon Factor and the Doctor's quest for The Key To Time given his mention of the randomiser- a device he fitted to the TARDIS in order to escape detection by the Black Guardian. The fact that Romana has yet to regenerate places this story before Destiny of the Daleks.