Serial: 5Q Episode Nos. 536, 537, 538, and 539. Title: Meglos
The only city on the planet Tigella depends entirely on a mysterious, quasi-religious machine called
the Dodecahedron for all its energy. When the machine begins to break down, their leader calls
on his old friend the Doctor, who is nearby, for help. Unfortunately, their message is intercepted by
Meglos, the last survivor of the neighboring desert planet Zolfa-Thura, who is himself a
super-intelligent cactus, but through the application of advanced technology is able to possess a
human and make himself into the spitting image of the Doctor. In this guise he plans to go to Tigella
in his place, first trapping the TARDIS in a kind of time loop, clearing the way for his ultimate
redemption.
starring Tom Baker as Doctor Who, Lalla Ward as Romana, and John Leeson as the Voice of K9.
Written by John Flanagan and Andrew McCulloch, Executive Produced by Barry Letts, Produced
by John Nathan-Turner, and Directed by Terence Dudley.
Originally
transmitted from
DVD Features:
- All 4
episodes of the story, digitally remastered
and restored.
-
Graphical menus, episode and scene selection features, and subtitles for
the hearing
impaired.
-
Optional commentary track by actors Lalla Ward and
Christopher Owen (Earthling),
co-writer
John Flanagan, and incidental musicians Paddy Kingsland and
Peter Howell.
-
Information Text subtitles option.
Displays pop-up production trivia throughout
the
story.
-
“Meglos Men” An 18-minute featurette where writers John Flanagan and
and Andrew
McCullough tell us about the writing of the story, with a little
visit also
to script editor Christopher H. Bidmead
-
“The Scene Sync Story” An 11-minute featurette
about a pioneering bluescreen
special effects
technique that saw service in this story.
-
“Jacqueline Hill – A Life In Pictures” A 13-minute featurette
about the life of
Jacqueline Hill, who played original
companion Barbara Wright in the first
two seasons in
1963-65 and returned in this story to guest star as Lexa.
Featuring interviews with actors William
Russell (Ian Chesterton) and
Ann Davies (Jenny in The Dalek Invasion of Earth and Hill’s
best friend),
Producer Verity Lambert,
and Hill’s widower Alvin Rakoff.
-
“Entropy Explained” A 5-minute featurette
presentation from a physicist who tries
to explain the
concept of entropy in layman’s terms.
- Photo Gallery. 4
minutes of still photos taken during production of the story.
-
PDF Files. Place this disc into your
computer and you’ll have access to
PDF files containing the
original 1980 Radio Times TV listings
for this story.
-
Isolated Music option. Selecting this
will play the story with only the music soundtrack
playing.
-
Coming Soon trailer for the forthcoming story The Mutants.
-
1 Easter Egg.
Highlight the blank area of text below to see what it is and how to find
it.
Go to the second page of the Special Features menu. Highlight the Audio Options
selection and press the left arrow. A Doctor
Who logo will appear. Click this and
you will see the clean opening and closing titles in use on
this story’s season (18).
