Enemy of the Cybermen Part Three

 

INSPIRATION

When CO first announced the first and second Doctor figures, needless to say I was excited and immersed myself in their stories both on screen and in comics. With a lack of monsters for them (only daleks and cybermen), I hit upon the idea of pitting them against the Trods.

For Troughton, accompanied by the Tomb Cybermen (my personal faves!) plus the Telos sets I'd made, they were an obvious enemy for the second Doctor but with a twist.

CAST

Minimal cast here. Just the second Doctor, Tomb Cybermen, Cybermats, custom Trods and Jamie. Wait, what?

Yes, the trouble with Troughton is we didn't (and still don't at time of writing!) have any companions for him and at no point did he travel alone. 

My custom Jamie is made out of a Time Lord figure (with the robe cut down to kilt length) with a Captain Jack head. Details added in green stuff.

SHOOTING

Filming began in September with the TARDIS and Telos interiors, shot back to back with the TARDIS interiors for two Hartnell stories Nemesis From Nowhere and The Trodos Conundrum which will be posted in the future.

The alien planet was filmed in October using sheets of white crepe paper. The mist was added in photoshop. The massive tomb set was constructed and these scenes filmed at this time.

26 Jan 2010 saw final pick-ups in the revitalsing chamber.

EDITS

Episode one was edited in January well ahead of its publishing date with the following two episodes being edited in February.

CONTINUITY

Exactly when the story takes place is uncertain, but probably slots in between Fury From The Deep and The Wheel In Space.

TRANSMISSION

 Part One was originally posted on 18 Feb 2010 with Part Two following on 23 March 2010 and Part Three on 20 April 2010. A couple of the eps were posted days early since they were already edited in advance.

At the time, this was the 50th Action Figure Theatre Story.

It has been reposted on 15th/22nd/29th April almost exactly 13 years later.

REACTION

At the time it received a LOT of reaction from readers. With ep one misdirecting everyone to expect Daleks, many were stunned.

"Great story! And what a cliffhanger!" Jamie Bate

"Indeed, that was a cliffhanger I was not expecting!" Aaron Vanderkley

"I bloody LOVED that... A brilliantly engaging and fun story with a very palpable tension and great, funny, bizarre and intriguing cliffhanger." Babyjelly

But more amazingly than this, lots of people were thrilled to see the Trods.

"I nearly did that Squeeing thing when they were revealed, which I haven't done since the Macra turned up in Gridlock!" Bernie Fishnotes

"I don't think I've cheered at the sight of a returning monster that loudly since Earthshock! Just wonderful!" Jim Sangster

"Someone get on to Steven Mofatt straight away, the Trods need to be on the TV!" Tomfan

Enemy of the Cybermen Part Two

 

Enemy of the Cybermen Part One

 

The Secret of Vega X22

 

INSPIRATION

With the announcement of the First Doctor action figure in 2009 and with no (at the time) companions for him, I needed to come up with a new assistant and drew upon the rich world of Terry Nation. Agent Seven was a robot first mentioned in The Dalek Outer Space Book in 1966 who was to have been a character in Nation's proposed Dalek TV spin-off The Destroyers. I figured it would be interesting to have the first Doctor, who has only just developed a "human" morality, pass that on to a robotic companion.

Before he appeared in the AFT proper, I created this little cutaway to introduce the character.

Since then, Big Finish have done adventures with a Mark Seven, including a version of Nation's The Destroyers pilot. This is not intended to be the same character.

CAST

The Mark Seven figure is made from a wave 2 Captain Jack (in uniform as seen in The Empty Child) with bandolier, utility belt and cuff detail added in Green Stuff. There are no colour photos of the Space Security Service uniform, which I'd always envisaged to be black and yellow, though some people opt for white.

Mark's gun is a custom creation using a piece of sprue from a model kit and the bendy part of a drinking straw, held together with Green Stuff.

The infra-read view of Mark's internal workings uses a 3.75" Terminator Genesis Exoskeleton figure.

The only other figure used in this tale is the Dead Planet Dalek from the first classic Dalek three pack.

SCRIPT & SHOOTING

I didn't keep a note of dates but the story was probably written around Sept 2009. It was shot at the same time as the Dalek interiors for its accompanying story Enemy From Nowhere which would see the Doctor and Mark meet.

CONTINUITY

The year is 4005, five years after The Dalek Masterplan.

TRANSMISSION

This little cutaway was posted originally on Outpost Gallifrey's toy forums, probably in December 2009. It appeared on the AFT site proper in October 2015 alongside Enemy From Nowhere.

It was posted on this site in isolation on 8 April 2023 - the full First Doctor/ Mark 7 arc will come later. 

Trumped (part one of one)

 

INSPIRATION

The original idea for this was as a fun, April Fool's Day adventure to be presented one page a day on the Outpost Doctor Who forum, the fore-runner of the current Gallifreybase, whose toy forums had long been a friendly place and where I made many friends that I'm proud to still know today.

I considered a couple of ideas before hitting upon this idea featuring the Trods - a monster ripe for a mickey-take.

SCRIPT

Having decided quite quickly what the point of the story was and where the comedy lay, the script came swiftly - a simple single scene, essentially. The fifth page with the Zygon twist came later but the script was completed on 28th March 2012.

CAST

The 4th Doctor/ Trod disguise is from City of Death while the Zygon's 4th Doctor disguise is from Pyramids of Mars. The Director is a Primeval Lester with a Cutter head, the Secretary is Jenny from Primeval. The Zygon is the basic original release of Broton.

The Trod was one of a pair made for an earlier story and is actually a plastic cup with a drinking straw gun and cardboard tank treads. The head is made of Super Sculpy with a paper clip aerial, while the arms and collar are made of tin foil, with more paperclips for claws.

SHOOTING

Shooting began immediately on 28th March 2012 and was a simple affair given that it only needed on set.

The set is very simple, made of white plastic envelope stiffeners, dressed with a few mini plants, a plastic yellow dome and furniture made from the same plastic as the walls.

The secretary's office was shot first, with the set dressed up with green plastic walls. She's using a red dolls house phone.

The main office was shot next. The Director's laptop is from the Buffy The Vampire Accessory pack.

Finally, I shot some greenscreen stuff of the Trod, Dalek, Cyberman and Sontaran for the cutaway shot on page 3.

EDITING

The edit was relatively simple too and completed on 29th March 2012. The only real effects were compositing the cutaway of the Trod attacking the other monsters and the transforming shots of the Doctor into the Trod, Director into the Doctor and the Doctor finally into the Zygon.

There was also the Top Trump screen shots where I was able to poke a bit of fun at some of the monsters that have been held in less regard: the Bandrils from Timelash (1985) Cassandra from The End of the World (2005) and New Earth (2006), Erato from The Creature From The Pit (1979) and the Siren from The Curse of the Black Spot (2011).

CONTINUITY

This is a little comedy aside, not really intended to be part of the Doctor Who/ AFT canon. Yet, here it is. If you want to make the leap that a Top Trumps corporation exists in the Whoniverse, please feel free.

TRANSMISSION

Trumped was posted exclusively on Outpost Doctor Who toy forums, posted one page per day between 1st and 5th April 2012.

It was posted generally on the Action Figure Theatre site on 24th March 2014.

It was reposted here on 1st April 2023.