5X. The Visitation

  • Script Editor: Anthony Root;
  • Produced by: John Nathan-Turner;
  • Writer: Eric Saward;
  • Director: Peter Moffat;
  • Designer: Ken Starkey;
  • Incidental Music: Paddy Kingsland;

Programme Description

The Doctor tries to take Tegan back to Heathrow in 1981. Although the location is right, the year is in fact 1666 - the time of the Great Plague.

The Doctor and his companions meet an out of work actor, Richard Mace, who tells the Doctor of a recently fallen comet. The Doctor begins to suspect alien intervention, and his suspicions are confirmed when he is confronted by an Android who is terrifying the locals by impersonating Death.

The Doctor finds a group of Terileptils who have crashed on Earth. They plan to depopulate Earth by releasing a plague, using the black rat as a carrier. The Doctor and his companions follow the Terileptils to London where a struggle sets fire to a bale of hay. The Terileptils are destroyed, and the Doctor throws the remaining vials of black plague into the furnace.

The Doctor's companions wonder why the Doctor does not attempt to stop the fire, but he suggests it should be allowed to run its course.

Regular Cast

  • Adric: Matthew Waterhouse;
  • Nyssa: Sarah Sutton;
  • Tegan Jovanka: Janet Fielding;

Guest Cast

  • Richard Mace: Michael Robbins;
  • Android: Peter Van Diesel;
  • Miller: James Charlton;
  • Villager: Richard Hampton (1-3);
  • The Squire (Sir John): John Savident (1);
  • Charles: Anthony Calf (1);
  • Ralph: John Baker (1);
  • Elizabeth: Valerie Fyfer (1);
  • Chief Terileptil: Michael Melia (2-4);
  • Poacher: Niel West (2-3);
  • Headman: Eric Dodson (3);

  • UNCREDITED CAST:
  • Stuntmen: Alan Chuntz (1), Stuart Fell (1);
  • Scythemen: Jeff Wayne (2-3);
  • Terileptils: Michael Leader (3-4), David Summer (3-4);
  • Nightwatchman: Don Paul (4);
  • Villagers: Victor Cruxford, Tom Gandl, Charles Adey Gray, Keith Guest, Tom Knox, James Tye, Bill Whitehead;

Transmissions

ChannelEpisodeTitleDateViewersPosition
BBC 1 566 Part One Mon 15 Feb 1982 1518:55 - 19:20 9.3M 54th
BBC 1 567 Part Two Tue 16 Feb 1982 1619:05 - 19:30 9.5M 48th
BBC 1 568 Part Three Mon 22 Feb 1982 2218:55 - 19:20 10.1M 41st
BBC 1 569 Part Four Tue 23 Feb 1982 2319:05 - 19:30 10.2M 40th

Repeat Transmissions

ChannelTitleDateViewersPosition
BBC 1 Part One Mon 15 Aug 1983 17:25 - 17:50 4.3M 85th
BBC 1 Part Two Tue 16 Aug 1983 18:30 - 18:55 4.6M 79th
BBC 1 Part Three Wed 17 Aug 1983 18:25 - 18:50 3.6M 104th
BBC 1 Part Four Thu 18 Aug 1983 18:25 - 18:50 4.8M 75th

Locations

  • Black Park, nr. Iver, Slough;
  • Tithe Barn, Hurley;

Studios

  • Television Centre Studio 3;
  • Ealing Television Film Studios;

Bloopers and Mistakes

When Nyssa is pushing the Terileptils' android into her room you can see that her pants have fallen down a bit too far. She hurriedly pulls them up, making a big show of it in the process.

Watch for Peter Davison's hat trick in this story? One scene he's wearing it, next scene it's gone.

Notes and Trivia

The Doctor's sonic screwdriver is destroyed in Part Three.

Working Titles

The Plague Rats
The Invasion of the Plague Men
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