Peter Davison
Season Nineteen

Script Editor: Anthony Root

5X. The Visitation

Writer: Eric Saward
Director: Peter Moffat
Designer: Ken Starkey
Incidental Music: Paddy Kingsland

TRANSMISSION DETAILS:

566. Part One                      15.02.82   6.55pm - 7.20pm   9.3M/54th
567. Part Two                      16.02.82   7.05pm - 7.30pm   9.5M/48th
568. Part Three                    22.02.82   6.55pm - 7.20pm  10.1M/41st
569. Part Four                     23.02.82   7.05pm - 7.30pm  10.2M/40th

REPEAT DETAILS:

     Part One                Mon   15.08.83   5.25pm - 5.50pm   4.3M/ 85th/63%
     Part Two                Tue   16.08.83   6.30pm - 6.55pm   4.6M/ 79th/64%
     Part Three              Wed   17.08.83   6.25pm - 6.50pm   3.6M/104th/67%
     Part Four               Thu   18.08.83   6.25pm - 6.50pm   4.8M/ 75th/61%

CAST:

RICHARD MACE: Michael Robbins; ANDROID: Peter Van Dissel; 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: Neil West (2-3); HEADMAN: Eric Dodson (3). UNCREDITED: STUNTMEN: Alan Chuntz (1), Stuart Fell (1); SCYTHEMAN: 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

STORY:

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 terrorfying 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 Earth, where a struggle sets fire to a bale of hay. The Terileptils are destroyed, and the Doctor throws the remaing 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.

BLOOPERS:

Episode ?: When Nyssa is pushing the Terileptil's 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.

Episode ?: Has anyone else noticed the disappearing/reappearing hat trick that Peter Davison does in this story? One scene he's wearing it, next scene it's gone.

STUDIOS:

Television Centre Studio 3, Ealing Television Film Studios

LOCATIONS:

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

WORKING TITLES:

The Plague Rats, The Invasion of the Plague Men

NOTES:

The Doctor's sonic screwdriver is destroyed in Part Three

NOVELISATION:

The Visitation Eric Saward

VIDEO:

The Visitation /Black Orchid

Peter DavisonSeason Nineteen