The Ambassadors OF DEATH is a seven-episode story from season seven of Doctor Who, first broadcast in 1970. It stars Jon Pertwee as the Doctor, Caroline John as Liz Shaw, and Nicholas Courtney as Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart. It was also responsible for the most successful Doctor Who spinoff ever made.
It starts with a manny called Charlie, who is in space in an old-timey spaceship (although it must have been cutting-edge back when this was made, when mannys had only recently been going from the Earth to the moon). He uses his space telephone to talk to mannys still on Earth, and we learn he is about to dock his spaceship with "Mars Probe 7" which has been to Mars and taken off again.
Charlie says...
No, that's Charley, not Charlie.
Charlie says "Something took off from Mars."
Cue titles!
Actually we had already seen some of the titles, so that doesn't count as a proper pre-titles sequence, but they saved the episode title, number and writer's credit for after this dramatic moment.
We now see that the Brigadier is there with the mannys on Earth.
Davros (Michael Wisher), who is for some reason in disguise as a BBC broadcaster - it's a very cunning disguise, as he fits right in and it is easy to imagine him guest-presenting an episode of Have I Got News For You - fills us in on the story so far, since we seem to have joined in media res. Some spacemannys have already gone missing while in space and... hang on, isn't this just the beginning of The Quatermass Experiment?
The Doctor is watching the same programme as us, but he isn't interested and turns it down to carry on trying to fix the TARDIS. He makes Liz disappear by mistaik, and then himself. This is a komedy bit that goes on until they both reappear. Clearly wanting to get on with the plot, Liz turns the sound up on the TV in time to hear some more exposition from Davros:
"The two craft will be linking up in a moment or two. And then we shall know the answer to the mystery that has baffled the world's scientists for seven months."
The Brigadier is there to make sure it is really Mars Probe 7, and not some naughty aliens attempting an invasion by stealth.
Charlie's spaceship links up with Mars Probe 7 in slow motion, so that we have plenty of time to enjoy the nice model shots and to be reminded of how much more expensive the effects were in 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Charlie begins to open the door between the two ships. Again this is done really slowly, but now it is to build the tension, and Charlie says "I can hear something."
He thinks the door is also being opened from the other side. The Brigadier looks concerned.
When Charlie goes through the door (upside down, to remind us he is in space) he is met by a sound effect that makes him, and all the mannys listening back on Earth, make an 'oh noes' face. When at last it stops, Charlie says... nothing more. So it's true what they say about not being able to hear you scream in space - because the SFX are too loud, lol!
The Doctor has recognised the sound effect (I'm not that surprised, the BBC are bound to have used it somewhere before) but he can't remember exactly from where, so he and Liz go to the "Space Centre" - writer David Whitaker taking lessons from the great Terry Nation here, I wonder?
The Brigadier suggests sending another "recovery capsule" spaceship to investigate the disappearance of this one, which is just asking for them getting Tintin-Planned by whatever aliens are out there. Luckily for them they don't have another one to send right now.
Davros interviews Dr Taltalian who, with his outrageous French accent, is obviously just Inspector Clouseau in disguise - this is a crossover I was not expecting!
The Doctor arrives and predicts they will hear the sound effect again, and then he annoys the manny in charge (Professor Cornish, played by Ronald "Uncle Quentin" Allen) until they do. Everyone makes an 'oh noes' face again, except for the Doctor who just listens to it. He knows it is a coded message, and he wants to decipher it so they can reply.
But before they can even make a start, there is a third sound, much shorter than the ones before, and the Doctor recognises it as a reply to the first two. Now the Doctor wants the Brigadier to help track where it came from.
They achieve this when the the reply too is repeated, and - we could probably have guessed this - it came from London, only "seven miles from here." Is it just me or are there a lot of sevens in this seven-part story?
UNIT race into action, with multiple jeeps full of mannys on location, and incidental music that sounds considerably less... er, less eccentric than what was used in Doctor Who and the Silurians. There are mannys inside the building, who are led by Carrington (John "Rimmer's Dad" Abineri). He has been expecting UNIT to arrive sooner or later, and he tells his henchmanny to keep them away for as long as possible, but not to kill anyone "unless absolutely necessary." He needs time to "send the final transmission."
There is a big HAVOC fight scene of UNIT and the baddys shooting at each other, with the Brigadier clearly enjoying himself tremendously, until Carrington's henchmanny is about to shoot the Brigadier, but instead he surrenders. They are proper baddys, who even have a self-destruct for their base. After triggering the countdown, Carrington escapes.
The Doctor goes to see Dr Taltalian about using his computer for decoding the message, but when he and Liz get there, Dr Taltalian pulls a gun on them. We didn't even know he was a baddy, so this is a surprise cliffhanger!
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