BFI Southbank: Terror of the Zygons Screening & Guests Report

The Doctor Who Season 13 Blu-ray Collection box set is released in October. To celebrate, the BFI on the London South Bank ran a special event on Saturday, 20th September, showing Tom Baker’s Scottish adventure, Terror of the Zygons.

Guests included Alasdair Dewar from Character Options, Mark Ayres, sound designer for the new restoration, Michael McCarthy, the original sound designer for Terror of the Zygons, Neil Cole, curator of the Museum of Classic Sci-Fi in Allendale, Mick Tucker, special effects and model maker and the main event guest, the producer of Doctor Who for three years, Phillip Hinchcliffe.

Terror of the Zygons was written by Robert Banks Stewart, directed by Douglas Camfield and script edited by Robert Holmes. Originally broadcast as 4 x 25-minute episodes in August and September of 1975, Terror of the Zygons achieved viewing figures of between 6.1-8.4 million.

Worlds Within documentary – The Life of Ian Marter

I had decided to book for the 10 am screening of the Chris Chapman documentary about Ian Marter. It’s an intimate portrayal made with the cooperation of Ian Marter’s family. Ian’s wife and one of his sons were in attendance. I’ve seen the John Nathan Turner and Graeme Williams documentaries at the BFI, and once again by the end I had something in my eye.

These documentaries are always fascinating to me, as they scratch beneath the surface, because everyone has a story, and some people have scars more than others. It was such an interesting journey, especially understanding the health issues Ian Marter experienced.

He was, by all accounts, a clever, kind and deeply emotional man who developed a rather enigmatic persona, perhaps due to a difficult childhood relationship with his father.

Highlights from the Day

The screening for Terror of the Zygons was at 12pm. The first thing to mention is that this fan never expected to get in to see Terror of the Zygons at the BFI. The tickets sold online in minutes but luckily, waiting on standby for returns and a bit of patience sometimes works. Joined by three members of the Big Blue Box Podcast writers Jordan, Harry and podcast host Garry, we took our seats in a fully packed cinema auditorium.

Our usual BFI Hosts Justin Johnson (Lead Programmer for BFI) and Dick Fiddy (BFI Archive Television Programmer) were there to welcome the audience and create jovial bonhomie for the event. Justin Johnson reviewed the Twitter messages of audience anticipation of the event, and surveyed the distance people had travelled. It seemed quite an international audience had joined the event, as there were quite a few Melbournites in the audience, as well as people from European cities, which shows some luck or commitment to get to the event.

Q & A Alasdair Dewar – Creative Director of Product Development with Character Options

Alasdair Dewar has managed the product development of the Character Options figures since 2005. Justin Johnson quizzed him on how decisions are made on which figures or monsters are chosen.

For the classic era, Alasdair has picked monsters that he remembered from his childhood that would make good action figures and that he is confident would be popular.

For the revived series, it is thinking about figures that will resonate for the audience, perhaps memorable one-off characters.

To create new figures, the timeframe he revealed would be approximately 6 months to scan, create a 2D model, before a mould is made. Making figures can be expensive, around £45,00, so they have two ranges: the B&M store figures and the direct-to-consumer higher-end range through the Character Options Doctor Who Toy Collection – Character Toys website.

The B&M figures are already made and describe the process of how a plain prototype is made, shipped to the Far East to be put together and painted. He revealed that figures can be repainted, which makes it financially viable. This means they can offer a cost-effective product.

The Character Options figures are higher-end end so they have greater articulation, more accessories and premium packaging. Alasdair acknowledged that sales of figures are not as great as they were in the past, so they are very much aimed at the collectors market, with the best sellers being the Doctors, Daleks and Cybermen.

Q & A Mark Ayres – Sound designer for the Restoration and Michael McCarthy, Original Sound Designer

Michael McCarthy has worked on many TV programmes and was awarded three BAFTAS over his career, including a lifetime achievement award in 2019. Asked about his recollections, he remembered Doctor Who as a pressurised environment with many challenges working with sound and mixing it. He said he was working hard to create a good programme, ensuring he was picking up all the actors’ dialogue accurately.

Michael acknowledged that TV in the day was broadcast without the thought that it would be viewed, and over sixty years later. Viewing the restored Blu-ray version of Terror of the Zygons, he praised the sound quality. Mark Ayres, composer for the boxset and BFI regular at these events, explained a process he has covered at other events of how he takes a mono track and uses the sound recordings to edit, move, replace dialogue or sounds. It is a lengthy process for him to finish with the Blu-ray in immersive 5.1 surround sound.

Tom Baker’s appearance

Tom Baker, who was, of course, the Doctor for this serial, also made an appearance by video with a special film message. He also wanted prizes given on his behalf, so he called out seat numbers in the cinema, including seat K9! Signed prints of the new front cover of the Blu-ray box set were given to the lucky audience members.

Ahhh I can see a fan, no I can see two fans, no no three fans!” Some of them are blowing kisses at me. Let’s have the kisses! I remember Terror of the Zygons…… look out for the bit where I … No no no I don’t want to spoil for you …… Have a lovely day. have a lovely time

Tom Baker the 4th Doctor

Q&A Neil Cole – Museum of Classic Sci-Fi and Mick Tucker – Special Effects and Model Maker

Neil Cole is the curator of the Museum of Classics, based in Allendale in Northumberland, which has a huge selection of original props, costumes and artwork from different sci-fi series. Neil explained some of the history of the museum, which was a three-story Georgian townhouse he bought in 2015. It had been neglected for many years but held a 300-year-old cellar of the Grade 2 listed Osborne House. The three-year conversion he described sounds like it was a nightmare as Neil faced opposition from the local council over a Dalek shed.

For the screening, he brought an original restored Skarase, which he brought back to excellent condition. Neil is self-taught in conserving the items he has, and explained it was partly because he couldn’t afford outside help that he did it. He explained his association with model maker Mike Tucker, whom he met working he was working on the Blu-ray collection, and then being asked to repair the original prop.

Mike Tucker also came to the stage. He is a BAFTA craft winner and has many TV credits, including working on both the classic Doctor Who and the revived 2005 series. Mike talked about creating a new version of the Skarasen for the Season 13 Blu-ray as part of the special effects for Terror of the Zygons episode 4. The Skarasen creation allowed an operator to control it as a hand puppet, which Mike demonstrated.

Filming for different shots took place in Cumbria over a day and a half on a digital camera, partly on a green screen in a studio, but also filmed outside at high speed on an overcast day. He described the process as in keeping with a sympathetic interpretation of the original visual look of the Skarasen in episodes one to three. He kindly said the audience could have their pictures with the new Skarasen later at the signing session.

Exclusively, Mike Tucker also inadvertently revealed that the next project he is working on is filming the new effects for Blake’s 7 season 3 in a couple of weeks. I’m not sure he was meant to release that yet!

Q& A Phillip Hinchcliffe – Producer of Doctor Who 1974- 1977

Philip Hinchcliffe came on to rapturous applause as the producer who introduced “gothic” themes to Doctor Who. Asked about his feelings about Doctor Who, he revealed he felt immensely proud of one of the first producing jobs he had. Of course, Doctor Who has never really gone away with the release of the DVD’s which he has provided commentary for or been involved with in some way on associated features.

Robert Banks Stewart, the writer of Terror of the Zygons, was a prolific name in the 1970s and 1980’s writing the original Bergerac series and a private detective series called Shoestring. Asked about his memories, Robert Banks Stewart Phillip met him initially because Robert Holmes commissioned him to write for the series.

However, Phillip Hinchcliffe recalled that he then also recommended him as a producer for a film series he started. Philip described how both Robert Holmes and Robert Banks Stewart were writers of a particular generation who knew how to frame stories into a script and who had to think on their feet to fix story issues.

As a producer, Phillip Hinchcliffe had a lot of autonomy as long as he was able to manage the budget. He did this by carefully choosing when to go on location, which could be very expensive. Stories such as the Brain of Morbius were completely studio-bound.

Season 13 saw average ratings of 10-11, with the highest at 12.1 million, and Phillip was rightly very pleased. There was a popular relationship, he said, with the audience, which was partly because the series was on for six months of the year.

The programme did attract the attention of Mary Whitehouse, who was the founder and first president of the National Viewers’ and Listeners’ Association, through which she led a longstanding campaign against the BBC. Looking at the issue of violence in the programme, Phillip didn’t consider that the show went too far, though.

This series saw some departures as Nicholas Courtney (The Brigadier), John Levene ( Sergeant Benton ) and Ian Marter (Harry Sullivan) left during this season. Discussing the decision to write out UNIT, Phillip Hinchcliffe felt he had made the right choice to keep the main characters as just Lis Sladen and Tom Baker. Series 13 was his first series as producer, and a lot of the story ideas and characters were inherited, including UNIT.

Phillip Hinchliffe was very happy with the casting of Tom Baker, who he felt had charisma and settled in very quickly and felt it was right to pare the stories back to Tom being the hero rather than having a gang of people to carry the action. Phillip did acknowledge that Harry Sullivan, a likeable and popular character with the audience, introduced by Robert Holmes, could have stayed slightly longer.

Phillip Hinchcliffe doesn’t like the term describing a producer as being in charge and a caretaker. He saw his role as one of the authors of the series and an important part of his role he saw was creating story ideas and developing them with Robert Holmes whilst attracting good directors to the show. Phillip worked intensively to encourage and relate to his staff and inspire the best from the people coming in.

Another important aspect and a driving force he felt was bringing fresh and exciting ideas to the shows. In modern terms, he was a “showrunner”, planning with his script editor Bob Holmes. Questions were opened up from the audience, and super fan Ian Levine asked if Phillip was invited back to the modern show, and what he would do as a producer.

Phillip did answer that the 4 x 25-minute format did give episodes more time to breathe, have inciting events, to tell a story and allowed the audience time to get to invest in the characters. He did say it is very difficult to do that with the 50-minute format.

After the viewing, there was an autograph signing on the first floor. I had a lovely chat with Neil Cole and Mike Tucker, and I think a trip to Allendale is inevitable. Phillip Hinchcliffe was also there, signing autographs. As with previous recent releases, there was a special postcard produced by the BFI for the event showing the amazing cover for the Season 13 Blu-ray.

Thank you, BFI, for a wonderful day and we look forward to coming back soon.

The Season 13 trailer https://The Collection: Season 13 TRAILER | Doctor Who_

Doctor Who The Collection Season 13 – Limited Edition Packaging Blu-ray is available to pre-order and goes on sale on 20th October 2025 from £54.99 and all the usual retailers.