‘The Ambassadors of Death’ is a frequently overlooked serial from Jon Pertwee’s first season of Doctor Who. Why does this gritty, seven-part thriller receive so little attention?
‘The Ambassadors of Death’ might not be in many fans’ top 10 lists, and this may be because it’s surrounded by so many classics. Season 7‘s opening story, for example, is often regarded as one of the greatest ever made and introduced the deadly Autons to the Whoniverse, penned by one of the series’ most celebrated writers Robert Holmes.
Then there is ‘Doctor Who and the Silurians’ by Malcolm Hulke, which introduced another famous Doctor Who monster: the Silurians. And to end the season, there is the dystopian and heart-stopping ‘Inferno’ by Don Houghton, which may be one of the bleakest Doctor Who stories ever told, and certainly one of the most memorable.
‘The Ambassadors of Death,’ therefore, has stiff competition. And its journey to the screen wasn’t a smooth one either, having originally been planned for the show’s sixth season and facing multiple delays, setbacks and rewrites. Technically, it was penned by the accomplished Doctor Who scribe David Whitaker, but in truth he made few contributions to the finished product. Even though he pitched the original version of ‘The Ambassadors of Death,’ and indeed worked on many of the early drafts, the final scripts were mostly composed by Malcolm Hulke, who went uncredited for contractual reasons.
None of this is to say that ‘Ambassadors of Death’ is a bad story, necessarily, but it certainly had its problems. At the same time, it’s worth remembering that Doctor Who was in the middle of redefining its identity, with a new Time Lord at the helm and a new format. The programme now comprised of Earth-based stories, with the Doctor having lost his ability to pilot the TARDIS and teaming up with a military outfit called UNIT.
And in many ways, ‘The Ambassadors of Death’ represents the quintessential UNIT adventure. Many of the key ingredients are there, including beloved series regular Nicholas Courtney as the Brigadier, and John Levene as Sergeant Benton. There are car chases and gun fights aplenty, with the action choregraphed by the stunt team HAVOC who did a lot of work on Doctor Who in the 1970s. As a result, ‘The Ambassadors of Death’ often feels more like a James Bond movie than a Doctor Who story, which is no bad thing.
At the same time, there were consequences for this, and one of these was the budget. One particular sequence saw a UNIT convoy being ambushed by a whole army of soldiers, tanks and helicopters – and this convoy just so happened to be carrying a full-sized space module, on a truck. That’s two armies, a spaceship, multiple vehicles, and a plethora of explosions. None of which were cheap.
Terrance Dicks, the series’ script editor – who was ever mindful of the finances – came up with a simple scenario in which the ambushers erected a fake diversion sign which led the convoy astray and allowed the attackers to pilfer its cargo. But when the director Michael Ferguson read this sequence, he found it dull and uninspiring, and decided to press ahead with a full-scale, movie-style assault, as originally intended.
Inevitably, ‘The Ambassadors of Death’ went considerably over-budget, and the production team were dragged over hot coals in the aftermath, forced to explain why they had gone ahead with such an expensive shoot.
Terrance Dicks, by his own admission, was one of the people calling out Michael Ferguson for his rather liberal interpretation of the show’s finances. “Well Terrance,” he reportedly said, “put it this way: you were doing your job, and I was doing mine!”
At the same time, Doctor Who‘s lack of money wasn’t always easy to circumvent. For example, ‘The Ambassadors of Death’ required the original TARDIS console, which had been used continually since its creation in 1963, and was nearing the end of its life. And when it appeared on screen, it was clearly in a state of disrepair, with its time rotor (centre column) being replaced with an inanimate, cheap-looking alternative. This original console would make its final appearance in the following story ‘Inferno’ before being consigned to the rubbish dump.
Moreover, the very fact that this story ran to seven episodes was because of the tight budget. The BBC reasoned that it could save money by producing longer serials that were set on Earth; they wouldn’t have to create so many alien spaceships and exotic vistas on a weekly basis, and could film more of the series on the streets.
And so, inevitably, ‘The Ambassadors of Death’ is impacted by its somewhat slower pacing. Certainly, it’s not the white-knuckle thrill ride that it could have been as a four-part story, but the rest of this is subjective. You will have to decide for yourself if ‘The Ambassadors of Death’ works across its near-three hour duration.
But, as mentioned previously, the director Michael Ferguson makes every effort to ramp up the pacing. This is true even in the story’s title sequence; ‘The Ambassadors of Death’ is almost unique in Doctor Who history in that its story captions are afforded their own separate title card, complete with a ‘jump scare’ sting as the words ‘OF DEATH’ burst onto the screen. So if you’re not thrilled by the gun fights and explosions, you will at least get a kick out of the titles.
So does ‘The Ambassadors of Death’ really deserve its place of relative obscurity in the pantheon of Whodom? Well, with its release on Blu-ray as part of the Season 7 box set, there has never been a better time to evaluate it, and now that it has been upscaled into high definition, and in full colour, it has never looked better – better, in fact, than it would have done at the time of original broadcast.
Tell us, reader: what do you love most about ‘The Ambassadors of Death’? And which is your favourite story from Doctor Who Season 7? Let us know in the comments below.
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