Is The Doctor really losing his mind? After his fifth regeneration his behaviour certainly seems to point that way. Having tried to strangle Peri, he’s landed the TARDIS on the asteroid Titan 3 determined to pursue the quiet life of a hermit. But the giant dome on the horizon seems set to shatter his piece. Just who are its mysterious inhabitants? What is their connection to the kidnapping of the twins Romulus and Remus, famed for their mathematical genius? And where are the giant Gastropods?
Anthony Steven worked very slowly on the scripts, offering many strange excuses (purportedly saying that his typewriter had literally exploded) and turning them in at a very late stage.
Compounding things were the fact that the scripts were viewed as being of poor quality and too much for the show’s budget by script or Eric Saward, who was forced to rework them at great length in a very short amount of time.
Peri Brown’s outfit that she would wear a short time later.
At least one aspect of Steven’s original script featured the Jaconda and Gastropods being dropped totallyearly in the fourth episode without resolution to the plot, with the final battle taking place in another dimension against a being called Azlan who was controlling Mestor all along.
The cat badge worn by the Sixth Doctor on his lapel for this story was hand-made and painted by Suzie Trevor, and purchased for the programme from a specialist badge shop in central London.
For each subsequent story, The Doctor was to wear a different cat badge to symbolise that he was a”travelling cat of different walks.”
Besides being adjusted for the new Doctor, the opening credits underwent additional modifications with this episode. A prism-colour effect is added and the series logo takes on a somewhat bluish hue (which also results in it appearing slightly curved in comparison to the version introduced during Tom Baker’s era).
The theme music remains the same version as that introduced in 1980. Prior to this, the opening sequences of the Second, Third, Fourth and the Fifth Doctor eras had incorporated a still photograph of the lead actor. For the Sixth Doctor opening this was changed to using two photographs – one of the Doctorwith a serious expression which changes to a second image showing The Doctor smiling. This limited animation would continue with the opening sequence for the Seventh Doctor after which incorporating the incumbent’s face was dropped (subsequent doctors instead had the current actor’s name appear in the opening credits – along with the names of the actors who played the incumbent companions. Furthermore, William Hartnell – the First Doctor – never had his face appear in the opening titles).
