‘THE SUN MAKERS’

Please feel free to comment on my review.

Running from the Tax Man with the Fourth Doctor, Leela and K-9

Here we are on the fourth story of Season 15 of the classic ‘Doctor Who’ TV series, and it’s penned by Robert Holmes. At this point, Robert Holmes was leaving the post of script editor. Both he and his successor Anthony Read worked on the story’s scripts, although they were uncredited as script editors.

‘The Sun Makers’ is more light-hearted than usual compared to Robert Holmes’ previous efforts when he was a writer and script editor of ‘Doctor Who’. This is where Graham Williams as the producer makes his mark in the classic TV series, especially with the tone being comedic and having less gothic horror.

I enjoyed ‘The Sun Makers’ when I purchased the story on DVD back in August 2011. This was during my summer holiday with my parents in York before I attended the ‘Regenerations 2011’ convention in Swansea in September of that year. Those were very happy memories for me as a ‘Doctor Who’ fan.

As well as being slightly comedic, ‘The Sun Makers’ also has a politically-driven plot featured in its four-part structure. It’s about Tom Baker’s Doctor, Leela and K-9 visiting a human society in the future on the planet Pluto. The planet is being taxed to death. It leads the Doctor having to solve its mysteries.

At the time this story was made, Robert Holmes had been made to pay a huge amount of taxes by the local Inland Revenue. This was something he was very angry about, and understandably so. It’s like having to pay a fine for parking beyond certain hours, whether that was beyond our control or not. 😐

From having to pay his taxes, Robert Holmes set out to write a story that is essentially a satire on the tax situation which was occurring in the UK in the 1970s. I’m not sure if you can get away with a story like that nowadays, particularly in today’s climate, but it was pretty bold for Robert Holmes to do that.

I can’t pretend to understand everything about inflation, the obsessive trouble with money and how politics were handled in 1970s Britain. Mind you, with the ways things are going regarding ‘the cost of living’ crisis we’re having in the 2020s, I wouldn’t be surprised if we’re returning to a similar routine.

Apparently, this is Louise Jameson’s favourite ‘Doctor Who’ story. Even from watching her in the ‘Behind the Sofa’ item with Toby Hadoke and Betsan Roberts (wife of Pennant Roberts, who directed ‘The Sun Makers’), Louise still claims ‘The Sun Makers’ is her favourite story, which I’m very glad about.

I’m also pleased that I’ve had my DVD cover of ‘The Sun Makers’ signed by Louise Jameson at the ‘Project Motor Mouth 2’ convention in Slough in August 2013. I’ve met Louise at several conventions over the years, and I’ve found her to be extremely warm and friendly, especially when chatting to her.

It’s fascinating this ‘Doctor Who’ story happens to be set on the planet Pluto, which was the ninth planet of the Solar System. At the time in 1977, Pluto (not the Disney dog 😀 ) was considered the outermost planet in the Solar System. I believe that was still the case when I was a kid in the 1990s. 🙂

However, that’s changed lately, since Pluto is no longer considered a planet but a dwarf planet in our Solar System. There are currently eight main planets, including Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. The rest of the Solar System includes dwarf planets, which is fascinating.

As well as Pluto, there’s Ceres, Orcus, Haumea, Quaoar, Makemake, Gonggong, Eris and Sedna. Apparently, in 1978, a new moon was discovered in orbit of Pluto, which was named Charon. I didn’t know this before. I’d to thank scifimike for sharing this insight with me on Pluto’s position in the Solar System.

Initially, when learning about Pluto in the 1990s, I understood it to be a very freezing cold planet. It’s something you would expect to find about Pluto when watching this ‘Doctor Who’ story. But as it turns out, the planets happens to be surrounded by six suns, which is something that astonishes the Doctor.

Six suns! Yes, that’s incredible, isn’t it? Usually, you’d expect something like to be explored in a ‘Doctor Who’ story. Perhaps showcase what would happen if the six suns stopped and the planet became incredibly cold for its inhabitants. It’d make for a tense and thrilling story in the ‘Doctor Who’ TV series.

However, that’s not the focus of the story. The focus of ‘The Sun Makers’ concerns the human society being taxed to death and very atrociously by company officials, including the Gatherers and the Collector. It’s interesting how this society is manipulated by greedy corporation officials in that regard.

It almost echoes the new ‘Doctor Who’ TV series episode ‘The Long Game’, where the Earth Empire is being manipulated by a malicious alien being that wants to take control of the human population. In a sense, there’s an alien presence in the form of the Collector, played by Henry Woolf, who’s doing that.

When the TARDIS materialises on the roof a tall building (filmed at the WD & HO Wills Tobacco Factory in Hartcliffe, Bristol), the Doctor and Leela step out, leaving K-9 inside. Poor K-9! He didn’t get to go out in ‘Image of the Fendahl’. Now he isn’t allowed out in ‘The Sun Makers’? We’ll soon see about that! 😀

Incidentally, it’s supposed to be sunny outside on the rooftop, whereas when filming on the location, it was actually freezing cold. Again, I feel for Louise Jameson for having to wear that savage outfit in those inclement conditions. Fortunately, Tom Baker wrapped her up warm in his scarf between takes.

Anyway, the Doctor and Leela come across a man who’s about to commit suicide. Thankfully, they stop him, and they discover the circumstances of Pluto’s situation. The man happens to be Cordo, played by Roy Macready. I quite like how the story begins from his point of view regarding the taxes. 🙂

It’s a horrifying notion to find that the planet Pluto is pretty law-restricted in terms of people paying their taxes. It makes you wonder how and why the planet has gone into this state, especially when a private corporation instead of a government is handling things and making all the political decisions.

I don’t believe the unnamed ‘company’ is the same unnamed ‘company’ that’s featured in a ‘Doctor Who’ story like ‘Terminus’. I think the principle is similar though in both corporations’ intentions to obtain profit and them not considering the suffering of the societies that they enforce their laws upon.

It’s clear that well-meaning citizens like Cordo suffer from the laws being enforced upon them. Cordo had hoped to have paid all the taxes required for his father’s ‘Golden Death’, not realising that there was a bulletin announced that the tax level had been raised. I imagine e-mails haven’t been invented on Pluto  yet. 😀

There are denizens of the planet Pluto that have managed to survive underground, and they steal food and supplies without paying for them. These are human bandits that are a pretty violent bunch, which the Doctor, Leela and Cordo discover once they attempt to make contact with the underground world.

This is where some of the toning down of the violence comes into play. If this story had been produced under Philip Hinchcliffe’s reign, I’m sure Robert Holmes would have been allowed to have let rip the violence caused by the human bandits led by Mandrel (not a Mandrel from ‘Nightmare of Eden’ here 😀 ).

However, with the show’s scripts being under the watchful eye of Graham McDonald, the BBC’s Head of Drama and Serials at the time, I’m pretty sure that many of the violent moments featured in ‘The Sun Makers’ were given the ‘no-no’. In a sense, it makes those human rebels less unlikeable in that regard.

This especially concerns a shocking moment concerning what the human rebels do to Gatherer Hade in ‘Part Four’ of the story, which we’ll get to later. Regardless, it does progress the story forward in order for Pluto’s society to rebel against their law makers, especially the inhuman Collector in this story.

As I’ve established, this story was directed by Pennant Roberts, who previously directed ‘The Face of Evil’, the first ‘Doctor Who’ story to feature Leela in the classic TV series. ‘The Sun Makers’ is Pennant Roberts’ second ‘Doctor Who’ story. He would go on and direct four more adventures for the TV series.

This includes ‘The Pirate Planet’, ‘Shada’ (even though most of it was incomplete due to industrial action), ‘Warriors of the Deep’ and ‘Timelash’. Arguably, the stories that Pennant Roberts directed in the 1970s with Tom Baker’s Fourth Doctor are the best ones compared to the ones he did in the 1980s.

I find it fascinating that ‘The Sun Makers’ happens to be Louise Jameson’s favourite ‘Doctor Who’ story, both in behind-the-scenes terms and how she plays the character of Leela. I suppose Louise is into the political aspects of ‘The Sun Makers’, especially as she states that this story’s more a satire on the BBC.

That’s in the ‘Running from the Tax Man’ behind-the-scenes making-of documentary when she’s interviewed. Robert Holmes also writes well for Leela and it’s clear that he’s one of Louise Jameson’s favourite writers in the TV series. That’s fair, since Robert Holmes is a pretty good ‘Doctor Who’ writer.

Robert Holmes knows the character of Leela inside out, especially as he conceived the character with producer Philip Hinchcliffe and writer Chris Boucher in ‘The Face of Evil’. It’s nice to see Leela have her own adventure in this ‘Doctor Who’ story and have her own voice when tackling the dangers on Pluto.

It’s also clear that Robert Holmes became aware of the behind-the-scenes tension that was going on between Tom Baker and Louise Jameson when they were making the TV series together. So, Louise Jameson as Leela is separated from the Doctor for most of this story before they reunite in ‘Part Four’.

I enjoyed it when Leela protested to the Doctor that she tried to warn him about the time rotor stopping in the TARDIS in ‘Part One’ of the story. I wonder how much of that was written by Robert Holmes, and how much of it was being adlibbed to a certain extent by Tom Baker and Louise Jameson.

Doctor: We might have gone right through the time spiral! Why didn’t you tell me?
Leela: I tried to, but you wouldn’t let me.
Doctor: You didn’t.
Leela: I did.
Doctor: You didn’t.
Leela: I did!
Doctor: You didn’t.
Leela: I did!

It was also a great moment for Leela when she showed compassion and tried to stop Cordo committing suicide by falling into the city’s drop before the Doctor stopped her. Incidentally, that’s the second time where the Doctor told someone not to touch somebody who’s in a perilous situation in Season 15.

The first time was when the Doctor told Adam not to touch Thea once she was seen glowing and covered in Fendahleens in ‘Part Two’ of ‘Image of the Fendahl’. I suppose no-one should ever touch a person when they’re about to commit suicide. I haven’t had the actual experience to appreciate that.

It’s also good to see how brave Leela is, especially when she’s determined to rescue the Doctor once he’s been captured in ‘Part Two’ of the story. She’s shocked when the rebels led by Mandrel aren’t willing to help her. She approves of Cordo offering to help her. It’s one of my favourite scenes in the story.

Cordo: I know I’m not much help. I’m not brave and I can’t fight, but, well, at least I can show you the way.
Leela: Cordo, you are the bravest man here.

I found it funny when the Doctor managed to get Leela to sleep once he hypnotised a guard (played by Stuart Fell, no less) before he woke her up. It’s one of those comedic moments in ‘Doctor Who’ you really appreciate, especially when the timing is spot-on and the performances of the actors are terrific.

Sadly, for Leela, she goes through a public death by steaming before the Doctor rescues her. I imagine plenty of young viewers were anxious for Leela when she was about to be killed by steaming at the end of ‘Part Three’. It’s very fortunate the Doctor saved her in time in ‘Part Four’ and she wasn’t killed off.

Tom Baker as the Fourth Doctor stands out very well for me in this ‘Doctor Who’ adventure. I like how he gets to show off his confidence and eccentricity throughout, especially when he tries to work out what’s going on with Pluto and its inhabitants, and how to overthrow the situation that involves taxes.

It’s fortunate that the Doctor manages to cope with the violent tendencies of the bandit gang who live underground. At this point, I’m sure Tom Baker’s Fourth Doctor has had plenty of experience of unsavoury types like Mandrel and his lot. He isn’t intimidated by them, especially when he’s about to be branded.

I liked that moment where the Doctor offered Cordo a jelly baby before he was about to commit suicide, although it was a liquorice allsort that the Time Lord was offering him. Seriously, how come that was messed up in the story? It should’ve been a jelly baby the Doctor held! Not a liquorice allsort!

Trust me, I know a liquorice allsort when I see one! And this isn’t the first time that this has happened. In the previous story, the Doctor offered a liquorice allsort instead of a jelly baby to the Fendahl skull in ‘Image of the Fendahl’. This mistake would soon be repeated once more in Season 16.

Yeah, in ‘The Pirate Planet’, when the Doctor leaves a trail of what are presumed to be jelly babies for one of the Pirate Captain’s guards to follow, they’re clearly seen to be liquorice allsorts. Is it really that difficult to provide the Doctor jelly babies when making the ‘Doctor Who’ TV show behind-the-scenes?

I like how the Doctor encourages the underground victims to ‘help themselves’ by forming a rebellion against this company governing their lifestyle that’s enforced by the Collector and the Gatherers. Even when the bandits show off their aggressive tendencies, the Doctor isn’t one to back down and help out.

I enjoyed the scenes where the Doctor is in a Correction Centre, and he manages to short-circuit a machine that’s going to wipe his memory (I believe). It, in turn, electrocutes a worker in the process. The Doctor did try to warn him. 😀 Hopefully, the worker will have survived the electric shock he received.

I also enjoyed the scenes between the Doctor and the Collector in ‘Part Four’ of the story. It was amusing to see how the Doctor outwitted the Collector in getting the information he wanted about how things were being run on Pluto, leading to probably one of Tom Baker’s best lines in this story. 🙂

Doctor: You blood-sucking leech!

It was nice to see K-9, voiced by John Leeson, feature properly in this ‘Doctor Who’ story, especially since he was notably absent in ‘Image of the Fendahl’. It’s funny that K-9 wasn’t going to be kept in the doghouse by the Doctor, and he decided to come out of the TARDIS of his free will in the TV story.

The Doctor hasn’t got himself a special dog whistle for K-9 by this point in the series. 😀 It’s funny when the story begins with K-9 playing chess with the Doctor and Leela in the TARDIS. K-9 manages to beat the Doctor in the game, to which the Time Lord is outraged by. He later becomes dismissive of K-9. 😐

Ah well, at least he’s not calling K-9 ‘it’ instead of ‘him’ like he did in ‘Part One’ of ‘Image of the Fendahl’. I do have to wonder how much time K-9 has spent with the Fourth Doctor and Leela – the Mark I model by the way – since he seems familiar with the TARDIS and the travels that they’ve having.

I’m sure there are adventures in-between ‘Image of the Fendahl’ and ‘The Sun Makers’ to establish that point. I’ve at least penned a story featuring the Fourth Doctor, Leela and K-9 called ‘The Hunters of Doom’ – the fourth instalment of my ‘Zorbius’ series – to establish the time they’ve had as a trio. 🙂

I like that K-9 gets to go out in search for the Doctor and Leela on the planet Pluto, even to the point of using the lift to go down to the underground levels like the Doctor, Leela and Cordo did earlier. I wonder if K-9 operated the TARDIS doors to open and the lift to go down underground via remote. 😀

Clearly, the Doctor is annoyed, but he puts K-9 to good use in ‘Part Three’ of the story when the need to rescue Leela from the steam chamber arises. I like how K-9 suggested something on how to rescue Leela safely. It was amusing once people, including the Doctor, kept calling for K-9 before he appeared.

Leela puts K-9 to good use too when told to stun guards with his nose laser when they, Cordo and Bisham are trying to escape the P45 return route. Yes, P45 return route, that’s what I said. It’s a tax joke! Let’s move on! 😀 Incidentally, I concur with the comments made in this story’s ‘Behind the Sofa’ item.

Usually, the Doctor doesn’t use guns to hurt anyone. So, why would he need a metal dog that would fire lasers on a stun setting and a kill setting. I suppose we should be thankful that the Doctor asks K-9 to stun their enemies rather than kill them. Otherwise, K-9 would be on a killing spree if he’d continued at all.

The story’s guest cast includes Roy Macready as Cordo. I like this little man that the Doctor and Leela befriend. It’s clear he’s the heart and soul of the story. It’s fascinating how he starts off trying to pay taxes for his father’s ‘Golden Death’ before it gets too much for him and he attempts to commit suicide.

Once he’s saved by the Doctor and Leela, he’s willing to join the fight against the tax men. I like how Cordo gets on well with Leela, as they seem to share an interesting bond. I like that Leela calls him ‘the bravest man’, and it’s true, especially when he shows that vulnerable side to him in the adventure.

It’s amusing when he becomes very enthusiastic about him, the Doctor, Leela and the rebels winning the fight against the tax men. Perhaps a bit too enthusiastic for everyone’s tastes. 😀 Incidentally, behind-the-scenes, when Cordo was supposed to fire the gun in ‘Part Four’, it wouldn’t go off, initially.

You can see the outtakes of how that happened on ‘The Sun Makers’ DVD as well as on Disc 4 of the Season 15 Blu-ray box set containing ‘The Sun Makers’. It’s so amusing to think that the gun wouldn’t go off when it was supposed to. It must have been a shock for everyone when it did go off in the story.

David Rowlands guest stars as Bisham, whom the Doctor meets in the Correction Centre in ‘Part Two’ of the story. I like how the Doctor meets Bisham when they’re in straight-jackets. Bisham comes across as a friendly chap when he explains his predicament as well as what happens in the Correction Centre.

It’s fortunate for Bisham that he’s freed by Leela and Cordo who come to the Correction Centre to rescue the Doctor. Bisham joins Leela and Cordo when they and K-9 escape via the P45 return route. Apparently, Bisham is knowledgeable about what’s happening on Pluto and the tax systems they have.

Before his arrest, Bisham was an ‘executive grade’ who manufactured something called PentoCyleinicMethyldrane (PCM for short) in the chemical plant for the Company. He was arrested for illegally taking some pills that were a PCM antidote. They were meant to be had by executives only.

I like how Bisham helps the Doctor, especially when they disrupt certain systems for the main city our heroes are in, including having to rescue Leela from public steaming. I wouldn’t say Bisham’s character is as good as Cordo’s in the story, but I like how he comes across as a friendly and knowledgeable chap.

Richard Leech guest stars as Gatherer Hade, who works for the Company in the city Megropolis One on Pluto. Hade is very arrogant and self-important throughout this ‘Doctor Who’ story. I enjoyed Richard Leech’s performance as the character, as he comes across to relish getting people to pay taxes.

He’s clearly very pompous, especially in his first scene when he’s humming to himself whilst reading a scroll (is it a tax sheet or is it a balance sheet) and he’s going “Pom-dee-ley-pe-de-pom-pom” or something like that. It’s almost cartoonish in a way, but Richard Leech has clearly put his all into Hade. 🙂

I found that scene very funny when the Collector told Hade that a reward for the Doctor costing 5,000 talmars (that’s the currency on the planet Pluto) would be taken from his private purse before screaming with outrage before controlling himself. He’s clearly full-of-himself and there’s no redemption for him.

It was pretty shocking and very amusing when Gatherer Hade was picked up by the rebels and workers on a rooftop and he was thrown off a building, plunging to his death. The workers and rebels seemed to be jolly pleased about killing Gatherer Hade like that, since they cheered their heads off about it. 😐

I’m sure there were lots of complaints from BBC viewers about that scene being shown on the TV screen, even though Gatherer Hade was pretty bad as a character. Terrance Dicks seemed to think so too, as he changed the way the workers and the rebels behaved in the Target novelization of this story.

Instead of cheering for Hade’s death, the group of workers and rebels regretted their action, feeling they had let things gone a bit too far. Honestly, I would have preferred the way Terrance Dicks ended the story in the Target novelization instead of how it was handled in the TV story by Robert Holmes. 😀

Henry Woolf guest stars as the cartoon-like alien Collector in ‘The Sun Makers’. I’ve seen Henry Woolf before as he was in episode of ‘Steptoe & Son’ called ‘The Seven Steptoerai’. He’s also been in the film ‘Steptoe & Son Ride Again’ and apparently, he’s been in ‘Superman III’. I must see that film again soon.

He also played Dr. Cornelius in the BBC TV adaptation of ‘The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian’, which I’ve enjoyed watching. It’s clear from watching this ‘Doctor Who’ story that the Collector (who doesn’t have a name in this story. Not even in the Target novelization either) is quite a crazy character.

The Collector is obsessed with tax figures and quotes, especially when he focuses on reading off ledgers and presses a big red button at his desk from time to time. The performance that Henry Woolf gives in the story does seem to be over-the-top, even though it’s enjoyable to watch in this TV story. 🙂

But then, once you discover that he’s not human and he’s actually a Usurian whose true form is that he’s…green goo…living inside a plughole for his chair (I think that’s what was happening), it makes sense as to why he seems so crazed and over-the-top at times. And of course, there’s this line he delivers.

Collector: This is the moment when I get a real feeling of job satisfaction.

You know, it’s moments like this when you know the story’s violence and comedy aspects balance out well, particularly when a line written like that is said by the villain. It highlights how the light and dark aspects of Robert Holmes’ writing are very good, especially with the political themes attached to it. 🙂

The story also features the lovely Jonina Scott as Marn, who works for Gatherer Hade. As I understand it, Jonina Scott is an Icelandic actress. Apparently, the character was originally written as male, but the director Pennant Roberts decided to have the character changed to female to balance out the genders.

It’s not clear why Marn would work for someone like Gatherer Hade, especially when her character doesn’t do much. I’m not sure how different that is in the Target novelization, but I imagine it’s the same. Plus, Marn seems to join the winning side of the workers and rebels in ‘Part Four’ pretty quickly.

I’m sure many like Sarah Sutton, who watched ‘The Sun Makers’ in the ‘Behind the Sofa’ item, were expecting her to turn sides again. Had Marn been given more in terms of a character, I would appreciate her presence rather than regarding her as…well, Gatherer Hade’s sidekick, to put it politely.

The rebels that live in the undercity of Megropolis One include William Simons as Mandrel, the leader of the group. In terms of the violence featured in this story, it can be quite comical in places, especially when the rebels seem to have a violent edge when they’re threatening the Doctor and Leela at times.

Mandrel comes across as someone who likes to talk tough, including when pointing a knife at the Doctor to threaten him to talk. The Doctor and Leela somehow can see through the rebels’ vulnerable state even when they talk tough. Leela even goes so far when she declares what she thinks of Mandrel.

Leela: You? You have nothing, Mandrel. No pride, no courage, no manhood.

Whoa, whoa! Steady on, Leela! This is a kids’ show! 😀 Fortunately, since Mandrel was a former B-Grade worker for the Company on Pluto, he eventually agrees to help the Doctor along with K-9, Cordo, Bisham and the rebels to overthrow their oppressors and stop their world being taxed to death.

Michael Keating guest stars as Goudry, another rebel in Mandrel’s group. This was the first time I saw Michael Keating in anything and he would go on to play Vila Restal in the BBC sci-fi TV series ‘Blake’s 7’. He also played Reverend Stevens in ‘EastEnders’ from 2005 to 2017. Something I didn’t know about.

I’ve also heard him as Mydas Mydasson in five episodes of the sci-fi comedy audio series ‘Soldiers of Love’. And he’s done plenty of Big Finish audios over the years, including ‘Doctor Who’ and ‘Blake’s 7’. I can’t say much about Michael’s character in ‘The Sun Makers’, as he’s quite generic as a character.

With that said, Michael Keating delivers an enjoyable performance as the character. In fact, according to an interview with Pennant Roberts in the ‘Running from the Tax Man’ making-of documentary, I believe it was from ‘The Sun Makers’ that Michael Keating was cast to play Vila Restal in ‘Blake’s 7’. 🙂

And there’s Adrienne Burgess as Veet, another rebel in Mandrel’s group. Apparently, Louise Jameson was friends with Adrienne Burgess during their school days. 🙂 I’ve only seen Adrienne Burgess in one other thing and that’s an episode in Series 1 of the BBC TV sitcom ‘Terry and June’, which I’ve enjoyed.

She did another ‘Terry and June’ episode in Series 8, apparently. And she did an episode of ‘Blake’s 7’ and made an uncredited appearance in an episode of ‘Space: 1999’. Like Michael Keating as Goudry, there’s not much to say about her character, and she comes across as generic when in Mandrel’s gang.

Veet seems to enjoy herself a bit too much, I think, when she, Goudry and the rebels are overthrowing their oppressors in ‘Part Four’. I don’t know if that was on Adrienne’s part to be too happy when the rebels and workers threw Gatherer Hade off the roof, or whether Pennant Roberts had directed her like that.

It’d be unfair of me to consider the rebels as always violent in this ‘Doctor Who’ story, especially when Leela tends to threaten people by using her knife on them, including a guard played by Stuart Fell. Mind you, that’s the savage nature that Leela needs to keep learning from now and again in the TV series.

Also, to reiterate what’s been said between Colin Baker, Sarah Sutton and Janet Fielding in the ‘Behind the Sofa’ items of Season 15 of ‘Doctor Who’ so far, the violence elements featured in Tom Baker’s era are pretty evident compared to how the violence elements were identified in Colin Baker’s era. 😀

The story’s cast also includes Carole Hopkin as a Nurse, Derek Crewe as Synge, Colin McCormack as a Commander and Tom Kelly as a Guard. My Mum recognised Colin McCormack from somewhere. Apparently, he’s been in an episode of ‘The Good Life’ as well as three episodes of ‘Terry and June’. 🙂

I don’t often talk about Dudley Simpson’s incidental music in ‘Doctor Who’, but I think it’s fair to say that at this stage in the classic TV series, the music isn’t so electronic anymore, as it sounds more…well, quite orchestral. This is where Dudley Simpson’s stance on music in ‘Doctor Who’ is at its best here. 🙂

‘The Sun Makers’ ends with the Collector and the Gatherers defeated. The Doctor, Leela and K-9 leave in the TARDIS, whilst Cordo, Bisham, Mandrel and the others are considering recolonising the planet Earth. After tossing the TARDIS to one side, the Doctor promises K-9 a rematch to their chess game. 🙂

The original DVD special features were as follows. There was the making-of documentary ‘Running from the Tax Man’ with behind-the-scenes cast and crew interviews. There was a BBC trailer for ‘Part One’ of the story, ‘The Doctor’s Composer – Part Two’ interview with music composer Dudley Simpson (‘Part One’ is currently on ‘The War Games’ 3-disc DVD set and ‘Part Two’ can now be seen on Disc 5 of the Season 17 Blu-ray box set, containing ‘The Horns of Nimon’), outtakes of Cordo’s gun not going off in ‘Part Four’ of the story 😀 , and a photo gallery of the story. There was a dual mono sound audio mix option for the story, and an audio commentary with Tom Baker, Louise Jameson, Michael Keating and the late director Pennant Roberts. There was an info-text commentary option to enjoy, a ‘Radio Times Listings’ PDF of the story, and a ‘coming soon’ trailer for the ‘Day of the Daleks’ 2-disc Special Edition DVD, starring Jon Pertwee, Katy Manning, Nicholas Courtney, Richard Franklin and John Levene (which can now be seen on Disc 8 of the Season 8 Blu-ray box set of ‘Doctor Who’, containing ‘The Dæmons’).

On Disc 4 of the ‘Doctor Who – The Collection – Season 15’ Blu-ray, the ‘Running from the Tax Man’ making-of documentary, the outtakes, the dual mono sound audio mix option and the DVD audio commentary can be found on there. The BBC trailer for ‘Part One’ has been updated into BBC trailers and continuity announcements of the story. The photo gallery of the story and the info-text commentary option have been updated for 2024 on the Blu-ray.

The new special features on Blu-ray include the ‘Behind the Sofa’ feature on ‘The Sun Makers’ with Louise Jameson (Leela), fan and critic Toby Hadoke and Betsan Roberts, wife of the late director Pennant Roberts as well as Colin Baker (the Sixth Doctor), Sarah Sutton (Nyssa) and Janet Fielding (Tegan) as well as Katy Manning (Jo) and Matthew Waterhouse (Adric). There’s also the ‘Louise Jameson: In Conversation’ interview conducted by Matthew Sweet.

On the PDF front, as well as the ‘Radio Times Listings’ of ‘The Sun Makers’, there are production documents, four camera scripts and two blocks of director Pennant Roberts’ camera scripts. You need a special Blu-ray computer drive for that.

‘The Sun Makers’ has been a very intriguing and enjoyable ‘Doctor Who’ story to check out. I enjoyed the Fourth Doctor, Leela and K-9 throughout this story, and it’s certainly a fascinating tale by Robert Holmes on his reaction to the Inland Revenue and taxes, and how he plays a sci-fi satire on the subject.

It’s comedic in places, but it’s also very strongly situated in this serious social and political issue of the 1970s. You can tell Robert Holmes is having a go at the British government at the time, and who could blame him? I’m very sure many have expressed anger at certain things our governments have decreed.

The scene of Gatherer Hade’s death can be both comedic and horrific at the same time. It makes me wonder what’s become of the population of Pluto nowadays and whether they’ve returned to Earth to recolonise. As far as I’m concerned, there hasn’t been a sequel to ‘The Sun Makers’ in any form yet.

Perhaps the Doctor should go back and check out the Pluto population from ‘The Sun Makers’ someday. He could prevent more people being thrown off buildings to their deaths. 😀 Tom Baker and Louise Jameson excel in this story, and I enjoyed Tom Baker’s scenes with Henry Woolf as the Collector.

‘The Sun Makers’ rating – 8/10

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