| The following article is written from an Out of Universe perspective. |
Tomahawk was the fourth episode of Season 49 of Doctor Who. It was written by Nicholas Briggs, directed by Douglas Mackinnon and featured Samantha Bond as the Fourteenth Doctor and Montserrat Lombard as Erin Stevenson.
Synopsis
In 2014, UNIT have to deal with a looming alien invasion... BUT their leader, Caitrin Ryan, is en route, away from the action - with only the foolish Colonel Lafayette in charge, the Doctor and Erin must stop an all-out inter-dimensional crisis.
Plot
The TARDIS whizzes through the time vortex. Inside the Doctor looks at a monitor at the console, and calls to Erin saying that they have trouble. Erin asks what sort, and the Doctor says “Human… trouble…”.
Caitrin Ryan, the Director-General of UNIT is in the back of an SUV car, drinking a cup of tea. Before long, a voice comes through on her walkie-talkie, the muffled voice of Colonel Lafayette. “Tomahawk One, are you receiving? Over”, and Lafayette goes onto explain that there’s been a situation back in the capital, a massive portal has appeared to have opened in the sky. Caitrin looks rather bemused, but before long the SUV turns around a corner and a giant purple portal is seen in the distance, hovering above London.
Inside UNIT HQ, the TARDIS materialises, to an audience of UNIT soldiers. The door opens and the Doctor walks out shouting “Ms Ryan, what do you think you are actually doing?”, before dead silence as the Doctor sees Colonel Lafayette in front of her. She says “Where’s Caitrin? Caitrin Ryan? I need to speak to her.” – Lafayette replies telling the Doctor that she is en route and that she’s got to deal with him for now. The Doctor then tells him to run her through the events that lead to this portal in this sky – the Doctor initially assumes it one of UNIT’s foolish endeavours, but Lafayette says that he’s at much of a loss as she is.
As the episode continues, mysterious baby like heads appear from the portal, called the Sky Heads, and Lafayette speaks to them. We find out what they want to declare Earth their new home, and while Lafayette tries to negotiate and deter them from this, one of the sky heads just kills him. The Doctor, quickly swoops in, and begins to talk to them, basically just making it up on the spot, and agreeing to let the Sky Heads onto Earth, as long as they don’t harm the population and they help the humans with mutually beneficial tasks in the future.
When Caitrin gets back, they begin trying to work out how they are going to go about integrating them into Earth’s population – but before long more portals open up and different strange creatures begin emerging. The narrative then splits into two with the Doctor and Caitrin facing monsters called Mind leechers, and Erin and a UNIT sergeant, Wilson, split up and facing monsters called Lava Spiders. However, after this attack, they are saved by the Sky Heads, killing both monsters – and many more in the other portals.
However, while the portals now begin to close, cubes appear in the sky – Caitrin and Erin deal with these, while the Doctor and Wilson talk to the sky heads, as the other creatures are sealed into the closing portals. Caitrin orders a missile strike at one of them and from this they work out that they explode, not because of the missiles, but because of heat – and the Sky Heads proceed, with UNIT’s help, to blow low bursts of heat at them.
Wilson, then tries calling Dr. Ball – the head of the bomb department at UNIT – but he doesn’t respond – but not before long, the Doctor and Caitrin find Dr. Ball’s dead body in the warehouse where the Time Machine is being stored (the body is that of a different actor, and not Colin Baker as the Matrix illusion has worn off). However, they find an alien lurking in the warehouse, called Arunzell the leader of the Tolians, who as it turns out has been using UNIT’s equipment to not just bring these creatures from different planets, but different times as well. He has an almost mad fascination with Natural Selection and has been experimenting with using it to eradicate life. We find out that all the non-sentient creatures’ kind of leaked through his portals, and the Sky Heads just used them to their advantage after their planet was destroyed – which is revealed was also, unbeknownst to them, as a result of one of his experiments.
He is defeated, by Caitrin opening up the roof, to reveal a Sky Head above, and she tells them that Arunzell was responsible for the destruction of their planet – and they, using the same power as earlier with Lafayette, kill him. Meanwhile, the Doctor and Erin manage to close all the portals, permanently, in a technobabbly kind of way. Caitrin and the Doctor then cut a deal with the Sky Heads, to use a combination of UNIT’s time travel technology, and the power of the TARDIS to send all of them to a new planet, capable of supporting their life, that is deserted.
However, a spaceship descends on UNIT HQ, after all of this, and it’s the Tolians, Arunzell’s people, they demand extradition of Arunzell, as he’s a war criminal. The Doctor explains that he’s been killed, and the Tolians arrest the Doctor and Erin for perverting the course of justice
Cast
- The Doctor - Samantha Bond
- Erin Stevenson - Montserrat Lombard
- Caitrin Ryan - Gillian Anderson
- Sergeant Wilson - Bradley Gardner
- Colonel Lafayette - Julian Dutton
- Private Maynard - Ian Hallard
- Private Phillips - Tristan Beint
- Arunzell - Samuel Oatley
- Sylvie Wilson - Miranda Keeling
- Reporters - Tony Osoba, Pippa Bennett-Warner, Edward Harrison
- Voice of the Sky Heads - Benedict Briggs
Crew
- Created by Sydney Newman, Donald Wilson and C.E. Webber
- Executive Producers - Ronald D. Moore, Jane Espenson, Ira Steven Behr and Ken MacQuarrie
- Co-Executive Producers - Toni Graphia, Bradley Thompson, David Weddle, Nicholas Briggs, Matthew B. Roberts and Toby Whithouse
- Director of Photography - David Higgs
- Production Designer - Richard Hudolin
- Visual Effects - DNEG
- Make-Up - Suzanne Jansen
- Casting Director - Andy Pryor
- Music - Bear McCreary
- Costume Designer - Suzanne Cave
- Edited by - Peter H Oliver
- Original Theme Music - Ron Grainer
- Title Music - Bear McCreary
- Title Sequence - Goodbye Kansas Studios
- UNIT created by Derrick Sherwin
Memorable Quotes
To be added.
Background Information
Production History
- Filming starts - 10 March 2014
- Filming ends - 4 April 2014
- Broadcast - 11 October 2014
Development
Pre-Production
To be added.
Production
- This story was filmed eighth, alongside Flatline, as a double-bank episode, making up Block 3, helmed by Douglas Mackinnon.
Post-Production
To be added.
Reaction
Story Notes
To be added.
Continuity
Home Video Releases
To be added.