Masque of Mandragora

"Renaissance & Stimpy", "Mandragora Behaving Badly", The Italian Mob"

“The One with the Age of Enlightenment" (USA), "Medico Che ed i trafori" (Italy)

Doctor Who and Sarah J Smith arrive in Italy just as some men are putting masks on and summoning up something that Doctor Who goes on to defeat.

*** - There is a theory that this entire story takes place in the Tardis boot cupboard. Who are we to argue with theories?

Norman Jones: Tom Baker's curiosity might lead him away from this planet until, ultimately, the galaxy itself might not contain him. We of Mandragora will not allow a rival power within our domain.

Tom Baker: (muffled) Hellllp - Jones has locked me in the lavatory.

"The worse the situation, the worse your pants get"

Contrary to popular myth this story wasn't filmed in Portmeirion but rather at the ½ scale replica of Portmeirion that Tom Baker had built at his home to avoid the need to visit Wales. This is why even 4'9'' Lis Sladen looks like a giant.

The BBC sued a telephone company who advertised a £1.50 per minute phone line with the phrase "Man Dragor - ahhh - he licks" and won free calls for life as part of the settlement.

Real Italians were hired from Chester Zoo for scenes which couldn't be achieved by men dressed up in Italian suits.

The Tardis boot cupboard wouldn't feature again in Doctor Who until Michael Grade dumped Colin Baker in there in 1986.

The new wooden Tardis console room wasn't an innovative design feature but rather the first move in a seedy plan hatched by an unnamed member of the production team to burn Doctor Who down and claim on the insurance.

The BBC's spelling unit called on the producer, writer and caption artist to resign following their "apalling" and "woefull" misspelling of "mask". The writer was a freelancer and the caption artist had incriminating photographs so they were unaffected but the producer happily called the unit's bluff and re-signed his contract of employment. Everyone got ex gratia payments because it was the start of the season and they had money to burn.

The "Lost in Time" collection was rushed released in November 2004 after the planned release - an Italian themed boxed set comprising The Romans, Masque of Mandragora and City of Death - was cancelled when a temp noticed that Paris wasn't actually in Italy. The set was released in the USA as BBC America decided no one would notice.

...is that asking perceptive questions always leads to complication, suspicion and ultimately failure.

Si Hunt

“It is a little known fact but I too have been the subject of an Italian religious cult. It all started when Ian Devine and I found ourselves in a top secret Vatican archive vault. As Ian Devine often says 'when you've gained entry to one top security archive, you've gained entry to them all'. We had heard a rumour from an unimpeachable source's unimpeachable source's brother's cousin's uncle's head-masseuse that some production documents from Season "six" of "Doctor Who" had been placed there during Frazer Hines' 1970 conference with the then-Pope. We found some promising looking papers stuffed behind a portrait of Jess Conrad and I removed a book from my satchel to make room for them. Alas, I didn't remember to pick the book up again and some years later "The Dimensions of Telesnaps - a Millimetric Guide to the Works of John Cura by Dennis Brent" was unearthed by a theologian of unsound mind and I was mistakenly hailed as a prophet. I haven't yet received any royalties though <shrug>

So next time you hear people calling me a cult you know to what they are referring.”

Jimmy Timmins, writing in "Polycarbide News", rated Masque of Mandragora against every other season-opening story. His article, which ran "No, yes, yes, yes, no, yes, no, no, no, yes, yes" etc, was not universally popular as he didn't specify what on earth he was talking about. It also ran 975 words short of the 1,000 words requested by the editor. An out of court settlement lead to him being forced to repay £9.75. However, he had the last laugh as he reworked the wording of the article and sold the revised version to the writer of "When Harry Met Sally".