On the peaceful planet Dulkis, war has been eradicated, but the Island of Death remains as a memorial to the Dulcians' violent past. Two alien Dominators land on the Island, and begin drilling into the planet's surface with the help of their diminutive but lethal robots, the Quarks. When the TARDIS arrives nearby, the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe befriend a rebellious young Dulcian named Cully, whose friends were murdered by the Quarks. But even with Cully's help, the time travellers find themselves unable to rouse the passive, sententious government of Dulkis to act against the Dominators -- and time is running out.

Doctor Who's fourth and fifth seasons were characterised by an increasing emphasis on populist science-fiction, with a particular emphasis on monsters such as the Cybermen, the Yeti and the Ice Warriors. However, none of these creatures offered the same merchandise appeal as the programme's original monsters: the Daleks. Following mid-1967's The Evil Of The Daleks, the Doctor Who production office had proceeded under the assumption that the Daleks were no longer available to the show, given the efforts of their creator, Terry Nation, to launch a separate Dalek television series. Although Nation indicated in December that he had not ruled out the Daleks' return to Doctor Who, producer Peter Bryant was keen to develop a monetisable new monster and, to this end, approached Yeti creators Mervyn Haisman and Henry Lincoln in late 1967. Haisman and Lincoln had just finished work on the second Yeti story, The Web Of Fear.

The writers observed that much of the Daleks' appeal lay in the fact that they didn't just look like a man in a costume. With this in mind, Haisman and Lincoln developed the Quarks: squat robots with sinister, childlike voices. Their idea was that different attachments could be mounted on the Quarks' arms, increasing their commercial appeal. The robots' names came from a family of subatomic particles, the existence of which had first been theorised in 1964.

The writers sought to explore what they considered to be the misguidedly passive philosophy of the hippie movement

For the story which would introduce the Quarks, Haisman and Lincoln wanted to get away from the purely action-adventure nature of their previous Doctor Who scripts. Preferring a narrative with timely, modern relevance, they sought to explore what they considered to be the misguidedly passive philosophy of the hippie movement. A story breakdown for The Dominators was duly commissioned on January 2nd, 1968. The six-part adventure would be the second-last to be made as part of Doctor Who's fifth recording block, but held over to be broadcast as the first serial of Season Six. It apparently replaced an unknown story which was dropped after the script for its first episode did not meet the approval of Bryant and story editor Derrick Sherwin.

The writers drew upon Latin for many of their character names, including Bovem (“bull”), Senex (“old man”; he was originally called Somex, derived from the Latin word for “sleep”), and Dulcian (“beautiful people”, with “The Beautiful People” having also been considered as a title for the serial). The name Cully, meanwhile, came from a word meaning “dupe”. Cully's passengers in Episode One had names derived from Arabic numerals: Wahed (from waahid, “one”), Etnin (from ithnaan, “two”) and Tolata (from thalaatha, “three”).

The breakdown stage did not go entirely smoothly, with Haisman and Lincoln being asked to modify their storyline before the scripts were finally commissioned on February 2nd. Matters did not improve over the next month, by which time the first three scripts had been delivered. Sherwin felt that the writers had included too many satirical elements at the expense of incident; he requested a number of changes, which he found Haisman and Lincoln were extremely reluctant to implement. Around this time, Morris Barry was assigned to direct The Dominators (although, at one point, it was thought that Douglas Camfield, who had most recently directed The Web Of Fear, would do the honours). Barry, who had last worked on The Tomb Of The Cybermen a year earlier, concurred with Sherwin's assessment.

When Episode Four arrived on March 15th and was still deemed unsuitable, Sherwin decided to take drastic action. He and his assistant, Terrance Dicks, started rewriting the script, unbeknownst to Haisman and Lincoln. Finally, after Episode Five arrived at the Doctor Who production office on the morning of March 22nd, Bryant asked to meet with the writers that afternoon. He informed Haisman and Lincoln that they would not be required to provide the final episode of The Dominators, although they would be paid in full for all six installments.

By March 29th, Bryant and Sherwin had decided to reduce The Dominators to just five parts; the remaining episode would now form a prologue to The Mind Robber, the next serial in production. Sherwin generally compacted the original storyline for Episodes Four, Five and Six down to two installments. Under the circumstances, Haisman and Lincoln decided that they no longer wished to have their names appear on The Dominators. Instead, they requested that it be credited to the pseudonym “Norman Ashby”, created from the names of their fathers-in-law. Because of the change in length of The Dominators and The Mind Robber, and with the character of Zoe now a firmer part of the production office's plans, Wendy Padbury was issued a new contract on April 24th. This covered episodes from The Dominators through to the first serial of the sixth recording block.

Filming began on April 25th in Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire, where the Wapseys Wood quarry, owned by the Gerrards Cross Sand & Ballast Company, served as the principal location for the Island of Death. Due to the diminutive size of the Quark costumes, three boys from an acting school were hired to operate them. April 26th was occupied with model shooting at the Television Centre Puppet Theatre in White City, London. Barry's team next travelled to the Olley (Wrotham) Ltd Sand Pit in Trottiscliffe, Kent on April 28th. This location was used for additional areas on the Island of Death, such as the sites where the TARDIS materialised and the Dominator ship landed. Cast and crew returned to Gerrards Cross on the 29th, where Arthur Cox, playing Cully, badly sprained his ankle. He would be in a cast for some time as a result, limiting Barry's camera angles for the rest of the pre-filming.

On April 30th and May 1st, recording took place at the BBC Television Film Studios in Ealing, London, chiefly to film all of the material aboard Cully's ship. Work at Ealing had been scheduled to continue on May 2nd. However, because Barry had not been able to complete all of the necessary shots at Wapseys Wood, the day was instead spent back in Gerrards Cross, and an additional day at the same location was allocated for the 3rd.

As usual, all five episodes of The Dominators were recorded on consecutive Fridays. The entire serial was taped at BBC Television Centre, with Studio 4 playing host to Episodes One and Two before the final three parts shifted to TC3. Episode One went before the cameras on May 17th. On May 31st, an unusual error was made when the “Episode 3” caption was inadvertently omitted from the start of the programme. Production on the serial wrapped up on June 14th.

It appears that relations between Haisman and Lincoln and the Doctor Who production office improved following the end of recording on The Dominators. Indeed, by early summer, the writers were working on a third Yeti serial, called “The Laird of McCrimmon”. Unfortunately, matters deteriorated during over the ensuing weeks. Both parties entered into merchandising endeavours involving the Quarks without the permission of the other, leading to a dispute over whether the writers owned the copyright to the Quarks wholly, or whether it was shared with the BBC.

Mervyn Haisman and Henry Lincoln threatened to go to court to prevent the broadcast of The Dominators

A series of meetings was held during July in an effort to resolve the matter; things became so acrimonious that, at one point, Haisman and Lincoln threatened to go to court to prevent the broadcast of The Dominators. A deal was finally reached, but there was now no question of Haisman and Lincoln continuing to write for Doctor Who; “The Laird Of McCrimmon” was abandoned. The Dominators was also the last Doctor Who serial directed by Barry, although he later appeared in front of the cameras as Tollund in 1979's The Creature From The Pit.

With the legal wranglings now put to bed, The Dominators led off Doctor Who's sixth season on August 10th. During the nine weeks which had elapsed since Season Five ended, a repeat of The Evil Of The Daleks had aired, although it was preempted on two occasions by coverage of the Wimbledon tennis tournament. Doctor Who now returned to the same 5.15pm timeslot it had occupied at the end of the fifth season. However, with The Dick Van Dyke Show having now concluded, Doctor Who was instead followed by a news update and then another American sitcom import, The Lucy Show (billed as The New Lucy Show) starring Lucille Ball.

• Doctor Who Magazine #262, 11th March 1998, “Archive: The Dominators” by Andrew Pixley, Panini UK Ltd.
• Doctor Who Magazine Special Edition #4, 4th June 2003, “Paradise Lost” by Andrew Pixley, Panini Publishing Ltd.
• Doctor Who: The Complete History #12, 2018, “Story 44: The Dominators”, edited by Mark Wright, Hachette Partworks Ltd.
• Doctor Who: The Handbook: The Second Doctor by David J Howe, Mark Stammers and Stephen James Walker (1997), Virgin Publishing.
• Doctor Who: The Sixties by David J Howe, Mark Stammers and Stephen James Walker (1992), Virgin Publishing.