Doctor Who: The Sun Makers

The TARDIS arrives in the future on Pluto, a place with six suns, a breathable atmosphere and a large industrial community. The Company controls the planet and exploits the workers, pays them a pittance and then taxes them on everything imaginable. The fourth Doctor (Tom Baker) and Leela (Louise Jameson) join forces with an underground band of rebels led by Mandrel, and face an equally taxing situation when they challenge the Usurians and their leader, The Collector. Remastered picture and sound. Extras include commentary with Tom Baker and other stars, including Michael Keaton!

The TARDIS arrives in the future on the planet Pluto where there are now six suns, a breathable atmosphere and a large industrial community. The Company controls the planet and exploits the workers, pays them a pittance and then taxes them on everything imaginable. The Doctor and Leela join forces with an underground band of rebels led by a man named Mandrel.
They learn that the head of the Company's operations on Pluto, represented by the human official Gatherer Hade, is an Usurian known as the Collector. The Usurians enslave planets through economic means and then fleece the inhabitants with exorbitant taxes. The Company keeps the citizens in line by diffusing a calming gas, PCM, through the air conditioning system.
The Doctor manages to stop this, and the workers then rise up against the Company and hurl Gatherer Hade to his death from the roof of a tall building. The Doctor meanwhile gains access to the Company computer and programs it to apply a two per cent growth tax. The Collector, unable to cope with the loss of his profits, reverts to his natural form - a type of poisonous fungus - and is rendered harmless.

Directed by Pennant Roberts
Written by Robert Holmes
Produced by Graham Williams
Original Music by Ron Grainer and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, arranged by Delia Derbyshire
Cinematography by Tariq Anwar
Costume Design by Christine Rawlins

The Gatherer employs many amusing forms of address for the Collector, including not only 'your Excellency' but also such gems as 'your Magnificence', 'your Sagacity' and 'your Enormity'.

Michael Keating, now better known for his role as Vila in Blake's 7, plays the rebel Goudry.

There are a number of Aztec influences in the story's costume and set designs - most notably in the Gatherer's crested hat, the badges worn by Company executives and the large 'sun god' symbol suspended at the back of the Gatherers' office. These were a nod toward the original intention of set designer Tony Snoaden and costume designer Christine Rawlins to base their work on Mexican propagandist art, an idea that had been vetoed by director Pennant Roberts.

First Transmitted
1 - 26/11/1977 18:05
2 - 03/12/1977 18:05
3 - 10/12/1977 18:05
4 - 17/12/1977 18:05