Ian Stuart Black was a well-established television writer, having penned episodes for numerous
programmes since the early 1960s. These included classics such as H. G. Wells' The Invisible
Man and The Saint. He also wrote for and co-created Danger Man, starring Patrick McGowan.
As a regular viewer of Doctor Who, Black thought that a Doctor Who writer's credit would
impress his children. So, around December 1965, on an impulse following a script conference
at the BBC, Black visited the Doctor Who production office and enquired about writing for the
series. Script editor Gerry Davies commissioned Black to write The White Savages on January
19th 1966. For a time, it was considered as a replacement to Donald Cotton's comedic The
Gunfighters. In the end, however, Black's script would follow it into production. Since
The Gunfighters was serial Z, the alphabetical method of assigning production codes had now
been exhausted, so The White Savages was designated serial AA.
Peter Purvis' character of Stephen was scheduled to leave in this serial, so Black was asked
to incorporate his departure into the script. It was planned that Stephen's replacement,
who was provisionally named Richard or Rich, would join the Doctor and Dodo in the next
serial The War Machines, also written by Black. Christopher Barry, whose last Doctor Who work
had been on The Romans, was assigned as the director, and filming started at Ealing Studios
at the end of April 1966. By now, the story title had been truncated to The Savages.
Location filming began on April 29th at Shire Lane Quarry near Chalfont St Peter in Buckinghamshire
for scenes set in the craters. May 1st saw cast and crew visit Callow Hill Sandpit in
Virginia Water Surrey, which doubled as the ravine.
A few production photos survived showing the cast and crew taking a break during location
filming. Studio recording at Riverside One began on May 13th, and as usual, each instalment
was taped on consecutive Fridays. One change instituted by producer Innes Lloyd
was to stop giving each Doctor Who episode its own title. This tradition had run from
an unearthly child the first episode of the first story, through to the OK Corral, which
was the last episode of the previous story. From The Savages onward, each episode would
receive an episode number caption instead, a practice that continued until the programme's
relaunch in 2005.
Unusually the first eight scenes of Part 4 were recorded immediately after the completion
of the third episode. This was done to save having to remount the sets and dry ice effects
in the studio the following week.
Particularly noteworthy is Freddy Jaeger's performance of Jano. When Jano takes on aspects
of the Doctor's personality, Jaeger produces a wonderful emanation of Hartnell's characteristics
and mannerisms.
Ian Stewart-Black went on to write a further two Doctor Who stories. The first of these,
The War Machines, immediately followed The Savages, and a year later Black penned The
Macra Terror for Patrick Troughton's first season.