The House of Morlog

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***The House of Morlog*** is a *Doctor Who* non-profit fan-film, written, directed, edited by and starring Astile Doherty. It was released on 1 August 2020. The video is dedicated to Patrick Troughton, who played the Second Doctor from 1966 to 69, and died on 28 March 1987.

## Synopsis

After regenerating, the Doctor finds himself stranded on Earth, 2020, in the middle of a park with a non-working TARDIS now disguised as an abandoned, decaying public toilet using a recently repaired chameleon circuit. He stumbles out and is transported to a mysterious house owned by an evil masked entity with sinister intentions; Morlog.

## Production and Release

The TARDIS interior and house of Morlog scenes were filmed in Doherty's home in North London. The park scenes were all filmed in Alexandra Palace. The video was unscripted and improvised, with only a solid idea for the story and how it would play out being in mind.

Almost every scene was shot by being set-up in a way where Doherty could press record, jump in and do his thing. This process proved difficult due to framing issues. The scenes with visible camera movement and some of the still shots in the bedroom and hallway were done with the assistance of Doherty's friend Yasara K.

Morlog's design was inspired by Slade Wilson / Deathstroke, who's mask is known for its distinct half orange and half black colour scheme. The mask was created a year prior for a different reason, but Doherty found the design suitably creepy for the character. His voice was achieved by using a voice changer, recording speech with QuickTime Player and adding it in editing. The 'cloak' was an old dog blanket that had been cleaned after finding a new cover for Richie and was swiftly forgotten about for months.

Visual effects such as the TARDIS materialising and subsequently changing appearance, the screen blurring and changing colour, the mirror scene, and Morlog fading away in the bedroom were all achieved on DaVinci Resolve 16 using it's various free version tricks. Some of the more ambitious editing Doherty wanted to do are only available on the purchased version.

The blur and yellow glow where the Doctor says "Okay" to himself is in fact a post-regeneration effect, although it was actually a camera error that Doherty turned into part of the video.

The title and credits sequences are a re-edit of the *Terror of the Vervoids* special edition boxset release title sequence created by Rob Ritchie. It was edited to remove Colin Baker's face and be longer. This is the 4:3 short haired version

## References to *Doctor Who*

The way the Doctor messes around the desk is in reference to the Second Doctor's first movements around the TARDIS in *The Power of the Daleks*, where he messes around with the chest in the console room and then changes his outfit. The scene where the Doctor sees different versions of himself in the mirror is also similar to a moment during the same scene in the same story.

The Doctor's initial outfit is meant to look like the remains of the First Doctor's from *The Tenth Planet*, namely his trousers and plain white shirt. He removes the cloak in the beginning, which was actually a navy blue dressing gown made to look darker thanks to the black and white filter.

When Morlog begins to pierce the Doctor's mind, it is similar to the Fourth Doctor's own mental torture in *The Face of Evil*. The noises the Doctor makes are also similar to the one's the Second Doctor made when he was forced to regenerate at the end of *The War Games*.

The line "I don't like it" is used to vocalise the Doctor's dislike of the new TARDIS appearance. It has been said by the Second Doctor in *The Three Doctors* and *The Five Doctors*, by the Eleventh Doctor in *Closing Time*, by the Tenth Doctor in *The Day of the Doctor*, by Clara Oswald in *Deep Breath*, and by the First Doctor in *Twice Upon a Time*.

The penny whistle the Doctor plays is a similar accessory to the Second Doctor's recorder, the main differences being that they are a different instrument and it also acts as a special type of sonic screwdriver.