Dance of The Dead

    The episode is all about death, even the Telex machine, as the original script describes it, died a death. In the script for ‘Dance of the Dead’ “Number 6 picks up a heavy ashtray and smashes the Telex machine with it. Then Number 6 and Number 240 return to the dance, “leaving Number 2 surrounded with paper rolls and broken springs.”

    In ‘Checkmate’ we are witness to the scene which takes place on-board M. S. Polotska, in which Number 6 smashes a TV screen with a heavy ashtray. But it would clearly have been impossible to destroy a Telex machine with a heavy ashtray, let alone the teleprinter used in the episode. So its no wonder they changed the way Number 6 was to have sabotaged the machine. And at the same time it’s nice to see the idea was not forgotten, and revived for a scene in ‘Checkmate.’

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