10 more actors who could have played Number 2 in The Prisoner

This is a sequel to a previous blog post of mine from November 2016. The same criteria for selection applies here as before - as much as I would like to nominate all the main actors who starred in Blakes 7, it seems unlikely that they would have the profile to have been cast as a Number 2 when The Prisoner was being made over 10 years earlier... or would they?

In ascending order, here are 10 more actors who could have (maybe even should have) played Number 2 for an episode of The Prisoner. Any and all of whom would have made a better go of it than John "A Change of Mind" Sharp, as low a bar as that is.

#10. William Hartnell

William Hartnell was much more than just the first Doctor, he was a legitimate character actor of theatre and film. He left Doctor Who in October 1966 and sought other acting parts, and a villainous role in The Prisoner could have been just what he needed to shake off the spectre of typecasting. In reality, of course, he had few TV roles after 1966 due to his declining health, which is why I don't place him higher up this list.

#9. Alan Badel

Star of the BBC's astoundingly good 1964 adaptation of The Count of Monte Cristo, Alan Badel is probably best known as the Minister of the Interior in the 1973 film Dave the Jackal. He would have made a wonderful Number 2, but places low on this list only for the same reason as Anthony Hopkins did in my first list - he would have been better used as the faux-Number 6 in Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling. Better than Nigel Stock was, anyhow.

#8. Oliver Reed

Oliver Reed was already a film star by the late 1960s, but it is not impossible that he could have been lured to play a TV role opposite Patrick McGoohan, as he did make a pawful of guest appearances in another telefantasy series, The Saint. A couple of his greatest film roles came around this time - Bill Sykes in Oliver! (1968) and Ivan Dragomiloff in The Assassination Bureau (1969) - so hopefully he could have fitted The Prisoner into his schedule without us having to miss out on either of those.

#7. Robert Vaughn

I had David McCallum highly placed on my earlier list, so perhaps his Man From UNCLE co-star would also have made a good Number 2?

But wait, you know who would have been even better? Not Robert Vaughn, but Peter Vaughan.

The new #7. Peter Vaughan

Peter "Denethor" Vaughan had a long acting career, although he is probably still best known for playing Grouty in Porridge (1974-79). While he was rarely cast in leading role, in 1969 he did star in the series The Gold Robbers as main character DCS Craddock, so I think it reasonable to say his profile around that time may have been such that he could have been a Number 2.

#6. Earl Cameron

Aside from being in Danger Man no less than five times, Earl Cameron was already in The Prisoner, as the Supervisor in The Schizoid Man. Surely only a small step from there to the big round chair...

#5. Bernard Lee

While Bernard Lee was, of course, M in the James Bond films throughout the 1960s and '70s, he was also still making regular appearances on television and was frequently being cast in spy series, having been in an episode of Espionage in 1964, then two episodes of Danger Man with Patrick McGoohan, and then an episode of Man in a Suitcase (playing very much against his 'M'-type as a down-at-heel has-been trying to recapture some of his lost glory) at around the time The Prisoner was being made.

Seeing Bernard Lee in the position of Number 2 would have immediately drawn the audience into making associations with M and Bond, which could have made for a very interesting episode - is this M himself W-wording for the Village?

#4. Burt Kwouk

'You know, Harry, when I was in The Prisoner...'

Another face familiar from the Bond films of the '60s (and about a thousand other things besides) is Burt Kwouk. Having been in Danger Man three times, including the penultimate episode before McGoohan resigned, it's easy to imagine him being cast in The Prisoner, but whether the culture of the times would have permitted him to have such a significant part as Number 2 is another matter, sadly.

Personally, I'd like to hope that they could have been progressive enough to not only cast Burt Kwouk as Number 2, but in an episode that made no reference to his race or with any hint of the 'Yellow Peril' nonsense that was all too common in the 1960s, and for quite a while afterwards as well.

#3. Vladek Sheybal

Yet another actor familiar from Danger Man and James Bond is Vladek "Kronstein" Sheybal, although a better guide to how he might have played Number 2 in a different and interesting way can be found in his portrayal of psychiatrist Dr Jackson in UFO - particularly in earlier episodes such as Exposed where he is an enigmatic and even sinister outsider figure, before he settled into the more comfortable role of SHADO's pet mad scientist.

#2. Julian Glover

Long before he would go on to be the Bond villain Kristatos in For Your Eyes Only, or even his memorable turn as Scaroth, last of the Jagaroth, in Doctor Who's City of Death... In the late '60s Julian Glover was something of a telefantasy rent-a-baddy, with four appearances in The Avengers between 1965 and 1969, plus The Saint and The Champions on top of that.

With that in mind, how he managed to entirely avoid appearing alongside Patrick McGoohan in Danger Man or The Prisoner is something of a mystery, but there's no doubt in my mind that his brand of smooth villainy (as perfected by him by the time of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade) would have made him ideal for Number 2.

#1. Jacqueline Pearce

Supreme Commander Servalan herself!

Until quite recently (guess what prompted this article?) I was under the impression that Jacqueline Pearce's TV roles in the 1960s were limited to small bit-parts, such as her earliest screen credit on her IMDB page "Jeannie" in the 1964 episode of Danger Man Don't Nail Him Yet, or the part of Marianne in 1966's Avengers episode A Sense of History. 

That was until I watched the episode of Man in a Suitcase called Somebody Loses, Somebody... Wins? This was first broadcast in early 1968 (so must have been filmed in 1967), in between the premiere showings of Once Upon a Time and Fall Out. In a plot very obviously influenced by John le Carré's The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, Jacqueline Pearce plays Ruth Klinger, a British double-agent in East Germany with a complicated history between her and the main character McGill (Richard Bradford). In order to preserve her cover with the East German police, Ruth is required to betray McGill.

After McGill himself (the only regular character in the series), Ruth is the second main character for the episode, and Pearce is wonderful in it - far more than just a romantic sidekick for McGill. Quite apart from looking almost exactly like she would when she first played Servalan 10 years later, some of the same mannerisms were already observable (see picture above). A treat for any Blakes 7 fan, but also proof - if proof be need be - that Jacqueline Pearce could easily have made a success of being Number 2 in The Prisoner.

Space-Tinker Space-Tailor Space-Soldier Star-Spy

Excerpts from the script for the 1977 movie of John Carré's 1974 novel Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, directed by George Lucas. Like most Hollywood adaptations, there were some alterations made in transitioning from page to screen.

Scene: exterior, streets of London

Guillam: "Max? Max! Boy am I glad to see you."

Smiley: "The London wastes are not to be traveled lightly. Tell me young Peter, what brings you out this far?"

Guillam: "Oh, this little droid! I think he's searching for his former master, but I've never seen such devotion in a droid before. He claims to be the property of a George Smiley. Is he a relative of yours? Do you know who he's talking about?"

Smiley: "George Smiley... George... Now that's a name I've not heard in a long time... a long time."

Guillam: "I think my uncle knew him. He said he was dead."

Smiley: "Oh, he's not dead. Not yet."

Guillam: "You know him?"

Smiley: "Well of course I know him. He's me! I haven't gone by the name George since... oh, before you were born."


Scene: interior, Smiley's Bywater Street home

Guillam: "You fought in the Cold War?"

Smiley: "Yes, I was once an intelligence officer the same as your father."

Guillam: "My father didn't fight in any wars. He was a navigator on a spice freighter."

Smiley: "That's what your uncle told you. He didn't hold with your father's ideals, thought he should have stayed here and not gotten involved."

Guillam: "I wish I'd known him."

Smiley: "He was the best scalphunter in the galaxy, and a cunning warrior. I understand you've become quite a good pilot yourself. And he was a good friend. Which reminds me, I have something here for you. Your father wanted you to have this when you were old enough, but your uncle wouldn't allow it. He feared you might follow old George on some damned-fool idealistic crusade like your father did."

Guillam: "What is it?"

Smiley: "Your father's lighter. This is the weapon of an intelligence officer. Not as clumsy or as random as a firearm. An elegant weapon for a more civilized age. For over a thousand generations the Secret Intelligence Service was the guardian of peace and justice in the Old Republic. Before the dark times, before the Empire."

Guillam: "How did my father die?"

Smiley: "A young agent named Karla, who I met once in Delhi, helped the Empire hunt down and destroy the SIS. He betrayed and murdered your father. Now the SIS is all but extinct. Karla was seduced by the dark side of the Force."

Guillam: "The Force?"

Smiley: "Well, the Force is what gives an agent his power. It's an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us and penetrates us. It binds the galaxy together."

R2D2 attracts Smiley's attention.

Smiley: "Now, let's see if we can't figure out what you are, my little friend. And where you come from."

Guillam: "I saw part of the message he was..."


Flashback Scene: interior, Peter Guillam's uncle's shed

Guillam: "You got a lot of carbon scoring here. It looks like you boys have seen a lot of action."

C3PO: "With all we've been through, sometimes I'm amazed we're in as good condition as we are. What with the Rebellion and all."

Guillam: "You know of the Rebellion against the Empire?"

C3PO: "That's how we came to be in your service, if you take my meaning sir."

Guillam: "Have you been in many battles?"

C3PO: "Several, I think. Actually, there's not much to tell. I'm not much more than an interpreter, and not very good at telling stories. Well, not ones of any interest, anyway."

Guillam: "Well, my little friend, you've got something jammed in here real good. Were you on a star cruiser or..."

Lacon: "Help me, George Smiley, you're my only hope."

Guillam: "What's this?"

C3PO: "What is what? He asked you a question: what is that?"

Lacon: "Help me, George Smiley, you're my only hope. Help me, George Smiley, you're my only hope."

C3PO: "Oh, he says it's nothing, sir. Merely a malfunction. Old data. Pay it no mind."

Guillam: "Who is she? She's beautiful."

C3PO: "I'm afraid I'm not quite sure, sir. I think she was a passenger on our last voyage. A person of some importance, I believe. Our captain was attached to..."

Guillam: "Is there more of this recording?"

C3PO: "Behave yourself, Ricki. You're going to get us into trouble. It's all right, you can trust him. He's our new master."

R2D2 conveys a message to C3PO.

C3PO: "He says he is the property of George Smiley, a resident of these parts, and it's a private message for him. Quite frankly, sir, I don't know what he's talking about. Our last master was Captain Antilles, but with what we've been through, this little Ricki unit has become a bit eccentric."

Guillam: "George Smiley? I wonder if he means old Max?"

C3PO: "I beg your pardon, sir, but do you know what he's talking about?"

Guillam: "Well, I don't know anyone named George, but old Max lives out on Bywater Street. He's kind of a strange old hermit."


Scene continues: interior, Smiley's Bywater Street home

Smiley: "I seem to have found it."

Lacon: "George Smiley, years ago you served Control in the Cold War. Now he begs you to help him in his struggle against the Empire. I regret that I am unable to present Control's request to you in person, but my ship has fallen under attack and I'm afraid my mission to bring you to the Circus has failed. I have placed information vital to safeguarding of the Service into the memory systems of this Ricki unit. Control will know how to retrieve it. You must see this droid safely delivered to him at the Circus. This is our most desperate hour. Help me, George Smiley, you're my only hope."

Smiley: "You must learn the ways of the Force, if you're to come with me to the Circus."

Guillam: "The Circus? I'm not going to join the Circus. I've got to get home, it's late, I'm in for it as it is."

Smiley: "I need your help, Peter. She needs your help. I'm getting too old for this sort of thing."

Guillam: "I can't get involved, I've got work to do! It's not that I like the Empire, I hate it! But there's nothing I can do about it right now. Russia's such a long way from here."

Smiley: "That's your uncle talking."


Scene: interior, a dingy London pub

Esterhase: "Toby Esterhase, I'm captain of the Millennium Falcon. Skordeno here tells me you're looking for passage to the Circus."

Smiley: "Yes, indeed. If it's a fast ship."

Esterhase: "Fast ship? You've never heard of the Millennium Falcon?"

Smiley: "Should I have?"

Esterhase: "It's the ship that made the Kessel run in less than twelve parsecs. I've outrun Imperial starships - not the local bulk-cruisers, mind you, I'm talking about the big Corellian ships now. She's fast enough for you, old man. What's the cargo?"

Smiley: "Only passengers. Myself, the boy, two droids, and no questions asked."

Esterhase: "What, is it some kind of local trouble?"

Smiley: "Let's just say we'd like to avoid any Imperial entanglements."

Esterhase: "Well, that's the real trick, isn't it? And it's going to cost you something extra: ten thousand, all in advance."

Guillam: "Ten thousand? We could almost buy our own ship for that!"

Esterhase: "You pay for Toby Esterhase, you get a Toby Esterhase service."

Smiley: "We can pay you two thousand now, plus fifteen when we reach the Circus."

Esterhase: "Seventeen? Okay, you guys got yourselves a ship. We'll leave as soon as you're ready. Docking bay 94."


Scene: interior, the Millennium Falcon

Guillam: "Boy it's lucky you had these compartments."

Esterhase: "I use them for smuggling. I never thought I'd be smuggling myself in them. This is ridiculous. Even if I could take off, we'd never get past the tractor beam."

Smiley: "Leave that to me."

Esterhase: "Damn fool. I knew you were going to say that."

Smiley: "Who's the more foolish, the fool or the man who follows him?"


Scene: interior, a prison cell in Delhi

Smiley enters and sees Karla opposite, his lighter already lit. Smiley also ignites his and steps forward.

Smiley: "Look, I am not offering you money or women or fast cars, you have no use for such things. And I am not going to make any claims about the moral superiority of the Republic. I’m sure you can see through our values, just as I can see through yours in the Empire. You and I have spent our lives looking for the weaknesses in each others systems. I’m sure each of us experienced innumerable technical satisfactions in our wretched Cold War. But now your own side is going to shoot you, for nothing! For misdemeanors you have not committed, because of a power struggle within your own kind, because of someone’s suspicions or sheer incompetence."

Karla says nothing.

Smiley: "You can't win, Karla. If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine."

Karla strikes Smiley down, and takes his lighter. The one engraved "To George from Ann with all my love."

Top 10 actors who should have played Number 2 in The Prisoner

Clickbait subtitle: Number 6 will make your jaw drop!

While obviously Paul Darrow would have made the best Number 2 evar, let's be sensible cats and confine ourselves to actors that could have plausibly been about in the era that The Prisoner was being made, and well known enough that they could have realistically been cast as the series' second main character for an episode or two.

Patrick Troughton could easily have made the list but for one thing, which is that he spent the whole of the period in question being in Doctor Who as a full time job. He just misses out on my top 10 for that reason.


#10. Kevin Stoney

Kevin Stoney is a good enough actor that he could be placed higher, but he is let down by his performance from that time he was actually in The Prisoner, as Colonel Jolly-Good-Show-What-What in Chimes of Big Ben - a character so broad in his English mannerisms that he could easily be best friends with Biggles or Bertie Wooster.

But imagine if Kevin Stoney had played his Number 2 more like his Tobias Vaughn in The Invasion (1968), then we'd be purring.


#9. Anthony Hopkins

Making this list mainly on the strength of his work in the Department S episode A Small War of Nerves (1970), plus of course all the hindsight of his subsequent career, Anthony Hopkins only places so low because of the feeling he'd be wasted as Number 2.

In the Prisoner episode Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling, Nigel Stock has a good go at playing Number 6 trapped in another manny's body, but despite a couple of strong scenes he can't rescue the rubbish production from itself. Now imagine Anthony Hopkins filling those shoes instead, and I think he may have had more chance than anybody else (except for a time-travelling 1980s Paul Darrow) of lifting that story up.


#8. Dennis Alaba Peters

Staying with Department S for inspiration, Dennis Alaba Peters played the regular authority figure Sir Curtis Seretse, and I think this could have been a good template for a take on Number 2.

He just needed to stay away from dodgy back projection when meeting with Stewart SullivanNumber 6 and he would have been fine. Sadly that was no easy feat in latter parts of the series, which is why he is no higher up this list.


#7. Herbert Lom

Herbert Lom was mainly a film actor, but did appear in a few TV shows, such as playing the main character in The Human Jungle (1963-64) and a guest star in The Man From UNCLE in 1967.

Despite looking a little bit like Kenneth Griffith (Number 2 in The Girl Who Was Death and, arguably, Fall Out), I don't doubt that you would have gotten a very different performance out of this veteran character actor, a few years before he got a bit typecast from playing Chief Inspector Dreyfus in the Pink Panther films.


#6. Philip Madoc

Going by his performance as the War Lord in The War Games (1969), Philip Madoc could have been a compelling, sinister, threatening Number 2, a worthy antagonist for Number 6 to face.

Contractually obligated joke:
"Why did you resign?"
"Don't tell him Pike!"


#5. BRIAN BLESSED

BRIAN BLESSED's versatility and range as an actor have been somewhat obscured by his post-Flash Gordon persona, but if you look at his work in the 1960s and '70s, such as guest appearances in The Avengers or his Augustus in I Claudius, you see what he would have been capable of as a Number 2.

Maybe his beard is Number 1?


#4. Honor Blackman

After leaving The Avengers to star in Goldfinger (1964), Honor Blackman could have returned to telefantasy television as a Number 2 who was the dark side of Cathy Gale or Pussy Galore.

Naturally as a cat I am bound to say I'd prefer the latter option.


#3. David McCallum

The Man From UNCLE series ended in 1968, so it is just possible that David McCallum could have come straight from there to be in The Prisoner, a few years before playing a prisoner himself in Colditz.

David McCallum is a truly great actor, so his Number 2 would have been bound to have been memorable in the first place, but there would also be the added question if, just as some speculated that Number 6 was really John Drake from Danger Man, could his Number 2 be Illya Kuryakin?


#2 Christopher Lee

In between making Dracula sequels for Hammer* Christopher Lee guest-starred in The Avengers episodes Never, Never Say Die (1967) and The Interrogators (1969), so it is not inconceivable that he could have been in The Prisoner around that same time. I think it's pretty uncontroversial to say he would have been a magnificent Number 2.

* This isn't even a joke: Dracula Prince of Darkness (1966); Dracula Has Risen From the Grave (1968); Taste the Blood of Dracula (1970).


So who is #1?


You are Number 6.


Only joking, it's:


#1. Roger Delgado

Roger Delgado's list of acting credits on IMDB for the 1960s show him as being stuck playing shifty foreigners called Von Golling (Danger Man, 1961), Rodriguez (The Saint, 1966) or Kreer (The Avengers, 1969), and many more examples both on film and on television. Inevitably they were minor villains, henchmen or, at best, guest villains of the week.

Aside from a recurring role as the Spanish Ambassador Mendoza in Sir Francis Drake in the early '60s, it took until his (perfect) casting as the Master in Doctor Who for him to find a regular part that showed off his acting skills to the best of his considerable abilities - although the Master was an alien, Delgado did not have to put on a dodgy accent or even more dodgy facepaint in order to play him.

I think it would have been great if we had seen a Number 2 played in the same vein, if only the producers of The Prisoner could have looked past the typecasting to the undoubted talent underneath. With all the qualities that made Roger Delgado's Master such a brilliant foil for Jon Pertwee's Doctor, Number 6 might have met his match at last.

It would have been even better if they had allowed him to record his own version of the opening dialogue (rather than lazily use the default sequence, as they tended to do towards the end of the series). That way we could have had:

"I am the new Number 2... and you will obey me." 

To be a Jedi!

Starcat reviews Star Wars comics: The Empire Strikes Back (part four)

The story so far on the first page segues into hinting at what is yet to happen.

Now, strange new dangers loom... both for him and his friends.

Luke meets Yoda, who offers to help him look for Yoda. Meanwhile C3PO, Han, Chewbacca and Princess Leia are hiding from Darth Vader inside the Space Glove Puppet.

Princess Leia and Han decide to have kiffs instead of doing work to repair the Millennium Falcon, which is very catlike of them.

In space we get our first glimpse of the Evil Emperor, who is for now just a shadowy figure talking to Darth Vader. We see Darth Vader come up with his plan,

He will join us, my master--
-- or die!

but we all know how badly that turns out for him.

Luke learns who Yoda is when Ben Kenobi talks to him through the Force.

Alec Guinness only has a couple of lines of dialogue here as Ben Kenobi. He is very underused in the part in The Empire Strikes Back.

Alec Guinness loved being in Star Wars, so he was understandably disappointed when he got the script for The Empire Strikes Back and saw how little Ben Kenobi had to do in it. He asked George Lucas if there were any other parts he could play, and even showed him the film Kind Hearts and Coronets on video to prove he could play several different roles within the same film.

Sadly for Alec Guinness, George Lucas had already cast all of the other parts, but Alec Guinness remained hopeful and still turned up for every day of the filming just in case they were able to use him, even if it was just for something simple like a voiceover saying "Use the Force, Luke."

Then one day it turned out that the actor who was supposed to play the Space Glove Puppet as it tries to eat the model of the Millennium Falcon couldn't make it, so Alec Guinness stepped in and saved the day (well, the day's filming) by playing the Space Glove Puppet in its only scene.

Having done this, Alec Guinness asked George Lucas if the Space Glove Puppet could appear again later in the film, perhaps - he suggested - at the end it could attack Darth Vader's spaceship and so provide a distraction for the Millennium Falcon to escape? George Lucas said no.

Three years later when George Lucas asked Alec Guinness back to play Ben Kenobi in Return of the Jedi, Alec Guinness asked if he could also play the Space Glove Puppet again. In the intervening time, he had worked on an elaborate backstory and motivation for the Space Glove Puppet, which he now regarded as being as much 'his character' as Ben Kenobi.

Sadly for Alec Guinness, the backstory he had devised contradicted the backstory George Lucas had already written for the Space Glove Puppet. Following this, George Lucas was firm that there would be no additional opportunities for Alec Guinness to play Ben Kenobi, the Space Glove Puppet or, indeed, any other character in any more Star Wars films.

They parted on bad terms and Alec Guinness remained bitter about Star Wars for many years afterwards.

Han Solo works out that they are inside a Space Glove Puppet and the Millennium Falcon escapes from its mouth in the nick of time, a very exciting sequence and crucial to the plot because it means that they have to go back into space to be chased by Darth Vader's spaceships again.

Luke has a training montage with Yoda.

Darth Vader brings in bounty hunters to help him. Curiously, Darth Vader's dialogue suggests that they are all working together, while the film gave me the impression that the bounty hunters worked individually:

You and your band are highly regarded in your particular trade, Boba Fett... do not disappoint me.

There's something familiar about some of that space rubbish...

The BBC SFX mannys must have been flattered that George Lucas wanted to use the Andromedan fleet from Star One. Right up until they saw what he wanted it for.

Han decides to go and visit

Lando Calrissian. Gambler, con-artist, all-around scoundrel... your kind of guy, princess.

And ours. Purr.

Hooray! Lando is the best character in Star Wars and we will finally meet him in the next chapter.

Je Suis Charlie

In Stand Up Comedian (2005), the stand up comedian Stewart Lee performs one of his cleverest and funniest routines in which he goes from discussing the historical inaccuracies in the 1995 film Braveheart to baiting the Scottish audience at the Glasgow venue by calling William Wallace (or, as Stewart Lee always refers to him, “William Wallace, Braveheart, the Scottish National Hero”) a paedophile. “A Scottish paedophile. The worst kind of paedophile that there is.”

What makes it harder to watch Stand Up Comedian now, 10 years later, is the knowledge that some months after the performance was filmed and released on DVD, Stewart Lee was murdered by terrorists along with a number of other comedians (performing at the same gig as Lee on that occasion), the manager of the gig’s venue, and several members of the staff security team. The following day, in a separate but related incident, comedians Richard Herring, Alistair McGowan and The Actor Kevin Eldon, all of whom had worked with Lee on the 1990s TV series Fist of Fun, were also killed.

The terrorists responsible may not have been Scottish, but it seems probable that they were because they were wearing kilts, and ginger wigs of the sort Russ Abbot used to wear in the 1980s, and singing ‘O Flower of Scotland’ very badly. We may never know the full truth because they were quickly caught and shot by police after attempting to rob an off licence in Paisley.

In the days, months and years that followed, many people asked the question “why did they do it?” before concluding that it was because they were dickheads with no sense of either proportion or humour.

A smaller, but still significant, number of people asked the question “why did he do it?” with “he” in this case meaning Stewart Lee. In other words, why did Lee bait the people of Scotland by accusing their National Hero, William “Braveheart” Wallace, of being a paedophile? He must, they would argue, he must have known that, in a population of over 5 million, there would likely be a tiny minority of humourless, proportionless dickheads willing to kill to avenge any slight to their sense of identity, bound up in feelings of Scottishness and consequently threatened by a personal attack against one of their National Heroes.

By performing the “Braveheart” routine at all (the argument concludes), never mind the deliberately provocative way he performed it in front of a Scottish audience, Stewart Lee was inviting retribution upon himself and as many other innocent parties as the psychopathic dickheads could get away with.

The usual counter-argument is that Stewart Lee would have been well aware of the danger he was putting himself – and by extension an unquantifiable number of others – into by performing the routine, because he would have been aware of the attempt to silence any criticism of Scottish National Heroes by fringe groups of Scottish fanatics who had for several years been threatening violent death to anyone who used stand up comedy routines to criticise William “Braveheart” Wallace, Robert “the” Bruce, Mary “Queen of Scots” Stuart, John Knox, etc.

But if Stewart Lee and all the other stand up comedians, Scottish and non-Scottish alike, had bowed to this threat, where would it have ended? The dickheads would just have gone on to make further demands, each one less reasonable than the (already unreasonable) one before – perhaps demands for political power leading on to the enforcement of Scottish Law upon the rest of the United Kingdom, or maybe the compulsory wearing of the kilt and an obligation for schools to teach the poetry of Robert Burns in English Scottish classes.

Eventually there would have come a sticking point, an issue upon which the reasonable majority of the population – or their political representatives – would have refused to compromise. And then that would have been the pretext for the violence and the murders.
They were terrorists. They wanted to kill some people to get their way. They would always have found someone.

Brer Rabbit boss 'hates' fans who spoil show's secrets

Brer Rabbit chief writer Bunny has attacked fans of the show who reveal crucial plot lines ahead of transmission.

Bunny's comments were prompted by briar patch postings by Brer Rabbit fans.

"You can imagine how much I hate them," she told Big Gay Longcat's Big Gay Longblog. "It's only fans who do this, or they call themselves fans.

"I wish they could go and be fans of something else."

Before the current series began, a fan posted the entire plot of the first two episodes on a briar patch forum.

They were among a number of fans who were invited to a press screening, at which the production team asked people not to give away spoilers.

"It's heartbreaking in a way because you're trying to tell stories, and stories depend on surprise," said Bunny.

"So to have some **** who came to a press launch, write up a story in the worst, most ham-fisted English you can imagine, and put it in the briar patch is heartbreaking.

"I just hope that guy never watched my show again, because that's a horrific thing to do."

She said the majority of Brer Rabbit fans were "spoiler-phobes" who refused to go to the briar patch for fear of finding out any information in advance.

"They want to preserve the surprise," she said. "The tragedy is you have to work hard at that now."

Bunny said she believed that keeping elements of storylines under wraps was an essential element in drama.

"Stories depend on shocking people," she said.

"Stories are the moments that you didn't see coming, that are what live in you and burn in you forever.

"If you are denied those, it's vandalism."

The current series of Brer Rabbit continues on BBC1 on Caturday.

Genesis of the New Series

Part Five

1. Int. Main Laboratory. Night

Grade: You will tell me. You will tell me. You will tell me!
David: Steven - please - don't tell, Steven!
Steven: All right, all right, just leave them alone.
The appointment of Andrew Cartmel as Script Editor in 1987 gave a new direction to the series with his 'Masterplan' and a darker portrayal of the Doctor by Sylvester McCoy from his second season.
The line of Virgin 'New Adventures' novels continued this direction throughout the 1990s, even in the absence of the TV series, and gave a new generation of writers the opportunity to have their Doctor Who fanfiction professionally published...
David and Karen listen helplessly as Steven relates his knowledge of future Doctor Who history.
We stay on Steven for the first few lines of his speech and then angle away to the tape winding on to an almost empty spool.
Steven: And Russell T Davies' revived version of the series proved to be completely resistant to any form of criticism in the mainstream media or any threat of cancellation from within the BBC.
Steven's voice fades.

2. Int. Main Laboratory. Night.

Close on the tape spool, now almost filled with tape. The machine clicks to a halt. Grade glances at the machine, and then at Steven who appears almost utterly shagged out.
Grade: This seems an opportune moment to end this session. Powell, release the prisoners and take them to the detention area.
The two guards quickly unstrap David and Karen. Powell does the same for Steven.
Grade: The interrogation will continue later. And I must thank you Steven, what you have told me will be invaluable. Take them away.
The BBC guards lead David and Karen out. Steven makes to follow, but Grade halts him.
Grade: Oh Steven, stay a moment, sit down. Let us talk together now not as prisoner and captor but as television professionals. There is so much I wish to know. Powell, take charge of the tape.
Steven shrugs and sits back in his chair.
Powell: Immediately Grade.
Grade: It will be your responsibility, and remember it is priceless, its value beyond computation.
Steven watches as the tape is lifted from the machine. His eyes follow it as Powell heads towards the exit.

6. Int. Main Laboratory. Night.

Grade: Now future errors will be eradicated. Ratings defeats will become victories. You have changed the future of the BBC.
Steven: I have betrayed the future. Grade, for the last time, consider what you are doing... Stop the cancellation of Doctor Who.
Grade: Impossible. It is beyond my control; the studios are already reconfigured to produce daytime television.
Steven: It isn't the transmission times, it's the quality of the programmes inside them... Programmes that you commissioned... They are totally evil!
Grade: Evil? No, no, I will not accept that. They are commissioned simply to survive. BBC1 can survive only by becoming the dominant channel. When all other channels are suppressed... When BBC1 is the supreme ruler of British television, then you will have peace. Ratings wars will end.... Daytime television is the power not of evil, but of good!
Steven: Grade, if you had commissioned a drama series to be filmed in your studios, something that was a ratings triumph and won awards regardless of overall quality... A drama series that would destroy all other forms of television drama, would you allow its broadcast?
Grade: It is an interesting conjecture.
Steven: Would you do it?
Grade: The only TV drama format... A populist entertainment ruling supreme... A fascinating idea...
Steven: Would you do it?
Grade: Yes, yes! To hold in my hand a master tape containing such power... To know that ratings on such a scale was my choice... To know that the tiny pressure of my thumb, enough to press 'transmit', would end everything of any decent quality on British TV... Yes, I would do it! That power would set me amongst the gods! And through Doctor Who I shall have that power!

Alternative Exits 2

Season Two

As seen through the lens of comments given to the BBC Audience Research Department by 1965's TV viewers.

The Powerful Enemy, a.k.a. The Rescue
"From the way the story and character were developing, coming hard on the heels of Susan's departure in Flashpoint two weeks ago, I was expecting Vicki to be a straightforward replacement. It was therefore a surprise when this didn't happen, but not a nasty surprise. Long may Doctor Who continue to not take the obvious road in its plotting."

The Romans
"Seeing Ian left behind in Ancient Rome was a bit of a shock ending. Whatever next - Vicki left behind in Ancient Greece?"

The Web Planet
"Well, Barbara's heroic sacrifice was wasted on me because I found the entire thing just too silly to take seriously. What was going on at the end there? I don't think I'll carry on watching Doctor Who if it's like that again."

The Crusade
"So is Sir Ian of Jaffa getting his own series then? I hope so. The Adventures of Sir Lancelot was good."

The Space Museum
"So I missed last week's programme and now it turns out Ian and Barbara aren't in it any more. Oh well."

The Time Meddler
"That was certainly a twist alright. Steven and Vicki travelling in time and space with that Monk fellow instead of the Doctor. I wonder if they'll change the name of the show?"

Galaxy 4
"I hope Vicki has a really groovy time with those Rills, man."

Alternative Exits

From The Dalek Invasion of Earth to Dragonfire, Doctors and Companions were continually coming and going from the series, sometimes with little to no warning or build-up. *cough*Leela*cough*

Postcards from Another World looks at the "Alternative Exits" - the stories where in our world the cast remained constant - and asks what might have been. In each case we will consider who would have been the most likely regular to leave, for on or off-screen reasons, and if such a thing is plausible at all.

Season One

An Unearthly Child
Any character that doesn't make it past The Firemaker isn't really ever a regular character, just a guest role for this one story. While it is next to impossible to imagine the Doctor leaving Ian or Barbara behind in 100,000 BC, it is even harder to imagine the series surviving for long if he had.

The Daleks
Could Barbara have plausibly stayed behind with the Thals? Her departure so early in the series might mean we would be looking back at the early years of Doctor Who and not think of the pairing "Ian and Barbara" quite so readily. Would it have given a larger role to Susan in her place? Or would it set a precedent for a much higher turnover of regular actors than we are used to, with the Doctor's Companions coming and going every dozen episodes (two-to-three stories) or so?

The Edge of Destruction
With nowhere to go except the TARDIS, who could possibly have left in this story? The only way out would be by death, perhaps at the hands of Susan's scissors. Even if caused accidentally, or while the characters were not in control of their own actions, could the series long survive the death of a regular this early?

Marco Polo
Perhaps only now is the series mature enough, at 20 episodes, for the departure of a regular character not to jeopardise the stability and long-term survival of the show. Perhaps the most likely candidate for leaving here is Susan, who can stay with her new friend Ping Cho. Following in the footsteps of both Susan's grandfather and Marco Polo, they become explorers together.

The Keys of Marinus
The first example in the series of the Doctor's visit leaving a society in chaos and needing to be rebuilt, this would be the first example of the occasional trend for Companions to leave to assist in the rebuilding of the society (see Steven Taylor in The Savages as our world's first example of this). Ian remains on Marinus with his new friends TarrantTarron, Altos and Sabetha.

The Aztecs
For any of the regulars to have remained behind in any safety would have required a significant change to the ending of the story (i.e. more than just a "I've decided to stay. Bye, Doctor.") and, as tempting as it may be to imagine, for Barbara to have remained would have required the rewriting of more than just one line of history. But, as surprising as it may seem, I would say the most plausible of the four regulars to remain behind here would be the Doctor, passing the TARDIS keys to Susan and staying with Cameca.

The Sensorites
While it is possible to write Ian or Barbara out here - choosing a life in Central City on future-Earth over the uncertainty of further travels in the TARDIS - it is easier to imagine Susan as the first to depart (probably because we are so close to the point of her real departure in only three stories' time), with her being left in a unique position to help the humans and Sensorites come to a better understanding of one another.

The Reign of Terror
With them finding revolutionary France a source of constant danger, it is hard to imagine any of the regulars voluntarily staying here. While it would have been shocking to end the first season of the show with a death, if we are forced to choose one of the four to leave the series while still alive then perhaps the Doctor is once again the one to go for - this period of Earth's history was supposed to be his favourite, after all.

Planet of Giants
It's virtually impossible to imagine a regular leaving in this story except through death, since they are miniaturised the entire time.
"One day, I shall come back. Yes, I shall come back. Until then, there must be no regrets, no tears, no anxieties. Just go forward in all your beliefs and..."
"Grandfather, I'm only six inches tall!"
"Oh please stop bothering me."

Doctor Who: The Missing Episodes

Part Four: The Tom Baker Years

Season 12

Little of the lost classic Robot survives, save for a few clips from the closing minutes of part three. These give only a suggestion of the overall quality of the story. The surviving audio master tapes (which fortunately still exist for all Doctor Who serials) suggest that Tom Baker made a striking impression in his first story, with a portrayal of the Doctor very different from his predecessors from his very first scenes on. Robot also introduced the Companion Harry Sullivan, played by Ian Marter, who had a short tenure as a series regular and it is a great pity that so few episodes survive from his run.

No surviving film or video clips are know to exist for The Ark In Space. Production stills seem to show that the chief strength of this story lay in the design and realisation of the alien Wirrn, but because there are no extant parts of the story it remains obscure even within Doctor Who fandom, surrounded as it is by better-known missing stories.

The first complete existing episode in Tom Baker's era as the Doctor comes from the two-parter The Sontaran Experiment. The first part, and lengthy clips from part two, were recovered from Australian television in the 1980s when the reviving fame of the series prompted a search for episodes missing from the archives.

Few missing stories are as sought after as Genesis of the Daleks, arguably the best of the Dalek stories and one of the best Doctor Who stories of all time - so the legend has it - that put Tom Baker's Doctor on the map and gave the canon a new and enduring villain in the form of Davros, the Daleks' creator. Alas that no complete episodes are known to exist, but even in isolation the two surviving clips are effective in conveying the Daleks' power: the first shows the activation of the Daleks by Davros at the climax of part one (also reused as the cliffhanger reprise at the beginning of part two); in the second clip, which comes from near the end of part six, the Daleks turn on their creator and then deliver a chilling monologue to camera setting out their manifesto to conquer the universe.

Three of the four parts of Revenge of the Cybermen exist, and the missing episode (part one) has been animated for the release of the story on DVD. For a long time the entirety of this story was missing, but parts two, three and four were eventually recovered from a film collector, leading to them being rush-released as the last Doctor Who story on VHS video.

Terror of the Zygons is not missing.

Season 13

Season 13 is the most complete of all Tom Baker's era of Doctor Who, with only parts two and four of The Brain of Morbius missing. Part one was also missing until quite recently, and its recovery prompted release of the incomplete story on DVD. There have been suggestions that the missing parts could be animated at some point in the future, which would make season 13 complete (or as complete as possible under the circumstances) for the first time since the 1970s.

Season 14

One of the most recently recovered episodes of Doctor Who is part three of Masque of Mandragora, without which this would be yet another story with no surviving footage. While the recovery of any missing episodes - or even clips of footage - is an achievement to be celebrated, there are many in the fandom that would have chosen any of the other missing stories of season 14 rather than this one, had that been a choice which anyone could have made.

The Hand of Fear was the final appearance of Sarah-Jane Smith, one of the longest running Companions who spanned the Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker eras. But as a consequence of the many missing episodes and stories from their time, she is perhaps not one of the better remembered, and so it is typical that nothing exists from her final story (save for the soundtrack and a few production stills).

The Deadly Assassin is not thought of well in Doctor Who fandom, both for being an unusual story with no Companions accompanying the Doctor and for committing the cardinal sin of retconning the Time Lords, changing the way they were previously presented in stories such as Terror of the Autons or Colony in Space. Most of the story is missing, but the whole of part three and the first 10 minutes of part four were recovered by the BBC from a video recording made by the NVLA (National Viewers and Listeners Association).

No episodes are known to survive from either The Face of Evil or The Robots of Death, and while both enjoy status within the fandom as "lost classics" there are those who suggest that if they were ever found then the reality would not live up to the reputation, as happened when the long-lost Patrick Troughton story The Macra Terror was recovered.

Parts five and six are all that remain of The Foe From The Future, and it is neither as racist nor as good as some people say. By which I mean that some say it is racist and some different other people say it is good.

Season 15

Horror of Fang Rock is another missing story that often tops fans' "most wanted" list. The soundtrack is effective enough - tightly written, claustrophobic, and with one of the all-time-great cliffhanger moments. Unfortunately this is another story without any surviving footage; without even Telesnaps - only production stills of the cast and sets, taken in black and white.

The Invisible Enemy is a wacky, knockabout romp that allowed Tom Baker to show his comedic side and introduced K9 as a Companion. It is not missing.

Image of the Fendahl is not missing. However it may as well be since the BBC refuse to allow it to be released commercially or broadcast on any television channel. Bootleg copies that have made it to the internets are quickly suppressed with a vigour not shown for any other BBC production. The reason for this has never been made clear, and rumours that it is because watching Image of the Fendahl can drive the viewer irrevocably insane have been officially denied. The serial's original writer, Chris Boucher, is currently being kept in a secure facility for the criminally underrated, and so was unavailable for comment.

The Sunmakers is another wacky comedy story that is not missing. There is no justice.

Only part one of the classic story Underworld is known to exist, though fans are ever hopeful that parts two to four will be recovered some day so that they can be seen in all their undoubted glory.

The Invasion of Time is not missing, although part one had to be recoloured for DVD release since no original colour copy survived. There is speculation that the colour copy of part one was junked by the BBC at the same time as Invasion of the Dinosaurs.

Season 16

The Ribos Operation is the only complete story from season 16, a.k.a. the "Key to Time" season. This season is somewhat notorious for its repetitive plot structure - the Doctor and (new Companion) Romana arrive, look for a segment of the Key to Time, get involved in hijinks, find a segment of the Key to Time, leave. The Androids of Tara is the only story of the season to significantly deviate from this formula, in that they find the segment before they get involved in hijinks.

The Pirate Planet - only part two exists.
The Stones of Blood - parts one and four exist.
The Androids of Tara - only part three exists.
The Power of Kroll - only part one exists.
The Armageddon Factor - no complete episodes exist, and although a few clips survive they make the story look awful.

Season 17

Part three is all that we have of Destiny of the Daleks, enough to get a taste of how good this story is, and how bad the actor playing Davros is in it.

City of Death is not missing. Maybe there is some justice after all.

The Creature From The Pit is almost entirely intact - while there are no missing episodes, some scenes with the Doctor and Erato were censored by the BBC for being unintentionally (some would say intentionally) sexually suggestive, and the masters are believed destroyed or in the hands of a private collector with weird tastes.

Nightmare of Eden is not missing, because I couldn't think of anything funny to say about it.

The Horns of Nimon is the last completely missing story in the Doctor Who canon at this time. There is a conspiracy theory within fandom that it was lost deliberately by Script Editor Douglas Adams, who was said to be "disappointed" with the production and the story's critical reception.

Shada was, for a long time, the most missing Doctor Who story of all. Due to industrial action at the BBC the finished serial was never broadcast on television and the master tapes almost immediately pounced on and destroyed by Pamela Nash. It was only through years of painstaking research and investigation by Ian Levine that a single surviving copy was found and triumphantly returned to the BBC. Fans await its release on DVD with considerable excitement, as the BBC have taken the decision that it should never be shown on BBC TV when there's money to be made some other way.

Season 18

Tom Baker's final season was overseen by a new Producer, John Nathan-Turner (JNT), who was to go on to become the longest lasting and most successful Producer in Doctor Who's history. Unlike all of his predecessors, he saw the value in retaining the old episodes and pressed the BBC to repeat some of the old classics. "The memory cheats," he said, "so lets remind people how good Doctor Who was... and is."

It was at this time that the full extent of the glaring and gaping holes in the archives first became apparent within the BBC, and JNT did his best to put a stop to further losses. This is why only five episodes from season 18 onwards have ever been missing, and of those one has now been recovered.

The five missing episodes in question were Earthshock part one (a Peter Davison episode, so beyond the scope of this article) and the four parts of Warriors' Gate.

There are many theories as to how Warriors' Gate was lost after the point at which the wanton destruction of the Doctor Who archives should have ceased, but by far the most plausible suggestion is that Pamela Nash, ignominiously sacked and harbouring a grudge against those who put a stop to her pyromaniac tendencies, hired a professional thief to steal the Warriors' Gate master tapes at a Doctor Who Convention, practically from under JNT's nose, which he did while in costume as a character from The Sunmakers.

Warriors' Gate part four was recovered at the same time as part three of Masque of Mandragora, making them the two most recently returned episodes at the time of writing. The full details of how they were returned to the BBC are not yet known, but they are said to involve Ian Levine, a William Shatner mask, a cheese-grater, a single boxing glove, a velvet hat, and at least two telephones, possibly more.

It gives us all hope that more missing Doctor Who episodes will be recovered in the future.

Postcards from Another World 17

Disclaimer: this is a work of fiction.

Part Seventeen: Seasons 36-40 (1999-2003)

Season 36 began with a three-part serial starring Paul McGann, in which the Doctor and Bernice encounter events about which the Doctor knows more than he should, but he is unwilling, or unable, to explain. Events are made somewhat clearer by the next serial in the season, in which Colin Baker’s 6th Doctor encounters the same events after the 8th, events that the 8th Doctor can go on to remember in the first serial.

As the season progressed, more and more plots of this nature were encountered by the Doctor(s) and his Companions, in which events occur in a different order for the viewers than for the Doctor. Eventually it became clear that an unseen opponent was deliberately setting up these encounters for the Doctor, perhaps as some kind of test. In one of the longest story-arcs in Doctor Who’s history, it would be four seasons before the unseen hand was identified.

Season 36 contained four episodes starring McGann, and three each for Davison, McCoy and Colin Baker. Seasons 37 through to 40 continued in a similar vein, though the exact mix of Doctors and their order of appearance was always slightly different. Not every serial contained a complex time-travel-related plot, though intelligent, thought-provoking stories that rewarded viewer loyalty were the standard of this era.

Foreshadowed as far back as season 35, the 40th anniversary special was the high point of the multi-Doctor era, as the multi-Doctors appeared on-screen together for the first and only time, and revealed the unseen, time-manipulating opponent to be Davros and the Daleks, whose return was carefully kept secret and unpublicised (a feat not achieved since the Cybermen returned in 1982’s Earthshock) in favour of promoting the mystery and suspense right up to the moment of revelation.

Season 40’s final story led directly into the storyline that was to dominate season 41 and cast a shadow over Doctor Who for a long time to come:

The Time War.

Postcards from Another World 16

Disclaimer: this is a work of fiction.

Part Sixteen: The Multi-Doctor Era

Between seasons 34 and 35, Paul McGann first raised the possibility of leaving Doctor Who at the end of his third season (season 35), but at the same time raised the question of whether or not it would be possible for him to return to the role in the future - not as a one-off guest-artist as had been done on occasion, as with Patrick Troughton in Two Doctors, but for entire serials or seasons at a time.

Segal was against this idea at first, fearing the loss of a strong leading man from the show, but was persuaded by his writing team that it could work if, instead of regenerating the Doctor into someone new, they could persuade the old Doctors to make return appearances, giving the production team golden opportunities for publicity. Tom Baker, Peter Davison, Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy were all sounded out about this. Tom Baker refused outright. The others all provisionally agreed, depending on other commitments they might have at the time.

One of Segal’s last actions as Producer was to approve this ‘multi-Doctor’ direction for the show. He then resigned from his position and was succeeded by Gary Russell, another long-term fan of the series who had been Editor of Doctor Who Magazine for several years.

Stories starring ‘past’ Doctors were originally intended to be classified as ‘Missing Adventures’ and designed to fit in with the style and timing of the Doctor-in-question’s original era. Though popular among the writers (most of whom were fans of certain previous eras and so delighted at the chance to write for them), this idea was impractical from a production point of view, not to mention the logistical headache of scheduling the actors to play the right Companions for the eras.

At a writers’ brainstorming session, a sci-fi explanation for the presence of previous Doctors in the ‘present’ was devised, and an overarching story was contrived to tie the different serials together into a coherent, thematic, whole. At the core of Doctor Who is the idea of time-travel, and this was exploited in a way that has rarely been seen in the series before or since.

Postcards from Another World 15

Disclaimer: this is a work of fiction.

Part Fifteen: Seasons 34-35 (1997-98)

Doctor Who had been damaged by its dabbling with ‘Americanisation’ in its 33rd season. Top of Philip Segal’s agenda for season 34 was to find a balance between appealing to the American audience (which he had seemingly achieved) and to the core audience in the UK.

Minutes of a production team meeting in the early planning stages of season 34 show a collective agreement was reached on how to restore the balance: the ‘classic’ years of Doctor Who appealed to Americans despite being very British in style and setting. Therefore the American actors and locations would be dropped. The TARDIS set would be kept on (a second redesign would have been very expensive, and impossible to justify so soon), as would McGann’s Doctor.

Daphne Ashbrook’s Grace was written out early in the season, and writer Paul Cornell was invited to create a new Companion for the series, Bernice Summerfield, to be played by British actress Lisa Bowerman. In fact Cornell had created the character several years earlier for an early draft of one of his scripts, and now had the opportunity to introduce her into the world of Doctor Who.

Eric Roberts was not invited to return as the Master, and the character was not used again for several years.

Postcards from Another World 14

Disclaimer: this is a work of fiction.

Part Fourteen: Season 33 (1996)

Although JNT had been mostly successful in keeping Doctor Who’s ratings high in the UK, it became clear that the recent seasons, starring Sylvester McCoy, were not as popular in the USA as the ‘classic’ eras: namely Pertwee and the two Bakers. In the end it was this fact that caused the BBC executives to remove JNT after season 32 and replace him with someone they hoped could make the show appeal to the American audience.

They were prepared to throw money at it, too, as somewhere along the line somebody had realised that Doctor Who was a cash cow for the BBC. Ian Levine’s claim in 1987 that Doctor Who made more money for the BBC than it cost to make, through merchandising and overseas sales, was proved true beyond the wildest fantasies of the 1980s production team.

New Producer Philip Segal, brought in from outside the BBC, wasted no time in wielding the axe. Sophie Aldred’s Ace was the longest-serving Companion in the show’s history, having joined eight years earlier. Axed - new blood required. Sylvester McCoy had completed three seasons as the Doctor, and in spite of his popularity in the UK had never taken off in the USA. Axed - need someone who would appeal to the ‘target market.’

Their replacements were Dr Grace Holloway (American actress Daphne Ashbrook), taking over from Ace in the first serial of the season, and eighth Doctor Paul McGann, replacing McCoy in the middle of the season.

Changes were not just made to the cast - the TARDIS interior set was to be revamped again, but making it much, much bigger on the inside than ever before.

One thing Segal kept the same was the semi-regular return of favourite monsters and enemies from the past. In his first season he wanted to see Daleks, and he wanted to bring back the Master (last seen in 1987), though he did not wish to bring Anthony Ainley back to play the role, instead casting American actor Eric Roberts.

With hindsight, changes like this can be seen as favouring the American audience at the expense of the British audience. Unfortunately, while it took time for the viewing figures to build up in the USA (though build up they did), the drop off in the UK was almost immediate in the middle of season 33. The serial Enemy Within saw a new Doctor alongside a new Companion and facing a new Master (both of whom were being played by Americans), in a story set in San Francisco. The British press criticised the ‘Americanisation’ of a quintessentially British TV show.

Postcards from Another World 13

Part Thirteen: Seasons 30-32 (1993-95)

Sylvester McCoy’s first season as the Doctor was also the show’s thirtieth anniversary year. A special feature-length episode was commissioned for Children in Need night (always broadcast in November, close to the anniversary of the broadcast of Doctor Who’s first episode) and all surviving previous Doctors had agreed to take part, though only Jon Pertwee would have a significant role (to avoid diluting the focus of the plot). Several old Companions would also feature, including Nicola Bryant and Paul Darrow reprising their roles as Peri and Nova Rek, and Nicholas Courtney - returning as the Brigadier - who was given a chance to appear with both Colin Baker and McCoy’s Doctors.

The special was called Dimensions in Time, and it saw the conclusion of the Lady Peinforte story arc begun in the 25th anniversary serial Silver Nemesis. The story was a brave one from a production point of view, as its downbeat ending saw Richard (Gerard Murphy) sacrifice himself to save the Doctor(s). A powerful and moving performance from McCoy deflected some criticism, but the story still attracted a number of complaints from viewers who thought it too frightening for children.

JNT was ‘hauled over the coals’ by his BBC bosses after Dimensions in Time, and subsequently the remainder of his era as Producer was characterised by the tension between his desire to ‘play it safe’ and his writers and Script Editor’s desire to push at boundaries. JNT was increasingly isolated in the production team, but he was the Producer and ultimate decision-making power was his.

One thing JNT was not criticised for during this period was his willingness to bring in new writers. Although Terrance Dicks and Paul Cornell were by now practically guaranteed one script per season, most of the remaining four-or-five slots went to new blood. That said, Cornell’s submission for season 32, entitled Human Nature, was rejected by JNT on the grounds that it was “a fine sci-fi story, but not suitable for Dr Who” (Human Nature would eventually see the light of day over 10 years later). Its replacement was Videomancer, by newcomer Mark Gatiss (who would later become famous as a writer and comedy performer in the League of Gentlemen).

This story was popular with the public but provoked outrage and criticism from an unlikely corner - JNT’s Unofficial Continuity Advisor Ian Levine saw it, or rather the character of the titular Videomancer (a man whose obsession with a decades-old children’s TV series - a thinly veiled reference to Doctor Who itself - attracts the attention of seemingly supernatural forces), as a thinly veiled attack on himself and he threatened both to resign and to sue Gatiss for defamation. Although placated by JNT, many see this over-reaction as the reason Levine was not retained by the production team after JNT’s departure.

Gatiss has always maintained that the Videomancer was based on his own lifelong obsession with Doctor Who, not Levine’s.