Doctor Who Magazine Issue 537 May 2019 PDF

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The magazine covers news, reviews, interviews and comics related to Doctor Who television series and extended universe.

The magazine has sections for features, comics, reviews and coming soon previews.

On page 82, Dalek delegates are discussing their plans to invade planets in the Solar System, with some disagreement on the order.

WAR WORLD

Meet the Metatraxi WIN!

The OFFICIAL MAGAZINE


of the BBC television series

PLAY FOR TIME


Inside The
Ultimate
Adventure

TIN MAN
Out of the A
TARDIS with TO THRMED
David Banks E TEE
nd th TH
Behi
m a sk e
Tzim f o
-Sha

PATROL
LEADER
PLUS
ec t th a t’s o Richard Gregory
Andrew
n the proj o The Macra Terror
Cartmel’s
all areas o ack to life o Dress like the
tribute to
Access g 60s Daleks b First Doctor

bringin
Graeme Curry o Herald of
Madness
PAT’S LIFE AND
The king MUCH
of Doctor
Who extras
MORE!

ISSUE 537
May 2019
UK £5.99 | US $11.99
18
60
51
38 INTERVIEWS
16
18
36
ANDREW IRELAND
SAMUEL OATLEY
COLIN BAKER
10
38 OUT OF THE TARDIS
David Banks

FEATURES
10 INTO THE UNKNOWN
22 REMEMBERING
GRAEME CURRY
24 THEATRE OF WAR
30 DOCTOR THEATRE
42 A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS
46 FOR THE RECORD
42 48 THE IMAGINEER
60 THE TIME TEAM
The Eighth Doctor
66 COSPLAY The First Doctor

REGULARS
5 GALLIFREY GUARDIAN
6 GALAXY FORUM

I N ! 9
51
BEYOND THE TARDIS
COMIC STRIP
W 70
Herald of Madness Part 3
REVIEWS
76 CROSSWORD & COMPETITIONS
78 COMING SOON
82 THE BLOGS OF DOOM
83 NEXT ISSUE

Email: [email protected] Doctor Who Magazine™ Issue 537 Published April 2019 by
Website: www.doctorwhomagazine.com Panini UK Ltd. Office of publication: Panini UK Ltd, Brockbourne
Follow us on Twitter at: @DWMtweets House, 77 Mount Ephraim, Tunbridge Wells, Kent, TN4 8BS.
EDITOR MARCUS HEARN Published every four weeks. BBC, DOCTOR WHO (word marks,
Follow us on instagram at: doctorwho_magazine
DEPUTY EDITOR PETER WARE logos and devices), TARDIS, DALEKS, CYBERMAN and K-9 (word marks and devices) are
Like our page at: trademarks of the British Broadcasting Corporation and are used under licence. BBC logo
ART EDITOR/DESIGNER PERI GODBOLD
DESIGNER MIKE JONES www.facebook.com/doctorwhomagazine © BBC 1996. Doctor Who logo and insignia © BBC 2018. Dalek image © BBC/Terry
EDITORIAL ASSISTANT EMILY COOK Nation 1963. Cyberman image © BBC/Kit Pedler/Gerry Davis 1966. K-9 image © BBC/
ADVERTISING Madison Bell
TELEPHONE 0207 389 0859 Bob Baker/Dave Martin 1977. Thirteenth Doctor images © BBC Studios 2018. Licensed
PANINI UK LTD EMAIL [email protected] by BBC Studios. All other material is © Panini UK Ltd unless otherwise indicated. No
Managing Director MIKE RIDDELL SUBSCRIPTIONS TELEPHONE 01371 853619 similarity between any of the fictional names, characters persons and/or institutions
Managing Editor ALAN O’KEEFE SUBSCRIPTIONS EMAIL [email protected] herein with those of any living or dead persons or institutions is intended and any
Head of Production MARK IRVINE such similarity is purely coincidental. All views expressed in this magazine are those
Circulation & Trade Marketing Controller REBECCA SMITH THANKS TO: Joanna Allen, Jamie Anderson, Valerie Anderson, Dan Anscombe,
Richard Atkinson, Colin Baker, David Banks, Stephen Barber, Keith Barnfather, Andrew of their respective contributors and do not necessarily represent the views of Doctor
Head of Marketing JESS TADMOR Beech, Michael E Briant, Nicholas Briggs, Andrew Cartmel, Ronan Chander, Chris Who Magazine, the BBC or Panini UK. Nothing may be reproduced by any means in
Marketing Executive JESS BELL Chibnall, Tosin Cole, Sue Cowley, Peter Crocker, Kevin Jon Davies, Russell T Davies, whole or part without the written permission of the publishers. This periodical may
Tina Marie DeLucia, Gabby De Matteis, Albert DePetrillo, Edward de Souza, Sally de
BBC STUDIOS, UK PUBLISHING St Croix, Matt Evenden, Paddy Freeland, Mandip Gill, Dan Gilligan, Scott Gray, not be sold, except by authorised dealers, and is sold subject to the condition that
Director of Editorial Governance NICHOLAS BRETT Jason Haigh-Ellery, Derek Handley, Simon Harries, Tess Henderson, Kate Hunter, it shall not be sold or distributed with any part of its cover or markings removed,
Director of Consumer Products Andrew Ireland, Steve Ismay, Geoffrey Keep, Paul Kirkley, Derek Martin, Katy Manning, nor in a mutilated condition. All letters sent to this magazine will be considered for
and Publishing ANDREW MOULTRIE Derek Martin, Cameron K McEwan, Ross McGlinchey, Steven Moffat, Samuel Oatley,
Lidia Pini, Andrew Pixley, Peter Purves, Philip Raperport, Janette Rawstron, David publication, but the publishers cannot be held responsible for unsolicited manuscripts,
Head of Publishing MANDY THWAITES Richardson, Steve Roberts, Jim Sangster, Sentreal, Helena Sheffield, Marco Simioni, photographs or artwork. Panini and the BBC are not responsible for the content of
UK Publishing Co-ordinator EVA ABRAMIK Michael Stevens, Ed Stradling, Daren Thienel, Rebecca Thornhill, Sue Upton, Paul external websites. It’s been 30 years since the last Doctor Who musical. Time for
[email protected] Vanezis, Jo Ware, Matt West, Marcia Wheeler, Jodie Whittaker, Nikki Wilson, Stephen
Wyatt, Catherine Yang, BBC Wales, Bradley Walsh, BBC Studios and bbc.co.uk
a new one! Suggestions anyone…? Newstrade distribution: Marketforce (UK) Ltd
www.bbcstudios.com
020 3787 9001. ISSN 0957-9818

2 DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE


DWM 537

989 was a pretty good time to we’d spent so long reading about. In June 1989 four months later. This was a more vigorous

1 be a Doctor Who fan. This might


seem like a strange assertion,
given that history now tells us
the programme was on the brink
of cancellation, but consider what it was like
VHS editions of The Daleks (1963-64), The
Time Warrior (1973-74) and The Ark in Space
(1975) offered an affordable way to add some
classic episodes to our collections. Later in the
year, new stories such as The Curse of Fenric
and polished extravaganza in almost every
respect. In fact, Colin’s confident, commanding
portrayal led me to re-evaluate his Doctor.
After the final curtain my friends and I went
to the Marlowe Theatre’s bar and, when
to live in the moment. and especially Ghost Light proved that the series Colin appeared in the doorway, we broke
At the beginning of the year we’d just come still had the capacity to surprise and innovate. into a spontaneous round of applause, much
out of Season 25, four stories that – under In the midst of all this the Doctor Who stage to his embarrassment.
the stewardship of script editor Andrew play The Ultimate Adventure seemed to come It hardly seems possible that all this
Cartmel – had dramatically revitalised the out of nowhere. This broad and boisterous romp happened 30 years ago, but in this issue we
series. Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred had was hugely entertaining, albeit cut from very celebrate the anniversary with an in-depth
now settled into the lead roles, while stories different cloth to the ‘Cartmel Masterplan’. look at the production and its origins. It
such as Remembrance of the Daleks and The The greatest thrill was the chance to certainly brings back memories. If, like me,
Happiness Patrol pointed to a bright future. see Jon Pertwee and Colin Baker recreate you were lucky enough to be there, you might
At the end of 1988 David Banks’ book their Doctors. I saw both, and they were also experience a twinge of nostalgia for more
Cybermen had introduced a scholarly yet performances I’ll never forget. Amazing as innocent times.
accessible approach to Doctor Who’s history, it was to witness Pertwee at Wimbledon in
around the time that it was finally becoming March 1989, I think the show had improved
possible to see some of the vintage episodes that a lot by the time I saw Baker in Canterbury

CONTRIBUTORS INCLUDE

Toby Hadoke Jonathan Helm Andrew Cartmel


Aside from his Doctor Jonathan has written Andrew was the script
Who work (stand-up a number of visual-effects editor of Doctor Who for the
comedy, podcasts and DVD related articles for DWM three seasons of Sylvester
contributions), Toby has and is behind the popular McCoy’s tenure. These days
written several plays for WHO FX Twitter account. he writes stage plays and
BBC Radio 4, presents on His interest in the subject the Vinyl Detective series
Radio 4 Extra and provides was sparked by a DWM of books, as well as
voice-overs for everything interview with Richard collaborating with Ben
from TV documentaries to Gregory back in 1983. Aaronovitch on the Rivers
mop adverts. On page 42 he On page 48 Jonathan pays of London graphic novels. On
writes about the prolific Doctor tribute to Richard, who page 22 he remembers his
Who actor Pat Gorman. passed away in February. late friend Graeme Curry.

2 DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE 3


DEATH HAS RETURNED TO FETCH PRIORY. AND DEATH IS NO-ONE’S VICTIM

EVE MYLES

NIGHT O F T HE F EN DA HL
A FULL CAST AUDIO DRAMA FROM BIG FINISH PRODUCTIONS
OUT NOW ON CD AND DOWNLOAD

COM I NG SOON

THE GREEN LIFE SYNC SARGASSO


OUT IN APRIL OUT IN MAY OUT IN JUNE

BIGFINISH.COM • @ BIGFINISH • THEBIGFINISH • BIGFINISHPROD

Torchwood contains adult material and may not be suitable for younger listeners.

BBC and TORCHWOOD (wordmarks, logos and devices) are trademarks of the British Broadcasting Corporation and are used under licence.
BBC logo © BBC 1996. TORCHWOOD logo © 2006. The Fendahl created by Chris Boucher and used under licence.
Gallifrey The latest official news
from every corner of the
Guardian Doctor Who universe...

Doc’s in Socks e Bonjour Encore


Jean-Marc Lofficier – author of the
seminal Doctor Who Programme Guide
Volumes 1 and 2, first published in 1981
eam TARDIS wore Tosin Cole (Ryan) and

T odd socks to work


to show their
support for World Down
Mandip Gill (Yaz) – have
taken part in the ‘Lots
of Socks’ initiative
– will be one of the guests at this year’s
Portsmouth Comic Con, which will be
held at the Portsmouth Guildhall on 4-5
May. This will be Jean-Marc’s first trip to
Syndrome Day. to raise awareness of
 World Down Syndrome the condition. England since the science-fiction Worldcon
Day takes place on  Meanwhile, work on in Brighton in the late 1980s. To book
21 March every year, Series 12 of Doctor Who  tickets go to portsmouthcomiccon.com
representing the extra is well under way. Jodie
21st chromosome which Whittaker’s second series e Who’s in Bedford
causes Down Syndrome. will be broadcast on BBC Bedford Who Charity Con 5 will be
This is the second year One – and around the taking place on Saturday 13 April at the
running in which the cast world – early next year. University of Bedfordshire. Guests include
of Doctor Who – Jodie o Tosin Cole, Mandip Gill, Jodie Sylvester McCoy, Sophie Aldred, Louise
Whittaker (the Doctor), Whittaker and Bradley Walsh in their Jameson, Carole Ann Ford, Janet Fielding,
Bradley Walsh (Graham), socks for World Down Syndrome Day. Michael Jayston and Mike Tucker. All profits
from the event will go to the Bedford
Foodbank. Details of how to get tickets can

Ravenous Masters
his October, Michelle material to Sir Derek Jacobi and
alone required six studio
days in cities as far apart as
Los Angeles, New York and
London. But we did it. We
be found at bedfordwhocharitycon.co.uk

e NA Guide

T Gomez, Derek Jacobi,


Geoffrey Beevers and Eric
Roberts will all return
Michelle Gomez... and that’s
before we even get to the
fantastic prospect
told that whole, big story and
we’ve brought back three
Masters and Missy in
A guide to the Doctor Who New
Adventures novels, published
by Virgin Books in the 1990s,
is now available. Volume 1 of
as the Master/Missy of bringing Eric Roberts’ a breathtaking finale. Bookwyrm: An Unauthorised
for the finale of Big Master face to face “I’m really proud of it,” David and Unconventional Guide
Finish’s Eighth Doctor with the Doctor again continues, “and yet I don’t really to the Doctor Who Novels includes trivia,
epic, Ravenous. for the first time in have much time to stop and thematic discussions, continuity notes and
In Ravenous 4 the over 20 years. You think about it because we’re reviews covering all 61 New Adventures
Eighth Doctor (Paul can see why it might already onto the next chapter books. It’s available from atbpulishing.com/
McGann), Liv Chenka be intimidating! But for the Eighth Doctor. And life bookwyrm RRP $24.95 (US).
(Nicola Walker) and honestly it was one of is going to be very different for
Helen Sinclair (Hattie the best times I’ve ever him and his companions…”
Morahan) will once had writing a Doctor Ravenous 4 is
e New Commentaries
Fantom Films has released two more titles
again be joined by Who story. I hope available for
in its unofficial Who Talk range. Moderated
the murderous Time the audience pre-order now
by Toby Hadoke, the CDs provide new
Lord, the Eleven. enjoy it as much ahead of its
commentaries that complement the
The finale will also as I did!” October release,
official Doctor Who DVD releases. Mars
see the Doctor meet Reflecting on priced £23
Attacks features commentaries on episodes
Eric Roberts’ Master for the Ravenous saga, on CD or £20
of The Ice Warriors (1967) and The Seeds
the first time since the producer David to download
of Death (1969), featuring Wendy Gifford
1996 Doctor Who Richardson tells from bigfinish.com
nish.com.
and Louise Pajo respectively, and Empress
TV movie. Doctor Who Ravenous 3 is
of Mars (2017) with Richard Ashton
Ravenous 4 will Magazine: “With available this
and Adele Lynch. Resurrection is a new
feature three stories: all four box sets month and
commentary for Resurrection of the
Whisper and Planet of now recorded, Ravenous 1 and 2
Daleks and features Rula Lenska, Brian
Dust by Matt Fitton, and I feel a sense of are both already
Miller, Eric Saward and many more. For
Day of the Master by John relief – it’s been on sale (RRP £35
further information visit whotalk.co.uk
Dorney. On writing the finale, such a huge logistical on CD or £30
John says: “Day of the Master challenge. Ravenous 4 to download).
was possibly the most exciting You can get all
O Geoffrey Beevers, Eric Roberts
and yet terrifying brief I’ve four volumes of
and Derek Jacobi as seen in the
ever had. Finishing off the cover art of The Diary of River Ravenous as a
Ravenous arc was a big enough Song: Series Five
Five. bundle-priced £90
responsibility on its own… but o Michelle Gomez
on CD or £80 on
throw in wanting to give great as Missy in Series 10. download. DWM O Eric Saward and Toby Hadoke.

DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE 5


Your views on the world of Doctor Who...
Email: [email protected] or tweet us at: @DWMtweets
Send your letters to:
Galaxy Forum, Doctor Who Magazine, Brockbourne House,
77 Mount Ephraim, Tunbridge Wells, Kent, TN4 8BS.

In February students, graduates and who made the series


staff at the University of Central great. William Hartnell
Lancashire undertook an ambitious and Patrick Troughton
project to authentically recreate the are not replaceable.
missing 1965 Doctor Who episode Richard Hurndall’s
O Abbot of the Doctor, drawn and
Mission to the Unknown… Hartnell impersonation in The painted by Gregory Kearney.
Five Doctors (1983) and the
ROCKET MAN portrayal of the First Doctor remember The Macra Terror.
s LIAM KERSHAW-CALVERT in Twice Upon a Time (2017) My only experience of it
EMAIL have proved that (if any proof has been listening to the
As a second-year TV student were needed). audio soundtrack alone;
at UCLan and a fan of however, I always found the
Doctor Who, the news that Thanks for your letter, Tony. The incidental music too intrusive.
my university was recreating performances given by Richard It was therefore with a little
Mission to the Unknown was Hurndall and David Bradley may not trepidation that I ordered
an opportunity I wanted to have pleased all fans, but it’s hard the Blu-ray Steelbook of the
O Liam Kershaw-Calvert with Edward de Souza and Peter
completely throw myself into. Purves on the set of UCLan’s Mission to the Unknown. to imagine what these highly regarded new animated version.
I got the role of assistant episodes of Doctor Who would have been I needn’t have worried
director and the project was s TONY INGRAM EMAIL like without the pivotal presence of the because it’s a triumph! It’s
an amazing experience; it was In the editorial for DWM 536 First Doctor. What do other readers think? a prime example of how an
surreal to see a jungle, a rocket editor Marcus Hearn raised, DWM’s coverage of UCLan’s Mission to the otherwise incomplete and
and a Dalek in a room that apparently in all seriousness, the Unknown recreation begins on page 10. underrated story can be
a few days previously I was in possibility of remaking missing Meanwhile, the latest animated revival is ‘regenerated’ for a new
for a lecture. Meeting actors episodes with new actors and 1967’s The Macra Terror… generation of fans. With both
Peter Purves, Edward de Souza asked what the fans would think the colour and black-and-white
and Nick Briggs was a treat and of this. Well, I can tell you what PINCER MOVEMENT versions on the DVD and Blu-
the energy of everyone during this fan of 40 years’ standing s JOHN A COLLINS SOMERSET ray releases it should also keep
the entire week is something would think: it would be an insult Although old enough to everyone happy. Fingers crossed
I’ll never forget! to the memories of the actors have seen it in 1967, I don’t for The Wheel in Space next!

STAR LETTER Last issue Doctor Who Magazine


published the second part of an
rewrites – they’re a part of the
job. Chris Bidmead made these
Sometime later I met Peter
Moffat at a dinner party.
interview with Season 18’s script editor stories up, but why?  I asked him about the story.
Christopher H Bidmead. In response, There’s a story about State “Oh that,” he said. “Bidmead
we received a message from the writer of Decay rewrites that rewrote some of your
of Season 18’s State of Decay (1980), Chris Bidmead doesn’t original script and
headed “An indignant letter from a tell. Shortly after passed it over
(dry-eyed) Terrance Dicks”… production to me. It
began I asked was full of
s TERRANCE DICKS EMAIL Barry Letts, what he
In all my years as a script writer the executive called ‘hard
I have never burst into tears. producer, how science’
Shouted, sworn and kicked it was going. He – boring
the furniture, but definitely no laughed. “You and almost
tears. So I was taken aback needn’t worry. unreadable.”
by the references to crying in Chris rewrote “Take this
the second part of the Chris a chunk of your first nonsense away,”
Bidmead interview. They just script and gave it to I said, “and bring back
didn’t happen. Nor did my Peter Moffat, the director. Peter Terrance’s original script!”
making a fuss about rewrites. read it, said it was all rubbish Two impeccable sources,
Every scriptwriter is used to and demanded your original the executive producer
o Former Doctor Who script script back.” I was both amused and the director.
editor Terrance Dicks. and amazed! A writer’s dream. Sorry to drag out this old
ø The Doctor (Tom Baker) and Romana Script editor’s rewrites rejected story, Chris, but you brought
(Lalla Ward) in State of Decay (1980). in favour of original script! it on yourself.

6 DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE


WHO
TUBE
This issue’s selection of
Who-related videos…

O The Thirteenth Doctor


s Shown as part of the Red Nose Day
O A menace looms out of the mines in the new version of The Macra Terror. by Buster Owen.
2019 telethon on Friday 15 March, here’s
s BRADLEY BOTTOMLEY EMAIL We’ve also heard from readers who have costume looks bright and vibrant. the Thirteenth Doctor with some advice
What a privilege it was on been watching the new Season 18 Blu-ray In terms of bonus content, the for anyone making a donation to Comic
Saturday 16 March to see all four box set… new documentaries are certainly Relief. Go to: tinyurl.com/ComicReliefDW
episodes of the animated Macra a labour of love from Russell
Terror at the BFI Southbank. This TOM’S TREASURES Minton, Chris Chapman and
was the first time I’d ever seen s DAVID INGRAM EMAIL the team. Behind the Sofa has
Doctor Who with an audience and Tom Baker’s final season is one the brilliant addition of Wendy
on the big screen. The opening of my favourites, so it’s great Padbury, who’s certainly
shot of the TARDIS in space was to see it get the Blu-ray box set a match for Janet Fielding’s quips
incredible and when the titles treatment. The packaging is once throughout! This set is a treasure
started in full colour with the again stunning, thanks to artist trove for any Doctor Who fan. s The Fourth Doctor is travelling back
theme music, it sent a shiver Lee Binding. The restoration is to his Doctor Who Magazine comic-
down my spine. It was such a truly amazing – Tom’s burgundy s DAN MARTIN HURST GREEN strip days in a brand-new box set of
magical experience to share with The Season 18 box set is a joy to audio adventures from Big Finish. Go to:
other fans – the cheer that went behold. If you think the upgrade tinyurl.com/FourthDoctorComics
up at the end was wonderful. from the DVD range isn’t worth it,
I will try to attend similar events think again. The surviving location
in future as this really is the way film has been remastered in full
to watch Doctor Who. HD and is crystal clear. Even
the studio footage has a clarity
unseen before now. Every story
has at least one new feature, my
personal favourite being s To coincide with Comic Relief,
A Weekend with Waterhouse. comedian David Walliams reveals
(I live near Battle and have spent his new ‘Calendar of Daves’ with
most of my life in and around a spoof video featuring ‘Scots Dave’,
Hastings, where it was filmed.) aka David Tennant. Go to:
I loved the relaxed way it was tinyurl.com/ComicReliefDaves
O BFI Southbank hosted the
recent Macra Terror screening. shot. I thought that all that could 1

The Daft Dimension BY LEW STRINGER

s Raw footage featuring Sylvester


McCoy and Sophie Aldred from the
recording of the 1993 Children in Need
Special Dimensions in Time. Go to:
tinyurl.com/SylvesterSophie

s Josh Snares takes an in-depth look at


the missing episodes of Doctor Who in
this fan-made nine-part YouTube series.
Go to: tinyurl.com/Josh60sEps

DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE 7


ON TWITTER…
@SteveMaggs Russell T Davies’ letter
in DWM 536 is absolute emotional
intelligence at its finest. This is why
his era of Doctor Who is the very best,
especially for the characterisation. He
understands people. Go check it out.

@davadsteel There’s a ton of good


reading in DWM issue 536 but my
favourite has to be Russell T Davies’
letter about Clive Swift. A much nicer
way to remember him than that awful
old interview.

@MatthewVernon3 Big Finish’s


adaptation of The Iron Legion has truly
brought the DWM comic to life. I am
beyond impressed. I hope this series
O The Doctor in Herald of Madness Part 2.
continues for a long time! Can’t wait
for a bit of Frobisher! s ALEX GIBBONS EMAIL
The Season 18 Blu-ray box set
@EddieRobson Great to have looks stunning next to the other
confirmation from Anneke Wills in box sets on my shelf. It comes
DWM 536 that Polly’s pixie crop in also with a very interesting
The Macra Terror was a wig. But the booklet and oodles of new
question remains: are there several extras. The clean-up on the
months of unseen adventures between actual episodes is fantastic – the
this and The Faceless Ones, or is Polly opening scene of The Leisure Hive
just wearing extensions? on Brighton Beach looks great –
and the sound is now excellent in
@Garethothevworp One of life’s 5.1. I can’t wait for more box sets
dependable pleasures: a new DWM in of ‘classic’ Doctor Who. I’d like to
bed on a lazy afternoon. Great pieces see Peter Davison’s last season or
in issue 536 on Innes Lloyd and Eric Colin Baker’s first season next.
Laithwaite, a marvellous preview of
O Tom Baker at Brisbane’s ABC Studios in February 1979.
The Macra Terror, a thrillingly candid STRIP DOWN
Christopher Bidmead interview and a s ANTHONY D MUSGRAVE the death of legendary Doctor of a prized piece of family
lovely chat with Stephen Gallagher. Has it come to this? A mere six Who stalwart and ubiquitous memorabilia. It’s a photograph of
pages for your finest feature, monster man, Pat Gorman. Tom in character as the Doctor
@Paul_Cornell I really liked Alan the comic strip? I know that For many long-time fans, at ABC Studios in Brisbane on
Barnes’ 60s revolution article in DWM every business has to look for Pat spearheaded a number 12 February 1979. From what
536, much new stuff, but Patrick opportunities to keep costs of prolific supporting artists, I’ve been able to glean, Tom
McGoohan and Ian Stuart Black being down, and I imagine the comic whose frequent appearances, only visited Brisbane on this one
friends and Danger Man colleagues strip is one of your especially during the occasion during his time as the
surely moves the Prisoner/Macra most expensive 1970s, gave the series good Doctor. I’d just turned six
connection from coincidence into features to produce. such a familiar family and was in awe of the show.
shared interest, no? Such a shame, though, feel. Pat’s presence At the event in question I was
especially when we in an episode, even determined to get Tom to sign
have the dream-team with his face hidden a Terrance Dicks paperback.
1 possibly be said about Doctor of Mike Collins and behind that of a When he arrived, I took a deep
Who was exhausted, but I’m David Roach back doing Silurian, Sea Devil or breath and blitzed through the
so happy to start collecting the the artwork. Also, Scott Cyberman, always throng with my book held high.
O Pat Gorman as a guard in
‘classic’ series from scratch again. Gray is possibly one added a touch of He was a bit taken aback, as
Colony in Space (1971).
of Who’s best writers warmth. His passing I recall, but he put his hat on
across any medium, and has marks another sad loss of my head and told me to be
instantly captured the vibe of the somebody who made this era a good boy and wait a minute
latest Team TARDIS. Otherwise so special. Rest in peace. while he hurled jelly babies
DWM 536 was another cracking and addressed the crowd
issue, worth every penny! Lovely words David, thank you. Toby of kids. Someone on the
Hadoke’s tribute to Pat Gorman begins mezzanine of the studio
Rest assured the comic strip is still a very on page 42. snapped this moment and
important part of DWM. You'll be pleased through my mother’s contacts
to know that it’s back up to eight pages for DOCTOR DOWN UNDER we got a copy of the photo.
this issue and the foreseeable future. s DAVID McMILLAN
QUEENSLAND, AUSTRALIA And what an amazing photo it is.
MONSTER MAN Tom Baker’s continued Thanks for sending it in, David. More
s DAVID TUDOR EMAIL importance in the pages of your of your letters, artwork and images
O A Thirteenth Doctor pencil sketch I was saddened to read in DWM publication has prompted me next issue – keep sending them to
by Eleanor Chapman. 536’s Beyond the TARDIS of to send in a scanned version [email protected] DWM

8 DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE


Keeping up with the cast and crew’s
Beyond activities away from the series...
Compiled by DOMINIC MAY

the TARDIS
Freedom Jodie Another Crown for Matt Jenna
s London Guildhall School of Music and s Matt Smith’s role in Morbius has Inside No 9
Drama graduate Jodie Whittaker is been revealed as the main villain, Loxias s Jenna Coleman is among
among 106 women receiving the Freedom Crown. Smith told the Los Angeles Times guest actors in the fifth series
of the City of London. The ceremony takes on 7 March that it was Karen Gillan who of Reece Shearsmith and
place later in the year after the Court of encouraged him to do a superhero movie. Steve Pemberton’s Inside
Common Council puts the final seal of As for being in Star Wars: Episode IX, Matt No 9. The third series of Victoria,
approval on the Freedoms. added, “As far as I can tell, I’m definitely starring Jenna and featuring
not…” Charlie Says, in which Matt plays cult Tommy Knight, arrived on
leader Charles Manson, arrives in the US on ITV on 24 March, continuing
10 May (trailer at tinyurl.com/MattManson). until 12 May. The first block
Gillan hints that things may not be what was directed by Geoffrey Sax.
they seem in her Jumanji sequel, currently Jenna also graced the cover
shooting for a Christmas release. of April’s Harper’s Bazaar.

National Doctors Barrowman’s


s David Tennant and Christopher All Stars O Jodie Whittaker and Mandip Gill, dressed for
O Writers Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss
Eccleston performed in the National s ITV aired All Star Musicals 2019’s Comic Relief. Photo © Comic Relief.
with producer Sue Vertue on location for Theatre’s Up Next Gala on 5 March, which co-hosted by John Barrowman
Dracula on 4 March. Twitter photo © Mark Gatiss. raised £1.165 million for UK projects. on 17 March, following a London Palladium Good Trailer
Tennant attended Olivia Colman’s BFI recording on the 7th. John was a panellist s A trailer for Neil Gaiman’s Good
TomTom Fellow induction at London’s Rosewood for BAFTA Masterclass: I’m A Celebrity… Omens, starring David Tennant as the
s Radio Times guest editor David Hotel on 6 March, the Ian McKellen on Get Me Out of Here! at BAFTA’s Princess demon Crowley with a guest cast including
Walliams interviewed Tom Baker for the Stage press night at the Duke of York’s Anne Theatre on 11 March. He also featured Mark Gatiss as Harmony, has been
6-22 March edition, celebrating children’s Theatre on 7 March and the Science on This Morning on 6 March and ITV2’s released (tinyurl.com/DTGoodOm). The
television. Tom MacRae is scripting the Museum’s Celebrating the Web’s 30th Celebrity Juice on 21 March. Barrowman series, directed by Douglas Mackinnon
film adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber Birthday with Sir Tim Berners-Lee on reunited with Russell T Davies at the with Caroline Skinner an executive
musical Sunset Boulevard, also working 12 March. David spoke at the Westminster Television & Radio Industries Club Awards producer, arrives at Amazon Prime on
with him on a modern musical of Cinderella. Central Hall March4Women International at Grosvenor House on 12 February, where 31 May ahead of a BBC Two broadcast.
Tom’s Everybody’s Talking About Jamie Women’s Day event on 3 March Russell’s A Very English Scandal took the
collected Best Original Cast Recording at (tinyurl.com/DTMarch4Women) and Drama Programme gong, repeating its Quickies
the WhatsOnStage Awards on 3 March, co-hosted the second hour of BBC success three days later at the Broadcasting s Louise Jameson reprises her role as
with The Madness of George III, starring One’s Comic Relief on 15 March. Press Guild Awards at Banking Hall, winning grieving widow Anita in Trafalgar Studios
Mark Gatiss, bagging Best Play Revival Best Writer, Best Single Drama/Mini-series 2’s Vincent River from 16 May to 22 June.
and Best Supporting Actor in a Play Tate Date and Best Actor (Hugh Grant). Noel Clarke is a producer of current
(Adrian Scarborough). s Catherine Tate, who withdrew from release The Fight, starring, written and
Comic Relief’s Wembley Spectacular, directed by Jessica Hynes. Ex-Doctor Who
Stalinman played Terri in Radio 4’s Date Night from producer Sanne Wohlenberg produces
s On 23 February, The Only Man Stalin 5 to 26 March. She also voices Max, Sky Atlantic’s five-part miniseries
Was Afraid of, episode one of Radio 4’s a businesswoman who won a bar in Chernobyl, arriving on 7 May.
Alexei Sayle’s The Absence of Normal, a game of cards, in the new BioWare
featured Peter Capaldi as the Soviet computer game, Anthem. Obituaries
dictator. Recent Big Issue cover star Peter s Sheena
performed a singalong version of David Marshe, who
Bowie’s Starman during Edinburgh’s played Kate
Capital Sci-Fi Con on 16 February Fisher in The
(tinyurl.com/CapBowie). Following Gunfighters
Prepper, Pearl Mackie plays Kay in (1966), has
O John Barrowman and Russell T Davies at the
Sky Arts’ Urban Myths: Donald Trump TRIC Awards. Instagram photo © Russell T Davies. died aged O William Hartnell as
and Andy Warhol on 17 April. Matt 83. Equity has the Doctor with Sheena
Marshe as Kate in The
Lucas, who voices Teety-Woo for Doctor Song reported the
Gunfighters (1966).
Sky 1’s Moominvalley Easter s Alex Kingston plays Dr Stockman in death of Peter
animation, will perform the a gender-swapped production of Ibsen’s Sanders, who was Sita in The Space
Billiard Marker in a new An Enemy of the People at Nottingham Museum (1965). Moris Farhi, whose
recording of the Mike Batt Playhouse from 13 to 28 September. She two unmade 1964 Doctor Who scripts,
musical The Hunting of the promoted her Trafalgar Studios role as Farewell Great Macedon and The Fragile
Snark. Netflix streams the Sherri Rosen-Mason in Admissions on Zoe Yellow Arc of Fragrance, were adapted by
second series of Chilling Ball’s Radio 2 show on 20 February, This Big Finish in 2010, died on 5 March, aged
Adventures of Sabrina, Morning on 26 February and Loose Ends on 84. David Billa, an extra in 11 stories
featuring Michelle Gomez, 16 March (also discussing it at tinyurl.com/ between The Savages (1966) and Revenge
from 5 April. Admissong). Amazon Prime’s eight-part of the Cybermen (1975), has also died.
Congo-set drama The Widow features Alex Salo Gardner, who was a Lazar extra in
o Jenna Coleman in the
title role of Victoria. as charity worker Judith Gray. ITV is Terminus (1983), died on 2 December at
also set to broadcast the series. the age of 82. DWM

DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE 9


O T H
I N T OW N E
UN K N

10 DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE


In 1965’s Mission to the Unknown, the Daleks exterminated
a Space Security Service agent who had been stranded on
a hostile planet. Soon after, the episode itself was destroyed
in one of the era’s notorious archive purges. Now, more than
50 years later, history is being (re)made…
Feature by MARK WRIGHT
Opposite page: Graduate

O
n Friday 6 August 1965, involved. The story is really good. I like Lowery. Decked out in 1960s-style
a highly unusual episode of the fact that all the good guys die. We space overalls, the two actors are drama students Marco
Simioni (as Marc Cory),
Doctor Who was recorded leave it with the world in jeopardy and enjoying returning to their alma mater Dan Gilligan (Gordon
at BBC Television Centre the solar system about to be invaded. for this Doctor Who experience. Lowery) and Jacob
between 8.30 and 9.45pm. It’s very rich source material.” “We cleared a space for rehearsals,” Marrison (Jeff Garvey)
The single episode says Dan. “We had four chairs for the in a publicity shot for the
Mission to the Unknown ndrew is a whirlwind of activity fins of the space rocket and a small 2019 version of Mission
featured none of Doctor
Who’s regular cast, instead showcasing
the series’ most notorious villains in
A when DWM arrives at UCLan’s
Media Factory in the heart of
Preston. He moves back and forth
basket for the tool box…”
“We used our fingers as the guns,”
adds a grinning Marco.
to the Unknown.
Below left inset: Head
of production Robbie
Sandison with camera
a pulpy sci-fi adventure designed as a between the two studio spaces that The two actors follow another operator Abbie Bradshaw.
curtain-raiser to the epic 12-part story will house recreated sets over the UCLan drama graduate into the
Below right: Andrew
The Daleks’ Master Plan (1965-66). next three days, following two days industry, one with a very strong Ireland, the Pro-Vice
It’s a Doctor Who oddity, and one that, of rehearsals earlier in the week. connection to Doctor Who: Mandip Chancellor of Digital and
save for an off-air audio recording, is “We did some reading and we did Gill, who plays current TARDIS Creative Industries at
entirely missing from the BBC archive. some blocking, and then the first two companion Yasmin Khan. Mandip UCLan, discusses a scene
Some 53 years and seven months days we were running the scenes,” says sent a video message of support (with with Marco and Dan.
later, a group of industrious and actor Marco Simioni, who is playing a guest appearance from the Doctor
dedicated students have embarked on Marc Cory in the new production. herself, Jodie Whittaker) to the cast
an audacious plan to remount Mission A graduate of UCLan’s drama degree, and crew of Mission to the Unknown.
to the Unknown as authentically as Marco is waiting in the green room “We all know that acting is
possible, which is why we’re visiting with his fellow actor and UCLan competitive,” says Dan. “Not every
the University of Central Lancashire graduate Dan Gilligan, who plays audition is going to result in a job; it 1
(UCLan) on a chilly February morning.
“In a way, it was all down to Doctor
Who Magazine,” says Andrew Ireland,
Pro-Vice Chancellor of Digital and
“I like the fact that all the good
Creative Industries at UCLan, long-time
Doctor Who fan and the brains behind
guys die. We leave it with the world
the project. (We’ll come back to that
outrageous accusation later; see in jeopardy and the solar system
page 16.) “We’ve done a couple of very
successful student experience projects
in the last two years, bringing courses
about to be invaded.” ANDREW IRELAND
together for a week of concentrated 
activity. ‘Soap in a Week’, working
with ITV, and then ‘Musical in a Week’,
producing a new piece of musical
theatre. The idea of ‘Science Fiction
in a Week’ was an obvious one.”
In Terry Nation’s script for Mission
to the Unknown, ‘James Bond of the
Solar System’ Marc Cory (originally
played by Edward de Souza) battles
for survival on the terrifying jungle
world of Kembel. After crash-landing
in a rocket with fellow crew members
Garvey and Lowery, Cory uncovers
a Dalek scheme to unite alien powers
and conquer the solar system. But Cory
won’t leave Kembel alive…
Of all Doctor Who’s missing episodes,
why was Mission to the Unknown
chosen for this remake? “For so many
reasons,” explains Andrew. “No Doctor,
no companions; it’s a single-episode,
self-contained story, so it will be a
satisfactory experience for everyone

DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE 11


T O T
I N OW N H E
U N KN
Right: The UCLan fashion
department at work
making Varga plants.
Photo © Mark Wright.

Far right: The alien


delegates are played by
Benjamin Clarke, Joseph
Burke, Gary Tatham,
Adam Ian, Barry Traill
and Edward Kelly.
Photo © Mark Wright.

Below right inset:


Lead make-up artist
Janette Rawstron
transforms Paul
Stenton into Malpha. 1 could be one in 100 auditions that gets “We’re a university,” concedes Andrew. very good. Every decision throughout
Bottom left: Students
you a role. The thing which gives me a “We may be enthusiastic, we may be the process is making sure that everyone
monitor the recording great deal of confidence is seeing somebody talented and have professional values and gets a really good experience of how to
of the episode. like Mandip up there and doing it.” equipment – but we’re not the BBC in the make TV in the 1960s.”
Bottom right: Paul Although the project is aiming for as 1960s, with a crew used to putting out The areas outside the studio spaces
Stenton in his full Malpha authentic a 1960s experience as possible, quality dramas in a studio environment are, like any production facility, filled
make-up and costume. and is being made in about five days, the five days a week. So I can’t shoot the with activity as cast and crew prepare
production schedule is not quite following entire episode in an hour and a quarter. for the day’s work. The first day will
the same pattern as the original. I could, but the end product wouldn’t be focus on scenes in the Dalek control
room on Kembel and later those

“Projects like this are in the interior of the spacecraft.


This first morning is the most

very important for my challenging for the costume and


make-up teams as the actors
playing the alien delegates have
students. It makes wide-ranging requirements. In
the make-up chair is actor Paul
it real.” JANETTE RAWSTRON Stenton, who’s being transformed into
alien delegate Malpha by lead make-up
artist Janette Rawstron. Janette teaches
Media Make-Up
to students at
the nearby
Accrington and
Rossendale
College.
“Malpha is
our biggest
challenge,”

12 DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE


ad-hoc thing. In these episodes, the Left: Staff and students
Daleks sounded a bit more like [actors] on the completed UN
Peter Hawkins and David Graham than spaceship interior set.
the Daleks. I didn’t want to recreate Below right: The jungle
that. I set up the modulation at the best set created for Kinda
(1982).
levels I could. But I do emulate the great
Bottom: Jacob
Peter and David voices as best I can in
Marrison as Garvey on
terms of my vocal delivery.” the foliage-covered
Sitting behind his desk, bathed in the studio floor.
glow of a tablet screen, Nick couldn’t look
happier. “They’ve been very meticulous
in their recreation of the sets,” he says,
looking admiringly at the adjacent
spaceship. “They’ve referred to as
much visual material as is available, and
where they couldn’t exactly reproduce
something, they found vintage items that
had the right feel. The interior of the UN
explains Janette as she works. “This is really creative, positive person with a very spaceship is a case in point. You look at it
mainly because of the lighting. It gets down-to-earth, practical approach. He’s and instantly feel that it looks completely
very hot, so things start to slide around got a great team of students working on right. When you study it control panel
and move. We wanted it to be authentic. this. But my initial thoughts were, ‘What by control panel, it’s actually quite
We’re so used to putting bald caps on fun!’ I was really keen to be involved. different… but the feel is perfect.”
to make it look real, whereas here we I love the idea of creating that classic look. Across the studio floor, Andrew
wanted it to look like it was 1965. “The Dalek voices on this episode and makes final adjustments to a scene with
“Projects like this are very important The Daleks’ Master Plan varied quite the alien delegates before trying for
for my students. It makes it real. This alarmingly in terms of their technical a take. Glancing at a black-and-white
morning we’ve done the make-up and set-up,” Nick adds. “The setting up of the monitor, if you didn’t know better you’d
we’ve had to go in front of the camera ring modulator in those days was a fairly swear you were looking at a scene from 1
twice before being completely happy with
it. Putting students in this situation builds
confidence. If you’re just in a classroom,
and then go off with your qualification,
you’ve never had that experience.”
RUMBLE IN THE JUNGLE
“We have a very talented fashion uch of Mission to the Literally a twig will
department at UCLan,” adds Andrew,
keen to stress the work that has
M Unknown’s action
takes place on the
make a Dalek either
stop or jerk up in
gone into each and every costume. surface of Kembel in the the air, so you have
“They know what they’re doing and vicinity of Cory’s crashed UN to brush any sign of
they’re very serious about it. Their space rocket. In planning the foliage from the floor
professionalism is amazing and they jungle set, director Andrew for the Dalek to really
work so many hours, making these Ireland wore his Doctor Who roll over it. But when
costumes as authentic as possible. fan credentials on his sleeve, it’s just me standing
That really shows dividends on screen. as he had a different jungle- in a big black room and you to the rescue. “We borrowed
They spent hours sewing nodules onto set adventure on his mind – put six pot plants on the plants from a number of
the Varga plants front and back, even the 1982 story Kinda. floor, you realise we’re going different sources, including
though only the front would be seen.” “When you create a jungle to need a bigger plant!” Coronation Street, who lent
Two of these terrifying, invasive plants, in a studio – here’s your To acquire the requisite us a fair number of their
indigenous to the Dalek home world of shiny floor, let’s scatter some quantities of foliage, another fake plot pants, which was
Skaro, stand in the corner of the room leaves across it – Kinda is great British institution came very kind. We also chopped
and they look terrifically accurate. what comes to mind,” he down a fair amount of foliage
says. “You can cover the around the university, too.”
imilar dedication is on display studio floor to an extent or

S in the theatre space next door,


which today houses the Dalek
control room, spaceship interior and,
you can try not to film the
studio floor, which is even
better. But a Dalek and a
sitting behind a microphone in the twig do not go well together.
darkness, Nicholas Briggs – TV’s voice
of the Daleks. “I just got back from the
Gallifrey One convention in Los Angeles
yesterday. Then I had to get a train from
London to Preston last night, to start
work at 8.00 this morning,” he says. But
there’s not a trace of jet-lag to be seen.
“I feel remarkably perky, considering.
I think it’s the excitement of it all. The
Daleks saved me from jet-lag!”
Nick has known Andrew since 2013,
when he visited Bournemouth University
to talk to a group of students. “Andrew’s a

DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE 13


T O T
I N OW N H E
U N KN
Right: Edward de Souza,
who played Marc Cory
in the original version
of Mission to the
Unknown in 1965,
with Peter Purves,
who played companion
Steven Taylor from
1965-66, on the set
of the new production.
Photo © Mark Wright.

Far right: A Q&A session


for the cast and crew
with Edward, Peter and
Nicholas Briggs.
Below: Student Kayleigh
1 a 1960s production. Nick is equally two very special visitors have arrived have gone up by 350 this morning,” he
Hall on sound duties
while Nicholas Briggs admiring of the actors playing the and are being given a tour of the main says, grinning, as he examines the jungle
performs Dalek voices. delegates. “Paul Stenton as Malpha is studio one floor. Peter Purves, who exterior set for the UN rocket ship.
brilliant. He’s studied the delivery on the played 1960s companion Steven Taylor, “It was a long time ago, but standing
original recording. And somehow, his and Edward de Souza, the original next to this rocket has really jogged my
northern accent adds a note of menace Mission to the Unknown’s Marc Cory, memory,” says Edward happily, posing
to the performance. There’s no messing are both delighted to be here. Peter has with Peter for photographs in front of
with this version of Malpha!” been using social media to publicise the the rocket. “When we did it, none of us
While the Daleks and their alien guests production and the response has been thought that it would mean anything at
have been plotting universal domination, overwhelming. “My Twitter followers all. It was just another episode of Doctor
Who. And now it’s still very much liked
and I find that remarkable. It didn’t really

MAN ON A MISSION at UCLan.


“Of course,
I’ve had
because they weren’t
professionals and hadn’t
been slogging at this for
impinge on us at the time; it wasn’t much
more than a week’s work. Then you went
home and hoped for the best!”
’ve never really loads of fun doing Dalek years, they had a unique “He was just so nice and inviting,”
“I known much about
Mission to the
voices for the BBC, meeting
various brilliant Doctors and
freshness and enthusiasm.
“Hopefully I’m not
Marco Simioni comments later, after
meeting the original Marc Cory. “And
Unknown,” Nicholas Briggs companions over the years, sounding too much like an he knew my name, which was lovely.
admits during a break in and hope to continue that old fogey when I say it was He took a real genuine interest. We had
shooting. “I certainly don’t for a long time to come,” he really delightful to see so a conversation about what I’m doing,
remember watching it. If I did, says. “It’s always been such many great young people where I’m going and what my plans are.
I must’ve been too young to a great privilege and there’ve being so diligent, dedicated He seemed very complimentary about
retain the memory. I realised been some great directors and full of joy. And, of Dan and I, and the project.”
that I hadn’t ever listened to and sound recordists I’ve course, it’s probably the first After lunch, Peter and Edward take
the audio of it either. I did worked alongside. I wouldn’t time I’ve worked on a set part in a Q&A for the cast and crew,
that for this production and want to diminish any of where it seemed everybody talking about their experiences of
I think it’s a prime candidate those great experiences. wanted my autograph, making television in the 1960s, and
for this kind of remake as it But this felt like something a selfie and a go at doing are joined by Nick.
doesn’t feature any of the different and extra special. the Dalek voice. Not that “I don’t think I can learn the lines like
‘regulars’, which means the I think it was the educational I’m swayed by that kind of I used to,” Edward points out, reflecting
hurdle of recasting familiar, aspect. The students were ego-massaging – I might add, on changes in the television industry
beloved characters is thoroughly professional rather unconvincingly since making Mission to the Unknown.
immediately avoided.” in their attitude and – but it’s always “But this is wonderful today, as it’s
From behind his sound approach, but nice to feel loved, all exactly the same. I felt really quite
desk, Nick has been able isn’t it?” peculiar standing in the jungle with my
to observe the action broken-down spaceship, which looks
and is thoroughly exactly the same as it did when I stepped
enjoying his time out of it all those years ago.” He goes on
to recall watching the original broadcast
with his son sitting on his knee. “When
it came to the moment when the Dalek
zapped me, he stiffened and spun round
to make quite sure I was still alive!”
“It was a bit of a confusing time,
actually,” recalls Peter of the period
Mission to the Unknown was made in.
“It was a strange one. To find there was
an episode coming up immediately that
we [the main cast] weren’t required for…
we didn’t feel good about it,” he admits.
“I did!” jokes Edward.

14 DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE


“It’s good stuff, I’m very impressed,”
Peter says of the work he’s seen today.
“Totally authentic, and everyone I’ve
met who’s been involved, in either the
costume-making or the make-up or
performing or backstage doing cameras:
brilliant. Well done, it’s a superb effort.”
After the panel, Peter – a Prestonian
himself – is presented with a special Dalek
cake to mark his recent 80th birthday.
With cake slices distributed, Peter and
Edward depart to catch their train and
work continues for the rest of the day,
capturing Lowery and Cory’s heated
exchange in the interior of the rocket.
After an intense concentration of
work, Mission to the Unknown Day One
wraps on time. Cast and crew head
home, ready to tackle the jungles of
Kembel and more Daleks on Day Two.

D
WM returns to UCLan for its
second and final day observing
the Mission to the Unknown shoot,
which will focus on the exterior of the
rocket, Garvey’s possession by Varga
plants, and the patrolling Daleks.
It’s an enormous amount of work to
get through, and in the studio gallery
Andrew goes over shot lists in an
atmosphere of organised chaos. He
works from a newly formatted script and
also from the original 1965 Mission to
the Unknown camera script, as used by
director Derek Martinus on the night of
6 August 1965. “The camera script that
goes into the studio environment is very
different to what comes out of it. If you
listen to the audio track and compare
“Our own Dalek was very heavy and difficult
it to the camera script, there are clear
differences. I sit here looking at the
to move, so a lot of the key action was given
monitor feeds and think, ‘Well, camera
one’s got a great shot of this moment,
over to the blue-and-silver Daleks.” ANDREW IRELAND
we’ll use that instead.’ That’s different
to my plan. It just goes to show: stepping
through the process yourself, in the
shoes of a 1960s director, means that
you make different choices.”
And how does Andrew find working
with the Daleks themselves, who are
front and centre in the jungle set today? DWM
“We only had two at any one time, but few
they’ve got to work out which one I’m
talking to. I love it, because that is Doctor
Who. I can go and talk to a Dalek; the
Dalek will look at you with its eyestalk, Top left: Marc Cory
(Marco Simioni) is
rotate it around, give it some direction,
surrounded by Daleks
and it’ll sort of nod and move away.” as he tries to send
Andrew was particularly impressed a message to Earth
with Dalek operator James Burgess, about the alien threat.
who, along with his father Mike, Above right from top:
provided a blue-and-silver Dalek for use A deadly Varga plant;
in the production. “They are amazing Marco Simioni meets
assets. Their Dalek is surprisingly light Edward de Souza;
students record a
and easy to manoeuvre. Our own Dalek scene featuring the
is very heavy and difficult to move, so spaceship exterior.
a lot of the key action was given to the Left: Timothy McDonagh
blue-and-silver Daleks.” is the operator of the
Just as Marco Simioni and Dan Dalek Supreme.
Gilligan – who are now joined by Jacob DWM Photo © Mark Wright.

DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE 15


THE

DWM
INTERVIEW

Below left: Screengrabs


from the 2019 version
of Mission to the
Unknown, presented
in the style of 1960s
telesnaps.
What challenges few days after the
UCLan remount
2006 story] Tooth and Claw, which
is roughly a 25-minute episode in old
Right: Producer and
director Andrew Ireland.
Below right: Actors
Dan Gilligan (as
did Andrew Ireland
overcome to make A of Mission to the
Unknown wrapped,
Doctor Who Magazine
caught up with a
money, if you like. I then wrote
a proposal for Mission to the Unknown
in about 2013 and brought it with me
to UCLan, but it was just an idea and
Gordon Lowery) and
Marco Simioni (Marc
the new Mission refreshed Andrew Ireland. I didn't pursue it at the time. Last
First, we have to clear something summer I was asked if I would do an
Cory) on the UN
spaceship set.
to the Unknown? up: apparently this was all our fault? interview about my PHD for the DWM
Andrew is happy to explain. “The germ Special Edition, In the Studio. After that
Interview by of the Mission to the Unknown idea was I thought, ‘Well, why not…?’”
my PHD [at Bournemouth University in As ever with Doctor Who, it wasn’t
MARK WRIGHT 2012], which was creating a simulation quite as simple as it sounds. “I had to
of a 1960s production environment get permission from the BBC and the
and re-enacting the process of making Terry Nation estate,” says Andrew.
TV. We remade the first half of [the “I wrote the Nation estate a passionate

16 DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE


email about the project, seeking their
permission to bring a missing Terry
Nation script to life. They were very
supportive. Without that support from
the BBC and the Nation estate, I wouldn’t
have done this. We have relationships
with the BBC and other broadcasters,
and I can’t mess around with all these
students involved in the projects and
putting money towards it without it being
sanctioned and supported.”
As an academic and Pro-Vice
Chancellor of Digital and Creative
Industries at UCLan, Andrew’s approach
to remounting Mission to the Unknown
comes from a very specific thought
process. “It’s a bit like Jurassic Park,” he
says, with only a hint of irony. “Making
a dinosaur which doesn’t exist anymore.
Find the DNA of dinosaur in a mosquito
in nectar, then extrapolate what you
need to make a dinosaur. But there
are gaps in the DNA chain, so you plug
those gaps with what you think is right.
That’s what we’re doing with this; it’s an
“IT’S A BIT LIKE JURASSIC PARK,
archaeological expedition to work with
the elements we’ve got, which in this case
MAKING A DINOSAUR WHICH
are a few set photographs, the off-air
audio and the camera script. I also looked
DOESN’T EXIST ANYMORE.”
at other episodes made around the same is a very happy director and Pro-Vice But because people know the story and
time, looking at how directing was done Chancellor following the previous they know the original soundtrack, we
and how the cameras were used to get week’s intense schedule. “I’m really have to try to make it work as close as Above: Media students
a sense of how to go about producing an pleased. What’s stressful is the editing. possible to the originals. That’s a level in the UCLan TV studio
authentic recreation of the original.” I’ve laid down the original soundtrack of stress you don’t normally get in with head of production
and am now cutting the sequences editing, because people aren’t really Robbie Sandison.
ndrew and his support team and laying them on top, so you can see aware of how it’s supposed to end up.

A
Below left: A studio
at UCLan began researching where our sequences are a bit shorter “It’s an interesting process, but it’s monitor shows a
Dalek gliding past the
the project last summer – but or longer. Overall, I think the episode a very rewarding one,” he concludes.
spaceship.
with shooting looming in February, will be roughly the same length as the “And it’s looking good. The last shot
Below right: Recording
the practicalities of mounting the original, which is a helpful guide. we did, a Dalek glided past the rocket
a scene with the alien
production finally had to be If there was something that and came round the side. It’s the sort delegates.
tackled head on, including didn’t work, in the edit you of shot I watch in black and white on Photography by Jessica
recreating the exterior of could just move around my computer and I just think, ‘Yeah… Briggs, David Schofield and
a crashed rocket in an it or forget it or recut. It works.’” DWM Karl Hopkinson.
alien jungle.
“We have staff and
students involved in
different department
areas,” says Andrew,
“and one of those
departments was set
design. We worked out
what sets we needed and
scratched our heads for
a long time about the best
way of making the outside of the space
rocket. One of the quirks of our TV
studio is that it’s on the second floor
of our Media Factory building. If you
make a big thing like that, you have to
build it in parts, which can fit either
up the stairs or in the lift and then be
reassembled in the studio. In the end we
worked with an external subcontractor,
to construct it based on our designs.
Our own students and staff crew could
focus on the other elements, such as
the interior of the space rocket and the
delegate conference table.”
From set, costume design and make-up
to the efforts of cast and crew, Andrew

DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE 17


THE

DWM
INTERVIEW

Samuel Oatley played terrifying Stenza warrior Tzim-Sha,


the first monster encountered by the Thirteenth Doctor.
Interview by SIMON GUERRIER

Below from top: n the Thirteenth of individuals when the Doctor first Who is a family show but that’s what

I
Samuel Oatley in three Doctor’s debut series encountered them – you were never I remember – the darkness and
of his screen roles: as we met an array of quite sure if they were good or bad, danger. So that’s what I wanted to
Jack Archer in Foyle’s
War (2004); as Danny
new monsters and or who was about to get zapped or bring to Tzim-Sha.”
King in the short film alien species. Up first caught in quicksand. There was also
The Boxer (2013); and was Stenza warrior that intriguing side to each Doctor. amuel’s interest in
as Young Standing in
New Tricks (2015).
Below right: Recording
a scene for Samuel’s
Tzim-Sha, his blue
face embedded with teeth he’d taken
as grisly trophies from his many human
victims. The part was a dream come
I found Sylvester McCoy’s Doctor very
engaging because you weren’t always
sure if he was 100 per cent a good guy.
There was always that edge to him.”
S performing started, aged 12,
when he lost a bet with some
friends and had to sing in a
school cabaret. In 2004 he completed
first Doctor Who story,
true for actor Samuel Oatley. The monsters were also an important a degree in acting at Rose Bruford
The Woman Who Fell
to Earth (2018). “As a kid, I was absolutely glued element. Samuel remembers “lots of College, and since then he’s appeared
to Doctor Who,” he says. “I watched one-episode monsters from swamps. in such primetime dramas as Foyle’s
the three-hour re-runs on UK Gold And obviously you’ve got the classics: War, New Tricks and Law & Order:
every Sunday morning.” Rather than like everyone else, I was petrified by UK – the latter when it was overseen
particular stories or moments, the Daleks, Davros and the Cybermen. by Doctor Who’s current showrunner,
it was the general feel of the The fact that Cybermen seemed to Chris Chibnall. But it was casting
series that made an impression. walk at one slow speed and yet they director Andy Pryor who thought of
“I remember lots of smoke always caught up with you haunted him for the part of Tzim-Sha. Samuel
in vast, open swampland and my dreams. That dark, sinister element had never played monsters before,
woodland. And the sinisterness ignited my imagination. I know Doctor or worn prosthetic make-up, but as
a 6’1” self-confessed “boxing fanatic”,
he certainly had the physique for the
imposing warrior, who’s described
in the script as “bulky, strong” and
“fearsomely huge”.
“Andy’s been a big support,” says
Samuel. “I’m extremely thankful
because this industry’s tough and
without someone like Andy’s belief in
you, it’s hard to get any traction. I’d
just sent him my new showreel and he
asked me in one Thursday afternoon.
I read the script and I had a really clear
idea of how I wanted to come across,
having watched Doctor Who as a kid.
It was all that darkness.” He auditioned
for Pryor, director Jamie Childs and
producer Alex Mercer, who were
impressed by his choices. The following
evening, Samuel learned he’d got the
part. “I was over the moon.”
Samuel then started an intensive
training programme at the gym.
“Being physically fit has always been 1

18 DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE


Below: Samuel as
Tzim-Sha of the Stenza
in The Woman Who
Fell to Earth.

DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE 19


THE

DWM Samuel Oatley


INTERVIEW

“The costume moves in


a certain way, so your
movement, your whole
persona, shifts when
you have it on.”
1 important to me and I’ve It’s definitely one of the hardest
trained since I was 16. As I’ve challenges of my career. I wouldn’t have
got older, and I’ve got a family got through it without the help of Charlie
now, it’s been harder to Bluett, Dani Duffy and the rest of the
dedicate that much time Millennium team. And I now have such
to it, but I was gradually respect for performers in Star Wars and
getting back into the gym the blockbuster comic-book stuff who do
when this opportunity this regularly! They’re incredible.
arose. When you get into “Obviously, with a show like Doctor
character, you want to Who the secrecy level is high. So no one
own it as much as you got to see what we were coming up with
can, and for a part like at Millennium except the director and
that you want to feel as producers. We’d have FaceTime sessions
powerful as possible. with them as we went along, giving us
I knew I’d be in some notes and feedback.”
sort of outfit as well
but at that point I t last, when production on
wasn’t completely clear
on everything that was
going to take place – how it would
make me look and feel. So I dedicated
A The Woman Who Fell to
Earth began in October 2017,
Samuel joined the cast in
Cardiff. “We did an official unveiling
myself full on. I’m pretty aware of of the character and costume for the
how my body responds to exercise production team just before shooting
so I know how to frame it.” began,” Samuel recalls. “The reaction
He then attended his first was incredible – and bizarre. I’d never
costume fitting with the team at experienced that sort of transformation
the Millennium FX prosthetics before. The costume moves in a certain
company – a regular presence way, so your movement, your whole
on Doctor Who since the 2005 persona, shifts when you have it on. You
series. They were keen he see the transformation take place in the
didn’t bulk up any more, or mirror as it’s all applied, but then there’s
they’d have to keep changing people’s reactions. They know it’s not
the costume to fit him. “And real, that you’re underneath it, but
it would affect how the suit they’re scared! And that fuels how you
worked, and my comfort play the part.”
level in it,” Samuel points That was the reaction on set. But how
out. “There was quite did Samuel’s friends respond when the
a science behind what they episode went out? He laughs. “Obviously,
Above: Samuel was call ‘creature performing’. they knew I was in it but I’ve got a mask
careful to stay in shape The intensity, the on for most of that first episode, so they
once he’d been fitted endurance and stamina were like, ‘Where is he?’ Even when the
with his costume.
needed, the strength and mask came off they weren’t entirely sure.
Top right: Tzim-Sha flexibility, the punishment I looked so different, and the way
touches the gathering
you have to be willing to I spoke…” (Samuel usually speaks with
coil in The Woman
Who Fell to Earth. take, it’s unbelievable. a distinctive London accent.) “But after

20 DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE


look thousands of years older.
WEARING WELL Samuel’s chief concern
was whether the costume
Left: The older Tzim-Sha
wears a modified suit in
The Battle of Ranskoor
t the end of The After the amount of fun would still fit. “It was

A Woman Who Fell


to Earth, Tzim-Sha
is teleported off Earth
it was to make that first
episode, I just couldn’t wait
to go again.”
a good few months later and
I’d been working on other
stuff,” he says. “I mean,
Av Kolos (2018).
Below left: Jodie
Whittaker on the set of
The Battle of Ranskoor
– but his return in the Having asked Samuel I wanted to stay in shape in Av Kolos with director
series finale, The Battle how they could make that time – that’s just how Jamie Childs.
of Ranskoor Av Kolos, the costume more I am. And the idea was to Bottom left: Tzim-Sha
was kept as a surprise. comfortable, not get too much bigger traces his prey to the
How much of a surprise the team at or smaller. I deliberately yard of Skylark Building
was it to Samuel? Millennium FX tried to keep an idea Services in The Woman
Who Fell to Earth.
“When we were shooting made some of my shape and
Below right: “I’d never
the first episode I was tweaks prior to weight, and how
experienced that sort
made aware that he would handing the suit things were feeling, of transformation
bookend the series,” he to Robert Allsopp over those months.” before,” says Samuel.
reveals, “but I had no idea & Associates, It paid off. When
of the plot. There were the company Samuel arrived
whisperings, I think, but commissioned for his fitting at
I knew the way Chris and to make it Allsopp’s workshop
the guys work, that it’s in south London,
always evolving.” Was that the costume fitted
a concern? “Not at all. like a glove.

a bit I started getting messages coming interaction at school the next day. So it’s I would work with every day of the week
in: ‘Are you Teeth Face?!?’” lovely to know that was achieved.” if I could – but it’s also there in Jodie.
Samuel’s son was too young to watch, How does Samuel rate his time on She’s so inclusive; from my first day
but Doctor Who Magazine knows Doctor Who? “Without doubt, it’s one I felt like I’d known her for years. I can’t
of slightly older children who of the best experiences I’ve had praise it highly enough as a place to
were playing Doctor-versus- in all the years I’ve been an work. That’s a special thing.” DWM
Teeth-Monster in the actor – maybe the best.
playground the Every cog of that show
following Monday. works brilliantly.
“That’s exactly what It’s amazing to go
you want!” enthuses to work on it each
Samuel. “When you morning because
do these sorts of of the atmosphere.
shows, you’re aware Everyone is happy
of the magnitude to be there. Everyone
around it, the universe is lovely. Everyone is
you’re now part of. It brilliant at what they do.
actually makes the hair And whatever part you play,
stand up on the back of my however big or small, you’re
neck, to be part of such a legacy. You welcomed into this family. That extends
want kids to be can’t-look-but-have-to, from the producers, Chris and Matt
a little bit scared but wanting that [Strevens], and the director Jamie – who

DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE 21


Remembering
Graeme Curry
A former Doctor Who script editor pays
tribute to the writer of The Happiness Patrol,
one of the most memorable stories of the 1980s. ’m still reeling from the news

I
of Graeme Curry’s death.
Feature by ANDREW CARTMEL I only became aware he was
seriously ill when I sent him
a Cannonball Adderley CD for
Christmas. (Jazz was a shared
passion of ours.) He responded with an
email on 27 December. It read:

How fabulous is that?


Just what I need, as well. I was
diagnosed with a brain tumour
two months ago and am waiting
to see what happens next. The
radiotherapy is taking its toll so at
the moment I can’t talk on the phone.
Not sure how this will pan out, but
I wanted to let you know that the
CD is cheering me up.
Love Graeme

Those were the last words I had from


Graeme, our last real contact – though
I replied immediately, expressing all my
concern and love. Two months later he
was dead. And now I’m still processing
this, still sorting through the memories…
At the point where Graeme Curry
came into my life he was already an
award-winning young journalist, having
written his thesis at Cambridge on the
grotesque in literature. (I’ve always
thought that provided him with a superb
and appropriate preparation for working
on Doctor Who.) The first thing I read
by Graeme was a script called Over
the Moon, which was a radio play
about football.
I was looking for television writers
for Doctor Who, and this script might
have seemed quite a stretch as
a writing sample, but talent is talent and
I immediately knew that he was good.
By Friday 6 March 1987 Graeme
was sitting in my office, eating a jam
doughnut and discussing ideas. At that
point he was working on a new script of
his own, about yuppies and greyhound
racing. Sport was another of Graeme’s
great passions in life – along with music.
Graeme was himself a professional
musician, a singer, specifically
a counter tenor, who performed

22 DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE


Opposite page: Three
classical repertoire. He once arrived
at the Doctor Who office fresh from After Doctor Who Graeme was never of the writers of Doctor
Who’s 25th season
singing the Messiah at Abbey Road
Studios for Deutsche Grammophon.
“Another Messiah,” he said with a sigh.
out of work, but far too little of that join the series’ stars on
location for Silver Nemesis
in 1988: Kevin Clarke,
Our efforts to come up with a suitable
story for Doctor Who amounted to
work consisted of creative writing. Sophie Aldred, Stephen
Wyatt, Sylvester McCoy
a long, difficult labour, which was As soon as he uttered those words, keep,” says the Doctor. “He’s full of and Graeme Curry.
mirrored by the birth of his first and only I knew we had a genuine Doctor Who colouring, flavouring and preservative.” Above left: Graeme Curry
wrote The Happiness
child, Laura. While we were striving to story, and the makings of a classic. After Doctor Who Graeme was
Patrol (1988) for Season
dream up a plot, Graeme and his wife At that early stage Graeme was calling never out of work, but far too little 25, while Stephen Wyatt
were busy having a baby. On 26 May his brainchild The Crooked Smile, and of that work consisted of creative contributed The Greatest
1987, while I was preoccupied trying that title appeared on early drafts of writing, which he could have Show in the Galaxy
to track down an elusive but promising the script. But producer John Nathan- performed so brilliantly. I know this (1988-89).
writer named Ben Aaronovitch, Turner and I never referred to it as was a source of frustration and regret Above right: The Doctor
I received a phone call from Graeme anything but The Happiness Patrol, the for Graeme — and also for me, as (Sylvester McCoy)
to say that his then-wife Tessa had given name of the sinister organisation that I would have loved to have seen more confronts the Kandy Man
(David John Pope) in Part
birth after an epidural and caesarean enforced this nightmare regime. of his unique work escape out into
Two of The Happiness
section. “We spent 17 hours having John liked Graeme’s idea a great the world. Patrol.
contractions,” declared Graeme. deal. “Graeme is like Stephen On the other hand, his home life was
Below left: Sophie Aldred,
[Wyatt],” he said, referring to one consistently warm and happy with his script editor Andrew
here the story was of the show’s other writers. partner Susan Robinson. Besides sport, Cartmel and Sylvester

W concerned, though,
things suddenly
happened quickly
and smoothly. The turning
“He’s created his own unique
world.” “With a lot of prodding,”
added Graeme.
One thing I particularly loved in
music and literature (“My hands start
to shake if I’m not reading a novel,”
Graeme used to say), they shared a
deep love of wildlife. They created a
McCoy in 1988.
Below right: The Doctor
discovers that Ace is due
to appear at the Forum in
Part Two of The Happiness
point came when Graeme came into my Graeme’s script was the manner in sanctuary in their garden for birds
Patrol.
office one day and sank down into his which he had the Doctor plunge into and hedgehogs. I didn’t see many
favourite chair. He had been endlessly an entirely novel, and entirely bizarre, hedgehogs, but I remember the birds
pitching ideas to me and I had been, new world yet casually taking it all in his flocking there.
firmly but with genuine regret, rejecting stride. This became part of the way I wonder if they’ll know that Graeme
them all. But this time he sighed and I would think about the character and is gone? DWM
said, “I know you don’t like planets – ” present him in future.
(I was trying to avoid stories set on And then there was Graeme’s
other worlds, not least because of wonderful dialogue. “Depressives –
challenges of design manic, reactive, endogenous, we’ve
and budget) “ – but got them,” announces the guard in the
what about a planet Waiting Zone. “A man after
where it’s a crime my own soft centre,”
to be unhappy?” declares the Kandy Man,
while the Doctor warns
him, “That red-hot poker
will cut through you like
a knife through
butterscotch.”
And when the
Doctor flees the
Kandy Kitchen
with
Ace she asks,
“What about
the Kandy
Man?” “He’ll

DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE 23


Thirty years on from the

B
y 1988, producer Mark staging. He selected Doctor Who, then
Furness had capitalised on celebrating its silver anniversary.
Doctor Who stage play The several film and television “A West End impresario wanted to
brandings to lure audiences do a play,” recalls Andrew Cartmel,
Ultimate Adventure, we back to the theatre, including who at the time was working on his
the saucy movie sequel second season of the television series
reveal that the production The Further Confessions of a Window as script editor. “When he approached
Cleaner, the Thames sitcom adaptation the Doctor Who office, producer John
began life with a very George and Mildred, both staged in Nathan-Turner very kindly passed it
different story… 1977, and in 1986 a version of BBC1’s
wartime romp ’Allo ’Allo! Also running
onto me. It was standard procedure
that the script editor would get the
London’s Wimbledon Theatre, Furness first bite. I immediately made an
Feature by ANDREW PIXLEY was now seeking another established extremely good decision – which was
Illustration by ADRIAN SALMON small-screen show suitable for live to involve Ben.”

24 DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE


Ben is Ben Aaronovitch, who had
Far left: Andrew
written the 1988 television story
Cartmel on the set of
Remembrance of the Daleks. Over The Greatest show in
30 years later, Ben and Andrew are the Galaxy in 1988.
still close friends and colleagues, having Left: Ben Aaronovitch,
collaborated on numerous projects – pictured in 1993.
notably graphic novels derived from Below: Body Work
Ben’s successful Rivers of London books. (2015), a Rivers of
What sort of brief did the production London graphic novel.
company offer? “They just said, ‘Go
off and write the play,’” says Andrew.
“We wanted to know about things like
budgetary constraints, sets, how much
we could do. They said, ‘Don’t worry
about that. Just write without that in
mind. Be ambitious, don’t set any limits
on yourself. Write what you want to
write, and we’ll try to make it happen.’
Which was very freeing.”
The budding playwrights set to work.
“I remember most of it taking place
in my old Doctor Who office at Union
House, Shepherd’s Bush, sitting in front 1

DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE 25


THEATRE of WAR
Right: The TARDIS
arrives at the
Casablanca nightclub
in this page from the
War World script.
Far right: Humphrey
Bogart and Dooley
Wilson at Rick’s
Bar in the 1942
film Casablanca.
Below: Two of
Andrew Cartmel’s
Vinyl Detective
books: Flip Back
(2019) and Written
in Dead Wax (2016).
Bottom: Sylvester
McCoy as the Doctor
in Remembrance “Why would you have a Doctor Who play
of the Daleks (1988).
without the Daleks? In people’s minds,
1 of my stone age computer and word
processor,” says Andrew.
they’re inextricably linked.” ANDREW CARTMEL
With the production scheduled for who, according to the stage directions, joins the Doctor midway through
a Christmas run in the down-time between wears “modern simple and functional a secretive quest-style mission, with
the 1988 and 1989 series, Sylvester clothes … perhaps combat fatigues.” the Time Lord manipulating people and
McCoy was theoretically free to play the Mallory regards Mars as “a terrible resources to his desired strategy.
Seventh Doctor. “That’s who we were place to grow up. There’s no nightlife.” The writers were particularly pleased
writing for,” recalls Andrew, “although “It’s telling that it’s Mallory and not with one of the Doctor’s speeches in Act
I don’t think we would have assumed that Ace, so I think we must have been aware Two. “I look around me and what do
it was a completely done deal. That was of the fact that we wouldn’t necessarily I see?” he asks, surveying the customers
our idea of a Doctor – and how we were be using the TV cast,” says Andrew. at a nightclub on the planet Quorlorg.
writing the Doctor.” McCoy himself had “I’ll tell you. I see the scum of the

I
extensive stage experience, including f the Doctor’s small-screen companion universe. I see pirates, gun runners,
numerous outlandish ventures with the was absent, his arch-enemies definitely bootleggers… fanatical fighters, drunks,
legendary Ken Campbell Roadshow. weren’t. “One of the stipulations they cowards, thieves, conmen… And I need
There was some uncertainty gave us was that they wanted the Daleks you to save the universe. Do you want
regarding the availability of Sophie in the play,” remembers Andrew. “This facts? I think not. I can feel such
Aldred, who played the Doctor’s made sense. Why would you have deep-seated emotional hostility around
companion Ace, so in the play the a Doctor Who play without the Daleks? me that the facts are irrelevant, all
Doctor travels with a similarly In people’s minds, they’re inextricably you need are key words like courage,
headstrong young lady. This is Mallory, linked. They’ve been an essential part vengeance, glory and patriotism.
a bassoon-playing weapons expert of the show’s DNA.” The unshakeable faith, bereft of any
of the 41st Colonial Militia on Mars What emerged from the substantiation in fact, that you are right
writing sessions was and the rest of the universe is wrong.
a 90-page document: I ask you to say goodbye to logic and
‘Doctor Who: War follow me to the end of the world.”
World – a stage play Andrew describes this oration as
by Andrew Cartmel an “ironic patriotic speech which the
& Ben Aaronovitch’. In Doctor gives. He makes no bones about
keeping with some of the the fact that he’s going to try to pull the
1988 television serials, wool over their eyes with a patriotic
the theatre speech, and they go for it.”
audience To add variety, one of the Doctor’s
new companions is the nightclub
vocalist Jasmine – ‘Jazz’ for short –
who performs a couple of numbers.
“I’ve always been a music nut, more
specifically a jazz nut,” declares
Andrew, who is currently enjoying
success with his Vinyl Detective
novels published by Titan Books.
Drawing upon the 1942 film classic
Casablanca, Jazz is introduced “dressed
in a classic 1940s slinky torch-singer’s
outfit”, performing For All We Know
with “moody passion to a jazz
accompaniment” in a Casablanca night
spot in 1946. “The song had some lyrics
– ‘This may only be a dream’ – which

26 DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE


MORE METATRAXI
“I
n the bloody history of Prior to the
our galaxy, there have cancellation of
been many warrior Doctor Who in
races: the Sontarans and autumn 1989,
the Metatraxi for example Ben considered
and created races like the incorporating
Movellans,” wrote ‘Njeri elements of
Ngugi’ in his introduction to War World into
The Children of Davros – a a potential
short history of the Daleks. storyline for
While the warmongers the 1990
introduced in The Time series. Along
Warrior (1973-74) and the with the data vampire, Decalog 2: Lost
humanoid robots of Destiny space pirates and a stone Property (1995),
of the Daleks (1979) were monolith sending signals and Lawrence
familiar to readers, this first into space, the Doctor and Miles’ Down
public reference to Metatraxi Ace might also have faced (1997) from
beautifully cued up the arrival of the appeared in the foreword the Metatraxi. Despite this Virgin Books’
TARDIS,” says Andrew. to the Marvel Graphic Novel near-miss, references to Doctor-less The
In Casablanca, the Doctor and Mallory Abslom Daak – Dalek Killer, the confrontational aliens New Adventures sequence.
encounter Jazz and her associate published in April 1990. The subsequently appeared In the 1997 BBC Doctor Who
Patterson (combined pilot and smuggler), translation from Ngugi’s elsewhere, including Robert novel Alien Bodies, Miles
who are evading Chicago-born criminal original Swahili text was Perry and Mike Tucker’s revealed details of a war
genius McBride and the arrival of the undertaken by one Ben short story Question Mark between the Metatraxi and
Death Angels. The Death Angels are Aaronovitch… Pyjamas from the anthology the Krotons.
a key example of the script’s spectacular
contrivances: the first to arrive “has large
wing-like structures on either side… and monolith to be a rock transported from demanded back-projection for the
Above left: The
[a] shielded central shell concealing the Asia Minor and buried to tap thermal simulation of space skirmishes, laser Abslom Daak – Dalek
occupant. A small plinth or disc is situated energy, emitting low-frequency radio lights for fantastic gun battles, and Killer graphic novel
between the wings, above the occupant… waves at the planet Eradni 2678. multiple adjacent sets representing was published by
The Death Angel harness is large and While Howard hopes to meet aliens different parts of the same location. Marvel in 1990.
daunting. It not only allows the occupant more peaceful than humanity, what “They’d said: ‘Let your imaginations Top right: Decalog 2:
to travel almost anywhere, it provides arrives from Eradni 2678 is a trio run wild. Don’t worry about boring Lost Property (1995).
heavy weaponry to deal with almost of Metatraxi siblings: “Squat humanoid constraints.’ What I had in my head Above right: Alien
anything… Bullets ricochet harmlessly aliens wearing battle armour. They was the Ken Campbell Science Fiction Bodies (1997).
off the Death Angel armour… A fiery have a slightly crouched, loping style of Liverpool-type productions,” Below left: A poster
globe, like ball lightning, sizzles out of of movement. They look like a fusion Andrew recalls. “He did things like The for Ken Campbell’s
the Death Angel and engulfs a heavy.” of the Hunchback of Notre Dame, Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, the 1979-1980 stage play
of The Hitchhiker’s
a Samurai warrior and a praying mantis. 22-hour play The Warp and the nine- Guide to the Galaxy.

E
scaping from Casablanca and They carry futuristic weapons.” And – hour Illuminatus!, so we were thinking in
Below right: Although
attempting to locate the War World as the Doctor adds – they are “fierce, terms of hugely ambitious stuff.” Indeed, Ken Campbell was
where the Death Angels are massing, savage warmongers. They live to fight. in 1979-80 Campbell had staged two 1 considered for the role
the Doctor’s party visits Scholar’s A volatile, emotional people who have of the Seventh Doctor,
World, home to the Scholar – a being made an art of combat.” the part ultimately
with immense information at its disposal “We invented this alien race… went to his protégé
Sylvester McCoy.
because it’s a data vampire. “It introduced who turned out to be really funny,”
a classic bait-and-switch which Ben Ben told Doctor Who Magazine in
and I would use for years afterwards,” 1997. “They found the idea of taking
explains Andrew, citing the rhythm of the prisoners faintly immoral, in much the
Scholar scene. “It runs like this. ‘Oh! It’s same way we find making toilet jokes
a vampire.’ ‘Wait! He’s a data vampire – faintly immoral… They didn’t like to
he only consumes information. Ah! Sigh fight people who are unarmed so they
of relief.’ ‘But, hang on a minute! He have this moral quandary with the
absorbs information via the medium Doctor, who hasn’t got any weapons.”
of blood!’ So it goes back and forth.” As such, the Metatraxi can’t attack
Andrew recalls that this was Ben’s the Doctor’s unarmed party, leading
favourite part of the script, adding Metatraxi 3 to proposition Mallory
that “‘Data vampire’ has entered our with “If I was to drop my gun, you
personal language as an example of would perhaps pick it up?”
humorous, suspenseful manipulation Having appropriated a Crusher
of the readers’ expectations.” Class Planet Destroyer Battlecruiser
The time-travelling team’s next stop of the Primary Metatraxi fleet
is “countryside at night near a large by the end of Act One, in Act Two
ancient monolith – a single stone half the Doctor returns to Scholar’s
buried in the ground. We are in England World – now housing Jazz’s
in the 1970s… near a rural pop festival.” new nightclub – and assembles
Here a fourth companion is acquired: a fighting force for an assault on
the pacifist Howard (“paisley shirt, flared the War World and the Daleks.
trousers and sandals”), who believes the The dynamic, fast-moving script

DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE 27


THEATRE of WAR
1 productions of Douglas Adams’
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy,
one of which had placed the audience
on a hovercraft arrangement to move
them around the performance space
from setting to setting.
Andrew and Ben were in an
optimistic mood when they finished
their draft of the Doctor Who stage
play. “We delivered the script,” says
Andrew. “We were very proud of it.
‘Here it is. We’re as ambitious as you

FLYING HIGH
nonchalantly then said we should be.’ And then we
floats back down to heard nothing. Silence. Next thing
the floor.” we knew, there was another script.

F
lying sequences were Later, when the Doctor Former script editor Terrance Dicks
common to both needs to impress a had been commissioned to write
War World and The nightclub’s alien clientele a very solid, traditional-type one. The
Ultimate Adventure. The on the planet Quorlorg, play we wrote was utterly informed
producers had secured the he floats again, this by the likes of The Hitchhiker’s Guide
services of Flying by Foy, time accompanied by a to the Galaxy, whereas that was clearly
a stage effects company spotlight and orchestral not what they wanted. On reflection,
developed on Broadway fanfare. “Just some little I think our script blew their tiny minds As such, when Jon Pertwee stepped
for the 1950 musical anti-gravity I picked up on when they got a hold of it. onto the Wimbledon stage in March
Peter Pan, subsequently Rigellan 4,” he explains to “I understood the logic behind them 1989, it was in The Ultimate Adventure
branching into TV series appreciative applause. wanting something traditional and easy rather than War World. “I went to see
(Men into Space, 1959- Earlier, on the Metatraxi to stage. But if they’d said: ‘We’ve only it,” recalls Andrew. “I like Terrance
60), movies (Fantastic battlecruiser bridge, the got one set, three actors and no props’, a great deal – he’s a lovely man and
Voyage, 1966) and even Doctor’s party encounter then we would have written something a towering figure in the history of Doctor
the CBS coverage of NASA “a giant fast-moving like that. But we – perhaps rather naively Who – but I think our play was better.
Moon missions. insect-like robot swooping – took their words at face value and I still, to this day, feel a little bit stunned
In War World, the Time down at them from wrote without any kind of attempt to that they said, ‘Let your imagination run
Lord levitates twice. After above… Two more large self-censor or restrict ourselves.” wild’ and when we did they didn’t even
clearing his throat fails robot insects join the first come back to us and say, ‘You’ve gone
to attract the attention
of Jazz and Patterson in
and they circle then dive
in formation.” Similarly,
When Jon Pertwee crazily over the limit.’ It would have
been nice to have had a successful stage
their office, “the Doctor
begins to levitate, floating
in The UItimate Adventure
the Doctor and his friends
stepped onto the play. We could easily have done so.”
But waste not, want not. In May 2011,
up off the floor silently…
Jazz sees the Doctor
visit the world of Altair
Three and, according to
Wimbledon stage the Metatraxi did face the Seventh
Doctor in Crime of the Century, a Big
floating in the air and falls
silent… The Doctor hovers
the script, are plagued
by a “sinister-looking
in March 1989, it Finish audio drama by Andrew Cartmel,
with subsequent appearances in Earth
Bat-Man” and its ilk.
was in The Ultimate Aid and Animal. “Ben came up with
this wonderful notion that they should
Adventure rather talk like surfer dudes, because they
have a malfunctioning translator,” adds
than War World
World. Andrew. “They spoke in this very
formal, militaristic speech in War
World, but he decided he wanted to
Top left: Aerial techniques do something completely different.
deployed by stage effects
It was really great.”
company Flying by Foy in the film
Fantastic Voyage (1966). Thirty years later, Andrew has
Left: Jason (Graeme Smith) and
recently returned to writing
Crystal (Rebecca Thornhill) with for theatre – but not on the
a flying ‘Bat-Man’ in the grandiose scale of the Doctor
1989 Doctor Who stage saving the universe from
play The Ultimate the Death Angels. “I just
Adventure.
finished writing a new
Top right: A 1989 stage play the other
programme from the
day. It’s called Partner
Wimbledon Theatre.
in the Firm. It’s a
Right: Jon Pertwee
comedy, and we’re
as the Doctor in
The Ultimate hoping to get it on in
Adventure. the West End. We’re
Far right: The having rehearsed
Big Finish readings, and
Doctor Who I hope it may be
audio drama the kind of play
Crime of the that might attract
Century features
the Metatraxi.
a star. So we
shall see.” DWM

28 DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE


Doctor
Theatre
As the 1980s drew to a close, television Doctor
Who neared the end of its original run. In theatres
around the UK, however, an exuberant stage show
offered the series a new lease of life...
Feature by MARK WRIGHT

“No second thoughts; I was very happy


to do it. I FELT a bit loved because
they’d asked for me.” COLIN BAKER
30 DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE
n Monday 3 April remains a fondly remembered night Doctor? “No second thoughts; I was very

O
1989, location at the theatre for those who saw it. happy to do it. I felt a bit loved because
recording got It was a chance to see Pertwee don they’d asked for me.”
underway on The his trademark velvet jacket for one Earlier, in 1988, writer and former
Curse of Fenric, last mission, and an opportunity for Doctor Who script editor Terrance
marking the start another television Doctor to return to Dicks was approached by Furness to
of what would become the role in happier circumstances. discuss the possibility of a new Doctor
the last series of Doctor “John-Nathan Turner [then-producer Who stage play. Terrance had form in
Who’s original run. However, these of Doctor Who] told me about this this area, having written the Doctor’s
final adventures for the Seventh Doctor Doctor Who stage show,” recalls Colin previous stage adventure, 1974’s
and Ace weren’t the only Doctor Who Baker, who played the Sixth Doctor Doctor Who and the Daleks in Seven
stories to be produced that year. on television from 1984-86. “The Keys to Doomsday. “We talked about
A week or so earlier, on the evening producer was Mark Furness, for whom some preliminary ideas and got on
of Thursday 23 March, the TARDIS I’d worked, and it was written for Jon well,” he told Doctor Who Magazine
materialised on stage at the Wimbledon Pertwee by Terrance Dicks. Jon didn’t in 2014. “He was a nice chap who
Theatre in south-west London – and want to do six months, so they decided had a good track record of doing
Jon Pertwee stepped out as the Third he’d do three months. They asked me moderate-budget productions. And
Doctor for the opening night of Doctor to do the second three months, which then there was a long, long silence.”
Who: The Ultimate Adventure. I was quite happy about. It wasn’t that This silence was down to a different
Thirty years after curtain-up on that I took over at short notice; it was script being developed by then-current
opening night – which kicked off a six- always part of the plan.” Did Colin have Doctor Who script editor
month tour – The Ultimate Adventure any reservations about returning as the Andrew Cartmel and 1

Opposite page from top:


Jon Pertwee at the stage
door of the Wimbledon
Theatre on 25 March
1989. Photo © Marcus Hearn;
The flyer for Pertwee’s
run at Wimbledon;
A ticket from the
opening night.
Left: Colin Baker took
over as the Doctor
three months later
with regular cast
members Zog (Stephanie
Colburn), Jason (Graeme
Smith) and Crystal
(Rebecca Thornhill).
Above: Writer
Terrance Dicks.

DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE 31


DOCTOR THEATRE
Right: Jason, the Doctor 1 writer Ben Aaronovitch. When this
(Jon Pertwee) and Crystal. didn’t pan out (see page 24), Dicks was
Below inset: The Daleks’ approached to write the script a second
projection screen. time. “I said ‘Yep, OK,’ and that was
Bottom left: The Daleks what happened. I got on perfectly well
detect the TARDIS. with the producer of the show and it was
Bottom right: Zog was an great fun.”
unusual new companion
for the Doctor.

T
errance’s larger-than-life script for
The Ultimate Adventure has the
Doctor and his companion – an
18th-century French aristocrat called
Jason – responding to a call for help
from British Prime Minister ‘Mrs T’.
They must prevent an American envoy
being kidnapped, a scheme hatched by
Daleks, Cybermen and mercenary leader
Karl to derail a UN peace conference.
Along the way the Doctor and Jason
meet nightclub singer Crystal, travel to
Madame Delilah’s Bar Galactica, free
the alien Zog from captivity and confront
the Dalek Emperor. Oh, and sing the odd

ULTIMATE ASTEROIDS The Trial of a Time Lord and


wanted to know if he could
borrow them. I said that
song. Naturally.
“I think Terrance was unsure
about the songs and the music,” says

P
art of The Ultimate would be a little bit cheeky actor David Banks. “I think he did a
Adventure’s technical of me to let him have the marvellous job. He was given certain
requirements called for BBC models, but I could make parameters. There had to be a French
large displays to depict the him some.” aristocrat who had to be beheaded
TARDIS flying through space Kevin spent a fortnight because they had this new trick of
and navigating an asteroid producing the sequences. beheading people on stage. There had
field. “It was a bit chaotic, “We carved very large to be flying things. There had to be
and so near to the opening,” asteroids out of these Cybermen, there had to be Daleks. Bar
recalls animator Kevin Davies, massive blocks of Galactica was influenced by Star Wars,
who produced the footage. polystyrene. They were the and on top of all that there was a touch
“I had two weeks and four size of a fridge freezer! We of environmental and green awareness.
grand. That was my budget.” put the TARDIS on an old Terrance did it and it was just a riot.”
Two TARDIS props were record player to revolve it. David, who is best known to Doctor
supplied by Mike Tucker, who I took the finished sequence Who fans as the Cyber Leader in TV
was then working on Doctor along two or three days stories such as Earthshock (1982), won
Who for the BBC’s Visual before opening night. the role of Karl. “I heard that this play
Effects Department. “Kevin I remember having to plug was being cast and I auditioned for the
needed a TARDIS miniature. a player into a portable telly director, Carole Todd. Carole knew
He knew I’d built a couple for to show Carole Todd. Jon nothing about Doctor Who and
Pertwee was sat there too, I explained that I had some history
which was very intimidating. with the show. I wasn’t interested in
They sat and watched
this sequence and were
thoroughly unimpressed!
Carole said, ‘I wanted you to
make us feel seasick as we go
in and out of these asteroids,
I wanted The Empire Strikes
Back.’ I said, ‘You had
two weeks and four
grand. This is what
you get!’”

32 DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE


playing the Cyber Leader, I was up for
Karl. It was suggested that I might also
understudy Jon Pertwee as the Doctor.
I said that I needed to choose my own
costume and I had to play it as me, as
my Doctor, as opposed to putting on
a white wig and velvet jacket.” This
would prove to be a prescient move…
The part of nightclub singer and new
companion Crystal went to a young
actress called Rebecca Thornhill.
“I was 19, going on 20,” she recalls.
“It must have been nearly my first job
because I graduated from drama school
when I was 18 or 19 and I went to interest in a show he’d be taking over scene and realised they were talking Above left: The Doctor
Cannes for a summer season, did Guys in a few months’ time. “I was sitting about trying to find him. So he walked and his friends face
the Daleks.
and Dolls in Leicester, and then I got with John Nathan-Turner. It was Jon’s off again!”
Doctor Who.” Rebecca joined Australian grand entrance in Mrs T’s office. The For some fans, having characters Above right: Madame
Delilah (Judith Hibbert)
actor Graham Smith as fellow stage TARDIS lands, the spotlight comes on, in a Doctor Who adventure suddenly
entertains various
companion Jason. “They wanted Kylie the door throws open… and all the break into song came as a bit of a shock. creatures – including a
Minogue and Jason Donovan,” she says, lights went out! Jon’s first line was said Judith Hibbert’s Madame Delilah belted Draconian and a Vervoid
laughing. “They got us!” in total darkness. He would’ve been out the rousing Business is Business – at her Bar Galactica.
With theatres around the country livid! He said a few lines and (“Business is business, we always Below: David Banks
booked, Carole Todd joined Jon Pertwee the lights came up. I could maim to please!”), while Rebecca in his outrageous
and her cast – which also included tell he was cross!” sang Strange Attractor and Sky Karl costume.
Judith Hibbert as Madame Delilah “It’s very difficult High. “Pop songs as well,” she
and Stephanie Colburn as Zog – in with a big play like that remembers with a chuckle.
a rehearsal room in London’s Soho. and you’re mastering “Really not my bag. It was fun,
The mammoth task of bringing this your words, you’re though I was quite relieved
technically challenging stage adventure mastering the order of when they cut the first song
to life began in earnest. the scenes,” adds David. and it was just one line.
David Banks was thoroughly “One night, Jon came on. Let’s get on with the play,
impressed with his director. “Carole The Daleks were looking not me singing a pop song!”
was very good. Very strong and strict, for him everywhere and he The show’s technical
which she needed to be. It was a large happened to walk in on that niggles having been ironed 1
cast and the logistics were very difficult.
The people playing the Cybermen
were also playing the Daleks. I really
appreciated Carole’s approach.”
How did Rebecca find working
with the show’s leading man? “Jon
Pertwee was lovely. Everybody doted
on him, because he was Jon Pertwee “I got a tap on
and he was just a beautiful, beautiful
man. It was great fun, you can’t the shoulder
believe it. I was playing opposite
Worzel Gummidge. That’s who and the stage
he was to me.”
The Ultimate Adventure manager said,
was a hugely ambitious
undertaking, packed ‘You’ve still
with theatrical trickery
from the opening scene. got your Karl
Rehearsals in Soho
rapidly gave way to make-up on!’”
tech and dress
rehearsals in DAVID BANKS
Wimbledon,
and then an
opening night
that the show
wasn’t quite ready
for, despite the best
efforts of director,
cast and crew. “The first
week at Wimbledon was
chaotic,” remembers David,
with no hint of overstatement.
“I remember going to the first
night,” says Colin, who took a keen

DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE 33


DOCTOR THEATRE
Right: David Banks 1 out during the Wimbledon run, The suit. I was hiding in the TARDIS waiting
appeared as the Ultimate Adventure set of on the irst to come out. I got a tap on the shoulder
Doctor for one leg of its UK tour, with Jon Pertwee and the stage manager said, ‘You’ve still
night only when
Jon Pertwee was ill.
still leading the cast. got your Karl make-up on!’ I had
For David Banks, one night of the these big black panda eyes. Could you
Below: Madame
Delilah has the Doctor
tour will forever be etched on his imagine coming on as the Doctor with
well under control! memory: Saturday 29 April at the that? Somebody handed me a cloth and
Alexandra Theatre in Birmingham, there we were – we were on and away.”
when the production gained a new “I will never forget that night when
Doctor for one night only. “Everything David went on for Jon,” adds Rebecca.
seemed to be ine,” he says. “It started “Amazing. The fans went crazy because
of; we were all standing in the wings. they absolutely adore him. He’s so tall
I had on Karl’s black vest, leather and so striking.”
jockstrap, panda eyes and greased David was delighted to discover
hair. Jon stepped out of the TARDIS his brief turn as the Doctor had been
and didn’t say anything. After a long seen by a friend and colleague. “When
pause, Judith Hibbert gave him a we came down and it seemed to have
cue, and he still didn’t say anything. gone very well, I went to my dressing
Eventually Jon turned to the audience room and there was a note saying that
and said, ‘Ladies and gentlemen, I do [Davros actor] Terry Molloy was in the
audience with his daughter and could he

IT was a hugely come up and see me. For me, somebody


I knew with professional experience had

ambitious apologise. I’m not feeling well and I’m


afraid I won’t be able to continue with
seen it.” David is pleased that, all these
years later, his one night as the Doctor

undertaking, packed the show.’ Then he walked of and the


curtain came down.
is remembered. “With theatre, you do
it and it’s gone. But now I know there’s

with theatrical “The stage manager said to me,


‘David, you’re on.’ I realised I had to
always a remnant of those events. It’s
nice, and from time to time you see lists

trickery from the go and change my


costume. The
compiled. I’m very honoured to be on
that list.”

opening scene. excitement, all

B
of that work, y the following Monday and the
all of that show’s arrival in Bristol, Jon
preparation and Pertwee was fully recovered and
my costume – able to continue with his remaining dates
all that had not – but the Sixth Doctor was preparing
gone to waste. to take his predecessor’s place.
I got into my “It’s awful when you take over in
costume, the something because the rest of the cast
Greenpeace would rather not be doing it three times
T-shirt, my a day,” says Colin, “which they end up
loppy little doing because they have to rehearse
new cast members. Terrance, who
wrote it for Jon, rang me up. He said,
‘I’ll send you the script; tell me what
things you want rewritten.’ I read it
and thought the mere fact that I’m
playing it will make it diferent.
I said there were two things I wanted
to change. One, the Venusian aikido,
which was speciically Jon. I said
my Doctor wouldn’t do that; what
I’d like to do is structure a ight
where I don’t know I’m ighting
somebody. So I was gesticulating
towards somebody who was
attacking from behind.
Every gesticulation disposed
of an attack. The other
was, ‘Reverse the polarity
of the neutron low.’ We
changed it to ‘linearity of the
proton low’.”
Colin remembers his time
in The Ultimate Adventure with great
afection. “I enjoyed every minute of
it. Over the years I’d been given loads
of cat badges and I had a box of them.
I wore a diferent badge every single

34 DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE


ULTIMATE AUDIO
A
s is often the case advantage here Left: In 2008, Big Finish
with Doctor Who, was that, because adapted The Ultimate
Adventure as a full-cast
the end is very rarely it was originally
audio adventure starring
a full stop. In 2008, Big done for the stage, Colin Baker as the
Finish Productions adapted it was always Doctor and David Banks
The Ultimate Adventure as being restricted in as Karl. Terrance Dicks
part of its Doctor Who: The terms of cast and wrote a sequel featuring
Stage Plays audio range – location. Terrance the Doctor, Crystal and
Jason – Beyond the
with a sequel, Beyond the Dicks understood
Ultimate Adventure was
Ultimate, for the Companion the nature of the I decided to go in terms released in 2011.
Chronicles in 2011. project in the first of casting with two
Below left: Colin Baker
“The original lent itself place when he did it as Colin Baker played the performers from a singing joins fans dressed as
very easily to audio,” says a play. He knew what Doctor for the audio with background. So we had Cybermen outside
Jason Haigh-Ellery, who was required and he also David Banks returning as Claire Huckle as Crystal Canterbury’s Marlowe
directed the new version. knew that it had to be an Karl. “David was so integral and Noel Sullivan as Jason. Theatre on 29 July 1989.
Photo © Marcus Hearn.
“Normally we deal with entertainment piece. On to the show that I was Noel’s Doctor growing up
as many as eight different audio, it was always going keen to get him back and was the Sixth Doctor, so Below centre and
characters on audio, and to be very camp and it was he was very enthusiastic,” he was in awe of Colin. It’s right: The cover of
the souvenir brochure
this was very similar in always going to be over continues Jason. “Because the most fun I’ve ever had from Jon Pertwee’s
that respect. The big the top.” there were songs involved, directing anything.” run in The Ultimate
Adventure, and a photo
spread from inside.
performance, so that all the people laughing at Karl, who had the line, Ultimate Adventure gave her a chance
who gave me cat badges can say that ‘My men are ready!’ It’s become a family to learn from two leading men early in
I’ve worn them as the Doctor. I got on saying. If we’re all going out, we still her career. “I learned a lot watching Jon
very well with Stephanie Colburn, and say it. ‘My men are ready!’” work. We all did, actually; we were all
Rebecca Thornhill was a lovely girl.” a bit in awe. I’m quite old-school, so Jon

D
“Colin said you could never make him espite positive notices and talk Pertwee was my old-school, and Colin
laugh on stage. He was a nightmare!” of a further tour and a London was just like the version of me now,
says Rebecca, smiling. “I put this Winnie run, the curtain came down where you can go on stage and have fun
the Pooh bear underneath my jacket. for the final time on 19 August at the and release it up a little bit. It was the
When he was doing the Doctor’s Winston Congress Theatre in Eastbourne. After combo of both those things. I loved it!”
Churchill speech, where he called him nearly six months, the happy company “It was a great, fun show, full of
Winnie, every time he said ‘Winnie’ went their separate ways. stage craft,” sums up Colin Baker, who
I flashed him the Winnie the Pooh. I had “I see those pictures of us all together admits that his time back in the TARDIS
to make him laugh, and he just wouldn’t!” and it’s 30 years ago” says a disbelieving has more of an emotional resonance
“Colin is the ideal company member David Banks. “It wasn’t just playing when looking back 30 years later. “It
and company leader,” adds David. “He’s Karl and playing the Doctor, it was that let my Doctor live a bit longer, because
fiercely just. As soon as he came in as the company spirit. They were all really I was still a bit sad about the way it all
Doctor, he said he was going to be the lovely people.” ended up. When I stopped doing Doctor
Equity Deputy. Under Equity rules, there For Rebecca Thornhill, who is Who on television, I didn’t know I was
has to be somebody who is the Equity Dep currently playing Mrs Wormwood in stopping doing it on television. So it got
to make sure the rules are being followed a tour of Matilda: The Musical, The me back into it, and I was able to make
and the producers are doing what they my peace with the role.” DWM
should. I found that very impressive.”
Colin, who enjoyed being reunited
with the on-screen Cyber Leader after
they’d worked together on the TV story
Attack of the Cybermen (1985), explains
how the character of Karl created
a longstanding Baker family tradition.
“My wife came to see it. She was

DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE 35


THE

DWM
INTERVIEW

Right: A publicity shot


of Colin Baker from the
1989 stage production
Doctor Who: The
Ultimate Adventure.
Second
When The Ultimate Adventure
arrived at Leeds’ Grand Theatre
in June 1989, a budding
teenage journalist went
backstage to interview
Colin Baker for his
Doctor Who fanzine…
Interview by PAUL KIRKLEY

Would you have preferred a more


1 serious play, or do you think the
rather camp style of The Ultimate
Adventure works for Doctor Who
on stage?
Camp? Where did you see it?

In Manchester [with
Jon Pertwee].
So you haven’t seen me do
it? And you thought that
was camp!
There’s more humour in this,
but it’s not sending up the play.
The Sixth Doctor has a very
different sense of humour; he’s
a different Doctor to the Third
Doctor. He’s more abrasive,
he’s a bit more bad-tempered,
and he’s a bit short with the
companions sometimes. The Third
Doctor is very kind of polite.
For instance, in the scenes with
Margaret Thatcher, where he says
“Dear Margaret” I call her Maggie, and
I don’t stand up when she stands up.
I don’t give a stuff about her. I was asked
a question this afternoon by another
interviewer, who said, “In the past the
Doctor has always been on the side of
good; why is he now on the side of evil,
working for Margaret Thatcher!?”
Why did I do it rather than
a ‘serious’ play? A mixture is nice.
It’s nice to do a serious play, then
a comedy, then a musical, then
tap-dancing on the dome of St Paul’s.
If they make me a suitable offer,
I’ll do it!

36 DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE


“The Sixth Doctor has
a very different sense
of humour; he’s a different What do you think of your likeness
on the poster artwork?
Above left: In 1989 Colin
answered his fan mail

Doctor to the Third Doctor.” It’s not what I’d have chosen, but we’re
all vain – who likes photographs of
with this letter, revealing
that he’d be taking over
from Jon Pertwee in The
Did much of the script have to match is on. I’d much rather be watching themselves? I look a bit sweaty, I think. Ultimate Adventure.
be rewritten? the Test match, wouldn’t you? But then I am a bit sweaty in this play, Above right:
No, much to Terrance Dicks’ relief, What we tend to get is a really good because it’s very hot... DWM A promotional flyer
because he rang me up and said, “Look, audience on a Monday night, because for the Canterbury
do I have to change a lot?” and I said, all the Doctor Who fans are desperate performances. “I look
“Having read it, you don’t.” It’s just to get in and see it as soon as possible. a bit sweaty,” said Colin.
a shift of emphasis. Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays Below: Colin Baker
I don’t have the bit saying goodbye are a bit thin, and then at the with Jon Pertwee,
by the stage play’s
to the companions, because my Doctor weekends it builds up again, when TARDIS console.
wouldn’t. It’s a bit sentimental for the the parents will come with their kids
Sixth. And I don’t do “haroon haroon because they don’t have to go to
haroon” [the Venusian lullaby]. school the next day. As soon
as the school holidays
Do you reverse the polarity of the start I’m sure we’ll
neutron flow? do a lot better.
Suffice to say I pay homage to Mr Pertwee, It varies from town
but in an indirect way. [See page 34.] to town. Jon told
me they had a
Have you been pleased with the wonderful week
audiences, both in terms of size in Glasgow, then
and response? a terrible week
In response, always. In size, not always. in Manchester.
This afternoon we had something like 39
people in. But it’s a sunny day in June
in Leeds, the kids are at school, the Test
OUT OF THE TARDIS
Doctor Who Magazine’s
TARDIS tin contains 120
tantalising, taxing and
trivial questions. Each
interviewee must answer
a random selection…
Interview by EMILY COOK

F
or one night – and one night only
– David Banks was the Doctor in
the 1989 Doctor Who stage play
The Ultimate Adventure. That
same decade David also appeared
in TV Who as the Cyber Leader,
and such was his interest in the
role that in 1988 he wrote a book
about the Cybermen’s history.
“Compared to Terry Nation’s
Daleks, Kit Pedler and Gerry
Davis’ Cybermen seemed to
me a much richer vein of the
Doctor Who franchise,” David
tells us when we meet him at
his flat in London. “Science
fiction exists not only to tell
a good story but to kind of be
a warning of what’s to come.
The Cybermen were created in
1966, and by the 1980s, when
personal computers were being
developed, there was a growing
interest in what computers
could do for, or against, us.
“My own philosophical
interest in artificial
intelligence preceded my
role as Cyber Leader,”
David continues. “I read a
seminal book by Douglas R
Hofstadter – Gödel, Escher,
Bach: an Eternal
Golden Braid [1979]
– which approached
the possibility of AI
and how far it could
develop. Hofstadter
refers to Tesler’s
Theorem [Larry Tesler
was one of the scientists
Above: David Banks responsible for the
selects a bunch of modern computer’s
questions from the graphical interface]
TARDIS tin.
that AI is whatever
Right: Dressed as a computer hasn’t
the Doctor for The
achieved yet.”
Ultimate Adventure
in 1989… and wearing David philosophises
the same suit 30 years that if the core of
later, in 2019. intelligence is always

38 DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE


seen as the next thing yet to be programmed, six months and got to
we’re blinded to how we’re fundamentally
changing – upgrading – ourselves and our
“If I had a Cyber know each other very
well. Did you find out
world. “At the moment AI is being talked of as
an adjunct to human intelligence. However,
heart I’d not who your gift was
from? I did. It
supra-intelligent mechanics with lifelike
attributes are continuously superseding what
be buffeted. was from Wolf
[Christian],
humans can do, taking us over without our
really acknowledging it. When I was playing
I’d be numb who played
a Cyberman.
the Cyber Leader I tried to delve into how this
once-human creature had been transmogrified
to emotion.” What would
into something greater – or worse – than heart needs to change, more my heart has you do if you
human. It’s a real, live issue. There’s an changed, simply through the way that life has won the lottery?
existential risk that AI could spiral out of our buffeted me. Do I want a Cyber heart? That’s I wouldn’t ever win
control and start dominating us.” the thing. Because if I had a Cyber heart I’d not because I’d never go in
It’s a chilling thought. As a precautionary be buffeted. I’d be numb to emotion. Would you for it. The odds are just too astronomically low.
measure, we switch off our gadgets before want that? Actually, no. Even with all the pain
inviting David to answer questions from the I’ve suffered, I still want the heart I’ve got. What hobbies did you have as a child?
TARDIS tin. “I’m one of the Doctor’s ‘tin’ Astronomy. Everybody of my generation
enemies,” he says, smiling. “I’d be honoured!” What’s the best party you’ve ever been to? did the plastic Airfix planes. Reading – is that
At the end of The Ultimate Adventure we a hobby? I loved The Lord of the Rings so
Which part of your body would you most like had a big party in Eastbourne. [Doctor Who I created a huge map of Middle Earth. My
to change? producer] John Nathan-Turner and his partner father had a pantograph which meant you
My heart. Why do I say that? It’s almost an were there. Carole Todd the director was could trace something small and it would draw
instinctive thing. So you can live longer? No. there. We did that thing where everybody picks it very big. I got some plaster of Paris for the
I think my heart’s in good working order. I’m a name out of a hat and you’ve got to give a mountains and cut and painted some material
talking about emotion. Maybe I’m not saying my present to that person. We’d been together for that stood up like low trees. What a labour 1

Top left: David’s book


Cybermen was first published
in November 1988.
Top centre: Gödel,
Escher, Bach: an
Eternal Golden Braid –
Douglas R Hofstadter’s
seminal book about
artificial intelligence.
Top right: David first
played the Cyber Leader
(left) in 1982’s Earthshock.
Above right: Mark Hardy
and David wearing Cyber
make-up during the
location recording of
Silver Nemesis (1988).
Left: David as Karl the
mercenary with Colin
Baker (the Doctor),
Rebecca Thornhill
(Crystal), Stephanie
Colburn (Zog), Chris
Beaumont (the US envoy)
and Graeme Smith (Jason)
in a publicity shot from
The Ultimate Adventure.

DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE 39


OUT OF THE TARDIS David Banks

1 of love! It was. I just wanted to immerse are often called a bunch of luvvies, but but… the idea of ‘now’ is very difficult to
myself in the story of Middle Earth. Strangely, generally we do look out for each other because comprehend. There’s a line in TS Eliot’s Four
as well as the Cybermen, Tolkien’s another we don’t want to go through hell. So I’d say Quartets: “All is always now.” That seems to
thing that’s kept coming back in my life. I’ve you’re more likely to meet a nice person if be a cry of anguish almost – because as well as
recorded loads of audiobooks and the last one you’re acting. If someone is being nasty we meaning “Great, let’s live in the now,” it also
I did was The Lord of the Rings. ought to ask why is that person being nasty puts a great burden on you. Because if you
and try to understand it… but still stand up to really think it through, everything we do has
Do you speak any foreign languages? them. That’s something Colin significance. But if we can be happy now, we
Non. Nein? Ten, eleven [laughs]. Baker always did. He’d are happy for all time.
always stand up and Augustine saw it the other way round. He
Did you have a childhood hero? say what is right. said something like: “If future time doesn’t yet
I was entranced by TE Lawrence simply exist and past time no longer exists, what is
because of the 1962 film Lawrence When are you the present? It doesn’t exist because it has no
of Arabia. It wasn’t just his mysterious happiest? duration. And since all parts of time are past,
and charismatic personality, but that Now. Not just present and future,
he was played by Peter O’Toole, who because we’re having the paradoxical
became a kind of role model. I suppose this conversation conclusion that
partly I became an actor because of the time doesn’t
interest I had in his portrayal. If you watch exist seems
that film it’s so beautifully done. inevitable.”
Everybody
Who’s the nicest person you’ve ever worked with? thinks they know
So many. People always say the actors at what time is. But
Big Finish are all so nice, as if they’re if asked about it,
expecting ogres or something! Actors we haven’t the
foggiest idea.
This book on
my table, The
Top centre: The
young David was Order of Time
“entranced” by [2018], is by
TE Lawrence. Carlo Rovelli,
Top right: Peter a particle
O’Toole came to physicist. When
prominence playing a physicist talks
Lawrence of Arabia about time,
in the 1962 film.
Time (capital
Above centre: T) definitely
JRR Tolkien’s The
Lord of the Rings was
exists and it
another of David’s can go backwards
childhood interests. or forwards. But Rovelli
Right: Some not-so- understands that the way
light reading – The he experiences time, as a human
Order of Time by being, is very different. He says it’s a
Carlo Rovelli. kind of emotional space that opens up.

40 DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE


Since we started this interview we’ve
moved through time but we’re still in the
same emotional space. There’s this idea
of the ‘block universe’ where you can
point out these moments in our time. And
that’s at the centre of Doctor Who. The
TARDIS, under the Doctor’s guidance,
can travel to these different moments.
But that goes so far against the way we
experience time and I tried to get at
this in my Doctor Who novel Iceberg
[1993]. It’s like a dog getting in a lift:
doors close, doors open, dog comes out,
everything’s changed. The dog couldn’t
possibly understand, but what does the
dog do? The dog’s like, “I’m just going
to enjoy this!” And that’s the first time Doctor Who from that guy in the novel, The Tin Drum) and Around Jesus were seven
Above left: David’s
companions step out of the TARDIS... Exactly! we may know we’re passing into a state of Marys. I picked five of Doctor Who novel
death but we won’t know when we’ve actually them, and my play is these Iceberg was published
Sweet or savoury? died. In theological terms, well, I’m very much women on stage talking in September 1993.
I’m known for liking and making desserts. an agnostic. I can’t nail my colours to the mast. and trying to work out Above right: Glenda
Yesterday I bought some huge strawberries how to carry on. I hate Jackson as Sophie in the
from the shop round the corner. I cut them into What items do you always carry with you? Amazon, but it’s available 1982 film Giro City.
My MacBook Air. Every on Amazon. Other online Below left: Günter
“I was entranced by intellectual property I have
is on it: books, plays, poems
book stores are available… Grass’ 1959 novel
The Tin Drum features

TE Lawrence simply that I’m working on and


other stuff. It’s all backed
Speaking of strong
women, what does David
a child with an adult’s
sensibilities.

because of the 1962 film up. So, like the Cyber


Leader, even if it goes – it’s
think of Jodie Whittaker’s
Time Lord? “Oh, I’m so
David Banks photos
© Emily Cook.

Lawrence of Arabia.” demolished or exploded – it pleased we’ve finally got a female


can be downloaded onto Doctor. When Peter Davison was leaving
four wedge shapes, added another MacBook Air unit. I remember having conversations with
a dollop of very nice yoghurt John Nathan-Turner about having a woman.
on the top, then a tiny bit What’s your favourite pizza topping? JNT said, ‘Well who would you suggest?’
of honey, and then there’s I go to this fantastic small I said, ‘What about Glenda Jackson?’ Now,
this wonderful thing called family-run Italian pizzeria. They you’d laugh. But at that time roles for women
pomegranate molasses, which call themselves a pizzeria but past 40 were just non-existent, so Glenda
looks a bit like blood. That they also do really good Jackson became a politician. Now of course
was the dessert I created. homemade pasta. So I’d pass she’s playing King Lear.”
on the pizza and go for the pasta. What was JNT’s response to David’s
Do you follow a soap opera? What pasta dish would you have? suggestion? “It was seen as a pretty risky
I now listen to The Archers Last time I had fungi ravioli. Their thing to do, but he was interested. A female
– although I couldn’t have desserts aren’t good, though, Doctor was certainly a possibility. Or a black,
imagined myself saying this and I told them that. Everything Asian or gay Doctor. These are all to come,
two years ago. My mother else is homemade but the I hope.” DWM
was always fixated on it. desserts aren’t.
She was fascinated by what
happened in this alternative life. Once I’d left What ambitions have you yet
home I got to the stage where, if I heard the to fulfil?
beginning of The Archers, I’d switch it off Everything! I wrote a play for
straight away. It was like that for decades, but five women in 2012. It was
then my partner Jane started listening to it. commissioned and published
It’s very well acted. Terry Molloy [who played but only got a small run. And
Davros] is in it from time to time. I thought, “What about
getting female Doctor Who
Is there life after death? companions together to do the
Certainly. I die, you keep living. But do you have play?” I’ve approached two
life after your death? Ah, I thought I’d got round and neither has got back to
that! All right… If we’re talking in personal me yet. They know who they
terms, I’m not necessarily sure that I have a life are! So that’s an ambition that
after my death. When I was in my 20s I went may never be fulfilled. Never
to Tourette in France and there was an artist say never… No. The play’s very
called Brian who’d had a semi-breakdown dear to my heart. It’s called
when he went to Japan. Brian said, “What Five Marys Waiting. I’m not
helped me when I was in this extraordinarily religious, I’m not a believer,
motionless state was the idea that you were but I do have deep interest in
never born and will never die.” This is a Zen belief and faith – and it struck
Buddhist saying. And it’s true! In physical me that there are loads of
terms, we don’t remember our birth (apart strong women in the Bible.

DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE 41


at Gorman – extra, supporting artiste and bit-part
player – was the Doctor Who equivalent of the

P title character in Where’s Wally? There’s fun


to be had, spotting his distinctive face in the
crowd. Sometimes that face was hidden behind
latex. The first Silurian? That’s him. Need a
Sea Devil? Pat’s your man. And who’s under the
fur in that Primord photoshoot? Have a guess.
“He was a man of many monsters, willing to take on
anything thrown at him,” says Katy Manning, who played Jo
Grant in numerous early 1970s episodes that Pat appeared in.
In the flesh Pat could also be relied upon to deliver the
odd line – a UNIT soldier here, a medic there. Naturalistic,
unobtrusive, convincing. “He was every production
manager’s favourite background artist,” recalls Marcia
Wheeler. “Punctual, obliging, a really pleasant person to
have around: something not true of all extras. If there was
an odd line or something
that merited additional
payment, he would be
offered this precisely
because he was so nice.” 
Writer and script editor
Terrance Dicks often joked
that the BBC Charter
stipulated the inclusion
of Pat Gorman in all of
its programmes. Pat
did uncredited turns in
everything from Adam
Adamant Lives! to The
Forsyte Saga, via Dad’s
Army, Blake’s 7 and
Softly, Softly. But he was
an equal-opportunities

A Man For
All Seasons
The late Pat Gorman made
a remarkable contribution
to Doctor Who. Between
1964 and 1985 this
unassuming actor
appeared in well over 100
episodes across 41 stories.
Feature by TOBY HADOKE

42 DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE


lurker, swelling the crowds on ITV and the big screen too. Opposite page top left:
Pat Gorman is helped into
He was the Bear in Jonathan Miller’s BBC Shakespeare
his Sea Devil costume
production of The Winter’s Tale and was the title character during the making of
in Douglas Camfield’s The Nightmare Man. Come to that, Frontier in Space Episode
he had a credited role in David Lynch’s classic film The Six (1973). Image copyright
Elephant Man. Anyone paying close attention between © 1972, 2019 Andrew Beech.

1962 and 1994 would have seen him often and might even Opposite page bottom:
know his face, if not his name. Pat in costume with Jon
“Three guineas a day – you name it we were on it,” says Pertwee as the
Doctor in The Sea
Pat’s friend and fellow supporting artiste Derek Martin, Devils (1972).
who also graduated to speaking parts (but unlike Pat became
Opposite page
a household name, as Charlie Slater in EastEnders). Derek right from top: Some
and Pat first met in the 1950s when they played football of the many times
together in the Sunday league at Hackney Marshes – that Pat could be seen
something Pat did to a very high standard. in Doctor Who –
Pat only seems to have given a couple of interviews. Row 1: The Dalek
Invasion of Earth
In 1988, he told David Banks, author of the book Cybermen,
(1964); Row 2:
that he enjoyed playing one of the silver giants Mission to the
in 1968’s The Invasion. “There was a great Unknown (1965);
feeling of power when we walked down the steps Row 3: two images from
of St Paul’s,” he reflected. “It was odd to see the The War Machines (1966);
crowds behind the crew looking at you as though Row 4: The Highlanders
(1966-67); The Abominable
the Cybermen were real.” He also confessed that
Snowmen (1967);
he and Peter Halliday (cast as Packer) tried to Row 5: two images from
out-ham each other whilst rehearsing the scene The Enemy of the World
in which they both meet a sticky end.  1 (1967-68); Row 6: The
Invasion (1968).

Anyone paying close


attention between Left from top: Row 1:

1962 and 1994 would The Seeds of Death (1969),


The War Games (1969);
Row 2: two images from
have seen him often. Doctor Who and the
Silurians (1970); Row 3:
The Ambassadors of
Death (1970), Inferno
(1970); Row 4: Terror
of the Autons (1971),
Colony in Space (1971);
Row 5: two images from
Colony in Space, The
Dæmons (1971), Day
of the Daleks (1972);
Row 6: Day of the
Daleks, The Sea
Devils (1972),
The Three Doctors
(1972-73),
Frontier in Space
(1973); Row
7: Frontier in
Space (1973),
two images
from The Green
Death (1973),
Invasion of
the Dinosaurs
(1974); Row 8:
The Monster of
Peladon (1974),
two images
from Planet
of the Spiders
(1974), Robot
(1974-75).

DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE 43


A Man For All Seasons
Below: Row 1: Genesis of
the Daleks (1975); Row 2:
two images from Revenge
1 Pat also discussed the Cybermen in the 1993 TV short
I Was That Monster: “It was very claustrophobic; the “When he had a line he
of the Cybermen (1975);
Row 3: The Seeds of
mouthpiece was so small and the eyes were tiny. The
perspiration just used to pour, so you can imagine what it was would get rather nervous
like at the end of the day.” Sadly, while the raw, unabridged
Doom (1976), The Deadly
Assassin (1976); Row 4:
The Masque of Mandragora
footage for some of the feature’s interviews has survived, the
stuff featuring Pat has not.
and blink a lot – then deliver
(1976), The Invisible
Enemy (1977), The
Although Pat made acting look easy, floor manager Margot
Hayhoe recalls that, “When he had a line he would get rather
it perfectly!” MARGOT HAYHOE
Ribos Operation (1978);
Row 5: The Armageddon
nervous and blink roles – Primitive, Long (an IMC man) and Colonist. It was
Factor (1979), City of a lot – and then deliver the first assignment for director Michael Briant, who found
Death (1979), Warriors’ it perfectly!” His eyes Pat’s contribution invaluable. “It was actually below freezing
Gate (1981); Row 6: The must have been going and the Primitive costumes were very skimpy, while the
Keeper of Traken (1981), like the clappers in film crew were all wrapped up in thick anoraks. Not a word
Time-Flight (1982),
1971’s Colony in of complaint from Pat. He was something of a leading man
Enlightenment (1983);
Row 7: The Caves of Space, in which he’s amongst the extras and a good influence on the company.
Androzani (1984), two seen in three different Like many directors on the show I would always single out
images from Attack of the Pat to do the special things and to lead. A very nice man and
Cybermen (1985). a pleasure to work with.”
Bottom right: Pat as Production assistant Sue Upton concurs. “He was a kind,
a Primord in Inferno. gentle, friendly man who always greeted me with a smile and
a hug. I think he just loved what he was doing.”
“I don’t think you’ll find anybody who had a bad word to
say about him,” adds Derek Martin. Indeed, Derek and fellow
extra Steve Ismay recall Pat making them laugh a lot.

at Gorman died on 9 October 2018. His passing


P only came to light with the publication of Equity
Magazine in February 2019, where his name nestles
innocuously in the In Memoriam section alongside many
better known actors. The man himself seems to have been as
elusive off screen as he was ubiquitous on it. We know that he
was born some time between 1930 to 1932 and that he died in
Ruislip, where he was based for the many years he appeared
in Doctor Who. We also know that he was married to Vee –
or rather Vera, whom Steve Ismay calls “his
smashing wife; he talked about her all the time.”
In later years he always replied to autograph
hunters by return of post but he was unable to
fulfil interview requests from this publication
or the Doctor Who DVD range due to ill
health. Perhaps, though, it’s appropriate that
he remains a bit of a mystery, a face in the
crowd… or, as Derek Martin describes him,
“an unknown soldier”.
Pat Gorman, the unknown soldier
of Doctor Who, we salute you. DWM

44 DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE


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DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE 45


FOR THE RECORD
This year’s Record Store
Day includes lavish editions
of Doctor Who soundtracks
on a format that was once
considered obsolete...
Feature by TIM WORTHINGTON

ne of the highlights of 2016’s


Record Store Day was

O
a new pressing of Genesis 2017’s Record Store Day brought Only three episodes of this 12-part
of the Daleks, a 1979 a double album combining Doctor story are known to exist, and the
BBC Records and Tapes Who Sound Effects – originally a 1978 surviving audio recordings have kept
album featuring the edited release from BBC Records and Tapes even experts guessing about some
soundtrack of the 1975 – with Doctor Who and the Pescatons, of the missing visuals. As well as
Above right: Demon’s story with narration by Tom Argo Records’ 1976 story-LP featuring benefitting from the warm, analogue
Record Store Day releases Baker. This came courtesy of Demon Tom Baker and Elisabeth Sladen. This glow of vinyl, Demon’s box set boasts
of Genesis of the Daleks
Records, a specialist reissue label was followed in 2018 by the first ever undeniably luxurious packaging.
(2016) and Doctor Who
and the Pescatons (2017). known for its work in rock, soul and vinyl releases for the audio of two “The use of colour was particularly
Below left: Davros
soundtracks – and more recently classic television stories. The Tomb of the important in our approach,” says
features on the cover of television and radio programmes. Cybermen (1967) and City of Death Daren Thienel, one of the directors and
the 2019 release Destiny (1979) had previously been released on owners of design agency Oink. “We
of the Daleks. Art by Oink CD by BBC Audiobooks, but the vinyl wanted to create a style that hadn't
Creative. versions from Demon provided a new previously been used for Doctor Who
Below right: Demon’s way of listening to the adventures. products or merchandise; something
2018 Record Store Day contemporary and striking, but
Doctor Who releases:
or or this year’s Record Store something that wouldn’t alienate the
City of Death (art
by Lee Binding)
and The Tomb
F Day (on Saturday 13 April),
Demon has lined up a couple
target audience.”
Michael Stevens, who has been
of the Cybermen of new releases in the same vein. But part of BBC Audio in its various
(art by David before we get onto those, there’s the incarnations for nearly 20 years, has
Timoney). not exactly small matter of The Daleks’ worked closely with Ben Stanley,
Master Plan (1965-66)… Demon’s Product and Marketing

“As the record rotates


and the stylus moves
across, that's a mini-
performance in itself.”
JON CULSHAW

46 DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE


YOUR PLASTIC PAL
ith The Hitchhiker’s the same; ironically,

W Guide to the Galaxy,


Douglas Adams
they are themselves
unavailable nowadays
conquered pretty much every due to rights issues.
medium, from radio to film. But In 2018 Demon finally
not vinyl. Rights complications released the original BBC
prevented the BBC from Radio shows on vinyl,
releasing the original shows at and Michael Stevens – who worked on in recent years,”
the time, so fans had to settle still owns the Original Records says Oink’s Tom Fournier.
for original cast re-recordings, albums – pulled out all the “We wanted to portray the
with new music, from Original stops to create the releases humorous and fun nature of the
Manager, on this series of releases. Records, a label that also that really should have existed original radio series with a hint
“Doctor Who was new territory for released records by pop parody in 1979. “The resurgence of of surrealism, using a vibrant
Oink,” says Michael. “Ben and I were troupe The Heebeegeebees and the format made it possible, and striking colour palette that
able to work with them in developing the cast of the Radio 4 sketch and we were sure there’d be an would almost be an overload
the look and feel, and they visualised the show Injury Time, which Adams audience,” he says. to the senses! It’s a modern
many and varied elements with great also wrote for. Although fondly “Hitchhiker’s is by far take on 1960s/70s pop art
enthusiasm and attention to detail. We remembered, they weren’t quite my favourite project I’ve surrealism.”
all considered several iterations before
arriving at the final look.”
rotates and the stylus moves across,
onsidering the size and scale that’s a mini-performance in
C of the story – and how little of
it exists in visual form – the
itself. Vinyl is very evocative
of the eras these stories
‘look’ of The Daleks’ Master Plan has come from.”
certainly been given as much attention Released in February,
as the sounds. It clearly impressed Jon The Daleks’ Master Plan
Culshaw, who recorded an enthusiastic has already proved popular.
‘unboxing’ video for the official Doctor The next soundtracks to
Who YouTube channel. Well known for be made available will be
his impressions of various Doctors and Galaxy 4 (1965) and Destiny
his readings for BBC Audiobooks, he’s of the Daleks (1979) on Record
a lifelong fan of both Doctor Who and Store Day. With only one episode
vinyl; indeed, the first single he ever and a short clip remaining in the
bought was the 1973 release of the archive, Galaxy 4 was chosen partly
Doctor Who theme by BBC Records and as a companion piece to The Daleks’ The gatefold sleeves for Galaxy 4 Top left: Jon Culshaw
Tapes. “The Daleks’ Master Plan box is Master Plan, although Michael notes and Destiny of the Daleks have also been unboxes The Daleks’ Master
Plan at Television Centre.
superb,” says Jon. “As the record that “It’s a slice of pure 60s kitsch sci-fi, designed by Oink. “We’ve had extremely
and very unearthly, which sounds great positive feedback from Demon Music Top right: Demon’s 2018
release of The Hitchhiker’s
as audio alone.” Similarly, Destiny of the and the BBC,” says the company’s
Guide to the Galaxy:
Daleks was selected largely on account creative director Tom Fournier. “Fan Secondary Phase.
of having been broadcast immediately reaction online has also been really
Above: The orange ‘splatter’
prior to City of Death, but Michael cites positive, which is incredibly important to edition of The Daleks’
another, less obvious reason. “It was a us as these are the people we want Master Plan.
direct sequel to Genesis of the Daleks to please. We’ve already started working Far left: The box features
– which was the first vinyl LP I ever on the next projects for Demon. striking cover art by Oink
owned – so it’s appealing in that sense They’re really exciting, so watch this Creative.
as well.” space!” DWM Below: A Chumbley and two
Drahvins feature on the cover
of the 2019 release Galaxy 4.
Art by Oink Creative.

DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE 47


Doctor Who has frequently relied
on talented freelancers to bring its
menagerie of monsters to life. In
the 1980s this responsibility often
fell to a company whose driving
force was the late Richard Gregory.
Feature by JONATHAN HELM

48 DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE


ichard Gregory, who died Opposite page: One

R on 7 February, started of the Cybermen


designed by Richard
his career building body
Gregory; and Richard
panels and superstructures himself in 1983, with
for Panther Westwinds, an original head from
a manufacturer of sports Earthshock (1982).
cars. Then in 1979 he Far left: Richard as
set up his own company with fellow the puppeteer of
technician John Powell and sculptor Rod ‘The Beast’ in
Vass. The name Imagineering came from necks of the creature. The puppet was Time-Flight (1982).
Richard, who was a science-fiction fan. another of Richard’s creations, as were Left: ‘The Beast’
Adopting the motto “We do anything, the Plasmatons in the same serial. threatens Captain
Stapley (Richard
anytime, anywhere”, Imagineering began For Arc of Infinity (1983), Richard
Easton) and First
by sending out their portfolio to film and showcased Imagineering’s electronics Officer Bilton (Michael
television companies, with the BBC and expertise by building a top-heavy Cashman) in Part Two
independent producer Gerry Anderson helmet for Omega, rigged with lights of Time-Flight.
among the recipients. Richard explained activated by actor Ian Collier’s voice. Left inset: The helmet
the ethos behind Imagineering in an While working on Gerry Anderson’s Richard created for
interview with Doctor Who Magazine Terrahawks (1983-86), Richard had been Omega (Ian Collier) in
Arc of Infinity (1983).
in 1983: “Basically it’s a team of artists inspired by the electronics and servo-
working for themselves. Anyone hiring fibreglass was called upon again when he mechanisms from old 1960s puppets Below left: Slave,
the servile ship’s
us can get a wide range of experience created six hemispherical battle helmets loaned to him by Anderson. The Omega
computer from the
because we’re not tied to any specific for Castrovalva (1982). mask also incorporated voice-actuated fourth and final series
subject. It’s a talent pool really.” Undoubtedly Richard’s most important servos to make the three mouthpiece of Blake’s 7 (1981).
Costume designer Dee Robson and commission for Doctor Who was to flaps twitch as Omega spoke. Sadly, this Below centre: For
visual effects designer Jim Francis, who redesign the Cybermen for Earthshock elaborate mechanism was never used The Visitation (1982),
had worked with Richard on the BBC2 (1982). Richard produced dozens of as it was noisy and had a tendency to Richard constructed
production The Hitchhiker’s Guide to illustrations, showing how he thought break down in studio. Nevertheless, all three bodies for the
the Galaxy, brought Imagineering to the the Cybermen should look and how Richard was sufficiently pleased Terileptils and two of
the heads.
attention of the Doctor Who production they could be built. Although with the finished costume that
office in 1981. Robson had commissioned the final decision lay with he applied his own initials, Below: Richard in
his workshop on 10
Imagineering to make Hotblack Desiato’s costume designer Dinah RJG, to the swirling December 1983,
fibreglass zoot-suit, while Jim Francis Collins, she entrusted pattern on Omega’s with a helmet he
was so impressed by their work that Richard with the bulk chest plate. was creating for
he asked Richard to create the new of the design work. By now Richard was Resurrection of the
computer, Slave, for the fourth series essentially running Daleks (1984).
Photo © Paul Vanezis.
of Blake’s 7. o thank him for Imagineering alone and
As a result, Imagineering was
commissioned to provide fibreglass
details for the space suits in Four to
T his uncredited
work designing the
Cybermen, producer John
he would recruit other
specialists to his team
as and when required.
Doomsday (1982) and then engaged to Nathan-Turner offered Richard This extended team
work on The Visitation (1982). Richard his first and only on-screen credit on included electronics engineer Chris
constructed all three bodies for the Doctor Who, as the puppeteer of ‘The Padmore and computer software
alien Terileptils and two of the heads; Beast’ in Time-Flight (1982). Clad in designer Mike Power, who had
the animatronic third head was handled a figure-hugging cat suit of green CSO been contracted by a car company
by visual effects designer Peter Wragg. material, Richard operated the large to build a functioning robot for
Richard’s expertise working with glove puppet, his arms being the twin a promotional campaign. When
the contract was cancelled, the
Undoubtedly Richard’s most duo approached Richard
and he suggested
important commission for  introducing the
robot to the Doctor
Doctor Who was to redesign Who team. John
Nathan-Turner
the Cybermen for Earthshock. was sufficiently
impressed 1

DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE 49


Imagineer
Right: The huge
fibreglass Malus head in
The Awakening (1984).
Far right: Richard
(right) at work on The
Abominable Snowman,
an episode of the
Thunderbirds 1965
project shot in 2017.
Photo © James Fielding.
Below left: Kamelion
made its second and
final appearance in
Planet of Fire (1984).
Below right inset: The
Sontarans Stike (Clinton
Greyn) and Varl (Tim
Raynham) in The Two
Doctors (1985).
Bottom right: Richard
1 that he decided to make the robot part
of the TARDIS crew. And so Kamelion Richard was always happy to
was reunited with some
old friends in 2018.
Photo © Stephen La Rivière.
was born.
Moving into Season 21 (1984), Richard welcome fans to Imagineering’s
worked on the Sea Devil and Silurian
costumes in Warriors of the Deep and workshop in Oxfordshire.
created the huge fibreglass Malus
head for The Awakening. Once again, arrived at his workshop proudly wearing design but he made them more
Richard drew upon his knowledge of the a Terileptil and a Malus on our lapels. functional-looking and industrial.
techniques used in Gerry Anderson’s Richard was very polite about that.” They were remarkably similar to how
Supermarionation puppets. Richard also Imagineering’s work on the Colin the Daleks looked when they came
built the smaller Malus, which was Baker era of Doctor Who included back in 2005.”
a four-feet-tall puppet. Delighted with creating lightweight dummy Cybermen Although Richard never got to
the prop, Richard was disappointed when heads, Bates’ robotic arm and the Cyber redesign the Daleks, his career went
it received only limited screen time. For Controller costume for Attack of the from strength to strength. His later
Resurrection of the Daleks, Richard Cybermen (1985), plus various control credits included Who Framed Roger
designed the gas masks worn by the and communication devices for Rabbit (1988), Gerry Anderson’s
prison-ship crew, the body armour The Mark of the Rani (1985). Space Precinct (1994-95),
worn by the Dalek agents and Richard was then entrusted Walking with Dinosaurs
also their distinctive helmets. with reviving yet another (1999), The Dark Knight
The eyestalk attachments classic race of monsters (2008), Tomb Raider
were a late addition and John when he redesigned the (2018), several James
Nathan-Turner was furious Sontarans for The Two Bond films, and
when he saw them. Doctors (1985). many more.
Richard was always happy to In recent years he’d
welcome fans to Imagineering’s y the time been working with
workshop in Oxfordshire. Visitors
included Gerry Anderson, who
brought his young son Jamie, and
B the Cybermen
returned in Silver
Nemesis (1988), Richard was too
his close friend Jamie
Anderson on the pilot episode
of Firestorm. “Richard could have
future visual effects designer Mike busy to contribute to the new costumes retired years ago but he loved the work
Tucker. “Richard made me realise that and he entrusted most of the work to his so much,” says Jamie. “He was always
you could work on television effects protégé, Toby Chamberlain. “I’d visited very modest and incredibly generous
outside of the BBC,” recalls Mike. Richard’s studio in the early 1980s,” with his time. He was always supportive
“From the point that I learned of the says Toby. “Later, he took me on at to students, many of whom are now
existence of the BBC Visual Effects Imagineering and taught me everything working in the industry thanks to
Department, it was my ambition to I know. It was a mark of his trust and Richard. As well as his great body
work there. When I was at college, generosity that when the opportunity of work, he’s left a legacy of positivity
I came across a picture of Richard arose to redesign the Cybermen for and we are all truly richer for having
holding a Cyberman head in the pages a second time, he entrusted me to known him.” DWM
of the Radio Times Doctor Who 20th manage it.”
Anniversary Special. It became clear However, there was one
that Richard was not actually part of classic Doctor Who monster
the BBC, but a contractor running his that Richard sadly never
own company.” got a chance to redesign,
Determined to pick Richard’s as Toby recalls. “Richard
brains, Mike and fellow student always wanted to redesign
Robert Allsopp tracked Richard down the Daleks and he created
to his workshop and arranged a visit. a number of detailed
“For some bizarre reason, Rob and design drawings for John
I decided that the best way to Nathan-Turner.” The design
impress Richard was to sculpt drawings have been lost
badges depicting some of but Toby remembers seeing
the creatures that he had them quite clearly. “Richard
been involved with, and we kept the same basic

50 DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE


Available at
New CD & digital releases every month from BBC Audio

Amazon, the Amazon logo and Amazon.co.uk are registered trademarks of Amazon EU SARL or its affiliates. BBC logo © BBC 1996. Doctor Who logo © BBC 2018
THE TIME TEAM
“Can’t you give him
a sedative?” The Time
Team dreamt they could
hold back death – long
enough to watch the
Eighth Doctor’s entire
TV run.
Compiled by BENJAMIN COOK
Photographs by SAIMA KHALID

This issue’s Time Team: Beth Axford, Dan James Frank, Gerard Groves, n June 1999, when original

I
Time Teamers Clayton, Jac,
Jacob Dudman, Kezia Newson, Luke Cutforth and Zainab Sheriff Peter and Richard embarked on
their mission to watch all (up to
then) 696 instalments of some
television show or other, Doctor
Who’s most recent TV episode
was an 85-minute movie, broadcast on BBC1
in May 1996 and starring Liverpool-born
Paul McGann. This was a multi-million dollar
co-production between the BBC, Fox and
Universal Television, intended as a backdoor
pilot for a new, American-produced Doctor
Who TV series.
Of course, that
didn’t quite go
to plan.
Most of
today’s Time
Team weren’t
born when
the 1996 TV
movie aired.
“But about
midway through
the 2005 series,
I had a sleepover with my
friends,” says Gerard. “We erected a tent in the
living room and we watched the McGann movie,
The Five Doctors [1983] and Resurrection of
the Daleks [1984] – a Doctor Who marathon.
It was wild! And we all loved that movie. We
fell in love with Paul McGann. As you do.”
In 1996, McGann’s portrayal of the Eighth
Doctor received widespread acclaim. The
movie itself? Not so much, then or since.
Few Doctor Who stories have polarised fan
opinion to quite such an extent.
So what will today’s Time Team make
of it? Gerard is joined in the Team’s
regular north-west London haunt by
Luke and Zainab, who’ve never seen
the TV movie before, and Beth, Dan,
Jake and Kezia, who have, once or
twice. Also present: Baxter, a bearded
collie from the flat downstairs. Baxter
doesn’t say much, but he likes to sit
on the sofa and cuddle (it was
a request we should never have
granted), so let’s assume he likes
mid-90s telly. We hit play…

60 DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE


DOCTOR WHO (1996)
Following the Master’s trial and
execution on the planet Skaro, the
Seventh Doctor (JAKE: “He looks more
like Radagast the Brown”) is transporting
his frenemy’s gooey remains back to
Gallifrey. En route, the casket breaks
open and the Master’s remnants make
a run for it. Well, we say run…
GERARD: “I didn’t think that Time Lords
could turn into goo and slither about.
Is this… normal?”
ZAINAB: “He’s the Dribbly Master!”
KEZ: “No match for Crispy Master.”
LUKE: “So – wait a sec – the dead
Master’s leaked into the TARDIS
console? Is that what’s happening?”
Kind of, yeah. So the TARDIS makes
an emergency landing in San Francisco
on 30 December 1999, amidst a shoot-out
between two rival street gangs. Stepping It gets grimmer: Grace gets lost inside
out of the TARDIS, the Doctor’s met by the Doctor – two hearts, no wonder –
a rain of bullets. and he flatlines.
JAKE: “Urgh, I hate this so much.” KEZ: “Three gunshot wounds. One in
DAN: “It’s just the worst. It doesn’t feel his shoulder, two in his leg. He could’ve
right. This kind of violence is too real for survived that, if Grace had trusted the
Doctor Who.” X-rays. Tsch, double exposure indeed!”
GERARD: “It’s the gritty reboot.” LUKE: “I thought the Doctor
JAKE: “No, it’s disturbing: usually regenerates before he
the Doctor exiting the dies. Is he actually dead?!”
TARDIS, to head off Yup. The body is taken
on an adventure, and to the morgue, placed
immediately he’s in a cold chamber
gunned down.” and… roll end credits.
LUKE: “It’s like (Just kidding, the stowed away in Bruce’s work Opposite page left: The Time
logging on to Twitter.” Doctor regenerates.) uniform. Ol’ Snake Face pounces: Team with honorary member
Baxter the dog! From left to
The gangsters flee, KEZ: “I hate this diving head-first down Bruce’s
right – Dan, Kezia, Luke, Jake,
except one who calls regeneration. It’s throat, suffocating him to death and Gerard, Zainab and Beth.
911. “Hold in there, the face.” gaining control of his body.
Opposite page inset:
old guy,” he tells the GERARD: “Then he punches DAN: “It’s great that the Doctor and A deadly street gang on the
injured Doctor. “Chang Lee his way out [of the chamber]. Master have been reborn together – streets of San Francisco.
will help ya.” Weird that the new Doctor has, that they’ve paralleled those stories.” Top: Dr Grace Holloway
BETH: “Did he just reference his own like, a monster’s introduction.” GERARD: “Did you know, every (Daphne Ashbrook) and
name? I’d forgotten how this movie flits BETH: “Yeah, it looks like a Cyberman’s year, the average person swallows fellow surgeons operate on
between really good and really, really bad about to burst out. But it’s Paul McGann, eight Masters in their sleep?” the Doctor (Sylvester McCoy).
dialogue, often within the same scene.” in a blanket.” The next morning, the Master Above: The snake-like Master
Unseen by Chang Lee, the Master oozes As the newborn Doctor shuffles murders Bruce’s wife (GERARD: hovers over sleeping paramedic
Bruce (Eric Roberts).
out of the TARDIS keyhole (EVERYONE: through one of Walker General’s less “He snaps her neck! That’s
“EURGH!” LUKE: “The TARDIS just did glamorous wings, the Time Team is so dark –” KEZ: “This is adult Left inset: The regenerated
Doctor (Paul McGann) comes
a little sick”) and hitches a lift in the disorientated. Where are we exactly? Doctor Who. It’s not family-
to life in the hospital morgue.
ambulance with him, the Doctor and a GERARD: “Er… every hospital has the friendly.” GERARD: “– but
Below: Dan, Luke and Jake.
paramedic named Bruce. Whatever next? Spooky Abandoned Ward.” I remember watching this
Oh, OK – now Dribbly Master’s a snake. JAKE: “With a stack of broken mirrors? as an eight-year-old,
LUKE: “WHY?! Why now a snake?! Was And a creepy baby doll?!” in my tent,
this written by a random word generator?” Falling to his knees, the Doctor and loving 1
At Walker General Hospital, the throws back his head and screams,
Doctor is rushed into surgery. Then, to “WHO?! AM?!! I?!!!” Luke’s
the strains of Puccini’s Madam Butterfly concerned.
(BETH: “On a CD player? I remember LUKE: “How has he regenerated
those! Very retro”), senior cardiologist with fillings?”
Dr Grace Holloway gets to work. But the Across town,
anaesthetic’s not working; the Doctor’s paramedic Bruce is
still conscious, his hearts going crazy. tucked up in bed,
The medical team restrain him. snoring away
BETH: “I can’t stand seeing the Doctor next to his wife,
like this. It’s genuinely upsetting.” both of them
ZAINAB: “It’s hard to watch. Also, as a oblivious
pharmacy student, it annoys me that to the
they keep shocking him. The more you anguine
shock, the less likely it is for normal Master
heart rhythm to return.” that’s

DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE 61


THE TIME TEAM

Above left: Grace 1 it”), while the Doctor rifles through JAKE: “Tennant was sexy but nerdy – heart of the TARDIS! The Master can’t
enjoys a kiss from her hospital staff lockers for clothes to pilfer. geek chic – but McGann’s your open the Eye (GERARD: “Or maybe, like
unusual patient.
Elsewhere, Grace is tired. She’s lost out-and-out romantic lead.” Davros, he chooses not to…?”), because
Above right: The a patient, and his body, and hospital ZAINAB: “But why’s he standing so close he’s a Time Lord. But Chang Lee can,
Master (Eric Roberts)
administrator Dr Swift is destroying the to her? Grace’s hair’s getting stuck to because he’s not. Which makes sense.
and Chang Lee (Yee
Jee Tso) explore the evidence. “We don’t need to advertise his! How is this OK?” No, it does. It does.
Doctor’s TARDIS… our mistakes,” he tells her, setting fire At last, the Doctor remembers who he GERARD: “I don’t know if it’s intentional,
Right inset: … to the Doctor’s X-rays. is. And he kisses Grace square on the lips. but the main character in this movie – at
where they find the GERARD: “Bit much. What next, will he LUKE: “WHOA!” least the first half – is totally Chang Lee.
Eye of Harmony. burn down the hospital? ‘But, sir, this is DAN: “Growing up with the Doctor He’s the hero, or anti-hero. The story’s
Below: Kezia how we got one abandoned ward. Can kissing people, it doesn’t seem that told through his eyes. Literally, here. He
and Zainab. you stop setting things on fire?!’” unusual, but I can see why it caused goes on the hero’s journey: the call to
Reasonably enough, Grace quits. a stir at the time. Although, grabbing her adventure, temptation, transformation,
Less reasonably, the amnesiac Doctor like that wouldn’t fly today.” redemption. Even a death and rebirth.”
breaks into her car. “Please go away,” KEZ: “He did that with Martha But for now the Eye’s open. So
she says. She’s losing patience. Again. too. You’re right, they by midnight tonight (Pacific
GERARD: “But then she changes her mind couldn’t do that now.” Coast time?) the planet
and drives him to her house? Invites him The Doctor opens his will be “pulled inside
in? I wonder if she’d have done that if he hearts to Grace. Which out”. Unless the Doctor
were still Sylvester McCoy.” is brave, considering can fix the TARDIS’
DAN: “Well, McGann is very good-looking. what happened last time. timing mechanism
Suddenly the Doctor’s this He tells her everything: and leave Earth, quick.
dashing hero.” about growing up on If only he could find a
Gallifrey, his hobbies and beryllium clock. Luckily,
interests (kissing girls), just such a clock is being
his 12-regeneration limit, unveiled in downtown San
his shoe size (same as her ex’s), Fran tonight, at the Institute
his mobile number, his social media of Technological Advancement and
links. Meanwhile, the Master, posing Research! And Grace is on the Board
as Bruce, returns to the hospital to of Trustees! So she and the Doctor hold
snatch the Doctor’s body. Too up a cop, nick his motorbike and race
late, it’s chatting up Grace. to the Institute, with the Master and Lee
So he breaks into the TARDIS chasing them in an ambulance.
instead. Chang Lee sneaks KEZ: “Like a proper action movie! Oh God,
in behind him. this motorbike chase is phenomenal.”
ZAINAB: “Without the GERARD: “It really flies. It’s the bit
Master, I’m not sure I most remember from watching as
I would’ve thought of the a kid. And the music’s more Murray
TARDIS as a symbol of Gold than Murray Gold.”
power, rather than the DAN: “Also, props for not having the
Doctor’s home and almost Doctor point the gun at the cop. He
an extension of him. But swipes his gun, then threatens to shoot
I absolutely love this himself. Very Doctor-ish.”
Master. He’s so sassy and in GERARD: “Why couldn’t the whole film
control. No wonder Lee believes be this good?”
the Master’s lies: this is his The Doctor and Grace steal the clock’s
TARDIS, the Doctor stole it from beryllium chip and escape. But not
him, the Doctor’s half-human…” before, apropos of nothing, the Doctor
Er… quick! Look! It’s the confirms a rumour: he is half-human.
Eye of Harmony – the JAKE: “He said he’s half-human on his

62 DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE


Far left: The Doctor and
Grace are on a mission to
prevent the planet from
being turned inside out.
Left: The Doctor, Chang
Lee and Grace aboard
the TARDIS.
Below: Gerard and Beth.
Bottom left inset: The
Doctor is chained up by
his nemesis.
Bottom right: The
Master dresses for
the occasion.

mother’s side. It’s a weird thing to drop


in, after 33 years on TV, but it kind of
makes sense. He looks human. He loves The Doctor and Master fight over the
Earth. He fancies Grace.” Eye (KEZ: “A full-on physical fight, not
ZAINAB: “But it makes him less special.” a battle of wits? No, no, NO! The Doctor
JAKE: “Yeah. I can’t imagine it went should save the day by being smart”) and
down too well in ’96. Twitter must have the Master falls in. (Don’t worry, he’ll be
been furious. #NotMyDoctor.” back – in 11 years or so.) Before closing,
Um, Jake, Twitter wasn’t… never the Eye spews golden energy onto Grace
mind. In the TARDIS, the Doctor inserts and Lee, reviving them. Because the
his new SIM card – sorry, beryllium chip TARDIS has slipped back in time to before
– into the console, but it’s too late. The they died. Nothing makes sense anymore.
Eye, now closing, has been open too long. GERARD: “It’s a New Year’s miracle! And
Also, the Master’s here. He possesses was that the first time Doctor Who gave
Grace, straps the Doctor to a gurney and us golden regenerative energy? Another
slips into something ridiculous. “I always visual cue borrowed by the 2005 series.”
dress for the occasion,” he explains. Back on Earth, the Doctor offers
ZAINAB: “He looks like a Disney villain.” Grace the trip of a lifetime, but she turns
DAN: “He’s so camp and bad that I wish him down. “I know who I am,” she says.
we’d got more episodes with him in.” “That’s enough.” Weird flex, but OK.
LUKE: “But the Doctor’s lying down ZAINAB: “Aw, I wonder what kind of
again?! Am I the only person here who TARDIS team the Doctor, Grace and
isn’t warming to this Doctor? He’s not Chang Lee would have made.”
being very Doctory. He doesn’t use the JAKE: “The Doctor and Grace would
sonic. Nor any of his Doctor cleverness, have snogged their way around the
other than stealing the chip. And he’s universe, and Lee would’ve murdered
too… pretty. Without the cleverness, them both. The end.”
the only reason this episode gives us to KEZ: “But I don’t know what to make
pay attention to him is… he’s nice of the TV movie. Its ambition
to look at? Because there is cool, but it’s a letdown
are other characters in ending to classic Who.”
this doing much more LUKE: “It feels like
interesting things.” a hundred other
Take Chang Lee, for genre shows and
instance. He switches films. It could just as
sides, so the Master easily be an Inspector
snaps Lee’s neck Gadget movie.”
(EVERYONE: “NO!!!!”), BETH: “I love McGann’s
then forces Grace to Doctor, but not because
look into the Eye, which of this film. Because of Big
reopens. Around the world, Finish. Have you heard his
planet Earth gets pulled inside out. run with Lucie Miller [the audio
(No? Us neither.) companion voiced by Sheridan Smith]?
GERARD: “Why’s it night everywhere on I’ve been listening on Spotify.”
Earth? That’s not how time zones work!” GERARD: “It’s incredible. It’s better
DAN: “Yeah, everywhere’s celebrating than most of the TV series. So we’ve
New Year at once?!” a lot to thank the McGann movie for.
GERARD: “For a movie whose tagline The movie’s like the Doctor on Grace’s
is ‘It’s about time’, they don’t seem to operating table: it’s painful at times. In
understand HOW TIME WORKS!” fact, it killed him. But it allowed him to
Grace jump-starts the TARDIS, come back stronger. It kept him going.
propelling it into orbit, and rescues the He survived. Then he rose. Would we
Doctor, but the Master throws her off have had the 2005 show without the
a balcony and – uh oh. RIP Grace. 1996 TV movie?” 1

DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE 63


THE TIME TEAM

BETH: “He’s definitely doing, even as he’s dying. And he’s


Above left: Gerard a grown-up Doctor now.” less ‘pretty’.”
lets another TV movie THE NIGHT OF But Cass’ ship collides with planet GERARD: “WHAT?! He’s gorgeous
spoiler slip! THE DOCTOR (2013) Karn, killing her and the Doctor. Their – all sweaty and glowing with
Above right: The Doctor bodies are salvaged from the wreckage regenerative energy.”
prepares for his next 1 “I’m a Doctor. But probably not the by the Sisterhood of Karn. “Such a pity LUKE: “No, I mean, he looks less vain.
regeneration with the one you were expecting.” The Team he’s dead,” says High Priestess Ohila In the movie he looked like he was in
help of Ohila (Clare cheers. Baxter barks. We’ve leapt (DAN: “At least he didn’t get shot this a boy band.”
Higgins) in The Night
of the Doctor (2013).
ahead 17 years, to the Eighth Doctor’s time”), but they revive the Doctor ad So who’d like to see more Eighth
second – also final – on-screen adventure. interim, offering him a selection of Doctor on TV? Everyone’s hands shoot
Right inset: The
doomed pilot On 14 November 2013, The Night of the potions to trigger a regeneration. The up, except Dan’s.
Cass (Emma Doctor landed out of nowhere, on BBC sisters’ elixirs can bring him back as “fat DAN: “No, I think the mystery around the
Campbell-Jones) iPlayer and YouTube. A seven-minute or thin, young or old, man or woman… Eighth Doctor makes him more exciting.
in The Night of mini-episode set during the Time War, fast or strong, wise or angry. What do I remember, as a kid, I knew nothing
the Doctor. it opens with the Eighth Doctor trying you need now?” asks Ohila. about him, but the action figure I wanted
Below: The Eighth to rescue a pilot, Cass, JAKE: “Fat and angry, please.” most was the Eighth Doctor, so that
Doctor in his final whose spacecraft BETH: “Same for me.” I could make new adventures with him.”
TV appearance.
is crashing. The Doctor chooses ‘warrior’. GERARD: “But he’s too good not to see
KEZ: “I love “Charley, C’rizz, Lucie, Tamsin, Molly, more of. Without hesitation, I’d swap
McGann in this. friends, companions I’ve known, almost any other series of Doctor Who
He’s so different.” I salute you,” he says. for one TV run with McGann
GERARD: “This is the BETH: “I love this for and Sheridan.”
Eighth Doctor I know canonising the Eighth LUKE: “For me, the Eighth
from Big Finish.” Doctor’s Big Finish Doctor is a reminder
ZAINAB: “He’s more companions.” of what makes Doctor
seasoned, isn’t he? GERARD: “But he Who the greatest-ever
In the movie, he was doesn’t give Grace TV show: its history is
a child. Here, he’s a shout-out.” filled with false starts
facing reality KEZ: “She’s only – he was one of them,
head on.” in one adventure maybe – and episodes
– a failed pilot.” that fans label ‘the
GERARD: “But he worst of all time’, and yet
mentions Cass. She’s it survives. It’s a worldwide
only in this episode.” phenomenon. That’s exciting
JAKE: “And she’s a failed pilot.” to me: a reminder that you don’t
One farewell line later – “Physician, have to get everything right, all the time.
heal thyself” (LUKE: “Bit pretentious”) We know that Doctor Who can be bad
– and the Eighth Doctor regenerates… sometimes, but we still watch because –”
into John Hurt’s War Doctor, who picks BETH: “Even when it’s bad, it’s full of
up Cass’ bandolier. hope and potential. It makes the world
KEZ: “I wish they’d make more a better place.”
mini-episodes. That was fab.” LUKE: “It’s something to live by, yeah.
Today the Time Team has watched My point is, Doctor Who fails, again and
Doctor Who’s second-longest episode, again. Way more often than it succeeds,
followed by, arguably, its shortest. I reckon. But it always comes back and
Like planet Earth, they’ve been pulled tries again next week. Or next year.
inside out. Or next decade. It perseveres. And so
KEZ: “I preferred the shorter one. The can we. That’s encouraging to me, on
Doctor uses his words, not his brawn.” a personal level. Against all the odds,
LUKE: “He feels more like the Doctor Doctor Who is still here. And we should
in those seven minutes than he did in never forget how unlikely, and how
that entire movie. He knows what he’s wonderful, that is.” DWM

64 DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE


COSPLAY

Doctor Who’s earliest


series are often
overlooked by cosplayers,
but there are some
convention-goers who
defy convention…
Feature by PETER NOLAN

osplayer Geoffrey Keep


doesn’t so much confound
expectations as smash
them to dust.
Having recently
turned 70, Geoffrey has
been watching Doctor
Who since two Shoreditch
schoolteachers first decided
to follow their most mysterious pupil back to
her junkyard home. And he’s never missed
an episode since. His are eyeballs imprinted
with stories that no longer exist; a mind that
remembers every moment of The Daleks’
Master Plan (1965-66). If such a thing as fan
seniority existed, Geoffrey would have it.
And this senior fan is particularly keen for
Doctor Who Magazine to hear his verdict
on Jodie Whittaker. “I think she’s brilliant!”
he says. “She’s making her own Doctor and
it’s really starting to work. I’m not surprised
they’ve decided to go for another series.”
Coming from an amateur theatre
background, Geoffrey’s familiarity with the
business of stage costuming has also proven
useful in his cosplay. (“When I was directing,
one year I had to make a complete set of
costumes for Aladdin,” he recalls.) His days at
the sewing machine are behind him, however,
and his costumes are now a combination of
lucky charity shop finds and pieces he’s had
Above: Geoffrey Keep in specially commissioned.
his First Doctor costume. Originally from West Norwood in London
but now based in Germany, Geoffrey found the

66 DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE


Far left: William
Hartnell as the
Doctor in a publicity
shot for An Unearthly
Child (1963).
Left: Geoffrey has
seen every episode
of Doctor Who since
the series began.
Below: Jean Marsh
as Sara Kingdom in
The Daleks’ Master
Plan (1965-66).
Bottom: Tina
Marie DeLucia as
Sara Kingdom.

Tina Marie DeLucia


German Doctor Who scene more lively than to have them, but it’s never going to be the
he expected. “It’s really surprised me. It’s very same as watching an actual episode.”
intense and the fans who’ve really got into Unlike the majority of her peers, Tina’s
Doctor Who are just incredible. They’re great, devotion isn’t to the era of sand shoes, bow
and I fit in so nicely with them! They’re just ties and sonic sunglasses. “I’m Hartnell trash,”
such a lovely bunch of people, they really are.” she says unapologetically. “There’s so much
Since his move, he’s become a regular I love about 1960s Who. There’s just
fixture at the TimeLash convention in Kassel something amazing about the original Doctor.
each year. “For my first year in the cosplay He’s so tricky and cunning and delightful and
competition at TimeLash I did the farewell so full of life. He may be awful at showing his
to Susan on stage,” he recalls. Geoffrey’s feelings but he cares so deeply. And I love
recreation of the famous scene from The Dalek him. All his ‘hmm’-ing and getting accidentally
Invasion of Earth (1964) in which the Doctor engaged and never getting Ian’s name right.
says goodbye to his granddaughter went down He’s the Doctor Who for me.”
a storm. “They just went absolutely mental,” Tina’s Hartnell love inspired her to create
he says, smiling. Geoffrey won first prize and her own outfit based on the uniform worn by
wound up recreating a scene from The Space Sara Kingdom (Jean Marsh) in The Daleks’
Museum (1965), being wheeled around the Master Plan (1965-66). “Sara’s ruthlessness
venue in an open-topped Dalek as a victory lap. connected deeply to me!” she says, laughing.
Recreating

O
ne fan who’s distinctly a 53-year-old
envious of Geoffrey is costume presents
American unique challenges,
college student of course. 1
Tina Marie
DeLucia.
“Oh God, I would cry if I could see the lost
episodes,” she exclaims. “I wasn’t even alive
when the great ‘BBC Burning’ happened, and
I’m still mad about it! I know I have Target
novels and the recons, and I’m very grateful

DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE 67


COSPLAY
1 “Really, I went at it with the mantra “We have some lovely promotional shots
of the Hartnell era: ‘I’ve got the budget of Jean Marsh, but it’s maybe nine photos
of a ham sandwich and little time.’ It makes and the small amount of surviving footage.
the costume more authentic, I think. The That’s the real struggle with cosplaying
jacket was altered from a coat I found at from the Hartnell era. And there are very
a second-hand store, the boots were an old few colour photos from that time. I got to
pair of my mother’s. And the white strap was meet Peter Purves and he said, ‘I think
the sash from a rain jacket that I dipped in Jean’s outfit was brown, actually!’ It’s both
white paint to make it stiff and perfect. The frustrating and fun at the same time.”
buttons are made from But being the only Sara Kingdom on
foam and clay and a con floor filled with Spider-Gwens and
the stripes Wonder Women has its own rewards, as
on my sash are Tina discovered when she met the Twelfth
just painted Doctor at a recent New York Comic Con.
hot glue. “Because Sara is such an ‘unknown’
character I just thought it would be fun
to see how people would react to it.
I knew Peter Capaldi would recognise
it in a heartbeat and to my delight he did.
It was lovely and surreal and well worth it.
“There’s pleasure in the challenge of
making something obscure,” she affirms.
“To being maybe the only one cosplaying
a character, to not having any pattern or
guide to help you. It’s all you and your
passion. And copious amount of hot glue.”

ike William Hartnell’s First

L Doctor, North Carolina’s


Valerie Anderson is
something of a pioneer, blazing
a trail for other cosplayers to follow.
“I attended the 40th anniversary
convention in the UK in
costume as Romana from
The Ribos Operation
(1978), and not a soul
in the ballroom was
dressed up!” she
says. She made an
impression, however,
on one of Doctor
Who’s best-known
character actors
when the “very
sweet” Michael
Sheard asked her
to dance.
“I wore that
same costume
to the Gallifrey
One convention
in 2006 when
Mary Tamm
[who played the
original Romana]
was a guest. The cosplay
competition that year only had
a handful of entries. I attended
Gally again in 2009 – this
time dressed as Elizabeth I.
To my great surprise and
delight, I walked into the
Top: Tina Marie DeLucia masquerade green room
loves the Hartnell era to discover it was packed
of Doctor Who. with people dressed in
Above left and right: Doctor Who costumes.
Valerie Anderson as a female I wasn’t quite sure what
version of the First Doctor. cultural transition had
occurred in the interim,

68 DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE


ometimes cosplay I added a layer that comprised in The Daleks’ Master Plan,

S is all about becoming


a character that only
50 people will recognise,
but knowing that all 50 will be in
the outer square, and finally
a small square to raise the
inside edge. I glued all the levels
together and sprayed them gold.
simply remove the gloves
and veil to become

the same room. Zephon, an alien For Zephon’s arms, I used


delegate from The Daleks’ Master synthetic leaves (available from
Plan, is one such character. craft shops) and some rubber
For my version of gloves (get black ones
Zephon, I started with if you can find them).
a simple ‘faceless I spray-painted
monk’-style robe. the leaves black
The distinctive and attached
medallion Zephon them to the gloves the First
wears was made with glue and Doctor! As if
with multiple strong tape. that wasn’t
layers of stiff card. Part of the enough,
I cut two layers out beauty of this Zephon’s
of the entire shape, cosplay, of course, medallion was
then cut it out again on is its multiple uses. You recycled for the
a third piece. On top of this can be Zephon, or Big Finish’s renegade Time
one I made two small cuts in Son of Zephon (who looks Lord, the War Chief,
the central design so that the identical). Plus, since the Doctor in the 1969 story
figure 8’s could overlap. Then disguises himself as Zephon The War Games.

but I was very pleased to see persons ‘Oh wait, you’re…’ It makes me so Above left inset:
Zephon (Julian
of like mind at last!” happy to see them get happy.
Sherrier) in Day of
Among her many outfits, And, of course, it also sparks Armageddon, the
Valerie has created both a conversation. Honestly, second episode of The
standard and ‘femme’ I’ve made some of my Daleks’ Master Plan.
versions of Hartnell’s sweetest friends from Top right: Peter
costume. Both being recognised in Nolan’s take on
were satisfying and costume.” Zephon’s medallion.
challenging in different Valerie agrees. “You Above right: Peter in
ways. “The Hartnell was can probably count on his Zephon costume.
fun because I’d never one hand the number Far left inset:
made a double-breasted of Doctor Who The Doctor wears
a Stetson in The
man’s coat, a lambswool hat fans that exist in
Gunfighters (1966).
or a pair of spats – nor had South Carolina,
Left: Geoffrey Keep
I ever had so many elements for so my ability to be
pays homage to the
one costume.” For the femme version ‘with my own kind’, Doctor’s Gunfighters
she relied on left-over elements from the as it were, is limited,” she costume.
original. This version, explains Valerie, has “its says, before describing the
own cane, glasses and shoes, but borrows the positive impact cosplay has
necktie, scarf and ring from the original”. had on her life. “My Doctor
Apart from their shared love of the Hartnell Who cosplay has enriched
era, all three of these cosplayers agree that my fan experience
creating unusual outfits helps to make an a thousand-fold. I’m
impact. “People freak out and get excited,” relatively introverted,
says Tina. “There’s a double-take and then, so I don’t make friends
easily. Cosplay has given
me not just new friends, but
a second family as well. The Gallifrey
conventions now feel like a family
reunion, as well as an opportunity
to celebrate Doctor Who.”
The last word goes to Geoffrey,
who describes the warm reception
he receives at conventions. “One
of the reasons I do what I do is
that I’m old enough to do the First
Doctor, and he’s a Doctor that hardly
anyone else does. I just enjoy myself
and it seems to make an awful lot
of people happy to have the First
Valerie Anderson Doctor there.” DWM

DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE 69


Our verdict on the latest episodes and products.

Audio Frequencies
3p!). There were three comic strips in that
Reviewed this issue first issue: a Doctorless Dalek story (good
enough, but hardly proper Doctor Who), a
o The Comic Strip Adaptations: zippy adaptation of HG Wells’ The War of the
Volume One Worlds (impressive, but, again, where’s the
(Featuring the Fourth Doctor) Doctor?) and – most marvellous of all – the
RRP £23 (CD), £20 (download) first part of Doctor Who and the Iron Legion,
o The Eighth of March a vaulting sci-fi epic that saw Tom Baker’s
(Featuring River Song, Leela, Ace, Benny, Madame Doctor caught up in a Roman invasion of an
Vastra, Jenny, Strax, Kate Stewart and Osgood) idyllic English village before being whisked
RRP £25 (CD), £20 (download) off to a parallel Earth where the Roman
o The Kamelion Empire Empire never fell and where Caesar’s robotic
(Featuring the Fifth Doctor, Tegan, Turlough and Kamelion) army has enslaved the galaxy.
RRP £14.99 (CD), £12.99 (download) There was no way that The Iron Legion bringing it alive for the first time in Volume
could ever have been made for the small One of The Comic Strip Adaptations.
Available from bigfinish.com screen, especially not the cash-strapped The original eight-part strip only added
years of the late 1970s. But – four decades up to 34 pages, so it was clearly a challenge
on – Big Finish has had a welcome stab at for Alan Barnes, adapting from Pat Mills and
an it really be 40 years this John Wagner’s original, to fatten it up to two

C
October since Doctor Who hours, and it’s to Barnes’ credit that it gallops
Magazine, then in its more along just as ferociously as the original.
kiddified guise of Doctor Perhaps the only notable change is the
Who Weekly, made its addition of two fresh characters, Stockbridge
debut? villagers Doug and Viv Kirk, only glimpsed
Those of us who were just the in one panel of the comic-strip version
right age in 1979 devoured that but now bumped up to legit guest-star
vivacious little comic, poring over its status. Diehards may wail, but actually
Fact Files, caption competitions and they bring a much-needed human
Dalek histories… even that back element to the story, a chance for
page advert for Mr Bellamy’s the exquisite weirdness of this
Amazing Liquorice parallel Earth to be seen
Novelties (only through the eyes of
two normals.

Review by
STEVE O’BRIEN
Illustration by
JAMIE LENMAN

70 DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE


For those us who know every ink line and
every exclamation mark of that 40-year-old
comic strip, it’s a long-awaited thrill to hear
these characters come alive, from Morris, the
endearingly slow half-man/half-robot slave
to the much-mocked General Ironicus, to the
decrepit, endlessly angsty Vesuvius (played
here by Toby Longworth, channeling Kenneth
Connor). Wisely, perhaps, Barnes has resisted
importing too much of the original dialogue
verbatim. While lines like “We’ve got 24 hours
to seize an empire, for whoever controls Rome
controls the GALAXY!” work fine in print, in
reality they’d stretch the talents of even the
supplest of actors.
Though this version clocks in at just under
two hours, it sticks faithfully to the main beats
of the 1979 strip. While a few listeners might
take issue with the occasional tiny change
(Adolphus Caesar is now more spoiled teen
than brattish ten-year-old), most of us will
bask in the nostalgic thrill of hearing this
Most of us will bask in the nostalgic
gloriously bold and dizzyingly demented comic
strip finally brought to life.
thrill of hearing this gloriously bold
oining The Iron Legion in this first
and dizzyingly demented comic strip
J volume is another rollicking Mills
and Wagner yarn, The Star Beast,
which introduced Beep the Meep
to the Doctor Who comic universe. A more
finally brought to life.
moments in Barnes’ rewrite, such as the
throng of schoolkids chanting “We want
nothing else in the Big Finish canon with quite
the flavour of these stories. And that this is
conventional, less obviously 2000 AD- Craven! We want Craven” as the media Volume One is terribly exciting, as it means
influenced adventure, it pairs the Doctor with swarms around the crashed starship. (“John (hopefully) there’s more to come.
a couple of Yorkshire school kids, Sharon Craven is not here! Repeat: John Craven is
Davies and ‘Fudge’ Higgins, as they find not here!” barks the UNIT captain. “Haven’t he four-story anthology The Eighth
themselves protecting a seemingly harmless
furball by the name of, yes, Beep the Meep.
Of course, Beep the Meep isn’t quite the
impossibly cute, eyelash-fluttering sweetie
you got broken homes to go back to?”)
There’s also a Wrarth soldier who, after
Sharon calls Fudge a ‘wazzock’, thinks it’s
a legit Earth word: “It’s the wazzock, sir.”
T of March was released on – checks
calendar – the eighth of March
to mark International Women’s
Day. River Song, Leela, Ace, Benny, Madame
the kids think he is, with his pursuers actually “It’s very different,” Vastra, Jenny, Kate Stewart and two Osgoods
revealed to be an intergalactic we’re told Tom star in a set of female-centric adventures
police force on the hunt for Baker wrote to written and directed by women.
this homicidal psycho. There producer Nicholas Lisa McMullins’ Emancipation kicks things
are some light changes to the Briggs, after off with the first meeting of River Song and
comic-strip version. Despite reading the scripts Leela. River has arrived at a Galactic Heritage
the K9 cameo in the original, for The Iron Legion fundraiser, posing as Romana, on a mission to
there’s no K9 here; it probably and The Star Beast. prevent the kidnapping of a young princess;
wasn’t worth the train fare And it’s true, there’s meanwhile, Leela’s been sent by the real
just to ask John Leeson to go Romana to find out who’s masquerading
“Miaow!” and “Purrr!” for Above: Tom Baker as as her. They’re a brilliantly awkward mix,
half an hour. (K9’s the Doctor in City of the bombastically haired flirt-machine and
identity circuits had Death (1979). the knife-happy savage who barely ever
gone a bit haywire Left: Victorian cracks a smile. But, after some initial mutual
in the comic investigators scepticism, the two hit a comfortable groove.
strip.) Conversely, Jenny Flint (Catrin Let’s hope this isn’t the last time these two
Fudge’s role has Stewart) and find themselves on the same side.
Madame Vastra
been ramped up. Lizzie Hopley’s The Big Blue Book opens
(Neve McIntosh).
But, oddly, some with Ace and Benny having been plonked by
things you might the Doctor into early 1990s Liverpool. It’s not
have reasonably quite the two-hander it’s set up to look like;
expected to have with Benny disappearing ten minutes into
been ‘reimagined’ this one, the story zeroes in on
have stayed Ace as Perivale’s finest tracks
intact, such her shipmate’s movements to
as the slightly a grisly library. There, it turns
wonky science to out, she’s been turned into
explain the Meep’s a book – yep, a fleshy, veiny,
journey from song- skin-bound book – along with
singing peaceniks 18,000 other sad souls.
to marauding The Big Blue Book of the
intergalactic thugs. title is the TARDIS itself, which
There are suffers the same grim fate as
some genuine ‘lol’ Benny. It’s a hulking tome, 1

DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE 71


Reviews
1 confirming Christopher H Bidmead’s long-
held contention that the TARDIS isn’t, in fact,
infinite. A delectably batty concept, it’s one of
the highlights here, capped by a top-tier turn
from Sophie Aldred.
The Paternoster Gang has yet to make its
Big Finish debut proper, so the third story,
Inside Every Warrior, serves as an aperitif
to the main course coming this June. The
adventure finds Madame Vastra, Jenny and
Strax investigating the reported sighting of Above: The
a werewolf, which, they’re told, ravaged the Doctor (Peter
Davison) meets
home of the eminent (and Kamelion in The
fantastically named) Dr
Cornelius Pinch.
The Kamelion Empire King’s Demons
(1983).
Our intrepid gang is led
to the slums of Victorian
reveals that Kamelion Below: Frazer
Hines as Jamie
London, where they
discover that alien species
is one of thousands of McCrimmon in
Fury from the
are having their “essence”
drained from them to be
shape-shifting robots. Deep (1968).

sold on as a luxury beverage to the rich and open only to the most beautiful and successful, for the other four, for reasons never explained
bored. Gemma Langford’s adventure hits and it turns out that one of UNIT’s occasional on screen) but also because his backstory
just the right tone (black comedy combined allies, plucky journalist Jacqui McGee, is remained so sketchy. Jonathan Morris’ The
with Victorian Gothic), and, though Vastra registered. Cue Zygon Osgood hacking Kamelion Empire reveals that Kamelion
and Jenny’s constant cooing over each other Jacqui’s account and impersonating her on isn’t, in fact, one of a kind, but one of
often threatens to become exasperating, it’s to a very perilous date... thousands, a race of shape-shifting robots
Langford’s credit that it never quite does. It goes to show how socially progressive created by a race called the Kamil.
From one range yet to come to one Doctor Who as a show generally is, that it can Essentially a four-hander between the
that’s been in rude health since 2015. The scoop together so many clever, funny and rich Doctor, Tegan, Turlough and Kamelion,
present-day UNIT could probably win awards female characters from all eras. There’ll be Morris’ ‘Kamelion arc’ closer offers a clever
for gender inclusivity, which is especially another International Women’s Day coming explanation as to why he was AWOL for all
impressive given how testosterone-drenched on 8 March next year. Start compiling your those stories and also why he was never even
the organisation was in the 1970s (or 80s; character wishlist now… referred to by his TARDIS crewmates during
it depends on the dating protocol). Sarah that time. Big Finish has done a sterling job of
Grochala’s tale is the first Big Finish UNIT espite Kamelion joining the finally giving a fleshy backstory to this most
story to take place in the era of the Twelfth
Doctor, meaning we get two Osgoods here,
both of them investigating the disappearance
of one of their own, as well as a host of others.
D TARDIS team and staying for
what amounted to six stories, it’s
never felt easy to grant him official
companion status, not just because he only
of opaque of original series characters, thus
filling in some of the weird logic holes of the
Fifth Doctor era. Sadly, though, this seems to
be it for Kamelion in Big Finish-land. And just
The answer lies with an online dating site appeared in two stories (he remained absent as we were getting to like him, too... DWM

Talking Book Hines as Jamie, who also


brings a practised warmth
to his effortless takes
o The Elysian Blade insect bite brings on vivid and on the Second Doctor
(Featuring the Second Doctor, Jamie personal hallucinations for and Victoria. Frazer has
and Victoria) the time travellers, they join a definite twinkle these
Written by David Bishop a community of displaced locals days, clearly enjoying the
Read by Frazer Hines RRP £10.99 (CD) who are awaiting the arrival of work in front of him. As a
something called the Elysian story, The Elysian Blade is
Available from BBC Audio Fields. A spaceship arrives, its possibly trying a smidge
sinister owners offering too hard to be profound,
his latest original Doctor the chance to but it’s nevertheless

T Who adventure from


BBC Audio adopts the
experience your
heart’s desire or
effective as a morality
piece. David Bishop
contemplative vein established exorcise painful understands his three
by last year’s ‘War’ trilogy. ghosts. When regular characters,
It’s an approach that suits Victoria submits as well as several well-drawn Sound design doesn’t flood
the format and gets the best and pays a terrible and sympathetic the words – the aquatic-themed
from a gifted reader like Frazer price, the supporting figures. opening is well realised by
Hines, who brings the era of Doctor is The climax of the BBC Audio team – and
the Second Doctor to life with powerless The Elysian Blade continues throughout as subtle
affectionate skill. to help… wouldn’t be support to help the story along.
On an unnamed world, the This fine out of place in Overall, a warm reading
Doctor, Jamie and Victoria are work is a mid-Matt of a thought-provoking
separated from the TARDIS narrated Smith era story makes The Elysian
when the basement they’ve in the first episode, but Blade an authentic addition
landed in becomes flooded person here it’s given to the Audio Originals range.
during a tidal inrush. After an by Frazer a 1960s spin. MARK WRIGHT

72 DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE


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DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE 73


Reviews

The Macra Terror


Blu-ray/DVD
BBC Studios
RRP: DVD (£20.42), Blu-ray (£25.52),
Steelbook (£40.84)
Starring: Patrick Troughton, Michael Craze,
Anneke Wills and Frazer Hines

here’s a strong case

T
for resurrecting the
Macra. After all, in 2007 performances are painted in broad strokes,
showrunner Russell T Davies but the accomplished character work anchors
decided to strand some of this project to the original four-part story.
the gas-guzzling crustaceans They capture the crazed twitchiness of the
on one of New New York’s congested rebel Medok (Terrence Lodge) and the
motorways in Gridlock (which is included, looming bulk of the police chief Ola (Gertan
for completeness, on the limited-edition Klauber), who delivers all his lines with
steelbook of this set). The big reveal, where a beautifully drawn gap-toothed sneer.
an astonished David Tennant peers through Meanwhile, these characters now exist in
the fumes and identifies these somewhat an expanded environment, with the artists
obscure monsters, was, after 40 long years, not confining themselves to replicating the
gloriously unexpected and great fun. small sets and restricted camera angles. The
You have to sympathise with the team source material and creating something that Macra are bigger, more agile and – unlike the
behind this animated version of 1967’s The makes a virtue of this new medium. short, surviving clip where one menaces the
Macra Terror. The original videotapes were All credit to them, then, for striking a Doctor’s companion Polly, a clip fully restored
wiped in 1974; all that was left for them to satisfying balance. The previous release, The and included among the extras here – this
work with was an off-air audio track, a few Power of the Daleks, showed some evidence time around they’re able to dangle her in the
brief clips and some photos. They had to of them struggling with a Herculean task, air, snagged in a massive claw.
walk the line between honouring the missing but here they’ve hit their stride. The actors’
he story centres on a group of

Top right: The


residents of the colony
in the animated
T humans who settled on another
world and became prey to the
crab-like Macra, who brainwashed
version of 1967’s The and enslaved them. When the TARDIS
Macra Terror. arrives everything seems harmonious, but
Right: The Pilot and it’s not long before the truth of the situation
the Doctor discover reveals itself.
the real controllers of There’s something curious about the
the colony. Macra. When we finally see their lair in
Below: One of the Episode 4, they’re surrounded by pipes, dials
parasitic Macra. and gauges. It seems incongruous that
a Macra might sit itself in front of a bank
of instruments, twiddling switches with
a massive pincer. The voice of Control,
which we might have imagined to belong to
the poor colonist used as their figurehead,
turns out to be the voice of the Macra. It’s
pleasing to imagine that their urbane received
pronunciation isn’t merely a delusion –
another example of the mind-control used
to subjugate the colony – but actually the
way they really speak.
These little details make The Macra Terror
classic Doctor Who, its absurdity
as vital an ingredient as its
accomplished, unashamedly
B-movie, monster scares.
Also included in this
release are reconstructions
of the four episodes
using off-air photos and
the complete off-air
soundtrack, which have

74 DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE


Far left: A Macra holds
Polly in its grip.
Left: The Servo Robot in
the animation of 1968’s The
Wheel in Space Episode 1.
Below left: Jamie
McCrimmon, as illustrated
by artist Martin Geraghty.
Below right from top:
The sequence featuring
the Doctor’s friends being
pampered and the ‘rough
and tumble’ machine is on
the telesnap reconstruction
of The Macra Terror; the
front and back covers of the
steelbook; the colony, as
realised by artist Graham
Bleathman.

The artists have Doctor throws himself into the “rough-and-


tumble machine” is one of The Macra Terror’s
not confined most memorable scenes – but it is included as
part of the reconstruction. Among the other
themselves to extras, we also have the first part of 1968’s
The Wheel in Space, represented in the form
replicating the of a ten-minute animation. We might grumble
about cuts, but perhaps they do this rather
small sets and glacial episode a favour.

restricted It is, of course, gratifying to


have these much-missed episodes
camera angles. back in any form. It’s fair to say
that the new version of The
been lovingly stitched together. They Macra Terror is a different
suggest that the story as broadcast, for beast to the original: this gaily
all its holiday-camp frivolity, was darker coloured, panoramic animation
than we might imagine. Even Patrick makes it seem much more warm
Troughton, whose clownish Doctor and inviting. The option is
is in his element, often looks there, however, to watch
menacing. Heavy shadows in black and white – and
cloud his craggy face as he that might help transport
adopts expressions of abject us back and give those
horror to sell the situation. who never saw the
The Macra prop wasn’t all story a better idea
it could have been, but the of what it was like
salvaged footage makes it all those years ago.
clear that all concerned RICHARD ATKINSON
were trying to deliver
proper, scary Doctor Who
with utter conviction.
Indeed, in the audio
commentary director John
Davies recalls producer
Innes Lloyd instructing him to
“make it scary”. Toby Hadoke
moderates a wide-ranging
discussion here, including
recollections about the serial’s
regular cast. Frazer Hines
talks about his close working
relationship with Troughton
and his early days as Jamie
McCrimmon, and Anthony Gardner
(who played colonist Alvis) recalls
his friendship with their co-stars
Michael Craze (Ben) and Anneke
Wills (Polly).
The additional material
on this release makes it
a real collector’s edition. It’s
a shame that the animation excises
two minutes from Episode 1 –
after all, the sequence where the

DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE 75


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THE TENTH DOCTOR


ADVENTURES: DWM CROSSWORD
1 2 3 4 5 6
VOLUME THREE CD BOX SET
avid Tennant and Catherine Tate reprise 7 8 9 10 11

D their roles as the Tenth Doctor and


Donna Noble for the third volume of Big
Finish’s The Tenth Doctor Adventures.
12 13 14

The three full-cast audio adventures in this 15 16


new box set are No Place by James Goss, which
sees the Doctor and Donna appear on reality 17 18
television; the Judoon thriller One Mile Down
by Jenny T Colgan, which takes the travellers to 19 20

an underwater city; and The Creeping Death by


Roy Gill, set in the smog of 1950s London. No 21 22

Place guest-stars Bernard Cribbins as Wilf Mott,


23
Donna’s grandfather, and Jacqueline King as
Sylvia Noble, Donna’s mum.
24
The Tenth Doctor Adventures: Volume Three
will be available in May from bigfinish.com
25 26 27 28
priced £35 as a limited-edition CD box set,
or as a download for £25. 29 30
Alternatively, the stories can be
bought individually (£10.99 for 31 32
each CD or £8.99 to download).
DWM has FIVE copies of the 33 34
CD box set to give away to lucky
readers who can successfully 35 36 37
rearrange the letters in the
yellow squares to form the 38

name of a villain encountered


by the Tenth Doctor. 39 40

ACROSS 40 State of affairs on the New New York 28 General based on Androzani Minor (7)
1 (and 23 Across) Mythical group who guarded motorway (8) 30 Nyssa’s doppelganger – ___ Talbot (3)
the Reconnaissance Scout Dalek (3,5,2,3,10) 31 The ____ – film Bill said the Doctor would like (5)
4 (and 15 Across) The Chameleons (8,4) DOWN 34 Lalla ____ – played Romana (4)
7 Mercenary employed by the Cryons (6) 1 Small town where you’d find the Fox Inn (7) 36 Companion of the Doctor – on stage (3)
9 Adric’s brother (5) 2 A virologist aboard the Ark (4) 38 Meglos swore allegiance to this god (2)
14 One of Ace’s friends in Perivale (4) 3 Colleague of Anton and Curly (3)
15 See 4 Across 5 The Queen and King of Hearts (5) ANSWERS NEXT ISSUE
16 (and 12 Down) 7 November 1987 (7,3) 6 Production code of The Wheel in Space (1,1)  LAST ISSUE’S
18 God impersonated by the Mire (4) 8 Garron’s victim (3,5) SOLUTION
19 The Crimson ______ (6) 10 The Malus came from this planet (5)
20 ____ Tyler – played by Bernard Kay (4) 11 Andrew ______ – Tegan’s grandfather (6)
23 See 1 Across 12 See 16 Across
25 Country that invented New Year’s Eve, 13 It started on St Bartholemew’s Eve (3,8)
according to Graham (4) 17 Companion of the Doctor (2)
26 Silurian who killed Rory (6) 20 Twin planet of Raxicoricofallapatorius (4)
29 Eleanor ____ – played Kara (4) 21 Organisation targeted by the Reconnaissance
31 Jill ______ – part of the expedition to Exxilon (7) Scout Dalek (1,1,1,1)
32 Planet of ____ (4) 22 The Eighth Doctor asked to be brought this in
33 Vehicle used by one of the Robot Santas (4) his dying minutes (8) LAST ISSUE’S PRIZE WORD: BILL POTTS
35 One of Captain Latimer’s staff (5) 24 The ______ of Death (6)
37 He was turned into a baby (6) 25 Country partitioned in 1947 (5)
39 Planet famous for its sapphire waterfall (8) 27 Production code of The Power of the Daleks (1,1)

76 DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE


THE THIRD DOCTOR ADVENTURES: SCRATCHMAN
VOLUME FIVE CD TALKING BOOK
ig Finish’s The Third story originally intended

B Doctor Adventures:
Volume Five comprises
two full-cast audio
dramas starring Tim Treloar as the
A for the big screen, and
over 40 years in the
making, Scratchman is
the first Doctor Who novel to be
Third Doctor, Katy Manning as Jo written by Tom Baker.
Grant, Jon Culshaw as Brigadier The Doctor, Harry Sullivan and
Lethbridge-Stewart, Daisy Ashford Sarah Jane Smith arrive on a remote Scottish island, but their
as Dr Liz Shaw and John Levene holiday is cut short by the appearance of hideous scarecrows
as Sergeant Benton. that are preying on the local population. The islanders are living
In Primord by John Dorney, in fear, and the Doctor vows to save them all. Things don’t go
prisoners are escaping across the country and UNIT has according to plan, for the time travellers have fallen into a trap
been called in to aid the search. But the Doctor can’t help as and Scratchman is coming for them. With the fate of the universe
he and Jo are going on a holiday to visit his old assistant Liz hanging in the balance, the Doctor must battle an ancient
Shaw. However, the Doctor can’t relax for long as he finds force from another dimension, one that claims to be the Devil.
himself facing an old enemy… Scratchman wants to know what the Doctor is most afraid of. And
 In Guy Adams’ The Scream of Ghosts, the Brigadier and the the Doctor’s worst nightmares are coming out to play…
Doctor are both having strange communication problems which The Scratchman audiobook, read by Tom Baker himself, is
they realise may be connected. Soon they discover that terrifying available as a box set of CDs, RRP £25. Thanks to BBC Audio we’ve
sounds are echoing in the English countryside... got FIVE copies of the box set to give away. If you’d like
The Third Doctor Adventures: Volume Five is available in May a chance of winning one, correctly answer the following question:
from bigfinish.com priced £25 on CD or £20 to download. We’ve
got FIVE CDs to give away. For a chance to win one, just answer Which TV Doctor Who story featured
this question correctly: animated scarecrows?
A The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances
Who played Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart
in Doctor Who from 1968-89? B The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit
A Nicholas Courtney B Nicholas Smith C Nicholas Briggs C Human Nature/The Family of Blood

THE WAR MACHINES THE HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE TO


TALKING BOOK THE GALAXY: QUANDARY PHASE VINYL
n the latest release from BBC Audio, Michael Cochrane he Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy:

I reads Ian Stuart Black’s novelisation of his 1966 serial The


War Machines, starring William Hartnell as the First Doctor.
The TARDIS materialises near the Post Office Tower in
London, 1966. The Doctor senses a powerful and evil force, which
T Quandary Phase is available now on
180g heavyweight blue vinyl from
Demon Records.
Covering episodes 19 to 22 of Douglas Adams’
leads him and his companion, Dodo, to scientist Professor Brett seminal BBC radio series, Quandary Phase is
and WOTAN, a revolutionary new computer. based on Adams’ fourth Hitchhiker’s novel, So
WOTAN has begun to think for itself Long, and Thanks for All the Fish. Hitching a lift
and has formulated a deadly plan. back to Earth, Arthur Dent returns to his cottage
Using its phenomenal power it programs and tries to resume normal life. But an encounter with a striking
humans to build mobile fighting woman named Fenchurch poses a series of unanswered questions…
computers, and with these unstoppable The two records are presented in illustrated wallets inside a rigid,
War Machines plans to take over bound 20-page book, including a tribute to Douglas Adams written
the world… by Stephen Fry and sleeve notes by Jem Roberts, Adams’ official
The War Machines is available now, biographer. Amazon is offering 500 exclusive copies of the release,
priced £20 on CD. Thanks to BBC Audio which include an art print signed by Stephen Fry.
we’ve got FIVE copies to give away. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: Quandary Phase is out now,
To be in with a chance of winning one, RRP £52.99 on vinyl. We’ve got TWO copies of the edition with the
correctly answer the following question: signed art print to give away. Fancy having a go at winning one?
Just answer this question:
Which London club, reputedly “the hottest night
spot in town”, do the Doctor and Dodo visit in the Who did Simon Jones play in the 1974 stage play Doctor
TV version of The War Machines? Who and the Daleks in Seven Keys to Doomsday?
A The Inferno B Sutekh’s Sizzlin’ Swingorama A Logar of Sarn B The Master of Karn
C The Devil’s Disco aka Azal’s Place C High Priestess Ohila of Karn

TERMS AND CONDITIONS


The competitions open on Thursday 4 April 2019 and close at 23.59 on Wednesday 1 May 2019. One entry per person. The competitions are not open to employees of DOCTOR WHO
MAGAZINE or anyone else connected with DWM, the printers or their families. Winners will be the first correct entries drawn after the closing date. No purchase necessary.
DWM will not enter into any correspondence. Winners’ names will be available on request. Entrants under 16 years of age must have parental permission to enter.

DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE 77


o
We talk to the talents behind the upcoming Doctor Who releases.

Previews by DAN TOSTEVIN

Volume Five
im Treloar and Katy There are also two new cast members,

T
Manning are back for two both stepping into established roles.
RRP £25 (CD), £20 (download)
more instalments of The In Primord, Daisy Ashford plays Liz, the
RELEASED May
Third Doctor Adventures. role originated by her mother, Caroline
John Dorney’s Primord is John, who died in 2012. Jon Culshaw,
Written by JOHN DORNEY,
a sequel to the 1970 meanwhile, appears in both stories as Above: Characters
GUY ADAMS
serial Inferno and features the return Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, taking featured on Tom
STARRING of ex-companion Liz Shaw, while The over from Nicholas Courtney, who died Webster’s cover art
Scream of Ghosts, by Guy Adams, sees in 2011. for The Third Doctor
The Doctor Tim Treloar
Adventures: Volume
Jo Grant Katy Manning the Doctor investigating a strange “It’s quite an extraordinary feeling, as Five include Jo
Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart extraterrestrial signal. you can imagine,” says Katy. “All these Grant, Liz Shaw, the
Jon Culshaw As usual, Katy reprises her TV role voices are so strong in my memory. Tim Doctor and Brigadier
Liz Shaw Daisy Ashford as companion Jo Grant, while Tim has now become Jon [Pertwee] totally. Lethbridge-Stewart.
General Sharp Michael Troughton
recreates the late Jon Pertwee’s I’ve got hairs standing up on my arm at Opposite page above
Captain Hall Andrew Wincott
performance as the Doctor. They’re Jon Culshaw. And then in comes Daisy, centre: The cast is
Private Callahan/Primords
joined in The Scream of Ghosts by who just happens to be the daughter led by Tim Treloar,
Joe Jameson Jon Culshaw, Katy
Lady Madeleine Rose John Levene, making his first Third of the gorgeous Caroline John, who
Manning and John
Barmaid Bethan Dixon Bate Doctor Adventures appearance as UNIT I adored. We had a lot of giggly times Levene.
mainstay Sergeant Benton. together, and Daisy has so many things

78 DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE


about her that remind me of
her mother – although she is,
of course, her own unique self
as an actress.
“And so I’m standing there,
and it’s this weird, unique
feeling,” she continues. “Here
I am, this old lady, and yet
I’m transported right back in
time! It’s a little bit uncanny
every now and again. I almost
have to pinch myself that I’m
not standing there with these
people that are so strong in
my memory and my heart,
and certainly in my ears. It’s
wonderful, and it’s creating
a time that we never thought
we’d be able to hear again.”
“I was really honoured to be
asked,” says Daisy, “because it’s
so personal to me and my mum. It’s
a bit of a dream, really. I looked up to my
mum so much as an actress that to have “I watched Inferno and a few
the chance to share a role with her is just
incredible. Obviously I’m not her, but other bits and pieces to try he search for new actors to play
I hope I sound a little like her, and I hope
I can do it justice. I just don’t want to let
the fans down, because she’s obviously
a very special character to a lot of people.
and get the essence of Liz,
and to try and get the voice
T the Brigadier and Liz Shaw involved
producer David Richardson and
director Nicholas Briggs.
“It was very appealing to bring the
“I watched Inferno and a few other bits
and pieces to try and get the essence of in my head.” DAISY ASHFORD characters back,” says David, “but we were
very aware that it’s not that long ago since
Liz, and to try and get the voice in my we’d lost two very well-loved actors. I had
head,” she explains. “I think if you try to worked with them both, and they were
mimic something too much, you can lose him proud. I want to really look after smashing people. So if we were going to do
Above right: Caroline
the character, so I’m trying to keep that it. I see it as a big responsibility.” it, we wanted to do it right, and respectfully,
John as Liz and
voice in my head while focusing on the Katy feels sure her late co-stars Nicholas Courtney and tastefully.
spirit of the character.” would have approved of their successors. as the Brigadier in “With the Brigadier, we wanted to find
“Nick would be sitting in the a publicity shot for somebody who could be as close as possible
or Daisy, the defining juicer, saying how marvellous Doctor Who and the to Nicholas Courtney, and – unusually for

F characteristics
of Liz are her
intelligence and
all this was!” she suggests,
giggling. “Caroline
would be so proud –
Silurians (1970).
Left inset: Jon Pertwee
as the Doctor and Katy
Big Finish – we did auditions. All of the
voice-reels were brilliant; it was just that Jon
Culshaw is so close to Nicholas’ own voice
Manning as Jo in Terror
strength. “I think and rightly so – of that it’s just uncanny.
of the Autons (1971).
what mum also Daisy. She is so “The casting of Liz Shaw was easier,” he
Below: Daisy Ashford,
added to it was: much her mother’s Tim Treloar, Jon
continues, “because we’d made the decision
there is a warmth daughter, and she’s Culshaw and Katy that if we were going to cast Liz Shaw, the
to her, and a sense carrying on this Manning. only person we would ask was Daisy Ashford.
of humour,” she wonderful tradition. Daisy is a super actress, we knew she had
suggests. “It makes I know, being a mum the skill set to play it, and it made emotional
her more accessible, myself, how proud sense for Daisy to do it. I approached her at
and less just a great she would be of her the start of 2018, before we even started
mind. She’s a fun character daughter. And what working on the storylines, because we
as well, I think.” a joy it is for us to wanted her to be in place.
Jon Culshaw has experience have her with us! But Nick? If she had felt it wasn’t
imitating Nicholas Courtney, having Oh, Nick would just be beaming right for her, we wouldn’t
voiced the Brigadier while narrating from ear to ear. have proceeded with
novelisations for BBC Audio. “So “Everybody has brought someone else.”
I was very familiar with taking on heart and soul into these
the Brigadier’s voice with lines that characters, and really
already existed,” he says, “but to take made them live again,”
that and apply it to brand-new stories, Katy sums up. “It’s
brand-new dialogue, brand-new words… a beautiful thing,
I was utterly honoured to be asked and from my point
to do it. of view, I think
“I met Nick a few times over the it’s an absolute
years at various Doctor Who events gift to the
and others, and he was such wonderful, fans. I hope
wonderful company,” he adds. “They’re they’re going
cherished memories of being in his to be very
company, they really are. I want to do excited.”

DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE 79


Soon…

too much! I love her so much. I could do


a whole spin-off series. I can’t do anything
without putting some ridiculousness
in there. Even in the darkest, deepest
tragedy, somebody’s got to slip on a
banana skin or something! I just like the
strange and the weird and the eccentric.”
Lisa was inspired to write Tempest
after delivering a script about out-of-
control climate change for September’s
Rose Tyler: The Dimension Cannon.
“Off the back of that, I was thinking
about the weather and how it’s been
acting strangely,” she recalls. “I thought,
‘Wouldn’t it be interesting if some sort
of alien creature was manipulating our

UNIT: Incursions weather systems?’”

he collection concludes with

n April Kate Stewart and


T a two-part story by Guy Adams.
The Power of River Song involves
a research centre exploring alternative

I
Osgood return for Incursions – power, where one of the UNIT regulars is
three new adventures for RRP £23 (CD), £20 (download) found dead. “David Richardson [producer]
their team at the Unified RELEASED April suggested that it would be interesting to
Above: UNIT:
Incursions features Intelligence Taskforce. have modern UNIT involved in the sort of
Osgood (Ingrid The first is This Sleep of Written by JONATHAN MORRIS, story that classic UNIT would be involved
Oliver), Kate Stewart Death by Jonathan Morris. It’s a sequel to LISA McMULLIN, GUY ADAMS in, like a research centre or a power
(Jemma Redgrave)
and River Song (Alex
his 2017 audio Static, in which the Sixth STARRING station that’s under threat,” says Guy.
Kingston). Doctor encountered a stone circle that Kate Stewart Jemma Redgrave “I thought about that and came up with
Below left: James could resurrect the dead. Osgood Ingrid Oliver  a list of possible things that could go
“Static had gone down very well, so Josh Carter James Joyce  wrong for the modern UNIT team – the
Joyce plays UNIT’s
Josh Carter. I thought maybe I could do something Sam Bishop Warren Brown  most interesting of which, I thought,
River Song Alex Kingston 
Below right: more with that,” Jonathan explains. “It’s would be to kill one of them and have
Sgt Warren Calder Andrew French 
The leading cast set in the present day, so that’s 40 years them try to solve their own murder.
Private Meghan Coates Ajjaz Awad 
members – Enzo later, and the stone circle has now been When you write a lot of these stories,
Jeff/Barney Hywel Morgan
Squillino Jnr, Alex concreted over and turned into a sort half the fun is to set yourself up for
Mother McCracken Alexandra Mathie 
Kingston, James
of bunker by UNIT. They’re aware of its Joel Sanders Chris Jarman  a difficult challenge, and that seemed
Joyce, Ingrid
Oliver and Jemma properties, and they’ve occasionally used Jacqui McGee Tracy Wiles  suitably excessive!”
Redgrave – with them to bring back the dead in situations Mr Chant Enzo Squillino Jnr  The story features River Song, the
director Ken Bentley. of extreme emergency. One such Leif/Wampeerix Leighton Pugh Doctor’s time-travelling wife, appearing
situation arises, so Kate and Osgood alongside Kate and Osgood for the first
set off to Abbey Marston time. “The pleasure of writing for these
to bring back someone characters is that they’re all wonderfully
from beyond the grave.”
Jonathan hopes
“Even in the darkest large, powerful, complicated bright lights,”
Guy continues. “The potential failing,
that in this script,
he’s “revisiting the
tragedy, somebody’s got of course, is that you put all of these
people in a room and it just becomes
atmosphere” of
the spooky Static.
to slip on a banana skin impossible to see, because they all shine
so brightly. The challenge is to make
“Sometimes what
people think of as scary
or something!” LISA McMULLIN that a wonderful thing, and have them
bouncing off each other.”
is actually not the fright,
not the shock, but the anticipation and
the dread,” he explains. “So – in as far as
it’s possible to do that on the page, in
a script – I tried to create the
opportunities for the cast and director
to come up with an atmospheric and
suspenseful piece of work.”
The second episode is Lisa McMullin’s
Tempest,, which introduces a woman
called Mother McCracken, who lives in
the Outer Hebrides with a pet owl and
a talking chimney. “I really had to temper
it,” says Lisa, laughing. “She had a
gerbil as well, but I was told it was

80 DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE


Upcoming
The Moons Releases
of Vulpana AUDIOS
MAY RELEASES
s The Tenth Doctor Adventures:
n April’s The Monsters of Volume Three by James Goss,

I
Gokroth, the Seventh Doctor Jenny T Colgan, Roy Gill
invited a new companion aboard Big Finish £35 (CD),
the TARDIS: Mags, the punk £25 (download)
werewolf played by Jessica
s The Third Doctor Adventures:
Martin in 1988-89’s The Greatest Volume Five by John Dorney,
Show in the Galaxy. Guy Adams
“She slots perfectly into the role of Big Finish £25 (CD),
a companion,” says writer Emma Reeves, £20 (download)
who continues their adventures in The
Moons of Vulpana. “I think she works s The Moons of Vulpana
[Seventh Doctor]
particularly well for the Seventh Doctor, castles and poor
by Emma Reeves
because their dynamic has got certain peasants – because it Big Finish £14.99 (CD),
similarities with the Seventh Doctor doesn’t quite correlate RRP £14.99 (CD),
RELEASED February £12.99 (download)
and Ace. She’s a young woman who’s exactly to a period
quite troubled, hasn’t found her place of Earth’s history. s Under ODIN’s Eye
in the world, has quite a dark past, It’s a fantasy time, Written by EMMA REEVES [Sixth Doctor] by Alice Cavender
and is struggling with elements of her somewhere between Big Finish £2.99 (download)
STARRING
personality. The Doctor is sort of helping the middle ages and the The Doctor Sylvester McCoy s Torchwood: Sync
her, but also putting her into situations early 19th century.” Mags Jessica Martin by Lisa McMullin
where she has to help herself.” Emma developed the Ulla Nimmy Marsh Big Finish £9.99 (CD),
“In The Greatest Show in the Galaxy planet in collaboration Issak Peter Bankole £7.99 (download)
Jaks Irfan Shamji
she’s very much an outlier,” says Jessica, with script editor
Tob Sean Knopp Thursday 2 May
“and we don’t know very much about Alan Barnes. “We
Barton Beth Goddard s The Faceless Ones
her until the end of the story. We don’t know, obviously, that
[Second Doctor, talking book]
know any of her history apart from the other Vulpanans are by Terrance Dicks
fact that she comes from Vulpana. In The werewolves,” says Emma, “but there’s BBC Audio £20 (CD)
Moons of Vulpana, it’s almost like not an enormous amount
Who Do You Think You Are? established in the original s Ninth Doctor Novels
because Mags actually show, so I had a fairly by Justin Richards, Stephen Cole,
goes to the planet that free hand to create the Jacqueline Rayner
BBC Audio £40 (CD)
she comes from and history and geography
meets people from her of Vulpana. When I
JUNE RELEASES
bloodline – we get to was originally chatting
s The Paternoster Gang:
find out the lineage. with Alan, our starting
Heritage 1 by Jonathan Morris,
And actually, even with point was a reverse Roy Gill, Paul Morris, Big Finish
that knowledge, she’s Pride and Prejudice, £25 (CD), £20 (download)
still an outsider.” with various young
male werewolves fighting s The Companion Chronicles
he Vulpana of for Mags’ hand! We also – The First Doctor: Volume 3

T Emma’s story isn’t


quite the one Mags
knows. “It’s several millennia before
got the idea that, because
werewolves are controlled by
the Moon, if you have a planet with
Top: Tom Webster’s
cover art for The
Moons of Vulpana
by Julian Richards, Guy Adams
Big Finish £20 (CD), £15 (download)

s An Alien Werewolf in London


the time that Mags comes from,” Emma multiple moons, perhaps you’d have features the Doctor [Seventh Doctor] by Alan Barnes
explains. “The Seventh Doctor is being different groups of werewolves controlled (Sylvester McCoy) and Big Finish £14.99 (CD), £12.99 (download)
Mags (Jessica Martin).
a bit opaque in his motives, as always. by different moons. That was quite an
At the beginning of the story, Mags is exciting idea, which I ran with a bit. So it Above left: Sylvester s Torchwood: God Among Us – Part 3 by TBA
McCoy with Beth Big Finish £28 (CD), £25 (download)
in something of a crisis, struggling to started as a twisted, werewolf, reverse-
Goddard, who plays
control her werewolf side and riddled gender Pride and Prejudice, but I think it Barton. s Torchwood: Sargasso
with self-hatred. She’s looking for evolved into something different. by Christopher Cooper
Above right: Jessica
somewhere to fit in, and the Doctor “It’s a real Mags showcase,” Emma Martin reprises Big Finish £9.99 (CD), £7.99 (download)
says he wants to show her the past of concludes. “It’s very much her story. her role as the
her own planet. It’s a society where It’s about her struggle to understand lycanthrope, Mags.
werewolves were the aristocratic ruling herself, but it also gives her a chance to
MAGAZINES
class, somewhat oppressing the non- showcase a lot of excellent companion Thursday 18 April
werewolves – possibly not a million miles qualities. She’s loyal, she’s very brave, s DWM Special Edition:
away from the Time Lords and the non- she’s got a strong sense of right and Costume Design
Time Lord Gallifreyans. wrong, and she has the capability to be Panini £5.99
“In Doctor Who terms, it’s probably quite self-sacrificing. As I was writing it,
Thursday 2 May
more like State of Decay [1980] than I began to think, ‘I hope Jessica does a lot s DWM 538
anything else – the classic ‘time that of these’, because I can see Mags being Panini £5.99
never was’, with aristocrats in their a really great ongoing companion.” DWM

DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE 81


ILLUSTRATION BY BEN MORRIS

Sneaky peeks into the secret diaries


of characters in the Doctor’s orbit...
#19:
Mission to the Unknown (1965)

“You-are-all-delegates-from-the- what-order-we-will-invade-the-
planets-of-the-Solar-System-in?”
outer-galaxies. That-is-enough.”
My fellow delegates nodded and
“Oh, we’re delegates, are we?” said
shouted out things like “Agreed!” and
Beaus. “I thought we were emissaries.”
“Emissaries?” said Trantis. “Our galactic domination is assured!”
and “We are the mightiest in the
“I thought we were representatives.”
“Aren’t we all just members of the universe!” All except for Gearon,
who waited until they had finished
Galactic Council?” said Celation.
“Well, I was told we were and then muttered, “I still think we
should do Jupiter first. Work our way
planetarians,” muttered Gearon.
Everyone, including the Black inwards. It’s on the way.”
“We-are-not-doing-Jupiter-first.
Dalek, turned to look at Gearon.
That-would-be-silly. We-do-Earth-
“We-are-not-‘planetarians’,” said the
first-then-the-Moon-colonies-then-
Black Dalek. “That-would-be-silly.
we-do-Jupiter.” The Black Dalek
Can-we-begin-the-meeting-now?”
“No,” said Malpha dramatically. glided around the room. “All-is-
agreed. The-eight-great-powers-
“There is a hostile presence among us!”
I gasped in shock. We all turned of-the-outer-galaxies-are-as-one.”
“Seven,” said Malpha.
to look at each other suspiciously.
“The-seven-great-powers-of-the-
“In-this-conference-room?”
outer-galaxies-and-Zephon-
“No. They are at large...
is “No. You’re thinking of the universe.” when-he-gets-here-are-
I know what you’re wondering. “Which one up somewhere in the
set your mind at rest. I’m “No, I’m pretty sure the universe is made as-one.”
Sentreal?” Well, let me ht. jungle outside!”
with a head a bit like a chess of billions of galaxies...” I had another thoug “This is indeed
the tall deleg ate “Then-they-are-
the “So what do you think a solar system is?” an historic moment
piece with a sort of concertina section in g not-among-us-are-
s I can bobbl e up and down “A solar system is... a star, and its surroundin in the history of the
middl e. This mean and their surro undin g they-Master-of-
my planets, and other stars, universe’s... history,”
to express agreement or disagreement in in the Malpha?” said the Dalek
deleg ate. planets. The planet Skaro, for instance, is said Malpha. “Together
capac ity as an alien
m as Earth .” snidely. “Do-not-worry.
same solar syste we represent the greatest
It was in that capacity that I attended the If-they-do-not-die-by-
“Right,” I said. “You do realise these are war force ever assembled. All the
Intergalactic Peace Conference of Andromeda ned our-Varga-Plants-my-patrols-will-
el. actually scientific terms with precisely defi worlds of the Solar System will fall
at the United Galactic Headquarters on Kemb can exterminate-them!” The Black Dalek
fully I landed meanings and not just random words that before our might!”
It was all very last minut e but thank
want them to mean ?” swung its eyestalk around the room.
drinks mean whate ver you “And-the-first-of-them-is-Earth!”
in time to join the other delegates at the “Now-can-the-meeting- begin?”
“I do!” said Trantis with a snarl. “And I use added the Black Dalek hurriedly.
reception. I recognised Celation with his big “No, wait,” said Malpha. “There is
his them correctly!” “I still say...” began Gearon.
hood, Gearon with his visor, and Beaus with something else.”
also “Right, yes, sorry,” I said hurriedly. “So, um... “No-we-have-decided-it-now-
provocatively transparent top. There was If Daleks could sigh, the Black
a face Did you drive yourself here?” ate-Gearon. Delegate-Malpha-
a delegate I didn’t know; a short man with At this point an alert sounded, Dalek would have sighed. “Wha t-is- Deleg
will-r ead-o ut-the-minutes.”
covered in droopy fronds. indicating that it was time to it-this-time?”
Malph a checked his notes. “We
“Hello,” I said. “I am Sentreal.” begin, and we all gathered in the “There’s meant to be eight of us.
er this table pledge our allegiance
“I am Trantis,” he said nonchalantly. “Mast The Master of Zephon, he’s not here.”
at
may know conference room around the big circular h-on? ” to the Dalek cause. Our armies
of the Tenth Galaxy. You “Zeph-on? Which-one- is-Zep
table, trying to work out where to stand. will reduc e the galaxies to ashes,
it. It is the biggest one.” “Er... Where are the lecterns?” said “Bloke in a cloak, looks like
“Wow,” I said. “A whole etcet era etcetera... And Earth we will
Malpha to the Black Dalek. seaweed.”
galaxy, that’s... incredible.” “Oh, he sends his apologies,” conquer first.”
The Black Dalek stared at him with “Very-good,” said the Black Dalek.
“Yes, it is pretty said Celation. “Says he can’t make
its eyestalk. “What-lecterns?” “Now-we-can-move-on-to-item-two.
incredible. My empire spans “There were supposed to be it because he’s suffering a violent
almost 20 solar systems!” nt Gress .” Victory-chant. All-together-now.
lecterns with name plates,” said uprising of the Embodyme
I paused, trying to “Ooh, I had that once,” said Victory! Victory! Victory!”
Celation. “So when we have our for It was at this point that I realised
work out what to say. Beaus. “Very nasty. I was laid up
photos taken, it’s clear who is who.” the Intergalactic Peace Conference
“Er... are you sure you “There-will-be-no-photography- a fortnight.”
don’t mean star cluster? “Then-we-can-start-w ithou t- of Andromeda would probably take
in-the-conference-room.” place on Andromeda and that I had
Because aren’t there, “I just think it might, you know, him,” said the Black Dalek. “Item-
agree d- gone to the wrong meeting.
like, billions of solar avoid confusion later.” one. Have-we-all-finally-
systems in a galaxy?”

82 DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE As told to Jonathan Morris


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