For 1986, Doig and Clegg had a clear plan of action: a whole year of returning monsters, to make it clear this was ‘normal’ Doctor Who, and a new companion, preferably a well-known actress, to get ratings back up. This was not what they’d initially wanted to make and having to fire David Yip and Pamela Salem was going to be awkward, but the BBC was expecting change. It’s been rumoured for years that some of the upper management had hoped to replace Lenny Henry but dared not say so out loud for fear of ‘looking racist’. Due to changes in TV, they also decided to do 45-minute 2-parters even though the BBC would not yet pay for more stories; the schedule was made weekly again, to ensure they still were on for ten weeks.
Ironically, even as Doctor Who came under pressure, The Lenny Henry Show saw increased ratings and was duly renewed for another series. [1] It was even sold abroad to the United States, as the Who distributors felt they could exploit the growing African-American fandom. One convention in New York invited Henry and showed one of the Show episodes – a lot of the British jokes went over people’s heads.
None of the TARDIS cast were happy about the idea of changing the companions but Yip & Salem were used to being jobbing actors, and had been on the show two years anyway. Replacing them was light entertainment star Bonnie Langford [2] as the 21st century computer scientist and rocketeer Melania Bork (given an Eastern European name to imply future détente). While Henry wasn’t happy at the change, he made sure to be as friendly as possible to Langford to ensure he had an ally in case, as she suspected, the show tried to replace him.
A butcher’s bill of monsters was drawn up by Doig and Clegg, starting with the Daleks, and hopefully including the Mara, the Ice Warriors (to reuse the costumes from last year), the Autons, and the Cybermen. Due to the popularity of the recent Doctor Who repeats, the opening story would be a crossover between the Sixth and Second Doctors. All this needed now was actual stories, which meant five writers willing to put up with this.
Eric Saward had left Doctor Who behind but was coaxed back at the thought of using Troughton. His pitch saw both TARDISes land on a cemetery planet, where a charismatic cult leader has taken over – both Doctors arrive twenty years apart, the Second and Jamie (Victoria was added when Watling turned out to be free) when the “Great Healer” arrives, and the Sixth when everything’s gone wrong, with damage to the TARDIS causing the Second Doctor to appear in the Sixth’s timezone in Part 2. While Saward had hoped to use the Daleks, he was given the Ice Warriors and so made the Ice Warriors be the first to fall to the Great Healer’s manipulations, forming his dark honour guard.
The Autons would appear in Singapore, the setting for writing Lee Chang and Professor Laird out, as there was a flourishing plastic trade in Asia at the time [3]. Robert Holmes agreed to write this semi-sequel to Chang’s first story and included a swarm of Auton infiltrators, while throwing in alien conmen Sablom Glitz and Dipper to amuse himself. Yip and Salem were asked and turned down having their characters leave as a couple.
Melania was to be introduced in the same story as the Cybermen, with Clegg (who’d been wondering how best to do it) asking for it to be an Agatha Christie story in space after a discussion with her friend Saward. [4] Chris Boucher was given the nod after he floated around his Star Cops idea and he planned to use this story as a proof-of-concept; rather than Orient Express, his model would be And Then They Were None, and Ten Little Spacemen saw the crew of a 2050s freighter being picked off by a lone Cyberman, trying to work out who among the guilty crew was a collaborator (in the end, neither, as paranoia dooms them). Clegg made sure he didn’t make Melania guilty of anything too grim, allowing it to be simple fraud.
For the Mara, Christopher Bailey reluctantly added the entity to a long-delayed, structure-lacking story about the Byzantium Empire called May Time. [5] Adding the Mara as a threat allowed the story to have a menace and something for the characters to work against, but Bailey felt this wasn’t a proper use of the creature and the scripts began to drag. [6] Clegg put a lot of work into helping Bailey tighten them up, but the stress of it ensured she wouldn’t seek him out again.
The Daleks would be the year’s final villain and hoping to reclaim the glories of The Bridgehead, Doig and Clegg called up Ian Marter. The former companion and novelist was much in demand now as a writer of thrillers and low-budget films [7], but was willing to return for old time’s sake. He pitched a Cold War thriller involving stolen bioweapons and a retired Brigadier being framed (he thought of bringing back Harry Sullivan but felt that would be a bit much), with the Gold Dalek making another attempt to alter the timeline. Learning who the new companion was, he made his femme fatale spy Samantha into a Polish agent and grandmother of Melania.
Production went smoothly enough until Robert Holmes, after a short illness, died during the filming of City of the Autons. A dark pallor went over the rest of the shoot and Clegg would have to do any needed rewrites herself. Shortly after that, fan consultant Ian Levine – who had expected more access than Doig and Clegg were willing to give – broke off with the show and joined the fans opposing the ‘Doig Era’, using what he knew of the show’s new series to trash it in advance. [8] Due to his prominence, many fans believed his claims and in particular his exaggeration over how much Clegg was rewriting Holmes.
Halfway through production, Doig announced this would be his last year. Officially it was down to three years being enough but in private (and in later interviews), he admitted it was due to frustration that he couldn’t get his vision to fully stick and fear that the show’s ongoing problems would become an albatross around his career’s neck. [9] Clegg became worried her own job may not last without him and quietly approach Henry and Langford, hoping to join their clique.
When the show finally aired, ratings had a slight jump for the Daleks and Cybermen but otherwise stayed at 1985 levels. The critical reviews were more mixed than they had been in years, with criticisms that the show was relying too much on old glories – the opposite of what Doig had hoped would happen. Fandom would have been mollified by the return of the monsters but instead had a minor civil war over Levine, as it was now clear many of his claims were not true.
A final moment served to mar the year: Ian Marter died suddenly, on his 42nd birthday. The Dalek Affair would air with a dedication to him and the last thing Doig & Clegg would ever work on was a hastily filmed scene (filmed in Courtney’s actual house) of the Doctor and the Brigadier calling Harry Sullivan to tell him what he’d missed.
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[1] OTL it skipped a year and would come back retooled as a sitcom. Becoming the Doctor gives Lenny Henry a boost.
[2] Doig goes for her for the same reason JN-T does. In both timelines, Langford’s desperate for drama roles to broaden her career.
[3] The reason for “Yellow Fever” going to be set there, but obviously that title won’t ever happen with Yip around
[4] The same suggestion an under-pressure Saward gave the Bakers to get Vervoids.
[5] He retracted the story OTL as he was unable to get the structure right.
[6] Bailey had been not quite happy with either of his times writing for the show.
[7] ITTL, he’s associated with a highly popular story and in multiple countries, at that.
[8] Levine had been hanging around since the Williams era to the strained tolerance of everyone on production. He fell out with Nathan-Turner OTL, in part over things like casting Bonnie Langford, so it won’t take much to turn him more violently against Doig and Clegg.
[9] As indeed it was for JN-T.
Ironically, even as Doctor Who came under pressure, The Lenny Henry Show saw increased ratings and was duly renewed for another series. [1] It was even sold abroad to the United States, as the Who distributors felt they could exploit the growing African-American fandom. One convention in New York invited Henry and showed one of the Show episodes – a lot of the British jokes went over people’s heads.
None of the TARDIS cast were happy about the idea of changing the companions but Yip & Salem were used to being jobbing actors, and had been on the show two years anyway. Replacing them was light entertainment star Bonnie Langford [2] as the 21st century computer scientist and rocketeer Melania Bork (given an Eastern European name to imply future détente). While Henry wasn’t happy at the change, he made sure to be as friendly as possible to Langford to ensure he had an ally in case, as she suspected, the show tried to replace him.
A butcher’s bill of monsters was drawn up by Doig and Clegg, starting with the Daleks, and hopefully including the Mara, the Ice Warriors (to reuse the costumes from last year), the Autons, and the Cybermen. Due to the popularity of the recent Doctor Who repeats, the opening story would be a crossover between the Sixth and Second Doctors. All this needed now was actual stories, which meant five writers willing to put up with this.
Eric Saward had left Doctor Who behind but was coaxed back at the thought of using Troughton. His pitch saw both TARDISes land on a cemetery planet, where a charismatic cult leader has taken over – both Doctors arrive twenty years apart, the Second and Jamie (Victoria was added when Watling turned out to be free) when the “Great Healer” arrives, and the Sixth when everything’s gone wrong, with damage to the TARDIS causing the Second Doctor to appear in the Sixth’s timezone in Part 2. While Saward had hoped to use the Daleks, he was given the Ice Warriors and so made the Ice Warriors be the first to fall to the Great Healer’s manipulations, forming his dark honour guard.
The Autons would appear in Singapore, the setting for writing Lee Chang and Professor Laird out, as there was a flourishing plastic trade in Asia at the time [3]. Robert Holmes agreed to write this semi-sequel to Chang’s first story and included a swarm of Auton infiltrators, while throwing in alien conmen Sablom Glitz and Dipper to amuse himself. Yip and Salem were asked and turned down having their characters leave as a couple.
Melania was to be introduced in the same story as the Cybermen, with Clegg (who’d been wondering how best to do it) asking for it to be an Agatha Christie story in space after a discussion with her friend Saward. [4] Chris Boucher was given the nod after he floated around his Star Cops idea and he planned to use this story as a proof-of-concept; rather than Orient Express, his model would be And Then They Were None, and Ten Little Spacemen saw the crew of a 2050s freighter being picked off by a lone Cyberman, trying to work out who among the guilty crew was a collaborator (in the end, neither, as paranoia dooms them). Clegg made sure he didn’t make Melania guilty of anything too grim, allowing it to be simple fraud.
For the Mara, Christopher Bailey reluctantly added the entity to a long-delayed, structure-lacking story about the Byzantium Empire called May Time. [5] Adding the Mara as a threat allowed the story to have a menace and something for the characters to work against, but Bailey felt this wasn’t a proper use of the creature and the scripts began to drag. [6] Clegg put a lot of work into helping Bailey tighten them up, but the stress of it ensured she wouldn’t seek him out again.
The Daleks would be the year’s final villain and hoping to reclaim the glories of The Bridgehead, Doig and Clegg called up Ian Marter. The former companion and novelist was much in demand now as a writer of thrillers and low-budget films [7], but was willing to return for old time’s sake. He pitched a Cold War thriller involving stolen bioweapons and a retired Brigadier being framed (he thought of bringing back Harry Sullivan but felt that would be a bit much), with the Gold Dalek making another attempt to alter the timeline. Learning who the new companion was, he made his femme fatale spy Samantha into a Polish agent and grandmother of Melania.
Production went smoothly enough until Robert Holmes, after a short illness, died during the filming of City of the Autons. A dark pallor went over the rest of the shoot and Clegg would have to do any needed rewrites herself. Shortly after that, fan consultant Ian Levine – who had expected more access than Doig and Clegg were willing to give – broke off with the show and joined the fans opposing the ‘Doig Era’, using what he knew of the show’s new series to trash it in advance. [8] Due to his prominence, many fans believed his claims and in particular his exaggeration over how much Clegg was rewriting Holmes.
Halfway through production, Doig announced this would be his last year. Officially it was down to three years being enough but in private (and in later interviews), he admitted it was due to frustration that he couldn’t get his vision to fully stick and fear that the show’s ongoing problems would become an albatross around his career’s neck. [9] Clegg became worried her own job may not last without him and quietly approach Henry and Langford, hoping to join their clique.
When the show finally aired, ratings had a slight jump for the Daleks and Cybermen but otherwise stayed at 1985 levels. The critical reviews were more mixed than they had been in years, with criticisms that the show was relying too much on old glories – the opposite of what Doig had hoped would happen. Fandom would have been mollified by the return of the monsters but instead had a minor civil war over Levine, as it was now clear many of his claims were not true.
A final moment served to mar the year: Ian Marter died suddenly, on his 42nd birthday. The Dalek Affair would air with a dedication to him and the last thing Doig & Clegg would ever work on was a hastily filmed scene (filmed in Courtney’s actual house) of the Doctor and the Brigadier calling Harry Sullivan to tell him what he’d missed.
--
[1] OTL it skipped a year and would come back retooled as a sitcom. Becoming the Doctor gives Lenny Henry a boost.
[2] Doig goes for her for the same reason JN-T does. In both timelines, Langford’s desperate for drama roles to broaden her career.
[3] The reason for “Yellow Fever” going to be set there, but obviously that title won’t ever happen with Yip around
[4] The same suggestion an under-pressure Saward gave the Bakers to get Vervoids.
[5] He retracted the story OTL as he was unable to get the structure right.
[6] Bailey had been not quite happy with either of his times writing for the show.
[7] ITTL, he’s associated with a highly popular story and in multiple countries, at that.
[8] Levine had been hanging around since the Williams era to the strained tolerance of everyone on production. He fell out with Nathan-Turner OTL, in part over things like casting Bonnie Langford, so it won’t take much to turn him more violently against Doig and Clegg.
[9] As indeed it was for JN-T.