Baggs and Levine were found guilty of copyright infringement and intellectual theft . They faded out of public view after that.
"Mary Whitehouse will never accept this" : A Dr Who Production History (Inspired by Guajolote)
- Thread starter nezza
- Start date
Chapter 20: "Brain Melt"
Thanks for the warning. I'll end this part of the story now.
"The BBC's contract with the Premier League lasted for 3 years and was extended in 2007. This meant that Doctor Who had lost its home. This led to the two biggest changes in the show's history. The first was that the show was shifted to Sunday nights. The second had far more impact. The new series was announced to start on the 26th of November 2006 with a feature length series opener but it was the publicity that caused a ruckus. It showed a camera moving towards the TARDIS with audio snippets of previous doctors and ended with Dalton saying 'this is the end' followed by the TARDIS blowing up"
"I've been asked these questions so many times. I changed the direction of the series because during Tim's era the show had gained so much controversy to mention Doctor Who to many people would be akin to sticking two fingers up at them...I chose him because he had a depth which wasn't evident. Yes he'd made his name taking the rise out of people but he was a very good performer and he was a fan of the show as well so why not"
(Davies 2014)
(Davies 2014)
For me BBC1 and DW are synonymous with each other. No disrespect to BBC 2 but it wouldn't seem right somehow. The Culshaw era is going to be very different.
"Requiem is unique in the DW Canon and with exceptions of the Doctor, the TARDIS and Lethbridge-Stewart eschews all that has gone before. Its delicious mix of confusion, hesitation, shock and finally trepidation is masterfully played out by Culshaw, Atkinson and Courtney whilst Davies and director Marc Platt work their magic behind the scenes."
------------------------
Kate: "So as far as they're concerned. We don't exist?
DW: Yes and no. We do exist in much the same way as they exist but they are in blissful ignorance of us as we are of them...or that was the idea.
L-S "Doctor you're babbling again"
DW "You have the four dimensions, length, breadth, depth and time. There is a fifth dimension. That of parallel realities, alternate universes, every action has a reaction and all that"
L-S "Such as Omega"
DW: "Yes, such as Omega...he never did get me another flute"
------------------------
Kate: "So as far as they're concerned. We don't exist?
DW: Yes and no. We do exist in much the same way as they exist but they are in blissful ignorance of us as we are of them...or that was the idea.
L-S "Doctor you're babbling again"
DW "You have the four dimensions, length, breadth, depth and time. There is a fifth dimension. That of parallel realities, alternate universes, every action has a reaction and all that"
L-S "Such as Omega"
DW: "Yes, such as Omega...he never did get me another flute"
Its quickly made clear that this is set in the alternative universe where the Alt-7 or Mirren Doctor came from but this is not the alt-8 Doctor. Rather this is a Doctor who has somehow come into being as a result of the events of "Doctors Eternal". How this happens no-one knows yet. This Doctor is aware of what happened in the other universe as a result of some form of 'contact' He knows that this reality shouldn't exist and he has to find some way of ensuring that this universe doesn't suffer the same fate as it's as it's mirror image.
Last edited:
So is Culshaw the actual new Doctor?
And please tell me the Doctor gets to impersonate Lethbridge Stewart to his face.
And please tell me the Doctor gets to impersonate Lethbridge Stewart to his face.
Cheers. Also, just making sure I've got the length of these tenures correct:
Graham Chapman (1974-77)
Tom Conti (1980-84)
Rik Mayall (1985-88)
Paul Jones (1989-93)
Danny Webb (1994-99)
Timothy Dalton (2000-03)
Jon Culshaw (2006-present)
Oh, and I've found a perfect Doctor-ish image for Culshaw.
Graham Chapman (1974-77)
Tom Conti (1980-84)
Rik Mayall (1985-88)
Paul Jones (1989-93)
Danny Webb (1994-99)
Timothy Dalton (2000-03)
Jon Culshaw (2006-present)
Oh, and I've found a perfect Doctor-ish image for Culshaw.
Last edited:
That's correct
Dalton will have a regeneration story but it will not be a "usual" one
"Requiem is an odd story in so many ways. It rips up the rulebook and writes a new one. We see Culshaw in situ as the Doctor with no reference at all to how he regenerated or what happened to the previous incarnations. What we get is not sci-fi but emotional drama. We see this Doctor as a calm philosophical figure trying to understand what has happened whilst at the same time comforting the Lethbridge-Stewart family following the death of Doris.
Culshaw shows a surprising amount of depth offset by a slight mischievous edge. Courtney is his usual solid reliable self. But it's Atkinson as Kate that is the revelation. Known up until that point for flashing the flesh in Holyoaks, she reveals an unexpected subtlety to her acting switching from intrigue towards the Doctor over to rage and bitterness towards her father over how his career seemed to take precedence over family.
What little action there is takes place in the final third where Kate is kidnapped by a group of terrorists wanting access to UNIT's files and the Doctor and LS racing to the rescue. The ending in some ways is obvious with the Doctor and Kate leaving in the TARDIS but the last few frames still pack a punch as we see L-S standing at Doris' grave sobbing. The solo piano version of the theme tune was controversial but on reflection was spot on. Requiem marked the start of the era of "The New Doctor"
Loving this. 
I just noticed something. You said Webb has 3 series, yet his era runs for 6 years. I don't know if it's a discrepancy or if I just overlooked other factors you mentioned.
I just noticed something. You said Webb has 3 series, yet his era runs for 6 years. I don't know if it's a discrepancy or if I just overlooked other factors you mentioned.
Webb's series were separated by 1 year for production of Panoptican. Thanks.Loving this.
I just noticed something. You said Webb has 3 series, yet his era runs for 6 years. I don't know if it's a discrepancy or if I just overlooked other factors you mentioned.
Kate: "What do you know about the other universe, those other doctors"
DW: "Have you ever been tuning a radio in and hearing a station you've never come across before and no matter how much you turn the dial you can't get it back? Well it was like that. For a few seconds I could hear them and they could hear me"
Kate: "What did you hear?'
DW: "Something terrifying, something beyond anything I could understand. That universe was howling in pain, burning in a sea of torment and I'm to blame...well they're to blame."
Kate: "Doctor, you...they...you're a force for good"
DW: "Good can create evil, just as evil can create good. Those Doctors Kate were trying to find some kind of balance, some kind of healing, to put right what they had done wrong, not deliberately, not purposefully but something they had done"
Kate: "Ok, so they made a mistake, but we all make mistakes. But they happened in a different universe, a different reality. You shouldn't feel guilty for what they did"
DW: "It's not guilt. I don't feel that"
Kate: "Then what do you feel?"
DW: "I don't know Kate, I just don't know...and that scares me"
DW: "Have you ever been tuning a radio in and hearing a station you've never come across before and no matter how much you turn the dial you can't get it back? Well it was like that. For a few seconds I could hear them and they could hear me"
Kate: "What did you hear?'
DW: "Something terrifying, something beyond anything I could understand. That universe was howling in pain, burning in a sea of torment and I'm to blame...well they're to blame."
Kate: "Doctor, you...they...you're a force for good"
DW: "Good can create evil, just as evil can create good. Those Doctors Kate were trying to find some kind of balance, some kind of healing, to put right what they had done wrong, not deliberately, not purposefully but something they had done"
Kate: "Ok, so they made a mistake, but we all make mistakes. But they happened in a different universe, a different reality. You shouldn't feel guilty for what they did"
DW: "It's not guilt. I don't feel that"
Kate: "Then what do you feel?"
DW: "I don't know Kate, I just don't know...and that scares me"
Last edited:
"(sigh)...Sex and the devil. Even after all these years it still pisses me off that all people want to talk about with Jon's first series were three episodes out of ten. They're not bothered about how Requiem dealt with love and loss or how Trench examined how fragile the planet is. Oh no, they're bothered about screwing and the devil....The BBC knew what they were taking on with me when I took over. They knew my track record and yes there were people who said how dare the BBC bring this faggot into our show
For fucks sake....I was and still am proud of Queer As Folk. It showed the pressures that many gay people felt and still feel now. It showed how love is not restricted to men and women and I know that it helped many come out and that is something that I still get emotional about. How people can think Baser Instincts was soft porn is beyond me. The story was about a world who's population had been decimated by a huge solar storm and how the scientists in a misguided attempt to strengthen the genetic mix created a pheromone that was injected into the atmosphere that led the inhabitants to start bonking and that the Doctor and Kate found themselves being attracted to the inhabitants but this being the BBC on Sundays nothing happened.
Gemma did get a hell of a lot of flak for that but in some ways all she was doing was bringing Lisa Hunter into the part but it did affect her. She wanted to be known as more that just a stunningly beautiful woman, she wanted to be known as an actor and when she said to me that she wanted to leave the series I understood so I made sure she went out with a bang.
Then we had Impossible Being. Doctor Who meets the Devil, well we never said that Scratchman was the devil. We couldn't because again Sunday night BBC...Jon adored Tom Baker and when he found out that Tom had wrote Impossible Being he was dumbfounded. Tom was on set for the shooting which never happened before and they were superb. Jon being the wonderful impressionist that he was would openly mimic Tom and Tom would answer with some amazing stories about his time on The New Avengers and Sherlock Holmes which I can't repeat here!
That was incredible enough but adding David Suchet as Scratchman to the mix and wow...that was the highlight for me. And I have to give credit to Tom for his modesty. He didn't want his name to hijack the show so his onscreen credit was Stewart Vauxhall, Stewart being his real first name and Vauxhall being the area of Liverpool that he comes from. But fans quickly fathomed it out and when Tom and I novelised the story as Scratchman a few years later we were able to delve far deeper into the story then was possible on television.
Yes I am still pissed off with some of the remarks but hey it got the show noticed and back on TV."
(Davies 2018)
For fucks sake....I was and still am proud of Queer As Folk. It showed the pressures that many gay people felt and still feel now. It showed how love is not restricted to men and women and I know that it helped many come out and that is something that I still get emotional about. How people can think Baser Instincts was soft porn is beyond me. The story was about a world who's population had been decimated by a huge solar storm and how the scientists in a misguided attempt to strengthen the genetic mix created a pheromone that was injected into the atmosphere that led the inhabitants to start bonking and that the Doctor and Kate found themselves being attracted to the inhabitants but this being the BBC on Sundays nothing happened.
Gemma did get a hell of a lot of flak for that but in some ways all she was doing was bringing Lisa Hunter into the part but it did affect her. She wanted to be known as more that just a stunningly beautiful woman, she wanted to be known as an actor and when she said to me that she wanted to leave the series I understood so I made sure she went out with a bang.
Then we had Impossible Being. Doctor Who meets the Devil, well we never said that Scratchman was the devil. We couldn't because again Sunday night BBC...Jon adored Tom Baker and when he found out that Tom had wrote Impossible Being he was dumbfounded. Tom was on set for the shooting which never happened before and they were superb. Jon being the wonderful impressionist that he was would openly mimic Tom and Tom would answer with some amazing stories about his time on The New Avengers and Sherlock Holmes which I can't repeat here!
That was incredible enough but adding David Suchet as Scratchman to the mix and wow...that was the highlight for me. And I have to give credit to Tom for his modesty. He didn't want his name to hijack the show so his onscreen credit was Stewart Vauxhall, Stewart being his real first name and Vauxhall being the area of Liverpool that he comes from. But fans quickly fathomed it out and when Tom and I novelised the story as Scratchman a few years later we were able to delve far deeper into the story then was possible on television.
Yes I am still pissed off with some of the remarks but hey it got the show noticed and back on TV."
(Davies 2018)
Last edited: