"Phil won't leave his room" - A Doctor Who Production History
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Part 18
"Whenever there's a change of bodies at or near the top, there's always a tension. It's why TV should be kind about its failures. It doesn't take a bad idea or a bad decision to make something fail. All it takes is for someone who likes you to leave and someone who doesn't like you to join. Admittedly, the opposite happened with Doctor Who, but we weren't to know that at the time. All we knew was, new Head of Drama and we didn't know what he'd want from us, if anything.
"Charles Denton was an old hand from ATV. They were restructuring things over there and the BBC made him an offer before he committed to a role at the new style ATV.
"There was a growing dichotomy across all industries and TV was no different. I don't know how much you can really blame David Owen, but in some ways he was the face of the way Britain was going. Very slick, a bit managerialist. Some businesses and institutions went along with it and others dug their heels in. Dimbleby wasn't bolshie about it, but I think he saw BBC1 as very gently digging its heels in. Charles Denton was, I think, a Paul Fox appointment and Paul Fox's BBC was very good at walking the tightrope between approaches. Denton's ATV pedigree gave him a bit of old-school appeal, but he wasn't lacking in vision. And that's where Doctor Who comes in. He gave it the biggest boot up the backside since 1963."
- Colin Cant, DVD Extra, The Closing Door
DOCTOR WHO AXED BY CHARLES DENTON! DWB EXCLUSIVE!
- Doctor Who Bulletin
You may have read in other parts of the fan press that the show has been axed. We asked BBC1 for comment and were told "Doctor Who has not been axed. Season 23 will go out as planned. The Head of Drama has been discussing the production bid for Season 24, but he fully anticipates that when it is forthcoming, he will be happy to commission a further series of Doctor Who.
- Doctor Who Magazine
NO NEW DOCTOR WHO IN 1987! DWB EXCLUSIVE!
- Doctor Who Bulletin
"Normally, one wouldn't give fan rumours any credence. But my agent had heard my name was under consideration for two series being developed at ATV, so he really needed to know if I still had a job at the BBC. The message came back 'Doctor Who is not cancelled, but things are changing, come down to the office for a chat'."
- Colin Baker, DVD Extra, The Closing Door
"I suppose it took a BBC outsider to see the obvious. If Doctor Who was selling well with its middling budget and average effects, why not give it a bigger budget and see what happens? The proposal was to change Doctor Who over to a filmed series. But this came with two conditions that we all knew the fans would hit the roof over. There'd be a longer wait for the next series and there'd be far fewer episodes.
"I took stock and decided to move on to something else. I'd already juggled a soft relaunch for Doctor Who once and that was enough."
- Colin Cant, DVD Extra, The Closing Door
"I was told I could pursue other work and if that meant me not being available for Doctor Who in 1987, so be it. I get the sense they wanted to have a new Doctor, but everyone involved was far too gentlemanly to sack me and I was told when pre-production started on Season 24, I would have first refusal. I appreciated that.
"By the time that meeting had settled everything, they'd already cast one of the parts I was up for, so no playing Inspector Morse for me. But the other part was still in play.
"There'd been a TV movie of it in 1981 starring Worzel Gummidge himself, Bernard Cribbins, in the title role. Someone at ATV decided there was a series in it and my agent told them 'Colin is available and very interested'. And I got the part. Goodbye Doctor and hello Dangerous Davies."
- Colin Baker, DVD Extra, The Closing Door
ATV Press Booklet
__________________
"Despite not being cancelled, despite Colin leaving amicably, I still look upon that time as a crisis. ATV couldn't hide Colin working for them and chances were the news would get out early on in Season 23's transmission, overshadowing the series somewhat. Also, we didn't know if the next Doctor would be cast by the time we wrapped production on Season 23. Finally, the news that the fans would have to wait 18 months for a shorter season was not something we were expecting to be received well.
"We decided to tackle the first thing head on. Tell everyone going in that this was Colin's last series as Doctor and make that a big selling point. 'Time is running out!', that sort of thing.
"Secondly, the Drama Dept picked Paul Stone to produce the new series of Doctor Who and he was going to have a generous amount of time for pre-production and filming was going to be long before eventual transmission. The Doctor Who production office became two production offices, so Paul and I could liaise about how his series would start and my series would end.
"As it was, Paul had cast his Doctor before we'd finished making Season 23 and an idea occurred to me for a story that would shake the fans up a bit"
- Colin Cant, DVD Extra, One By One
Next time: One by one they fall. Soon there might be none at all.
"Charles Denton was an old hand from ATV. They were restructuring things over there and the BBC made him an offer before he committed to a role at the new style ATV.
"There was a growing dichotomy across all industries and TV was no different. I don't know how much you can really blame David Owen, but in some ways he was the face of the way Britain was going. Very slick, a bit managerialist. Some businesses and institutions went along with it and others dug their heels in. Dimbleby wasn't bolshie about it, but I think he saw BBC1 as very gently digging its heels in. Charles Denton was, I think, a Paul Fox appointment and Paul Fox's BBC was very good at walking the tightrope between approaches. Denton's ATV pedigree gave him a bit of old-school appeal, but he wasn't lacking in vision. And that's where Doctor Who comes in. He gave it the biggest boot up the backside since 1963."
- Colin Cant, DVD Extra, The Closing Door
__________________
DOCTOR WHO AXED BY CHARLES DENTON! DWB EXCLUSIVE!
- Doctor Who Bulletin
__________________
You may have read in other parts of the fan press that the show has been axed. We asked BBC1 for comment and were told "Doctor Who has not been axed. Season 23 will go out as planned. The Head of Drama has been discussing the production bid for Season 24, but he fully anticipates that when it is forthcoming, he will be happy to commission a further series of Doctor Who.
- Doctor Who Magazine
__________________
NO NEW DOCTOR WHO IN 1987! DWB EXCLUSIVE!
- Doctor Who Bulletin
__________________
"Normally, one wouldn't give fan rumours any credence. But my agent had heard my name was under consideration for two series being developed at ATV, so he really needed to know if I still had a job at the BBC. The message came back 'Doctor Who is not cancelled, but things are changing, come down to the office for a chat'."
- Colin Baker, DVD Extra, The Closing Door
__________________
"I suppose it took a BBC outsider to see the obvious. If Doctor Who was selling well with its middling budget and average effects, why not give it a bigger budget and see what happens? The proposal was to change Doctor Who over to a filmed series. But this came with two conditions that we all knew the fans would hit the roof over. There'd be a longer wait for the next series and there'd be far fewer episodes.
"I took stock and decided to move on to something else. I'd already juggled a soft relaunch for Doctor Who once and that was enough."
- Colin Cant, DVD Extra, The Closing Door
__________________
"I was told I could pursue other work and if that meant me not being available for Doctor Who in 1987, so be it. I get the sense they wanted to have a new Doctor, but everyone involved was far too gentlemanly to sack me and I was told when pre-production started on Season 24, I would have first refusal. I appreciated that.
"By the time that meeting had settled everything, they'd already cast one of the parts I was up for, so no playing Inspector Morse for me. But the other part was still in play.
"There'd been a TV movie of it in 1981 starring Worzel Gummidge himself, Bernard Cribbins, in the title role. Someone at ATV decided there was a series in it and my agent told them 'Colin is available and very interested'. And I got the part. Goodbye Doctor and hello Dangerous Davies."
- Colin Baker, DVD Extra, The Closing Door
ATV Press Booklet
__________________
"Despite not being cancelled, despite Colin leaving amicably, I still look upon that time as a crisis. ATV couldn't hide Colin working for them and chances were the news would get out early on in Season 23's transmission, overshadowing the series somewhat. Also, we didn't know if the next Doctor would be cast by the time we wrapped production on Season 23. Finally, the news that the fans would have to wait 18 months for a shorter season was not something we were expecting to be received well.
"We decided to tackle the first thing head on. Tell everyone going in that this was Colin's last series as Doctor and make that a big selling point. 'Time is running out!', that sort of thing.
"Secondly, the Drama Dept picked Paul Stone to produce the new series of Doctor Who and he was going to have a generous amount of time for pre-production and filming was going to be long before eventual transmission. The Doctor Who production office became two production offices, so Paul and I could liaise about how his series would start and my series would end.
"As it was, Paul had cast his Doctor before we'd finished making Season 23 and an idea occurred to me for a story that would shake the fans up a bit"
- Colin Cant, DVD Extra, One By One
Next time: One by one they fall. Soon there might be none at all.
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ATV's preservation was alluded to in Part 10 and a butterfly from that torpedoed Milne's chance at the Director-Generalship of the BBC. I can't think of any butterflies from TTL that would have any other effects on the network. Except maybe having passed on the chance to bring ATV to heel, the IBA will flex its muscles on STV. Southern is still toast.
By that knowledge, is the 1981 ITV Franchise Round the same as OTL except that ATV does not need to change its name?
Well, you mentioned STV could be roasted by IBA, so they could change to Caledonia? I don't think anything else could change though...
Paul Stone, eh? Hm. Perhaps you ought to have Robert Stephens as the Master in a future incarnation!
Sorry, my bad. I assumed that in this timeline they decided to go with the original pronunciation of SontarON. It only became SontarAN, due to actor Kevin Lindsay who played Linx.
Thanks for the info. Could prove useful.
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The Master is dead. Doesn't stop Robert Stephens turning up, though.
Originally, that's where it was heading, but I had a change of heart. It was a bit of an in-joke on Colin playing Morse on stage IOTL. Of course, him playing Dangerous Davies is an even bigger in-joke.
I'll believe it when I see it. "He's indestructible. The Whole universe knows that!"
Adams sent in his Hitch-Hiker's pilot script to Robert Holmes, as he was Doctor Who script editor, IOTL. ITTL that script isn't going to land on Holmes' desk, but PJ Hammond. When called in by Holmes IOTL, Adams pitched the idea for The Pirate Planet, but that was a version focused on Time Lords and Time Lords are a no-no ITTL's 70s Who. I think TTL's Adams will have definitely pitched something to the Gabriel Baine office and stands a good chance of being accepted there.