FairlyUninformedGraduate
Gone Fishin'
Out of interest @Guajolote , will there be spin off series from the atl Who series? If so what and when
"Phil won't leave his room" - A Doctor Who Production History
- Thread starter Guajolote
- Start date
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FairlyUninformedGraduate
Gone Fishin'
Thanks was just curious, as all the butterflies make for a very different set of possibilities.
Part 21
"I had my own ideas about casting the Doctor, but I decided it would do no harm to have a chat with Colin [Cant] if he had any advice. He said 'Imagine the location work is taking longer than anticipated and a major effect has failed. Think of an actor who you can work with under those circumstances. Someone who won't throw a tantrum and actually helps keep everyone's spirits up'.
"As I was setting up shop in the Doctor Who office, work was ending on another show I was producing. It was being transmitted at about the same time as Doctor Who. We'd had a problem with one of the actors, he'd managed to upset the cast and crew, and I'd had to replace him with someone else. [1] That someone else being Tony, who was wonderful. Now, Tony was on my list anyway, but I wasn't sure if he'd be right taking over from Colin Baker, who is tall and posh and outgoing. But when Colin Cant said that, I just knew it had to give Tony first refusal."
- Paul Stone, DVD Extra, Paradise Towers
"If Doctor Who had gone off the air and then come back, like Star Trek, we'd have a nice dividing line between a classic and a new series. Doctor Who being typically perverse has a classic series and then a bunch of fault lines.
"You can divide it on the grounds of going to film in 1987. The short-lived US series in 1996 certainly is a big shift, but it's not massively different from the last few BBC series. The 1998 version sees it as a UK production again, but still, it doesn't look and feel masively different from the other 90s series. The same goes for the 2004 revival. The changes onscreen from Season 24 onward are the changes undergone by television itself, they're not unique to Doctor Who.
"I think what happened was that the BBC, the fans and the production team had to consider just who The Doctor is. I don't mean in backstory, but in terms of how do you cast a Doctor. What is Doctorish and what isn't.
"What The Doctor has never really been is conventionally heroic. You've heard how Jon Pertwee turned down the part in 1969. Imagine him playing The Doctor like he played Gabriel Baine. That would have been a massive change in the character and it would have opened up the character to being heroic. To be honest, I think he would have played The Doctor similarly to the way Patrick Troughton did, but it's an interesting idea.
"Colin Baker, with his Byronic black outfit and piercing gaze, probably took The Doctor as close as he's ever been to a conventional hero. Even then, Colin gave a wonderfully strange performance.
"So, the series was at a crossroads when Baker had to be replaced. Whether to go even closer to heroism, try and walk the line like Baker had done or go back to a more character-actor type. He went with Tony; shortish, round face, old suit. On one level the obvious choice for a Doctor, but in other ways a bold move.
"We fans, we've all had to put up with being labelled nerdy. I think for some people, it was a shock to have The Doctor become kind of nerdy. Maybe nerdy's not the right word, but the 7th Doctor is deliberately unimpressive. So that's why I think there was the first big fan schism. We'd been labelled nerds who watched that nerdy show and we argued back 'it's gripping drama with a unique lead character'. Well, it still was with Haygarth, but Cuthbertson, Henderson and Baker were all tall and a little bit scary. I'm not sure any of us were prepared for the second coming of Troughton.
"I mean, the anti-Haygarth faction are a small minority and the general public didn't care. The 1987 series opened up new markets. In Germany, Tony Haygarth is THE Doctor by which all others must be measured.
"But for that part of fandom that had a vision of a heroic Doctor, they kept being confronted with disappointment. That's why I don't think there was all that much fuss over having an American Doctor and a woman Doctor. The sore spot in fandom was being faced with another lumpy character-actor for Doctors 8, 9 and 10.
"Every time there was a rumour of a new Doctor, you'd feel the desire from some corners of fandom for it to be someone heroic. Pierce Brosnan, Anthony Head, Liam Neeson, Sean Bean, Hugh Grant; all names that have been attached to fan rumour. The rest of the world isn't invested in that version of The Doctor. We only got the CBS series because they thought it would fit in with their schedule of wall-to-wall police procedurals, which tend to skew older.
"Maybe I'm wrong, maybe David Tennant really will replace Toby Jones, but somehow I doubt it."
- Andrew Barbicane, Fandom - Why Can't We All Just Get Along?, Convention panel, 2007
- Owen Harbottle, Sunday Mirror, September 6th 1987
"Paul tried to warn me that being Doctor Who would change everything, but it was still a shock to the system. People always recognized me in the street before, but they didn't know who I was, just that they'd seen me in something. 'Oh, it's erm…erm, you from that thing', y'know. But once I was Doctor Who, that was it. People wanting my autograph. Fame at last.
"It was even good for ticket sales. Because there were only ten episodes in that first series, I was still able to do theatre work for the rest of 1987 and into 1988 and the box office noticed there were a lot of teenage Doctor Who fans who'd come along. They'd be waiting for me at the stage door, even though I was only in a minor role. I think I probably got a few parts because the producer knew there'd be a little boost in the number of bums on seats because I was in the show.
"Why was I the longest running Doctor? Was I? I think there's a certain amount of argument over that. But the reason I stayed with it so long was…how do I put this. I don't want to say it was the money, because I genuinely love the show, but it was a guaranteed job for a chunk of the year, I could do other acting jobs for the rest of the year and it also paid for a few nice holidays, too. It's not really that mercenary, but acting's one of those jobs where you live from role to role. But I don't want anyone to think Doctor Who was just a payday for me. I love it and like Roger always says, it's not just a part it's a family."
- Tony Haygarth, DVD Extra, Paradise Towers
FANS WILL FLIP FOR NEW DR WHO GIRL
Canadian actress Jennifer Calvert will be climbing aboard the TARDIS as the new Dr Who companion. Calvert, 23, will be playing Flip Driver, a girl who's never more happy than when she's tinkering with an engine. The actress said, "It's going to be an interesting dynamic for The Doctor to have a companion who's almost as good as he is at building mechanical marvels." The new series of Doctor Who, its 24th, begins in September.
- The Daily Mirror, April 7th 1987
"Except we'd gotten so far before Paul realized the building killing off the residents was the same story as the Season 23 finale. So I had to call Stephen Wyatt and ask for rewrites. In the end, it made the story more political when it turns out the ruling class are living comfortably on the upper floors. Not such a bad outcome, but I should have spotted it earlier."
- Colin Brake, DVD Extra, Paradise Towers
- Doctor Who Magazine, March 1988, Was It Worth The Wait?
[1] As happened IOTL during the production The December Rose
Originally, there was a reference to a 2003 revival, I changed this to a 2004 revival on May 6th 2021 as I decided to change some parts of where the timeline is going
"As I was setting up shop in the Doctor Who office, work was ending on another show I was producing. It was being transmitted at about the same time as Doctor Who. We'd had a problem with one of the actors, he'd managed to upset the cast and crew, and I'd had to replace him with someone else. [1] That someone else being Tony, who was wonderful. Now, Tony was on my list anyway, but I wasn't sure if he'd be right taking over from Colin Baker, who is tall and posh and outgoing. But when Colin Cant said that, I just knew it had to give Tony first refusal."
- Paul Stone, DVD Extra, Paradise Towers
__________________
"If Doctor Who had gone off the air and then come back, like Star Trek, we'd have a nice dividing line between a classic and a new series. Doctor Who being typically perverse has a classic series and then a bunch of fault lines.
"You can divide it on the grounds of going to film in 1987. The short-lived US series in 1996 certainly is a big shift, but it's not massively different from the last few BBC series. The 1998 version sees it as a UK production again, but still, it doesn't look and feel masively different from the other 90s series. The same goes for the 2004 revival. The changes onscreen from Season 24 onward are the changes undergone by television itself, they're not unique to Doctor Who.
"I think what happened was that the BBC, the fans and the production team had to consider just who The Doctor is. I don't mean in backstory, but in terms of how do you cast a Doctor. What is Doctorish and what isn't.
"What The Doctor has never really been is conventionally heroic. You've heard how Jon Pertwee turned down the part in 1969. Imagine him playing The Doctor like he played Gabriel Baine. That would have been a massive change in the character and it would have opened up the character to being heroic. To be honest, I think he would have played The Doctor similarly to the way Patrick Troughton did, but it's an interesting idea.
"Colin Baker, with his Byronic black outfit and piercing gaze, probably took The Doctor as close as he's ever been to a conventional hero. Even then, Colin gave a wonderfully strange performance.
"So, the series was at a crossroads when Baker had to be replaced. Whether to go even closer to heroism, try and walk the line like Baker had done or go back to a more character-actor type. He went with Tony; shortish, round face, old suit. On one level the obvious choice for a Doctor, but in other ways a bold move.
"We fans, we've all had to put up with being labelled nerdy. I think for some people, it was a shock to have The Doctor become kind of nerdy. Maybe nerdy's not the right word, but the 7th Doctor is deliberately unimpressive. So that's why I think there was the first big fan schism. We'd been labelled nerds who watched that nerdy show and we argued back 'it's gripping drama with a unique lead character'. Well, it still was with Haygarth, but Cuthbertson, Henderson and Baker were all tall and a little bit scary. I'm not sure any of us were prepared for the second coming of Troughton.
"I mean, the anti-Haygarth faction are a small minority and the general public didn't care. The 1987 series opened up new markets. In Germany, Tony Haygarth is THE Doctor by which all others must be measured.
"But for that part of fandom that had a vision of a heroic Doctor, they kept being confronted with disappointment. That's why I don't think there was all that much fuss over having an American Doctor and a woman Doctor. The sore spot in fandom was being faced with another lumpy character-actor for Doctors 8, 9 and 10.
"Every time there was a rumour of a new Doctor, you'd feel the desire from some corners of fandom for it to be someone heroic. Pierce Brosnan, Anthony Head, Liam Neeson, Sean Bean, Hugh Grant; all names that have been attached to fan rumour. The rest of the world isn't invested in that version of The Doctor. We only got the CBS series because they thought it would fit in with their schedule of wall-to-wall police procedurals, which tend to skew older.
"Maybe I'm wrong, maybe David Tennant really will replace Toby Jones, but somehow I doubt it."
- Andrew Barbicane, Fandom - Why Can't We All Just Get Along?, Convention panel, 2007
__________________
For all the talk of an increased budget, shooting on film and a companion with an American accent for no good reason, Doctor Who remains defiantly odd and British. I can't have been the only one who was worried that the BBC had missed the point of their own show and they were going to have the good Doctor trying to compete with The Fall Guy and The A-Team. But as soon as chubby Tony Haygarth stepped out of his Police Box in a faded suit that didn't quite fit, I knew my fears were groundless. The fact that he was thrust into that most British of dystopias, a futuristic block of council flats, was just the cherry on already very appetizing cake. The 7th Doctor Who is the very opposite of a tough guy. Mildly intimidated by rowdy teenagers and escaping from evil caretakers (it makes sense in context) by talking his way out, not fighting. And not a wobbly set in sight.
- Owen Harbottle, Sunday Mirror, September 6th 1987
__________________
"Paul tried to warn me that being Doctor Who would change everything, but it was still a shock to the system. People always recognized me in the street before, but they didn't know who I was, just that they'd seen me in something. 'Oh, it's erm…erm, you from that thing', y'know. But once I was Doctor Who, that was it. People wanting my autograph. Fame at last.
"It was even good for ticket sales. Because there were only ten episodes in that first series, I was still able to do theatre work for the rest of 1987 and into 1988 and the box office noticed there were a lot of teenage Doctor Who fans who'd come along. They'd be waiting for me at the stage door, even though I was only in a minor role. I think I probably got a few parts because the producer knew there'd be a little boost in the number of bums on seats because I was in the show.
"Why was I the longest running Doctor? Was I? I think there's a certain amount of argument over that. But the reason I stayed with it so long was…how do I put this. I don't want to say it was the money, because I genuinely love the show, but it was a guaranteed job for a chunk of the year, I could do other acting jobs for the rest of the year and it also paid for a few nice holidays, too. It's not really that mercenary, but acting's one of those jobs where you live from role to role. But I don't want anyone to think Doctor Who was just a payday for me. I love it and like Roger always says, it's not just a part it's a family."
- Tony Haygarth, DVD Extra, Paradise Towers
__________________
FANS WILL FLIP FOR NEW DR WHO GIRL
Canadian actress Jennifer Calvert will be climbing aboard the TARDIS as the new Dr Who companion. Calvert, 23, will be playing Flip Driver, a girl who's never more happy than when she's tinkering with an engine. The actress said, "It's going to be an interesting dynamic for The Doctor to have a companion who's almost as good as he is at building mechanical marvels." The new series of Doctor Who, its 24th, begins in September.
- The Daily Mirror, April 7th 1987
__________________
"I made a bit of a mistake right at the beginning of commissioning Season 24. Paul and I liked the Paradise Towers story, figuring a futuristic block of flats would be a nice starting point for a new era. Something familiar with sci-fi elements. We could ease any new viewers into the world of Doctor Who.
"Except we'd gotten so far before Paul realized the building killing off the residents was the same story as the Season 23 finale. So I had to call Stephen Wyatt and ask for rewrites. In the end, it made the story more political when it turns out the ruling class are living comfortably on the upper floors. Not such a bad outcome, but I should have spotted it earlier."
- Colin Brake, DVD Extra, Paradise Towers
__________________
The dust it settling. Season 24 is a success at home and abroad. There will be a Season 25 and it will be 16 episodes long to make an attractive package for the US. Because that's really the big test of the new filmed series of Doctor Who. Tony Haygarth might now be a superstar in West Germany, but deep down we all know which country's approval we're all looking for. Having Jennifer Calvert as the new companion might have raised the show's profile in Canada, but her accent is clearly a sweetner for the biggest market of all. Can Doctor Who crossover from cult favourite to something recognized from Maine to Hawaii? And if not, then what?
- Doctor Who Magazine, March 1988, Was It Worth The Wait?
[1] As happened IOTL during the production The December Rose
Originally, there was a reference to a 2003 revival, I changed this to a 2004 revival on May 6th 2021 as I decided to change some parts of where the timeline is going
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Exquisite as usual. And I love you for having Toby Jones play the Doctor!
Does Calverts' paticipation bring in YTV coproduction money?
The Canadian channel were certainly interesting IOTL about Who, airing it constantly, but also interested about a possible coproduction before official cancelaltion. This is when YTv were making shows like Maniac Mansion.
RE:OTL Doctor as sci-fi hero - Peter Davison as Dan Dare?
The Canadian channel were certainly interesting IOTL about Who, airing it constantly, but also interested about a possible coproduction before official cancelaltion. This is when YTv were making shows like Maniac Mansion.
RE:OTL Doctor as sci-fi hero - Peter Davison as Dan Dare?
You forgot to put the footnote explaining the incident with Haygarth replacing another actor, that's Dave King on the December Rose, I believe.
Part 22
At the higher levels of the BBC, everyone had a different idea of what the result should be of Doctor Who actively pitching itself as an international show. For some, they just wanted more sales. Some wanted it's image at home to change, to kill off the 'wobbly sets' jokes. Of course, some wanted it to start having a much higher profile in America.
BBC Enterprises knew that a 10-episode filmed series was not going to be an easy sell to the US and it would be easier if there was another season of the filmed series. That didn't stop some in the Corporation wondering why none of the US networks had shown an interest in the relaunched series. Despite reaching new markets around the world, there were still some who regarded the lack of a huge splash in the US (where it still managed to increase in sales to local stations) as some kind of failure. It's fortunate that those with the series immediate fate in their hands (the Director of Television, Head of Drama, Head of BBC1) understood the need for patience.
Another problem was the British press. It had been happy to let Doctor Who trundle along as long it was just another videotaped, multi-camera part of the BBC's output like Songs Of Praise or Terry And June. Once it started to act like it was a proper science-fiction drama, there was a suggestion that it was now less fun, less warm, less British. Fun is subjective, I suppose, but how anyone could fail to find Tony Haygarth's soft Scouse accent full of warmth and Britishness is beyond me.
Of course, some commentators decided to harp on about The Doctor's class…
- Doctor Who In The Eighties, Gordon Weythe
Doctor Who, along with many other British institutions in Owen's Britain, has decided to go all whizzy and polished while also developing a taste for emphasizing its working class credentials all of a sudden. While one wonders what the point is of a Doctor Who with no wobbly sets to laugh at, it's also obvious that this new take on an old classic is hopelessly out of step. In this day and age, we Britons have rediscovered the joy of posh heroes. Edward Petherbridge is packing cinemas with his delightfully troubled Lord Peter Wimsey. How clever of Lew Grade to understand that taking a dash of Merchant Ivory-style of uptight British stiff-upper-lipness and adding some lovely murder is a surefire recipe for box-office dynamite. Even on the small screen, the real grand old man of British sci-fi, Dan Dare, has returned with a vengeance in the divine shape of Paul McGann, taking that old-school RAF quality to Venus and back.
- Janet Merlghane, Mail On Sunday, October 18th 1987
__________________
The Great British viewing public liked the new Doctor Who. Apart from a couple of slightly unhinged fanzines, the fans liked new Doctor Who. Countries that had shown little or no interest took a chance on new Doctor Who. Some US stations that had no place for a 10-part series of Doctor Who were more receptive when BBC Enterprises offered them as 5 TV movies. Doctor Who was still bringing in more revenue than it did to produce, even with its new boosted budget. Doctor Who was a success. But it had gained a reputation for having flown too close to the Sun. By the time Season 26 came around, it had regained its position as hardy perennial. But within the industry and the media commentariat, a cloud hung over Doctor Who. A sense that if it was really going to compete as a worldwide brand, it would need something like a co-production and it would need to be big in America.
- Doctor Who In The Eighties, Gordon Weythe
"It's a strange thing. People always say to me 'Y'know I thought you were a really good Doctor Who', like it's an opinion that musn't hear very often. I don't think anyone's ever told me I was rubbish. All those years I was getting rich off the overseas sales, I was still seen as the underdog."
- Tony Haygarth, Interview, Doctor Who Magazine, November 2003
Janet Merlghane maybe one of the great villains of Doctor Who fandom for that column, but there was a germ of truth. Doctor Who was out of step with the prevailing trends of late-80s British TV. Normally when I say that, someone will say 'But it was a great success'. That's the point a lot of people overlook. Doctor Who was successful *because* it was out of step.
Late-80s Britain felt good about itself. There was money swimming around and the social agenda was broadly progressive. Dan Dare was a perfect fit, with its multi-cultural, Utopian future that was still as British as the thwack of willow on leather. Gerry Anderson's Space Police was more Transatlantic in its ambitions, but still whizzy and bright.
Doctor Who was a show for and about misfits. The Doctor cutting a Columbo-like figure in his old suit and worn, tweed overcoat. The Doctor's companion Flip was a sly parody of the feisty tough-girl one might expect in late-80s sci-fi. She had a tomboyish edge, with her fascination and aptitude for things mechanical, but she had no combat skills. Instead of high-kicking martial arts, Flip fought dirty with absolutely no shame. Which of course gave The Doctor as good a reason as any to try and avoid violent confrontations and try to think or talk his way out of a fight. The semi-regular character of Max Bolton (Private Eye) was another canny subversion. Max was a distorted mirror of The Doctor. Max tried to solve problems with toughness and usually ended up looking ridiculous (actually, he usually started out looking ridiculous, too). A man who thought he was a hard-boiled detective, but being from a distant planet didn't entirely understand the tropes he was imitating. Sylvester McCoy played the part with just the right amount of knowing goofiness.
Fortunately, Britain could still supply plenty of misfits for Doctor Who to play to. Whatever influence it lost in the playgrounds, it made up for in university common rooms.
- Deleted section from Doctor Who In The Eighties, posted on Gordon Weythe's blog
"We weren't exactly on the cover of the NME every week, but yes, there was a sense that Doctor Who was a little bit cooler than other shows of its kind. There was a lot of polished Transatlantic stuff going around and despite the change to film, Who still felt more British and a bit anarchic. This didn't seem to have bought us enough goodwill inside the BBC.
"There was definitely jealousy from some other producers and they were putting the poison in. Enterprises was fighting for us tooth and nail, so that helped. David Dimbleby was still on our side, but there was a new Director of Television and Head of Drama and I think that as they moved in, certain parties had got to them and said Doctor Who was meant to have broken into America and failed. WE. HADN'T. FAILED! It was a long term strategy. I think some people thought anything less than getting them to cancel Cheers and replacing it with Doctor Who was some sort of misfire."
"I was thinking of moving on, but part of me didn't want to give the naysayers the satisfaction.
"Paul Stone left at the end of Season 25 and John Dale came in and for a while, I thought everything was OK. Then just as Season 26 was about to go before the cameras, John called me into his office and asked me if I wanted to move on. I thought I was being fired, but he dropped this bombshell on me. He said 'I have a feeling they're going to cancel us after the next series. I think once they have 52 episodes of film, they're going to use that as an excuse to close us down. You might want to move on so you don't get caught up in being part of the team that oversaw the cancellation of Doctor Who'. I was in shock."
- Colin Brake, The Other Other Colin, DWM, 2006
"Fans don't like to admit it but Doctor Who has always been political. Sometimes slightly, sometimes deeply, but it's never been an apolitical show. When politics isn't at work within the fiction, it's at work in the production. The cancellation crisis of the early 90s is as much about the way Britain was changing as it was about attractive episode counts for syndication.
"The Seventh Doctor's era had something of the disillusioned traditional Labour supporter to it. Dan Dare and others were examples of the internationalist, but slightly homogeneous Owenite 'Programme for Change'. Lurking in the shadows was the biggest enemy. The sense that the UK should be more like the US. The growing dissatisfaction with Owen's prosperous, but tightly regulated UK. The desire for proper consumerism. The tempting mix of sophistication and excess. Within that was the sense that only American money and knowhow could produce proper sci-fi and fantasy. To compete in the post-Star Wars world, Doctor Who was going to have to become more like Star Wars. Doctor Who's future must surely lie on the other side of The Pond. There was recrimination at the fact that a proposed Doctor Who movie had been scuppered by the move to a filmed series that didn't want the competition [1].
"Doctor Who, the resolutely British, broadly left-wing series was doomed. At least before the axe (or ax) could finally fall, we got a couple of things to disrupt those plans".
- Rayne Norvell, Jewel fanzine, 1996
[1] That's what happened to Coast To Coast/Daltenrays film proposal ITTL
BBC Enterprises knew that a 10-episode filmed series was not going to be an easy sell to the US and it would be easier if there was another season of the filmed series. That didn't stop some in the Corporation wondering why none of the US networks had shown an interest in the relaunched series. Despite reaching new markets around the world, there were still some who regarded the lack of a huge splash in the US (where it still managed to increase in sales to local stations) as some kind of failure. It's fortunate that those with the series immediate fate in their hands (the Director of Television, Head of Drama, Head of BBC1) understood the need for patience.
Another problem was the British press. It had been happy to let Doctor Who trundle along as long it was just another videotaped, multi-camera part of the BBC's output like Songs Of Praise or Terry And June. Once it started to act like it was a proper science-fiction drama, there was a suggestion that it was now less fun, less warm, less British. Fun is subjective, I suppose, but how anyone could fail to find Tony Haygarth's soft Scouse accent full of warmth and Britishness is beyond me.
Of course, some commentators decided to harp on about The Doctor's class…
- Doctor Who In The Eighties, Gordon Weythe
__________________
Doctor Who, along with many other British institutions in Owen's Britain, has decided to go all whizzy and polished while also developing a taste for emphasizing its working class credentials all of a sudden. While one wonders what the point is of a Doctor Who with no wobbly sets to laugh at, it's also obvious that this new take on an old classic is hopelessly out of step. In this day and age, we Britons have rediscovered the joy of posh heroes. Edward Petherbridge is packing cinemas with his delightfully troubled Lord Peter Wimsey. How clever of Lew Grade to understand that taking a dash of Merchant Ivory-style of uptight British stiff-upper-lipness and adding some lovely murder is a surefire recipe for box-office dynamite. Even on the small screen, the real grand old man of British sci-fi, Dan Dare, has returned with a vengeance in the divine shape of Paul McGann, taking that old-school RAF quality to Venus and back.
- Janet Merlghane, Mail On Sunday, October 18th 1987
__________________
The Great British viewing public liked the new Doctor Who. Apart from a couple of slightly unhinged fanzines, the fans liked new Doctor Who. Countries that had shown little or no interest took a chance on new Doctor Who. Some US stations that had no place for a 10-part series of Doctor Who were more receptive when BBC Enterprises offered them as 5 TV movies. Doctor Who was still bringing in more revenue than it did to produce, even with its new boosted budget. Doctor Who was a success. But it had gained a reputation for having flown too close to the Sun. By the time Season 26 came around, it had regained its position as hardy perennial. But within the industry and the media commentariat, a cloud hung over Doctor Who. A sense that if it was really going to compete as a worldwide brand, it would need something like a co-production and it would need to be big in America.
- Doctor Who In The Eighties, Gordon Weythe
__________________
"It's a strange thing. People always say to me 'Y'know I thought you were a really good Doctor Who', like it's an opinion that musn't hear very often. I don't think anyone's ever told me I was rubbish. All those years I was getting rich off the overseas sales, I was still seen as the underdog."
- Tony Haygarth, Interview, Doctor Who Magazine, November 2003
__________________
Janet Merlghane maybe one of the great villains of Doctor Who fandom for that column, but there was a germ of truth. Doctor Who was out of step with the prevailing trends of late-80s British TV. Normally when I say that, someone will say 'But it was a great success'. That's the point a lot of people overlook. Doctor Who was successful *because* it was out of step.
Late-80s Britain felt good about itself. There was money swimming around and the social agenda was broadly progressive. Dan Dare was a perfect fit, with its multi-cultural, Utopian future that was still as British as the thwack of willow on leather. Gerry Anderson's Space Police was more Transatlantic in its ambitions, but still whizzy and bright.
Doctor Who was a show for and about misfits. The Doctor cutting a Columbo-like figure in his old suit and worn, tweed overcoat. The Doctor's companion Flip was a sly parody of the feisty tough-girl one might expect in late-80s sci-fi. She had a tomboyish edge, with her fascination and aptitude for things mechanical, but she had no combat skills. Instead of high-kicking martial arts, Flip fought dirty with absolutely no shame. Which of course gave The Doctor as good a reason as any to try and avoid violent confrontations and try to think or talk his way out of a fight. The semi-regular character of Max Bolton (Private Eye) was another canny subversion. Max was a distorted mirror of The Doctor. Max tried to solve problems with toughness and usually ended up looking ridiculous (actually, he usually started out looking ridiculous, too). A man who thought he was a hard-boiled detective, but being from a distant planet didn't entirely understand the tropes he was imitating. Sylvester McCoy played the part with just the right amount of knowing goofiness.
Fortunately, Britain could still supply plenty of misfits for Doctor Who to play to. Whatever influence it lost in the playgrounds, it made up for in university common rooms.
- Deleted section from Doctor Who In The Eighties, posted on Gordon Weythe's blog
__________________
"We weren't exactly on the cover of the NME every week, but yes, there was a sense that Doctor Who was a little bit cooler than other shows of its kind. There was a lot of polished Transatlantic stuff going around and despite the change to film, Who still felt more British and a bit anarchic. This didn't seem to have bought us enough goodwill inside the BBC.
"There was definitely jealousy from some other producers and they were putting the poison in. Enterprises was fighting for us tooth and nail, so that helped. David Dimbleby was still on our side, but there was a new Director of Television and Head of Drama and I think that as they moved in, certain parties had got to them and said Doctor Who was meant to have broken into America and failed. WE. HADN'T. FAILED! It was a long term strategy. I think some people thought anything less than getting them to cancel Cheers and replacing it with Doctor Who was some sort of misfire."
"I was thinking of moving on, but part of me didn't want to give the naysayers the satisfaction.
"Paul Stone left at the end of Season 25 and John Dale came in and for a while, I thought everything was OK. Then just as Season 26 was about to go before the cameras, John called me into his office and asked me if I wanted to move on. I thought I was being fired, but he dropped this bombshell on me. He said 'I have a feeling they're going to cancel us after the next series. I think once they have 52 episodes of film, they're going to use that as an excuse to close us down. You might want to move on so you don't get caught up in being part of the team that oversaw the cancellation of Doctor Who'. I was in shock."
- Colin Brake, The Other Other Colin, DWM, 2006
__________________
"Fans don't like to admit it but Doctor Who has always been political. Sometimes slightly, sometimes deeply, but it's never been an apolitical show. When politics isn't at work within the fiction, it's at work in the production. The cancellation crisis of the early 90s is as much about the way Britain was changing as it was about attractive episode counts for syndication.
"The Seventh Doctor's era had something of the disillusioned traditional Labour supporter to it. Dan Dare and others were examples of the internationalist, but slightly homogeneous Owenite 'Programme for Change'. Lurking in the shadows was the biggest enemy. The sense that the UK should be more like the US. The growing dissatisfaction with Owen's prosperous, but tightly regulated UK. The desire for proper consumerism. The tempting mix of sophistication and excess. Within that was the sense that only American money and knowhow could produce proper sci-fi and fantasy. To compete in the post-Star Wars world, Doctor Who was going to have to become more like Star Wars. Doctor Who's future must surely lie on the other side of The Pond. There was recrimination at the fact that a proposed Doctor Who movie had been scuppered by the move to a filmed series that didn't want the competition [1].
"Doctor Who, the resolutely British, broadly left-wing series was doomed. At least before the axe (or ax) could finally fall, we got a couple of things to disrupt those plans".
- Rayne Norvell, Jewel fanzine, 1996
[1] That's what happened to Coast To Coast/Daltenrays film proposal ITTL
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Very interesting - sounds like the 80’s indeed. The show is going great guns, but ‘you didn’t do good enough mate‘ is the management response.
A US co-production seems invertible, but be cool if it somehow avoids it, or there is one, but the BBC retains a lot of control and thus the ‘Britishness‘ of the Show.
A US co-production seems invertible, but be cool if it somehow avoids it, or there is one, but the BBC retains a lot of control and thus the ‘Britishness‘ of the Show.
Part 23 is almost ready to roll as soon as I get an image done. But before that happens, how would you feel about the identity of the 9th Doctor being blurted out in it? Would you rather I held on on the off-chance I do something a little more detailed about that part of the show down the line?