"Phil won't leave his room" - A Doctor Who Production History
- Thread starter Guajolote
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Or the UNIT Era was set in the eighties and correctly predicted it's existence 😉
There's probably no UNIT dating controversy ITTL. Different producer, different script editor, no "I came from 1980" line.
I keep thinking about US response to the Baine Boom, but then I start getting carried away. Ellery Queen is a good choice and a decent Nero Wolfe series long before A&E would be nice. I can also see something like some exec pushing for steampunk elements in Hec Ramsey, resulting in a couple of infamous episodes. And how about that pilot The Return of the World's Greatest Detective being done a little bit more straight?
I keep thinking about US response to the Baine Boom, but then I start getting carried away. Ellery Queen is a good choice and a decent Nero Wolfe series long before A&E would be nice. I can also see something like some exec pushing for steampunk elements in Hec Ramsey, resulting in a couple of infamous episodes. And how about that pilot The Return of the World's Greatest Detective being done a little bit more straight?
No Mawdryn undead ITTL either, perhaps the UNIT stories take place in the year they aired
I know how you feel. Neuropathic virus gives me hell. Keep going pal.
Part 41 - Return of The Doctors
Any essay about an individual Doctor Who story would be woefully incomplete without references to ratings and audience appreciation numbers. But those figures have little to do with how the fans feel about the stories. The highest rated story of Season 19 is A Cure For Everything and that story has no reputation to speak of. Doctor Who fans care about what they think non-fans will think about the show and, by extension, them. If they know you're a fan and they catch the show, will they wonder what the hell it is you see in this silly show or will they be impressed and understand why you're so loyal to such an amazing thing?
The Amblin series didn't seem to touch the reputation of the average Doctor Who fan. If the non-fans didn't like it, it was because the Americans had wrecked it. If the non-fans liked it, it was because Spielberg's dollars had finally made the show spectacular. Whatever anybody thought, it wasn't because of our devotion to the show that ran from 1963 to 92.
Oh, the late 90s. What a turbulent time. We lost dear Don Henderson, Roger Delgado finally received the honours he deserved and Nathan Lane came out of the closet, a revelation which the world more or less took in its stride, fortunately. In the fictional world, the novelizations tried a little too hard to make Doctor Who grow up and Doctor Who became a British TV series again. And then...
And then...
Nothing.
Well, not quite nothing. Doctor Who went out on Fridays on BBC1 and people watched it. The first woman Doctor made it feel a little bit reinvented, but the world stayed on its axis. Life after Season 30 didn't feel much different to life before it. Being a Doctor Who fan in 1998 was a bit like being a Beatles fan in 1984. When they released Astray, it just sort of hung there. The songs and production were worthy of the Beatles, it wasn't a disappointment in any of those respects. Even though it was the first album under the Beatles name in eight years it didn't feel like it was part of the Beatles' story. They no longer had anything to prove.
Season 31 managed to get everyone's attention in the most obvious, but effective, way.
- Andrew Barbicane, Dimensions Of Doctor Who blog, September 2017
"Even those of us involved in the production who were fans understood why Season 30 didn't start with Nathan falling over and turning into Selina. It would have been nice, but it wouldn't have been the right idea for relaunching the show. We just accepted that the Eighth to Ninth regeneration was just something that would never be seen on TV.
Then I had a silly idea."
- Graham Ardwyne, Convention appearance, 2009
[Bridge of a space freighter. Emergency red lighting.]
Crewman: Captain, something has boarded us! Eight beings in cargo hold 1.
Captain: This is exactly what that doctor said would happen. Henderson, see if you can get The Doctor up here. [to no-one in particular] It makes no sense. We're not carrying anything of value.
Henderson presses a button on the console.
Henderson [over intercom]: Doctor? Doctor, are you there?
He presses the button again, more frantically.
Henderson: Doctor? Doctor, if you can hear me, we need you right now. The Octorexes have boarded! [To Captain] There's no answer, sorry, Captain.
Captain: Keep trying!
Henderson: Doctor? Doctor, please, are you there?
Cut to cargo hold one. The NATHAN LANE DOCTOR is there, hands up, with a communicator in his hand, with Henderson's voice coming out of it. He is surrounded by eight identical alien creatures, all pointing alien-looking weapons at him. The creatures are making the same movements, but with a slight delay, as if they're all echoes of one individual. When they speak, they speak with one voice, out of phase.
OCTOREXES: Answer it then, Doctor. Let them know it's a false alarm. And be careful to be convincing.
The DOCTOR nods, and slowly lowers the communicator to his face. He presses a button on the communicator, which emits a piercing howl of feedback. The OCTOREXES screech, and the images of eight individuals collapse down into one, who drops his weapon and falls to the floor, screaming.
The DOCTOR grabs the OCTOREX's weapon, and runs out of the door, where he bumps into ENSIGN LAFRENUE, who is running towards the cargo deck.
LAFRENUE: Doctor, are you OK?
DOCTOR: Oh, I'm doing splendidly. Here, take this.
He hands LAFRENUE the weapon
LAFRENUE: That's an Octorex dispersal gun, isn't it?
DOCTOR: Yes, I managed to use the feedback from the communicator to push them back into phase. Gave them a phaser blast, if you will.
He looks at LAFRENUE, who just looks confused.
DOCTOR: No? It's an old Earth cultural reference, of a sort. Anyway, it's out of commission for about ten minutes, but it'll get back out of phase with itself soon unless I can fix the problem. Luckily, I have just the thing. Well, I don't have it on me, I'll have to go and get it, but it shall only take a trice. Come with me...
He runs down several corridors, or the same corridor shot from different angles, before arriving at the very recognisable shape of the TARDIS. He pulls out the key, opens the door, and starts to step inside. LEFRENUE reaches into her flight suit to retrieve the disruptor gun.
LAFRENUE: Doctor?
The DOCTOR turns round
DOCTOR: Come inside, don't worry, there's plenty of roo--
LAFRENUE fires the disruptor gun at the DOCTOR, who staggers backwards, falling into the TARDIS. The door closes by itself as he falls in.
LAFRENUE: Never mind.
INT: TARDIS console room. The DOCTOR falls in and collapses on the floor, his hand catches a lever on the console as he falls. As he lies on the ground, dying, his face changes to that of the SELINA CADELL DOCTOR, as a wheezing, groaning sound comes from the console. As the new DOCTOR sits up, it's clear she has no memory of what she was doing moments earlier.
Cut to:
EXT: A beach, Brighton or similar.
CAPTION: FIVE YEARS LATER...
Slow pan across the sands until we reach the CADELL DOCTOR and LINDA, happily dozing in deckchairs. Suddenly the DOCTOR sits bolt upright. Close up on the DOCTOR's shocked face.
DOCTOR: I've just remembered something very, very important...
[Credits roll]
- Script excerpt from Things To Do: Urgent! by Graham Ardwyne
"When the time came to see if Nathan was willing to do a scene for the show, the powers-that-be took the unusual step of sending him a copy of my pitch outline. They wanted to make it clear that they weren't offering this out of pity and they weren't offering for the sake of publicity over his personal life. They wanted him because it made for a fun and intriguing way to start a series.
"Let's face it. If he was looking for a vote of confidence from the world of Doctor Who. He didn't need us."
- Graham Ardwyne, Convention appearance, 2009
It would seem that by this point, Roger Delgado has nothing to prove. I put this to him and he seems genuinely surprised.
"I'm not sure I ever had anything to prove. I've been working constantly and that's a very fortunate situation for any actor."
But is he now looking at retirement or semi-retirement?
"No. Not yet anyway. I don't think I can work at the same pace I used to, but I'm not stopping. I'm looking forward to doing a lot more radio."
I feel the time has come to ask the inevitable questions. Is it true he's going to return to Doctor Who and how does he feel about The Doctor being a woman?
"I'm open to it, but I'll annoy a lot of people behind the scenes if I say whether or not it's happening in the forthcoming series. As to Selina Cadell, I'm delighted! I did worry that the first time they cast a woman Doctor Who, it would be done in a gimmicky way, but she's one of this country's foremost character actors."
So it's true that different actors who play The Doctor are all friends together?
"It depends on how long we've known each other and worked together. I'm occasionally in touch with Iain and I used to call Pat every few weeks, but I don't know Tony all that well. Colin is friends with everybody. I got to know Don better in the last few years, outside of Doctor Who. I've worked several times with Selina and I've met Nathan a few times, but never got a word in edgeways."
How does he feel about Nathan Lane's coming out? Delgado's attitude changes. He is very serious.
"I've spoken with him about it. It's not a matter of getting people to accept a lifestyle. In the US, maybe here I'm not as informed on that front, people are being murdered, denied basic humanity[1]. Look, I'm a Catholic[2] and I'm old. I was born during the First World War. I'm not very comfortable talking about this. But Nathan's reasons are very serious and I support him."
- At Home With Roger Delgado, The Observer, 1999
The initial plan for Things To Do: Urgent! was that it would introduce a new, male companion to balance out the TARDIS crew. However, meetings to devise the new companion proved fruitless.
- DWM Archive, Things To Do: Urgent!, 2012
"For Doctor Who, I think it's easy to come up with a female companion. She can be vulnerable, she can be feisty and those characteristics balance well against whatever The Doctor's personality is.
"But for male companions, vulnerable can come off wimpy, feisty comes off cocky. So, in the end we just left it. Seems to be a problem unique to Doctor Who. Creating a new male character for any other show doesn't carry the same baggage. It's something to do with the way companions relate to The Doctor. Actually, you know what it is? It's to do with the different way TV talks to young people. TV's always telling them to stand out from the crowd, which I think is a message that young guys take to heart. I know that message started in the 60s, but I don't think it was so omnipresent as to cause problems with the male companions back then. So, with Doctor Who the companion has to be kind of subordinate to this patrician figure of The Doctor. I think the audience is more comfortable with seeing a girl doing that. If we were going to try and win back people who were unhappy with a woman Doctor by creating a male companion, they would have balked at then having that companion being told what to do by The Doctor.
"What was that? What about Yates? Well, he's subordinate to The Brigadier. Being military, you don't question why he isn't taking the lead. He's disciplined.
"Of course, it could just be that we didn't want to do it and were looking for an excuse not to."
- Graham Ardwyne, Convention appearance, 2009
The return of Nathan Lane wasn't entirely without controversy within fandom. There was much back and forth over non-appearance of Kate Montez, the revelation that she never returned home and died while traveling with The Doctor, that she was 250 years old when he died and the implication that she and The Doctor had been married at some point.
- DWM Archive, Things To Do: Urgent!, 2012
"We'd passed on a message to Leah Remini letting her know that we would have loved to have had her back, but we really weren't budgeted for it. Nathan had apparently been in touch with her, too and for some reason, both of them decided that The Doctor and Kate were obviously a couple. We soft-pedalled it in the end, but there you go."
- Graham Ardwyne, Convention appearance, 2009
INT: the bridge, the CAPTAIN still sat in the same position as she was in the pre-credits scene. The implication is that it's no more than a few minutes since then. The doors to the bridge open, and the DOCTOR and LINDA march in, hands held high, with LAFRENUE behind them, pointing a weapon at them -- this time not the Octorex disruptor, but a standard weapon of the type the rest of the crew have.
DOCTOR: You know, Ensign LaFrenue, I'm starting to think you don't like me very much...
LAFRENUE: How do you know my... never mind. Captain?
CAPTAIN: Ensign?
LAFRENUE: I found these two skulking around the cargo hold. I presume they're something to do with the creatures that boarded.
CAPTAIN: Don't be absurd. Do those look like Octorexes to you?
LAFRENUE: Well, you know my feelings about the matter. I think the Octorexes are just made up...
CAPTAIN: Yes, I'm well aware of your feelings, Ensign, and I don't really need to hear them again. Now, would you two mind telling me who you are?
DOCTOR: By all means. We have met, but I'm not surprised you've forgotten, it's been a while. I'm known to you as The Doctor, and this is my good friend Linda. Linda, this is Captain Lambert.
LINDA: Pleased to meet you.
CAPTAIN: I'm sorry, did you say you're The Doctor?
DOCTOR: That's right. The Doctor, concerned citizen of time and space, righter of wrongs when possible.
CAPTAIN: Don't be absurd! The Doctor is on the lower decks as we speak.
LINDA: She's not, you know.
CAPTAIN: Also, the Doctor is a man.
DOCTOR: She's not, you know.
LINDA: Look, it's like the transmigration of souls...
DOCTOR: No it's not.
LINDA: Well, it's a bit like that.
DOCTOR: It really isn't, you know.
LINDA: Well...
DOCTOR: Also, that's really not an apposite metaphor, is it? It presumes theological knowledge not usually within the purview of space Captains.
LINDA: You're not usually this grumpy.
DOCTOR: Well, I don't usually have to interrupt a nap and a holiday because of an urgent epiphany, only to find someone who already shot me once pointing a gun at me. [To CAPTAIN] I'm terribly sorry. Let me explain. I *was* a man, but then the ensign here decided to kill me with a disruptor gun I got from that Octorex in the cargo hold who should be waking up... about *now* as it happens.
[The bridge shakes, and alarms start to go off]
DOCTOR: So, would you like me to solve your problem for you?
- Script exceprt from Things To Do: Urgent! by Graham Ardwyne
The return of Nathan Lane and then Roger Delgado, plus the search for a male companion can be seen as attempts to get the US talking about Doctor Who again.
Personally, I don't think having Selina Cadell as The Doctor did much to dim Doctor Who's standing as a cult TV favourite in the US. I think it was just the just the aftermath of the Stateside failure of the Amblin series. New Doctor Who (as it was billed) had a plum slot on Sci-Fi Channel, but there's no escaping that it was still a step down from CBS.
Even though production of Doctor Who hadn't been continuous, let's face it, it had been in production for 35 years by the time Season 30 came around. You can't maintain public affection for that long. Maybe resting it after 1992 and waiting until 2000 might have been good for the brand.
That said, I'm glad they didn't because Seasons 30-32 might just be the best run the show ever had.
Season 31 ended as it started, with the return of a Doctor in a story that played with idea and made it the basis of a fun story about time travel.
- Andrew Barbicane, Dimensions Of Doctor Who blog, September 2017
[1] IOTL, Nathan Lane came out in response to the murder of Matthew Shepard (if you look it up, content warning for homophobia, torture and murder). We can take it as the ITTL, but I don't want to dwell on it in a TL that is primarily for diversion.
[2] Despite being a divorcé, Delgado's biography I Am Usually Referred To As The Master by Marcus K Harmes indicates he kept a personal faith in line with his upbringing
Script excerpts by Andrew Hickey of the podcast A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs and author of these fine books, some of them about Doctor Who
The Amblin series didn't seem to touch the reputation of the average Doctor Who fan. If the non-fans didn't like it, it was because the Americans had wrecked it. If the non-fans liked it, it was because Spielberg's dollars had finally made the show spectacular. Whatever anybody thought, it wasn't because of our devotion to the show that ran from 1963 to 92.
Oh, the late 90s. What a turbulent time. We lost dear Don Henderson, Roger Delgado finally received the honours he deserved and Nathan Lane came out of the closet, a revelation which the world more or less took in its stride, fortunately. In the fictional world, the novelizations tried a little too hard to make Doctor Who grow up and Doctor Who became a British TV series again. And then...
And then...
Nothing.
Well, not quite nothing. Doctor Who went out on Fridays on BBC1 and people watched it. The first woman Doctor made it feel a little bit reinvented, but the world stayed on its axis. Life after Season 30 didn't feel much different to life before it. Being a Doctor Who fan in 1998 was a bit like being a Beatles fan in 1984. When they released Astray, it just sort of hung there. The songs and production were worthy of the Beatles, it wasn't a disappointment in any of those respects. Even though it was the first album under the Beatles name in eight years it didn't feel like it was part of the Beatles' story. They no longer had anything to prove.
Season 31 managed to get everyone's attention in the most obvious, but effective, way.
- Andrew Barbicane, Dimensions Of Doctor Who blog, September 2017
__________________
"Even those of us involved in the production who were fans understood why Season 30 didn't start with Nathan falling over and turning into Selina. It would have been nice, but it wouldn't have been the right idea for relaunching the show. We just accepted that the Eighth to Ninth regeneration was just something that would never be seen on TV.
Then I had a silly idea."
- Graham Ardwyne, Convention appearance, 2009
__________________
[Bridge of a space freighter. Emergency red lighting.]
Crewman: Captain, something has boarded us! Eight beings in cargo hold 1.
Captain: This is exactly what that doctor said would happen. Henderson, see if you can get The Doctor up here. [to no-one in particular] It makes no sense. We're not carrying anything of value.
Henderson presses a button on the console.
Henderson [over intercom]: Doctor? Doctor, are you there?
He presses the button again, more frantically.
Henderson: Doctor? Doctor, if you can hear me, we need you right now. The Octorexes have boarded! [To Captain] There's no answer, sorry, Captain.
Captain: Keep trying!
Henderson: Doctor? Doctor, please, are you there?
Cut to cargo hold one. The NATHAN LANE DOCTOR is there, hands up, with a communicator in his hand, with Henderson's voice coming out of it. He is surrounded by eight identical alien creatures, all pointing alien-looking weapons at him. The creatures are making the same movements, but with a slight delay, as if they're all echoes of one individual. When they speak, they speak with one voice, out of phase.
OCTOREXES: Answer it then, Doctor. Let them know it's a false alarm. And be careful to be convincing.
The DOCTOR nods, and slowly lowers the communicator to his face. He presses a button on the communicator, which emits a piercing howl of feedback. The OCTOREXES screech, and the images of eight individuals collapse down into one, who drops his weapon and falls to the floor, screaming.
The DOCTOR grabs the OCTOREX's weapon, and runs out of the door, where he bumps into ENSIGN LAFRENUE, who is running towards the cargo deck.
LAFRENUE: Doctor, are you OK?
DOCTOR: Oh, I'm doing splendidly. Here, take this.
He hands LAFRENUE the weapon
LAFRENUE: That's an Octorex dispersal gun, isn't it?
DOCTOR: Yes, I managed to use the feedback from the communicator to push them back into phase. Gave them a phaser blast, if you will.
He looks at LAFRENUE, who just looks confused.
DOCTOR: No? It's an old Earth cultural reference, of a sort. Anyway, it's out of commission for about ten minutes, but it'll get back out of phase with itself soon unless I can fix the problem. Luckily, I have just the thing. Well, I don't have it on me, I'll have to go and get it, but it shall only take a trice. Come with me...
He runs down several corridors, or the same corridor shot from different angles, before arriving at the very recognisable shape of the TARDIS. He pulls out the key, opens the door, and starts to step inside. LEFRENUE reaches into her flight suit to retrieve the disruptor gun.
LAFRENUE: Doctor?
The DOCTOR turns round
DOCTOR: Come inside, don't worry, there's plenty of roo--
LAFRENUE fires the disruptor gun at the DOCTOR, who staggers backwards, falling into the TARDIS. The door closes by itself as he falls in.
LAFRENUE: Never mind.
INT: TARDIS console room. The DOCTOR falls in and collapses on the floor, his hand catches a lever on the console as he falls. As he lies on the ground, dying, his face changes to that of the SELINA CADELL DOCTOR, as a wheezing, groaning sound comes from the console. As the new DOCTOR sits up, it's clear she has no memory of what she was doing moments earlier.
Cut to:
EXT: A beach, Brighton or similar.
CAPTION: FIVE YEARS LATER...
Slow pan across the sands until we reach the CADELL DOCTOR and LINDA, happily dozing in deckchairs. Suddenly the DOCTOR sits bolt upright. Close up on the DOCTOR's shocked face.
DOCTOR: I've just remembered something very, very important...
[Credits roll]
- Script excerpt from Things To Do: Urgent! by Graham Ardwyne
__________________
"When the time came to see if Nathan was willing to do a scene for the show, the powers-that-be took the unusual step of sending him a copy of my pitch outline. They wanted to make it clear that they weren't offering this out of pity and they weren't offering for the sake of publicity over his personal life. They wanted him because it made for a fun and intriguing way to start a series.
"Let's face it. If he was looking for a vote of confidence from the world of Doctor Who. He didn't need us."
- Graham Ardwyne, Convention appearance, 2009
__________________
It would seem that by this point, Roger Delgado has nothing to prove. I put this to him and he seems genuinely surprised.
"I'm not sure I ever had anything to prove. I've been working constantly and that's a very fortunate situation for any actor."
But is he now looking at retirement or semi-retirement?
"No. Not yet anyway. I don't think I can work at the same pace I used to, but I'm not stopping. I'm looking forward to doing a lot more radio."
I feel the time has come to ask the inevitable questions. Is it true he's going to return to Doctor Who and how does he feel about The Doctor being a woman?
"I'm open to it, but I'll annoy a lot of people behind the scenes if I say whether or not it's happening in the forthcoming series. As to Selina Cadell, I'm delighted! I did worry that the first time they cast a woman Doctor Who, it would be done in a gimmicky way, but she's one of this country's foremost character actors."
So it's true that different actors who play The Doctor are all friends together?
"It depends on how long we've known each other and worked together. I'm occasionally in touch with Iain and I used to call Pat every few weeks, but I don't know Tony all that well. Colin is friends with everybody. I got to know Don better in the last few years, outside of Doctor Who. I've worked several times with Selina and I've met Nathan a few times, but never got a word in edgeways."
How does he feel about Nathan Lane's coming out? Delgado's attitude changes. He is very serious.
"I've spoken with him about it. It's not a matter of getting people to accept a lifestyle. In the US, maybe here I'm not as informed on that front, people are being murdered, denied basic humanity[1]. Look, I'm a Catholic[2] and I'm old. I was born during the First World War. I'm not very comfortable talking about this. But Nathan's reasons are very serious and I support him."
- At Home With Roger Delgado, The Observer, 1999
__________________
The initial plan for Things To Do: Urgent! was that it would introduce a new, male companion to balance out the TARDIS crew. However, meetings to devise the new companion proved fruitless.
- DWM Archive, Things To Do: Urgent!, 2012
__________________
"For Doctor Who, I think it's easy to come up with a female companion. She can be vulnerable, she can be feisty and those characteristics balance well against whatever The Doctor's personality is.
"But for male companions, vulnerable can come off wimpy, feisty comes off cocky. So, in the end we just left it. Seems to be a problem unique to Doctor Who. Creating a new male character for any other show doesn't carry the same baggage. It's something to do with the way companions relate to The Doctor. Actually, you know what it is? It's to do with the different way TV talks to young people. TV's always telling them to stand out from the crowd, which I think is a message that young guys take to heart. I know that message started in the 60s, but I don't think it was so omnipresent as to cause problems with the male companions back then. So, with Doctor Who the companion has to be kind of subordinate to this patrician figure of The Doctor. I think the audience is more comfortable with seeing a girl doing that. If we were going to try and win back people who were unhappy with a woman Doctor by creating a male companion, they would have balked at then having that companion being told what to do by The Doctor.
"What was that? What about Yates? Well, he's subordinate to The Brigadier. Being military, you don't question why he isn't taking the lead. He's disciplined.
"Of course, it could just be that we didn't want to do it and were looking for an excuse not to."
- Graham Ardwyne, Convention appearance, 2009
__________________
The return of Nathan Lane wasn't entirely without controversy within fandom. There was much back and forth over non-appearance of Kate Montez, the revelation that she never returned home and died while traveling with The Doctor, that she was 250 years old when he died and the implication that she and The Doctor had been married at some point.
- DWM Archive, Things To Do: Urgent!, 2012
__________________
"We'd passed on a message to Leah Remini letting her know that we would have loved to have had her back, but we really weren't budgeted for it. Nathan had apparently been in touch with her, too and for some reason, both of them decided that The Doctor and Kate were obviously a couple. We soft-pedalled it in the end, but there you go."
- Graham Ardwyne, Convention appearance, 2009
_____________________
INT: the bridge, the CAPTAIN still sat in the same position as she was in the pre-credits scene. The implication is that it's no more than a few minutes since then. The doors to the bridge open, and the DOCTOR and LINDA march in, hands held high, with LAFRENUE behind them, pointing a weapon at them -- this time not the Octorex disruptor, but a standard weapon of the type the rest of the crew have.
DOCTOR: You know, Ensign LaFrenue, I'm starting to think you don't like me very much...
LAFRENUE: How do you know my... never mind. Captain?
CAPTAIN: Ensign?
LAFRENUE: I found these two skulking around the cargo hold. I presume they're something to do with the creatures that boarded.
CAPTAIN: Don't be absurd. Do those look like Octorexes to you?
LAFRENUE: Well, you know my feelings about the matter. I think the Octorexes are just made up...
CAPTAIN: Yes, I'm well aware of your feelings, Ensign, and I don't really need to hear them again. Now, would you two mind telling me who you are?
DOCTOR: By all means. We have met, but I'm not surprised you've forgotten, it's been a while. I'm known to you as The Doctor, and this is my good friend Linda. Linda, this is Captain Lambert.
LINDA: Pleased to meet you.
CAPTAIN: I'm sorry, did you say you're The Doctor?
DOCTOR: That's right. The Doctor, concerned citizen of time and space, righter of wrongs when possible.
CAPTAIN: Don't be absurd! The Doctor is on the lower decks as we speak.
LINDA: She's not, you know.
CAPTAIN: Also, the Doctor is a man.
DOCTOR: She's not, you know.
LINDA: Look, it's like the transmigration of souls...
DOCTOR: No it's not.
LINDA: Well, it's a bit like that.
DOCTOR: It really isn't, you know.
LINDA: Well...
DOCTOR: Also, that's really not an apposite metaphor, is it? It presumes theological knowledge not usually within the purview of space Captains.
LINDA: You're not usually this grumpy.
DOCTOR: Well, I don't usually have to interrupt a nap and a holiday because of an urgent epiphany, only to find someone who already shot me once pointing a gun at me. [To CAPTAIN] I'm terribly sorry. Let me explain. I *was* a man, but then the ensign here decided to kill me with a disruptor gun I got from that Octorex in the cargo hold who should be waking up... about *now* as it happens.
[The bridge shakes, and alarms start to go off]
DOCTOR: So, would you like me to solve your problem for you?
- Script exceprt from Things To Do: Urgent! by Graham Ardwyne
__________________
The return of Nathan Lane and then Roger Delgado, plus the search for a male companion can be seen as attempts to get the US talking about Doctor Who again.
Personally, I don't think having Selina Cadell as The Doctor did much to dim Doctor Who's standing as a cult TV favourite in the US. I think it was just the just the aftermath of the Stateside failure of the Amblin series. New Doctor Who (as it was billed) had a plum slot on Sci-Fi Channel, but there's no escaping that it was still a step down from CBS.
Even though production of Doctor Who hadn't been continuous, let's face it, it had been in production for 35 years by the time Season 30 came around. You can't maintain public affection for that long. Maybe resting it after 1992 and waiting until 2000 might have been good for the brand.
That said, I'm glad they didn't because Seasons 30-32 might just be the best run the show ever had.
Season 31 ended as it started, with the return of a Doctor in a story that played with idea and made it the basis of a fun story about time travel.
- Andrew Barbicane, Dimensions Of Doctor Who blog, September 2017
[1] IOTL, Nathan Lane came out in response to the murder of Matthew Shepard (if you look it up, content warning for homophobia, torture and murder). We can take it as the ITTL, but I don't want to dwell on it in a TL that is primarily for diversion.
[2] Despite being a divorcé, Delgado's biography I Am Usually Referred To As The Master by Marcus K Harmes indicates he kept a personal faith in line with his upbringing
Script excerpts by Andrew Hickey of the podcast A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs and author of these fine books, some of them about Doctor Who
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Great post, the implication that the Doctor and Kate married at some point would definitely anger fans.
You can vote for this TL in the 2022 Turtledoves - Best Pop-Culture Timeline
With thanks to @nezza and @wwbgdiaslt for nominating and seconding me.
With thanks to @nezza and @wwbgdiaslt for nominating and seconding me.