Pop Culture: The David Burton 'Doctor Who'
- Thread starter DG Valdron
- Start date
Generally, production is usually breaks down this way:
Pre-Production is all the necessary things that need to get done, in order to get filming underway. This involves signing the contract with the distributor, then arranging bridge financing because generally you get paid on delivery, not in advance. Then you need to locate and hire your production crew - everyone from caterers to grips to cameramen, everyone from carpenters to coffee boys, drivers to accountants. You need to get the scripts done, break the scripts down to shots, and then set up a schedule to set up the camera and crew for each individual shot, hire the actors, get all the locations, commission the props and sets, and a hundred other things.
Then you have principal photography, the thing everyone focuses on. If you’ve done your pre-production right, everyone shows up at the right places and at the right times, on sets which are already built or locations already arranged, to shoot a few minutes of a scene from one angle, then later on, they’ll shoot a few minutes of another scene from another angle, and so forth, until you’ve got all your scenes.
If things don’t go right, then you have to solve problems. Sometimes a location isn’t available, a set isn’t ready, an actor is sick, or quit, or dead, sometimes there’s a gap in the script that you need to shoot something to fill, sometimes the script doesn’t make sense or can’t be shot the way you planned. You don’t really like these things, these are all unanticipated things, they cost extra time, they cost extra money, and you’re on a budget and a schedule. Sometimes that extra time or money is available, sometimes you have to take it from somewhere else in the budget or schedule, then you’ve got to keep making allowances and adjustments.
Then there’s post-production. That’s where the shots are edited together into scenes, the scenes are edited together into an episode, the sound mix is synched up so that it runs smooth, you add music, folley effects, CGI and image effects, where you add titles, and you revise it and revise it, trying to fix the mistakes, tighten up the pace for best effect. Sometimes that’s also where you discover missing scenes, or shots that didn’t turn out, and you have to get a reshoot done and hope for the best. But if post-production goes well, then you’ve got something ready for air.
For Millenium Productions, they already had most of Monsters of Ness in the can. But the BBC as part of their requirements, demanded various changes. Some reshoots were required, more post-production work for a broad-cast ready project. But most of that could be done during the pre-production period.
Barry Letts had been brought on board for his experience with producing Doctor Who. One of his first critical acts had been to prepare a production schedule for the balance of the proposed series. It looked like this....
March 1 through April 15, 1992. Pre-production for all of the episodes. Additional post-production work on Monsters of Ness, scheduled airdates July 6 and July 13.
Some additional pre-production time was allocated for episodes later in the schedule, waiting for their principal photography. But manpower wasn’t unlimited, if people were working on principal photography, they weren’t available for pre-production on other episodes. So after April 15, the number of people and resources available for ongoing pre-production dropped significantly.
Vienna, 1913, a two part serial, scheduled to follow on Monsters of Ness. This would be a historical drama, so there would be an existing catalogue of locations, costumes and props to draw on, and set design and construction challenges would draw from real life and history.
April 16, to May 6 scheduled principal photography. May 9, through May 30 post-production. Airdates Airdates July 20 and 27.
Murder in Space, a three part serial following on Vienna, 1913. Not only would this be demanding as a three part serial, but there’d be very limited availability of useful locations, all of the costumes, props and sets would have to be designed from scratch, or scrounged from very limited availability, which would mean substantial expenses. This was expected to be the most challenging production, so it follows after Vienna, 1913, which is expected to have fewer challenges. Main pre-production up to April 15, with limited pre-production April 15 to May 6. May 6 through May 28, principal photography. Post-production is scheduled for May 30, through July 7, 1992. Airdates August 3, 10, 17.
Volcano, a two part serial closing out the series. Set on earth in modern times, this would offer maximum use of existing locations, props, costumes, and the fewest challenges in set design and construction. Main pre-production up to April 15, with limited pre-production from April 15 through May 28. Principal photography is scheduled for May 28 through June 21. Post production from June 21 through August 1, 1992. Airdates August 24 and 31.
Pre-Production is all the necessary things that need to get done, in order to get filming underway. This involves signing the contract with the distributor, then arranging bridge financing because generally you get paid on delivery, not in advance. Then you need to locate and hire your production crew - everyone from caterers to grips to cameramen, everyone from carpenters to coffee boys, drivers to accountants. You need to get the scripts done, break the scripts down to shots, and then set up a schedule to set up the camera and crew for each individual shot, hire the actors, get all the locations, commission the props and sets, and a hundred other things.
Then you have principal photography, the thing everyone focuses on. If you’ve done your pre-production right, everyone shows up at the right places and at the right times, on sets which are already built or locations already arranged, to shoot a few minutes of a scene from one angle, then later on, they’ll shoot a few minutes of another scene from another angle, and so forth, until you’ve got all your scenes.
If things don’t go right, then you have to solve problems. Sometimes a location isn’t available, a set isn’t ready, an actor is sick, or quit, or dead, sometimes there’s a gap in the script that you need to shoot something to fill, sometimes the script doesn’t make sense or can’t be shot the way you planned. You don’t really like these things, these are all unanticipated things, they cost extra time, they cost extra money, and you’re on a budget and a schedule. Sometimes that extra time or money is available, sometimes you have to take it from somewhere else in the budget or schedule, then you’ve got to keep making allowances and adjustments.
Then there’s post-production. That’s where the shots are edited together into scenes, the scenes are edited together into an episode, the sound mix is synched up so that it runs smooth, you add music, folley effects, CGI and image effects, where you add titles, and you revise it and revise it, trying to fix the mistakes, tighten up the pace for best effect. Sometimes that’s also where you discover missing scenes, or shots that didn’t turn out, and you have to get a reshoot done and hope for the best. But if post-production goes well, then you’ve got something ready for air.
For Millenium Productions, they already had most of Monsters of Ness in the can. But the BBC as part of their requirements, demanded various changes. Some reshoots were required, more post-production work for a broad-cast ready project. But most of that could be done during the pre-production period.
Barry Letts had been brought on board for his experience with producing Doctor Who. One of his first critical acts had been to prepare a production schedule for the balance of the proposed series. It looked like this....
March 1 through April 15, 1992. Pre-production for all of the episodes. Additional post-production work on Monsters of Ness, scheduled airdates July 6 and July 13.
Some additional pre-production time was allocated for episodes later in the schedule, waiting for their principal photography. But manpower wasn’t unlimited, if people were working on principal photography, they weren’t available for pre-production on other episodes. So after April 15, the number of people and resources available for ongoing pre-production dropped significantly.
Vienna, 1913, a two part serial, scheduled to follow on Monsters of Ness. This would be a historical drama, so there would be an existing catalogue of locations, costumes and props to draw on, and set design and construction challenges would draw from real life and history.
April 16, to May 6 scheduled principal photography. May 9, through May 30 post-production. Airdates Airdates July 20 and 27.
Murder in Space, a three part serial following on Vienna, 1913. Not only would this be demanding as a three part serial, but there’d be very limited availability of useful locations, all of the costumes, props and sets would have to be designed from scratch, or scrounged from very limited availability, which would mean substantial expenses. This was expected to be the most challenging production, so it follows after Vienna, 1913, which is expected to have fewer challenges. Main pre-production up to April 15, with limited pre-production April 15 to May 6. May 6 through May 28, principal photography. Post-production is scheduled for May 30, through July 7, 1992. Airdates August 3, 10, 17.
Volcano, a two part serial closing out the series. Set on earth in modern times, this would offer maximum use of existing locations, props, costumes, and the fewest challenges in set design and construction. Main pre-production up to April 15, with limited pre-production from April 15 through May 28. Principal photography is scheduled for May 28 through June 21. Post production from June 21 through August 1, 1992. Airdates August 24 and 31.
Hey Nigel,
Ending well is a relative term. Assuming that David Burton's not a complete hoaxer, the project here has succeeded spectacularly in comparison to OTL.
The most likely scenario with David Burton is that he made the whole thing up, and probably didn't think very much about it at first. The likely story is that he was trying to get a dealership to give him a car, and he padded his resume out with a throwaway reference to a dead children's show that still had some recognition factor, and didn't think much past that. But they stuck it on the car. Then when interest started up, he was up against the wall and had to make up a pseudo-plausible cover story, if for no other reason than to keep the car and keep from looking like a scam-artist. It was a little white lie to support something that wasn't quite a scam, that then snowballed unintentionally into something that resembled a hoax. It's questionable whether anyone actually bought into it, so basically, it was a self made urban legend. Good for some minor coverage and investigation and rumour-monging.
But assuming that any part of Burton's story hangs out, or that it's a mixture of fact and fabrication, here's the options:
1) Paul Bernard actually did direct David Burton in a "Lock Up Your Daughters" in June of 1989, a few months before the series ended. That's verified. It's possible that they had coffee at some point and there was some idle talk that David might make a good doctor. It never went anywhere. I don't see this as implausible, however.
2) Hypothetically, Bernard may have had conversations or discussions with a group calling themselves Millenium Productions interested in reviving Doctor Who as a private production. He may have been a founder of this group, a member, or someone approached by the group. He may have invited Burton to meet with the group and they might have talked about it. But it could well have ended there. A lot of meetings get taken, a lot of projects get talked about, most times it doesn't get past 'meeting in a Boardroom or Restaurant'. Again, I don't see this as implausible.
3) There actually was a short lived entertaintment company called 'Millenium' around the right time frame. That's verified. It's possible but completely unverified whether this is the same company as Burton's story.
4) Assuming that 1), 2) and 3) all happened and lead somewhere, there might well have been a production of a 'proof of concept' video called 'Monsters of Ness.' 'Proof of Concept' productions are actually relatively common in film and television, take place under all sorts of circumstances and conditions, and can vary from very simple short things to quite elaborate 'pilots.' I would expect it to have left some kind of footprint, but if this was a non-union shoot, it could have flown way under the radar. Monsters of Ness could have been anything from a 5 minute showpiece to a full pilot/serial.
5) If it did exist, there's no tracking or determining who was involved. Ian Levine's name never came up OTL, and he wasn't the sort to hide his light under a barrel. He could have been operating under a pseudonym, but it's just as likely that the backers were other people simply unknown.
6) Starting a project doesn't mean that it gets finished. There's literally a thousand points where 'Monsters of Ness' could have died or been abandoned anywhere in pre-production, principal photography or post-production. It may be that there's or a bunch of reels of unedited and possibly unuseable footage and sound tape, or some abandoned fragments of some sort. There's not a bit of proof of course, and not a single piece of evidence or known product, not even sides or a cast last. So it's unlikely it ever existed or ever got off the ground to this degree. But it's not out of the question that something could have been started and just fallen to pieces in process.
7) Burton referred to a three month contract. Not impossible or unlikely on its face. Sometimes the first thing you do when you have a project is lock your actor in for a specific time period, whether the project happens or not. Basically, if during your projected time period, the actor goes off and takes another job... you're screwed. So locking the talent is a pretty common thing. Burton might well have had a three month contract without any other thing on this project actually happening... they locked him down, and then the funding or pre-production fell apart, and the whole thing sank without a trace. It's happened. Did it happen here, unknowable. But if it did, Burton should have had a copy of his contract as proof. It's not impossible that it was a verbal contract... but incredibly reckless and unlikely.
8) Assuming that everything Burton said was true, did it ever reach the point of a completed work that was pitched to the BBC? Impossible. Because if it had reached that point, the BBC would have had records of it, there'd be memos, evaluations, acknowledgements, refusals, etc. And I can't imagine the hypothetical Millenium productions achieving completion and not taking it to the BBC. ABSOLUTE Best that could have happened was that either the project died in pre-production OR that the produced project was such rubbish that it was simply buried.
Ending well is a relative term. Assuming that David Burton's not a complete hoaxer, the project here has succeeded spectacularly in comparison to OTL.
The most likely scenario with David Burton is that he made the whole thing up, and probably didn't think very much about it at first. The likely story is that he was trying to get a dealership to give him a car, and he padded his resume out with a throwaway reference to a dead children's show that still had some recognition factor, and didn't think much past that. But they stuck it on the car. Then when interest started up, he was up against the wall and had to make up a pseudo-plausible cover story, if for no other reason than to keep the car and keep from looking like a scam-artist. It was a little white lie to support something that wasn't quite a scam, that then snowballed unintentionally into something that resembled a hoax. It's questionable whether anyone actually bought into it, so basically, it was a self made urban legend. Good for some minor coverage and investigation and rumour-monging.
But assuming that any part of Burton's story hangs out, or that it's a mixture of fact and fabrication, here's the options:
1) Paul Bernard actually did direct David Burton in a "Lock Up Your Daughters" in June of 1989, a few months before the series ended. That's verified. It's possible that they had coffee at some point and there was some idle talk that David might make a good doctor. It never went anywhere. I don't see this as implausible, however.
2) Hypothetically, Bernard may have had conversations or discussions with a group calling themselves Millenium Productions interested in reviving Doctor Who as a private production. He may have been a founder of this group, a member, or someone approached by the group. He may have invited Burton to meet with the group and they might have talked about it. But it could well have ended there. A lot of meetings get taken, a lot of projects get talked about, most times it doesn't get past 'meeting in a Boardroom or Restaurant'. Again, I don't see this as implausible.
3) There actually was a short lived entertaintment company called 'Millenium' around the right time frame. That's verified. It's possible but completely unverified whether this is the same company as Burton's story.
4) Assuming that 1), 2) and 3) all happened and lead somewhere, there might well have been a production of a 'proof of concept' video called 'Monsters of Ness.' 'Proof of Concept' productions are actually relatively common in film and television, take place under all sorts of circumstances and conditions, and can vary from very simple short things to quite elaborate 'pilots.' I would expect it to have left some kind of footprint, but if this was a non-union shoot, it could have flown way under the radar. Monsters of Ness could have been anything from a 5 minute showpiece to a full pilot/serial.
5) If it did exist, there's no tracking or determining who was involved. Ian Levine's name never came up OTL, and he wasn't the sort to hide his light under a barrel. He could have been operating under a pseudonym, but it's just as likely that the backers were other people simply unknown.
6) Starting a project doesn't mean that it gets finished. There's literally a thousand points where 'Monsters of Ness' could have died or been abandoned anywhere in pre-production, principal photography or post-production. It may be that there's or a bunch of reels of unedited and possibly unuseable footage and sound tape, or some abandoned fragments of some sort. There's not a bit of proof of course, and not a single piece of evidence or known product, not even sides or a cast last. So it's unlikely it ever existed or ever got off the ground to this degree. But it's not out of the question that something could have been started and just fallen to pieces in process.
7) Burton referred to a three month contract. Not impossible or unlikely on its face. Sometimes the first thing you do when you have a project is lock your actor in for a specific time period, whether the project happens or not. Basically, if during your projected time period, the actor goes off and takes another job... you're screwed. So locking the talent is a pretty common thing. Burton might well have had a three month contract without any other thing on this project actually happening... they locked him down, and then the funding or pre-production fell apart, and the whole thing sank without a trace. It's happened. Did it happen here, unknowable. But if it did, Burton should have had a copy of his contract as proof. It's not impossible that it was a verbal contract... but incredibly reckless and unlikely.
8) Assuming that everything Burton said was true, did it ever reach the point of a completed work that was pitched to the BBC? Impossible. Because if it had reached that point, the BBC would have had records of it, there'd be memos, evaluations, acknowledgements, refusals, etc. And I can't imagine the hypothetical Millenium productions achieving completion and not taking it to the BBC. ABSOLUTE Best that could have happened was that either the project died in pre-production OR that the produced project was such rubbish that it was simply buried.
Better for Burton, certainly, but not necessarily better for the Doctor Who franchise. We're talking something that's even lower budget than Sylvester McCoy's last season. They're going to need some very good scripts to make up for that.
On the bright side, the TV Movie is going to look good by comparison.
Cheers,
Nigel.
Definitely lower budget, and struggling for technical polish. And good scripts? Hummm.... But... Well, there's all sorts of good and bad.
And let's face it, Dimensions in Time, the Underwater Menace, the Horns of Nimon, Warriors of the Deep and the Twin Dilemma are all classic Who as well.
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Sure, every series has its turkeys. But not many can survive having a whole season of them, particularly when it's trying to make a new start.
Cheers,
Nigel.
THE NEW DOCTOR WHO: Production #3 and #4: VIENNA, 1913
Script Synopsis - April 10, 1992. Prepared by Eglin Thompson, from April 25 script by Evan Wales and Ian Levine
Annotations by Barry Lets
A well dressed, middle aged man in a prim goatee is walking down a street in Vienna, he is carrying a large satchel stuffed with papers. Suddenly, he’s assaulted by two masked men, attempting to steal his satchel. Doctor intervenes and struggles with the men. The Doctor pulls the mask from one of the men, exposing a limp forelock, burning eyes and a pencil mustache. Stunned, the Doctor freezes. The assailants flee. [Set 1 - Vienna street, Location shoot?]
The Doctor assist the gentleman to his feet, who turns out to be Sigmund Freud. Freud’s curious about the Doctor’s outfit. The Doctor evades his questions. Freud names him his next patient. They return to Freud’s office together, only to find it ransacked. [Set 2 - Freud's office]
Meanwhile, the thugs, who we learn are Adolph Hitler and his sidekick Broz, return to the Café Central on the other side of Vienna, where they meet up with their employer - Leon Trotsky and his associate, Josef Stalin. Stalin has broken into Freud’s office. But they have not found what they are looking for. Hitler and Tito complain about money owing to them, Hitler needs funds to pursue his art. He mocks Trotsky’s mustache, causing Stalin to laugh. Privately, Trotsky despises the Austrian, they wanted a thug unconnected to the Communist party who could take the blame if anything went wrong. But Stalin defends the man they have hired, saying he trusts him not to betray them. [Set 3 - Café Central, difficult, lots of extras - 10/15 minimum. Can we locate it somewhere else, Trotsky's basement?]
Back at Freud’s office, he and the Doctor play a game of cat and mouse. The Doctor is intensely curious about why Hitler would assault him, and who broke into the office. Freud is intent upon the Doctor’s secret. Eventually, they exchange secrets: Freud’s patients include famous and powerful people, but he keeps his most important files elsewhere, he believes the thieves were searching for these files. He refuses to reveal the names of the clients. The Doctor fesses up to be a time traveller, which convinces Freud he’s insane. Freud excuses himself for a moment, when he returns, he’s with Austrian constables who hustle the Doctor to a mental institution. After the Doctor is taken away, Freud’s patient enters - Archduke Franz Ferdinand, 2nd in line to the Austro-Hungarian throne. [Set 2 - Freud's office]
The Doctor on the way to the institution spots Hitler. He gives the constables the slip and begins trailing Hitler, who in turn is casing a bank. The Doctor correctly surmises this is where Freud’s most important files are stored. The Doctor follows Hitler into an adjacent basement where he spies on Hitler and his confederates. [Set 1 - Vienna Street, Location?] [Check with Ken, see if we can find one street which meets all our outdoor needs/different angles, so we can limit trips. Want a Vienna feel, Austrian Bourgeoisie, circa 19th century. Maybe we can get all shot as block.] [Set 4 - Trotsky's basement, seems easy]
The Doctor listens to Stalin and Trotsky lay out a plan to assassinate Emperor Franz Josef. At that moment, the Doctor is discovered. He bluffs his way through, claiming to be a Political Officer from the Central Party in Moscow, a bluff assisted by his historical knowledge of the characters, which he selectively reveals. Stalin and Trotsky try to sell each other out. Hitler recognizes him from their earlier encounter, but does not give him away.
Afterwards, Hitler approaches the Doctor, having surmised that he is an agent of the Austrian secret police. He offers to sell out his associates who he describes as ‘communists, jews and lower races.’ In the conversation, it becomes clear that Hitler is only interested in money and power. The Doctor plays along until he can get away.
The Doctor returns to Freud, interrupting his session with Franz Ferdinand. Freud is shocked and upset with the Doctor who he is now convinced is an escaped lunatic. Meanwhile, the Doctor has figured out the rest of Trotsky’s plan - to install Franz Ferdinand on the throne, by killing the Emperor, and control him through blackmail with Freud’s stolen files. [Set 2 - Freud's office]
To prove his bona fides, the Doctor lures Freud into the Tardis, where he shows him the consequences of Trotsky’s plans. The Austro-Hungarian Empire becomes the world’s first Soviet Republic, steadily subverting it’s neighbors until Europe is a communist empire. The eventual outcome is six world wars, including nuclear wars and the collapse of human civilization in the 21st century. That future must be avoided at all costs. [Set 5 - Tardis standing set]
Now cooperative, Freud and the Doctor travel to Freud’s vault, where they discover it is ransacked. Things have taken an urgent turn. Franz Ferdinand is kidnapped by Hitler and Broz. Freud and the Doctor arrive on the scene too late and narrowly escape arrest by the Archduke’s bodyguards. They escape, the only chance now is to prevent the assassination. [Set 6 - Bank vault, single use] [Set 7 - Kidnapping? Palace? Street location? Discuss]
The Doctor confronts Trotsky. They argue over the inevitability of history, and sacrifices for a greater good. Trotsky reveals that Stalin has already been sent to assassinate the Emperor. That this has been a stall.
The Doctor and Freud take the Tardis to the Imperial palace. While Freud distracts the guards, the Doctor narrowly saves the Emperor, shoving him out of the way of the assassins bullet. Stalin attempts to flee, but is assaulted by Hitler, who reveals that he has changed sides. He has struck a bargain with the Archduke, the communists will be blamed for the assassination, the Archduke will become Emperor, and Hitler will be his Chancellor. The two men fight until Broz comes upon them, telling them that the assassination has failed and they must flee. Stalin runs one way, Hitler and Broz the other. [Set 7 - There's no way we can build an Austrian Imperial Palace set, speak to Ken about locations, dressing locations.]
Hitler, running down a corridor and trapped, ducks into an odd red cabinet, Broz following - and finds himself in the Tardis. Playing with the controls, he gets a glimpse of history, and realizes how the Doctor is able to move so freely. When the Doctor and Freud arrive, they are confronted by a gun wielding Hitler who announces that he has taken command of the time machine. [Set 5 - Tardis standing set]
Hitler demands to know the future, is he destined for glory? The Doctor says that he will only bring ruin and madness. Hitler begins to rant maniacally. Suddenly, he’s struck down from behind by his sidekick Broz, who turns out to be Tito, the future Yugoslavian ruler. They secure Hitler. The Tardis materializes in a filthy garret and Hitler is expelled. [Set 4 - Redress Trotsky's basement.]
The Doctor tells Hitler that he will die alone and surrounded by enemies, with all hope gone, all his dreams crushed, his works in ruins and the whole world hating him.
[Paul, this looks workable, though I'm concerned that it may run over. Remember, only two episodes. I'll send you the sets/locations breakdown, if you can prepare a shot list for that by Tuesday, I can do the budgets and a shooting schedule. Where are we on storyboards? It would help if I could get a look.]
[Paul, Ian, David - Are you free tomorrow afternoon. Kevin's got a list of locations he wants us to go look at. Drop by the warehouse, we'll take my car.]
Script Synopsis - April 10, 1992. Prepared by Eglin Thompson, from April 25 script by Evan Wales and Ian Levine
Annotations by Barry Lets
A well dressed, middle aged man in a prim goatee is walking down a street in Vienna, he is carrying a large satchel stuffed with papers. Suddenly, he’s assaulted by two masked men, attempting to steal his satchel. Doctor intervenes and struggles with the men. The Doctor pulls the mask from one of the men, exposing a limp forelock, burning eyes and a pencil mustache. Stunned, the Doctor freezes. The assailants flee. [Set 1 - Vienna street, Location shoot?]
The Doctor assist the gentleman to his feet, who turns out to be Sigmund Freud. Freud’s curious about the Doctor’s outfit. The Doctor evades his questions. Freud names him his next patient. They return to Freud’s office together, only to find it ransacked. [Set 2 - Freud's office]
Meanwhile, the thugs, who we learn are Adolph Hitler and his sidekick Broz, return to the Café Central on the other side of Vienna, where they meet up with their employer - Leon Trotsky and his associate, Josef Stalin. Stalin has broken into Freud’s office. But they have not found what they are looking for. Hitler and Tito complain about money owing to them, Hitler needs funds to pursue his art. He mocks Trotsky’s mustache, causing Stalin to laugh. Privately, Trotsky despises the Austrian, they wanted a thug unconnected to the Communist party who could take the blame if anything went wrong. But Stalin defends the man they have hired, saying he trusts him not to betray them. [Set 3 - Café Central, difficult, lots of extras - 10/15 minimum. Can we locate it somewhere else, Trotsky's basement?]
Back at Freud’s office, he and the Doctor play a game of cat and mouse. The Doctor is intensely curious about why Hitler would assault him, and who broke into the office. Freud is intent upon the Doctor’s secret. Eventually, they exchange secrets: Freud’s patients include famous and powerful people, but he keeps his most important files elsewhere, he believes the thieves were searching for these files. He refuses to reveal the names of the clients. The Doctor fesses up to be a time traveller, which convinces Freud he’s insane. Freud excuses himself for a moment, when he returns, he’s with Austrian constables who hustle the Doctor to a mental institution. After the Doctor is taken away, Freud’s patient enters - Archduke Franz Ferdinand, 2nd in line to the Austro-Hungarian throne. [Set 2 - Freud's office]
The Doctor on the way to the institution spots Hitler. He gives the constables the slip and begins trailing Hitler, who in turn is casing a bank. The Doctor correctly surmises this is where Freud’s most important files are stored. The Doctor follows Hitler into an adjacent basement where he spies on Hitler and his confederates. [Set 1 - Vienna Street, Location?] [Check with Ken, see if we can find one street which meets all our outdoor needs/different angles, so we can limit trips. Want a Vienna feel, Austrian Bourgeoisie, circa 19th century. Maybe we can get all shot as block.] [Set 4 - Trotsky's basement, seems easy]
The Doctor listens to Stalin and Trotsky lay out a plan to assassinate Emperor Franz Josef. At that moment, the Doctor is discovered. He bluffs his way through, claiming to be a Political Officer from the Central Party in Moscow, a bluff assisted by his historical knowledge of the characters, which he selectively reveals. Stalin and Trotsky try to sell each other out. Hitler recognizes him from their earlier encounter, but does not give him away.
Afterwards, Hitler approaches the Doctor, having surmised that he is an agent of the Austrian secret police. He offers to sell out his associates who he describes as ‘communists, jews and lower races.’ In the conversation, it becomes clear that Hitler is only interested in money and power. The Doctor plays along until he can get away.
The Doctor returns to Freud, interrupting his session with Franz Ferdinand. Freud is shocked and upset with the Doctor who he is now convinced is an escaped lunatic. Meanwhile, the Doctor has figured out the rest of Trotsky’s plan - to install Franz Ferdinand on the throne, by killing the Emperor, and control him through blackmail with Freud’s stolen files. [Set 2 - Freud's office]
To prove his bona fides, the Doctor lures Freud into the Tardis, where he shows him the consequences of Trotsky’s plans. The Austro-Hungarian Empire becomes the world’s first Soviet Republic, steadily subverting it’s neighbors until Europe is a communist empire. The eventual outcome is six world wars, including nuclear wars and the collapse of human civilization in the 21st century. That future must be avoided at all costs. [Set 5 - Tardis standing set]
Now cooperative, Freud and the Doctor travel to Freud’s vault, where they discover it is ransacked. Things have taken an urgent turn. Franz Ferdinand is kidnapped by Hitler and Broz. Freud and the Doctor arrive on the scene too late and narrowly escape arrest by the Archduke’s bodyguards. They escape, the only chance now is to prevent the assassination. [Set 6 - Bank vault, single use] [Set 7 - Kidnapping? Palace? Street location? Discuss]
The Doctor confronts Trotsky. They argue over the inevitability of history, and sacrifices for a greater good. Trotsky reveals that Stalin has already been sent to assassinate the Emperor. That this has been a stall.
The Doctor and Freud take the Tardis to the Imperial palace. While Freud distracts the guards, the Doctor narrowly saves the Emperor, shoving him out of the way of the assassins bullet. Stalin attempts to flee, but is assaulted by Hitler, who reveals that he has changed sides. He has struck a bargain with the Archduke, the communists will be blamed for the assassination, the Archduke will become Emperor, and Hitler will be his Chancellor. The two men fight until Broz comes upon them, telling them that the assassination has failed and they must flee. Stalin runs one way, Hitler and Broz the other. [Set 7 - There's no way we can build an Austrian Imperial Palace set, speak to Ken about locations, dressing locations.]
Hitler, running down a corridor and trapped, ducks into an odd red cabinet, Broz following - and finds himself in the Tardis. Playing with the controls, he gets a glimpse of history, and realizes how the Doctor is able to move so freely. When the Doctor and Freud arrive, they are confronted by a gun wielding Hitler who announces that he has taken command of the time machine. [Set 5 - Tardis standing set]
Hitler demands to know the future, is he destined for glory? The Doctor says that he will only bring ruin and madness. Hitler begins to rant maniacally. Suddenly, he’s struck down from behind by his sidekick Broz, who turns out to be Tito, the future Yugoslavian ruler. They secure Hitler. The Tardis materializes in a filthy garret and Hitler is expelled. [Set 4 - Redress Trotsky's basement.]
The Doctor tells Hitler that he will die alone and surrounded by enemies, with all hope gone, all his dreams crushed, his works in ruins and the whole world hating him.
[Paul, this looks workable, though I'm concerned that it may run over. Remember, only two episodes. I'll send you the sets/locations breakdown, if you can prepare a shot list for that by Tuesday, I can do the budgets and a shooting schedule. Where are we on storyboards? It would help if I could get a look.]
[Paul, Ian, David - Are you free tomorrow afternoon. Kevin's got a list of locations he wants us to go look at. Drop by the warehouse, we'll take my car.]
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Just for the hell of it, any suggestions for the guess cast. We're talking British actors, active in the late eighties, early 90's, competent but not 'A' list, for the following roles:
Sigmund Freud
Adoph Hitler (young)
Broz Tito (young)
Joseph Stalin (young)
Leon Trotsky (young)
Franz Ferdinand
Emperor Franz Joseph
I'm lazy. What can I say.
Sigmund Freud
Adoph Hitler (young)
Broz Tito (young)
Joseph Stalin (young)
Leon Trotsky (young)
Franz Ferdinand
Emperor Franz Joseph
I'm lazy. What can I say.
Production notes - Vienna, 2013
Vienna, 1913's first day of shooting began on schedule, April 16, 1992, at 8:30 sharp. There was a palpable enthusiasm. The first days' shooting revolved around the oldest standing seet, the Tardis interior shots, mostly featuring the Doctor and Freud went well. The Tardis prop, for once, worked perfectly. Three camera set ups were used, all the shots went perfectly and they were finished before the end of the day to an ovation from the crew. At the end of the day, the flats came down, the Tardis console was tucked out of the way, and carpenters began work on the next set. It was an auspicious start. And, as it turned out, a complete waste of time.
Vienna, 1913's first day of shooting began on schedule, April 16, 1992, at 8:30 sharp. There was a palpable enthusiasm. The first days' shooting revolved around the oldest standing seet, the Tardis interior shots, mostly featuring the Doctor and Freud went well. The Tardis prop, for once, worked perfectly. Three camera set ups were used, all the shots went perfectly and they were finished before the end of the day to an ovation from the crew. At the end of the day, the flats came down, the Tardis console was tucked out of the way, and carpenters began work on the next set. It was an auspicious start. And, as it turned out, a complete waste of time.
Production Notes, Vienna 1913, The Twin Dilemma...
"At that point, it looked like the girls were fallen through the cracks. So I had to stand up and say, 'enough.' They might not have been the best actresses in the world, but they were trying, and we were all in this together. Leave no man, or twin, behind, I said. Of course, they misquoted me on some rubbish about not leaving the twins behinds." David Burton
During the pre-production phase, the gang at Millenium was doing some serious soul searching about the role of the twin girls, Jenny and Judy Lannister, as Heart and Diamond.
During the long period of work up in 1991, it had seemed like such a good idea. A couple of attractive youths to accompany the Doctor, a homage to other iconic series. At times, usually around a late night round of beer, it seemed like one of the strongest ideas, a pair of characters that might match or eclipse the Doctor.
Reality was a bruising experience. The Monsters of Ness had found Jenny and Judy, without previous acting experience, floundering in the roles assigned to them. They were charming girls, they were simply out of their depth. And the crew had fallen into the old Doctor Who trap of coming up with interesting companions, and then having no idea what to do with them.
In February and March, Bernard, Levine and Letts were having a serious debate about recasting the roles dropping them entirely, as a drag on the production, and inventing some other companion - hopefully a more capable actress.
But there hand, there were downsides - adverse publicity and bad press, either in and of itself, or generated by the twins, who were, if nothing else, appealing and photogenic; potential legal action for breach of contract by the twins, which, while likely not involving huge sums, would be messy and embarrassing; the costs of buying out their contracts; the trials involved in recasting or creating a replacement character including additions, troublesome given a tight timeline; and a certain timidity - the twins were likeable girls, it was hard to walk up to them and say 'you're fired.'
Like any difficult decision, the choice made was to postpone it. Scripts were prepared without reference to the Doctor's companions, as they were clearly up in the air. The understanding was that once things were sorted out, and decisions were made, the scripts would be adjusted. Vienna, 2013, began its first day of production without a mention of the Twins anywhere in the script.
At that point, David Burton put his foot down, and stepped up as the champion of his costars. He brought it up, and refused to let it go. By this time, the Lannister twins, sensing that their stardom was going to vanish if they didn't do something, began to press their case. Against the protests of Letts and Bernard, Levine sided with Burton, and the twins were back in.
The principal compromise was a reduced role, commensurate with their acting abilities. But it was a role that could be expanded through the serials, if they improved.
The big problem was fitting them into the script for Vienna, 2013, without completely shredding the plot.
The solution was to keep them in the Tardis. The Doctor would be out and about the streets, cafes and palaces of Vienna. Judy and Jenny, or Heart and Diamond, would just stand around the Tardis console, looking at the viewscreen and making observations or offering advice. This wasn't a bad solution, it actually offered a useful role in the story structure, filling in any missing bits of information that might turn out to be needed. A shooting day with the Tardis was reserved for the post-production phase.
But if Heart and Diamond were in the Tardis, then they were going to meet Freud and Hitler when they came visiting. All those scenes would have to be reshot. And this time, it would be lighting, blocking, setting up for and shooting four or five characters - not just two or three. That was immensely more complicated. The production schedule was re-arranged, budgets were adjusted, and the Tardis interior reshoots were scheduled for April 20, afternoon and evening. They went until 3:00 am, but couldn't complete the shots. So after a break, they went back and finished up through the morning. The sets were struck once again. The crew went to location shooting as the new sets were built.
"At that point, it looked like the girls were fallen through the cracks. So I had to stand up and say, 'enough.' They might not have been the best actresses in the world, but they were trying, and we were all in this together. Leave no man, or twin, behind, I said. Of course, they misquoted me on some rubbish about not leaving the twins behinds." David Burton
During the pre-production phase, the gang at Millenium was doing some serious soul searching about the role of the twin girls, Jenny and Judy Lannister, as Heart and Diamond.
During the long period of work up in 1991, it had seemed like such a good idea. A couple of attractive youths to accompany the Doctor, a homage to other iconic series. At times, usually around a late night round of beer, it seemed like one of the strongest ideas, a pair of characters that might match or eclipse the Doctor.
Reality was a bruising experience. The Monsters of Ness had found Jenny and Judy, without previous acting experience, floundering in the roles assigned to them. They were charming girls, they were simply out of their depth. And the crew had fallen into the old Doctor Who trap of coming up with interesting companions, and then having no idea what to do with them.
In February and March, Bernard, Levine and Letts were having a serious debate about recasting the roles dropping them entirely, as a drag on the production, and inventing some other companion - hopefully a more capable actress.
But there hand, there were downsides - adverse publicity and bad press, either in and of itself, or generated by the twins, who were, if nothing else, appealing and photogenic; potential legal action for breach of contract by the twins, which, while likely not involving huge sums, would be messy and embarrassing; the costs of buying out their contracts; the trials involved in recasting or creating a replacement character including additions, troublesome given a tight timeline; and a certain timidity - the twins were likeable girls, it was hard to walk up to them and say 'you're fired.'
Like any difficult decision, the choice made was to postpone it. Scripts were prepared without reference to the Doctor's companions, as they were clearly up in the air. The understanding was that once things were sorted out, and decisions were made, the scripts would be adjusted. Vienna, 2013, began its first day of production without a mention of the Twins anywhere in the script.
At that point, David Burton put his foot down, and stepped up as the champion of his costars. He brought it up, and refused to let it go. By this time, the Lannister twins, sensing that their stardom was going to vanish if they didn't do something, began to press their case. Against the protests of Letts and Bernard, Levine sided with Burton, and the twins were back in.
The principal compromise was a reduced role, commensurate with their acting abilities. But it was a role that could be expanded through the serials, if they improved.
The big problem was fitting them into the script for Vienna, 2013, without completely shredding the plot.
The solution was to keep them in the Tardis. The Doctor would be out and about the streets, cafes and palaces of Vienna. Judy and Jenny, or Heart and Diamond, would just stand around the Tardis console, looking at the viewscreen and making observations or offering advice. This wasn't a bad solution, it actually offered a useful role in the story structure, filling in any missing bits of information that might turn out to be needed. A shooting day with the Tardis was reserved for the post-production phase.
But if Heart and Diamond were in the Tardis, then they were going to meet Freud and Hitler when they came visiting. All those scenes would have to be reshot. And this time, it would be lighting, blocking, setting up for and shooting four or five characters - not just two or three. That was immensely more complicated. The production schedule was re-arranged, budgets were adjusted, and the Tardis interior reshoots were scheduled for April 20, afternoon and evening. They went until 3:00 am, but couldn't complete the shots. So after a break, they went back and finished up through the morning. The sets were struck once again. The crew went to location shooting as the new sets were built.
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Production Notes, Vienna 1913, Robot...
The week of April 21 proved to be a bad one for location shooting. There were three street scenes, with open air locations, scheduled. Outdoor shooting is difficult, there are a host of problems ranging from adequate power sources to controlling crowds, the day has its own clock, and the window of useable sunlight is usually only a few hours at best while the sun is high in the sky, towards dawns and dusk, the light becomes unreliable and the shadows get long, it becomes difficult to match the footage taken with that from midday. An outdoor shoot is at the mercy of the weather, a passing cloud can ruin a shot.
It rained the entire week.
This was an unwelcome but normal part of the uncertainties of shooting. The Production schedule was revised, some scenes were rewritten to take place indoors or on set. Scheduled indoor locations were canvassed to see which ones could be moved up and available for the week. In the end, only a day and a half of shooting was lost.
There was a bigger problem. Ian Levine wanted to change the script.
Basically, as developed, the script was essentially a historical drama. The Doctor and the Tardis were the only science fictional elements. Straight Historical serials had been part of the Hartnell era, but had been abandoned in favour of more overtly sci-fi adventures. After Hartnell, historical serials had been livened up with mad science, alien life forms, other time travellers, invaders and interlopers.
Vienna, 1913, was the first serial of the new shooting season. Monsters of Ness would play first, of course. But Vienna, 1913, was seen as make or break. It needed to be big.
It needed an overt science fiction element to dress it up.
It needed a robot.
Levine asked for one. Letts and Bernard said no.
It was ridiculous. It was cheap and sleazy theatrics. It was unnecessary. You wanted monsters? You had Stalin, Trotsky and Hitler, no rubber or tin suited concoction was going to beat that trio. The whole thing was budgeted, they were in the middle of the shooting schedule, the script was written. Where were they going to stick a robot in? Where were they going to get the money to build that prop/costume? And where would a robot come from anyway, this was 1913?
The argument went back and forth, becoming increasingly bitter. It reached the point, on April 25, where the decision was made by the rest of the production team to exclude Levine. On April 26, Levine struck back. Staff attending the production office found it padlocked. Levine had shut the production down and froze the accounts.
Letts and Bernard went to their lawyers, a meeting was called for the Shareholders and Directors of Millenium Productions.
David Burton intervened to salvage the production, arranging a meeting at a pub. The sides made up.
Levine got his robot.
The week of April 21 proved to be a bad one for location shooting. There were three street scenes, with open air locations, scheduled. Outdoor shooting is difficult, there are a host of problems ranging from adequate power sources to controlling crowds, the day has its own clock, and the window of useable sunlight is usually only a few hours at best while the sun is high in the sky, towards dawns and dusk, the light becomes unreliable and the shadows get long, it becomes difficult to match the footage taken with that from midday. An outdoor shoot is at the mercy of the weather, a passing cloud can ruin a shot.
It rained the entire week.
This was an unwelcome but normal part of the uncertainties of shooting. The Production schedule was revised, some scenes were rewritten to take place indoors or on set. Scheduled indoor locations were canvassed to see which ones could be moved up and available for the week. In the end, only a day and a half of shooting was lost.
There was a bigger problem. Ian Levine wanted to change the script.
Basically, as developed, the script was essentially a historical drama. The Doctor and the Tardis were the only science fictional elements. Straight Historical serials had been part of the Hartnell era, but had been abandoned in favour of more overtly sci-fi adventures. After Hartnell, historical serials had been livened up with mad science, alien life forms, other time travellers, invaders and interlopers.
Vienna, 1913, was the first serial of the new shooting season. Monsters of Ness would play first, of course. But Vienna, 1913, was seen as make or break. It needed to be big.
It needed an overt science fiction element to dress it up.
It needed a robot.
Levine asked for one. Letts and Bernard said no.
It was ridiculous. It was cheap and sleazy theatrics. It was unnecessary. You wanted monsters? You had Stalin, Trotsky and Hitler, no rubber or tin suited concoction was going to beat that trio. The whole thing was budgeted, they were in the middle of the shooting schedule, the script was written. Where were they going to stick a robot in? Where were they going to get the money to build that prop/costume? And where would a robot come from anyway, this was 1913?
The argument went back and forth, becoming increasingly bitter. It reached the point, on April 25, where the decision was made by the rest of the production team to exclude Levine. On April 26, Levine struck back. Staff attending the production office found it padlocked. Levine had shut the production down and froze the accounts.
Letts and Bernard went to their lawyers, a meeting was called for the Shareholders and Directors of Millenium Productions.
David Burton intervened to salvage the production, arranging a meeting at a pub. The sides made up.
Levine got his robot.
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THE NEW DOCTOR WHO: Production #3 and #4: VIENNA, 1913
REVISED Script Synopsis - April 30, 1992. Prepared by Eglin Thompson, from April 25 script by Evan Wales and Ian Levine
Annotations by Barry Letts
On board the Tardis, Heart detects a strange fluctuation in the time stream, of history going off the rails. The Doctor narrows it down to Vienna, 1913. He tells Hearth and Diamond that they would not fit into this era, and to guard the Tardis for him. He goes out to investigate.
On the streets of Vienna, a well dressed, middle aged man in a prim goatee, carrying a bag of papers, is assaulted by a pair of thugs. The Doctor comes to the rescue, and is amazed to discover that one of the Thugs is Hitler.
The Doctor learns that the man is Freud, and the thugs were trying to steal his papers. Freud tells the doctor of his recent work with Nikola Tesla, taking psychographic recordings - brain readings as the layman would say.
On Board the Tardis, Heart and Diamond review historical materials to determine who Freud is. Can he be at the center of the time distortion?
Meanwhile, the thugs, who we learn are Adolph Hitler and his sidekick Broz, return to the Café Central on the other side of Vienna, where they meet up with their employer - Leon Trotsky and his associate, Josef Stalin. The foursome bicker. Hitler and Broz are sent to break into Freud's office. When they leave, Trotsky orders Stalin to show him what he's brought from Russia. The two descend into the basement where Stalin unveils a large casket standing against the wall. He flings open the casket. Trotsky's eyes widen...
Back at Freud’s office, the Doctor interrogates Freud about his psychographic recordings. Freud demonstrates the process. The Doctor is amazed, this is a complete recording. Freud boasts that with further work, the recording can be manipulated. The Doctor points out that this could never work, the human mind is too resilient to be manipulated that way. Only a blank template would work.
Impressed by the Doctor's technical insight, Freud presses until the Doctor reveals that he is a time traveller. Freud accepts this without reservation, disappears for a few moments. He returns with guards and has the Doctor committed to an asylum. As the Doctor is carted away, Freud's next patient, the Archduke Franz Ferdinand arrives.
The Doctor signals Heart and Diamond who are monitoring the situation from the Tardis. They intervene remotely to disable the carriage, allowing the Doctor to escape.
The Doctor spots Hitler.The Doctor follows Hitler into an adjacent basement where he spies on Hitler and his confederates. The Doctor listens to Stalin and Trotsky lay out a plan to assassinate Emperor Franz Josef. At that moment, the Doctor is discovered. He bluffs his way through, claiming to be a Political Officer from the Central Party in Moscow, a bluff assisted by his historical knowledge of the characters, which he selectively reveals. Stalin and Trotsky try to sell each other out, inadvertently revealing the project. The Doctor demands to inspect the project. He follows Trotsky and Stalin into the basement. They open the casket, revealing a large silver robot. The Doctor, shocked, identifies it out loud as a metamorphic android, a golem!
On Board the Tardis, Heart and Diamond are looking up Trotsky, Stalin and Hitler, three of the most evil men who have ever lived. But their evil deeds are in the future. What are they doing in 1913?
Afterwards, Hitler approaches the Doctor, having recognized him from the scuffle, and having surmised that he is an agent of the Austrian secret police. He offers to sell out his associates who he describes as ‘communists, jews and lower races.’ The Doctor warns him to watch the basement.
The Doctor returns to Freud, interrupting his session with Franz Ferdinand. Freud is shocked and upset with the Doctor who he is now convinced is an escaped lunatic. But the Doctor, upon seeing Franz Ferdinand, puts it all together. Trotsky and Stalin plan to replace Franz Ferdinand with a metamorphic robot, programmed with Franz Ferdinand's brain patterns. Unknown to them, Hitler has followed the Doctor and has learned of the plans.
To prove his bona fides, the Doctor lures Freud and Franz Ferdinand into the Tardis, introducing Heart and Diamond, where he shows them the consequences of Trotsky’s plans. The Austro-Hungarian Empire becomes the world’s first Soviet Republic, steadily subverting it’s neighbors until Europe is a communist empire. The eventual outcome is six world wars, including nuclear wars and the collapse of human civilization in the 21st century. That future must be avoided at all costs. Heart and Diamond exclaim that this is the source of the time distortion that they sensed. Trotsky and Stalin are about to change the course of history.
Now cooperative, Freud, Ferdinand and the Doctor travel to Freud’s vault, where they discover it has been ransacked by Hitler. Things have taken an urgent turn. Franz Ferdinand is kidnapped by Stalin and Trotsky. Freud and the Doctor are blamed and only narrowly escape arrest by the Archduke’s bodyguards.
The Doctor confronts Trotsky. They argue over the inevitability of history, and sacrifices for a greater good. Trotsky reveals that Stalin has already been sent to assassinate the Emperor. Their plans cannot be stopped.
The Doctor and Freud take the Tardis to the Imperial palace. While Freud distracts the guards, the Doctor narrowly saves the Emperor, shoving him out of the way of the assassins bullet.
Stalin flees, but is assaulted by Hitler who has taken control of the metamorphic robot. It stands, solidly, as Stalin cowers. Stalin will be blamed for the assassination, the Robot will become Emperor, and Hitler will be his Chancellor, the real ruler of Austria-Hungary. Hitler commands the robot to dispose of his henchman, Broz, who barely escapes with his life.
Hitler makes his way to the Tardis with the Robot as his henchman, where he finds Heart and Diamond. Through sheer force of personality, he dominates them, taking control of the Tardis.
Broz encounters the Doctor and reveals Hitler's plans. The Doctor and Freud return to the Tardis, re-entering before it leaves. The Doctor confronts Hitler, warning him of his future. Hitler simply laughs, the future and the past, now belong to him. With his robot and with the Tardis, he will rule all of time and space. Hitler begins to rant maniacally. The Doctor struggles with the robot. Suddenly, Hitler struck down from behind by Broz. They secure Hitler. The Tardis materializes in a filthy garret and Hitler is expelled.
The Doctor tells Hitler that he will die alone and surrounded by enemies, with all hope gone, all his dreams crushed, his works in ruins and the whole world hating him. Heart and Diamond ask why he has allowed Hitler to live, when he will go on to do such harm. The Doctor tells them that Hitler is a part of history, and that eventually good will come of the harm he does.
REVISED Script Synopsis - April 30, 1992. Prepared by Eglin Thompson, from April 25 script by Evan Wales and Ian Levine
Annotations by Barry Letts
On board the Tardis, Heart detects a strange fluctuation in the time stream, of history going off the rails. The Doctor narrows it down to Vienna, 1913. He tells Hearth and Diamond that they would not fit into this era, and to guard the Tardis for him. He goes out to investigate.
On the streets of Vienna, a well dressed, middle aged man in a prim goatee, carrying a bag of papers, is assaulted by a pair of thugs. The Doctor comes to the rescue, and is amazed to discover that one of the Thugs is Hitler.
The Doctor learns that the man is Freud, and the thugs were trying to steal his papers. Freud tells the doctor of his recent work with Nikola Tesla, taking psychographic recordings - brain readings as the layman would say.
On Board the Tardis, Heart and Diamond review historical materials to determine who Freud is. Can he be at the center of the time distortion?
Meanwhile, the thugs, who we learn are Adolph Hitler and his sidekick Broz, return to the Café Central on the other side of Vienna, where they meet up with their employer - Leon Trotsky and his associate, Josef Stalin. The foursome bicker. Hitler and Broz are sent to break into Freud's office. When they leave, Trotsky orders Stalin to show him what he's brought from Russia. The two descend into the basement where Stalin unveils a large casket standing against the wall. He flings open the casket. Trotsky's eyes widen...
Back at Freud’s office, the Doctor interrogates Freud about his psychographic recordings. Freud demonstrates the process. The Doctor is amazed, this is a complete recording. Freud boasts that with further work, the recording can be manipulated. The Doctor points out that this could never work, the human mind is too resilient to be manipulated that way. Only a blank template would work.
Impressed by the Doctor's technical insight, Freud presses until the Doctor reveals that he is a time traveller. Freud accepts this without reservation, disappears for a few moments. He returns with guards and has the Doctor committed to an asylum. As the Doctor is carted away, Freud's next patient, the Archduke Franz Ferdinand arrives.
The Doctor signals Heart and Diamond who are monitoring the situation from the Tardis. They intervene remotely to disable the carriage, allowing the Doctor to escape.
The Doctor spots Hitler.The Doctor follows Hitler into an adjacent basement where he spies on Hitler and his confederates. The Doctor listens to Stalin and Trotsky lay out a plan to assassinate Emperor Franz Josef. At that moment, the Doctor is discovered. He bluffs his way through, claiming to be a Political Officer from the Central Party in Moscow, a bluff assisted by his historical knowledge of the characters, which he selectively reveals. Stalin and Trotsky try to sell each other out, inadvertently revealing the project. The Doctor demands to inspect the project. He follows Trotsky and Stalin into the basement. They open the casket, revealing a large silver robot. The Doctor, shocked, identifies it out loud as a metamorphic android, a golem!
On Board the Tardis, Heart and Diamond are looking up Trotsky, Stalin and Hitler, three of the most evil men who have ever lived. But their evil deeds are in the future. What are they doing in 1913?
Afterwards, Hitler approaches the Doctor, having recognized him from the scuffle, and having surmised that he is an agent of the Austrian secret police. He offers to sell out his associates who he describes as ‘communists, jews and lower races.’ The Doctor warns him to watch the basement.
The Doctor returns to Freud, interrupting his session with Franz Ferdinand. Freud is shocked and upset with the Doctor who he is now convinced is an escaped lunatic. But the Doctor, upon seeing Franz Ferdinand, puts it all together. Trotsky and Stalin plan to replace Franz Ferdinand with a metamorphic robot, programmed with Franz Ferdinand's brain patterns. Unknown to them, Hitler has followed the Doctor and has learned of the plans.
To prove his bona fides, the Doctor lures Freud and Franz Ferdinand into the Tardis, introducing Heart and Diamond, where he shows them the consequences of Trotsky’s plans. The Austro-Hungarian Empire becomes the world’s first Soviet Republic, steadily subverting it’s neighbors until Europe is a communist empire. The eventual outcome is six world wars, including nuclear wars and the collapse of human civilization in the 21st century. That future must be avoided at all costs. Heart and Diamond exclaim that this is the source of the time distortion that they sensed. Trotsky and Stalin are about to change the course of history.
Now cooperative, Freud, Ferdinand and the Doctor travel to Freud’s vault, where they discover it has been ransacked by Hitler. Things have taken an urgent turn. Franz Ferdinand is kidnapped by Stalin and Trotsky. Freud and the Doctor are blamed and only narrowly escape arrest by the Archduke’s bodyguards.
The Doctor confronts Trotsky. They argue over the inevitability of history, and sacrifices for a greater good. Trotsky reveals that Stalin has already been sent to assassinate the Emperor. Their plans cannot be stopped.
The Doctor and Freud take the Tardis to the Imperial palace. While Freud distracts the guards, the Doctor narrowly saves the Emperor, shoving him out of the way of the assassins bullet.
Stalin flees, but is assaulted by Hitler who has taken control of the metamorphic robot. It stands, solidly, as Stalin cowers. Stalin will be blamed for the assassination, the Robot will become Emperor, and Hitler will be his Chancellor, the real ruler of Austria-Hungary. Hitler commands the robot to dispose of his henchman, Broz, who barely escapes with his life.
Hitler makes his way to the Tardis with the Robot as his henchman, where he finds Heart and Diamond. Through sheer force of personality, he dominates them, taking control of the Tardis.
Broz encounters the Doctor and reveals Hitler's plans. The Doctor and Freud return to the Tardis, re-entering before it leaves. The Doctor confronts Hitler, warning him of his future. Hitler simply laughs, the future and the past, now belong to him. With his robot and with the Tardis, he will rule all of time and space. Hitler begins to rant maniacally. The Doctor struggles with the robot. Suddenly, Hitler struck down from behind by Broz. They secure Hitler. The Tardis materializes in a filthy garret and Hitler is expelled.
The Doctor tells Hitler that he will die alone and surrounded by enemies, with all hope gone, all his dreams crushed, his works in ruins and the whole world hating him. Heart and Diamond ask why he has allowed Hitler to live, when he will go on to do such harm. The Doctor tells them that Hitler is a part of history, and that eventually good will come of the harm he does.
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Production Notes, Vienna 1913, Full Circle...
The Robot Rebellion, as it came to be called had come very close to bringing about the complete collapse of the production into lawsuits and acrimony.
Instead, the key parties had salvaged their relationship and salvaged the project, but at massive cost. This wasn't just a matter of shooting a few extra scenes with the Tardis interior.
The new script had fit Levine's robot/golem in. But it had entailed a massive revision. The overall story remained more or less the same, and large parts of the script remained, but there were changes everywhere. A number of completed scenes would have to be reshot, either wholly or partially. Letts and Bernard were reduced to going through partial pages and snippets of film, trying to figure out what they could keep of the already shot footage, what they would have to replace, and how to integrate the new revised footage with existing footage. Some scenes had to be reshot completely because locations were no longer available. New locations had to be found. Sets had to be reconstructed.
The existing timetable and production schedule was thrown out completely, a whole new suite of days had to be added to Vienna, 1913, which meant that Murder in Space and Volcano's principal photography blocks had to be pushed back. Even worse, the money available to shoot the next two serials had to be reduced. New and tighter budgets and adjusted shooting schedules needed to be prepared.
Everyone worked overtime, the props people building a new robot and the 'rain recording equipment' for Freud's office, carpenters, the editors and technicians. Barry Letts was regularly working past midnight.
It was going to get worse.
The Robot Rebellion, as it came to be called had come very close to bringing about the complete collapse of the production into lawsuits and acrimony.
Instead, the key parties had salvaged their relationship and salvaged the project, but at massive cost. This wasn't just a matter of shooting a few extra scenes with the Tardis interior.
The new script had fit Levine's robot/golem in. But it had entailed a massive revision. The overall story remained more or less the same, and large parts of the script remained, but there were changes everywhere. A number of completed scenes would have to be reshot, either wholly or partially. Letts and Bernard were reduced to going through partial pages and snippets of film, trying to figure out what they could keep of the already shot footage, what they would have to replace, and how to integrate the new revised footage with existing footage. Some scenes had to be reshot completely because locations were no longer available. New locations had to be found. Sets had to be reconstructed.
The existing timetable and production schedule was thrown out completely, a whole new suite of days had to be added to Vienna, 1913, which meant that Murder in Space and Volcano's principal photography blocks had to be pushed back. Even worse, the money available to shoot the next two serials had to be reduced. New and tighter budgets and adjusted shooting schedules needed to be prepared.
Everyone worked overtime, the props people building a new robot and the 'rain recording equipment' for Freud's office, carpenters, the editors and technicians. Barry Letts was regularly working past midnight.
It was going to get worse.
That's a good story. Do the production team have access to any BBC resources ? If it's available, Kamelion would be ideal for this role, especially if it doesn't have to move.
Big Finish have created some purely historical dramas for Doctor Who, which work quite well. The closest that Nu Who has come is the Torchwood story Countrycide.
Cheers,
Nigel.
Big Finish have created some purely historical dramas for Doctor Who, which work quite well. The closest that Nu Who has come is the Torchwood story Countrycide.
Cheers,
Nigel.
Not really. Creegan and Powell would be just as happy to see the whole thing implode spectacularly, so they can go back to Birt and say "Hey we tried one of your ideas and it failed spectacularly. Sorry."
There's some access to BBC chromakey facilities and props department. But that's more along the lines of 'know a guy who knows a a guy.' The Brass would shut it down if they were paying attention.
Several problems with Kamelion.
1) It's not part of the license with the BBC, and they won't be able to license it from the BBC. Maybe if there's an underlying rights holder in the writer... However, they'd probably still have trouble with the BBC's production design copyright. I will say, that Millenium Productions wanted very badly to associate their Doctor with the classical BBC Doctor. They had very limited rights of use, but fundamentally, they wanted to be seen as a continuation rather than a reboot. This was due principally to Levine who was a world class fan of the classic series. Without him, things could have gone in different directions - a genuine reboot, or a departure from the BBC series into its own thing. But without him, there wouldn't have been a 'New Doctor' at all.
2) The Kamelion prop is owned outright by the BBC and not available for rent. Creegan and Powell wouldn't allow its use unless they thought it would hurt the production somehow, which it might.
3) The man who designed and built Kamelion, Mike Powell, died in a boating accident taking knowledge of all of Kamelion's inner workings and control codes with him. Literally, after he died, no one knew how to operate the damned thing. Top that off with frequent malfunctions.
4) It's a pretty crap robot, let's face it. Honest to god, that was one shitty looking, ugly, awkward robot. Nobody loved it. Even a hard core fan like Ian Levine, if he had any chance to bring a seminal element from the classic series into the project... that wasn't the one he would pick. He'd try something else, somewhere else, with more cachet, and more provenance from the Pertwee/Baker era or before.
5) It does have to move about. It's the 'Monster' or 'MacGuffin' so it ought to be able to do things. They're not sure what kind of robot they can build at the last minute with no money, or how mobile it's going to be, so they're cagey in the script revision.
6) Ian Levine is heavily influenced by the metamorphic robot from Terminator 2. They don't have the money to do that, but that, much more than Kamelion is his inspiration.
Technically, Peter Davison's two part 'Black Orchid' is a historical, set as a costume drama (literally - it takes place in the 1920's and involves a costume ball).
Overall, and this includes Big Finish, straight historicals don't outright flop for Doctor Who, but they don't strike that many sparks either. The episodes that people talk about or remember are very explicitly Sci Fi. The historicals were on their way out as of the Daleks. Levine as a continuity maven knows this.
In the end though, it's a matter of personalities, ambition and personal prejudices. Levine really does want his robot, and he thinks its what the story needs. That's debateable, even within Millenium - several key people on the production think that, in addition to the other problems it causes, throwing in the Robot as a MacGuffin just cheapens the story. But Levine gets his way.
As to whether it improves or worsens the story... you can judge for yourself.
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Fair enough. I'd read about Mike Power's untimely demise - didn't Peter Davison say something to the effect that any apparent regret he'd shown at Kamelion's destruction was pure acting and he was actually gleeful that the robot wasn't going to around for long ?
From the description of the story, I got the impression that it didn't do anything other than stand there. It didn't seem to play any sort of active role in the plot - not surprising given that it was added to the story at a late stage.
I'd have thought that Levine would be more influenced by existing Who continuity rather than trying to import something from elsewhere.
Cheers,
Nigel.
I didn't hear that, but I wouldn't be surprised. His discomfort around the thing was palpable.
They're not sure what they can get out of it, but hopefully, something more than just stand there. (Kamelian wasn't even good at that - mostly it just laid there, or slouched on furniture). They want it to be active, and on some level, menacing.
The production has been thrown into a certain amount of chaos. The scene with the reveal of the robot - where Stalin unveils it, and Trotsky reels back in awe and horror, is written so as to not actually show the robot - they're not sure that the prop/costume will be finished and available by the time that scene is ready to shoot, so they're being cagey. It's just flying the the seat of the pants.
Levine would dearly love to link to existing Doctor Who continuity, and he's working hard on it behind the scenes. He's constrained by a BBC which has been deliberately restrictive on the license they've given. He can't even technically call their project 'Doctor Who' - it has to be 'The New Doctor.' But he's looking for loopholes.
So one day, after the big dust up, after Barry (Letts) calls me up... What? I have no idea what it was about. The blokes up at that level, they were having rows all the time about everything. They mostly weren’t sharing it with us, and when you did hear about it, well you just didn’t want to be around. So anyway, the big row, they actually shut the production down, we all go locked out. Lots of rumours. I just didn’t want to know.
So, where was I? Right. Barry calls me up and he says, "We need to build a robot for ‘Vienna, 1913'" Well, I ask him to repeat it. We’re in the middle of Vienna, 1913. I’m already doing design work for Murder in Space. So he says, yes, its for Vienna. So then I say, ‘well, that’s a short window. How much time do we have?’ He says ‘A few days, maximum a week." You can hear ice just rolling out of the phone. So then I say, ‘Well, how much money do I have to work with?’ And he says, ‘You have no money.’ Just like that, and I’ll tell you, I know I’m in trouble. But I have no choice, so I say, ‘what kind of Robot is this?’ And he says ‘I don’t care,’ and hangs up.
So no time, no money. Basically, at that point, you are stuck with spray painting an extra in silver and hoping he doesn’t die of aluminum poisoning before you get your shot. I didn’t have the scratch to buy a halloween costume. But I know that if I give them tosh, they’re going to be having a row on me. There’s just no way to win.
So, I drop everything. Call in the lads, and I say ‘it’s really hit it.’ We start brainstorming, putting up sketches for cheapest, best looking bots I than think of. All over the place. I mean, 1913? Who is building a robot in 1913? Who built it? What did they build it for? Is it a clockwork man? An automaton? Or alien? Or ancient astronauts? Is it a big scowling monter like that Bela Lugosi thing? We have no idea. We’re just sketching out anything we can think of and trying to figure out how we’re going to make it and not have it look like utter shiite.
Around noon, this memo comes down from Ian. About a page, and half of this is ‘put this in the script’ and ‘put that in the script’ and ‘change that.’ Still not a clue as to where this robot comes from. But I read through it, and I read ‘metamorphic robot’? What’s that? No clue. But I keep reading, it changes its features like clay, it impersonates people. Calls it a ‘golem.’
Aha! I’m thinking to myself. A clay robot? A golem! Not bad. Like that old jewish movie, the Golem of Prague. I think the Nazi’s burned it, but I’ve seen stills. Basically, a medieval looking Frankenstein, page boy haircut, balloon pants. That’s not going to go. But it’s maybe the direction we look at. So I whip off a set of sketches, all the way from straight golem, to kind of a shabby version of that thing from Fantastic Four, what’s he called? Thing? Really? How about that. Send them up. Forty five minutes later, I get a call from Ian. He goes ‘What the F... Are you doing, you son of a bitch’ I swear to god. So Golem doesn’t fly.
I say, ‘What do you want?’ And he starts telling me all about living metal robots, like from terminator two. I’m thinking ‘F— me! Yeah, sure, I’ll give him Terminator 2 robot - give me 45 million pounds and a year and a half, I’ll give you your f—ing living metal silver terminator’
But what I’ve got to work with is six pence I nicked from my mom, and all the spare fur that my dog shed. I’m trying to explain this, and he’s going ballistic. So I says ‘F— you, I’ll give you a robot, I’tll be a terrific robot, it’ll be a better robot than you deserve you c–nt. But you don’t tell me how I’m going to do it. I’ll give it to you, you’ll like it, and that’ll be that.’ And he says ‘Okay.’ Just like that. So then I say ‘Just answer me one question to help me out like a good lad - in the story, who built this thing?’ And he doesn’t know. They haven’t decided. Whatever it looks like. Unbelievable!
We spend the rest of the day, a whole day, getting nowhere. Then we hit the pub and start drinking and kicking it around. Any ideas.
The Terminator robot, what’s its defining quality? I mean, aside from being silver, and spearing things with its fingers and taking peoples appearance - in it’s own form, doesn’t look like a robot, doesn’t look like anything. It’s got no face. Okay, we can do that. No face, break out the fencing masks, theres’ stuff you can do with that..
Vienna, 1913, this is the story about Hitler right. So it’s a Nazi robot. I know, Nazi’s are later. But you know, the whole Nazi aesthetic. Black and red, all that sexy S&M fetish stuff, jack boots, leather. So it’s a robot that looks like an SS officer without a face. That’s what we came up with. So we had the sketchpad out, we were drawing all sorts of things, designs, red piping, silver highlights, wetsuits. We had to be cheap you know. No money, so we were looking at things and thinking, how can we take something off the shelf and make it look like this.
It didn’t have to look mechanical. That was such a relief. We were talking Terminator 2, what’s that thing called anyway? T-1000? You’re kidding. Terrible name. Took them all week to come up with that? 45 million pounds and that’s what they came up with? Just goes to show you. Anyway, no seams, no joints, just very smooth. We could have that of course - seams, joints. I should show you the production sketches, we were drawing rivets on it (laughs). But we weren’t wedded to that stiff armor thing.
What was I on about? Shiny. Silver. Can you believe it. Silver robot on the Telly. Nightmare to light, throw all the colour balances off. Same with black, we’d need to use a deep gray. But you know, you could tart it up with some proper highlights. Why not make the robot leather? Or PVC? Get some shine?
That’s my big inspiration, we take our SS officer faceless robot, and we shrink wrap it, so it’s covered with plastic and shiny and it looks F–ing amazing. Bargain basement T-1000, and you could just barely see under the latex pvc , gave it depth. Nice effect, very nice effect.
Of course we had to poke air holes so the stuntman could breath (laughs)
And if he moved more than a couple of minutes the pvc would lift and separate and all come apart. (Laughs). It would look like hell, and then there was no way to fix it up, you’d have to do the whole thing over.
So what we did. Oh, this brings me back. We’d do a bunch of stuntmen. Two or three, a dozen if we needed it, and we’d bring them to the set on a dolly, stand them up in the corner like mannequins. They didn't dare move. They couldn’t move. We’d wheel them over to do a take or two, that was all it could hold up for. Then wheel over the next bloke.
We got it done. And it didn’t cost forty million pounds and take two years. It cost a wicked hangover. Crazy times, hey?
I suppose that’s what gave them the idea though....
So, where was I? Right. Barry calls me up and he says, "We need to build a robot for ‘Vienna, 1913'" Well, I ask him to repeat it. We’re in the middle of Vienna, 1913. I’m already doing design work for Murder in Space. So he says, yes, its for Vienna. So then I say, ‘well, that’s a short window. How much time do we have?’ He says ‘A few days, maximum a week." You can hear ice just rolling out of the phone. So then I say, ‘Well, how much money do I have to work with?’ And he says, ‘You have no money.’ Just like that, and I’ll tell you, I know I’m in trouble. But I have no choice, so I say, ‘what kind of Robot is this?’ And he says ‘I don’t care,’ and hangs up.
So no time, no money. Basically, at that point, you are stuck with spray painting an extra in silver and hoping he doesn’t die of aluminum poisoning before you get your shot. I didn’t have the scratch to buy a halloween costume. But I know that if I give them tosh, they’re going to be having a row on me. There’s just no way to win.
So, I drop everything. Call in the lads, and I say ‘it’s really hit it.’ We start brainstorming, putting up sketches for cheapest, best looking bots I than think of. All over the place. I mean, 1913? Who is building a robot in 1913? Who built it? What did they build it for? Is it a clockwork man? An automaton? Or alien? Or ancient astronauts? Is it a big scowling monter like that Bela Lugosi thing? We have no idea. We’re just sketching out anything we can think of and trying to figure out how we’re going to make it and not have it look like utter shiite.
Around noon, this memo comes down from Ian. About a page, and half of this is ‘put this in the script’ and ‘put that in the script’ and ‘change that.’ Still not a clue as to where this robot comes from. But I read through it, and I read ‘metamorphic robot’? What’s that? No clue. But I keep reading, it changes its features like clay, it impersonates people. Calls it a ‘golem.’
Aha! I’m thinking to myself. A clay robot? A golem! Not bad. Like that old jewish movie, the Golem of Prague. I think the Nazi’s burned it, but I’ve seen stills. Basically, a medieval looking Frankenstein, page boy haircut, balloon pants. That’s not going to go. But it’s maybe the direction we look at. So I whip off a set of sketches, all the way from straight golem, to kind of a shabby version of that thing from Fantastic Four, what’s he called? Thing? Really? How about that. Send them up. Forty five minutes later, I get a call from Ian. He goes ‘What the F... Are you doing, you son of a bitch’ I swear to god. So Golem doesn’t fly.
I say, ‘What do you want?’ And he starts telling me all about living metal robots, like from terminator two. I’m thinking ‘F— me! Yeah, sure, I’ll give him Terminator 2 robot - give me 45 million pounds and a year and a half, I’ll give you your f—ing living metal silver terminator’
But what I’ve got to work with is six pence I nicked from my mom, and all the spare fur that my dog shed. I’m trying to explain this, and he’s going ballistic. So I says ‘F— you, I’ll give you a robot, I’tll be a terrific robot, it’ll be a better robot than you deserve you c–nt. But you don’t tell me how I’m going to do it. I’ll give it to you, you’ll like it, and that’ll be that.’ And he says ‘Okay.’ Just like that. So then I say ‘Just answer me one question to help me out like a good lad - in the story, who built this thing?’ And he doesn’t know. They haven’t decided. Whatever it looks like. Unbelievable!
We spend the rest of the day, a whole day, getting nowhere. Then we hit the pub and start drinking and kicking it around. Any ideas.
The Terminator robot, what’s its defining quality? I mean, aside from being silver, and spearing things with its fingers and taking peoples appearance - in it’s own form, doesn’t look like a robot, doesn’t look like anything. It’s got no face. Okay, we can do that. No face, break out the fencing masks, theres’ stuff you can do with that..
Vienna, 1913, this is the story about Hitler right. So it’s a Nazi robot. I know, Nazi’s are later. But you know, the whole Nazi aesthetic. Black and red, all that sexy S&M fetish stuff, jack boots, leather. So it’s a robot that looks like an SS officer without a face. That’s what we came up with. So we had the sketchpad out, we were drawing all sorts of things, designs, red piping, silver highlights, wetsuits. We had to be cheap you know. No money, so we were looking at things and thinking, how can we take something off the shelf and make it look like this.
It didn’t have to look mechanical. That was such a relief. We were talking Terminator 2, what’s that thing called anyway? T-1000? You’re kidding. Terrible name. Took them all week to come up with that? 45 million pounds and that’s what they came up with? Just goes to show you. Anyway, no seams, no joints, just very smooth. We could have that of course - seams, joints. I should show you the production sketches, we were drawing rivets on it (laughs). But we weren’t wedded to that stiff armor thing.
What was I on about? Shiny. Silver. Can you believe it. Silver robot on the Telly. Nightmare to light, throw all the colour balances off. Same with black, we’d need to use a deep gray. But you know, you could tart it up with some proper highlights. Why not make the robot leather? Or PVC? Get some shine?
That’s my big inspiration, we take our SS officer faceless robot, and we shrink wrap it, so it’s covered with plastic and shiny and it looks F–ing amazing. Bargain basement T-1000, and you could just barely see under the latex pvc , gave it depth. Nice effect, very nice effect.
Of course we had to poke air holes so the stuntman could breath (laughs)
And if he moved more than a couple of minutes the pvc would lift and separate and all come apart. (Laughs). It would look like hell, and then there was no way to fix it up, you’d have to do the whole thing over.
So what we did. Oh, this brings me back. We’d do a bunch of stuntmen. Two or three, a dozen if we needed it, and we’d bring them to the set on a dolly, stand them up in the corner like mannequins. They didn't dare move. They couldn’t move. We’d wheel them over to do a take or two, that was all it could hold up for. Then wheel over the next bloke.
We got it done. And it didn’t cost forty million pounds and take two years. It cost a wicked hangover. Crazy times, hey?
I suppose that’s what gave them the idea though....