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Was watching Who Framed Roger Rabbit and wondered if the TARDIS has ever resorted to this for any of her passengers
She’s certainly thought about it
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CAN THE STUPID WENDINGMACHINE PLEASE STOP MAKEING THE TARDIS NOISE PLEASE??
I KEEP GETTING MY HOPES UP FOR HALF A SECOND 😭
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Tardis
It finally got warm enough to spray paint outside!
I’m excited to weather this bad boy up to look screen accurate to maybe Moonbase or the model shot from Evil of the Daleks/Tomb of the Cybermen
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The Doctor’s Wife: What if the TARDIS became a woman?
The Shadows of Avalon: What if a woman became a TARDIS?
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Now it’s time for the latest season of my alt. history of Dr Who, in form of Season 18 (Collings Year 3), and it will certainly be a season of ‘lasts’. Graham Williams has already decided that he will depart after finishing Season 18, with four seasons under his belt. Douglas Adams, having attempted to leave after Season 17, is being persuaded to do a second year. Lalla Ward is also considering moving on from the programme, possibly before it’s even over. Even the returning John Leeson only comes back with the assurance that K9 will also be written out in the end.
During pre-production for Season 18, Graham Williams reached out early to the man he wanted to take over as Producer – George Gallaccio, a former Production Unit Manager during Seasons 12 and 13 (and also one of the 'Morbius Doctors’). He had been a Producer on previous productions (The Legend of Robin Hood, The Omega Factor and Mackinzie), and Williams and the BBC agreed he would be a good fit for the job. Gallaccio, for his part, was initially not interested, but Williams asked him to at least consider it, saying he had a whole year to change his mind. Gallaccio agreed to think it over…
The big question is: will David Collings depart as well? Three seasons is considered the 'standard’ set by William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton. However, Jon Pertwee did five seasons, and Tom Baker did four, so he knows it doesn’t necessarily have to be that way. Of course, they both left partly because the people they worked with either moved on or were about to.
Only one way to find out…
Graham Williams knew the first thing he wanted to do was finish the disrupted six-parter Shada, and he wanted to convince Douglas Adams to help finish it. Adams, already burnt out and wanting to return to Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, was extremely reluctant, feeling burnt out from all the madness of working on Season 17. Williams, however, had a few suggestions to help…
Douglas Adams hadn’t thought of Shada as being all that good, especially since he’d been rushed to finish it. Williams, however, thought finishing it would be a good way to save money on Season 18. With three studio sessions needed (all location work and one studio session had already been completed), it would be money they could put towards improving the look of the new season. He suggested that Adams could rewrite the unfilmed scenes to a better standard while they still had time. Adams, after some consideration, agreed, and in the process, agreed to be script editor for one more year.
Cast and crew reunited in early 1980, and the remaining scenes were completed. Changes included a better cliffhanger to Episode 5, where Chronotis (rather stupidly) reveals his secret identity for no good reason. This was rewritten to Chris running in and cluelessly blurting it out instead, making for a better climax and setting up Episode 6.
While Adams still didn’t think much of the story, he later admitted he was pleased fans at least enjoyed it, calling it a 'highlight’ of the year.
As David Brierley had already left the role of K9 before the season started, John Leeson redubbed all of his lines.
The first new story of the season saw a new look. Production Manager John Nathan-Turner made many suggestions to bring the show into the 1980s, as the new decade was already establishing a new look and feel that made things produced in the 70s look dated already, and Dr Who got enough flak for looking 'cheap’ as it was. While many of his suggestions were discarded (question marks? really??), Williams agreed to making a few changes to bring it up to snuff, giving it a slightly glossier look.
While Lalla Ward enjoyed some new costumes, David Collings’ signature three-piece suits remained largely the same, as while it was agreed they looked a little dated, Williams liked it as it made him look a little unstuck in time, like a time traveler ought to.
The Leisure Hive, originally entitled Argolis, was written by now-veteran writer David Fisher, who had recovered from his ordeal the previous season and submitted the story as a pastiche of gangster films, with the name 'Foamasi’ being an anagram for 'Mafiosa’. When Fisher revealed he actually knew a bit about actual tachyon images, Williams suggested he make use of that in the script, as he believed having some 'actual science’ in the show might boost it’s credibility a little.
Director Lovett Bickford was eager to film the serial much in the style of a motion picture, with lots of handheld shots and dynamic camera angles. Williams, who always met with directors to discuss the shoot, went over the budget, and while they couldn’t afford all the shots Bickford wanted to try in the serial, they could at least afford some, and that gave the serial a much more unique look.
Writer Andrew Smith was a seventeen-year-old who achieved his lifelong ambition to write for the show. He got to visit the set and meet David Collings. Smith was so excited he actually threw up, later saying Collings was very kind and understanding.
The Doctor and Romana have to help the crew repair their ship while fighting off Marshmen and gigantic cave spiders. Aiding them is a young Marshchild, who has been rejected by his people due to his pacifist nature. In the end, the Marshchild sacrifices himself to keep the Doctor and Romana safe until the mists vanish and the Marshmen return to the swamps.
Matthew Waterhouse would guest star as the Marshchild who helps the Doctor and Romana (a part originally envisioned for a female actor). He was a fan of the show, so was thrilled to guest on it, although Collings and Ward would later reflect on the DVD that while he was a 'nice enough kid’, he was inexperienced and sometimes a bit 'mouthy’.
Terrance Dicks originally wrote the story as the opener for Season 15. However, because the BBC were worried about audiences comparing it with Count Dracula (1977), which was due to premiere at around the same time, it was shoved aside, with Dicks writing Horror of Fang Rock in its place. He eventually brought the script back for Season 18, with rewrites to accommodate Romana and K9.
Both Terrance Dicks and director Peter Moffatt were keen to emphasise the Hammer Horror aspects. While there was some concern that this would run counter to the more humorous tone of the season, Douglas Adams was very amenable to using DIcks’ original treatment as it meant he would have less work to do on it, which would free him up to work more on Hitchhiker’s Guide in the background, as well as help other writers with their scripts. He later described this serial as 'one of the easiest jobs I ever had’.
Peter Moffat was thrilled by the script and enjoyed a good working relationship with David Collings, who enjoyed the chance at a different tone compared to the more 'camp’ elements of the season. Both would work together more later on in the show’s history.
While vacationing on Cimmerian II, the Doctor is summoned before the Altribunal of Coelare Coelum, an intergalactic court. He has been called as a witness in a millennia-old case in which the Plenum Trust Corporation (whose Executive Vice President, Smilax, is an old friend) is opposing the purchase of the Earth by Cosmegalon and its unscrupulous owner, Jugend Bruisa. Cosmegalon bought the Earth via dubious means. In court, the Doctor gives evidence that the Earth is home to intelligent life, which by law would nullify Cosmegalon’s ownership. He is sent to Earth to retrieve a human as proof. Arriving in mediaeval Yorkshire, the Doctor is prevented from completing his task by the monstrous Children of Pyxis, who have been despatched by Cosmegalon...
Original writer John Lloyd was a frequent collaborator with script editor Douglas Adams, who commissioned him to write The Doomsday Contract for Season Seventeen around late October 1978. Lloyd used ideas from an unfinished science-fiction novel called GiGax, and hewed to the comedic style Adams had established in The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy.
Lloyd had to abandon the serial due to his new commitments as producer of Not The Nine O'Clock News. Still keen on the story, Adams obtained Lloyd’s permission for the storyline to be developed into full scripts by another writer. On February 7th he secured the services of Allan Prior, a playwright who had recently written for Blake’s 7. Although Prior submitted his scripts, these were rejected.
Once again getting permission for rewrites from Lloyd, the story was brought back into the fold for Season 18, and Adams eventually found new writers in John Flanagan & Andrew McCulloch, whose earlier script, Meglos, had been rejected by him and Williams for being a little confusing and not having enough room in the line up that year, but Adams had liked their work enough to ask them to rewrite Doomsday Contract. They agreed, and Adams was impressed by their work. (Meglos would later be adapted by Big Finish in 2013 as part of their 'Lost Stories’ collection, starring Collings, Ward and Leeson)
Simon Jones (Arthur Dent from Hitchhiker’s Guide) portrayed Judge Perigord Trent, while Skorpios was portrayed by Edward de Souza.
Around this time, Williams had met with Gallaccio a few times to try and entice him to take the job, and thankfully, Gallaccio agreed, especially when told that he might be working with a clean slate starting with Season 19.
Lalla Ward and John Leeson were both ready to depart the series. Williams was amenable to their departures and commissioned a story that would serve as a suitable exit for them.
With Ward, Leeson, Williams and Adams all leaving, Collings was considering leaving as well. He’d held off on it most of the season. While Season 16 had been pleasant enough, 17 had been fraught with such production problems that he’d very nearly thrown in towel. However, Season 18 had gone much more smoothly and with, in his opinion, much improved stories.
Williams was open to Collings continuing on without, especially as it seemed the show was starting to stabilize after a shaky time, and he suggested he meet with Gallaccio to discuss the future. They agreed, having dinner together, where Gallaccio discussed some of his ideas for Season 19. Impressed with his professionalism and good humour, Collings ultimately decided he would continue into a fourth year on the programme.
That didn’t mean saying goodbye to his costars would be any easier…
Christopher Priest originally began devising this idea with script editor Douglas Adams around October 1978. Little progress was made, but Adams returned to him in 1980 in the hopes of resurrecting the story for Season 18’s finale. Priest was not accustomed to writing for television, and it became clear that his scripts were not suitable for production. Adams could empathize with Priest’s struggles, having had to make similar adjustments himself when he first started writing for the programme, and, since he had more time thanks to the lighter workload this year, he worked very closely with Priest to help him get the serial off the ground.
The story, aided by Graham Williams to craft it into a 'follow-up’ to the previous stories The Deadly Assassin and The Invasion of Time, with the Doctor and Romana being summoned back to Gallifrey…
Episode One opens with the Doctor and Romana having enjoyed another off-screen adventure when they receive a summons from Gallifrey – they are to return immediately. Romana fears they want her to return and wants to run, but the Doctor realizes the Randomiser has been overridden, and they must obey. They materialise in the Citadel, where they are met with Chancellory Guards. While the Doctor tries to assert himself as President, he is still arrested for 'kidnapping’ Romana. Although both deny this happening, he is marched away. Episode One is largely focused on the trial, with it being pointed out Romana has regenerated, suggesting the Doctor has been careless and endangered her. There are a few Time Lords in his corner (Borusa, Spandrell), but someone is out to get the Doctor.
Episode 2 is a more in-depth exploration of the trouble on Gallifrey. The Doctor’s decision to abandon his responsibilities as President has left a power vacuum at the summit of the High Council. While Borusa has tried to run things, the lack of a 'true’ President have given way to attempted coups and fractures in their hierarchy. While the Doctor is incarcerated, Romana and K9 work with Borusa and Spandrell to try and uncover the mastermind behind all this.
Episode 3 shows the Doctor now freed and trying to uncover the perpetrator advocating for his execution, with the villain finally revealed to be a seemingly-harmless politician called Hedin who wants the Presidency for himself and has bribed and blackmailed his way to the top. He has built up a following, helping him get what he wants, and they are ready to kill the Doctor to get the Presidency. Romana and K9 uncover this and catch him breaking into the TARDIS, seemingly cornering him. What he really wants, however, is to frame her. He destroys the Randomiser and sets the TARDIS engines into motion – but they don’t go anywhere. Breaking the Randomiser has caused a paradox. All around Gallifrey, blue boxes materialise at different place, and different versions of the Doctor and Romana step out…
The Time Lords find Romana stepping out of the original TARDIS, where Hedin claims to have captured her too late to stop her 'crime’ of causing several timelines to converge on Gallifrey, breaking the First Law of Time. The Doctor, of course, is having none of it, but with all the chaos of so many of him and her, it’s difficult to keep track of everything. With help from K9, Borusa and Spandrell, he clears Romana’s name, and while she helps to unravel Hedin’s political hold on the High Council and uncover all the conspirators, the Doctor defeats Hedin himself and is able to stop the time convergence, sending all his alternate selves back where they belong.
With the chaos resolved, the Doctor congratulates Romana for catching out all of Hedin’s followers, and he reflects that his abandoning of the Presidency is what set most of this into motion. He decides he’s going to resign the Presidency properly, and he decides he will announce Romana as his successor. She’s apprehensive – not because she doesn’t think she can do it, but because she doesn’t want to leave him. She’ll do it, of course, but she asks him to stay until she’s sworn in.
Months later, with K9 at her side and Borusa and Spandrell present, Romana is linked to the Matrix and sworn in as Lady President Romanadveratrulundar. As the crowd applauds, she looks up and sees the Doctor smiling down at her from the balcony above. He waves goodbye before walking away. Steeling her resolve, Romana orders the High Council to work as we hear the TARDIS dematerialising in the distance…
And so, Season 18 draws to a close, finally finishing broadcast in March 1981. With David Collings as one of the few staying on, the show is ready for a fresh start. Douglas Adams would resume work on Hitchhiker’s Guide, while Graham Williams moved on to other producing jobs before leaving show business in the mid 80s.
George Gallaccio would start work on Season 19 a month later, ready to make some changes as they continued to bring the programme into the 80s…
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So now we head in Season 17, which in this timeline is David Collings’ second year as the Doctor. The Key to Time season still fizzled out, but the stories were still well-received for the most part. The important thing is that Collings himself is largely accepted as the Doctor in this timeline by the audience, seen as an interesting contrast to his predecessor. Whereas Tom Baker was always larger than life and hogging the spotlight, Collings is more subtle and restrained, always appearing on equal footing with co-stars. It’s something Mary Tamm would speak fondly of in later years… which makes it all the more difficult for her to leave.
Tamm sadly found that playing Romana was largely unfulfilling, having been lead to believe the character would be the Doctor’s equal, but she has largely been reduced to a standard damsel-in-distress. She opted not to renew her contract for the following season, even suggesting Lalla Ward (Princess Astra from The Armageddon Factor) as a possible replacement, having seen her good chemistry with Collings.
Ward was ultimately cast in the part, with Williams and new script editor Douglas Adams initially deciding to simply start Season 17 with her already in the part and not making much of her ‘regeneration’. Collings, however, objected to this, having formed a solid friendship with Tamm and knowing the character was still well-liked by audiences. He insisted they ought to have Tamm back for the season premiere (which would actually be filmed third in production), something she was willing to do.
And so, Destiny of the Daleks would be Mary Tamm’s final appearance in the role (for now)…
The opening scene indicates that the Doctor and Romana have been traveling together for some considerable time while on the run from the Black Guardian, enjoying themselves for the most and having many adventures between seasons (and providing plenty of room of Big Finish to make stories later on)
John Leeson also decides to depart following Season 16, having grown dissatisfied with the limitations of the character and fearing he would only be known for voice over work. Despite getting on well with his co-stars, he departed and was replaced by David Brierley, who would debut in this story in both the opening scene of Part 1 and the closing scene of Part 4.
Terry Nation was unhappy with Douglas Adams’ rewrites, particularly the scene where the Doctor taunts the Dalek by suggesting it climb after him, as he believed that pointing out the Daleks’ apparent design flaws made them less menacing, and threatened their popularity with the viewing public. This turned out to be his final contribution to the series.
With the decision to give Tamm a proper sendoff, Nation was asked to include a 'family friendly’ death scene that didn’t include getting shot or stabbed. Nation’s answer was to have a scene where Romana sacrifices herself to save human slaves from being gassed to death, diverting the deadly gas onto her.
While it initially seemed as though Romana had survived the gas thanks to her Time Lord biology, the Doctor can see her growing steadily weaker over the course of Part 4, to the point that she nearly collapses as they flee the Movellan ship. The Doctor carries her all the way back to the TARDIS, now free of the rubble, and takes her inside. He lies her down on the floor, and she regains consciousness briefly. She’s never done this before and is frightened, but the Doctor holds her hand reassuringly and tells her he will be with her every step of the way.
Grateful, she closes her eyes and lets the change wash over her. The Doctor is astonished when she takes the form of Princess Astra…
Initially planned as the third story of the season, it was decided to move this up to second as the script was largely written for Tamm’s Romana anyway, so making it a post-regeneration story made sense as it implied her new incarnation was trying to still act like her predecessor, from speech patterns to fashion choices. Lalla Ward was not pleased with most of this, although she later admitted it made sense from a storytelling standpoint.
David Fisher had initially had to pad the story out considerably due to the initial conflict with the villain Adastra seemingly resolved in the first few minutes of Episode 4, forcing new conflicts to be created to fill the episode out. With this story now being a 'post-regeneration’, it was rewritten heavily to incorporate Romana’s struggles with her first regeneration now filling in much of the plot, with her trying to act like her previous self as a sort of denial before finally accepting towards the end that she has changed and needs to move on.
City of Death is largely unchanged, except it is now the third story of the season.
Which brings us to Nightmare of Eden. Story wise, this would be about the same as it was in our reality. Behind the scenes is a different matter…
Even among the chaos of Season 17, this stands out for having one of the most troubled, disastrous shoots in the show’s entire run. Already suffering the usual behind-the-scenes issues, things went further south with the hiring of ageing director Alan Bromly, who had only directed one other serial for the show. Not only did Bromly not get along with David Collings, Lalla Ward, or David Brierly at all, he insisted on using outdated shooting schedules and production techniques, making things even harder for the crew.
Collings, for his part, was usually even-tempered and attempted to use humour to defuse tense situations, but even he could tell Bromly was a total prat and finally lost his temper with him – something that had never really happened before on set. Graham Williams was already frustrated with how difficult the season had been, but Collings had always been a great source of support and good humour. If even he was losing his temper, then something must be wrong.
Bromly quit, leaving Graham Williams to direct the remainder of the episode, and visual effects designer Colin Mapson to oversee editing and post-production. Bromly would never direct for Doctor Who again.
When production finally wrapped, crew members were presented with T-shirts saying, “I’m Relieved the Nightmare is Over” and “I survived the Nightmare of Eden!” printed up for the rest of the crew.
Worn out by the experience, Williams was considering hanging it up once the season was over, but a friendly chat with Collings cheered him slightly, and he decided to hold off on that decision for a while…
Graham Williams disliked the story, thinking it wasn’t strong enough. It was made because there were no other scripts available. It was placed in the season’s fifth slot in the hope that it would quickly be forgotten once the finale, Shada, began transmission; unfortunately, this backfired when Shada had to be abandoned, meaning Nimon ended up as the season finale. Ooops.
Douglas Adams wrote Shada as a last minute replacement for a rejected story about the Doctor trying to retire (the BBC apparently felt that it was too silly and campy). According to the afterword in the novelization, Adams delayed writing Shada in the hopes that they would change their minds and had to finish it in a rush when they didn’t.
The union strike that scuppered the production was really bad timing — it was resolved less than two weeks later, but many of the other programmes affected by it were key parts of The BBC’s Christmas schedule and were thus afforded higher priority.
Adams, for his part, was hoping the story would be abandoned, as he felt it wasn’t up to his usual standard of work. Graham Williams had other ideas, however. After a chat with David Collings about their futures on the programme, both admitted they were worn out by the frustrations of Season 17, although Collings himself was committed to doing at least three seasons – and as Shada was seemingly abandoned, it seemed he didn’t have much choice in the matter anyway.
Graham Williams, however, decided that he would continue into Season 18 – although he decided right then and there that it would be his last. He already knew his first two items of business to attend to:
- Get Shada finished as the premiere of Season 18
- Start lining up someone to take over as Producer for Season 19 – and he already had a good idea of who it should be…
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Me going back in time to September 10th 2001 to tell 8 year old Charlie Kirk that something awesome happens to him in Utah in exactly 24 years
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It chased me. After I had been rid of the Time Lords, of The Doctor, of everything, I had finally been free. Or so I thought. Everywhere I went, it found me. Searching for any remaining Time Lords, most likely. I tried to run, to hide, but it always found me. Eventually, I gave in. I’ve made it more homely now, swapped out that dreadfully dull default design for something a bit more appealing. Sometimes you just can’t run from everything. You should know that by now, Doctor. Wherever you are now.
