Nelvana's Doctor Who

[DG Valdron]

I just rediscovered this and I think it's cool!
A few thoughts:
-In regards to Pertwee, he DID do Spotty's voice in SuperTed.

I think that SuperTed was a British/Welsh production. Pertwee also did a kids series with the Worzel Gummidge scarecrow character. Neither ever really made it over to North America, so far as I know. Nelvana's likely to recruit local talent for its voice work.

Still, it would be cool to have Pertwee playing the 'younger/older' Doctor. I'll kick that around a bit. There's practical difficulties with having a British Isles resident actor doing regular voice work for the series. And I'm not sure that the Nelvana people would really be fannish enough to want to score such credit.

But then again, Pertwee did attend a lot of North American conventions, such as Visions, at least in the 1990's. And around this time, he was having a bit of a Doctor Who revival - he appeared in the 'Five Doctors' in 1983, and on stage in the 'Ultimate Adventure' in 1989. It's not out of the question that he might be around, available and interested in doing it.

Honestly, I thought about importing John Leeson as the voice of K9 in the animated series. I've been debating it as a long shot. But.... this might be a better option.

-Your redefinition of TARDIS left out the "I"- Intervention, perhaps? (Perhaps you could work in the CIA...)

Someone caught that!!! Yay! You get my famed Marvel comics 'no prize' which has not been sitting on a cherished spot on my wall for years.

-Is this show on ABC or CBS?

I thought ABC originally, but further investigation indicates that Nelvana's negotiations were with CBS. So, I retconned that a bit. Doctor Who would have probably replaced Galaxy High on their schedule.

-Given that Nelvana is doing this, are they going to try and do some CanCon stories, or would it be CanCon enough already?

Maurice LaMarche plays the Doctor, and Cree Summer-Francks is playing Casey, with occasional voice work from Don Francks. (Frank Welker rounds out the voice cast), they're hiring Canadian writers and artists. Most of the CanCon is going to be behind the scenes. It's aimed at an American market and filtered through CBS, so any on-screen Canadian content is going to be subtle.

Hmm. Did I just blow my cast? I mean, spoil a perfectly good post to introduce them?

I recall though that Nelvana was at the center of a fairly nasty scandal a few years back, for basically flouting the Canadian content rules of the CRTC. They were hiring American writers, and then crediting Canadian writers to get CRTC tax and Telefilm financing credits. I'll have to look that up sometime.

-Terry Nation worked on MacGuyver- which was filmed in BC.

Yes he did. And right around this time. I'm trying to decide whether he'll insert himself in and try and grab a script or two.

Even though I liked Tom Baker, I could see myself watching this as a kid.

Glad to hear it. It's fun to write, but challenging, at times I can feel the gears grinding in my head as I try and visualize an entire animated episode. I'm pretty sure I could turn out a full ten or fifteen thousand word script from each, but out of respect for the audience, I'm trying to keep it to a 1500 to 2000 word synopsis that catches the flavour of the episode.

 

[DG Valdron]

Nelvana's Doctor Who, Episode 6, Two Doctor Who's



A fleet of spaceships, clearly warships, bristling with guns and missile banks are passing through an asteroid belt. Inside the fleet, we see the admiral, a gross reptilian creature, a Gargon, giving his orders. Earth appears on the viewscreen. The aliens tell each other that Earth is a primitive planet and will pose no challenge. They tell each other that nothing can stop them now.

As the spaceships pass by, the image zooms in on a tiny asteroid. On the asteroid, the camera zooms further in, revealing a blue police box, and a figure standing in front of it. The Doctor stands, silently watching the immense warships go past. He looks very grim.

ROLL OPENING

The Tardis appears on Earth, its doors opening, and Casey goes inside. Inside the control room, a wizened old man looks up and smiles, beckoning her to join him. Confused, Casey demands to know who the stranger is and how he knows her. He laughs and tells her that he is the Doctor. She responds that he doesn’t look like Doctor Who at all, and he is so much older. The Doctor laughs and says he is much younger.

Casey looks suspicious and demands to know if this is some kind of time travel thing. The ‘old man’ Doctor laughs, tells her it is exactly that, and that he needs her help to save the world from an alien invasion.
Another one? Casey asks. The Doctor nods. Casey tells the old man that he looks nothing like the Doctor, how does she know he really is the Doctor. Because, he responds, he knows her. He whispers something in her ear. Her eyes grow wide, and she says he really is the Doctor.

That out of the way, the Doctor proceeds to explain the situation to her. An image appears on his screen. The race is the Gargans. Good singing voices, fond of gardening, but their cuisine leaves something to be desired. Fairly unsocial, and normally, they’d leave well enough alone. Unfortunately, their sun is going to go Nova in about five hundred years. So they need to move.

More unfortunately, the Doctor explains, the closest habitable planet for them is Earth, which as we know, is already inhabited. So they’re sending two invasion fleets. The immediate one, which is intended to sweep earth clean. The big settlement fleet will be in 500 years, where the rest of their population will relocate. The Doctor explains that he has stopped the invasion five hundred years in the future, and now he has travelled back in time, to help his older self stop the current invasion.

Casey asks how he will stop an alien invasion. The old Doctor says that’s a very good question. In these situations, the options are brute force, communication, or confusion. The Doctor leads her to the door of the Tardis. In this case, the Doctor says, confusion is the best option. He throws open the doors, leading Casey onto the bridge of the Alien flagship, where a terrifying number of very big guns are pointed at them.

"Who are you, and why are you here?" The alien commander demands.

"Me? I’m nobody. Pay no attention to me. But this is Casey Jones," the Doctor announces, "Ambassador from Earth. She is here to surrender!"

The aliens briefly look around at each other. Then they let out a rousing cheer, shaking their weapons, patting each other on the back, and grinning broadly. Casey looks very confused. The Doctor is looking very pleased, as he sneaks out a door.


****************

The regular Doctor’s Tardis materializes on another part of the alien flagship. The door opens slightly, the Doctor peaks out. The route is clear. The Doctor tiptoes out. Suddenly the lights go on, music blares and confetti fills the air. The Doctor finds himself in the middle of a Victory party, as the alien invaders all celebrate Earth’s surrender. A soldier’s helmet is placed on his head, and a cup of some unmentionable liquid is thrust into his hands. Several aliens vie to have their picture taken with him. He ends up in a Conga Line. As the Conga line goes one way, he notices the old Doctor, in a Conga line going the other way. The old Doctor winks.

Eventually, the Doctor and K9 sneak away to a less busy part of the ship, the computer and sensor banks. There’s a technician on duty. The Doctor gives it his cup of unmentionable liquid, telling the alien that the drink’s been sent down to him from the party. The technician accepts it gratefully, wishing that he could be up at the victory party. But there’s a few bugs in the fire controls. The Doctor says that as it turns out, he knows a little about programming, pressing a few buttons, he solves the problem.

The Technician is incredibly grateful. He apologizes about the coming extermination of the human race, particularly since they’re being so good about surrendering at all. He hopes perhaps some of humanity can be saved, slaves or pets or museum pieces or something. The Doctor shrugs.

The Technician wishes he could get up to the party. The Doctor volunteers to stick around and watch over the place. The Technician is greatful. The Doctor asks for a list of things he shouldn’t touch, just to be on the safe side.... The Technician points out all the things the Doctor shouldn’t touch... Navigation, computer networks, fire control, self destruct, armaments, life support... And then parts happily.

The Doctor rolls up his sleeves, nods to K9, who has managed to acquire a soldiers helmet and is draped with party streamers, and says its time to get to work.

*****************

Meanwhile, Casey is muddling her way through the peace negotiations. Surrender has complicated things, they tell her. Originally the plan was to exterminate all the humans in a glorious invasion campaign...
But now that they’ve surrendered, they’re property that comes along with the planet. So now they’re not sure what to do. Maybe the humans could all just leave and go somewhere? They could be tenants. Maybe set up some reservations or something?

But, the old Doctor returns and points out, the humans have no ships. Perhaps the humans could have the battlefleet after the Aliens take over the Earth? After all, they won’t be needing it. They could buy the whole thing, for a very good price. What are used battle fleets going for these days. The aliens start arguing about the price, claiming that the battle fleet is like new, the guns haven’t even been fired. Some fierce haggling goes on...

One of the aliens stops and goes "Wait a second!"

*****************

The regular Doctor pulls himself out from under a computer bank, and wipes a smear of grease off his forehead. K9 tells him that the modifications are complete. One down, the Doctor says, another 99 to go.
　

****************

Assisting Casey, the old Doctor is pointing out the deserts, the impassible mountains, the steaming impenetrable jungles, the ice fields, the seas and oceans. The aliens are daunted. Isn’t there anywhere nice on Earth?
Sure, the old Doctor says, ‘right here.’ The Admiral of the fleet immediately claims it as personal property. Several of the other aliens protest. They begin to argue among themselves as to who gets what part of Earth, with several alien commanders protesting over being assigned to the unpleasant areas of the planet.

***************

The regular Doctor is running down a corridor, chased by a horde of aliens. He passes by the old Doctor, and stops. The old Doctor passes him a soldering iron. The regular Doctor grabs it and continues running. Meanwhile, the old Doctor directs the horde down the wrong corridor.

*************

The old Doctor is demonstrating how to make an ice cream sundae for the fascinated aliens, while revealing that Ice Cream Sundaes are found only on one place of Earth. An alien immediately claims it, and a fight breaks out.

Casey offers to throw in the Moon, and four cases of wombats, if they’ll stop fighting, but the battles only increase in intensity as the aliens dissolve into chaos. The ships all stop moving in space, turning their guns on each other.

The old Doctor tells Casey its time to leave. He has to travel to the future and stop the next alien invasion 500 years from now.

Casey has to duck to avoid a large heavy object, thrown as the aliens riot. When she looks up, the old Doctor and his Tardis are gone. An angry alien comes at her with an axe. Casey cowers. But a gold watch at the end of a long chain wraps around the axe, pulling it from the creatures hands.

"Casey?" A voice asks. It’s the regular Doctor, looking astonished. "What are you doing here?"

***************

Inside the Tardis, the regular Doctor, Casey and K9 are watching the viewscreen.

On the viewscreen, the Gargon admiral is calling his crew to battle stations. Addressing the other ships, he announces that Earth is just not big enough for all of them. He demands the other ships surrender or be destroyed.... it’s all the same to him.

The other warships are all targeting each other or the flagship. On the screen, the image dissolves to dozens of angry Gargons threatening each other. Images of yelling angry Gargons proliferate.

Suddenly, the flagships guns fire.... Into an asteroid. They are joined by all the other warships, firing into the same asteroid.

Confusion reigns, as the Gargons demand that their gunners fire on each other. But despite that, all of the armaments are poured ceaselessly onto the large asteroid. Finally, the barrages come to an end.

The Doctor reveals that he spent the day, changing their armaments computer systems, so that all fire would be directed against a harmless asteroid, rather than Earth.

Earth? Casey asks. But wasn’t it his plan all along to get the aliens to fight among each other? ‘No, that was my plan,’ the older Doctor’s face appears on the viewscreen. ‘My older self has gotten soft, it seems.’ The two Doctors argue with each other, as Casey watches. Finally, the regular Doctor says that they will meet on Earth. He lands the Tardis.

Casey steps out of the Tardis.... onto the bridge of the other Tardis. The old Doctor looks at her with surprise and suspicion. He asks her who she is. She says she is Casey of course. The old Doctor demands that she prove she is Casey, so she whispers something in his ear that makes his eyes widen and eyebrows go up.

The Regular Doctor enters the Tardis, frustrated with the antics of the old Doctor. He demands they put an end to things. The old Doctor agrees. He lands his Tardis on the bridge, and they step out to thoroughly demoralized Admiral and high command.

The old Doctor tells them that their invasion is over. All their armaments and weapons are exhausted. They couldn’t hurt a kitten. It’s time to leave earth forever.

The Gargon Admiral grumps that they have no fuel to go anywhere but Earth. Humanity might as well proceed with their extermination, now that they’re helpless and unable to defend themselves. The Gargon says that at least they planned to give humanity a chance to fight back.

The regular Doctor tells them that they can leave. The asteroid that they blasted to pieces had a core of the pure radioactive element that powers their ships. All they have to do is harvest the asteroid, and they will have enough fuel to make it to the next star system. There is a planet there, not habitable now, but with 500 years to prepare, it could be the new homeworld for the Gargon race.

The Admiral says that with the fuel, they could re-arm and continue the invasion. Casey asks them, after all that has happened, if any of them trust each other to re-arm? The Gargons look suspiciously at each other. Finally, dispirited, the Gargon commander admits that peace is their only good option, they will not re-arm.

Peace is always the only good option, the Regular Doctor tells him.

**************

Back on Earth, the two Doctors, Casey and K9 are having lunch at a sidewalk café. Regular Doctor gives the old Doctor a circuit board that he can use to stop the invasion in 500 years. The old Doctor asks what would have happened if he had not been here for this invasion. The regular Doctor looks away and says that the Gargons would not have made it to Earth. The old Doctor says he will have to do something about that, then. The Gargons were not evil, just desperate.

The old Doctor says that he’s changed, he’s not as much fun as he used to be. The regular Doctor says that things are different, the Time Lords caught up to him and he works for them now. The old Doctor’s Tardis appears, and the old Doctor vanishes into it.

Casey asks if the other one really is Doctor Who in the future. The regular Doctor says that the future and past sometimes change places, but the other one was really him. Casey wonders if she’ll ever see him again. The Doctor wonders if she already has.

 

[DG Valdron]

A Council house in London, 1988, four young fans gathered around a television set, one of them holding a battered VHS copy in his hands.
‘Third generation, so it should be watchable.’
‘You can’t tell. That Cyberman episode was supposed to be third generation, but it ended up being tenth.’
‘God almighty, that episode was bad. Cybermen, more like cyberpoofters.’
‘Gaybermen!’
‘Cyberwankers’
‘Swishermen.’
"Worst! Cybermen! Ever!"
‘Okay, it’s starting. This image quality isn't so bad, it might actually be third, generation.’
‘So this is the famous ‘two doctors’ episode.’
‘This is the first Doctor here. What’s he doing?’
‘He’s just standing on an astroid, watching the stars go by.’
‘Is this supposed to be dramatic? I think someone’s watching too much jap anime over in Canada.’
‘The spaceships reflected in his glasses, nice image that.’
‘Nasty aliens, eh. Too bad they don’t move very much.’
‘Yeah, the animation is pretty crap.’
‘You notice how they all look exactly the same, and have the same voice. They sure did spend money on this. Might have broken their colouring budget to have two aliens looking a little different.’
‘He’s back again, looking pissed. Which Doctor is he supposed to be anyway?’
‘Dunno, a new one I guess. He doesn’t match up with any so far.’
‘Okay, the opening.’
‘So they just explain the whole thing every episode?’
‘Music is pretty crap. Why couldn’t they use the proper theme music.’
‘I dunno. Rights I suppose. It’s crap though.’
‘Okay, now commercials.... and more commercials.... and more commercials.’
‘Sure are a lot of commercials’
‘Okay, here’s the 2nd Doctor.’
‘Hey, is that companion black?’
‘I think so.’
‘She’s pretty young. It’s not right, an old guy hanging out with a young girl like that. It’s kind of creepy, you know. It’s like this is the Pedo Doctor! Come sit on my Tardis console little girl, I’ll let you work the lever....’
‘Eeuuch, where do you get this stuff?’
‘It’s not me! She’s what, twelve? Fourteen? And she’s hopping about time and space with a grown man? That’s not right.’
‘She’s at least sixteen.’
‘How do you know?’
‘Sod off!’
‘That voice sounds familiar. Who is this Doctor played by?’
‘According to the magazine article, Jon Pertwee did the voice for the second Doctor.’
‘Doesn’t look at all like Pertwee. Is he supposed to be the Third Doctor?’
‘According to the magazine, they got him in to do it at the last minute. I think they had some other voice actor lined up. But he was interested so they jumped right on it. It was too late though, to change the artwork.’
‘Maybe this is supposed to be the first?’
‘Doesn’t look like Hartnell at all.’
‘Maybe he’s a later Doctor. Maybe they’re both later Doctors? Or the same, and he’s just the aged version of the cartoon Doctor.’
‘They look pretty different. The regular cartoon Doctor is twice his size and shoulders you could balance a watermelon on.’
‘Wait! Wait! He just said he’s younger than the other Doctor, despite him looking older.’
‘So maybe he’s supposed to be the first Doctor, Hartnell, and the other cartoon one is the second. That would make the other one Troughton?’
‘Nah.’
‘Well, if he is the younger Doctor, and he’s played by Pertwee, then maybe that makes him the third Doctor, which would make the cartoon Doctor the sixth Doctor.’
‘Where do you get sixth? He doesn’t look like Colin Baker at all.
‘He has a long coat.’
‘He could just as easy be the fourth.’
‘Doesn’t look like any of them, or act like any of them for that matter. Maybe he’s supposed to be the eight. You know, comes after McCoy?’
‘That makes sense.’
‘But how would they know?’
‘What?’
‘How would they know what the eight Doctor looks like. Do they have inside information or something? Did the BBC fill them in on their plans?’
‘I dunno.’
‘Hey, did the old buzzard just surrender? That’s not what a Doctor does!’
‘Commercials again!’
‘Back to the other Doctor. He’s not so bad.’
‘What in bleeding hell is that accent? Is that supposed to be British?’
‘Sounds like Milwaukee on the Thames.’
‘San Franciso on Avon.’
‘Chicago on the Loo.’
‘Crap that’s awful. It’s like they never met anyone with a real English accent.’
‘He looks like Egon.’
‘Who?’
‘Egon from the Ghostbusters. You know. Egon Spengler?’
‘Yeah, he does. We’ll call him the Egon Doctor.’
‘More commercials.’
‘Doesn’t sound a bit like k9.’
‘You’d think that they could have spent a little money get the voice right. That’s just tosh is what it is, complete tosh.’
‘Okay, I get it. So instead of invading Earth, he gets them to fight each other. Clever.’
‘Why are they firing on an that moon and not each other?’
‘I dunno. I guess the Egon Doctor reprogrammed all their weapons.’
‘Is that the same moon that the Egon Doctor was standing on at the beginning.’
‘Don’t know. They all look alike, I guess. Moons, I mean.’
‘Okay, see, there it is again. He says that the Egon Doctor is older. That makes the old Doctor the younger one.’
‘A nastier one too. Looks like his plan was to get them to blow each other up, and kill each other off. The Egon Doctor just messed up their weapon systems.’
‘So the Egon Doctor saved the aliens?’
‘Well, he kept them from killing each other...’
‘That’s interesting, so they were working against each other as much as they were working together?’
‘Hey, stop there. Back that up!’
‘What?’
‘See right there, the old buzzard didn’t know who the companion was. He’d never seen her before. She has to tell him. That’s how he knows who she is at the beginning of the episode. The thing he whispers to her at the beginning is the thing she whispered to him just now. The old Doctor she meets here, he travels back to the start of the episode and meets her there. Clever!’
‘I don’t know.... I think that’s a little too clever for them.’
‘That’s tosh. It’s just a cartoon. I don’t see them getting up to anything like that. No one woudl pick up on it.’
‘Rewind, you’ll see.’
‘Okay, hold on....’ ‘Maybe’
‘Continue.’
‘Sorted out now.
‘Okay, I get it! That’s why the Egon Doctor was standing on that particular moon. It had the rocket fuel on it, so that’s the one he picked out for them to drop all their missiles on.’
‘Christ! More commercials. This is like five minutes of story and half an hour of commercials!’
‘Wait, what did he just say?’
‘I think the Egon Doctor just said that he wouldn’t let the aliens get to earth at all. That’s pretty cold blooded.’
‘Yeah, but at the same time, he was just making sure that their weapons couldn’t harm anyone. That was his plan. It’s the old Doctor who was going to make the aliens blow each other up. He says he’s funloving, but that’s a nasty sense of fun.’
‘They just mentioned about the time lords!’
‘So there’s Time Lords in this cartoon.’
‘Yeah, right at the beginning, remember. The Doctor here is working for the Time Lords as their agent. They tell him what to do, where to get off.’
‘Kind of like Pertwee.’
‘Sort of, except more he’s a regular agent, not an exile or anything.’
‘Well the Time Lords were always shoving the Doctor about and getting him to do stuff. Remember Genesis of the Daleks?’
‘Yeah, but in the Cartoon, it’s like he’s full time, on salary, you know. Not just getting sent on an occasional mission.’
‘Not too happy about it, he says they caught up to him.’
‘I really get the feeling the Egon Doctor is supposed to be a third.’
‘And the old Doctor is running free.’
‘So the old Doctor is the First Doctor.’
‘Or the second.’
‘Commercials. Commercials. Commercials.’
‘It’s over! Those are the flipping credits. And that crap theme music!’
‘Okay boys and girls, so what do you think? Who or not Who?’
‘Not!’
‘Thumbs down’
‘Compete shite.’
‘Just terrible, cheap, sloppy, the Doctors are all wrong, the voices are all wrong, the animation is primitive, the music is awful. There’s not a single thing right with it.’
‘So we’re all agreed. Absolutely tosh? Completely and utterly irredeemably terrible? An insult to the very concept of Doctor Who?’
‘In spades. Worst ever.’
‘Yep.’
‘Shite. Sub-shite.’
‘Okay, does anyone want to watch it again?’
‘Yes!’
‘Yes!’
‘Put it back on!'
'Can you get any more episodes?'

 

[DG Valdron]

Coming up next...

'Passenger jets are disappearing from the skies all over the world, and it's up to the Doctor to find out who is responsible. Mystery awaits, in next week's episode 'The Daleks'

Maurice LaMarche attends a Who convention. Exclusive interview.

 

[nezza]

A Council house in London, 1988, four young fans gathered around a television set, one of them holding a battered VHS copy in his hands.
‘Third generation, so it should be watchable.’
‘You can’t tell. That Cyberman episode was supposed to be third generation, but it ended up being tenth.’
‘God almighty, that episode was bad. Cybermen, more like cyberpoofters.’
‘Gaybermen!’
‘Cyberwankers’
‘Swishermen.’
"Worst! Cybermen! Ever!"
‘Okay, it’s starting. This image quality isn't so bad, it might actually be third, generation.’
‘So this is the famous ‘two doctors’ episode.’
‘This is the first Doctor here. What’s he doing?’
‘He’s just standing on an astroid, watching the stars go by.’
‘Is this supposed to be dramatic? I think someone’s watching too much jap anime over in Canada.’
‘The spaceships reflected in his glasses, nice image that.’
‘Nasty aliens, eh. Too bad they don’t move very much.’
‘Yeah, the animation is pretty crap.’
‘You notice how they all look exactly the same, and have the same voice. They sure did spend money on this. Might have broken their colouring budget to have two aliens looking a little different.’
‘He’s back again, looking pissed. Which Doctor is he supposed to be anyway?’
‘Dunno, a new one I guess. He doesn’t match up with any so far.’
‘Okay, the opening.’
‘So they just explain the whole thing every episode?’
‘Music is pretty crap. Why couldn’t they use the proper theme music.’
‘I dunno. Rights I suppose. It’s crap though.’
‘Okay, now commercials.... and more commercials.... and more commercials.’
‘Sure are a lot of commercials’
‘Okay, here’s the 2nd Doctor.’
‘Hey, is that companion black?’
‘I think so.’
‘She’s pretty young. It’s not right, an old guy hanging out with a young girl like that. It’s kind of creepy, you know. It’s like this is the Pedo Doctor! Come sit on my Tardis console little girl, I’ll let you work the lever....’
‘Eeuuch, where do you get this stuff?’
‘It’s not me! She’s what, twelve? Fourteen? And she’s hopping about time and space with a grown man? That’s not right.’
‘She’s at least sixteen.’
‘How do you know?’
‘Sod off!’
‘That voice sounds familiar. Who is this Doctor played by?’
‘According to the magazine article, Jon Pertwee did the voice for the second Doctor.’
‘Doesn’t look at all like Pertwee. Is he supposed to be the Third Doctor?’
‘According to the magazine, they got him in to do it at the last minute. I think they had some other voice actor lined up. But he was interested so they jumped right on it. It was too late though, to change the artwork.’
‘Maybe this is supposed to be the first?’
‘Doesn’t look like Hartnell at all.’
‘Maybe he’s a later Doctor. Maybe they’re both later Doctors? Or the same, and he’s just the aged version of the cartoon Doctor.’
‘They look pretty different. The regular cartoon Doctor is twice his size and shoulders you could balance a watermelon on.’
‘Wait! Wait! He just said he’s younger than the other Doctor, despite him looking older.’
‘So maybe he’s supposed to be the first Doctor, Hartnell, and the other cartoon one is the second. That would make the other one Troughton?’
‘Nah.’
‘Well, if he is the younger Doctor, and he’s played by Pertwee, then maybe that makes him the third Doctor, which would make the cartoon Doctor the sixth Doctor.’
‘Where do you get sixth? He doesn’t look like Colin Baker at all.
‘He has a long coat.’
‘He could just as easy be the fourth.’
‘Doesn’t look like any of them, or act like any of them for that matter. Maybe he’s supposed to be the eight. You know, comes after McCoy?’
‘That makes sense.’
‘But how would they know?’
‘What?’
‘How would they know what the eight Doctor looks like. Do they have inside information or something? Did the BBC fill them in on their plans?’
‘I dunno.’
‘Hey, did the old buzzard just surrender? That’s not what a Doctor does!’
‘Commercials again!’
‘Back to the other Doctor. He’s not so bad.’
‘What in bleeding hell is that accent? Is that supposed to be British?’
‘Sounds like Milwaukee on the Thames.’
‘San Franciso on Avon.’
‘Chicago on the Loo.’
‘Crap that’s awful. It’s like they never met anyone with a real English accent.’
‘He looks like Egon.’
‘Who?’
‘Egon from the Ghostbusters. You know. Egon Spengler?’
‘Yeah, he does. We’ll call him the Egon Doctor.’
‘More commercials.’
‘Doesn’t sound a bit like k9.’
‘You’d think that they could have spent a little money get the voice right. That’s just tosh is what it is, complete tosh.’
‘Okay, I get it. So instead of invading Earth, he gets them to fight each other. Clever.’
‘Why are they firing on an that moon and not each other?’
‘I dunno. I guess the Egon Doctor reprogrammed all their weapons.’
‘Is that the same moon that the Egon Doctor was standing on at the beginning.’
‘Don’t know. They all look alike, I guess. Moons, I mean.’
‘Okay, see, there it is again. He says that the Egon Doctor is older. That makes the old Doctor the younger one.’
‘A nastier one too. Looks like his plan was to get them to blow each other up, and kill each other off. The Egon Doctor just messed up their weapon systems.’
‘So the Egon Doctor saved the aliens?’
‘Well, he kept them from killing each other...’
‘That’s interesting, so they were working against each other as much as they were working together?’
‘Hey, stop there. Back that up!’
‘What?’
‘See right there, the old buzzard didn’t know who the companion was. He’d never seen her before. She has to tell him. That’s how he knows who she is at the beginning of the episode. The thing he whispers to her at the beginning is the thing she whispered to him just now. The old Doctor she meets here, he travels back to the start of the episode and meets her there. Clever!’
‘I don’t know.... I think that’s a little too clever for them.’
‘That’s tosh. It’s just a cartoon. I don’t see them getting up to anything like that. No one woudl pick up on it.’
‘Rewind, you’ll see.’
‘Okay, hold on....’ ‘Maybe’
‘Continue.’
‘Sorted out now.
‘Okay, I get it! That’s why the Egon Doctor was standing on that particular moon. It had the rocket fuel on it, so that’s the one he picked out for them to drop all their missiles on.’
‘Christ! More commercials. This is like five minutes of story and half an hour of commercials!’
‘Wait, what did he just say?’
‘I think the Egon Doctor just said that he wouldn’t let the aliens get to earth at all. That’s pretty cold blooded.’
‘Yeah, but at the same time, he was just making sure that their weapons couldn’t harm anyone. That was his plan. It’s the old Doctor who was going to make the aliens blow each other up. He says he’s funloving, but that’s a nasty sense of fun.’
‘They just mentioned about the time lords!’
‘So there’s Time Lords in this cartoon.’
‘Yeah, right at the beginning, remember. The Doctor here is working for the Time Lords as their agent. They tell him what to do, where to get off.’
‘Kind of like Pertwee.’
‘Sort of, except more he’s a regular agent, not an exile or anything.’
‘Well the Time Lords were always shoving the Doctor about and getting him to do stuff. Remember Genesis of the Daleks?’
‘Yeah, but in the Cartoon, it’s like he’s full time, on salary, you know. Not just getting sent on an occasional mission.’
‘Not too happy about it, he says they caught up to him.’
‘I really get the feeling the Egon Doctor is supposed to be a third.’
‘And the old Doctor is running free.’
‘So the old Doctor is the First Doctor.’
‘Or the second.’
‘Commercials. Commercials. Commercials.’
‘It’s over! Those are the flipping credits. And that crap theme music!’
‘Okay boys and girls, so what do you think? Who or not Who?’
‘Not!’
‘Thumbs down’
‘Compete shite.’
‘Just terrible, cheap, sloppy, the Doctors are all wrong, the voices are all wrong, the animation is primitive, the music is awful. There’s not a single thing right with it.’
‘So we’re all agreed. Absolutely tosh? Completely and utterly irredeemably terrible? An insult to the very concept of Doctor Who?’
‘In spades. Worst ever.’
‘Yep.’
‘Shite. Sub-shite.’
‘Okay, does anyone want to watch it again?’
‘Yes!’
‘Yes!’
‘Put it back on!'
'Can you get any more episodes?'

As funny as that was I feel it would have been the case in real life. We all know in the mid 80's DW was rubbish and those episodes would not have been seen in the UK.

 

[DG Valdron]

The Nelvana series does not get aired in the UK.

Fan response, lead by Ian Levine was overwhelmingly negative to the idea of the cartoon. Michael Grade shelved the notion of running it and declined to purchase.

Instead, the series made its way over to the UK in the form of multi-generation bootlegged VHS copies, often with the commercials included.

The loyal Who purists, of course, were forced to loathe it. To do anything else would be disloyal to the live action show.

And Doctor Who in the 80's was far from terrible. Peter Davison had a decent run, and a number of very good episodes. The budget and production schedule was beginning to get brutal - resulting in travesties like the Melkr of 'Warriors of the Deep.'

Colin Baker was frankly abused. He had a terrible costume. He had a terrible intro episode in the Twin Dilemma. He was abused by Michael Grade who openly attempted to wreck the show. But even with all that, he managed to turn in some relatively solid adventures - notably his conflicts with the Daleks, Cybermen, on Varos.

McCoy inherited a lot of problems and hardship, including CGI and video quality at its harshest, and some really really bad direction. But again, there was good in with the bad.

 

[Lindseyman]

I have to admit to a soft spot for the seventh doctor, who struggled against the odds but did have some decent adventures in spite of everything that was thrown at him. I actually like the Arthurian one which probably puts me in a group of one
PS like this thread. This Dr Who would probably be a guilty pleasure when it was released on Region 2 DVD for the 40th anniversary?

 

[DG Valdron]

The feedback is nice. Thanks

 

[nezza]

The Nelvana series does not get aired in the UK.

Fan response, lead by Ian Levine was overwhelmingly negative to the idea of the cartoon. Michael Grade shelved the notion of running it and declined to purchase.

Instead, the series made its way over to the UK in the form of multi-generation bootlegged VHS copies, often with the commercials included.

The loyal Who purists, of course, were forced to loathe it. To do anything else would be disloyal to the live action show.

And Doctor Who in the 80's was far from terrible. Peter Davison had a decent run, and a number of very good episodes. The budget and production schedule was beginning to get brutal - resulting in travesties like the Melkr of 'Warriors of the Deep.'

Colin Baker was frankly abused. He had a terrible costume. He had a terrible intro episode in the Twin Dilemma. He was abused by Michael Grade who openly attempted to wreck the show. But even with all that, he managed to turn in some relatively solid adventures - notably his conflicts with the Daleks, Cybermen, on Varos.

McCoy inherited a lot of problems and hardship, including CGI and video quality at its harshest, and some really really bad direction. But again, there was good in with the bad.

Ok Maybe not superbad...but not a patch on the 70's.

 

[DG Valdron]

The Jon Pertwee / Tom Baker eras definitely rocked out hard.

 

[Landshark]

Colin Baker was frankly abused. He had a terrible costume. He had a terrible intro episode in the Twin Dilemma. He was abused by Michael Grade who openly attempted to wreck the show. But even with all that, he managed to turn in some relatively solid adventures - notably his conflicts with the Daleks, Cybermen, on Varos.

Colin Baker and Paul McGann had the potential to be two of the best Doctors and Grade's treatment of the former and the show in general were a crime against licence paying SF fans.

 

[DG Valdron]

I certainly join the rest of fandom, including Her Majesty in denouncing Michael Grade.

But I think John Nathan-Turner has to shoulder a share of the blame. Two strikes against Colin....

1) That hideous, hideous, hideous costume. Absolutely no one liked it, and it really undercut the entire show.

2) An epically awful opening episode, in the Twin Dilemma.

I think that in some ways, the 80's were an effort to come to grips with the Tom Baker/Jon Pertwee era, particularly the Tom Baker era.

Tom's scarf, in particular, was such a signpost for Doctor Who, it cast a sort of shadow that loomed over the series. The rest of Baker's wardrobe was mostly unremarkable, but that scarf was loud and proud. It seemed to say 'Doctor Who' has to dress funky, there had to be some raging eccentricity to it.

They dabbled with that with Davison's cricket outfit and bit of celery. But there was some restraint there. I think perhaps 'restraint' was in order after Tom Baker, and Davison was by nature a more restrained actor. Nevertheless, the Doctor was no longer wearing clothes, as per the previous Doctors. He was wearing a costume. Davison marked that transition between clothing however eccentric, and costume.

But with Colin, they just went nuts. His costume was a simultaneous rebellion against the relative restraint of the Davison era, and a whole hearted embrace of the notion of costume over clothes, and ultimately it was Tom Baker's scarf done gigantic.

And it was just a bad, bad, bad decision. The modern Doctor's, including McGann, moved away from costume back to clothes.

And then there was the Twin Dilemma. Awful on so many levels. Go back and watch 'Robot' or 'Spearhead from Space' - Pertwee's and Baker's launches... Robot is a tour de force, Tom Baker made the role his literally from the moment he stepped on frame. Pertwee and Baker established their characters powerfully - charismatic, brilliant, uncontrollable, fascinating.

Twin Dilemma? They spent an entire serial establishing Colin Baker as a psychopathic jerkass. I know that the master plan was to then spend seasons making him more and more likeable and sympathetic. But really, that was such a fucked notion. No one gets that sort of opportunity. What were they thinking?

Hell, it made Davison's premiere, Castrovalva, where he spent three quarters of the serial as a semi-comatose whiner seem like a masterpiece.

Colin definitely had strikes against him going in, which is a shame, because he had the potential to be another Tom. It's fortunate that the Audio adventures rescued him. Here in Canada, I've not listened to the audio, but I have watched the semi-animated Realtime on youtube is a revelation.

In some ways, the eighties Doctors seemed to struggle under the weight of the 70's Doctors. A lot of their stories seem to play like sequels, there's lots of continuity riffs. Davison's Doctor plays with the Master, just like Pertwee did, and he has his 'Black Guardian Trilogy' as a counterpoint to Baker's 'White Guardian/Key to Time.'

 

[DG Valdron]

Just for the record, although I do a fair bit of gently mocking - the Synopsis of the actual episodes represent my best efforts.

In short, when I do a synopsis for the cartoon series, I'm not just chugging out generic 80's formula, but I'm trying to push that formula to the max, to create a Doctor Who cartoon that comes across as quirky, subversive, brilliant and funny.

* Cybermen raising a ruckus robbing banks, not for the money, but to tempt military, law enforcement and criminals with the coolness and utility of cyberbodies, in order to subvert humanity.

* Or Cybermen disguising themselves as fat people while subverting industry.

* Gigantic aliens who are really wayward misbehaving children, and who go on a real tantrum at the thought of parents coming to get them.

* Ancient aliens erecting Earth's monuments, not with gravity sleds or superscience, but stone tools and heartbreaking labour.

* Or the Cybermen planning a worldwide meltdown, to give humanity no choice but to join them. It's the point where things start to get a little dangerous, a little more serious.

* An alien invasion stopped cold by a surrender leading them to fight among each other, two doctors working at cross purposes.

Each of these synopsis I've tried to develop and refine to the point where, if I wanted to, I could turn them into a full fledged animation script, or a novella.

I wanted it to have something of the spirit and the fun of the live series, not a pale soul-less merchandising rip off - the name cut and pasted onto a generic product, but something that might make its own mark.

 

[Kalvan]

Just for the record, although I do a fair bit of gently mocking - the Synopsis of the actual episodes represent my best efforts.

I wanted it to have something of the spirit and the fun of the live series, not a pale soul-less merchandising rip off - the name cut and pasted onto a generic product, but something that might make its own mark.

And so far, you've done a masterful job with the writing. Unfortunately for Nelvana, the artwork (and presumably the animation, too) looks comparable to Bananaman, or maybe early Scooby Doo on a good day. Even though they're nowhere near the same genre, I am reminded of the early seasons of The Simpsons and the better parts of Williams Street's output.
Why do I suspect that when it comes out on DVD, it will become a cult classic?

 

[Clorox23]

A thought that just occurred to me: what would SFDebris' opinion of this be ITTL?

 

[DG Valdron]

Interview with Maurice LaMarche, voice actor who played Doctor Who in the Nelvana animated series. August 13, 1992, by Anna Boudreau, published in the fall issue of the Tardis 204 Fanzine.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MauriceLaMarche

T: Is it true that at your first convention, you were booed off the stage and had eggs thrown at you?
M: (laughs) That story grows with the telling. Actually, it wasn’t actually a convention, it was a public relations sort of thing in England, just after we’d wrapped up the season. There were a few boos, and some plastic cups and litter thrown, but no eggs. There were pickets and signs though.

T: Still it must have been pretty unpleasant.

M: It’s not the happiest moment of my life. But there you go. This was back in 1986, the live action series was on hiatus and a lot of people, fans, were afraid it was going to be cancelled permanently. So they saw the cartoon as a threat. There was this idea that if Doctor Who was done as a cartoon, then that would kill the live action show somehow.

T: Strange idea.

M: It was the times I guess. People were tense, and they fixed onto anything.

T: Second question: What kind of British accent is that anyway? That you use for the Doctor.

M: No mercy! A real one I think. I didn’t have any specific English accent in mind. Upper class, but not too upper class. Doctor Who is a time lord, so he’s not of the common ilk. But he also gets his hands dirty. Educated. London. I had a teacher in high school with a similar accent.

T: So how did you end up being the Doctor?

M: I fell into it really. I was trying to break into stand up. But while I was waiting for that, I was starting to do a lot of voice work. I’d done work for Nelvana before... We actually began together. I did voices on Nelvana’s first two cartoons - ‘Take Me Out to the Ball Game’ and ‘Easter Fever.’ I think that was in 1980. And then I was in ‘Rock and Rule’ not a huge part or anything. Then I went back into stand up and doing impressions. A few years later, around 1985 or so, around that time, I started to do voice work again. Inspector Gadget, Transformers, GI Joe. I guess, when Clive was looking, they remembered me.

So one day, I get a call from Clive and he goes ‘You know that British TV show, ‘Doctor Who’? I’m going sure... But I had no idea. I thought it was a cooking show or something. He says, ‘we’re doing a cartoon for it. We think you’d be perfect. Interested.’ Well, I said I was a big fan of the show, and of course.

T: But you actually had no idea?

M: None, whatsoever. Mind you, once Clive was off the phone, I was looking it up pretty fast. I managed to get the essentials of the show, and I caught some of it on PBS, before I went in for the auditions.

T: You had to audition?

M: Sort of yes. You go in, you read the script, you sort out the character. They had already decided on me. But you want to make sure it’s going to work out before you commit.

T: What was your take on the Doctor? Were you influenced by any of the live Doctors.

M: Not too much. A little by Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker. Those are the ones I saw on VHS or PBS. It gave me the idea of what they were about, what the show was about. But after that, it was my take.

I saw Doctor Who as really, a very gentle, very caring man. He looks young, but he’s immensely old, and terribly powerful, he’s seen it all, done it all, he’s incredibly intelligent. He can run rings around anyone. If he looked at it that way, we’d all be like insects to him. But he doesn’t look at it that way. He likes people, and aliens, he’s fond of us, so he tries to protect us. He still sees the beauty in things. Even the bad guys, he can see the good in them, evil alien invaders... They’re not so bad to him.

And he’s funny. That comes from me, from being a stand up comic. He’s got this gentle observational humour. It’s not pratfalls, its not cruel. He’s just been around so long, and has such a good heart, that he can see the lighter side of things.

T: You mentioned Jon Pertwee. What was it like to work with him on the cartoon?

M: I didn’t. You mean the Two Doctors? We didn’t work together, we recorded separately. I did meet him a couple of years later at a convention. He was just a charming gentleman, we had a great time on panels together and hanging out. Whenever I go to one of these ‘Doctor Who’ conventions, I’ll look to see if he’s going to be there too.

T: Have you met any of the other Doctors?

M: I met Sylvester McCoy, Peter Davison. Colin Baker of course. Colin is a card, we have a great time. Patrick Troughton sent me a note, this was back in 1986, I
didn’t even realize it until after he’d passed away.

T: Do they treat you as one of the fraternity.

M: I don’t know what that means. We’re all just actors. I think we have some common ground, because in different ways, we’ve shared the role and we’ve all brought different things to it.

T: You actually have a costume for your Doctor that you wear at conventions sometimes.

M: Yes, although I’m a bit heavier than in the cartoons. Early on, when we were doing PR in England for this, I suggested that we get a costume, so I could appear as the character. Well, Clive said there was no budget for that. But a few years later, some Canadian fans got together and put together a collection. It’s not much of a costume, it’s a nice trenchcoat with a question mark on it, and an oversized fob watch with a very long chain, and some boots and things, spectacles.

T: You have fun with it.

M: It is fun. The fans as a whole are terribly nice people. As a voice actor, sometimes you don’t get a lot of recognition, so it’s wonderful to be at a convention and have people come up and tell you how much they’ve enjoyed your work. Even the English fans have come around, pretty much every convention, someone from the British Isles will come up and apologize for egging me.

T: You’ve done other voice work for the cartoon.

M: Mmmm here and there yes. I do the Cybermen, for instance. I like doing them, it’s just my ‘Orson Welles’ impression, with an electronic tinge. I like the Cybermen, our version of them anyway. They’re not evil so much as oblivious. They like being Cybermen and they can’t imagine anyone not wanting to be a Cyberman, its so grand. So they intend to convert the rest of us, whether we want to or not. They see it as doing us a favour - upgrading us.

T: What about other voice work? What else have we heard you in?

M: GI Joe. I’m in Ghostbusters, I do the voice for Egon. You know Pinky and the Brain? I’m the voice of the Brain ‘Tonight Pinky, we take over the world!’ Ducktales. Dennis the Menace. Matt Groening, the man who does Simpsons, he’s working on something called Futurama, I might be in that.

T: You’re the voice for Egon in the Ghostbusters too? He and the Doctor look very similar? Are either of them based on you? Was the Doctor based on Egon.

M: Maybe fifty pounds ago (laughs). I don’t think so. The artists do what the artists do. The look of my Doctor was done by Ted Bastien. I think it would be arrogant of me to think he had me in mind when he was doing his drawings.

T: The animated Doctor has accumulated a cult following. How did you see the animated Doctor as different from the general run of Saturday cartoons. Or was it different?

M: A couple of ways. I think that a lot of Saturday morning adventure series had to tiptoe around violence, because of the sensors. But when you come right down to it - GI Joe is an army show, He-Man is basically Conan, and even Transformers are fighting a war. So in a sense, they embraced violence, they just had to be careful how they handled it. I think that Doctor Who, as a character, generally disliked violence, and that was part of who he was. He did his best to avoid it. The Doctor won through trickery, or outsmarting, or just by being able to figure things out.

There’s other things. I think we were smarter and funnier, as a whole, than a lot of the other cartoons. Even when others were trying humour, it was sitcom humour or pratfall humor. Or humor was a lot more adult.... not in the sense of being dirty... But in the sense of appreciating the world. We had wit.
And we were contrary. Some people really liked that. Every story we did, we wanted to turn something on its head. Ancient astronauts, chariots of the gods - that was one of my favourites. The image of all those spindly gray space aliens sweating to build the pyramids by hand, with stone tools and hammers and chisels, hauling with ropes and rollers. Every episode, we wanted to take what people expected, and turn it completely around, and make something of it.
I don’t think that there was anything quite like us on Cartoons. On television even. Except for the live show.

T: The backstory for the cartoon Doctor was different than the series. Even Tardis stood for something different.

M: Oh the heat we took for that from hardcore fans. I understand why they did what they did. I mean, they were introducing the cartoon to a brand new audience. But the fans, especially the English fans... they were really upset. I honestly didn’t see the much difference. But I heard there were petitions and angry letters and everything. I think that when they were developing the second season they decided to bring the bible much more closely into line with the live series. They were even talking about bringing back Jon (Pertwee) and even some of the other Doctors. But the damage was done.

T: Do you see the cartoon series as integrating into the live series. Do you see your Doctor as a real Doctor.

M: I’m not sure how to answer that. I certainly played the character for a number of episodes. He’s real enough for me. You can turn on the television and watch him for hours.

T: But does he fit into the series continuity. And if he did, where would he fit?

M: (laughs) Your fannishness is showing through. (Clears throat) If my Doctor was to fit anywhere, I’d say he would go between Troughton and Pertwee. The Time Lords catch him as Troughton, they turn him into my Doctor the make him their agent, eventually, he gets fed up and refuses to do their bidding, and they turn him into Pertwee and strand him on Earth. But that’s just one theory, and there are a hundred more.

(Laughs) Really, I think sometimes it’s a struggle just getting the cartoon episodes to fit into a continuity with each other. Integrating them into the live series is just too much. It’s different formats, different markets, everything is different.

T: We hear rumours from time to time of an animated Doctor Who movie. Is there anything to it? Or in proposals to re-launch the series?

M: I’ve heard those same rumours. I can’t say much more. There’s always rumours floating around. If they do it, I’m right there. I think Cree and Frank would be as well. I really enjoyed doing Doctor Who, he was a terrific role.

T: What about the Dark Dimension, the 30th Anniversary special?

M: Okay, that’s a little more solid. There’s some word that BBC Enterprises is talking to Nelvana as a production partner for a live action special. We’ll have to see if anything comes of it.

T: If it does come about, do you think you’ll have a role in it.

M: I’d love one. If they ask me, I’ll do whatever they want. Carry water? Make sandwhiches? Hold a boom mike? Be an extra.... The man in the street who points at a Dalek! I can’t imagine my Doctor will be in it, unless they find an actor who looks like the cartoon. Then I don’t know what.... Would I dub him? I don’t think my Doctor fits into the series continuity, I’m over on the side, like Peter Cushing. But I’d love to be part of it somehow.

T: Here’s to hoping that it comes together, and that you do get to be part of it. Any last words?

M: Just that doing Doctor Who was a wonderful experience, and I wouldn’t have missed it for the world. It’s a terrific role, and I love the fans who have given back so much.

T: Thank you for the interview.

M: Thank you.

 

[DG Valdron]

And so far, you've done a masterful job with the writing. Unfortunately for Nelvana, the artwork (and presumably the animation, too) looks comparable to Bananaman, or maybe early Scooby Doo on a good day. Even though they're nowhere near the same genre, I am reminded of the early seasons of The Simpsons and the better parts of Williams Street's output.
Why do I suspect that when it comes out on DVD, it will become a cult classic?

I really liked the Steve Bastien artwork. Sometimes there's a bit too much Moebius influence, but that's par for the course in the 1980's. I think that there's some sparkling good images, particularly for the 'Egon' Doctor.

It would have simplified for television of course, to something somewhere around 'Droids' - or He Man, or GI Joe. It would have been a bit better than Scooby Doo at least in terms of more sophisticated animation. But by modern standards, it would still be crude and somewhat rudimentary.

 

[DG Valdron]

A thought that just occurred to me: what would SFDebris' opinion of this be ITTL?

I don't know. I don't know anything about SFDebris

 

[Landshark]

I certainly join the rest of fandom, including Her Majesty in denouncing Michael Grade.

I remember Grade on an episode of Room 101. One of his picks was of course Dr Who and he said he didn't like science fiction. Now that's a perfectly reasonable position for a person to have, unless they're running a public service broadcasting organisation and they bring their own personal agenda over with them. There's a load of stuff on TV that I don't like, but I don't get a rebate from my licence fee for not watching them.

But I think John Nathan-Turner has to shoulder a share of the blame. Two strikes against Colin....

Nathan-Turner should have gone at the end of Davidson's run and handed the show over to a new team.

1) That hideous, hideous, hideous costume. Absolutely no one liked it, and it really undercut the entire show.

2) An epically awful opening episode, in the Twin Dilemma.

I think that in some ways, the 80's were an effort to come to grips with the Tom Baker/Jon Pertwee era, particularly the Tom Baker era.

Tom's scarf, in particular, was such a signpost for Doctor Who, it cast a sort of shadow that loomed over the series. The rest of Baker's wardrobe was mostly unremarkable, but that scarf was loud and proud. It seemed to say 'Doctor Who' has to dress funky, there had to be some raging eccentricity to it.

They dabbled with that with Davison's cricket outfit and bit of celery. But there was some restraint there. I think perhaps 'restraint' was in order after Tom Baker, and Davison was by nature a more restrained actor. Nevertheless, the Doctor was no longer wearing clothes, as per the previous Doctors. He was wearing a costume. Davison marked that transition between clothing however eccentric, and costume.

But with Colin, they just went nuts. His costume was a simultaneous rebellion against the relative restraint of the Davison era, and a whole hearted embrace of the notion of costume over clothes, and ultimately it was Tom Baker's scarf done gigantic.

And it was just a bad, bad, bad decision. The modern Doctor's, including McGann, moved away from costume back to clothes.

And then there was the Twin Dilemma. Awful on so many levels. Go back and watch 'Robot' or 'Spearhead from Space' - Pertwee's and Baker's launches... Robot is a tour de force, Tom Baker made the role his literally from the moment he stepped on frame. Pertwee and Baker established their characters powerfully - charismatic, brilliant, uncontrollable, fascinating.

Twin Dilemma? They spent an entire serial establishing Colin Baker as a psychopathic jerkass. I know that the master plan was to then spend seasons making him more and more likeable and sympathetic. But really, that was such a fucked notion. No one gets that sort of opportunity. What were they thinking?

Hell, it made Davison's premiere, Castrovalva, where he spent three quarters of the serial as a semi-comatose whiner seem like a masterpiece.

Colin definitely had strikes against him going in, which is a shame, because he had the potential to be another Tom. It's fortunate that the Audio adventures rescued him. Here in Canada, I've not listened to the audio, but I have watched the semi-animated Realtime on youtube is a revelation.

In some ways, the eighties Doctors seemed to struggle under the weight of the 70's Doctors. A lot of their stories seem to play like sequels, there's lots of continuity riffs. Davison's Doctor plays with the Master, just like Pertwee did, and he has his 'Black Guardian Trilogy' as a counterpoint to Baker's 'White Guardian/Key to Time.'

I would have gone with Colin Baker's desire to have the Doctor wear an all black costume, and would have had the whole damaged and deranged thing underplayed. Instead of him strangling Peri he would never lay a hand on her and she should feel at her most threatened when the Doctor was on the far side of the console and the doors were open behind her.

 

[DG Valdron]

I would have dispensed with the whole 'damaged/deranged' thing. They'd played the 'crippled/incapacitated' Doctor shtick with Davison's opening and it was a drag. I still cringe, years later, at the thought of Adric, Nyssa and Tegan dragging a coffin shaped 'zero room.'

They'd done it successfully with Pertwee, but there they had a ripping story that was already running and strong characters in the form of Liz Shaw and the Brigadier, so that Pertwee's Doctor could literally grow organically through the serial until he'd taken over the story.

Colin Baker's first serial came as the last serial in Davison's season. There wasn't going to be a whole season to get to know and evolve the character. Colin Baker's Doctor had to be fully established, he had to become a defined character right then and there in that one serial.

Because, for better or worse, that was going to be the indelible impression going into the next season. The Doctor was defined, and the long hiatus from one season to the next was going to set that in stone.

And that's what happened - the Twin Dilemma gave us an erratic, histrionic, tasteless,unpredictably dangerous Doctor, and arguably, Baker found himself having to swim uphill against that for the rest of his television career. They needed to ditch the damaged/deranged thing altogether.

He needed a Tom Baker opening. Some whiz bang piece of fluff that would put the dynamics of his character at the fore and win the audience.

Also, I've always disagreed with Colin Baker's notion of a black costume. Colin misjudges himself. He wasn't going to be a frigging space ninja. The guy was so blonde and pale complected that gingers laughed at him. That pale a guy in a black costume... at best he'd look like the Master. At worst, he'd show up on screen as a frizzy bobble head, with a big bright head, and a muted black suit.

For what it's worth - the 'blue suit' look in Real Time is a clear winner. I think he needed to wear a suit, something at least relatively formal and businesslike, to reflect the relative stuffiness of the character, with perhaps an accessory to subvert it.

But of course, its all hindsight.

And I agree, JNT should have moved on after Davison...