Nelvana's Doctor Who

[DG Valdron]

Nelvana's Doctor Who - Episode 11,
The Doctor and the Daleks, Part 1

Prologue

Empty starfield, except that the stars are moving, all of them, moving forward in all directions from the center of the screen.

Slowly the camera pans in, the stars grow, and are resolved as Dalek Spaceships of all sizes and types, themselves surrounded by swarms of flying Daleks. The scene changes again and again, showing nothing but slowly moving Dalek ships proceeding relentlessly.

As they pass, the camera zeroes in on a small planetoid, small compared to the great ships themselves. The camera continues to focus in on a spot on the Planetoid, showing a small blue box, and a figure in a brown trenchcoat standing a few feet from its open door.

The camera continues to zero in, showing the Doctor, his face set with grim determination

Cut back to one of the Dalek ships, its weapons discharge. A beam of energy lances out, striking the planetoid, which is completely destroyed.

Suddenly, as the debris field expands, the Tardis comes out of nowhere, spiralling towards the camera, growing as it suddenly fills the camera and then vanishes, having passed on.

Titles - "The Doctor and the Daleks"

Title - "part 1"

Roll opening montage, commercial break.

 

[DG Valdron]

Nelvana's Doctor Who, Episode 11
The Doctor and the Daleks, Part 1

Act 1

Opening shot of a row of Daleks, all identical but coloured differently, moving down a gangway. The image opens up, showing more and more Daleks, all gliding in rows across walkways, assembled in formations. The image opened up into a cavernous space, impossibly vast, so that individual Daleks are mere dots.

A gigantic screen lights up. The Doctor’s face appears, and warns the Daleks that the Earth is protected, turn back or be destroyed. Close up of rows of Dalek eye stalks swinging in unison as the warning is repeated. Shots of Daleks at control panels, all the screens show the Doctor’s face. The Dalek eyestalks wave this way and that. One of the Daleks uses its claw on a control. A screen goes blank, and then shifts to a series of tracking lines. Signal source located, the Dalek announces.

From one of the Dalek ships, a beam of light arcs out, to destroy the Tardis on a planetoid. Just before the beam hits, the Tardis shimmers and is revealed to be a relay station with a small satellite dish.

The Doctor vanishes from the Giant Dalek screen. There’s a blur of static, and the Doctor’s image reappears. The Daleks, identify a web of relay stations on their viewscreens...

***********

Outside of the Tardis. KC is carrying a golf bag and dressed as a caddy. The Doctor is about to swing at a tiny rock. The Doctor explains that they are a billion years in the past, in a solar system that has achieved complete stability. Given enough time, the Doctor explains, all systems achieve stability, that’s all that’s ever left, eventually, all random elements are snuffed out. It is a symphony of perfect orbits, the greatest clock the Universe has ever devised.

Sounds beautiful, Casey says. Sounds boring the Doctor replies. Time to insert a little chaos into the equation. He swings, the pebble flies off into space. Escape velocity, the Doctor remarks with evident satisfaction. Time to go.

The Tardis fades away. The Doctor in voiceover asks Casey if she’s ever heard of the butterfly effect. The camera follows the trajectory of the pebble, bumping into other larger pebbles, knocking them off their orbits, which bump into larger rocks, changing their orbits, and so on.

The Tardis materializes on the same asteroid, a billion years later. The Doctor explains that the stability of the system is why the Daleks use it as their launching base. As the rock turns, a huge Dalek warship appears in front of them. Suddenly, it is obliterated by two mountain sized boulders. All over the system, bits of Space debris smash into Dalek ships, smashing them left and right.

A moment later, however, the rocks are pushed apart and the great Dalek Battleship cruises forth, visibly battered but intact.

On the viewscreens inside the Dalek ship, visibly disheveled Daleks look up when the screen lights up and the Doctor tells them that there will be no more warnings.

The Daleks warble to each other that it is time to exterminate the Doctor.

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

The Tardis lands on Earth. The Doctor and Casey exit, meeting the Sheriff. Casey is jubilant, but the Doctor notes he has not even slowed them down.
The Daleks are the most formidible enemy in the universe.

The Doctor leads them to Bessie. He explains that Bessie is capable of space travel. He tells Casey that she is giving her a mission to go to the Time Lords and ask them for their assistance.

Casey says that she doesn’t want to leave him. But the Doctor says that her mission is vital. The Sheriff is going as her protector, and the emissary for Earth.

As they leave, K9 informs the Doctor that the Time Lords will probably not help because of their commitment to non-interference. They Doctor responds that he knows. K9 asks why send her? The Doctor says that it is because he’s not sure he will win this time, and he wants her to be safe.

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

Again, on the Dalek battleship, the Doctor’s face appears on the screen.

Yet another final warning? The Supreme Dalek mocks.

The Doctor announces that he has brought friends. His image flickers off. Instead, the starfield fills with spaceships of every sort, raining fire on the Daleks.

There are a succession of cutaways - the Gargan fleet. The Cybermen. The Greys. Even the Mind Worms. A vast armada of alien ships converge on the Daleks.

The Daleks turn to each other briefly, and then say ‘Exterminate.’
An epic space battle occurs, ships of all sorts spitting lasers at each other and taking hits. Ships explode. The Daleks announce to each other that the enemy ships have insufficient forces to threaten the Daleks. The Gargans and others eventually retreat or are destroyed.

The Daleks announce that they are victorious.

Meanwhile, the Tardis materializes in the middle of the Dalek fleet, in the center of a gigantic mechanical construct towed by battleships.

Inside the Tardis, the Doctor explains that the Gargans and others were a cunning distraction. It was to divert the Daleks attention, while he sneaked in. Where is this, K9 asks? The Doctor explains that it is the power source of the entire Dalek empire. All he has to do is push one button, and it will all be over.

Suddenly, giant mechanical claws reach out and seize the Tardis. In the interior, the time rotor shakes violently. The Doctor is thrown off his feet.
The Doctor’s screen lights up. The Supreme Dalek appears, and announces to the Doctor that he has fallen for their trap. There is no power source for the Empire. This is a trap designed to capture a Time Lord Tardis.

Outside the Tardis, a ramp extends from a Dalek ship up to the Tardis doors. A row of Daleks glides out. The first Dalek in the row is equipped with a flamethrower and buzz saw.

The Doctor rushes to the Time Rotor and starts pulling levers. The Supreme Dalek tells him that there is no escape. Soon the Daleks will have the Tardis and with that the mastery of all of time and space. Daleks will rule the universe from its beginnings to its ends.

The Doctor throws a lever. The Tardis begins its familiar grinding. The Doctor tells the Supreme Dalek that he’s not beaten yet.

Behind the Doctor, K9 begins to morph, sprouting Dalek components. It rebuilds itself into the giant Dalek-Wolf monster of the earlier episode. It looms up behind the Doctor, unnoticed, even as the Dalek Supreme tells the Doctor that he is not the only one who plots. The Daleks have been planning this for a long time, and they’ve thought of everything.

A shadow falls over the Doctor. He turns....

Ominous music.

Commercial break

 

[NCW8]

That's a welcome return !

I do like the idea of K9 as a Dalek sleeper agent (or is he ? )


Cheers,
Nigel

 

[DG Valdron]

The visual of the giant Wolf-Dalek is the same as in the Dalek Machine episode.

In episode 9, the Dalek Machine, K9 is blown to pieces by the Daleks. However, the little morphing robot reactivates and assembles a new body from pieces of dalek junk. It becomes a giant, dalek-dire wolf hybrid, and tears its way through. At the end of the episode, K9 sheds all the dalek bits and reforms as itself.

A bit of Dalek software remained inside K9 however, and has been slowly corrupting him. Whether this was luck, or a Dalek trap is open. But the Daleks are aware, or became aware, and have been taking advantage of it.


And yeah, I want to finish the big two parter, do one more episode, and then maybe season overviews of the 2nd and 3rd season, and finished!

 

[DG Valdron]

Nelvana’s Doctor Who
The Doctor and the Daleks, Part 1

Act 2
　
The Doctor is facing K9, now a looming, hulking, giant wolf-dalek thing towering over him. The Doctor tries talking K9 down, telling him to reverse the change, shut down, do anything... This time though, the Doctor is visibly frightened and uncertain. His voice trails off, telling K9 that he is a good dog.

The Supreme Dalek on the screen is crowing in triumph. It tells the Doctor that it has been a long time in the planning, that during their last encounter, they inserted a Dalek computer virus in K9, waiting for the right moment. The Supreme Dalek tells him that the Daleks have been ahead of him every step of the way.

The Supreme Dalek orders K9 to kill the Doctor.

Dalek-K9 roars and pounces.

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

Casey and the Sheriff, flying through space in Bessie are pursued by Daleks. But just as they are about to be destroyed, their craft shimmers and vanishes. The pursuing Daleks stare at each other.

The Time Lords welcome them to Gallifrey.

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

A very large and very monstrous looking K9-Dalek lunges for the Doctor, who leaps agilely out of the way. The charge tears several panels off the time rotor console. The Doctor pulls out his watch and tries to hypnotize K9. The monster lunges again.

In the background, the Supreme Dalek is crowing on the viewscreen.
K9 lunges again, but the Doctor uses his watch to project a force field that temporarily halts it. With another lunge, K9 breaks through, but the Doctor slips out of the way once again.

The control room is wrecked.

An disembodied voice declares emergency in the Tardis. Outside forces are about to break through.

The Doctor orders the control room shutdown, and then runs out into the corridors of the Tardis, K9 in hot pursuit.


Camera shifts angle to reveal the interior of the Tardis, an immense central pillar, the time rotor, extending to infinity in both directions, with a tangled lattice of lines representing the Tardis network of corridors and rooms. The camera angle shifts to a point near the upper end of the time rotor, a bulge partway down representing the control room, and from it, the tiny figure of the Doctor flees, with an immense K9-Dalek in hot pursuit.

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

Outside the Tardis the Daleks are burning their way through the doorway.

On their ships, the Daleks announce to each other that soon they will be the new masters of time, and then they will destroy the Time Lords, they will rule the universe.

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

The Doctor slams a series of doors behind him as K9-Dalek keeps bursting through one after the other.

The Doctor slams a particularly huge metal door and steps back waiting.

K9-Dalek tears through the door and advances on the Doctor.

The Doctor presses a button and the K9-Dalek is caught between two giant metal presses.

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


Casey and the Sheriff are on Gallifrey in front of the High Council, Magmar and Cellis are there. Casey is pleading for Earth, saying that the Daleks are on their way.

Magmar replies that the Time Lords do not interfere in the universe, that is their solemn vow. They travel through time, but do not change it. They do not choose who will win or lose, live or die. It is against their law.

Casey tells them that if they do not help, the Doctor will be killed and the Daleks will destroy Earth. The Doctor is one of their own. If the Daleks kill a Time Lord, doesn’t that mean that they will be at war with Gallifrey.

Cellis says that if they do go to war with the Daleks, then they will expose themselves, and that will create a risk that the Daleks will gain the secrets of time travel... The result would be a Time War that destroys reality. That is unacceptable. They cannot risk a war.

The Sheriff calls them a bunch of cowards. He says that sometimes you can’t hide from a fight.

Casey says, the Doctor IS fighting the Daleks, he has been all along.

Cellis says he was ordered to go back to Gallifrey, he disobeyed them.

Casey asks why they sent the Doctor to protect the Earth in the first place at all?

The Time Lords laugh.

Magmar explains: The Doctor is wasn’t sent to protect Earth. He was sentenced to Earth, the Doctor is a criminal to the Time Lords. K9 is his jailer.

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

On Earth, people stop and look up as shadows fall over them. The Dalek fleet is arriving....
　
　

 

[DG Valdron]

Nelvana’s Doctor Who
The Doctor and the Daleks, Part 1

Act 3

As the Doctor watches astonished, K9-Dalek is not crushed within the press, but with a surge of strength, pushes the immense steel blocks apart. The Doctor flees again.

The Doctor tries to use his pocket watch to reprogram it. But it swallows the watch.

K9-Dalek pursues the Doctor through the interior of the Tardis, with the Doctor triggering traps behind it.

There is a series of images and camera angles showing the Doctor fleeing through the Tardis, hiding. They reach the outer corridors of the Tardis, winding ramps through the timestream, popping in and out of doors and appearing and disappearing in different directions as the looping ramps intertwine like mobius strips.

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

Outside the Tardis, Daleks are flying all around it as the machine is held in
steel claws. Daleks with torches are working everywhere, trying to burn their way in.

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

On Gallifrey, the Time Lords tell Casey and the Sheriff that they will not be allowed to leave.

Casey says that she needs to help the Doctor.

The Time Lords tell her that the Doctor has violated their fundamental laws. They will not help him. Doing so would violate their truce with the Daleks.

A Dalek enters the Council, it announces that the Doctor is a criminal to both the Daleks and Time Lords. It is in the interests of peace that the Daleks will destroy him.

Casey protests, but the Time Lords tell her that the Dalek is an ambassador.

The Dalek states that the Daleks only want peace.

Casey complains that the Daleks don’t want peace, they are invading Earth.
The Daleks state that they need Earth. The Time Lords have agreed that the Daleks will not oppose them for one small insignificant planet.
What about the people of Earth, Casey demands.

The Daleks state that humans are a minor and inferior species compared to the Daleks and Time Lords, and that they are of no importance.

Casey tells the Time Lords that the Daleks will keep their truce until they decide to break it. She says she wants to return to help the Doctor herself.
Magmar tells her that cannot be allowed. Soon, she and the sheriff will be the last humans. They’re going to be preserved in a museum.

Guards grab Casey and the Sheriff who struggle.... The Dalek watches.

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

The Doctor has made his way to the bottom of the time Rotor, to an area flanked by rows of gigantic machines. He reaches an instrument panel and throws a huge lever.

A force field flares to life around the control panel. K9-Dalek leaps, but cannot push through, not yet.

The Supreme Dalek appears on a floating viewscreen. It tells the Doctor that there is nowhere left to run. Even as it speaks, the Daleks are breaking through into the Tardis. The K9-Dalek will be through the force field soon.

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

A quick shot of Daleks invading the control room.

They announce to each other that the ship is theirs. A Dalek announces that the controls are inoperable. Another Dalek states that it is of no consequence. They will dissect the ship for its secrets.

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

The Doctor laughs, even as K9 Dalek hurls itself at the force field. The Doctor tells the Supreme Dalek that they have not won yet. They can’t control the Tardis, not from the console room.

But he is at the heart of the Tardis’ power, and he can control it from here.
The Doctor pulls a lever. The Tardis roars and shakes from top to bottom. Daleks invading other parts of the Tardis swivel their eyestalks around.
The Tardis shakes violently in the claws of the gigantic Dalek trap and begins to swim. Daleks are sent scattering into space. With a mighty wrench the Tardis spins free of the gripping clause and then begins to vanish.

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

The Doctor exults to the Supreme Dalek that their trap has failed, he has broken free.

The Supreme Dalek tells him that he is wrong.

The Daleks, have been working on their own means of time travel.
The Doctor is shaken, that is a violation of their truce with the Time Lords. The Supreme Dalek advises that the Daleks do not consider themselves bound by agreements with inferior races.

The Supreme Dalek tells the Doctor that their experiments with time are still crude. They cannot break the time barrier themselves. But once the barrier is broken, they can create a time vortex to follow the trail of a time ship. They are able to follow the time wake left by the Tardis.

The Doctor, astonished, tells the Supreme Dalek that it would require the power of entire Dalek worlds.

The Supreme Dalek tells the Doctor that the entire Dalek fleet is powering the time vortex. They will chase the Doctor to the end of the Universe as he falls through time .... or to the beginning.

Then they will destroy Earth. And after Earth, the Time Lords themselves.

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

Outside in space, a giant whirlpool is forming as Dalek ships spin in after the fleeing Tardis, falling out of control through time.

　
　
EPILOGUE

On Earth, the Dalek ships fill the sky. Dalek voices instruct the people of Earth to surrender and submit to orderly extermination.

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

On Gallifrey, Casey and the Sheriff struggle in the claws of robots, as a Dalek Ambassador watches.
　
*************

On the Tardis, the interior of the ship is overrun with Daleks. Down at the bottom of the Time rotor, the force field collapses as K9-Dalek breaks free.

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

Final shot, the Tardis falling free, out of control, as a gigantic fleet swoops after it like a horde of locusts.

VO - Is this the end for Doctor Who? Tune in next week for the exciting conclusion!
　

 

[The Professor]

We have to wait an entire week? Damn you!

 

[DG Valdron]

Nelvana's Doctor Who
The Doctor and the Daleks, Part 2

Prologue

VOICE OVER NARRATION (Montage of Scenes) The Daleks! The most evil robot race in the Universe are invading Earth. Only the Doctor stands between them and the total obliteration of the Human Race. Unfortunately, the Daleks have prepared a fiendish trap for the Doctor. They have taken over K9 turning the Doctor’s most faithful ally into a monster robot, and are even now overruning the Tardis. The Doctor’s friends are trapped on Gallifrey, the world of the Time Lords. In a desperate move, the Doctor is tearing a hole in in the fabric of time, and the Tardis is falling into the beginning of the Universe, with the entire Dalek fleet in hot pursuit!
　
　
Act 4

A city on Earth, a vast shadow creeps over it. On the ground, darkness falls, people look up in terror, pointing. Image pulls back, revealing an immense ship high above. The camera pulls pack, shadows falling all over North America. Pull back further into outer space, we see a fleet of deadly spaceships looming over Earth. A Dalek appears suddenly, looming in the Camera lens. Daleks on individual platforms swarm like angry bees.

The Dalek pour out of ships, hovering above the city. There is an announcement: "People of Earth. Resistance is useless. Prepare to be exterminated."

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

Exterior shot of space, the Tardis is held in giant robot claws, as a huge whirlpool in space opens up in the background. The whirlpool begins to draw the Tardis in, the robot arms stretching and finally snapping. The freed Tardis begins to tumble end over end. As it recedes into the distance, first Daleks and then ships and then the armada are drawn in after it.

A swarm of Daleks file into the Tardis console room, gathering around the hunched figure of the Doctor, desperately trying to repair his instruments. The Daleks inform the Doctor that he is their prisoner, and he must repair the tear in space. The Doctor straightens up and turns. The Daleks fire at him, but their bolts go straight through. He waves and vanishes, leaving the Daleks looking at each other.

There is an external shot of the Tardis tumbling end over end falling more and more deeply into the whirlpool. Lightning begins to arc within the whirlpool.

Interior shot of another part of the Tardis. The K9-Dalek is trapped in a force field. The Doctor stands on a holograph pad. Another Doctor flickers into view beside him, and then flickers out, as the Doctor adjusts some controls. On a viewscreen of the control room, the Daleks are wandering about aimlessly.

The Doctor, confidently, adjusts the controls, piloting the Tardis. It stops tumbling and begins to rise out of the whirlpool.

Suddenly, a bolt of lightning from the whirlpool strikes the Tardis. Inside the Tardis, viewscreens explode, and sparks erupt from the instrument panel. The Doctor is flung off the projection console. The Tardis interior goes black....

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

The Doctor wakes up, rubbing his head. He picks up a sonic screwdriver. Then he notices that the Force cage is empty, it’s bars torn to flickering ribbons. Behind him, the K9-Dalek looms until it towers above him and its shadow falls over him. The Doctor turns, looks frightened briefly, and then smiles.

"Here boy," he tells the monster, throwing the sonic screwdriver as hard as he can, "fetch!"

K9-Dalek turns to track the screwdriver, and then it lunges back and bites the Doctor in half.

Or appears to. Despite the vicious lunge of the jaws, the Doctor is impossibly unharmed.

His image flickers. The Doctor looks frightened briefly, and then smiles. "Here boy," he tells the monster, "fetch!" After a moment, the image flickers again.

The K9-Dalek lunges at the hologram, shoving his jaws through without effect. As K9/Dalek’s massive jaws snap shut and it shakes its head, the image of the Doctor flickers and wavers. K9/Dalek backs off , staring at the flickering image of the Doctor.

The Doctor’s voice announces that he has used the Tardis’ communication system to project his image.

A Dozen more Doctors appear around K9

Behind it, the Doctor is scampering off. After a moment, the K9-Dalek gives chase, and the Doctor is forced to run. Meanwhile, everywhere on the Tardis, short holographic loops of the Doctor are popping into existence.

The Doctor, pursued by K9-Dalek, runs past several of the holographic images. The Doctor, looks back fearfully, as the K9 Dalek finally catches up to him and leaps on him... Only to find it is another holograph.

A couple of Daleks come on the scene, and the enraged K9-Dalek shreds them.

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

The Doctor is in a small control chamber, looking at a bank of screens. The image is of the whirlpool in space. Cut to space - the Daleks have seeded stations around the borders of the whirlpool, somehow stabilizing it. From these stations, bolts of lightning erupt, swirling down the whirlpool. The Tardis hovers above the whirlpool, caught in a web of articial lightning.

"Emergency," the Doctor announces, "Emergency. The Daleks have overrun the Tardis. I have created a Time Warp, to try to escape them. But the Daleks have taken control of the warp and stabilized it. I repeat, the Daleks have control of a time warp. The Daleks have control of time! Emergency! Attention, Gallifrey!"

All of a sudden, the wall is rent by a set of mighty claws.

"K9 has found me," the Doctor announces, "got to run."

He leaps to the bulkhead door opposite and hits the switch. The Door opens wide. Four Daleks are waiting. The Doctor’s eyes bulge and his jaw drops, his shoulders hunch even as his arms spread out, the picture of shock and surprise.

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

On Gallifrey, emergency beacons start going off. Magnar and Cellis freeze. The holographic image of the Doctor appears, repeating his emergency broadcast. The Robots pause. Casey and the Sheriff take the opportunity to escape the Robot’s grip.

Magnar demands the Ambassador Dalek explain itself. The Dalek announces that it does not explain itself to inferior life forms.

Since when are the Time Lords an inferior life form? Magnar asks.

Since the Daleks gained control of a time warp, and therefore became masters of time. The Dalek tells it that it has a final message for Gallifrey.
Cellis asks what the final message is.

"This unit will self destruct in five seconds!"

 

[DG Valdron]

Nelvana's Doctor Who
The Doctor and the Daleks, Part 2

Act 5

Cellis cries out for Casey to come to her. The Dalek explodes, its blast wave obliterating the surroundings.

When the blast fades away, a field of destruction is visible. In the midst of it Cellis force field remains glowing, sheltering her, Magnar, Casey and the Sheriff. The field pops off.

This is war, Magnar says, grimly. It is the Time Lord’s against the Daleks now.

It’s too late, Cellis tells him. They look up. The sky is being lit by flashes of light and bolts of lightning fall from the sky.

Cut to: A view of Gallifrey from space. Dalek spaceships are popping out of hyperspace and raining fire upon Gallifrey’s shields.

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

The Bulkhead doors open, the Doctor freezes in shock and astonishment.

"Ignore the hologram," the lead Dalek says, gliding past him. "Secure and analyze this chamber."

The Doctor steps to the side and repeats his gesture, freezing in shock and astonishment.

K9-Dalek tears another ragged hole in the viewscreen, forcing itself through.

"Cease destroying the Tardis," the Dalek orders it.

"Kill the Doctor," K9-Dalek says.

"The Doctor is not here," the Dalek says, "Obey orders."

"Priority override," the K9-Dalek says, "Kill the Doctor."

"Your systems are in error," the Dalek says, "We are not the Doctor, we are Daleks. Stand down or we will open fire."

"Kill-" The Daleks fire. K9-Dalek fires back, and bites one in half. As they battle, the Doctor sneaks away, closing the bulkhead behind him. He walks away whistling as the sounds of battle emanate from the chamber.

A moment later, the bulkhead door tears open behind him. The K9-Dalek pulls through. "Doctor..." It says.

"Yes, yes, I know," the Doctor replies. He begins to run.

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

Magnar and Cellis lead Casey and the Sheriff into the great chamber, where holograms display the forces arranged against Gallifrey.

"They cannot break through," Magnar says, without much confidence.

"But they don’t have to," Cellis says. "They have us blocked, nothing can get in or out, not even communications. They’ve cut us off from the universe, we cannot summon our forces. Or replenish our power supply."

"We can’t do anything, if we can’t get a ship out," agrees Magnar. "But the Daleks will stop anything of Gallifreyan manufacture. Their sensors are tuned to us."

"What about our ship, Bessie," Casey asks. "It’s Earth manufacture."
Magnar and Cellis look at each other.

"Can your fleet attack the Dalek world?" The sheriff asks.

"There is no Dalek world. They used up Skarrow a long time ago. Now the Daleks exist only in their fleets."

"But you can activate our satellite defense systems," Magnar tells them.

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

In the next scene, the Sheriff and Casey, along with Cellis in the back seat, fly Bessie out of Gallifrey, past two Dalek Warships.

The Warships pause in their bombardment of the surface and then proceed to turn and follow.

A volley of bolts fly past. The sheriff points at them.

"Looks like we didn’t get away after all."

Bessie begins rolling through evasive maneuvers in and out of asteroids, as a dozen Dalek ships chase after them.

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

A group of Daleks roll past a half dozen Doctor’s in various poses, ignoring all of them. Once they’re gone, one of the Doctors looks back at them and sneaks off.

There’s the sound of ray blasts behind him, metal screeching, Dalek voices and an unearthly roar. The Doctor looks behind him, and starts to run.
K9-Dalek crosses the field of view in pursuit.

Image of montage of the Doctor fleeing K9-Dalek. K9-Dalek comes into a room with three Doctor’s standing still. He bites into one, a Hologram. He bites into another, a Hologram. The third one runs.

The Doctor projects an image of a Dalek Hologram and hides inside it. K9-Dalek runs past it, and then comes back slowly, sniffling after it. The Doctor, inside the Dalek Hologram joins a goes through a passageway. When K9-Dalek follows, it finds a room full of Daleks. It begins sniffing one and then another. The Doctor kicks a Dalek in front of K9-Dalek, and the monster-dog bites it in half. All the Daleks turn their armaments on K9-Dalek, while the Doctor sneaks away.

The Doctor runs up a hallway and opens a chamber into a huge ampitheatre, filled with Daleks. He freezes and pulls a face. They’re not fooled this time. Instead, they turn their weapons and fire. The Doctor drops to the floor just in time. When the smoke clears, K9-Dalek is standing above him, looking distinctly angry. The Daleks just have time to look at each other and go ‘oh oh’ before he springs on them.

Meanwhile the Doctor straightens up, opens a console, and starts fiddling with the electronics, whistling while Daleks and K9-Dalek fight it out. He finishes, turns and finds K9-Dalek looming. Time to run.

He flees down a catwalk, dodging around Daleks, while the pursuing K9-Dalek shoulders them into the abyss.

Finally, the Doctor is cornered, with no place to run. K9-Dalek looms over him, all smoking metallic darkness. The Doctor tries a tentative smile. "G...G...Good Doggy?"

A monstrous metallic voice repeats the words sarcastically. "GGGGoooood DDDDDoggy"

Then it coughs. It coughs again, and starts hacking convulsively. It wretches so badly that it coughs up the Doctor’s fob watch like a hairball. The watch strikes the floor so hard it bounces up into the Doctor’s hands.

"Oh good," said the Doctor, "I wondered where I’d put that."

"Now K9...." The Doctor says with remarkable calm.

K9-Dalek caughs again, and a piece falls off. More and more pieces fall off or are discarded, as the Doctor watches, until finally, K9 floats before him in original form.

A viewscreen turns on.

"What is the meaning of this," the Supreme Dalek demands.

"It’s simple," the Doctor explains, "I figured out your absurd little plot to use K9 long ago, and turned it against you."

"No you didnt," K9 corrects.

"Be quiet K9. All the Daleks on the Tardis have been destroyed. I am in control."

"You did not anticipate the Dalek subterfuge."

"Did too. I fed you the watch which was set to reprogram you."

"You improvised. It was reprogrammed as you were fleeing. The coding was sloppy."

"It worked."

"You got lucky."

"Do we have to do this now," the Doctor complained, "I’m talking to the Supreme Dalek."

"Sorry, Boss."

"Anyway," the Doctor said, turning back to the Supreme Dalek, "all your Daleks are destroyed, I am back in control of the Tardis. Surrender now, and I’ll let you off easy."

"Hardly Doctor," the Supreme Dalek replies, "We still control your Time Warp and the Tardis cannot escape. All you have done is hastened the extinction of this species you are so fond of."

"What?" The Doctor’s face loses his smugness, "No!"

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

In space, Dalek ships have surrounded Bessie and its occupants.
"There’s nowhere left to run," says the Sheriff.

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

Cut to montage of Earth scenes. Daleks everywhere floating in the sky above the Eiffel Tower, Big Ben, the Pyramids, the White House, the New York Skyline, Easter Island. The announcement rings out.

"People of Earth: Prepare for Immediate termination."

 

[DG Valdron]

Nelvana's Doctor Who, Episode 12
The Doctor and the Daleks, Part 2

Act 6
"No more begging, Doctor," the Supreme Dalek replies. "Earth is doomed, and there is nothing you can do. Soon Gallifrey will fall, and the Daleks will rule all of time and space, forever. Do you have any last words."

"Yes," the Doctor replies. "Surrender!"

The Supreme Dalek crows.

"Your surrender is meaningless, Doctor," it tells him. "We have you trapped, your Tardis cannot move through time and space."

"Not true," the Doctor says, "I can still travel in one direction. Down the wormhole. I can use it to drive the Tardis to the beginning of the center of the Universe."

"You would be destroyed!"

"I’d destroy the Universe," the Doctor replied. "And with it, every Dalek that existing, every Dalek that had ever existed, it would all be gone, everything."

"You wouldn’t dare destroy the universe."

"If the alternative is your kind ruling time and space, destruction would be preferable."

"The Time Lords will not allow you."

"The Time Lords aren’t here."

"We will stop you!"

"With what you have here?" The Doctor laughs. "Nonsense. It will take every single Dalek, every ship, every weapon, every energy source. It would take the entirety of your civilization and everything you possess to stop me. And it would not be enough."

"Boss," K9 interrupts, "this is not a good idea. This violates the laws of time."

"Shut up K9," the Doctor. He turns to the Supreme Dalek. "Well, surrender?"

"You would not dare!"

"Too late!"

"In these last moments of existence," the Doctor said, "I want you to remember that I gave you a chance."

He pulls a lever.

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

In space, above the wormhole, the Tardis unleashes a wave of energy, disrupting the lightning tethers of the Dalek ships positioned at the edges of the whirlpool. The Tardis then drops straight down into its center.

Cut to two Daleks. The Doctor has escaped into the wormhole. Instructions? Pursue the Doctor. Pursue the Doctor at all costs.

After a moments hesitation, the Dalek ships around the edges follow the Tardis down, joined by more and more ships and Daleks.

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

The Tardis is hurtling down the narrow mouth of the whirlpool at breakneck speeds. Behind it are the pursuing Daleks and Dalek ships.

Inside the Tardis, everthing is shaking. K9 asks the Doctor if this is a good idea.

On the viewscreen the Supreme Dalek appears, and orders the Doctor to surrender immediately or be destroyed. The Doctor laughs.

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

On board an immense Dalek ship, the Supreme Dalek appears on a giant viewscreen. Hundreds of Daleks stop to pay attention.

The Supreme Dalek issues a fleetwide order to converge upon the wormhole coordinates. All Daleks, all ships, are to report immediately. All other activities are suspended.

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

Around Gallifrey, the Dalek fleet ceases bombarding the Time Lord’s shields and pops out of existence. Magnar looks at his robots, who only spread their hands.

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

In space, Bessie is surrounded by Dalek ships. The Sheriff says that it looks like it’s time to go down fighting. Cellis says wait. One by one, the Dalek ships warp out, leaving them alone.

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

On Earth, a quick montage of scenes, Daleks hovering everywhere.

"People of Earth. Your extinction is postponed. Please stand by."
And they vanish.

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

Around the wormhole, more and more dalek ships warp into existence and then pour down the warhole. Immense numbers.

The Supreme Dalek appears on the Tardis viewscreen and once again orders the Doctor to surrender immediately, in return for a quick death.

The Tardis continues to drive further and faster down the twisting wormhole, a gigantic horde of Daleks in hot pursuit.

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

The last Daleks dive down the whirlpool. It begins to contract.

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

On the Tardis, the Doctor checks a readout. Well, K9, it appears that every Dalek in the Universe has come after us. How does that feel?

Irrelevant - K9 responds. The Tardis was never designed to take this strain. Implosion is imminent. All systems are approaching failure as we approach the beginning of the Universe.

Just a little more, the Doctor assures him.

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

Out in normal space, the whirlpool diminishes rapidly and closes, leaving things looking as if it had never existed.

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

"Now," says the Doctor.

The Supreme Dalek appears on the screen demanding to know what has happened. The readings inside the wormhole have changed. What has the Doctor done?

The Doctor gives the Supreme Court a lesson in time mechanics. What is a time warp? It’s a hole, a tunnel, connecting one point in time and space to another. And what happens when you put too much mass inside a time warp? It collapses, the Doctor says triumphantly.

What does that mean?

It means that the Time Warp closes off, and the mass inside it is trapped inside its own pocket universe. No way in, no way out, shut off completely from the rest of time and space forever. You’ve fallen into my trap.

Welcome, the Doctor says, to a Universe made entirely of Daleks. Wasn’t that what you always wanted? I would call it hell, myself.

The Supreme Dalek begs for mercy.

Too late, says the Doctor.

The Supreme Dalek says that the Doctor will be destroyed.

It was worth it, says the Doctor.

K9 advises that total collapse of Tardis functions is imminent, and begins a countdown.

One last thing to try, the Doctor says.

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

Space hiccups for a second, and the Tardis pops out, but then hangs motionless, apparently dead.

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

Inside the Tardis, everything is black. In the darkness, there is a sound of hammering. Lights, dammit, lights, the Doctor’s voice calls.

Suddenly, the Tardis console room is dimly lit.

The Doctor smiles in satisfaction and rolls up his sleeve. Let’s see what’s next.

"I am powering the lights, Doctor," K9 says. "The Tardis is dead. All systems read nil. All power systems are drained."

"Everything?"

"My own batteries are depleted. I do not have sufficient energy to restart any of the Tardis systems."

"So this is really the end then."

"Affirmative."

"Well, K9, it’s been good knowing you. I couldn’t ask for a better friend."

"Affirmative."

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

Out in Space, the Doctor’s old car, Bessie, flies through the ether. The Tardis, hanging dead in space appears before it. Bessie pulls up to the Tardis.....
　
　
EPILOGUE

The Doctor, Casey, K9 and their friends are back on Earth. The Tardis sits beside Bessie, in a state of physical collapse, its sides warped, its door hanging open, even the light on top of it broken.

Casey asks about the Daleks. The Doctor tells her that they are completely gone from the Universe. There are no more Daleks left anywhere.
The Sheriff asks if he destroyed them.

The Doctor says no, he did something much more terrible. He gave them exactly what they always wanted. That’s the worst thing you can do to anyone, give them exactly what they wanted. He gave them a private universe of nothing but Daleks.

A view screen appears in the air in front of them. Cellis and Magnar.
Magnar informs the Doctor that his scheme to destroy the Daleks almost destroyed the Universe, and that the Doctor has broken the laws of time for the last time.

Cellis thanks the Doctor for his services, but confirms that the laws are the laws. They cannot be broken. She stands with Magnar.

The Doctor waits for the judgement.

Magnar pronounces sentence. The Doctor’s exile to reinstated.
The Doctor smiles.
　
- the end -
　
　
　

 

[DG Valdron]

Apologies to all who might be reading this. I got busy with life and completely overlooked that I'd left things on a cliff hanger. This was all planned out and half written months ago. So ... sorry.

Anyway, so here's Nelvana's fourth Dalek episode, the conclusion of the cliff hanger, and the penultimate episode of the fourth season.

Next up will be the final episode of the first season - where the Doctor encounters his greatest challenge...

And then I might do some overviews and articles on the second and third seasons. I've already been teasing them with the articles about the Trods and Quarks.

I might do a couple of posts of episode summaries. But I won't be doing episode breakdowns to the detailed extent that I've done the first season.

Make no mistake, I've enjoyed doing them. Enjoyed it immensely. It was an exhilarating creative challenge to re-interpret Doctor Who through the lens of the Saturday Morning Cartoon genre of the 80's and early 90's, and still try to hang onto the essential qualities of the source material. I'd like to think that I succeeded in that, and created something that felt authentic. And it was a hell of a creative challenge to come up with twelve full stories in that format, in sufficient detail.

For those who enjoyed these things, or perhaps found it hard to enjoy these things, I apologize for the synopsis format that was used for all but one of the stories.

The synopsis format varied from 1800 word baselines, to 3500 word detailed breakdowns into three act structure. The idea was to present story and plot and character notes in sufficient detail that we could fill in the blanks, imagine from that, what the story might have turned out to be. I was trying hard to capture the sense and structure of what would have been an animated episode.

Having said that, it would have perhaps been a lot more lively if I'd rendered each story completely into prose. I did that once to demonstrate that I could. But that would have amounted to well over 100,000 to 150,000 words of writing and that kind of investment is very hard to justify.

Finally, as always, a shout out to Ted Bastien and Nelvana, whose artwork and involvement inspired this tribute. There was apparently so much work, including four scripts and artwork, that we never saw. I'd love it if some day, more of that artwork, or those lost scripts could show up, or someone someday published a book about that strange forgotten chapter of Doctor Who.

 

[DG Valdron]

Kidsworld Magazine

The Doctor is back! Nelvana Productions has recently announced that it’s popular Saturday Morning Cartoon series, Doctor Who is coming back for another hit season.

Ted Bastien, head design artist and showrunner for the series will be leading the charge. "This is a big step for me," said Bastien, who is moving into a Producer capacity for the series. "I certainly have some big shoes to fill, not just in in terms of last year’s season, which was terrific, but the classic live action, British series."

Doctor Who is a British television series, featuring various incarnations of the Doctor and his companions, beginning in 1963, who travel through time in a blue English phone booth. The show is best known in North America for the scarf wearing, curly haired Tom Baker.

The new season will feature the return of Maurice LaMarche as the latest incarnation of the Doctor, and Cree Summer-Franks as his companion, Casey. The iconic blue phone booth will also make a return. But there will be changes...

"This season is going to be a lot more ambitious," said Ted Bastien, "this year, we are doing twenty episodes, a substantial increase over the previous season’s thirteen."

"We’re also going be doing a lot more. I think that our experiments with two part stories turned out well, so we plan to do more of those, even three part stories. We’re really going to open it up. The Doctor is going to go to more alien worlds, meet more strange races."

"Last year, I think one of the things missing was a strong central villain. This year, we’ll have three - the Master, the Rani and the Monk, introduced in the final episode of the first season. They’ll each have their own unique styles. There will also be new alien races - the Trods and Quarks, mainstays of Doctor Who comic strips overseas, will be making regular appearances. Another will be the Mutants, a brand new Nelvana creation, which I’m sure will impress everyone."

The Daleks, the Doctor’s nemesis from the first season, will not be making a comeback. "We did drop them all down a Black Hole," Bastien joked. "Seriously, we’d like to use them again, but I understand that the rights situation is very complicated, and truthfully, some of our younger audience found them a little scary.

As for other returning characters, Bastien was tight lipped. "We’re looking at bringing back some of our aliens from the previous season. I think that there’s still stories to be told for the Gargon, the Grogniks and the Greys - we own them, so we don’t worry about the rights." What about the Cybermen? Bastien wouldn’t say.

Overall, Nelvana is looking forward to a more colourful, more lighthearted season for the Doctor. "I think we got a little too dark once or twice with the last season," Bastien reflected. "This year we want to keep it fun."
　

 

[DG Valdron]

Nelvana's Doctor Who
Time Tyrants, Episode 13

Prologue

The Doctor, K9, Casey and some friends are having a picnic lunch beside the Tardis. Camera pulls back to show that they are having their picnic atop the head of the Great Sphinx in Egypt. A viewscreen opens up in the air. The Doctor pulls out his watch and closes it. The screen opens again, the Doctor shuts it off. It opens again and Magnar orders him to stop that. The Doctor sighs.

Magnar announces that the Doctor’s fellow Time Criminals have escaped: The War Leader (an image of a warrior with a cybernetic hand and metal eagle), the Master (black, formal, with a goatee), the Rani (imperious and smirking) and the Monk (a pudgy smiling figure in monks robes giving a thumbs up).

Not interested, the Doctor says. Magnar sputters. The Doctor explains that he is entirely content to serve out his sentence of exile. The Time Lords can keep their own order in the universe and chase their own criminals. He wants nothing to do with it.

Magnar says that they cannot. The Doctor asks why. Magnar tells him that they have already won. The viewscreen image expands from Magnar, to show Gallifrey flaming and in ruins. Magnar tells the Doctor that he’s all that’s left....

 

[DG Valdron]

Nelvana's Doctor Who
time Tyrants, Episode 13,

Act 1, Selected Scenes


SCENE - THE COUNCIL OF TIME TYRANTS

SETTING - An Immense tower like a lighthouse, set what appears to be a vast rock in the Timestream. Everything from primitive viking ships, to dinosaurs, elephants, houses and hairplane tumble in and out of the purple haze. Camera zooms in on the tower. At its top, there is an immense room with four thrones opposite each other, occupied by the Time Tyrants. The throne of the War Leader is far larger and more ornate than the others.

War Leader - With the Time Lords fallen, nothing will stand in the way of my complete domination of space and time. The universe shall bow to my feet.

Rani - You mean ‘our’ domination of space and time? And the universe bowing to ‘our’ feet?

War Leader - Of course thats what I meant. I was using the term in the Royal sense.

Rani - (mocking) Oh is that it?

The War Leader scowls angrily.

Monk - (placating) Now, now, there’s no need for conflict.

Master - (pensively) There is a threat to our Dominion...

War Leader - (looking for a distraction) What could possibly threaten us?

Master - The Doctor is still at large.

Rani - The Doctor! (Laughs) Why he’s less of a threat than the Monk would be. Surely you must be joking.

The Monk frowns.

Master - Nevertheless, Dear Rani, the Doctor can be a formidible foe when roused. And I have information that the Time Lords have contacted him.

Rani - Wasn’t it your job to see that the Time Lords didn’t get any distress signals out?

Master - (stiffly) I think you will find that my contribution to the fall of the Time Lords was second to none.

Monk - The Doctor’s quite clever, but he was no more fond of the Time Lords than we were. They considered him a criminal, like the rest of us. I say leave him alone, if he challenges us, we can squash him like a bug.

Rani - For once I agree with the simpleton. We can destroy the Doctor any time, and he knows it. Leave him be.

The Master turns to the War Leader.

Master - What do you say? Is it wise to leave a potential enemy at our back.

War Leader - (glaring at the Rani and the Monk) - No. The Doctor is the last of the Time Lords, I will not allow any rival to my .... (Rani raises an eyebrow) ... our power. The Doctor must be destroyed.

The Rani and Monk both rise to protest.

War Leader - (shouting) Silence! (At the Master) - You know him the best. You will take him down.

Master - (bowing) - I live to serve.

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


SCENE - THE DOCTOR AND THE MASTER

The Doctor lounges in a deck chair appearing to sun himself, although still fully dressed. He wears sunglasses and holds up a parasol. The Tardis and K9 are beside him in frame. In the distance, a dark figure approaches. A shadow falls over the Doctor.

Doctor - You are blocking my light.

Master - As lazy and feckless as ever, I see. No wonder you never made anything of yourself.

Doctor - You mean Prison, instead of Exile?

Master - We were all prisoners, Doctor, you along with the rest of us. The difference was, we struggled against our cage. Struggled and won. You... You got comfortable.

Doctor - You have to admit, it is a nice planet.

Master - Just like ten thousand other worlds that I shall rule.

Doctor - That’s ten thousand very nice worlds, why not leave them alone,
they’re not bothering you.

K9 - Boss! Boss! It’s the Master!

Doctor - Wait!

The Robotic Dog flies to attack, but instantly, the Master whips out his wand and blasts it. K9 falls lifeless.

Master - That was easier than I expected. I guess he was an earlier model.

Doctor - Hey! He was my friend.

Master - Friends are a weakness, Doctor. I told you that a long time ago.

Doctor - We were friends once.

Master - And see what good it did either of us. It certainly didn’t save your pet. But I’m not hear for friendship, Doctor.

Doctor - Then why are you here. Are you inviting me to join your little club?

Master - What? No. Four Time Tyrants are quite enough, Doctor. Too many even. We certainly aren’t looking to add to our number. And even if we were, I know you are far too sentimental and mawkish to join us.

Doctor - Then why are you here?

Master - Why I’ve been ordered to kill or capture you, Doctor, and instructed to drag your body back to my fellow Time Tyrants.

Doctor - How kind of you to let me know.

Master - Think nothing of it, Doctor. We were friends once, after all. Least I could do.

Doctor - (laughs) I thought you said Friends were a weakness you have no time for.

Master - Indeed, I did. But I suspect that you are already well prepared for any attack. You’ve always been the trickiest one of us. So I thought I would try a different approach.

Doctor - Then you’ve got something else in mind, besides doing the Time Tyrants bidding?

Master - As a matter of fact, Doctor, I’ve been doing some thinking.

Doctor - And...

Master - I don’t like taking orders. And four Time Tyrants... Four... That just seems so...

Doctor - Inefficient?

Master - Unnecessary!

Doctor - I suspect you all think that way. Well, I’m quite happy to stand back and watch as the four of your tear each other to pieces.

Master - Ah, but that’s why I need you Doctor. I need you to tip the scales in my favour.

Doctor - Not interested.

Master - We were friends, Doctor, consider that! Consider our shared past!

Doctor - You shot my dog. Not interested.

Master - There’s nothing I can say to persuade you, Doctor? No appeal to reason? Surely common sense alone would persuade you that I am best suited to rule the Galaxy. The War Leader would turn it into an abbatoir, the Rani into a laboratory, the Monk into a playground.

Doctor - And you’re no better. I don’t want any of you. Now go away.

Master - (sighs and presses a button on his wand) You leave me no choice, Doctor.

A succession of viewscreens appear in the air around them, each one showing the same scene, Casey, the Sheriff, the Detective, all of the Doctor’s friends and associates trapped in glass tubes, screaming for help.
The Doctor leaps to his feet.

Doctor - You fiend! Where are they!

Master - (laughing) Aboard my Tardis. They’re quite safe, I assure you, Doctor. For now at least. Now, we were discussing how you were going to assist me with my... colleagues.

Doctor - Damn you!

Master - Friendship, Doctor, I did tell you it was a weakness.

 

[DG Valdron]

Nelvana's Doctor Who
Episode 13, Time Tyrants

Act 2 - Selected Scenes

SCENE - THE DOCTOR AND THE TYRANTS

Inside the Tardis, the Master is on the viewscreen.

Master - Correct Doctor. Make sure you land at these coordinates and only these coordinates. This is the only place you can arrive at the War Leader’s tower undetected. After that, simply follow our plan.

Doctor - Only so long as you guarantee the safety of my friends.

Master - Of course, Doctor. Don’t you trust your old friend?

The screen goes blank. The Doctor sets his coordinates.


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

THE TARDIS IN THE THRONE ROOM

The Tardis materializes in the center of the Throne Room. The Doctor steps out, and is immediately whisked off his feet and held in a vortex of blue energy. Thunderous laughter breaks out among the four villains.

The Master strolls up to the Doctor, as he struggles suspended in the blue energy. Behind him floats the deactivated k9 and the cylinders containing his trapped friends.

Master - Really Doctor! You should have known better than to trust me. I knew that you were far too devious, a direct approach would have never worked on you. What better way to bring you down than to trick you.

Doctor - You dog!

Master - I only pretended to enlist you in a scheme against the others, to get you to walk into our trap. I was working with my colleagues all along.

Rani - We sent a full to catch a fool and it worked. As I predicted, the Doctor was no challenge at all. (Grudgingly) You did well, Master.

The Master bows towards her, then turns to his hostages.

Master - As you can see, the Doctor will not be coming to your rescue after
all. Now... what shall I do with you all? Something final I think. I will enjoy having the Doctor watch.

Rani - I’ll take them. They seem like useful specimens, and I have some experiments in mind. Give them to me.

Monk - No, I’ll take them. I am sure I can have a lot of fun with them.

War Leader - NO! The Hostages will be mine. (Addressing the Master) You will have them delivered to my laboratory. I’ll keep them to ensure the Doctor’s continued compliance.

The Master bows to the War Leader.

Master - Of course. I’ll have it done right away. I’ll keep the robot dog of course, it’s just junk after all. I'm afraid I've completely fried the circuits. It's not even scrap.

War Leader - No. Have it delivered as well.

Master - Of course. I am happy to serve.

The Master smiles. The Rani and the Monk both look resentful.


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

SCENE - PRISONERS ON THE WAR LEADERS TARDIS

A military transport delivers the cylinders to the War Leader’s laboratory,
and robots carefully set them them in metal cradles. A variety of scary looking instruments festoon every surface.

One of the robots picks up K9's inert body.

Robot 1 - What shall we do with this?

Robot 2 - It is junk, throw it in the reprocessing chamber.

K9's visor lights up. The robot dog stiffens, and then blasts each robot in turn. As they fall, it flies over to the controls, shooting beams at it, which cause the cylinders to open. Casey leaps out and runs to throw her arms around the robot dog’s body.

Casey - I am so glad to see you!

K9 - Boss taught me a knew trick.

Casey - What’s that?

K9 - Play Dead.

Casey laughs.

K9 - Also, roll over, sit, fetch, shake. Would you like to see them?

Casey - Not just now.

K9 - Shall we proceed with the Doctor's plan then?


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

SCENE - THE DOCTOR ESCAPES

In the Throne Room, the Doctor hangs suspended in the blue energy. Close up on his face, beaded with sweat. Sound of muffled grunting and straining. The Doctor is slowly raising his hand up to his pocket. The hand disappears within the pocket, pulls out the watch and presses a stud. Next to him, the Tardis activates, and suddenly the blue glow is gone. The Doctor lands. Checks his watch. An image, a sort of layout appears. Collecting himself, he stands beside the Tardis, slaps the side.

Doctor - It looks like we’ve had time to download the blueprints for this place. Well, old girl, I suppose that while we are here we should see what mischief we can make.


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

SCENE - K9 AND THE DOCTORS FRIENDS PURSUED BY THE TIME TYRANTS.


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

SCENE - THE DOCTOR IN THE WAR LEADER’S TARDIS CONTROL ROOM

The Doctor’s face appears on the screen, he glances at it, pressing buttons. The face on the screen morphs into the War Leader. The Doctor crosses his eyes and sticks out his tongue. The face of the War Leader does the same.
Doctor - (to himself) He actually looks better that way. Hmmm. There’s something missing.

He presses a stud on his watch, the Master’s image and a portion of their prior conversation appears:

Master-Image - Four? That seems so.... (Doctor’s voice) - inefficient? (Master’s voice) Unnecessary.

Doctor - I quite agree. But that’s not it.

He presses a button. A penguin appears on the War Leader’s shoulder.

Doctor - No that’s not right.

The Penguin vanishes and a stack of Bananas appears on the War Leader’s shoulder.

Doctor - I like it, but... No.

The stack of bananas disappears, and the War Leader’s Iron Eagle appears on his shoulder. It’s clutching bananas in its jaws and talons.

Doctor - Close enough! Now what about the voice? Let’s see - megalomaniac, with a bit of pompous thrown in. Or was it the other way around.


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

SCENE - ALTERNATING SHOTS - RANI AND THE MONK LOOK UP AT THEIR VIEWSCREENS.

The War Leader’s face appears, the Master’s face appears in a box in the corner of the screen.

War Leader - You are the only one who is any good at taking orders, Master. You are a perfect spineless weasel. And you cheated on your exams. I have no use for the others.

Master - Four seems so... (Image glitches) Unnecessary. Four time tyrants are (glitch) too much.

War Leader - I quite agree. There should only be one.

Master - Of course. I am happy to serve.

War Leader - So what shall I do with the others?

Master - Kill or capture.

War Leader - As long as they are out of the way.

Image flicks off. The Rani rushes to her Tardis console.

Rani - Computer, trace the source of that signal, immediately!

Computer - The War Leader’s Tardis. Console and communications room.

Rani - (to herself) there was something strange about that transmission... Computer--

Before she can take further action, her Tardis begins to shake violently, as if in an earthquake.


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

SCENE - THE DOCTOR IN THE WAR LEADER’S CONSOLE ROOM

The Doctor shuts off the screen, plays with a few more controls. He smiles.

Doctor - That should put the cat among the pigeons. I wonder how K9 is doing with those tricks I taught him.


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

SCENE - THE MONK’S TARDIS INTERIOR, ROLLING OVER AND OVER, THE MONK SHOUTING AS HE TUMBLES HELPLESSLY.

 

[DG Valdron]

NELVANA'S DOCTOR WHO
EPISODE 13, TIME TYRANTS

ACT 3, SELECTED SCENES


SCENE - THE DOCTOR TRIUMPHANT?

The four Time Tyrants are on their thrones as the Doctor’s face appears, smug in a viewscreen.

Doctor - So you see, Gentlemen and Lady, though none of you are anything of the sort, I now control the Time Core, and without it, your schemes to dominate the Universe are doomed. Surrender now.

War Leader - You forget, Doctor! You only have one Tardis, and we have four. Master, Rani, use your Tardis to destroy the Doctors. I will seize the Time Core. Monk —

Master - Oh I don’t think so.

War Leader - (outraged) What?

Master - I put my life at risk to destroy the Doctor, while you avoid all the danger and claim all the reward. That hardly seems fair. No, I think I will leave. Good bye and good luck.

The Master’s Tardis appears around him and he vanishes.

War Leader turns to the remaining Time Tyrants.

War Leader - Rani, Monk, we still outumber him. We can still win.

Rani - (interrupting) We? Have you decided to be generous again and share the universe? Or is that the Royal we - you and your obedient lackeys?

War Leader - Obey me!

Rani - A universe under your thumb? That’s a ghastly thought. I have no interest in it. I have my own projects. If you want to conquer the galaxy, do it without me.


The Rani vanishes. The Monk looks apologetic.

Monk - I’m more a lover than a fighter, really. But honestly... I don't like you.

The Monk vanishes.

Doctor - All out of friends?

The War Leader and the Doctor look at each other. The War Leader snarls savagely.

War Leader - I don’t need those weaklings, Doctor. I never needed them. I could have destroyed them at any time, all at once. I’ll take pleasure in hunting them down after I conquer the Galaxy.

Doctor - Again with the conquest. It’s all so unnecessary.

War Leader - Conquest is life, Doctor. Conflict, War, Competition, Violence, these are the primal forces of the Universe. The unceasing struggle of every atom to advance against its neighbors, to become larger and greater until finally, the ultimate ruler of the Universe emerges: Me!

Doctor - That sounds like a lot of work.

War Leader - Mock me if you wish Doctor. But we both know that my Tardis is far more powerful than yours. Mine is the most powerful Tardis ever built, and I am the greatest Time pilot Gallifrey ever produced. You have no chance against me. I will destroy you. Then I will seize the Time Core, and nothing can stop me.

On the Tardis bridge, Casey tugs on the Doctor’s sleeve.

Casey - Can he really do it.

Doctor - (shrugs) I was very much hoping the others would stick around and help me contain him.... Oh well, let’s see what happens.

War Leader - Prepare to be reduced to atoms Doctor!

The War Leader pulls a large lever on his console. The Doctor winces. Nothing happens. Surprised, the war leader pulls it again. Angrily, he pushes more buttons, pulls more levers and checks readouts. His rage turns to puzzlement, and then to concern, and finally to fear, as his Tardis begins to glow and vibrate.

War Leader - What’s happening!

Exterior shot - The mighty lighthouse tower in the Timestream is actually the War Leader’s Tardis. It begins to shake and twist, pieces falling off it. Glowing cracks appear in the rock that the tower rests upon.

Casey - What’s going on?

Doctor - I don’t know!

On the War Leader’s Tardis, he is desperately hanging onto his control panel as objects are flung around the room. Frantically, he tries to reprogram the machine, as the Time Rotor spins off its axis more and more out of control.

War Leader - Doctor, what did you do? Stop it!

But more and more the Tardis is torn apart. A small whirlpool appears on the rock beneath it, and the Tower begins to twist and break apart.

War Leader - Doctor! Doctor! You can’t let this happen! Save me!

The War Tardis is completely torn apart, the fragments sucked into the whirlpool. There is only a last frantic ‘save me.’ The the screen goes blank.

For a moment, there is silence.

Doctor - (quietly) I don’t understand. I didn’t mean for that to happen.

The viewscreen lights up. The Master’s gleeful face appears.

Master - But I did. (Chuckles) Come now, Doctor, you didn’t think I was going to let that maniac run loose? His idea of rule was to tear everything apart. Rather untidy if you ask me.

Doctor - (angrily) What did you do?

Master - I saved you. Is there no gratitude, Doctor? I couldn’t bear to see him kill my old friend.

Doctor - You don’t do anything out of friendship.

Master - (chuckles) Perhaps you are right. The truth is that I knew he was going to turn his Tardis against one of us, sooner or later - we all knew it. It was just a matter of which of us would strike first. I took advantage of the distractions you so conveniently provided to ensure that the War Leader’s Tardis would implode if he tried to use its power on another time ship. I was actually looking forward to the look on his face when he tried to destroy me. Almost as much as I am enjoying the look on your face as you realize how thoroughly I’ve tricked you. As it turns out, he went after you - hasty and reckless to the end. The Universe will not miss him.

Doctor - You used us to destroy him? You used me??

Master - Oh come. He was going to destroy you, show a little gratitude. But no. He is merely consigned to another dimension from which he can never return. Truthfully, I don’t think that’s it though is it. The truth is, the great Doctor, the trickster, has been tricked, deceived, outmaneuvered, outplayed. I knew what you would do, and I took advantage of it. I have always been the Master, Doctor.

Doctor - I will not allow you three to run loose in time and space. I will stop you.

Master - Oh Doctor, relax. We’ve beaten the War Leader together, one of the greatest threats the Universe will ever face. You can rest on those laurels. Enjoy. The others will be no problem. And as for me.... I would advise you not to search too hard. Call me sentimental, although I do prefer a Universe with the Doctor in it, I can live with one without. Goodbye old friend, stay out of my way.

The viewscreen blinks off.

 

[DG Valdron]

Postscript: Well, that's it for the first season. Just a few notes on the Time Tyrants episode.

First - sorry it took so long to get to it. Believe it or not, it was all mapped out a long time ago, but what with one thing or another, I lost track of the timeline.

The image of the War Leader here is actually Ted Bastien's sketch for The Master. Bastien was head artist on Nelvana's Doctor Who project, and this sketch surfaced not too long ago when someone tracked him down. It wasn't what I had in mind for The Master - I was thinking all restrained, black, almost clerical like Delgado/Ainsley (when they were toning it down) menace. But it fit perfectly for the concept of the War Leader.

Just for the record, a bit of biography:

The Master - pretty much needs no introduction. He first appeared in 1971, played by Roger Delgado in the Jon Pertwee serial, Terror of the Autons. Set up as the Doctor's nemesis, the Master returned to plague Pertwee's Doctor through Pertwee's five seasons, appearing for a total of eight serials, his planned final appearance was interrupted by his death. The Master returned to plague Tom Baker as a corpselike monster the Deadly Assassin and Keeper of Traken, played by Peter Pratt Geoffrey Beevers respectively. At the end of Traken, Anthony Ainley became the Master, going on to kill Baker's Doctor in Logopolis, and torment Davison's Doctor through five serials, he went after Colin Baker's Doctor in two serials, and after McCoy in the final serial of the original series. In all, Ainley faced the four Doctors through eleven serials - pretty much a record. He and Delgado were quite similar, so they're the defining Master. The Master returned, played by Eric Roberts, to bedevil the McGann Doctor in the movie. He showed up as Johnathan Pryce, in Delgado/Ainsley mode in Curse of Fatal Death. He came back as Derek Jacobi in Scream of the Shalka with the Richard E. Grant, and Jacobi also appeared as the Master in the Tenant episode Utopia. After that, he fought Tenant as the John Sim master through four episodes, and plagues Capaldi as the Michelle Gomez Master/Mistress/Missy. All told, the Master has plagued nine incarnations of the Doctor through twenty-six serials, and is the only Time Lord villain to make it into the new series. Honest to god, if you don't know who the Master is, then you don't know Doctor Who.

The Monk - played in all appearances by Peter Butterworth, better known for his roles in the Carry On films. The Monk was the first member of the Doctor's race to appear - in fact, he appeared before the names 'Time Lord' or 'Gallifrey' were created - back in 1965, in the Hartnell serial, The Time Meddler. He had his own Tardis, and his thing was, he liked to mess around with history, improving it as he saw fit, for his own amusement. Hartnell stopped him. He came back a second time for his revenge in The Dalek Masterplan. The Monk was a deadly foe of the Doctor, but he was played with a comic touch that made him unique. Sadly, after Hartnell, he was never brought back. to the live action series, though the character did make a few subsequent appearances in spin off media and at least one fan film. It's a shame, with his comic touch, he could have been a terrific foil for both Troughton and Pertwee. Sadly, Peter Butterworth passed away in 1979.

The Rani - is of much more recent vintage. Played by Kate O'Mara, she was a cold clinical scientist who saw time and space as a convenient set of petri dishes. Not dangerously funloving like the Monk, or as power crazed as the Master, she was entirely willing to wipe out entire planets as part of her experiments. She also sported 80's hair, 80's shoulderpads, and a maniacal streak. She appeared in the Colin Baker serial Mark of the Rani, in 1983, and then facing Sylvester McCoy in Time and the Rani in 1986. She made a final appearance in the special Dimensions in Time, in 1993. And there may have been appearances in spin off media, including a couple of fan films. She never came back for the new series though. Original showrunner, Russel T. Davies focused on the Master. Subsequent showrunner Steven Moffat is on record as hating the character. Kate O'Mara passed away in 2014.

The War Leader - Played by Edward Brayshaw, he showed up in the final and seminal Troughton serial, the War Games. He had provided the villain, the War Chief, with time travel technology to build an unstoppable army of primitives. As this was going on, he schemed and plotted constantly. He revealed himself to Troughton as part of his schemes, was killed by the War Chief, and forced Troughton to call in the Time Lords - the first time the name was used. There's a theory that the War Leader was the first or at least an earlier incarnation of the Master - similar facial hair and modus operandi. I don't buy it myself, but they're similar enough that its hard to see the universe being big enough for both of them.... which probably explains why he was a one-off villain who never came back in the live action series, though he did return in a few novels and other spin off material.

Anyway, this quartet amounts to the four great Time Lord villains of Doctor Who. There's a handful of other Time Lords on the loose in the old series, but mostly they were henchmen or mostly minding their own business, and almost all one offs. On Gallifrey, Borusa appeared four or five times, the last as a hidden villain. There were a few other nasty Time Lords on Gallifrey, notably Commander Maxell (played by Colin Baker). But that's about it. For historical significance, for number of appearances, these are the big four.

I thought it would be fun to bring them back as a cabal for the animated series. Together, they could (or would try) to conquer the universe and bring Gallifrey to its knees... before they turned on each other. It's a shame that they only got a single episode to work with. But then, 80's television dictated single episode stories for the most part.

As to the writing of this episode... a few comments. I just got bored with writing 1800 word synopsis, sorry. I also kind of got bored laying out the formal prologue/three act/epilogue story structure that was used for 80's cartoons. I'd done one episode as a narrative prose story, that was fun.

This time, I dispensed with any kind of formal synopsis, or story structure breakdown. I didn't feel like doing a narrative prose. Instead, what appealed to me was script format. But the HTML really isn't sympathetic to standardized script format, and anyway, its a pain in the ass to read. So I employed a very modified form - just running the dialogue.

I didn't turn in a full script - that would probably be 8,000 to 12,000 words. Rather, I just wrote the key 'selected scenes' that I wanted, and figured that you could fill in the blanks.

Anyway, it's been fun. I enjoyed the creative challenge of coming up with twelve full stories for thirteen episodes, and I was pleased to discover that I could go away for a few months and then come back and pick up exactly where I left off.

And honestly, I liked the stories. I almost regret doing them mostly as synopsis and outlines. I think that on the whole they're fun and quirky, and if I had unlimited time and unlimited energy, I'd have loved to have fully realized them as full fledged stories or novellas. If I ever get the chance to recycle/expand any of them (hopefully for cash) I won't hesitate. I loved being able to bring in a new and different take on the Cybermen. I loved having the Doctor cope with kaiju monsters - something impossible for the live series. I had a lot of fun digging up the Trods and the Quarks. And I enjoyed the Dalek stories more than I thought I would. I was intrigued by the way the stories pulled on in their own direction, starting light and frothy with a Doctor who was unchallenged and effortless, and how it steadily got darker and the Doctor found himself facing opponents that he had to struggle and sweat to overcome. I think its a fitting end to the first season that the Doctor, the Supreme Trickster, finally encounters someone who may be even trickier than he is. It's been satisfying.

I'm finished. Well, not quite. There's going to be a couple of overview articles for the second and third seasons, exploring how they turned out, and how they went off the rails in their respective ways. But it's just wrapping stuff up - second season episodes will be one post, and each episode will get a paragraph apiece.

I'd like to thank Ted Bastien and Nelvana for inspiration. I'm so sorry their animated Doctor Who never got off the ground. I find the artwork gorgeous. Maybe some day, we'll see more of it, and perhaps get to read some of those unproduced scripts. There's no telling how it would have really turned out, but I'd like to think the best. The only thing I can guarantee is that Nelvana's real cartoon probably wouldn't have resembled any of my stories. Or maybe not.

 

[DG Valdron]

Nelvana’s Doctor Who - Season 2, Episode Guide
Published in Ep-Log Magazine, Volume 12, Episode 6

2.01 - Master Plan - The Master invades Earth with a giant space fleet. The Doctor is helpless, as the ships appear to be shielded - no matter what he does, he cannot affect them. With his ships hovering over every city on Earth, the Master demands and obtains the complete surrender of the world’s leadership. The Master then proceeds with a series of outrageous and inane orders that has everyone running in circles. The Doctor realizes that the Master is ruling by distraction, and figures out that there is no giant space fleet, it’s just an illusion projected by the Master’s Tardis. The Doctor turns it off, and the Master flees. Note: Extensive ‘space fleet’ footage, drawn from several first season episodes, is recycled and superimposed.

2.02 - Trods - the Doctor and Casey, searching for the Time Crystal, on behalf of the Time Lords, are drawn to the world of the Trods, a robotic race that has revolted and enslaved their human population. The Trods capture the Doctor and Casey as part of their plan to dominate the Universe. But the Doctor reveals that Super-Trod, the ruler of the Trods, is not a robot at all, but an ambitious human hiding in a robotic shell, who is using them. Dispirited, the Trods return to their existence as servants.

2.03 - Mystery of the Mutants - The Doctor and Casey, still searching for the Time Crystal, land on a world full of strange mutant hybrids of mollusks, insects and spiders and dinosaurs. After an initial shock, they discover the mutants are actually quite friendly. But it is the Rani’s world, and the mutants are her experiments. She’s not friendly at all. The Doctor and Casey escape.

2.04 - Dinosaur Fun Land - The Doctor and Casey take a holiday and visit Dinosaur Fun Land, featuring prehistoric animals. But something is strange. The Dinosaurs seem to be real. Children and their parents are vanishing. Things go wrong when the Dinosaurs start to revolt. The Doctor and Casey discover that the Monk has been exchanging Dinosaurs for people. The Doctor puts things right, and the Monk flees. Note: The original script had the Silurians appearing as the Monk’s trading partners, purchasing humans for their Monkey Theme Park where they are forced to dress up as and pretend to be Monkeys and Apes. The Doctor would unravel the scheme by revealing to the Silurians that they’d been cheated - the monkeys were actually just disgusied humans, causing them to take their dinosaurs back. But Nelvana failed to acquire the rights. Instead, the Monk’s trading partner was a glowing ball of energy. To make up for shortfall in the episode, all of the dinosaur scenes were repeated.

2.05 and 2.06 - The Monk Returns (2part) - The Monk has enlisted the Quarks into building Funworld. An interdimensional theme park where children from across time and space are brought to play. The Doctor realizes that this is an evil scheme of the Monk to reprogram children to reshape history in comical ways. Note: Some reference sources consider this to be, together with Dinosaur Fun Land a three part serial revolving around the Monk. This is incorrect, although footage of the Monk from Dinosaur Fun Land was immediately recycled.

2.07 and 2.08 - War of the Trods (2part) - The Master is back, having enlisted the Trods, now exiled from their homeworld, as a Robot army that he plans to use to conquer the universe. The Doctor eventually persuades the Trods that the Master should serve them instead, as their Butler.

2.09, 2.10 and 2.11 - Invasion of the Forest Fighters (3part) - The Doctor and Casey are stuck when their Tardis breaks down. They must try to save a desert planet from invaders - cute bear like creatures whose weapon is a war forest, powered by the Time Crystal. Puns abound. Note: This was the only official three part story. It is notable for recycling extensive footage from both Star Wars spin offs - Ewoks and Droids. In some scenes, RTD2 is rumoured to be visible in background. The Ewoks drawings barely modified and were instead color recoded in lab. Ted Bastien recalls "We’d pretty much lost it by that point. Deadlines were crashing all around us, we had a hole in our budget the size of a truck. We basically took the Lucas stuff and kept rearranging it until we had a story we didn’t think George would sue us for. The writing process was agony - I remember we had a half dozen televisions and VCR’s in one room, we were popping tapes in and out, there were post it notes over every surface. Around 5 am, we were punch drunk or just drunk and the puns started up. We had to go three episodes, there was no way we could be coherent with one or two."

2.12 - Revenge of the Rani - The Rani captures the Doctor and Casey, intent on interrogating them about the Time Crystal and using them both as part of her experiments. The Doctor inspires the Rani’s mutants to revolt against her cruel ways.

2.13 - Rise of the Mutants - The Doctor encounters the Mutants, who have stolen a space ship, and are on the run from the Rani (unseen but referred to). The Rani has hired pirates to bring them back. The Doctor helps the Mutants find their sanctuary ... hidden on Earth. Note: Ted Bastien commented ‘We actually spent some time and money on this. For a while we were thinking of trying to launch the mutants as a spin off series, one that Nelvana would own all the rights to.’

2.14 and 2.15 - Quarks vs Trods (2part) - The Doctor is drawn to a world where the Trods and the Quarks are at war. Both Robot Races have freed themselves from their Masters. Now each believes that they’re the supreme robot race destined to conquer the galaxy.

2.16 and 2.17 - Strange Dimension (2part) - the Tardis is catapulted by an encounter with the Time Crystal to a strange dimension where images and scenes are distorted. The Doctor and Casey must help a young couple, and overcome an evil dictator before they can return. Note: Two thirds of this serial relied on extensive recycling from Nelvana’s Rock and Rule. Backgrounds and even characters and dialogue was reused.

2.18 - The Rani Strikes Back - The Doctor learns that the Rani is seeking the Time Crystal, an object of infinite power. The Doctor and Casey must stop her from ruling the universe. Note: There’s a long standing rumour that this was originally intended to be a Master episode. This is incorrect, the Rani was always planned.

2.19 - Rise of the Monk - The Monk acquires the Time Crystal and remakes Earth into a Monk-Themed playground. The Doctor and his companions must play the Monk’s diabolical games, survive flashbacks and win their way to his tower. The Doctor must persuade the Monk to give up the power of a god.

2.20 - Masterstroke - The Master learns that the Time Lords have hidden the Time Crystal somewhere in the Doctor’s Timeline. The Doctor and Master must race each other through the Doctor’s past to find the Time Crystal before the Master can destroy all life in the universe. Note: The clip show - almost entirely recycled from the previous seasons. Notable for the cameo appearance of the Cybermen but not the Daleks.

 

[DG Valdron]

Doctor Who’s Mutants, an Interview with Steve Bastarache

What was your role on Nelvana’s Doctor Who?
I was one of the artists and designers under Ted Bastien. When Ted moved up to showrunner, I became head of the art department.

You’re the person who is most generally credited for creating the Mutants?
That’s kind of a yes and no proposition. I certainly had a hand in them.

So what’s the story behind the Mutants?
It’s really not that complicated. Nelvana had a license for an animated Doctor Who. The terms were actually quite good, particularly compared to what we got from Lucasfilm for the Droids and Ewoks. The first season was something of a trial run, but we saw in this a franchise with a lot of potential. We thought it could be something on the scale of the real Ghostbusters, you know, six seasons, a recognized classic. The first season was our learning experience, getting a handle on the characters, the sorts of stories we could tell, the vibe we were aiming for.
In that first season, we were literally designing the next season. The next seasons actually. We weren’t thinking in terms of arcs or storylines or anything. We were trying to perfect our formula. One of the big things there were the villains. First season, we had the Daleks and Cybermen as recurring villains, and neither of them worked out completely well. I think we did better with the Cybermen in terms of stories, but they were a bit too creepy looking. The Daleks... too many headaches. With both of them, there was a lack of a really distinctive chief villain.
So, the place we wanted to take the formula - the Doctors enemies were going to be rival time lords - the big three: The Rani, the Master, the Monk. But they were going to need henchmen, which was where the Trods and the Quarks came in. The Trods were going to be the Masters henchmen, big, bulky, kind of bullying. The Quarks would be the Monk’s henchmen, small, childlike, kind of humourous.

So to round it out, the Rani would need henchmen?
Exactly. The Rani was a biologist, always doing experiments. So instead of a race of robots... Which we’d done to death - Daleks, Cybermen, Trods and Quarks, come on... Her hench-army would be all these mutated monsters she’d created with her experiments. Combinations of dinosaurs, spiders, insects, cephalopods and even machines.
It was a great formula, because we could use them separately. The villains and henchmen, the villains alone, the henchmen on their own. We worked it out, we could viably do about fifteen combinations. We could have kept it going for years.

Was there any underlying idea for the mutants?
Not really, it was just playing around - stick the head of an ant on a T-Rex, throw on some tentacles, and there you were. Or a triceratops with lobster claws instead of horns, and insect legs. An ape with compound eyes, and a crab for hindquarters. Tentacles, antenna, compound eyes, jaws, claws, feelers. It was all mix and match.
We did a lot of drawings, we’re talking hundreds. We narrowed it down to maybe thirty designs, and reduced that to a half dozen primaries that we actually gave names and personalities to.
We had a lot of fun coming up with the drawings. It was a blast. There were limits of course. You couldn’t get too complicated or in too much fine detail. This was for 80's and 90's broadcast television levels of resolution after all. And it had to be something that animators in asia could do faster. And we were looking at toy possibilities, you know, little action figures. I think we did license a line of figures - nonposeable. They became collectors items.

The mutants were an interesting contrast. They looked very scary, many of them, but they often had high pitched childlike voices, they spoke like children, and they were usually very friendly and helpful.
That was very deliberate from the start. We’d do these voices when we were designing them. The Rani was such a bitch. We thought it would be hilarious if her henchmen were the exact opposite of her in temperament.

Were there plans to spin off the Mutants into their own series?
Actually, yes. The thing with the Mutants was that they were the one big element in our Doctor Who that wasn’t a licensed property. Everything else - the Doctor, the big blue box, the Master, the Rani, the Daleks, even the Trods... All the backstory, it’s licensed. Technically, we might own the particular representation of the Doctor, and we might own some of the characters we came up with. But really, it was all licensed from the BBC.
The Mutants were probably the only major component of the show we owned outright that had anything like legs. So yes, we were talking about it. We definitely saw some potential.

What happened?
What usually happens. Nothing. A lot of projects never get off the ground. With the Mutants, it was in our minds from very early on to spin this off. Originally, we were thinking, after the third or fourth season. Maybe build them up. Then when we didn’t immediately follow up after the second season right away, we took a serious look. We actually put together a little demo, did a season outline, a pilot script, some sample storyboards. But it didn’t sell. There you go.

What was the concept for the Mutants spin off?
Oh let’s see. They were the inventions of a mad scientist who had escaped. They were hiding out, and they were befriended by a little boy. So they would help the little boy with his adventures, and try and help people, but because they looked so weird everyone was scared. And they’d have to keep a low profile because they were being hunted. It’s a shame it didn’t take off. I would have been showrunner, so yeah, too bad.

 

[Orville_third]

Nice stories- but was the War Chief's eagle inspired by
Polyphase Avitron?