By Brian J. Robband

Paul Simpson

CONTENTSIntroduction by Nicholas Briggs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vPreface. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .ix

Section I: An Adventure in Space and Time (1963-1969)1. Visual Vortex Meets Musical Mysteries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12. William Hartnell: The First Doctor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133. Verity Lambert: The First Producer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194. Ian and Barbara: The Perfect Companions . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255. The TARDIS: The Box of Delights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306. Daleks and Cybermen: The First Monsters . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367. History vs Science Fiction: A Historical Perspective . . . . . 428. Regeneration: The Masterstroke . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 489. Patrick Troughton: The Second Doctor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5510. Expanding the Universe: The Monster Show . . . . . . . . . . 61

Section II: Flight Through Eternity (1970-1979)11. Jon Pertwee: The Third Doctor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6912. Barry Letts and Terrance Dicks: The Double Act . . . . . . . 7513. Doctor Who: Action Hero . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8114. Environmentally Friendly: Who Goes Green . . . . . . . . . . 8815. Silurians, Sontarans, and Sea Devils, Oh My! . . . . . . . . . 9316. Tom Baker: The Fourth Doctor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10017. Philip Hinchcliffe and Robert Holmes: Gothic Tales . . . 10618. The Gothic Horror of Hinchcliffe and Holmes . . . . . . . . 11219. The Mary Whitehouse Experience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11820. Graham Williams and Douglas Adams: The Jokers . . . . 124

Section III: State of Decay (1980-1989)21. John Nathan-Turner: The First Fan Producer . . . . . . . . . 13122. Peter Davison: The Fifth Doctor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13723. The Crowded TARDIS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14324. Conquering the USA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14925. Doctor Who at 20: Earthshock and Nostalgia . . . . . . . . . 15526. Colin Baker: Doctor Gone Wrong? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16127. The Cancellation Crisis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16728. The Trial of a Television Show. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17229. Sylvester McCoy: The Seventh Doctor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17830. The Cartmel Masterplan: More Than a Time Lord? . . . . 184

Section IV: The Unquiet Dead (1990-2005)31. When Fandom Attacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19132. Philip Segal: One-Night Stand. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19833. Paul McGann: The Eighth Doctor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20434. The Novel Adventures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21035. The Audio Adventures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21736. The Hunt for Who: The Missing Episodes Saga . . . . . . . 22337. The Missing Generation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23038. Who’s Not Who: The Comic Relief Doctors . . . . . . . . . . 23739. The Online Adventures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24340. Preparing for the 21st Century. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249

Section V: The Greatest Show in the Galaxy (2005-Present)41. Russell T Davies: From Fan to Producer . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25542. Christopher Eccleston: The Ninth Doctor . . . . . . . . . . . . 26143. The Revival of Doctor Who . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26744. David Tennant: The Tenth Doctor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27445. Doctor Who’s Christmas Adventures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28046. Steven Moffat: Showrunner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28847. Matt Smith: The Eleventh Doctor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29348. John Hurt: The War Doctor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29949. PTSD: Post-Traumatic Stress Doctors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30450. Doctor Who Beyond 50 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310

69

II: 1970 - 1979

SECTION II:Flight Through Eternity

(1970-1979)

11Jon Pertwee:

The Third Doctor

The flamboyant figure in a cape was always hard to miss when he

stalked on stage at the convention and announced to the world

that he was the Doctor. John Devon Rowland Pertwee (known as Jon)

was a showman at heart, and playing the part of the Time Lord’s third

incarnation allowed him to indulge himself. ‘I, when I did Doctor Who,

wanted to make him into a kind of science fiction James Bond because

I’m an adventuresome twit,’ he said in one of his last interviews before

his death in May 1996.12

Like his predecessors, Jon Pertwee was well known to audiences before

he took on the part of the Doctor, but this was very much a change in

context. Hartnell and Troughton were both dramatic character actors,

whereas Pertwee was known for comedy. His stint on the BBC radio

comedy The Navy Lark—in which he continued to appear throughout

his time as the Doctor—was marked by the comedy voices which he

was able to adopt, as well as his portrayal of the conniving Chief Petty

Officer who shared his name, and he had made three appearances in the

12 http://drwhointerviews.wordpress.com/2009/07/30/jon-pertwee-1996/

70

II: 1

970

- 197

9

Carry On series of British comedies. (He would later go on to appear

in Carry On Columbus, the unfortunate coda to that long-running saga,

although he would describe the films as “hideous”.)

Born in 1920, Pertwee was expelled from the Royal Academy of

Dramatic Art (RADA) for refusing to take part in an exercise in which

he was meant to somehow represent the “wind”, and served in the Royal

Navy during the Second World War, spending some time with the Naval

Intelligence Division (where his path crossed with future 007 author Ian

Fleming), and gaining the tattoo of a cobra on his arm—which would

be revealed in his opening story when the Doctor took a shower. (This

sparked off a number of fan theories about the Doctor being branded by

the Time Lords; an explanation was sort of provided years later in Neil

Gaiman’s Eleventh Doctor story, The Doctor’s Wife, in which we learned

that Time Lord tattoos move around their bodies when they regenerate.)

Prior to The Navy Lark, he appeared alongside Eric Barker in Waterlogged

Spa (another naval comedy) and with Jimmy Jewel and Ben Warriss in

Up the Pole, and on stage was part of the runs of both A Funny Thing

Happened on the Way to the Forum and There’s a Girl in My Soup.

Playing the Doctor allowed Pertwee the chance to get away from

typecasting as just a comedic actor—although he would later claim that

typecasting as the Doctor was his reason for departing the role four years

later—and he had asked his agent to put his name forward for the part

when he learned that Patrick Troughton was leaving. Pertwee was near

the top of the list that producer Peter Bryant and script editor Derrick

Sherwin had devised, and he was exactly what the programme needed

to make its mark in the new decade.

Pertwee’s arrival, of course, wasn’t the only new thing about Doctor

Who when viewers saw him fall out of the TARDIS in January 1970. The

programme was in colour, and there was a new title sequence and logo,

as well as a completely new set-up. The Doctor was no longer a traveller

143

III: 1980 - 1989

23The Crowded TARDIS

The phrase “the crowded TARDIS” became a shorthand way of re-

ferring to the “Doctor and multiple companions” lineup of the early

to mid-1980s on Doctor Who. The populist image of the programme’s

leading characters has often been of the Doctor and a single female

companion (or, in some 1970s examples, “assistant”). Both Jon Pertwee

and Tom Baker’s Doctors were exemplars of the “single companion”

setup, with Liz Shaw, Jo Grant, Sarah Jane Smith (who accompanied

both Pertwee and Baker, occasionally with Harry Sullivan in tow),

Leela, and the two Romanas (for our purposes here, K-9 doesn’t count).

It was towards the end of Baker’s time that the TARDIS’s numbers

swelled, with the addition of Alzarian maths genius Adric, then the

princess-like Nyssa of Traken and, finally, Australian air hostess Tegan

Jovanka. These three bridged the regeneration of the Fourth Doctor into

the Fifth incarnation, played by Peter Davison. The single companion

model wouldn’t return until the arrival of Colin Baker’s Sixth Doctor,

and it was the model largely adopted (with a few notable quirks) for the

revived series from 2005.

The three companions of the early 1980s initially played well against

the by-then rather older Doctor figure that Tom Baker represented.

Just as the younger Harry Sullivan had been out of place almost a de-

cade prior as insurance against a possibly older Doctor being cast, so

the younger crew made a nice contrast with a seemingly older, more

sombre Doctor (certainly as he was presented in Season 18, although

Baker was actually only aged 47). The casting of the much younger

Peter Davison (aged 29 at the time he was offered the role) resulted in

a predominantly young lineup in the TARDIS console room, with Adric

and Nyssa both played as teenagers by teenagers, while Tegan was a

slightly older figure who’d embarked upon a career. These models fed

144

III: 1

980

- 198

9

into the choices of the new series’ companions, with Rose a teenage

shop worker being essentially a mix of Nyssa’s inexperience and the

more streetwise late-1980s companion Ace, and Doctor-in-training

Martha Jones modelled to some degree after Tegan (although Tegan’s

trademark “mouth on legs” stroppiness may have influenced Catherine

Tate’s characterisation of Donna Noble—or, rather, showrunner Russell

T Davies’ writing of the character).

Tegan was an interesting update of Barbara Wright, a professional,

confident, opinionated woman not afraid to hold her own in debates with

the authority figure of the Doctor (something Barbara did on occasion,

most dramatically in The Edge of Destruction and The Aztecs). Her desire

to return home (getting her back to Heathrow was an often-thwarted

narrative aim of many early Davison stories) also reflected that of both

Ian and Barbara. This desire had played into a season-ending cliffhanger

as Tegan was accidentally left behind at Heathrow at the end of Time

Flight, only to return during Arc of Infinity, the opening story of the

show’s 20th-anniversary year. The eventual return home of Ian and

Barbara was somewhat happier at the end of The Chase than Tegan’s

tearful and sudden departure at the climax of Resurrection of the Daleks.

The show’s producer in the 1980s, John Nathan-Turner, intended the

lineup during the Davison years to echo that of the very first TARDIS

crew, when three companions—two school teachers, Ian and Barba-

ra, and the Doctor’s granddaughter Susan—accompanied the Doctor

in his time-and-space wanderings. While the numbers matched, the

characterisations and situations did not. It would be down to Steven

Moffat, as showrunner during and after the show’s 50th anniversary, to

consciously repeat elements of the original 1963 lineup in featuring two

schoolteachers attached to Coal Hill School (where Ian and Barbara both

taught, and which Susan briefly attended as their pupil). This allowed

Moffat to create a modern take on Doctor Who’s own earliest history.

280V: 2

005

- Pre

sent

45Doctor Who’s Christmas Adventures

There was a time—not so long ago—when Christmas television

meant Eric and Ernie, a message from the Queen, and a visit from

Del Boy and Rodney. Every year, for the decade spanning from 1981

to 1992 (except for 1984) and then for a further six sporadic episodes

between 1993 and 2003, comedy series Only Fools and Horses became

the longest-running regular Christmas special on UK television. The

comedy variety series The Morecambe and Wise Show managed 14

Christmas specials on the trot between 1969 and 1983 (except in 1974).

In terms of drama, Doctor Who has been one of the more prolific shows,

earning a regular slot since 2005, when David Tennant made his debut

in the first Christmas special. When Peter Capaldi appeared in his first

Christmas special on 25 December 2014, Doctor Who had reached 10

Christmas specials in a row (11 overall if one counts the 1965 William

Hartnell episode The Feast of Steven). That’s more than any other dra-

ma, excluding the soapy Casualty/Holby City specials. Doctor Who is

now a firmly established Christmas tradition, right up there with trees,

presents, and holly. However, these specials have often had to play

dramatically different roles in the series’ ongoing narrative, and are far

more important than the traditional notion of “throwaway” Christmas

Day entertainment might suggest.

Arguably, the first Christmas special episode was The Feast of Steven,

the seventh instalment of the epic 12-episode (or 13, if you include the

solo episode Mission to the Unknown that set up the serial) The Daleks’

Master Plan, broadcast on Christmas Day 1965. It was the only first-run

Doctor Who episode to premiere on 25 December until The Christmas

Invasion, 40 years later. Presented as a “romp”, it involved a visit to

a police station (originally planned as a crossover with popular BBC

show Z-Cars), a trip to a slapstick movie studio (including a cameo

281

V: 2005 - P

resent

from “Charlie Chaplin”), and the Doctor dropping the fourth wall to

announce straight to the camera: ‘Incidentally, a Happy Christmas to

all of you at home.’

The precise origins of that final scene are disputed, with co-writer

Donald Tosh (with Terry Nation, although most of The Feast of Steven

appears to be the work of Tosh) and producer John Wiles claiming the

scene was not in the original script, although it does appear in director

Douglas Camfield’s final camera script. A long-standing fan story claimed

that the direct address to viewers was a last minute ad lib from Hartnell

(which is unlikely, given the camera script’s existence) and ignores the

fact that in the 1960s, many shows (including dramas) would slyly

include the viewers in the fiction of the show at Christmas.

It is especially noteworthy that the events of The Feast of Steven

are—unlike the majority of modern Christmas episodes—immaterial

to the ongoing story of The Daleks’ Master Plan, and could be quite

easily skipped over. It was no doubt constructed in this way, in the as-

sumption that no one would want to take in important plot developments

during Christmas day (in complete contrast to today, when shows like

EastEnders and Doctor Who itself aim to have major developments at

Christmas). Additionally, the episode is unlikely ever to be recovered

as part of any “missing episode” trawls through foreign vaults, as it was

not included in the overseas sales of the story (and so no tele-recording

was made of the episodes to film), confirming the ephemeral nature

of its events. It is said that The Feast of Steven was the first episode of

Doctor Who for which the original videotape was wiped, meaning the

episode was irretrievably lost. This and the preceding Mission to the

Unknown were the only episodes believed to have been omitted entirely

from overseas sales.

The Feast of Steven was, therefore, the most disposable of Doctor

Who’s Christmas episodes. The same cannot be said of the next one,

318

ABOUT THE AUTHORSBrian J. Robb is a New York Times and Sunday Times best-selling

author. Among his works are Timeless Adventures: How Doctor Who

Conquered TV (Kamera, 2009), A Brief History of Star Trek (Constable

& Robinson, 2012) and A Brief History of Star Wars (Constable &

Robinson, 2012). He has also written Silent Cinema (Kamera, 2007),

Counterfeit Worlds: Philip K. Dick on Film (Titan, 2005), and Screams and

Nightmares: The Films of Wes Craven (Titan, 1998). Brian is a biographer

of River Phoenix (Plexus, 1994), Heath Ledger (Plexus, 2008), Brad Pitt

(Plexus, 2001), Johnny Depp (Plexus, 2006), and Keanu Reeves (Plexus,

2003), among others. He has also written books about Laurel and Hardy

(Pocket Essentials, 2008), Ridley Scott (Pocket Essentials, 2005), and

James Cameron (Pocket Essentials, 2002). His recent work includes A

Brief Guide to Superheroes for Running Press, as well as Middle-earth

Envisioned: The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings: On Screen, On Stage,

and Beyond (with Paul Simpson) for Race Point Publishing.

Paul Simpson has written official guides to the TV series Farscape

and Smallville, in addition to the films The Hitchhikers’ Guide to the

Galaxy and Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. He has

also authored unofficial books about subjects as diverse as James Bond,

Nicole Kidman, and the TV series The O.C. Paul wrote an unofficial

guide to CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, as well as That’s What They

Want You to Think, for Zenith Press. A regular visitor to film and TV

sets, he has reported for numerous newspapers and magazines, including

TV Guide. For five years, he was the editor of the official licensed Star

Trek Magazine. Paul’s recent work includes The Mammoth Book of

Air Disasters and Near Misses and A Brief Guide to Stephen King for

Running Press, as well as Middle-earth Envisioned: The Hobbit and

The Lord of the Rings: On Screen, On Stage, and Beyond (with Brian

J. Robb) for Race Point Publishing.

319

ABOUT HASSLEIN BOOKSHasslein Books (hassleinbooks.com) is a New York-based independent

publisher of reference guides by geeks, for geeks. The company is named

after Doctor Otto Hasslein, a physicist and time travel expert portrayed

by actor Eric Braeden in the film Escape from the Planet of the Apes, and

on the Hasslein Curve named in honor of his theories.

In addition to Who Beyond 50: Celebrating Five Decades of Doctor

Who, the company’s lineup of unauthorized genre-based reference books

includes Timeline of the Planet of the Apes: The Definitive Chronology,

Lexicon of the Planet of the Apes: The Comprehensive Encyclopedia, A

Matter of Time: The Unauthorized Back to the Future Lexicon, Back in

Time: The Unauthorized Back to the Future Chronology, Lost in Time

and Space: An Unofficial Guide to the Uncharted Journeys of Doctor

Who and Total Immersion: The Comprehensive Unauthorized Red Dwarf

Encyclopedia Volumes I and II, with future volumes slated to feature James

Bond, G.I. Joe, Alien vs. Predator, Battlestar Galactica, Ghostbusters,

Universal Monsters and The Man From U.N.C.L.E.

Follow Hasslein Books on Facebook (facebook.com/hassleinbooks)

and Twitter (twitter.com/hassleinbooks), and at the Hasslein Blog

(hassleinbooks.blogspot.com), to stay informed regarding upcoming

projects.

Few television series have remained in production for decades. Fewer have come back from cancellation. And even fewer have thrived following the loss of their lead actor. Amazingly, Doctor Who can proudly boast all three claims. The British science fiction program, produced by the BBC, depicts the adventures of an extraterrestrial Time Lord known as the Doctor, who explores the universe with a variety of companions in his TARDIS (Time and Relative Dimension in Space), a time-travelling spaceship resembling a blue police call box.

Doctor Who aired an astounding 26 seasons during its first incarnation, from 1963 to 1989, with seven actors in the title role, each differing from his predecessor in appearance and in personality. The show has come back from the grave twice, first in a 1996 TV movie, and then as a much-renowned revival series that has run from 2005 to date. The show is a significant part of British popular culture, and has evolved as a cult favorite in the United States and worldwide.

Brian J Robb and Paul Simpson have assembled 50 thematic, chronological essays covering a wide variety of Who icons over the past five decades. The long-time collaborators posted preliminary versions at Sci-Fi Bulletin, but have delved into far greater detail for this collected edition, examining not only the show itself, but the background of each actor to play the role of the Doctor and each showrunner who helped keep the show alive, as well as the novels, the audios, the monsters, the companions, the music, the effects, fandom, and much more.

But Who Beyond 50 is more than just another TV retrospective. It’s a grand exploration of one of the most beloved series of all time. It’s a celebration of Who’s surprises and successes, and an honest account of its faults and failures. It’s all here. And it’s about time.

Doctor Who©™ is the intellectual property of the BBC and its parent companies, subsidiaries and affiliates. No copyright infringement is intended or implied. Who Beyond 50: Celebrating Five Decades of Doctor Who is a scholarly source-work that has not been licensed or authorized by any person or entity associated with the BBC.

www.hassleinbooks.com

WH

O B

EY

ON

D 5

0:

CELE

BR

AT

ING

FIV

E D

ECAD

ES O

F D

OCT

OR

WH

OB

RIA

N J

. RO

BB

AN

D P

AUL S

IMPSO

N