The Boy That Time Forgot (Paul Magrs)

 July 2008’s release is called "The Boy That Time Forgot". This is a Fifth Doctor and Nyssa story that has been written by Paul Magrs and directed by Barnaby Edwards. It was recorded on the 15th and 16th April 2008.

 "The Boy That Time Forgot" picks up on the events set in motion during April’s release "The Haunting of Thomas Brewster" and guest stars Andrew Sachs (famous for his role as Spanish waiter Manuel in the 1970’s hit television comedy Fawlty Towers) as someone rather terrifying. Andrew Sachs also previously played Skagra in the Big Finish Productions 2003 remake of "Shada". While Harriet Walter (Atonement, Babel) plays Victorian novelist Mrs Beatrice Mapp. Also starring are: Adrian Scarborough, Oliver Senton and Claire Wyatt.

 ‘This is one of those really weird and wonderful stories,’ explains executive producer Nicholas Briggs. ‘When writer Paul Magrs came to us with the idea, we knew it would be controversial, but I think there's room for a bit of controversy now and then!’.

Fifth Doctor

This story follows on directly from "The Haunting of Thomas Brewster" reveals director Barnaby Edwards. ‘At the end of that story the TARDIS is stolen, so The Doctor and Nyssa are stranded in Victorian London, and trying to get the TARDIS back – but something happens and they’re flung back into pre-history. Two people from the Victorian era are transported with them - a literary lady from the Bloomsbury salon, and an armchair adventurer.’

As explained by Paul Magrs. ‘My original idea was to write an adventure with a setting a bit like an Edgar Rice Burroughs story, as filmed by Amicus in the early 1970s. At the Earth’s Core is a film I’ve always regarded as Peter Cushing’s third outing as Doctor Who...’.

Nyssa

In this story we get transported back in time to a prehistoric Earth populated by giant scorpions and various types of insects - where something has gone wrong. And it’s not just scorpions awaiting The Doctor.

‘It’s a prehistoric world that should never have been,’ Paul Magrs explaines. ‘A bubble in time. A massive, glorious anomaly summoned into existence by someone’s dreadful mistake.’

In a weird jungle valley, the Victorian explorer Rupert Von Thal saves Bloomsbury novelist Beatrice Mapp from a ghastly death in the grip of a monstrous mantis. But this is no Lost World of the dinosaurs. According to their travelling companions, The Doctor and Nyssa, all four have been transported back to a primitive Earth that should never have existed!

Further down the valley is the vast city where the scorpions live. Walking, talking, intelligent scorpions, ruled over by their cruel and sinister master. The Doctor and Nyssa are being drawn ever tighter into the clutches of... The Boy That Time Forgot.

On the Back Cover:

A lost world. A prehistoric civilization. A dark secret.

The Doctor and Nyssa find themselves transported from Victorian London back to the dawn of time, accompanied by debonair adventurer Robert Von Thal and no-nonsense novelist Beatrice Mapp. Together these unlikely heroes must brave primitive jungles and battle ravening insects as they make their way to the city of the giant scorpions. ruled over by...

The Boy That Time Forgot.

When I was starting to think about this story last summer, I was also rediscovering my love of Flash Gordon serials of the 1930s, Filmation cartoons of the 1970s and the outrageous stories of Edgar Rice Burroughs as filmed by Amicas. In my own way, I wanted to tap into that genre of swashbuckling otherworld adventure, in which immaculately attired Victorians are propelled into unfamiliar savage lands, either beyond, above or inside the Earth. This being Doctor Who, it seemed just the thing that the foreign country ought to be the past...

I knew there had to be monstrous beasts, secret rites, awful dangers and a mysterious city. There had to be a sense of our heroes wandering bravely but blindly into the unknown.

And ultimately, in the heart of the prehistoric darkness, they had to come face to face with… who? What?

I knew. I knew from the start who and what they were going to meet.

You won’t believe it. Seriously. Just wait!


Director’s Notes: Barnaby Edwards

I have a confession to make: I’m a huge fan of those old 1970s adventure yarns. The Land That Time Forgot, At The Earth’s Core, The People That Time Forgot, and Warlords of Atlantis, all starring the inimitable Doug McClure. So I was understandably a bit overexcited when I heard that Paul Magrs wanted to write a prehistoric caper with giant scorpions, a lost city and some monster-infested catacombs. But would it work without the widescreen visuals?

I needn’t have worried: Paul knows his stuff. The trick, as with all special effects extravaganzas, is to have strong characters who won’t be overpowered by the monsters and the enormous sets. And it’s a testament to Paul’s writing that we attracted such a high calibre guest cast to play his creations. Oliver, Claire, Andrew, Harriet and Adrian: swashbuckling heroes, all of them!