 In 1975, Eric Pringle was commissioned by then-Doctor Who Script Editor Robert Holmes to write a four-part story entitled "The Angarath" for Season Thirteen. This however, was eventually abandoned, but in 1981, Eric Pringle - whose credits were largely in radio - was encouraged by his agent, and former Doctor Who producer Peter Bryant, to submit new material for the show. This resulted in Eric Pringle submitting a four-part story entitled "War Game" (as well as a different four-parter, "The Darkness," possibly featuring the Daleks) to script editor Eric Saward.
As Eric Pringle worked on the storyline for "War Game" (renamed "Poltergeist" and then finally "The Awakening") it was soon realised that his idea might not have sufficient incident to sustain four episodes and so Eric Pringle was asked to condense it down to fit the two-part slot for Season Twenty One. Pringle concurred and completed the necessary rewrites.
However, when the scripts were finally delivered Eric Saward was still not satisfied with Eric Pringle’s modifications, in particular he felt that the scripts were overlength. Consequently, he elected to heavily rewrite "The Awakening". Eric Pringle however, was not particularly pleased with Eric Saward’s rewrites, believing they made the story confusing and rushed. "The Awakening" therefore became his only contribution to Doctor Who.
During the modifications, Eric Saward added a new scene featuring the robotic companion Kamelion, who had been introduced in the Season Twenty finale, "The King's Demons". In this scene, Tegan Jovanka was to encounter Kamelion interfacing with the TARDIS computer via a corridor roundel, and Kamelion claiming he was learning about the time machine. Due to the logistical problems involved in operating the prop and to avoid the need to rehire Gerald Flood, who had provided Kamelion’s voice in "The King's Demons", Eric Saward had the robot imitate The Doctor and Vislor Turlough. However this scene was never used as in post-production, episode one was found to be badly overrunning - resulting in Kamelion’s complete removal from this story. This would have been the Kamelion's first appearance since "The King's Demons". Like previous stories, no explanation is given for his absence. Ultimately the character would not appear again until "Planet of Fire".
The director assigned to this story was Michael Owen Morris. This was his first time he directed a Doctor Who story. Michael Owen Morris however, had earlier worked on the show as a Production Assistant for the 1978 Fourth Doctor story "The Pirate Planet". Morris would be considered to direct the 1985 Sixth Doctor story "Vengeance on Varos", but "The Awakening" would turn out to be his lone Doctor Who director credit.
This story marked the final involvement in the show for Barry Newbury, its longest-serving designer, who had worked on the show since the very first story, "An Unearthly Child", back in 1963. His most recent contribution had been on the 1977 Fourth Doctor story "The Invisible Enemy". After completing "The Awakening", Barry Newbury took early retirement from the BBC.
This story featured extensive location shooting along the border between Dorset and Hampshire. This included the famous scene where The Doctor and his companions arrive outside the church in a horse-drawn carriage but the horse decided to follow the actors through a lych gate (a prop) destroying it in the process. Fortunately, the take up to that point was fine and could be used.
Caught on tape, this incident proved to be a popular inclusion on many television ‘outtake’ and ‘blooper’ programmes including an edition of Noel Edmonds’ Late, Late Breakfast Show in December 1984. It even made its way into the international market, featuring on the American show Television Bloopers and Practical Jokes.
Polly James, who played the part of Jane Hampden, was one of the stars of The Liver Birds.
From this story onwards Peter Davison wore a slightly redesigned costume. This was the first story to feature alterations to the Fifth Doctor’s costume. The Doctor wears a lighter-coloured frock coat, and a white v-neck cricketer’s sweater with thick red and black piping around the ‘v’ and the lower waist, as opposed to the costume he wore during the previous two seasons where the v-neck piping was thin and coloured red, white and black and there was no piping around the waist. The shirt is also altered with green lining on the collar and where the shirt is buttoned, instead of red. The Doctor disposed of his original costume in the second episode of the previous story, "Warriors of the Deep", in which he disguised himself in the uniform of a Sea Base 4 guard (it is possible he never retrieved his costume from the base before he left).
The Fifth Doctor would wear this revised version of his costume for the remainder of the season, save for most of "Planet of Fire". The newly regenerated Sixth Doctor would also be seen wearing it during the first episode of his debut story "The Twin Dilemma" - before choosing his own costume.
It is revealed that The Doctor is fond of tea.
This story involves another member of Tegan’s cursed family - her grandfather Andrew Verney (see also "Logopolis" and "Arc of Infinity"). This implies that it would seem to be that Tegan’s mother - Andrew Verney’s daughter - is therefore English.
A mention is made of the Terileptils mining the mineral tinclavic, on the planet Raaga, for the almost exclusive use of the inhabitants of Harkol in the star system of Rifta. Script Editor Eric Saward added this in the script as a reference to his own story "The Visitation" shown in 1982. He had hoped that the monsters he introduced in that story, the Terileptils, might make a return appearance in Doctor Who, and wanted to make sure the audience remembered who they were. But as events worked out, Eric Saward never wrote their planned return.
It is revealed that the Malus, the occupant of a Harkol computer controlled reconnaissance probe, came to Earth in 1643 as the spearhead of an invasion fleet which never followed.
The Malus, and its companion probe craft hinted at in the dialogue of this story, are reintroduced later in the BBC Books’ The Past Doctors Stories novels "The Hollow Men" (where The Seventh Doctor encounters the other half of the Hakolian war machine that became the Malus) and "Last of the Gaderene".
This story contains a number of errors. Namely regarding the costumes as during the Civil War, the clothing worn by both sides was identical; the different sides did not have different ‘uniforms’, as such. Identification was accomplished by field signs such oak leaves, or more commonly coloured sashes. Also The Doctor nearly says ‘1543’ (instead of ‘1643’), but corrects himself halfway.
At the end of this story The Doctor is heard saying that he will take Will Chandler home in the TARDIS. As this character does not appear in the following story it would seem that this had been accomplished by the start of "Frontios".
It has been revealed that John Nathan-Turner liked the youthful character of Will Chandler, played by Keith Jayne, a great deal and seriously considered keeping him on as a companion. However, it was eventually decided that Will Chandler’s youthful character would quickly wear thin and lacked any clear path of development - and so viewers would quickly tire of him. Therefore this idea was not pursued any further. Many fans have since suggested that Will Chandler as being one of the most convincing and memorable companions The Doctor never had.
This story was repeated on BBC One in July 1984 as a 46 minute compilation.
The master tape for the first episode was found to have some scratch damage when the 1984 compilation version was being mastered, no protection copy was made at that time so the original tx master continued to deteriorate, the tape was checked in the early 1990’s and the scratch damage found to be far more intrusive than it had been in 1984, fortunately the original film sequences were kept and using these, the compilation copy and the reprise from the second episode, a new master PAL D3 restoration was made in 1997 by the Doctor Who Restoration Team. This was used for the VHS release.
The recovery of an early edit of episode one on video (in the personal archive of the late producer John Nathan-Turner) means that the scene with Kamelion, that was cut due to the episode over-running and which had previously been thought as lost, may now be included on a DVD release of this story. A small part of this scene has appeared in the documentary "Kamelion: Metal Man" which featured on the DVD release of "The King's Demons".
This is officially the final story of the show to consist of two 25-minute episodes. All two episode stories since then have been around 45 minutes long per episode, including most of Season Twenty Two and several stories of the revived show. The 1986 Sixth Doctor story "The Ultimate Foe", the concluding part of "The Trial of a Time Lord" season, is numbered on screen as ‘Part Thirteen’ and ‘Part Fourteen’ - furthermore, they share the same BBC production code, 7C, with the preceding four-part story arc, " Terror of the Vervoids", even though they have their own separate novelisation and feature compilation.
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The Firsts:
The first Doctor Who story to be written by Eric Pringle.
The first Doctor Who story to be directed by Michael Owen Morris.
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(Position = 91 out of 159)
(Position = 110 out of 200)
(Position = 155 out of 241)
