 This story was the first to feature Sylvester McCoy as the Seventh Doctor. It also features the last appearance of the Sixth Doctor, who briefly appears at the start of this story, his face obscured to mask the fact that he too is portrayed by Sylvester McCoy.
With just a few months to go before the start of production on Season Twenty Four John Nathan-Turner, the show’s current Producer, was informed that the agreement, that Season Twenty Three was to be his last as Producer, had been rescinded. This left him with very little time to find an actor to play the part of the Seventh Doctor, a new Script Editor, and a full slate of stories.
Pip and Jane Baker were commissioned to write this story. Due to the short timescale that John Nathan-Turner had this husband-and-wife team were chosen because they had demonstrated the previous year that they could deliver scripts quickly, based on their short-notice writing of episodes nine through twelve and fourteen of The Trial of a Time Lord.
This story’s ‘problems’ can be partly explained as Pip and Jane Baker had no idea, at first, who would be playing the new Doctor or how he would be characterised - and, when they started work on the project, the show had no Script Editor for them to discuss things with.
Pip and Jane Baker were asked to write their scripts for the Sixth Doctor and to include a climactic regeneration sequence. Originally they had The Doctor staying behind at The Rani’s headquarters to ensure nothing went wrong with the missile strike. The ensuing explosion causes him to regenerate.
Colin Baker, who had been the Sixth Doctor and who had been sacked from the show, had been offered the chance to appear in the first four-part story of the new season in order to facilitate a regeneration scene. However, Colin Baker declined this invitation - deciding instead that it was best, from both a personal and a professional perspective, to make a clean break from Doctor Who.
Because of this it was decided to include a pre-titles sequence to unveil the new Doctor. This therefore is the first time The Doctor is seen regenerating at the beginning of a story, as opposed to its end (barring recap footage).
Originally, John Nathan-Turner had preferred not to include the regeneration itself as Urak would turn over the unconscious Doctor to reveal his new face. He would later change his mind, however, with the regeneration being achieved using a computer effect over the face of Sylvester McCoy wearing a blond wig to mimic Colin Baker’s hair - so making him the only actor to play two different incarnations of The Doctor.
This regeneration sequence replaced an earlier pre-titles scene, which would have seen King Solomon - later Albert Einstein - kidnapped by The Rani.
To play the part of the Seventh Doctor two separate people suggested Sylvester McCoy to John Nathan-Turner. These were BBC producer Clive Doig and literary agent Brian Wheeler. It has also been revealed that Sylvester McCoy himself had telephoned the Doctor Who production office about a week earlier to indicate his interest in the part. Despite having doubts John Nathan-Turner went to see Sylvester McCoy perform in a theatrical production of The Pied Piper. This led to an interview a few days later, after which John Nathan-Turner believed his search was over.
Head of Drama Jonathan Powell was more reticent, however, and asked John Nathan-Turner to consider other possibilities as well. A number of actors auditioned alongside actress Janet Fielding, who had played companion Tegan Jovanka (as current companion Bonnie Langford being occupied with her theatrical work at the time). After these auditions it was agreed that Sylvester McCoy was the most suitable actor for the role and so Sylvester McCoy signed a three-year contract to play The Doctor. Sylvester McCoy’s lengthy career included various theatrical comedy and television roles, the latter including such programmes as Tiswas and Jigsaw.
The new Script Editor to replace Eric Saward, who had quit midway through Season Twenty Three, was Andrew Cartmel. Andrew Cartmel was working for a computer company when his agent, Richard Wakely, recommended him to John Nathan-Turner. Liking what he saw of Andrew Cartmel’s writing, the producer hired him to complete the necessary work on Season Twenty Four.
With Colin Baker no longer taking part in this story or doing a regeneration scene Pip and Jane Baker set about putting the finishing touches on their scripts, using Sylvester McCoy’s audition tape as a basis from which to write for the new Doctor. The Doctor’s dialogue underwent further amendments by John Nathan-Turner and Andrew Cartmel, who had come up with the idea of The Doctor’s misquoted proverbs as a way of distancing the character from that portrayed by Colin Baker, who was prone to verbose pronouncements. This trait though would vanish by the end of the season as it was ignored by future writers of the show.
The Director assigned to this story was Andrew Morgan, who had earlier turned down the chance to direct the 1982 Fifth Doctor story "Time-Flight" Andrew Morgan had previously directed episodes of Softly, Softly: Task Force and Blake’s 7.
This was the second and final appearance in the show of The Rani whom Pip and Jane Baker had created for the 1985 Sixth Doctor story "The Mark of The Rani". Kate O’Mara had recently returned to England after spending a year in Hollywood appearing on the prime time soap opera Dynasty, and had affirmed her interest in reprising her role as The Rani. Kate O’Mara returned to portray The Rani in the Thirtieth-Anniversary Children In Need special "Dimensions in Time", in 1993, as well as the BBV audio adventure "The Rani Reaps the Whirlwind" - the last of which reveals The Rani’s fate.
Wanda Ventham (who played Faroon) and Donald Pickering (who played Beyus) previously appeared together in the 1967 Second Doctor story "The Faceless Ones" as Jean Rock and Blade respectively. Donald Pickering also appeared, as Eyesen, in the 1964 First Doctor story "The Keys of Marinus" while Wanda Ventham also appeared, as Thea Ransome, in the 1977 Fourth Doctor story "Image of the Fendahl".
By now it was generally agreed that the Sixth Doctor’s bad-taste outfit had been a bad mistake – thus prompting a more subdued costume for the Seventh Doctor. It was therefore decided, in consultation with Sylvester McCoy, to opt for a costume which would appear to be normal at a distance and unusual only on closer inspection.
It has been revealed that Ken Trew created the Seventh Doctor’s costume, based on a 1930s golfing design and the straw hat was inspired by the outfit Sylvester McCoy had worn to his initial meeting with John Nathan-Turner. The only element disliked by the actor was the question-mark pullover, included at John Nathan-Turner’s insistence. Sylvester McCoy protested about wearing this part of his costume which eventually resulted in him having a question mark umbrella as a replacement.
With the change of lead actor, John Nathan Turner decided that Season Twenty Four needed a new title sequence so he approached Oliver Elmes of the BBC’s graphics department about devising an entirely new logo and title sequence which moved away from the ‘starfield’ motif introduced in 1980. With the assistance of CAL Video, Oliver Elmes devised his new sequence entirely on computer. In addition, much of the effects (such as the bubble Melanie is trapped in) were done in the same manner.
It has been reported that John Nathan-Turner was generally happy with the new sequence, his only concern was regarding The Doctor’s face - which forms out of the stars and nebulae - being too indistinct. Oliver Elmes therefore superimposed a more detailed image on top of his originally footage. The original broadcast, of the fourth episode, however, featured an early version of the new opening titles. This was corrected for the video release.
As with the opening sequence from the Sixth Doctor era, the Seventh Doctor’s opening does not use a static image of The Doctor, but rather one with limited animation: the image starts as a scowl, then The Doctor winks and smiles. Sylvester McCoy also wears makeup that gives his face and hair a silver/grey appearance.
This was the first completely new logo and title sequence since Season Eighteen and marked the first time the show’s titles were created with a computer.
This new design also meant a slight modification in the way each episode began - although the story name and author credit still formed part of the title sequence, the episode number would now appear during the opening scene.
A new arrangement of Ron Grainer’s theme music was also created. This was partly because the new sequence was considerably longer than the previous version, and partly because Dominic Glynn’s Season Twenty Three arrangement had not been particularly well-received. This new arrangement was carried out by Keff McCulloch, who also provided the incidental music for this story, and was used until the end of the original run of the show.
This new theme arrangement marked the first time since the First Doctor’s era that the theme’s ‘middle eight’ section was regularly heard during the opening credits (the previous two arrangements used the middle eight during the closing credits only).
This story features a pre-credits sequence (only the third time in the show’s history, after the 1982 Fifth Doctor story "Castrovalva" and the Twentieth Anniversary special "The Five Doctors") featuring the TARDIS crash-landing on the planet Lakertya.
With the start of this season the BBC decided once again decided to shift Doctor Who out of its Saturday teatime slot and to show it on a weekday, as had been the case between Season Nineteen and Season Twenty One. However, unlike these earlier seasons the episodes in this season were broadcast just once a week (specifically, on Mondays) and at a much later time, infamously putting it up against ITV’s soap opera Coronation Street.
There were additional sequences written that featured the scientists The Rani had captured, which were not filmed.
The Doctor is seen trying on several earlier costumes including the Second Doctor’s fur coat, the Third Doctor’s smoking jacket, the Fourth Doctor’s coat and scarf and the Fifth Doctor’s cricket outfit, as well as other costumes. He also wears the Sixth Doctor’s patchwork coat for much of the first episode, the first example of a Doctor wearing his previous self’s clothes for a prolonged period rather than quickly changing after a regeneration.
The Doctor is heard to state that this is his seventh incarnation.
The Doctor refers to his new regeneration as his ‘seventh persona’. This once again settles the question of The Doctor having other regenerations before the First Doctor. This theory came about because in the 1976 Fourth Doctor story "The Brain of Morbius" there had been strong suggestions that there had been previous incarnations of The Doctor.
The Rani is able to check that The Doctor’s hearts are beating simply by placing a hand on his chest. While The Doctor is able to check Melanie’s pulse with his thumbs.
The Lakertyans are represented as civilised reptilian humanoids.
Loyhargil is a lightweight substitute for Strange Matter. ‘Loyhargil’ is also an anagram of ‘holy grail’.
The Doctor states that he and The Rani are both 953. However, the Sixth Doctor claimed he was 900 in the 1985 story "Revelation of the Daleks" and again in the 2005 Ninth Doctor story "Aliens of London/World War Three". The Tenth Doctor also claimed he was 906 in the 2010/11 story "The End of Time". The Eleventh Doctor then claimed that he was 907, in the 2010 story "The Time of Angels/Flesh and Stone", and 909 in the 2011 story "The Impossible Astronaut/Day of the Moon".
Amongst the famous Humans that The Doctor mentions towards the end of this story, as he explains to Melanie the severity of The Rani’s plans, are Elvis and Mrs Malaprop (a fictional character). This is a reference to the Seventh Doctor’s frequent use of Malapropisms throughout this story.
This is the only Doctor Who story to mention Elvis.
This story contains a number of errors. Namely: In order to release the Lakertyans from The Rani’s deadly bracelets, The Doctor and Melanie use a fibre optic cable to complete an electrical circuit; Without appearing to make any adjustments to the TARDIS The Rani is able to patch Urak’s vision straight into the TARDIS scanner;
The Tetraps have eyes in the front, sides and back of their heads so why do they need to turn their heads when looking for something?; Sylvester McCoy pronounces ‘Princeton University’ as ‘Prince Town’ without narrative cause. Since ‘Princeton’ has more or less standard pronunciation across all English dialects - even Scottish ones - this is simply a fluff by Sylvester McCoy; The overhead microphone is visible in the first episode, in the scene just after The Rani introduces herself as Melanie. It is obvious that the boom operator has trouble following The Doctor’s erratic movements.
Most glaring error of all is why does The Doctor regenerate? When the TARDIS crash lands Melanie is barely stunned, but strangely it is enough to trigger The Doctor’s regeneration.
A number of spin-off media have provided additional explanation for The Doctor’s regeneration including Virgin Books’ The New Adventures novels: "Timewyrm: Revelation", written by Paul Cornell, "Love and War", written by Paul Cornell, "Head Games" written by Steve Lyons - all of which speculate that the Seventh Doctor’s ‘essence’ drove the Sixth Doctor to pilot the TARDIS into The Rani’s tractor beam to become Time’s Champion and prevent himself from becoming The Valeyard. While BBC Books’ The Past Doctors Stories novel "Spiral Scratch", written by Gary Russell, features the Sixth Doctor sacrificing much of his energy to prevent a pan-dimensional being from destroying creation thus leaving him in a weakened physical condition before The Rani’s attack.
It is never explained how The Rani escaped the predicament in which she had last been seen in the "The Mark of The Rani" where she becomes trapped with The Master in her TARDIS by a rapidly-growing Tyrannosaurus rex embryo. The Target novelisation of this story, written by Pip and Jane Baker, claims that the rapidly-growing dinosaur snapped its neck on the ceiling of The Rani’s TARDIS and died instantly, while the Virgin Books’ The Missing Adventures novel "State of Change", written by Christopher Bulis, revealed that The Master escaped the Rani’s TARDIS by separating the Console Room from the rest of the ship, forcing The Rani to cannibalise other controls in her TARDIS to pilot it prior to the events of the novel.
The Target novelisation of this story features a longer finale for the Sixth Doctor while the Tetraps seem to speak English backwards.
This story would prove to be the final Doctor Who story written by Pip and Jane Baker. They continued to write for a variety of media, including contributions to the series Watt on Earth.
The final part of the BBC Books’ The Past Doctors Stories novel "Spiral Scratch", written by Gary Russell, leads into this story as (paradoxically) does the unofficial novel "Time’s Champion" that was written by Craig Hinton, in 2008, as a charity venture in aid of the British Heart Foundation.
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The Firsts:
The first story of Season Twenty Four.
Sylvester McCoy's first appearance as the Seventh Doctor.
The first time The Doctor is seen regenerating at the beginning of a story, as opposed to its end.
The first time the show’s titles were created with a computer.
Andrew Cartmel's first involvement in the show as Script Editor.
The first Doctor Who story to be directed by Andrew Morgan.
Keff McCulloch's first involvement in the show providing the incidental music.
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(Position = 154 out of 159)
(Position = 198 out of 200)
(Position = 239 out of 241)
