Doctor Who 18x2

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Another man is found dead, strangled by the Doctor's scarf, so the Doctor is put on trial. By some of the archaic rules of law, he's made to "prove" his innocence by becoming a test subject in a new tachyon experiment with time. The result will prove his innocence or guilt, so they say.

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1. At great cost, the set of the Leisure Hive was populated with plastic vacuum-formed statues of Theron,

2. some of which were left clear and others were painted.

3. All the various bits of the Doctor were played by a different actor.

4. Tom Baker's head was augmented by Derek Chafer, David Rolfe and Roy Seeley.

5. Lovett Bickford set out to make "The Leisure Hive" a slick, tightly paced story.

6. The episodes are some of the shortest in the programme's history.

7. This episode is the shortest of the story, running only to 20 minutes and 45 seconds.

8. In a rare move for Doctor Who, it was given an advertised slot of just 20 minutes, as opposed to the usual 25, on BBC1.

9. Considering how tightly the story is paced,

10. perhaps it is worth noting that this is in fact the third time this exact same model shot of the shuttle has been used so far

11. and this is the second time that this shot of Vargos walking down the corridor has been utilised - it appeared in the first episode too!

12. The Doctor brandishes his sonic screwdriver - it was first seen with Patrick Troughton's Doctor in "Fury From The Deep" (1968)

13. And was written out of the show during the Peter Davison story "The Visitation" (1982).

14. One of the first tasks new producer John Nathan-Turner had was to find a new script editor for Doctor Who,

15. Douglas Adams had elected to leave the programme at the same time as producer Graham Williams to spend more time working on his pet project,

16. "The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy", which was in the process of crossing over from radio to television.

17. Nathan-Turner initially offered the script editor's job to his old colleague from "All Creatures Great and Small", Johnny Byrne.

18. Byrne declined the position, but did offer to contribute scripts to the series.

19. Nathan-Turner was recommended to speak to Christopher H Bidmead by Robert Banks Stewart,

20. who had written for Doctor Who some years previously.

21. Bidmead had recently contacted Stewart after watching the opening episode

22. of the BBC detective drama "Shoestring", which Stewart had written.

23. Stewart knew that Bidmead was a writer, and that apart from television work, he also contributed to a number of scientific journals.

24. Christopher H Bidmead was invited to the BBC late in 1979 and was interviewed by John Nathan-Turner and Barry Letts.

25. He was offered and accepted the position of script editor of Doctor Who,

26. Along with Nathan-Turner, Bidmead decided that the stories he was looking to make for Doctor Who

27. should have less reliance on myths, magic and humour and more emphasis on scientific principles and fact.

28. Bidmead's first task was to start pulling together the seven stories that would make up the 18th season.

29. There were two full scripts left over from the previous production team.

30. One, entitled "Erinella" and written by Pennant Roberts, was not taken any further.

31. The other, entitled "The Witch Lords", by Terrance Dicks, was commissioned

32. and was scheduled to be made second in production order with the new title "State Of Decay" (1980).

33. Bidmead still had to find a script that would be made first in production order, and would open the season on television.

34. Writer David Fisher had contacted John Nathan-Turner in November 1979

35. and had been asked to come up with a potential storyline for the new series.

36. Fisher's story was based around a scenario devised by Nathan-Turner, and was initially called 'Avalon'...

37. although Fisher also jokingly referred to it as "The Castle Of Doom" in correspondence to the producer.

38. It also reused some elements of a story Fisher had discussed with Douglas Adams earlier in 1979 entitled "The Argolins".

39. "Avalon" was developed in December 1979, and all four episodes were commissioned to be written and delivered by the end of January 1980.

40. It was decided that this would be the story that would open the 18th season of Doctor Who and would be first into production.

41. Hardin's laboratory saw a number of pipes and tubes filled with coloured water

42. which could rise and fall depending on the pressure applied to them.

43. John Collin (Brock) has appeared in such TV programmes as "The Saint" (1968), "Randall And Hopkirk (Deceased)" (1969),

44. "The Sweeney" (1975) And "All Creatures Great And Small" (1978).

45. He is perhaps best known for his portrayal of DS Hagger in "Z Cars" (1973-78). John Collin died in February 1987, aged 56.

46. David Allister (Stimson) would return to Doctor Who to play Bruchner in Episodes 9 - 12 of "The Trial Of A Time Lord" (1985).

47. He has appeared in such TV programmes as "One By One" (1984), "Juliet Bravo" (1984),

48. "The Jewel In The Crown" (1984), "Virtual Murder" (1992) and "The Uninvited" (1997).

49. One of the innovations championed by new producer John Nathan-Turner for this new season

50. was the increased contribution from the BBC Radiophonic Workshop.

51. The first major decision was to update the series' theme tune, which had remained more or less constant for the past 17 years.

52. Radiophonic Workshop member Peter Howell was assigned the task of reworking Ron Grainer's theme

53. and replacing Delia Derbyshire's version.

54. At the same time, Sid Sutton was given the task of redesigning the programme's title sequence.

55. The previous version had been in use since Tom Baker took over the title role in 1974.

56. Nathan-Turner was so impressed with Howell's version of the theme

57. that he contacted the Radiophonic Workshop to ask them to consider providing the incidental music for the series.

58. The vast majority of incidental music heard in the series since the 1960s had been supplied by composer Dudley Simpson

59. and in recent years he had single-handedly handled the music.

60. Nathan-Turner took Simpson to lunch and informed him that he would not be working on the new season of Doctor Who,

61. The BBC Radiophonic Workshop had only previously provided the music for a single story - "The Sea Devils" (1972).

62. Now it would handle all the stories made for the 18th season.

63. Peter Howell was asked to compose the music for "The Leisure Hive" on the strength of his reworking of the series' theme tune.

64. Howell would return to the programme to supply incidental music for "Meglos" (1980), "Warriors Gate" (1981), "Kinda" (1982),

65. "Snakedance" (1983), "The Five Doctors" (1983), "The Awakening" (1984), "Planet Of Fire" (1985) and "The Two Doctors" (1985).

66. Brock's room is the same set as the room the Doctor and Romana are later held in, only redressed and relit.

67. Lan Talbot (Klout) had a cast made of his face, from which a lifelike latex mask of his features was produced.

68. Talbot had previously appeared as Travis in the Jon Pertwee story "Doctor Who And The Silurians" (1970).

69. His other TV appearances include "Casualty" (1991), "Between The Lines" (1992), "As Time Goes By" (1992) And "Heartbeat" (2003).

70. The output of an oscilloscope was given a pink tint and added to the picture electronically to give the effect of the time experiment.

71. Although Stimson's death by strangulation is alluded to in the dialogue, and also by having the Doctor's scarf wrapped round his neck,

72. executive producer Barry Letts toned down the original script, where the act was meant to be more explicit.

73. Letts was extremely concerned that strangulation should not be depicted on screen, just in case it led to children trying to copy it.

74. Interviewed for "Doctor Who Magazine" in 1992, director Lovett Bickford recalled his approach to the story:

75. "A new director, and I was a fairly new director, wants to make his mark.

76. "On the other hand, he may be restricted by the format that's already there.

77. "Also, actors like what they've been doing for years and years.

78. "Style is generally determined by the speed in which you have to do things - something new generally takes longer.

79. "So there's a time pressure, an actor pressure, and the pressure of trying something that may or may not work for the first time.

80. "From an audience point of view, I'm not sure if style gets noticed that much. They might notice if it jars and it only jars if it doesn't work.

81. "If the story works well, then they're carried along. Style shouldn't get in the way of a story, it should enhance it."

82. Although it's difficult to see with the pink video effect,

83. these shots of the hourglass are being played in reverse, so that the sand flows upwards.

84. The hourglass prop has now been replaced by another visual effects prop, which was rigged to explode on cue.

85. Quantel is used to freeze the shot of it exploding

86. while a green electronic pulsing effect is added to the portion of the picture it occupies.

87. Interviewed for "Doctor Who Magazine" in 1992, director Lovett Bickford recalled his approach to music in this story:

88. "I had nothing to do with the new title sequence, which was, of course, generic and ran throughout the whole series.

89. "However, it was my decision to introduce a lot more music. Mood music had never been used quite so extensively before.

90. "The music was very good - I thought it was terrific, and, of course, it was all electronic.

91. "I've always thought of Doctor Who as being comic strip. I thought it ought to be exciting, vibrant, and have a lot of energy.

92. "I think music creates atmosphere in a way nothing else does, really.

93. "In retrospect, there may have been too much, but on the whole I think not.

94. "There was probably more music on that than on any other Doctor Who almost ever.

95. "In fairness, John gave me a completely free hand. Music is very important to me."

96. This episode was screened on BBC1 on Saturday 6th September 1980, from 6.20 - 6.40pm.

97. It achieved ratings of 5.0 million. 17:31,886 Evidence? You couldn't hang a hat on that.

98. - I'm the judge, Doctor. - I'm sorry.

99. - The murderer must be found. - Justice is what matters.

100. Theron would throw a man into fire or water. Let the elements try him.

101. These superstitions are not for us.

102. There's a blue box down the hall. You could imprison us in that.

103. - Mena... Madam Chairman. It works. - What?

104. Romana has solved the wave equations.

105. - You really can rejuvenate? - Probably.

106. Then I'm prepared.

107. No. No. There must be one more test.

108. A test?

109. Are you sure about this, Romana?

110. The most it'll do is knock off 10 or 12 years.

111. Right. Then I'll take my chance.

112. - We should be recording this. - I forgot to switch it through.

113. - You'll be needed here. - Think what this will mean.

114. - A few years' gain for an individual. - We're ready, then?

115. I'll start the warm-up now.

116. Doctor.

117. Stop! We forgot something.

118. - What? It's too late. - Get the Doctor out.

119. I can't!