Cast:
   
Elisabeth Sladen (Sarah Jane Smith); Jeremy James (Josh Townsend); Sadie Miller (Natalie Redfern); Caroline Burns-Cook (Claudia Coster); Juliet Warner (Ellie Martin); Mark Donovan (DI Morrisson); Moray Treadwell (Will Butley); Steven Wickham (Mr. Sharpe); Jane McFarlane (Nurse Jepson); Robert Curbishley (Read); Wendy Albiston (Meg Hawkins); Toby Longworth (Wong Chu); Maggie Stables (Mrs Lythe)
Writer:
    Barry Letts    
Recorded:
    27 February 2002
Director:
    Gary Russell    
Released:
    8 August 2002
Music:
    Davy Darlington    
No. of Discs:
    1
Sound Design:
    Davy Darlington    
Duration
    73' 18"
Cover Art:     Lee Binding    
Production Code:
    SJ02
           
ISBN:
    1-903654-93-9
Synopsis
The body of an old man is found floating in the Thames ­ although the DNA of the corpse corresponds to an 18-year old friend of Josh and Ellie. Sarah Jane heads towards West Yorkshire in a bid to discover what killed the man, why someone is kidnapping homeless teenage boys and whether there is a link between that and the retreat of philanthropist Will Butley which hosts The Huang Ti Clinic. Sarah discovers that there is more to ancient Dark Sorcery than she may have otherwise believed.

New fro the GBC and the BBC the Geordie language converter

exapme from the blog click links to read more from Neil.

AUDIO from the bbc local radio - suplied from the internet/other podcasts and provided here simply incase you missed it.

With the Wife

The Underwater Menace
The Highlanders
The Power of the Daleks
The Hartnell Years
The Tenth Planet
The Smugglers
Daleks: Invasion Earth 2150AD
The War Machines
The Savages
The Gunfighters
The Celestial Toymaker
The Ark
The Massacre
The Daleks' Master Plan 11-12
The Daleks' Master Plan 5-10
The Daleks' Master Plan 1-4
The Myth Makers
Mission to the Unknown
Galaxy 4
Dr. Who and the Daleks
The Time Meddler
The Chase
The Space Museum
The Crusade
The Web Planet
The Romans
The Rescue
The Dalek Invasion of Earth
Planet of Giants
The Reign of Terror
The Sensorites
The Aztecs
The Keys of Marinus
Marco Polo
The Edge of Destruction
The Daleks
An Unearthly Child

with the Wife in Space

Nuffink in ze world can stop us now! Except this story, obviously...

A couple of hours before we settled down to watch The Underwater Menace, Sue and I appeared as guests on Bob Fischer's BBC Tees radio show to shamelessly plug this blog. You can listen to the edited highlights below (and Sue's PVC Dalek-suit anecdote was news to me!):

Adventures with the Wife on BBC Tees - click to play

Episode One

Sue: That's just great. This story is going to star that ****ing hat. I hate that ****ing hat.

We both enjoy the opening TARDIS scene, especially Jamie's reactions to the insanity he has walked into. There's a playful edge to the proceedings and a warmth we haven't really felt since the glory days of Ian, Susan and Barbara. We chuckle when Ben sarcastically hopes for the Daleks ("I bet the kids wouldn't have complained") while the Doctor's desire to encounter prehistoric monsters is dismissed out of hand ("not on this budget, love").

Me: Where do you hope they'll end up this time?

Sue: Somewhere with decent carpentry.

The TARDIS arrives on a beach and when Polly guesses at their whereabouts, Sue declares, in perfect harmony:

Sue: Cornwall! It's always ****ing Cornwall!

It doesn't take very long for our heroes to find themselves in danger: a platform they have been standing on is actually a lift, and as they hurtle beneath the sea, the TARDIS crew succumb to the bends.

Sue: That's very interesting. Ben just asked Polly to get them out of there. He didn't ask the Doctor and he's standing right next to him. I don't blame Ben though; this Doctor is still pretty useless.

When they regain consciousness, Polly finds some pottery with the logo for the 1968 Mexico Olympiad emblazoned on it, and then our heroes are confronted by a race of people dressed in clam shells and seaweed. Sue believes she has it sussed:

Sue: Are they rehearsing for the Opening Ceremony?

Their high priest even sports a fish on his head:

Sue: Please tell me the Doctor doesn't get a hat like that.

Just as Sue believes she has a handle on events, our heroes are strapped to some slabs and sadistically lowered toward a mad man's pet sharks.

Sue: Is this a Bond movie now?

Me: Yes. You Only Live 13 Times.

Sue: Has this got anything to do with the Olympics? Anything at all?

When the Doctor signs his name 'Dr. W', he reignites an old debate:

Sue: You can't really argue with that, can you? That settles it: his name is Dr. Who. You'll just have to accept it, love.

Me: Unless his real name begins with a W -

Sue: Like Doctor Wibbly-Wobbly-Timey-Wimey? Would that make you feel any better? And does it really matter? I call him Dr. Who all the time -

Me: Yes, I know. And every time you do it, part of me dies.

When Professor Zaroff reveals that they are currently hanging out on the lost continent of Atlantis, Sue doesn't even flinch:

Sue: Atlantis. Of course it's Atlantis. Where else would they be in this ****-ed up programme? So, it's James Bond on Atlantis? Gotcha.

Thanks to those fainthearted Australians, the cliffhanger moves, although we find ourselves sympathising with the censor as Polly is strapped to a table and threatened with a large hypodermic needle by some evil scientists who want to turn her into a fish. Yes, a fish.

Sue: I don't know what Polly is moaning about; I'd love to breathe underwater indefinitely. She could stick around and enter the 1972 Olympics. Mark Spitz would have nothing on her.

Episode Two

Me: How short is Polly's surgical gown -

Sue: Trust you to notice that, love.

The hot topic of conversation during this episode is Zaroff. Who else?

Sue: He reminds me of that mad scientist from that show you love: Comedy Theater 2000 -

Me: Mystery Science Theater 3000 -

Sue: That's it. He reminds me of the mad scientist from that: an over-the-top pantomime villain.

Me: Believe it or not, the guy playing him is actually a very fine actor -

Sue: Oh, I don't doubt it. He's just having a laugh with the part. And who can blame him? How else would you play this character? His plan is completely pointless; there's no clever reason for him to do any of this, he just wants to blow up the world. There's no benefit or motive at all.

Me: He's insane.

Sue: It's lazy. With no motivation or backstory you have to play him as a larger-than-life lunatic. I like him; he's committed. He's definitely the funniest villain we've had in the series so far.

When Ben and Jamie are taken to the mines of Atlantis, a high pitched whining cuts through the scene. We assume it represents the sound of the drilling but whatever it is, it's making our teeth itch.

Sue: If we were 16 years old, we would hear that sound whenever we went near an off-license -

Me: Have you warmed to Troughton yet? He's basically playing his version of the Doctor now. More or less.

Sue: He reminds me of Ken Dodd in some of these stills. That one in particular (see right). The music doesn't help. It's atrocious. It sounds like they've let a small child loose on a Bontempi organ. This is the worst music that I've heard in the series so far. Who's responsible for it?

Me: An Australian called Dudley Simpson -

Sue: Sack him. He's rubbish.

Episode Three

Finally, after enduring thirteen consecutive recons (count them! thirteen!), we are reunited with a real bona fide episode. I never thought I'd ever hear myself say this but thank Amdo for The Underwater Menace Episode 3.

Sue: Even though the story is still a complete mess, it's a thousand times easier to follow it when it exists. I don't want to state the bleedin' obvious but even the very worst story improves when you can actually see it. The recons I gave good scores to must have been incredible -

The highlight of the episode for Sue is, of course, the sight of Jamie and Ben in tight-fitting rubber:

Sue: Given the state of some of their costumes, they should have called this story The Underwear Menace.

Me: I think the playwright Joe Orton mentioned this story in his diary. Or was it in Salmon Rushdie's The Satanic Verses? No, it must have been Joe Orton; he fancied Jamie in his rubber suit, I think. Or maybe it was Kenneth Williams. My memory is almost as bad as yours.

Sue: Jamie and Ben wouldn't look out of place at that nightclub, Heaven.

As if to accentuate this observation, Jamie and Ben suddenly launch themselves into the campest salute this side of 'Allo 'Allo.

Sue: I'll say no more.

Sue: Does Troughton ever go through a story where he doesn't play that bloody recorder? And are there any stories where he doesn't dress up at the drop of a hat (which he'll probably pick up and put on)? He's a borderline transvestite.

Me: You might want to hold onto something during the next scene. We're about to meet the Fish People.

Sue: They look like a second-rate dance troupe who are waiting to audition for Britain's Got Talent. They're probably going to do a up-tempo version of Yellow Submarine.

A miner called Jacko attempts to turn the Fish People into striking militants. He does this by winding them up a bit. At one point he cries, "Are you not men?" and, quick as a flash, Sue replies:

Sue: No! We're fish! What are you, blind? Hang on, is that Polly in a snorkel?

Me: No, it's a Fish Person.

Sue: They're having a laugh.

And then it happens. Impossible to describe. Impossible to watch.

Sue: This is the lowest point in Doctor Who yet. By some considerable margin. Please make it stop.

Me: Is this worse than The Web Planet?

Sue: Oh yes, this is even more half-arsed.

Me: It's like a perverse joke: you wait 13 episodes for a real episode and then you get this.

Sue: I take it all back - this would have been much better as a recon.

Something that really niggles at us is the Fish People's economic impact on Atlantis, which is based on the assumption that the food they farm must be consumed immediately:

Sue: OK, let me get this straight: Zaroff has a nuclear reactor but he hasn't got a fridge - or, better still, a fridge freezer - to put any food in? That makes no sense at all.

Me: This is your first proper look at Patrick Troughton. Have you formed an opinion yet?

Sue: I feel a little more comfortable with him now that I've seen him in action. He's far more animated than I expected and he's definitely got charisma. There's something about him. Sadly, the director isn't doing him any favours so I'll have to reserve judgement until I've seen some more.

And then we reach the moment The Underwater Menace is probably best known for. But immediately before it arrives - and I'd completely forgotten this - Zaroff stabs someone with a spear, he shoots someone at point-blank range and then he has two others killed off-screen. It's horrific!

But it's completely eclipsed by what follows:

Sue: Wow.

It's so mesmerising, we have to watch it again. And again. And again.

Sue: He's having a whale of a time.

Me: I'm glad someone is.

Episode Four

Sue: I still can't believe he didn't bring some fridges with him. Still, I guess if you are planning to blow up the world you can't think of everything. You know, I think every episode of Doctor Who could be improved with a Zaroff. The only thing missing is a scene of him tearing his hair out as he screams, "Why am I surrounded by idiots!".

Me: There's still twenty minutes to go. I wouldn't rule anything out.

Sue: I like the way the show has kept to its educational remit.

Me: What?

Sue: Jamie is from the past and therefore he doesn't understand what radioactivity is. Some of the children watching this wouldn't know either -

Me: Yeah, that's great. There's just one tiny problem: they don't explain it. Polly says she can't be bothered!

Polly and Jamie are struggling to escape the rising waters of Atlantis:

Sue: It's turned into a disaster movie now.

Me: Oh, it's a disaster all right.

Sue: Why is Polly wearing a fireplace corbel on her head?

Me: I don't even know what that means.

Thanks to those Aussie wimps, we get to see Professor Zaroff drown. Well, I say drown...

Sue: That's not drowning! Zaroff has hours left before the water rises above his head! Maybe he was bored and he decided to commit suicide?

The world saved, the Doctor and his companions leave the Atlantans to it.

Sue: Why are they bothering to rebuild Atlantis anyway? Why don't they just move up to the surface? They've got fridges up there. And while they missed the 1968 Olympics, Mexico have got the World Cup in 1970. It would be a shame if they missed it.

The Final Score

Sue: That was bonkers. And a little bit shit.

2/10

Sue: Zaroff was excellent, though. I could watch him all day. I'm not convinced that he's dead either; I think he was just wetting his hair a bit. He should definitely return in the new series. The League of Gentlemen could play him.

Me: What, all of them?

The experiment continues.

Tags: anneke wills, frazer hines, innes lloyd, michael craze, patrick troughton

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"The Doctor's Wife" is the fourth episode of the sixth series of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was broadcast on 14 May 2011, written by Neil Gaiman.^[2]

[edit] Plot

[edit] Synopsis

While in deep space, the Doctor, Amy and Rory receive a hypercube containing a distress call from a Time Lord. Tracing the source of the call to a rift leading outside the universe, the Doctor deletes part of his TARDIS to generate enough energy to cross through the rift. After landing in a junkyard on a solitary asteroid, the TARDIS shuts down and its matrix suddenly disappears. The three explore, and meet the strange inhabitants, Uncle, Auntie, a green eyed Ood called Nephew and an excited young woman named Idris who fawns all over, and then bites, the Doctor. While Uncle and Auntie lock up Idris, and Amy and Rory return to the TARDIS, the Doctor follows the distress signal and finds a cabinet containing a large number of hypercubes. Upon further investigation of Uncle and Auntie, he finds they are constructed of body parts from other beings, including Time Lords. They are controlled by the asteroid, called House, which is sentient and able to interface with other technology around it. House led the Doctor there and ripped out the TARDIS' matrix, initially in order to consume its Artron energy, but upon learning that the Doctor is the last Time Lord and that no more TARDISes will ever arrive, decides to transfer itself into the TARDIS and escape from the rift. Amy and Rory are trapped inside as the House-controlled TARDIS dematerialises.

The Doctor learns that Idris contains the personality of the TARDIS' matrix. Idris, as the TARDIS, and the Doctor come to realise they selected each other hundreds of years prior when the Doctor fled Gallifrey, and have a personal chat. Without House's support, Uncle and Auntie die. Idris reveals that House had stranded many TARDISes before on the planet, and that this universe only has hours left before it collapses, and that Idris' body only has a short time before it also will fail. The Doctor and Idris work together to construct a makeshift TARDIS from scraps, and then pursue House.

Aboard the Doctor's TARDIS, House threatens to kill Amy and Rory. He plays with their senses as they try to flee through the corridors, then sends Nephew after them. Idris makes a psychic connection with Rory to give him directions to a secondary control room, where he and Amy are able to lower the TARDIS shields without House's interference. This allows the Doctor to land the makeshift console in the secondary control room, which atomises Nephew. House deletes the secondary control room as he prepares to break through the rift, which the Doctor anticipates. The TARDIS safety protocols transfer them to the main control room, where the dying Idris releases the TARDIS matrix back to where it belongs, deleting House from the TARDIS machine. As the Doctor, Amy, and Rory recover, a remnant of the TARDIS matrix, still in Idris' body, sadly comments she will not be able to communicate with the Doctor after this but will be there for him. Idris' body disappears as the TARDIS matrix is fully restored.

The Doctor installs a security field around the matrix to prevent it from being compromised in the future. Rory asks the Doctor about some of Idris' final words—"The only water in the forest is the river"—but the Doctor doesn't understand. After Amy and Rory leave to find a new bedroom, their original purged by House, the Doctor talks to the TARDIS, and, in response, a nearby lever moves on its own, sending the TARDIS to its next destination.

[edit] Continuity

This section may contain previously unpublished synthesis of published material that conveys ideas not attributable to the original sources. See the talk page for details. (May 2011)

This section describes a work or element of fiction in a primarily in-universe style. Please help rewrite it to explain the fiction more clearly and provide non-fictional perspective. (May 2011)

"The Doctor's Wife" revisits many mythology elements regarding the Doctor and the TARDIS established from the original run of the show and continued into the new series. Idris, as the TARDIS, affirms that the Doctor left with her, a type 40 TARDIS, to flee Gallifrey more than 700 years ago, and the TARDIS' history of unreliability is explained as her taking the Doctor not where he wants to go, but where he needs to go. The Doctor has mentioned that the TARDIS is alive in previous episodes, including in The Five Doctors, and has referred to 'her' as "old girl" many times, and as "sexy" occasionally in his Eleventh incarnation, both of which Idris indicates she likes.

The Doctor refers to altering the control room's appearance as changing the desktop, as the Fifth Doctor does in "Time Crash". Like the Third Doctor in Inferno, the Doctor and Idris operate a TARDIS control panel outside of an outer TARDIS shell. The Doctor also jettisons TARDIS rooms to create thrust, as in Logopolis and Castrovalva. The TARDIS is mentioned to have retained an archive of previous control rooms unbeknownst to the Doctor, including many he has yet to create; the one shown in this episode is the design featured between "Rose" and "The Eleventh Hour", used by the Ninth and Tenth Doctors.

When speaking of his fellow Time Lord the Corsair, the Doctor implies that Time Lords can change gender on regeneration. The Doctor admits he killed all of the Time Lords, alluding to the events of the Time War and The End of Time. In The War Games, the Second Doctor contacted the Time Lords using a cube similar to those seen in this episode. The Doctor suggests visiting the Eye of Orion, which is seen in The Five Doctors. The Doctor again refers to himself as "a madman with a box", reprising Amy's and his own description of himself in "The Eleventh Hour".

The Ood "Nephew" displays green eyes (indicating, as with the green-lit TARDIS, that he is possessed by House);^[3] Oodkind's eyes also changed colour in "The Impossible Planet" / "The Satan Pit" and "Planet of the Ood". Alluding to the Ood controlled by the Beast in the former episodes, the Doctor refers to Nephew as "another Ood I failed to save."

The Doctor states that the Corsair always put a tattoo of a snake eating its own tail on each of his new bodies; the tattoo is on the left arm of his final body, being worn by Auntie. The Third Doctor's body came complete with a snake tattoo on his left arm, as shown when he showers in Spearhead from Space.

[edit] Production

[edit] Writing

"The Doctor's Wife" is Neil Gaiman's (pictured) first contribution to Doctor Who.

The episode was written by Neil Gaiman. After Steven Moffat replaced Russell T Davies as the showrunner of Doctor Who, being a fan of Gaiman's blog, Moffat met with Gaiman and Gaiman asked to write an episode. In an interview Gaiman stated "I came up with something that was one of those things where you thought that nobody's done that before."^[4] The episode was originally titled "The House of Nothing".^[5] Gaiman suggested they make an episode which centres on the TARDIS itself, which was not done before for the entire series since it began in 1963. The central idea was a "what if" scenario to see what would happen if the Doctor and the TARDIS got to talk together. Head writer Steven Moffat liked the idea of featuring the TARDIS as a woman, believing this to be the "ultimate love story" for the Doctor.^[6]

Gaiman began writing the episode before Matt Smith was even cast as the Eleventh Doctor; Gaiman envisaged David Tennant's performance in the first draft, knowing Smith would play the Doctor differently. Despite this he had no issue writing the dialogue. The episode was originally slated for the eleventh episode of the fifth series. However, it was delayed to the sixth because of budget issues; the eleventh episode would be replaced with "The Lodger".^[4] Even so, Gaiman was forced to operate with less money than he would have liked; for instance, he had to scrap a scene set in the TARDIS' swimming pool.^[7]

The move to the sixth series also meant Gaiman had to include Rory, who ceased to exist in the original slot in the fifth series. With Rory included, Gaiman had to "reshape" much of the second half of the episode, featuring Amy being on the run in the TARDIS. In the original draft where Amy was the only companion, Gaiman added a "heartbreaking monologue" by the character, further stating "you get to see what it's like to be the companion from the companion's point of view, and she got to talk about essentially in that version how sad it is, in some ways. One day something will happen to her, she'll get married, she'll get eaten by monsters, she'll die, she'll get sick of this, but he'll go on forever."^[4] At a certain point, Gaiman had tired of re-writing drafts and asked Steven Moffat for help. Moffat wrote in what Gaiman called "several of [the episode's] best lines" and rapidly rewrote several scenes when budget problems harmed filming locations.^[8]

[edit] Casting

In September 2010, Suranne Jones announced she was cast a guest spot on Doctor Who as Idris for an episode of the sixth series of Doctor Who. Jones previously played Mona Lisa in The Sarah Jane Adventures episode Mona Lisa's Revenge.^[9] Sometime after appearing on The Sarah Jane Adventures, Jones was contacted to appear on Doctor Who at Gaiman's request, because they were looking for an actress who "is odd; beautiful but strange looking, and quite funny."^[10] Moffat meanwhile described Idris as "sexy plus motherly plus utterly mad plus serene."^[6] During a read-through of the script, the producers asked her to "neutralise [her] a bit," because they did not want Jones to "be a Northerner" or have a standard accent, but to act "kinda like the Doctor."^[10] Later, in March 2011, Gaiman confirmed Michael Sheen would also guest star in the episode to voice a character.^[11] Adrian Schiller previously appeared in the Eighth Doctor audio drama Time Works where he played Zanith.^[12]

[edit] Filming

It was planned as the third episode in the 2011 series but the order was changed during the production process.^[13] Filming took place in August 2010,^[5] although during a 10 October 2010 appearance on Daybreak, guest star Suranne Jones stated that she had been filming green screen special effects only the night before.^[14] The scenes where Amy and Rory are on the run allowed the audience to explore the TARDIS outside the control room, something the producers had wanted to do for a while. A series of corridors was constructed and retained for future use. ^[15] The episode also featured the return of the older TARDIS control room from the Christopher Eccleston and David Tennant era. Gaiman had originally wanted to reconstruct a console room from the original series, but the cost proved prohibitive. ^[16] The set was retained after filming for "The Eleventh Hour", but has since been removed.^[17] Arthur Darvill noted the floor of the older set had a cheese grater-like quality to it, so when the scene called for the cast to fall on it, they found it uncomfortable to stay down for a long period of time.^[6]

"The Doctor's Wife" features a make-shift TARDIS console, which was piloted by the Doctor and Idris. The console was designed by Susannah Leah, a schoolgirl from Todmorden, who won a competition on Blue Peter, a children's creative arts program, that challenged its viewers to imagine a TARDIS console based on household objects.^[18][19] Leah's design was selected by Moffat, Edward Thomas, a production designer for Doctor Who, and Tim Levell, a Blue Peter editor, along with final input amoung the three age-group winners from Smith.^[19] Michael Pickward, the production designer for the series, commented that Leah's design captured the nature of "bits and pieces" of what TARDIS consoles have been in the past, as well as the nature of the makeshift console needed for this episode.^[19] The drawing was redesigned faithfully by the production team into the prop for the show, including the use of a coat hanger to start the makeshift TARDIS.^[19] Leah was brought by Blue Peter to see both the set under construction and on location during filming of the makeshift TARDIS scenes, meeting Smith and the other actors and production crew.^[19] Character Options will release a toy playset based on Leah's console later in 2011.^[19] The House planetoid in the pocket universe was filmed on location at a quarry outside Cardiff.^[6]

[edit] Broadcast and reception

After its original broadcast, "The Doctor's Wife" received overnight figures of 6.09 million viewers, with a 29.5 per cent audience share. It became the third highest broadcast of the night, behind Britain's Got Talent on ITV1, and the 2011 Eurovision Song Contest, which was shown later on BBC One.^[20] The episode recieved a final BARB rating of 7.97 million with an audience share of 34.7%.^[21]

The episode was positively received. The Guardian's Dan Martin said: "With so many wild ideas at play, this would have been so easy to get wrong...yet in every sense it was pitched perfectly".^[22] The AV Club gave the episode a score of "A", saying it was a "pretty terrific [episode]...a brisk, scary, inventive adventure filled with clever concepts and witty dialogue. And a lot of heart when in the way it deals with an important relationship rarely addressed on the series".^[23]

[edit] References

1. ^ "Matt Smith Video and New Series Overview". BBC. Retrieved 5 May 2011.
2. ^ "Doctor Who: The Doctor's Wife". Radio Times. 4 May 2011. Retrieved 4 May 2011.
3. ^ "Monsters: The Ood". BBC. Retrieved 2011-05-18.
4. ^ ^{a b c} Brew, Simon (9 May 2011). "Neil Gaiman interview: all about writing Doctor Who". Den of Geek. Retrieved 16 May 2011.
5. ^ ^{a b} Masters, Tim (24 May 2010). "Neil Gaiman reveals power of writing Doctor Who". BBC News. Retrieved 6 May 2011.
6. ^ ^{a b c d} "Bigger on the Inside". Doctor Who Confidential. BBC. BBC Three. 14 May 2011. No. 4, series 6.
7. ^ Martin, Dan (14 May 2010). "Doctor Who: The Doctor's Wife – Series 32, episode 4" (in English). The Guardian. Retrieved 15 May 2011.
8. ^ "Adventures in the Screen Trade". Neil Gaiman. 2011-05-17. Retrieved 2011-05-21.
9. ^ Jeffery, Morgan (23 September 2010). "Suranne Jones cast in 'Doctor Who'". Digital Spy. Retrieved 15 May 2011.
10. ^ ^{a b} Martin, Will (14 May 2011). "Suranne Jones ('Doctor Who') interview". Cult Box. Retrieved 20 May 2011.
11. ^ James, Richard (21 March 2011). "Michael Sheen to appear in new series of Doctor Who". Metro (Associated Newspapers). Retrieved 20 May 2011.
12. ^ "Doctor Who - Time Works". Big Finish. Retrieved 15 May 2011.
13. ^ "Episodes shuffle for the 2011 series...". Doctor Who Magazine (430): 7. 9 Feb 2011 (cover date).
14. ^ "Broadcast of 10 October 2010". Daybreak. ITV. ITV. 10 October 2010. ; YouTube video, accessed 20 May 2011.
15. ^ http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2011/may/16/neil-gaiman-doctor-who-doctors-wife?commentpage=1#comment-10775927
16. ^ http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2011/may/16/neil-gaiman-doctor-who-doctors-wife?commentpage=1#comment-10775927
17. ^ "Coming to America". Doctor Who Confidential. BBC. BBC Three. 23 April 2011. No. 1, series 6.
18. ^ "Blue Peter awaits for our Susannah". Todmorden News. 5 May 2011. Retrieved 18 May 2011.
19. ^ ^{a b c d e f} "TARDIS Console Competition". Presenters: Helen Skelton,Barney Harwood, and Andy Akinwolere. Blue Peter. BBC. 10 May 2011.
20. ^ Millar, Paul (15 May 2011). "Eurovision TV ratings reaches 11-year high". Digital Spy. Retrieved 15 May 2011.
21. ^ "Final BARB-Rating". Broadcasters' Audience Research Board. BARB. 9 May 2011. Retrieved 9 May 2011.
22. ^ "Doctor Who: The Doctor's Wife – Series 32, episode 4". The Guardian. 2011-05-14. Retrieved 2011-05-21.
23. ^ "The Doctor's Wife". 2011-05-14. Retrieved 2011-05-21.

"Day of the Moon"^[2] is the second episode of the sixth series of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. The second episode of a two-part story written by Steven Moffat, it was broadcast on 30 April 2011 in the UK on BBC One, in the U.S. on BBC America, and in Canada on Space.

[edit] Plot

In the three months since the end of "The Impossible Astronaut", the Doctor, Amy, Rory and River Song have been attempting to track the Silence, an alien race who cannot be remembered after they are encountered. Reunited at Area 51 with Canton Delaware, who had been pretending to work against them, the Doctor plants a communication device in each of the group's hands to record audio of meetings with the Silence. Amy tells the Doctor she was mistaken and is not pregnant.

While the Doctor alters part of the command module of Apollo 11, Canton and Amy visit an orphanage, hoping to find where the girl in the spacesuit was taken from. Amy discovers a nest of the Silence, and a photograph of her and a baby amongst pictures of the little girl from the space suit. The girl enters with the Silence, and Amy is abducted and taken to their time engine control room. Arriving too late to help Amy, the Doctor and his allies find her recording device. Canton is able to shoot and wound one of the creatures, and from it the Doctor discovers the creatures are the Silence, a group he was warned about by several of his foes in his recent adventures. Analysing the now-empty space suit, River realises that the girl possesses incredible strength to have forced her way out of it, and that the suit's advanced life-support technology would have called the President as the highest authority figure on Earth when the girl got scared. The Doctor realises why the Silence have been controlling humanity — by guiding their technological advances, they have used humanity to build a spacesuit, which must somehow be crucial to their intentions. Meanwhile Canton interrogates the captured Silent in the Area 51 prison, who mocks humanity for treating him when they should "kill us all on sight". Canton records this using Amy's mobile phone.

The Doctor uses Amy's communication chip to track her location, and lands the TARDIS in the Silence's control room five days later. As River and Rory hold the Silence at bay, the Doctor shows them the live broadcast of the moon landing. As they watch, the Doctor uses his modification of the Apollo command module to insert Canton's recording of the wounded Silent into the footage of the landing. Because of this message, humans will now turn upon the Silence whenever they see them. The group frees Amy and departs in the TARDIS, while River kills all the Silence in the control room. Amy reassures Rory that the man he overheard her speaking of loving through the communication chip was him, not the Doctor.

River refuses the Doctor's offer to travel with him, returning to her Stormcage prison in order to keep a promise. She kisses the Doctor goodbye, and as the Doctor has never kissed her before deduces that this is her last kiss with him. In the TARDIS, Amy appears unable to remember seeing her picture in the orphanage and claims that she told the Doctor, rather than Rory, when she believed she was pregnant through fears that travelling in the TARDIS might have affected her child's development. As the trio set off, the Doctor discreetly uses the TARDIS scanner to attempt to determine if Amy is pregnant.

Six months later, a homeless man in New York City comes across the young girl, previously seen in the astronaut's suit. The girl says she is dying, but can fix it; before the man's eyes, she appears to begin regenerating.

[edit] Continuity

• The Silence's 'time engine' set was previously used in "The Lodger".^[3] The Doctor describes it as "very Aickman Road", a reference to the house the ship occupied in that episode.^[4]
• When the Silent reveals his species' name to the Doctor, the Doctor has flash-backs to "The Eleventh Hour" and "The Vampires of Venice", the first mentions of the Silence.^[4]
• The Doctor is held captive in Area 51, which he had visited previously in the Tenth Doctor animated story Dreamland.
• The Doctor and Rory discuss both being present at the fall of Rome. As an Auton, Rory guarded the Pandorica from the Roman era to the present day in "The Big Bang", and the First Doctor indirectly instigated the Great Fire of Rome in The Romans.
• "Eye Patch Lady" (Frances Barber) briefly appears to Amy in the orphanage, and will return in a later episode.^[4]
• The Doctor is imprisoned within walls of "zero balance dwarf star alloy, the densest material in the universe..." Dwarf star alloy first appeared in the 18th season Tom Baker story "Warriors' Gate", forming the hull of a slave ship capturing time sensitive Tharils. The density prevented the Tharils (who possessed the ability to go out of phase with time) from escaping.

[edit] Outside references

• Near the end of the episode, President Richard Nixon asks the Doctor if he will be remembered by future generations. Amused by the question, the Doctor coyly remarks that the American people will never forget Nixon, a reference to the Watergate scandal that effectively ended Nixon's presidency. The Doctor also tells Nixon to record every word spoken in the Oval Office, another reference to the Watergate scandal (which revolved around the Oval office secret taping system).

• The Doctor also tells Nixon to say hi to David Frost. Frost is a British journalist, who had a famous interview with Nixon.

• During his conversation with the president, Canton confirms that his lover (whom he wishes to marry) is black. Interracial marriages had still been banned in certain states as recently as 1967. This revelation seems to explain Canton's previous statement about being fired from the FBI for "wanting to get married" in "The Impossible Astronaut" until he clarifies that his lover is a "he". Same-sex marriage was not legal in the United States in 1969.

[edit] Production

Steven Moffat, head writer of the new series, said before broadcast that this would be one of the darkest openers to a series ever done for Doctor Who.^[2] Director Toby Haynes believed that the darker episodes like "The Impossible Astronaut" and "Day of the Moon" would allow the series to get into "more dangerous territory."^[3] The creation of the Silence was partly inspired by the figure from the Edvard Munch painting The Scream.^[2] Introducing the alien villains became a "big challenge" for the producers; it would tie in with the loose "silence will fall" arc that carried through the fifth series. Moffat did not wish to end the arc in the previous series, as he felt it would be "more fun" to continue it. Elsewhere in the episode, Delaware was written to be deceptively antagonistic towards the protagonists, which was based on actor Mark Sheppard's past as villains for his work in American television. Moffat was also keen on the idea of having the Doctor imprisoned with a beard in Area 51.^[3]

Many of the opening scenes of the episode were filmed on location in the United States. The sequence where Delaware chases Amy was shot in the Valley of the Gods in Utah. Gillan found it difficult to run because of the altitude. The sequence where Delaware chases Rory was shot at the Glen Canyon Dam in Arizona. The Dam sequence was the final scene to be shot in the States. The sequence where Delaware chases River in New York was in fact shot in central Cardiff. A set was later constructed in a studio for the jump sequence, and Kingston was replaced by a stunt woman to perform the jump. The scenes set in Area 51 were filmed in a large disused hangar in South Wales.^[3]

The Florida orphanage was filmed at the abandoned Troy House in Monmouthshire, which many of the cast and crew believed is haunted. To add the effect that a storm is outside the building, the production crew placed rain machines outdoors and flashing lights to simulate lightning. The Silence were portrayed by Marnix van den Broeke and other performers. The masks caused vision difficulties from the performers, who had to be guided by two people when they have to walk. Broeke does not provide the voices of the Silence, as it would be replaced during post-production. The control room set used from "The Lodger" was used again for this episode. Moffat wanted the set to be used again, feeling it would be a suitable Silence base. The set was adapted to give it a darker, evil feel.^[3]

[edit] Cast notes

Ricky Fearon who played the tramp previously played Foreman in the Torchwood episode To the Last Man.

[edit] Broadcast and reception

"Day of the Moon" was first broadcast on 30 April 2011 at 6 pm.^[5] The episode received preliminary overnight ratings of 5.39 million viewers, equalling a 30.5 per cent audience share. The episode was down by 1.1 million from the previous week, but was still the second most seen broadcast for the day, behind Britain's Got Talent on ITV1.^[6]

Dan Martin of The Guardian liked the episode for its "action, tension, horror and River Song in a business suit," but felt it "sags a little around the middle."^[7] Martin believed the scenes with Amy and Delaware in the orphanage was the "fear factor" of the episode.^[7]

[edit] References

1. ^ "Matt Smith Video and New Series Overview". BBC. http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/dw/news/bulletin_110411_01/Matt_Smith_Video_and_New_Series_Overview. Retrieved 15 April 2011. 
2. ^ ^{a b c} "Doctor Who boss says season start is 'darkest yet'". BBC. 5 April 2011. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-12969897. Retrieved 7 April 2011. 
3. ^ ^{a b c d e} "Breaking the Silence". Doctor Who Confidential. BBC. BBC Three. 30 April 2011. No. 2, series 6.
4. ^ ^{a b c} BBC - BBC One Programmes - Doctor Who, Series 6, Day of the Moon
5. ^ "Doctor Who, Series 6, Day of the Moon". BBC Online. BBC. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b010y5l3. Retrieved 2 May 2011. 
6. ^ Millar, Paul (1 May 2011). "'Doctor Who' audience slips to 5.4m". Digital Spy. http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/s7/doctor-who/news/a317300/doctor-who-audience-slips-to-54m.html. Retrieved 2 May 2011. 
7. ^ ^{a b} Martin, Dan (30 April 2011). "Doctor Who: Day of the Moon — Series 32, episode 2". The Guardian (Guardian Media Group). http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2011/apr/30/doctor-who-day-of-the-moon. Retrieved 2 May 2011.

Plot

The arrival of the TARDIS on Manussa, formerly homeworld of both the Manussan Empire and Sumaran Empire, triggers nightmares in Tegan, who dreams of a snake-shaped cave mouth. It is evident to the Fifth Doctor that the Mara is reasserting itself on her mind following her possession by the entity while on the Kinda planet of Deva Loka (Kinda). He attempts to calm her by taking her and Nyssa in search of the cave but Tegan is too scared to enter when they find it, and runs away. Alone and confused Tegan lapses under the control of the Mara once more, revelling in horror and destruction. The emblem of the snake soon returns to her arm.

Manussa is in the grip of a festival of celebration of the banishment of the Mara from the civilisation five hundred years earlier. In the absence of the Federator, who rules over the three-planet Federation, his indolent son Lon is to have a major role in the celebration, supported by his mother the Lady Tanha and the archaeologist Ambril, who is an expert in the Sumaran period. Lon is intrigued with the notion that the Mara might one day return as prophesied, but Ambril is unconvinced and believes such talk is the product of cranks. When the Doctor tries to get Ambril to take the threat seriously he too is dismissed as a maverick, though the young deputy curator Chela is more sympathetic to the Doctor and gives him a small blue crystal called a Little Mind's Eye, which is used by the Snakedancers, a mystical cult, in their ceremonies to repel the Mara. The Doctor realises the small crystal and its large counterpart, the Great Mind's Eye, can be used as focal points for mental energy and can turn thought into matter. This, he determines, is how the Mara will transfer from Tegan's mind to corporeal existence. He realises that the Manussans must once have been a very advanced people who could use molecular engineering in a zero-gravity environment. They created the Great Mind's Eye without realising its full potential, and the crystal drew the fear, hatred, and evil from their minds, amplified it and fed it back to them. Thus the Mara was born into Manussa and the reign of the Sumaran Empire began.

Meanwhile Tegan makes contact with Lon and passes the snake mark of the Mara to him too. They visit the cave from Tegan's dream which contains a wall pattern which could accommodate the Great Crystal. Lon is sent back to the Palace while she causes more havoc and takes control of a showman, Dugdale, who is used for her pleasure. Lon meanwhile covers his arm and goes about trying to persuade Ambril to use the real Great crystal in the ceremony, placing it in a position in a wall carving that will evidently enable the Mara to return as the Doctor predicted. To persuade him to comply, Ambril is shown a secret cave of Sumaran archaeological treasures and warned they will all be destroyed if he does not help him. Ambril thus agrees to the change in format.

The Doctor and Nyssa have meanwhile been aided by Chela, who shares with them the journal of Dojjen, a snakedancer who was Ambril's predecessor. All three venture to the Palace to persuade the authorities to do something about the situation, but soon see Lon is in the grip of the Mara and orchestrating a very dangerous situation. All three escape and the Doctor now uses the Little Mind's Eye to contact Dojjen, who lives in sandy dunes beyond the city. They venture there and the Doctor communes with Dojjen by opening his mind after being bitten by a poisonous snake. He is told by the wise old snakedancer that the Mara may only be defeated by finding a still point in the mind. All three now head back to the city to prevent the ceremony of defeating the Mara using the real Great Crystal. The festivities are now at a peak, with a procession taking place which culminates in a ceremony at the cave. Lon plays the role of his ancestor Federator in rejecting the Mara. After a series of verbal challenges he seizes the real Great Crystal and places it in the appropriate place on the wall. Tegan and Dugdale arrive and she displays the Mara mark on her arm, which is now becoming flesh having fed on the fear in Dugdale's mind. With the crystal in place, the Mara is able to create itself in the cave, becoming a vast and deadly snake. However, the Doctor arrives in time and refuses to look at the snake or recognise its evil, relying instead on the still place he finds through mental commune with Dojjen via the Little Mind's Eye. This resistance interrupts the manifestation of the Mara and its three slaves are freed while the snake itself dies and rots. The Doctor comforts a distraught Tegan, sure that the Mara has at last been destroyed.

[edit] Cast notes

Features a guest appearance by Martin Clunes. See also Celebrity appearances in Doctor Who. Brian Miller is the husband of Elisabeth Sladen who portrayed long-time companion Sarah Jane Smith. He later played Harry Sowersby in The Mad Woman in the Attic, an episode of The Sarah Jane Adventures.

Brian Grellis previously played Sheprah in Revenge of the Cybermen and Safran in The Invisible Enemy.

[edit] Continuity

• Every story during Season 20 had the Doctor face an enemy from the past. For this story, the enemy was the Mara, who was featured in the previous season's story Kinda (1982).

• In the redesigned TARDIS of the 1996 Doctor Who TV movie, one of the consoles displays different time eras such as the Rassilon Era, Humanian Era and the Sumaron Era. The Sumaron era may be a reference to this episode.

[edit] Production

• In post-production, episode four of this story overran very badly. As a result, it had to be completely restructured. Originally the door for a third Mara adventure was to be left open, with closing scenes discussing the ultimate fate of the Great Crystal. Furthermore, a sequence in which the Doctor comforts Tegan had to be removed. The scene was reincorporated into the beginning of the subsequent serial, Mawdryn Undead (1983).
• The success of Kinda and this story prompted Script Editor Eric Saward to commission Bailey to write a third and final story to feature the Mara: May Time. However, the story was abandoned due to production problems.
• This is one of the very few Doctor Who stories in which no one dies.

[edit] In print

Doctor Who book
Snakedance
Series	Target novelisations
Release number	83
Writer	Terrance Dicks
Publisher	Target Books
Cover artist	Andrew Skilleter
ISBN	0-426-19457-8
Release date	3 May 1984

A novelisation of this serial, written by Terrance Dicks, was published by Target Books in January 1984. It was the first of several to feature Peter Davison's image in the logo.

[edit] Broadcast and VHS release

• This story was released on VHS in December 1994.
• This story was released on DVD on 7 March 2011 along with Kinda in a special edition boxset entitled Mara Tales.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Snakedance at BBC Online
• Snakedance at Doctor Who: A Brief History Of Time (Travel)
• Snakedance at the Doctor Who Reference Guide

[edit] Reviews

• Snakedance reviews at Outpost Gallifrey
• Snakedance reviews at The Doctor Who Ratings Guide

[edit] Target novelisation

• On Target — Snakedance

Jedi knights?!

How many Jedi Knights were in the UK 2001 Census?

Over 390,000 people answered “Jedi” in the 2001 census for England and Wales and 14,000 in Scotland (a lower proportion). This is more than the number of identifying Sikhs, and more than Jews and Buddhists combined. However, this did not mean that Jedi became an official religion- it doesn’t work like that!

Why answer Jedi?

Much of the public and media discussion focused on legitimate concerns with the census, which the “Jedi” answer could be disruptively used to promote. Some reasons people answered “Jedi” include:

• concern about how ‘religion’ data might be used
• concern about the inclusion of a question on religion at all
• making a statement about privacy or annoyance with interference
• a reaction against the apparent presumption of having a religion
• making a point about the way people tend to legitimize religion based on its antiquity or number of adherents

Should I answer “Jedi”?

Our recommendation is that if you are not religious, answer “No religion”, because at some time or place, someone will refer only to the explicit “No religion” answers, from which you will be left out if you answered “Jedi”. If you want to write Jedi as a protest against anwering the question at all, see Why should I answer the question at all?

Doctor

    * Peter Davison (Fifth Doctor)

Companions

    * Matthew Waterhouse (Adric)
    * Sarah Sutton (Nyssa)
    * Janet Fielding (Tegan Jovanka)

Others

    * Richard Todd — Sanders
    * Nerys Hughes — Todd
    * Simon Rouse — Hindle
    * Mary Morris — Panna
    * Sarah Prince — Karuna
    * Adrian Mills — Aris
    * Lee Cornes — Trickster
    * Jeff Stewart — Dukkha
    * Anna Wing — Anatta
    * Roger Milner — Annica

Production
Writer     Christopher Bailey
Director     Peter Grimwade
Script editor     Eric Saward
Producer     John Nathan-Turner
Executive producer(s)     None
Production code     5Y
Series     Season 19
Length     4 episodes, 25 minutes each
Originally broadcast     February 1–February 9, 1982
Chronology
← Preceded by     Followed by →
Four to Doomsday     The Visitation

Kinda is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four twice-weekly parts from February 1 to February 9, 1982.
Contents
[hide]

    * 1 Synopsis
    * 2 Plot
    * 3 Continuity
    * 4 Production
    * 5 Outside references
    * 6 In print
    * 7 Broadcast and VHS release
    * 8 References
    * 9 External links
          o 9.1 Reviews
          o 9.2 Target novelisation

[edit] Synopsis

An idyllic paradise-like planet, Deva Loka, is not as it seems. Its inhabitants, the Kinda, are a gentle and seemingly primitive people. On the surface, a perfect place to colonise. But if it is so perfect, why are the colonisation team disappearing one by one? When Tegan sleeps near the Windchimes she is confronted by the true evil that threatens Deva Loka.
[edit] Plot

An Earth colonisation survey expedition to the beautiful jungle planet Deva Loka is being depleted as members of the survey disappear one by one. Four have now gone, leaving the remainder in state of deep stress. The leader, Sanders, relies on bombast and rules; while his deputy, Hindle, is evidently close to breaking point. Only the scientific officer, Todd, seems to deal with the situation with equanimity. She does not see the native people, the Kinda, as a threat, but rather respects their culture and is intrigued by their power of telepathy. The social structure is also curious in that women seem dominant and are the only ones with the power of voice. The humans are holding two silent males hostage for "observation". Todd believes they are more advanced than they first appear, as they possess necklaces representative of the double helix of DNA, indicating a more advanced civilisation.

Elsewhere in the jungle the TARDIS crew are also under stress, especially Nyssa of Traken, who has collapsed from exhaustion. The Fifth Doctor constructs a delta wave augmenter to enable her to rest in the TARDIS while he and Adric venture deeper into the jungle. They soon find an automated total survival suit (TSS) system which activates and marches them to the Dome, the colonists' base. Sanders is a welcoming but gruff presence, further undermining Hindle at regular intervals. At this point Sanders decides to venture out into the jungle in the TSS, leaving the highly strung Hindle in charge. His will is enforced by means of the two Kinda hostages, who have forged a telepathic link with him believing their souls to have been captured in his mirror. The Doctor, Todd and Adric are immediately placed under arrest as Hindle now evinces megalomania.

Tegan faces a more metaphysical crisis. She has fallen asleep near the euphonious and soporific Windchimes, unaware of the danger of the dreaming of an unshared mind (one not engaged in telepathic activity with another humanoid). Her mind opens in a black void where she undergoes provocation and terror from a series of nightmarish characters, one of which taunts her: “You will agree to being me, sooner or later, this side of madness or the other". The spectres are a manifestation of the Mara, an evil being of the subconscious that longs for corporeal reality. Mentally tortured, she eventually agrees to become the Mara and a snake symbol passes to her own arm. When her mind returns to her body she is possessed by the Mara. In a scene reminiscent of the Book of Genesis she passes the snake symbol to the first Kinda she finds, a young man named Aris, who is the brother of one of the Kinda in the Dome. He too is transformed by evil and now finds the power of voice.

Back at the Dome, Hindle has conceived a bizarre and immolatory plan to destroy the jungle, which he views as a threat. Adric plays along with this delusion. Hindle’s world soon starts to fall apart when first Adric 'betrays' him and then Sanders defies expectation and returns from the jungle. However Sanders is radically different from the martinet in earlier episodes. Panna, an aged female mystic of the tribe, presented him with a strange wooden box (the 'Box of Jhana') which when opened has regressed his mind back to childhood. Sanders still has the box and shows it to Hindle, who makes the Doctor open it.

The Doctor and Todd see beyond the toy inside and instead share a vision from Panna and her young ward, Karuna, who invites them to cave. The shock of the situation (accompanied by strange phenomena) allows the Doctor and Todd to slip away into the jungle where they encounter Aris dominating a group of Kinda and seemingly fulfilling a tribal prophecy that “When the Not-We come, one will arise from among We, a male with Voice who must be obeyed.” Karuna soon finds the Doctor and Todd and takes them to meet Panna in the cave from the vision, with the wise woman realising the danger of the situation now Aris has voice. She places them in a trance like state and reveals that the Mara has gained dominion on Deva Loka. The Great Wheel which turns as civilisations rise and fall has turned again and the hour is near when chaos will reign, instigated by the Mara. The vision she shares is Panna’s last act: when it is finished, she is dead.

In the Kinda world, multiple fathers are shared by children, just as multiple memories are held, and at Panna's death her life experience transfers to Karuna. She urges Todd and the Doctor to return to the Dome to prevent Aris leading an attack on it which will increase the chaos and hasten the collapse of the Kinda civilisation.

Back at the Dome Hindle, Sanders and Adric remain in a state of unreality, with the former becoming ever more demented and unbalanced, and infantile. Adric eventually escapes, and attempts to pilot the TSS but is soon confronted by Aris and the Kinda. He panics, and Aris is wounded by the machine (which responds to the mental impulses of the operator) and the Kinda scatter.

The Doctor and Todd find an emotionally wrecked Tegan near the Windchimes and conclude that she was the path of the Mara back into this world. They then find Adric and the party heads back to the Dome where Hindle has now completed the laying of explosives which will incinerate the jungle and the Dome itself: the ultimate self-defence. Todd persuades Hindle now to open the Box of Jhana, and the visions therein restore the mental balance of the two. The two enslaved Kinda are freed when the mirror entrapping them is shattered. The Doctor then realizes the only method of combating the Mara- he realises the one thing evil cannot face is itself and so organizes the construction of a large circle of mirrors (actually reflective solar panels) in a jungle clearing. Aris is trapped within it and the snake on his arm breaks free. The Mara swells to giant proportions but then is banished back from the corporeal world to the Dark Places of the Inside.

With the threat of the Mara dissipated, and the personnel of the Dome back to more balanced selves, the Doctor, Adric and an exhausted Tegan decide to leave (as does Todd, who decides 'its all a bit green'). When they reach the TARDIS, Nyssa greets them, fully recovered.
[edit] Continuity

    * The Mara features again in the next season's serial Snakedance.
    * Delta waves reappeared in the 2005 episode "The Parting of the Ways". Far from the brain wave-enhancing recuperation devices from Kinda, however, delta waves were described by Jack Harkness as being "waves of Van Cassadyne energy...your brain gets barbecued."
    * A fairy like creature which is compared to a Mara features in the 2006 Torchwood episode Small Worlds, however there may be no connection between the two.
    * In Time Crash (2007), the Tenth Doctor asks the temporally misplaced Fifth where (i.e. when) he is now – and speculatively references Tegan, Nyssa and the Mara from his own memories.
    * In Turn Left (2008), the time beetle on Donna Noble's back is also revealed when faced with a circle of mirrors.

[edit] Production
Serial details by episode Episode     Broadcast date     Run time     Viewership
(in millions)
"Part One"     1 February 1982 (1982-02-01)     24:50     8.4
"Part Two"     2 February 1982 (1982-02-02)     24:58     9.4
"Part Three"     8 February 1982 (1982-02-08)     24:17     8.5
"Part Four"     9 February 1982 (1982-02-09)     24:28     8.9
[2][3][4]

    * The working title for this story was The Kinda.
    * This was the first story to feature Eric Saward as script editor.
    * In the ancient language Sanskrit, "Deva Loka" means "Celestial Region".
    * Nyssa makes only brief appearances at the start of episode 1, and at the end of 4, because the script had largely been developed at a time when only two companions for the Doctor were envisioned. When it was known a third companion would also be present, rather than write Nyssa into the entire storyline it was decided she would remain in the TARDIS throughout and be absent through most of the narrative. To account for this absence Nyssa was scripted to collapse at the end of the previous story, Four to Doomsday. In this story she remains in the Tardis, resting. Sarah Sutton's contract was amended to account for this two-episode absence.[4]
    * For the scene in episode 2 in which the two Tegans talk to each other about which of them is real, John Nathan-Turner allowed Janet Fielding to write her own dialogue.

[edit] Outside references

    * Writer Christopher Bailey based this story heavily on Buddhist philosophy. He used many Buddhist words and ideas in writing Kinda; most of the Kinda and dream-sequence characters have names with Buddhist meanings, including Mara (temptation — also personified as a demon), Dukkha (pain), Panna (wisdom), Karuna (compassion), Anicca (impermanence) and Anatta (egolessness). Additionally, Jhana (also spelt Jana in the scripts) refers to meditation.
    * This serial was examined closely in the 1983 media studies volume Doctor Who: The Unfolding Text by John Tulloch and Manuel Alvarado. This was the first major scholarly work dedicated to Doctor Who. Tulloch and Alvarado compare Kinda with Ursula K. Le Guin's 1976 novel The Word for World is Forest, which shares several themes with Kinda and may have been a template for its story. The Unfolding Text also examines the way "Kinda" incorporates Buddhist and Christian symbols and themes, as well as elements from the writings of Carl Jung.[5]

[edit] In print
Doctor Who book
Book cover
Kinda
Series     Target novelisations
Release number     84
Writer     Terrance Dicks
Publisher     Target Books
ISBN     0-426-19529-9
Release date     15 March 1984
Preceded by     Mawdryn Undead
Followed by     Snakedance

A novelisation of this serial, written by Terrance Dicks, was published by Target Books in December 1983.

In 1997 the novel was also issued by BBC Audio as an audio book, read by Peter Davison.
[edit] Broadcast and VHS release

    * The serial was repeated on BBC One over 22-25 August 1983, (Monday-Thursday) at 6.25pm. This story was released on VHS in October 1994 with a cover illustration by Colin Howard.
    * This story is set to be released on DVD in 2011 along with Snakedance in a special edition boxset entitled Mara Tales. It will feature an audio commentary by Peter Davison, Matthew Waterhouse, Janet Fielding and Nerys Hughes.[6]

[edit] References

   1. ^ From the Doctor Who Magazine series overview, in issue 407 (pp26-29). The Discontinuity Guide, which counts the unbroadcast serial Shada, lists this as story number 119. Region 1 DVD releases follow The Discontinuity Guide numbering system.
   2. ^ Shaun Lyon et al. (2007-03-31). "Kinda". Outpost Gallifrey. Archived from the original on 2008-07-31. http://web.archive.org/web/20080731011611/http://www.gallifreyone.com/episode.php?id=5y. Retrieved 2008-08-30.
   3. ^ "Kinda". Doctor Who Reference Guide. http://www.drwhoguide.com/who_5y.htm. Retrieved 2008-08-30.
   4. ^ a b Sullivan, Shannon (2007-08-07). "Kinda". A Brief History of Time Travel. http://www.shannonsullivan.com/drwho/serials/5y.html. Retrieved 2008-10-04.
   5. ^ Tulloch, John; and Alvarado, Manuel (1983). Doctor Who: The Unfolding Text. St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0-312-21480-4.
   6. ^ Matthew Waterhouses' autobiography Blue Box Boy

[edit] External links

    * Kinda at BBC Online
    * Kinda at Doctor Who: A Brief History Of Time (Travel)
    * Kinda at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
    * KI'n'DA - Cardiff Doctor Who group

[edit] Reviews

    * Kinda reviews at Outpost Gallifrey
    * Kinda reviews at The Doctor Who Ratings Guide

[edit] Target novelisation

    * On Target — Kinda

William Nicholas Stone Courtney (16 December 1929 – 22 February 2011)^[1][2] was a British television actor, most famous for playing Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who.^[3]

Early life

Courtney was born in Cairo, Egypt, the son of a British diplomat and educated in France, Kenya and Egypt. He served his National Service in the British Army, leaving after 18 months as a private, not wanting to pursue a military career. He next joined the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art,^[4] and after two years began doing repertory theatre in Northampton. From there he moved to London.

Prior to Doctor Who, Courtney made guest appearances in several cult television series, including The Avengers (1962, 1967), The Champions (1968) and Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) (1969) and as a racing driver in Riviera Police (1965).

Doctor Who

Director Douglas Camfield originally considered Courtney for the role of Richard the Lionheart in The Crusade (1965), a role that ultimately went to Julian Glover,^{[citation needed]} and kept him in mind for future casting. Courtney's first appearance in Doctor Who was in the 1965 serial The Daleks' Master Plan, directed by Camfield, where he played Space Security Agent Bret Vyon opposite William Hartnell as the Doctor. Camfield liked Courtney's performance, and when the director was assigned the 1968 serial The Web of Fear, he cast Courtney as Captain Knight. However, when David Langton gave up the role of Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart to work elsewhere, Camfield recast Captain Knight and gave the part to Courtney instead.

Lethbridge-Stewart reappeared later that year in The Invasion, promoted to Brigadier and in charge of the British contingent of UNIT, an organization that protected the Earth from alien invasion. It was in that recurring role that he is best known, appearing semi-regularly from 1970 to 1975. Courtney made return appearances in the series in 1983, and his last Doctor Who television appearance was in 1989 in the serial Battlefield (although like many other former cast members, he returned to the role for the charity special Dimensions in Time). Coincidentally, he appeared with Jean Marsh in both his first and last regular Doctor Who television appearances.

Courtney has played Lethbridge-Stewart, either on television or in audio plays, alongside every subsequent Doctor up to and including Paul McGann, as well as substitute First Doctor Richard Hurndall. He did not appear in the revived series. While he has acted with Tenth Doctor actor David Tennant in the Big Finish audio dramas Sympathy for the Devil and UNIT: The Wasting, Tennant was playing a different character, Colonel Ross Brimmicombe-Wood, on both occasions.

The character is referenced in the Series 4 episode "The Poison Sky" and is said to be "stuck in Peru". Fifteen years after Dimensions in Time, Courtney returned as Lethbridge-Stewart (now, Sir Alistair), freshly returned from Peru, in "Enemy of the Bane", a two-part story in the Doctor Who spin-off The Sarah Jane Adventures aired in December 2008, starring Elisabeth Sladen as Sarah Jane Smith. The story pitted Sir Alistair and Sarah Jane against Commander Kaagh and Mrs. Wormwood who try to wake Horath using the Tanguska Scroll. It was intended by the Sarah Jane Adventures production team that Courtney would reappear in the following year's The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith so that Lethbridge-Stewart would meet the Tenth Doctor, but Courtney was recovering from a stroke and unable to take part.^[5]

After Doctor Who

Courtney continued to act extensively in theatre and television after his main Doctor Who appearances, guest-starring in such popular television programmes as Minder (1984), All Creatures Great and Small (1980, episode "Matters Of Life And Death"), Only Fools and Horses (1988) and Yes, Prime Minister (1986). In 1982 he was cast alongside Frankie Howerd in the World War II-set comedy series Then Churchill Said to Me but the series remained untransmitted for over a decade due to the outbreak of the Falklands War. He also had a regular role in the comedy French Fields between 1989 and 1991. He has also appeared in the Big Finish Productions audio drama Earthsearch Mindwarp, based on a James Follett novel, broadcast on the digital radio station BBC 7.

He also appeared in an episode of the long-running BBC TV series The Two Ronnies alongside Ronnie Barker and Ronnie Corbett as the character of 'Captain Dickie Chapman', a fellow prisoner-of-war (POW) in Colditz during World War II, in a sketch based on the original BBC TV series, Colditz.

In 1985, Nicholas played 'The Narrator' in The Rocky Horror Show. Amanda Redman also starred in the production as Janet.

Courtney starred as Inspector Lionheart opposite fellow Doctor Who actor Terry Molloy in the audio series The Scarifyers, from Cosmic Hobo Productions. The first two Scarifyers adventures, The Nazad Conspiracy and The Devil of Denge Marsh, were broadcast on BBC 7 in 2007; the third, entitled For King and Country in 2008, and fourth, The Curse of the Black Comet, in 2010.

He regularly made personal appearances at science fiction conventions and was also from 1997 the honorary president of the Doctor Who Appreciation Society. His theatrical agent was former Doctor Who actress Wendy Padbury.

In 1998, Courtney released his autobiography, titled Five Rounds Rapid! (ISBN 978-1852277826) after an infamous line of dialogue the Brigadier had in the 1971 Who serial The Dæmons. He recorded his memoirs, subtitled A Soldier in Time for release on CD in 2002 by Big Finish. An updated autobiography, Still Getting Away With It (ISBN 978-1871330731), was published in 2005, with co-author Michael McManus. Until his death, he lived in London with his second wife, Karen.

In 2008 he appeared in the film Incendiary, as the Archbishop of Canterbury, alongside Ewan McGregor.

Death

Nicholas Courtney's death was reported by SFX^[1] and The Stage^[2] early in the morning of 23 February 2011. The exact nature of his death was not given in these early reports. Doctor Who audio play producers Big Finish, with whom Courtney had worked on several releases in his continuing role as the Brigadier, confirmed the date of his death as 22 February 2011.^[6] The BBC reported that he had "died in London at the age of 81".^[7] According to his official web site, he died following a long battle against illness.^[8] Doctor Who writer Mark Gatiss called him "a childhood hero and the sweetest of gentlemen".^[7] Former Doctor Tom Baker also paid tribute, having visited him on the Friday before his death. Baker wrote "We shall miss him terribly" in a newsletter on his website, in which he also indicated that Courtney had been battling cancer.^[9]

References

External links

• Official Web site
• Nicholas Courtney at the Internet Movie Database
• Voice Agent profile and contact
• Obituary in The Guardian
• Obituary in The Independent
• Obituary in The Telegraph

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