17 minute read
Rewind to 1989
Divergence
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LET'S TRAVEL TO AN ALTERNATE 1989 TO LEARN JUST HOW DOCTOR WHO WAS SAVED!
Despite it being widely accepted as fact, Doctor Who’s cancellation at the end of the 1980s was not inevitable.
Michael Grade has often been credited as “the man who cancelled Doctor Who”, and while he did indeed cancel Doctor Who, he wasn’t the man who ended the show for 15 long years. Michael Grade was appointed Controller of BBC1 in 1984 upon taking a look at BBC1’s, then, current programming, and finding Doctor Who, a programme which had been running for 21 years; had done every conceivable story under the sun and was show that he didn’t particularly like, Grade made the decision to announce the cancellation of Doctor Who. What followed was an uproar. The press ran headlines like “Down-Graded” and “Dr Who Axed in Plot by the BBC”; Grade was doorstepped on a skiing holiday; fans organised Daleks to invade Grade’s office… and then perhaps, worst of all, a charity record Doctor in Distress was produced. All of this worked and soon Grade changed his cancellation order to an 18-month hiatus and Doctor Who was back. Doctor Who was cancelled instead, four years later, in a manner which wasn’t quite so cut-and-dry.
Looking over those final four seasons of the show’s original run, there’s a tendency for people to assume the show was on its last legs. It was cancelled in 1989, after all, there must’vebeen a reason… In fact, that couldn’t have been further from the truth. Through those final years, Doctor Who seemed to enter something of a renaissance, not seen since the days of Tom Baker. A new wave of young talent, led by new Script Editor, Andrew Cartmel, had joined the show, and the stories themselves had become increasingly made-up of 3-parters, often mostly on location becoming rather grounded and grown-up in tone.
One of the things people assume about Doctor Who’s cancellation was that it was because the viewing figures were awful and while viewing figures were low, this was only really because, the new Controller of BBC1, Jonathan Powell had scheduled Doctor Who against the No.1 most popular television show in the country, at the time, Coronation Street. Compared to other shows scheduled against the juggernaut soap opera, Doctor Who held out better than most. In fact, it wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to describe Doctor Who’s ratings, given the circumstances, as… healthy.
Doctor Who was not cancelled because its ratings were bad, because, simply, they weren’t. Doctor Who was not cancelled because the stories were bad, because, simply, they weren’t. Doctor Who was cancelled because a single department at the BBC split into two.
Let’s rewind.
After Sydney Newman became Head of Drama in 1963, one of the first changes he made was splitting the Drama department up into three different departments: Series, Serials & Plays. The Series department was the least prestigious, covering any ongoing series that the BBC were making year-in-year-out. The Serials department was slightly more respected, and covered serials that the BBC made, usually as a one-off 6-part series. These would nowadays be referred to as a miniseries or a limited-series. However, the Plays department was the most well respected of them all. Although the name Plays might fool you into thinking these had something to do with the theatre, the name was simply a holdover from the early days of the BBC, and in fact it meant a one-off drama or a TV Movie, as we might call it nowadays. The most important thing to note is that during the period the BBC operated under this structure, Doctor Who was in fact part of the Serials department. Now, this might raise an eyebrow, as Doctor Who was an ongoing series. By 1980, it’d been on every year for 18 years. It was a series, surely! Well, Doctor Who was technically a series of serials, not of stand-alone episodes, and therefore the skill-set to produce the series lay with the serials department. Essentially, Doctor Who was 5 or 6 different serials a year, all being produced consecutively, by the department.
In 1980, though, the Series and the Serials departments merged into a single department Serials & Serials, while the Plays department ceased to technically exist, instead falling directly under the provision of the Head of Drama. This didn’t mean much at the time, as it was pretty much business as usual, especially as the Head of Serials became the first Head of Series & Serials, therefore the man overseeing Doctor Who, Graeme MacDonald, was the same. Over the course of the next decade, the job switched hands many times, until in 1989, Mark Shivas, the Head of Drama decided to split the Series & Serials department in-two, again. This saw the appointment of Peter Cregeen as Head of Series and Michael Wearing as Head of Serials. If the name Peter Cregeen sounds familiar to you, that’s because he is the man who, in actuality, cancelled Doctor Who… and if you’re wondering why the Head of Series cancelled Doctor Who, when Doctor Who was firmly under the provision of the Serials department, that’s because, perhaps mistakenly, perhaps intentionally, Doctor Who was given to the Series department following the split. Before 1980, Doctor Who was overseen by the Head of Serials, from 1989, Doctor Who was overseen by the Head of Series.
The Series department, which Peter Cregeen had been handed in 1989, was a boring department. It was full of lots of lowbudget programmes which had been running for several decades, and Doctor Who was one of them. As previously stated, the Series department was considered the least prestigious and the least important to the BBC. When the departments were merged, as Series & Serials, the Series side of things was mostly ignored and allowed to continue, as things had been, as all the focus remained on the much glossier Serials. Doctor Who was now in a position where it was one of many low-budget, long running series, that the BBC weren’t proud of… and they’d just assigned a new boss to oversee these programmes, and for the first time in years, it was someone who’s full attention and focus would be on those specific shows. Naturally, the very first thing Peter Cregeen did was look through his roster of shows and cancel all the ones which he thought had run long enough, so he could free up his budget to start up some new and fresh series, that just maybe, the BBC could be proud of. Doctor Who was piled onto that list, and therefore Peter Cregeen decided to end the show.
Having been warned about the backlash in 1985, when Michael Grade had done the same, it was decided that the public announcement would be the fact the Cregeen had decided to give Doctor Who a short break and that it’d be back in due course, but Cregeen had no intention of ever commissioning it again. This allowed interest in Doctor Who to slowly die, as news of a Season 27 never arrived.
So, returning to the statement of Doctor Who’s cancellation in 1989 not being inevitable, that’s because it was only really cancelled because of a new boss coming into a new department was clearing out the old to make way for the new, and this only happened because Doctor Who was put into the Series department, following the split of the Series & Serials department. It was not a complete given that, no matter what, Doctor Who would have ended in 1989.
Let’s imagine that, following the restructuring of the BBC Drama Department, Doctor Who was placed in the Serials department under Michael Wearing, as probably should’ve happened, given its placement there for 18 years! While not much is known about Wearing’s views on Doctor Who, it is likely that in a position where he was handed a successful and popular department, with an ever-changing line-up of programmes, he would’ve just left Doctor Who alone and allowed it to continue. He had no reason to cancel it, unlike Cregeen.
So, in a world where Doctor Who found itself under the supervision of Michael Wearing in 1989, and a 27th season was commissioned, as planned.. what would’ve happened? Well, I can’t tell you for sure, as noone really knows, but I can give you my best guess, based on all the information that we do have… and then following my best guess, I can continue to guess, based upon those guesses and the creatives now involved and what they may have done, given their style and the time period they find themselves involved with Doctor Who. Over the course of these features, we’ll be travelling from 1989 to 1998, to see my best guess at just what may just very well have happened, if Doctor Who wasn’t axed…
We've Got Work to Do...
As Michael Wearing became John Nathan-Turner’s new boss, Doctor Who had just entered production for its first serial of Season 26, The Wolves of Fenric. While most of the focus was on the current production, due for transmission in September, Script Editor, Andrew Cartmel was already in the process of drawing up ideas for the next run of serials.While Season 27 had not yet been formally given the green light, due to the manner of a production as complex as Doctor Who, work on each season had to begin far in advance. It was assumed that the show would be renewed, so in the months before Wearing gave the thumbs up, the production team began to make plans. In fact, Cartmel had been making plans for this season for a number of years. Well aware that he only had 4 serials, comprising just 14x25 minute episodes, to play with, Cartmel often oversubscribed story commissions, in order to make sure that the four that did make it, each year, would be of the best quality. The stories and writers who didn’t make the cut, were often carried over to the following season, meaning that when early pre-production began, Cartmel already had several writers waiting in the wings, with fully realised stories.
Cartmel had always been keen to give new and upcoming writers a chance, often scouting the BBC Writer’s Workshop, a course run by the BBC for young writers without any formal experience. However, since 1987, Cartmel’s “new writer’s only” policy had begun to crack, with a concession to, Producer, John Nathan-Turner being that one of the four serials would be from a returning writer. While this still let three slots open, three slots was not a whole lot. Cartmel had also built up a strong portfolio of very able writers, over his time as Script Editor, and he had grown attached to some of them, both as friends, and because he knew he could rely on them to deliver good scripts. Cartmel admitted that there was always a certain amount of babysitting that he had to do with new writers.
Some of Cartmel’s frustration with the lack of episodes available for him to work with, were voiced later that month, when John Nathan-Turner met with the new Head of Serials, Michael Wearing to discuss the programme. The meeting wasn’t particularly long and mainly served as an opportunity for Wearing to introduce himself to Nathan-Turner. However, during the meeting a few points were raised.
Firstly, Nathan-Turner expressed his desire to leave the series sometime in the not-toodistant future, which surprised Wearing as Nathan-Turner was Doctor Who. Nathan-Turner explained that he’d been with the show for a decade, and thought that it was time to move on. Wearing’s response of suggesting replacements indicated to Nathan-Turner that Doctor Who would continue, after he left, which had not been the case when he’d asked Wearing’s predecessors the same thing, several times, over the past 5 years; instead threatening to cancel the show, if Nathan-Turner departed.
He also mentioned to Wearing, in the meeting, that Sylvester McCoy was currently only contracted for his 4th season, and that he thought it’d be a good idea to get McCoy on board for a 5th, giving a new producer a ready foundation. However, Wearing was more tentative about this, explaining that a fresh start, with new faces, in-front and behind the camera, could be just what the show needed.
Finding Wearing reasonable, Nathan-Turner did ask about possibly extending Doctor Who’s episode count, allowing for more serials to be produced per year. As Head of Serials, Wearing found the prospect of making more individual Doctor Who serials appealing, but told Nathan-Turner that it wouldn’t be possible to allocate the money unless Doctor Who managed to pick up in the ratings. Nathan-Turner asked about moving it into a more sensible slot, rather than against the most-popular programme on television, but Wearing insisted that was the Controller of BBC1, Jonathan Powell’s prerogative - a man who was heavily involved in Doctor Who’s 1985 cancellation order - so while Powell was in the job, Doctor Who was staying put.
This meeting instigated two things, firstly a healthier working relationship between John Nathan-Turner and his boss, and secondly the beginning of the search for his successor. The only problem now… Who would say “yes” to the offer?
During this period, Cartmel had stories for future seasons of Doctor Who being developed by several writers, including newcomers David A. McIntee, Neil Penswick, John Peel, Robin Mukherjee, Edward Young and Tony Etchells, as well as previous writers, Ben Aaronovitch, Marc Platt, Ian Briggs, Stephen Wyatt and Kevin Clarke. Needless to say, Cartmel had a lot of choices.
Development on some of these stories had begun as early as 1987, while some were only beginning at the time. It wasn’t Cartmel’s main focus, at the time, as Season 26 was in-production, but he did oversee each writer develop their serials, before pre-production on Season 27 began officially.
McIntee’s serial focused around body snatching aliens who inhabited the bodies of the dead; Penswick’s a shapeshifter space-hopping thriller; Peel’s a thrilling (and expensive) Dalek serial; Mukherjee’s a psychological introspective set on an asteroid; Edward Young’s a haunting horror piece; Etchells’ a politically charged first world war epic, set in the trenches; Aaronovitch’s a Star Trek-inspired space opera and Platt’s a 1960s Ice Warrior romp. Early ideas from Ian Briggs, Stephen Wyatt and Kevin Clarke, were at this point in their very early stages, being formulated in collaboration with Cartmel.
The most advanced serial, at this point, was Robin Mukherjee’s, which was titled Alixion. This had been in development for some time, and Cartmel had commissioned this for Season 26. His practice, at the time, was to commission five serials for each season, and then carry one of them over to the next. Alixion was the script that Cartmel chose to carry over, so, all being good, its place in Season 27 was secure.
Keen to carry on his “1 old writer/3 new writers” approach, Cartmel pencilled out a rough plan to bring Marc Platt in as the old writer, while the 3 new slots went to Robin Mukherjee, Edward Young and David A. McIntee. This wasn’t set in stone, but at this point, those were the stories that were the most developed and ready-togo. However, circumstances would soon change.
As production moved from The Wolves of Fenric to Battlefield to Survival to Ghost Light, John Nathan-Turner had begun conversations with the show’s two main stars, Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred, about the following year. During these conversations, Nathan-Turner had mentioned that the next season would be his last, and that it was currently contracted as McCoy’s last too, but his contract could be extended to a fifth season, to help settle the new producer in. McCoy reaffirmed to Nathan-Turner that he had only wanted to do three-seasons in the first place, and that he was only contracted for four, because he was told, by Nathan-Turner, that the option was 2 seasons or 4 seasons, so he had no desire to stay on for a fifth. This confirmation that McCoy’s contract would not be renewed soon made its way up the chain of command and to Wearing’s office, who approved of the decision.
With news of this reaching Andrew Cartmel’s office, shortly, he realised that considering the next season would be seeing the departure of both Sylvester McCoy and John Nathan-Turner, the two most vital elements of the show, that the character of Ace should probably be written out too. Ace had always been intended to leave fairly shortly, as she’d been a companion for three years, at this point, but this gave Cartmel the motive to begin thinking about just how Ace would be written out. He knew he wanted to make sure that her exit was a big deal to the narrative, as he wasn’t a fan of previous departures where companions would just sort of say “goodbye” and leave. He took these ideas back to some of the writers, most specifically the core team of experienced writers, including Aaronovitch, Platt, Briggs and Clarke, to cook up some possible ways to write out Ace.
It was around this point that Cartmel decided that he, himself, would also leave at the end of Season 27, as he decided it made sense for the entire team to make their exit together. Cartmel had been on the show for a few years now, and knew he wanted to go on to do different things, and he knew that, at the moment, he’d be able to get another Script Editor’s position, at the BBC, fairly easily.
Production on Ghost Light, and thus Season 26, wrapped on 3 August 1989, with John Nathan-Turner moving onto handling the post-production, and promotional, side of things for Season 26, while Andrew Cartmel turned his attention to officially beginning pre-production for Season 27.
It was during this period that The Wolves of Fenric was renamed The Curse of Fenric, and there were possible questions over the season’s running order, by John Nathan-Turner, to get certain episodes to air on Halloween, but as this was only a minor issue, which would have interfered with some lines within other stories, the order of serials was kept as intended. Cartmel had amended his planned Season 27, in light of both Doctor and companion departures, to give Ian Briggs (the creator of Ace) a slot, to write Ace out. As it was as- sumed that Ace would leave in the fourth serial of the season, Ian Briggs would, in turn, be scripting Sylvester McCoy’s regeneration story. Not wanting to lose Platt’s Ice Warrior serial, especially as Nathan-Turner was keen for the Ice Warriors to reappear, Cartmel decided to drop one of the new writers from the season’s line-up. He decided to drop, for now, David A. McIntee’s serial, as he felt that was the least developed, of the three, but also the body snatching plot could be an issue, thematically, in a season where the Doctor changes bodies. Therefore, now Season 27’s line-up of writers looked like: Robin Mukherjee, Marc Platt, Edward Young and Ian Briggs.
