6 minute read
Rewind to 1990 | The Last Hurrah
JANUARY 1990 - JOHN NATHAN-TURNER TAKES BACK CONTROL
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As 1990 loomed, Season 27 was starting to fall into place. With filming beginning at the start of April, most of the scripts for the planned season had now been commissioned. Alixion was to be the first serial of the season, with Ice Time as the second, Night Thoughts as the third and the, as-yet-untitled, Ian Briggs serial as the fourth and final outing. However, almost as soon as this was decided, a spanner was stuck in the works as it seemed… producer, John Nathan-Turner, had woken up.
John Nathan-Turner had always been very hands-on as producer of Doctor Who in his early days, but following the 1985 cancellation order from Michael Grade, and the loss of, script editor, Eric Saward in 1986, Nathan-Turner began to step back and allow, new script editor, Andrew Cartmel to essentially be the de-facto showrunner. However, with Nathan-Turner now aware that Season 27 would be his last, he suddenly decided that he wanted a lot more control on this season, than the previous three, and that he wanted it to act as a definitive send-off for his era. This began with Nathan-Turner insisting that Ben Aaronovitch’s proposed serial, Earth Aid, a Star Trek-inspired space opera, be put back into the season’s roster. It was initially scrapped because Cartmel thought that realising it would make the story look very “cheap” but Nathan-Turner had his heart set on including it. Additionally, while Cartmel had worked with the writers to develop a possible outline for a new companion, they had decided that they would leave that to a new production team. Nathan-Turner had other ideas, wanting a lasting legacy to continue through to the next season, and asked Cartmel to revisit the idea of Ace departing in the middle of the season and introducing a new companion for the final two stories. The character that Cartmel and Aaronovitch had conceived was a posh upper-class cat burglar, who could be introduced in a much-adapted version of Night Thoughts, and Nathan-Turner had just the actor in mind for the character.
This, in turn, meant that the season line-up now looked like Earth Aid as the opener, Ian Briggs’ untitled story as the second serial (but without the Doctor regenerating), Night Thoughts as the third and Alixion as the second. This did, however, mean the Ice Warrior serial, Ice Time, which Nathan-Turner particularly wanted in the season had to be dropped. Nathan-Turner wasn’t happy and insisted that it go back in but Cartmel explained that the only way would be to drop Night Thoughts, but, if that was the case, then the new companion concept wouldn’t “fit” into Ice Time nicely, and a new concept would probably have to be used. Nathan-Turner then suggested replacing Ian Briggs’ untitled story, which would’ve written out Ace, with Ice Time. Cartmel wasn’t happy as Ian Briggs was Ace’s creator and that denying him the chance to write out the character wasn’t something he wanted to do, but Nathan-Turner insisted and Ice Time became the second serial. Now the season looked like… Earth Aid, Ice Time, Night Thoughts and Alixion .
Soon after, things changed again, as writer, Edward Young (who may or may not have been using a pseudonym) wasn’t happy with the proposed changes to his story to introduce new companion, Katie (a name that Nathan-Turner had adapted from the originally proposed Kate). Cartmel, therefore, decided that, because he was so impressed with Night Thoughts, he’d commission the story as the holdover story for Season 28, and that another would replace it in the Season 27 line-up.
Initially, Cartmel approached Ian Briggs again and wondered if the idea for his Ace-exit story could be rejigged to introduce new companion, Katie. Briggs said that it wasn’t really possible and that the story was fundamentally one about Ace. Cartmel then looked back over the, previously rejected, ideas for the season and found an early idea by Kevin Clarke (who had written Silver Nemesis). The idea was in its very early formation, but Cartmel trusted Clarke’s ability to turn around a script, so asked him to write it with the added stipulation that the story had to be set in an upper-class mansion and feature, new companion, Katie, as a cat burglar. Finally, Alixion wasn’t safe even from Nathan-Turner’s interference. Despite this story being carried over from Season 26, Nathan-Turner was concerned that having his final story, and Sylvester’s final story, set on an alien planet might not quite work. He wanted something more akin to Logopolis or, more recently, Battlefield. Nathan-Turner wanted something grounded and ideally something that featured UNIT. Thus, Cartmel turned to an idea he had called Blood and Iron, and looked for a writer to commission a script. However, Nathan-Turner and Ben Aaronvitch both suggested that Cartmel should write the serial himself, as it was his final one and he hadn’t had the opportunity, that most other script editors had had, to write an actual story. Thus Cartmel was pencilled in to write the final adventure of the series.
Now, after all of these changes, before production began in April, the season now looked like: Earth Aid, Ice Time, Crime of the Century and Blood and Iron. It was decided that, due to production logistics, Ice Time would be produced first as a Studio/Location production fourparter; then Earth Aid would be produced entirely in studio as a three-parter; then the same director would shoot Crime of the Century was an all-location three-parter; finally, the season would end with Blood and Iron produced as a Studio/Location four-parter. John Nathan-Turner also organised a mini-Doctor Who convention to take place at one of the locations for Blood and Iron, the day after filming wrapped to act as a JNT-era wrap party. partment to appoint a successor. Nathan-Turner suggested to Wearing that, production manager, Ian Fraser would make a good producer and deserved the promotion and opportunity. Nathan-Turner also explained that much the same had happened to him and his previous inside-knowledge of the show had helped him immensely. However, Wearing was more keen to scout a new producer from outside the current Doctor Who production team. Unfortunately, everyone Wearing approached, politely and sometimes impolitely, turned him down. This meant that the appointment of the next producer took a considerable number of months, before finally in June, Wearing agreed to Nathan-Turner’s idea, and appointed Ian Fraser as Doctor Who’s new producer. Wearing wondered if Nathan-Turner might stay on as an Executive Producer for the next season but Nathan-Turner said that “when I go, I have to go”. Wearing instead decided that he’d just make sure that he’d keep a closer eye on the show during the development and production of its next run of episodes.
