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MAG.E 4
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MAG.E 4 (Disk 2 of 2).adf
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84
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1977-12-31
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76 lines
@5THE PROBLEMS OF THE SIXTH SEASON
================================
@1
In the beginning, there was "The Dominators" by Haisman and Lincoln. Six
episodes. And "The Mind Robber" by Peter Ling. Four episodes. And those two
stories were to be shot at the end of season five. And it was good.
Then the producer (Innes Lloyd? Derrick Sherwin? Not sure) did major
rewrites on "Dominators", chief of which was eliminating all the scenes with
black leather, whips and chains as "unsuitable for children". This caused the
story to shrink by an episode and pissed off Haisman and Lincoln, so that they
(a) took their name of the story (b) decided not to write the third Yeti
story, which would have been Jamie's farewell later in the season, a six
parter I think. But that comes later.
The end result, they had five episodes of "Dominators" and four of "Mind
Robber" and a hole in between. So Derrick Sherwin wrote a one- part story
called "Manpower" without credit. Then he got the bright idea of grafting
"Manpower" onto "The Mind Robber" as episode one, making "Mind Robber" five
parts. The only problem was that the old beginning to "Mind Robber" had to be
cut, leaving episode two under- running by a few minutes.
This problem conveniently fixed itself when Frazer Hines got chicken pox and
forced them to come up with some minutes of filler about him getting Hamish
Wilson's face. But they got through the story. And there was much rejoicing.
The actual season six shooting block was to begin with the six-part "Return of
the Cybermen" by Kit Pedlar, "The Krotons" (four parts) by Robert Holmes, "The
Seeds of Death" by Brian Hayles (six parts), two more four-part stories, a
six-parter, and the final four-parter which would regenerate the Doctor.
The second anonymous four-parter, which might have been a second Peter Ling
story about time running backwards, was first to fall through, and in its
place they commissioned a second Robert Holmes four-parter, "The Space
Pirates". Then they lost the first unknown four-parter, and they had nothing
on the shelf to replace it with. Derrick Sherwin was already in the process of
rewriting Kit Pedler's story as "The Invasion" and incorporating UNIT, so he
figured he could graft on two more episodes while he was at it. The other two
he dumped on Holmes, telling him to expand "Space Pirates" to six parts.
Meanwhile, as the now eight-part "The Invasion" was approaching shooting, they
found that they wouldn't be able to bring back Jack Watling as Professor
Travers, so he and his daughter Anne were replaced with Professor Watkins and
his niece Isobel -- and there are parts where it certainly seems that they
simply scratched out the old names and put in the new ones.
By now Peter Bryant and Derrick Sherwin were probably turning grey. At least
"The Krotons", "The Seeds of Death", and the stretched-to- the-breaking-point
"Space Pirates" were shot without a hitch (or barely so at least). Meanwhile
Sherwin was preparing to take over the producer's chair and Terrance Dicks was
coming on board as script editor.
His first task, though, was to replace the next-to-last story of the season, a
six-parter which had fallen through. (This might have been Haisman and
Lincoln's Yeti story, or it might not. It's not clear what it was, or when
exactly good old Terrance "One Novel On Rye To Go" Dicks took over the job of
coming up with a story. He got in touch with Mac Hulke, and "The War Games"
was born as a six- parter.
Then the last traces of the season planning fell apart as the final four-
parter crumbled away, and Terry and Mac were faced with having to extend their
nice compact six-parter by three more episodes, and leave a hook for a final
episode which could either end the series or regenerate the Doctor. Then they
found that they would be writing that final episode, too.
Under circumstances such as these are Time Lords born.
Amazing, isn't it. In a production situation that rivals an NRTTA council
meeting for sheer insanity, they came up with UNIT, the return of the
Cybermen, the really-cool Mind Robber, an Ice Warrior sequel, Robert Holmes,
and the Time Lords. Is it any wonder that the season went over pretty well?
Is it also any wonder that Peter Bryant and Derrick Sherwin both quit?...
Joe Blum and Greg McAlhacken