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Serial 5W: Four To Doomsday
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| Plot |
| Production |
Terence Dudley, who had helmed Meglos, had recently retired from a long career of producing and directing. He wanted to continue scriptwriting, however, and in late 1980 submitted two ideas to outgoing script editor Christopher Bidmead. One, a murder mystery set in the Twenties, was deemed unsuitable by Bidmead, but he was more approving of a satire on bureaucracy and megalomania. After agreeing to remove the jokier aspects of his story, Dudley set to work on Days Of Wrath, which was shortly retitled Four To Doomsday.
Much of the script editing work on Four To Doomsday was handled by Bidmead's successor, Antony Root. Root had recently been promoted within the BBC to script editor from assistant floor manager (in which capacity he had earlier worked on Destiny Of The Daleks). During his training, Root had assisted the overworked Bidmead in handling unsolicited script submissions, and jumped at the chance for a three-month posting to Doctor Who while Nathan-Turner searched for a permanent replacement. Because he knew his tenure on Doctor Who would be so brief, Root did not commission new scripts, but instead concentrated on stories Bidmead had already ordered.
Meanwhile, the programme's suddenly sizeable line-up of companions was causing difficulties for screenwriters, who were ensure how to handle the largest regular cast since 1967. By this time, it had been decided that Janet Fielding -- originally contracted only up to the first serial of the year -- would continue on the programme for the rest of Season Nineteen. Apparently, Nathan-Turner therefore decided that Sarah Sutton should be written out in Four To Doomsday. This move was strongly opposed by Davison, however, who felt that Nyssa was the companion most suited to his vision of the Doctor, and eventually Nathan-Turner relented. All the same, Nyssa's inclusion in Dudley's storyline came at a late stage, resulting in her mostly being shunted off-stage, or sharing Adric's and Tegan's lines.
Work was also continuing in shaping the character of the Fifth Doctor. Nathan-Turner wanted all the regulars to wear distinct costumes which would remain essentially the same from serial to serial; not only would this save on wardrobe costs, but it was also seen as a way to increase Doctor Who's marketability. Adric had his Starliner clothes, Tegan her stewardess garb, and Nyssa her Trakenite outfit (modified only slightly from this serial when Nathan-Turner decided he preferred Sutton in slacks as opposed to the "fairy dress" she had been wearing). For the Doctor, Nathan-Turner hit on the idea of dressing up Davison in Victorian cricketing gear. This was inspired by the same photo, hung on the producer's office wall, of Davison in a charity cricket match which had originally given him the thought of casting Davison as the Doctor in the first place. Earlier ideas for the Doctor's costume had included polo jodhpurs and a morning suit with collapsible topper. As with the Fourth Doctor's Season Eighteen outfit, the Fifth Doctor would bear question marks on his shirt collar.
Production on Season Nineteen and Four To Doomsday began with the start of recording on Monday, April 13th, 1981. The director chosen for the serial was John Black, who had completed The Keeper Of Traken just a few months earlier. Four To Doomsday was the final Doctor Who serial for Black, although he did direct the pilot for the proposed K-9 And Company spin-off series toward the end of the year. Shortly after, Black left television altogether to become the head of the video division at Longman's and then WH Smith.
In between this first three-day studio session and the second, which started on Tuesday, April 28th, came Davison's first press photocall. This was held on April 16th, and played on the Fifth Doctor's cricketeer image by having Davison field cricket balls in front of the TARDIS prop, on which rough stumps had been painted. In post-production, Four To Doomsday was the first serial to which the new title sequence was added. Again designed by Sid Sutton, this was identical to the version aired the previous season, except with Davison's face replacing Tom Baker's.
| Details |
| Episode | Date | Time | Duration | Viewers | Audience App. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 18th January 1982 | 6.57pm | 23'36" | 8.4m (66th) | |
| 2 | 19th January 1982 | 7.05pm | 24'11" | 8.8m (61st) | |
| 3 | 25th January 1981 | 6.57pm | 24'09" | 8.9m (63rd) | |
| 4 | 26th January 1982 | 7.07pm | 24'52" | 9.4m (53rd) |
| Producer | John Nathan-Turner |
| Script Editor | Antony Root |
| Writer | Terence Dudley |
| Director | John Black |
| Designer | Tony Burrough |
| Costume | Colin Lavers |
| Incidental Music | Roger Limb |
Principal Guest Cast: Nadia Hammam (Villagra), Stratford Johns (Monarch), Annie Lambert (Enlightenment), Philip Locke (Bigon), Illarrio Bisi Pedro (Kurkutji), Paul Shelley (Persuasion), Burt Kwouk (Lin Futu).
Novelisation: Four To Doomsday by Terrance Dicks (book 77), April 1983; photomontage cover; rerelease cover by Alister Pearson (1991).
Video Release: Four To Doomsday, episodic format, September 2001; PAL (BBC Video cat.# 7134) and NTSC (Warners cat.# E1648) formats available; photomontage cover.
Rankings: 122nd (59.52%, Doctor Who Dynamic Rankings website, 22nd June 1999); 139th (56.67%, DWM 1997 Annual Survey).
| Sources |
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