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Serial 6M: The Awakening
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| Plot |
| Production |
At this stage, Pringle began to realise that his idea might not have sufficient incident to sustain four installments. Nonetheless, he was commissioned to write the script for the first episode on September 1st. By 1983, War Game had been rechristened The Awakening (and may also have been called Poltergeist at some point). Saward and producer John Nathan-Turner had also come to the realisation that the story did not merit four episodes, and so Pringle was asked to condense it down to fit the two-part slot for Season Twenty-One. Pringle concurred and performed the necessary rewrites by April.
Saward was still not satisfied with Pringle's modifications, however, and was particularly concerned that the scripts were overlength; consequently, he elected to heavily rewrite The Awakening. En route, Saward added a new scene featuring the robotic companion Kamelion, who had been introduced in the Season Twenty finale, The King's Demons, but not used since due to the logistical problems involved in operating the prop. In this scene, Tegan encounters Kamelion interfacing with the TARDIS computer via a corridor roundel, and Kamelion claims to be learning about the time machine. To avoid the need to rehire Gerald Flood, who had provided Kamelion's voice in The King's Demons, Saward had the robot imitate the Doctor and Turlough. Saward also inserted a reference to the mineral tinclavic, first mentioned in his own Season Nineteen serial The Visitation. Saward hoped that the monsters he introduced in that adventure, the Terileptils, might make a return appearance in Doctor Who, and wanted to remind viewers of their existence. Pringle was not particularly pleased with Saward's rewrites, believing they made the story confusing and rushed; The Awakening would be his only contribution to Doctor Who.
The director assigned to Serial 6M was rookie Michael Owen Morris, who had earlier worked on the programme as a production assistant for The Pirate Planet. Morris would be considered for Vengeance On Varos a year later, but The Awakening would turn out to be his lone Doctor Who credit. Also amongst the crew for The Awakening was designer Barry Newbery, who had worked on Doctor Who since its very first serial, 100,000 BC, back in 1963; his most recent contribution had been on Season Fifteen's The Invisible Enemy. The Awakening marked the end of Newbery's storied BBC career; after its completion, he departed the Corporation on voluntary early retirement.
Location filming began on July 18th, at venues along the border between Dorset and Hampshire. Peter Davison wore a slightly redesigned costume for the first time: his jumper was given larger stripes, and green lining was added to his shirt in place of the original red. On July 20th, filming began of the scene where the Doctor and company arrive outside the church in a horse-drawn carriage. At first, the horse was reluctant to approach the false lych gate Newbery had constructed because his mare was grazing in a field nearby. Morris decided to bring the mare inside the churchyard (kept out of shot) to encourage the animal to behave properly. Unfortunately, so excited was the horse that it followed the actors through the lych gate, destroying it in the process; fortunately, the take up to that point was fine and could be used. Caught on tape, this incident proved to be a popular inclusion on blooper reels, beginning with the December 10th edition of Noel Edmonds' Late, Late Breakfast Show. It even made its way into the international market, featuring on the American Television Bloopers And Practical Jokes amongst other programmes.
With the location material completed without further serious incident, The Awakening moved into the studio for three days beginning on August 4th. In between, on July 28th, a press conference was held to announce that Davison would be leaving Doctor Who in the season's penultimate story. What Nathan-Turner did not reveal at the time was that Davison's replacement, Colin Baker, had already been cast more than a month earlier. This led to a new round of media speculation over Davison's successor, with Brian Blessed in particular proving to be a popular candidate with the newspapers.
The youthful character of Will Chandler, played by Keith Jayne, was very popular with the cast and crew, and it was thought for a time that he might become an ongoing companion. Ultimately, however, Nathan-Turner and Saward decided that viewers would quickly tire of Will, and the idea was not pursued further. Meanwhile, in post-production, episode one was found to be badly overrunning; amongst the trims was the Kamelion/Tegan scene, resulting in the robot's complete excision from the serial.
| Details |
| Episode | Date | Time | Duration | Viewers | Audience App. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 19th January 1984 | 6.41pm | 25'18" | 7.9m (61st) | 65% |
| 2 | 20th January 1984 | 6.41pm | 24'47" | 6.6m (84th) | 63% |
| Producer | John Nathan-Turner |
| Script Editor | Eric Saward |
| Writer | Eric Pringle |
| Director | Michael Owen Morris |
| Designer | Barry Newbery |
| Costume | Jackie Southern |
| Incidental Music | Peter Howell |
Principal Guest Cast: Jack Galloway (Joseph Willow), Frederick Hall (Andrew Verney), Glyn Houston (Colonel Wolsey), Polly James (Jane Hampden), Keith Jayne (Will Chandler), Denis Lill (Sir George Hutchinson).
Novelisation: The Awakening by Eric Pringle (book 95), February 1985; covers by Andrew Skilleter, Alister Pearson (1992).
Video Release: The Awakening/Frontios, episodic format, March 1997; two tapes; PAL (BBC Video cat.# 6120) and NTSC (Warners cat.# 1080) formats available; cover by Colin Howard.
Rankings: 97th (63.12%, Doctor Who Dynamic Rankings website, 22nd June 1999); 91st (66.64%, DWM 1997 Annual Survey).
| Sources |
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