For today’s blog, we enter the strange world of 1980s Doctor Who. In the early 1980s, the production
team had discovered a concept called ‘continuity’. Not continuity as one might normally understand it – letting the
characters learn from their experiences and change and grow, and trying not to contradict
what has gone before – but continuity in the sense of including references to
stuff that has gone before. Little easter eggs for the fans, and what’s wrong
with that?
In particular, during Tom Baker’s last year they started
opening each story with a scene which would refer back to the previous
adventure. To tie it all together and make each story feel less disparate – a bit
like the approach the show took in the early 60s. Nevertheless, it was still a
little odd – off the top of my head, I can’t think of any other shows that did
it. Episodes of Minder, for instance,
didn’t have scenes referring back to Arthur and Terry’s previous nefarious
exploit. Even sort-of-soaps like Angels
didn’t refer back to the non-serial elements of the previous installment. Science
fiction shows like Doctor Who were
largely standalone with no back references – usually because they consisted of
45-minute episodes that could be shown in any order. During the 60s and 70s Doctor Who had largely been standalone
too, though there were occasional references to preceding adventures,
like the Doctor mentioning Skaro in City
of Death, but these were the exception. So for Doctor Who to try to make the beginning
of every new story tie-in with the one before was – let’s call it ambitious.
Yes. It was very ambitious.
Of course, for writers of spin-off adventures, this is a
little inconvenient, as it sort-of closes ‘gaps’ between television stories
where spin-off adventures could plausibly be set. So you have to choose your ‘gaps’
carefully. On the other hand, when I wrote Psychodrome,
I included an opening scene full of references to the preceding television
adventure (Castrovalva) as a
deliberate authentic touch:
ADRIC: No, but just in case,
this can be your room. It’s just down the corridor from the control room, so
you shouldn’t be able to get lost.
TEGAN: What are you
insinuating?
ADRIC: You did get lost
before. There’s still some of your lipstick on the walls.
- and John Dorney ingeniously slotted Iterations of I into the ‘gap’ between Black Orchid and Earthshock.
These things are fun, they’re more easter eggs for the fans, and so they have
to be done.
But the point of this blog post is, those little back-reference
scenes fascinate me. They’re all clearly the work of the script editor rather
than the credited writer of that particular serial (unless that serial is
credited to the script editor) and have been added fairly late in the process.
Also, they only really exist for the sake
of the continuity reference, they don’t really have much point,
dramatically or plot-wise, and sometimes include quite contorted conversations in
order to cover the necessary ground. They are essentially gratuitous. But
since they have no call to be there, the art lies in the fact that they are
there.
(Of course, sometimes they’re not gratuitous. Sometimes they
are very useful, when the closing installment of the previous adventure has
over-run, it means you can provide explanation which was omitted. But I’ll come
to that later).
But here, for my own amusement more than anything, is a
quick guide to these scenes. Quotes taken from the invaluable chakoteya script
archive.
The Leisure Hive –
no reference to the preceding story (whatever that was), but an inaccurate
reference to Horror of Fang Rock:
“This is the second
time I've missed the opening of the Brighton Pavilion”
Meglos - no
reference to the preceding story.
Full Circle – this adventure has a rather low-key opening
as it has to set up the summons to Gallifrey, Romana’s reluctance to return and
the whole E-Space thing. Plus it has to explain what happened to the human who
was in the TARDIS at the end of Meglos.
DOCTOR: Well, now
we've dropped off our Earth friend we can be on our way.
ROMANA: You've made up
your mind, then?
DOCTOR: Oh, yes. We
can't resist a summons to Gallifrey.
State of Decay – lots
of stuff about E-space but no specific reference to the preceding story.
Warriors’ Gate –
again, stuff about E-space but no specific reference to the preceding story.
The Keeper of Traken – another very low-key opening for
an adventure, some stuff about how we’re in N-space and that the Doctor and
Adric are still due to return to Gallifrey (we never do find out what that
summons at the end of Meglos was
about, do we?) but no specific reference to the preceding story.
Logopolis – more stuff about the return to
Gallifrey but no specific reference to the preceding story.
Now Peter Davison takes over – this is where it gets
interesting...
Castrovalva – a
great reference to the preceding story, it's funny, and has a plot reason to be
there!
ADRIC: I thought the
whole point of this Pharos Project of yours was to track down alien intelligences.
We thought we'd save you the trouble and come to you.
Four To Doomsday –
while this story contains references to Uncle Tom Artron Energy and all, it
doesn’t refer back to Castrovalva.
Even the idea that the Doctor is trying to return Tegan home wasn’t mentioned in Castrovalva. So there’s a gap, one
which I exploited in Psychodrome.
Kinda – a reference
to the so-what-was-the-point-of-that-then cliffhanger of Four to Doomsday.
ADRIC: She's hopeless
in her present state of mind.
NYSSA: Don't
exaggerate. I only fainted.
The Visitation –
This is where it gets serious. Two whole scenes are dedicated, pretty much, to
the characters discussing the events of the previous story purely for the sake
of continuity. Firstly:
DOCTOR: How many times
have I told you, Adric, not to interfere with things that you don't understand.
ADRIC: I was trying to
escape.
DOCTOR: In the TSS?
You were lucky you didn't destroy the whole Kinda tribe.
ADRIC: I didn't
realise it would be that difficult to control.
DOCTOR: That isn't the
point. You should never have got into that unit.
ADRIC: Well, as it
turned out no one was hurt.
DOCTOR: Apart from
Aris.
ADRIC: A flesh wound.
And this classic scene – I particularly enjoy Tegan’s line beginning “But while you...”
NYSSA: What's the
matter?
TEGAN: It's only sunk
in properly, what happened to me on Deva Loka.
NYSSA: What? The
Doctor said nothing eventful had occurred.
TEGAN: He would. But
while you were enjoying forty eight hours peaceful sleep in the delta wave
augmenter, my mind was occupied. Taken over.
NYSSA: By whom?
TEGAN: More a what.
Something called a Mara. It makes me shiver to think of it.
NYSSA: You weren't
hurt?
TEGAN: No. No, but
that's not the point.
Black Orchid – this
story’s reference rather spoils the gag at the end of the previous story, that
the Doctor has accidentally started the Great Fire of London and just tells his
companions “I’ll explain someday”.
NYSSA: You think that
wise, considering what we've just done to London?
DOCTOR: Oh, that would
have happened if we'd been there or not. All part of Earth's history.
Earthshock – What
I like about this reference is Adric’s final comment, which is wonderfully
meta.
DOCTOR: You must read
this, Adric. The Black Orchid.
ADRIC: Why?
DOCTOR: It's
fascinating. Such scholarship.
ADRIC: Why should that
interest me?
Time-Flight –
given Adric’s demise in the previous story, it’s entirely right that this one
should begin with the characters reacting to that. What I particularly enjoy
though, is the incredibly crunching gear-change as we have to shift from genuine character stuff to a story where everyone is behaving as though
nothing has happened. The Doctor literally goes from mourning Adric to checking
the cricket scores.
What’s also fun is that with the line “Cyber fleet dispersed”
Nyssa deals with the fact that the previous story ended with a massive great
plot point unresolved!
DOCTOR: Crew of the
freighter safely returned to their own time.
NYSSA: Cyber fleet
dispersed.
TEGAN: Oh, great. You
make it sound like a shopping list, ticking off things as you go. Aren't you
forgetting something rather important? Adric is dead.
NYSSA: Tegan, please.
DOCTOR: We feel his
loss as well.
TEGAN: Well, you could
do more than grieve. You could go back.
NYSSA: Could you?
DOCTOR: No.
NYSSA: But surely the
Tardis is quite capable of -
TEGAN: We can change
what happened if we materialise before Adric was killed.
DOCTOR: And change
your own history?
TEGAN: Look, the
freighter could still crash into Earth. That doesn't have to be changed. Only
Adric doesn't have to be on board.
DOCTOR: Now listen to
me, both of you. There are some rules that cannot be broken even with the
Tardis. Don't ever ask me to do anything like that again. You must accept that
Adric is dead. His life wasn't wasted. He died trying to save others, just like
his brother, Varsh. You know, Adric had a choice. This is the way he wanted it.
TEGAN: We used to
fight a lot. I'll miss him.
NYSSA: So will I.
DOCTOR: And me. But he
wouldn't want us to mourn unnecessarily.
(MASSIVE CRUNCHING OF GEARS)
NYSSA: Where are we
going?
DOCTOR: Special treat
to cheer us all up.
Arc of Infinity –
Oh, this story has a couple of doozies. Two wonderfully pointless scenes that –
although they don’t refer back to Time-Flight
– exist purely to address complaints from the Doctor Who Monthly letters page. The Doctor and Nyssa might as well
turn to the camera and say “We’ve had lots of letters.”
First there’s this scene, which explains why there was no
sound on the scanner in Earthshock (yes,
that was a glaring mistake that leapt out at me too).
DOCTOR: And such a
simple repair job.
NYSSA: Why didn't you
do it sooner?
DOCTOR: Well, you know
how it is. You put things off for a day, next thing you know it's a hundred
years later.
NYSSA: It'll make
quite a difference to have audio link-up on the scanner again.
DOCTOR: Mmm. Let's see if
it works.
Seriously, that’s a scene! And then we have this one, which
exists – and this delights me so much – purely to explain why a scene in Earthshock contradicted a line from The Hand of Fear broadcast five years earlier.
When did the Doctor tell Nyssa about the state of temporal grace? No idea.
DOCTOR: Perfect.
NYSSA: We have an
audio system, but nothing to listen to.
DOCTOR: And now we
have nothing to look at. Couldn't be better. Peace and quiet is just what the
doctor ordered.
NYSSA: Doctor? There
are many other repairs to do.
DOCTOR: Well, there's
nothing urgent, is there?
NYSSA: The
navigational system? That must be faulty. We never seem to arrive where we
intend.
DOCTOR: No. Well, you
see, ever since the Cybermen damaged the console -
NYSSA: And that's
another thing. The Tardis used to be in a state of temporal grace, you said.
Guns couldn't be fired.
DOCTOR: Yes. Well,
nobody's perfect.
God, what a scene. Full marks, though, to Peter Davison and
Sarah Sutton in trying to find some dramatic point in playing it.
It’s not a reference to the preceding story but I do love
this moment where, in a moment of crisis, the Doctor invites the fan viewers to
check their Doctor Who Programme Guides.
DOCTOR: High Council
of Time Lords. We're being taken back to Gallifrey.
NYSSA: Why?
DOCTOR: I don't know.
It must be urgent. Only twice before in our history has the recall circuit been
used.
Well, there was that summons in Meglos, and The Hand of Fear of course,
and The War Games, and The Invasion of Time possibly, but would the
Doctor remember that? And what about when the Doctor nicked the TARDIS to begin
with, did they not try using it then? But, hang on, wait, is he saying that
only twice before in the entire history
of the Time Lords have they ever had cause to recall a TARDIS? That this
circuit which is presumably in every TARDIS has only ever been used twice
before – both times with him? It’s kind of amazing that they bothered installing
it, to be honest, given that they get so little use out of it. What a strange,
strange line – which only serves to undermine the drama of the moment ("The
Doctor has been recalled to Gallifrey!" "Oh no, that sounds terrible!" "But don’t
worry – it’s happened twice before." "Oh, that’s okay, I’m not so worried now")
Snakedance –
Another classic. It turns out that the fact that there are ‘traces of
anti-matter’ is a complete red herring, it has nothing to do with the story, it
is never mentioned again. It’s only there so they can talk about Omega.
NYSSA: Well?
DOCTOR: We're not
where we're supposed to be.
NYSSA: Where are we?
DOCTOR: I don't know.
There are traces of anti-matter.
NYSSA: Omega?
DOCTOR: Oh, highly
unlikely he's still alive.
Mawdryn Undead – It
turns out that the final episode of Snakedance
was over-running, so some of the exposition had to be cut. So instead, here
it is at the beginning of the next episode, a complete debriefing session for
the end of Snakedance. I particularly
like Tegan calling Dojjen “that Dojjen person”.
TEGAN: Doctor? I am
free of the Mara, aren't I?
DOCTOR: Tegan, Tegan,
Tegan.
TEGAN: I'm scared.
DOCTOR: There isn't
any need to be.
TEGAN: I'm still
having terrible dreams.
DOCTOR: It's your
mind's way of coping with the experience. You've suffered a great deal.
TEGAN: That could have
been prevented if that Dojjen person had destroyed the Great Crystal.
DOCTOR: No, he
couldn't. The Mara could only be destroyed during the process of its becoming. It had to be
trapped between modes of its being.
TEGAN: The feelings of
hate. Doctor, I couldn't go through it again.
DOCTOR: Well, you're
completely free of it now, Tegan. For you, the Mara is dead forever.
NYSSA: For all of us,
I hope.
Terminus – Another low-key opening, as it’s mostly Tegan discovering that Turlough has
been interfering with a roundel. Turlough mentions his school but there’s no
specific reference to the preceding story.
Enlightenment – No
specific reference to the preceding story. And no mention of Nyssa, they’ve
completely forgotten about her already!
The King’s Demons –
Ah, I love this one. Back when we were discussing setting some Big Finish
adventures in the gap between Enlightenment
and The King’s Demons Alan Barnes
and I thought it might be fun to begin each adventure with Tegan suspecting it was a Black Guardian trap. Unfortunately we came to our senses and didn’t do
it (though I included a line in Cobwebs,
my first story set in that gap, as well as an authentically continuity-laden opening
scene).
Anyway, here’s The
King’s Demons creating an atmosphere of mystery and suspense:
TURLOUGH: Planet
Earth.
DOCTOR: So it seems.
TURLOUGH: You didn't
set the coordinates for here by any chance?
DOCTOR: No.
TEGAN: When is it?
DOCTOR: March the
fourth, 1215.
TEGAN: Is it England?
DOCTOR: Yes, it is.
TEGAN: Could this be a
Black Guardian trap?
DOCTOR: I don't think
so, but something certainly isn't right.
The Five Doctors –
Oh, this is glorious. This story opens with the Doctor, Tegan and Turlough
visiting the Eye of Orion, just as they said they would at the end of the
previous adventure. So far, so good. But – and this is amazing – they’ve lost a companion! At the end of The King’s Demons, the ever-languid
Kamelion had joined the TARDIS team. And now he’s vanished. He’s not even
mentioned. So we have gone from stories painstakingly
going out of their way to refer to the previous adventure to a complete absence
of basic continuity. I don’t think Terrance Dicks had even been told
about Kamelion.
And after that, I think the production team (wisely) gave up
on these sort of back-references as more trouble than they were worth. Yes,
there’s a line in The Caves of Androzani that
refers to Planet of Fire, but
generally the days of “Let’s spend a scene talking about what happened last time”
were over. It was the end of an era. From now on, it was back to standalones -
until the Sylvester McCoy era, but that's another story...
