One of my pet projects over the past few years has been
trying to work out which Doctor Who scripts
exist. After all, if you’re writing an article for Doctor Who Magazine, or a book for The Black Archive, it helps to know what is out there. So I’ve put together
a rough guide.
(Please note: just because I know that a script exists
doesn’t mean I have it or have access to it. But many if not all of these
scripts are becoming more widely available on the season-by-season blu-ray
releases, and all the scripts for missing 1960s episodes were included in the
soundtrack CD box sets.)
The 1960s
Doctor Who is
remarkable in that scripts exist for every single one of its episodes. Other
series, like Z-Cars, are nowhere near
as fortunate. The preservation of Doctor
Who scripts is due to several things; the Doctor Who production office maintaining a complete collection of
scripts, the BBC Script Library/Written Archive retaining copies of scripts and
production files, and fans from the 1970s onwards being illustrious and
diligent in acquiring copies of scripts.
There are two main types of scripts. Rehearsal scripts, the
scripts which were sent out to actors and taken into rehearsals, and the camera
scripts, which are revised versions of the rehearsal scripts modified and
annotated by the director with shot-by-shot instructions for the camera
operators, vision mixer, cues for sound effects, details like where recording
breaks should be, as well as a schedule for the day of recording, a
scene-by-scene breakdown, and a list of cast and crew.
A rehearsal script:
A camera script:
The good news is that camera scripts exist for almost every Doctor Who episode of the 1960s. The
only episodes without camera scripts are The
Daleks 2, 3, 4, 6 and 7, Planet of
Giants 1 and The Invasion 6, but
rehearsal scripts exist for all these episodes. The camera scripts for both the
pilot episode and its remounted version exist. Regarding the remount of The Daleks 1, as far as I can tell they
just used the camera script from the first attempt again. For Planet of Giants, parts 3 and 4 of the
4-part version exist, as well as a version of episode 3 with them combined.
Camera scripts tend to be very close to the episodes as
broadcast. Rehearsal scripts, however, give you a chance to see an earlier
iteration of the story, before changes made during rehearsals. They
sometimes contain lines that were changed, or scenes that were cut. The BBC
tend to have only kept camera scripts (as they were being kept as a record of
the episodes as broadcast), so what rehearsal scripts exist tend to do so
because they were kept by the writers, cast members or members of the
production team.
Rehearsal scripts exist for various odd episodes, including
the Dennis Spooner-scripted episodes of The
Daleks’ Masterplan, the final episode of The Tenth Planet, plus six episodes of Marco Polo (retained by Director Waris Hussein) and all of The Web of Fear (recently sold at
auction). Some rehearsal scripts that were auctioned at conventions
during the 1980s have, sadly, since disappeared.
Finally, there are also draft scripts; the scripts as
delivered to the production team by the writer, which may be very, very
different indeed to what was ultimately broadcast. Terry Nation seems to have
retained all his draft scripts from the 1960s except The Keys of Marinus and Mission
to the Unknown. I believe that Victor Pemberton may have also retained his
draft scripts for Fury from the Deep.
What about the stories that didn’t get made, I hear you ask.
Well, as a general rule of thumb, you can tell what exists by which unmade
stories have had synopses printed in Doctor
Who Magazine or Doctor Who Bulletin, and which have been adapted into Lost Stories audio adventures by Big Finish. So, if there’s a story
which has never had its synopsis printed anywhere, such as Malcolm Hulke’s The Hidden Planet, you can be pretty
sure that’s because it doesn’t exist anywhere.
The 1970s
As far as I can tell camera scripts exist for everything
from the 1970s. Rehearsal scripts exist for odd episodes and odd stories, and
then for everything from Destiny of the
Daleks onwards. Towards the end of the decade there are also transmission
scripts; the camera scripts edited to match what was broadcast.
There aren’t many draft scripts known to exist, although there
are various versions of The Pirate Planet
in the Douglas Adams archive at St John’s College, Cambridge (see James
Goss’ novelisation for details).
The 1980s
As far as I can gather, rehearsal scripts, camera scripts
and transmission scripts (aka ‘programme as broadcast’ scripts) exist for
almost everything. Drafts of Warriors’
Gate and Terminus exist in the
Stephen Gallagher archive at the University of Hull and, of course, Robert
Holmes’ version of The Trial of Time Lord
13 and Eric Saward’s version of The
Trial of a Time Lord 14 exist and are included on the Season 23 blu-ray.
The 1990s
Various drafts and the shooting script of the TV movie
exist, as does a shooting script for The
Curse of Fatal Death. I’m not going to discuss scripts from the 2000s; that’s
a whole different thing!
So what is missing? Well, as the BBC’s Script Library’s remit
was only to keep copies of scripts for reference of what was made and
broadcast, any earlier drafts were usually discarded. As far as I know, the
following scripts no longer exist in any archive or private collection. If you
know otherwise, please let me know!
John Lucarotti’s original version of The Massacre
Brian Hayles and Donald Tosh’s original version(s) of The Celestial Toymaker
David Whitaker’s original versions of parts 1 and 2 of The Evil of the Daleks
Mervyn Haisman and Henry Lincoln’s original version of part
5 of The Dominators (they never
got as far as part 6)
David Whitaker’s original versions of parts 1, 2 and 3 of The Ambassadors of Death
Bob Baker and Dave Martin’s original version of The Three Doctors featuring Jamie
Lewis Greiffer’s original version of Pyramids of Mars (a synopsis exists)
Terrance Dicks’ original version of The Brain of Morbius
Bob Baker and Dave Martin’s 6-part version of The Hand of Fear (a synopsis exists)
Terrance Dicks’ 1977 version of State of Decay
David Fisher’s original version of City of Death (The Gamble
with Time, a synopsis exists)
Terrance Dicks’ original version of The Five Doctors with the fourth Doctor having a major role
Eric Saward’s 1982 version of Resurrection of the Daleks
