Doctor Who - Documentary s03e04 Episode Script

1 NARRATOR: After two years on our screens, Doctor Who had become a television phenomena.
It was regularly reaching an audience of 10 million viewers.
And it's most celebrated villains, the Daleks, had followed up their invasion of Earth with a rather more successful invasion of the nation's toy shops.
But its third year would decide the show's long-term fate.
Would it become a well-loved but largely forgotten piece of '60s ephemera Or a show that would still be going strong 50 years later? In early 1965, as the Doctor locked horns with the ominous Animus on Vortis, Doctor Who's first producer, Verity Lambert, decided to move on.
Having made such a success of the show, she would be a tough act to follow.
As would the show's script editor, Dennis Spooner.
He was heading to ITC to write forThe Baron with Dalek creator Terry Nation.
Spooner's successor would be Donald Tosh, who'd helped set up Coronation Street in his time at Granada, before moving to the BBC in 1963.
Donald Wilson invited me to join the BBC and so I did.
And having been told I would be doing classic serials, he asked me, and indeed told me, to do Compact, which was a twice-weekly serial.
I did Compact for 18 months plus and then felt it was time to move on.
He said, "Well, how about Doctor Who?" NARRATOR: Donald Wilson's chosen replacement for Verity Lambert was John Wiles, an experienced writer and script editor, but, as it turned out, a reluctant producer.
He was South African.
He, as it were, fled the apartheid regime.
We got on terribly well.
He was terribly easy to get on with.
NARRATOR: Both John Wiles and Donald Tosh came to the show determined to shake things up.
He'd worked a lot with children and knew, really, a lot more about the psychology of children than the other people in the BBC, you know, "They mustn't be too frightened.
" And he said, "Absolute rubbish, they love being frightened.
" And so we really did, you know, begin to kind of turn the screws a little.
(MAN READING) NARRATOR: But before he could take over as producer, John Wiles would have to trail Verity Lambert for a few months, during which time several stories would be commissioned for the show's next season, whether he liked them or not.
In the meantime, William Emms delivered his scripts for Galaxy 4, unaware that a new companion, called Steven Taylor, had been introduced.
He would have had to adapt the script, which was written for Jackie Hill, to be Steven.
So I was playing the woman's part, basically.
Well, that sounds reasonable enough to me! I was captured by these Amazon ladies, actually, when I think about that, I could have made something of that, I suppose, but I didn't.
Oh, we have a small number of men, as many as we need.
The rest we kill.
They consume valuable food and fulfil no particular function.
It had these lovely things called Jumblies or Chumblies, which trotted around the studio being manoeuvred by very tiny people.
MAUREEN O'BRIEN: I adored the Chumblies.
We had a whole cast of midgets and dwarves.
They had the most extraordinary life.
Their world was a whole world of the little people and they would be employed in a troupe to do pantomime and things like that, and they always had The dwarves and the midgets I think they don't like "midget", the little people, always had to have separate dressing rooms because there were fights.
And I said, "What are the fights about?" The fights were over the women.
TOSH: There were the Drahvins, who were supposed to be kind of frightfully sexy and splendid.
And there were the Rills, who were, because they They were sort of wonderfully frightening but of course were actually the goodies.
The Rills were these horrendous walrus-like things with huge tusks and tails like a manatee.
Nothing had ever been in Doctor Who quite so grotesquely ugly.
The story itself was awfully thin.
And we couldn't think what else to do with it.
But you know, we had inherited it and it had all been approved.
And so we just kind of ran along with it.
NARRATOR: The last story credited to Verity Lambert would be "Mission to the Unknown", a single episode not featuring any of the regular cast, but instead concentrating on the dastardly Daleks, as a prelude to the forthcoming 12-part Dalek story.
"What 12-part Dalek story?" I hear you ask.
What we did not know was that Verity had already commissioned a 12-part Dalek.
Johnny was furious, quite reasonably.
I mean, we should have been told, at least.
But we were presented with it as a fait accompli.
NARRATOR: John Wiles had a similar reaction, considering it (MAN READING) The main cast had to have a week out, as I recall.
They all had been working flat-out for months.
So we decided, get Terry, write a trailer for "The Daleks' Master Plan".
None of the regulars were there, but the Daleks were.
NARRATOR: But viewers would have to wait for their Dalek action.
Before that would come the first story commissioned by John Wiles and Donald Tosh, an adventure set during the Trojan War called "The Myth Makers".
"The Myth Makers" I absolutely loved.
We had a wonderful cast.
PURVES: We had Ivor Salter, Francis De Wolff.
We also had, as King Priam, Max Adrian.
Max Adrian, one of the great actors that this country has produced.
Not just a great actor, but a wonderful man.
NARRATOR: For the first three episodes, it's high farce, and then in part four, everyone gets brutally massacred.
It's a very enjoyable comedy where the Doctor's interplay with Odysseus is something we all laugh at.
That had all sorts of nice, humorous edges to it.
But then suddenly it all turns on a razor's edge.
And suddenly everybody's killed and it becomes extremely nasty.
There's a strange mix in these stories of comedy and horror.
Often almost side by side.
Kids love to laugh and they love being frightened.
You were quite happy to get the mood changes.
It wasn't so much a really conscious decision.
It was just that one was enjoying oneself, and this was sort of part of the mix.
NARRATOR: "The Myth Makers" would also see the shock departure of the Doctor's companion, Vicki.
No one would be more shocked than the actress who played her.
We went off on our six-week break.
And when I came back, I expected to find the next four scripts waiting for me.
And there weren't any scripts.
The writing out of Vicki is one of the things I really regret about my time in Doctor Who, because it was, unfortunately, so badly handled.
PURVES: We came back from our summer break to discover that she was written out at the end of it.
It was a heck of a shock to her as well.
I understood that Maureen wanted to go.
I really was desperate to leave.
If they had offered me another contract for however many episodes, I might have been torn, because even 50 quid a week, which wasn't a great fortune even in those days, but it was a great fortune to me.
TOSH: Then we get to the first read-through, and Maureen arrives absolutely furious, because nobody had told her.
Her agent hadn't told her.
Johnny hadn't told her.
And I suppose I was angry because I'd gone on holiday and I'd rather have been looking for work.
She said, you know, "You've written me out!" I said, "No, darling I mean, well, yes I have, "because I thought you wanted to go.
" "I never said I wanted" I thought, "Oh, my God.
" This is now deeply, deeply embarrassing.
Yeah, so that was the end of me and Doctor Who.
NARRATOR: As this was almost John Wiles' first decision as producer, it didn't exactly get his relationship with William Hartnell off to a good start.
I know Bill was furious.
He really didn't want that to happen.
Bill, I think, was very upset.
I mean, I can remember him saying to me, "This is outrageous.
I'm not going to have this.
" I got on really well with Bill, but he and Johnny fought like cat and dog whenever they met.
I know he didn't like John Wiles.
I know that he fell out very badly with him.
Johnny was careful, but really, it was all sorts of There was an electric current between those two, always.
I can remember Bill being He could be quite acidic and vitriolic, and I can remember him saying, "That bloody man Wiles" He really was giving it some.
I can't remember what it was about.
So what used to happen if there was trouble with Bill, I would have to deal with it.
It was, "Okay, fine, Donald.
"Down you go to the rehearsal rooms.
"Have a quiet chat with Bill while he's having his lunch.
" If they couldn't get me, if I was doing something else and away, then Johnny had to go and deal with it.
(MAN READING) NARRATOR: To replace Maureen O'Brien, the production team introduced Adrienne Hill as Katarina, a handmaiden from ancient Troy, which seemed like a good idea at the time.
I think it was assumed that Adrienne was going to be the continuation, she was going to be the next girl companion for some time.
And they realised very quickly that they had a problem, because Adrienne was from Troy.
We suddenly realised the huge problems we would have in having somebody who came from that far back in history.
Everything will always have to be explained to her.
And it was going to be a nightmare.
That's why she goes.
NARRATOR: After having been whipped up into a frenzy of excitement by "Mission to the Unknown", many viewers could be forgiven for wondering where the Daleks had got to.
But they wouldn't have much longer to wait, as the Tardis touched down in the jungle of Kembel, and the nightmare would begin.
TOSH: We were a bit disappointed because it meant putting everything to one side.
Terry Nation was to write the first six and Dennis would He had agreed that Dennis would write the second six.
NARRATOR: The problem was Terry Nation and Dennis Spooner were both writing scripts for ITC at the same time.
The lovely Mr Nation kept saying, "Yes, yes! I'm on to it.
"You will have the scripts shortly.
" And about 10 days before we were due to go filming, Dougie Camfield was jumping up and down, saying, "Where are the scripts?" And so I rang his agent and she said, "Oh, but he's off to Los Angeles "in about 48 hours' time.
" I said, "No, he's not.
Not until he's delivered six scripts, please.
" And then she obviously got on to him.
He rang me and he said, "I'll deliver them to you tonight.
"I'm actually catching a plane tonight "but on my way to the airport I will deliver all six scripts.
" I said, "Terry, bless you.
Wonderful.
" The doorbell went and I went dashing down the staircase, because I lived at the very top of the building.
There was Terry with a big grin on his face, saying, "There you are, Donald.
" He thrust this brown envelope into my hands and he was downstairs, into the taxi with a wave and gone.
NARRATOR: Lasting for nearly three months, "The Daleks' Master Plan" would be the epic to end all epics.
All the kids at school were talking about it.
My best friend For "The Daleks' Master Plan" Part 1, it was his birthday and he had 40 friends round his house.
And the TV was there and all 40 people were sitting around there, cross-legged, watching the show.
I think it worked on lots of levels.
There were nice historical bits in there, there was some good science-fiction stuff in there.
There was some very good Billy Hartnell stuff in there as well.
And the other characters that appeared and came in I think added a great deal to it.
It did work well.
And one of the great things about "The Daleks' Master Plan" is that the Daleks themselves I think almost entirely in that story are taken very seriously.
Unlike in "The Chase".
Something about "The Daleks' Master Plan" just felt magical.
NARRATOR: The story also saw the introduction of space security agent Sara Kingdom, as played by Jean Marsh.
And to this day, no one is quite sure whether she counts as a companion or not.
PURVES: Jeannie Marsh was a hugely experienced actress, was already building up a big reputation and was absolutely terrific onscreen.
Well, come one, I thought you said it was finished.
PURVES: I mean, she was instrumental in the story working.
I don't think she would have been an ideal permanent companion.
I think she was probably too strong as an actress.
NARRATOR: Another problem for the team was that the seventh episode of "The Daleks' Master Plan" was to be broadcast on Christmas Day.
And it was a special Christmas edition where we ended up with the Keystone Kops in Hollywood.
I mean, bizarre.
That kind of comic relief The Christmas episode was stuck in the middle of a very serious, dark story with lots of references in it to the rest of the story.
It was discussed at fairly high level because suddenly we realised if we On Christmas Day, when everyone is sort of lying around I mean, we've got half an audience who never watch Doctor Who anyway but the kids will want to see their regular thing.
We could not let the story just flow on in its normal way.
It was Christmas Day.
I mean, they'd been having God knows what in the afternoon, then there was the news, then there was us, then there was probably more jollification, it had to be a sort of one-off jokey episode.
I mean, it was full of sort of pantomime jokes.
I watched the Christmas episode on Christmas Day.
Probably at the time, a little irritated that the Daleks weren't in it but still enjoying it for what it was.
Until the last moment.
DOCTOR: Well, we so rarely get a chance to celebrate, but this time we must.
SARA: Celebrate? DOCTOR: Yes.
It's Christmas.
And then, Bill Hartnell did the unforgivable and turned and wished everybody a happy Christmas.
DOCTOR: Incidentally, a happy Christmas to all of you at home.
Suddenly, it was becoming to the viewer like a personal chat.
It suddenly wasn't a story in time and space.
I mean, nowadays people have broken the fourth wall many times, but then, it really wasn't done.
NARRATOR: As the story progressed, it became clear that the production schedule was beginning to take its toll on William Hartnell.
Bill was past the zenith of his skills.
He was a good actor, Bill.
No question about it.
TOSH: He sort of developed into an old man off-screen.
It was strange because he wasn't that old.
(MAN READING) There were directors that he didn't get on with.
There were actors who came in that he didn't get on with.
It was my job, really, my role was to laugh Bill out of his five or six tempers a day.
And that's what I did.
And I did it very happily all the time I was He was a I can't explain what he was like.
He was a charming creature in spite of his irascibility and those terrible teeth that he used to bare when he was angry.
Um He was very fond of me and I of him.
He really took me under his wing and was very friendly and kind to me.
I got on extremely well with Bill.
And he said, "When I was sent this script for Doctor Who, "I decided.
"This was my chance.
I was going to make this mine "and I do make it mine and I make this show mine.
" And that's why he insisted on everything being right.
It was his, you know.
It was his reward after a lifetime of slogging away at things he didn't respect that much, probably.
And so you could forgive him an awful lot of the irascibility and the standing on principle and all that because it was so important to him.
I wouldn't say he was on his way down as an actor but he was on his way down from being able to do what he wanted to do.
NARRATOR: As a result, the burden of carrying the show would increasingly fall on Peter Purves' shoulders.
I had a huge respect for Peter as an actor.
He was absolutely solid as a rock.
Frequently, at the last minute, because Bill would suddenly cut something and you'd think, "Nobody is going to understand the next episode at all "unless this line goes in.
" So one would slide down onto the floor and very quietly slip a note to Peter and say something like On which was written, "For goodness' sake, mention" Whatever.
He would.
It would just suddenly kind of come out.
It seemed fairly natural.
We knew that, as it were, the writing was on the wall as far as Bill was concerned, and why we were experimenting with ways to change him.
You know, how do you do it? NARRATOR: As the months had gone by, William Hartnell's relationship with producer John Wiles had gone from bad to worse.
(MAN READING) John, I can remember on one occasion going absolutely berserk because we'd collapsed in hysterics on the set.
I think Jean Marsh and I and Billy Hartnell were all absolutely wrecked.
Peter Butterworth was there at the same time and John I can remember coming screaming out of the gallery, saying, "Look, will you concentrate! Will you" NARRATOR: A reluctant producer at the best of times, John Wiles was now feeling the strain.
They kept on saying things like, "You've got to save this amount of money" or "Lose that" or do the other and He felt hugely restricted because there is the budget, which was small enough anyway, and for it to It was perpetually being mucked about with, other people telling him what he could and couldn't do in it He just felt, you know, "Life is too short.
"I've got better things to do with my life.
" And I don't blame him.
NARRATOR: The long and stressful production of "The Daleks' Master Plan", a story he'd never wanted to make, eventually proved too much.
And at the end of 1965, John Wiles decided enough was enough.
Johnny I think took me out to lunch and he said, "I'm packing it in.
I've had it.
I've had it up to here.
" Because they'd been riding him and riding him and riding him.
And I said, "You can't go! You can't "Because we're going to go down this path, "we're going down that path, we're going to explore this.
" And he said, "I know.
I know.
Not with me.
" NARRATOR: Wiles would remain as producer long enough to hand over the reins to his successor and would see two more stories through to production.
After such a bleak conclusion to "The Daleks' Master Plan", it was time for some light relief.
Which would be nowhere to be found in the next story, "The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve", written by John Lucarotti.
Well, according to the opening titles, at least.
It was written ostensibly by John Lucarotti but Donald Tosh didn't like the script and he chewed it around and moved it around and changed it.
Virtually, the script is Donald Tosh's script.
(MAN READING) He suddenly, out of the blue, sent through this script about the Vikings, this story about the Vikings.
We looked and we thought, "No! "We've sort of done the Vikings in "The Time Meddler".
"We don't want to do it again.
Certainly not this quickly.
" And so one called John Lucarotti in and he said, "Well, you know, I've been commissioned to write" And we discovered he had been.
He'd been commissioned to write three Right back, early, early days to write three Doctor Whos and he'd done two and never delivered the third and this now was the third.
I then said, "Well, okay.
"But look, do one on St Bartholomew's massacre "because that's something we haven't done "and it has lots of wonderful potential "to be on the black side.
" (MAN READING) What he delivered was a sort of bad Hollywood version of somebody who's never set foot outside Wisconsin thinks might have happened.
I persuaded John that we would pay John Lucarotti off and I would actually do it for free.
Which I did.
Out of courtesy, I sent John the script, which he hated.
(MAN READING) There was a terrible schism between the two of them to get that on the air.
I was not aware of that but of course "The Massacre" featured Steven wonderfully.
I mean, suddenly he comes back into his own.
Because what had happened in the 12-part Dalek is he kept being pushed to one side and one felt, you know, "It's a little hard.
"You're supposed to be the kind of the second lead.
" NARRATOR: This story would see the Doctor and Steven caught up in events in Paris in the year 1572, in which Catherine de Médici instigates religious genocide, an unusually adult and downbeat premise for a Doctor Who story, and it resulted in the show losing more than a quarter of its viewers.
I think it's quite a serious piece in the end.
It's beautifully written, very, very historically accurate.
It was really classic drama.
Fair amount of bits about French politics of the time.
And it probably alienated a lot of kids at the time.
Kids who'd just watched a Dalek story probably couldn't get into it.
It's not even a sort of normal action-adventure story, you know.
There are lots and lots of scenes of people talking.
The children would possibly have been bored with all that intellectual tosh.
Sorry, Donald, no pun intended.
And then, at the same time, the adults who would like a good old historical drama set in Paris with the massacre of the Huguenots going on wouldn't be watching it because it was Doctor Who.
You had to give it the element that would snatch everybody's attention and that was the doppelganger idea of William Hartnell.
After the pressures of the Dalek story, William Hartnell had been given a week's holiday.
And then returned, rested, to play not only the Doctor but also the Abbot of Amboise.
Bill suddenly flowered.
One had taken him away and one had given him another part.
STEVEN: Oh, Doctor! ABBOT: Silence! Who is this man? And why does he disturb my peace? He had no trouble.
He sailed through that as the Abbot of Amboise.
Absolutely beautiful.
One of the best performances he gave.
NARRATOR: Hartnell's recuperation also meant he was able to handle some of the most powerful scenes of his era in the story's final episode, in which the Huguenots of Paris are brutally Well, you can guess what happens from the title.
The long monologue was written specifically for Bill.
DOCTOR: They were all too impatient to get back to their own time.
And he did it beautifully.
What I love about all that early stuff about the Doctor's origins is that it always feels like a little door is being opened and then it's slammed shut.
DOCTOR: Perhaps I should go home, back to my own planet But I can't.
It is for me the crowning moment of what Wiles and Tosh did in Doctor Who.
It all went terribly, terribly well.
And it's something, actually, I am I feel justly proud of.
NARRATOR: The closing moments would also see the introduction of a new companion.
Dodo Chaplet.
I think I'm beginning to enjoy this space travel or whatever it is.
She was nice and quirky and she was very different from anyone else that we'd had on the show.
She was a bubbly, cheeky, sassy little girl, which I think was probably very modern at the time.
She settled in very quickly.
She was a substitute for his granddaughter Susan.
He said so in the first meeting and that's the kind of paternal relationship he developed with her.
We had sort of lost that grandfatherly element.
He was just becoming really a crotchety old man.
And we hoped that by, as it were, giving him someone to be more even grandparental about, it might, you know, soften some of the crotchetiness.
NARRATOR: Dodo's debut story, "The Ark", by Paul Erickson was one of the first stories commissioned by John Wiles and one close to his heart.
(MAN READING) Johnny could see all sorts of potential in it.
I would have probably If it had been totally up to me, I probably wouldn't have ever done it.
But I knew Johnny loved it, and he'd gone along with me for things which I'm sure he would have normally kind of thought, "Donald, are you sure that we should be doing this?" But he'd allowed me to go ahead.
So, um, this was his, so ahead we went with it.
It does have the air of a kind of '30s science fiction film.
It does look a bit Things to Come.
It's, you know, for 1966, obviously, like most Doctor Who, it's hideously dated in terms of science fiction.
A very nice director called Michael Imison was actually fired in the gallery as the last episode was about to be recorded.
I think it was partially because "The Ark" was such a badly executed piece.
I mean, it was not his fault.
I think it showed in the design.
The costume designs were awful.
It just didn't work as a piece, and it's a pity because it was a very good story.
But immediately after that, suddenly we had a new producer.
And he was introduced to us, "This is the new producer.
" And I met Innes Lloyd.
NARRATOR: Like John Wiles before him, Innes Lloyd had no experience as a producer, but had worked as a director.
Lloyd also shared his predecessor's enthusiasm, or lack of it, at the appointment.
(MAN READING) I felt I should probably carry on.
And then I met Innes.
And Innes' idea for Doctor Who and mine were miles apart.
He wanted to go down pure science fiction, and absolutely sort of You know, the whole thing becomes a sort of mathematical formula.
And so I said, "Well, I'm terribly sorry.
"I think I should, you know, move on.
" I suppose the odd thing about Johnny Wiles as producer and me as editor is the fact that we did agree so much.
I can't remember any I don't think there was any major argument ever.
NARRATOR: Before deciding to leave, John Wiles and Donald Tosh had already laid plans for the show to continue without William Hartnell.
The writing out of Bill we knew was going to have to happen because he just wasn't coping.
NARRATOR: They'd planned to write him out in the next story, "The Celestial Toymaker".
John Wiles' idea was that the Doctor would be rendered invisible, only to magically reappear, played by a different actor.
I mean, technically, how it was going to be done I'd no idea.
But we would sort of buffer one into the other somehow.
NARRATOR: But as "The Celestial Toymaker" went into production, Innes Lloyd was already in the producer's chair, and Gerry Davis had been appointed to replace Donald Tosh as script editor.
He was full of ideas which matched up with what Innes wanted to do with the thing, which I thought was dead wrong for the programme.
NARRATOR: "The Celestial Toymaker"had been thought up by writer Brian Hayles.
The whole thing was going to be a real scarefest with jokes.
Within a week, he came back to me and said, "I can't write this.
I'm frightening myself.
" He said, "I can't.
I cannot do this.
" Because it was to do with playing with people's minds.
NARRATOR: And so, in keeping with tradition of outgoing script editors, Donald Tosh was asked to write the story himself.
I went away and duly wrote it, and Johnny read it and loved it.
Then I took my first holiday for two years while Gerry was moving himself in.
NARRATOR: One of Gerry Davis's first acts as script editor would be to scrap the "Toymaker"script and start all over again.
(MAN READING) I came back to find totally rewritten from top to bottom.
"Oh.
" You know.
Well, okay, fine.
They couldn't get hold of me.
And I said, "But you can't put my name on that.
"Oh, no, you've written it.
" NARRATOR: The plan to replace William Hartnell was abandoned, but the Doctor would still be invisible for much of the story, giving the actor another well-deserved holiday.
To have his character only being played by his hand was really quite clever.
So he wasn't there, and that hand could play the game, the Trilogic game.
LEVINE: The whole story hinged upon Steven and Dodo, where Peter Purves and Jackie Lane Jackie and I had a lot of fun with that.
We enjoyed it because we were playing games.
You were finding a route through a thing.
If you step on a wrong thing, then it all explodes, and that's it, end of story.
So obviously it never happened, because we get through to the end of it.
Good fun, though, yeah.
It's make-believe.
NARRATOR: The new production team would have a battle on its hands from the outset as the show's viewing figures had begun to slide, largely due to it being shown earlier in the evening against a new ITVtalent show.
You know, you're sat down on a Saturday night with your kids.
You can watch the Walker Brothers or Kathy Kirby or something.
Or you can watch "The Massacre".
I think people are going to be heading towards the Walker Brothers.
Though of course the Monoids in "The Ark" have The Walker Brothers' hair.
NARRATOR: But far from acting as a discouragement to an uncertain producer, the challenges seemed to spur Innes Lloyd on.
(MAN READING) NARRATOR: But once again, it would be a few months before the full force of the new team's influences would be felt.
The next serial was the last to be commissioned by the previous regime of Wiles and Tosh, "The Gunfighters"by Donald Cotton.
So fill up your glasses #And join in the song The law's right behind you #And it won't take long # TOSH: He knew a lot about the sort of Tombstone and Clantons and all of that.
And it really is very seedy and I said I want all that, please.
In the Last Chance Saloon I had heard that Bill Hartnell wanted to do a Western.
And of course, it ended up being "The Gunfighters".
I hated that so much when we did it.
I really did.
But having watched it since, it's really rather a good piece.
It's a very good story.
Mr Werp.
Oh, Mr Werp.
-I say, can you do that? -Nope.
And I wouldn't try it if I were you.
I have no intention of trying anything, only people keep giving me guns, and I do wish they wouldn't.
And we got a chance to dress up and wear the fancy clothes.
And Bill looked terrific, didn't he? I think I was just embarrassed by the song.
I think that really coloured everything.
# With rings on their fingers # And bells on their toes # The girls come to Tombstone in their high silk hose # They'll dance on the tables or give you a tune # For whatever's in your wallet at the Last Chance Saloon It's your last chance I don't know what they thought they were doing, because that song then kind of peppered the whole of the story.
It didn't add anything, it held up the action.
It wasn't the greatest song ever written.
And it was (GROANS) NARRATOR: Although "The Gunfighters" didn't perform particularly badly in the ratings, the reaction from those who watched it was resoundingly negative, suggesting that historical stories might not be the way forward.
(MAN READING) NARRATOR: Instead, Gerry Davis told prospective writers to avoid humour and historical adventures, and instead to concentrate on (MAN READING) Wiles and Tosh stuff is very deep and philosophical and thoughtful.
That's not something you could accuse the Lloyd and Davis stuff of being.
I actually find it a great shame that Donald Tosh and John Wiles didn't get a longer stint.
In a way, the series dumbs down.
I think, you know, but I don't think that's a problem.
It becomes very much a show about monsters fighting a hero.
And there's nothing wrong with that.
NARRATOR: As part of the fresh new look the production team wanted for the show, it was decided that the characters of Steven and Dodo should be written out at the earliest opportunity.
I was actually told by Innes Lloyd that the next serial would be my last.
It was a four-part one, and that was going to be the end of it.
They weren't renewing my contract.
NARRATOR: The first story to be commissioned by the new team would be Peter Purves' swan song, The Savages by thriller writer Ian Stuart Black.
A science fiction parable about racial exploitation.
"The Savages" was an excellent story to go out on.
I was left as virtually king of a planet, and was going to make everything wonderful for the tribe that I had managed to save.
So, yeah, I'd had a good role in getting to the end of the piece, and I decide to stay to make it all wonderful for them.
I think that that should have been followed up.
I think there was an option to go there.
No one's ever picked up on it, but I think I should have become an absolute despot.
NARRATOR: Jackie Lane, however, could be forgiven for having less than happy memories about her departure from the show.
She was told she would be leaving as her first story was still being broadcast.
Gerry Davis later said that she was dropped because (MAN READING) NARRATOR: Sure enough, the following story, "The War Machines", saw Dodo departing, off screen halfway through episode two.
Why couldn't they have got her back for five minutes on the street from Fitzroy Square, and actually said, "Doctor, I'm staying.
I'm not coming.
" Why not at least give her a farewell scene? And when I've counted up to five, you will be fast asleep.
And when you wake again, you will forget all about this distressing incident.
I think they kind of just wanted rid and to bring in their new people.
I think she had a very raw deal, Jackie Lane.
I don't remember anything about it.
I was so pleased to get the part and move in, you know, that I hardly noticed that she was gone, and that nothing was said about where she went or why she didn't come back.
I don't understand.
"To hell with that.
I've got the role and here I am.
" That's what I felt.
NARRATOR: Replacing Steven and Dodo were Michael Craze and Anneke Wills as Ben and Polly, a cockney sailor and a mini-skirted dolly bird plucked straight from the nightclubs of swinging '60s London.
They wanted to bring it forward into the '60s, and they wanted a sort of '60s contemporary couple rather than a granddaughter or a teacher or So there was definitely a move afoot in the BBC.
And then I'm going to take them to the hottest night spot going, and it's called the Inferno Club.
NARRATOR: The story epitomised the new, contemporary, Earth-bound, science-based storytelling that Innes Lloyd and Gerry Davis wanted.
(MAN READING) They had a scientific adviser, Kit Pedler, who was an old friend of Gerry's, and was somehow attached to the programme.
Kit Pedler was very important because he was a scientist.
So he could bring it forward into well-based science.
We are about to link this up with computers all over the world as a central intelligence.
So that in a way, what was then science fiction has now become science fact.
Throw the history out the window and bring in pure science.
But they never really did.
He's a kind of mad scientist, who's all right for Doctor Who, you know, the way Christopher H Bidmead is later, you know.
You don't want somebody that's going to be completely scientifically accurate.
It's going to kill everything stone dead.
NARRATOR: Like his predecessor, Innes Lloyd soon realised that William Hartnell was becoming increasingly difficult for others to work with.
WILLS: Michael Craze and I actually, I have to say, we both really rather disliked Bill.
And especially his politics.
I mean, that was very hard for us.
We stayed polite.
We minded our Ps and Qs, 'cause he was the star of the show, but it wasn't pleasant and I don't think we could have continued, actually, with Bill.
NARRATOR: Hartnell was suffering from arteriosclerosis resulting in vascular dementia, where emotional liability and short-term memory loss are amongst the symptoms.
As a result, he was finding it increasingly difficult to remember lines and to cope with the rigours of a weekly television series.
Innes protected Bill, you know, sort of took care of him and cosseted him.
He must have understood that he wasn't well, actually.
And so he was the sort of interim person, making sure that there weren't too many explosions around.
He was a gent, you know, and he was doing his gentlemanly thing.
NARRATOR: Innes Lloyd enjoyed a much better relationship with William Hartnell than his predecessor had, but quickly realised that there was no alternative but to suggest that Hartnell leave the show, to be replaced by a younger actor.
(MAN READING) NARRATOR: When informed of this decision in early July 1966, William Hartnell was reportedly heartbroken.
His condition meant another enforced break during filming of the next story, "The Smugglers", for which the location shoot in Cornwall was the biggest yet mounted for Doctor Who.
We always loved it when we could go off on location and it wasn't a quarry, you know, in Dorset.
So off we went to Cornwall, and what you see with the clips we've got, you see this figure, sort of disappearing flapping cloak, and it's not Bill.
So I think they worked their way round so that they didn't have to have him.
NARRATOR: In mid-July 1966, William Hartnell reluctantly agreed to give up the role of Doctor Who.
He would continue to make occasional television and stage appearances during the 1960s, but only in roles that were much less physically and mentally demanding.
The following story, "The Tenth Planet", would establish the formula for the show's next phase, a scientific research base in which a multinational crew is threatened by horrific alien monsters.
We were very excited when we read the story, the fact we were going to meet the Cybermen.
When we actually saw them, the costume department had these stocking faces and these strange mouths.
We weren't really sure kind of how effective they were going to be.
ROBERTS: We laugh at those costumes, the surgical stocking and all that stuff.
But they had visibly human hands.
The creepiness of it comes over very well there.
When you saw them onscreen, actually in black and white, of course, they were scary.
They were very good.
NARRATOR: "The Tenth Planet" would prove to be a landmark story, not only as the first to feature the Cybermen, but also as the last to feature William Hartnell.
I guess this old body of mine is wearing a bit thin.
Everybody knew weeks in advance William Hartnell was going, the papers were plastered with it.
But of course, I didn't want it to happen.
Innes came in to the read-through of the next story and said, "We're having a new actor.
" And the door opened, and in walked Patrick Troughton and everybody got on their feet and was cheering.
It was an amazing moment, actually.
And there he was in his little red cardie, and his little Greek bag, ready to work.
It's far from being all over.
NARRATOR: After enthralling viewers for three years, William Hartnell's Doctor faded away before their eyes and a new Doctor was born.
Innes Lloyd and Gerry Davis had quickly established a formula of space adventures and monster invasions that continues in Doctor Who to this day, and demonstrated that whenever the show was wearing a bit thin, its lead actor could be replaced.
And yet,John Wiles and Donald Tosh had also laid the groundwork for the show's long-term survival, not just because they were the first to consider changing the lead actor, but because they realised the show was all about experimenting, about attempting to be different, about pushing back the boundaries and making it funnier, scarier and altogether stranger than it had ever been before.