After the disastrous press launch came close to making The New Doctor the
most hated programme on television before a second had screened, it was
widely-assumed that the show would sink without trace before its
nine-week slot was up. On the contrary, ratings were immediately
acceptable and rapidly improved thanks to the praise of Vienna, 1913. Were most of the viewers actually outraged fans watching the bastardization of their precious Doctor Who with a morbid sadistic desire to see it fail? Quite probably, but the fact was people were watching The New Doctor and talking about it. In fact, the audience share hadn't been beaten by Doctor Who since the first episode of Attack of the Cybermen some eight years previously - a fact that the production team wisely refused to allow Ian Levine to comment about in public.
While hardly a ratings smash, The New Doctor fulfilled all the
BBC's requirements. It was widely-viewed and known, cost the corporation
virtually nothing, shut up whining voices from the public and gave BBC
Enterprises an excuse to charge gullible fans for merchandise featuring
David Burton's character. That last fact was the turning point and,
since more episodes meant more merchandise, the series was renewed.
The exact details of the nightmare of production weren't clearly known
at the time, but everyone whispered that Barry Letts had been driven to a
near nervous breakdown by the incompetence and inefficiency of
Millennium Films. Aware of how lucky they'd been to get any actual
episodes from this satanic mill, the BBC decided to play it safe for
once. Making seven new episodes had almost destroyed the production
team, but maybe six could be achieved with slightly less suffering and
human misery?
With part two of Volcano already in the can to launch season two,
Barry Letts wished everyone luck and immediately abandoned the project.
He parted on good terms with all and might have been persuaded to stay
longer, but Terrance Dicks insisted his friend leave for health reasons.
Another year of The New Doctor could kill him. Dicks offered to
take over script editor roles and become a production advisor to the
show, easing their burden while they tried to find another producer.
Levine, still determined that The New Doctor be produced by the cream of 1970s Doctor Who production
team sought out a replacement in Philip Hinchcliffe and also David
Maloney. In order to prevent the chaotic overload that had almost
destroyed Letts, it was decided Hinchcliffe and Maloney would produce
two stories apiece and no more - a two-part story and a one-part story.
The production team (and Levine in particular) also agreed to follow
Letts' advice about less last-minute-changes and spontaneous inspiration
for the second season.
Jenny and Judy Lannister were keen to leave the series, finding the pace
of production and indeed acting in general not to their taste. Burton
was eager for them to stay for the whole season, killed off one by one
for dramatic reasons, but Bernard and Maloney (who would be overseeing
the first three episodes) decided to make a clean break and have them
leave together in a single episode. Levine argued they should have a
two-part story featuring the twins between the end of Volcano and
their departure to give it more impact, ideally explaining who the
twins were and how they met the Doctor. The abandoned fifth story of the
previous season, The Pirates of Penance, had been developed enough that it would be easier to complete it rather than go for something entirely new.
The pirate story originally focused on some 23rd Century space pirates
ending up in the Caribbean of the 17th Century and resuming their raids.
Maloney disliked that idea, as stranded time travelers causing trouble
on Earth had already been seen in The Monsters of Ness, Vienna, 1913 and Volcano.
While Levine insisted the precedent of the 'base-under-siege' era of
the Troughton years, he was overruled. It was decided that a split
narrative, similar to the different time zones of 1983's Mawdryn Undead, be deployed - The Pirates of Penance would
thus end up being its own sequel, with flashbacks to show the space
pirates in space and also the Doctor meeting the twins for the first
time. Burton suggested the idea of this being his "first" story and he
should wear a different outfit, and also show the TARDIS assuming the
shape of a red phone box for the first time.
Aware of how the Sontarans had improved the production and reception of Murder in Space,
Maloney and Bernard suggested another distinctive monster be added to
the script. They had made contact with the estates of Robert Holmes and
Malcolm Hulke, as well as Terrance Dicks himself, so bringing back their
creations was possible. After much discussion, it was agreed the Autons
would be the best bet. They would require limited make-up or alteration
to the pirate angle, while also giving an interesting angle to the
twins - their somewhat stilted acting could now be explained by their
being advanced Nestene duplicates who, like the twins in real life with
Burton, had learned to be more convincing during their travels with the
Doctor.
With Autons only requiring an energy sphere prop and some arm cannons,
there was some extra money going around. Dicks suggested they use this
to create a spaceship set for the space pirate section of the story, but
it would be a standing set that could be customized to any spaceship in
future stories - and such a development would be bound to occur,
especially if there was another Time Parasite style bottle episode.
The rewrites on The Pirates of Penance were carried out by Dicks
and staff writer Evan Wales, with a naval historical reenactment group
providing them with the galleon and trade vessels to film upon and some
eager re-enactors to play pirates and crew. To keep costs down, only two
speaking parts would be involved - Club the pirate leader and the
captain of the trade ship. Unfortunately the actor playing the captain
was unable to attend the first day's recording and so a hasty rewrite
had the scene where he first meets the TARDIS crew changed to the Doctor
and the twins discussing it after the fact. Another change was to
disguise Club until the cliffhanger, thus allowing a trained stunt
performer to do the swashbuckling fight scenes.
All in all, the first production block on location went surprisingly
smoothly with no required remounts and few retakes required. Many joked
at the irony Barry Letts had gone just as they'd worked out how to do
this sort of thing properly, and all the changes carried out seemed to
have worked out for the best. Maloney admitted keeping Burton's ad-libs
under control was just as difficult as he had been warned, but all in
all the filming had been a fun and professional venture.
But this was to change, suddenly and terribly, when they returned to
their offices to film in studio for the flashback-space-pirate sequences
that made the other half of the story. Although the material with the
twins meeting the Doctor and their Auton nature was more-or-less intact
in the script, Levine had decided to grant Maloney a bombshell similar
to suddenly bringing back the Sontarans and the Draconians last year
(said bombshell being the one that triggered Letts' horrific breakdown).
It seemed that Levine considered these fait accomplis generous presents, because otherwise even he would have baulked at this sudden, unexpected change of plans.
Rather than the group of generic space pirates the script called for,
Levine had managed to contact and secure the services of the actors Paul
Darrow, Michael Keating and Glynis Barber to reprise their roles from Blake's 7 a decade earlier. Not only would this be a crossover between Doctor Who and Blake's 7, it would also resolve the infamous cliffhanger ending of the latter show and possibly be a back-door pilot to bring back Blake's 7 as
part of Levine's overall desire to restore the golden age of British
science fiction as he had promised at the press conference last year.
Maloney, who had worked on and enjoyed Blake's 7, was nonetheless
dumbstruck at the idea of restructuring the plot so three generic space
thugs with minimal dialogue could be parts worthy of the time and
effort of his stars. Everyone agreed this sort of abrupt idea was
precisely the chaos Levine was supposed to have given up, and he had
almost derailed Pirates in the middle of actually making it, even worse than his similar antics in Vienna, 1913.
Thankfully, Maloney and the cast knew their characters and the basics
of space opera well-enough to help improvise this new plot so it would
not be a total disaster, though a lot of the twins' background scenes
would have to be brutally edited to give the ex-Scorpio crew a chance to be established.
Everyone was so overwhelmed dealing with Levine's gratuitous change to
the story that they didn't actually check with him that this was legal.
Unlike the Autons or the deal they'd had with the BBC to use the Doctor,
there was absolutely no discussion with Terry Nation or Chris Boucher
about using characters and situations from Blake's 7. None of the lawyer-friendly ambiguity of Volcano was called-upon, meaning they were begging to be sued for infringing copyright.
Ian Levine had learned nothing from the previous year. He'd overturned a
story in the middle of production, demanded huge script rewrites and
introduced characters, and gone out of his way to put The New Doctor in the cross-hairs of litigation.
And this time, Barry Letts wasn't around to save them.
Suffice it to say, it took a surprisingly long time for the penny to
drop. No one working at Millennium Films actually thought Ian Levine was
stupid, and the idea he'd be dumb enough to demand a Blake's 7 crossover
without squaring it with Terry Nation first simply didn't occur to
anyone. They just assumed he'd misspoken and any relevant paperwork had
been lost; a problem, yes, but hardly the cataclysm it could be.
It was only as work began on the next story, Heartbreak, that the
penny struck and the truth was realized. Given it was so late in the
day to deal with the crisis that the "right royal bollocking" lined up
for Levine was put on the back burner as the production team for the
first and second parts of the season united to deal with the crisis.
There were several options, quickly outlined.
Firstly, they'd just not screen The Pirates of Penance at all.
While this was the safest bet to avoid litigation, it would also prove
to be a gigantic waste of resources and also leave the season two
episodes short at next to no notice.
Secondly, they could use the standing set of the Penance spaceship and refilm the scenes with the Doctor, Serge and the Quartet with none of the B7 characters.
In this, the Doctor would be the one to open and then close the box.
This was the more attractive option but it came with a problem of the
story now under-running by at least fifteen minutes, so the only option
was to film new scenes and then re-edit Pirates into a single
episode, cutting out a lot of material the cast and crew were pleased
with (in particular the cheerful hanged Auton pirate). Again, The New Doctor would now be an episode short.
The third, riskiest option, was to perform a brisk ADR edit of the
story. Due to the nature of the plot, the characters of Avon, Vila et
all had been careful not to mention their names out aloud and risk being
recognized. Indeed, there was a scene where Soolin refused to give her
name to the Doctor. With some careful cuts, none of the B7
characters would identity themselves on screen. References to Blake
himself were cut and as many references to the Federation were changed
to "empire". With all prepublicity referring to Blake's 7 dropped from previews and trailers, it might just be possible to smuggle Pirates out as they had Volcano, with no official use of other's intellectual property but easily-enjoyed by the audience.
Ironically, they might well have got away with it if it weren't for Paul Darrow.
Darrow had thoroughly-enjoyed filming The Pirates of Penance and liked the idea of this being a backdoor pilot to a Blake's 7 revival.
As such, he rang his close friend Terry Nation to get his thoughts on
the matter. Nation, like many others, assumed that some communication
breakdown had occurred because no one would be stupid enough to film a B7 story
without getting his permission. Likewise assuming this was a simple
misunderstanding, Darrow direction Nation to Millennium Films.
Nation had worked closely with Hinchcliffe, Maloney and Dicks before,
which meant that the inevitable discussions was reasonably cordial.
Nation was understandably astonished at this theft of his work; it was
reasonable for some newbie on Doctor Who to assume they could use Daleks freely, but to copy another TV series? (Nation, for his part, believed that Doctor Who and Blake's 7 occurred
in the same "universe", as did Chris Boucher, star Gareth Thomas and
even Tom Baker so he was not against the idea of a crossover per se). After lengthy discussions, it eventually boiled down to admitting Ian Levine had caused the entire problem.
Nation was a reasonable man and, learning the awkward situation The New Doctor was in, was disposed to be generous. In return for a nominal fee and an on-screen credit, the edited version of Pirates could be screened as was. However, for any future repeats or VHS sales they would have to either remove any B7 material
or provide Nation with double his fee. This would deeply cut into
Millennium Films' meager profits but given Nation was well within his
rights to destroy them in court, everyone agreed this was was the best
possible outcome and sincerely thanked Nation for his kindness.
Everyone, that is, except Ian Levine.
Terry Nation was well known for his easy-going charm and good humor
(which many remarked was how he was able to recycle his scripts without
comment) and generally quite popular with his co-workers. This
amiability had made the whole confrontation halfway bearable and it's
fair to say even if he had refused to aid them, there would have been no
hard feelings from Hinchcliffe et all.
So when Levine started spewing hatred and vitriol for Nation the moment
he left, it was a shock to all. A lovely generous man had given them a
second chance they didn't deserve and now Levine was bad-mouthing him?
Did he not realize just how close his own recklessness had come to
destroying The New Doctor?
Levine revealed to the astonished production crew it was no absent-minded mistake to use Blake's 7 without permission. He had done it deliberately. He was of the firm belief that cameoing in The New Doctor would kick-start a new series of Blake's 7,
part of the overall "new golden age" Levine saw for the BBC in the
1990s. The revenue of such a series would mach the already-wealthy
Nation richer still, and for him to come demanding money for them doing
him a favor was the height of selfishness! Had they not done more to
bring back Avon and his crew in a single month's production than Nation
had managed in over a decade? As far as Levine was concerned, Nation had
abdicated any responsibility for the franchise and should be grateful The New Doctor was willing to have anything to do with him!
David Burton found himself acting as peacemaker once again, trying to
explain to Levine that he couldn't make such risky decisions without
informing the rest of them, but Levine stubbornly insisted there was no
point having this argument before filming as that would have meant they'd never had filmed it in the first place. This was a fait accompli, and if he let anyone else have a say he might very well not have his own way.
Until now, Levine's endearing enthusiasm had easily balanced out how
much of a burden he was on production but to Maloney and Hinchcliffe
this enfant terrible was on the verge of ruining everything. Already
with a dim view following Letts' breakdown and Paul Bernard's eagerness
to quit, they began to seriously discuss quitting on the spot before
they had to deal with any more problems. Maloney, half-way through his
final episode, decided to finish the course but Hinchcliffe was wary of
even starting work on his own stories knowing that Levine might start
ambushing them.
An air of distrust and paranoia had settled over the Millennium Films
studio office, one that after a few days seemed unwarranted. Work
progressed on Heartbreak without incident and Levine's
suggestions were minor and, if not accepted, at least considered
reasonable enough to consider. Maybe Levine had got whatever it was out
of his system? Even Hinchcliffe began to relax and set up work for his
Sontaran episode.
And then Levine suggested the new ending to Heartbreak.
And nothing would ever be the same.
Jenny and Judy Lannister were telegenic, photogenic and popular with
cast and crew but alas this did not make them good actresses. After
their poor, stilted and wooden performance in The Monsters of Ness the
twins were almost abandoned right away when Barry Letts took over, only
for David Burton to insist his companions continue to be used. In a
compromise, they were deliberately sidelined or left in the TARDIS in
the rest of the series. The Lannister twins made an effort at acting
lessons with Burton during production and improved to the point Letts
agreed to bring them to the forefront in his epic Volcano. Judy
Lannister was judged to be the better of the pair, and worked best with
the deadpan sarcasm of Diamond, so she was generally given the most
material.
That said, the twins were not keen to do a second series and requested
to leave. Burton himself wanted to stagger their departures, so one twin
would be the sole companion (and, Heart or Diamond, would be played by
the twin who could act), but they requested to leave together in the
same story. Thus, after completing their origin tale The Pirates of Penance,
they would depart in a one episode story. The production team were keen
to bring back the evil Doctor character of Mr. V, and Burton thought
his return could establish him as a dangerous ongoing enemy by killing
the twins.
Terrance Dicks and Paul Bernard objected to this idea; for all their faults the twins were a huge part of The New Doctor's
family appeal and killing them both off would alienate their child
audience, as well as provoke a darker and nihilistic attitude to the
show. By making the companions victims and the Doctor unable to protect
his charges, why would anyone want to keep watching? Levine protested,
insisting that sparing the twins would undermine the drama, citing the
death and revival of Peri in The Trial of a Time Lord as a cheap ploy - but, having just caused all sorts of trouble undoing the "kill them all" ending to Blake's 7, had no real credibility left.
After discussions with Burton and the twins, Dicks suggested the story
have Mr. V kill one of the twins and the other choosing to leave the
TARDIS. Depending on the public reaction, there could be a sequel where
the surviving twin returned and used Mr. V's resurrection casket to
bring her dead sister back to life. Current producer David Maloney
believed the best choice would be Mr. V killing Heart to punish Diamond
for her earlier betrayal, as Judy would be the better actress to portray
the grief.
Moving on to the issue of Mr. V, Dicks noted they could not do the
character justice in a single-episode story and thus the best use of the
villain would be to reintroduce him as someone dangerous without acting
as a criminal mastermind. As the original Citizen Vise was a dark
version of the Third Doctor, a charming but desperate man eager to
escape the Earth at any cost, this new Mr. V would reflect the Fourth
Doctor - a mercurial bohemian eager to explore the universe. Inspired by
stories like City of Death and The Leisure Hive, Dicks
proposed they would find Mr. V on a tourist group on an alien planet
with no ulterior motive, but his character providing plenty of comic
material as he researched local culture better than any professionals.
His likable behavior would make his abrupt murder of Heart all the more
shocking.
Casting Mr. V was initially difficult until writer Alex Sorne suggested
Stephen Fry based on recently seeing him as Mr. Poofarty in a repeat of
episode two of Filthy, Rich & Catflap, an eccentric artist in
a long coat, hat, scarf and curly hair. Fry, a fan of science fiction
and good friends with Douglas Adams, was flattered to be asked but
initially uncomfortable at being "asked to play Tom Baker". However, he
was intrigued by the idea of a villain not being villainous and the
scene with the death of the tour guide persuaded him. He agreed to play
the part for one episode, understanding he would be killed off at the
end like Ian McKellan's Vise in Volcano. Fry also did some
research and ad-libbed some quoted lines from Baker episodes he thought
would be appropriate (his mocking "You're enjoying this, aren't you?" to
the twins was from The Android Invasion, for example). Fry also
suggested that Mr. V carry one-sided conversations with the primords as
the Fourth Doctor would with K9.
For once, filming went off without incident. 90 per cent of the story
was recorded on location requiring nothing more than a few glass-painted
mattes and model shots for the temple and Mr. V's mausoleum. To suggest
the alien space setting, one of the tourists was made a Draconian
(reusing the mask from Secret of the Sontarans) and the two
primord actors doubled up as the medics summoned by the tour guide at
the climax. The standing set for the mausoleum and the Victoria android
were still around following Volcano (footage of which was reused
to show the "sleeping" primords without rehiring any actors). A new set
was constructed for the temple itself, which was put alongside the
Penance spaceship flats as something to be reused in future stories.
Levine himself kept generally out of the way during production and his
last-minute demand was simply to record an extra scene as a climax to
the story - this would see the Doctor land the TARDIS in the mausoleum
to check Mr. V had perished. Mr. V would open his eyes and attack the
Doctor, and in the fight the doors would open and both would be sucked
out into the time vortex in a cliffhanger ending.
As the remaining three episodes had yet to be finalized, and with Philip
Hinchcliffe as producer, the assumption was this change was help synch
up with the next story along and, given the request was relatively
reasonable, work began on the climax. However, Dicks turned up during
rehearsal and demanded everything stop as Levine was following his own
secret - and deranged - agenda.
Levine's opinion on David Burton had been see-sawing ever since 1991,
swinging between total support and admiration to distaste for the
actor's vaudeville acting style and arrogance on set. Throughout the
last series, Levine had commented that Burton was wrong for the part and
should be replaced. This time round he had likewise complained to
Maloney and Hinchcliffe, wanting their support in replacing Burton for a
new actor who "would have talent that matched his ego". Levine had also
come to the conclusion that Burton was actually damaging The New Doctor with
his public feud with Sylvester McCoy, and insisted it was Burton rather
than his own comments at the press launch that had turned Who fandom against the show.
Confronted by Dicks on the studio floor, Levine calmly confessed that the new scene for Heartbreak was
indeed an attempt to get rid of Burton without him noticing, "for the
good of the series". Levine intended the next episode to begin with Fry
arriving at the setting of the new story with it initially unclear if he
was Mr. V or a regenerated Ninth Doctor, a gimmick that would leave
audiences guessing for the rest of the season. Heartbreak would thus clear all the regulars and set up from the previous year, much as The War Games had cleared the decks in 1969.
However, Levine hadn't actually bothered to tell anyone of this plan.
Fry himself was annoyed Levine had assumed he would automatically drop
everything at a moment's notice to become the new lead, or that he would
want to take part in such an unstable and back-stabbing work
environment. Hincliffe, Dicks and Bernard were furious Levine was trying
to tear the show apart worse than he'd ever done before, getting rid of
the main star without their knowledge, consent or even replacement.
Coupled with the lawsuit over Blake's 7 and two years of building resentment and dislike, Levine had burnt his last bridge and was ordered off-set. His insistence that The New Doctor was dependent on his finance was ignored and Hinchcliffe went to the BBC to demand they do something about this catastrophe.
While production on Heartbreak was completed in a timely in
sombre fashion, the rest of the season - and any future seasons - were
now entirely up in the air. Everyone agreed that the Lannister twins had
wisely got out of The New Doctor while the going was good and the rest waited to learn what, if anything, would happen next...
Despite having arguably the smoothest production process of the series, the last studio recording of Heartbreak had
been without doubt the worst Millennium Films had ever seen. David
Burton and Stephen Fry were on set to film a cliffhanger ending to the
story when script-production supervisor Terrance Dicks burst in to
reveal this final scene was a spontaneous invention of Ian Levine to get
rid of Burton and make Fry the replacement.
No one else in the production team had okayed or even discussed this
crucial decision, certainly not Hinchcliffe who would thus be in charge
of the next Doctor's first story. Burton was astonished at Levine's
betrayal, especially the idea of the executive producer thinking he
could fire the lead man without lead man noticing. Levine was utterly
unrepentant, insisting all Doctors must relinquish the role for the good
of the show and Burton's theatrical vaudevillian style was doing The New Doctor more
harm than good. Levine even said that Burton should never have been the
Doctor and if he'd had his way would replaced him after The Monsters of Ness.
Burton wasn't the only one shocked at this admission. After working
together for three years, no one suspected Levine wanted rid of his
leading man. Either Levine had been lying to them all since the
beginning or he was lying now. More immediate in his outrage was Stephen
Fry. Levine had assumed he'd take over the show without even being
asked, and seemed to think Fry would want to work for the unprofessional
backstabber wrecking filming before his very eyes. Levine waspishly
retorted that Fry would never get a better offer; he was, in Levine's
opinion, a charisma-free pretentious straight man riding on Ben Elton's
coat tails and would never amount to anything on his own merits.
Fry left the studio without bothering to reply and did not return.
Though it seemed he didn't give Levine a second thought, his comedy
partner Hugh Laurie later revealed Fry was very upset by the experience
and was left very depressed. There had been a plan to do numerous skits
in the current series of A Bit of Fry and Laurie referring to Fry's role in The New Doctor,
hopefully to be shown the same week as Heartbreak, but Fry asked not to
perform them. For the record, these "lost sketches" are
- one of the secret service skits with Fry as Control and Laurie as Tony
Murchison, in which Control's evil identical brother briefly swapped
careers, with Control now engaged in intergalactic conquest while the
scarf-and-hat-wearing Control (the twins had the same name because no
one could tell them apart) redecorated the secret service and painted an
erotic mural in oils
- a skit where Fry answers the door to find Laurie has discovered "a
translocation podule" that allows him to travel in time to the giddying
regions of up to six minutes in the past and future, with a
future-Laurie in a space suit, a past-Laurie in a tricorn hat and a
current-Laurie clueless as to what's going on pester Fry about borrowing
his script for The New Doctor
- a 'hard man' skit about reluctant secret agent Major Alan Tarrant
(Laurie) meeting his superior, the Admiral (Fry) to discuss internal
corruption of their Department in a red phone box on a street corner
which was clearly the TARDIS. Tarrant's attempts to discover why the box
is bigger on the inside is continually sidetracked by the Admiral's
tailor trying to make increasingly personal questions about the
Admiral's inside leg measurement
- a skit where Laurie makes a big deal about The New Doctor and
brings on set a bottle of washing up liquid he initially assumes is one
of Fry's co-stars, then a prop, before finally guessing it's the
executive producer.
Back at Millennium Films, things were going from bad to worse. Levine
declared that it was inefficient for the rest of the production to waste
time arguing with him when his decisions would always ultimately be
taken and also inevitably were incredibly successful. Levine, after all,
had set up Millennium Films. His unorthodox decision to film a whole
story had got the BBC interested; his determination to put a robot in Vienna, 1913 made it a success; his decision to put the Sontarans in Murder in Space got a bigger audience; he'd singlehandedly helped write Time Parasite and his determination to explore the concept of the Valeyard led directly to Volcano. Levine believed he had a one hundred per cent success rate in wild ideas that had made The New Doctor far more popular than Doctor Who had been in more than a decade. Why, therefore, should they pretend otherwise?
Maloney was utterly disgusted by this arrogance and reaffirmed his
decision to leave and never come back as soon as work on his episode was
over. He was not the only ones to make that decision, most notably the
Lannister twins. This was quite a red flag to all present - the
Lannister twins and Levine often chatted about music between takes and
it was joked they kept each other busy allowing the professionals to get
work done. But after Levine's new world order speech, they specifically
requested to Burton that they not be left alone with him as he had
"gone creepy". It was probably this rather than anything else that
started rumors Levine had actually gone insane.
Hinchcliffe made only a token attempt to reason with Levine, pointing
out that it was not only impractical but disrespectful to play games
with the production team and work behind their backs in secret. All
Levine had achieved was to alienate Burton when they had no one else to
play the Doctor and lose the trust of the cast and crew. Hinchcliffe
compared Levine's success to the anecdote about Clive of India's failed
suicide attempt. Some saw the convenient failures of Clive's pistol a
sign of divine intervention, Hinchcliffe saw it as someone trying to
kill themselves. In short, Levine hadn't made The New Doctor a success, he'd just failed to destroy it yet.
Dicks decided to halt the day's production and send everyone home in the
hope things would calm down. Hinchcliffe instead went to the BBC
directly to speak with Jonathan Powell in brutally frank terms. The BBC
wanted money from Doctor Who's revenue and to get that, The New Doctor needed
to be broadcast on cue. To do that, they needed to get Ian Levine under
control. Hinchcliffe revealed that, unlike the first season, the
contracts for the second season of The New Doctor gave the
production team a "suicide clause" - they could prevent the BBC from
showing any of their episodes. True, this would effectively destroy
Millennium Films under breach of contract, but the cost to the BBC and
in particular their Doctor Who marketing during 1993 would be worse.
So, either the BBC would step in to deal with Levine or else they would
take a hit right where it hurt... in the wallet. Powell pointed out that
Millennium Films was an independent company and the BBC had no
authority over it; Hinchcliffe could force their hand, but what were
they supposed to do?
Hinchcliffe outlined his plans. The Coast-to-Coast de Laurentis film had
been stuck in development hell since the late 1980s and no actual movie
was coming. If they hadn't started filming in six months, the BBC would
withdraw the rights to Doctor Who... and transfer them over to The New Doctor. It would be too late for the rest of this season, but any third one would truly be Doctor Who, free
to use the name, the theme tune, the police box and everything else.
This so-called spin off would finally be the real thing.
On condition that Ian Levine stopped trying to ruin everything in the meantime.
Powell agreed it was a gambit that would cost the BBC little and boost merchandise sales for Doctor Who's
thirtieth anniversary but it all depended on Ian Levine putting his
beloved show before his own ego. While Hinchcliffe got the go ahead to
make the offer to Levine, there was no guarantee he'd accept it.
And if he didn't?
Thus it was decided that unless Levine could control himself, The New Doctor would be axed. The three new episodes would be shown along with repeats of Time Parasite and all of Volcano to fit the time slots agreed. The BBC, it seemed, would win either way.
Hinchcliffe returned to the production office to give Levine the ultimatum...
The atmosphere at Millennium Films was usually an exhausted,
adrenaline-fueled enthusiasm but today the air was full of bitterness
and resentment. While opinion on Levine had seesawed over the years,
generally around 'endearing idiot', but the discovery he had hated all
their work and was secretly plotting behind their backs had soured the
experience forever. Had this revelation occurred in the previous season,
there was a high chance everyone would have downed tools, walked out
and never come back... but that was when The New Doctor was an
uncertain, confused mess. Now it was a (mildly) respected part of the
BBC schedule with some (contested) credibility. No longer the nice idea
to put aside the weekend for, the crew had invested themselves in the
new series which meant most of them had no choice but to stay around.
Phillip Hinchcliffe did not, however. This luxury allowed him to hold a
production meeting where he confront Levine about his behavior and the
damage it was doing to the show. In short, Hinchcliffe refused to work
on a single scene unless Levine guaranteed not to meddle, alter, adjust,
improvise or otherwise sabotage production. The fact Levine was going
behind everyone's backs showed he knew he had neither the moral high
ground nor the majority view of his decisions, and certainly he was
lacking any of the Plan Bs necessary - there was no point getting rid of
Burton without a replacement, after all. Whatever divine insight Levine
had about how to guide the show, he needed others to actually make it
happen and be broadcast.
Hinchcliffe noted that while he could leave today, there was no other
producer in the pipeline to replace him. There were no scripts written,
actors cast. Levine simply couldn't afford to keep causing trouble;
right now, it would be as easy for the BBC to axe the show and go for
repeats as it was to wait for another three episodes. In short, Levine
was going to destroy the series before he got it the way he wanted it.
Finally, the offer was to made to make Levine's "exile" worth it - to legally and morally turn The New Doctor into Doctor Who.
The legitimization that everyone involved in the show, not just Levine,
had craved since day one. Levine quietly asked some sensible questions
to clarify the situation and clear up some points.
And then he said no. Directly and clearly and emphatically, no.
Why, Levine asked, should he be bribed with something he didn't want? The New Doctor showed that the true power of Doctor Who did
not exist in logos, theme music, police boxes or old monsters. It had
forced them to throw aside these crutches and stand on their own two
feet, and tower over the last decade or so of Doctor Who while at
it. Levine insisted that they did not need to go backwards, crawling
back to a failed franchise that did not appreciate them.
Having worked with Levine for several years, pretty much everyone
present declared he was talking crap. He had gone on at length about his
fan theories and his desires to animate lost episodes, complete Shada, adapt
a script by Robert Holmes that no one could prove ever existed. This
was a man who would one day hire Sylvester McCoy at great expense to
film a single scene he could put in front of a fan film about the Yeti.
For Levine to not want the full rights to Doctor Who either was proof he
had lost his mind or proof he thought everyone present was a moron who
wouldn't notice this huge out-of-character moment. Then again, they
would have said the same at claims he hated Burton and all the episodes
they'd released so far.
Hinchcliffe, having confirmed the situation was irretrievable, invited
to take everyone for a pint to commiserate the show's doom. Hinchcliffe
and several others had loopholes in their contract so they could leave
with some of their pay, but not everyone was fortunate. While everyone
bar Levine went to the pub with Hinchcliffe, a lot of them were forced
to return.
Among them, David Burton and Terrance Dicks. Burton was still under
contract, and also dreaded the idea of being a Doctor cut short at
thirteen episodes, less than a single McCoy season. If The New Doctor was
axed, Burton would be blamed in the eyes of the public and he was
desperate to avoid that. Dicks, meanwhile, could leave but chose not to.
He felt a level of responsibility for the show, which his friend Barry
Letts had put so much work into. The ship was sinking, they might as
well at least try to bail it out before it went under.
Despite his dismissive claims, Hinchcliffe had actually done a fair bit
of work on his episodes with several script outlines, tentative casting
and proposed budgets. It was thus possible to at least complete the
fourth episode of the series, pitting Burton's Doctor once more against
the Sontarans. But it would be very difficult, and they would be at the
constant whim of Ian Levine who remained in his office, smiling
serenely.
The disappearance - some might say abduction - of Ian Levine at the
start of 1993 is a matter of public record. There has been much debate
and discussion on the matter, including some very entertaining but
obviously false claims that he was abducted by aliens mistaking him for
their own kind.
What is known is that Levine had fallen into a near catatonic
state. He remained in his office at Millennium Films, staring blankly
ahead as though lost in thought and making little to no attempts to talk
with the rest of the production team. After his dismissal of Philip
Hinchcliffe and his offer, Levine was not in anyone's good books and was
generally avoided while work continued on Battle Toad. Frankly, if anyone noticed his absence, they were probably thankful for small mercies.
While filming for the Sontaran episode was underway, the team members
left at the office found Levine's silent contemplation was both
distracting and unnerving. It was suggested that someone 'take Levine
for a walk' which became the idea of sending him to the Doctor Who exhibition
at Blackpool. While it is unclear whether Levine accepted this
invitation (assuming he was aware of it) or not, he left the office with
three of the junior staff members on a trip to Blackpool with no
resistance.
After this things became sketchy. They definitely arrived at the
exhibition but after this Levine was separated from the others. It's
possible he wandered off on his own, or that he proved to be such
unpleasant company they abandoned him. Whatever the cause, Levine ended
up handcuffed to the laughing sailor statue without his wallet - which
the staffers deny doing, but consider "effing hilarious" and wish they
had thought of themselves. The staffers, apparently unable to locate
Levine, returned to the office on the assumption the uberfan could get
himself home. Again, his absence was more of a boon than a problem and
it was not unheard of for even Levine to take days off.
However, he didn't return and when Dicks, Burton and the film crew
returned he was missing. A brief investigation was carried out,
admittedly not with much enthusiasm, but the Blackpool police soon were
able to provide some more news.
Levine's plight had been quickly spotted and he was released from the
handcuffs. In his dazed fugue state, it was assumed he didn't speak
English and was assumed to be part of a holiday tour group from France.
As Levine didn't deny this, he was put with the party who went on the
tour bus with the others and returned to Nice. After that, however, was
unknown.
It transpires that whatever the intention of the staffers to get him out
of their hair, the trip to the seaside seemed to have improved Levine's
mental state. He became more lucid and talkative, but unfortunately not
before the tour group were back across the Channel and in France.
Levine was now aware he should be back in London working on a TV but his
attempts to convey this were somewhat lacking as by this time the tour
guide had been replaced by one who didn't speak much English.
As a result, Levine was let off in a small coastal town of Mangez Merveillac where an exploitation cannibal movie (Les Cannibales De Calais or Freaky French Flesh-Eaters to
give it its US title) was currently underway in production. Levine
wandered around the film-site for a while and eventually left, either
realizing he was in the wrong place or else being told to sod off for
being more creepy and unsettling that the serial-killer man-eating
gendarmes on set.
A week later, Levine turned up at the British Embassy in Paris, healthy,
apparently with all his faculties returned and eager to get back to
Blighty. Due to delays in airflights and some paperwork, he arrived back
in England almost two months after he'd first "disappeared". He
returned to the offices of Millennium Films to discover them closed for
business, with work having wrapped up on series two of The New Doctor.
Cast and crew had left in the firm belief the show would not be renewed
for a third series, either through the BBC's actions or Levine's.
Though there was widespread good cheer that Levine was safe and sound,
no one particularly wanted to work with him ever again.
Ian Levine was left shocked at how morale had deteriorated since his
breakdown and unwitting sabbatical. Although he had been aware of all
the complaints and protests from the production team, they really didn't
have faith in his decisions and had called it quits as soon as
possible. Levine had burnt all his bridges and now had to choose between
trying to make amends with his coworkers, starting from scratch or
giving up on his dream of producing Doctor Who altogether.
In the meantime, for better or for worse, season two of The New Doctor was now complete...
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