Shada
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| 109 - Shada | |
| Doctor | Tom Baker (Fourth Doctor) |
|---|---|
| Writer | Douglas Adams |
| Director | Pennant Roberts (original) |
| Script Editor | Douglas Adams |
| Producer | Graham Williams (original) John Nathan-Turner (video) |
| Executive producer(s) | none |
| Production code | 5M |
| Series | Season 17 |
| Length | Never completed (original) 6 episodes, 25 mins each (intended) |
| Transmission date | Untelevised (original) |
| Preceded by | The Horns of Nimon |
| Followed by | The Leisure Hive |
Shada is an unaired serial of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was intended to be the final serial of the 1979-80 season (Season 17), but was never completed due to a strike at the BBC during filming. In 1992, it was completed with linking narration by Tom Baker for video release.
Shada is also the title of the remake, an audio play produced by Big Finish Productions and webcast on BBCi. The audio play was also broadcast on digital radio station BBC 7, on 10 December 2005 (as a 2½-hour omnibus), and is being repeated in six parts as the opening story to the Eighth Doctor's summer season which began on 16 July 2006.
Contents |
[edit] Synopsis
The story revolves around the lost planet Shada, on which the Time Lords built a prison for defeated would-be conquerors of the universe. Skagra, an up-and-coming would-be conqueror of the universe, needs the assistance of one of the prison's inmates, but finds that nobody knows where Shada is anymore except one aged Time Lord who has retired to Earth, where he is masquerading as a professor at St. Cedd's College, Cambridge (the story features some on-location filming in Cambridge, all of which was completed before the strike). Luckily for the fate of the universe, Skagra's attempt to force the information out of Professor Chronotis coincides with a visit by the professor's old friend the Doctor (and this is where the story really begins).
[edit] Television cast
- Doctor Who — Tom Baker
- Romana — Lalla Ward
- Voice of K-9 — David Brierley
- Skagra — Christopher Neame
- Professor Chronotis — Denis Carey
- Chris Parsons — Daniel Hill
- Clare Keightley — Victoria Burgoyne
- Wilkin the Porter — Gerald Campion
- Dr Caldera — Derek Pollitt
- Police Constable — John Hallet
- Passenger — David Strong
- Voice of the Ship — Shirley Dixon
- Voice of the Krargs — James Coombes
- Krargs — James Muir, Lionel Sansby, Derek Suthern, Reg Woods
[edit] Notes
- Location filming in Cambridge and the first of three studio sessions at BBC Television Centre were recorded as scheduled. The second studio block was affected by a long-running technician's dispute. The strike was over by the time rehearsals began for the third recording session, but this was lost to higher priority Christmas programming.
- Attempts were made by new producer John Nathan-Turner to remount the story, but for various reasons it never happened and the production was formally dropped in June 1980.
- Shada's video release was accompanied by a facsimile of a version of Douglas Adams's script (except in North America). The release was discontinued in the UK in 1996, although it remained in print in the United States until 2004.
- Elements of the story were reused by Adams for his novel Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, in particular the character of Professor Chronotis who possesses a time machine. Adams did not allow Shada, or any of his other Doctor Who stories, to be novelised by Target Books. It is, therefore, one of only five serials from the 1963-89 series not to be novelised. A fan group in New Zealand, however, did publish an unofficial adaptation. [1]
- In 1983, clips from Shada were used in The Five Doctors, the 20th anniversary special. Tom Baker, the fourth actor to play the Doctor, had declined to appear in the special, and the plot was reworked to explain the events in the clips.
- In an unfilmed scene in Episode Five, a listing of prisoners kept on Shada was to have included a Dalek, a Cyberman and a Zygon.
[edit] Big Finish remake
| Big Finish Productions audio play | |
 |
|
| Shada | |
|---|---|
| Series | Doctor Who |
| Release number | II |
| Featuring | Eighth Doctor Romana K-9 |
| Writer | Douglas Adams |
| Director | Nicholas Pegg |
| Producer(s) | Gary Russell Jason Haigh-Ellery |
| Executive producer(s) | Martin Trickey |
| Production code | BBCi02 |
| Set between | Doctor Who and Storm Warning |
| Release date | May 2003 |
In 2003, the BBC commissioned Big Finish Productions to remake Shada as an audio play which was then webcast in six episodic segments, accompanied by limited Flash animation, on the BBC website using illustrations provided by comic strip artist Lee Sullivan.
[edit] Big Finish cast
- The Doctor — Paul McGann
- Romana — Lalla Ward
- K-9 — John Leeson
- Chris Parsons — Sean Biggerstaff
- Constable — Stuart Crossman
- Professor Caldera — Barnaby Edwards
- Professor Chronotis — James Fox
- The Ship — Hannah Gordon
- Clare Keightley — Susannah Harker
- Wilkin — Melvyn Hayes
- Think Tank Voice — Nicholas Pegg
- Skagra — Andrew Sachs
[edit] Notes
- Although working from the original Adams script, portions of the story were reworked by Gary Russell to make the story fit into Doctor Who continuity. This included a new introduction, and a new explanation for the Fourth Doctor and Romana being "taken out of time" during the events of The Five Doctors. It currently remains available from the website, and an expanded audio-only version is available for purchase on CD from Big Finish. The expanded version was the one broadcast on BBC7.
- When the character of Skagra is investigating the Doctor, clips from three other Big Finish productions can be heard, exclusively on the CD version: The Fires of Vulcan, The Marian Conspiracy and Phantasmagoria.
- Tom Baker was originally approached to reprise the role of the Doctor, but declined. The Eighth Doctor was then substituted and the story reworked accordingly.
- In Episode Two of the webcast version, when Chris is in his lab showing Clare the book, a vending machine-like object in the background is labelled "Nutrimat", a reference to a similar device in Adams's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Two other references are a sequence where Skagra steals a Ford Prefect and when images of Hitchhiker's Guide characters appear as inmates on Shada itself.
[edit] References
- Howe, Stammer, Walker (1994). Doctor Who: The Seventies. Virgin Books.
[edit] External links
- Shada episode guide on the BBC website
- Shada at Doctor Who: A Brief History Of Time (Travel)
- Shada at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
[edit] Reviews
- Shada reviews at Outpost Gallifrey
- Shada reviews at The Doctor Who Ratings Guide
[edit] Fan novelisation
- Doctor Who and Shada
- Shada reviews at Outpost Gallifrey
