Doctor Who - The Ultimate Adventure
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Doctor Who - The Ultimate Adventure was a 1989 stage play, written by Terrance Dicks based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who.
The play ran from 23 March and starred Jon Pertwee (who had played the Third Doctor in the series) as the Doctor. On 29 April Pertwee was ill, so his understudy David Banks, who played the Cyber Leader in the series from Earthshock onwards, played the Doctor for the matinee and evening performances. Pertwee continued in the role until 3 June and two days later Colin Baker, who had played the Sixth Doctor, took over the lead until the run ended on 19 August. The play was adjusted accordingly to conform with the Sixth Doctor's persona.
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[edit] Synopsis
The story involves an alliance between the Daleks and the Cybermen who have joined forces to kidnap the American Envoy and ruin a peace conference on Earth. The Doctor's companion is a Frenchman nicknamed Jason, and after failing to stop the Cybermen take the US Envoy from a nightclub, they are joined by a singer named Crystal, who works there. After a trip to Altair Three and then the Bar Galactica, they meet Madame Delilah but are forced to flee along with a small furry creature called Zog.
The time travellers are captured briefly by the Daleks and navigate the ship through an asteroid field before making a series of short trips, arriving finally to confront the Dalek Emperor. The Doctor tricks the Emperor into revealing that the Daleks intend to betray the Cybermen and a battle breaks out between the two. Returning to Earth, the Doctor realises the US Envoy is under Dalek influence and programmed to destroy London with a Dalekanium bomb. The Doctor breaks his conditioning and defuses the bomb by putting it in a teapot.
The play featured a female Prime Minister named in the script 'Mrs. T' (a reference to Margaret Thatcher). The Third Doctor addresses her as Margaret in the play whilst the Sixth Doctor addresses her as Maggie. The Third Doctor also mentions Dennis, a reference to Dennis Thatcher, Margaret Thatcher's husband. The play also features some musical numbers including two from Crystal and "Business is Business" from Madam Delilah, the title of which acted as a catchphrase running throughout the play.
[edit] Production
The script featured numerous Doctor Who in-jokes, including the Jon Pertwee's line "reverse the polarity of the neutron flow" and his singing of the Venusian Lullaby. The story also required a Dalek casing to be borrowed by one of the heroes in order to fool the Daleks, a ploy used in television stories The Daleks (1963) and Planet of the Daleks (1973). Other ties to the television series included a Draconian and a Vervoid which make cameo appearances as mercenaries in the Bar Galactica scenes.
There were five new Dalek props built for this production but, unlike the two previous plays, Curse of the Daleks and Doctor Who and the Daleks in the Seven Keys to Doomsday, these were not the same as the television models and were not built by Shawcraft (the original company responsible for the Dalek props). Specific design differences included a more cylindrical shape, featured a single vertical column of hemispheres on the side panels of the skirting. They also had larger rectangular head lights, no discs along the eye stalks and no shoulder slats that were present on post-1966 Daleks. The Dalek Emperor prop was a faithful reproduction of the model that appeared in The Evil of the Daleks (1967).
The TARDIS set was also different, featuring roundels in a square rather than a hexagonal grid and a miniature console in which the central column was retracted completely out of view. The Cybermen costumes were identical to those used in Attack of the Cybermen (1985).
The production used a large screen that displayed visual effect sequences and also incorporated lasers into the action. The screen showed such things as the TARDIS spinning through space and a meteor shower. The lasers were used to depict the effect of the Dalek guns, a force field and a time tunnel.
Terrance Dicks, a prolific writer of novelisations based upon the TV series, also wrote an adaptation of the play, but it was never published.
[edit] External links
- The Ultimate Adventure.co.uk — The Ultimate Guide to Terrance Dicks' Doctor Who Stageplay
- The Ultimate Adventure at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
