| Doctor Who and the Curse of Fatal Death | |
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| Doctor Who charity spoof | |
Rowan Atkinson as the Doctor and Julia Sawalha as Emma. |
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| Cast | |
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Doctor
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Others
Jonathan Pryce (The Master) |
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| Production | |
| Writer | Steven Moffat |
| Director | John Henderson |
| Script editor | None |
| Producer | Sue Vertue |
| Executive producer(s) | Richard Curtis |
| Production code | N/A |
| Series | N/A |
| Length | 4 episodes, 23 minutes total |
| Originally broadcast | 12 March 1999 |
Doctor Who and the Curse of Fatal Death (commonly shortened to The Curse of Fatal Death) is a four-episode special of Doctor Who made for the Red Nose Day charity telethon in the United Kingdom, and broadcast on BBC One on 12 March 1999. It follows in a long tradition of popular British television programmes producing short, light-hearted specials for such telethon events.
It has a special status amongst Doctor Who-themed charity productions. It has twice been featured on the cover of Doctor Who Magazine[1] - an unusual feat even for a regular episode of the programme. It is the only parodic story to be covered by "DWM Archives", a section of DWM normally reserved for discussion of past episodes of the regular series. Similarly, it is the only parody to be given an extensive behind-the-scenes article on the BBC official website,[2] and its own video release through BBC Video. It is also the only BBC-commissioned live-action Doctor Who production between the Doctor Who television movie and "Rose".
Finally, it serves as a production bridge - if not a narrative bridge - between the 1963 and 2005 versions of the programme. Most notable amongst the many connections between "old" and "new" versions is the fact that it showcases the first televised Doctor Who script by Steven Moffat, the first post-production work of The Mill on the programme, the only time a woman produced an episode of the programme between Verity Lambert and Susie Liggat, and the final performance by the longest-serving Dalek vocal artist, Roy Skelton.
Contents |
A parody of the original series, Curse begins with the Master gloating over his latest scheme to destroy his arch-nemesis. However, instead of only spying on the Doctor and his assistant Emma, he is actually in communication with them, so they hear his plans. The Doctor invites his old foe to meet him at an old castle on the planet Tersurus. The planet is in ruins, and was the home of a now-extinct race of supremely-enlightened beings shunned by all because they used flatulence as their means of communication. They all died when one of them discovered fire.
The Master appears, gloating that he travelled a century back in time, and persuaded the architect of the castle to put in a secret death trap. The Doctor had anticipated this and travelled further back, persuading the same architect to sabotage the trap. The Master had also anticipated this, and arranged for an additional trap - with identical results because the Doctor had likewise anticipated his move. The Doctor informs the Master, having calculated that he "has saved every planet in the known universe a minimum of 27 times", and having grown tired of battles with aliens and "the endless gravel quarries", that he is retiring, having found a Companion - Emma - with whom he has fallen in love. The Master springs yet another trap; a trap door under the Doctor's feet leading to the vast sewers of Tersurus, which he intends to suggest to the architect after going back in time again and buying him an expensive dinner. However, the Doctor had already bought the architect that dinner, so when the Master pulls the lever the trap door opens beneath him instead.
Seconds later, as the Doctor and Emma start to leave, the Master bursts in. Having taken him three centuries to crawl out, he emerges as an old man covered in sewage. Using his TARDIS to return to the present, he has brought allies - the Daleks (who, lacking noses, are the only race that will have anything to do with him). Additionally, he has been enhanced by superior Dalek technology, a Dalek SuctionCup Hand. To the Master's dismay he can not answer when Emma asks him what the suction cup is for. The Master throws himself at the Doctor but falls into the sewers again, and immediately bursts in again, another three hundred years older. The Daleks give chase to the Doctor, knocking the Master once more into the sewers. Having spent a total of 936 years in the sewers with only snails for food, companionship, and romance, he returns using a zimmer frame and is easily outpaced by the Daleks.
Emma and the Doctor, trying to escape, are captured when they run into a room full of Daleks. Rather than being exterminated immediately, they are tied to chairs aboard the Dalek ship. (Why the legless Daleks would have chairs, as well as leave the Doctor and Emma alive, is something they "will explain later".) The Master, now young again, exclaims that he has been enhanced with Dalek technology again - rejuvenating him and adding "Dalek bumps" attached to his chest. To make things worse the Doctor makes several comments, alluding to the "Dalek bumps" as breasts. In return for his enhancement, the Master intends to give the Daleks a weapon of vast power - the Zektronic energy beam - a weapon that would "allow the Daleks to conquer the universe in a matter of minutes"... by means that will be explained later.
When the Doctor tells the Daleks they'll have to share the universe "with the beard and the bosoms over there", they inform the Doctor that they plan to exterminate the Master after he has assisted them. The Doctor uses the Tersuran language (farting) to warn his fellow Time Lord, undetected by the Daleks, who don't have noses. The Master helps the Doctor and Emma to escape, but not before the Doctor is fatally injured. He tells Emma (in Tersuran, which the Master translates) that he loves her, then dies. The Master notes that "this is only his ninth body", upon which the Doctor regenerates into a handsome and sexually eager new Doctor (Richard E. Grant). Forced to fix the Dalek weapon, so that it won't explode and implode, he is electrocuted and becomes a shy, middle-aged and overweight Doctor (Jim Broadbent). Another accident results in a handsome, smooth-mannered Doctor (Hugh Grant), but this Doctor is also accidentally killed while fixing the weapon.
Time Lords can regenerate twelve times, but the weapon's energy prevents his twelfth regeneration, so it seems the Doctor is permanently dead. The Master vows to live a life of heroism in honour of his fallen foe's memory, as do the Daleks.
But (perhaps through the will of the universe itself) the Doctor does regenerate yet again, only this time as a woman (Joanna Lumley). Emma is deeply disappointed, pointing out quite literally that "You're just not the man I fell in love with." The Master, however, is quite smitten with this new Doctor, who notices the sonic screwdriver has "three settings!" The story ends with them walking off together.
This story is connected to a number of others by virtue of its narrative and its production elements. Many of the story's actors also have other connections to the programme, although most of these connections take the form of various actors almost getting a role in the main production.
The production was deliberately based on the Fourth Doctor's era and a conscious effort was made to use cues taken directly from episodes of that era. However, the practical unavailability of these soundtracks forced the show's musical director, Mark Ayres, to utilize material mostly from the Fifth Doctor's era. Except for the reuse of the theme music, the majority of musical cues come from episodes between Meglos and The Caves of Androzani, with a brief excerpt also taken from the Third Doctor serial The Sea Devils as well as an excerpt from the Seventh Doctor serial The Greatest Show in the Galaxy. The music during the episode's final scene, for example, is the same as that which played at the conclusion of the Fourth Doctor's regeneration into the Fifth in Logopolis.
Also, after each regeneration portrayed in the episode, music from Meglos is employed.[3]
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