Doctor Who: Gunfighters [1966]

Date(s) of Broadcast: 30 April - 21 May 1966
Number of Episodes: 4
Average Episode Running Times: 25 mins
Format: black and white
Sound: mono

PRODUCTION
Production Company: BBC
Producer: Innes Lloyd

SCRIPT
Script: Donald Cotton
Story Editor: Gerry Davis

DIRECTION
Director: Rex Tucker

PHOTOGRAPHY
Studio Lighting: George Summers
Film Camera: Ken Westbury

EDITING AND POST PRODUCTION
Film Editor: Les Newman

MUSIC
Title Music: Ron Grainer and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop
Title Music Arranged By: Delia Derbyshire
Incidental Music: Dudley Simpson
Ballad Music: Tristram Cary
Ballad Lyrics: Donald Cotton, Rex Tucker
Ballad Music Performed By: Tom McCall, Winifred Taylor [in Don't Shoot the Pianist only - uncredited]
Ballad Performed By: Lynda Baron

SOUND
Studio Sound: Colin Dixon
Special Sounds: Brian Hodgson

MAKE UP AND COSTUMES
Make Up: Sonia Markham
Costumes: Daphne Dare

DESIGN AND SET CONSTRUCTION
Designer: Barry Newbery

MISCELLANEOUS
Production Assistants: Tristan deVere Cole, Angela Gordon
Assistant Floor Manager: Tom O'Sullivan

CAST
PART ONE
William Hartnell [The Doctor]
Peter Purves [Steven Taylor]
Jackie Lane [Dodo Chaplet]
William Hurndell [Ike Clanton]
Maurice Good [Phineas Clanton]
David Cole [Billy Clanton]
Sheena Marshe [Kate Fisher]
Shane Rimmer [Seth Harper]
David Graham [Charlie]
John Alderson [Wyatt Earp]
Anthony Jacobs [Doc Holliday]
Richard Beale [Bat Masterson]

PART TWO
William Hartnell [The Doctor]
Peter Purves [Steven Taylor]
Jackie Lane [Dodo Chaplet]
William Hurndell [Ike Clanton]
Maurice Good [Phineas Clanton]
David Cole [Billy Clanton]
Sheena Marshe [Kate Fisher]
Shane Rimmer [Seth Harper]
David Graham [Charlie]
John Alderson [Wyatt Earp]
Anthony Jacobs [Doc Holliday]
Richard Beale [Bat Masterson]

PART THREE
William Hartnell [The Doctor]
Peter Purves [Steven Taylor]
Jackie Lane [Dodo Chaplet]
William Hurndell [Ike Clanton]
Maurice Good [Phineas Clanton]
David Cole [Billy Clanton]
Sheena Marshe [Kate Fisher]
David Graham [Charlie]
John Alderson [Wyatt Earp]
Anthony Jacobs [Doc Holliday]
Richard Beale [Bat Masterson]
Reed De Rouen [Pa Clanton]
Laurence Payne [Johnny Ringo]
Martyn Huntley [Warren Earp]

PART FOUR
William Hartnell [The Doctor]
Peter Purves [Steven Taylor]
Jackie Lane [Dodo Chaplet]
William Hurndell [Ike Clanton]
Maurice Good [Phineas Clanton]
David Cole [Billy Clanton]
Sheena Marshe [Kate Fisher]
John Alderson [Wyatt Earp]
Anthony Jacobs [Doc Holliday]
Richard Beale [Bat Masterson]
Reed De Rouen [Pa Clanton]
Laurence Payne [Johnny Ringo]
Martyn Huntley [Warren Earp]
Victor Carin [Virgil Earp]

UNCREDITED PERFORMERS
John Raven [savage - uncredited]
Walk Ons: Mark Allington, Anthony Billing, John Caeser, Derek Chafer, Edward Chookon, Reg Cranfield, Roy Curtis, John De Marco, John Doye, Jackie Ho, Jonas Kurchi, Maureen Lee, Kevin Leslie, Maureen Nelson, Edwina Salmon, Leslie Shannon, Bill Smith, Vilma Shuttle, Jane Young, Marguerite Young, Jane Tucker

EPISODES

1. A Holiday For the Doctor [30 April 1966]
2. Don't Shoot the Pianist [7 May 1966]
3. Johnny Ringo [14 May 1966]
4. The OK Corral [21 May 1966]

The Doctor and his companions land in Tombstone in America' s Wild West. They encounter the dentist Doc Holliday who is aiding the lawman Wyatt Earp in his battle against the villainous Clantons. This conflict culminates in the famous Gunfight at the OK Corral.

Much derided attempt to involve Doctor Who in the then fading but previously dominant genre of the TV Western. Its not quite as bad as it is made out to be but being neither historically accurate, exciting as a western actioner, a successful parody of the western or simply being good Doctor Who it has to go down as a failure.

UK
Television Distributor: BBC
Video Distributor: BBC Video

BOOKS

Doctor Who: The Television Companion pp.88-90
credits, synopsis, review [by David J. Howe and Stephen James Walker]

KEYWORDS

aliens, time travel, westerns

Last Updated: 21 April, 2008