Doctor Who: The Deadly Assassin (1976)

Date(s) of Broadcast: 30 October 1976 - 20 November 1976
Number of Episodes: 4
Average Episode Running Times: 25 mins
Format: colour
Sound: mono

PRODUCTION
Production Company: BBC
Production: Philip Hinchcliffe
Production Unit Manager: Chris D'Oyly-John

SCRIPT
Script: Robert Holmes
Story Editors: Robert Holmes

DIRECTION
Director: David Maloney

PHOTOGRAPHY
Studio Lighting: Brian Clemett
Film Camera: Fred Hamilton

EDITING AND POST-PRODUCTION
Film Editor: Ian McKendrick

MUSIC
Title Music: Ron Grainer and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop
Title Music Arranger: Delia Derbyshire
Incidental Music: Dudley Simpson

SOUND
Studio Sound: Clive Gifford
Special Sound: Dick Mills

MAKE UP AND COSTUMES
Make Up: Jean Williams
Costumes: James Acheson, Joan Ellacott

VISUAL EFFECTS
Visual Effects: Len Hutton, Peter Day
Title Sequence: Bernard Lodge

DESIGN AND SET CONSTRUCTION
Designer: Roger Murray-Leach

MISCELLANEOUS
Production Assistant: Nicholas John
Assistant Floor Manager: Linda Graeme

STUNTS
Fight Arranger: Terry Walsh

CAST
Tom Baker (The Doctor)
Bernard Horsfall (Chancellor Goth)
George Pravda (Castellan Spandrell)
Erik Chitty (Co-Ordinator Engin)
Derek Seaton (Commander Hilred)
Hugh Walters (Commentator Runcible)
Angus Mckay (Cardinal Borusa)
Peter Pratt (The Master)
Llewellyn Rees (The President)
John Dawson (Time Lord)
John Dawson, Michael Bilton (Time Lords)
Maurice Quick (gold usher)
Peter Mayock (Solis)
Helen Blatch (narration voice)
Harry Fielder, Pat Gorman, Steve Ismay, Michael Lomax (guards - uncredited)
Derek Seaton (tannoy voice - uncredited)
Brian Nolan (technician - uncredited)
David Smith (train driver - uncredited)
Bernard Horsfall (samurai - uncredited)
Dave Goody (gas masked soldier - uncredited)
Chris Jessons (biplane pilot - uncredited)
Eddie Powell, Terry Walsh (doubles for the Doctor - uncredited)
Terry Walsh (double for Goth - uncredited)
Pat Gorman (Poind - uncredited)
Leslie Bates, Willie Bowman, Alf Coster, Reg Cranfield, Jim Delaney, Michael Earl, Walter Henry, James Linten, Steve Kelly, Richard King, Ronald Mayer, George Romanov, Terry Sartaine, Garth Watkins, Sonnie Wills, Geoff Witherick, Christopher Woods (Time Lord walk-ons and extras - uncredited)

PLOT SUMMARY

The Doctor is accused of the assassination of the president of The Time Lords on his home planet. He discovers it was actually The Master who has had his twelve regenerations and is now decaying. The Master seeks the Time Lords power source.

A plot basis in the political thriller The Manchurian Candidate (1962), this was written by script editor Robert Holmes to show Tom Baker how difficult it is to structure a story without a companion as sounding board (Baker had wondered why he needed one). Of course it is such a marvellous tale Holmes didn't, but they cast another companion anyway. The Time Lords' planet was re-written away from the standard SF-of-the-time omnipotence to a donnish university feel, masterfully created by the design department. The third episode cliffhanger of the Doctor being held underwater caused a major controversy for its depiction of tea time violence and was a major reason in the BBC bosses wanting a change in direction away from this. It is the first appearance of elements like the Eye of Harmony and the Panopticon which would become staples in the programme and, for many of its followers as a show once about a man with an untold past in the early sixties, became loaded with a fantasy world history in the Dungeons and Dragons / Star Wars eighties.

UK
Television Distributor: BBC
Video Distributor: BBC Video

1976
October
30: UK - Part One television broadcast (on BBC1)

November
6: UK - Part Two television broadcast (on BBC1)
13: UK - Part Three television broadcast (on BBC1)
20: UK - Part Four television broadcast (on BBC1)

The Dangerous Assassin - working title

BOOKS

Doctor Who: The Television Companion pp.311-314
credits, synopsis, review (by David J. Howe and Stephen James Walker)

KEYWORDS

aliens, time travel

Last Updated: 15 October, 2008