Countdown to 60: On Trial

AKA: 1985 - what went wrong?

In November 1983, Doctor Who had reached one of its peaks of popularity. It had seen peaks and troughs over the previous 20 years - 'Dalekmania', Pertwee and the UNIT era, and the arrival of Tom Baker being high points, with the latter 1960's and the second half of Baker's tenure marking the lows.

Producer JNT had sought to rejig seasons so that one of the stories might debut around the 23rd of November. His boss said "no" - but then offered him a 90 minute stand-alone special instead. 

The Spring of 1983 saw an event organised for fans at Longleat House, home to a permanent Doctor Who exhibition. This was advertised on TV and radio, and big numbers were expected to attend. But not of the scale which the event was to actually witness. The event was massively over-subscribed. The organisers had to take to the airwaves to plead with those without pre-booked tickets to stay away. Those lucky enough to gain entry found massive queues everywhere, and missed out on a number of the scheduled activities.

There had been conventions, run by the DWAS, ever since 1977, but this event saw every living Doctor (and Hartnell's widow), most of the companions, a few villains, and some of the backroom boys attend - more guests than any previous convention.

The actual 20th season had aired, but proved to be a weak one - despite each story having some element of the past, including the return, after an 8 year break, of the Brigadier. JNT claimed these inclusions as a selling point, as though it had been planned - but it wasn't. Series adviser Ian Levine had pointed it out to him. Omega had been the villain of the Season 10 opener. The Mara had only been seen once, the year before. The Black Guardian got a trilogy, then we had the Master in his weakest outing.

Peter Davison wasn't happy with his sophomore season, and decided that he wouldn't do a fourth. 

There had been all sorts of problems with production due to industrial action, meaning that the planned Dalek story, which would have closed it, had to be postponed to allow the trilogy to be completed.

As November rolled around, Radio Times delivered its first Doctor Who cover since the start of Jon Pertwee's final season in 1974. Even better, they released a new special edition devoted to the series, in emulation of one they had produced for the 10th Anniversary.

A host of monsters appeared on Blue Peter with Davison and the new First Doctor Richard Hurndall, presenting a charity minibus. The series featured on Breakfast Time and Nationwide as well. Patrick Troughton had really found his feet as a spokesperson for the series, after shunning publicity for many years - even if he tended to act a force of anarchy at times (just like his incarnation of the Doctor).

Due to a slip-up, many fans were faced with the quandary of reading the novelisation of The Five Doctors first, or waiting to see the story on TV. It had been released to the shops too early by mistake.

On the evening of 23rd November, fans settled down to watch the special. In America.

British fans were up in arms at having to wait until the Friday, as the BBC top brass had decided to hold it back for inclusion in that year's Children in Need telethon.

Organised fandom in the UK was also very unhappy with the Americans for poaching all of the biggest names for a convention in Chicago, due to be held over the anniversary weekend. A number of smaller UK conventions found a distinct lack of big name guests available, as they had all been shipped over to Illinois.

As 1983 ended, the series was riding a wave of popularity, and fans were convinced that this was a programme that would comfortably see its 30th Anniversary in ten years time. Season 21 was on its way, and that would see the debut of a new Doctor - that Colin Baker off The Brothers - and that rearranged Dalek story. Baker, C, was going to get a whole story to himself at the end of the season, and he was promising to beat his namesake's tenure on the programme.

Despite a dreadful opener, Season 21 proved to be a successful one - with Davison even regretting his decision to stand down.. However, dark clouds were gathering.

Fans were unhappy at the thought of an American companion. Wasn't the series' Britishness one of the very things which the American audience liked about it? Was the producer pandering too much to the US fans?

We then got to see the new Doctor's outfit. It made him look like a clown. There was no chance that this might be a short-lived, post regeneration aberration, as we knew that JNT liked his cast in uniform costumes. Worse was to come, as we watched The Twin Dilemma unfold. Overall, it was cheap and tacky, and not in a tolerably kitsch way.

The Doctor was arrogant, unlikeable and cowardly. Had they let him get over this after the first couple of episodes, we might have been okay - but it carried on to the end of the story (and of the season), so that his "Whether you like it or not..." came across as the most terrible of threats. (Smiling like a psychopath as he said it didn't help).

1985 dawned, and we hoped that the production team might have carried out some retooling during the season break. But the costume was still there, as was the arrogance and unlikability. 

Season 22 saw new levels of violence enter the series, some of it - like the crushing of Lytton's hands - pretty graphic. The Doctor and Peri spent most of the stories in the TARDIS bickering. If you thought Tegan was bad, this was way worse. Why on Earth did this woman continue to travel with this man?

There were problems behind the scenes as well. The script editor would later state that he thought JNT's casting of Baker was wrong. Not so that he wasn't a good actor, but more the manner of his selection - JNT basing it on his entertainment of some wedding guests. A rift between producer and script editor was growing.

Bigger problems lay at a higher level than they at the BBC. Their names were Michael Grade and Jonathon Powell...

Neither man harboured even the slightest interest in Doctor Who - other than its budget. It could be used for other things - like new soap operas and daytime television.

The decision was made to cancel the series, and the way they did it was handled incompetently. They failed to notify their superiors, who first heard about it after the press were kicking up a fuss, encouraged by angry fans.

The incompetent duo quickly backtracked. The series wasn't being cancelled at all. No way. It was just being "rested" for a year, and would be back bigger and better in 1986. It was old and tired and needed a fresh approach. "Surely that would work better with a new producer and script editor?" thought the fans.

But no - it would be the same management who were being blamed for ruining the series who would oversee its regeneration...

They took some perfectly promising stories, which were in an advanced state of preparedness, and junked the lot. It would have been impossible to use all of them anyway, as the series was returning as only 14 x 25 minute episodes. It could have been possible to adapt The Nightmare Fair, or Mission to Magnus for Season 23, but Eric Saward came up with the notion that, as the programme was on trial, so the Doctor would be as well. (Despite this having been done already, back in 1969). Then it had taken just a single episode, but now all 14 instalments would be taken up with a single story - Trial of a Time Lord. 

It is the longest Doctor Who story ever. Except when it is not the longest story ever, but a linked series of four stories.

After a very impressive VFX sequence of a space station, Season 23 goes downhill rapidly. The first section proved to be Robert Holmes' final completed story. He was never happy with it. He used elements of The Krotons in the plot, in the same way that he used The Power of Kroll as the basis for The Caves of Androzani. Then, there had been a massive improvement, but not this time.

Sil was brought back, but they played up the humour a little too much. Peri's death failed to have the impact Adric's had. Somehow we just knew that the Matrix wasn't to be trusted. Or we just didn't care this time.

The rift between producer and script editor reached breaking point behind the scenes. Already deteriorating, Saward now had concerns about the casting of Bonnie Langford. (As did the whole of fandom). Holmes' illness and death affected him greatly - and then came an argument about the ending of the Trial season. Saward was determined to stick to Holmes' original plan - ending things on a cliff-hanger - and JNT had initially agreed. He then got cold feet - fearing that the powers that be would use this as a convenient place to end the series.

Saward walked, taking Holmes' 14th episode with him, and JNT had to draft in Pip & Jane Baker at the last minute to come up with something that would suffice. Under the circumstances, they did okay.

The series survived - but Colin Baker didn't. He was chucked out as part of the conditions for the continuance of Doctor Who. Once again, the obvious need for a new producer was ignored - though the BBC would later claim that there had never been anyone else who wanted the job, and they disliked JNT and weren't prepared to give him anything else. He would be left dangling until his contract ran out, or he could be safely made redundant.

To conclude, let's revisit that initial question. 

In 1983 Doctor Who was enjoying levels of popularity unseen since the advent of Tom Baker's arrival - and popularity inevitably wanes.

Fandom's attitude towards the programme was changing. It was certainly becoming more vocal in its criticisms. Whilst many were happy to see more adult storylines, others thought that the series was moving too far away from the family audience which had often sustained it, and there were those who thought that there was too much emphasis on continuity - especially when the programme got it wrong. Why bring back things from the past if they looked nothing like the originals, or contradicted older stories?

The producer and the script editor had stayed in their respective roles too long. Both needed fresh perspectives on the show. The popular Peter Davison had been replaced with an unlikeable character in a clown's outfit, who was accompanied by a whining New Englander.

All of this was being watched avidly by a senior BBC management eager to find economies. Doctor Who wasn't the only long-running series to find itself considered for cancellation. Children's favourite Crackerjack (Crackerjack!) had been running even longer than Doctor Who - since 1955 - yet it found itself taken off the air.

In short, the answer to our question is... complicated. It was a combination of general public, fandom, production, narrative, casting and BBC politico-economic factors.

Since when has anything to do with Doctor Who been straightforward...?