Summer Scene (TV story)

Summer Scene
Doctor:	Rob Brydon
Companion(s):	Elisabeth Sladen
Main enemy:	Red Dalek
Main setting:	Ebbw Vale, Wales
Key crew
Writer:	Rob Brydon
Release details
Premiere broadcast:	14 September 1992
Premiere network:	BBC One

A parodical Doctor Who story aired as part of the anthology documentary programme Summer Scene in 1992 on BBC One, having no on-screen title of its own. It provided a humourous in-character framing device for some documentary information on Sarah Jane Smith and the fate of various Doctor Who props.

Synopsis

Rob Brydon auditions to be the Doctor, whilst some Daleks escape to an auction in Wales.

Plot

A Red Dalek and Silver Dalek have made their way to Earth. Remaking on the lushness of the plant life, they reason that humans seem to finally be "getting their act together" and may not destroy themselves on their own after all, despite the Daleks' earlier belief. This prompts them to hatch a new plot for their destruction.

Meanwhile, Rob Brydon materialises a TARDIS in the middle of a street. It is in the shape of an ordinary (non-police) telephone box, and he uses its telephone to call the BBC to offer up his services as "the new Dr. Who". Instead, they warn him that two Daleks have escaped and are in Ebbw Vale like him. Brydon confidently pledges to get them back under control, and walks out with surety in his step, only to begin shrieking inf ear when he immediately bumps into the Daleks, who threaten to exterminate him.

Running into a pavilion for safety, Brydon bumps into none other than Elisabeth Sladen, who briefly mistakes him for "her" Doctor due to his outfit. The two get to talking, with Brydon, who recognises her as having once been "the Doctor's girl", asking Sladen about how hard it must have been to live in a TARDIS for three years, about the most fearsome foes she faced, and about what qualities are necessary to be a good Doctor Who companion ("a sense of humour and strong ankles"). They find themselves on the topic of the devoted fanbase the show still enjoys, with Sladen explaining that she is actually in town because of an auction which will see the BBC selling off all the Daleks and other Doctor Who props they'd still been holding onto. Just as Brydon is asking about how the Daleks have changed over the years, the Red Dalek catches up with them, forcing them to run.

They go in opposite directions once out of the pavilion. After running for a little while, Brydon is startled when he bumps into what appears to be a Time Lord, but the man reassures him that he is simply Andrew Beech, a costume collector, wearing the authentic Keeper of the Matrix outfit. After speaking a little while with Beech, Brydon finds and shakes hands with Eric Knowles, a man set to be at the auction, who shows him some of the pieces which will be on sale. They include a jaguar mask from The Aztecs, parts of a Cyberman costume (complete with the gun, "loaded") and Sylvester McCoy's watch.

As his talk concludes, Brydon comes to the conclusion that the Daleks must have been a figment of his imagination, only to look round to see they've caught up with him. However, much to the Daleks' distress, there is a flight of stairs between them and Brydon. Ramming themselves again and again against the first step in an effort to climb them anyway, the Daleks end up damaging their casings, causing great plumes of smoke to rise and obscure their vision which also becomes impaired.

Back to his TARDIS, Brydon is having technical difficulties on his own as cluds of steam exhaust from the interior and it refuses to start. Brydon asks a passing man if he knows how to fix the vehicle, which, of course, he does not, although he does claim to "know a man who can".

Cast

• Rob Brydon - Himself
• Elisabeth Sladen - Herself
• Andrew Beech - himself
• Eric Knowles - himself

Crew

• Writer - Rob Brydon

References

• Elisabeth Sladen mentions the Sontarans Linx and Styre, Krynoids and Cybermen.
• Andrew Beech mentions that some of the costumes and props in his collection are currently on loan to an exhibition in Bristol.
• The Doctor calls Eric Knowles Mr Antiques Roadshow.
• Knowles' auction is set to sell props not only from Doctor Who but also Red Dwarf and Blake's 7.
• Knowles claims that he "couldn't sleep" in 1966 because of the Cybermen, rather than because of the World Cup.
• Knowles informs Brydon that although there are no plans to revive Doctor Who at the moment, classic episodes will be rerunning on the BBC in January.

Story notes

• Elisabeth Sladen is not in-character as Sarah Jane Smith, instead being called by her name and presented as an actress. However, in a fourth-wall-breaking magic-realism conceit shared by many other Doctor Who parodies, dialogue still treats her job playing Sarah Jane as though it entailed her actually living on the TARDIS for three years and fighting the various monsters Sarah Jane came toe-to-toe with on television.
• Though they are of a classic 1960s design, the Daleks' voices are atypical, being high-pitched and squeaky. No such voices had been used for the Daleks in serious Doctor Who media in 1992, but infamously, a similar effect would be used for the Daleks' cameo in the 1996 Doctor Who TV movie.
• No vortex opening credits are used, but the Doctor Who theme (in the version used in the Sylvester McCoy) plays over the first scene of the story.