Animal Magic (TV story)

Animal Magic
Doctor:	Fourth Doctor
Main enemy:	Bandits (unseen, only mentioned)
Main setting:	Chloris
Key crew
Director:	Robin Hellier
Producer:	Jeffery Boswall
Release details
Number of parts:	1
Premiere broadcast:	1 May 1979
Premiere network:	BBC One
Format:	2 minute minisode
Production code:	5G (with The Creature from the Pit)

The 1 May 1979 episode of the educational BBC series Animal Magic (1962-1983), later released on the Doctor Who: The Collection — Season 17 Blu-ray boxset as simply Animal Magic, was a crossover with Doctor Who, featuring the Fourth Doctor played by Tom Baker.

Baker was explicitly playing the Doctor, rather than appearing as himself — with the script going as far as to establish that the Doctor was hosting from the alien setting of the then-upcoming TV story The Creature from the Pit. However, the story freely broke the fourth wall, with the Doctor addressing the viewers and ending on the note of telling them to "watch out next time I'm on".

The aim of the mini-episode was to educate an audience on various species the Doctor has met both from the real world and the monsters from series. The fourth wall breaking, however, was framed through the narrative device of the Doctor making a broadcast.

Publisher's summary

Tom Baker appears in character as the Doctor during the 1 May 1979 episode of the BBC children's wildlife programme Animal Magic, filmed on the planet Chloris.

Plot

The Doctor, with his head and hands in portable stocks, is walking through a jungle and notices a live broadcast. He then states that he’s on Chloris and has escaped some bandits who think they’ve got the upper hand — going on to elaborate that that's a story for another time.

The Doctor states that a little while ago, he happened to be on Earth and was talking to a friend of his, who said that Earth had some ferocious animals. The friend started getting a little competitive about the animals on Earth, saying which are the largest and the deadliest — citing the elephant as the largest, and the puff adder as the deadliest.

Naturally, the Doctor countered with a list of "some of the things I'd bumped into during my travels" — such as the voracious Shrivenzale, the tree-sized Krynoid, or the deadly Wirrn or the Fendahl. He sees that the audience isn't taking his claims seriously, but ends his spiel by telling them to "watch out next time I'm on" before walking off.

Cast

• The Doctor - Tom Baker

Crew

• Director - Robin Hellier
• Producer - Jeffery Boswall

Worldbuilding

• The Doctor mentions the elephant as the largest animal on Earth.
• The Doctor mentions the puff adder as the deadliest animal.
• The Doctor mentions that the Shrivenzale used to eat "six buffaloes a day" and "two wheelbarrow-loads of coconuts — unbroken!"
• The Doctor describes the Krynoid as "tall as a Douglas fir and three times its circumference".
• The Doctor describes the Wirrn as "a giant insect with a sting so fierce it could have done in an elephant in five seconds".
• According to the Doctor, the Fendahl was "so deadly that when it used to pass anybody, it would just walk past someone and go... (sucks in breath) ...and suck the life right out of them".

Story notes

The title card before the special.

• This story was evidently filmed during production of The Creature from the Pit, using the Chloris set. As a result, it was released on DVD with The Creature from the Pit, and later on the Season 17 The Collection Blu-ray box set.
• The Doctor mentions his encounter with the Shrivenzale during "the Ribos Operation", (TV: The Ribos Operation) the evil plans of the Krynoid, (TV: The Seeds of Doom) his encounter with the Wirrn in the Ark in Space, (TV: The Ark in Space) and the Fendahl. (TV: Image of the Fendahl)
• The Doctor is wearing the portable stocks he was placed in after being captured by Madame Karela on Chloris.

Home video releases

• The mini-episode was released on DVD with The Creature from the Pit.
• The mini-episode was released on Blu-ray with The Collection - Season 17.