Shada (TV story)
Shada was the unaired story of Season 17 of Doctor Who. It was later re-edited and released on video, then remade as a webcast for BBCi, and also released as a full audio story by Big Finish Productions in 2003.
Synopsis
The story revolves around the lost planet Shada, on which the Time Lords built a prison for defeated would-be conquerors of the universe. Skagra, one such inmate, needs the help of one of the prison's inmates. He finds nobody knows where Shada is anymore except one aged Time Lord who has retired to Earth, where he is a professor at St. Cedd's College, Cambridge. Luckily for the universe, Skagra's attempt to force the information out of Professor Chronotis coincides with a visit by the professor's old friend, the Fourth Doctor.
Plot
Part One
On the Think Tank space station, Doctor Skagra uses a spherical device to drain the minds of his colleagues and departs in his spaceship for Earth, leaving an automated quarantine message running.
In Cambridge 1979, Professor Chronotis has a visit from one of his students, Chris Parsons, who leaves with the wrong book. The Doctor and Romana, after enjoying a spot of punting. They're observed by Skagra and distracted by voices from the sphere he's carrying. They visit the professor.
Chris discovers that the book is written in a completely alien script. He analyses the book with instruments that make it smoke and glow. Chronotis reveals to Romana he is an elderly Time Lord who has retired to Earth and has been living in the same Cambridge rooms for three hundred years. The Doctor asks him why he was summoned by him to Cambridge but the Professor can't remember. He later recalls he needs the Doctor's help finding the book.
Skagra steals a car and the driver's ability to drive. The Professor reveals the missing book is one he brought from Gallifrey. Skagra drives out to a field where his spaceship is concealed, invisible to the human eye. The Professor confesses the book he took was The Worshipful and Ancient Law of Gallifrey, which dates back to the time of Rassilon and has incredible power. Skagra receives word that all is ready from his carrier ship, commanded by a massive Krarg.
Part Two
The Doctor and Romana search the Professor's rooms for the book. They discuss Time Lord law. This reminds them of the Time Lord criminal Salyavin, a boyhood hero of the Doctor. The Professor, asked about his contemporary Salyavin, recalls Chris Parsons' visit and wonders if he has borrowed the book by accident.
Chris and his friend Clare Keightley analyse the book as the Doctor cycles across Cambridge to the lab. Skagra, now wearing contemporary clothes, comes to the Professor's college seeking him. While Romana looks in the TARDIS for milk so they can have tea, Skagra arrives for the book. He sets the sphere on the Professor, stealing part of his mind. The Doctor meets Clare at the lab, and examines the book.
Romana and K9 find the collapsed Professor as Chris Parsons arrives. Using the TARDIS medical kit, Romana tries to stabilise the Professor's condition. The Doctor and Clare discover that the book carbon dates as twenty thousand years old. Skagra scans his copy of Professor Chronotis' mind for a trace of the book but finds nothing. The professor beats out a message to Romana on his hearts in Gallifreyan morse code, telling her to beware of the sphere, Skagra and Shada, but dies before he can reveal where the secret is.
Skagra meets the Doctor trying to return the book to the Professor and has a sphere pursue him on a bike through Cambridge. During the chase the book is dislodged from his basket and retrieved by Skagra. Forced to run away, the Doctor is cornered by the sphere. He tries to escape under a gate, but the sphere approaches and begins to steal his mind...
Part Three
Romana arrives in the TARDIS to rescue the Doctor. They return to Chronotis' rooms, where Chris reports the professor's body disappeared. The Doctor decides he needs to speak with Skagra. K9 tracks the sphere to Skagra's ship. Clare, worried about the danger the book may pose, comes to Chronotis's rooms to find them empty. The TARDIS materialises in an apparently empty field which holds Skagra's invisible ship. They enter and Skagra takes them prisoner. He tells them he was interested only in Chronotis' mind. He tries to force the Doctor to decode the book and sets the sphere on him to take his mind. K9 fails to blast out of the cell Romana, Chris and he are held in. K9 picks up the sphere's signals and detects the Doctor amongst its voices. Romana is transported from the cell and taken to the TARDIS by Skagra. He forces her to take it.
While searching the Professor's rooms for the missing book, Clare finds concealed control panels and accidentally triggers an explosion. The Doctor awakens on the ship and explains to its computer how he survived. The sphere took only a copy of his mind.
Wilkin, the college porter comes to the Professor's rooms. When he opens the door he doesn't find the room but the swirling time vortex. The Doctor tries to persuade the ship to release his companions and him, but it decides the sphere must haves succeeded in its task and killed the Doctor. To conserve resources it turns off the oxygen supply......
Part Four
Chris and K9 are transported out of their cell, The ship detects them and reactivates its oxygen supply. The TARDIS arrives at the Krarg carrier ship and Romana sees the Krargs being grown. Another Krarg starts to form on Skagra's ship. The Doctor boosts the ships power to allow it to cross space quickly.
In Professor Chronotis' rooms Clare awakes. She is startled bythe Professor, dressed in a night shirt. Skagra is unable to translate the book with the Doctor's mind in the sphere. The Professor explains to Clare that his rooms are his TARDIS and it interfered to save his life.
The Professor decides they must find Skagra to save the book, which is the key to Shada, the Time Lord prison which has been forgotten. The Doctor and Chris are attacked by a Krarg, but K9 holds it off, allowing them to explore the Think Tank complex where they have arrived. They find the aged bodies of Skagra's former colleagues. Skagra notices that turning the pages of the book influences the TARDIS. He realises turning the last page of the book will take him to Shada where he will find the Time Lord criminal Salyavin, who is crucial to his plans.
The Doctor uses Chris' brain power to revive one of the scientists, the neurologist Caldera. He explains how Skagra set up Think Tank to pool the resources of the mind electronically, but when they had completed the sphere he used it to steal their minds. Skagra now intends to use his mind to dominate the whole of humanity, but need Salyavin to accomplish this. K9 loses his fight against the Krarg and is driven into the Think Tank by the massive creature, which now advances on the Doctor.....
Part Five
The Krarg strikes the machinery in the think tank, creating a huge cloud of smoke. This allows the Doctor, K9 and Chris to escape back to Skagra's ship, leaving just as the Think Tank station explodes. The Ship is persuaded to take the Doctor to Skagra's home.
While trying to repair the Professor's ship Clare asks who Salyavin is.
The Professor places the knowledge that Clare needs to repair the TARDIS in her head telepathically. Skagra's ship takes the Doctor's ship to the Krarg carrier ship. They are captured and Skagra reveals his plan to take over the universe telepathically, merging them into one mind: his. The Doctor stages an escape with Chris and K9, but Romana is dragged back to the TARDIS by Skagra.
Fleeing down the corridors of the ship the Doctor and company find an old wooden door and go through it. They are in Professor Chronotis' rooms/TARDIS. The Professor knows that with the book and TARDIS that Skagra can travel to Shada, which is exactly what he does. Skagra searches Shada's records for Salyavin, the Time Lord criminal.
The Professor's TARDIS arrives with K9, the Doctor and him. Skagra starts reviving the prisoners as the Doctor arrives, but when they open Salyavin's cell they find it empty. The Professor admits he is Salyavin: he escaped centuries ago and used his powers to make the Time Lords forget about Shada.
The Sphere attacks the Professor but is destroyed by K9. However it reforms into several smaller spheres, one of which attaches itself to the Professor. He sinks to the floor. The spheres attach themselves to the revived prisoners, bringing them under Skagra's control. Chris and Clare arrive, but Chris is taken under the control of a sphere. The prisoners and he advance on the Doctor.
Part Six
K9 fires at the prisoners, driving them back, but he is thrown aside by a Krarg. The Doctor, Romana and Clare grab K9 and flee to the Professor's TARDIS. Romana reminds the Doctor that his mind is inside Skagra's machine too. Skagra returns to the TARDIS and tells the former prisoners that they will return to the carrier ship and be distributed through the universe to further his revolution.
The Doctor follows his TARDIS in the Professor's. He captures it in a force field and has himself placed into the Time Vortex. The Doctor begins crossing to his TARDIS, but his journey appears in vain. An accident occurs in the Professor's TARDIS, deactivating the force field, throwing the Doctor into the vortex.
The Doctor finds himself in a room in his TARDIS. He starts building a helmet shaped device. The Professor's TARDIS arrives on the carrier ship as the Doctor reveals himself and struggles for control of the joint mind.
Romana deactivates the Krarg generating equipment, tipping the gas out and using it to destroy the Krargs. Skagra flees to his ship, but is taken prisoner by his ship's computer, who has now decided to serve the Doctor.
The Doctor promises to return the prisoners to Shada and summon the Time Lords. He returns his and the Professor's TARDISes to Earth. This confuses Wilkin, who has returned with a policeman to find the room back in its usual place and the Professor taking tea with his guests.
Cast
- The Doctor - Tom Baker
- Romana - Lalla Ward
- Voice of K9 - David Brierley
- Caldera - Derek Pollitt
- Chris Parsons - Daniel Hill
- Clare Keightley - Victoria Burgoyne
- Krarg - Harry Fielder
- Krarg - Lionel Sansby
- Krarg - James Muir
- Krarg - Reg Woods
- Krarg - Derek Suthern
- Passenger - David Strong
- Police Constable - John Hallett
- Professor Chronotis - Denis Carey
- Voice of Ship - Shirley Dixon
- Skagra - Christopher Neame
- Voice of the Krargs - James Coombes
- Wilkin - Gerald Campion
Crew
- Director - Pennant Roberts
- Assistant Floor Manager - Val McCrimmon
- Costumes - Rupert Jarvis
- Designer - Vic Meredith
- Film Cameraman - Fintan Sheehan
- Film Editor - Tariq Anwar
- Make-Up - Kim Burns
- Producer - Graham Williams
- Production Assistant - Olivia Bazalgette
- Production Assistant - Ralph Wilton
- Production Unit Manager - John Nathan-Turner
- Script Editor - Douglas Adams
- Special Sounds - Dick Mills
- Studio Lighting - Mike Jefferies
- Title Music - Ron Grainer and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, arranged by Delia Derbyshire
- Writer - Douglas Adams
References
The Doctor
- The Doctor received an honourary degree from St. Cedd's College, Cambridge, in 1960. He visited Professor Chronotis in 1955, 1960 and 1964 in his fourth incarnation, and also in 1958 in a different incarnation.
Planets
- Dronid is the location of Skagra's homeworld.
Scientists
TARDISes
- Chronotis recognises the Doctor's TARDIS as a Type 40 commenting "Came out when I was a boy: that shows you how old I am.".
- The TARDIS medical kit is on the top shelf of a white cupboard opposite a door. From the control room, Romana gives the directions as first door on the left, down the corridor, second door on the right, down the corridor, third door on the left, down the corridor, fourth door on the right.
- Chronotis and Claire find themselves 'jammed between two irrational time interfaces'. His TARDIS has a conceptor geometry relay, with magranomic trigger, as well as a defunct field separator, but this won't be needed if they can fix the interfacial resonator.
- The Doctor goes vortex walking between Chronotis' and his own TARDIS.
Theories and Concepts
- Chronotis' memories are extracted through Psychoactive extraction, "someone has stolen part of his mind".
People from the real world
- Whilst punting down the river the Doctor rambles to Romana mentioning;
Time Lords
- Salyavin (Chronotis) was a notorious, mind-controlling criminal and a semi-hero of the young Doctor's. He was sentenced for 'mind crimes' to the Time Lord prison Shada.
- Chronotis is on his last regeneration, but is brought back to life by Claire mucking around with his TARDIS.
- The Worshipful and Ancient Law of Gallifrey dates back to the days of Rassilon, and is one of the 'artefacts'.
- All of the artefacts have 'stupendous power'. Although many of the meanings are lost, the power and the Gallifreyan rituals remain.
- Chronotis is able to beat out a message with his hearts in Gallifreyan Morse code.
Story notes
- Shada was never completed due to "labour action" at the BBC. The footage that was shot was released on BBC Video in 1992. It used linking material featuring Tom Baker to complete the story.
- According to "A Matter of Time", a documentary on the Graham Williams era of Doctor Who included in the 2007 and 2009 DVD box sets of The Key to Time, the industrial action occurred due to conflict over which union had jurisdiction over the operation of an elaborate clock that was featured on the BBC children's programme Play School.
- Had it been broadcast, it would have marked the final use of the 1967 arrangement of the Doctor Who theme by Delia Derbyshire, the tunnel opening sequence by Bernard Lodge and the diamond series logo introduced in TV: The Time Warrior.
- The story would be remade in 2003 and released as WC: Shada and AUDIO: Shada, explaining that the meddling in the Fourth Doctor's timeline seen in TV: The Five Doctors caused the events following his and Romana's arrival in Cambridge to not take place until the Eighth Doctor and Romana came back to complete them.
- The story takes place in October 1979. Coincidentally, that is the same month Douglas Adams published his first The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy novel.
- Aliens expected to appear in the Shada prison cells would perhaps have been a Dalek, a Cyberman and even a Zygon.
- Douglas Adams later used elements from this story in his novel, Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency.
Myths
- Professor Chronotis' TARDIS is a Type 39. The type and model of Chronotis' TARDIS is not specified in the script or the surviving footage. In the 2012 novelisation by Gareth Roberts, the Doctor identifies it as a "Type 12, Mark 1".
- A man who is probably Chronotis reappears in PROSE: Unnatural History as Professor Daniel Joyce. One of the authors of Unnatural History has specifically denied this rumour.[1]
Filming locations
- The Backs, River Cam, Cambridge
- Clare Bridge, River Cam, Cambridge
- Silver Street, Cambridge
- Trumpington Street, Cambridge
- Grantchester Meadows, Grantchester, Cambridgshire
- Free School Lane, Cambridge
- Bridge Street, Cambridge
- Portugal Place, Cambridge
- Trinity Lane, Cambridge
- Botolph Lane, Cambridge
- King's Parade, Cambridge
- St Edward's Passage, Cambridge
- High Street, Grantchester
- Emmanuel College, St Andrew's Street, Cambridge
- Blackmoor Head Yard, Cambridge
- Garret Hostel Lane, Cambridge
- Portugal Street, Cambridge
- All of the above location filming in Cambridge took place over a period of four days: 15th to 19th October 1979
- Ealing Television Film Studios (Stage 2), Ealing Green, Ealing
- BBC Television Centre (Studio TC3), Shepherd's Bush, London
Production errors
- When Professor Chronotis is attacked by Skagra's sphere in Part Two, his spectacles appear and disappear depending on the camera angle.
- When Romana rescues the Doctor with the TARDIS, at the beginning of Part Three, the end of the scarf gets caught in the door. Moments later the TARDIS materialises in the Professor's rooms, but the end of the scarf is no longer hanging out the door.
Continuity
- During this adventure, the Doctor and Romana were captured by Borusa, only to be returned after being trapped in the space time continuum. (TV: The Five Doctors)
- The Doctor would use the The Worshipful and Ancient Law of Gallifrey again later. (PROSE: The Dimension Riders)
- When Skagra examines the Doctor's life, brief clips from TV: The Pirate Planet, The Power of Kroll, The Creature from the Pit, The Androids of Tara, Destiny of the Daleks and City of Death are shown.
- The First Doctor first met Chronotis in 1958, Cambridge. (PROSE: Cambridge Previsited)
- In C. S. Lewis' short story The Professor, the Queen and the Bookshop, there was a book named Shada. (COMIC: The Professor, the Queen and the Bookshop)
- Rassilon mentions he would later call himself 'the Conqueror of Dronid,' Skagra's homeworld. (AUDIO: Zagreus)
- Qixotl first hears about the Relic while stranded on Dronid. (PROSE: Alien Bodies)
Home video and audio releases
VHS releases
BBC Video released a version compiling existing footage broken down into the planned six episodes, with linking narration by Tom Baker. The UK release of the video included a booklet containing the full script of the original production; the North American release did not include the booklet. To date, this release has only occurred in the VHS format.
1992 VHS UK cover
Script book included with the UK VHS
1992 VHS US cover
1993 VHS Australian cover
DVD releases
Shada will be released in an upcoming DVD boxset, The Legacy Boxset. It will be released with the 90 minute documentary, More Than Thirty Years in the TARDIS. It is not known how the un-made scenes of Shada will be filled in. It is expected to be released in late-2012 or early-2013.
Webcast version
Main article: Shada (webcast)
The BBC commissioned Big Finish to write and record a new version as part of the 40th anniversary. It was animated with a limited Flash animation and released on the BBC's website. This version was revised to feature Paul McGann's Eighth Doctor, along with Lalla Ward and John Leeson voicing their original characters.
An extended audio version of the webcast was later released on CD by Big Finish Productions.
Novelisations
- No official novelisation of Shada was ever published by Target Books as they were unable to come to an agreement with Douglas Adams that would have allowed him, or another author, to adapt the story. However, the short scene used in The Five Doctors was novelised for its adaptation.
- Douglas Adams reused some of the elements of Shada in Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, notably the character of Professor Chronotis, his time-travelling apartment, and St. Cedd's college.
- A fan novelisation (by the New Zealand Fan Club) is available online. (Doctor Who and Shada by Paul Scoones).
- In early 2011, BBC Books announced that Gareth Roberts had been commissioned to write an official novelisation of Shada, for release in hardback in March 2012. Its publication follows an the agreement with the estate of Douglas Adams and is the first novelisation of a regular TV Doctor Who story since 1994.[1] This novelisation was also released as an audiobook read by Lalla Ward and John Leeson. An ebook was also released on the Amazon Kindle store.
Fan Novelisation: Doctor Who and Shada (1989)
Shada Novelisation (2012)
Shada novelisation audiobook
See also
External links
- Shada at the BBC's official site
- Shada at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
- Shada at Shannon Sullivan's A Brief History of Time (Travel)
- Shada at The Locations Guide
References
