The Deadly Assassin (TV story)

Synopsis

The Doctor arrives on Gallifrey, where he is accused of the assassination of the Time Lord President. Investigating with the aid of Co-ordinator Engin and Castellan Spandrell, he discovers that this is part of a plot hatched by his old adversary the Master.

Having used up all twelve of his regenerations, the Master is now a wizened husk. He is seeking to control the presidency in order to obtain the official regalia, the Sash and Rod of Rassilon, which are really keys to the Eye of Harmony, the source of all the Time Lords' power.

The Doctor links his mind to the Amplified Panatropic Computer Net, containing the accumulated wisdom of the Time Lords, in the hope of tracking the Master down. In the virtual reality of the Matrix, he finds himself in a life-or-death struggle with a hooded opponent. The Doctor proves the stronger and his opponent is revealed as Chancellor Goth, the leading presidential candidate, whom the Master has been using as a puppet. Following his defeat, Goth dies.

The Master meanwhile seizes the Sash and Rod of Rassilon and starts to access the Eye of Harmony, located beneath the floor of the Panopticon meeting hall, in the hope of drawing off enough energy to enable himself to regenerate. The Doctor manages to stop him before Gallifrey is destroyed, and the Master falls down one of the fissures that have opened up in the floor.

The Doctor then departs in the TARDIS, unaware that the Master has survived his fall and escaped to fight another day.

Plot

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Castellan Spandrell (George Pravda)

"Through the millennia, the Time Lords of Gallifrey led a life of peace and ordered calm, protected against all threats from lesser civilisations by their great power. But this was to change. Suddenly and terribly, the Time Lords faced the most dangerous crisis in their long history…"

Whilst at the controls of the TARDIS, the Doctor has a premonition of the assassination of the President of the Time Lords within the Panopticon on Gallifrey. And the assassin appears to be...the Doctor himself. Shocked, he staggers around the console room and collapses to the floor.

Cast

Crew

References

The Doctor's TARDIS is a type 40 protected by a 'double curtain trimonic barrier' which requires a cypher indent key.
Goth met the Master on Tersurus.
The number of regenerations (12) is established here.
Artron energy is mentioned.
Borusa has recently become a Cardinal.

Gallifrey

The Doctor arrives on Presidential Resignation Day.
The Doctor invokes Article 17 of the Constitution.
References are made to The Book of the Old Time and the Old Times.
Shabogans are hooligans on Gallifrey.

Gallifreyan artefacts

The APC Net is part of (or possibly separate from) The Matrix.
The Eye of Harmony sits below the Citadel on Gallifrey, Rassilon was one of the creators of it.

Gallifreyan Chapters

Prydonians the 'notoriously devious' sect to whom the Doctor belongs, colour coded scarlet and orange).
Arcalians wear green.
Patrexes wear heliotrope

Story Notes

Bernard Horsfall previously played Guilliver in The Mind Robber, one of the Time Lords in The War Games and a Thal Taron in Planet of the Daleks.
Roger Murray-Leach reused his symbol from Revenge of the Cybermen as the Seal of Rassilon.
Mary Whitehouse complained particularly about the end of Part 3, with the Doctor being drowned, so much so the BBC edited their master tape (the episode was preserved albeit in lower quality in international copies).
The story had a working title of The Dangerous Assassin.
The title is a tautology - an assassin is, by definition, deadly. This redundancy was used in the spoof The Curse of Fatal Death.
This is the only TV story to feature the Doctor without a companion, however DW: Midnight features the Doctor for the majority of the story, only featuring the companion at the beginning and end of the story.
This story featured the first use of narration, by Tom Baker which began at the beginning of the first episode;

Through the millennia, the Time Lords of Gallifrey led a life of peace and ordered calm, protected against all threats from lesser civilisations by their great power. But this was to change. Suddenly, and terribly, the Time Lords faced the most dangerous crisis in their long history...

Ratings

Part 1 - 11.8 million viewers
Part 2 - 12.1 million viewers
Part 3 - 13.0 million viewers
Part 4 - 11.8 million viewers

Myths

to be added

Filming Locations

Betchworth Quarry, Pebblehill Road, Betchworth, Surrey
Wycombe Air Park, Clay Lane, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire
Royal Alexander and Albert School, Rocky Lane, Merstham, Surrey
BBC Television Centre (TC3 and TC8), Shepherd's Bush, London

Discontinuity, Plot Holes, Errors

to be added

Continuity

DW: The Keeper of Traken, Logopolis, and Castrovalva follow the Master's continuing quest for a new body, whilst The Five Doctors continues on this idea.
PDA: Last of the Gaderene and EDA: Legacy of the Daleks explain how the Master became how he appears.
Goth's brother Rath appears in NA: Blood Harvest.
Engin reappears in EDA: The Eight Doctors.
DW: The Sound of Drums recalls some artistic elements of this story, particuarly the Time Lord collars introduced in this story as well as the Seal of Rassilon.
This story features the first voice over at the beginning of the episode, the second occurrence is DW: Doctor Who: The TV Movie.

DVD and Video Releases

VHS

It was released in episodic format in the UK in October 1991. It was also re-released & remastered for the W H Smith exclusive Time Lord Collection in 2002 with a better quality freeze frame cliffhanger for Episode 3.
This story was released in the US March 1989 in edited omnibus format.

Novelisation

Main article: Doctor Who and the Deadly Assassin

Novelised as Doctor Who and the Deadly Assassin by Terrance Dicks in 1977.

External Links

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