The Gunfighters (TV story)

The Gunfighters was the eighth story of season 3 of Doctor Who. Its final episode, "The O. K. Corral", was the last individually-titled episode until The Five Doctors, the ninety-minute 20th Anniversary special.

Synopsis

The TARDIS arrives in the town of Tombstone in the Wild West and the Doctor, having hurt a tooth on one of Cyril's sweets, decides he must visit a dentist. The local dentist is Doc Holliday, currently engaged in a feud with the Clanton family. Lawmen Wyatt Earp and Bat Masterson are meanwhile doing their best to keep the peace.

The Doctor, Steven and Dodo narrowly survive a lynch mob, the attentions of Holliday and Earp and various other dangers; they finally return to the TARDIS after witnessing the famous gunfight at the OK Corral, in which the young Clanton brothers and their gunman ally Johnny Ringo are all killed by Holliday, Earp and Earp's brother Virgil.

Plot

to be added

Cast

Crew

References

to be added

Story notes

This story had the working titles; The Gun-Fighters and The Gunslingers.
Thunderbirds voice artistes David 'Brains' Graham and Shane 'Scott Tracy' Rimmer appear as Charlie the barman and Seth Harper respectively. Graham had also provided Dalek voices for a number of earlier Doctor Who stories.
The caption at the end of the final episode reads Next Episode: Dr. Who and the Savages. The Gunfighters was the last story to have individual episode titles.
Patrick Troughton was one of the actors considered for the role of Johnny Ringo.
The serial features an original song, "The Ballad of the Last Chance Saloon", the last time an original song would be commissioned for the series until the rap song featured in DW: The Greatest Show in the Galaxy. "Ballad" is performed off-screen by Lynda Baron, who years later would appear in the serial Enlightenment.
Episode 1 carries the title "A Holiday for the Doctor", the first and only episode of the original series to incorporate the "correct" name of The Doctor (as opposed to an episode of The Chase called "The Death of Doctor Who" and the 1970 serial Doctor Who and the Silurians, both of which used the technically incorrect "Doctor Who"). The only other televised episodes (to date) to include the name "The Doctor" in an episode title were the 2005 episode The Doctor Dances, the 2008 episode The Doctor's Daughter, and the 2010 episode Vincent and the Doctor, as well as the 2011 episode The Doctor's Wife.
This was the first full and only serial to take place completely within the United States. It would be 30 years until another US-set story was filmed as the 1996 TV movie, and the next regular episode to be set within the US wouldn't air until Dalek in 2005.
Contains an example of The "Doctor Who?" running joke - When introducing himself and his companions to Bat Masterson, the Doctor creates aliases for the group, and says of himself, "And lastly, sir, your humble servant, Doctor, er, Caligari." Masterson, confused, asks, "Doctor who?" to which the Doctor responds, "Yes, quite right."
Both Dodo and Steven can play the Piano.

Ratings

A Holiday For The Doctor (30/04/1966 17:50) - 6.5 million viewers
Don't Shoot The Pianist (07/05/1966 17:50) - 6.6 million viewers
Johnny Ringo (14/05/1966 17:55) - 6.2 million viewers
The O.K. Corral (21/05/1966 17:50) - 5.7 million viewers

Myths

The Gunfighters was the lowest-rated Doctor Who story ever. (There were a number of stories with lower ratings, including The Savages, The War Machines and The Smugglers.)
A similar rumor holds that The Gunfighters is consistently the lowest-ranked story among fans. (While it may have at one point held this dishonor, the last few polls conducted by Doctor Who Magazine place the story 20 points or more above the bottom)
Sheena Marshe, who played Kate Fisher, was director Rex Tucker's daughter. (She was unrelated to him; his daughter Jane Tucker, later to find fame as one third of the Rod, Jane and Freddy group of children's entertainers, did however appear as a walk-on in the story.)

Filming locations

Ealing Television Film Studios, Ealing Green, Ealing
BBC Television Centre (TC4), Shepherd's Bush, London

Production errors

If you'd like to talk about narrative problems with this story — like plot holes and things that seem to contradict other stories — please go to this episode's discontinuity discussion.

The Clanton gang have unconvincing American accents.

Continuity

Directly follows DW: The Celestial Toymaker.
The Doctor returns to the 'Wild West' 1880s in NSA: Peacemaker.

Timeline

This story occurs after DW: The Celestial Toymaker
This story occurs before ST: 64 Carlysle Street

Home video and audio releases

DVD cover

Video Release - Released as "Doctor Who: The Gunfighters"

UK Release: November 2002 / US Release: October 2003

PAL - BBC Video BBCV7277

NTSC - Warner Video

Released as part of The First Doctor Collection in the UK (BBCV 7268)

Released as part of The End of the Universe Collection in the US

Editing for VHS release completed by Doctor Who Restoration Team.

There is a small error in the restoration, as the OK Corral gunfight was VidFIREd despite it being shot on film.

To be released on DVD in 2011 as part of a boxset called Earthstory which also includes The Awakening, as confirmed by Doctor Who Magazine 430 (13th January 2011). Extras include a commentary, the Tomorrow's Times feature on the First Doctor and a documentary (called End of the Line?).

Novelisation and its audiobook

Main article: The Gunfighters (novelisation)

Novelised as The Gunfighters in 1986 by Donald Cotton. Cotton's book contains many differences from the televised story, including a startling moment where the Doctor initially takes Doc Holliday's place in the gunfight, and actually triggers it by accidentially discharging his firearm and apparently killing two men.

External links