John Nathan-Turner (Earth-33⅓)
John Nathan-Turner, also known as JNT, was the producer of Doctor Who in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. He usually wore a hawaiian shirt to work and did not seem to have an especially strong work ethic.
Biography
Nathan-Turner was in charge for part of the Fourth Doctor era. He criticised the design department for making the Kandyman a jelly baby because the Doctor immediately began to eat it. This blunder led to the Kandyman's appearance in the series being postponed and the Seventh Doctor and Ace eventually doing battle with it. (NOTVALID: Doctor Who? 147)
At the start of Colin Baker's tenure as the Sixth Doctor he briefed Baker on how he would play the character by saying his portrayal would include the traits of past Doctors. Baker was left visibly uncomfortable by Nathan-Turner's suggestion that he would wear Davison's stick of celery. (NOTVALID: Doctor Who? 87)
Nathan-Turner and Peri Brown later carried the Doctor's TARDIS by themselves from an old slate quarry in Surrey all the way to an old slate quarry in Lanzarote for the filming of Planet of Fire. (NOTVALID: Doctor Who? 92)
The BBC Special Effects Department demonstrated their new exterminated Dalek effect to Nathan-Turner. He was delighted with the result and asked how it was done to which he got the answer of the Dalek operator working his way through the entire menu at the BBC canteen. (NOTVALID: Doctor Who? 99)
Nathan-Turner participated in the new format along with the Sixth Doctor, Daleks, Cybermen, Sontarans, Ice Warriors, Sea Devils and Yeti when Bonnie Langford turned the show into The Monsters from Fame. (NOTVALID: Doctor Who? 115)
He took the decision for Season 23 to go for a new look Doctor Who by making not only the TARDIS bigger on the inside but the Doctor as well. He introduced this to the cameramen for the first scene of the season with one thinking it was wide-screen entertainment for the small screen. (NOTVALID: Doctor Who? 116)
Nathan-Turner was seen waiting in line for food at the BBC canteen when the Doctor and Melanie Bush were being served by a Zygon. (NOTVALID: Doctor Who? 117)
On one occasion, the Doctor and Mel observed Nathan-Turner conducting Cyberman auditions during which the auditionees were genuinely being shotgunned to test their capabilities. (NOTVALID: Doctor Who? 125)
At the start of Sylvester McCoy's tenure as the Seventh Doctor, Nathan-Turner was interviewed on what he thought made McCoy right for the role. He said that he knew he was the man for the job when he first saw him putting Cyber-ferrets down his trousers. (NOTVALID: Doctor Who? 128) Nathan-Turner personally directed the shooting of the regeneration sequence from the Sixth to the Seventh Doctor; telling McCoy to get into the Sixth Doctor's costume, he realised with a start that the short actor had already done so, but his face and limbs were not visible from under the pile of cloth on the floor. (NOTVALID: The Regeneration Game)
He once directed an Ice Warrior on how to deliver his lines by asking him to convey tragedy, loss, heart-break, anger and despair. (NOTVALID: Doctor Who? 149)
He was in charge of the production of Doctor Who by 2003 and was tasked with overseeing the creation of the Doctor Who Fortieth Anniversary Special. His only suggestions during production meetings concerned what sandwiches the crew (read: he) would be provided with. (NOTVALID: A Life in the Day of a Doctor Who Production)
Behind the scenes
- Although he is referred to as simply the Producer, it is unmistakably Tim Quinn and Dicky Howett's usual caricature of John Nathan-Turner, the producer of Doctor Who in real life in 1987, who appears in the satirical story A Life in the Day of a Doctor Who Production as the producer of the Doctor Who 40th anniversary special in 2003. In real life, however, by 2003, aside from the fact Nathan-Turner had died by that point, the main Doctor Who series had been cancelled; the latest individual to have held the title of producer for a story conventionally considered part of the TV series by that point was Peter V. Ware, on the 1996 TV Movie, while the producers of the two non-TV Doctor Who stories with a claim to being the real-life 40th anniversary special were, respectively, Muirinn Lane Kelly (producer of Scream of the Shalka) and the joint pair of Gary Russell and Jason Haigh-Ellery (joint producers of Zagreus).
