Journey into Time (unreleased audio story)
Journey into Time was the first audio drama based upon Doctor Who, though it was never given official release.
A pilot made for a planned 52-instalment radio series, it was never broadcast, nor did it lead to a series. Since all recordings were lost, and the work was never broadcast so that fans could have potentially recorded it, little beyond the script and a few trade advertisements remain. The first publication of the Malcolm Hulke script was in a 2012 Nothing at the End of the Lane publication.[2] Richard Bignell discovered the script in a routine perusal of the BBC Archives in the early 2010s. The BBC's note of rejection, written by Martin Esslin, head of sound drama in the late 1960s, was:
- "As a typical commercial production for unsophisticated listeners in Australia or even some parts of the United States, it stands up quite well. As a piece of science fiction, however, it strikes me as extremely feeble."[2]
Although Cushing had previously played a version of the Doctor in the "Dalek movies", this story wasn't scripted as a sequel to those movies, rather being an approximate retelling of A Unearthly Child, similar to the aforementioned movies, the TV Comics, and Doctor Who in an Exciting Adventure with the Daleks before it. This story would've introduced a new character named "Mike", who was unique to this interpretation.
Along with Absent Friends and City of the Saved, both of which were also in the audio play medium, and the unreleased webcast 41.1978.A [+]Loading...["41.1978.A (unreleased webcast)"], this is one of only four performed DWU stories known to have been fully recorded, but never given an official release of any kind.
Synopsis
Dr. Who travels back in time to the American Revolution with Susan and Mike.
Cast[3]
- Dr. Who - Peter Cushing
- Susan - Unknown
- Miss Jennings - Unknown
- George - Unknown
- Mike - Unknown
- Mr Logan - Unknown
- Inspector - Unknown
- Launder - Unknown
Worldbuilding
The backstory of the Dr. Who character in this story is somewhat a mix of the 1960 films and that of the original TV series. Dr. Who and Susan are from the far future of Earth, where time travel is possible, but a malfunction in their machine makes it so they cannot choose where to land. They decide to spend some time in the '60s to investigate the issue, where Susan begins going to school and meets Mike.
Notes
David J. Howe tracked down a number of leads in about 1989, trying to get more information about this production. Amongst the attempts were:
- Contacting the address of Stanmark Productions given on trade advertisements for the series
- Sending letters to all of Stanmark's overseas distributors
- Tracing Stanmark through the companies register
- Writing to Peter Cushing, and his agent
All these were dead ends.[1]
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Howe, David J., "The Lost Radio Plays". The Frame #10. May, 1989. p. 17.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Chuck Foster (Sunday, 15 January, 2012). Missing Radio Script Discovered. Doctor Who News. Retrieved on 29 May 2013.
- ↑ Cast list based upon a fan attempt at making the drama from the Nothing at the End of the Lane-published script
External links
to be added
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