The Gunfighters (TV story)

From Tardis Wiki, the free Doctor Who reference


The Gunfighters was the eighth story of Season 3 of Doctor Who. This was the last serial whose episodes had individual titles until the 2005 series.

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 plot is very similar to the Star Trek Original Series episode entitled "Spectre of the Gun".

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.)
  • 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

to be added

Discontinuity, Plot Holes, Errors

  • Episodes one and two have the world's quietest gunshots, and in episode four's climactic gunfight Earp and Masterson apparently walk through a withering barrage of fire unscathed.
  • In the ballad, 'earning your gunfighter's wings' is anachronistic, the phrase being coined in WWI.
  • The Clanton gang have amazing accents, Billy obviously having been to finishing school, and Johnny Ringo to the RSC.

Continuity

to be added

DVD, Video and Other Releases

to be added

Target Novelisations

See also

to be added

External Links

TVStub.png
Retrieved from "https://tardis.wiki/w/index.php?title=The_Gunfighters_(TV_story)&oldid=82877"