A Fix with Sontarans (TV story)
- You may be looking for the recut 2022 edition.
A Fix with Sontarans was a Doctor Who mini-episode specially written for the BBC's children's programme Jim'll Fix It, featuring the Sixth Doctor. It was broadcast on 23 February 1985.
A re-edited A Fix with Sontarans was re-released on 20 June 2022 as part of Doctor Who: The Collection — Season 22, with all Jim'll Fix It connections and fourth-wall-breaking removed, instead ending on Sontaran ships appearing on the TARDIS scanner.
Plot
The Sixth Doctor is operating the controls on the TARDIS console. He accidentally transports his former companion Tegan Jovanka on board, who is less than happy about this, but reluctantly agrees to help when the Doctor reveals that two Sontarans are on board. They have a powerful vitrox bomb with which they intend to blow up the ship.
The Doctor then accidentally beams on board a human boy, Gareth Jenkins, who happens to be dressed in an outfit similar to the Doctor's own. Gareth agrees to help in any way he can. Tegan brings a box for Gareth to stand on so he can reach the controls and help the Doctor set a trap for the Sontarans. The aliens break into the console room. The leader introduces himself as Group Marshal Nathan and demands that the Doctor introduce his group. Upon hearing Gareth's name, Nathan reveals that in 2001 their invasion of Earth would be foiled by a brave military leader called Gareth Jenkins. If they kill him now, their future success is assured. However, Gareth springs the trap and kills the Sontarans.
When the Doctor asks how Gareth knew where all the TARDIS controls were, he says, "Well, I've seen you fly the TARDIS on telly."
Jimmy Savile appears on the scanner screen, and then enters the TARDIS. The Doctor presents Gareth with his Jim'll Fix It medal and as an added treat, the prop "BBC meson gun" that the Sontarans used.
Cast
- The Doctor - Colin Baker
- Tegan Jovanka - Janet Fielding
- Gareth Jenkins - Gareth Jenkins
- Group Marshall Nathan - Clinton Greyn
- 2nd Sontaran - Tim Raynham
- Jimmy Savile - Himself
Story notes
- A Fix with Sontarans was broadcast during the run of The Two Doctors. Jimmy Savile introduces the skit as a "specially written episode with two Doctor Whos in it".
- Despite rumours to the contrary, the young Gareth Jenkins in this broadcast is not the same Gareth Jenkins who worked as a composer, audio engineer and actor for Big Finish in the 2000s.
- The Doctor asks Gareth to "co-ordinate the vespian transmogrifier ratchet override flange simulator". Tegan rolls her eyes and snaps that there's no such thing, only to be proven wrong. She admits to her theory that the Doctor sometimes makes up the control names, which he debunks.
- Gareth Jenkins reunited with Colin Baker for the first time since filming at a signing event in January 2013. [1]
- In 2015, Gareth Jenkins was interviewed by Toby Hadoke for Round 107 of Toby Hadoke's Who's Round.
- Due to the Jimmy Savile controversy, the story is no longer available as an extra on the DVD release of The Two Doctors as of 2014. It was, however, edited and re-added to the blu-ray as part of the release of The Collection: Season 22 in 2022.
Errors
- Tegan is wearing a flight attendant's uniform similar to the one she wore in the series, even though she lost her job at the airline sometime between Time-Flight and Arc of Infinity. Though the short story Fixing a Hole, which acted as a sequel, addressed this by having Tegan say she had to call in favours to get back her job.
- Whilst Tegan questions the Doctor about the vespian transmogrifier ratchet override flange simulator, a boom shadow is seen on the TARDIS console.
Production
- The format of Jim'll Fix It involved viewers asking requests of the host, Jimmy Savile. The show had wanted to do a Doctor Who fix for "about four years", at one point almost getting the Terileptils' android from The Visitation to do someone's homework, before new director Marcus Mortimer approached John Nathan-Turner. It was at Nathan-Turner's insistence that any sketch be in character and he also suggested Eric Saward write it.[2]
- Gareth Jenkins had his own Sixth Doctor costume made for him by his grandmother and asked to appear in a Doctor Who story as the Doctor. His letter to Jimmy Savile read as follows:
- Dear Jim,
- I like Dr. Who very much because I have got Colin Baker's Doctor Who suit made by my Nan and a tent TARDIS. Please could I see Colin Baker and go inside the TARDIS.
- Yours sincerely
- Gareth Jenkins (Age 8).
- Group Marshal Nathan and his subordinate, unnamed on-screen but referred to as "Turner" in the script, were a sly reference to the then-current Doctor Who producer John Nathan-Turner. This happened in rehearsal: the script called him "Group Marshal Stern".[2]
- According to one explanation, Janet Fielding was asked to participate in the sketch when it was discovered that Nicola Bryant was out of the country on holiday and unavailable to fill her role as the Doctor's then-current assistant, Peri Brown. She wore the flight attendant uniform she had worn in Logopolis and during most of Season 19, though since leaving the series her hair had grown much longer and she had bleached it blonde. Both of these issues were addressed in Fixing a Hole, which acted as a sequel.
- Gareth Jenkins learned all his lines but Colin Baker hadn't had time, so he wrote out some of them on the TARDIS console as Jon Pertwee had — even joking he "did a Pertwee". He claimed in interview that he'd improvised technobabble only for Gareth to repeat "not what I said but what he'd learned"[3], though in the final version, Gareth does repeat Baker's lines. Again according to Baker, multiple retakes were necessary because of the differences between what they'd said.[4]
- Colin Baker later told the newspaper Daily Mail that he found Jimmy Savile "creepy and patronising", with "none of the professional respect that one would expect to be shared when two programmes combine for a special purpose". "I recall clearly the disappointment I felt for the young boy [Gareth] for whom I suspect the whole experience was daunting and overwhelming."[5]
Home media releases
The mini-episode was originally included as a bonus feature on the 2003 DVD release of TV: The Two Doctors. However, in the wake of widespread allegations of paedophilia against Jimmy Savile[1], the host of Jim'll Fix It (who appears briefly in the mini-episode), as of 2014 BBC Worldwide has removed it from more recent pressings of the DVD.[6] (Jenkins has said nothing inappropriate happened on A Fix with Sontarans[1])
The documentary Built for War, included on DVD releases of The Sontaran Experiment, features a discussion of this mini-episode that includes several clips. In its release as part of Doctor Who: The Collection - Season 12, the A Fix with Sontarans segment is edited to remove Savile's image from the TARDIS scanner and cut Baker's subsequent comment alluding to the host's character.
With the release of Doctor Who: The Collection - Season 22, A Fix with Sontarans was again included with the The Two Doctors blu-ray. The mini-episode was edited to remove the entire Jimmy Savile segment from the story, with the documentary also omitting any mention of the host. Instead, the mini-episode had an added scene in place of the cut sequences.
