Dr. Who For Keep Australia Beautiful (TV story)
Dr. Who For Keep Australia Beautiful was a serialised mini-episode broadcast in four parts in 1979 to raise awareness of the growing litter problem in Australia, to aid the Western Australian Litter Act of 1979, also known as Keep Australia Beautiful. It featured the Fourth Doctor, or rather, Dr. Who, if one takes into account the title of the story.
Notably, this story was referenced to in the BBC Past Doctor Adventures novel Festival of Death, wherein the Doctor repeated the message "keep Australia beautiful".
Synopsis[[edit] | [edit source]]
Dr. Who is challenged by a computer about his knowledge of Australia - but the Doctor isn't as up to date as he believes...
Plot[[edit] | [edit source]]
Australia is Dirty (1)[[edit] | [edit source]]
In a space station orbiting a planet, a computer asks Dr. Who why he wants to go to Australia, as it believes that the Doctor knows nothing about the continent. The Doctor indignantly replies that he does, as he has been reading all about it, proceeding to pick up his copy of The Wind in the Willows, relaying information about Australia.
After doing so, the Doctor confidently challenges the computer to ask him anything about Australia. The Doctor seemingly answers all questions correctly except for the last one, about the disadvantages; the Doctor believes that there are none; he is mistaken, as the data-scan in which he cited, is now outdated. The computer informs him that a new data-scan has revealed that Australia is dirty, littered, and about to have an imminent collapse of life-support systems due to pollution. Feeling emboldened, the Doctor tells the computer that he must go down there, to tell them to "keep Australia beautiful".
Feeling that he must depart to carry through this important task, the Doctor asks the computer if he can leave. He gets confirmation that he can, and just before leaving, the Doctor turns and tells us that it is important, and to keep Australia beautiful.
Citizen 327KL (2)[[edit] | [edit source]]
Back in the space station, the Doctor resumes reading The Wind in the Willows, until his is interrupted by a distress call from "Citizen 327KL" from 1999. The Doctor gets the man to tell him his real name, which used to be Bruce.
The Doctor, while telling him that he is called the Doctor, he replies "yes" when Citizen 327KL asks "Doctor who?". 327KL tells the Doctor that Australia, in his home time, is in danger of being "eliminated", due to lack of resources. The Doctor tells Citizen 327KL that he will have to help himself, as the Doctor is currently twenty years prior, in 1979. The Doctor asks 327KL if he dropped litter as a child, which 327KL confirms, not realising that his irresponsibility, combined with the irresponsibility of everybody else, lead to Australia being polluted. 327KL begs for the Doctor's help, and the Doctor simply tells him to keep Australia beautiful. 327KL repeats this message back to himself a few times, however he chokes, and falls silent. The Doctor then says, sadly, "poor Bruce".
Mayday (3)[[edit] | [edit source]]
to be added
Year of the Child (4)[[edit] | [edit source]]
to be added
Cast[[edit] | [edit source]]
- Dr. Who - Tom Baker (uncredited)
- Computer - Unknown
- Bruce/Citizen 327KL - Unknown
- Girl - Unknown
- Leela - unknown (uncredited)
- Darren - Unknown
Characters[[edit] | [edit source]]
Crew[[edit] | [edit source]]
to be added
Worldbuilding[[edit] | [edit source]]
- Reading from his copy of The Wind in the Willows, Australia is said to be "a sunburnt country of sweeping plains, rugged mountain ranges, of droughts and flooding rains".
- In response to the Doctor's challenge, the computer asks the Doctor the population, the size, Bradman's best test score, Australia's most famous export, advantages, and disadvantages of Australia.
- The Doctor holds a creamer to his mouth while speaking to Citizen 327KL.
- The natural resources of Australia are both used up or inaccessible due to waste and litter.
- Bruce was a child in 1979.
- The space station is two light-years from Gallifrey, in the constellation of Kasterborous.
Story notes[[edit] | [edit source]]
- For some reason, there appears to be two of the Doctor's hats on screen at the same time during part one.
- A pseudo double entendre is used several times by the Doctor, when he says "keep Australia beautiful", a meta nod to the Australian movement the mini-episode was created in aid of.
- Bruce's 1999 is probably an alternate timeline, but nothing explicit is said about it.
Continuity[[edit] | [edit source]]
- The Doctor is wearing his beige coat. (TV: The Power of Kroll, et al.)
- The Doctor visited Australia in his first, (AUDIO: The Transit of Venus) second, (TV: The Enemy of the World, AUDIO: Echoes of Grey) and third incarnations, (COMIC: Backtime, Gemini Plan, PROSE: SLEEPY)
- The Doctor would return to Australia in his seventh, (PROSE: Three Steps to the Left, Set Piece) eleventh, (TV: A Christmas Carol) and twelfth incarnations. (TV: The Pilot)
- The Doctor has previously spoken to the audience in TV: The Daleks' Master Plan, The Face of Evil, Image of the Fendahl, Underworld, The Invasion of Time, and The Pirate Planet. The Doctor continue this trend in later incarnations.
- The Doctor, on other occasions, had accepted the name "Doctor Who" when asked "Doctor who?". (TV: The Gunfighters, AUDIO: Seven Keys to Doomsday)
- The Fourth Doctor later repeated the message "keep Australia beautiful" to Romana II when he sacrificed himself. (PROSE: Festival of Death)
