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Donald Baverstock: Difference between revisions
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After much internal discussion over the course of several months, it was Baverstock who eventually personally decided on [[5 July]] 1963 that ''Doctor Who'' episodes would be 25 minutes long, as they would remain until 1989. | After much internal discussion over the course of several months, it was Baverstock who eventually personally decided on [[5 July]] 1963 that ''Doctor Who'' episodes would be 25 minutes long, as they would remain until 1989. | ||
=== | === Money man === | ||
Ultimately, Baverstock was ''Doctor Who''{{'}}s commissioning executive, the person who decided the final budgets for the programme and whether it would even get aired. He had to be satisfied that things were progressing satisfactorily. At first green lighting only a four epsiode commitment, he extended it to thirteen on the strength of what eventually became known as "[[The Pilot Episode]]". He almost immediately reversed his decision, however, after he started looking at the numbers harder. | Ultimately, Baverstock was ''Doctor Who''{{'}}s commissioning executive, the person who decided the final budgets for the programme and whether it would even get aired. He had to be satisfied that things were progressing satisfactorily. At first green lighting only a four epsiode commitment, he extended it to thirteen on the strength of what eventually became known as "[[The Pilot Episode]]". He almost immediately reversed his decision, however, after he started looking at the numbers harder. | ||
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This forced a week-long "crisis" in which all manner of BBC executives, along with [[Verity Lambert]] and [[Donald Wilson]] seriously re-examined the financial assumptions of the show. Baverstock re-instated his 13-week commitment after Lambert and Wilson demonstrated that they could produce the show at a lower cost. The major sacrifice was that ''Doctor Who'' was not able to avail themselves of the [[BBC Visual Effects]] department on a regular basis. This forced [[visual effects]] to be sub-contracted. Thus Baverstock was somewhat directly responsible for the [[Dalek]]s and other significant props being created by [[Shawcraft Models]] rather than the BBC itself. | This forced a week-long "crisis" in which all manner of BBC executives, along with [[Verity Lambert]] and [[Donald Wilson]] seriously re-examined the financial assumptions of the show. Baverstock re-instated his 13-week commitment after Lambert and Wilson demonstrated that they could produce the show at a lower cost. The major sacrifice was that ''Doctor Who'' was not able to avail themselves of the [[BBC Visual Effects]] department on a regular basis. This forced [[visual effects]] to be sub-contracted. Thus Baverstock was somewhat directly responsible for the [[Dalek]]s and other significant props being created by [[Shawcraft Models]] rather than the BBC itself. | ||
Having now satisfied Baverstock as to the seriousness of their financial intent, Wilson and Lambert successfully pressed for extensions to their commission. Wilson received a thirteen-week extension on [[22 November]] [[1963]], in which Baverstock signalled that he'd probably give an ''additional'' thirteen weeks in early [[1964]]. In the event, though — and almost certainly influenced by the December success of ''[[The Daleks (TV story)|The Daleks]]'', he extended on [[31 December]] 1963. | |||
=== Other challenges === | === Other challenges === | ||
Though his defence of the budget was clearly a significant event, he used his office in other ways that affected the early production of ''Doctor Who''. | Though his defence of the budget was clearly a significant event, he used his office in other ways that affected the early production of ''Doctor Who''. | ||
