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The Celestial Toymaker (TV story): Difference between revisions
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* The Celestial Toymaker was to return in ''The Nightmare Fair'', and Michael Gough was approached to reprise his role, but this was never made due to BBC-1 Controller Michael Grade having unexpectedly decided to postpone the series for eighteen months. This was part of the unmade Season 23 in 1986, which was later made into a [[The Nightmare Fair (novelisation)|Target Missing Episodes novelisation]] and a [[The Nightmare Fair (audio story)|The Lost Episodes audio story]], the latter starring [[David Bailie]] as the Toymaker. | * The Celestial Toymaker was to return in ''The Nightmare Fair'', and Michael Gough was approached to reprise his role, but this was never made due to BBC-1 Controller Michael Grade having unexpectedly decided to postpone the series for eighteen months. This was part of the unmade Season 23 in 1986, which was later made into a [[The Nightmare Fair (novelisation)|Target Missing Episodes novelisation]] and a [[The Nightmare Fair (audio story)|The Lost Episodes audio story]], the latter starring [[David Bailie]] as the Toymaker. | ||
* ''Radio Times'' credits 'Michael Gough as the Toymaker' for all four episodes and 'Dancers: Beryl Braham, Ann Harrison, Delia Lindon' for "The Dancing Floor", with the other supporting cast members credited without specific roles under the heading 'with' in the programme listings for all four episodes. | * ''Radio Times'' credits 'Michael Gough as the Toymaker' for all four episodes and 'Dancers: Beryl Braham, Ann Harrison, Delia Lindon' for "The Dancing Floor", with the other supporting cast members credited without specific roles under the heading 'with' in the programme listings for all four episodes. | ||
* In "The Hall of Dolls", whilst deciding which of the seven chairs | * In "The Hall of Dolls", whilst deciding which of the seven chairs — six of which are deadly, while one remains safe — to choose, the King of Hearts recites a politically incorrect version of the children's counting rhyme "Eeny, meeny, miny, moe" (used to select a person to be 'it' for games and similar purposes), which includes the racial slur "nigger" in the second line. On BBC Audio's CD release of the story, this offending section has been obscured by placing part of Peter Purves's narration over the top. | ||
* Though [[Gerry Davis]] and [[Innes Lloyd]] received their first credits for a full [[serial]] with ''Toymaker'', both men had in fact worked on ''[[Doctor Who]]'' before. Evidence of Lloyd's presence in the production office extends at least back to [[26 January]] [[1966]], when he sent scripts of the first two episodes of ''[[The Gunfighters]]'' to [[director]] [[Rex Tucker]]. This the same week that "[[War of God]]" first went in front of cameras. [[John Wiles]], however, may still have been around for at least some of the recording of ''[[The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve (TV story)|The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve]]''. By [[14 February]], a few days before "[[The Steel Sky]]" recorded, Lloyd was fully in charge of the series. Thus he was known to have at least produced ''[[The Ark]]'', and perhaps some of ''[[The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve (TV story)|The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve]]'', before receiving his first on-screen credit for ''Toymaker''. Davis, meanwhile, had actually received a credit on "[[Bell of Doom]]". | * Though [[Gerry Davis]] and [[Innes Lloyd]] received their first credits for a full [[serial]] with ''Toymaker'', both men had in fact worked on ''[[Doctor Who]]'' before. Evidence of Lloyd's presence in the production office extends at least back to [[26 January]] [[1966]], when he sent scripts of the first two episodes of ''[[The Gunfighters]]'' to [[director]] [[Rex Tucker]]. This the same week that "[[War of God]]" first went in front of cameras. [[John Wiles]], however, may still have been around for at least some of the recording of ''[[The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve (TV story)|The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve]]''. By [[14 February]], a few days before "[[The Steel Sky]]" recorded, Lloyd was fully in charge of the series. Thus he was known to have at least produced ''[[The Ark]]'', and perhaps some of ''[[The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve (TV story)|The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve]]'', before receiving his first on-screen credit for ''Toymaker''. Davis, meanwhile, had actually received a credit on "[[Bell of Doom]]". | ||
=== Competition in the Toyroom === | === Competition in the Toyroom === | ||
Producing ''Toymaker'' wasn't easy, even by ''Doctor Who'' standards. Most of the difficulties stemmed from the fact that it arose at a time of transition in the production office. Though commissioned by the team of [[producer]] [[John Wiles]] and [[script editor]] [[Donald Tosh]], it was ultimately completed by the new team of [[Innes Lloyd]] and [[Gerry Davis]]. The two sides simply had very different ideas about how the story should proceed. | Producing ''Toymaker'' wasn't easy, even by ''Doctor Who'' standards. Most of the difficulties stemmed from the fact that it arose at a time of transition in the production office. Though commissioned by the team of [[producer]] [[John Wiles]] and [[script editor]] [[Donald Tosh]], it was ultimately completed by the new team of [[Innes Lloyd]] and [[Gerry Davis]]. The two sides simply had very different ideas about how the story should proceed. | ||
All four episodes were in fact written three different times. [[Brian Hayles]] had delivered all four original scripts, likely in late [[1965]]. Tosh and Wiles had immediately seen that the scripts could not be practically realised, and thus Tosh rewrote them entirely. By the time he was finished, though, he was no longer script editor. Davis, his replacement, now had to deal with the fact that Tosh had inserted the use of characters from a play by [[Gerald Savory]] without obtaining permission. Since Savory was now [[Head of Serials]], and had the power to veto scripts, he quickly rejected Tosh's approach to ''The Celestial Toymaker''. | All four episodes were in fact written three different times. [[Brian Hayles]] had delivered all four original scripts, likely in late [[1965]]. Tosh and Wiles had immediately seen that the scripts could not be practically realised, and thus Tosh rewrote them entirely. By the time he was finished, though, he was no longer script editor. Davis, his replacement, now had to deal with the fact that Tosh had inserted the use of the title characters from a play called ''George and Margaret'' by [[Gerald Savory]] without obtaining permission. Since Savory was now [[Head of Serials]], and had the power to veto scripts, he quickly rejected Tosh's approach to ''The Celestial Toymaker''. | ||
Davis therefore had to tackle the scripts ''again''. These rewrites got Savory's okay, but the old production team were left wondering what had happened to their scripts. Tosh opined that Davis' approach was "much lighter, more pantomime" than his own. The results were no more pleasing to [[John Wiles]], who wrote a memo to Savory on [[25 February]] [[1966]], after he had technically left the ''Doctor Who'' production office. In it, he claimed that the central battle of wills between the Doctor and the Toymaker had been downplayed to the benefit of new elements involving a more childish confrontation between the companions and the Toymaker's creations. Ultimately, Wiles would have liked to have seen the entire production halted, since its commissioning producer and script editor had gone — and with them, the original, more adult intent of the story. ([[REF]]: ''[[The First Doctor Handbook]]) '' | Davis therefore had to tackle the scripts ''again''. These rewrites got Savory's okay, but the old production team were left wondering what had happened to their scripts. Tosh opined that Davis' approach was "much lighter, more pantomime" than his own. The results were no more pleasing to [[John Wiles]], who wrote a memo to Savory on [[25 February]] [[1966]], after he had technically left the ''Doctor Who'' production office. In it, he claimed that the central battle of wills between the Doctor and the Toymaker had been downplayed to the benefit of new elements involving a more childish confrontation between the companions and the Toymaker's creations. Ultimately, Wiles would have liked to have seen the entire production halted, since its commissioning producer and script editor had gone — and with them, the original, more adult intent of the story. ([[REF]]: ''[[The First Doctor Handbook]]) '' | ||
However, ' | However, the story's problems weren't over even after Davis' script had been recorded. After the transmission of "The Dancing Floor", the BBC had to field charges from the estate of {{w|Charles Hamilton (writer)|Charles Hamilton}} that the character of [[Cyril]] was in fact meant to be his popular children's character, {{w|Billy Bunter}}. The problem was exacerbated by the fact that actor [[Peter Stephens]] had ad-libbed the line "My friends call me Billy" during recording. Thus the BBC were forced to take a step never repeated before or since: they had to have a special [[continuity announcement]] at the end of "The Final Test" which declared that the character of Cyril was not meant ''to be'' Billy Bunter, but merely a character ''like'' him.<ref>[http://www.shannonsullivan.com/drwho/serials/y.html Shannon Sullivan on ''The Celestial Toymaker'']</ref> | ||
=== Ratings === | === Ratings === | ||
