The examination of the first of the reports that led to the creation of Doctor Who took two articles [PART 1|PART 2] I think we can get this one in one shot.
Following the supposedly incomplete timeline at the TARDIS Fandom wiki, in late May Donald Wilson (Head Of Serials at the BBC in case you forgot) asked Alice Frick to do a follow-up report, this time working with John Brayborn. I have no information on who that is. Eric Maschwitz, Head Of Light Entertainment and the one who pushed for the first report, requested a follow-up. I don’t know if it was Wilson or Maschwitz who asked for a review of potential sci-fi works to adapt but that’s what the report was.
I don’t know that any of the stories in this report ever were adapted for the BBC but after skimming it I found it interesting how many elements made its way into the Doctor Who we know and love, if not at first then certainly as the original show went on and it went from using mild sci-fi horror to get kids interested in history and science to just a way to scare kids like an early Goosebumps. There’s also a comment that’s always been credited to Sydney Newman that makes its debut here. You know, the one that would have killed the show’s biggest villain had they followed it. Let’s start reading, and remember the link to all of these are in the intro article to this series.
BBC ARCHIVE
WRITTEN DOCUMENT 1962TO: H.S.D. Tel [head of Serial Drama, TV – Donald Wilson]
FROM: John Braybon & Alice Prick 25th July 1962REPORT
SCIENCE FICTION — Introduction
It is not the purpose of the comments below to suggest that a science fiction series should, or should not, be undertaken. However, during the course of the past eight weeks, we have read some hundreds of science fiction stories; in general, they have been of the short story variety, so beloved by the current science fiction generation of authors. Included in the attached list are a number of titles each together with a brief synopsis. They have been chosen as potentially suitable for adaptation to television because they fulfil one, or
all, of the following requirements:
I don’t know. Frick’s last report with Donald Bull felt kind of negative towards sci-fi to me. So what are these requirements?
1. They do not include Bug—Eyed Monsters.
There’s the line. If that happened the Daleks might not exist, and arguably the next one as well.
2. The central characters are never Tin Robots (since the audience must always subconsciously say “My goodness, there’s a man in there and isn’t he playing the part well”)
Robots and bug-eyed monsters. Would the show be the same without them?
No, no we shouldn’t. We should believe it was a robot, at least until the credits roll. If anything, Chameleon, which actually was a robot and couldn’t be used because it was a malfunctioning mess even worse that the first K-9 remote controlled robot (K-9 is my favorite Companion), looked too human and probably could have been replaced with a costume if they found a dude thin enough. If the man in there is playing the part well, I shouldn’t be thinking about him at all, but the character he’s playing. Nobody thinks about Kenny Baker when they see R2-D2. And Baker could literally be replaced by a robot now as they’ve made actual remote controlled R2 units of various designs. Also, Baker passed away in 2016 so they kind of have to.
3. They do not require large and elaborate science fiction type settings since, in our considered opinion, the presentation of the interior of a space—ship, or the surface of another planet, gives rise to exactly the same psychological blockage as the above—mentioned Robots and B.E.Ms. (In our opinion, this has already resulted in a failure in the current ITV series, which has included The Yellow Pill, Dumb Martian and Little Lost Robot)
Star Trek could put a lie to that, and they kept trying to use other sets to save money. I have another comment I’m going to save for later on as they go through the examples they reviewed.
4. They do provide an opportunity for genuine characterisation and in most cases, they ask the audience to suspend disbelief scientifically and technologically on one fact only, after which all developments follow a logical pattern.
This is always a tough balance. How do you keep your sci-fi stuff from looking like magic? Even in the Star Wars franchise the Force is the only magical thing (until the Nightsisters and Disney Wars additions), while hyperspace has to be explained if not with actual science then by something the audience can accept as the future or another galaxy with better technology. Star Trek has even inspired real world science and technology, as did the works of Jules Verne, who went to existing science for inspiration. So what stories did this report use for inspiration?
Because of the above restrictions, we consider that two types of plot are reasonably outstanding, namely those dealing with telepaths, see Three to Conquer in the attached list, and those dealing with time travelling, see Guardians of Time. This latter one is particularly attractive as a series, since individual plots can easily be tackled by a variety of script—writers; it’s the Z Cars of science fiction.
Z Cars (pronounced “Zed Cars” in British speak) is a cop show that in some tellings is where the first TARDIS prop came from. That’s all I know about it besides being a cop show, and that’s more than I know of the other two or the third short story listed in this report. So I don’t know if any of these were ever actually adapted, but their final influence on Doctor Who is interesting.
Title: Guardians of Time by Poul Anderson
Published by Gollancz
Copyright: Mercury Press Inc.Synopsis: Some 19,000 years in the future, we are told, the secret of time travel has been discovered. Time machines shuttle to and fro, through twenty millenia and more, as busily and casually as the trains on the London Underground. Most of the machines are those of the Time Patrol, an organisation which has been set up to stop anyone from tampering with the past. For the course of history would be altered if one could return to 1865 and prevent the assassination of Lincoln, or travel back to, say, 1918 and kill Hitler before he began to be a public menace. The Time Patrol’s purpose is to discourage any such monkeying about with history.
Suitable men from all epochs are recruited Patrol. The book’s hero, Manse Everard, belongs to the mid—twentieth century, and the book describes first his selection and training at the Patrol’s Academy. Then he goes, in turn, on four separate assignments.
Sounds almost like a serious version of the Cartoon Network comedy Time Squad. Of course the Doctor was a time traveller, but not for any organization. When the show started even the creatives didn’t know if the Doctor was going to be an alien or an inventor from the future. While the Peter Cushing movies went with present day inventor, the show would eventually settle on alien. The Doctor would on occasional deal with people trying to change history, starting with the Meddling Monk for the First Doctor. New Who would introduce Time Agents but I’m not sure we ever saw any outside of Captain Jack Harkness, or at least they weren’t nearly as omnipresent as the Time Lords or Shadow Proclamation. Whether or not Russel T. Davies was inspired by Guardians Of Time when it came to Jack’s backstory I couldn’t tell you.
Title: Three to Conquer by Eric Frank Russell
Published by Dobson
Copyright: Street & Smith Inc.
N.Y. and Russell.Synopsis: Central character is a telepath, who, because of his powers, becomes aware that the earth is being subject to invasion by an alien force, which, virus—like, has occupied the bodies and minds of three men on a space—craft which has recently returned from elsewhere in the universe. Written with a fair degree of humour and not, for once, populated by bad—tempered scientists and
inefficient politicians.Possible to adapt this as a serial covering the realisation of the invasion, followed by four episodes detailing the seeking out and destruction of the aliens, who are indistinguishable from human beings except by the telepath, who is aware of their thought processes when they are in fairly short—range.
Even the “God Doctor” wasn’t this powerful.
While Time Lords have a certain range of mental powers, including telepathy, it was never shown to be this strong. I don’t think they really adapted much here, though mind controlling aliens would pop up now and then, like the one time we saw the Sontarans oft-mentioned enemies, the Rutans. Telepaths picking out aliens, or dealing with viral aliens have popped up in too many things to name, but rarely together. WildCATS is the only thing coming to mind. The report offers three more examples and then cuts out. This might be running a bit long, but let’s check them out.
Title: Eternity Lost
by Clifford Simak
Published 1951 (Best Science Fic. Stories) by Grayson & Grayson.Synopsis: It is now possible for men to have eternal life, but clearly this must be restricted to a very select group. Central character is Senator Homer Leonard who originally piloted through the World of house Representatives the rules governing the granting to rnai of eternal life. Those blessed with this gift have to seek re—election and he realises that this may well not be forthcoming. This is a psychological study of his reactions to the situation. Good end twist. Single 50 minuter.
I don’t know if “rnai” is a typo (or if it was by the original report writers or the transcriber of this file) or if that’s actually in the story. So I’m guessing at this point they were going for anthology instead of an ongoing series if they outright admit it’s good for one hour long story (with ads). The Time Lords wouldn’t exist in the lore for decades but the Second Doctor did say he could “live forever, barring accidents” once they decided on space alien to push the regeneration angle that kept the show going past William Hartnell’s departure.
Title: Pictures Don’t Lie
by Datherine Maclean [sic – this should be Kathleen Maclean]
Published Best SF by Faber & Faber Copyright 1951 by World Editions Inc.
Name correction is part of the file, and might not have been in the report, though the “Datherine” typo was. That just makes me more confused as I’ve had to correct a few typos according to spellcheck while I still don’t know if “rnai” is accurate or what it should be if not. Fun fact copy/pasted from Google AI: “Sic” is often short for the Latin phrase “sic erat scriptum,” which means “thus it had been written”. In writing, it’s used, usually in brackets like “[sic]”, to indicate that a word, phrase, or passage in a quote is reproduced exactly as it appeared in the original source, including any errors or unusual features like spelling or grammar. It essentially means “intentionally so written”. I always wondered about that.
Synopsis: Contact has been established with intelligent beings from another world, who are kindly disposed towards the inhabitants of Earth and are about to make a landing in a space ship. All communications have been achieved by means of speeding up video and audio signals currently in existence on Earth and transmitting them as very short pulses. (This is quite possible and logical). Using this communication plus a translating machine, the space ship is guided to its destination, reports a landing on the airfield, and then
immediately runs into trouble. It is clearly landing in a swamp full of fantastic monsters, the atmosphere of the Earth is to the inhabitants of the space ship, opaque; furthermore, despite messages and the assistance of direction finding equipment, it would appear impossible for the ship to have landed since it is nowhere in sight. Only then does the realisation dawn upon Earth that the speeded up messages which are decodable by the aliens, do in fact represent their natural pace of living. It means therefore that their size
is microscopic. They have indeed landed on the airfield and at the moment they are sinking through and dying in the rapidly drying puddle out on the tarmac.The whole thing is absolutely possible and logical.
“No, I swear, it’s all possible AND logical! Stop laughing! It’s traumatic!” Biologists may want to make a few notes on that one, though the video editing could be possible. Of course I know slightly more about science than Stan Lee. Sounds like something out of Space Adventures, boring and dull, but I haven’t read it. I’m not convinced you could make a series out of it, so one more point for the anthology.
Title: No Woman Born
by C.I Moore
Copyright 1944 Street & itnith, Publications Inc.
Pub. Best SFSynopsis: This is an exception to our rule about robots. The central character is a humanoid robot, but it is inhabited by a live human brain, salvaged from the body of a world famous entertainer and ballet dancer.
So she’s a cyborg, not a robot. Technically so are the Daleks. Also, why did they take a ballet dancer and pull a “Doom Patrol” Robotman? I don’t know how the robot’s body is described in the story, so I’m curious if early 1960s couch cushion budgets (if Doctor Who is any indication of whatever it was the BBC would put towards this) would be able to replicate it in costume form? Even the robot costumes we got in BBC sci-fi could be pretty stiff. Look at Doctor Who or the TV adaptation of Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy.
Her personality is still intact, she is a woman of great determination and she decides to make a comeback in the world of entertainment. This she does with riotous success — the success is heightened by the realisation of the audience that she is indeed more than human. With this however, comes the psychological problem. “I’m afraid it isn’t unhappiness, Maltzer, it’s fear, I don’t want to draw away from the human race, I wish I needn’t, that’s why I’m going back on the stage, to keep in touch with them while I can. But I wish there could be others like me — I’m — I’m lonely, Maltzer”.
Could make an interesting movie but again, anthology, not series. That’s where it ends and that’s where they seemed to be going, an anthology of depressing stories, more “Outer Limits” than what we got. Remember, they were looking for things to adapt, not inspirations for an original project. So once again, I’m really puzzled as to how Sydney Newman and Donald Wilson ended up creating Doctor Who. (Newman gets the credit but Wilson was also involved in getting this made.) Next time we start checking out the concept notes for their “new sci-fi drama”. I can’t wait to see what all this led up to.
BW Media Spotlight 