Doctor's DilemmaBy Jon PreddleHow could the Doctor get the console out of the TARDIS in The Ambassadors of Death and Inferno when the outer doors are too small to let it through? He could not have changed the size of the exit using the chameleon circuit because that was broken at the time. [Darrell Patterson] While the console is outside the TARDIS in Inferno, it is inside the ship in The Claws of Axos and Colony in Space (and presumably the other stories of Season Eight). The Doctor has again removed it in Day of the Daleks, the third and only other time in which we see the console outside the ship. (I won't include The Mind Robber here because the console was only disconnected when the TARDIS broke up). Interestingly, in the instances where we have seen the TARDIS console outside the ship, we have not seen the TARDIS exterior. It is clear in some stories that the console is attached to the TARDIS wall by a power cable, so why can we not see the ship which should be standing nearby if the cable is still connected? It is possible that the Doctor has activated some function of the ship that had not been over-ridden by the Time Lords and dematerialised the main structure of the TARDIS leaving the console free-standing. The TARDIS is still there but in an 'invisible' state. Another possibility is that the Doctor somehow reduced the dimensions of the console and got it out the door that way! Or is that too easy...? Could you please tell me more about the twentieth anniversary radio story which reveals all about the Doctor - I think it was called Birth of a Renegade or something similar? [Stuart Brown] Birth of a Renegade was not a radio play, but an eight-page short story written by script-editor Eric Saward and illustrated by Mark Thomas especially for the Radio Times Doctor Who 20th Anniversary Special, a magazine published in 1983. The Fifth Doctor, Tegan and Turlough land on a derelict spaceship and are captured by the Master (the derelict being his TARDIS), who has allied himself with the Cybermen. The Master reveals his plan to usurp the Presidency of Gallifrey by placing the rightful ruler on the throne - the Lady Larn, one of Rassilon's descendants - who is also his prisoner and under his control. Larn turns out to be Susan, and the Master exposes the real truth behind the Doctor's sudden departure from Gallifrey. The story was written as a teaser for the anniversary tale, The Five Doctors, but it really ought to be considered as nothing more than a piece of speculative fiction and not a true account of the Doctor's past. What exactly is added or extended in the video versions of Silver Nemesis and The Curse of Fenric? [Stuart Brown] I'll be covering the extended version of The Curse of Fenric in a forthcoming Script to Screen, but as for Silver Nemesis there are many additions. The notations in brackets refer firstly to the duration at which the extra scene appears, followed by the length in seconds of the extended piece. The novel page number is also given. PART ONE
PART TWO
PART THREE
Not all of the recorded footage was reinstated for the video release. The BBC also holds a 31 minute version of Part One; a 30 minute version of Part Two, and a longer version (duration unknown) of Part Three. By cross-referencing the video with a recording schedule for the serial it is not immediately apparent where this footage belongs. The novelisation only contains some of the cut material. What was cut from the 1990 TVNZ showing of Part 14 of The Trial of a Time Lord? I know 8 minutes, 11 seconds was cut - but from where? [Stuart Brown] There were eight major cuts made to the story, the longest being 3'53". Assuming that you have access to a video copy of the story or the novelisation, here is a guide to the cuts, measured in seconds; the book pages are also given. The total cut in seconds is given in brackets.
There was a total of around 491 seconds cut. Only 474 seconds have been accounted for above. The 'missing' 17 seconds can probably be attributed to slight inaccuracy in my timings above, or there are several smaller edits and trims conducted by TVNZ and as such are not immediately apparent. This item appeared in TSV 42 (January 1995). | |