Well, since the fever of the Day of the Doctor has come and, if not gone, then stabilized, I thought I would follow up with some explorations of interesting, unofficial corners of the Doctor Who Universe.
Okay, let’s talk Curse of Fatal Death, which is not officially in continuity with Doctor Who. This was a 23 minute special produced by the BBC for Comic Relief’s Red Nose Day. Originally broadcast in four parts, it was later re-edited into two parts, and then eventually released to VHS. No DVD’s out yet, but I think you can find it on Youtube.
Officially, ‘Curse’ is not ‘in continuity’ and not part of the ‘canon.’ Officially. When you take a look at the production however, it’s like the Kevin Bacon of the Doctor Who universe. Curse’s production connects to the old series, new series, and even to other specials like Dimensions in Time, the Doctor Who movie and Scream of the Shalka. Let’s take a look.
Connecting to the old series:
* The Tardis exterior is the same prop used in the series during the 1980’s run of Davison, Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy;
* The distinctive electronic title sequence was borrowed from the Tom Baker era, with Tom Baker’s face removed.
* The voice of the Daleks in this episode, Ray Skelton, had been providing Dalek voices for seven of the old serials, beginning with ‘Evil of the Daleks’ with the Troughton Doctor, all the way up to ‘Remembrance of the Daleks’ with the McCoy Doctor. He’d also done Cyberman, Kroton, Monoid and Computer voices and appeared as an onscreen character in a couple of episodes.
* The other credited Dalek Voice, Dave Chapman, had also worked on the original series in visual effects, since the Tom Baker era. This was his first dalek voice, or any kind of voicework, but he definitely had history with the show.
* Speaking of Effects, Special Effects are credited to Andy McVean, who had also been doing special effects during the McCoy era.
* Mark Ayres, the Music composer for Curse, had also composed for several McCoy era serials.
* The soundscape for Curse borrowed heavily from the original series, with musical cues coming from episodes of the Third, Fourth, Fifth and Seventh Doctors.
* The planet Tersurus, the setting for Curse, is also mentioned in the Fourth Doctor episode, ‘The Deadly Assassin’ as a base of the Master.
There’s also a carry over connection to Dimensions in Time:
* The Tardis box used for Curse and for the 80’s series, was also used in Dimensions.
There’s also an interesting production detail that links it to the McGann movie:
* The opening image of the Tardis flying through space, is lifted directly from the McGann movie.
Here’s another peculiar production detail linking Curse to both the McGann movie, and the two Cushing Movies:
* According to Wikipedia (I wouldn’t have picked up on this myself) the Tardis interior appears to be lit, when viewed from the outside. This is a trope it shares with the McGann movie, the new series, and oddly, Cushing’s Doctor Who. It wasn’t used at all in the original series.
Regarding Scream of the Shalka:
* Both share Richard Grant playing the role of the Doctor.
Finally, there’s some crucial production details that link it to the new series:
* Steven Moffat, writer and executive producer, of course is the big one. Moffat, as we all know, was a writer for the Ecclestone Doctor – doing ‘Empty Child’ and ‘The Doctor Dances’, he’s gone on to be the head writer and executive producer by 2010, and the Matt Smith era.
* Richard Curtis, the other executive producer, has also gone on to write for the new series.
* The Mill, responsible for the visual effects, has done the visual effects here.
* Richard Grant is back in the new series, not playing the Doctor, but playing a mysterious ‘Great Intelligence.’
In general, there’s the fact that it’s a BBC Production. And it got a VHS Release, something Dimensions in Time could never manage. (PS: All of this is sourced from the Wikipedia articles relating to Curse, its production and the people involved, as well as IMDB.com, and various Doctor Who Websites. I’m not smart enough to dig all this up on my own.)
So basically, in terms of production, for a ‘non-continuity’ piece, Curse is actually linking very strongly to the old and new series, and in fact, to just about every significant big of Doctor Who out there, including the McGann movie, the Cushing Movies, Scream of the Shalka and Dimensions in Time. They’re using the actual musical cues, dalek voice actor, the actual tardis exterior prop and opening sequence from the series. It’s a paradox. How do you get around that?
With all that going on, I think we’ve got an obligation to at least take it seriously as potentially fitting into the continuity in some way. The problem, of course, is despite all the connecting factors, Curse gives us a Doctor, a series of Doctors we’ve never seen before, for which we have no provenance, and no clear way to match them or fit them anywhere into the known Doctor Who lineage and Universe.
Well, it might require a little imagination and initiative, but I think I might be up to it…. 😉
Craig 10 years, 4 months ago.
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