Question about Classic Who being Exiled / Earth-bound
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Hey,
One question for the veterans here-
During the 70s (4th Doctor??) the Doctor was exiled to Earth. I think I read this had to do with budget cuts and basing more stories on Earth would allow the programme to better manage with a more limited budget. However, who exiled the Doctor to Earth?? I watched some Classic Who as a kid but can't remember / or at the time probably didnt understand much of th complexity behind Who. Also, with his being exiled to Earth, does this eman he didn't have the TARDIS?? I think he did if I recall right. If he did, how did those who exiled him "control" the exile to enusre he remained earthbound.
Thanks
One question for the veterans here-
During the 70s (4th Doctor??) the Doctor was exiled to Earth. I think I read this had to do with budget cuts and basing more stories on Earth would allow the programme to better manage with a more limited budget. However, who exiled the Doctor to Earth?? I watched some Classic Who as a kid but can't remember / or at the time probably didnt understand much of th complexity behind Who. Also, with his being exiled to Earth, does this eman he didn't have the TARDIS?? I think he did if I recall right. If he did, how did those who exiled him "control" the exile to enusre he remained earthbound.
Thanks
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The Second Doctor was exiled to Earth in the episode 'The War Games' by the Time Lords as punishment for interfering in the affairs of other planets. They forced his regeneration into the Third Doctor, disabled the TARDIS' materialisation circuit and wiped his memory of how to pilot it.
It's late/early, I'm shattered and working from memory, so sorry if any of that's wrong.
His exile was ended in The Three Doctors, I think.
He spent all his free time with UNIT trying to fix the TARDIS
That is correct, The Time Lords ended his exile by returning a specific part of the Tardis and The Doctor's memory as a thank you for saving the universe from the threat of Omega.
That was the "Dematerialisation Circuit" IIRC.
After a while, the series starts to try to find ways to get the 3rd Dr to other planets (the producers were frustrated with Earth based stories and felt it constrained the series), and the Time Lords let him off in The Three Doctors.
According to a DVD commentary (Inferno?) getting the Doctor onto other planets again was script editor Terrance Dicks' initiative after writer Malcolm Hulke pointed out that the Earthbound format only allowed for two types of stories: the alien invasion and the mad scientist.
1. Alien invasion
2. Monsters already here (ie: Silurians)
3. Corrupt Govt / Alien invasion
4. Parallel Earth / Mad Scientist
It's no wonder the format changed from the beginning of Pertwee's second season, with the Master coming along to change things. :rolleyes:
As the weeks went by, I began to get a bit fed up of the same old routine (basically monster + UNIT ) Plus the stories to me were long and boring (7 episodes usually).I saw some of the silurian story, never bothered at all with "The Ambassadors of Death", tuned back in to "Inferno" 'cos I'd seen a trailer that had the Tardis being used! That story was good. It was another year before the Tardis was on the go again though. Must admit I liked some Earth stories ("The Daemons" springs to mind) now and then, but Doctor Who to me is Space & Time travel.
Right, what better addition to the mix than an alien mad scientist?
Yup, it was Derrick Sherwin's idea to strand the Doctor on Earth AND to have really long stories.
He left as producer after "Spearhead from Space" and lumbered Barry Letts with the rest of the season.
Notably, having revamped the cast by adding The Master, Jo Grant and Mike Yates it's only a few stories later where the TARDIS manages an off-world trip in "Colony in Space". Subsequent series take place more and more away from Earth until Hinchcliffe severs the apron strings to UNIT altogether.
G
Jon Pertwee's Doctor was exiled to earth by the Time Lords - the regeneration from Troughton to Pertwee was part of that exile. If memory serves the Doctor had nicked the Tardis.
I have never liked this period of Doctor Who, with the Doctor exiled to Earth. There's a scene in Episode One of the Silurian story where The Doctor is seen driving Bessie through a normal High Street and that's what's wrong about it...it's normal! It just seems a scene, though not very long, that goes against the grain of everything that had come before. The Doctor had now become against his will a member of the establishment and I agree with what Verity Lambert once said that The Doctor should never be that. We watch Doctor Who for alien planets and monsters etc and the Silurian Story typifies all that I hate about the exile scenario, especially in Season 7! (Though it did in fact have monsters! )
It did improve as time went on, with a nice mixture of Planets in outer space and Earth. It's always a relief when you get to Tom Baker Era and you have less stories set on Earth.
It was the interferance with other races' timelines that the Time Lords objected to. After all they let the Doctor keep his purloined TARDIS;)
I have to agree with you, the Pertwee years is also my least favourite era of Classic Who for the very reasons you state. Doctor Who is about our hero flying the Tardis into the past, the future and Outer Space, not about being stuck on present day Earth fighting off (yet again) another group of tiresome alien invaders, who are being assisted (yet again) by Roger Delgado's Master. Yawn! Yawn! Yawn!
(I must add that although I don't have many good words to say about his era, I think that Jon Pertwee was very good in the role).
I always though it was off the making of the invasion feature. I could be wrong
More likely that I'm wrong actually.
Yes, forgot to mention that in my post. Though not one of my faves, I still sort of like his Doctor and he played it well on occasions if sometimes too serious though!
Season 8 as you say got a bit tiresome towards the end though the Daemons was a good story it did need refreshing and I liked what they did in Season 9 as I said earlier in that they mixed things up in this Season. Personally I would have liked the exile scenario ended a season earlier than it did but considering thing didn't change much after it did for a few seasons, guess it wouldn't have made much difference.
I will admit to watch the individual stories at random from the exile era is not such a bad thing, wheras if you tend to watch stories in order as I like to do, you do suffer from repetition when watched the Pertwee Era and you really get the feel of the era as well, something you don't always get from watching them out of sequence.
I enjoy them as well. Howevwer, I wasn't really around when they were first aired. As I said before, whatever doctor I'm watching is my doctor (at the moment it's Tom Baker in "the state of decay"). I'm loving his relationship with Romana.
They disabled the Tardis and changed his appearance as part of the deal.
The reason for his exile was that Who was becoming unpopular and they needed to cut the budget if it was to continue and Troughton had made his decision to quit a while before as had Frazer Hines who was going to leave earlier but Troughton persuaded him to wait so they could leave together
Having the doctor on earth meant less requirement for expensive alien sets .
Having 3 stories of 7 parts was also part of the budget cuts but they soon realised that it did not help having to stretch the story to this length.
The parallel Earth part of Inferno was not even in the original script but was added (by Terrance Dicks IIRC) to lengthen the story.
The second season of Pertwee is for me , the peak of the series entire history.
Terror of The Autons took the show to new levels and there were even quesions in Parliament about it.
During that season the Time Lords temporarily allowed the Dr to use the Tardis in Colony In Space to track the Master down in one of Pertwees worst ever stories that will only ever appear on dvd hidden in a boxset I should think.
The earthbound years were definitely the peak of Pertwee but they did limit the story possibilities .
Saddest part of the era is that the BBC wiped virtually all the original tapes of these classic stories without even repeating most of them even once .
So we are stuck with a mix of B&W/16mm/NTSC recordings for much of the era.
Nice that the restoration team do such a great job of the dvd's in getting them back as close to the original as possible
I can't believe my eyes! :eek:
Isn't that blasphemy?:p