When was it exactly decided that Harry Sullivan should be axed?
Gusto Brunt
Posts: 12,351 Forum Member
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Not literally of course. 
Just been watching Terror of the Zygons and I noticed at the end of part 4, Harry declined to go back in the Tardis. Obviously that was his exit from the show.
My question is, did the scriptwriters do a rewrite during Terror of the Zygons that would see Harry leave?
Or was the decision taken much earlier. Anyone know a date. I was led to believe Harry was supposed to be a long-running character, but was written out because both the Doctor and Harry couldn't be seen to be doing action scenes.
Harry was apparently brought in because the producers thought Doctor Number Four was going to be considerably older than Tom Baker.
Just been watching Terror of the Zygons and I noticed at the end of part 4, Harry declined to go back in the Tardis. Obviously that was his exit from the show.
My question is, did the scriptwriters do a rewrite during Terror of the Zygons that would see Harry leave?
Or was the decision taken much earlier. Anyone know a date. I was led to believe Harry was supposed to be a long-running character, but was written out because both the Doctor and Harry couldn't be seen to be doing action scenes.
Harry was apparently brought in because the producers thought Doctor Number Four was going to be considerably older than Tom Baker.
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That is true, Harry was supposed to be there in the event of an older 4th Doctor.
Terror Of the Zygons was supposed to be the closing story of Season 12 before it got shifted to later on in the year to start Season 13, so the show started in Autumn rather than January. Therefore Harry would probably have left at the end of Season 12 had things stayed the way they were.
The decision therefore probably would have been taken quite swiftly I imagine when Baker was cast and he was written out. Shame really as I loved his banter with Sarah. His later appearance in The Android Invasion wasted the character really and wasn't really worth it.
Agreed.
I liked Harry but I don't think he could justify going on jaunts with the Doctor and Sarah. Harry wasn't a free agent after all. He worked for Unit, right?
Yeah I thought that was odd that Harry left in September.
If the production team wanted Harry to keep travelling, they would've just made it so. Probably just have a line about him granted time off by the Brig as he's away with the Doctor or something. It's a shame, IMO, he didn't get a couple more stories. Would've been interesting to see him in Planet of Evil and Pyramids of Mars (perhaps then, Android Invasion could've been his swansong). Or have him stay until The Seeds of Doom - by then UNIT was pretty much phased out, and Harry could've left too.
Liked the line in Mawdryn Undead that Harry was involved in something "hush hush" for, ummm, NATO, I think? Harry Sullivan, super spy, licensed to call people Old Girl and keep his upper lip stiff.
Very good writer too, tragic he died so young.
That's a shame that. I saw Marter talking about it on YouTube.
Oh yeah, he was on the ship that repeated itself.
You're right. They would have cooked something up. But the sight of Harry out of his blue blazer, cravat and slacks and into his naval gear was rather worrying as they approached the Tardis in the woods.:o
it was Porton Down wasn't it? Which is a somewhat controversial and highly top secret government science facility near Salisbury that is believed to be involved with research into methods of chemical and biological defence. No wonder whatever Harry is doing there is hush hush!!
"Licensed to call people Old Girl" - that's brilliant!!
It was good!
I vaguely remember SJS in one story saying to Harry something along the lines of "Harry, I am not an old girl!"
Ha! Ha!
Shame he went when he did, but he did have strange ideas. He had an "old school" way of thinking. I think Philip Hinchcliffe wanted a newer approach to how the show was produced. Not like it was during the Hartnell/Troughton/Pertwee/UNIT days of the late 60s and early 70s.
I understand that Philip Hinchcliffe later admitted that writing him out had probably been a mistake. I think it was.
I agree.
The character of Harry had been devised by Terrance Dicks, before Tom Baker had been cast. The idea was that if the next Doctor had been older, or unwilling to be an action man like Pertwee then Harry could've handled the physical stuff.
Once it became clear that Tom Baker could easily deal with fights and action then incoming producer Philip Hinchliffe quickly made the decision to drop Harry at the end of the season (at this point still Terror Of The Zygons). But this decision sadly had to be made before it became apparent how good Ian Marter was in the role, how strong the chemistry was between him, Baker and Sladen, and how popular Harry was with the public.
This explains Hinchliffe's later regret that Harry had been dropped too soon.
Marter's Harry seemed to shift from bubbling, genial navy man to an efficient and serious companion. All depending on the story. I thought he was very serious in Terror of the Zygons compared to The Ark In Space.
And he was tall, too. Nearly the same height as Baker.
It was. Sarah and the Doctor suddenly became very lonely.
Though I agree about Harry being written out too soon, I wonder what Season 13 would have been like in the other stories he wasn't in......if he'd been in them!
Take Planet Of Evil, find it difficult to see how he would have fitted into that story. Tom Baker played it very serious and sombre in that one and Sarah seemed to be having all the ideas. Even Pyramids Of Mars I find it hard to see where he would have fitted in, a lot of the story did revolve just The Doctor and Sarah. That goes for The Brain Of Morbius too.
In fact the only other story I could see him fitting into is The Seeds Of Doom as it was UNIT Story of sorts and a Six-Parter, but still feel his role would be reduced in it as well.
"Wasted" and "wasn't really worth it" kind of sums up The Android Invasion for me. See also Benton. Along with Revenge of the Cybermen, one of the only two stinkers produced by Philip Hinchcliffe. I get the impression both were badly neglected at the scripting stage and Hinchcliffe wasn't too interested in them.
I think season 13 could have been great with Harry still in the show - there's no reason why any of those stories shouldn't have worked with him there. They'd likely play out slightly differently, as the writers would be working with two companions instead of just one, but that would be fine. The main problem is that at that stage of the show the writing was very much coming from the slant of making the characters work for the plot, rather than making the plot work for the characters, which was why they decided they could manage with just the one companion. Had a different approach been taken, Harry could easily have continued - as cute as the Doctor and Sarah are when it's just the two of them, the three-way dynamic they had going with Harry was far more versatile, you could split that trio any way and it worked.
It made sense for Harry that he left when he did - he never chose to travel in the TARDIS in the first place, the Doctor tricked him into stepping aboard as a joke that almost immediately span out of control, and then they were separated from the TARDIS for most of the season, so as a conscientious military man it made perfect sense that he'd be reluctant to risk another trip once he'd finally made it back to Earth, especially with his commanding officer standing right alongside him! But it could easily have been tweaked to make it work - all it needs is for the Brigadier to tell him he'd better go along as well go to make sure the Doctor gets back to London in one piece.
As far as the decision to write him out goes, Ian Marter was told his contract wasn't being renewed just before Terror of the Zygons went into production - Lis Sladen talks about it in her autobiography.
So did Jo Grant, never stopped her
Of course her job was to be the Doctor's assistant so you'd expect her to go with him but her wages were still paid by UNIT.
I wonder if that ever caused any problems?
UNIT Payroll Supervisor: There you go Miss Grant, your weeks wages.
Jo: What do you mean Week? I've just done a months work in the last 2 hours!
Clara is far from being unique in having a job and wanting to keep it. Most of the classic companions had jobs they needed to be back for, but unlike Clara they weren't in the privileged position of being able to make demands and set conditions - they either travelled in the TARDIS, accepting that its navigation was not reliable, or they stayed on Earth to get on with their own lives, they didn't get to do both and insist on being home for tea. The UNIT era was fairly unique in that regard - the only reason the companions of that era got to juggle both for a time was because the Doctor was still basing himself out of UNIT. Once he cut that cord, there was no going back.
I don't think The Android Invasion is that bad, actually. However I don't like Harry or Benton's role in it and the Brig is sorely missed.
As for your other point, I'm not sure Hinchcliffe would have let this story go ahead if he'd totally disliked it. Revenge Of the Cybermen was pretty much a Barry Letts overhang so he probably didn't have as much influence over that but with the Android Invasion, he was in total control so my feeling is if he'd hated it that much it wouldn't have got made.