Well he certainly told Barry Letts he wanted to leave, but wasn't that a poorly-judged bit of bluster to get more money and a say in what happened on 'his' show? Much like Tom Baker, he was somewhat surprised when his resignation was accepted so readily and without any attempt to negotiate. I don't suppose Pertwee's ego would have allowed him to even attempt a climb-down after that, so he had to see it through and leave. It's probably why he wasn't very nice toward Tom Baker at first.


What about William Hartnell, Sylvester McCoy and Paul McGann?

I heard Jon say in an interview, he said he wanted to leave so the BBC would give him more money to stay.

Alas, they told Jon, 'all right, leave.'

He was surprised by that.

Hartnell left due to I'll health. McCoy and mcgann left only because the series was cancelled. Baker was actually sacked!

What about Peter Purves?

To be fair, McGann never had a series. It was a one-off with the option of more if it was commissioned for a full service (which was almost entirely dependent on it getting a big US audience, which it didn't).

And I do feel sorry for Colin Baker, being remember as the Doctor who was sacked. Why does no one remember that McCoy got the show cancelled!

Key to Time? Yes, generally speaking, it's quite good.

In that case, the show was never "cancelled" and Baker wasn't "sacked" because he was never on PAYE...

This is what Wikipedia says, and I quote:

"After her initial run in Doctor Who ended in 1976, she returned to Liverpool with her husband and performed in a series of plays. This included a two-hander with Miller in Mooney and his Caravans. Notable appearances following that include a two-year stint as a presenter for the children's programme Stepping Stones, a lead role with Miller playing her husband in ITV drama Send In the Girls, a BBC Play for Today, a role as a stand-up comic's spouse in Take My Wife, and a small part in the film Silver Dream Racer as a bank secretary in 1980, only her second film appearance."

Before landing the role of Sarah in DW, Liz was in a couple of episodes of Coronation Street. think it was in 1973, but I'm not 100%. Anyway, one scene involved her chatting up Len Fairclough, played by late disgraced actor Peter Adamson.

http://www.corrieblog.tv/LenAnita.jpg

Sorry the picture's small. It's all I could find.

Yeah but all respect to Liz, she hardly set the TV and film world on fire after she left Dr Who. I get the impression she wanted to work part time as an actor. More or less just be a housewife.

It's average at best (IMO). Some fun moments in a couple of stories though. I apologise in advance that you have to sit through Kroll and Armageddon Factor.

Watched Lis & Tom in Masque this weekend on Horror and afterwards read up on that story's entry on the Tardis Wiki. Last Story Note.
It says she wanted to leave after Seeds, but changed her mind when she heard about the first story in the new season. Must have been either working at Portmerion, pretending to be in Italy, all that horse riding or the swordplay (not that she got to do any of the latter!) Or maybe it just because it was her first psuedo-historical since Time Warrior...
So no, I can't see how she would have been axed.

Yes it was a shame as she was the one and only person who represented both classic who and new who, and as such, you'd imagine she'd have been one of the first to get the call for the 50th.

I watched Masque a week ago. Wow, so they used the same locations as The Prisoner.

It's true that Hartnell's health contributed to his exit from the programme inasmuch as it made it clear to the production team that they needed a new leading actor. It certainly wasn't his decision to leave. The excellent documentary "The End of the Line" about William Hartnell's final year in the role (included on The Gunfighters DVD) says that he was reportedly "heartbroken" at the production team's decision to replace him. It's a great documentary, very informative.

He did appear in The Three Doctors though, 'as seen on TV.'

Weren't the scenes filmed at his home and later edited into the show. He was apparently too ill to travel to the studios.

I think like some of the companions (after their time in Doctor Who had finished), moved to (or in the case of Sophie Aldred moved back) hosting Schools/children's programmes. I know before Doctor Who returned to our screens, Liz was regularly popping up on Numbertime.

What happened there then?

Yes, he did, and his scenes were filmed at Ealing studios, although I'm not sure what relevance this has to him being asked to leave by a different production team six years earlier

Indeed. Although I am quite amused at misuse of the term "actually sacked" for somebody who wasn't actually sacked.

Wasn't Colin on a contract though, so they terminated his contract, or did it come to an end and the BBC just didn't offer him a new one? I remember reading that Colin was paid the whole time that the show was on an 18 month hiatus previously!

Yeah, he got paid for the hiatus.

And I've read or heard somewhere that because Colin had technically done three years as the Doctor, they didn't have to keep him on or give him another series. I think JNT says something about it in one of his interviews, that the Beeb argued that Colin had done three years even though he'd only done two full series.

If you're a member of GB, there's a thread in which Richard Molesworth goes into detail about Colin's contract(s).

http://gallifreybase.com/forum/showp...5&postcount=28

GB can be arsey about their posts being copied and pasted, so the basic gist is that Colin had three separate contracts which worked in the BBC's favour. These contracts covered:
1. 5 episodes of Season 21.
2. A four-year contract with "options" in the BBC's favour. This covered Season 22 and the first option was taken (before the hiatus) for the unmade Season 23. As the option had already been taken, Colin still got paid for the unmade season. The further options were cancelled and Colin was given a new contract.
3. A two-year contract which covered the new Season 23 and had an option for Season 24. The BBC did not take-up the option.

It's my understanding that Lis Sladen intended to leave DW earlier than she actually did, but hung round in case the Scratchman movie was made.

After DW, she did quite a bit of acting and presenting, a lot of it in guest-roles (I remember her in a Dempsey & Makepeace episode) but took time out to raise her daughter. A lot of DW assistants didn't go on to have fantastic careers after their DW experience, and some say it killed their career entirely. It's a very different world now, compared with Back In The Day. Also, actresses often find it difficult to balance a career and a family.

well ive seen the first story and quite enjoyed it then ive started to watch the Pirate Planet and i enjoyed that but ill sit down and watch it full

The BBC invited Colin back to film the first story of Season 24, which would have pitted the 6th Doctor against the Rani again - and resulted in him being fatally injured at the end of episode 4 and so forced to regenerate. Colin has talked about this as have Pip and Jane Baker (the writers).

But Colin made a counter offer, which was that he should come back and film the entire 24th season in order to give his Doctor a proper send off. He also said that being kept on contract for another year in such a high profile role to film a single story would have been a massive obstruction to him seeking other work. I get the impression the actors who played the Doctor back in the 80s didn't earn an awful lot.

Anyway, the way Colin tells the story is that he declined the request to do one story but made the offer to do the entire season. BBC bosses said they would go away to consider his proposal but he never heard from them again. The next thing he heard of the matter was when the BBC publicly announced he had been sacked.