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Doctor Who – The Ultimate Adventure

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Written by
  
Terrance Dicks

Genre
  
Science Fiction

Playwright
  
Terrance Dicks

Original language
  
English

First performance
  
23 March 1989

Doctor Who – The Ultimate Adventure Colin Baker Online Doctor Who The Ultimate Adventure

Date premiered
  
23 March 1989 (1989-03-23)

Similar
  
Science Fiction plays, Other plays

Doctor Who – The Ultimate Adventure was a 1989 stage play written by Terrance Dicks, based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who.

Contents

Doctor Who – The Ultimate Adventure Colin Baker Online Doctor Who The Ultimate Adventure

The play was staged at twenty theatres around Britain, commencing 23 March 1989. It initially starred Jon Pertwee (who had played the Third Doctor in the series) as the Doctor. On 29 April Pertwee was ill, so understudy David Banks, who portrayed the Cyber Leader in the series from Earthshock onwards, played the Doctor for the matinee and evening performances. Pertwee continued in the role until 3 June and two days later Colin Baker, who had played the Sixth Doctor, took over the lead until the run ended on 19 August. The play was adjusted accordingly to conform with the Sixth Doctor's persona.

Doctor Who – The Ultimate Adventure httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediaenthumbe

Synopsis

Doctor Who – The Ultimate Adventure The Ultimate Adventure

The story involves an alliance between the Daleks and the Cybermen who have joined forces to kidnap the American Envoy and ruin a peace conference on Earth. The Doctor's companion is a Frenchman named Jason. After failing to stop the Cybermen take the US Envoy from a nightclub, they are joined by a singer named Crystal, who works there. Following a trip to Altair Three and then the Bar Galactica, they meet Madame Delilah but are forced to flee along with a small furry creature called Zog.

The time travellers are captured briefly by the Daleks and navigate their ship through an asteroid field before making a series of short trips, arriving finally to confront the Dalek Emperor. The Doctor tricks the Emperor into revealing that the Daleks intend to betray the Cybermen and a battle breaks out between the two. Returning to Earth, the Doctor realises the US Envoy is under Dalek influence and programmed to destroy London with a Dalekanium bomb. The Doctor breaks his conditioning and defuses the bomb by putting it in a teapot.

The play featured a female Prime Minister named in the script 'Mrs. T' (a reference to Margaret Thatcher). The Third Doctor addresses her as Margaret in the play whilst the Sixth Doctor addresses her as Maggie. The Third Doctor also mentions Denis, a reference to Denis Thatcher, Margaret Thatcher's husband. The play also features some musical numbers, including two from Crystal and "Business is Business" from Madam Delilah, the title of which acted as a catchphrase running throughout the play.

Cast

  • Jon Pertwee / David Banks / Colin Baker as The Doctor
  • Graeme Smith as Jason
  • David Bingham as Jason / MC / Vervoid / Dalek / Execution victim / French man
  • Rebeca Thornhill as Crystal
  • Judith Hibbert as Delilah / Mrs T / French woman
  • David Banks as Karl
  • Wolf Christian as Cyber Leader / Draconian / Duelling guard / Customer
  • Troy Webb as Emperor Dalek / U.S. bodyguard / Dalek / Insect-Man / Martial arts mercenary / French man / Customer
  • Chris Beaumont as U.S. Envoy / Dalek Scientist / Hairy alien / French man
  • Claudia Kelly as Envoy's Wife / Ant-Person / Insect-Man / Ragamuffin / Customer
  • Oliver Gray as MC / Dalek / Cyberman / Mercenary / Duelling guard / French man / Customer
  • Stephanie Colburn as Zog / Bell Boy
  • Deborah Hecht as Dalek / U.S. bodyguard / Waitress / French woman
  • Terry Walsh as Mercenary / Duelling guard
  • Alison Reddihough as Mercenary / Insect-Man / Executioner / Customer
  • Gavin Warwick as Dalek / Cyberman / Vervoid / Mercenary / Execution victim / French man / Customer
  • Paula Tappenden, as Chief Dalek / Cyberman / Chicken-headed alien / French woman / Customer
  • Chris Beaumont, Troy Webb - Dalek voices
  • Oliver Gray - Cyberman Voices
  • Production

    The script featured numerous Doctor Who in-jokes, including Jon Pertwee's line "reverse the polarity of the neutron flow" and his singing of the Venusian Lullaby. The story also required a Dalek casing to be borrowed by one of the heroes to fool the Daleks, a ploy used in television stories The Daleks (1963) and Planet of the Daleks (1973). Other ties to the television series included a Draconian and a Vervoid which make cameo appearances as mercenaries in the Bar Galactica scenes.

    Five new Dalek props were built for the production. Specific design differences from the props used in the Doctor Who television series at the time included a more cylindrical shape and a single vertical column of hemispheres on the skirt side panels. They also had larger rectangular dome lights, no discs along the eye stalks and no shoulder slats as were present on post-1966 Daleks. The Dalek Emperor prop was a faithful reproduction of the model that appeared in The Evil of the Daleks (1967).

    The TARDIS set was also different, featuring roundels in a square rather than a hexagonal grid and a miniature console in which the central column was retracted completely out of view. The Cybermen costumes were identical to those used in Attack of the Cybermen (1985).

    When Colin Baker took over as the Doctor, he was provided with a redesigned version of his Sixth Doctor costume by the production crew. The new version incorporated shades of purple and blue, colours which could not have been used on TV due to interference with blue screen effects. [1]

    The production used a large screen that displayed visual effect sequences and also incorporated lasers into the action. The screen showed such things as the TARDIS spinning through space and a meteor shower. The lasers were used to depict the effect of the Dalek guns, a force field and a time tunnel.

    Audio adaptation

    In 2008 Big Finish Productions released The Ultimate Adventure as an audio drama, directed by Jason Haigh-Ellery.

    Cast

  • Colin Baker as The Doctor
  • Noel Sullivan as Jason
  • Claire Huckle as Crystal
  • David Banks as Karl
  • Nadine Cox as Delilah / Mrs T
  • Bryan Pilkington as Nightclub MC
  • Derek Carlyle as Envoy / Zog
  • Nicholas Briggs as Daleks / Cybermen
  • Notes

  • Derek Carlyle has previously appeared in The Death Collectors & Spider's Shadow and Brotherhood of the Daleks.
  • Big Finish continues this story in their 2011 Companion Chronicles story Beyond the Ultimate Adventure.
  • References

    Doctor Who – The Ultimate Adventure Wikipedia