Here's my rough draft of the first Who-history page in paragraph form:
Rumbles of Trouble: 1977-1989
Many Doctor Who historical articles summarize the show during the 1980s something like this: "In the '80s,
Doctor Who ratings got poorer and poorer until the BBC finally put the kibosh on the whole project in 1989." However, the real history is a lot more complex, as I have just recently discovered, and the troubles run back a little longer than just the '80s.
I read through much of the
Doctor Who Production Diary, lovingly compiled by Shannon Patrick Sullivan, and in between the numerous listings of "location filming", "recording," and "script submitted," I saw another story emerging, a tale of growing divisions in the ranks behind the scenes, divisions which ultimately doomed the show to cancellation despite having fantastic actors and a premise that was still excellent. I started piecing it all together, and the following article is what I learned.
The Problem Behind the Scenes of Doctor Who
Before the late 1970s,
Doctor Who had been a show more like
The Twilight Zone and
Star Trek, its contemporaries in many ways. But by 1977, rumblings of problems between script writers, editors, and producers were afoot; scripts were getting submitted, heavily edited, and then abandoned at a rapid rate.
The biggest problem was that different people wanted to take the show in different directions; some wanted to keep the lighter, more high-flying sci-fi tone, and some wanted to shift the show to a much darker, more "social commentary/character deaths" tone. The powers that be wanted
Doctor Who to be able to compete with the bigger-budget American sci-fi shows that were on at the time (including
Star Trek: The Next Generation), but in so doing, it seemed they'd lost contact with their audience. They knew something was wrong, but not really what yet. Result: writing, planning, and filming episodes became a giant mess, to put it lightly.
Tensions Rise to the Surface
Several secondary character actors started jumping ship around this time, probably because of all this tension and confusion backstage. The tensions finally reached a head in October 1978, when Tom Baker (the actor portraying the Fourth Doctor) threatened to leave Doctor Who if he didn't get more creative control over the show. In doing so, he drew attention to the problems bubbling away underneath the production, perhaps trying to get them resolved, but this only fed the flames. By the end of 1979, director Alan Bromly and producer Graham Williams had left the show, leaving behind unfinished plans for filming and a slightly truncated season, and it wasn't long before Baker left the show as well.
Circling the Drain
By the early '80s, several other key actors for
Doctor Who were already expressing their dissatisfaction (and some had already left). A new producer, John Nathan-Turner, had taken over, but his new, darker direction for the show did not please many. Not to mention that many of the studio's future plans for the show, such as possible filming in Australia, had fallen flat. Finally, in 1983, John Nathan-Turner and his script editor, Eric Saward, planned out Season 21 of the show, writing as graceful an exit as possible for Peter Davison (the Fifth Doctor), plus Janet Fielding and Mark Strickson, since all three wanted off the show.
Colin Baker was hired on as the Sixth Doctor, Season 22 started filming, and the cast seemed mostly okay with everything for a while...but then some things began to go haywire at upper levels. Filming for Season 23 got delayed to the fall of 1986 instead of January of that year, resulting in a hiatus and lots of cancellation rumors swirling. The reason behind this? Ratings for the show were falling steeply, and in the hurry to prop the show back up, lots of quick behind-the-scenes changes were being made, including shortening Season 23 to 14 episodes. However, Jonathan Powell, head of Series and Serials at BBC, was still not pleased with
Doctor Who's metamorphosis in Season 23, becoming ever more critical of the show's writing and direction. Tensions flared between Eric Saward and John Nathan-Turner, resulting in the former leaving the show before August of 1986. Not too long after, Colin Baker found out he wasn't going to be returning to the show, either...he was fired, barely three years after being selected for the role.
Is It All Over?
1987 through 1989 heralded what appeared to be the dying breaths of
Doctor Who as a television series. Even though Sylvester McCoy was portraying the Seventh Doctor by this time, ratings were still falling as the show's plotlines got ever further away from its sci-fi beginnings. It appeared that no one at the BBC believed in the show's ability to keep its audience anymore; by the end of 1989, BBC had quietly let go of McCoy and his co-star, Sophie Aldred (who portrayed Seven's companion, Ace).
Yet even among the flickering embers, there were a few sparks of hope remaining. One of them was in the person of Philip David Segal, who was working with Columbia Pictures at the time--in July of 1989, he made his first call to the BBC inquiring about a co-production deal for
Doctor Who. Though the BBC would ultimately decide to put the co-production offer on the back burner, Segal was undeterred, even when the
Doctor Who production office officially closed its doors on August 31st, 1990. This was certainly not the end of his efforts to revive the show he had adored since childhood...