My vote is contingent on the Filgos returning to fix the mess. S8 is a nightmare Eric has while traveling to Africa (or however they want to dismiss it). S9 starts with Hyde proposing to Jackie in the Chicago motel room; no towel-wrapped Kelso, confusing the hell out of the audience. But all is cleared up as S4 of Community is by Dan Harmon by blaming it in-universe on a gas leak (and S4 is actually okay but off-model whereas T7S S8 is a completely different show with different characters).
Or have Donna wake up one morning to find Eric in the shower. “Good morning!”
Donna: “Oh god Eric I just had the craziest dream! You left me to become a teacher in Africa, and Hyde turned into a total a-hole and ditched Jackie for a stripper, and she started dating Fez even though he turned into a total sleezebag, and Kelso moved to Chicago but NOT to be with Brooke and Betsy - it was just so he could get paid to ogle women, and we broke up and I dated this guy called Randy who had this weird BeeGees hair, and Leo was the only really normal person left and — !”
Eric: “Okay slow down, speed boat. I think you need to stop being blonde. The bleach might be having an effect on you.”
So this is another less intensive AU episode guide for an alternate version of the 'lesser' Red Dwarf seasons. This is how I would retcon VII and VIII, doing it in a way that would end the series in 1999, allowing Doug Naylor to put the sitcom to rest while moving on to the (still ill-fated) Red Dwarf movie.
AU from VII onwards:
Series VII (1997)
Back in Time
Tikka to Ride
Ace in the Hole
The Linkway
Duct Soup
Beyond a Joke
Epideme
Nanarchy
Chris Barrie initially only wants to do two episodes but is talked into doing four with the promise of one of them being an Ace episode, one being a spiritual sequel to ‘Marooned’ and Rimmer going out on a heroic note. As such, Rimmer only ‘stars’ in Episodes 2, 3, 5 and 7, while ‘appearing’ via deleted footage in Episode 1 and brief ‘voice only’ cameos in Episodes 4 and 6.
Episode 1 guest stars Michael Palin, Terry Jones and Eric Idle as the ‘Time Police’ who arrest Lister, Cat and Kryten for their future selves’ Crimes Against Causality. Rimmer can not be present as he is trapped at the ‘heart’ of the paradox.
Episode 2 is most similar to ‘our’ version of Tikka, albeit the crew traveling back to 1963 via different means
Episode 3 – Ace returns to our dimension with serious injuries, so he and the others force Rimmer to pose as Ace during one of his heroic missions. Hilarity ensues, but maybe Rimmer, spurned on from his heroics in 'Out of Time', manages to pull it off, if only temporarily.
Episode 4 – Clare Grogan returns as Kochanski for a one-off (no offense to Chloe Annett, but in this timeline, Rimmer's not being replaced). More focus is put on the Alternate Lister and how much he had to change to be in a relationship with her, making ‘our’ Lister question everything about his infatuation with her. Rimmer is absent, having to power down due to dwindling energy supplies.
Episode 5 – The crew are forced into the ductwork by a small cybernetic creature (similar to a Cybermat from Dr Who, represented by a POV camera chasing them).
Episode 6 – Rimmer is absent again, having taken the escape pod to go ‘moon hopping’. Similar plot, but Kryten’s nega-drive is activated thanks to a trap laid by the Simulant. Able is portrayed by David Ross.
Episode 7 – Potentially Rimmer’s final episode. He gets Epideme to infect him (as he did in Paul Alexander's original script), saving Lister, but the virus damages his light bee in retaliation. Rimmer’s image is deactivated, leaving the virus vulnerable enough to be eradicated by Kryten.
Episode 8 – Lister’s depression is now from a lack of arm and the loss of Rimmer. They still retrace their steps and find that the nanobots stole Red Dwarf, reuniting with Holly in the process. We end with the possibility that the nanobots can repair Rimmer’s light bee, but they aren’t sure…
So that gives a different exit for Rimmer, who -- should Barrie decide not to return -- at least gets a heroic exit, sacrificing himself to save Lister. Of course, Barrie enjoyed VII so much that he apparently agreed to return for VIII before VII had completed production.
Now we go to a version of Series VIII that does not resurrect the crew. I'm not necessarily against that plot line (I like the idea of each series kind of having its own individual feel -- V being more horror-themed, VI searching for Red Dwarf, VII being a dramedy, etc), my main objection was the prison story line, but I'm more interested in the idea of them simply going back aboard Red Dwarf and getting back to the status quo.
So, because most of the episodes from canon!VIII wouldn't work here, I've picked (what I think are) some of the better Dave-era eps to fill the slots.
Series VIII (1999)
Back in the Red
Cassandra
Tempus
Lemons
Give and Take
Krysis
M-Corp
Twentica
Rimmer is successfully reactivated in the first scene of Episode 1, and the episode is about the crew on a Super-Sized Red Dwarf.
Episode 2 – Standard derelict raiding episode.
Episode 3 – Similar to Paul Alexander’s original idea wherein Lister wakes up one morning aged into an old man with no clue how it happened, with the eventual reveal that the Time Wand is being used by some unscrupulous person to ‘save time’ for himself.
Episode 4 – Similar to the Series X episode (maybe the Time Wand is utilized instead of being destroyed).
Episode 5 – Similar to the Series XI episode.
Episode 6 – Similar to the Series XI episode, but with a different series of events. The crew meet Butler at the beginning of the episode, but he’s a younger model than Kryten aboard the Nova 7, and Kryten is dismayed at how much more he’s accomplished in half the time, kickstarting the midlife crisis.
Episode 7 – Similar to the Series XII episode.
Episode 8 – Similar to the XI episode.
Now, at this point, Doug Naylor was looking to end the series to make Red Dwarf: DA MOVIE, but he wanted that to be a continuity reboot (similar to the novels), so he should really be thinking about ending the sitcom at this point. So, rather than make a Series IX, he decides on an hour long special to wrap things up...
Hour-Long Special (2001)
Back to Earth
Hour long series finale to wrap things up. The Boyz find a Faster Than Light Drive that will propel Red Dwarf back to Earth in a matter of hours. The special ends with them successfully making it back and going into orbit around the planet, but they have no idea what’s down there. The final shot is them flying Starbug down to the planet’s surface while Red Dwarf is left behind – empty.
And the credits roll over that image, similar to the End Credits for S I - IV
I will preface this analysis by sharing I am an a-religious religion scholar, literature scholar, and linguistics scholar (to a lesser but significant extent) through higher education and on-going self-directed study. I'm also an author IRL, again taught the craft of fiction through higher education, post-college study, and self-directed education.
Michael Sheen and David Tennant give an incredibly moving performance. What sits wrong in my gut about the final installment of the TV version is how it contradicts and rewrites what exists in both the novel and how Good Omens 1 and 2 accurately represent what's in the novel. This post explains my interpretation. Fiction can have many equally valid interpretations based on facts from the text.
I'm going to begin by quoting every mention of free will from the novel, some of which contains relevant information about other aspects of the novel that GO3 contradicts or rewrites.
And that'd be that. No more world. Just endless Heaven or, depending on who won, endless Hell. Crowley didn't know which was worse.
(...)
But there was no getting out of it. You couldn't be a demon and have free will.
***
It may help to understand human affairs to be clear that most of the great triumphs and tragedies of history are caused, not by people being fundamentally good or fundamentally bad, but by people being fundamentally people.
***
And just when you'd think they [humans] were more malignant than ever Hell could be, the could occasionally show more grace than Heaven ever dreamed of. Often the same individual was involved. It was this free-will thing, of course. It was a bugger.
Aziraphale had tried to explain it to [Crowley] once. The whole point, he'd said (...) was that when a human was good or bad it was because they wanted to be.
***
[Humans had] come up with some stomach-churning idea no demon could have thought of in a thousand years, some dark and mindless unpleasantness that only a fully functioning human brain could conceive, then shout "The Devil made me do it" and get the sympathy of the court when the whole point was the devil hardly ever made anyone do anything. He didn't have to. That was what humans found hard to understand. Hell wasn't a major reservoir of evil, any more than Heaven, in Crowley's opinion, was a fountain of goodness; they were just sides in the great cosmic chess game. Where you found the real McCoy, the real grace and the real heart-stopping evil, was right inside the human mind.
***
I DON'T UNDERSTAND, he said. SURELY YOUR VERY EXISTENCE REQUIRES THE END OF THE WORLD. IT IS WRITTEN.
"I dunt see why anyone has to go an' write things like that," Adam said calmly. "The world is full of all sorts of brilliant stuff and I haven't found out all about it yet, so I don't want anyone messing it about or endin' it before I've had a chance to find out about it. So you can all just go away."
***
Then [Adam] said: "I don't see why it matters what is written. Not when it's about people. It can always be crossed out."
***
Humans have free will according to Good Omens. True free will, but the thesis of Good Omens 3 is that they don't. The true issue is that angels and demons are beholden to the toxicity of Hell and Heaven toward them. Aziraphale and Crowley don't have the freedom humans do to "be on their own side."
God's ineffable plan is always framed in GO1 and GO2 as separate than the Great Plan the Metatron tries to push through. GO3 makes God complicit or, perhaps, the architect of the Great Plan. This conflation retcons what is already well-established.
In GO1, both Gabriel (head archangel and lacky of the Metatron) and Beezlbub (Duke of Hell and Satan's lacky) argue the Great Plan is necessary, Heaven and Hell's final war to prove, once and for all, which side is stronger. It's to take place on Earth as the apocalypse that will destroy Earth.
As Adam says in the novel, humans wrote this idea themselves and can cross it out. In GO1, Aziraphale questions Gabriel and Beezlbub whether the Great Plan is God's ineffable plan. The answer is clearly no, and both sides stand down. The God of the novel and GO1 is not the God portrayed in GO3.
In the prologue of GO2, Aziraphale informs Angel!Crowley that the universe will be shut down after 6,000 years. This introduces a new element that seems to be part of God's ineffable plan. In and of itself, it's a problem that can be solved according to the philosophy wrought through the novel and GO1.
GO3, however, frames the issue as humans not having true free will due to the interference of Heaven and Hell and, ultimately, God. This frame directly contradicts the novel and GO1's philosophy that humans indeed have free will, that God doesn't "play games with the universe."
The frame of GO3 should've been, to be consistent, about the dissolution of the Great Plan, dismantling of Heaven and Hell's bureaucracy, and God -- Her presence expressed through Her voice rather than as a physical manifestation -- agreeing not to end Her creation after all.
Jesus, after experiencing humanity again, likely would've (or should've) been part of arguing the case with Crowley and Aziraphale. Theologically (as Christianity eventually developed), Jesus is also God, one who had a human experience and compassion for all humanity.
Because of the compression of a six-hour story into ninety-six minutes, plus a rewrite by people other than the original novel's authors, GO3 was unlikely to be a continuation and ending consistent with GO1 and GO2. This phenomenon isn't unique to the Good Omens TV series but many TV series where the original creator and showrunner leaves (for whatever reason).
At the end of GO2, the story promise is that the Second Coming will be Heaven's attempt to carry out the Great Plan. As Crowley tells Aziraphale in GO1 after they helped thwart the apocalypse, the next attempt will be all of humanity against Heaven and Hell. Not God. Heaven and Hell.
Adam in Hebrew means man as in human. Genesis in the Torah uses adam to refer to humanity and to refer to a specific human, Adam. The choice of naming the Antichrist in the novel Adam is not about reflecting the first human but all of humanity. Adam is human at his core. He has ultimate free will, and he understands humanity also has true or real, to use Crowley's GO3 word, free will.
Jesus and Adam Young in the original six episode GO3 had a subplot. I hope that Adam's conversations with Jesus were largely about human free will and were consistent with the Adam of the novel and GO1.
Unfortunately, Jesus is essentially irrelevant in GO3. Remove him from the story, nothing changes. Truncating his role doesn't fulfill the promise of GO2, where his return is clearly meant to be inextricably connected to the events and outcome of GO3. The Book of Life replaces Jesus's role as the potential catalyst of changing Earth and existence as a whole.
Instead, Michael's anger at her lot in existence, at her lack of control, becomes nihilistic. Aziraphale seems to have circumvented the Great Plan once again, and Michael is the one who destroys existence by destroying the Book of Life. This character arc or plotline may well have been part of the original six episode GO3, but its development and execution was likely different.
Aziraphale and Crowley need not have sacrificed themselves had GO3 remained true to the source material and the story setup in GO2. They needed to risk challenging God, yes, but the ask would not be to make human free will real. It is real. The ask would be been to restore creation without the arbitrary 6,000-year time limit, without Heaven and Hell's interference or existence.
The consequence -- the sacrifice and reward -- to Crowley and Aziraphale would've been the loss of their divinity and immortality. God wouldn't tell them as such, only that they would experience death as a consequence of their request.
Their disintegration would be a fake-out. We'd think they're gone, but Aziraphale would awake in his bookshop, Crowley in his Bentley, both utterly confused. They'd find each other and Aziraphale would say, "I thought we were supposed die."
Crowley, realizing the truth before Aziraphale, grins. "Oh, we will. Just not today, Angel."
"Do you mean ... ?"
"We're human. Completely flawed humans -- " he laughs -- "with the free will to be as stupid or as brilliant as we want."
"Our lives are our own," Aziraphale whispers. "To do good because we believe it's the right thing to do, not because it's an order."
Crowley says, "Well, what do you want do to now? Adopt a dozen orphans or something like that?"
"I want to dine at the Ritz." Aziraphale grasps Crowley's hand. "With you."
Crowley gestures to the Bentley. They enter. Next scene is the two former angels dining at the Ritz, a parallel to the end of GO1. They toast to the world -- "and," Aziraphale adds, "to us."
Then the show flash-forwards twenty years to their cottage in the South Downs. Nightingales sing. Crowley and Aziraphale have aged and their wedding rings are present, just as they are in the GO3 that exists. Their conversation is both mundane and profound.
They so loved humanity that they become human themselves. But as themselves. That's the inevitable conclusion I see.
They've chosen Earth and humanity since the beginning of Good Omens. Thus, they choose Earth and humanity at the end.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
All right! Season 2 of the "Jesse McNally Lives AU Fic Thingy" is finished! Season 3 is in the works. Not committing to when it's going to be posted, but the first chapter might drop either late summer or early autumn!
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Next chapter in my Jesse McNally Lives story. Season 2 is almost over. Here's part one of 'Becoming', which, when you take out all the creepy flashbacks of Angel falling in love with 15 year old Buffy, it's actually kind of short.
read this and remember it. read this and remember that she is going to use the profits of her fucking ego-stroking reboot to decimate trans rights. read this and remember that every time you pay into her IP, you are emboldening her to hurt us more.
our lives matter more than your fucking nostalgia.
trans lives matter more than your fucking nostalgia.
I love how Three is just done with the whole coin-flipping thing by that point. He already knows that he’ll have to go first since he can’t rely on his “irresponsible” younger self to go. :)
I also love how Two just simply can’t resist pushing his buttons just to see a) how far he can go, and b) will his future self actually stand up to himself? Because Two is NOT about to do that with The Original Doctor. I think Three is a fascinating being to him.
Missed trick here -- when Three snatches the coin and walks away with it, he should've stopped, looked at it, then chuckled and said, "Huh. I always wondered where this disappeared to."
Found this on my hard drive, reread it and realized I'm actually really proud of it. This was my AU take on the Red Dwarf episode 'Mechocracy', wherein I changed the plot from Rimmer vs Kryten to Cat vs Kryten -- and the Cat WINS!
Considering the political landscape of the time (then and now), it feels very pertinent (if I'm using the word' pertinent' correctly).
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
The latest chapter to my Potential Friend series, now covering the events of Go Fish, but with Jesse getting yanked out of the plot for a detour with a very irate Angelus, and Amy is about to learn the big secret he's been keeping from her...
Oh and I totally see Jesse as a Monty Python fan, so that comes up in a pivotal moment that will have repercussions in future seasons...
I've had this idea for ages where you could take the song from the 2011 Muppet movie [the one with Jason Segel] called 'Man or Muppet' and change it to 'Man or Monster' for Buffy.
And it's set during Season 6 and it's about Spike's inner-conflict -- is he a man or a monster? If I'm a monster, then I'm a very manly monster
Then it intercuts with Warren's arc that season -- is he a man or a monster? If I'm a man, that makes me a monster of a man
And in the end, Spike chooses to be a man, and Warren chooses to be a monster
Just a thought that came to me a few minutes ago that I had to get down before bed -- but WHAT IF... instead of the Powers That Be sending Angel to assist Buffy in Sunnydale, they sent Doyle?
Like, I know Doyle's not much of a fighter, but he still gets the visions from the PTB, which would probably help the Scoobies out a lot. Plus, he used to be a teacher, so he knows how to talk to teenagers. Hell, he'd probably get set up with a job at Sunnydale High, maybe as the new English teacher.
Another upside -- Doyle never really did cryptic. Buffy would probably appreciate his direct approach. He could brood like Angel, but he also knew how to have fun and relax. I could see him playing pool at the Bronze with Xander, Willow and Oz. He and Giles could both roll their eyes at the Americans over a drink here and there.
I doubt Buffy would fall in love with him, but I could see them becoming very trusted allies over time.
I dunno. Just a thought. Maybe there's an AU story here somewhere lol
Now it's time for the latest season of my alt. history of Dr Who, in form of Season 18 (Collings Year 3), and it will certainly be a season of 'lasts'. Graham Williams has already decided that he will depart after finishing Season 18, with four seasons under his belt. Douglas Adams, having attempted to leave after Season 17, is being persuaded to do a second year. Lalla Ward is also considering moving on from the programme, possibly before it's even over. Even the returning John Leeson only comes back with the assurance that K9 will also be written out in the end.
During pre-production for Season 18, Graham Williams reached out early to the man he wanted to take over as Producer -- George Gallaccio, a former Production Unit Manager during Seasons 12 and 13 (and also one of the 'Morbius Doctors'). He had been a Producer on previous productions (The Legend of Robin Hood, The Omega Factor and Mackinzie), and Williams and the BBC agreed he would be a good fit for the job. Gallaccio, for his part, was initially not interested, but Williams asked him to at least consider it, saying he had a whole year to change his mind. Gallaccio agreed to think it over...
The big question is: will David Collings depart as well? Three seasons is considered the 'standard' set by William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton. However, Jon Pertwee did five seasons, and Tom Baker did four, so he knows it doesn't necessarily have to be that way. Of course, they both left partly because the people they worked with either moved on or were about to.
Only one way to find out...
Graham Williams knew the first thing he wanted to do was finish the disrupted six-parter Shada, and he wanted to convince Douglas Adams to help finish it. Adams, already burnt out and wanting to return to Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, was extremely reluctant, feeling burnt out from all the madness of working on Season 17. Williams, however, had a few suggestions to help...
Douglas Adams hadn't thought of Shada as being all that good, especially since he'd been rushed to finish it. Williams, however, thought finishing it would be a good way to save money on Season 18. With three studio sessions needed (all location work and one studio session had already been completed), it would be money they could put towards improving the look of the new season. He suggested that Adams could rewrite the unfilmed scenes to a better standard while they still had time. Adams, after some consideration, agreed, and in the process, agreed to be script editor for one more year.
Cast and crew reunited in early 1980, and the remaining scenes were completed. Changes included a better cliffhanger to Episode 5, where Chronotis (rather stupidly) reveals his secret identity for no good reason. This was rewritten to Chris running in and cluelessly blurting it out instead, making for a better climax and setting up Episode 6.
While Adams still didn't think much of the story, he later admitted he was pleased fans at least enjoyed it, calling it a 'highlight' of the year.
As David Brierley had already left the role of K9 before the season started, John Leeson redubbed all of his lines.
The first new story of the season saw a new look. Production Manager John Nathan-Turner made many suggestions to bring the show into the 1980s, as the new decade was already establishing a new look and feel that made things produced in the 70s look dated already, and Dr Who got enough flak for looking 'cheap' as it was. While many of his suggestions were discarded (question marks? really??), Williams agreed to making a few changes to bring it up to snuff, giving it a slightly glossier look.
While Lalla Ward enjoyed some new costumes, David Collings' signature three-piece suits remained largely the same, as while it was agreed they looked a little dated, Williams liked it as it made him look a little unstuck in time, like a time traveler ought to.
The Leisure Hive, originally entitled Argolis, was written by now-veteran writer David Fisher, who had recovered from his ordeal the previous season and submitted the story as a pastiche of gangster films, with the name 'Foamasi' being an anagram for 'Mafiosa'. When Fisher revealed he actually knew a bit about actual tachyon images, Williams suggested he make use of that in the script, as he believed having some 'actual science' in the show might boost it's credibility a little.
Director Lovett Bickford was eager to film the serial much in the style of a motion picture, with lots of handheld shots and dynamic camera angles. Williams, who always met with directors to discuss the shoot, went over the budget, and while they couldn't afford all the shots Bickford wanted to try in the serial, they could at least afford some, and that gave the serial a much more unique look.
Writer Andrew Smith was a seventeen-year-old who achieved his lifelong ambition to write for the show. He got to visit the set and meet David Collings. Smith was so excited he actually threw up, later saying Collings was very kind and understanding.
The Doctor and Romana have to help the crew repair their ship while fighting off Marshmen and gigantic cave spiders. Aiding them is a young Marshchild, who has been rejected by his people due to his pacifist nature. In the end, the Marshchild sacrifices himself to keep the Doctor and Romana safe until the mists vanish and the Marshmen return to the swamps.
Matthew Waterhouse would guest star as the Marshchild who helps the Doctor and Romana (a part originally envisioned for a female actor). He was a fan of the show, so was thrilled to guest on it, although Collings and Ward would later reflect on the DVD that while he was a 'nice enough kid', he was inexperienced and sometimes a bit 'mouthy'.
Terrance Dicks originally wrote the story as the opener for Season 15. However, because the BBC were worried about audiences comparing it with Count Dracula (1977), which was due to premiere at around the same time, it was shoved aside, with Dicks writing Horror of Fang Rock in its place. He eventually brought the script back for Season 18, with rewrites to accommodate Romana and K9.
Both Terrance Dicks and director Peter Moffatt were keen to emphasise the Hammer Horror aspects. While there was some concern that this would run counter to the more humorous tone of the season, Douglas Adams was very amenable to using DIcks' original treatment as it meant he would have less work to do on it, which would free him up to work more on Hitchhiker's Guide in the background, as well as help other writers with their scripts. He later described this serial as 'one of the easiest jobs I ever had'.
Peter Moffat was thrilled by the script and enjoyed a good working relationship with David Collings, who enjoyed the chance at a different tone compared to the more 'camp' elements of the season. Both would work together more later on in the show's history.
While vacationing on Cimmerian II, the Doctor is summoned before the Altribunal of Coelare Coelum, an intergalactic court. He has been called as a witness in a millennia-old case in which the Plenum Trust Corporation (whose Executive Vice President, Smilax, is an old friend) is opposing the purchase of the Earth by Cosmegalon and its unscrupulous owner, Jugend Bruisa. Cosmegalon bought the Earth via dubious means. In court, the Doctor gives evidence that the Earth is home to intelligent life, which by law would nullify Cosmegalon's ownership. He is sent to Earth to retrieve a human as proof. Arriving in mediaeval Yorkshire, the Doctor is prevented from completing his task by the monstrous Children of Pyxis, who have been despatched by Cosmegalon...
Original writer John Lloyd was a frequent collaborator with script editor Douglas Adams, who commissioned him to write The Doomsday Contract for Season Seventeen around late October 1978. Lloyd used ideas from an unfinished science-fiction novel called GiGax, and hewed to the comedic style Adams had established in The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy.
Lloyd had to abandon the serial due to his new commitments as producer of Not The Nine O'Clock News. Still keen on the story, Adams obtained Lloyd's permission for the storyline to be developed into full scripts by another writer. On February 7th he secured the services of Allan Prior, a playwright who had recently written for Blake's 7. Although Prior submitted his scripts, these were rejected.
Once again getting permission for rewrites from Lloyd, the story was brought back into the fold for Season 18, and Adams eventually found new writers in John Flanagan & Andrew McCulloch, whose earlier script, Meglos, had been rejected by him and Williams for being a little confusing and not having enough room in the line up that year, but Adams had liked their work enough to ask them to rewrite Doomsday Contract. They agreed, and Adams was impressed by their work. (Meglos would later be adapted by Big Finish in 2013 as part of their 'Lost Stories' collection, starring Collings, Ward and Leeson)
Simon Jones (Arthur Dent from Hitchhiker's Guide) portrayed Judge Perigord Trent, while Skorpios was portrayed by Edward de Souza.
Around this time, Williams had met with Gallaccio a few times to try and entice him to take the job, and thankfully, Gallaccio agreed, especially when told that he might be working with a clean slate starting with Season 19.
Lalla Ward and John Leeson were both ready to depart the series. Williams was amenable to their departures and commissioned a story that would serve as a suitable exit for them.
With Ward, Leeson, Williams and Adams all leaving, Collings was considering leaving as well. He'd held off on it most of the season. While Season 16 had been pleasant enough, 17 had been fraught with such production problems that he'd very nearly thrown in towel. However, Season 18 had gone much more smoothly and with, in his opinion, much improved stories.
Williams was open to Collings continuing on without, especially as it seemed the show was starting to stabilize after a shaky time, and he suggested he meet with Gallaccio to discuss the future. They agreed, having dinner together, where Gallaccio discussed some of his ideas for Season 19. Impressed with his professionalism and good humour, Collings ultimately decided he would continue into a fourth year on the programme.
That didn't mean saying goodbye to his costars would be any easier...
Christopher Priest originally began devising this idea with script editor Douglas Adams around October 1978. Little progress was made, but Adams returned to him in 1980 in the hopes of resurrecting the story for Season 18's finale. Priest was not accustomed to writing for television, and it became clear that his scripts were not suitable for production. Adams could empathize with Priest's struggles, having had to make similar adjustments himself when he first started writing for the programme, and, since he had more time thanks to the lighter workload this year, he worked very closely with Priest to help him get the serial off the ground.
The story, aided by Graham Williams to craft it into a 'follow-up' to the previous stories The Deadly Assassin and The Invasion of Time, with the Doctor and Romana being summoned back to Gallifrey...
Episode One opens with the Doctor and Romana having enjoyed another off-screen adventure when they receive a summons from Gallifrey -- they are to return immediately. Romana fears they want her to return and wants to run, but the Doctor realizes the Randomiser has been overridden, and they must obey. They materialise in the Citadel, where they are met with Chancellory Guards. While the Doctor tries to assert himself as President, he is still arrested for 'kidnapping' Romana. Although both deny this happening, he is marched away. Episode One is largely focused on the trial, with it being pointed out Romana has regenerated, suggesting the Doctor has been careless and endangered her. There are a few Time Lords in his corner (Borusa, Spandrell), but someone is out to get the Doctor.
Episode 2 is a more in-depth exploration of the trouble on Gallifrey. The Doctor's decision to abandon his responsibilities as President has left a power vacuum at the summit of the High Council. While Borusa has tried to run things, the lack of a 'true' President have given way to attempted coups and fractures in their hierarchy. While the Doctor is incarcerated, Romana and K9 work with Borusa and Spandrell to try and uncover the mastermind behind all this.
Episode 3 shows the Doctor now freed and trying to uncover the perpetrator advocating for his execution, with the villain finally revealed to be a seemingly-harmless politician called Hedin who wants the Presidency for himself and has bribed and blackmailed his way to the top. He has built up a following, helping him get what he wants, and they are ready to kill the Doctor to get the Presidency. Romana and K9 uncover this and catch him breaking into the TARDIS, seemingly cornering him. What he really wants, however, is to frame her. He destroys the Randomiser and sets the TARDIS engines into motion -- but they don't go anywhere. Breaking the Randomiser has caused a paradox. All around Gallifrey, blue boxes materialise at different place, and different versions of the Doctor and Romana step out...
The Time Lords find Romana stepping out of the original TARDIS, where Hedin claims to have captured her too late to stop her 'crime' of causing several timelines to converge on Gallifrey, breaking the First Law of Time. The Doctor, of course, is having none of it, but with all the chaos of so many of him and her, it's difficult to keep track of everything. With help from K9, Borusa and Spandrell, he clears Romana's name, and while she helps to unravel Hedin's political hold on the High Council and uncover all the conspirators, the Doctor defeats Hedin himself and is able to stop the time convergence, sending all his alternate selves back where they belong.
With the chaos resolved, the Doctor congratulates Romana for catching out all of Hedin's followers, and he reflects that his abandoning of the Presidency is what set most of this into motion. He decides he's going to resign the Presidency properly, and he decides he will announce Romana as his successor. She's apprehensive -- not because she doesn't think she can do it, but because she doesn't want to leave him. She'll do it, of course, but she asks him to stay until she's sworn in.
Months later, with K9 at her side and Borusa and Spandrell present, Romana is linked to the Matrix and sworn in as Lady President Romanadveratrulundar. As the crowd applauds, she looks up and sees the Doctor smiling down at her from the balcony above. He waves goodbye before walking away. Steeling her resolve, Romana orders the High Council to work as we hear the TARDIS dematerialising in the distance...
And so, Season 18 draws to a close, finally finishing broadcast in March 1981. With David Collings as one of the few staying on, the show is ready for a fresh start. Douglas Adams would resume work on Hitchhiker's Guide, while Graham Williams moved on to other producing jobs before leaving show business in the mid 80s.
George Gallaccio would start work on Season 19 a month later, ready to make some changes as they continued to bring the programme into the 80s...
So now we head in Season 17, which in this timeline is David Collings' second year as the Doctor. The Key to Time season still fizzled out, but the stories were still well-received for the most part. The important thing is that Collings himself is largely accepted as the Doctor in this timeline by the audience, seen as an interesting contrast to his predecessor. Whereas Tom Baker was always larger than life and hogging the spotlight, Collings is more subtle and restrained, always appearing on equal footing with co-stars. It's something Mary Tamm would speak fondly of in later years... which makes it all the more difficult for her to leave.
Tamm sadly found that playing Romana was largely unfulfilling, having been lead to believe the character would be the Doctor's equal, but she has largely been reduced to a standard damsel-in-distress. She opted not to renew her contract for the following season, even suggesting Lalla Ward (Princess Astra from The Armageddon Factor) as a possible replacement, having seen her good chemistry with Collings.
Ward was ultimately cast in the part, with Williams and new script editor Douglas Adams initially deciding to simply start Season 17 with her already in the part and not making much of her 'regeneration'. Collings, however, objected to this, having formed a solid friendship with Tamm and knowing the character was still well-liked by audiences. He insisted they ought to have Tamm back for the season premiere (which would actually be filmed third in production), something she was willing to do.
And so, Destiny of the Daleks would be Mary Tamm's final appearance in the role (for now)...
The opening scene indicates that the Doctor and Romana have been traveling together for some considerable time while on the run from the Black Guardian, enjoying themselves for the most and having many adventures between seasons (and providing plenty of room of Big Finish to make stories later on)
John Leeson also decides to depart following Season 16, having grown dissatisfied with the limitations of the character and fearing he would only be known for voice over work. Despite getting on well with his co-stars, he departed and was replaced by David Brierley, who would debut in this story in both the opening scene of Part 1 and the closing scene of Part 4.
Terry Nation was unhappy with Douglas Adams' rewrites, particularly the scene where the Doctor taunts the Dalek by suggesting it climb after him, as he believed that pointing out the Daleks' apparent design flaws made them less menacing, and threatened their popularity with the viewing public. This turned out to be his final contribution to the series.
With the decision to give Tamm a proper sendoff, Nation was asked to include a 'family friendly' death scene that didn't include getting shot or stabbed. Nation's answer was to have a scene where Romana sacrifices herself to save human slaves from being gassed to death, diverting the deadly gas onto her.
While it initially seemed as though Romana had survived the gas thanks to her Time Lord biology, the Doctor can see her growing steadily weaker over the course of Part 4, to the point that she nearly collapses as they flee the Movellan ship. The Doctor carries her all the way back to the TARDIS, now free of the rubble, and takes her inside. He lies her down on the floor, and she regains consciousness briefly. She's never done this before and is frightened, but the Doctor holds her hand reassuringly and tells her he will be with her every step of the way.
Grateful, she closes her eyes and lets the change wash over her. The Doctor is astonished when she takes the form of Princess Astra...
Initially planned as the third story of the season, it was decided to move this up to second as the script was largely written for Tamm's Romana anyway, so making it a post-regeneration story made sense as it implied her new incarnation was trying to still act like her predecessor, from speech patterns to fashion choices. Lalla Ward was not pleased with most of this, although she later admitted it made sense from a storytelling standpoint.
David Fisher had initially had to pad the story out considerably due to the initial conflict with the villain Adastra seemingly resolved in the first few minutes of Episode 4, forcing new conflicts to be created to fill the episode out. With this story now being a 'post-regeneration', it was rewritten heavily to incorporate Romana's struggles with her first regeneration now filling in much of the plot, with her trying to act like her previous self as a sort of denial before finally accepting towards the end that she has changed and needs to move on.
City of Death is largely unchanged, except it is now the third story of the season.
Which brings us to Nightmare of Eden. Story wise, this would be about the same as it was in our reality. Behind the scenes is a different matter...
Even among the chaos of Season 17, this stands out for having one of the most troubled, disastrous shoots in the show's entire run. Already suffering the usual behind-the-scenes issues, things went further south with the hiring of ageing director Alan Bromly, who had only directed one other serial for the show. Not only did Bromly not get along with David Collings, Lalla Ward, or David Brierly at all, he insisted on using outdated shooting schedules and production techniques, making things even harder for the crew.
Collings, for his part, was usually even-tempered and attempted to use humour to defuse tense situations, but even he could tell Bromly was a total prat and finally lost his temper with him -- something that had never really happened before on set. Graham Williams was already frustrated with how difficult the season had been, but Collings had always been a great source of support and good humour. If even he was losing his temper, then something must be wrong.
Bromly quit, leaving Graham Williams to direct the remainder of the episode, and visual effects designer Colin Mapson to oversee editing and post-production. Bromly would never direct for Doctor Who again.
When production finally wrapped, crew members were presented with T-shirts saying, "I'm Relieved the Nightmare is Over" and "I survived the Nightmare of Eden!" printed up for the rest of the crew.
Worn out by the experience, Williams was considering hanging it up once the season was over, but a friendly chat with Collings cheered him slightly, and he decided to hold off on that decision for a while...
Graham Williams disliked the story, thinking it wasn't strong enough. It was made because there were no other scripts available. It was placed in the season's fifth slot in the hope that it would quickly be forgotten once the finale, Shada, began transmission; unfortunately, this backfired when Shada had to be abandoned, meaning Nimon ended up as the season finale. Ooops.
Douglas Adams wrote Shada as a last minute replacement for a rejected story about the Doctor trying to retire (the BBC apparently felt that it was too silly and campy). According to the afterword in the novelization, Adams delayed writing Shada in the hopes that they would change their minds and had to finish it in a rush when they didn't.
The union strike that scuppered the production was really bad timing — it was resolved less than two weeks later, but many of the other programmes affected by it were key parts of The BBC's Christmas schedule and were thus afforded higher priority.
Adams, for his part, was hoping the story would be abandoned, as he felt it wasn't up to his usual standard of work. Graham Williams had other ideas, however. After a chat with David Collings about their futures on the programme, both admitted they were worn out by the frustrations of Season 17, although Collings himself was committed to doing at least three seasons -- and as Shada was seemingly abandoned, it seemed he didn't have much choice in the matter anyway.
Graham Williams, however, decided that he would continue into Season 18 -- although he decided right then and there that it would be his last. He already knew his first two items of business to attend to:
Get Shada finished as the premiere of Season 18
Start lining up someone to take over as Producer for Season 19 -- and he already had a good idea of who it should be...
So -- in my previous post, I talked about my AU for Classic Who, wherein Tom Baker departs after Season 15 instead of 18. If you haven't read that but want to read this, go do that first.
Okay, The Invasion of Time ended with Romana accidentally onboard the TARDIS with the Doctor and K9 just as the regeneration starts. Teeth and Curls gives way to Long Waves of Ginger(!). So let's head into Season 16, complete with fan-made screenshots and DVD covers below!
We start with The Ribos Operation:
The opening shot is K9 trundling into the TARDIS control room with a cup of tea on his back. The new Doctor is still asleep on the floor, only now he's acquired a pillow as he dozes, waking up as his robot dog arrives. The Doctor is grateful for the tea and reflects on how good he feels, wondering if he's getting better at regenerating -- until K9 tells him he's been asleep for five days.
The Doctor then asks how he made a cup of tea, and where did this pillow come from? "The Mistress provided them," K9 replies. "Did she?" asks the Doctor. "But we left Leela on Gallifrey..." Enter Romana, looking at him expectantly. While he was asleep, she's been busying herself about the TARDIS, learning how to make tea, alphabetizing everything in sight and doing a spot of tidying -- as well as upgrading K9 for fun. She's glad to see he's recovering, but she'd really like to go back to Gallifrey, please.
The Doctor attempts to take her home, but then, they are summoned to by the White Guardian to find the six segments of the Key to Time...
So other than that, the serial doesn't differ that much from what we got, except for Collings obviously putting his own spin on the performance. He and Romana are still combative, but she's more annoyed about not being able to go home. There would be a scene where they'd change into their proper clothes for the story, with the Doctor establishing his new look:
(Collings was considerably shorter than Baker lol)
(also yes, it's his outfit as Silver from 'Sapphire and Steel' recolored)
The next few stories then go about the same as they did before. The Doctor is still as boastful as the fourth, but not nearly as much as a ham. Collings always brought a quiet dignity to his roles, so I like to think he'd play it much more restrained than Baker did with his 'large ham' tendencies.
Also -- and this is just me being a Doctor/Romana shipper -- but I like the idea of there being a subtle flirtation between the two of them. When the Doctor scolds her, "Good looks are no substitute for sound character", Romana brightly responds, "Thank you!" confusing the hell out of the Doctor.
His confrontation with the Captain would go the same, being a chance to show this more lighthearted incarnation's righteous anger is still alive and well
Behind the scenes, things would be going about the same as they did in reality, with the exception of the fact that Williams would probably have an easier time working with Collings instead of Baker. Collings was, by all accounts, a very easygoing guy who was well-liked by everyone he worked with, so I imagine he wouldn't be nearly as much of a control freak as Baker, who was suffering from an undiagnosed case of bipolar disorder, which made him difficult to work with. Being a way from the show would probably be good for his mental health. (It also means he never meets and marries Lalla Ward and probably stays with Sue Jerrard, which would also be good for him -- and Ward, for that matter)
My first big deviation would start here:
The fifth serial would be the (supposedly) unmade serial by Ted Willis, The Lords of Mirule.
I say supposedly because the Dr Who Wiki puts this under the 'Myths' category, but Shannon Sullivan's website lists the serial under 'Lost Stories', so while I concede there's a chance this story was never real, there's enough details in the plot synopsis to make me think it might be true.
"The people of the planet Tetran are enslaved by the cruel Shadowlords, who rule from an orbiting castle. The Shadowlords hunt their subjects using wolf-life Prowlers, and force them to duel one another. The Doctor discovers that the Tetrans are actually descended from the survivors of a crashed mining ship, while the Shadowlords are security robots, disguised and maddened due to their connection with the pilot, who is held on the brink of death by the vessel's computer. K·9 severs the pilot's link with the ship, deactivating the Shadowlords. The Doctor and Romana recover the fifth segment of the Key To Time, concealed as a massive crystal powering the Shadowlords' castle."
By all accounts, The Power of Kroll was NOT a popular story with anyone who worked on it, from the unfortunate actors who couldn't get the green body paint off for weeks afterwards, to the actors having to film in a swamp in the middle of nowhere, to Philip Modac who was annoyed at not being cast as the villain, to Robert Holmes who was forced to write a 'giant monster' story, his least favorite kind, and caused him to not write for the show again until The Caves of Androzani five years later.
So, for the sake of not pissing everyone of the staff off, I'm going to say Williams decided to do this story, and maybe Kroll lives on in Big Finish's 'Lost Stories' collection...
And finally, The Armageddon Factor -- which is a lackluster ending to the Key to Time arc. Sadly, there's not a lot to be done for this one. The concept is interesting enough, but it's still kind of a letdown. I would've liked a face off between the Doctor and Romana and both Guardians, where the two Time Lords condemn the Guardians for playing games with the Universe, and then using the Key to Time to banish them both to the Void and leave the ephemeral universe to the ephemeral people -- before scattering the six segments again in new hiding places (except for Astra, of course).
Alas, no. The season ends with the Randomiser being installed (rather pointlessly since the Doctor never knows how to fly the TARDIS anyway, so he never truly knows where he's going anyway -- also, the Black Guardian's realm is chaos, i.e. randomness, so...)
But anyway, the season ends there. David Collings is well-received as the new Doctor, and even if not every story was a home run, critics and fans agree that he is terrific fit for the role, balancing whimsy and ancientness, praising his playful chemistry with Mary Tamm.
Tamm, sadly, still feels that Romana has fallen into the trappings of most female companions on Doctor Who, becoming a damsel in distress instead of the Doctor's equal as she was promised, so she still decides to depart the role. She still suggests Lalla Ward take over, impressed by her skill and seeing that she got on well with Collings (although not that well, wink wink nudge nudge). John Leeson also still opts to depart as K9, feeling the character is too limited.
So Graham Williams must recast Romana and K9, and he also must replace Anthony Read as script editor. He initially intends to not bother bringing Tamm back, planning to just have the new Romana turn up at the start of the next story, but David Collings has a suggestion to make...
So one thing I love doing, if you couldn't tell already, is making AUs for my favorite fandoms, and that naturally includes Dr Who. Obviously, there are loads out there, with alternate Doctors, alternate companions, alternate seasons, etc, but I still enjoy tinkering with mine. I've actually envisioned a few AUs over the years, but this is the one I've been working on the most lately.
What if Tom Baker left much earlier than he did in our timeline?
Tom Baker, of course, did seven seasons as the Fourth Doctor, but a lot of people, including himself, have said this was too long. Maybe Shada would've actually been finished if it had been his final story...
But I'm going to be a bit more daring and suggest -- what if he had left at the end of Season 15 instead of 18?
AU: Behind the scenes, the programme was in straits. While popular as ever, the dismissal of Philip Hinchcliffe (thanks to media whiners watchdogs) had led to the appointment of Graham Williams as producer, who was given instructions to 'lighten the tone' after the gothic horror motif of his predecessor. Williams himself would admit he thought this to be an overreaction, but he did as he was told.
Season 15 would subsequently see a shift in tone to a 'lighter and softer' version of Doctor Who. While some horror elements still remained in stories like Horror of Fang Rock and Image of the Fendahl, the remaining stories would feature an emphasis on humourous elements. Even the robot dog character, K9, was kept on as a companion to be more child friendly.
Behind the scenes, Tom Baker was not happy. He was already disapproving of the character of Leela, the noble savage, as he felt she was too violent for the Doctor to condone as a companion, to the point he was incredibly rude to actress Louise Jameson as a result. Jameson would learn to stand up to Baker as the season went on, mellowing their relationship a little, but he was still hot-tempered and frustrated with the direction the programme was going.
Jameson had asked Williams to write her out at the season's conclusion, a decision he was hoping to talk her out of, but then, during filming of the penultimate serial Underworld, Tom Baker stunned everyone by tendering his resignation. His reasons were that he disapproved of the changes to the programme and wanted a return to the tone of his early seasons.
At first, Williams was panic-stricken, but a talk from highers-up made him realise that maybe this would be good for the programme. While Baker was certainly popular in the role, it was a chance to reinvent it to more his style. As a result, he accepted Baker's and Jameson's resignations and set about planning their exits.
Williams and script editor Anthony Read had been co-writing the six-part season finale The Invasion of Time (as the previously-planned serial Killers of the Night was deemed to expensive and Robert Holmes had turned down the offer to write a replacement). With the story set on Gallifrey with the Doctor becoming President and seemingly allowing a race of aliens to invade his home planet.
With confirmation that Jameson would not return with or without Baker, Williams and Read devised an ending wherein Leela would ultimately get an offer to join the Outsiders introduced in Episode 3. Jameson had hoped Leela would be killed off saving the Doctor, but Williams deemed this 'too dark' and thought Leela finding her place with the Outsiders made more sense. Jameson would later agree he had a point, as it also enabled her to return should the right script arise.
Williams and Read then took a female Time Lord character named 'Rodan' and reworked her into the next companion. Williams had considered asking Elisabeth Sladen to return to help set up the new Doctor, but was turned down. They reworked the character into 'Romana' (feeling that a regular character needed a more 'appealing' name) and gave her some more substance, making her a student working her way through the Academy.
For the Doctor's regeneration, it was decided that he would be injured as a result of using the DeMat Gun -- written as a forbidden weapon of Rassilon that could wipe the victims from time itself. The consequence of using such a weapon would cost the user their own life as well -- or one of them, in a Time Lord's case. The Doctor subsequently sacrifices his fourth life to defeat the Sontarans with the gun. While he hides his impending regeneration from Leela (he doesn't want her to give up the opportunity the Outsiders have given her), he confides in Borusa to inform her once she's settled in.
The Doctor then departs with K9 after wishing Leela well. Once in the vortex, the Doctor informs K9 of his impending demise, but he is optimistic -- he has spent this life with 'the very best of friends: you, Leela, Sarah Jane, Harry... I couldn't have asked for better company.'
Then, the interior door bangs open, and enter Romana, looking startled that the ship has taken off with her onboard -- she'd gone back for some tools she'd left behind. She demands the Doctor take her back, but he's already collapsing to the floor. Romana and K9 are at his side as he thanks them for their presence. "I hate doing this alone," he smiles. He falls unconscious and regenerates into his next incarnation...
... played by David Collings!
Williams' first choice to play the new Doctor was Ian Cuthbertson, but Cuthbertson was uninterested in playing a regular role in a series at the time. He would, however, agree to portray Garron in the Season 16 premiere, The Ribos Operation, alongside Collings.
Collings' agent had gotten word that the Tom Baker was leaving the part early on, and thus, he secured him an early audition. Williams and the Higher Ups were impressed at Collings' impish mischievous take on the character and eventually offered him the part, with him debuting as the Fifth Doctor in Season 15's closing moments.
