The Deadly Assassin (Doctor Who Story)

### Televised Story

***The Deadly Assassin*** was the third story of season 14 of Doctor Who. It was the only televised story in the original run of Doctor Who to feature the Doctor without a companion, with Sarah Jane Smith departing in the previous story and Leela joining in the next story. Tom Baker had told Philip Hinchcliffe he could hold the show on his own. With this story already in place, it was seen as a pilot for such companion-less stories. However, it was deemed that a companion was a necessary feature of the show.

This serial saw the return of the Doctor's nemesis, the Master, for the first time since Frontier in Space; but in a heavily decayed state played by Peter Pratt. Roger Delgado had died in an automobile accident three years earlier, requiring a new actor to take his place. Afterward, the Master became subject to a change in appearance and other changes as needed when an actor replaced the role, much like the Doctor.

Narratively, this serial introduced several aspects of Time Lord society which were used or referenced again, including the Matrix, Time Lord Chapters, Time Lord headdress and robes, and of course Rassilon. It also introduced the restriction of a Time Lord to a finite limit of twelve regenerations, allowing a maximum of thirteen incarnations, after which the Time Lord would suffer permanent death.

#### Original Airdates

1. October 30, 1976: "Part One"
2. November 6, 1976: "Part Two"
3. November 13, 1976: "Part Three"
4. November 20, 1976: "Part Four"

#### The Doctor's Opening Narration

Through the millennia, the Time Lords of Gallifrey led a life of peace and ordered calm, protected against all threats from lesser civilisations by their great power. But this was to change. Suddenly and terribly, the Time Lords faced the most dangerous crisis in their long history...

#### Notable Cast

* Doctor Who - Tom Baker
* The President - Llewellyn Rees
* Chancellor Goth - Bernard Horsfall
* Castellan Spandrell - George Pravda
* Cardinal Borusa - Angus MacKay
* The Master - Peter Pratt

#### Controversy

Because of intense negative reactions from the public, Philip Hinchcliffe was replaced as producer the following season and the BBC wiped the offending cliffhanger from the master 625 line PAL colour videotape; consequently, all home releases and reruns simply use in part three the reprise seen at the beginning of part four.

Part of the disturbing nature of the drowning scene at the end of part three came from the fact that Tom Baker suffers from aquaphobia and thus was experiencing a real fear of drowning during filming. Baker was reportedly so worried of the cliffhanger scaring children that he visited a random family to watch part three with them and hear their responses.

#### Trivia

The biplane used in the Matrix sequences in episode three is a 1949 Stampe SV.4C. The plane used in filming, registration G-AWXZ, was also used in the films Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and The Mummy.

### Novelisation

A novelisation of the 1976 story, The Deadly Assassin, written by Terrance Dicks, was published by Target Books on October 20, 1977, entitled Doctor Who and The Deadly Assassin.

#### Summary

*"The Doctor is suddenly summoned to Gallifrey, the home of the Time Lords, where his ghastly hallucination of the President's assassination seems to turn into reality. When the Doctor is arrested for the murder, there is a hideous, dark, cowled figure gleefully watching in the shadows.*

*Faced with his old enemy, the Master, Doctor Who approaches defeat in a battle of minds in a nightmare world created by the Master's imagination. But the Master's evil intentions go much further – he has a Doomsday Plan. It is up to the Doctor to prevent him from destroying Gallifrey and taking over the universe!"*