Doctor Who: The Curse of Fatal Death
Doctor Who: The Curse of Fatal Death is a "Doctor Who" special made specifically for the Red Nose Day charity telethon in the United Kingdom, and was originally broadcast in four parts on BBC One on 12 March 1999 under the title Doctor Who and the Curse of Fatal Death. Later home video releases are formatted as two parts and drop the "and" in the title. It follows in a long tradition of popular British television programmes producing short, light-hearted specials for such telethon events. It has a special status amongst "Doctor  Who"-themed charity productions. It has twice been featured on the cover of "Doctor Who Magazine" – an unusual feat even for a regular episode of the programme. It is the only parodic story to be covered by "DWM Archives", a section of "DWM" normally reserved for discussion of past episodes of the regular series. Similarly, it is the only parody to be given an extensive behind-the-scenes article on the BBC official website, and its own video release through BBC Video. It is also the only BBC-commissioned live-action "Doctor Who" production between the "Doctor Who" television movie in  1996 and "Rose" in 2005. Finally, it serves as a production bridge – if not a narrative bridge – between the 1963 and 2005 versions of the programme. Most notable amongst the many connections between "old" and "new" versions is the fact that it showcases the first televised "Doctor Who" script by Steven Moffat, the first post-production work of The Mill on the programme, the only time a woman produced an episode of the programme between Verity Lambert and Susie Liggat, and the final performance by the longest-serving Dalek vocal artist, Roy Skelton. Executive Producer Richard Curtis would later write  the 2010 episode "Vincent and the Doctor". Richard E. Grant, who plays the alternative Tenth Doctor would later appear on the actual show, as the main antagonist of the seventh series, the Great Intelligence, after performing the voice of an alternate version of the Ninth Doctor in an animated webcast serial "Scream of the Shalka". Plot. The story begins with the Master gloating over his latest scheme to destroy his nemesis. However, instead of only spying on the Doctor and his companion Emma, he is actually in communication with them, so they hear his plans. The Doctor invites his old  foe to meet him at a castle on the planet Tersurus. The planet is in ruins, and was once the home of a now-extinct race of supremely-enlightened beings shunned by all because they used flatulence as their means of communication. They all died when they discovered fire. The Master appears, gloating that he travelled a century back in time, and persuaded the architect of the castle to put in a secret death trap. The Doctor had anticipated this and travelled further back, persuading the same architect to sabotage the trap. The Master had also anticipated this, and arranged  for an additional trap – with identical results because the Doctor had likewise anticipated his move. The Doctor informs the Master, having calculated that he "has saved every planet in the known universe a minimum of 27 times", and having grown tired of battles with aliens and "the endless gravel quarries", that he is retiring, having found a companion – Emma – with whom he has fallen in love. The Master springs yet another trap; a trap door under the Doctor's feet leading to the vast sewers of Tersurus, which he intends to suggest to the architect after going back in time  again and buying him an expensive dinner. However, the Doctor had already bought the architect that dinner, so when the Master pulls the lever, a trap door opens beneath him instead. Seconds later, as the Doctor and Emma start to leave, the Master bursts in. Having taken him 312 years to crawl out, he emerges as an old man covered in sewage. Using his TARDIS to return to the present, he has brought allies – the Daleks (who, lacking noses, are the only race that will have anything to do with him). Additionally, he has been enhanced by superior Dalek technology , a Dalek suction-cup hand. To the Master's dismay, he cannot answer when Emma asks him what the suction-cup is for. The Master throws himself at the Doctor but falls into the sewers again, and immediately bursts in again, another 312 years older. The Daleks give chase to the Doctor, knocking the Master once more into the sewers. Having spent a total of 936 years in the sewers, he returns using a zimmer frame (walker) and is easily outpaced by the slow moving Daleks. Emma and the Doctor are captured when they run into a room full  of Daleks. Rather than being exterminated immediately, they are tied to chairs aboard the Dalek ship, the Daleks promising Emma that they "will explain later" why they even possess chairs. The Master claims he has been enhanced again with Dalek technology – rejuvenating him and adding "Dalek bumps" to his chest, which also act as "etheric beam locators". The Doctor insults the Master, comparing the "bumps" to breasts. In return for his enhancements, the Master agreed to give the Daleks the Zektronic energy beam – a weapon that would "allow the Daleks to conquer the universe in a matter of minutes". When  the Doctor tells the Daleks they will have to share the universe "with the beard and the bosoms over there", they inform the Doctor that they plan to exterminate the Master after he has assisted them. The Doctor uses the Tersuran language (farting) to warn his fellow Time Lord. The Master helps the Doctor and Emma escape, but not before the Doctor is fatally injured by the Daleks. He tells Emma (in Tersuran, which the Master translates) that he loves her, then dies. The Doctor regenerates into a handsome and sexually eager new Doctor (Richard E. Grant). Forced to fix  the Dalek weapon, he is also electrocuted and becomes a shy, middle-aged and overweight Doctor (Jim Broadbent). Another accident results in a handsome, smooth-mannered Doctor (Hugh Grant), but this Doctor is also accidentally killed while fixing the weapon. Due to the Zektronic energy beam's ability to disable the regenerative process, the Doctor permanently dies. The Master vows to live a life of heroism in honour of his fallen foe's memory, as do the Daleks. Seemingly through the will of the universe itself, the Doctor does regenerate yet again, only this time as a woman (Joanna Lumley ), who seems confused that her breasts are not etheric beam locators, despite each having an "on switch". Emma is deeply disappointed, pointing out that "You're just not the man I fell in love with." The Master, however, is quite smitten with this new Doctor, who notices the sonic screwdriver (which vibrates) has ""three" settings!" The story ends with them walking off together, the Master promising to explain later as to why he is called the Master. Continuity. This story is connected to a number of others by virtue of its narrative and its production elements. Many of the story 's actors also have other connections to the programme, although most of these connections take the form of various actors "almost" getting a role in the main production. Production. Music. The production was deliberately based on the Fourth Doctor's era and a conscious effort was made to use cues taken directly from episodes of that era. However, the practical unavailability of these soundtracks forced the show's musical director, Mark Ayres, to use material mostly from the Fifth Doctor's era. Except for the reuse of the theme music, the majority of musical cues come from episodes between "Meglos  and The Caves of Androzani", with a brief excerpt also taken from the Third Doctor serial "The Sea Devils" as well as an excerpt from the Seventh Doctor serial "The Greatest Show in the Galaxy" (written by Ayres himself). The music during the episode's final scene, for example, is the same as that which played at the conclusion of the Fourth Doctor's regeneration into the Fifth in "Logopolis". After each regeneration portrayed in the episode, music from "Meglos" is employed. Potential sequel. A week after the special aired, "Doctor Who" writer Lawrence Miles contacted BBC Books editor Stephen  Cole with an idea for a novel sequel focusing on Joanna Lumley's Thirteenth Doctor; Cole had already received a different Thirteenth Doctor pitch from David A. McIntee that weekend. Titled "The War", Miles's novel would have taken place during the time war alluded to in Miles's "Eighth Doctor Adventures" novels. Miles planned to take advantage of the BBC's catalogue of characters, mostly those from 1970s and 1980s sitcoms: with the war causing alternative timelines to overlap, the Doctor would have found herself in a concentration camp on Earth along with strays from other realities, such as  Norman Stanley Fletcher from "Porridge". In a pastiche of war story clichés, the heroes would have been betrayed by "Mrs. Slocombe's pussy", a running joke in "Are You Being Served?" which would have been revealed as a conceptual entity working for the Enemy, the Time Lords' unseen opponents. At the story's climax, the Doctor and Captain Mainwaring from "Dad's Army" would have led a suicidal "Light Brigade"-style assault on the Enemy's base. Cole never replied, which Miles has attributed to Cole mistaking the submission for a joke.