"What If... Season 12 starred Jon Pertwee?"

TV Centre, February 1975 


FORTUNE TELLER: Tell your fortune, mister. The future predicted. Your life foretold.

SUTTON: Oh, no thanks.

FORTUNE TELLER: Don't you want to know if you're going to be happy?

SUTTON: I'm happy right now, thanks.

FORTUNE TELLER: You Head of Serials. The reading's free for Heads of Serials.

SUTTON: All right, then.

[Fortune teller's tent] 
(The young woman looks at Sutton's palms.)

FORTUNE TELLER: Oh, you fascinating. No, but you good. I can see a man. The most remarkable man. How did you meet him?

SUTTON: You're supposed to tell me.

FORTUNE TELLER: I see the future. Tell me the past. When did your lives cross?

SUTTON: It's sort of complicated. He wrote a letter to Bill Slater. Long story.



FORTUNE TELLER: But what led you to that meeting?

SUTTON: All sorts of things. But my job, I suppose. Pertwee had started to feel his time was up, the old team were breaking up and he was starting to get worried about typecasting... he said he'd have to ask for a lot more money.

FORTUNE TELLER: Your life could have gone one way or the other. What made you decide?



SUTTON: It was too much, I couldn't justify a salary that big.

(Our point of view is something small sneaking up behind Sutton.)

FORTUNE TELLER: But when was the moment? When did you choose? You said no. But what if you said yes? What then?

SUTTON: Let go of my hands.

FORTUNE TELLER: What if it changes? What if you say yes? What if you could find the money somewhere in the BBC's budget?

SUTTON: Stop it.

(Something jumps onto Sutton's back.)

SUTTON: What's that? What's on my back? What is it? What, what's on my back?

FORTUNE TELLER: Make the choice again, Shaun Sutton, and change your mind. Say yes.

(A hooked claw reaches to Sutton's shoulder.)

SUTTON: I'm saying it..

FORTUNE TELLER: Say yes. Say yes. Say yes!



[Office] 
PERTWEE: You know, I really think that if I were to stay, I'd have to be asking for rather a big increase. More like twenty percent.

SUTTON: Yes. I suppose you're right. It's only fair.

FORTUNE TELLER [Off Camera]: Say yes, and make Jon Pertwee the star of Season Twelve! Say yes, and change the world.



SUTTON: Do I have that right?

Our players:

Jon Pertwee 
[Actor: The Doctor]

Jon Pertwee had played the part of the Doctor since September 1969, and taken the show not only into colour but from strength to strength, aided and abetted by his UNIT family and the dastardly Master, and in a more serious direction than he had perhaps been cast to do.

But nothing lasts forever and after 4 years at the top, the family was starting to go its separate ways.  First to leave was Katy Manning, who called time on the role of Jo Grant after 3 years as the 3rd Doctor's companion, filming her final scenes at the end of April 1973.

Perhaps the real hammer blow came on 18th June 1973, with the tragic death of Roger Delgado, who was killed in a car accident in Turkey. Delgado had already asked to be written out of the series, and the final story of Season 11 had been commissioned as early as Thursday 15th February 1973 (between broadcast of episodes 3 and 4 of Carnival of Monsters and towards the end of the recording of Planet of the Daleks), with Robert Sloman hired to write The Final Game, a 6 part storyline, for delivery Monday 4th June.

The Final Game never got beyond the loosest of planning stages but it was mooted that it would revealed that the Doctor and the Master were actually brothers or the latter Time Lord was the former's darker personality. This story originally ends with the Master's Roger Delgado incarnation seeming to sacrificing himself to save the Doctor.  This was not, however, a regeneration story by any means, storylined as it was prior to Pertwee's decision to relinquish the role.

With Delgado's sad passing, the final slot of season 11, serial ZZZ, was kept open for a new storyline from Sloman, which was in development during the later months of 1973. By that time, both producer Barry Letts and script editor Terrance Dicks had decided to move on from the series after season 11, and by Autumn of 1973 Pertwee himself had started to think that this was a natural time to leave.

There were other considerations; his long standing back pain had grown steadily worse, and offers of work outside of the series had declined. Having asked his agent to look for other work, Pertwee was offered the lead in a play for Summer 1974, and promptly received a phone call from Head of Serials, Shaun Sutton. who asked him to stay on for season 12 with the incoming production team of Philip Hinchcliffe (Producer) and Robert Holmes (Script Editor & Writer).  Pertwee explained his reasoning and told Sutton that to stay on for another year and be sure of financial security, a payrise more in the region of 20% than the usual 3% would be the golden handcuffs required, fully expecting that Sutton would most likely find himself telling the actor that he would be sorry to see him go...

Philip Hinchcliffe

[Producer]

To all intents and purposes Barry Letts handed over the reigns of to Philip Hinchcliffe in July 1974, but Letts was still there to advise as late as November 1974, during production of season 12's third story in front of the cameras, The Ark in Space.

In Spring 1974, at the age of 29, he was approached by the BBC's head of serials to take over as producer on Doctor Who, his first full production job, initially trailing and then succeeding long-serving producer Barry Letts. Although he trailed Letts on Robot, he was first credited on The Ark in Space. Throughout his first year he was mostly producing scripts that had been commissioned by the previous production team prior to their departure and it was not until a year later that Hinchcliffe's full influence came to bear, with Planet of Evil in late 1975.

Hinchcliffe, together with script editor Robert Holmes, ushered in a change in tone for the television series. The series became darker and more adult than previously, with a gothic atmosphere influenced by the horror films produced by Hammer Films. This horror influence is especially evident in serials like Planet of Evil, Pyramids of Mars, The Brain of Morbius, The Hand of Fear and The Talons of Weng-Chiang, all of which have content which directly recalls well known horror novels and movies.

Hinchcliffe was reluctant to use characters and monsters from the series' past; the Daleks, the Cybermen and the Sontarans only appeared once during his tenure, and these stories were commissioned by Barry Letts. The character of Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart and the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce were written out of the series.

At the time that Hinchliffe was first approached to take over from Letts, it was far from clear that he might have a new Doctor to help mould and to advise on the "Olympian detachment" required to play an alien Time-Lord, and when Terrance Dicks first sounded out John Lucarotti to write a six-part tale about the whole human race in cryogenic suspension he would probably have expected that the Doctor that would face alien invaders on the Ark in Space would still be played by Jon Pertwee...

Robert Holmes

[Script Editor/Writer]

Robert Holmes had trailed Terrance Dicks in the role of Script Editor from October 1973, during production of Invasion of the Dinosaurs, and was no stranger to Doctor who, having already contributed The Krotons and the Space Pirates to Patrick Troughton's final season, launched Jon Pertwee in Spearhead from Space, Roger Delgado's Master in Terror of the Autons, and contributed Carnival of Monsters and most recently the season 11 opener, The Time Warrior, which had introduced the Sontarans, earmarked by Terrance Dicks and Barry Letts for a two-part return to the series in the upcoming season 12.  The Sontaran Experiment was the first true season 12 story, Robot having been recorded back to back with Planet of the Spiders at the end of the 11th production block. As a duet with the four part studio bound The Ark in Space, the Sontaran Experiment would be transmitted third in the season but was effectively recorded as the first of the 12th season.

Letts and Dicks had already commissioned a new Dalek tale from Terry Nation, the first Cyberman in 5 years from Gerry Davis, and the 6 part season finale was to be from the pen of Robert Banks Stewart and based around the infamous Loch Ness Monster.

Holmes wasn't much pleased with the Bristol Boys' depiction of his own Sontarans, and both Letts and Dicks had admonished Nation for trying to sell them the same old Dalek story yet again. With Davis' Cyberman story, like Lucarotti's space station scripts (cut back from 6 to 4) also proving at odds with post-60s Who, Holmes had both his work cut out for him, but also the opportunity to put a fresh stamp on the show. His darker, grittier take on storytelling favoured a more adult tone that chimed somewhat with a take on Doctor Who not seen since season 7...

Lis Sladen

[Actor: Sarah Jane Smith]

Having quickly established herself as a strong successor to Katy Manning and her portrayal of Jo Grant, Elisabeth Sladen had originally only planned to stay in the role for one year, but saw her character go from strength to strength which could have persuaded her to stay longer, and at the time of recording on her first adventure, Robert Holmes' The Time Warrior, she had no reason to believe that staying for another year would entail any change in the show's lead for season 12...

Ian Marter

[Actor: Harry Sullivan]

The character of Harry Sullivan was created in case the incoming 4th Doctor was cast as an older man incapable of action scenes and indeed when Tom Baker proved himself perfectly capable, bar the odd fractured collar bone, the character was dropped.

But by the time of season 11, Pertwee was coping less and less with his back condition, and perhaps a condition of his staying on for season 12 could have been a little more support in this area, and not just from Terry Walsh...

No doubt a proud man, and always a lover of action and stunts, with just a dash of realism and perhaps a persuasive word from Ingeborg, perhaps we can credit Jon Pertwee with the pragmatism to accept a new Mike Yates like figure aboard the TARDIS to take some of the pressure off, as well as providing a newer foil than the more Earth-bound Brigadier. If season 12 could have seen Pertwee at the controls of the TARDIS for just one final season, perhaps even the man himself would also have accepted that this new companion could smooth the transition if his predecessor proved older?  

And who better to play this character than the man who had previously missed out on the role of Yates. Maybe we don't have to do without Harry Sullivan after all?

The Stories:

[ZZ] Planet of the Spiders

Recorded 11th March to 5th May 1974
Broadcast 4th May to 8th June 1974

Our first stop in this alternate reality has to be the Planet of the Spiders; if Jon Pertwee doesn't leave at the end of season 11, then this story doesn't conclude with the Doctor's regeneration.

But if it doesn't conclude with his regeneration then how exactly does it start?  

After the sad death of Roger Delgado and the enforced abandonment of the mooted Final Game, the last slot of season 11, serial ZZZ, was kept open for a new storyline from Robert Sloman, which was in development during the later months of 1973.

But Planet of the Spiders was envisaged from start to finish as a swansong for Pertwee's 3rd Doctor, its themes very much about putting him through a process of self awareness, catharsis and rebirth. Without these themes driving the story, would we even have had this story at all?

Might we instead have got another tale altogether, something else born from Letts' Buddhism and/or environmentalism, or something drawing on the occult and mysticism? 

Previous Letts/Sloman finales had been the Daemons, The Time Monster and most recently The Green Death, so what issue or legend might have been exploited for a non-regeneration end to season 11?

[4A] Robot

Recorded 28th April to 7th June 1974

Broadcast 28th December to 18th January 1974

Without the need to introduce a new Doctor, this perhaps becomes a rather more simplistic season opener, but perhaps one that in fact spends a little bit more time introducing the new companion, Harry Sullivan. 

Pertwee's 3rd Doctor would still rumble Kettleworth, employ his "the rest were all foreigners" dig, and advise the Brigadier to employ the services of a very large cat, but it's more likely he'd make his way into the think tank rally with a bit of Venusian Aikido, and that the metal eating virus would have been dispensed from the flying Whomobile.

Often described as a Pertwee story starring Tom Baker, Robot may not have been all that different, but having said that, it was supposed to surround a new Doctor with cosy and reassuring elements of the recent past including UNIT and the Brigadier and good old Bessie.

A Pertwee season 12 would have needed no such touchstones and in fact may have even benefitted from taking a more adventurous direction. Terrance Dicks had successfully invented the tradition that the outgoing Script Editor would provide the first story for his successor's era, and the King Kong pastiche would likely have found enough favour with Hinchcliffe and Holmes to survive in some form. 

In reality the wheels were too far in motion for this story to have had any influence from the incoming team but even so, why don't we imagine that Dicks may have given us a rather different robot, one helping its' master - a new Time Lord villain to replace the Master - to assemble a replacement body from the spare parts scavenged from the victims of shipwrecked space-crafts, giving us a rather different opener to Season 12... 

[4A] The Brain of Morbius

 

 

[4C] The Ark in Space

Recorded 28th October to 12th November 1974

Broadcast 25th January to 15th February 1975

Tom Baker's 2nd story on screen had a turbulent past, originally intended as 6 episodes and as coming from the pen of John Lucarotti, the original scripts proved unworkable leading to Robert Holmes rewriting almost from scratch late on in the process, and splitting the 6 episodes into a studio bound 4-parter and a location bound 2-parter, with his own Sontarans farmed out to Bob Baker & Dave Martin. By this time, the first story of the season had already been recorded, so Holmes would have known exactly who he was writing for, even if it was still early days, and the scope was there for him to inject some character defining moments.  

With Pertwee still on board, some scenes would no doubt maintain the same character - the Doctor telling Harry that him improving is entirely down to his influence, his describing the human race as quite his favourite species, and his "brutish" reverse psychology taunting of Sarah - but how different would that defining "Indomitable" speech have been coming from a Doctor who has lived and breathed amongst humans, as one of them, for the last five years...?

In our parallel Season 12, it would be (roughly) during transmission of this story that the announcement of Jon Pertwee's departure would be made...

[4B] The Sontaran Experiment

Recorded 26th September to 1st October 1974

Broadcast 22nd February to 1st March 1975

 
Forced before the cameras first in this production block, this is a story with perhaps minimal moments that are tied to any particular portrayal of the Doctor, with some minor burbling about cuckoo clocks likely to be unsuited to the rather more straight laced Third Doctor, but perhaps we might have seen Ian Marter's Harry Sullivan, rather than a silver-wigged Terry Walsh, grappling with Field Major Styre, while the Doctor set about reversing the polarity of Styre's energy flow? 

 

[4E] Genesis of the Daleks

Recorded 27th January to 25th February 1975

Broadcast 8th March to 12th April 1975

Barry Letts and Terrance Dicks commissioned another 6 part Dalek tale from Terry Nation to feature in season 12 but were dismayed when Nations' proposal proved something of a retread of Dalek tales gone by. Instead they asked to see the origin of the Daleks, and Nation, who readily agreed, was spurred on to write the story of Davros, the creator of the Daleks. 

A crippled genius combining the worst traits of both Hitler and Mengele to make the WW2-rooted psychological origins of the Daleks more explicit than ever before.  Here, it seemed, was a supervillain that could perhaps eclipse the Master as a worthy adversary for the Third Doctor, and whom Holmes could bend to provoke the kind of moral outrage that had served the Third Doctor so well when railing against other fascists like the Brigade Leader, the Marshall and BOSS. 

It would perhaps have been more interesting to see Pertwee express self-doubt with "Have I that right?" - the Third Doctor having always been so certain of his moral stance. Maybe here is a test of character to rival, or even eclipse, that which he would have faced on Metebelis 3...?

[4D] Revenge of the Cybermen

Recorded 20th November to 17th December 1974

Broadcast 19th April to 10th May 1975

Season 12 closed prematurely, with Robert Banks Stewart's 6 part Loch Ness story shifted to start Season 13 in 4-part form.  In reality this allowed the shifting of the time of year the show was broadcast, and a shorter than usual gap between seasons 12 & 13. 

This would have been ideal for launching a new Doctor at the start of season 13, and in a tale where identity was key - a new Doctor arriving in the midst of imposters would also nicely echo the 3rd Doctor's origin without too obviously aping it (especially with the Scottish setting and Loch Ness Monster) and provide a send-off for the Brigadier ("was that bang big enough for you...?"). The jury would of course be out as to whether Harry Sullivan may or may not have been surplus to requirements...

In the meantime, Pertwee's Doctor needed writing out and the final two stories of the season would feature Doctor Who monster royalty - the Daleks and the Cybermen. The original intention had been for Nation's Dalek origin tale to split up the arc of the Ark, Davis' Cybermen tale to conclude with the Doctor recalled to Earth by the Brigadier.

For one thing, the Cyberman tale was not as strong as the Dalek one, and for another the Doctor's 1st regeneration at come at the hands of the silver giants so it was less desirable that they be seen to be wheeled out after 5 years to coincidentally polish off the second Doctor in less than 10 years.

Besides, it made far more sense that the raised stakes of averting the creation of the Daleks (or at least affecting their development so that they evolved into less aggressive creatures), and the moral quandary this presented, would make the more dramatic exit.

Revenge of the Cybermen would be another story that required little or no change to the scripts to work equally well for the Third Doctor, who was equally as likely as the Fourth to glare at Harry when his arm stuck in a door, to set a Cybermat on Kellman, and to bellow unkind assessments of the naval lieutenant's intelligence.

The Regeneration

Therefore, Jon Pertwee could have left the show in one of the single most iconic sequences in the history of Doctor Who, racing back from the Dalek bunker after a last ditch attempt to destroy the Dalek incubators, diving for safety as Bettan and the Thals entomb the Daleks for a thousand years, but cut down by the deadly rays of a Dalek's gun...

Harry and Sarah would help him into the TARDIS, where a message from the Brigadier on the space time telegraph awaits the Doctor as he sets the controls for Scotland, before collapsing to the console room floor, and once again changing his appearance... 

[4F] Terror of the Zygons

Recorded 20th March to 23rd April 1975

Broadcast 30th August to 20th September 1975

To kick off season 13 a mere three and a half months later, the new Doctor would therefore arrive on Earth with a new face with which to surprise the Brigadier before showing his mettle by foiling the machinations of the shapeshifting Zygons and their Loch Ness Monster...

The Fourth Doctor

When Barry Letts found himself tasked with replacing Jon Pertwee at the start of 1974,
Jim Dale was flattered to be considered the favourite but was committed for a year elsewhere. Bernard Cribbins was interviewed, but rejected after outlining fighting skills not required. Fulton McKay was 2nd choice to Dale, but ultimately Barry Letts and Bill Slater cast an unknown when by coincidence Tom Baker wrote a letter to Bill Slater on 3rd February 1974, which arrived on Tuesday 5th, when Slater was due to meet Letts to discuss casting the new Doctor. 

In our "What If..." scenario, the letter arrives at a time when Pertwee has committed to just one more - highly lucrative - year on the show, and Baker would therefore have been recommended for altogether different roles, perhaps just guest roles or bit parts, albeit where he could make his mark and go on to other things. 

Would he gain a guest role in season 12? If season 12 had indeed started with The Brain of Morbius, then perhaps his role as the evil Prince Koura in The Golden Voyage of Sinbad could have landed him the role of Mehendri Solon.

When February 1975 rolled around, would he have other commitments or might he once again be in the frame to play the 4th Doctor, now being known to Hinchcliffe and Holmes? Some things were always meant to be...

Or perhaps we've already had a glimpse of our alternate Fourth Doctor, courtesy of Denys Fisher... 

In 1974, Gareth Hunt appeared in the Upstairs, Downstairs episode "Missing Believed Killed" as Trooper Norton, batman to James Bellamy. The character was a minor one; however, his performance led producers John Hawkesworth and Alfred Shaughnessy to ask him to come back as a regular for the fifth series in 1975.

But...

What if he declined in order to take up the role in quite a different series...?

TTFN! K.
Coming Soon... Doctor Who Movie Do's and Don'ts!