Line #56 Trivia/DoctorWho20thASTheFiveDoctors


1	!!The Trivia of Rassilon:
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3	* BeamMeUpScotty: This is the second of only [[Recap/DoctorWhoS9E3TheSeaDevils two]] occasions where the Third Doctor said "reverse the polarity of the neutron flow".
4	* CreatorBacklash:
5	** Peter Moffatt disapproved of the Special Edition of the story which was later released on video, featuring updated special effects and reinstated scenes he had originally cut because he thought they were boring. Creator/JohnNathanTurner also spoke disparagingly of it, declaring that the changes it brought were unnecessary and ruined the overall quality of the story.
6	** Creator/ElisabethSladen and Creator/TerranceDicks weren't very pleased with the infamous scene where Sarah Jane falls off the cliff.
7	** On a similar note, Creator/CaroleAnnFord wasn't pleased that she had to trip over her own ankles after the Doctor teleported to Gallifrey.
8	** Just about everyone on the DVDCommentary gets a laugh out of, "No, not the mind probe!"
9	* CreatorsFavouriteEpisode: Creator/JohnNathanTurner named this as one of his favourite episodes during his tenure. He was particularly pleased about the Raston Warrior Robot scene, which he directed himself.
10	* CreatorsPest: Several, stemming from the story's writer Creator/TerranceDicks:
11	** The reason the Cybermen were absent during the Third Doctor's tenure was that Terrance Dicks hated them, as he found them boring. Creator/EricSaward, who loved the Cybermen, wanted them in the special, so Dicks responded by taking several opportunities to destroy them.
12	*** Going by the DVDCommentary with Dicks and Peter Davison, Dicks viewed the Cybermen as Saward's [[CreatorsPet Creator's Pets]], noting how the Fifth Doctor claims the Cybermen "play the Game of Rassilon too well", despite that not being the case in the episode itself.
13	** This also extended to the Third Doctor himself. Dicks and Creator/JonPertwee reportedly had butted heads during production, and so as a sort of revenge Dicks intentionally wrote his Doctor as more aloof and arrogant than usual in this one, and with completely "the wrong end of the stick" regarding the Master's role in what was going on.
14	** K9's cameo role is as such because Dicks did not enjoy writing him into stories and so asked to make his contribution as minimal as possible. (It also proved impractical to use K9 in the location filming in Wales, the same reason he was often written out of stories when he was actively part of the TARDIS.) However, Dicks also recalled he was the one who insisted K9 have a small role in the story, knowing he was popular with fans.
15	* DVDCommentary: The 25th Anniversary Edition DVD has three commentaries: the one that was included in the 2000 Region 1 DVD with Creator/PeterDavison and Creator/TerranceDicks, one featuring Creator/CaroleAnnFord, Creator/NicholasCourtney, Creator/ElisabethSladen and Creator/MarkStrickson; finally, a third Easter Egg one with Creator/DavidTennant, Helen Raynor (a new series writer/script editor), and Phil Collinson (new series then-current-producer) having a huge nostalgia kick.
16	* DyeingForYourArt: For the first time playing the Brigadier, Creator/NicholasCourtney grew out an actual moustache for the part (the moustache in all his other appearances is a fake). He would do so again in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS26E1Battlefield Battlefield]]".
17	* EditedForSyndication: The story was originally presented as a single 90-minute episode. For international airings, it was reedited into four parts, excising the ColdOpen reprising the First Doctor's speech from [[Recap/DoctorWhoS2E2TheDalekInvasionOfEarth "The Dalek Invasion of Earth"]] (and thus cutting into the opening theme early) and placing new cliffhangers at Sarah falling down a slope, Susan spotting a squad of Cybermen preparing to blow up the TARDIS, and the Master sneaking around a corner in the Dark Tower. This version of the story was also repeated in the UK from 14 August to 17 August 1984, and is used for airings on the Roku Channel.
18	* HideYourPregnancy: Creator/WendyPadbury was pregnant during the recording and the costume she wore was in part designed to, in her words, "hide the bump". Sadly, she miscarried soon after wrapping.
19	* InternationalCoproduction: The special was co-produced with the Creator/AustralianBroadcastingCorporation who put in $A60,000, although under the terms of the agreement no credit to the co-producer appeared on-screen. (When the story was released by BBC Video in edited form in 1985 and in unedited form in 1990, the credit "A Co-production with ABC, Australia" appeared on the rear sleeve in both instances.) This was the first and only occurrence of this during the classic series; it occurred because the special was budgeted as a separate production, rather than part of any season, and extra funds needed to be found for it.
20	* LoopingLines: During the part when the First Doctor was talking about the square root of pi, Richard Hurndall accidentally spoke the wrong sum (much like how his predecessor flubbed his lines). Because filming was already done, the crew decided to bring Hurndall back in the studio to re-record his lines so they can place it over the footage.
21	* MeaningfulReleaseDate:
22	** The original broadcast was on 23 November, the actual 20th anniversary of the show's first ever episode--but only in the United States, as the BBC couldn't make room for it until two days later.
23	** The 2008 DVD release of the special was released on both the show's 45th anniversary as well as the 25th anniversary of the episode's premiere.
24	* MilestoneCelebration: The special feature-length episode was produced in celebration of the programme's 20th anniversary.
25	* TheOtherDarrin:
26	** Richard Hurndall does a wonderful job trying to fill in the shoes of the late Creator/WilliamHartnell. It does help that he looks quite a bit like the previous actor, but it didn't stop some from lovingly nicknaming the special "Three Doctors and a Bloke in a Wig" during the DVDCommentary. (A funny nickname, considering that Hartnell too wore a wig throughout his era.) The episode itself acknowledges and lampshades the recasting by beginning with archive footage of Hartnell.
27	** Philip Latham is the fourth actor to play Borusa.
28	* PopCultureUrbanLegends: A popular fan legend has it that Richard Hurndall died before he was paid for his participation (he passed away less than five months after the story's broadcast), although it appears he was.
29	* ProductionNickname: Creator/TerranceDicks nicknamed the new version of the Time Scoop WesternAnimation/CasperTheFriendlyGhost.
30	* PropRecycling:
31	** The Yeti costume used in the serial was last used in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS5E5TheWebOfFear The Web of Fear]]". It had decayed badly in 15 years of storage, requiring dim lighting and selective camera angles during filming.
32	** The Raston Warrior Robot costume is a silver repaint of one of the Cyberman androids' costumes from [[Recap/DoctorWhoS19E6Earthshock "Earthshock"]].
33	* RoleReprise: Several actors associated with the show returned to reprise their roles years later; some in big parts, others in mere cameos:
34	** Creator/CaroleAnnFord returns as Susan Foreman, nearly two decades after she last appeared in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS2E2TheDalekInvasionOfEarth "The Dalek Invasion of Earth"]].
35	** Creator/FrazerHines and Creator/WendyPadbury briefly reappear as Jamie and Zoe, respectively, for the first time since [[Recap/DoctorWhoS6E7TheWarGames "The War Games"]] 14 years prior.
36	** Creator/CarolineJohn makes a brief appearance as Liz for the first time since [[Recap/DoctorWhoS7E4Inferno "Inferno"]] 13 years prior.
37	** Creator/PatrickTroughton returns to play the Second Doctor over a decade after his last appearance in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS10E1TheThreeDoctors "The Three Doctors"]].
38	** Creator/JonPertwee and Creator/RichardFranklin respectively reappear as the Third Doctor and Mike Yates for the first time since [[Recap/DoctorWhoS11E5PlanetOfTheSpiders "Planet of the Spiders"]] almost a decade prior.
39	* WagTheDirector:
40	** In April 2013, Creator/CaroleAnnFord revealed that producer Creator/JohnNathanTurner had initially insisted that Susan not refer to the Doctor as her grandfather: "You will not believe why. They said, 'We don't really want people to perceive him as having had sex with someone, to father a child.' I just screamed with hysterical laughter and said, 'In that case, I'm not doing it.'" During his time as producer, Nathan-Turner implemented a strict NoHuggingNoKissing rule for the Doctor, with Creator/PeterDavison not being allowed to even touch women on-screen. Following Ford's protests, the script was changed to include mentions of the characters' relationship.
41	** Originally, Tegan was to make tea for the First Doctor, but Creator/JanetFielding refused, so it was changed to Turlough doing it.
42	* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
43	** Creator/TomBaker was originally going to be part of the special, but dropped out at the last minute (which he later regretted). If he stayed in the project, he would've been the Doctor that went to Gallifrey and later confronts Borusa at the end, which reflected Creator/TerranceDicks' belief that he was the most likely incarnation to turn to evil. Dicks stated that Baker dropping out actually helped out, because it gave more screen time for Creator/PeterDavison since he was the current Doctor at the time. It also had the bonus of allowing Creator/JohnNathanTurner to utilize footage from the unfinished story "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS17E6Shada Shada]]", which he'd been trying to get on TV for several years, in order to allow Baker to appear anyway, and said footage also allowed Creator/LallaWard's popular Romana to make a cameo which would not otherwise have been possible.[[note]]Ward and Baker had divorced by this time and wouldn't work together again for another 30 years; Romana had also been left in a pocket universe [[Recap/DoctorWhoS18E5WarriorsGate when last seen]], making it unlikely she could have appeared in the special.[[/note]]
44	** A large number of other characters were planned to appear, but the actors were unavailable:
45	*** Creator/WilliamRussell was invited to make a cameo as Ian, but declined.
46	*** Ben and Polly were considered to appear, but Creator/AnnekeWills was out of the UK at the time and couldn't be located.
47	*** The continuity error of the Second Doctor remembering an incident that happened moments before his regeneration was a last-minute replacement for the original reason he recognised his old companions as illusions. This would have featured Victoria saying "The Brigadier's right", but the Doctor remembering that he was a Colonel when she met him. But Creator/DeborahWatling was booked to appear on ''The Dave Allen Show'', so the line was given to Jamie and a replacement line was hastily added.
48	*** The UNIT sergeant was supposed to be Benton. Creator/JohnLevene turned it down, as he objected to the script requiring Benton to not recognise the Second Doctor. Levene felt this was unfaithful to his character, who he felt would not forget the Second Doctor, and he declined to participate.
49	*** Jo was supposed to appear, but Creator/KatyManning was in Australia at the time.
50	*** Harry was supposed to appear, but Creator/IanMarter was working in New Zealand at the time.
51	*** Creator/LouiseJameson wanted to reprise her role as Leela again, but supposedly they "couldn't fit her into the story". Considering the character is actually living on Gallifrey at this time and could easily have been written into Peter Davison's scenes, some people suspect it may have been Creator/JohnNathanTurner's antipathy towards [[Creator/GrahamWilliams his predecessor's]] era at work (even if Leela debuted at the tail end of the Creator/PhilipHinchcliffe era).
52	*** Romana was supposed to appear, but Creator/LallaWard turned it down, unwilling to work with Creator/TomBaker again. Creator/MaryTamm wasn't asked to reprise her role.
53	** In early drafts of the script, some of the Doctor and companion combinations were different. This included the Fourth Doctor being with Sarah Jane, the Third Doctor with the Brigadier and the Second Doctor with Jamie. But when Creator/FrazerHines proved unavailable for more than a cameo appearance the script had to be altered, pairing the Second Doctor with Victoria Waterfield. This was changed when Creator/DeborahWatling became unavailable and even more when Creator/TomBaker declined returning, resulting in the pairings as they were screened.
54	** Creator/RobertHolmes was originally asked to write the special. His concept, ''The Six Doctors'', would have featured the Cybermen and their kidnapping of the five incarnations of the Doctor; in their attempt to extract Time Lord DNA to turn themselves into "Cyberlords", the twist being that the First Doctor and Susan would actually be android impostors (the former being the "Sixth Doctor" of the title) and the Second Doctor would have saved the day. Ultimately, Holmes unable to cope with JNT's shopping list of things to put in the script and dropped out, although it did set in motion his return to the show after several years away. Some elements of this plotline would be reused in Holmes' own [[Recap/DoctorWhoS22E4TheTwoDoctors "The Two Doctors"]].
55	** The original script featured an appearance by the Autons. After being dropped into the Death Zone, Sarah would have been attacked by a group of them before being rescued by the Third Doctor. However, due to budgetary restrictions, the scene was dropped and replaced in the finished version with the infamous "fall" over the "cliff".
56	** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS6E1TheDominators The Quarks]] were set to return in this story, but were removed from the script at an early stage and replaced by the Raston Warrior Robot, which is the only new "monster" featured in the special, and was itself a last-minute addition, after Creator/EricSaward told Terrance Dicks that the Third Doctor and Sarah needed to encounter one more obstacle before reaching the tower.
57	** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS20E1ArcOfInfinity Commander Maxil]] was at one point to have appeared. The character was dropped from the final script when Creator/ColinBaker proved unavailable. A popular rumour suggested that this was because Baker had already been selected to replace Peter Davison as the Doctor, but this was untrue: Davison had only just announced his leaving the show and a replacement actor had yet to be picked.
58	** Creator/CharlesGray (who portrayed Blofeld in ''Film/DiamondsAreForever'') was offered the role of Rassilon. The character would eventually be played by a ''Franchise/JamesBond'' actor when Creator/TimothyDalton took up the role in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E17E18TheEndOfTime "The End of Time"]].
59	* WriterRevolt: Creator/TerranceDicks got fed up with script editor Creator/EricSaward's insistence that Cybermen ([[CreatorsFavorite his favourite monster]]) got a bigger and bigger part in the story, so he wrote in a scene with a "Raston warrior robot" (an extremely low-budget monster played by a man in a silver body stocking who could use the equally low-budget StopTrick to teleport) [[CurbStompBattle slaughtering a whole platoon of Cybermen]] and then [[OneSceneWonder exiting the plot]]. Ironically, in a story about five (well, four) of the Doctor's incarnations meeting each other at the dark heart of Gallifrey, this scene ended up as the most memorable part of the whole serial.
60	* YouLookFamiliar: Colonel Crichton is also [[Recap/DoctorWhoS6E7TheWarGames Lieutenant Carstairs]].
61	----
62	!! Miscellaneous Trivia:
63	* Patrick Troughton had, on meeting Peter Davison soon after the latter had been cast as the Doctor, advised him to only stay in the role for three seasons to avoid typecasting and becoming overly associated with one role. While Davison took that advice, leaving the role after the next season, Troughton himself so enjoyed the experience of returning to the role in this episode that he cheerfully [[Recap/DoctorWhoS22E4TheTwoDoctors returned again]] in the season immediately after Davison left.

Context Trivia / DoctorWho20thASTheFiveDoctors