After watching Delta And The Bannermen I wondered if producer John Nathan-Turner's goal was to change Doctor Who into a pantomime. He comes pretty darn close in the 147th serial in the nearly never ending series. The story's in three parts and it first aired November 2-16 1987. Sylvester McCoy is the Doctor and Bonnie Langford as Melanie Bush. Malcolm Kohll is the writer and Chris Clough is the director. John Nathan-Turner is the producer and Andrew Cartmel is the script editor.
The Doctor and Mel get involved with Delta and her flight from the evil Gavrok and his Bannermen. Gavrok is killing off Delta's people, she's the last, other than the unborn princess in an egg. Delta hides out on a tour bus full of aliens coming to Earth in the 1950's. Mel travels with the bus and the Doctor follows in the Tardis. The bus hits a satellite near Earth and it winds up in a holiday camp on Barry Island in Wales. Keep an eye out for Stubby Kaye as an American CIA Agent. The holiday camp gets invaded by Gavrok and the Bannermen. There's plenty of fighting and running about. The entertaining Richard Davies plays the camp manager.
The camp handyman falls for Delta and helps them fight Gavrok and his scumbags. The Doc gets a hand from the adorable Sara Griffiths who's sad when the handyman leaves with Delta. She had a thing for him but she got his nice motorcycle and sidecar so she's not too bad off. It's all pretty silly and there's plenty of over-acting and broad comedy. I certainly enjoyed it more than the last serial but I'm partial to silly.
That Sylvester and Ken Dodd above. Ken plays the Tollmaster at the Tollport. Ken was a popular entertainer in the 1960's and he still continues to work. In the 60s he got a record in the Guinness Book of Records for doing the world's longest ever joke-telling session. In 3.5 hours he told 1,500 jokes which is 7.14 jokes per minute. There's a rather low key commentary with Sylvester McCoy, Chris Clough, Andrew Cartmel and Sara Griffith. There's the making of, some location interviews, the 7-8 minute longer 1st edit of the first episode, an interview with Hugh Lloyd, Clown Court sketch from The Noel Edmonds Saturday Roadshow with Sylvester as the Doctor, a short on the comic book stories of the 7th Doctor, trails and continuity, info text, Radio Times listing PDF, a Coming Soon ad for an earlier serial with William Hartnell.
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