The Lost Doctor
The Lost Doctor is an independent Doctor Who episode written by Tommy Calderbank.
The Lost Doctor[edit]
Doctor Who is a long-running Sci-Fi show from British Television that has inspired a global cult following, one consequence of which is a range of parallel literary and theatrical productions. Its titular character has inspired generations of fans, and the show has produced a large number of other cultural ephemera including movies, books, merchandise and music. The Lost Doctor is an independently-produced episode based on the idea that the late Ken Campbell might have had the opportunity to play The Doctor if things had turned out differently. It was developed and produced by Tommy Calderbank in Liverpool, and was released on November 23, 2016 to coincide with the 53rd anniversary of the broadcast of the very first episode of Doctor Who. One review has opined that this new episode is "like The Archers, on acid" [1]
The Lost Doctor gives Ken Campbell the role he was once denied. He lost the opportunity to Sylvester McCoy in the casting of the Seventh Doctor back in 1987. Campbell auditioned for the role but was considered too dark.[1] The Lost Doctor is said to be a love letter to Ken from Liverpool, having been written, produced and performed in the city (Campbell had strong connections in the city including an involvement in the Everyman Theatre). It features the vocal talents of local actors Paul Duckworth, Paula Simms and Helen Allmark; it also includes sounds and music from local band I, Discordian.[2]
The development of the idea[edit]
In his research Tommy Calderbank found that Sylvester McCoy, having won the part from Ken Campbell in 1987, was actually once a protégé of Ken's. This triggered the idea to create an episode with Ken in the lead part, in order to correct this injustice. The script is derived from a search of Ken's audio recordings, for dialogue that could be styled as if "from" the Doctor. This proved easier than might have been expected, because Ken was like a real life Doctor; he was hardly a conformist and he broke new territory in a number of ways. The script was woven around a selection of his material, taken with the permission of Ken's daughter Daisy.[2] In November 2014 she put a version of ‘The Lost Doctor’ on the bill of her production of Cosmic Trigger, the sequel to Illuminatus!. This was a script-in-hand performance that generated ideas for a fully developed and revised version of the script.[1]
The Doctor's companions[edit]
In the script Ken's Doctor has two companions: Luna and 23.
Luna (played by Paula Simms) is based on Patricia Luna Wilson, who in real life was the daughter of the famed immortalist writer and discordianist Robert Anton Wilson; she was brutally murdered in 1976 and her brain was put into cryonic suspension [3] by the Bay Area Cryonics Society. The script supposes that hers was the first cryogenically frozen brain brought back to life in the future.
23, played by longtime Ken collaborator Lisa Lovebucket, is entirely imaginary - a cybernetic organism from the planet Cyberia.
The villains[edit]
The script includes a host of new villains: The Guild of Temporal Assassins, who are a bunch of time-travelling baddies killing people throughout time and space. Their leader is Skorpiana, and there's a brother/sister duo, Terminus and Synchronus. Terminus is played by Paul Duckworth; Synchronus is played by Helen Allmark, bringing a real touch of Liverpool to the proceedings.[2]
Future plans[edit]
It is intended that there will be a second Episode to resolve the cliffhanger that ends the first Episode. After that it will depend on the fan response. Tommy Calderbank offers this as a truly unique Doctor Who fan project which brings Ken Campbell's eccentric incarnation-that-could-have-been to life.[1]
References[edit]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Email from Tommy Calderbank, Wednesday, 7 December 2016
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Liverpool Confidential, Wednesday, 23 November 2016
- ↑ Luna Wilson on S23Wiki
External links[edit]
- [1] Link to a SoundCloud recording of the first episode
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