ANATOMY OF A SCRIPT THE DRAFTS
JONATHAN MORRIS explores the script archive, discovering intriguing alternative scenes and the idiosyncrasies of some of the series’ best-known writers.
Opposite page from top: Pik-Sen Lim as Captain Chin Lee in The Mind of Evil (1971); the Seventh Doctor (Sylvester McCoy); and a Mechonoid from The Planet of Decision, the sixth and final episode of The Chase (1965).
Above: The seminal Writing for Television in the 70’s was first published in 1974.
Far left below: Ian (William Russell) is taken to the flying saucer in The Daleks, the second episode of The Dalek Invasion of Earth (1964). In Terry Nation’s draft script, this scene originally appeared at the end of the first episode.
Left: Ian descends a rope to join Vicki (Maureen O’Brien), the Doctor (William Hartnell) and Barbara (Jacqueline Hill) in The Planet of Decision. Following this scene, Terry Nation’s script invited story editor Dennis Spooner to write the conclusion of the adventure.
Once the Doctor Who story outline had been accepted, and the scene breakdown had been agreed (if one was required), the next stage was for the writer to be commissioned to deliver the script itself.
A writer’s submitted script is referred to as a ‘draft’, with subsequent iterations being referred to as second and third drafts and so on, although not all scripts went through that many iterations during the original run of Doctor Who. 1970s script editor Terrance Dicks was of the firm opinion that two drafts were sufficient; if the writer still hadn’t delivered a workable script after that, Dicks would take over and write the script for them, as was certainly the case for the last four episodes of The Seeds of Death in 1969. Indeed, sifting through the production paperwork reveals very little correspondence regarding second and third drafts.