Survival (Doctor Who)
Encyclopedia

Writing

Writer Rona Munro
Rona Munro
Rona Munro is a Scottish writer. She has written plays for theatre, radio, and television; was the author of the screenplay of Ken Loach's Ladybird, Ladybird and co-author of Aimée & Jaguar by German director Max Färberböck.Munro is also known for being the author of the last Doctor Who television...

 approached script editor Andrew Cartmel
Andrew Cartmel
Andrew Cartmel is a British science fiction writer and journalist, and former script editor of Doctor Who. He has also worked as a script editor on other television series, as a magazine editor, a film studies lecturer and as a novelist.-Biography:...

 at a BBC scriptwriting workshop and said that she'd "kill to write for Doctor Who." The story Munro developed incorporated themes including the morals of hunting (personified by the Cheetah People and signposted by Ace's friend Ange collecting for hunt saboteur
Hunt saboteur
Hunt sabotage is the direct action that animal rights or animal welfare activists undertake to interfere with hunting activity.Anti-hunting campaigners are divided into those who believe in direct intervention and those who watch the hunt to monitor for cruelty and report violations of animal...

s). Working titles for the story included Cat-Flap and Blood Hunt. The title Survival was chosen by Cartmel. Munro was disappointed by the realisation of the Cheetah People:

Filming

Survival was one of only three Doctor Who serials to be recorded completely on BBC Outside Broadcast video, instead of the mix of OB and studio video that was more usual during the late 1980s, and the mix of film and video that was usual before them. This was probably possible because Ghost Light
Ghost Light (Doctor Who)
-Pre-production:Working titles for this story included The Bestiary and Life-Cycle. As revealed in the production notes for the DVD release, the story was renamed Das Haus der tausend Schrecken upon translation into German.The story evolved out of an earlier, rejected script entitled Lungbarrow...

, the next story in production, was filmed completely in the studio. The other stories to be recorded solely on OB video were The Sontaran Experiment
The Sontaran Experiment
The Sontaran Experiment is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was originally broadcast in two weekly parts on 22 February and 1 March 1975.-Synopsis:...

(1975) and the previous story The Curse of Fenric
The Curse of Fenric
The Curse of Fenric is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 25 October to 15 November 1989...

(1989).

It was almost 100 degrees Fahrenheit
Fahrenheit
Fahrenheit is the temperature scale proposed in 1724 by, and named after, the German physicist Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit . Within this scale, the freezing of water into ice is defined at 32 degrees, while the boiling point of water is defined to be 212 degrees...

 on the shooting days for the scenes on the planet of the Cheetah people. One of the extras removed her costume (revealing that she was wearing very little underneath) and simply walked off the set, causing delays while a replacement was found. The battle at the climax of the story was recorded and is set on the site of the ancient hill fort
Hill fort
A hill fort is a type of earthworks used as a fortified refuge or defended settlement, located to exploit a rise in elevation for defensive advantage. They are typically European and of the Bronze and Iron Ages. Some were used in the post-Roman period...

 at Horsenden Hill
Horsenden Hill
Horsenden Hill is a hill and open space, located in the Perivale, Sudbury, and Greenford areas of London, UK. It is in the London Borough of Ealing, close to the boundary with the London Borough of Brent. It is one of the higher eminences in the local area, rising to 85m / 276 ft above sea level,...

, Perivale. The majority of location recording was done in and around Perivale, with small sections shot at nearby Ealing
Ealing
Ealing is a suburban area of west London, England and the administrative centre of the London Borough of Ealing. It is located west of Charing Cross and around from the City of London. It is one of the major metropolitan centres identified in the London Plan. It was historically a rural village...

, outside and near The Drayton Court
The Drayton Court
The Drayton Court is a former hotel and one of the oldest pubs in Ealing, west London. The former Vietnamese revolutionary and statesman, Hồ Chí Minh, worked in the kitchens in 1914.-History:...

 pub.

The final Doctor Who episode in the original seasons

Having already surmised that episode three of Survival was likely to at least be the last episode of Doctor Who for some time, and possibly the last ever, the programme's producer John Nathan-Turner decided close to transmission that a more suitable conclusion should be given to the final episode. To this end, script editor
Script editor
A script editor is a member of the production team of scripted television programmes, usually dramas and comedies. The script editor has many responsibilities including finding new script writers, developing storyline and series ideas with writers, ensuring that scripts are suitable for production...

 Andrew Cartmel
Andrew Cartmel
Andrew Cartmel is a British science fiction writer and journalist, and former script editor of Doctor Who. He has also worked as a script editor on other television series, as a magazine editor, a film studies lecturer and as a novelist.-Biography:...

 wrote a short, melancholic closing monologue for actor Sylvester McCoy, which McCoy recorded on 23 November 1989, the day after Episode 1 was broadcast, and also by coincidence, the show's twenty-sixth anniversary:

"There are worlds out there where the sky is burning, and the sea's asleep, and the rivers dream. People made of smoke, and cities made of song. Somewhere there's danger, somewhere there’s injustice, and somewhere else the tea's getting cold. Come on, Ace — we’ve got work to do!"

This was dubbed over the closing scene as the Doctor and Ace walked off into the distance, apparently to further adventures. The Doctor Who production office at the BBC finally closed down in August 1990, having been in continuous operation since 1963.

Although Survival was the last Doctor Who serial of the original series to be transmitted, it was not the last to have been produced; that was Ghost Light
Ghost Light (Doctor Who)
-Pre-production:Working titles for this story included The Bestiary and Life-Cycle. As revealed in the production notes for the DVD release, the story was renamed Das Haus der tausend Schrecken upon translation into German.The story evolved out of an earlier, rejected script entitled Lungbarrow...

, which had been broadcast some weeks earlier, as the antepenultimate story of the original run.

This story is the last to feature Anthony Ainley as the Master. Ainley was not asked to return as the Master for the 1996 Doctor Who television movie. Instead, Gordon Tipple was cast as the Master for the prologue and Eric Roberts
Eric Roberts
Eric Anthony Roberts is an American actor. His career began with King of the Gypsies , earning a Golden Globe nomination for best actor debut. He starred as the protagonist in the 1980 dramatisation of Willa Cather's 1905 short story, Paul's Case...

 played the Master for the rest of the movie. Ainley reprised the role of the Master for the 1997 computer game Destiny of the Doctors
Destiny of the Doctors
Doctor Who: Destiny of the Doctors is a PC computer game based on the British science fiction television series Doctor Who; released on 5 December 1997 by BBC Multimedia.- Overview :...

. He continued to be active in Doctor Who, attending conventions and recording a commentary track for the DVD of the 1981 serial The Keeper of Traken
The Keeper of Traken
-Cast notes:Denis Carey, who plays the Keeper, also played Professor Chronotis in the uncompleted Fourth Doctor serial Shada, and the Old Man in the Sixth Doctor story Timelash....

. Ainley died in May 2004.

This story was also the last to entirely feature Sylvester McCoy as the Doctor. McCoy returned briefly to the role at the beginning of the 1996 Doctor Who television movie to regenerate into the Eighth Doctor
Eighth Doctor
The Eighth Doctor is the eighth incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He was portrayed by Paul McGann...

 (played by Paul McGann
Paul McGann
Paul McGann is an English actor who made his name on the BBC serial The Monocled Mutineer, in which he played the lead role...

).

Finally, this story was the last to feature Sophie Aldred as Ace. Aldred would have continued in her role had the series been renewed for Season 27; however, Aldred's contract was set to expire at the middle part of that season. As a result, the character of Ace was set to be written out of the series in an Ice Warrior
Ice Warrior
The Ice Warriors are a fictional extraterrestrial race of reptilian-like humanoids in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. The race originated on Mars, and first appeared in the 1967 serial The Ice Warriors where they encountered the Second Doctor and his...

 story called Ice Time (1990) by Marc Platt
Marc Platt
Marc Platt is a British writer. He is most known for his work with the BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who.After studying catering at a technical college, Platt worked first for Trust House Forte, and then in administration for the BBC...

. According to various interviews with the production team, the new companion would have been a female safecracker
Safe-cracking
Safe-cracking is the process of opening a safe without either the combination or key. It may also refer to a computer hacker's attempts to break into a secured computer system, in which case it may be shortened to "cracking" or black hat hacking....

 whom the Doctor would have taken under his wing, with her gangster father as a recurring character. For details on Doctor Who during the 1990s, see History of Doctor Who.

Both McCoy and Aldred would play their characters on screen for the BBC on two occasions after Survival was broadcast: first in a 1990 episode of the schools and colleges series Search Out Science and once more in 1993, along with many other former Doctor Who actors, in Dimensions in Time
Dimensions in Time
Dimensions in Time is a charity special crossover between the British science fiction television series Doctor Who and the soap opera EastEnders that ran in two parts on 26 and 27 November 1993. It was filmed on the EastEnders Albert Square set, and features several of the stars of that programme...

, a benefit for Children in Need
Children in Need
Children in Need is an annual British charity appeal organised by the BBC. Since 1980 it has raised over £500 million. The highlight of the Children in Need appeal is an annual telethon, held in November. A teddy bear named "Pudsey Bear" fronts the campaign, while Terry Wogan is a long...

. The two actors reprised their roles in officially licensed audio productions for Big Finish
Big Finish Productions
Big Finish Productions is a British company that produces books and audio plays based, primarily, on cult British science fiction properties...

 starting in 1999, and again in 2001 for the BBC webcast
Webcast
A webcast is a media presentation distributed over the Internet using streaming media technology to distribute a single content source to many simultaneous listeners/viewers. A webcast may either be distributed live or on demand...

 production, Death Comes to Time
Death Comes to Time
Death Comes to Time is a webcast audio drama based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who, produced by the BBC and first broadcast in five episodes on the BBCi Cult website from 12 July 2001, accompanied by limited animation.-Synopsis:When two Time Lords are...

. It should be noted, however, that the canonicity
Canon (fiction)
In the context of a work of fiction, the term canon denotes the material accepted as "official" in a fictional universe's fan base. It is often contrasted with, or used as the basis for, works of fan fiction, which are not considered canonical...

 of these follow-ups is uncertain.

Doctor Who eventually returned to production as a BBC television series in 2004, produced by BBC Wales
BBC Wales
BBC Cymru Wales is a division of the British Broadcasting Corporation for Wales. Based at Broadcasting House in the Llandaff area of Cardiff, it directly employs over 1200 people, and produces a broad range of television, radio and online services in both the Welsh and English languages.Outside...

. "Rose
Rose (Doctor Who)
"Rose" is the first episode of Series One of the British science-fiction television series Doctor Who. Written by show runner Russell T Davies and directed by Keith Boak, the episode was first broadcast on 26 March 2005....

", the first episode of the new series, aired on 26 March 2005. As the new series is produced as 45-minute episodes, this makes Survival the final serial to date to be produced in 25-minute instalments, which had been the standard for the series (except for a one-season experiment with 45-minute episodes in 1985) since 1963. This story was also the last to feature the face of the current Doctor in the title sequence, a tradition dating back to The Macra Terror
The Macra Terror
The Macra Terror is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 11 March to 1 April 1967...

of 1967. Both the TV Movie that followed this, and the revived series of 2005, had title sequences featuring a "time tunnel" effect.

Cast notes

  • The part of Karra in this serial is played by Lisa Bowerman, who is now more familiar to fans as the voice of Bernice Summerfield
    Bernice Summerfield
    Bernice Surprise Summerfield is a fictional character created by author Paul Cornell as a new companion of the Seventh Doctor in Virgin Publishing's range of original full-length Doctor Who novels, the New Adventures...

     in the Big Finish Productions
    Big Finish Productions
    Big Finish Productions is a British company that produces books and audio plays based, primarily, on cult British science fiction properties...

     audio dramas. She is also a director of many Big Finish productions, and also returned to the Doctor Who series proper when she provided voice-acting work for the animated special Dreamland
    Dreamland (Doctor Who)
    Dreamland is the second animated Doctor Who serial to air on television...

    in 2009.
  • This serial features guest appearances of the comedians Gareth Hale and Norman Pace, and actress Adele Silva (as an 8-year old, in her first television role). See also Celebrity appearances in Doctor Who
    Celebrity appearances in Doctor Who
    This is a list of actors who have made guest appearances in Doctor Who.-First Doctor stories:-Second Doctor stories:-Third Doctor stories:-Fourth Doctor stories:-Fifth Doctor stories:-Sixth Doctor stories:-Seventh Doctor stories:...

    .

Broadcast and reception

There was no direct indication given to the public that this was to be the final regular instalment of Doctor Who; however, unlike previous years' final episodes, this one featured no announcement in the closing credits that the programme would return the following year.

In print

A novelisation of this serial, written by Rona Munro
Rona Munro
Rona Munro is a Scottish writer. She has written plays for theatre, radio, and television; was the author of the screenplay of Ken Loach's Ladybird, Ladybird and co-author of Aimée & Jaguar by German director Max Färberböck.Munro is also known for being the author of the last Doctor Who television...

, was published by Target Books
Target Books
Target Books was a British publishing imprint, established in 1973 by Universal-Tandem Publishing Co Ltd, a paperback publishing company. The imprint was established as a children's imprint to complement the adult Tandem imprint, and became well known for their highly successful range of...

 in October 1990, making Munro the third woman to write a Doctor Who novelisation.

VHS and DVD releases

  • This story was released on VHS
    VHS
    The Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....

     in October 1995.
  • The story was released on DVD
    DVD
    A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....

    on 16 April 2007 as a 2-disc set.

External links


Target novelisation

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