Shada
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Template:Doctorwhobox Shada is an unaired serial of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was intended to be the final serial of the 1979 season (Season 17), but was never completed due to a strike at the BBC during filming. It is also the title of the remake, an audio play produced by Big Finish Productions and webcast on BBCi. The audio play was re-broadcast, this time on digital radio station BBC 7, on 10 December 2005.
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Synopsis
Image:Shada.jpg The story revolves around the lost planet Shada, on which the Time Lords built a prison for defeated would-be conquerors of the universe. Skagra, an up-and-coming would-be conqueror of the universe, needs the assistance of one of the prison's inmates, but finds that nobody knows where Shada is anymore except one aged Time Lord who has retired to Earth, where he is masquerading as a professor at St. Cedd's College, Cambridge (the story features some on-location filming in Cambridge, all of which was fortunately completed before the strike). Luckily for the fate of the universe, Skagra's attempt to force the information out of Professor Chronotis coincides with a visit by the professor's old friend the Doctor (and this is where the story really begins).
Television cast
- Doctor Who — Tom Baker
- Romana — Lalla Ward
- Voice of K-9 — David Brierley
- Skagra — Christopher Neame
- Professor Chronotis — Denis Carey
- Chris Parsons — Daniel Hill
- Clare Keightley — Victoria Burgoyne
- Wilkin the Porter — Gerald Campion
- Dr Caldera — Derek Pollitt
- Police Constable — John Hallet
- Passenger — David Strong
- Voice of the Ship — Shirley Dixon
- Voice of the Krargs — James Coombes
- Krargs — James Muir, Lionel Sansby, Derek Suthern, Reg Woods
Notes
- Shada was released on video in 1992, with the missing sections filled in by commentary delivered by Tom Baker. In all parts of the world except North America, the video cassette was accompanied by a facsimile of a version of Douglas Adams's script. The release was discontinued in 1996, although is still in print in the United States.
- Elements of the story were reused by Adams for his novel Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, in particular the character of Professor Chronotis who possesses a time machine. Due in part to this, as well as the fact the story was never broadcast, Target Books was unable to publish a novelisation based upon the story; it is one of only five serials from the 1963-89 series not to be novelised. A fan group in New Zealand, however, did publish an unofficial adaptation. [1]
- In 1983, clips from Shada were used in The Five Doctors, the 20th anniversary special. Tom Baker, the fourth actor to play the Doctor, had declined to appear in the special, and the plot was reworked to explain the events in the clips.
- In an unfilmed scene in Episode Five, a listing of prisoners kept on Shada was to have included a Dalek, a Cyberman and a Zygon.
Big Finish remake
Template:Bigfinishbox In 2003, the BBC commissioned Big Finish Productions to remake Shada as an audio play which was then webcast in six episodic segments, accompanied by limited Flash animation, on the BBCi website.
Big Finish cast
- The Doctor — Paul McGann
- Romana — Lalla Ward
- K-9 — John Leeson
- Chris Parsons — Sean Biggerstaff
- Constable — Stuart Crossman
- Professor Caldera — Barnaby Edwards
- Professor Chronotis — James Fox
- The Ship — Hannah Gordon
- Clare Keightley — Susannah Harker
- Wilkin — Melvyn Hayes
- Think Tank Voice — Nicholas Pegg
- Skagra — Andrew Sachs
Notes
- Although working from the original Adams script, portions of the story were reworked by Gary Russell to make the story fit into Doctor Who continuity. This included a new introduction, and a new explanation for the Fourth Doctor and Romana being "taken out of time" during the events of The Five Doctors. It currently remains available from the website, and an expanded audio-only version is available for purchase on CD from Big Finish. The expanded version was the one broadcast on BBC7.
- When the character of Skagra is investigating the Doctor, clips from three other Big Finish productions can be heard, exclusively on the CD version: The Fires of Vulcan, The Marian Conspiracy and Phantasmagoria.