"Doctor Who and the Android King"
In 1983 Doctor Who producer Jerry Jules-Turnbull and his script editor Dougy Wayward crafted a special anniversary season to celebrate the show's 20th Anniversary. The pair decreed that every single story in the new season should hark back to some old adventure, thus truly "celebrating" twenty years in time and space.
The seeds for "Doctor Who and the Android King" were sown in December 1982, when Jules-Turnball was given a big comedy robot for Christmas and hit upon the idea of somehow incorporating it into the series. Unfortunately, despite endearing itself to cast and crew with a number of charming little operational quirks (such as forgetting all its lines and on one occasion electrocuting companion actress Netty Haystack) the Robot subsequently went missing during the end of season party and was later discovered laying in a field with an axe embedded in it. It never appeared in the series again.
This serial also saw the unexpected return of former
companion actress Barbara Windsor, who played June between "The Sleeper of
Braken" and "Doctor Who and Interminable". Due to a contractual misreading and
some spilt coffee, Windsor ended up being paid for this story as well, and so
was rapidly cast as the Trickster when Dame Thora Hird took leave of her
"Doctor Who" duties to have a hip replacement.
Dr Who (William Hartnell) and his companion Terri (Netty Haystack) land in the middle ages so Dr Who can pick up some cheap wine and a prostitute. But, as ever, wrong-doing is afoot and Dr Who smells the familiar pong of an old adversary once more...
Part 1
The sky was a dull grey over the battlefield. Two knights, mounted on chestnut horses, faced each other before an esteemed audience. A number of roughly dressed peasants cheered as the men prepared to charge, and in their centre sat the King, who simply raised a chalice in gesture.
"Let battle commence!" he announced, pausing to receive the council of his adviser, a burly man with a big red beard. The horses each scraped mud with hoof, and began to gallop forwards. Each knight pulled down his helmet and prepared to joust. But as the horses moved closer, something was clearly wrong.
"What is 'appenin?" called out Pierre Labido, the King's adviser. Both horses buckled and rose up on their hind legs as a shabby tall blue police box appeared from no-where to stand in between them, a pair of spotted long-johns draped over its spinning light. The crowd
murmured, unsettled.
"Do evil spirits sit in our midst?" said the King. But it wasn't evil spirits - it was Dr Who and his his latest assistant Terri, an air stewardess who had stumbled into the ship on the Basingstoke bypass.
"It's not Knobbly 7 the aqua planet after all!" exclaimed Terri. "It's just a smelly old field!"
There was a muttering from behind her as Dr Who stepped out the ship and wiped a big clump of horse poo off his boot. He sniffed the air instinctively.
"We're in Exeter!" he cried. "And the year my dear, is 1506!"
Soon the King and his men had invited their "evil spirits" into the castle for a wine and cheese party.
"There's something wrong here!" Dr Who whispered to Terri as he finished his second bottle of wine. "That King seemed very accepting of the sudden appearance of TARDIS."
"Perhaps he's a rival Dr Who in disguise?" suggested Terri, to which the Doctor slapped her playfully round the face.
"Don't be ridiculous child!" he replied. "I'm the only person here with a Ship, and let that be an end to it!"
Meanwhile, the strange Pierre was rising up behind the King.
"Do these spirits fight?" he asked, through his thick red beard and with a piercing stare at Dr Who. As if he were being worked by remote control, the King slowly and
mechanically turned to Dr Who, like a robot in disguise.
"Let him fight!" he agreed. Terri prodded Dr Who to wake him up.
"You can't fight him, he has the biggest rod in France!" she protested.
"Just as well we're in England then!" argued back Dr Who, leaping over the table and confronting the burly stranger. But then, something odd happened. As the two men squared up to face one another, the face of the burly knight began to shimmer and change.
"The Trickster!" Dr Who exclaimed in disgust. "I should have known something this mysterious would have you behind it!"
"But not soon enough though!" said the Trickster.
"What?" said Dr Who.
"Who is the Trickster?" asked Terri.
"My dear girl!" replied Dr Who, secretly reaching inside his trouser pocket and feeling for a knob. "The Trickster is my oldest, silliest and down right oldest enemy! I last left him trapped within the realm of a split-personality entity at the dawn of civilisation."
"You think I didn't escape?" retorted the Trickster. "Well I did! And now I've returned to wreak havoc on this one old castle!"
"I think it could the end of everything!" Terri gasped, for no apparent reason.
