Would Doctor Who have survived without John Nathan-Turner?
Becoming the producer of Doctor Who is a bit like being elected president. No matter what you say, no matter what you do, there are going to be people who think you are wonderful, and there are going to be people who will be rallying for your dismissal. Certainly, there is an element of ‘damned if you do, damned if you don’t’ when it comes to steering the good ship TARDIS.
Undoubtedly, John Nathan-Turner was tenacious, passionate and savvy. He had a huge love for Doctor Who, and was a fan himself. In fact, he had been connected with the programme in one form or another since the late 60s, at the tail-end of Patrick Troughton’s run. And he worked as the production unit manager in the 70s, when Tom Baker had the keys to the TARDIS. Famously, it was John Nathan-Turner’s canny budgeting that allowed the production team to film on the streets of Paris, creating the backdrop for what is regarded as one of the most popular Doctor Who stories of all time, ‘City of Death.’
But in 1985, John Nathan-Turner found himself in the midst of a crisis. The upper echelons of the BBC were not – to put it mildly – the biggest fans of Doctor Who, and wanted to take it off air so that they could spend money on other things, such as the Corporation’s new soap opera Eastenders.
This put John Nathan-Turner in the firing line, facing potential redundancy. Yes, he was a staff producer at the BBC, so he could theoretically have been given another show if Doctor Who had been pulled. But he could also have been left with nothing. This would have been a very embarrassing situation to have been put into, as John Nathan-Turner explained in a later interview on the BBC’s DVD range. He said that there was nothing more humiliating than being a staff producer and not having programmes to make.
Or he could simply have been fired, as suggested by the former head of drama series and serials at the BBC, Jonathan Powell, who said in an interview that he had no idea what he would have done with John Nathan-Turner if he hadn’t been working on Doctor Who.
As we know, Doctor Who stayed on the air until 1989 and John Nathan-Turner kept his job, but it wasn’t necessarily because the BBC was ‘on side.’ The backlash to the show’s proposed cancellation was unprecedented, with fans threatening to picket the Houses of Parliament with Daleks if the Corporation didn’t revoke its decision. As such, the BBC had no choice but to cede to the demands of its licence fee payers and produce another series. And they couldn’t find anyone else to run the show other than John Nathan-Turner.
This created a problem for the producer, who had already been with the programme for a number of years and was keen to move on. He loved Doctor Who and didn’t want to see it pulled from the airwaves. And he also had his livelihood to think about; he was told that, if he didn’t continue to make Doctor Who, then there wouldn’t be any more work for him at the BBC.
John Nathan-Turner, therefore, decided to stick with it, against all the odds. He had his yearly episode count curtailed from an average of 26 episodes to 14, and he found himself with less and less money. It was barely possible to even keep the TARDIS in the series as the original set was damaged beyond repair and could no longer be used, hence its brief, dimly-lit appearance in Season 26. John Nathan-Turner didn’t have the money to build a new one, nor did he have an adequate allocation of studio time to make the kinds of stories he produced at the start of his tenure.
Again, this is where John Nathan-Turner‘s skill as a numbers man came to the fore, as he realised he could produce Doctor Who more efficiently (and within budget) if he shot two serials entirely on location, and two serials in the studio. This is why adventures such as ‘Silver Nemesis’ and ‘The Curse of Fenric’ don’t have any studio scenes at all. Even ‘The Greatest Show in the Galaxy,’ believe it or not, was shot entirely on location, despite having a TARDIS scene. The console room was reconstructed in a car park.
And whilst John Nathan-Turner has faced much criticism over the years for his penchant for so-called ‘stunt casting,’ one has to remember that John Nathan-Turner, if nothing else, knew how to garner publicity for Doctor Who. He knew, for example, that if he brought the Daleks back with pomp and ceremony, he would immediately see a rise in ratings. And as much as people might have baulked at the idea of celebrities like Ken Dodd appearing in an ostensibly serious science fiction show like Doctor Who, there’s no denying that more people would be inclined to tune in, simply to see what it was like.
But those factors aside, the reality is that, if John Nathan-Turner had really dug his heels into the ground and refused to produce any more Doctor Who after Colin Baker’s departure in 1986, there’s a real chance that the series would have ended there, and history would have been very different. It’s likely that the BBC wouldn’t have been able to find a replacement for him, and would have shelved the programme. There would have been no Seventh Doctor, no Ace, no unlimited rice pudding, and our Blu-ray collections would be all the poorer.
So whilst he might not have been the most beloved producer in Doctor Who‘s history, and whilst some of the stories he oversaw might have made hardcore fans shudder, it all comes down to one question: would you rather have shuddery, or no Doctor Who? John Nathan-Turner, if nothing else, kept the series on the air for as long as he could.
But on a more positive note, tell us: which is your favourite story from the John Nathan-Turner era? Let us know in the comments below.
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