Doctor Who: The Eternal Quest - part two

 

Doctor Who: The Eternal Quest - part one

 

No Strings Attached

 

First Doctor (The Sensorites B&M pack)

Mark 7 (Custom)

Daleks (Character online "The Chase" exclusive)

The Leviathan (Custom)

Earth Control 1 - Cyber Android with Lester (Primeval) head

Earth Control 2 - Raston Warrior Robot with Steven (Primeval) head.

For the two Earthmen, I wanted something kinda 60s looking so I used the Cyber Android and Raston robots, using photoshop to add human heads.

The Leviathan first appeared in The Fate of the Shimmerlings.

It was always my intention that Mark would sacrifice himself to give the Doctor the chance to return to his companions. I wanted to give Mark an emotional send-off. When I stopped doing the regular AFT, this was one of the storylines that was left unfinished.

With the new TV series on the horizon and finding myself with some time on my hands, I decided to run the first Doctor/ Mark 7 series all together and finally finish it off.

I always assumed this would be a two-parter but I've long struggled with bulking out the story. When I realised that to match the TV series (at 8 episodes), I only needed the finale to be a single-parter so it didn't need bulking out at all. 

The storyline was finished on 31 March 2025.

Given how long the story had been in gestation, the script came very quickly and was finished on 2nd April 2025. The original title was The Final Chapter but the first choice for the title was Mission: Interrupted. I also considered The Boy Who Chose but settled on No Strings Attached, a Pinnochio reference to Mark 7 gaining his autonomy.

The bulk of the images were taken on 10 April, starting with the Dalek control room. I was going to default to the silver Hartnell era Daleks but then remembered the "The Chase" movie style versions. They lend this new episode a bit more colour. I'd already made new gold consoles for the set, which also includes glittery walls, so these Daleks fitted perfectly.

The Dalek corridor came next, which uses beige plastic walls.

The Earth scenes were next using the same white plastic walls I've been using for so many of my stories, this time with coloured paper behind to give them a new look.

Filming concluded with the TARDIS interior. This is the first appearance of the TARDIS astrolabe, westminster clock and astral map - all props I made during lockdown.

The last images to be taken were of the TARDIS and Earth rockets. The rocket is from The Satan Pit.

Note, this is the first time in my Hartnell series that I've been able to use a proper Hartnell TARDIS, this one is from Twice Upon A Time.

The memory disc that Mark gives to the Doctor is actually from a Star Wars Episode 1 Comm Tech chip. When it came to give Mark a gun, I couldn't find the original gun I'd made for him so I armed him with a Cyberman gun from The Invasion, fitting as Sara Kingdom used just such a gun.

The images were edited on 10 April and finished the next day on the 11th. There were a few extra images/ panels that weren't included in the script: namely, an establishing shot of the Leviathan after it appears and a single panel of the Doctor, lamenting that he has to leave Mark behind on page 4.

The biggest addition was two panels from Nemesis From Nowhere. It was always the plan that Earth Central send the Leviathan because they mistakenly think the Doctor has taken Mark prisoner. It didn't seem clear enough without the flashback.

Did you spot the typo? Reviewing the story ahead of its publication, I noticed the Doctor says "Oh but what do to?" instead of "what to do" as he ponders his TARDIS trip. I could have changed it but decided to keep it as an homage to William Hartnell's occasional line fluffs.

I still haven't decided where we are in the First Doctor's timeline. The Doctor mentions his "friends" so meaning either Dodo and Steven or Ben and Polly. I guess we'll never know.

When he recalls his memories, Mark mentions the Voord. I did have vague notions and a rough storyline for a Voord adventure so maybe I'll revisit this era some day. 

This episode has never been published before and was posted on 31st May 2025.

Nemesis From Nowhere - Part Two

 

First Doctor - Original release

Daleks (from original Dalek 3 pack)

Mark Seven (Custom Captain Jack)

Kraath (Customs)

The figure of Mark 7 began life as a Series 1 Captain Jack in his RAF uniform. I've added his  bandolier, utility belt and cuff detail in Green Stuff.

His gun is a custom creation using sprue from a model kit and the bendy part of a drinking straw.

Mark's rocket ship is a rubber model ship painted silver, although the paint has mostly flaked off. It has been coloured in photoshop for its blue/yellow and rusted liveries.

The Doctor's cape is made from a circle of black material, draped over his shoulders - no sewing required. This was of course before the Unearthly Child caped Doctor and TARDIS were released.

We didn't even have classic TARDISes at this point, note that I'm using the 2005 RTD version.

I've always been a huge First Doctor era fan and loved the very 60s sci fi turn it took in Season 3 after Verity Lambert left. Plus I always felt there was more mileage in the companion of Sara Kingdom (yes, I do consider her a proper companion)

A DWM article about Terry Nation's planned US Dalek series alerted me to the robotic character Mark 7, part of the Space Security Service. Note, this was long before he appeared in Big Finish audios.

The prospect of a Doctor that has only just developed a 'human' morality from his companions passing that onto a robotic companion was tantalising and that's what I hope to achieve with the Doctor/Mark pairing.

The original 'nemesis' was to have been the Mechanoids but I'd created the Kraath for the previous story and wanted to cement them as a Hartnell monster.

Actually, the very first version of the story featured just the Daleks:

With the war going badly, the Daleks are in retreat but steadfastly hold a seemingly insignificant small planet. As the Doctor and Mark discover though, the Daleks intend to send this planet through time and space and use it as a staging area for an attack on Earth.

With this plan thwarted, Mark accidentally sets the TARDIS in motion as they realise the Daleks are about to launch an even more deadly strike.

My first intention was that the Doctor would be constantly trying to get Mark back home to the year 4005 but that element got dropped in subsequent episodes.

The set for the Dalek ship is based on that from The Dalek Masterplan. The Dalek base scenes were shot back to back with the interior scenes of The Secret of Vega 22, the mini Mark 7 intro story.

The year is 4005, five years after the Dalek Masterplan. In my head cannon, following the exposure of Mavic Chen, the Daleks and humanity begin an all-out war, as alluded to in the many Terry Nation annuals.

In terms of the first Doctor's own timeline, at the time this was posted, I think I'd settled on some time during The War Machines. There is no point in the first Doctor's tenure that he travels alone and certain not between stories.

Certainly, we must be after Masterplan as the Doctor recalls Bret Vyon and Sara Kingdom. I suggest that at some point during The War Machines, with Dodo on Earth, the Doctor is taken out of time (for either The Three Doctors or The Five Doctors) and is now on his way back.

The story was original put online in December 2009 and January 2010.

It was reposted during Series 2 as a classic companion to the new series. Part One was published on 26 April 2025 with part two following on 5 May 2025.

Nemesis From Nowhere - Part One

 

The Eleven Doctors - part one

 

Ed: Not tomorrow, sorry. Next Saturday!

Fallen Angel - one episode

 

INSPIRATION

I wanted a Moffatesque season finale. Having built up the Dalek assault on the dream dimension, I wanted to take the story in  completely different direction to find an unexpected way of resolving it.

The original draft of the final episode took it even further with the Doctor arriving in a mystical setting, meeting odd characters that represented the various people Angel had met on her travels in the TARDIS. It would also have included flying dragons. Angel's subconscious self was represented by a castle that the Doctor and his new friends would have to storm. Only once inside would the Doctor realise he's inside Angel's mind, not in the dream dimension proper.

Having virtually destroyed the TARDIS interior at the top of the episode, I toyed with the idea of the TARDIS reforming with the RTD era control room. This would basically wipe my previous 8th Doctor AFT stories from history (since they're set later than this in the 8th Doctor's timeline) so I decided against it. Just as well, since this predated The Day Of The Doctor which established the War Doctor and his version of the TARDIS interior!

For a long time, the episode was untitled. One title I considered was Out Of Your Mind but I thought this might give too much away. The idea of a fall angel getting redemption was much more appropriate.

CAST

8th Doctor - 11 Doctors boxset

Angel 0 Hermione Grainger (Deathly Hallows)

Dalek Strategist - From Day of the Daleks

Dalek Drones - From Remembrance of the Daleks

Dalek Scientist - From Death To The Daleks

Dalek Supreme - From Remembrance of the Daleks

Dream Person 1 - Claudia (Primeval)

Dream Person 2 - Connor (Primeval)

Dream Person 3 - Abby (Primeval)

SHOOTING

The Skaro scenes were shot on 5th Dec 2010 at the same time as the other Skaro scenes for stories 1 and 4. The TARDIS scenes were shot backwards, beginning with the Doctor and Angel leaving in the TARDIS and ending with the TARDIS interior being destroyed. They were done on 7th Jan 2011.

The Windsor street scenes were filmed weeks later. A pick-up shot of the Doctor and Angel in Angel's memory gallery was taken on 8th March 2011. At the same time a new ending was written and filmed.

EDITS

The images for this final episode were completed on 8th March 2011 with lettering following soon after.

As with many stories in the season, more dialogue was added during the editing to flesh out the stories and characters' motivations. That included a change to the ending.

The original ending was set in the TARDIS and would see the Doctor and Angel ride off into the time vortex. I changed it partly to give a more emotional ending and party to finish on a clean slate while still allowing Angel to return.

Most of the images in Angel's memory gallery were taken from the opening episode of the series before Angel was a duplicate but some images were specially taken. There's a hidden image of Angel standing next to the 11th Doctor. A red herring? Or a glimpse of something we've yet to see? Honest answer: it was a little easter egg but has no meaning and doesn't refer to any planned stories at all.

CONTINUITY

Although not explicitly states in any of the stories, I place the Dalek parts of this series around 3011 - a thousand years from the time the story was made. The Doctor's reference to the Daleks being a renewed threat in a thousand years' time is a reference to The Dalek Masterplan, set in 4000AD.

TRANSMISSION

This finale was originally posted on 30th April 2011 topping off a ten week run of 8th Doctor stories at a time when AFT was a regular monthly thing. It was well received enough that I was planning a second series for the following year but it never happened.

It was re-published online on 28th October 2023.

NEXT TIME

I haven't had time to make an all-original anniversary special so we'll have to make do with the one I made for the 50th. Over the next FIVE WEEKS.