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 'THE CURSE OF FATAL

 DEATH' VHS VIDEO

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 IN SEPTEMBER 1999.

 

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 BLURB

 The Doctor agrees to

 meet his old foe the

 Master on the planet

 Tersarus.  But when

 the Doctor arrives,

 assisted by the

 lovely Emma, the

 Master has prepared

 a series of hideous

 tortures for

 them. Horrible

 tortures. Evil, nasty

 and decidedly

 unpleasant

 tortures...

 

 As the Doctor and

 the Master attempt to

 outwit one another a

 bizarre odyssey

 unfolds, featuring

 treacherous

 trapdoors, bottom

 burps, foul-smelling

 sewers and the

 infamous sofa of

 reasonable

 comfort. When the

 Daleks become

 involved, a series of

 mishaps trigger the

 Doctor's

 regeneration cycle,

 leading to the biggest

 and most exciting

 adventure of his

 lives!

 

 

Doctor Who and The  Curse of

Fatal Death

12TH MARCH 1999

(2 10-MINUTE EPISODES, ORIGINALLY BROADCAST AS 4 5-MINUTE EPISODES)

 

 

                                                       

  

 

The 1999 Comic Relief special, Doctor Who and the Curse of Fatal Death, cheer-

fully rips Doctor Who to shreds in a cruel but loving way, serving as a fitting epitaph to the series. Even though it does not feature any of the original cast (unless you count the Dalek operators), somehow it feels much, much closer to what Doctor Who is all about than the Children In Need debacle, Dimensions in Time, ever did – and that story featured five

bona fide Doctors and a whole host of companions and monsters!

 

”He was never cruel and never cowardly, and it’ll never be safe to be scared again.”

 

Steven Moffat’s script is absolutely inspired. The man is such a talented writer, with such

a knowledge of the series, that he was not only able to send it up successfully but he also managed to throw in the odd line or two that was genuinely touching and nostalgic, such as He was never cruel and never cowardly, and it’ll never be safe to be scared again”.

 

Nevertheless, Moffat’s script would have been nothing without a stellar cast to perform it. I could not believe it when I saw the first trailers for The Curse of Fatal Death – Rowan Atkinson as the Doctor! I had been saying it for years – he would be perfect! The Black-adder sarcasm, those crazy facial expressions and mad eyes, and that voice! Atkinson’s Doctor may have a very ‘eighth Doctor’ look, but his portrayal of the character is entirely his own, complete with a sex drive that seemed to elude his predecessors. Yes, The Curse of Fatal Death goes where only the TV Movie and The Aztecs ever dared to lightly tread…

 

 

Tired of the same old life, the Doctor has decided to retire and marry his assistant, Emma – the only time-travelling companion that he has ever had; “A girl more thrilling than an escape up a ventilation shaft!” Julia Sawalha plays the lucky lady, and it is pretty obvious what sets her apart from Jo Grant, Peri Brown, and the like – instead of asking “what’s going on?”, Emma says things like, “Doctor, given that it would be the most sensible thing to do, why don’t the Daleks just exterminate you? Why do they always change their mind? How can

they destroy the entire universe in minutes with just a beam?”, merrily exposing the (delib-erate) flaws in the plot and setting up the lovely “I’ll explain later…” running joke, not to ment-ion completely turning the companion’s role on its head.

 

However, it is the Master, brought to life magnificently by Jonathan Pryce, who undoubtedly steals the show. Not only does he get some of the best over-the-top acting to do and some of the best lines, but in my eyes he is responsible for making the whole skit feel so redolent. Many viewers who may only remember the odd 1970s Jon Pertwee serial, could be forgiven for thinking that this is the original Master brought back. Pryce has not only the look of Roger Delgado, but also Anthony Ainley’s camp relish for evil and a TARDIS console so wobbly it makes William Hartnell’s seem decidedly sturdy. In the opening minutes, he also shares some wonderful scenes playing a little game of temporal one-upmanship with the Doctor – all the wonderful “sofa of relative comfort” stuff – before being, in true Master style, hoist by his own petard. He spends centuries wading through Tersarus’ underground sewers, only to end up with a pair of (very firm) Dalek bumps, which the Doctor and Emma think look un-cannily like breasts…

 

“Look after the universe for me, I’ve put a lot of work into it.”

 

The final part of the story will doubtless be the best remembered as it sees the Doctor use up all his remaining regenerations in about three minutes! Atkinson gives way to Richard E Grant’s “lick the mirror handsome” Doctor; who in turn hands over to Jim Broadbent’s shy, bashful Doctor; who then goes on to morph into Hugh Grant. Emma seems particularly

happy with both Grants, but far less so with Broadbent! From a fan’s point of view though,

all of the Doctors that we see here would probably have made excellent ‘proper’ Doctors were the series still in production. As I mentioned earlier, I had always thought Atkinson would be ideal for the part, and both Richard E Grant and Broadbent both showed a lot of promise too. But when Hugh Grant’s twelfth Doctor dies saving the universe, Moffat breaks another taboo…

 

Joanna Lumley; Doctor number thirteen – a woman! A woman who seems far too interested in how many settings her sonic screwdriver has…!

 

“You’re just not the man I fell in love with.”

 

It’s a lovely, tongue-in-cheek ending to a tribute that completely eclipses the BBC’s last

effort back in 1993. The stars may not be ‘proper’ Doctors like in Dimensions in Time, but this Comic Relief special certainly feels much more like the classic series. Those evocative Tom Baker Titles; incidental music lifted from stories like Frontier In Space, Logopolis

and Castrovalva; graphics from the TV Movie… All told, Doctor Who and the Curse of

Fatal Death is a wonderful production; written, performed and produced with an obvious

love for the series. I’d heartily recommend it to anyone with twenty minutes to spare!

 

Copyright © E.G. Wolverson 2006

 

E.G. Wolverson has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.

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