Shada

:"For the Arabic emphasis sign, see Shadda; for the village in Azerbaijan, see Şada."Doctorwhobox
number=109


caption=Shada, the prison planetoid of the Time Lords
serial_name= Shada
show=DW
type=serial
doctor=Tom Baker (Fourth Doctor)
companion=David Brierley (K-9 Mk. II)
companion2=Lalla Ward (Romana II)
guests=*Christopher Neame — Skagra
*Denis Carey — Professor Chronotis
*Daniel Hill — Chris Parsons
*Victoria Burgoyne — Clare Keightley
*Gerald Campion — Wilkin
*Derek Pollitt — Dr Caldera
*John Hallet — Police Constable
*David Strong — Passenger
*Shirley Dixon — Voice of the Ship
*James Coombes — Voice of the Krargs
*James Muir, Lionel Sansby, Derek Suthern, Reg Woods — Krargs
writer=Douglas Adams
director=Pennant Roberts (original)
script_editor=Douglas Adams
producer=Graham Williams (original)
John Nathan-Turner (video)
executive_producer=none
production_code=5M
series=Season 17
length=Never completed (original)
6 episodes, 25 minutes each (intended)
date=Untelevised (original)
preceding="The Horns of Nimon"
following="The Leisure Hive"|

"Shada" is an unaired serial of the British science fiction television series "Doctor Who". It was intended to be the final serial of the 1979-80 season (Season 17), but was never completed due to a strike at the BBC during filming. In 1992, its recorded footage was released on video using linking narration by Tom Baker to complete the story.

"Shada" is also the title of the remake, an audio play produced by Big Finish Productions and webcast 2 May - 6 June 2003 on BBCi. The audio play was also broadcast on digital radio station BBC 7, on 10 December 2005 (as a 2½-hour omnibus), and was repeated in six parts as the opening story to the Eighth Doctor's summer season which began on 16 July 2006.

ynopsis

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 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).

Cast

Bigfinishbox
title=Shada
series=Doctor Who
number=II
featuring=Eighth Doctor Romana K-9


writer=Douglas Adams
director=Nicholas Pegg
producer= Gary Russell Jason Haigh-Ellery
executive_producer=Martin Trickey
production_code=BBCi02
set_between="Doctor Who" and
"Storm Warning"
length=2 hrs 22 minutes |date=May 2003|

Big Finish version

*The Doctor — Paul McGann
*Romana — Lalla Ward
*Voice of K-9 — John Leeson
*Skagra — Andrew Sachs
*Chris Parsons — Sean Biggerstaff
*Clare Keightley — Susannah Harker
*Wilkin — Melvyn Hayes
*Professor Caldera — Barnaby Edwards
*Motorist/Constable — Stuart Crossman
*Professor Chronotis — James Fox
*The Ship — Hannah Gordon
*Think Tank Voice — Nicholas Pegg

Continuity

*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. Instead of these, aliens bearing resemblance to Ice Warriors were seen.
*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.

*For the Big Finish version, Tom Baker was originally approached to reprise the role of the Doctor, but declined. The Eighth Doctor was then substituted and the story reworked accordingly.

*Although working from the original Adams script, portions of the Big Finish version 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". In addition to this, Romana is referred to as Madam President by Skagra in Episode Five, in Episode Six it is Romana using her Presidential powers who decides that Chronotis should be allowed to return to Cambridge, and when the policeman enters Chronotis' room, the Doctor can be heard talking about a "terrible way to see in the New Year" in a possible reference to his first adventure.

*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". The original television version would have featured clips from "The Pirate Planet", "The Power of Kroll", "Creature from the Pit", "The Androids of Tara", "Destiny of the Daleks" and "City of Death". The webcast features outlines of the first eight Doctors' faces.

Production

Television version

*Location filming in Cambridge and the first of three studio sessions at BBC Television Centre were recorded as scheduled. The second studio block was affected by a long-running technician's dispute. The strike was over by the time rehearsals began for the third recording session, but this was lost to higher priority Christmas programming.

*Attempts were made by new producer John Nathan-Turner to remount the story, but for various reasons it never happened and the production was formally dropped in June 1980. Nathan-Turner was eventually able to complete the story (so far as was possible) by commissioning new effects shots and a score and having Tom Baker record linking material to cover the missing scenes. The result was released on video in 1992, but has never been aired on television making Shada the only Doctor Who story never to be broadcast. So far there is no word from the BBC on a DVD release of the story.

Big Finish version

*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 BBC website using illustrations provided by comic strip artist [http://www.leesullivan.co.uk Lee Sullivan] .

*Lalla Ward (Romana) is the only actor to appear in both the original television version and the subsequent Big Finish remake.

Outside references

In Episode Two of the webcast version, when Chris is in his lab showing Clare the book, a vending machine-like object in the background is labelled "Nutrimat", a reference to a similar device in Adams's "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy". Two other references are a sequence where Skagra steals a Ford Prefect and when images of "Hitchhiker's Guide" characters appear as inmates on Shada itself.

The battered space helmet which the Doctor adapts in Episode Six of the webcast bears the serial number NCC-1701D - the registration ident of the Starship Enterprise in .

In print

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. Adams did not allow "Shada", or any of his other "Doctor Who" stories, to be novelised by Target Books. It is, therefore, one of only five serials from the 1963-89 series not to be novelised (along with Adams' other stories "The Pirate Planet" and "City Of Death" and the two Eric Saward-scripted Dalek stories, "Resurrection of the Daleks" and "Revelation Of The Daleks"). A fan group in New Zealand, however, did publish an unofficial adaptation in 1989, later republishing it as an online eBook titled " [http://nzdwfc.tetrap.com/archive/shada/ Doctor Who and Shada] ".

Broadcast and VHS release

*"Shada"'s video release featured linking narration by Tom Baker and was accompanied by a facsimile of a version of Douglas Adams's script (except in North America). The release was discontinued in the UK in 1996, although it remained in print in the United States until 2004.

*The webcast version remains available from the BBC Doctor Who "classic series" website, and an expanded audio-only version is available for purchase on CD from Big Finish. This expanded version was the one broadcast on BBC7.

References

#Howe, Stammer, Walker (1994). Doctor Who: The Seventies. Virgin Books.

External links

*BBCCDW|id=shada|title=Shada
*Brief | id=5m | title=Shada
*Doctor Who RG | id=who_5m | title=Shada

Reviews

*OG review | id=5m | title=Shada
*DWRG | id=shad | title=Shada

Fan novelisation

* [http://nzdwfc.tetrap.com/archive/shada/ "Doctor Who and Shada"] ebook
*OG review | id=fan-shada | title=Shada

Webcast

*Doctor Who RG|id=bbci_03|title= Shada
* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/classic/webcasts/shada/ "Shada" webcast on the BBC website]
* [http://www.bigfinish.com/Doctor-Who-Shada Big Finish Productions - "Shada"]
*OG review | id=bbci-3 | title=Shada
*DWRG | id=shadabbci | title=Shada

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