The Deadly Assassin
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''The Deadly Assassin'' is the third serial of the 14th season of the British
science fiction television Science fiction first appeared in television programming in the late 1930s, during what is called the Golden Age of Science Fiction. Special effects and other production techniques allow creators to present a living visual image of an imaginary ...
programme ''
Doctor Who ''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series, created by Sydney Newman, C. E. Webber and Donald Wilson (writer and producer), Donald Wilson, depicts the adventures of an extraterre ...
'', which was first broadcast in four weekly parts on
BBC1 BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's oldest and Flagship (broadcasting), flagship channel, and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includ ...
from 30 October to 20 November 1976. It is the first serial in which the Doctor is featured without a companion, and the only such story for the classic era. In the serial, the renegade alien
Time Lord The Time Lords are a fictional ancient race of extraterrestrial life, extraterrestrial people in the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who''. Time Lords are so named for their command of time travel technology and their Nonli ...
the Master ( Peter Pratt) seeks to restore his life force by disrupting a power source that would destroy the planet
Gallifrey The Time Lords are a fictional ancient race of extraterrestrial people in the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who''. Time Lords are so named for their command of time travel technology and their non-linear perception of t ...
along with his archenemy the Fourth Doctor (
Tom Baker Thomas Stewart Baker (born 20 January 1934) is an English actor and writer. He is best known for having played the Fourth Doctor, fourth and longest-serving incarnation of The Doctor (Doctor Who), the Doctor in the science fiction television ...
).


Plot

The Doctor The Doctor, sometimes known as Doctor Who, is the protagonist of the long-running BBC science fiction television series ''Doctor Who''. An extraterrestrial Time Lord, the Doctor travels the universe in a time travelling spaceship called th ...
has a precognitive vision about the President of the
Time Lord The Time Lords are a fictional ancient race of extraterrestrial life, extraterrestrial people in the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who''. Time Lords are so named for their command of time travel technology and their Nonli ...
s being assassinated and goes to
Gallifrey The Time Lords are a fictional ancient race of extraterrestrial people in the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who''. Time Lords are so named for their command of time travel technology and their non-linear perception of t ...
to stop it. At the Panopticon, a Gallifreyan ceremonial chamber, he notes a camera and a
sniper rifle A sniper rifle is a high-precision, long range shooting, long-range rifle. Requirements include high accuracy, reliability, mobility, concealment, and optics, for anti-personnel weapon, anti-personnel, anti-materiel rifle, anti-materiel and sur ...
on a catwalk. The Doctor fights his way to the catwalk, but the assassin is among the delegates and shoots the President dead – the crowd assumes the Doctor is the killer. Under interrogation, he maintains that he has been framed;
Castellan A castellan, or constable, was the governor of a castle in medieval Europe. Its surrounding territory was referred to as the castellany. The word stems from . A castellan was almost always male, but could occasionally be female, as when, in 1 ...
Spandrell believes him and orders Engin to assist him in an independent investigation. The Doctor announces that he will run for President, as liberty is guaranteed for those running for office during the course of an election. He realises that it was the Master who had sent him the vision through the
Matrix Matrix (: matrices or matrixes) or MATRIX may refer to: Science and mathematics * Matrix (mathematics), a rectangular array of numbers, symbols or expressions * Matrix (logic), part of a formula in prenex normal form * Matrix (biology), the m ...
, a vast electronic neural network which can turn thoughts into
virtual reality Virtual reality (VR) is a Simulation, simulated experience that employs 3D near-eye displays and pose tracking to give the user an immersive feel of a virtual world. Applications of virtual reality include entertainment (particularly video gam ...
. Entering the Matrix, the Doctor confronts an assassin who reveals himself as Chancellor Goth; the Master tries to trap the Doctor; Engin gets the Doctor out of the Matrix. They arrive where the two were accessing the Matrix, and find the Master pulse-less and Goth fatally burnt and dying. Goth reveals that he found the Master, nearing the end of his final regeneration, and went along with him for power. Dying, Goth warns that the Master has a doomsday plan. The Doctor finds that the President has access to the symbols of office: the Sash and Great Key of Rassilon. As records describe how Rassilon found the Eye of Harmony within the "black void," the Doctor realises that the Eye is actually a black hole's nucleus, an inexhaustible energy source, and the Sash and Key are its control devices; the Master's plan is to steal this energy to gain a new cycle of regenerations; however, if the Eye is disrupted, Gallifrey will be destroyed. He also realises that the Master injected himself with a neural inhibitor that mimics a deathlike state. The Doctor, Spandrell, and Engin arrive at the morgue, where the Master seizes the Sash from the President's corpse and traps the three. Inside the Panopticon, the Master makes his way to the Eye and unhooks the coils; the Doctor arrives via a service shaft. Quakes and cracks appear in the floor. The two fight, until the Master loses his footing and falls into a chasm. The Doctor reconnects the coils, saving Gallifrey. The Doctor bids farewell but warns that the Master may not be dead, as he had already harvested some energy. As the Doctor's TARDIS dematerialises, the Master sneaks into his own TARDIS and escapes.


Production

Following Elisabeth Sladen's departure,
Tom Baker Thomas Stewart Baker (born 20 January 1934) is an English actor and writer. He is best known for having played the Fourth Doctor, fourth and longest-serving incarnation of The Doctor (Doctor Who), the Doctor in the science fiction television ...
told producer Philip Hinchcliffe that he wanted to do a story without a companion. Robert Holmes said that it was difficult to write the script for ''The Deadly Assassin'' without anyone for the Doctor to share his thoughts and plans with, which was the usual role of the companion. Working titles for this story included ''The Dangerous Assassin'' (which Holmes changed to "deadly" because he thought it "didn't sound right"). The final title is a tautology: a successful assassin must, by definition, be deadly. However, since Time Lords can in general survive death, and the assassin's victims do not, he is perhaps "deadly" in that sense. According to the text commentary on the DVD, Holmes argued that the title was not a tautology, stating that there were plenty of incompetent assassins.


Cast notes

Bernard Horsfall guest stars as Chancellor Goth. He had previously appeared as an unnamed Time Lord (credited as 'Time Lord 1') in the serial ''
The War Games ''The War Games'' is the seventh and final serial of the sixth season of the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'', which originally aired in ten weekly parts from 19 April to 21 June 1969. In the serial, an unnamed alien r ...
'' (1969); extended media have since stated they are the same character. Other parts played by Horsfall in ''Doctor Who'' were Gulliver in '' The Mind Robber'' (1968) and Taron in '' Planet of the Daleks'' (1973), all of which were directed by David Maloney. Angus MacKay later played the Headmaster in '' Mawdryn Undead'' (1983). George Pravda previously played Denes in '' The Enemy of the World'' (1967–68) and Jaeger in '' The Mutants'' (1972). Hugh Walters previously played
William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
in '' The Chase'' (1965) and later appeared as Vogel in ''
Revelation of the Daleks ''Revelation of the Daleks'' is the sixth and final serial of the 22nd season in the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'', which was first broadcast in two weekly parts on 23 and 30 March 1985. This was the final serial to b ...
'' (1985). Peter Pratt, who plays the Master, was previously a leading man with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company and a radio actor.


Broadcast and reception

The
cliffhanger A cliffhanger or cliffhanger ending is a plot device in fiction which features a main character in a precarious situation, facing a difficult dilemma or confronted with a shocking revelation at the end of an episode of serialized fiction or bef ...
to Part Three—where Goth holds the Doctor's head
underwater An underwater environment is a environment of, and immersed in, liquid water in a natural or artificial feature (called a Water, body of water), such as an ocean, sea, lake, pond, reservoir, river, canal, or aquifer. Some characteristics of the ...
in an attempt to drown him—came in for heavy criticism, particularly from the "clean-up TV" campaigner
Mary Whitehouse Constance Mary Whitehouse (; 13 June 1910 – 23 November 2001) was a British teacher and conservative activist. She campaigned against social liberalism and the mainstream British media, both of which she accused of encouraging a more permis ...
. She often cited it in interviews as one of the most frightening scenes in ''Doctor Who'', her reasoning being that children would not know if the Doctor survived until the following week and that they would "have this strong image in their minds" during all that time. After the episode's initial broadcast, the BBC apologised to Whitehouse and the master tape was edited to remove the original ending. The edited episode was included when the story was repeated on BBC1 from 4 to 25 August 1977 seen by 4.4, 2.6, 3.8 & 3.5 million viewers. Paul Cornell, Martin Day and Keith Topping wrote of the serial in '' The Discontinuity Guide'' (1995), "The reputation of ''The Deadly Assassin'' rests with its violence and its revelations about the Doctor's people and their culture. Politically literate and cynical ('We must adjust the truth'), the serial is the definitive text on the Time Lords. The Doctor's journey into the APC net ... is a visual and intellectual tour de force of hallucinatory images." In ''The Television Companion'' (1998), David J. Howe and Stephen James Walker reported that at the time of broadcast several viewers took issue with the serial's portrayal of the Time Lords, finding it a contradiction of the small details that had previously been dropped about the Doctor's home planet, but over time its reputation became more positive. The pair themselves called it "a truly remarkable story" and praised the reintroduction of the Master. In 2010, Patrick Mulkern of ''
Radio Times ''Radio Times'' is a British weekly listings magazine devoted to television and radio programme schedules, with other features such as interviews, film reviews and lifestyle items. Founded in September 1923 by John Reith, then general manage ...
'' awarded the serial four stars out of five. He described "the Master's putrid skull and split bangers for fingers" as "the most revolting images presented on teatime TV" but was positive towards its supporting characters, though he did criticise the Matrix sequences for being more earthly rather than alien, despite them being constructed from deceased Time Lords. ''
The A.V. Club ''The A.V. Club'' is an online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was created in ...
'' reviewer Christopher Bahn praised the plotting and Matrix sequences, calling it "well-crafted all around". In 2010, Charlie Jane Anders of
io9 ''io9'' is a sub-blog of the technology blog ''Gizmodo'' that focuses on science fiction and fantasy pop culture, with former focuses on science, technology and futurism. It was created as a standalone blog in 2008 by editor Annalee Newitz under ...
listed the cliffhanger to the first episode—in which it appears the Doctor shoots the president—as one of the greatest cliffhangers in the history of ''Doctor Who''.
Den of Geek ''Den of Geek'' is a UK and US-based website covering entertainment with a focus on pop culture. The website also issues a biannual magazine. History ''Den of Geek'' was founded in 2007 by Simon Brew in London. In 2012, DoG Tech LLC licensed ' ...
named the cliffhanger to the third episode as one of the ten best ''Doctor Who'' cliffhangers, praising the freeze frame. In 2013, '' Starburst'' also chose Part Three as one of the "Top Ten ''Doctor Who'' Cliffhangers". In 2018,
Digital Spy Digital Spy (DS) is a British-based entertainment, television and film website and brand and is the largest digital property at Hearst UK. Since its initial launch in 1999, Digital Spy has focused on entertainment news related to television pro ...
described Part Three as "the show's most controversial cliffhanger".


Analysis

Tat Wood suggests it is "blindingly obvious" that the story was largely inspired by the film and book '' The Manchurian Candidate''.


Commercial releases


In print

A novelisation of this serial, written by Terrance Dicks, was published by Target Books in October 1977, entitled ''Doctor Who and The Deadly Assassin''.


Home media

This story was released on VHS in March 1989 in edited omnibus format in the US only. It was released on VHS in episodic format in the UK in October 1991. It was also re-released and remastered for the WHSmith-exclusive Time Lord Collection in 2002 with a better-quality freeze-frame
cliffhanger A cliffhanger or cliffhanger ending is a plot device in fiction which features a main character in a precarious situation, facing a difficult dilemma or confronted with a shocking revelation at the end of an episode of serialized fiction or bef ...
for Episode 3. ''The Deadly Assassin'' was released on 11 May 2009 on Region 2
DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...
. The serial was released in issue 52 of the
Doctor Who DVD Files This is a list of ''Doctor Who'' serials and episodes that have been released on DVD and Blu-ray. DVD Release Most ''Doctor Who'' DVDs have been released first in the United Kingdom with DVD region code#Region codes and countries, Region ...
on 29 December 2010. It was released on Blu-Ray as part of the Time Lord Victorious box set.


See also

*
Simulated reality A simulated reality is an approximation of reality created in a simulation, usually in a set of circumstances in which something is engineered to appear real when it is not. Most concepts invoking a simulated reality relate to some form of compu ...


References


External links

*


Target novelisation

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Deadly Assassin Fourth Doctor serials Television episodes about virtual reality Doctor Who serials novelised by Terrance Dicks The Master (Doctor Who) television stories 1976 British television episodes Television episodes about elections