The Leisure Hive

] [cite web
url= http://www.shannonsullivan.com/drwho/serials/5n.html
title= The Leisure Hive
publisher = A Brief History of Time Travel
last = Sullivan
first = Shannon
date = 2007-08-07
accessdate = 2008-08-30]
* Working titles for this story included "The Argolins".
* Writer David Fisher conceived of the Foamasi as a race of organized criminals. "Foamasi" is a near-anagram of "mafioso". The episode was written as a satire of the decline of Tourism in the United Kingdom in the 1970s.
* Features a guest appearance by David Haig and Adrienne Corri. See also Celebrity appearances in Doctor Who.
* The alien costume used for the Foamasi was later reused in the 1981 BBC "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" as the leader of the G'Gugvuntt.
* A new TARDIS prop is introduced in this episode which replaces the one used since "The Masque of Mandragora". This prop would be used right until the end of the original series' production in 1989.
* This was also the first story to use the Quantel digital image processing system.

New coat of paint

This was the first "Doctor Who" story which John Nathan-Turner produced. Nathan-Turner was keen to get away from what he considered the excessive silliness of recent "Doctor Who" stories, and wanted to increase the series' production values, because he felt that they were poor when compared with glossy American science-fiction series. Among the changes Nathan-Turner instituted was the scaling back of K-9's appearances (the unit is out of commission for most of this serial), eventually writing the character out in "Warriors' Gate". Nathan-Turner would produce "Doctor Who" until 1989.

In a further attempt to update the image of the series, the original 1963 Delia Derbyshire arrangement was replaced by a more contemporary-sounding arrangement by Peter Howell, and a new, '80s-styled neon tubing logo replaced the diamond logo most associated with the Fourth Doctor. The updated title sequence is most associated with the Fifth Doctor.

Tom Baker, Lalla Ward, Barry Letts and Christopher H. Bidmead all protested John Nathan-Turner's decision to add question-marks to Baker's shirts, arguing that it was gimmicky. Baker in particular was unhappy with it and told Nathan-Turner that it was "annoying, absurd and ridiculous", while Bidmead later called it "a silly, quite absurd gimmick really". Bidmead, who found working with Tom Baker "difficult to say the very least", supposedly told Baker and Nathan-Turner during recording of "The Leisure Hive" that exclamation marks would have been more appropriate for Baker's shirts. The Seventh Doctor Sylvester McCoy would later protest his question-mark adorned jumper in similar terms, but the question-mark motif would remain until the end of the classic series in 1989. Baker also disliked his new scarf, requesting that his old multi-coloured one be re-instated, but expressed gratitude to costume designer June Hudson for refusing to adhere to Nathan-Turner's demands to ditch the trademark scarf altogether and managing to find a compromise.

The show's stars took exception to many of John Nathan-Turner's other changes as well, with Tom Baker and Lalla Ward criticizing the change in theme music and opening titles. Baker also criticized the new synthesized incidental music, comparing it unfavourably with Dudley Simpson's earlier scores. Ward later complained that Nathan-Tuner had "removed all the lovely humour", while Baker said that he wanted the scripts to improve and regain some of the quality of those of the Philip Hinchcliffe era, as he felt that the quality of the scripts and storylines had declined under Graham Williams. He later said that he felt such improvements did not by and large occur, and that most of Nathan-Turner's changes were either cosmetic or misguided.

Doctorwhobook
title=Doctor Who and the Leisure Hive
series=Target novelisations
number=39
featuring=


writer=David Fisher
publisher=Target Books
coverartist=Andrew Skilleter
isbn=0 426 20147 7
set_between=
pages=
date=22 July 1982
preceding=Doctor Who and the Keeper of Traken
following=Doctor Who and the Visitation|

Commercial releases

This serial was released on VHS in January 1997. Later, on July 5 2004, it was released on Region 2 DVD. The commentary features Lalla Ward, Lovett Bickford, and Christopher H. Bidmead.

In 2002, Peter Howell's incidental music for the serial was released on the compilation album "".

In print

A novelisation of this serial, written by David Fisher, was published by Target Books in July 1982.

References

External links

*BBCCDW|id=leisurehive|title=The Leisure Hive
*Brief | id=5n | title=The Leisure Hive
*Doctor Who RG | id=who_5n | title=The Leisure Hive

Reviews

*OG review | id=5n | title=The Leisure Hive
*DWRG | id=leis | title=The Leisure Hive

Target novelisation

*DWRG | id=leisnov | title=Doctor Who and the Leisure Hive
* [http://www.personal.leeds.ac.uk/~ecl6nb/OnTarget/1982/leisure/82leisur.htm On Target — "Doctor Who and the Leisure Hive"]