The Awakening (Doctor Who)

] [cite web
url= http://www.shannonsullivan.com/drwho/serials/6m.html
title= The Awakening
publisher = A Brief History of Time Travel
last = Sullivan
first = Shannon
date = 2007-08-07
accessdate = 2008-08-30]
*The working titles of this story were "War Game" and "Poltergeist".
*Pringle had submitted this story in the mid-1970s to then-script editor Robert Holmes as a four-part story entitled "War Game". In the 1980s he resubmitted his story (as well as a different four-parter, "The Darkness", possibly featuring the Daleks) to script editor Eric Saward. Realizing the story did not have enough impact for four episodes, it was later pared down to two, renamed "Poltergeist" and then finally "The Awakening".
*The story featured extensive location shooting and studio work. Saward wanted to add a TARDIS sequence with Tegan and Kamelion, utilising the robot prop and played in chameleonic form by Peter Davison and Mark Strickson. However, this scene was cut from the transmitted episode for timing reasons. The recovery of an early edit of episode one on video (in the personal archive of late producer John Nathan Turner) means that this element, previously thought lost, may now be included on a DVD release of the serial.
*The master tape for Part One was damaged during broadcast, but was repaired in 1997 by the Doctor Who Restoration Team. The 16mm film prints for the story were preserved in the BBC Archives, at the request of Nathan-Turner, after Part One was damaged.
*This was officially the final story of the series to consist of two 25 minute episodes. All two parters since then have been 45 minutes long per episode, including most of season 22 and several stories of the revived series. "The Ultimate Foe", the concluding segment of "The Trial of a Time Lord", is numbered on screen as Parts Thirteen and Fourteen of the latter title; furthermore, they share the same BBC production code, 7C, with the preceding four-part story arc, "Terror of the Vervoids", even though they have their own separate novelisation and feature compilation.
*The production designer for this story, Barry Newbery, had worked on Doctor Who intermittently ever since its very first story. After completing "Awakening", Newbery took early retirement from the BBC, making this story his last professional effort.
*John Nathan-Turner liked the character of Will Chandler a great deal and seriously considered keeping him on as a companion. However, it was eventually concluded that Chandler's child-like character would quickly wear thin and lacked any clear path of development, so Nathan-Turner dropped the idea.

In print

Doctorwhobook
title=The Awakening
series=Target novelisations
number=95
featuring=


writer=Eric Pringle
publisher=Target Books
coverartist=Andrew Skilleter
isbn=0 426 20158 2
set_between=
pages=
date=13 June 1985
preceding=Marco Polo
following=The Mind of Evil|A novelisation of this serial, written by Eric Pringle, was published by Target Books in February 1985.

Broadcast and VHS release

*This story was released on a double VHS set with "Frontios" in March 1997.

References

External links

*BBCCDW|id=awakening|title=The Awakening
*Brief | id=6m | title=The Awakening
*Doctor Who RG | id=who_6m | title=The Awakening

Reviews

*OG review | id=6m | title=The Awakening
*DWRG | id=awak | title=The Awakening

Target novelisation

* [http://www.personal.leeds.ac.uk/~ecl6nb/OnTarget/1985/awakenin/85awaken.htm On Target — "The Awakening"]