FOREWORD: THE HOW, NOT WHY, OF WHO
KATY MANNING
I have never been a “why” questioner—there lies a path to unanswerable conjecture—but rather a “how” questioner. “How” takes you down the path of logic, learning, and understanding.
Being involved in television in the late ’60s/early ’70s as a young actress was a stimulating and exciting path of technological experimentation, especially in a program like Doctor Who that I had watched from its conception in front of and from behind the sofa! It required space travel to other planets, aliens, electronic music, and “otherworldly” sound effects. The hero was a nomadic two-thousand-year-old man with two hearts who traveled in time and space via a blue police box! A genius concept, allowing limitless adventures and possibilities into the world of fantasy and imagination. Computers were in their infancy, entire rooms of massive machines looking somewhat like Boss in The Green Death.1 Cameras were big and cumbersome, so to achieve what they did during the ’60s in black and white was all due to the remarkable creativity of the enthusiastic, dedicated technical teams with a great deal of trial and error and a very small budget—often with little time and difficult, barren winter locations. Last-minute lines like “freak weather conditions in Dungerness” covered the problem of two days of snow, rain, thick fog, and bright sun! I even had hot water poured around my thin suede boots to unfreeze them from the ground. Once we were in the studio for recording, there was a very strict 10 p.m. curfew, and, with special effects to be done in the studio, it was always a tense time where actors had to be sure of achieving performances in one take. When Barry Letts took over as producer in 1970, he fought relentlessly with the powers that be to obtain a little extra money to experiment with the development of special effects and really take this unique program forward. Alien masks were given from the makeup department over to the special effects department, using anything and everything to achieve this end.
The Earthbound Doctor
When I joined DW in 1971,2 it was the beginning of many new things but very importantly the first year of Doctor Who in color. Color separation overlay, too (now green screen), was in its infancy and would add so much possibility. (I was put in front of three different-colored screens while it was being perfected.) Barry also wanted to open up Doctor Who to a wider audience and age group, which he did with resounding success, building a cult following and soaring ratings. Barry Letts and his right-hand man, the incorrigible scriptwriter/editor Terrence Dicks, introduced the Doctor’s Moriarty in the shape of the Master, played to perfection by Roger Delgado. Real members of the army and navy were used in several episodes. Richard Franklin was introduced as Captain Mike Yates to strengthen the UNIT team led by Nicholas Courtney as the quintessential Brigadier (“chap with wings, five rounds rapid”),3 and John Levene as Sergeant Benton. It was a risk to banish the Doctor to the planet Earth by the Time Lords. However, it really gave UNIT a solid part to play. After all, in our limitless imaginations, aliens are to be expected on other planets, but it takes a whole new twist when a policeman rips off masks to reveal faceless Autons, troll dolls come to life and kill, or a man is even devoured by a blowup black plastic chair.4 Completely nonhuman Daleks lurking beneath our cities5 or the summoning up of the Devil in a picturesque country village church6 is perhaps more frightening and unexpected on the planet we inhabit. Story lines followed subjects like the slow destruction of the planet Earth through chemicals and financial greed.7 Interesting to me and indeed perhaps the Doctor was that all the scientific progress we make is useless without moral progress on any planet.
Jo Grant and Her Doctor
The casting of Jon Pertwee as the Third Doctor was inspired—an actor known mostly through radio and light entertainment, a master of character voices, and a real adventurer in his private life. All these talents added to the depths of character Jon brought to “his” Doctor, his first truly dramatic role: a swashbuckling dandy with a wonderful ethereal quality, a dark secret side, and a desire for justice and peace, but always an otherworldly twinkle in his eye. A man we could trust. It was an honor to be cast alongside him, as I had grown up admiring his work. We instantly became fast friends and I learned so much about everything from this wise and wonderful man. This played out onscreen. I was working on a series (my first role out of drama school) for ITV and I was not available during the original auditions, so by the time I appeared, the role of Jo Grant had been shortlisted to three. After a lone improvised scene, I was cast! A nineteen- or twenty-year-old niece of a high-up member of UNIT, who was hired not because of her ability but because of nepotism, she had done a short training course with UNIT, escapology, Sanskrit, and some very dubious GCE (HSC)* results! Jo could ask the questions on behalf of the younger viewers and non–sci-fi boffins, and appeal to the teenagers as a trendy miniskirted, platform-booted, beringed girl of the ’70s. She was foisted onto the Doctor. She was resourceful, brave, cheeky, disobedient, and a little clumsy; didn’t scream much; did not always agree with the Doctor, but (as in The Daemons) was prepared to lay down her life for the man she learned to love and respect. In turn, she brought out the nurturing side of the Doctor’s character and she grew up onscreen in our living rooms, ending her tenure by marrying a Nobel Peace Prize–winning echo warrior—a younger version of the Doctor, a professor played excellently by my then-real-life-fiancé Stewart Bevan. In a beautifully crafted script, her meeting with her professor mirrored Jo’s first clumsy meeting with her Doctor.8 There was no other part I could have played where my powers of imagination were so deeply tested, where I could have learned so much from both the technical teams and my fellow actors, or where I could have done stunts in the safe hands of the incredible and patient boys from Havoc, led by Derek Ware. Jon insisted on doing the majority of his own stunts and I was never far behind! He was an absolute joy to spend every day with and was a strong, committed team leader.
The First Three
When The Three Doctors9 came about, a first in bringing their past regenerations together, I felt extremely privileged to be working with the Doctors I had grown up watching. Sadly, William Hartnell, who set the bar very high as the First Doctor and who I believe created some of the traits given to the future Doctors, was very ill and his filming was done without us. Patrick Troughton as the Second Doctor was a very different actor than Jon. Pat was what we used to call a classical actor, with a huge career in theater behind him and a wonderfully naughty sense of humor. He liked to improvise around the script, whereas Jon liked to know exactly what was going to be said and what he was going to respond to. Their differences were soon overcome with respect for each other’s choices in playing the Doctor. Watching these two very contrasting but great actors weave their magic was a master class. Pat’s Doctor may have seemed discombobulated, but this cleverly concealed the twinkling genius beneath the surface. The clothes that each actor wears as the Doctor help define his take on the character.
New Doctors
This pioneering show prompted so many to enter the world of acting, producing, writing, and directing—way too many to name. For others, Doctor Who brought a magical, trustworthy hero into their lives and living rooms. The genius Russell T. Davies, a massively keen boy fan, was the champion who regenerated Doctor Who back onto our screens after a well-deserved rest—bringing with him all the modern technology, along with brilliant scripts and casting. Amongst this, he also created marvelous spin-offs, including The Sarah Jane Adventures with the unrivaled Liz Sladen. So, after forty years, I had the privilege of working with a young Matt Smith’s Eleventh Doctor, yet again putting a totally unique and delightfully physical stamp on the character of the Doctor. Though a younger actor, there was something extremely comforting and familiar about him as my Doctor. He was so warm and generous, and allowed me great freedom in our emotional scenes together. An unforgettable time shared with Liz and a script that encompassed Jo’s life forty years on—perfection.
On audio I have played Jo Grant with Sylvester McCoy’s Seventh Doctor, a lighter and enjoyably clownish take on the character. I played Iris Wildthyme with Peter Davison’s Fifth Doctor—a younger, more gentle Doctor—and Colin Baker’s more bombastic Sixth Doctor, and talked with Peter Capaldi, the Twelfth Doctor, about his inspired performance and layering of the Doctor. More recently, I have worked with the incomparable Tom Baker, the Fourth Doctor. I could not ask for more! It seems to me, watching all the actors who have brought their innovative expertise to our screens, that one of the Doctor’s two hearts belongs to the character and the other to all the brilliant actors who brought the Doctor so strongly and believably into the hearts of the viewers, now seen and loved in more than one hundred countries around the world.
So the question of why Doctor Who is still so popular after all these years is impossible to answer. All Doctor Who fans will have their own take on that and indeed who their favorites are. But, for me, “why” or even “who” matters not at all. I shall just continue to watch, enjoy, and marvel at the phenomenon of the Doctor Who kiss, the love that everyone who has ever been involved or watched Doctor Who has.
Katy Manning’s career has spanned nearly fifty years and three countries. Her extensive television work began with John Braines’s groundbreaking series Man at the Top. During this time, Katy was given the role of Jo Grant in Doctor Who alongside the unforgettable Third Doctor, Jon Pertwee, a role she revisited some forty years later in The Sarah Jane Adventures, starring Elisabeth Sladen with Matt Smith as the Eleventh Doctor. Katy’s theater credits extend from London’s West End to Sydney’s Opera House. She returned to the UK with her critically acclaimed one-woman show about Bette Davis, Me and Jezebel. Katy has voiced numerous cartoons, including the award-winning Gloria’s House as the ten-year-old Gloria. She has hosted her own interview show and directed two major musicals and several other plays. For over a decade, she has recorded for Big Finish as Jo Grant in The Companion Chronicles and as Iris Wildethyme in her own series, and guested on The Confessions of Dorian Gray, Doctor Who Short Trips, Dracula, and The Lives of Captain Jack Harkness. Katy wrote and performed Not a Well Woman in New York and LA, now recorded by Big Finish. More recently, Katy appeared on Casualty and for Bafflegab recorded Baker’s End with Tom Baker.
Notes
1. Classic serial 10–5, The Green Death (May 19–June 23, 1973).
2. Classic serial 8–1, Terror of the Autons (January 1–23, 1971).
3. Classic serial 8–5, The Daemons, pt. 5 (June 19, 1971).
4. All in the classic serial 8–1, Terror of the Autons (January 1–23, 1971).
5. Classic serial 9–1, Day of the Daleks (January 1–22, 1972).
6. Classic serial 8–5, The Daemons (May 22–June 19, 1971).
7. Classic serial 10–5, The Green Death (May 19–June 23, 1973).
8. Classic serial 10–5, The Green Death (May 19–June 23, 1973).
9. Classic serial 10–1, The Three Doctors (December 30, 1972–January 20, 1973).
*General Certificate of Education (Health & Social Care).