Nightmare of Eden (TV story)

Nightmare of Eden was the fourth story of Season 17 of Doctor Who. Narratively, it was notable for its anti-drug theme, delivered in an unusually unvarnished way for Doctor Who. Though the drug was given a "sci-fi" name and origin, it was nevertheless a direct commentary on drug use and trafficking.

Eden was a notoriously difficult production, with cast and crew alike openly disagreeing with director Alan Bromly. In the end, producer Graham Williams dismissed Bromly partway through the shoot and finished the programme himself; it was this incident which convinced Williams to leave the show at the end of Season 17.

Even though it was a disagreeable shoot, Eden did boast a few production peculiarities worth mentioning. It was the only serial ever written by Bob Baker without his usual writing partner, Dave Martin. It was also, according to Colin Mapson, the first Doctor Who serial in which the model effects were recorded on video, instead of film. (DCOM: Nightmare of Eden) Although Mapson was not enamoured of the results, Graham Williams extolled their virtues in at least one memo to this superiors. Video was very much cheaper than film, and Williams found the compromise between quality and cost acceptable. (DOC: The Nightmare of TV Centre) Nevertheless, the technique did not prove popular with Williams' successor. Most model shots in future serials would again be committed to film.

Synopsis
The TARDIS arrives on the space liner Empress, which has become locked with a private ship, the Hecate after colliding with it on emerging from hyperspace.

The Doctor and Romana meet the scientist Tryst, who has with him a Continuous Event Transmuter (CET) machine containing crystals on which are stored supposed recordings of planets that he and his team have visited.

Someone on board the liner is smuggling the dangerously addictive drug vraxoin. To complicate matters, the interface between the two ships allows some monstrous Mandrels from the mud-swamps of Eden to escape from the CET machine - which does not merely take recordings but actually displaces whole planetary areas into its crystals.

The smugglers are revealed to be Tryst and the Hecate's pilot, Dymond. Vraxoin is in fact the material into which the Mandrels decompose when they are killed. The Doctor thwarts this plan, separates the two ships and returns the Mandrels to Eden.

Plot
The TARDIS arrives on the space liner Empress, which has become locked together with a private ship, the Hecate, after the two collided upon emerging from hyperspace.

The Doctor and Romana meet the scientist Tryst, who has with him a Continuous Event Transmuter (CET) machine. The machine contains crystals storing supposed recordings of planets that he and his team have visited.

Someone on board the liner is smuggling the dangerously addictive drug vraxoin, and to complicate matters the interface between the two ships allows some monstrous Mandrels from the mud-swamps of Eden to escape from the CET machine - which does not merely take recordings but actually displaces whole planetary areas into its crystals.

The smugglers are revealed to be Tryst and the Hecate's pilot, Dymond. Vraxoin is in fact the material into which the Mandrels decompose when they are killed. The Doctor thwarts this plan, separates the two ships and returns the Mandrels to Eden.

Cast

 * The Doctor - Tom Baker
 * Romana II - Lalla Ward
 * Voice of K9 - David Brierley
 * Tryst - Lewis Fiander
 * Dymond - Geoffrey Bateman
 * Captain Rigg - David Daker
 * Stott - Barry Andrews
 * Della - Jennifer Lonsdale
 * Fisk - Geoffrey Hinsliff
 * Costa - Peter Craze
 * Secker - Stephen Jenn
 * Crewmen - Richard Barnes, Sebastian Stride, Eden Phillips
 * Passengers - Annette Peters, Lionel Sansby, Peter Roberts, Maggie Petersen

Crew

 * Director - Alan Bromly
 * Director - Graham Williams (Graham Williams decided to dispense with Alan Bromly's services toward the end of the story's second studio session and directed the remainder himself, without on-screen credit)
 * Assistant Floor Manager - Val McCrimmon
 * Costumes - Rupert Jarvis
 * Designer - Roger Cann
 * Incidental Music - Dudley Simpson
 * Make-Up - Joan Stribling
 * Producer - Graham Williams
 * Production Assistant - Carolyn Montagu
 * Production Unit Manager - John Nathan-Turner
 * Script Editor - Douglas Adams
 * Special Sounds - Dick Mills
 * Studio Lighting - Warwick Fielding
 * Studio Sound - Anthony Philpott
 * Theme Arrangement - Delia Derbyshire
 * Title Music - Ron Grainer
 * Visual Effects - Colin Mapson
 * Writer - Bob Baker

Businesses

 * Galactic Salvage Insurance, which the Doctor claims to work for, was formed in London in 2068 and was liquidated in 2096.

Drugs and medicines

 * Vraxoin, also known as XYP, is a fungus which induces apathy.

Military

 * Stott is a Major in the intelligence section of the Space Corps.

Planets

 * Samples of life from various planets are stored in the Continuous Event Transmuter (CET), including Eden, Gidi, Zil, Bros, Vij, Darp, Lvan and Ranx.

Species

 * Mandrels turn into Vraxoin when electrocuted.

Spacecraft

 * The Empress, with nine hundred passengers, commutes between Station 9 and Azure.

Technology

 * The Doctor asks whether the CET features a spatial integrator, a transmutation oscillator, a hologistic retention circuit or a dimensional osmosis damper.
 * Tryst and Dymond plan to smuggle vraxoin with an Enchooka laser.

Story notes

 * Vraxoin was originally called 'xylophilin', but was changed so as not to sound appealing to children.
 * This story had the working title of Nightmare of Evil.
 * This would be the last time that Bob Baker wrote for the televised Doctor Who franchise until K9TV: Mind Snap in 2010.
 * According to accounts by visual effects designer Colin Mapson and assistant floor manager Val McCrimmon, director Alan Bromly simply didn't understand how to direct the programme efficiently — and wasn't interested in learning. Consequently he was removed from the project by producer Graham Williams in the midst of principal photography.  Williams himself finished the project. Although Barry Letts had preceded Williams as an "emergency director" of Doctor Who (for DW: Inferno when the contracted director, Douglas Camfield, was hospitalised with heart problems), this was the only known instance of a producer stepping in for a director that he had been forced to fire.  Mapson, longtime veteran of the programme, flatly called it "without doubt, the most disastrous Doctor Who I've ever been involved in".  When production finally wrapped, crew members were presented with T-shirts saying, "I'm Relieved the Nightmare is Over".  (DOC: The Nightmare of TV Centre)

Ratings

 * Part 1 - 8.7 million viewers
 * Part 2 - 9.6 million viewers
 * Part 3 - 9.6 million viewers
 * Part 4 - 9.4 million viewers

Filming locations

 * BBC Television Centre (Studio 6), Shepherd's Bush, London

Production errors

 * In episode two, when K9 seals up the wall panel, a hand emerges to hold the thing in place.
 * Also in the second episode, when the Doctor runs downstairs one stair slipped.
 * When Della gets shot in the face in episode four, she clutches her stomach.
 * In episode three, the Mandrel that was killed by K9 can be seen breathing while still lying on the ground after the Doctor made sure it was dead.

Continuity

 * The CET machine recalls elements of the miniscope seen in DW: Carnival of Monsters.
 * Members of the Space Corps previously appeared in DW: The Space Pirates.

Timeline

 * Nightmare of Eden occurs after DWM: The Final Analysis
 * DWM: Time & Time Again takes place during this story.
 * Nightmare of Eden occurs before CC: The Beautiful People

DVD, Video and other releases
Nightmare of Eden was released onto the iTunes Store in the US, Australia and UK in 2008/2009.

Production of extras for DVD release started in February 2011.

Video releases
Nightmare of Eden was released on video in 1999.

DVD release
The DVD was released in April 2012 in Region 2 and May 2012 in Regions 1 and 4.