The Sun Makers (TV story)

Synopsis
The TARDIS arrives in the future on the planet Pluto where there are now six suns, a breathable atmosphere and a large industrial community. The Company controls the planet and exploits the workers, pays them a pittance and then taxes them on everything imaginable. The Doctor and Leela join forces with an underground band of rebels led by a man named Mandrel.

They learn that the head of the Company's operations on Pluto, represented by the human official Gatherer Hade, is an Usurian known as the Collector. The Usurians enslave planets through economic means and then fleece the inhabitants with exorbitant taxes. The Company keeps the citizens in line by diffusing a calming gas, PCM, through the air conditioning system.

The Doctor manages to stop this, and the workers then rise up against the Company and hurl Gatherer Hade to his death from the roof of a tall building. The Doctor meanwhile gains access to the Company computer and programs it to apply a two per cent growth tax. The Collector, unable to cope with the loss of his profits, reverts to his natural form - a type of poisonous fungus - and is rendered harmless.

Plot
to be added

Cast

 * The Doctor - Tom Baker
 * Leela - Louise Jameson
 * Voice of K9 - John Leeson
 * Bisham - David Rowlands
 * Collector - Henry Woolf
 * Commander - Colin McCormack
 * Cordo - Roy Macready
 * Goudry - Michael Keating
 * Guard - Tom Kelly
 * Hade - Richard Leech
 * Mandrel - William Simons
 * Marn - Jonina Scott
 * Nurse - Carole Hopkin
 * Synge - Derek Crewe
 * Veet - Adrienne Burgess

Crew

 * Assistant Floor Manager - Linda Graeme
 * Costumes - Christine Rawlins
 * Designer - Tony Snoaden
 * Film Cameraman - John Tiley
 * Film Editor - Tariq Anwar
 * Incidental Music - Dudley Simpson
 * Make-Up - Janis Gould
 * Producer - Graham Williams
 * Production Assistant - Leon Arnold
 * Production Unit Manager - John Nathan-Turner
 * Script Editor - Anthony Read
 * Special Sounds - Paddy Kingsland
 * Studio Lighting - Derek Slee
 * Studio Sound - Michael McCarthy
 * Theme Arrangement - Delia Derbyshire
 * Title Music - Ron Grainer
 * Visual Effects - Peter Day
 * Visual Effects - Peter Logan

Story Notes

 * Michael Keating (here playing Goudry) would later be cast as Vila in Blake's 7 based partially on this performance.
 * Most of the corridors were named after UK tax forms, as the story was intended as a satire of contemporary British taxes.
 * This story marks the last appearance of Leela's darker outfit. For the next two serials - her last - she would continue to wear the lighter (and more revealing!) one.

Ratings

 * Part 1 - 8.5 million
 * Part 2 - 9.5 million
 * Part 3 - 8.9 million
 * Part 4 - 8.4 million

Myths
to be added

Location Filming
to be added

Continuity
to be added

Video Releases
Released as Doctor Who: The Sun Makers.

Released:


 * UK July 2001
 * US February 2002
 * Australia September 2001

Target Novelisations
to be added