Devious (home video)

Devious is the title of an as-yet unfinished fan-made film starring Jon Pertwee as the Third Doctor. Production began not long before Pertwee's death in 1996 and constituted his final known performance as the Doctor (and possibly his final acting performance in general, though he may have filmed his final widely-seen performance -- a TV commercial -- afterwards). Pertwee's scenes were videotaped in April 1995.

During the 1990s a large number of fan-made audio, film and video productions were undertaken to keep the Doctor Who brand alive following its cancellation in 1989. Many of these productions featured either characters who were effectively the Doctor is all but name (see The Stranger and The Time Travellers, for example), or non-BBC-owned characters and monsters from the TV series that had been licensed direct from their creators (see P.R.O.B.E., Downtime and Shakedown: Return of the Sontarans, for examples). Although with the exception of Tom Baker all surviving Doctor actors, including Pertwee, had participated in at least one of these productions, Devious is notable as being the only production to feature one of these actors playing his incarnation of the Doctor, although there is no indication that the character had been licensed from the BBC.

Audio of Jon Pertwee as the Doctor taken from this production was later utilized by Big Finish Productions to allow the late actor to "participate" in a 40th-anniversary audio drama, Zagreus.

In 2009, BBC Video released a 12-minute excerpt from Devious as a bonus feature on the UK and North American DVD releases of the final Patrick Troughton/Second Doctor serial, DW: The War Games (the storyline of Devious takes place between it and Pertwee's first televised story, DW: Spearhead from Space). This marked the first time the BBC has released a fan film of this nature.

The film also includes several other cameos, including Anneke Wills reprising the role of Polly, although she does not appear in the excerpt released to DVD.

The DVD features only a 12-minute clip from the film, as according to the official website of the production, the film has yet to be completed.

Cast

 * The Doctor - Jon Pertwee
 * "Two-and-a-Half Doctor" - Tony Garner
 * Polly - Anneke Wills
 * The Doctor - Patrick Troughton (via archive footage)

Plot summary
To be added

Story notes

 * Anneke Wills does not appear in the excerpt featured on the 2009 DVD release.

Continuity

 * The storyline takes place between DW: The War Games and Spearhead from Space.
 * Although not addressed in the film, the fact the Third Doctor looks considerably older at the start of his regeneration than seen in Spearhead from Space is not necessarily a continuity error, given the revelation in DW: The Christmas Invasion (and supported by Romana's regeneration in DW: Destiny of the Daleks) that a Time Lord can alter his body immediately after the regeneration. DW: Time Crash also establishes that if two incarnations of the same Time Lord interact it can cause one of them to appear older.