Doctor Who: Classic 18x1: "The Leisure Hive" Parts 1-4 | PREMIERE REACTION!! 

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First appearance of the Fourth Doctor's new outfit and red scarf and the question marks and JNT era.

Richard, please don't stop using your knowledge of history and classic literary science fiction to pose theories on what the writers are wanting to comment on in their stories. It is one of the main reasons I am here and I live for it.

It's only occured to me tonight that this story is a sort of analogy of post-industrial, post empire Britain. Nothing else to offer but tourism and messages. As Paul Keating said, Britain is a Victorian theme park sinking into the sea. It's fitting that the story begins in a faded Victorian holiday destination.

14:05 - only in an official sense was Barry Letts (yes, the early 70s producer) in charge as Executive Producer. He was put there because the series’ previous Production Unit Manager, John Nathan-Turner, was promoted to Producer. It was his first Producing job and because he was taking over a well-established prime time BBC1 show with a large following (and thus a higher flak quotient when - not if, when - something goes wrong), the BBC felt he needed to be under the wings of an established former producer with years of experience. Hence Barry Letts’ post. However, Barry’s post was quite superfluous as JN-T decided how he wanted to run the show. Given, both now and then, many of his decisions were unquestionably bad but he stuck to his guns. Letts was only used to give advice about *how* to execute the changes JN-T wanted to make. By the end of the series/season, Letts was moved on to something else.

8:55 JNT wanted a break from previous era and thus the incidental music now done by the radiophonic workshop rather than the previous house composer Dudley Simpson. 13:50 Christopher H. Bidmead is the new script editor. He and JNT elected to move to a harder sci-fi element to the series which you might notice from the more technical language. Some dislike this move but I actually quite like it.

The Aged Doctor should have said I'm getting too old for this shit 😁

the villain of next weeks episode is one of my favourite because of how silly it is

Fantastic. Poor old K9. He really should have been waterproofed! Doesn't Lalla look lovely in that Edwardian beach costume. Tom as The Burgundy Shadow! The Shadow knows!

As a point of interest, the name 'Foamasi' is an anagram of 'Mafiosa', on which the creatures were based. Anagrams will be rather prominent for the next few seasons.

The beginning of the John Nathan-Turner era, who will now be the producer of Doctor Who for the rest of its original run until the 1989 cancellation. There will be several different script editors that'll work under him, but for better or worse, JNT is the one constant for Doctor Who in the 80s. For just this season, the BBC also brought back Barry Letts (the producer throughout the Pertwee era) as an executive producer (not a common role for BBC dramas in those days) to guide and help JNT because of his relatively young age (he was only 33) and inexperience. He had never produced a show before. Both the previous producer and script editor, Graham Williams and Douglas Adams respectively, moved on after last season; taking with them the quirky, comedic tone that had been established since season 15 and had only become even more prevalent once Adams became script editor for season 17. Their successors, John Nathan Turner and Christopher H Bidmead (new script editor for this season only) felt that the show had become too silly in the last couple of seasons under Willams (which is ironic considering JNT had worked under Williams as production unit manager throughout his era, so he kind of threw his previous employer under the bus with his comments) and brought with them a radically different, new tone. One that was more serious, brooding and cerebral. They also made an attempt to focus on hard science or at least real scientific theories. They also gave the show more superficial changes like new theme music, a new title sequence, a brand new costume for the Doctor and new incidental music with new and different composers contributing to the show, who were a part of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, rather than relying almost solely on Dudley Simpson (he had composed music for all but seven stories between The Seeds of Death and The Horns of Nimon!) to provide the music. He never worked for the show again. All these changes did not please Tom Baker to say the least and this led to a lot of behind-the-scenes tensions and butting of heads with JNT and Bidmead. It's funny because despite all this, I think Tom in this season was better than he had been since early season 15.

I may be one of the few who likes and enjoys this episode

Welcome to 80s Doctor Who. A very mixed period amongst people, I'm interested to see where this is gonna go for you with how different the show is now, new Intro, new background music, new feel, new types of costumes, new producer, almost a new Doctor, everything.

16:40 - I don’t think disco was ever as big here as it was in the US because almost as soon as glam rock went out of fashion in the mid-70s, it was replaced by disco but very quickly was replaced by punk and mod. Disco was popular until about 1981 but not as popular as it was in the US and not as popular as punk, mod, then New Romantics (which was just about to hit the pop music charts towards the end of this season, early 1981 when “Fade To Grey” by Visage and “Vienna” by Ultravox were both released). So disco was the most fashionable music only for a short time before it became second only to punk and mod, but it stayed longer as second-popular than it would have done if it wasn’t replaced as the most popular genre so unusually quickly by punk. So “disco” was still in vogue in the UK when this was made. Not for much longer and by the time the fifth doctor made his debut, the music was probably a bit out of date.

This story ran so short, the end credits even got slowed down to eke out some more run-time.

15:40 - oh you’ll grow to love this theme tune, compared to the one that replaced it!

As others have pointed out, this is the start of the John Nathan-Turner era of Doctor Who, which continued until the show's cancellation. He got, and still gets, a lot of hatred from some fans, but I don't think that's entirely fair. Without getting into any spoilers for the show, the tone shifts of the stories over the subsequent seasons are largely reflections of the people he picked for script editors. There are hits, and their are misses, but the one thing that was true regardless was that JNT truly cared about the show. People say he overstayed his welcome, remaining on the show so long, but the reason why was simple - when he got to the point where he felt he didn't have anything fresh to offer, he asked the BBC to bring in a new producer and move him elsewhere in the organisation, but the highers up made it clear to him that if he left then there'd be no replacement and the show would end, so he stayed on rather than let that happen. He kept the show going despite the then-boss of the BBC, Michael Grade, openly hating the show, expecting JNT to produce Star Wars production levels on a budget that was tiny and never increased. But make no mistake, while there was significant behind-the-scenes drama because of this (which will kick off a few seasons after where you are now), and yes, JNT hit a point where he felt he'd nothing fresh to bring to the table, and doubly yes, there are some bad stories to come, there's also a lot of good stuff left. I know you've already watched Remembrance of the Daleks - that came after the point JNT felt he'd hit the wall and asked to leave. When he knew that wasn't an option he didn't give up and decide to phone it in. He continued to make his best effort.

And just like that we hit the 80s hard

The eighties: the era of the funkeh musak!

New season, new everything! This is the start of producer John Nathan Turner, who remained with the show for the rest of Classic Who. He was sort of like Moffat, where he stuck around so long because they couldn't find anyone to replace him. So new outfit for the Doctor, and new opening, to go with the hip 1980s! This era is the question mark era, with every Doctor's outfit being covered in them. This is also the season where you can tell Tom Baker is kind of sick of it, particularly by the end. Although right now he might have been happy, considering he was in the middle of dating Lalla Ward, and in fact they got married before the season was finished filming. I do have a soft spot for this theme song, although I can see why some don't like it. Get used to it though, it's here for a while. This era also has a lot more TARDIS interior shots, complete with consistent set design, so no more old Victorian hospitals.

A significant season for Doctor Who! As well as being the last series for Tom, it was also very fraught time. Tom Bakers difficult tyrannical behavior and his marriage dissolving with Lalla ward. John Nathan Turner was the new broom and wanted to move on from what he believed to be the old fashioned style of the show. He couldn’t wait for Tom to go and I think Tom was alarmed how quickly the accepted his resignation. (Which I think affected him greatly). So new music, more technobabble, and a different approach. Fun Fact: Lalla War is now married to famous atheist scientist Richard Dawkins

The 1980's arrive! The organic music, often with Dudley Simpson, was dismissed, for myth' composed. The Director, Lovett Bickford, was innovative, yet he went over time in his filming, and was not asked back again. The first two stories all had short episodes to not have padding. The Script Editor, Chris H. Bidmead wanted to return to some really science and technology concepts. Doctor Who , on BBC, was running against the American import on ITV "Buck Rogers in the 25th Century" which got better ratings for a while.

I watched this not too long ago and I even I agree that this feels very padded out. But I’m not mad that my dad has it on DVD. Also, there’s another trilogy of stories in this season.

Welcome to the John Nathan-Turner era of 'Doctor Who'. JNT would serve as the show's longest running producer, from 1980 right up it's cancellation in 1989. So, anything that doesn't feel right or goes wrong for the show from this point on, people tend to blame JNT. Let's see if you will as the seasons go on.

Alex. I loved it then and I love it now!

Tom Baker absolutely hated his new outfit it was a costume rather than clothes it was at the insistence of John Nathan Turner and a rough time for Tom JNT believed the reason the question marks came to be was to make it marketable Tom and Lalla Ward also didn't like the new theme.

In regards to your escape planet idea, the BBC did a sci-fi game show called The Adventure Game in the 80’s with a similar premise. Episodes of it can be found on RU-vid.

I've always had a soft spot for The Leisure Hive, and I have absolutely no idea why.

They had to get a new scarf because the original one was falling apart, so they did his entire outfit around the new scarf. Everybody I talk to likes the first scarf and the red trench coat.

I also have a request: Let the end credits to Part 4 of Meglos play out. The Howell theme in the original key of E minor.

This is the first story with John Nathan Turner as producer. This was Turner's first job as a producer, he had previously been a production assistant on the series and had worked on the show in various capacities throughout his career, beginning at the end of the Troughton era when he was "the boy who made the tea.", essentially a gofer. Turner was eager to make his own imprint on the series with a new title sequence, revamped theme music, new costume for the Doctor, etc, plus other less obvious changes. In some ways Turner was ahead of his time, he thought (correctly) that while there had been merchandising for Doctor Who since the beginning, there was potential for a lot more development in this area. One misconception he had though, was the idea that if the Doctor and companions wore the exact same clothes in every story it would create an identifiable image that would encourage toy manufacturers (for example) to create Doctor Who action figures. So, sorry, you're going to be seeing that red outfit a lot. Romana escapes this as she's on her way out, but Adric is usually in his"pajamas, Nyssa in her velvet, Tegan in her air hostess uniform. For the next few years, companions tend to change their clothes about once a season. In reality, Character Options, the company that has made Doctor Who toys in the modern era, loves different costumes as it creates the opportunity for more action figures: David Tennant in a blue suit, David Tennant in a brown suit, with or without his long overcoat, with or without glasses, with 3-D glasses, in a tuxedo, in a spacesuit, etc. Coinciding with the new producer is a new script editor, Christopher H Bidmead. Most of Nathan Turner's predecessors had at least some kind of background in creative writing, but Turner did not, and of all the classic series producers, he was the least involved in the scripting process, leaving that aspect of production largely up to his script editor. Going forward, Turner will be producer until the end of the classic series, but each new script editor he has will lead to a change in tone for the show, rather than that being dictated by the producer. Christopher H Bidmead wanted there to be less science fantasy in the series and more hard science fiction, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but Bidmead tends to use complex scientific jargon that doesn't always convey ideas well to a general audience. In an upcoming story, for example, the old Doctor Who idea of a time loop is reused, but Bidmead calls it a chronic hysteresis. Clarity in storytelling is not his strong point. So, if you struggled following plot points in The Leisure Hive, there's going to be a lot more of that for awhile. Bidmead also wanted to cut way back on the jokiness in the series, so The Leisure Hive, written by David Fisher, who had previously written The Stones of Blood, Androids of Tara and Creature From the Pit, had a lot of humorous material cut, which is why these episodes are so uncharacteristically short and feature so much padding and such long reprises. Fisher intended the Foamasi to be a parody of the Mafia, (Foamasi is an anagram for mafiosa) but virtually all of that is lost. A final note, director Lovett Bickford went massively over budget for this story (as did a couple of other directors this season) with the result that he is never invited back to direct another one.

Doctor Who has arrived into the 80s!

'The Leisure Hive' notes : Part One: Viewing figures = 5.9 million. Chart position = 77. Part Two: Viewing figures = 5.0 million. Chart position = 103. Part Three: Viewing figures = 5.0 million. Chart position = 111. Part Four: Viewing figures = 4.5 million. Chart position = 111. Transmission dates : 30 August, 6, 13, 20 September 1980. Studio sessions : April 1980. Studios : TC1 & TC3. Working titles : 'The Argolin' / 'Avalon'. New producer John Nathan-Turner takes up his post with change being his priority. Keen to show 'Doctor Who' has arrived in the 1980s he dispenses with the old title sequence, theme tune arrangement and services of long-term composer Dudley Simpson. Instead, the Radiophonic Workshop are assigned the task of providing incidental music and Peter Howell rebuilds the theme tune from the ground up. The departing production team have few scripts left on the shelf that could be used, so JN-T and new Script Editor Christopher Hamilton Bidmead face a scramble to get material together for the production dates. Director Lovett Bickford experiments with shooting single-camera in the manner of a film, but this slows production down greatly, requiring a whole extra day in the studio to be tacked onto the second block. As a result 'The Leisure Hive' goes massively over budget and Bickford is not invited back in the future. Tom Baker and Lalla Ward are not getting on too well, which doesn't help the atmosphere in studio and all this effort is rather undermined when ITV schedules 'Buck Rogers In The 25th Century' opposite the new 'Doctor Who' season. The disappointing ratings are evident as the show drops out of the Top 100 and this turmoil will continue for a while yet...

I really didn't like this when it came out, all the changes didn't go down well. But over time I've come to appreciate it, and now look back at it as a great swansong for Tom.

Not only a new outfit for the Doctor, but arguably the first _costume._ Whilst the Doctor had worn flamboyant clothes in the past, they were at least fairly believable, looking more like an "assemblage" than an "ensemble". From this point on, however, we get an obviously tailored look, with dodgy design choices thrown in for good measure. In Tom's case, the best/worst example of this are the question-marks on the lapels, probably a marketing gimmick added at the behest of John Nathan-Turner. They're evidently meant to symbolise the Doctor's "who-ness" in a self-conscious manner, but not everyone was/is happy with that idea.

Welcome to the tenure of the last Producer of Classic Who, John Nathan-Turner (JN-T)

This and the next story are the shortest four-part stories since The Mind Robber. Season 18 was ostensibly the longest season since 1969, with 28 episodes. Problem is these two were so short and with massive episode recaps, it was bollocks. Next story has an 18-minute episode!

Start of a new era, new show runner john nathan turner. He was head writer from now until dr who’s cancellation. Some people think he ruined the show, i think its just…very 80s. Tom baker doesn’t quite fit in 80s who and seems quite out of place, but he’s still good. He really didn’t like the new production tho, and was apparently a real nightmare to work with during this season. Also john leeson returned to voice K-9, i guess he recovered from his laryngitis 😂😂

You are going to find this season to be pretty odd on the whole. Sometimes enjoyably quirky, sometimes bewilderingly strange. At least that's how I find it, although I've not seen every story in it. At the back of my mind I think I remember being informed the shorter run lengths on these episodes are just this one story, and it was to fit it around a sports event that was being covered by the BBC, I don't remember which event.

The last decade already.

31:56 It depends on how much the language is considered "intelligent" When the language is too primitive or too simple, it doesn't seem to work, basically.

you know whats weird hearing your end title with the new theme

Welcome to the 80's.

Amazing to think that the last time audiences heard the original theme was horns of nimon. An episode so bad the theme tune quit

Speaking of WWII there was also the soviet union still going on during the 1980's.

Was Tardis translation a thing in old Who?

Wait, did dad just suggest that the entirety of Brighton might be an amusement park? 😃

You better get use to the weirdness because the JNT era is going to get a whole lot weirder.

Again not everything needs to be explained the joy of Doctor Who is you take the rest of the unexplained stuff into your own interpretation.

It’s the Burgundy Doctor.

Not a fan of the new 4th doctor outfit its just all red

reviews are too long

Absolute snoozefest. Been to Brighton Beach though but this story is awful and this seasons is the weakest of classic who. I Only like 2 stories. Story 3 and 4. Rest a just a big mess, fairly dull or weak.