Doctor Who Oddity: The Curse of Fatal Death 

Nathaniel: "Why do you find this funny?" Fans of this story: "I'll explain later."

Fans: Heaven Sent is Moffat's best episode Curse of Fatal Death: _Am I a joke to you?_ Fans: We'll explain later

Aha, I knew that the fans would go back in time and bribe you to praise this special, so I went back in time to just before that and bribed you to ignore the fans.

It's less "Mr. Bean as the Doctor" and more "Blackadder as the Doctor". But the typical American probably has no clue what Blackadder is. Shame.

In my opinion I don’t see the doctor being a woman being a joke but a setup for the joke about the doctor leaving the companion for the master

Interesting note: As it refers to Rowan Atkinson as the 9th Doctor then if you actually count the regenerations in this parody the female doctor (Joanna Lumley) is the 13th Doctor just as it ended up being in the actual show.

The Curse of Fatal Death is more a homage rather than a spoof. It's a loving send up of classic Who, from the slightly camp acting and wobbly sets to the title with a tautology and the promise to explain a plot point which is never explained. Yes, the humour is a little juvenile in places but there are some good jokes in it. Also, the TARDIS set was actually fan made as they weren't able to use the original set. Also, the actors brought in to play the regenerations were actually supposed to have been in consideration for the role in the much mooted attempts to bring Who back before RTD managed it in the 2000's

You didn't notice this was all Moffat's master plan? Atkinson=Eccelston, Grant=Tennant, Broadbent=Smith, Grant=Capaldi, Lumley=Whittaker.

I can't watch Classic Who without hearing Atkinson's world-weary "...all those gravel quarries..." in my head.

I just love it for its silliness. The toilet humour was grating, but I was simply _in love_ with the stuff that also worked for you and with the regenerations. They're just so great, all of them. And I also absolutely adore it because it shows that Moffat had already come up with pretty much all of the ideas that he would go on to implement during his run: 1. The Doctor marries his companion (River Song) 2. Timey-wimey shenanigans (think back to Blink and The Day of The Doctor) 3. The Master becomes a woman (though not quite literally this time around but whatever) 4. The Master teams up with another classic villain (just like in Series 8, where he suddenly became the leader of the Cybermen) 5. The Daleks ask the Doctor to help them (Asylum of the Daleks) 6. The 12th Doctor is bloody gorgeous (OK, that's a joke on my part, but you've got to admit it ;) 7. The Doctor faces his very _certain death_ but then is brought back to life by a Deus Ex machina (just like at the end of The Time of the Doctor) 8. The Master promises to become good because of the Doctor (just like Missy promised the 12 Doctor) 9. The 13th Doctor is a blonde woman. 10. There is a little bit of romantic tension between the Master and the Doctor when they are in bodies with opposite Genders (just like between the 12th Doctor and Missy) And finally, and most importantly (I think), the Doctor's companion says that "he was never cruel and never cowardly". So, yeah, some might say that this shows that Moffat was just lazy and he reused his ideas but I like to think that all of this shows that he'd already had a plan for what he would do with Doctor Who if he ever got to work on it and tried to fit some of those ideas into this spoof. Along with toilet humour. But thank goodness that that was just a phase and we got very little of that in Moffat's era! Also just for reference: I'd also started with New-Who, but I'd managed to binge through the classics right before the 50th and I loved the classics _way_ more than the revival. But naturally the revival is quite nostalgic for me and Capaldi's era did feel ever so slightly closer to the good ol' days.

A good drinking game is spotting all the things in this special that ended up in new who.

"If this is a dalek ship, then why are there chairs?" "I'll explain later."

Johanna Lumley was actually rumoured to be cast as the first female doctor way before ne e who and her inclusion was actually a nod to that. In fact I think all the actors who played the doctor had been rumoured at the time

I don't agree with you but you still deserve a thumbs up for the video. You have to realise that this was a segment of British humour (sic) 20 years ago.

'Say hello to the sofa of reasonable comfort' This is a good parody actually better than dimensions in time.

The joke was not the doctor becoming a woman but the reaction from the fiancée.

I think more people at the time were not thinking "Mr. Bean's the Doctor", they were thinking "Blackadder's the Doctor", which, if you know about how the Blackadder "reincarnates", makes sense.

Nathaniel: So, how are things? The Doctor: I'll explain later.

This story is so camp and awkward I love it. It’s pretty funny too, shame people don’t talk about it or even know if its existence too often.

PS You left out one of the best jokes. The Doctor says, "I have grown weary of all the evil in the universe, all the cruelty, all the suffering, all those endless gravel quarries."

This is my canon ending of Doctor Who. Whenever the series drops off, im just gonna add this to the end.

....It's almost as if British comedy wasn't designed for an American audience!

I think it's great. The Moffat made foreshadowing is crazy

Actually, the concept of The Doctor regenerating into a woman had been around for a very long time. Even way back in the classic era. From about the end of the Peter Davison stint whenever The Doctor was due for a new actor to take over the role, the British press would speculate and there would be a suggestion of a woman taking over. The appearance of Joanna Lumley was a reference to the press speculation and not a dig at the implausibility of the whole concept. Actually I think Joanna Lumley's brief appearance as The Doctor was actually an early indication that it could work if the right actress was chosen and the whole thing was handled well. I think Joanna Lumley would have made a fine Doctor. She's best known Stateside as playing Pattsy in AbFab. But in the UK, her early claim to fame was playing Purdy in the 70's spy show The New Avengers, where she displayed a strong athletic ability and practiced a bizarre combination of ballet and martial arts. I think she would have proven to be very versatile and possessed just the right level of eccentricity and manic energy for the role. A missed opportunity.

I think this spoof is quite indicative of how Moffat would later run the show: some time-travel shenanigans and a complex plot over character development, a focus on jokes that undermine dramatic tension, sexualizing female characters, the lack of real stakes, references being thrown all around the place, not to mention the "I'll explain later" line which brought to mind how Moffat hyped the importance of upcoming events with vague riddles and nonsense and rarely having proper payoffs. Here it works because it's a parody, but I always had a problem when Moffat couldn't just take things seriously and calm down to explore his ideas and characters. It's also interesting how the ideas of the Doctor marrying a companion, male to female regeneration, a timelord having to repeat the same torture over and over again adding to hundreds of years when the Master gets thrown in the sewer (basically Heaven sent), and the portrayal of Daleks as the butt of the joke are all present here.

It's a bit unfair to say the joke was just HAHA BOOBS. You could say it was built on that basic premise, but the lines about "dalek beam locators" and so on make it more complex and specifically related to Doctor Who

It was comic relief aka red nose day not children in need. Similar things but yeah

To better understand Curse of Fatal Death, your best bet would be to watch Rowan Atkinson's Blackadder, The Complete Saga. You also should immerse yourself into the Sixth and Seventh Doctor's series plus the McGann movie. Also, flatulence / feces / fluffy chests are juvenile humor, which is the absolute *point* of a Children in Need special. Written in the era when Beavis / Butthead / South Park were the dominant forms of humor on television, which the BBC took to in order to dispel its, ah, "stuffy" image.

Nathaniel: Why do the comments keep using the "I'll explain later" joke? Comments: I'll explain later

It was a Comic Relief special from 1999. It was broken down and broadcast across the night in multiple parts.

Haven't watched the video, so I don't know if you make this mistake there too, but the description calls this a "Children In Need" special when, to my knowledge, it was actually a Red Nose Day special.

So why do they call you the Master? I'll explain later. That's the final joke for Lumley.

If you realize the desperate state of Doctor Who at the time, you can understand why some of us love this spoof. All of your criticisms are valid, but we were grateful for anything at the time. There is also a Brit vs. American humor thing going on here. Childish jokes are part of the British tradition of pantos (short for pantomime) around Christmas time. These are intended for young children and include childish jokes. That doesn't make the jokes good, but it explains why they were considered acceptable.

One of the greatest appeals was that it was some sort of Doctor Who at a time when there was no Doctor Who.

I think the entire cast of "doctors" in this were all (possibly with the exception of Atkinson) rumoured in the British press to be playing the Dr in a reboot of the show. It was basically a "this is never going to happen" message from the BBC - "all the rumours are nonsense, this is a dead show" - the idea that any of these actors would actually lower themselves to playing the Dr was the joke alongside contrasting top British actors with the sets & budget of old Dr Who - was almost telling the audience "you're kidding yourself if you think this would happen for any reason other than a joke for Comic Relief".

Still, none of the regenerations were ginger haired. 😉

Matt Smith once stated that his Doctor was partly based on Rowan Atkinson's portrayal of Black Adder (along with bits of Frank Spencer and Inspector Clouseau!) so it's quite appropriate that Rowan Atkinson played a version of The Doctor!

I think Rowan Atkinson would have been a great choice for the doctor, maybe more so back in his younger days

Well, I'm sorry, but the Dalek bumps make me laugh every time.

The Curse of Fatal Death was broadcast in 4 parts during the early part of the BBC's Comic Relief telethon in March 1999. The humour is very British: saucy & childish in equal measure. Rowan Atkinson's performance is more akin to Blackadder than Bean. The final joke of Joanna Lumley as the Doctor is a reference to certain fans' stated desire that she play the Doctor at some point. The Children in Need special, from 1993, is the utterly bewildering Dimensions in Time. That was shown in two parts over two nights: the first part during the CiN telethon, the second part during Noel's House Party. It's easy enough to find on RU-vid.

The communication - thru - fart joke works really well. It’s even funny with you explaining it.

The main reason I love this is because it has Saffy from AbFab in it.

Curse of Fatal Death is very important for me As it was what introduced me to Doctor Who in 1999 as a 6 year old kid. Overall, alongside Rowan Atkinson's straight performance and Steven Moffat's obvious deep knowledge of the show, this parody introduced every single Doctor Who concept in a neat package. Who the doctor is and how he often behaves Who his companions are what their role is The Tardis Time Travel The Master Daleks Regeneration The music The sets The overall feel Maybe the humour worked better for 6 year old me, but it was the Doctor Who parts that really sucked me in.

6:25....... Umm, you haven't seen Black Adder?!

Bill & Tedd did the "Well I went even FURTHER back in time!" thing first, but it's played more for comedy in CotFD.

Blimey, if this was you're thoughts on Curse of Fatal Death I can't wait to see what your thoughts are on Dimensions in Time.

Sure this has been pointed out already, but it was actually for Comic Relief (Red Nose Day), not for Children in Need. I absolutely love it!

I finally saw this after discovering this existed thanks to Clever Dick Films RU-vid channel. His latest ongoing chapter on the Dr Who Movie/lost years details this & that hilariously miserable “3D” tv special monstrosity which does sound like the Dr Who version of the Star Wars X-Mas special! Id love to hear your take on THAT thing!!! Lmao!😂

I really like this spoof, despite the silly lowbrow humor. (Although I do agree with certain points you make here) And I really think Johnathon Pryce made a hilarious Master (Although I think he'd make a great Master if he was doing a serious take on it too.). This was done in a time when Doctor Who had been off the air for years, and looked never to return so any new stories were eagerly welcomed by the fans. I'm a fan of Rowan Atkinson (in Black Adder especially) so I greatly enjoyed his particular brand of snarky humor here. Richard E. Grant (The 10th Doctor in this) returned a couple of years later to play an alternate version of the 9th Doctor in the "Scream of the Shalka" animated movie. That Doctor may well have become canon if not for RTD reviving Doctor who as a live action TV series a year later, thereby relegating the Shalka Doctor to non-canon land. There was no standing TARDIS set around at the BBC when they made this production so they actually had to borrow the TARDIS set from a fan production for this. The Daleks in this, I believe, were also fan owned. Wonderful character actor Jim Broadbent played another amusing incarnation of the Doctor in this. I've always enjoyed his work. Little did writer Steven Moffatt realize when he worked on this production that he would one day be writing and producing serious Doctor Who stories for a revived series.

I’m glad I’m not the only one who thought this special was overrated; I feel like you really hit the nail on the head with why a lot of the jokes didn’t land.

Atkinson does all his characters straight. That's where a lot of his humour comes from, but perhaps he comes across as a little mellow in comparison to his louder than life colleagues.

The Richard E Grant 'romance' with his companion was a joke about Tom Baker's real-life relationship with Lalla Ward

And I am afraid that it's very, very English, and I'm also afraid that was what English comedy was like at the time, very juvenile. And I'm talking as an Englishman! Dalek bumps, ha!

Not so much an oddity, I think, as much as exactly how Moffat came to write the main show.. sometimes.

This a perfect example of an affectionate parody, they're parodying Doctor Who but they're doing it in a way that shows that they really do love the show.

The timey-wimey jokes go on a bit too long: Moff starting out as he meant to continue.:p

Of course I hope you realise (s not a z) that you're trying to make sense of British humour (spelt with the extra u) in the style of the Carry On films (not movies). A certain children's author called Roald Dahl (whatever became of his stories?) happened to thinki that a fart was the funniest thing for a child. It was a postcard to the memory of Doctor Who, with all the British seaside humour attached to it (for those who don't understand here's a few examples www.google.com/search?q=seaside+postcards&tbm=isch&source=univ&client=firefox-b-d&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi02dSd8LXjAhURRRUIHQa_BhEQsAR6BAgHEAE&biw=2188&bih=1326 . Its a very British parody that was never meant to be analysed to death, just enjoyed and help raise money for charity. It was not meant to be consumed by anyone but the British. Its not as entertaining now because it has aged but at the time was funny. Apart from that.....nice review. LOL!

Joanna Lumley was a possible choice for the Seventh Doctor. Sydney Newman (creator of Doctor Who) was highly critical of what had become of the series, that it had become socially valueless schlock, and advised the only way to save the series was to cast a female Doctor. Michael Grade ignored the advice; Sylvester McCoy was cast as the next Doctor.

Say hello to the armchair of reasonable comfort!

Some of Moffat’s own foreshadowing jumps to attention in it as well. The Doctor being referred to as “never cruel and never cowardly” caught my attention on first viewing.

Rowan Atkinson as Blackadder is much closer to this portrayl than the Mr Bean incarnation. Having grown up on a steady diet of British comedy in Australia, the tone makes more sense. It draws from lots of contemporary British comedy and relies on familiarity with it almost as much as familiarity with Doctor Who. I appreciate that you always give a fair discussion of the topic giving considered reasons for your opinions.

The Master repeatedly falling down that hole repeatedly is still fantastically funny to me

This is just a classic case of Americans not getting british humour. We have a very sarcastic monotone tongue and cheek way of comedy. Your view on Rowans performance demonstrates this.

This special was released on 12 March 1999: this was just 2 days before I was born!

The thing we have to remember that this was a complete send up of a show that hadn’t been on for years and laughing at how ridiculous some of tropes that most people in the UK grew up knowing about Doctor Who. It wasn’t meant to be sophisticated or serious, it was the skit. Also it’s 90’s British family humour, which I sometimes think isn’t always understood by our North American cousins. Doctor Who was only really considered cool in the modern sense post 2005.

I guess it's all very subjective. Personally I love it.

I get the perspective, i got in with no expetations and got pleasently surprised. I have the feeling in retrospect like moffat roasts his future timey whimey plotlines, Price was the key to sell it through him acting serious with his dalek enhancements was the best..

Another layer of what makes this story so delightful for Classic Who fans is the music... The whole soundtrack is a mashup of classic incidental music, and most of it is instantly recognisable

The chair on the Dalek ship question and answer always gets me 😂

I did some research, and apparently, this came out in 1999; three years after the movie (although, weirdly enough, the movie takes place in 1999).

I think the thing you are most wrong about is the idea that Joanna Lumley's Dr is a joke. Sure there are couple of jokes from her being a female, with the best being the companion who had been blowing hot and cold over the precious incarnations suddenly turned right off(while Joanna is in for a red-hot go!). Joanna had already done SF with Sapphire & Steel, had done action heroics in The New Avengers and had most recently been Pasty in Absolutely Fabulous. There was no UK audience member who was going to see her as anything but legit.

Jonathan Pryce is my favourite part of this "episode"! I did watch this years ago, and rewatching it now, right before Hugh Grant's regeneration came out, I said "oh, who's it gonna be, Hugh Grant?" So I made myself laugh at that. The other thing I didn't catch, or didn't understand the first time I saw it, was Atkinson's line about being tired of the evil in the universe, and he lists "gravel pits" as a thing he's tired of. That made me laugh.

I've always loved this, I used to own it on VHS

Oh dear... should have left this one alone really - hate to say this - I guess some of the humour misses you because you don't connect with that style of humour (not your fault - some brits will laugh all day at a good fart!). This was never meant to be high brow - most Comic Relief sketches are low brow (Not CIN - you really should look up these facts before hand - shame on you!... oh and it was 1999 not 96) This is more of an opinion on your part (you dont like it - we get it) but I dont think it was ever meant to be under much scrutiny - all the props were borrowed from fans and the whole thing thrown together in a short space of time for charity - I think you're being too hard on it (IMHO)

Interesting to see it from your perspective sir - I can agree on many parts it is TOTALLY a lampoon of classic Dr Who - all in aid of a good cause. With the likes of Rowan Atkinson playing the Doctor, the public loved him as BlackAdder before Mr Bean and Johhny English etc. and he very much plays that sort of character in his Dr Who take. Alot of the jokes were made as fans to the fans encouraging us all to chuckle at the things we forgive on a show we love. We all knew the sets were silly, we all knew the time travel thing was ridiculous, and the over-acting of the Master etc. but we loved it the same. So when this came about, remember the show had been off air for so long, and had been essentially treated badly by the BBC in the times leading up to its demise - in fact for many years it was not the cool thing it is since the reboot to be a Dr Who fan - all the novels were in the childrens section of books, it was perfectly fine to snort "grow up" at at fan of Dr Who, and very easy to make fun of a fan of the show as the "yeah, cant get girls loser" much as seemed to be the case for "gamers" for a while as well. Again this is not the same as the modern era where it has become a hit again and it seems to be retroactively written that everyone was such a fan back in the day! But back to the point, Moffat gave such a long episode I think, not just to keep viewers watching and donating as the show went out, but almost as a fan service - to let fans see something that had been off air for years, and for us all to chuckle at the things we forgave the show for. As for the Joanna Lumley thing - that was played for laughs, and while it may not be fashionable in the modern times, her jokes were purely something one would expect from a type of character she played (cant remember if Absolutely Fabulous was on air at the time, but she made such a type of character very famous). I appreciate it may not have aged well, but as you rightly point out, for a product of its time it was done with great heart.

I've heard that all the Doctor's in The Curse of the Fatal Death were actually being considered as playing The Doctor in an updated series. They are known as Dalek Bumps! Back in old who, there was an episode where it was said that the doctor would have a regeneration as a woman!

To be fair, Comic Relief is a family event. It needs to keep the kids engaged as much as the adults.

I honestly enjoy the silliness especially as it was made for Comic Relief. It's kinda written like a Carry-On movie (hope you know what that is - a very silly British comedy series of movies with toilet humour jokes and saucy jokes - usually about breasts. "Carry On Screaming" is a classic and worth a watch). Maybe that doesn't translate across the pond, but I grew up on that kind of humour. Plus there are a lot of great references in it that shows Moffat knew his stuff - "Never cruel or cowardly" and "the Universe, I've put a lot of work into it" etc.

It's tough for me to see it the same way as you because I saw it prior to the new series, and an entire generation ago. Many of the cruder humor bits are right out of the time period (Something About Mary was 1998.) Also, this being a special which children would have watched, the fart and poop jokes would appeal to a younger mind. Meanwhile, adult and inside jokes appeal to a different generation.

Man I want Rowan Atkinson as the Doctor for real 'cause if nothing else this shows he can pull it off. But at least I'll always have the spoof to keep me warm. You're quite about the Doc being a woman and timey-wimey jokes the former feels awkward now (but the 90s was a whole other beast) and the latter I love because it is clearly the predecessor to Moffat's later official work in the Doc Who canon that gave us timey-wimey-ness out the wazoo.

Really feels like it was aimed towards Blackadder fans as much as Doctor Who fans.

I really liked Curse of Fatal Death. But I'm also 57, and grew up with the classic Doctors. CoFD works because it is by and for fans of the clssic show, making fun of the thing that they love. I agree with you that the fart jokes became redundant, but so much else of it, is just made out of love. (Have you ever watched a favourite movie, again, with friends, and you pause at everyone's favourite bits and laugh about them? That's what this is for. It's a love letter to the classic show.)

it was for comic relief 1999 not children in need it was actually released on the night in 4 parts (but uploaded to RU-vid in 2)

They did reference the olfactory bit from this in the Family of Blood episode when the Doctor handed the fob watch to them.

I just wanna point out this movie basically predicted the remaining docs. The jaded foctor. The handsome doctor, the shy bumbling doctor, the debonaire doctor and the female doctor. Just pointing it out. And actually most of jokes were about typical story lines and cliff hangers in drwho. By making stuff that works in the main stories just stupid...

Also I was trying to think of where I'd seen that Master before and just remembered he was in Game of Thrones.

Literally the only parts of this that I remembered when I saw that you were covering this were the parts you said you liked. So I feel pretty safe in saying I would feel the same were I to revisit this.

I am pretty sure that this special definitely predicted the Slitheen from the modern era.

Having watched the behind the scenes of this thing, Moffat even then was saying he liked the idea of the Doctor someday being a woman, even if it was played for laughs here. And while she doesn't so much get jokes of her own, there's only about 4 or 5 jokes left by that point anyway and the rest are just the other two's very different reactions to her. I never got the impression that her being a woman was the full extent of the joke.

This was like if Doctor who was made by Monty Python

Council: We love this special, it pokes fun at the campiness and low budget of Doctor Who. Guy running the meetings: Poop joke not funny

The TARDIS consoles in this special were fan-made sets, and the center was pushed manually by an off screen stage hand. That’s why it was so wibbly-wobbly

Juvenile humour from Steven Moffat? I’m shocked! Shocked! Matt Smith’s “Geronimo” is a sex thing from his sitcom, Coupling

I really enjoyed this special personally. There's also a good Spiderman parody special called Spider Plant Man which also has Rowan Atkinson and Jim Broadbent in it.

I've watched it several times and, I have to confess, I struggle with it. I don't, however, agree with some that it's indicative of Moffat's inability to do comedy well - Joking Apart and Chalk weren't bad and Coupling was really good. Overall, it's a curio and a curate's egg, a strange, anomalous piece, entirely appropriate for its time, but less relevant as time progresses. It is, though, lauded in a manner that is puzzling. Perhaps most folk who watched it, only saw it once and whilst imbibing a few sherbets

I think you are missing the point of the last regeneration sequence. It isn't Joanna Lumley playing The Doctor, it is Joanna Lumley channeling her AbFab *character* Patsy as The Doctor.

When you mentioned the breast joke, I thought you meant the time The Master had Dalek enhancements. Much like you, I mainly found the timey wimey jokes to be the main parts of humor. As for my view of it today, I tend to view it as a time capsule. The main fascination would not only be due to the piece itself, but who made it, the era it was made, and the context.

Correction: It originally aired in four parts over the course of Red Nose Day (not Children In Need). It was compiled into a two part story for the video release.

I'm gonna do my own review - in Terseran.

The jokes aren't about poop, farts or breasts. The jokes are about (through one perfectly timed pratfall)a character spending hundreds of years in poop (in a scenario spookily reminiscent of Heaven Sent. Or a civilisation that communicates by farting are kind and generally nice but avoided and destroy themselves by being late adopters of fire. Or the always camp Master not realising that his etheric beam locators enhance his campness and yet still takes a jab at the firmness of Emma's.