- Scream of the Shalka
Doctorwhobox
serial_name=Scream of the Shalka
caption=The Doctor confronts Prime, War Chief of the Shalka Confederation, and her minions
doctor=Richard E. Grant (TheShalka Doctor )
writer=Paul Cornell
director=Wilson Milam
script_editor=None
producer=Muirinn Lane Kelly
executive_producer=Martin Trickey
James GossMario Dubois
production_code=None
series=None
length=6 episodes, 15 mins each
date=13 November –18 December ,2003
preceding="Shada "
following=|"Scream of the Shalka" is a flash-animated serial based on the British
science fiction television series "Doctor Who ". It was produced to coincide with the 40th Anniversary of the series and was originally posted in six weekly parts from13 November to18 December ,2003 onBBCi 's "Doctor Who" [http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/doctorwho/webcasts/shalka/ website] . Although it was intended to be an "official" continuation of the television series that had ended in 1989, the revival of the programme in 2005 relegated it, and its "Ninth Doctor", to unofficial status.The serial was scripted by veteran "Doctor Who" writer
Paul Cornell , withRichard E. Grant providing the voice for the Ninth Doctor andDerek Jacobi as the voice of an android made in the image of the Doctor's old enemy, the Master. This performance followed years of rumours that Grant would play the Doctor in a film or new series, and indeed he had appeared as the Tenth "conceited" Doctor in the Comic Relief special "Doctor Who and the Curse of Fatal Death " in 1999. The Doctor's companion for this adventure, Alison Cheney, was voiced bySophie Okonedo who a year later would be nominated for an Academy Award for her performance in "Hotel Rwanda ".Previous "Doctor Who" webcasts had had limited animation and were little more than a series of illustrations. Earlier in 2003, BBCi had had some success with the original animated webcast "
Ghosts of Albion ". The animation for that story was provided by Manchester-based animation studio Cosgrove Hall, who were also hired to animate "Scream of the Shalka".This story was the first officially-licensed, fully-animated "Doctor Who" story.
ynopsis
The
TARDIS materialises in the village of Lannet inLancashire , disgorging an annoyed Doctor, who has apparently been transported here against his will. He discovers the village silent, its inhabitants all living in fear except for a barmaid, Alison Cheney. An alien race calling themselves the Shalka have taken up residence beneath Lannet in preparation for a wider invasion. Despite his initial reluctance to get involved, the Doctor finds himself having to save the world again, aided by Alison and an old enemy who has become an ally.Cast
*The Doctor —
Richard E. Grant
*Alison Cheney —Sophie Okonedo
*Dawson/ Greaves — Conor Moloney
*Max — Andrew Dunn
*Joe — Craig Kelly
*Mathilda Pierce —Anna Calder-Marshall
*The Master —Derek Jacobi
*Prime —Diana Quick
*Major Kennet — Jim Norton
*Caretaker —David Tennant Continuity
* Grant's incarnation of the
Time Lord (often referred to as the "REG Doctor" or the "Shalka Doctor" by fans) has since appeared in an online short story, "The Feast of the Stone" byCavan Scott and Mark Wright, although no further stories are planned.
* Major Kennet looks over aUNIT file with the Doctor.
* Toward the end of theEighth Doctor Adventures novel range, the "expanded canon" began to consciously diverge, with the audio plays and novels intentionally contradicting each other. In the final Eighth Doctor novel, "The Gallifrey Chronicles ", the idea is put forward that each of the separate narrative threads — presumably books, comics, and audios, as implicitly suggested in "Zagreus" — has led to a different ninth incarnation of the Doctor. The implication here, though not explicitly stated, is that the three Doctors are the televisedNinth Doctor ,Rowan Atkinson 's Doctor from "The Curse of Fatal Death ", and the Shalka Doctor. Some fans have used this "expanded timeline" theory to fit "Scream of the Shalka" into overall continuity.Fact|date=August 2007 Despite this, while the BBC has generally not made any declaration of canonicity regarding non-televised "Doctor Who" spinoffs (including the audios and novels), leaving their canoncity status unclear, "Scream of the Shalka" is one of the only such spinoffs to have been explicitly declared non-canon by the BBC and the "Doctor Who" production team.
* Two of the cast members would go on to play characters in the 'New' or 'Revived' series' of Doctor Who.Derek Jacobi playedThe Master in 2007 in the series 3 episodeUtopia andDavid Tennant would go on to play theTenth Doctor from 2005 onwards.halka
Doctorwhorace|
name=Shalka| type=Bioplasmic entities| affiliation=Shalka Confederacy| planet=Unknown| start=Scream of the Shalka| The Shalka appear to be a serpentine alien race made of living rock andmagma , but they are actually bioplasmic entities, living plasma, their physical appearance merely a "crust" concealing their true forms. They breathe volcanic air and prefer high temperatures, being most comfortable underground where lava meetsmetamorphic rock . They communicate through high-pitched screaming, which they can use for a variety of effects, like tunneling through rock or mentally controlling other life forms. They also use sound as a part of their technology.The Shalka arrived on Earth via meteorite, initially landing near
Mount Ruapehu ,New Zealand , subsequently establishing a beachhead for their planned invasion of Earth beneath theLancashire town of Lannet. They also created a stablewormhole for landing their invasion force, which could also be converted into ablack hole to dispose of their enemies, as they tried to do with the Doctor.As they claimed to have done to billions of planets before, they intended to implant Shalka larvae into key segments of the population, mind controlling them into emitting a scream that would destroy the
ozone layer . In this way, the Shalka intended to raise the surface temperature of the planet to the point where the human race would perish but the Shalka could thrive. The Shalka would then live beneath the surface, with the rest of the universe believing that Earth's inhabitants had died of self-inflicted ecological damage. The Doctor defeated their plans with the help of the British military and a Lannet barmaid named Alison.Production
"Doctor Who" had suspended production in 1989, and aside from charity specials, had only resurfaced as an American-funded television movie in 1996, which did not garner enough ratings to go to a regular series. When "Shalka" was announced in July, 2003 for planned broadcast in November, the possibiliy of "Doctor Who" returning to television screens still seemed remote and BBC Worldwide were continuing to shop around for another possible movie deal. As a result, BBCi announced, with BBC approval, that the Doctor appearing in "Shalka" would be the "official" Ninth Doctor. However, events rapidly overtook this.
In September
Lorraine Heggessey , the Controller ofBBC One , managed to persuade BBC Worldwide that as their plans for a "Doctor Who" film were nowhere near fruition, BBC television should be allowed to make a new series. A deal withRussell T. Davies to produce the new series was quickly struck, and onSeptember 26 , the BBC announced that "Doctor Who" would be returning toBBC One in 2005, produced byBBC Wales . As a result, the "official" nature of the "Shalka" webcast was in doubt from even before it was webcast.After the webcast, in February 2004, plans for sequels or a DVD release were indefinitely shelved. For a period, it was unclear if the new television Doctor would be the Ninth or Tenth Doctor, but this was ultimately settled in April 2004 when in an interview with "
Doctor Who Magazine ", Davies announced that the new television Doctor (played byChristopher Eccleston ), would be theNinth Doctor , relegating the Richard E. Grant Doctor to unofficial status. Davies later commented that Grant had never been considered for the role in the television series, telling "Doctor Who Magazine": "I thought he was terrible. I thought he took the money and ran, to be honest. It was a lazy performance. He was never on our list to play the Doctor." [cite journal
last = Cook
first = Benjamin
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = Tooth and Claw
journal =Doctor Who Magazine
volume =
issue = 360
pages = 17
publisher =Panini Comics
date =2005-09-14
url =
doi =
id =
accessdate = ]Production notes
*The working title for this production was "Servants of the Shalakor". This original story outline is included in the BBC Books novelisation (see below).
*Appearing in an uncredited cameo role in the serial as a caretaker was actor and "Doctor Who" fanDavid Tennant , who in April 2005 was announced as theTenth Doctor in the television series proper. He was not originally cast in the production, but Tennant happened to be recording a radio play in a neighbouring studio, and when he discovered what was being recorded next door managed to convince the director to give him a small role.
*Derek Jacobi would later play the Master again in the 2007 episode "Utopia".
*In the pub scene, the Cosgrove Hall Studios logo can briefly be seen onbeermat s, advertising "Volunteer Ale."
*Thefont used in titles and end credits (Industria) was the one used on the BBC's lines of "Doctor Who" video releases and spin-off novels at the time. It continues to be used on the classic series DVD releases inRegion 1 .
*In 2006Cosgrove Hall was again to create a "Doctor Who" related animation, the two missing episodes of "The Invasion" for that serial's DVD release. In 2007, some of the animation staff from these two productions went on to develop "The Infinite Quest ", a 13-part serial to be aired as part of the second series of "Totally Doctor Who ". A behind-the-scenes documentary on the making of the "Invasion" episodes entitled "Flash Frames" includes footage from "Scream of the Shalka" -- the only footage from the production to see DVD release.In print
Doctorwhobook
title=Scream of the Shalka
series=Past Doctor Adventures
number=64
featuring=Shalka Doctor The Master and Alison
writer=Paul Cornell
publisher=BBC Books
isbn=ISBN 0-563-48619-8
set_between=Unknown
pages=288
date=February 2004
preceding="Deadly Reunion "
following="Empire of Death "|The novelisation of "Shalka" was written by Paul Cornell, the first novelisation of a "Doctor Who" serial (the 1996 television movie notwithstanding) in nearly a decade (and the last until novelisations based upon episodes of the spinoff "The Sarah Jane Adventures " commenced in 2007 with "Invasion of the Bane "). The book also includes a feature on the making of the webcast, as well as the original "Servants of the Shalahoa" story outline. Given that the BBC and the producers of the televised "Doctor Who" have discounted "Scream of the Shalka" as being part of the franchise's continuity, this is one of the few "Doctor Who" novels for which the canonicity (or in this case, lack thereof) has firmly been established.DVD release
The
British Board of Film Classification has cleared all six episodes of the serial for release on DVD, but the BBC has made no announcement about release of the story. As of March 2007, only clips from the serial have been released to DVD, as part of "Flash Frames", a documentary on the DVD release of the restored "The Invasion".Footnotes
External links
cream of the Shalka webcast
*imdb title|id=0388894|title=Doctor Who: Scream of the Shalka
* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/classic/webcasts/shalka/ "Scream of the Shalka", on the BBC website]
*Doctor Who RG | id=bbci_04 | title=Scream of the Shalka
* [http://www.drwhoguide.com/mp3/shalka.mp3 "Scream of the Shalka" theme music]Reviews
*OG review | id=bbci-4 | title=Scream of the Shalka
*DWRG | id=scream | title=Scream of the Shalkacream of the Shalka novelisation
* [http://members.lycos.co.uk/cloisterlibrary/screamnov.htm The Cloister Library - "Scream of the Shalka" (novelisation)]
Reviews
*OG review | id=bbcp-64 | title=Scream of the Shalka (novelisation)
*DWRG | id=screamnov | title=Scream of the Shalka (novelisation)
* [http://www.whoniverse.org/reviews/BBCi4.php The Whoniverse's review on the "Scream of the Shalka" novelisation]
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