It had been 15
years since I worked on a Doctor Who
fan video, but in December 2003 I participated in a week long
Caribbean Sci-Fi Cruise.
The theme was to have a video workshop, and to that end, make a
fan video on board the ship using the guests. Since we were going
to be visiting two Mayan temples (in Belize and Mexico) we
decided the plot should be the Brigadier (Nicholas Courtney) and
Zoe (Wendy Padbury) being sent by the Doctor (Colin Baker) to
retrieve a crystal from on top of the Mayan pyramid.
Conveniently, footage had already been shot a week before at the
Chicago TARDIS convention of Colin and Frazer Hines (as Jamie)
setting up the plot, and we even came up with a plot contrivance
to explain why everyone looked 30 years older than in the series.
Once we had come up with a basic plot, three people were assigned as writers, another as story editor, Paul Scott Aldred of United Fan Con as director, and myself as cameraman. In one of our meetings, former Doctor Who story editor Terrance Dicks said off-hand that the plot we had sounded about right for a ten minute movie. This was taken as Gospel by many of us to mean it had to be exactly 10 minutes, no more or no less, which lead to a funny scene afterwards when he realized in horror that we had taken it so seriously when he had mentioned it merely as a rough guide (ironically the finished video would clock in at 17 minutes!).
The movie begins with the
Brigadier writing his memoirs and recalling his first
73rd birthday which had occurred prematurely due to a TARDIS
malfunction and aged everyone 30 years. Thus, the Doctor and
Jamie send him and Zoe off to Mexico to retrieve a Zybanium
crystal from atop the huge pyramid at Chichen-Itza. However, the
Brig and Zoe are unaware they are being followed by sinister
figures aboard ship who also want the crystal. This becomes clear
when a giant goon (Mike Leahy) comes after Zoe, only to find
himself thrown overboard by the resourceful woman. Later on,
Zoe's stateroom is broken into by the creepy henchman (Ron
Daniels) who plants a listening device to discover their plans.
The Brig and Zoe are shadowed closely as they travel by bus to
Chichen-Itza. Arriving there, Zoe uses the Doctor's pocketwatch
to home in on the crystal and they discover they must climb the
steep stairs to the top of the pyramid. The henchman follows them
up. At the top they discover the crystal is hidden behind a
secret door covered in Mayan hieroglyphs. The Brig decides to let
Zoe decipher them and has a nearby sitdown next to another
tourist as the henchman keeps close watch. Meanwhile, Zoe meets
two archeologists who tell her about the symbols and she works
out that they need to spill the blood of a warrior first. The
Brig volunteers but the henchman steps out to confront him and
kills the tourist. Thinking on his feet, the Brig kicks a rock at
the henchman who is knocked out and bleeding. To the amazement of
the archeologists, the secret door opens and Zoe quickly grabs
the crystal. They make a hasty departure off the pyramid before
too many questions can be asked. Back at the ship everything
seems resolved when yet one more threat is revealed.
Shooting began on the various
shipboard scenes and then at the first Mayan ruins at Altun Ha to
simulate the top of the pyramid (even though we were all standing
on solid ground -- see photo at left). With only 90 minutes to
shoot before our tour bus left to return the to cruise ship, we
managed to get everything we needed in the can. Terrance even met
an eager Doctor Who fan -- one of the Belize guides at
the park who was thrilled to meet him!
After more
shooting aboard the ship, the next day would be our trickiest
sequence: getting everything we needed in two and half hours
while at Chichen-Itza. The last time the Sci-Fi Cruise has
visited that site, it had poured rain. But luckily we had
beautiful weather throughout the trip, and fairly warm even for
December. After a one hour ferry from Cozemel to the mainland and
then another five hour bus ride we finally reached the site. We
were told that video cameras had to be registered and they might
not like the look of our professional looking camera. This proved
to bite us on the ass a bit later. As quick as we could, we began
filming around the pyramid (Nick and Wendy never actually climbed
the stairs, we filmed them just taking the first few steps and
faked the rest). As we continued to shoot some park guides took
an interest in what we were doing and realized we were more than
just tourists and trying to make a movie, strictly against the
rules. 
They wanted to
confiscate our video camera! We quickly swapped out the tapes and
then let the producer take the video camera and sort this out at
the park office while we continued to shoot on a back up consumer
camcorder. Incredibly, you can't tell the difference in the
finished footage what was shot with which camera! Eventually the
producer returned having promised not to use the pro camera, and
we just continued to shoot with the other one. Once we had
finished all the material with Wendy and Nick, I was able to haul
our henchman (Ron Daniels) up to the top of the pyramid and get
some footage from there. I'd be lying if I didn't say it was
scary up there, the sides are very steep and there are no rails
on the sides to keep from falling off. But we got all the footage
and returned to the bus for our long journey back to the ship for
yet one more day of shooting.
Eventually it was a wrap and
I was given the footage to take back home to Seattle and edit it,
hopefully in time for Gallifrey
One over President's Day weekend in February. I was stunned
when I assembled the rough cut and realized how long the finished
movie would be. It was quite a lot of footage to shoot in three
and a half days, if I say so myself. Incredibly, no scenes were
edited out, just some tightening up here and there as I sent
copies to the producer in Florida and the director in
Massachusetts for their input. The most difficult task was
spending 10 hours doing frame-by-frame rotoscope animation for a
sequence when the villain dies -- all for 10 seconds of finished
footage! For music, I wanted to evoke an old-style Doctor Who
story, and got my hands on a CD of Dudley Simpson music from the
early Tom Baker era, and using scores from "Pyramids of
Mars," "Brain of Morbius," and "Ark In
Space" was able to add some much-needed music (unlike
"real" movies where generally musically speaking
"less is more," in Doctor Who you almost have
to "wallpaper" the music throughout the entire thing to
help establish the mood). Paul's friend Burt Hazard was able to
generate an amazing CGI credit sequence for us at the last minute
which really helped put a professional touch on the movie. Copies
were distributed to the relevant parties and the official World
Premiere was held at Gallifrey One on February 14, 2004, attended
by many of the cruise participants.
Doctor Who: Death Takes A Holiday
17 minutes, Mini-DV video, filmed December 2003, released
February 2004.
Cast... Nicholas Courtney as the Brigadier, Wendy
Padbury as Zoe, Holly Swift as the Boss, Ron Daniels as the
Henchman, Mike Leahy as the Goon, Dan Murphy and Jennifer Lowden
as the Archeologists, Anne Sedell as the old boss, Brian Stearns
as the Unlucky Tourist. Special Appearance by Colin Baker as the
Doctor and Frazer Hines as Jamie MacCrimmon.
Written by Ron & Priscilla Daniels & Jennifer Lowden,
Produced by Dan Harris, Cinematography and Editing by Ryan K.
Johnson, Directed by Paul Scott Aldred.
Back to Ryan's
Homepage
Escape From Seattle | Kill Roy | Doctor
Who | Star Trek: The Pepsi
Generation
What's Ryan Watching | The Wolfe Project | Mystery Science Theater 3000
Have I Got News For You | The 2001 Movies | Norwescon
Movies | Meltdown