"Doctor Who"
Delta and the Bannermen: Part 1 (1987)

Director:

Chris Clough

Writer:

Malcolm Kohll (writer)

TV Series:

"Doctor Who" (1963)

Original Air Date:

2 November 1987 (Season 24, Episode 9)

Genre:

Adventure | Drama | Sci-Fi

Plot:

Plot Keywords:

Space Hero | Doctor Who | Scientist Hero | Christ Allegory | Extraterrestrial Hero

Cast

Sylvester McCoy	...	The Doctor
Bonnie Langford	...	Melanie Bush
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Robin Aspland	...	Lorell
Richard Davies	...	Burton
Morgan Deare	...	Hawk
Johnny Dennis	...	Murray
Ken Dodd	...	Tollmaster
Anita Graham	...	Bollitt
Sara Griffiths	...	Ray
Don Henderson	...	Gavrok
Brian Hibbard	...	Keillor
Stubby Kaye	...	Weismuller
David Kinder	...	Billy
Belinda Mayne	...	Delta
Keff McCulloch	...	Lorell
Leslie Meadows	...	Adlon
Justin Myers	...	Lorell
Ralph Salmins	...	Lorell
Tim Scott	...	Chima
Jodie Wilson	...	Vocalist
Tracey Wilson	...	Vocalist

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Mono

Trivia:

The holiday camp scenes were shot in a real holiday camp.

Quotes:

Burton: You are not the Happy Hearts Holiday Club from Bolton, but instead are spacemen in fear of an attack from some other spacemen?

The campy 'one' with Ken Dodd.

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Doctor Who: Delta and the Bannermen: Part 1 starts as Chimeron Queen Delta (Belinda Mayne) the last surviving member of her race manages to escape from the evil Gavrok (Don Henderson) & his gang of Bannermen... Meanwhile the Doctor (Sylvester McCoy) & his companion Melanie (Bonnie Langford) arrive at intergalactic toll-port G715 run by Ken Dodd, as the 10 billionth customer the Doctor & Mel are treated to a free holiday at Disneyland during 1959, it's better than nothing I suppose. As they are about to take off in an old bus Delta appears & gets on board as well. Unfortunately the bus hits an orbiting satellite above Earth & crash lands in Wales, while the bus is fixed the bus load of vacationers from all over the universe decide to stay at the Shangri-La holiday camp but soon find themselves in trouble when Gavrok & his men learn of Delta's whereabouts...

This Doctor Who adventure was episode 9 from season 24 & it first aired here in the UK during November 1987, it was directed by Chris Clough who apparently replaced Bob Gabriel & was originally shot under the title Flight of the Chimeron although under any name this isn't that special. The script by Malcolm Kohll takes it's influence from various 50's related sci-fi material & particularly reminds of Back to the Furure (1985) in a number of ways including trying to create a 50's feel with the use of rock 'n' roll. The one thing that is very noticeable here is how camp & humorous Delta and the Bannermen is, there's a fair amount of intentional comedy here & when I say it's camp I don't mean because of the fact it's set in one! I suppose when all said & done it's still Doctor Who & as a fan I still found it quite fun but I just thought this goes too far in certain directions, I just like my sci-fi to have a hard dark edge to it & Delta and the Bannermen doesn't have any. The basic story is nothing to get that excited about either although I'm pleased to see they have shaved an episode off & this story only contains three as opposed to four so hopefully things will move along at a brisk pace.

Seriously, who's idea was it to cast Ken Dodd? I'm sorry but his appearance destroys any credibility this story could have had. The holiday camp scenes were filmed at the Majestic Holiday Camp located in South Glamorgan in Wales. As a whole this is a pretty cheap looking episode with the bare minimum of special effects used.

Delta and the Bannermen: Part 1 isn't my favourite Doctor Who story & doesn't really satisfy me in terms of what I look for in a good story from the show.