Four to Doomsday

“A Frog In The Throat”, “Doctor Who And The Frogs”, "Four to the Next Story"

“The One With The Giant Frogs” (USA), “Frog’s March” (Greyfriars Herald) “The Bloody French” (Garry Bushell)

Doctor Who and his friends battle some giant frogs.

*** - Some nice frogs and some nice drawings can't hide the underwhelming stench.

"If a frog with a funny hairdo can turn itself into a semblance of a human being, I don't see why I shouldn't vote for her."

(Matthew Waterhouse tries to explain why he'd voted for Mrs Thatcher. Janet Fielding was holding his testicles at the time)

"You may keep the pants"

The presence of the various nationalities in this story was caused by a script for Eurovision being sent to the Dr Who office by mistake. Philip Locke was intending to sing ‘Bing Bang a Bong’ alongside Twiggy.

The whole of episode three was ad libbed by the cast (except the reprise material which meant Terance Dudley still got paid so the cost-cutting exercise proved embarrassingly futile).

In real life, Peter Davison loathes cricket and welcomed the opportunity to mock the sport during the floating in space sequence. On the other hand, he loves office chairs so the scene was doubly satisfying.

Matthew Waterhouse was subject of a practical joke during the shooting of part 2 when the rest of the cast arranged for someone to deliberately ask him for his autograph. He was half way through the flourish at the end of "Matthew" when the autographee burst out laughing and and rats were smelled.

Janet Fielding sent Sarah Sutton a bunch of flowers but, only signing it J, Sarah thought they were from JNT. She smiled inwardly.

78% of viewers thought Monarch was The Master in disguise. The remaining 22% thought he was rubbish anyway.

Peter Davison was presented with one of the monopticons after shooting concluded. He keeps it at the back of a cupboard because Matthew Waterhouse signed it out of spite. Waterhouse later apologised for mistakenly believing Davison was behind the earlier prank but the damage was done.

...is that God is not green.

Si Hunt

Like Adric, I was once lead astray by an older gentleman who used to work for the police. In my case it was Francois Devine’s uncle, Benton Devine. Some were saying I’d fallen off the rails in those days – I’d grown a small beard and sometimes wore tinted spectacles indoors so I suppose I saw their point. I was certainly on the radical wing of the telehsitorical community and my beatnik ways had not gone unnoticed. Uncle Benton attempted to put me back on the straight and narrow by sending me to a conference of Greek, Australian and Chinese telehistorians which he was chairing. I thought I smelled a rat when Uncle Benton declared himself a god and invited the international telehistorians to do likewise (which they did) but I’d seen similar behaviour at Smasher’s place and wasn’t entirely convinced it was abnormal. The whole conference ended on a sour note when the minibus carrying Uncle Benton and the foreign telehistorians was stopped for speeding (he claimed it was so he could go back and meet himself but the police constable said that was no excuse for doing 43 in a 30 mile zone) and I was left to pay the entire hotel bill.

"Tom Baker's Hair" excitedly proclaimed that they had secured the very first fanzine interview with the new Doctor Who and published it shortly before Four to Doomsday was broadcast. It offers a "unique" and "exciting" insight into the story according to editor, interviewer and cover artist Andrew Smeem.

AS: Peter, what can you tell us about 'Four to Doomsday'?

PD: Nothing until it is broadcast I'm afraid.

AS: Is it true that the Master is in it?

PD: I can't answer that.

AS: Is it a historical story?

PD: I really can't say.

AS: Are there any Daleks?

PD: No comment.

AS: Does Adric die horribly?

PD: You'll have to wait and see.

AS: Is it any good?

PD: Tune in and find out.

AS: Peter Davison, thank you very much.

Telos published the full interview in their otherwise satisfying collection of 1980s fanzine interviews.