Blood and Iron (serial)


*The following article is written from an Out of Universe perspective.*

Blood and Iron is the fourth and final serial of Season 27 of Doctor Who. It was written by Andrew Cartmel, directed by Graeme Harper and featured Sylvester McCoy as The Doctor, Julia Sawalha as Katie Tollinger and introduced John Banks as Henrick.

This serial marked the final regular appearance of Sylvester McCoy as the Seventh Doctor and introduced Richard Griffiths as the Eighth Doctor in the closing moments of Part 4.

Synopsis

Margrave University in 2001, and Katie Tollinger is enjoying her first trip into the future.

For the Doctor, there are mysteries to solve: what are the alien creatures imprisoned in the science labs? And what are the true motives of the student Scobie and his followers?

With enemies on all sides, the Doctor teams up with his old friend Brigadier Bambera and the forces of UNIT in a battle for the future of the whole world. But will the Doctor make it out alive?

Plot

Part 1

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Part 2

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Part 3

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Part 4

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Cast

The Doctor - Sylvester McCoy
Katie Tollinger - Julia Sawalha
Henrick - John Banks
Brigadier Winifred Bambera - Angela Bruce
Scobie - Dexter Fletcher
Numlocks - Sharon Duce
Metatraxi - Peter Tuddenham
Willa - Julie Graham
Percy - Nick Berry
Juno - Hermione Norris

and introducing Richard Griffiths as The Doctor

Crew

Writer - Andrew Cartmel
Producer - John Nathan-Turner
Script Editor - Andrew Cartmel
Director - Graeme Harper
Lighting - Ian Dow
Designer - David Laskey
Visual Effects Designers - Malcom James, Dave Chapman
Make-Up Designer - Joan Stribling
Casting Director - Anne Henderson
Music - Dominic Glynn
Costume Designer - Ken Trew
Edited by - Hugh Parson
Vision Mixer - Susan Brincat
Original Theme Music - Ron Grainer
Title Music - Keff McCulloch
Title Sequence by CAL Video

Memorable Quotes

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Background Information

Production History

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Development

A working title for this story was Animal.
In an early draft, the story was set at an animal testing facility and would focus on animal experimentation, drug use and animal rights activists. The only thing kept from this draft was the animal rights activists.
During development, the story didn’t initially feature UNIT or Winifred Bambera but instead featured Markus Tollinger who would summon the Doctor and Katie.
Originally Henrick was to be called Achterberg.

Production

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Post-Production

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Reaction

Official BARB ratings: 5.4m for Part One, 5.3m for Part Two, 5.8m for Part Three and 6.2m for Part Four.

Story Notes

This is the final story to feature Sylvester McCoy as the Doctor until the 30th anniversary special The Lords of Time.
This is the final story to be produced by John Nathan-Turner and script edited by Andrew Cartmel.
This is also the final story to feature the Oliver Elmes titles introduced in Season 24. A new title sequence also designed by Elmes would be introduced in Season 28. It would, however, return for Season 40's LIVE 34.
This is the last story to feature Keff McCulloch's arrangement of the theme tune.
This is the first story to feature Henrick, played by John Banks. Banks would go on to play a regular companion before being killed off in Season 31's The Prisoner of Time.

This is the last story to feature the Metatraxi until The Enemy Uncovered in Season 41.
This story opens up with a pre-credits scene. The only other times this had previously happened was in Remembrance of the Daleks in Season 25, Time and the Rani in Season 24, The Five Doctors and Castrovalva in Season 19. This would happen again for Night Thoughts in Season 28 before eventually becoming a regular feature from Season 38 onwards.

Continuity

The Doctor previously met Brigadier Bambera in Carbury in 1997. (DW: Battlefield)
Brigadier Bambera would later go on to meet the Ninth Doctor during an incident involving the Silurians (DW: The Scales of Injustice) and the Twelfth Doctor during conflicts with a Silurian tribe and later the Shalka. (DW: The Silurian Awakening, The Scream)
The Metatraxi Attack Leader refers to the Doctor changing their voice translators. (DW: Crime of the Century)

Home Video Releases

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