Delayed Indefinitely (episode)


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

Delayed Indefinitely was the fifth episode of Season 46 of Doctor Who. It was written by Robert Shearman & Joseph Lidster, based upon an unused story-line by Russell T Davies, directed by James Hawes and featured Paterson Joseph as the Twelfth Doctor, Sophie Okonedo as Lizzie Clarke and reintroduced Janet Fielding as Tegan Jovanka.

Synopsis

The Doctor and Lizzie are left stranded in Singapore after the TARDIS relocates to the UK due to its Hostile Action Displacement protocol. Luckily for the two of them, there’s a flight going to Heathrow airport however things can’t be that simple and when a mysterious entity infiltrates the aeroplane, no one is to be trusted. Not even the Doctor himself…

Plot

To be added.

Cast

Crew

Created by Sydney Newman, Donald Wilson and C.E. Webber

Executive Producers - Ira Steven Behr and Faith Penhale
Co-Executive Producers - Ronald D. Moore, Joseph Lidster, Phil Ford, Nicholas Briggs, David Weddle, and Bradley Thompson
Producer - Gary Russell
Script Editor - Robert Shearman
Consulting Producer - Nicholas Meyer

Writer - Robert Shearman and Joseph Lidster
- Based upon a Story by Russell T Davies
Director - James Hawes

With thanks to the BBC National Orchestra of Wales

Memorable Quotes

To be added.

Background Information

Development

This episode's story-line was originally developed by Russell T Davies for Season 39, while he was Script Editor.
The proposed story was entitled "Midnight" and the four-part adventure saw the Doctor and Sandra go to the leisure planet of Midnight, which is a planet made of diamonds. They go on a bus trip to see the Sapphire Waterfall but it all goes wrong when a mysterious entity infiltrates the bus.
Mocked up 'Season 39' style title card, for 'Midnight' by Doctor Who Magazine.
After this story-line was completed, Russell T Davies went to, Producer, Bill Shapter to commission the scripts with executive producer David Renwick overseeing the process, however, he decided to scrap the story as he believed it to be too dark for Doctor Who.
Speaking about "Midnight", Davies commented, "It was a great shame we never did Midnight, it was a cracking story-line but I guess it was never to be."
According to Davies, the inspiration for the story came from an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation which he has never seen. He explained: “I’ve seen lots of Star Trek: The Next Generation, I think it’s a lovely show – but there’s one episode, the billing for which is so fascinating I’ve actively avoided ever seeing it. I love the idea so much, I’d rather think about it. Forever. The episode is called ‘Darmok,’ and the synopsis simply says that Captain Picard is trapped on a planet with an alien who can only talk in metaphors. Wow. That sounds brilliant. How does that work? What happens? How does it end? I’ve got no idea – not seen it! But it keeps resonating with me.” He continued: “Is it like ‘Darmok’? I don’t know. But stripped down to its essentials, it’s a story about a hero, an alien, and words. That’s practically the same billing. Maybe the two shows are profoundly different, but I know for a fact that all those years of wondering about ‘Darmok’ led me to that story-line.” And then in a 2009 interview with Doctor Who Magazine he added: "It wasn't until years later, that I realised that one of my writers on Season 39, that I commissioned in their first and to date only Doctor Who story, Joe Menosky, actually wrote 'Darmok'. I supposed I should really watch it now."
In 2008, when Robert Shearman joined the Doctor Who Production Office as Script Editor, he looked through some of the rejected story-lines from the show's past and found 'Midnight'. Shearman liked it so much, he phoned up Russell T Davies and asked his permission to develop the story into an episode of the following season.
Due to Shearman penning Doctor Who: Vengeance and Mad World in the same time frame, he asked, writer, Joseph Lidster to pen the story with him, to ease the load.
Lidster added a lot more human elements to the script and wrote a whole chunk of the episode just being character interaction.
After the first draft was completed, it was decided by Robert Shearman and Gary Russell that Season 46 would contain a trilogy of stories featuring the return of former Doctor Who companion, Tegan Jovanka, and this story would be her re-introduction.
Joseph Lidster subsequently, without the help of Shearman, made the necessary changes to the episode including: changing the setting from Midnight to Earth and a Space Bus to an aeroplane, adding in the character of Tegan Jovanka and making all of the characters human.
When draft two was handed into Shearman was Lidster, Shearman further editing it but under a Script Editor's gaze and made all the necessary changes.

Production

"Delayed Indefinitely" was shot at Upper Boat Studios, Trefforest for all of the interior scenes and on location in Cardiff Bay, doubling for Singapore with heavy CGI alteration.
This was the first episode of Doctor Who to be filmed primarily in narrative order since the practice was abandoned around the time Jon Pertwee began portraying the Third Doctor. It was the only story in which the antagonist was never even partially glimpsed, leaving the threat to be realised by the actors and the sound editors.

Reaction

The sound team of Tim Ricketts, Paul McFadden, Paul Jefferies and Julian Howarth shared a Royal Television Society Award and a Welsh BAFTA for their work on this episode.
This episode received a 7-Day Viewing Figure from BARB of 8.55m viewers. It ranked at 10th over the week.
On "Delayed Indefinitely", Russell T Davies commented: "Oh, it's terrific isn't it? I'm honoured to have had a story-line written by Robert Shearman and Joseph Lidster. It's fantastic that it's seen the light of day since it was scrapped and it's also got the fantastic addition of both Tegan and Lizzie, which adds a completely different dynamic to what we had with Sandra Armstrong."
Co-Writer, Joseph Lidster commented: "The great thing about it is that it is literally human nature at it's worse, where even the best of people let you down. At the end even clever Andy, who is the only person on board who even matches the Doctor's intelligence is bullied by his father and he is crying and terrified about what to do. Professor Hobbes, who is appears is intelligent, I think a lot of that is fake and he's a bit of a fraud, but all of that learning goes out of the window when you become desperate and scared. Mary is one of the few people who know what is going on, who could be in a position to stop it, is just terrified and just in a moment of crisis, it lets her down. Val is just a monster, if there's a monster on board that plane, it's Val. It's her who drives the hysteria I think with every selfish response she has originated by her panic and her fear and I'm not blaming her for that and I'd have to say if I was on board that ship, I'd be Val. It's terrible to be judgemental about them because that's the point: what would anyone of us become in a freighting situation like that?"
Ira Steven Behr commented: "When you can't name something it's terrifying. The unknown is always way more terrifying than the known and this show plays on that quite a lot."

Story Notes

"Delayed Indefinitely” is one of those special Doctor Who stories that stand apart from the main narrative of the mad man, his blue box and his best friend. It’s a tense drama about human nature under pressure.
Colin Morgan, who plays Andy, went on to far greater fame, taking the title role in the BBC’s Merlin.

Continuity

To be added.

Home Video Releases

To be added.