“She said ‘Viva Las Vengeance’…”

Seen: 19th and 26th January 1985

The Long Way Round

Writer Philip Martin approached the Doctor Who production office because he’d inadvertently had an idea for it while watching the 1982 series with his daughter. His one line pitch was that he had begun to wonder about the state of “the media in 300 years”.1 The series’ Script Editor Eric Saward was delighted with both Martin and his idea. His boss, producer John Nathan-Turner was suspicious and for the same reasons Saward was interested. Martin, who had recently had a play produced at the National Theatre, was best known in television for his Play for Today - Gangsters and its spin off series of the same title which ran for two seasons at the end of the 1970s.