| 1 – The Wrath of Eukor | |
|---|---|
| Doctor Who Fan Film | |
 The Doctor, still wearing the clothes of her previous self. | |
| Cast | |
| Doctor Barbara Benedetti Doctor | |
| Companions Carl Evans | |
| Others Jim Dean as Grant Kevin McCauley as Harris | |
| Production | |
| Writer | Cheryl Read |
| Director | Ryan K. Johnson |
| Producer | Ryan K. Johnson |
| Production code | 1.1 |
| Series | Seattle International Films |
| Length | 30 minutes |
| Originally broadcast | August 1984 |
| Chronology | |
| ← Preceded by | Followed by → |
| N/A | Visions of Utomu |
Doctor Who: The Wrath of Eukor is the first in a series of four fan films made by Seattle International Films, based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was written by Cheryl Read, directed by Ryan K. Johnson and starred Barbara Benedetti as an alternative 7th Doctor, alongside Randy Rogel as her companion Carl Evans.
Plot[]
Synopsis[]
After regenerating in Victorian London, the new Doctor and a chimney sweep called Carl Evans travel to 1980s North America. There they find a commune of Vietnam veterans living in a national park are being hunted down and killed by an unknown alien force - the wrath of Eukor itself!
Continuity[]
- At the beginning of the film, the Doctor is wearing the 6th Doctors outfit, indicating that this incarnation is an alternative 7th Doctor.
- The Doctor's regeneration is caused by a failure in the DNA matrix, due to the stress of regenerating "three times in as many years".
- The Doctor mentions meeting HG Wells, who said that the TARDIS could not work. Interestingly the Doctor would meet HG Well's in the story Timelash, broadcast less that a year after The Wrath of Eukor debuted.
Production[]
Cast[]
Barbara Benedetti: The Doctor
Randy Rogel: Carl Evans
Jim Dean: Grant
Kevin McCauley: Harris
Michael Smith: Tate
Tom Lance: Wallace
Crew[]
Written by Cheryl Read
Produced and Directed by Ryan K. Johnson
Production Notes by Ryan K Johnson[]
With Kill Roy in the can (but not completed) in the fall of 1983 I became a die-hard fan of Doctor Who. Early in 1984 I read that the World Science Fiction Convention in LA that year was going to have a film contest with judges like Gary Kurtz (the producer of Star Wars). I decided it was about time to do a science fiction movie and Doctor Who seemed a logical extension of this.
I knew I couldn't compare with the Tom Baker episodes that were being run (practically the only exposure I had to Doctor Who at the time), so I decided I needed to do something that would be a complete departure from anything anyone had ever seen on the show before: a female Doctor.
Barbara Benedetti (left)was cast in the part on the recommendation of A.M. Collins, a Seattle playwright whose Angry Housewives Barbara was currently appearing in. Barbara had no idea who Doctor Who was, I think she just took it on faith that I had made the whole thing up. Barbara then recommended her co-star, Randy Rogel (then playing a character in Housewives called "Lewd Fingers") to play Carl Evans the Chimney Sweep. In the 1990s Randy was a writer on Animaniacs for Warner Brothers Animation. A script he wrote for Batman: The Animated Series won an Emmy in 1993! Today he writes for Disney Animation.
The script (originally written by me and heavily edited by Cheryl Read, Linda Bushyager and Deb Walsh) went through many drafts, including one less than a week before we began filming. This drove my production manager, Mark Schellberg (who can briefly be seen near the end of the film as a tied-up workman) nuts, since it was his responsibility to plan out the film's logistics. Except for some rain, filming was efficiently accomplished over a 10 day shoot. Because of the deadline of the Worldcon's film contest, I had less than 60 days to complete editing and have a print out of the lab. Many restless nights were spent trying to get the film ready, with the only break taking place during Westercon where a special trailer was shown. The 4th of July weekend was also when the 2nd Unit filming took place in order to capture the shots of the stone pillars the Doctor and Company find in the woods (if you notice very carefully you'll see the actors and the pillars are never in the same shot together -- the grass was about two feet shorter as well when we got around to the last shots).
The film was completed on time and sent off to the Worldcon. Meanwhile, the premiere was held very early on a Sunday morning with no publicity whatsoever at Timecon in San Jose, California. My spies at the Worldcon informed me that only the finalists would be actually screened for attendees at the con -- but I could count on being shown -- wink, wink, say no more! Needless to say, I went overboard on the publicity machine printing up dozens of flyers to spread all over the convention to alert everyone to the screening. As a result, the room was packed as my film was shown. Sadly, two-and-half hours later (with the room nearly empty), someone else was announced the winner, but at least people had seen my movie. What was really strange was as we were leaving the room I heard someone say, "Gee, I didn't know the BBC had a female Doctor." Did someone think this was genuine BBC product?
Thus it went for the next six months or so, the film passed into obscurity until a screening at Norwescon in March 1985. The audience went nuts and I was immediately asked if I was going to make a sequel. Bogged down with trying to finish Kill Roy, a sequel was the last thing on my mind. Little did I know what lay ahead...
Trivia[]
- Thought to be the first ever appearance of a female Doctor, the official series wouldn't have a woman in the role until Jodie Whittaker's 13th Doctor. Although officially licenced spin-off media such as The Curse of Fatal Death and Doctor Who Unbound: Exile also featured female Doctors, these exist outside of the main continuity.
- Randy Rogel, who played Carl the Chimney Sweep, would go on to become a writer for many Warner Bros. projects; most notably becoming one of Animaniacs resident songwriters (his contributions include Yakko's World, Yakko's Universe and Wakko's America), and writing for Batman: The Animated Series, where he would write the Emmy Award winning episode Robin's Reckoning.
- According to Ryan K. Johnson, the title of the film was stolen from a Super-8 movie a friend of his, Dave Troffer, made in high school. He had no idea what "Eukor" was supposed to be, but thought sounded like a good title for a Doctor Who episode.