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episode guide

the happiness patrol

story 153 : season 25 : serial 7L : 3 episodes

Producer: John Nathan-Turner
Director: Chris Clough
Writer: Graeme Curry
Script Editor: Andrew Cartmel
Designer: John Asbridge

cast information

Sylvester McCoy (The Doctor); Sophie Aldred (Ace); Sheila Hancock (Helen A.); Ronald Fraser (Joseph C.); Georgina Hale (Daisy K.); Rachel Bell (Priscilla P.); Harold Innocent (Gilbert M.); John Normington (Trevor Sigma); Lesley Dunlop (Susan Q.); Richard D Sharp (Earl Sigma); Tim Barker (Harold V.); Jonathan Burn (Silas P.); David John Pope (Kandy Man); Mary Healey (Killjoy); Tim Scott (Forum Doorman); Steve Swinscoe (Sniper); Mark Carroll (Sniper); Philip Neve (Wences); Ryan Freedman (Wulfric); Annie Hulley (Newscaster);

crew information

Lynn Grant (Assistant Floor Manager); Richard Croft (Costumes); Dominic Glynn (Incidental Music); Dorka Nieradzik (Make-Up); Jane Wellesley (Production Assistant); June Collins (Production Associate); Dick Mills (Special Sounds); Don Babbage (Studio Lighting); Scott Talbott (Studio Sound); Trevor Webster (Studio Sound); Keff McCulloch (Theme Arrangement); Ron Grainer (Title Music); Perry Brahan (Visual Effects);

episode information

  Title First UK Transmission Duration Ratings Archive Status
1 Part One 2 November 1988 at 19:35 24'51" 5.3mil PAL 1 inch colour videotape
2 Part Two 9 November 1988 at 19:35 24'48" 4.6mil PAL 1 inch colour videotape
3 Part Three 16 November 1988 at 19:35 24'25" 5.3mil PAL 1 inch colour videotape
  1. Part One
    » Always held by the FVTL
    » A 71-edit exists also
    » A 72-edit exists also
  2. Part Two
    » Always held by the FVTL
    » A 71-edit exists also
  3. Part Three
    » Always held by the FVTL
    » A 71-edit exists also
    » A 72-edit exists also

release information

In Print:
Novelised as: Doctor Who -- The Happiness Patrol
Written by: Graeme Curry
Number 146 in the Target Doctor Who Library

Versions
15 February 1990 Published by W. H. Allen, UK in paperback
With cover artwork by: Alister Pearson
ISBN: 0 426 20339 9

plot synopsis

On the Earth colony of Terra Alpha, if anybody fails to meet the dictate of their leader Helen A to be happy, they are executed by the Happiness Patrol. The Doctor and Ace arrive and become separated. Ace joins up with an unhappy member of the patrol and retreating to the sewers, where they encounter the rodent-like Pipe People, and the Doctor helps an underground movement who believe in free emotion. His greatest problem, however, is to overcome the Kandyman, a sugar-based robotic creation, with several lethal sugar-based forms of death he likes to inflict on humans. The Doctor is an ideal candidate.

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