Production code 7F

First Transmitted:
1-02/11/1987 19:35
2-09/11/1987 19:35
3-16/11/1987 19:35

Cast
Robin Aspland : The Lorells
Laura Collins : Chimeron Princess
Clive Condon : Callon
Richard Davies : Burton
Morgan Deare : Hawk
Johnny Dennis : Murray
Ken Dodd : Tollmaster
Martyn Geraint : Vinny
Anita Graham : Bollitt
Sara Griffiths : Ray
Don Henderson : Gavrok
Brian Hibbard : Keillor
Carley Joseph : Chimeron Princess
Stubby Kaye : Weismuller
David Kinder : Billy
Bonnie Langford : Melanie
Hugh Lloyd : Goronwy
Belinda Mayne : Delta
Sylvester McCoy : The Doctor
Keff McCulloch : The Lorells
Jessica McGough : Young Chimeron
Leslie Meadows : Adlon
Richard Mitchley : Arrex
Justin Myers : The Lorells
Amy Osborn : Young Chimeron
Ralph Salmins : The Lorells
Tim Scott : Chima
Tracey Wilson : Vocalist
The vocalists are seen on screen only in Part One; they are heard in Parts Two and Three in the story's incidental music.
Jodie Wilson : Vocalist
The vocalists are seen on screen only in Part One; they are heard in Parts Two and Three in the story's incidental music.

Crew
John Asbridge : Designer
Andrew Cartmel : Script Editor
Chris Clough : Director
Richard Croft : Costumes
William Dudman : Film Cameraman
Anne Faggetter : Production Associate
Ron Grainer : Title Music
and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, arranged by Keff McCulloch
Malcolm Kohll : Writer
Keff McCulloch : Incidental Music
Andy McVean : Visual Effects
Dick Mills : Special Sounds
Alastair Mitchell : OB Cameraman
John Nathan-Turner : Producer
Rosemary Parsons : Production Assistant
Christopher Sandeman : Assistant Floor Manager
Roy Scammell : Stunt Arranger
Chas Snare : OB Cameraman
Gillian Thomas : Make-Up
Kim Wilcocks : Assistant Floor Manager

Plot Outline from Wikipedia

On an alien planet the genocide of the Chimeron by the merciless Bannermen led by Gavrok is almost complete. The last survivor, Chimeron Queen Delta, escapes by the skin of her teeth clutching her egg, the future for her species. She makes it to a space tollport where the Navarinos, a race of shape changing tourist aliens, are planning a visit to the planet Earth in 1959 in a spaceship disguised as an old holiday bus. She stows aboard, as does Mel, while the Doctor follows them in the TARDIS. The Doctor and Mel have won the trip as a prize for arriving in the Navarino spaceport at the right time to be declared the ten billionth customers. No sooner has the tourist vehicle blasted away than the Bannermen turn up, ruthlessly hunting down the fugitive, and they kill the Tollmaster when he refuses to co-operate.

The holiday vehicle from Nostalgia Tours meets an unfortunate collision with an American space satellite and is diverted off track, landing at a holiday camp in South Wales rather than Disneyland. However, the basic but cheerful Shangri-La holiday camp is happy to accommodate the visitors led by the ebullient Burton, who assures the travellers of a warm welcome while they wait for the driver, Murray, to repair their innocuous seeming transport. Mel gets close to Delta and uncovers the truth of her situation, including the hatching of the egg into a bright green baby that starts to grow at a startling rate. The Chimeron Queen supports this development with the equivalent of royal jelly given to bees.

Delta tries to take her mind off the situation and goes to the Shangri-La dance, instantly capturing the heart of Billy, the camp’s mechanic – and making an enemy of the smitten Rachel (or Ray), who loves Billy herself. Ray confides her situation in the Doctor, and they both stumble across a bounty hunter making contact with the Bannermen to tell them of the Chimeron’s whereabouts. It is only a matter of time before Gavrok and his troops arrive. Delta and Billy head off on a romantic countryside ramble the following morning, but the Doctor wastes no time in persuading Burton to evacuate the camp, helping Murray repair the ship, and then heading off to find the young lovers while there is still time. Once they are found, everyone returns to the camp but the situation has become dire. The Bannermen have destroyed the Navarino bus with all its official passengers inside, taking Mel as a hostage as Gavrok tries to work out how to capture the Chimeron. The Doctor’s early attempts to intercede are futile, but he does rescue Burton and Mel from the Bannermen.

The Doctor’s party regroups to consider its options, in the process defeating two Bannermen who are holding prisoner two ageing American agents, Hawk and Weismuller, who were tracking the missing satellite. They also make contact with the mysterious bee keeper Goronwy, who hides them for a while and then turns his bees on an advanced party of Bannermen. Goronwy implies to Billy that royal jelly has mystical powers, provoking the mechanic to consume some in the hope of metamorphosing into a Chimeron.

At Shangri-La Gavrok has booby-trapped the outside of the TARDIS in an attempt to kill the Doctor. However, he reckons without the ingenuity of his enemies. Billy rigs up the Shangri-La sound system to amplify the perfectly pitched scream of the Chimeron child Princess – a sound which is excrutiatingly painful to Bannermen. Gavrok becomes so stunned he falls into the beam of the booby-trap and is incinerated, while the other Bannermen are so traumatised that they are easily rounded up. Delta and Billy leave together with the child and the prisoners, heading for an intergalactic war crimes tribunal. All is well and the next bus of holiday makers – this time human – arrive at Shangri-La as the Doctor and Mel slip away.

Analysis by Cuisle

“Confident, slick, and hugely enjoyable from beginning to end, Delta and the Bannermen isn't grim, gritty or cynical, and is thus tremendously adult. It roars with new style. This is the first real hint of McCoy's Doctor, dancing awkwardly with Ray, hugging a Stratocaster, confronting Gavrok and threatening the Bannermen. Langford is actually great in this, a very human story of sex, drugs and rock'n'roll. Even Ken Dodd's OK. But who told Don Henderson to play it so straight?”

“Delta and the Bannermen is another step in the right direction for the seventh Doctor and, all in all, a highly enjoyable romp.”

These are two reviews of the story which surprised me when I found them, because judging by these I remembered Delta and the Bannermen for all of the wrong reasons, for a corny looking set, for terrible regional caricatures, for an annoying sound track and for playing for laughs too much.

So, I had another look at it. And, in fact, one thing is immediately true about the above comments. Ken Dodd IS ok. On the face of it casting an aging comedian known for innuendo laden jokes about tickling sticks looked as if the producers were aiming for the lowest common denominator. But it really is just a cameo role. He plays to type as an over the top character whose role was to get Mel onto the intergalactic tour bus bound for 1950s Earth and to be ruthlessly murdered by Gavrok and the Bannermen when they demand to know where the Chimeron queen has gone. He epitomises the sort of hapless victim who stands no chance of survival at the hands of a ruthless man like Gavrok. And he is no better and no worse than any other actor in that small role that nevertheless forms a vital part of the plot.

Whether Don Henderson is acting ‘too straight’ in his role as the chief bad guy is a moot point. I really don’t see how else he could play it. Another part of the same review called this episode ‘Hi Di Hi directed by James Cameron.’ Gavrok is the Cameron style realism in the otherwise slightly surreal story.
Hi Di Hi is probably the reason to cringe about the Shangri-La holiday camp. The manager and staff of the camp DO look as if they are plucked straight from that comedy. And the problem is coming to terms with one British tv icon clashing with another.

And that is the point. The bright 50s rock and roll and the happy camper visuals are intended to be a contrast to the evil plots of Gavrok. The desperation of Delta as she protects the infant Chimeron queen is a deliberate clash with the rock and roll party atmosphere. Mel, whose brash, over the top brightness actually seems to fit in here, bridges the gap between the two, still dressed bright and brash, but fulfilling a roll as friend and confidant for Delta.

Ray and Billy deserve a story all of their own, though perhaps not a Doctor Who story. Billy is the handsome, talented boy all the girls love. He builds motor bikes and plays in a rock and roll band. Ray is the girl next door who adores him but he never notices her, even when she goes out of her way to learn about motor bikes and dress in leather to make him notice her. When she tells The Doctor all that, you can see in his face what we all know. She is trying too hard. The more she tries to be LIKE Billy the less likely he is to see her as a woman. And as he becomes so entwined in Delta’s problems that he is actually prepared to change species and become a Chimeron in order to be with her, Ray is left out in the cold.

Ray’s character very much deserved to be drawn out much further. She is the lost companion in many ways. With no reason to stay at Shangri-La after Billy left, she would have fitted in well as a travelling companion in the TARDIS. In fact, it might be argued that Ace, who appeared for the first time in the next story, is a variation of Ray. Again a girl who dresses tomboyishly and takes an interest in ‘boyish’ things like bikes and explosives. Ray was in some ways a prototype for Ace.

Several other characters other than Ken Dodd’s tollmaster are caricatures to be slotted into the story. Goronwy the beekeeper was simply there to provide a safe haven for Delta and the infant queen and explain the part royal jelly plays in the creation of a queen. This is more than just filler in the dialogue. It is what leads Billy to decide to ‘change’ himself into a Chimeron and is therefore an important plot device. Curiously, some fans have debated whether Goronwy might actually have been a retired Time Lord. This seems a bit too much of a logic jump for me, even if the final scene of the story is him looking up at the sky and giving a knowing wink. I think he is simply an eccentric who actually came across quite real and genuine.

The two FBI agents, on the other hand, were pure pantomime. A chance for a cheap joke at the expense of the USA, revenge, perhaps, for Star Trek and all the other slicker looking science fiction programmes that Doctor Who is forever compared to. They were somewhat superfluous to the story, but their inclusion, especially when they finally meet some real aliens in the form of Gavrok and his Bannermen, is one reason why Don Henderson SHOULD have played it straight. Because the contrast between his straight and their slapstick was good television in itself.

Let downs – the Dick Barton theme in the motor-bike and side-car chase scenes, and the fact that the said chase scenes went on too long, and the incidental music generally. The rock and roll theme was interesting, but the music seemed too loud and intrusive and times. Possibly it stuck out too much as not the usual Doctor Who style of incidental music. But on reflection, and especially in the week that the Love and Monsters episode of the 2006 series aired, is a little bit of divergence from the Doctor Who ‘norm’ such a bad thing? Maybe not. Maybe we need to look beyond what seems superficial and silly and see what is beneath. And in fact, the story of Delta’s flight from the genocidal Bannermen, and Billy’s decision to give up everything, including his humanity, to become the protector of Delta and the Chimeron princess, is worth the effort.