In the 1970s Doctor Who was exciting viewers and getting some of its best ratings, but during producer Philip Hinchcliffe’s time the show was also criticised for supposed on-screen violence.
Conservative campaigner Mary Whitehouse attacked the programme more than once, most famously after a 1976 story, The Deadly Assassin, where the Doctor (Tom Baker) seemed to be drowned by a villain. She even received an apology from the BBC’s Director-General for that scene.
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At a BFI Southbank event for the Doctor Who: The Collection – Season 13 Blu-ray, Hinchcliffe said he understood Whitehouse’s reasons but thought her complaints were sometimes unfair.
I sympathise with her aims, because I think sometimes […] that the BBC can be rather arrogant and not actually listen [to the viewers]. What I think she got wrong was muddling up violence – which we didn’t really have – with horror and suspense.
he said
Hinchcliffe explained that he and script editor Robert Holmes aimed the show at “clever 12 and 13 year olds” as well as their parents, adding that it was the “parent’s job to look after their children’s viewing”.
Whitehouse also claimed that another 1976 story, The Brain of Morbius, “contained some of the sickest and most horrific material seen on children’s television”. In that tale the Doctor and Sarah Jane (Elisabeth Sladen) meet a mad scientist on Karn who is rebuilding the executed Time Lord Morbius. Inspired by Frankenstein, it drew complaints for a moment when Doctor Solon (Philip Madoc) shoots his helper Condo (Colin Fay), causing a spurt of blood.
Looking back, Hinchcliffe admitted this serial might have gone too far.
I was always a bit nervous about [The Brain of] Morbius, because it was a bit sort of grotesque, in a way. I think I would’ve liked to pull that back a bit. Otherwise, I think we pretty much got it right.
he said
The Brain of Morbius is still one of the most talked-about stories from Hinchcliffe’s time, and it has now been fully restored for the Doctor Who: The Collection – Season 13 Blu-ray.
The set includes all six stories from Tom Baker’s second year as the Doctor, such as Terror of the Zygons, Planet of Evil, Pyramids of Mars and The Seeds of Doom.
As well as the cleaned-up episodes, fans get hours of extras, including new documentaries, behind-the-scenes clips, and interviews with the cast and crew looking back on one of the most praised seasons in Doctor Who history.
Source: RadioTimes