Doctor Who (1963) 14.03 Extras

The Matrix Revisited (2009)

29 minutes

This documentary about the making of the Deadly Assassin focuses on a number of different topics.

• the departure of Sarah Jane Smith
• the history of the Time Lords
• the influence of the Manchurian Candidate
• the design of the Panopticon
• the robes of the Time Lords
• the selection of the villain
• the reactions of fans - look of the Time Lords, far too human
• the level of violence in the fight between the Doctor and Chancellor Goth

Two actors were interviewed for this documentary:

Tom Baker who played The Doctor and Bernard Horsfall who played Chancellor Goth. Horsfall also played some of the masked opponents that the Doctor faces in the Matrix including the samurai, the pilot, and the clown.

Director David Maloney, producer Philip Hinchcliffe, and designer 

Roger Murray-Leach were also interviewed. They even interviewed two people who had nothing to do with the making of The Deadly Assassin: Jan Vincent-Rudzki President of the Doctor Who Appreciation Society (1976) and Mary Whitehouse of National Viewers & Listeners Association

This documentary is dedicated to the memory of director David Maloney who died in 2006

The Gallifreyan Candidate (2009)

10 minutes

Stacy Gillis (Newcastle University) and Andrew Shail (Oxford University) talk about the Manchurian Candidate. The novel, written by Richard Condon, was later made into a movie directed by John Frankenheimer. The plot of The Deadly Assassin was in part modeled after the Manchurian Candidate. Most of this documentary is focused on the book and the 1962 movie. There is a little bit of comparison to The Deadly Assassin but not much.

The Frighten Factor (2009)

16 minutes

Several people, some of whom are fans of the show and some of whom worked on the show, talk generally about what is frightening. They also talk specifically about what is frightening on Doctor Who. There are stories going back as far as the First Doctor that are referenced in this documentary.