'So come, you coyotes, and howl at the moon/ 'til there's blood upon the sawdust in The Last Chance Saloon...' It's 1881 and, in the Wild West settlement of Tombstone, there are three strangers in town: 'Doctor Caligari', 'Steven Regret', and 'Miss Dodo Dupont'. They've arrived in a 20th Century blue police box, and they're about to wander into a whole heap of trouble. The Doctor is in need of a dentist, but the sort of anaesthetic Doc Holliday uses comes out of a liquor bottle. He's in the middle of a feud with the Clanton family, whilst Wyatt Earp and Bat Masterson try to keep the peace. This isn't the place for a relaxing holiday, as the TARDIS crew soon discover...Tombstone's not the most happily named of towns, and it seems it may live up to that name any day now. There's a gunfight at the OK Corral brewing and, if the Doctor and his friends aren't careful, they're going to be caught in the crossfire. In a bonus interview, Peter Purves, who also narrates this remastered soundtrack, recalls the making of The Gunfighters for television. A special 10-minute bonus music segment is also included. 2 CDs. 2 hrs 4 mins.

 

This book is part of a book series called Doctor Who .

This book was published 2007 by BBC Audio, A Division Of Random House .

THE PROGRAMME: Prior to The Gunfighters, the Doctor was last seen recoiling in pain after eating one of schoolboy Cyril's boiled sweets (see The Celestial Toymaker). However, a resolution for his malady was to be found in the Wild West town of Tombstone in October 1881. This black comedy about the events of the legendary shootout between Doc Holliday and the Clantons was commissioned from writer Donald Cotton as Dr Who and the Gun-Fighters in November 1965. A former writer of comedy revues, Cotton injected a seam of humour into his new serial which was loosely rooted in actual historical events. The real gunfight had nothing to do with Bat Masterson, while Johnny Ringo appears to have been added to the mix from John Sturges' 1957 film The Gunfight at the OK Corral. The scripts were delivered to the BBC production office by Cotton in December 1965 and January 1966, to be made by a new production team; outgoing producer John Wiles and story editor Donald Tosh had commissioned the story, but now handed over to Innes Lloyd and Gerry Davis respectively. Sequences involving horses, and the climactic gun battle itself, were pre-filmed at the BBC Television Film Studios at Ealing between 28 and 31 March 1966. To accompany the narrative, Cotton had written a ballad, 'The Ballad of the Last Chance Saloon', verses of which punctuate the main scenes in the story. Director Rex Tucker then added some additional verses prior to production. The first music recording took place on 5 April, with the tune composed by Tristam Cary who also supervised the recording with Tom McCall at the piano. Sheena Marshe, who played Kate, attended the session, but after a few tests it was decided that her voice was not right for the ballad. Also considered was Jane Tucker, the 17-year-old daughter of director Rex Tucker, who later became famous as part of the singing trio 'Rod, Jane and Freddy'. The ballad was eventually sung by Lynda Baron, who had been a singer in the BBC2 satire series BBC3. Baron recorded the remainder of the song on the evening of 12 April. The bulk of the four episodes were recorded on a videotape on a weekly basis from 15 April to 6 May, with the first episode taped in Studio 1 of Riverside Studios. When broadcast, the series achieved a degree of notoriety when its final episodes were awarded very low audience appreciation scores, helping to seal the fate of historical stories with little or no science-fiction element on Doctor Who. The Gunfighters was released on VHS videotape by BBC Worldwide in November 2002 as part of Doctor Who: The First Doctor Special Edition Box Set. One additional scene for the serial was pre-filmed at a sandpit in Surrey on 1 May. This depicted a pallid figure appearing on the TARDIS scanner at the conclusion of the adventures as the closing caption promised viewers, 'Next Episode: Dr Who and the Savages. ' Programme notes compiled by Andrew Pixley.