| 5 – Masterplan | |
|---|---|
| The Projection Room serial | |
 The DVD cover of Masterplan. | |
| Cast | |
| Doctor • Chris Hoyle (The Doctor • Gordon England (The Doctor | |
| Companions • Mark Ellis (Devlin Y'Eri) • Susan Gibson (Flynn Wright | |
| Others • Philip Newton – The Master • Philip Reed – Luke Seval John Moses, Richard Moses, Mark Robinson – Dalek Operators • Simon Wellings – Cyber Leader • Philip Reed, Janek Heczko, David Sowden, Ric Hoshley – Cybermen • Andi Knowles – Irene Illingworth • David Szlavik – Blind Man • John Ruth – Sorvad | |
| Production | |
| Writer | Kit Steels |
| Director | Chris Hoyle |
| Producer | TBA |
| Production code | 1.5 |
| Series | The Projection Room |
| Length | 4 episodes, 115 minutes |
| Originally broadcast | July 2000 (VHS) 7 July 2007 (DVD) |
| Chronology | |
| ← Preceded by | Followed by → |
| A Stitch in Time | – |
Masterplan is the fifth story of the Doctor Who fan series by The Projection Room. It is the final adventure in this series of the story arc.
Story[]
Synopsis[]
Flung into a worm-hole by the three Doctors he captured with the time-scoop, their arch-nemesis 'The Master' is imprisoned and his future bleak. But a scout-ship unwittingly intercepts the flailing vortex, rescuing the renegade - and his saviours are none other than his long-term allies: the Daleks.
Now with an army of reinforcements and a seething determination to achieve Universal domination once and for all, the Master hatches his ultimate, diabolical scheme - destroy the Doctor, completely cripple the Earth then take Gallifrey by force.
And the Doctor must make the ultimate sacrifice if he is to stop the Master's plan...
Continuity[]
This 4-part epic adventure sees the introduction of Gordon England's tenure as the Doctor, as well as his companion, Devlin. In this, the fifth serial from 'The Projection Room', the 'time-crystal' story-arc reaches its timely conclusion, too, seeing the threads from all the adventures to date finally closing in and coming together.
The original intention was that the Doctor and his two companions would then pick up their next adventure exactly where Masterplan ends - on Devlin's world, Kalios Minor - in an adventure that was ultimately not recorded.
- The Master notes that he has allied with the Daleks before. (Frontier in Space)
- The Master's betrayal of the Cybermen in the Death Zone is recalled. (The Five Doctors)
- The Doctor returns to Devil's End, site of a previous battle between himself and the Master. (The Daemons)
- The Master reminds the Doctor of the deaths of Adric (Earthshock) and Leia. (The Crystal of Achillon)
Production[]
Disappointed by the fact that The Deadly Alliance remained an unfinished serial, Chris Hoyle suggested to Gordon England and Phil Newton that they consider rewriting the story to accomodate the broader range of resources and cast that The Projection Room now had available. It seemed a shame to lose a number of good plot ideas from that story when they could be incorporated into a new script. As a result, 'Masterplan' can be seen as an upgrade to The Deadly Alliance which brings a scale and magnitude to the production that simply wouldn't have been possible for the group 4 years previously.
Scripting started soon after the completion of A Stitch in Time, in October 1996, with props and costumes being built and acquired at the same time. For the first time a video-diary of the scripting process was recorded, in three installments, during difficulties in writing Part Four. These are included, along with a wide range of other 'extras', on the 3-disc DVD release.
Read-throughs took place early in 1997, and exterior location-shooting began in July of the same year at Murgatroyds Mill, Booth (nr. Luddenden) for the final sequences in Part One, the Blackshaw Head moorlands and Adel, Leeds for the car-chase, Brimham Rocks, Pudsey, the Dark Arches under Leeds Station and Bramley, to name but a few. Shooting at Brimham proved particularly problematic as the team were plagued with relentless, torrential rain on two separate occasions. Nearly a dozen outdoor shoots were needed to get the material for all four episodes.
By February 1998 the sets were ready for the interior studio work at The Wortley Studio courtesy of Marcus Rapley, a lighting tutor that Phil Reed knew from Park Lane College. This included the TARDIS console room for the Doctor and the Master as well as space-craft interiors for the Dalek Scout-ship and the Cyber-ship. The team spent 7 session in-studio during February, March and April 1998. On one occasion the sets collapsed but no-one was injured.
Paul Shields handled the visual effects work, taking on the mammoth task during the remainder of 1998 and early 1999, such that by Summer 1999 all the material was ready for editing, in the editing suite at Hanson School, Bradford. Due to the complexity of the edit process and the length of the story, the production took almost 10 months to put together.
This was the first Projection Room production to have a large-scale premiere, at Quo Vadis in Leeds in August 2000. Approximately 80 people attended with a number unable to be there, such that a second screening took place later in the year at Carpe Diem.
Pyrotechnics and make-up were completed by Glen Savage & Co., with CGI Post-production done by Paul Shields. Along with being the director of the serial, Chris Hoyle did the special sounds, editing and the soundtrack to Masterplan. The special costumes were made and fitted by Pauline Field, Simon Wellings, Hilton Fitzsimmons, Ian Taylor and Cath Astell. The properties were owned by Gordon England, David Szlavik, Glen Savage and Chris Hoyle, with camera-work by Glen and Anne Savage and Simon Wellings. The lighting was by Marcus Rapley and Chris Hoyle, with the interior studio at the Wortley Studio in Leeds. Chris Hoyle, David Elliott, David Szlavik and Phil Newton were responsible for the set design and construction, with the exterior locations being the Railtrack UK, Murgatroyds Mill and Redhall Security. Gordon England was the production assistant. Ultimately, this serial had the most extensive crew involved in any of the Projection Room serials.