All Doctors Great and Small (1984)

written, produced, and directed by Chris Brainerd
credits | scene-by-scene | memories

This production crossed Doctor Who with All Creatures Great and Small, playing off the fact that Peter Davison in particular appeared in both series. We filmed it (oh, sorry, taped it) Memorial Day weekend, 1984; it should be considered the first real Federation production, since The Five Doctors Booh happened pre-Federation and the only other things we had done between was the odd school project.

Credits

James Herriot/Doctor 4:: Jack Barker
Sigfreid Farnon/Doctor 1:: Mark Christensen
Tristan Farnon/Doctor 5:: Rob Warnock
Mrs. Hall/Doctor 3:: Chris Brainerd
David Woodley/Doctor 2:: Patrick Reardon
The Bartender/Doctor 6:: Dennis Kytasaari
Helen Herriot/Romana:: Sue Warnock
Debbie Mount/Tegan:: Sondra Clein
Mrs. Pumphrey/Sarah Jane:: Jennifer Adams
Mr. Mount/The Brigadier:: Tim Kasper
Turlough, Captain Yates:: Philip Kelley
Jo Grant:: Kathy Warnock
Adric:: Scott Kearns
Hodgkins:: Steve Schiller
Voice of Tricki-Woo/K-9:: Pat Engle
Special Thanks to:: Cox Cable Lake County, IL
Ventures Ranch
David Adler Cultural Center, Libertyville, IL
MISTY
The Brainerd Household and Bar
John Nathan-Turner

Production Assistants:: Scott Kearns
Steve Schiller
Assistant to the Producer:: Mark Christensen

Animal Handler:: Sondra Clein
Audio Engineer:: Tim Kasper
Script Editor:: Rob Warnock
Director of Photography:: Jennifer Adams
Writer/Producer/Director:: Chris Brainerd

This Production Presented by:: The Booh Broadcasting System (BBS), a division of
THE FEDERATION
A Doctor Who/Blake's 7 Fan Cooperative
In Cooperation With:: COX CABLE LAKE COUNTY
Libertyville, IL
FOR PUBLIC ACCESS TELEVISION

The names, places, and characters in this fictional satire are not true facimilities of any persons living or fictitious and any resemblence thereto is purely coincidental.

Scene by Scene

Those of you familiar with the video will note several scenes listed below that didn't make the final cut.

opening scene in television control room
BBS globe
Opening Credits
HALLWAY/STAIRS: Answering phone, Helen comes down.
DINING ROOM: Breakfast, David arrives. Tristan and map. Hall, James, Sigfried, Tristan, David, Helen.
SURGERY: Tristan, David treat rabbits. Mr. Grubb, David, Tristan.
STABLE: Sigfreid and James argue with Mr. Mount. Mr. Mount, James, Sigfreid
HALLWAY: Hall on phone with Pumphrey.
INSERT PUMPHREY: on phone with Hall
SURGERY: Debbie brings snake to Tristan, set date. Turlough, Debbie, Hall, Tristan, David.
STABLE: Sigfreid argues with Mr. Mount over Tristan. Mr. Mount, Sigfreid, James
SURGERY: Tristan tells Hall he won't have dinner.
HALLWAY/DOOR: James, Sigfreid arrive. Jo appears at door.
EXTERIOR PUMPHREY'S: Arrival, Hodgkins pokes fun. Hodgkins, Pumphrey, Tristan, David, James
SURGERY: Nyssa brings bird, faints. Nyssa, Sigfreid
INTERIOR PUMPHREY'S: James treats Tricki, Tristan goofs off. Pumphrey, James, David, Tristan.
KITCHEN: Hall explains situation to Jo.
SURGERY: Sigfreid sends Tristan to Mount's.
HALLWAY: Tristan, David leave.
SURGERY: Adric arrives, James contemplates Time Dissolve.
STABLE: Tristan gets kicked, Mount chases them. Debbie, Mount, Tristan, David.
SURGERY: Helen reminds James of date.
SITTING ROOM: Tristan complains to Sigfreid.
HALLWAY: Tristan and David leave for pub.
SITTING ROOM: Helen, James leave for dinner.
PUB: Tristan and David get drunk, pet cat.
INTERIOR CAR: Bumpy road, James gets a flat tire.
EXTERIOR TIRE: James and Helen examine flat.
DINING ROOM: Hall and Sigfreid wait for Tristan.
PUB: Colin serves Tristan and David a drink.
EXTERIOR CAR: Brigadier picks up James, Helen.
DINING ROOM: U.N.I.T. arrivesm everyone arrives, Hall complains, Colin arrives, everyone quits.
EMPTY SET: Turner throws away script, leaves.
CLOSING CREDITS.

Memories

Bear with us, eh? It was 15 years and many brain cells ago...but here's what we can remember.

[Jennifer] [Rob]

Jennifer Recalls....

It was a really long weekend. Really, really long. I didn't even make most of the pre-filming stuff because I had commitments on campus. (I was in my junior year at Northwestern.)

Saturday, May 26, 1984

Armadillo Day on campus, where the students go out on Lakefill and listen to bands, get drunk and/or stoned, and basically par-tay. My experimental video class created an exhibit on the ground level in the student center, so I had to be there to set it up and take it down, as well as explain it to people. (We created a video toilet, complete with shots of people dropping their pants and sitting on the toilet.) Here's what the installation looked like.

In any case, I think we stayed on campus that night, although Chris might have come down to pick up the lights. (I checked out lights from the radio/tv/film department for the production. Since no one else had any formal video production training or lighting experience, I got to be Director of Photography.) Up in Libertyville, Chris, Mark, and I think Pat and Dennis built a K-9.

Sunday, May 27, 1984

The Northwestern contingency (me, Philip, Sondra, Jack--note how Sondra and I roped our boyfriends into the action....) somehow got up to Liberator Base and stayed the night. To warm up for the big day, we made a Federation Filuuuum, in which we spoofed "Thriller" and "Batman" amongst many other things.

Monday, May 28, 1984

Fifteen hours. Fifteen. And that cat.....

It rained most of the day, so everyone involved in an outdoor scene got wet--and Rob and Pat R. got really muddy from running up that hill. At one point, we had to go over to the stables to film the stable scenes. Chris couldn't remember where the stables were, so we spent like an hour driving up and down Saint Mary's Road trying to find the place.

Pat Engle spent the day being a real pill. In part, it was because he managed to get up to Libertyville from his abode in Alsip (which is some 60 miles away or some ridiculous distance like that), but Chris decided he should be punished anyway (for what, I don't know, transgressing some unwritten law or something) and would not get to play the 4th Doctor. (So what if Engle looked exactly like Tom Baker and did a spot-on Tom Baker impersonation?) So Pat basically acted up all day, which tended to delay shooting. And at the very end of the day, when we were ready to leave and couldn't because one of Rob's cats had gone missing, Pat came up with the "Fifteen hours" line.

Tuesday, May 29, 1984

The lights had to be back in Evanston by 2 p.m. We couldn't get Chris up until like 12:30 p.m.--and then he had to eat and shower and stuff. We barely got them back in time. Chris also pulled his signature move: upon realising he was about to pass the proper exit on the expressway, he cut across three lanes of traffic to exit. Thus has the phrase "pulling a Chris" lingered in the collective Federation mind since.

June 1984

Chris tried to get the video edited in time for Panopticon 1984, which was mid-June. We had to make do with a trailer instead. I'm pretty sure it didn't have it's official premiere until 1985, at some con either downstate or in Saint Louis that had both Colin Baker and John Nathan-Turner in attendance.

Rob Remembers....

Actually, it was Sue's cat that went missing. I also remember that when we were done shooting on Sun (at like 1:00 am, we went back to Chris' and watched ALL of the footage. We also managed to steal a pair of red spats (I won't say from where) and a wig or two. The spats became part of the Colin costume. My favorite recollection, though, is the point where Pat Engle found a brown recluse in the basement at Adler House, and put it in a jar, and threatened that he would make it bite me if I didn't give him money to buy a coke. Needless to say, I gave him all the money I had.