.jpg "Doctor Who: 'The Aztecs' BBCDVD3689")
- Broadcast:
- 23rd May - 13th June 1964
- Doctor:
- William Hartnell
- Companions:
- Ian, Barbara, Susan
- Adversary:
- Aztec Heigh Priest
- Written by:
- John Lucarotti
- Director:
- John Crockett
- Music:
- Richard Rodney Bennett
- Script Editor:
- David Whitaker
- Producer:
- Verity Lambert
- Average Viewers:
- 7.53m (7.4, 7.4, 7.9, 7.4)
Following the quality of his scripts for Marco Polo, John Lucarotti was asked to write another. He drew on his experience of living in Mexico and his fascination with Aztec culture to write what would be Doctor Who's third dip into history.
At the time of broadcast, viewers could also become familiar with the First World War as the BBC started to show their 26 part documentary series The Great War or watch such films as Night Must Fall and The Evil of Frankenstein (the former featured Sheila Hancock who would later appear in The Happiness Patrol as Helen A, and the latter starred Peter Cushing who would play the Doctor in the two Dalek movies in 1965 and 1966). In the charts, Four Pennies spent a week at number one with "Juliet" followed by four weeks of Cilla Black's "You're My World". Meanwhile the Rolling Stones crossed the Atlantic for their first American tour. In the news, South Korean President Park Chung Hee declared martial law in Seoul, after 10,000 student demonstrators overpowered police in anti-government protests, a referee's decision during the Tokyo Olympics football qualifiers in Peru lead to riots which killed 319 people and left 500 injured, the first Soviet communications satellite was launched, and Nelson Mandela was sentenced to life imprisonment (though political changes would eventually result in his release in 1990 and pave the way for his presidency of South Africa 30 years and one month after his sentencing).
As for The Aztecs, Carole-Anne Ford would be taking her two week holiday so arrangements were made to give Susan a minor sub-plot that could be filmed in advance at Ealing and take her away from the main action, indeed all four regulars would be apart from each other for much of the story which gives it a sense of scale but also a slight emptiness...
At the time of broadcast, viewers could also become familiar with the First World War as the BBC started to show their 26 part documentary series The Great War or watch such films as Night Must Fall and The Evil of Frankenstein (the former featured Sheila Hancock who would later appear in The Happiness Patrol as Helen A, and the latter starred Peter Cushing who would play the Doctor in the two Dalek movies in 1965 and 1966). In the charts, Four Pennies spent a week at number one with "Juliet" followed by four weeks of Cilla Black's "You're My World". Meanwhile the Rolling Stones crossed the Atlantic for their first American tour. In the news, South Korean President Park Chung Hee declared martial law in Seoul, after 10,000 student demonstrators overpowered police in anti-government protests, a referee's decision during the Tokyo Olympics football qualifiers in Peru lead to riots which killed 319 people and left 500 injured, the first Soviet communications satellite was launched, and Nelson Mandela was sentenced to life imprisonment (though political changes would eventually result in his release in 1990 and pave the way for his presidency of South Africa 30 years and one month after his sentencing).
As for The Aztecs, Carole-Anne Ford would be taking her two week holiday so arrangements were made to give Susan a minor sub-plot that could be filmed in advance at Ealing and take her away from the main action, indeed all four regulars would be apart from each other for much of the story which gives it a sense of scale but also a slight emptiness...
