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| Scream of the Shalka | |
| Series: | Doctor Who - Webcast |
| Number: | 4 |
| Doctor: | Ninth Doctor (Scream of the Shalka) |
| Companions: | The Master Alison Cheney |
| Enemy: | Shalka |
| Setting: | Earth England |
| Writer: | Paul Cornell |
| Director: | Wilson Milam |
| Producer: | Muirinn Lane Kelly |
| Animator: | Cosgrove Hall |
| Broadcast: | 13th November 2003 – 18th December 2003 |
| Format: | 6 Episodes - Flash Animation |
| Prod. Code: | BBCI-4 |
| Previous Production: | Shada |
| Following Production: | The Feast of the Stone (online short story) |
Scream of the Shalka was a flash-animated serial based on Doctor Who with Richard E. Grant as the voice of an alternative Ninth Doctor. Its animation was produced by Cosgrove Hall. The serial was webcast by the BBC's official Doctor Who website in November and December of 2003.
As of 2009 it is the most recent webcast production of this nature.
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The Doctor's TARDIS materialises in the village of Lannet in Lancashire. An annoyed Doctor, who has apparently been transported here against his will. He discovers the village silent, its inhabitants all living in fear except for a barmaid, Alison Cheney. The alien Shalka have taken up residence beneath Lannet in preparation for a wider invasion. Despite his initial reluctance, the Doctor finds himself having to save the world again, aided by Alison and an enemy who has become an ally.
to be added
Scream of the Shalka was produced to coincide with the 40th Anniversary of Doctor Who. It was originally posted in six weekly parts from 13th November to 18th December 2003 on BBCi's Doctor Who website. Although it was intended to be an "official" continuation of the television series that had ended in 1989, the revival of the programme in 2005 relegated it, and the Richard E. Grant's Ninth Doctor, to non-canonical status.
Previous Doctor Who webcasts had had limited animation which was little more than a series of illustrations. This story was the first-ever officially licensed animated Doctor Who story. Doctor Who had suspended production in 1989, and aside from charity specials, had only resurfaced as an American-funded television movie in 1996, which did not garner enough ratings to go to a regular series. When Shalka was announced in July, 2003 for planned broadcast in November, the possibility of Doctor Who returning to television screens still seemed remote and BBC Worldwide were continuing to shop around for another possible movie deal. As a result, BBCi announced, with BBC approval, that the Doctor appearing in Shalka would be the "official" Ninth Doctor. However, events rapidly overtook this.
In September, Lorraine Heggessey, the Controller of BBC One managed to persuade BBC Worldwide that as their plans for a Doctor Who film were nowhere near fruition, BBC television should be allowed to make a new series. A deal with Russell T Davies to produce the new series was quickly struck, and on September 26, the BBC announced that Doctor Who would be returning to BBC One in 2005, produced by BBC Wales.
As a result, the "official" nature of the Shalka web cast was in doubt from even before it was web cast. After the web cast, in February 2004, plans for sequels were indefinitely shelved. For a period, it was unclear if the new television Doctor would be the Ninth or Tenth Doctor, but this was ultimately settled in April 2004 when in an interview with Doctor Who Magazine, Davies announced that the new television Doctor (played by Christopher Eccleston), would be the Ninth Doctor, relegating the Richard E. Grant Doctor to unofficial status.
Grant's incarnation of the Time Lord (often referred to as the "REG Doctor" or the "Shalka Doctor" by fans) has since appeared in an online short story, The Feast of the Stone by Cavan Scott and Mark Wright, although no further stories seem planned.
to be added
Paul Cornell wrote a novelisation of Scream of the Shalka, which was published by BBC Books. This marked the first publication of a novelisation under the BBC Books paperback line since Doctor Who: The TV Movie was so adapted in 1996, and the first novelisation of a non-televised Doctor Who story since The Ghosts of N-Space in 1995; it is also the only webcast to be so adapted. The book was augmented with a section chronicling the making of the webcast.
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