Farewell Great Macedon- the Script Book!

[SiHart]

When the TARDIS arrives outside the gates of Babylon the Doctor and his friends find themselves in the presence of Alexander the Great. But there is treachery at work as generals plot to overthrow the king and his men. When the travellers stand accused the Doctor and Ian must face trials while still trying to uncover the real murderers.

The editors of Nothing at the End of the Lane are proud to present Farewell Great Macedon, one of the earliest examples of an unused script from Doctor Who's very first season. Written in 1964 by then young writer Moris Farhi, the tale shows many of the hallmarks of the first season of the fledgling science-fiction series while also including many suggestions for other ways the show might have developed. Now you can enjoy this glimpse into those early formative years.

This volume reproduces the actual scripts and is rounded off with a forwarding article looking at the history of Moris' involvement with the production office and how the scripts came to be written as well as background on the real historical figures and reviews from several Doctor Who historians, plus a special edition of the DWM Time Team.

Included is a bonus opening script for another early submission from Moris Farhi - The Fragile Yellow Arc of Fragrance; and a brief history of Moris' distinguished career.

Nothing at the End of the Lane is proud to present, for the first time ever, the complete script of this unproduced Doctor Who story in one special-edition volume. Covering over 250-pages, Farewell Great Macedon not only reproduces the original script pages for all six episodes, but also features:

* Foreword by Moris Farhi.
* The history and development of the Farewell Great Macedon script and Moris Farhi’s association with Doctor Who between 1964 and 1977.
* Reviews of the story by Jeremy Bentham, Paul Scoones and Philip MacDonald.
* A special edition of DWM’s Time Team.
* A historical examination of Alexander the Great’s life and death compared with that seen in Farewell Great Macedon.
* Stunning new artwork by Jason Fletcher and Adrian Salmon.

Nothing at the End of the Lane - Farewell Great Macedon is a 258-page, A4-sized, perfect bound softcover book, available for order exclusively though www.nothing-lane.co.uk

Price: $24.95USD (approx. £15.50 / $27.50AUD / €17.00)

Si xx

[Andrew Curnow]

Being very cynical, isn't the story behind this that the author was so taken with this new programme that he took it on himself to write a complete six part script. I don't believe he was ever commissioned for it, so I'm not sure it is an 'unmade' story in the usual sense - ie, I don't think it was ever considered for making at all in the first place. So it's not quite in the same league as Masters of Luxor, for example, as a near miss.

I may be wrong though, and I'm sure it'll be an interesting read!

[WhiteCrowNZ]

Being very cynical, isn't the story behind this that the author was so taken with this new programme that he took it on himself to write a complete six part script.

So Doctor Who's first fan fiction?

I'm not sure it was ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of..._Great_Macedon

[Andrew Curnow]

I stand corrected - I've in fact found the site I read about it, and have to admit I've misremembered it, particularly the last bit below. What it says is:

Although a sample script written by Farhi, “The Fragile Yellow Arc Of Fragrance”, was rejected by story editor David Whitaker, he was nonetheless encouraged to continue to develop ideas for Doctor Who. Aware that Farhi was interested in Greco-Roman mythology, on January 24th Whitaker suggested an adventure about the Greek pirate Barbarossa, in which the Doctor would be forced to invite somebody into the TARDIS. Farhi instead began work on “Farewell Great Macedon” (also called “Alexander The Great ”); such was his enthusiasm for the project that he ignored Whitaker's advice to write only one script and instead produced a full six-part serial

So a story was commissioned from him, but whether this Alexander the Great story was ever in any sense formally approved by the production team would seem to be in doubt.

(The site I was looking at is here by the way, very interesting stuff.)

[kevinwho]

To make this puppy even slightly more legit, Big Finish is adapting this for their Lost Stories series. That said, the Lost Stories series seems to include everything from scripts that made it into pre-production to vague thoughts that were bandied about at some point. Still, looking forward to reading it once I get through the other books ahead of it on the pile.

[Rob McCow]

It is kind of interesting that they've picked up stories like this for adaptation. There's a full script, so in a way it would seem easier, but on the other hand things like these might need a lot of adaptation to work on audio.

I think I'd rather read the book to be honest!