God Save the Queen (episode)

God Save the Queen was the first episode of Season 49 of Doctor Who. It was written by Ronald D. Moore, directed by John Dahl and featured Samantha Bond as the Fourteenth Doctor and Montserrat Lombard as Erin Stevenson.

Synopsis
Queen Elizabeth II’s Silver Jubilee – a perfect outcry of national patriotism… But not everyone agrees, especially the disgruntled youth, readying to take on the monarchy with the power of punk rock. Meanwhile, a lone assassin makes waves, ready to act upon those words of rebellion…

Plot
The national anthem, God Save the Queen, is being sung by a crowd. News-reel footage of a street party in the town of East Grinstead, in Sussex, about an hour out from London, plays. Celebrations are a roar. The voice-over on the newsreel says that it’s 7th June 1977, the date of the Queen’s Silver Jubilee Celebrations. One woman, Danielle Stevenson, stands by a house on the street looking worried, amongst all the celebrations. Danielle looks on into the distance, looking at all the balloons and celebrations and sighing.

By a red phone box, God Save the Queen by the Sex Pistols plays, as someone sprays ‘God Save the Queen’ over the phone box. The person doing so is a girl dressed in leather with hair extensions and black lipstick, Erin Stevenson. Next to her, Kyle Harrison, her boyfriend. They move onto the next phone box they come along to and do the same, shouting "God Save the Queen" as they do so, ironically. Then they come to a police box, and they do the same, black spray paint all along its side… And then the door opens, much to Erin and Kyle’s shock, they look almost embarrassed. And then out steps the Doctor and she looks at them and says, “Could you kindly graffiti somewhere else, she’s just been done up”.

In an alleyway behind some terraced houses, covered in union jacks, still with the noise and celebration heard radiating around... And then, a flash, loud as hell, and a figure comes into view, appearing in the alley. A humanoid figure, covered in armour, a gun attached to the arm. He begins stomping down the alley, but a man exits his garden into it and sees the figure. Before long, the figure shoots a bolt out of the gun on his arm, killing the man with a scream.

Back outside the TARDIS, the Doctor’s head turns in an instant, as she hears the scream. She runs towards it, with Erin and Kyle running after he in curiosity. The figure who then walks up to man, and places his hand on his body, and energy syphons up into him as his appearance changes into that of the man. The figure, gets up, now looking like the man that he’s just killed, and he walks on.

The Doctor, Erin and Kyle end up in the alleyway and they see the body of the man, but he’s unidentifiable, not quite a skeleton but stripped of all of his flesh, rotting away. Erin and Kyle are obviously shocked and horrified. The Doctor turns around to them and says, “you should better be getting home, it’s not safe”, but Kyle protests, without consulting Erin, and says that they are staying right here with her. Erin agrees with Kyle, anyway, and the Doctor says, “so be it”.

The rest of the episode focuses on the Doctor, Erin and Kyle tracking down this creature, which is revealed to be a Raston Assassin Robot, which is targeting the Queen. In the second Act, the Doctor meets Danielle and Roger, Erin’s parents, and she introduces herself under the guise as WDC Joan Smith, working for CID. We find out that Danielle and Roger are not happy with the way that Erin is going, especially this punk phase she’s going through, as they are die-hard patriots, and they blame this on Kyle, who they deem a very bad influence. They trust the Doctor, as she represents the law, although Roger is unsure as he doesn’t approve of so-called “women policemen”.

In the end, with the help of Kyle and Erin they stop the Raston Assassin Robot, which takes on the disguise of many people throughout by draining their lifeforce, from assassinating the Queen, during the big coronation parade. We don’t actually have an actress playing the queen, as everything is either stock footage, or filmed from angles where we don’t actually see the Queen’s body, so we get a shot from a rooftop as the robot tries to fire at her carriage etc… In the end though, Kyle and Erin manage to ironically save the queen, someone who they very much disagreed with at the start, as part of the anti-monarchist movement.

Partway through Act Three, it’s revealed that the Doctor isn’t from CID, due to a run-in with the DCI, and she reveals to Kyle and Erin who she really is, which they believe quickly due to what’s happening, as they wouldn’t ordinally believe in robots from space coming to assassinate the Queen.

At the end of the story, they reunite with Erin’s parents and attend the street party on her street. It’s there that the Doctor offers Erin and Kyle the chance to travel through space and time, with a glint in her eye as she does this, both of them initially reject this, but Kyle persuades Erin to take her up, as she has her whole life ahead of her and its time she broke free of this tiresome family life she’s stuck in, maybe punk wasn’t the thing for her but this very well could be. Erin asks why Kyle won’t go, and he says that what they just went through was too scary, and he can’t experience that all the time, that’s just not the person he is, but you are that person, I see it in you every day, he says, the adrenaline, the fun… Go out there.

Erin then runs after the Doctor, as she is about to open the TARDIS, and she simply says, take me somewhere unimaginable. The Doctor smiles and says, “Well let’s start right now shall we” and she opens the TARDIS doors. Erin’s eyes widen and she steps inside, and we get the whole usual routine. The Doctor steps up to the console and says “Past or Future, Earth or Space… Or something else… it’s your choice”, and then Erin opens her mouth to speak

Cast

 * The Doctor - Samantha Bond
 * Erin Stevenson - Montserrat Lombard
 * Kyle Harrison - William Moseley
 * Danielle Stevenson - Susannah Harker
 * Roger Stevenson - Trevor Cooper
 * Mr Pearson - Frank Cannon
 * DCI Blake - Neil Stuke
 * Denis - Colin Ash
 * Mr Waynewright - Henry Miller
 * Mrs McClain - Lesley Dunlop
 * Brenda - Trudie Goodwin

Crew

 * Created by Sydney Newman, Donald Wilson and C.E. Webber


 * Executive Producers - Ronald D. Moore, Jane Espenson, Ira Steven Behr and Ken MacQuarrie
 * Co-Executive Producers - Toni Graphia, Bradley Thompson, David Weddle, Nicholas Briggs, Matthew B. Roberts and Toby Whithouse


 * Writer - Ronald D. Moore
 * Producer - Nikki Wilson
 * Director - John Dahl


 * Director of Photography - David Higgs
 * Production Designer - Richard Hudolin
 * Visual Effects - DNEG
 * Make-Up - Suzanne Jansen
 * Casting Director - Andy Pryor
 * Music - Bear McCreary
 * Costume Designer - Suzanne Cave
 * Edited by - Michael O'Halloran


 * Historical Advisor - Tony Pollard
 * Scientific Advisor - André Bormanis


 * Original Theme Music - Ron Grainer
 * Title Music - Bear McCreary
 * Title Sequence - Goodbye Kansas Studios


 * Raston Robot created by Terrance Dicks

Memorable Quotes
To be added.

Production History

 * First Draft Script - 22 September 2013
 * Final Draft Script - 13 November 2013
 * Filming Started - 25 November 2013
 * Filming Completed - 13 December 2013
 * Broadcast - 20 September 2014

Development

 * To be added

Pre-Production
To be added.

Production

 * This was the second episode shot in the season and was a part of Block 1.

Post-Production
To be added.

Story Notes
To be added.

Home Video Releases
To be added.