71 edit of Terror of Autons script

[Simon Smith]

Is there any way to get hold of the original script of the original 71 edit of Terror of the Autons, specifically the bits that didn't make it into the final broadcast version?

Thank you

[Richard Bignell]

They didn't refer to the edits that way back then, but what would have been the equivalent of the 71-edit (i.e. the first version done of the programme) was the transmission edit. In fact, I think only the last episode of Colony in Space went to a second edit that season.

If you mean scripted scenes that didn't make the final version, then probably your best bet is looking at the DWM 'Fact of Fiction' article on the story in Issue 386. There weren't a great deal of losses from memory.

[Simon Smith]

Are you sure about that, Richard? What about Bill McGuirk as "Policeman"?

[Richard Bignell]

I didn't say there weren't any, just that there weren't many!

The policeman scene from Episode 3 is the only largish one I can think of. All the others would have been fairly small trims.

The scene was intended to immediately follow the ‘Auton in the safe’ sequence and would have begun with a police car driving up to the stationary coach in the woods. The scene would then have continued inside the coach (recorded in the studio) and featured the PC being told that the driver had got lost on the next stop of the promotions tour. The Master explains that Farrel, who is terrified, has been overworking and is under strain. The policeman’s interest is drawn to the carnival masked Autons and he removes the false head of the Auton leader to see the blank face underneath. The Auton shoots him, to Farrel’s dismay.

[Simon Smith]

IN DWM 385 it makes lots of references to large amounts of dialogue being cut from Episode 1, but doesn't really go into detail.

Which is why the original question asked if there are copies of the original script(s), before the dialogue was cut.