The Happiness Patrol

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153 - The Happiness Patrol
Doctor	Sylvester McCoy (Seventh Doctor)
Writer	Graeme Curry
Director	Chris Clough
Script editor	Andrew Cartmel
Producer	John Nathan-Turner
Executive producer(s)	None
Production code	7L
Series	Season 25
Length	3 episodes, 25 mins each
Transmission date	November 2–November 16, 1988
Preceded by	Remembrance of the Daleks
Followed by	Silver Nemesis

The Happiness Patrol is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in three weekly parts from November 2 – November 16, 1988.

1 Synopsis
2 Plot
3 Cast
- 3.1 Cast notes
4 Continuity
5 Production
6 Outside references
7 In print
8 Broadcast and VHS release
9 References
10 External links
- 10.1 Reviews
- 10.2 Target novelisation

[edit] Synopsis

The Seventh Doctor and Ace visit a human colony on the planet Terra Alpha where unhappiness is illegal and they must avoid the fondant surprise — the favoured method of execution of the Kandy Man. Under the oppressive rule of Helen A there is no option but to smile - or face the wrath of the Happiness Patrol.

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Gilbert M (Harold Innocent), purveyor of fine confectionery

Having heard the rumours of untoward happenings, the Seventh Doctor and Ace visit a human colony on the planet Terra Alpha where they find unhappiness to be an illegal act. In a perverse society ruled by the vicious and egotistical Helen A, the Happiness Patrol is a secret police force which hunts down killjoys and eliminates them. It also resprays the TARDIS pink as a more joyous and appropriate colour than blue. The disappearances also worry Trevor Sigma, the official galactic censor, who is visiting Terra Alpha too to discover where so many of the population have gone – 17% at the most recent count.

The Doctor and Ace have a brief period of incarceration to find out more about the society of Terra Alpha, encountering unhappy guard Susan Q who becomes a firm ally. Both split up, with the Doctor encountering another visitor to the planet, Earl Sigma, a wandering harmonica player who stirs unrest by playing the blues. (Sigma is the Alphan designation for non-Alphan off-worlders and the Doctor is soon known as ‘Doctor Sigma’ – similar to his Academy nickname of ‘Theta Sigma’.) Earl and the Doctor venture to the Kandy Kitchen at the heart of the planet’s governance system, where they discover rebels drowned in fondant surprise, which is the favoured method of execution of the Kandy Man, a grotesque sweet-based equivalent of a robot. Kandy Man was created by Gilbert M, one of Helen A’s senior advisers, is an immoral and sadistic killer.

The Doctor and Earl effect an escape and end up in the candy pipes below the colony, where dwell the native inhabitants of Terra Alpha, now known as Pipe People. They want to help overthrow the tyranny of Helen A. The Doctor returns to the surface and now starts actively subverting the government system – supporting demonstrations in favour of unhappiness and stirring up the drones to revolt; preventing snipers removing malcontents; and even challenging Helen A face to face to end the monstrosity of her government.

Ace and Susan Q have meanwhile been scheduled to appear in the late show at the Forum, where the penalty for non-entertainment is death. The Doctor and Earl rescue them both and the four head off to Helen A’s palace for a final showdown while a revolution takes full effect outside the palace walls. The first to be disposed of is Helen A’s pet Stigorax, Fifi, a rat-dog creature she used to hunt down the Pipe People, which is crushed in the pipes below the city. Then the Pipe People destroy the Kandy Man in a flow of his own fondant surprise. Gilbert M and Joseph C, the consort of the leader, use the opportunity of the disorder to slip away. Helen A tries to flee too but is challenged by the Doctor about the true nature of happiness, which can only be understood if counter-balanced by sadness. This is a notion she understands only when confronted with the remains of Fifi. The revolution is complete and the Doctor and Ace slip away – but only once the TARDIS has been repainted blue.

[edit] Cast

The Doctor — Sylvester McCoy
Ace — Sophie Aldred
Helen A — Sheila Hancock
Joseph C — Ronald Fraser
Daisy K — Georgina Hale
Gilbert M — Harold Innocent
Susan Q — Lesley Dunlop
Priscilla P — Rachel Bell
Silas P — Jonathan Burn
Harold V — Tim Barker
Kandy Man — David John Pope
Trevor Sigma — John Normington
Earl Sigma — Richard D. Sharp
Forum Doorman — Tim Scott
Killjoy — Mary Healey
Snipers — Steve Swinscoe, Mark Carroll
Wences — Philip Neve
Wulfric — Ryan Freedman
Newscaster — Annie Hulley

[edit] Cast notes

Georgina Hale guest stars along with John Normington who played Morgus in The Caves of Androzani is Trevor Sigma. Normington went on to appear in Ghost Machine an episode of the Doctor Who spin-off Torchwood.

[edit] Continuity

The Doctor is telling Ace about the events of Invasion of the Dinosaurs and mentions the Brigadier at the start of this story. The Seventh Doctor later meets the Brigadier in Battlefield.

[edit] Production

Working titles for this story included The Crooked Smile.^[1]
The production team considered transmitting this story in black and white to fit with its intended film noir atmosphere.^[1] A fan myth holds that the third episode was supposed to be animated, but this was never the case.^[2]
Bassett's complained over the similarity between the Kandy Man in this story and their trademark character. The BBC agreed not to use the Kandy Man again.^[1]
Helen A was originally a Margaret Thatcher parody, although most of this element was eventually toned down.^[1]

[edit] Outside references

In the story, the Doctor sings "As Time Goes By", the song famously sung by Dooley Wilson in the 1942 film Casablanca.
Some reviewers have argued (most notably in The Discontinuity Guide by Martin Day, Keith Topping and Paul Cornell) that there is a gay subtext to the story. This seems to be largely based on the gender role-reversal themes, the slightly camp male characters and the overabundance of pink. However, the example that is most cited in support of this argument, that of a Kandy Man victim allegedly wearing a pink triangle, is in error (it is a shirt ripped in a vaguely triangular shape that reveals a white undershirt that looks pink in the red lighting).^[3] On the other hand, the story ends with Helen A's husband abandoning her and leaving with another man.
In 2005, this story came 24th in Channel 5's The Most Shameful TV Moments Ever; with the claim that here was where Doctor Who finally "jumped the shark" and ran out of ideas (although all other television moments were dealt with just as acerbically).
The Happiness Patrol is also the name of a rock band based in Hull; the band took their name from this serial.^[4]^[5]