The Gunfighters
Joe Siegler
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The Gunfighters
This Story: Series 3, Story 8. Production Code Z.
Overall: Story 25, Episodes 115-118
Airdates: 30 April 1966 to 21 May 1966
Written by Donald Cotton. Directed by Rex Tucker.
The four individual episode titles are:
- Holiday For the Doctor
- Don’t Shoot the Pianist
- Johnny Ringo
- The O.K. Corral
NOTE: This is the final story where the individual episodes have their own titles. The next story after this (The Savages) went to a format where the episodes had “Episode 1, 2, etc” with the overall title. Up until this story the overall title wasn’t shown on screen, just the individual titles. The final episode of the Gunfighters does have a “Next Episode – Dr. Who & The Savages”, but it is the final episode to have such a title at the start of the end credits. That’s the official episodes. Some of the fan made reconstructions have “next week” titles at the end, but those weren’t in the original episodes, AFAIK.
Links: [ Wikipedia | Tardis Data Core | Amazon US DVD | Amazon UK DVD ]
#DoctorWhoMarathon Ep 115 - "Holiday for the Doctor" (1/4 - Serial "Z", Story 25) - 30 Apr 1966. #DoctorWho 1/2
— jᎾᎬ sᎥᎬᎶᏞᎬᏒ (@JoeSiegler) December 11, 2021
The 1st/4 of "The Gunfighters", a very maligned story in Who history. They do a full on western at the OK Corral, w/bad American accents, and well, a lot of weirdness. pic.twitter.com/nTRiZH9bhu
#DoctorWhoMarathon Ep 115 - "Holiday for the Doctor" (1/4 - Serial "Z", Story 25) - 30 Apr 1966. #DoctorWho 2/2
— jᎾᎬ sᎥᎬᎶᏞᎬᏒ (@JoeSiegler) December 11, 2021
A lot of the dislike from this story comes from a song that plays thru the whole thing - "The Last Chance Saloon". The Doctor is here to see a dentist - Doc Holiday. pic.twitter.com/4U83ZQe23I
#DoctorWhoMarathon Ep 116 - "Don't Shoot the Pianist" (2/4 - Serial "Z", Story 25) - 7 May 1966. #DoctorWho 1/2
— jᎾᎬ sᎥᎬᎶᏞᎬᏒ (@JoeSiegler) December 11, 2021
Despite this story's negative reputation, I always enjoyed it, despite the goofiness. The Doctor is mistaken for Doc Holiday and arrested "for his own protection". pic.twitter.com/08lFwUH9oM
#DoctorWhoMarathon Ep 116 - "Don't Shoot the Pianist" (2/4 - Serial "Z", Story 25) - 7 May 1966. #DoctorWho 2/2
— jᎾᎬ sᎥᎬᎶᏞᎬᏒ (@JoeSiegler) December 11, 2021
The Clantons rope Steven into helping who they think is Doc Holiday get out of prison so they can hang him. If that doesn't work, they'll hang Steven instead. pic.twitter.com/UOolorMVZp
#DoctorWhoMarathon Ep 117 - "Johnny Ringo" (3/4 - Serial "Z", Story 25) - 14 May 1966. #DoctorWho
— jᎾᎬ sᎥᎬᎶᏞᎬᏒ (@JoeSiegler) December 13, 2021
Earp saves Steven from the Clantons, & Doc Holiday takes Dodo with him. Johnny Ringo shows up and murders the bartender while also chasing Holiday. Steven goes looking for Dodo. pic.twitter.com/4MfK7n4t88
#DoctorWhoMarathon Ep 118 - "The OK Corral" (4/4 - Serial "Z", Story 25) - 21 May 1966. #DoctorWho 1/3
— jᎾᎬ sᎥᎬᎶᏞᎬᏒ (@JoeSiegler) December 13, 2021
The last of the Gunfighters - which centers around the famed "OK Corral" fight. The various plot threads converge in the fight, & in the fracas, the Doctor and crew escape. pic.twitter.com/CluTuO7o2G
#DoctorWhoMarathon Ep 118 - "The OK Corral" (4/4 - Serial "Z", Story 25) - 21 May 1966. #DoctorWho 2/3
— jᎾᎬ sᎥᎬᎶᏞᎬᏒ (@JoeSiegler) December 13, 2021
As I said earlier, I enjoyed this story despite its reputation - song & all. This is the final ep of the classic show to have individual titles - after this it's Pt 1, 2, etc. pic.twitter.com/FBDf4wXIU5
#DoctorWhoMarathon Ep 118 - "The OK Corral" (4/4 - Serial "Z", Story 25) - 21 May 1966. #DoctorWho 3/3
— jᎾᎬ sᎥᎬᎶᏞᎬᏒ (@JoeSiegler) December 13, 2021
Also, if you're curious to hear the song, I found this video which takes all the various segments from the four episodes and puts them all together. ?https://t.co/y7XSJOfl58
SONG NOTE: One interesting thing about the song. It was sung by an actress named Lynda Barron. She would later appear in the flesh in other Doctor Who episodes. The first one was “Enlightenment” (1983, Peter Davison) and the other was “Closing Time” (2011, Matt Smith)
