Starring Atkinson as the Doctor (for most of the story anyway), Julia Sawalha as his companion Emma, and Jonathan Pryce as the Master, the story goes from the stinky terrain of the planet Tersurus to the control room of a Dalek spaceship, where the metal gits are attempting to harness deadly Zektronic energy beams. With lashings of potty humour and some good-natured ribbing of the classic series, it’s a star-studded spoof that has become far more interesting upon reflection.

More than just running through the tropes like the Doctor runs through corridors and gravel quarries, it’s written from the perspective of someone who clearly grew up wanting to write this show. It’s witty, it’s bawdy, it’s highly timey-wimey, and whether intentionally or not, it’s practically the blueprint for Steven Moffat’s vision of Doctor Who as a whole.

I bribed the architect first

In the interests of full disclosure, I should say at this point that The Curse Of Fatal Death was my first glimpse of Doctor Who in any medium. The TV movie had passed me by and the new series was barely a glint in RTD’s eye at this point. As a fan of Mr. Bean and Blackadder and a general Red Nose Day watcher, I was very much oblivious to Daleks, Time Lords, and regeneration. I was so captivated by these things that I promptly forgot about them until 2005.

It’s no Rose, but as a first exposure to the programme, it’s fairly accessible. It’s also funny and quite fast paced, and these are all qualities that the new series would strive for. It’s utterly daft on top of that, but Moffat still writes this like somebody who doesn’t think they’re ever going to get the chance to write it for real.

Inevitably, that means some stuff that would carry over into his era shows up for the first time here, including the idea of a married Doctor. Emma doesn’t directly prefigure River Song, playing more like what a 1990s version of the companion role would be while also being lovey-dovey with a Time Lord who’s angling for retirement, having saved every single planet in the universe “a minimum of 27 times”.