By the dawn of the 1970s, Doctor Who found itself going through one of the most seismic shifts in its history. For a show to change its lead actor, from William Hartnell to Patrick Troughton through the conceit of ‘regeneration’ was revolutionary in itself. And Troughton’s reading of the role – as a kind of ‘cosmic hobo’ – was to many fans the one that defined who the Doctor really was. Yet with regeneration established as a formula, even bigger changes were on the way. For a start, Jon Pertwee’s term saw the show broadcast in colour for the first time. For this new era, the show became Earth-bound, the Doctor having been exiled by the Timelords, and now working as scientific adviser to the extra-terrestrial division of the United Nations. There were two main reasons for the change. The pressure on the lead actor was becoming apparent, and so bringing in the ‘UNIT family’, as they were known, would allow the ensemble cast to lighten the load. And basing the Doctor’s adventures in a regular set would free up money to spend on other things. For the first time, the Radio Times did not bill the show as ‘an adventure in space and time’. Charged with implementing this new format was new producer Barry Letts, considered by fans to be one of the great heroes of Doctor Who. A former actor and sometime director, he was also a keen Buddhist and a nascent environmentalist, and under his rule, the show went through perhaps its most topical ever period. Perhaps it’s obvious that shackling the series to Earth would concern it more with what was going on down here.

“I don’t think Doctor Who should be a vehicle for any form of overt political viewpoint, however laudable. I think our audience was intelligent enough to make the connection, it was still there to be made.” Barry Letts, producer

The connections were often overt enough to be apparent even to those not looking for them. Doctor Who held up a mirror to the concerns that gripped the psyche of Britain like no other: Europe, strikes and environmentalism. Letts was probably the first voice to use the programme as a soapbox. As he conceded: “Talking about moral passion might sound a bit pompous, but being aware of it makes for good storytelling. When people used to come up with a story, or Terrance [Dicks, script editor] and I thought of a story, and we couldn’t quite see where we were going with it, we would say, ‘Let’s go back to the basics and ask ourselves, what is the story about? What point is the story making?’ If it’s just an adventure chase-about then it’s very difficult to make a good story because all you’re doing is inventing new incidents. On the other hand, if you go back to brass tacks and say to yourself, ‘The point of this story is, for instance: just because a chap has green skin doesn’t mean he should be treated as an inferior’, then immediately things start to fall into place, so that if an incident arises within the plot, you can ask, ‘Is this leading the story in that direction?’ It is an enormous help in the structure of stories to have a point or a theme to the whole thing’.” Three stories in particular demonstrate his point. In 1972’s The Curse of Peladon, the Doctor and Jo visit a planet (the exile was up by then) on the tentative verge of joining something called the Galactic Federation, with the young King Peladon keen to join up, while the elder High Priest Hepesh wants to preserve the status quo and keep the planet independent. The story has been widely read as a political satire on one of the big political issues of the day – the decision over whether the UK should join the European Economic Community.

A snippet from Uncle Wikipedia’s helpful story synopsis shows that they may well have a point: “Jo also tries to convince the delegates to intervene, but although Izlyr agrees that the death of the Doctor (as the delegate from Earth) will mean war, they cannot. Alpha Centauri and Arcturus both want to leave, in case hostilities do break out. Jo leaves in disgust, but Izlyr explains to her in private that all votes must be unanimous by Federation law and Izlyr has voted to stay and save the Doctor, to repay him for saving Izlyr’s life.” In the end, Hepesh is defeated and Peladon joins the Federation, just as Britain would join Europe the following year. It remains to be seen whether Steven Moffat is planning to return to Peladon again, with one of its High Council based on Nigel Farage. But two years later, the planet would be used as a canvas for UK politics once more, in The Monster of Peladon. This time, writer Brian Hayles chose to ‘tackle’ the miners’ strike of 1973, a stand-off between the then-Conservative government and disgruntled coal miners that led to the loathed austerity measure of the ‘Three Day Week’. Returning to Peladon, the Doctor found himself in an industrial dispute between the authorities and miners of the mineral trislicate. Failing to convey as strong a message as its predecessor, the story is widely considered to be far less successful, despite using many of the same elements and costumes.