The Zero Imperative was the first BBV Productions video-released film to feature Caroline John reprising her role as Elizabeth Shaw.
This was also the first story to feature PROBE – the Preternatural Research Bureau which would feature in the five BBV Productions P.R.O.B.E. films.
Synopsis
Former UNIT luminary Liz Shaw and her assistant Lou Bayliss are investigating a series of bizarre murders, all committed near a soon-to-be-closed psychiatric hospital.
When the hospital is unexpectedly reprieved by rich industrialist Peter Russell, events seem to move out of Liz's control. Are the incumbent director of the clinic, Doctor Dove and his predecessor, Doctor O'Kane, harbouring the killer? What is the centuries-old horror hidden in the grounds?
And what exactly is the secret of room zero?
Plot
to be added
Cast
- Liz Shaw - Caroline John
- Dr. Jeremiah O'Kane - Jon Pertwee
- Dr. Colin Dove - Sylvester McCoy
- Dr. Peter Russell - Colin Baker
- Lou Bayliss - Linda Lusardi
- Patient Zero (David O'Kane) - David Terence
- Dr. William Bruffin - Mark Gatiss
- Dr. Beatrice Hearst - Nicola Fulljames
- Patricia Haggard - Louise Jameson
- Dr. Gilchrist - Patricia Merrick
- Cummings - Jonathan Rigby
- P.R.O. - Sophie Aldred
- Orderly - Simon Messingham
- Orderly - Alexander Kirk
- Daniel - Bill Baggs
- Boy's Voice - Daniel Mills
- Patient One - Peter Davison
Crew
- Executive producer - Andy Grant
- Original Music - Mark Ayres
- Cinematography - Dick Kursa
- Film Editing - Michael Duxbury
- Art Direction - David Rowston
- Makeup artist - Sarah Dickinson
- Assistant directors - Patricia Merrick, David Rowston, Edward Salt
- Gaffer - David Hilton
References
- Among the items on Jeremiah O'Kane's shelves are the videos Nightshade, Nightshade 2 and Nightshade and the Imps, serials or (more likely) movie adaptations in the Nightshade series which originally starred Edmund Trevithick.
- While discussing the group similar to PROBE she was once a part of, Liz sees a picture of The Brigadier on a wall and begins drawing on it with makeup.
Story notes
- Gary Gillatt created the Nightshade video covers which appear on Jeremiah O'Kane shelves.[1]
- This film is the debut of the Preternatural Research Bureau (PROBE) and the return of Caroline John as Liz Shaw, a character last seen on television in TV: Inferno in 1970 (discounting a psychic projection of Shaw played by John that appeared in 1983's The Five Doctors).
- Several cast members previous portrayed (other) roles in Doctor Who: Jon Pertwee (Third Doctor who acted alongside Caroline John); Colin Baker (Sixth Doctor); Sylvester McCoy (Seventh Doctor); Sophie Aldred (Ace); Louise Jameson (Leela); and Peter Davison (Fifth Doctor). Any actor to formerly play the Doctor plays a doctor in the film.
- Simon Messingham also wrote: PROSE: Strange England, PROSE: The Face-Eater, The Infinity Race, PROSE: Tomb of Valdemar and The Indestructible Man.
- This is the first of four films featuring the PROBE organisation. It pre-dates Torchwood as the first ongoing spin-off of the Doctor Who universe.
- This story marks the first time that Pertwee, Aldred, Jameson and Davison have played more than one character in the Doctor Who universe. It is not the first time for Baker and McCoy, however: Baker played Maxil in TV: Arc of Infinity and McCoy briefly played the Sixth Doctor in TV: Time and the Rani. Pertwee, Baker, McCoy and Davison had previously reunited in BBV's 1993 film The Airzone Solution, which, as it is set outside of the Doctor Who universe, this Wiki does not cover. Davison would appear as a different character in the second and fourth P.R.O.B.E. films, The Devil of Winterborne and Ghosts of Winterborne, whilst Aldred would go on to portray a number of different characters for BBV and Reeltimefilms throughout the decade. Interestingly, this is not the last time Baker, McCoy and Davison would play different characters set within the Doctor Who universe, as they reunited again in AUDIO: Zagreus.
Myths
to be added
Filming Locations
to be added
Discontinuity, Plot Holes, Errors
to be added
Continuity
- Liz Shaw last appeared on-screen in TV: Inferno, apart from a brief appearance as a psychic projection in TV: The Five Doctors. In spin-off media, she appeared with the Third Doctor several times chronologically afterward (PROSE: The Wages of Sin, and The Devil Goblins from Neptune). Later accounts vary, as one said she died in 2003 while on the Moon (PROSE: Eternity Weeps), but according to Colonel Tia Karim she was still alive and on the Moon as of the Doctor's staged funeral in 2010. (TV: Death of the Doctor)
- Liz mentions her involvement with UNIT and repeats the words "little blue men with three heads". (TV: Spearhead from Space)
DVD, video, and Other releases
First released direct-to-video in 1994, it was reissued on DVD in 2012 and is available to purchase from independent retailer Galaxy 4.
1994 cover
2012 cover
External links
- The Zero Imperative at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
- The Discontinuity Guide to: The Zero Imperative at The Whoniverse
Footnotes
- ↑ Mark Gatiss (23 January 2008). Author's Notes - Introduction. Doctor Who - Classic Series - Ebooks. BBC. Archived from the original on 23 January 2008. “A year or so later when I was making The Zero Imperative with Bill Baggs, Gary Gillett mocked up some videos that can just be made out on Jon Pertwee's shelves.”
