Doctor Who: The Curse of Fatal Death
(Redirected from Doctor Who the Curse of Fatal Death)
A 1999 Doctor Who parody, produced by The BBC for Red Nose Day.
The Ninth Doctor (Rowan Atkinson) fights the Master (Jonathan Pryce) on an abandoned alien planet. He's engaged to his companion Emma (Julia Sawalha). When the Doctor is captured by Daleks, he's killed a few times over and rapidly cycles through being Richard E. Grant, Jim Broadbent, Hugh Grant and finally Joanna Lumley, who decides she'd actually rather shag the Master than fight him.
It's notably written by Steven Moffat, a full decade before he became in charge of Doctor Who proper. The occasional reference to the parody pops up in his episodes nowadays.
Tropes used in Doctor Who: The Curse of Fatal Death include:
- A-Cup Angst: The Master trying to inspire this in Emma, stating that his "Dalek bumps" are "quite firm."
- Adorkable: The Ninth and Twelfth Doctors definitely. Though the Eleventh seems to parody the concept.
- Affably Evil: Throughout the episode, the Master is surprisingly polite and understanding. Must be to set up the twist ending.
- All Girls Want Bad Boys: The Thirteenth Doctor does.
- BBC Quarry: The reason why The Doctor is planning to retire from saving the universe is this: he's tired of running around endlessly in those rock quarries.
- Bi the Way: Possibly the Thirteenth Doctor and the Master, this may be Single Target Sexuality.
- Bond Villain Stupidity: Lampshaded.
- But You Screw One Goat!: Poor Master.
- Call Back: The Regeneration's sound and visual effects used most resemble closely to those used for the First Doctor's regeneration.
- Cannot Talk to Women: The Eleventh Doctor. The Master's ethereal beam locators got a similar response from him.
- Canon Discontinuity: Obviously. However in the Expanded Universe indicates that the Tersurons existed and communicate in that way. Plus, that the Ninth Doctor has three possible versions, make this and Scream of the Shalka into the revived series' Alternate Continuities.
- Casting Gag: All of the actors that portrayed the Doctor in this parody, were considered for the real role, especially Joanna Lumley.
- Death Equals Redemption: Kinda, the Twelfth Doctor's apparently final death inspires both the Master and the Daleks to change their evil ways and become good.
- Foreshadowing: Too many instances to Steven Moffat's future writing on the revived series.
- The Twelfth Doctor telling the Master and his companion to keep an eye on the universe, "I've put a lot of work into it."
- The Doctor falling in love with and marrying his companion.
- The Doctor's Wife confirming the possibility of regeneration genderbending.
- Confirmed. By the 2017 announcement that Jodie Whittaker will be playing the canon Thirteenth Doctor.
- Fridge Logic: In-Universe. So, why do Dalek ships have chairs? Plus, why don't they just kill the Doctor whenever they have the chance?
 |
The Ninth Doctor: I'll explain later. |
 |
|
The Tenth Doctor: How could I forget the only time traveling companion I ever had? |
|
- Hoist By Her Own Petard: The plans of the Master to trap the Doctor backfired horribly on him, however it's not usually his own fault. Though his deal with the Daleks is just as ill-conceived as it sounds.
- Is This Thing Still On?: The Master does have serious trouble with this early on.
- Large Ham: Both the Tenth Doctor and Jonathan Pryce's Master, resulting in..
- Literal Metaphor: "You're just not the man I fell in love with."
- Mr. Fanservice: In-Universe with the Tenth and Twelfth Doctor.
- Ms. Fanservice: The Thirteenth Doctor.
- Names To Run Away From Really Fast: The Master. Ultimately, though subverted:
|
Thirteenth Doctor:Tell me, why do they call you "The Master?" |
|
- Noodle Incident: We won't know how the Eighth Doctor regenerated into Rowan Atkinson.
- The Nth Doctor: All five of them. And the Seventeenth Master.
- Off-the-Shelf FX: In the special the Daleks were made and played by the Fan Film producers. In some of the shots you can clearly see the actors inside them.
- Power Perversion Potential: After thousands of years, it's only now that the Doctor notices that his sonic screwdriver comes with three settings.
- Retirony: The whole episode is set off when the Doctor wants to tell the Master that he's retiring to marry his companion.
- Running Gag: The episode does have one, but I'll explain later.
- Single Target Sexuality: Ho Yay Foe Yay becomes the straight Foe Yay, when the Doctor's thirteenth regeneration turns to be Joanna Lumley.
- Sissy Villain:
|
The Tenth Doctor: I remember you, don't I? |
|
- Starfish Language: How the Tersurons communicates via carefully modulated flatulence. Both the Master and Doctor are quiet fluent in it.
- Thirteen Is Unlucky: It is this for the Doctor's girlfriend.
- Timey-Wimey Ball: Both the Doctor and the Master duel using this as their weapon, each trying to bribe the ancient castle's architect that they're currently in.
- Toilet Humour:
- The Tersurons, who are the long dead natives of the planet where the special takes place on, communicates through farts. The race became extinct when discovered fire.
- The castle is built on top of an extensive sewer system. When the Master is tricked into dropping himself into it, it takes me three hundred, twelve years of wandering with nothing and eating dung slugs (and companionship on long, lonesome nights) to escape. Then he falls down again. Twice.
- Too Dumb to Live: The Ninth, Tenth, and Eleventh Doctors were dying in quick succession since "all because I forgot to unplug first."
- Woman in White: The Thirteenth Doctor wonders if both her and the Master will wear white on their wedding day.