Radio Times Showcases Waris Hussein’s Annotated Doctor Who Script

Drew Boynton is a writer at Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews - All the latest Doctor Who news and reviews with our weekly podKast, features and interviews, and a long-running forum.

As shown in Mark Gatiss’ excellent An Adventure in Space and Time, Waris Hussein was an invaluable part of Sydney Newman’s “misfit dream team” in the early days of creating Doctor Who. The young Indian director, who was barely 25 at the time, oversaw the production of Doctor Who’s very first story in 1963 and helped to mold it into the show that we all enjoy today.

In a recent fascinating feature on the Radio Times website, 50-year-old original pages from Hussein’s copy of the script for Doctor Who’s second episode, The Cave of Skulls, are shown in full detail.

The director’s notes on the production–in his own handwriting–including ideas on music cues, changes to the script, and even a drawing or two, can be seen. There is no doubt that without Hussein’s guidance on these very early episodes that the show could have turned out quite different.

Waris Hussein went on to direct many film and TV projects over the years, but before he drifted away from Doctor Who for good, he returned in 1964 to direct episodes of the now-lost (cough, cough!) serial, Marco Polo.

Kasterborites, Mr. Hussein seems to still be active and involved in the directing world. Would you be interested in him making a triumphant return to Doctor Who and directing an episode a half-century after his last one?

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