The Happiness Patrol
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DeadlyAssassin
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/* Production */
{{Doctorwhobox|
|number=153
|image=[[Image:Kandy Man.jpg|250px|]]
|caption="The Kandy Man!"
|serial_name= The Happiness Patrol
|show=DW
|type=serial
|doctor=[[Sylvester McCoy]] ([[Seventh Doctor]])
|companion=[[Sophie Aldred]] ([[Ace (Doctor Who)|Ace]])
|guests=
* [[Sheila Hancock]] — [[List of Doctor Who villains #Helen A|Helen A]]
* [[Ronald Fraser]] — [[List of Doctor Who henchmen#Joseph C|Joseph C]]
* [[Georgina Hale]] — Daisy K
* [[Harold Innocent]] — [[List of Doctor Who henchmen#Gilbert M|Gilbert M]]
* [[Lesley Dunlop]] — Susan Q
* [[Rachel Bell]] — Priscilla P
* Jonathan Burn — Silas P
* Tim Barker — Harold V
* David John Pope — [[List of Doctor Who robots #Kandy Man|Kandy Man]]
* [[John Normington]] — Trevor Sigma
* Richard D. Sharp — Earl Sigma
* Tim Scott — Forum Doorman
* Mary Healey — Killjoy
* Steve Swinscoe, Mark Carroll — Snipers
* Philip Neve — Wences
* Ryan Freedman — Wulfric
* Annie Hulley — Newscaster
|writer=[[Graeme Curry]]
|director=[[Chris Clough]]
|script_editor=[[Andrew Cartmel]]
|producer=[[John Nathan-Turner]]
|executive_producer=None
|production_code=7L
|series=[[List of Doctor Who serials#Season 25 (1988-89)|Season 25]]
|length=3 episodes, 25 minutes each
|date=[[November 2]]–[[November 16]] [[1988]]
|preceding=''[[Remembrance of the Daleks]]''
|following=''[[Silver Nemesis]]''
|}}
'''''The Happiness Patrol''''' is a [[list of Doctor Who serials|serial]] in the [[United Kingdom|British]] [[science fiction television]] series ''[[Doctor Who]]'', which was first broadcast in three weekly parts from [[November 2]] to [[November 16]] [[1988]].
==Plot==
===Synopsis===
Having heard the rumours of untoward happenings, the [[Seventh Doctor]] and [[Ace (Doctor Who)|Ace]] visit a human colony on the planet [[List of Doctor Who planets#T|Terra Alpha]] where they find unhappiness to be an illegal act. In a perverse society ruled by the vicious and egotistical Helen A, the Happiness Patrol is a secret police force which hunts down killjoys and eliminates them. It also repaints the [[TARDIS]] pink as a more joyous colour than blue. The disappearances also worry Trevor Sigma, the official galactic censor, who is visiting Terra Alpha too to discover where so many of the population have gone – 17% at the most recent count.
The Doctor and Ace have a brief period of incarceration to find out more about the society of Terra Alpha, encountering unhappy guard Susan Q who becomes a firm ally. Both split up, with the Doctor encountering another visitor to the planet, Earl Sigma, a wandering harmonica player who stirs unrest by playing the blues. Earl and the Doctor venture to the Kandy Kitchen at the heart of the planet’s governance system, where they discover rebels drowned in fondant surprise, which is the favoured method of execution of the [[List of Doctor Who robots#Kandy Man|Kandy Man]], a grotesque sweet-based equivalent of a robot, created by [[List of Doctor Who henchmen#Gilbert M|Gilbert M]], one of Helen A’s senior advisers.
The Doctor and Earl effect an escape and end up in the candy pipes below the colony, where dwell the native inhabitants of Terra Alpha, now known as Pipe People. They want to help overthrow the tyranny of Helen A. The Doctor returns to the surface and now starts actively subverting the government system – supporting demonstrations in favour of unhappiness and stirring up the drones to revolt; preventing snipers removing malcontents; and even challenging Helen A face to face to end the monstrosity of her government.
Ace and Susan Q have meanwhile been scheduled to appear in the late show at the Forum, where the penalty for non-entertainment is death. The Doctor and Earl rescue them both and the four head off to Helen A’s palace for a final showdown while a revolution takes full effect outside the palace walls. The first to be disposed of is Helen A’s pet Stigorax, Fifi, a rat-dog creature she used to hunt down the Pipe People, which is crushed in the pipes below the city. Then the Pipe People destroy the Kandy Man in a flow of his own fondant surprise. Gilbert M and [[List of Doctor Who henchmen#Joseph C|Joseph C]], the consort of the leader, use the opportunity of the disorder to slip away. Helen A tries to flee too but is challenged by the Doctor about the true nature of happiness, which can only be understood if counter-balanced by sadness. This is a notion she understands only when confronted with the remains of Fifi. The revolution is complete and the Doctor and Ace slip away – but only once the TARDIS has been repainted blue.
===Continuity===
*The Doctor is telling Ace about the events of ''[[Invasion of the Dinosaurs]]'' and mentions the [[Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart|Brigadier]] at the start of this story. The [[Seventh Doctor]] later meets the Brigadier in ''[[Battlefield (Doctor Who)|Battlefield]]''.
*The Doctor mentions his nickname in his academy days on [[Gallifrey]] was "Theta Sigma". The Doctor's classmate Drax referred to him by this nickname in ''[[The Armageddon Factor]]''.
==Production==
{{DoctorWhoEpisodeHead
|
{{DoctorWhoEpisodeBody|Part One|02 Nov 1988|24'51"|5.3}}<!--153-->
{{DoctorWhoEpisodeBody|Part Two|9 Nov 1988|24'48"|4.6}}<!--153-->
{{DoctorWhoEpisodeBody|Part Three|16 Nov 1988|24'25"|5.3}}<!--153-->
}}
* Working titles for this story included ''The Crooked Smile''.<ref name="brief">{{Brief | id=7l | title=The Happiness Patrol}}</ref>
* In the story, the Doctor sings "[[As Time Goes By (song)|As Time Goes By]]", the song famously sung by [[Dooley Wilson]] in the 1942 film ''[[Casablanca (film)|Casablanca]]''.
* Helen A was originally a [[Margaret Thatcher]] parody, although most of this element was eventually toned down.<ref name="brief"/>
* John Normington played Morgus in ''[[The Caves of Androzani]]'', and later appeared in "[[Ghost Machine (Torchwood)|Ghost Machine]]", an episode of the ''Doctor Who'' spin-off ''[[Torchwood]]''.
* The production team considered transmitting this story in black and white to fit with its intended [[film noir]] atmosphere.<ref name="brief"/> A fan myth holds that the third episode was supposed to be [[animated cartoon|animated]], but this was never the case.<ref name="BBC">http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/classic/episodeguide/happinesspatrol/trivia.shtml</ref>
==Broadcast and reception==
* [[Bassett's]] complained over the similarity between the Kandy Man in this story and [http://www.cadbury.com/ourbrands/otherfavouritebrands/candy/bassetts/Pages/Overview.aspx their trademark character]. The [[BBC]] agreed not to use the Kandy Man again.<ref name="brief"/>
* Some reviewers{{Fact|date=April 2008}} have argued (most notably in ''The Discontinuity Guide'' by [[Martin Day]], [[Keith Topping]] and [[Paul Cornell]]) that there is a [[homosexual|gay]] subtext to the story. This seems to be largely based on the gender role-reversal themes, the slightly [[camp (style)|camp]] male characters and the overabundance of pink. However, the example that is most cited in support of this argument, that of a Kandy Man victim allegedly wearing a [[pink triangle]], is in error (it is a shirt ripped in a vaguely triangular shape that reveals a white undershirt that looks pink in the red lighting). On the other hand, the story ends with Helen A's husband abandoning her and leaving with another man.
* In 2005, this story came 24th in [[Five (channel)|Channel 5]]'s ''The Most Shameful TV Moments Ever''; with the claim that here was where ''Doctor Who'' finally "[[jumped the shark]]" and ran out of ideas (although all other television moments were dealt with just as acerbically).
==Commercial releases==
This serial was released on [[VHS]] on [[4 August]] [[1997]].
===In print===
[[Image:Doctor Who The Happiness Patrol.jpg|thumb|The [[List of Doctor Who novelisations|Target novelisation]] by [[Graeme Curry]]]]
A 140 page novelisation of this serial, written by [[Graeme Curry]], was published by [[Target Books]] in February 1990. It is the 146th Doctor Who novel.
==References==
<references/>
==External links==
*{{BBCCDW|id=happinesspatrol|title=The Happiness Patrol}}
*{{Doctor Who RG | id=who_7l | title=The Happiness Patrol}}
*{{OG|7l|The Happiness Patrol}}
*[http://nzdwfc.tetrap.com/archive/tsv42/sts-happinesspatrol.html ''Script to Screen: The Happiness Patrol'', by Jon Preddle (''Time Space Visualiser'' issue 42, January 1995)]
===Reviews===
*{{OG review | id=7l | title=The Happiness Patrol}}
*{{DWRG | id=happ | title=The Happiness Patrol}}
===Target novelisation===
*[http://www.personal.leeds.ac.uk/~ecl6nb/OnTarget/1990/happines/90happin.htm On Target — ''The Happiness Patrol'']
{{Doctor Who (season 25)}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Happiness Patrol, The}}
[[Category:Seventh Doctor serials]]
[[Category:1988 television episodes]]