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Peter Purves reminisced about his sudden departure from Doctor Who, labeling the show’s 1965-66 season as a period of “strange transition” or “unusual change”.

In ten stories spanning forty-five episodes, Purves portrayed his companion Steven Taylor. His journey concluded in “The Savages,” an episode where his spacefaring character exited the TARDIS to facilitate a truce between two hostile societies.

The primary source of that tale has vanished from the records, however, since there are surviving audio recordings, it’s soon to be published featuring fresh, animated graphics.

At a viewing of The Savages animation held at BFI Southbank, Purves reminisced about his time on the show and how it overlapped with numerous cast transitions.

“I was dropped from the show – they hadn’t renewed my contract,” he explained.

Upon receiving the script for ‘The Savages’, series producer Innes Lloyd informed me, ‘We won’t be extending your contract anymore’. I understood that I only had four weeks left on the show.

According to Purves, William Hartnell wasn’t happy about the upcoming news of his departure, but he found himself powerless to alter the decision made by the production team.

After wrapping up filming, Purves recalled: “I met up for a drink at the local pub with a few of the cast members… however, there was no celebration, no farewell event whatsoever. No proper goodbye, nothing at all. Since then, I haven’t been involved in Doctor Who productions again.

The individual, later known for his long tenure on Blue Peter, expressed a lack of job stability during Doctor Who in the mid-1960s. He pointed out that he frequently worked with different female costars, one after another. Maureen O’Brien, portraying companion Vicki, was succeeded by Adrienne Hill as Katarina, who was followed swiftly by Jean Marsh as Sara Kingdom, a character with a brief run.

Following that, Annette Robertson portrayed Anne Chaplet in The Massacre, after which Dodo, played by Jackie Lane, made her appearance.

After that, Dodo left about four weeks after me. It was an unusual period of transition, indeed. There had been quite a few shifts in companionship.

Initially, Purves thought there was a possibility he could be replaced on Doctor Who, as he believed the introduction of Nicholas Courtney’s character Bret Vyon in the story “The Daleks’ Master Plan” might serve as a setup for Steven’s successor.

He expressed that it seemed like they had hired someone to take his place, implying he believed his tenure might be ending. He described it as an extremely uncertain period, as nobody in the production felt safe or secure at all.

According to him, if he were the one making the call, he would have continued working on Doctor Who for a longer period. In simpler terms, he enjoyed the job and would have stuck around for sure.

In William Hartnell’s last episode as the First Doctor, only four months passed since Purves had left the series, but Purves admitted he wasn’t aware at the time that Hartnell would be departing shortly. “I knew Bill was having difficulty – stumbling through lines was fairly common for him… [yet] I didn’t realize they were planning to replace him.

In the year 2023, Purves once again took on his character from the Steven series in a live-action format for the first time in 57 years, this time for the BBC iPlayer’s Tales of the TARDIS spin-off.

He mentioned that it was something he had long desired for his character’s reunion with the Doctor on-screen following the events of The Savages.

At the conclusion of The Savages, there lingers a sentiment, ‘Perhaps we’ll see each other again…’, though it’s a pity they didn’t, it seemed feasible that they might, yet it never seemed like something seriously contemplated.

2025-03-01 17:04

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