THE GUNFIGHTERS

Written by Donald Cotton.

Directed by Rex Tucker.

Transmitted originally: 30 April 1966 to 21 May 1966.

Episode 1: A Holiday for the Doctor

Episode 2: Don't Shoot the Pianist

Episode 3: Johnny Ringo

Episode 4: The OK Corral

"You can't walk into the middle of a Western town and say you're from outer space! Good gracious me. You would be arrested on a vagrancy charge!" - The Doctor.

THE STORY

The TARDIS arrives in the town of Tombstone in the Wild West and the Doctor, having hurt his tooth on one of Cyril's sweets, decides he must visit a dentist. The local dentist is Doc Holliday, currently engaged in a feud with the Clanton family. Lawman Wyatt Earp and Bat Masterson are meanwhile doing their best to keep the peace. The Doctor, Steven and Dodo narrowly survive a lynch mob, the attentions of Holliday and Earp and various other dangers; they finally return to the TARDIS after witnessing the famous gunfight at the OK Corral, in which the young Clanton brothers and their gunman ally Johnny Ringo are all killed by Holliday, Earp and Earp's brother, Virgil.

CAST:

Dr Who (William Hartnell), Steven (Peter Purves), Dodo (Jackie Lane), Ike Clanton (William Hurndall), Phineas Clanton (Maurice Good), Billy Clanton (David Cole), Kate (Sheena Marshe), Seth Harper (Shane Rimmer), Charlie (David Graham), Wyatt Earp (John Alderson), Doc Holliday (Anthony Jacobs), Bat Masterson (Richard Beale), Pa Clanton (Reed de Rouen), Johnny Ringo (Laurence Payne), Warren Earp (Martyn Huntley), Vigil Earp (Victor Carin).

FACTS:

'The Gunfighters' was the last story to have individual episode titles.

The story includes 'The Ballard of the Last Chance Saloon', sung by Lynda Baron, which summarises the the plot and the beginning and the end of each episode.

OTHER FORMATS:

The First Doctor Novelisations

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