The Happiness Patrol

149[1] –The Happiness Patrol
Doctor Who serial
"The Kandy Man!"
Cast
Doctor	Sylvester McCoy (Seventh Doctor)
Companion	Sophie Aldred (Ace)
Guest stars
Sheila Hancock — Helen A Ronald Fraser — Joseph C Georgina Hale — Daisy K Harold Innocent — Gilbert M Lesley Dunlop — Susan Q Rachel Bell — Priscilla P Jonathan Burn — Silas P Tim Barker — Harold V David John Pope — 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
Production
Writer	Graeme Curry
Director	Chris Clough
Script editor	Andrew Cartmel
Producer	John Nathan-Turner
Executive producer(s)	None
Production code	7L
Series	Season 25
Length	3 episodes, 25 minutes each
Originally broadcast	November 2–November 16, 1988
Chronology
← Preceded by Followed by → Remembrance of the Daleks Silver Nemesis

The Happiness Patrol is a serial in the 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 visit a human colony on the planet Terra Alpha where they find unhappiness to be an illegal act. In order to prove their happiness, for example, citizens greet each other with the phrases "I'm glad you're happy" and "I'm happy you're glad".

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 Kandy Man, a grotesque sweet-based equivalent of a robot, created by 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 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 at the start of this story. The Seventh Doctor later meets the Brigadier in 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

• Working titles for this story included The Crooked Smile.^[5]
• In the story, the Doctor sings "As Time Goes By", the song famously sung by Dooley Wilson in the 1942 film Casablanca.
• Helen A was originally a Margaret Thatcher parody, although most of this element was eventually toned down.^[5]
• John Normington played Morgus in The Caves of Androzani, and later appeared in "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.^[5] A fan myth holds that the third episode was supposed to be animated, but this was never the case.^[6]

Broadcast and reception

• Bassett's complained over the similarity between the Kandy Man in this story and their trademark character. The BBC agreed not to use the Kandy Man again.^[5]
• In The Discontinuity Guide, Paul Cornell, Martin Day and Keith Topping argue that there is a gay subtext to the story: "there's entrapment over cottaging, the TARDIS is painted pink, and the victim of the fondant surprise is every inch the proud gay man, wearing, as he does, a pink triangle."^[7] The story ends with Helen A's husband abandoning her and leaving with another man.
• In 2005, this story came 24th in 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.

Commercial releases

This serial was released on VHS on 4 August 1997.

In print

Doctor Who book
The Happiness Patrol
Series	Target novelisations
Release number	146
Writer	Graeme Curry
Publisher	Target Books
Cover artist	Alister Pearson
ISBN	0-426-20339-9
Release date	15 February 1990
Preceded by	Planet of Giants
Followed by	The Space Pirates

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

External links

• The Happiness Patrol at bbc.co.uk
• The Happiness Patrol at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
• The Happiness Patrol at Outpost Gallifrey
• Script to Screen: The Happiness Patrol, by Jon Preddle (Time Space Visualiser issue 42, January 1995)

Reviews

• The Happiness Patrol reviews at Outpost Gallifrey
• The Happiness Patrol reviews at The Doctor Who Ratings Guide

Target novelisation

• On Target — The Happiness Patrol