THE SPANKING ADVENTURES: PRODUCTION HISTORY (LATE TOM BAKER / EARLY DAVISON 
YEARS)

>>OK, here's a game for you all. If you had the option of deleting Adric 
>>from the series but had to substitute a female companion from one of the 
>>other single-story characters around that time, who would you choose? I 
>>already have my choice which I'll post later on, but I'd like to hear 
>>others' views first.
>
>I can't remember the character's name but I would recommend Nerys Hughes
>from Kinda (in her short white coat) or Ann Talbot from Black Orchid so we
>could have two companions who were identical.

Doctor Todd from 'Kinda'.

This was not quite what I had in mind, because it would take a helluva a
lot of restructuring of the series' overall narrative to take a
character introduced toward the end of Adric's run and bring her into
the show as a substitute for Adric during late Tom Baker and early Peter
Davison. So Ann Talbot from 'Black Orchid' would not work for me as a
substitute for Adric, even though a double dose of Nyssa would still be
nice :-) Doctor Todd from 'Kinda' is a more plausible one (wasn't
'Kinda' originally written for Tom Baker's Doctor? So it could be
brought back and made into a Fourth Doctor/Romana tale).

But no, the potential companion I had in mind would be introduced a
couple stories before Adric was but would still wear yellow pajamas as
her costume. Here's an extract from the official behind the scenes
history of the 'alternative universe Who', as written by :-) Whye,
Stutters and (Sad)Wanker:

One of new producer John Nathan-Turner's first ideas for 'Doctor Who'
was to increase the number of companions. 'It is a long-established
tradition that the companion would get a spanking in each serial,' he
commented at the time, 'and I don't want to meddle with tradition.
However, it is also hard on the actress, so I have decided to spread the
burden around by having more characters.' His original idea was to
introduce a teenage boy, but this was firmly vetoed by the BBC's Head of
Serials, Graeme MacDonald, who recognized that this would alienate the
programme's dedicated audience. The job went instead to Janet Ellis,
whose performance in 'The Horns of Nimon' had caught MacDonald's eye. An
alternative ending to the story, showing Princess Teka stowing away on
the TARDIS, was hurriedly recorded and was edited into the master tape
only on the day before transmission.

Viewers had to wait seven months for the inevitable, when the next
season began abruptly with Teka already over the Doctor's knee being
spanked after her discovery on board the ship. A later episode of 'The
Leisure Hive' also saw a spanking for Romana on the seat of her
Edwardian bathing costume, but subsequently the two girls alternated
across Tom Baker's lap serial by serial. Although John Nathan-Turner had
devised this arrangement with the best of intentions, it was not popular
with one member of the cast, as Janet Ellis recalls: 'By this time Lalla
Ward and Tom were together, and I think she resented my presence,
especially when it was my turn for a spanking. She'd been on the
programme for a year before I arrived, and having her bottom smacked by
Tom had been absolutely her prerogative, and then suddenly she had to
share it with me. It was silly, she needn't have worried, but she had to
make sure that her spankings were the ones that Tom would notice.'
Reportedly it was at Lalla Ward's insistence that Romana was spanked in
'Full Circle' with her skirt and petticoat raised, the first time this
had happened for several years.

Romana was written out near the end of the season in 'Warriors' Gate'.
Since she left in order to travel through time and space fighting evil
and injustice independently, it was thought appropriate that in this
story she should be the one to spank Teka. This was not an entirely
happy arrangement for Janet Ellis: 'By now we were not getting on at all
well, and when she walloped me she did it like she really meant it. You
didn't expect it not to hurt, of course, what with only having those
silk pajamas for my costume, but when Tom did it there would always be a
twinkle of fun too. At least my bottom was spared for the next few
months, because Sarah and Janet were coming in, so it wasn't my turn for
a while.'

Sarah Sutton and Janet Fielding arrived in consecutive stories to play
Nyssa and Tegan, bringing the number of companions up to three and thus
making the spanking rota even less demanding. In fact it was Tegan who
was devised as the new companion, a short-tempered Australian whose
habits of criticizing the Doctor and getting into trouble were forever
earning her a spanked bottom. Her air hostess uniform was designed with
the over-the-knee position in mind, with the skirt tight around her
bottom, and this made for memorable spanking scenes in 'Logopolis' and
'Kinda'. Between them, Tegan's impudence and Teka's disobedience
resulted in a memorable combination of companions.

One problem, pointed out by Peter Davison in his first rehearsal as the
new Doctor, was that the two girls had confusingly similar names, Teka
and Tegan. It was hurriedly agreed that Teka should mainly be called
'Princess' in future. Script editor Eric Saward explains: 'I suppose we
liked the idea that it was a Princess having her bottom smacked, it
wasn't just anybody. When she refused to do as she was told, it was
because she was royalty and thought she shouldn't have to take orders
even from the Doctor. So we made the best of it, but really it boiled
down to a silly mistake in the names. When they brought in Tegan they
should have called her something else, but as I understand it John
Nathan-Turner had an Australian cousin called Tegan so that was that.'

Unlike Tegan, who was always intended to be a companion, the placid
alien engineer Nyssa was introduced as a last-moment decision, and the
scriptwriters always found it more difficult to get her into
spank-worthy situations. However, her impetuosity developed in the
following season, along with a sometimes unrestrained sense of humor,
and before long she was receiving her fair share of attention. A change
of costume into tight velvet pants also helped, although she did not
wear them for what was arguably her most memorable spanking scene in
'Black Orchid', when Nyssa and her exact double Ann Talbot, wearing
identical fancy dress costumes, and are spanked by the Doctor and Ann's
fiancé Lord Cranleigh. What makes this so charming is their discovery
that they are each punishing the wrong girl, and the spankings break off
halfway through so that Nyssa and Ann can change places.

Soon after Eric Saward joined the series as script editor, he decided
that three companions were too many. 'There were just too many of them,'
he says, 'and it meant that things got spread too thinly. John
Nathan-Turner was totally sold on this rota system for spankings, but it
was so restrictive. Really it just undermined the Doctor's authority,
because if one of the girls was in trouble and it wasn't her turn, he'd
have to say, 'If you do that again I'll spank your bottom,' or
something. He was reduced to threats when we needed actions. One of the
first things I tried to do when I became script editor was introduce
some flexibility to it by putting in an extra spanking for Tegan at the
end of 'Four to Doomsday', after she tries to pilot the TARDIS and lands
it out in space. It was ridiculous, one of the most richly deserved
spankings ever in 'Doctor Who', and John Nathan-Turner wouldn't allow it
because it wasn't her turn. In the end we compromised and you saw the
Doctor take her across his knee and raise his hand, but then it went
straight into the end credits before he smacked her. We got away with
the same trick later on in 'Kinda' when Teka gets punished by Hindle
even though it was Tegan's turn, but it took me until 'Earthshock' to
break the rota properly.'

Saward's original plan was to write out Nyssa. 'She was the one who was
most trouble to write for. You couldn't easily get her doing things that
deserved a smacking. But when I proposed this I was told it had to be
either Teka or Tegan because of the confusion over their names. This was
despite the fact that both the characters were more popular and
successful than Nyssa. It was Janet Ellis who went because her contract
was due to run out. Janet Fielding was still signed for another year.'
Janet Ellis had mixed feelings about her departure: 'I had done two
years, so it was a natural time to go. I enjoyed working with Peter
Davison, and fancied him like mad. Being spanked by him was almost a
pleasure, but I could have done without it happening twice in my last
one.'

This was the Spectacular 'Earthshock', in which Teka sneaks into the
doomed freighter and is blown up with it before she can dismantle the
Cybermen's equipment. The story included spankings for Tegan and Nyssa
as well as Teka, the four scenes spread evenly through the episodes to
build up to the memorable climax. The subject is also mentioned several
more times, most notably when Teka is sulking after being punished in
the first episode, and the three companions discuss together the times
they have been across the Doctor's lap, with brief clips from previous
stories to illustrate their reminiscences. Later, as the Doctor hurries
to rescue Teka, he is even heard to say that he will spank her again on
her bare bottom when he gets her to safety!

There were several good reasons for the extravaganza, as Eric Saward
explains: 'I knew that if I was to convince John Nathan-Turner to loosen
his rota system, I had to not just give him a serial with more than one
spanking, but to make them so essential that it wouldn't work if you cut
them out. I decided in fairness to give each of the girls a scene, but
Teka got two because it was her finale. That way I could have a spanking
in each episode. This meant that the serial built up a rhythm so that
you knew what would happen at the end. The Doctor would save Teka from
certain death, and then he would put her across his knee for getting
into the situation in the first place. As he goes to rescue her, he's
cross, he's had to smack her twice already in this serial and she's
still getting in trouble, and he says he'll give her the hardest
spanking she's ever had. And then the freighter explodes and you don't
get the ending you expected. It was a tragic exit for Teka, but it only
worked so well because the girls had all got spanked beforehand. Luckily
John Nathan-Turner accepted this, and the serial turned out to be one of
our most popular, so after that we were able to have more scenes.'