The Beard of Evil

Fifty-Eighth Entry in the Charles Daniels Unauthorized Programme Guide O'
Incidental Twangs

 Serial FFF - The Beard of Evil -

 The Doctor believes there is an alien parasite on the Bastard's chin.
 The Bastard casually explains that he's merely grown a beard and the Doctor
 is having flashbacks to their previous adventure with Moustache of Malice.
 In London the Chinese delegate dies at a World Peace And Longevity
Conference
 for both dramatic and ironic effect.  Meanwhile, UNIT/WANK is charged with
 the mission of illegally dumping a banned thunderbolt nerve gas missile
 in the middle of the local Safeway.
 Professor Rad Bats is really the Bastard who captures the Doctor and Jo
 by crashing a private UNIT victory party, held every Tuesday regardless
 of how the missions actually go - "Good For Morale!"
 Now with the Doctor and Jo in his power he intends to use them in a series
 of educational videos.  The Doctor and Jo are horrified as they teach basic
 maths skills at gun point.  Eventually the Bastard's master plan is
revealed.
 The Beard of Evil(tm) is not a parasite but instead a symbiotic being that
 aids him in looking and acting stylishly menacing.  The Bastard is tricked
 when the Doctor does a chemistry gadget video for advanced students and
 destroys the entire studio.
 The tapes are thankfully junked by the BBC, the Doctor and Jo flee from
 the destruction as the dastard Bastard escapes again.

 Book(s)/Other Related - Doctor Who And The Beard From Beyond
                         Doctor Mysterio El Beardo Naughty Naughtie
                         The Paper Doll Bastard Book (circa 1971)

 Fluffs - Pertwee seemed educational and hopping for most this story
          "So this bread of evil is on the Bastard's chin."
          "Shouldn't he just get a napkin to wipe it off?"

 Fashion Victims - The Bastard wears a green and blue leisure suit and
                   often shows off his ultra hip alligator shoes
                   as he grooves to Fleetwood Mac

 Goofs - How does gelatin get into the drowned man's lungs if he's only
         killed by his fear of drowning in gelatin?  During a fight sequence
         in which water is spilled the Bastard slips twice making goofy
         incidental cartoon rapid feet slipping sounds.  In an office
         scene in episode 4 several noisy sneezes and coughs are heard
         from the studio.

 Technobabble - The Doctor explains to Jo that tacky-on retro-fad particles
                are responsible for the Bastard's dress sense.


 Untelevised Misadventures -
 The Doctor and the Bastard once joined forces to defeat the evil Moustache
 of Malice and Toupe of Terror.
 The Doctor says he once shared a cell in the tower of London with Sir
 Walter Raleigh ("A very strange chap...Kept going on about this new
 mind expanding vegetable he'd discovered").

 Dialogue Disasters -

 Mike Yates sees the Chinese Delegate after her encounter with the Bastard -
 "She's quite a dolly!"


 Dialogue Triumphs -

 BASTARD: Science has abolished the hangman's noose and substituted this
          infallible method!
 DOCTOR: People who talk about infallibility are usually wankers in funny
         hats.

 JO: How could ANYONE believe this educational video crap!?
 DOCTOR: We believe what our minds tell us to, Jo.  Although I believe
         the man with the gun pointed at us.

 The Brigadier saves the Doctor from being shot.  The Doctor's ungrateful
 comment is - "Do you think for once in your life you could arrive BEFORE
 the nick of time?"  To which the Brigadier replies by shooting the Doctor
 in the foot and smiling.

 Viewers' Quotes -

 "Well personally I feel this story could have been better if the Doctor
  and Jo had to do a sexual education video.  In fact I am writing a BBC
  PDA submission called 'The Fortuitous Fornication Film Fiasco' which
  explores this exact possibility."   - Charles Daniels (1999)

 "Yes, Mr. Bigglesworth.  A Beard...of EVIL!"  - Dr. Evil (1969)

 "This story suffers from exactly the same thing The Sheep In Spandex did,
  a lack of Cybermen."  Cyberfan Monthly - Special Mondas Destruction Issue
                                                                      (1986)

 "Beard of EVIL!  BEARD OF TIME!  The Centuries That Divide Us Shall
Unwind!"
  - Spell fragment taken from the banned and forgotten 'Book of Cthulhu'
                                                                (910 AD)

 "I love how this story establishes the Beard of Evil as a character in and
  of itself.  At last this frees me to write a Doctor Who novel where the
  beard, independant of the Bastard, takes on his own conquest of the
universe
  in countless dramatic sequences with lots of explosions."
                    - Anonymous Published Who Author (1999)

 Rumors & Facts -

 This story was rather confusing at the time and remains so to the present
 day.  The first problem was that of many early colour Doctor Who stories -
 the wacky experimental colouring systems.  Doctor Who was taken for a
swindle
 yet again by a group of relatively poor and out of work engineers who
 promised to revolutionise the quality of the programme with their new and
 improved 'Monochrome Colour System'.  They explained to the producers at
 the time that their "high tech performance system deceptively took on the
 appearance of dusty ten-year-old television cameras".   Most of the Beard
 of Evil was shot in the amazing Monochrome Colour System except for episode
 6.  During the filming of episode 6 it was rumoured that the Queen would
 be tuning in to watch the programme.   They went with the much more costly
 regular color system for the first 6 minutes of episode 6 until inevitably
 the Queen got confused and switched over to BBC2.
 Sadly, and to the surprise of everyone, the Monochrome Colour System was a
 complete sham.  By the time anyone had discovered the fraud, they'd already
 been contracted to shoot the season finale - serial JJJ - or it's more
 commonly used title at the time "JaJaJa".
 Serial FFF had many working titles, including, but not limited to -
 The Beard Machine, After Hours, The Sexy Beard of Doom, and Beard Man 2000.
 The Doctor sees the images of the following Monsters when he first notices
 the Beard of Evil - A Wank Machine, A Dustbin, A Cyberman, and A Slurpie.
 All these were black and white publicity photos which the BBC was
desperately
 trying to sell in it's gift shops at the time.  Indeed many pieces of
failed
 Doctor Who merchandise were often shamelessly promoted on the show - most
 disturbingly and obviously the Bastard's very own Beard of Evil, each one
 included lint, a small snack, and a toy surprise.
 The mind parasite which controls the educational video production was made
 from cooked spaghetti and macaroni liberally covered with green washing up
 liquid.  It was a Doctor Who monster created by Nicholas Courtney's son at
 home and immediately rushed to the studio as it looked much better than the
 prop they'd been using up to that time.
 Pik Sen Lim who played the unfortunate Captain Chin Lee in this story, was
 married to the writer, Don Houghton, and it was he who suggested her for
the
 role as he'd long to see her killed horribly by being transformed into a
 Barbie doll.
 The character Doug was named after Doug Houghton, Don Houghton's brother.
 Don Houghton has always denied charges that he writes in friends and family
 to get them work.