En route to the planet Azure aboard the spaceliner Empress are the scientist Tryst and his assistant Della. They are transporting samples of various worlds within a Continuous Event Transmuter. But the Empress comes out of warp at the wrong coordinates and fuses with another ship, the Hecate. When the TARDIS materialises aboard the Empress, the Doctor and Romana offer to help, but their efforts are imperiled by the monstrous Mandrels, who stalk the interface between the two vessels. To make matters worse, the Doctor begins to suspect that the Empress is part of a scheme to smuggle vraxoin -- an illicit, highly addictive drug.

Bob Baker and Dave Martin had collaborated on eight Doctor Who serials over eight years -- latterly 1979's The Armageddon Factor -- before dissolving their writing partnership. Although this was the end of Martin's association with televised Doctor Who, Baker decided to develop further proposals for the programme. In November 1978, he attended a party to celebrate Doctor Who's fifteenth anniversary. There, producer Graham Williams explained that he and script editor Douglas Adams were seeking very cost-effective scripts for Season Seventeen to help offset the impact of skyrocketing inflation on the Doctor Who budget.

Around New Year 1979, Baker submitted a storyline apparently entitled “Nightmare Of Evil”. It dealt with illegal drugs, which Adams felt would form the basis of a very original and relevant Doctor Who narrative. Baker also found inspiration in the disaster movie genre, which had become popular during the Seventies thanks to such box office hits as The Poseidon Adventure, Airport and The Towering Inferno. The Continuous Event Transmuter (CET) machine was suggested by articles Baker had read concerning holograms. Holography had become a practical reality in 1962, and Dennis Gabor -- a Hungarian scientist who had immigrated to England to escape the Nazis -- had been awarded the 1971 Nobel Prize in Physics in recognition of his decades of pioneering work in the field.

Graham Williams was keen that the year's 4th and 5th serials be made as frugally as possible

Baker was commissioned to expand “Nightmare Of Evil” into full scripts on February 7th. The title was now Nightmare Of Eden, to avoid what Adams felt was a tautology. By now, it was clear that the first two serials of Season Seventeen would be very costly. As such, Williams was keen that the year's fourth and fifth serials be made as frugally as possible, in order to save money for the season finale. Nightmare Of Eden was earmarked for the fourth slot.

The director booked for Nightmare Of Eden was Alan Bromly, who had previously worked on The Time Warrior in 1973. Bromly was now largely retired but still received occasional work from the BBC. As he began preparing for Nightmare Of Eden, Bromly quickly realised that the efforts made to pare down the serial's budget would result in a challenging production. Four days of model filming at Bray Studios in Water Oakley, Berkshire had been dropped from the schedule, while a week of location shooting had been replaced with a single extra day in the studio.

To make matters worse, during rehearsals, Bromly quickly butted heads with Tom Baker. A commanding presence on Doctor Who, Baker had become renowned for trying to impose his will on the production. In contrast, Bromly had a very old-fashioned and authoritarian approach to directing, which did not sit well with the series star.

Also a source of concern during rehearsals was the drug aspect of Nightmare Of Eden. Although Adams was a proponent of this element, Williams was worried that it was unsuitable for a family-oriented show like Doctor Who. His apprehension was shared by the series regulars; Lalla Ward, in particular, was adamant that anything which might appear to glamorise the narcotics trade should be omitted. As a result, various instances of drug terminology were amended to sound less exciting. Most notably, the substance at the centre of the story was originally called xylophilin (with some variant spellings) or XYP, and nicknamed “zip”. This was changed to vraxoin -- or “vrax” for short -- although K·9's dialogue continued to refer to it by its original nomenclature.

Alan Bromly originally planned to record Nightmare Of Eden in story order, the traditional approach until the mid-70s

Nightmare Of Eden was taped in two three-day blocks, both of which took place at BBC Television Centre Studio 6 in White City, London. Bromly had originally planned to record the serial practically in story order, which had been the traditional way of making Doctor Who until the mid-Seventies. However, he was ultimately convinced to proceed on a set-by-set basis, as had now become the norm. The recording of Nightmare Of Eden marked the return of David Brierley to Doctor Who as the voice of K·9: after making The Creature From The Pit at the start of the production schedule, Brierley had not been needed for either City Of Death or Destiny Of The Daleks. Also in the cast was Peter Craze, as Costa. His elder brother, Michael, had played the Doctor's companion Ben Jackson in 1966 and 1967; the younger Craze had previously appeared in Doctor Who on two occasions during the Sixties.

The initial studio session for Nightmare Of Eden spanned August 12th to 14th. The first day dealt with scenes at the refreshment point and in the luggage section, as well as those on the Empress bridge for Episode One, and in the lounge for Episodes One and Two. Further bridge and lounge sequences were completed the next day, along with those in the Eden jungle and the capsule.

August 14th was planned to be an effects-heavy day, involving scenes in the lounge which incorporated the CET projections, as well as the model shots of the Empress and the Hecate. Unfortunately, Bromly was ill-prepared for the extent to which Doctor Who now utilised special effects and, indeed, for the generally faster pace of modern storytelling. Not all of the scheduled recording was completed, and the mood on set became strained. Furthermore, visual effects designer Colin Mapson was disappointed with the videotaped modelwork, deeming it inferior to what could have been accomplished on film. Williams disagreed, and wrote to BBC Head of Serials Graeme MacDonald the next day to suggest that this might become the standard approach in the future.

The second studio block took place from August 26th to 28th. The first day was concerned with scenes in the passenger pallets and in the elevator area. The 27th was dedicated to various corridor sequences, in addition to those in the sick bay anteroom, the Empress power unit, aboard the Hecate, and in the shuttle. Bromly made several changes to his recording schedule and was uncompromising in dictating how he wanted the actors to perform. An exasperated Baker began to shout insults towards the production gallery; this led to an argument on the studio floor, with Williams ultimately summoned to intervene.

Alan Bromly informed Graham Williams during the supper break that he was walking away from Nightmare Of Eden

The situation deteriorated completely on the final day of production. With Baker in open revolt, Bromly completed work on some further sequences in the corridors before informing Williams during the supper break that he was walking away from Nightmare Of Eden. Williams himself was forced to step in to direct the remaining material, which included scenes in the corridors, the interface and the elevator area. By the end of the day, production assistant Carolyn Montagu had prepared t-shirts bearing the legend “I'm relieved the Nightmare is over!” With blame for the debacle placed squarely on Bromly's shoulders, it was agreed that Williams would complete the post-production work on the serial, and that Bromly would never again be invited back to Doctor Who. He retired from television soon thereafter.

In comparison with its turbulent production, the broadcast of Nightmare Of Eden in the late autumn was largely unremarkable. The only deviation from the established transmission pattern came on December 15th, when the absence of an animated short earlier in the evening resulted in Episode Four being scheduled at 5.55pm rather than the usual 6.00pm.

Meanwhile, Nightmare Of Eden would signal a changing of the guard for Doctor Who. Not only would this prove to be Bob Baker's final contribution, but it also inspired both members of the production team to step away from the show. Adams had been frustrated by the struggle to recruit new writers, and he had realised that he preferred working on his own projects, rather than cultivating other people's scripts. Furthermore, he was now developing various iterations of The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy for different media, leaving little time for other work. For his part, Williams had endured three embattled years on Doctor Who. Following the acrimony associated with Nightmare Of Eden, he had finally had enough...

• Doctor Who Magazine #273, 13th January 1999, “Archive: Nightmare Of Eden” by Andrew Pixley, Marvel Comics UK Ltd.
• Doctor Who Magazine Special Edition #9, 22nd December 2004, “One Step Beyond” by Andrew Pixley, Panini Publishing Ltd.
• Doctor Who: The Complete History #31, 2018, “Story 107: Nightmare Of Eden”, edited by Mark Wright, Hachette Partworks Ltd.
• Doctor Who: The Handbook: The Fourth Doctor by David J Howe, Mark Stammers and Stephen James Walker (1992), Virgin Publishing.
• Doctor Who: The Seventies by David J Howe, Mark Stammers and Stephen James Walker (1994), Virgin Publishing.
• In·Vision #42, March 1993, “Production” edited by Justin Richards and Peter Anghelides, Cybermark Services.