The Doctor and Melanie win a vacation to Disneyland in the Fifties, accompanying a group of alien Navarinos on a time-travelling tour bus. Also aboard is Delta, the last of the Chimerons, who is being hunted by the genocidal Bannermen and their brutish leader, Gavrok. The tour bus collides with a satellite being tracked by the CIA, and crashlands near a holiday camp in Wales. There, a mechanic named Billy falls in love with Delta, to the chagrin of tomboy Ray. But amidst the merriment, the Doctor discovers that a mercenary has alerted Gavrok to Delta's whereabouts... and the Bannermen are on their way.

When Andrew Cartmel joined Doctor Who as its script editor in mid-January 1987, he was faced with a cupboard bare of scripts. Producer John Nathan-Turner had already commissioned Time And The Rani from Pip and Jane Baker, and his discussions with Stephen Wyatt would lead to Paradise Towers. This left two more serials to be developed. Cartmel was eager to introduce a more modern storytelling style to Doctor Who, and he was strongly influenced by pioneering comic book writers such as Alan Moore. Moore had created V For Vendetta for Warrior, The Ballad Of Halo Jones for 2000 AD, and had also written for Doctor Who Weekly in 1980 and 1981. He had become increasingly prominent in recent years by virtue of his transformative work for DC Comics, including The Saga Of Swamp Thing and Watchmen. Cartmel was excited by Moore's reinvention of familiar concepts in ways that were unexpected and thought-provoking, resulting in stories that worked on multiple levels.

As such, one of Cartmel's first acts as script editor was to contact Moore to see if he would be interested in writing for Doctor Who. However, Moore was too busy with his comic book work, including the seminal Batman: The Killing Joke which would be published by DC Comics in 1988. Instead, Cartmel decided to approach some of the other young writers he had met while participating in workshops run by the BBC Script Unit. Amongst them was Malcolm Kohll, who proposed several ideas which were felt to be too similar to other Doctor Who stories. Nathan-Turner was keen to move the programme outside the London area, and so he suggested an adventure set in South Wales. This appealed to Kohll, who had holidayed on Barry Island and whose brother lived in the region.

With Doctor Who reduced to 14 episodes per year, the production team had to rethink the season's structure

With Doctor Who now reduced to just fourteen episodes per year, the production team had been forced to rethink the way in which each season was structured. Time And The Rani and Paradise Towers would both be four-part serials, leaving a balance of six episodes. Nathan-Turner disliked the longer stories which had been prominent in Doctor Who until the late Seventies, but the two-part narratives which he had attempted in recent years had not been entirely successful. As such, the rest of the season would be evenly split into a pair of three-part adventures, with costs saved by allocating them to a single production team. To easily divide the labour, one serial would be made principally on location, while the other would be studio-bound. Consequently, Kohll was told to develop a three-part location-based adventure.

With these requirements in mind, Kohll was commissioned to provide a storyline on January 31st. It was decided that his narrative would take place in 1957: although Doctor Who had ventured into the distant past on many occasions, this would be the first instance in which the latter half of the twentieth century would be used as an “historical” setting. Kohll selected various period rock 'n roll songs which he felt were appropriate, and incorporated a Vincent motorcycle because he had always wanted to ride one. He initially referred to his storyline as “Flight Of The Chimeron” but, when the script for Episode One was commissioned on March 16th, it was as Delta And The Bannermen. This title was devised as a play on early rock bands like Tommy James and the Shondells or Martha and the Vandellas, as well as the contemporary act Echo & the Bunnymen. Episodes Two and Three were solicited under the same title on March 31st.

During the spring, however, Nathan-Turner became concerned that Kohll's scripts lacked a sense of menace, while Cartmel concluded that they were overlong. Over the coming weeks, the script editor would work closely with Kohll to restructure them. A major casualty was the detailed background which Kohll had conceived concerning the Bannermen. He imagined Gavrok's people as originating on a planet which they had overpolluted to such an extent that it was now uninhabitable. This was the motivation for their invasion of the pastoral homeworld of the Chimeron, whose peaceful nature made them ripe for conquest. Also dropped was the idea that the launch of the American satellite predated the Soviet Sputnik. The setting could therefore be shifted from 1957 to 1959, significantly expanding the range of rock 'n roll music which could be included while avoiding any anachronisms.

If Bonnie Langford opted against returning for Season 25, then either Ace or Ray would become the new companion

One element of Kohll's scripts which greatly appealed to the production team was the teenaged tomboy, Ray. In mid-January, Bonnie Langford had informed Nathan-Turner that she was considering leaving Doctor Who at the end of the season, having grown dissatisfied with Melanie's lack of depth. On January 26th, Nathan-Turner and Cartmel created a character outline for a prospective new companion named Alf. It was conveyed to writer Ian Briggs, who adapted it to form the basis of Ace in the season's other three-part story, Dragonfire. However, the production team also saw companion potential in Ray, and so it was agreed that if Langford opted against returning for Season Twenty-Five, then either Ace or Ray could be chosen to become the new companion. This, in turn, would determine the order in which the two stories were broadcast.

The director assigned to the final six episodes of Season Twenty-Four was Chris Clough. The year before, he had likewise made The Trial Of A Time Lord (Segment Three) and The Trial Of A Time Lord (Segment Four) as a single serial. Originally, both Kohll's and Briggs' stories were planned to be recorded under the production code Serial 7F, but it was ultimately decided that Dragonfire would be designated Serial 7G. Meanwhile, concern had developed that the title Delta And The Bannermen would seem too absurd and, on May 5th, it reverted back to “Flight Of The Chimeron”.

With Langford seeming more and more likely to be on her way out of Doctor Who, casting the roles of Ray and Ace took on greater importance. Clough saw several candidates for both parts and, around May 28th, Welsh actress Lynn Gardner was chosen for Ray over Sara Griffiths and Georgia Slowe. As Delta, he cast Belinda Mayne; she had been considered for the role of the original Romana in 1978. By now, it had been decided that costs for “Flight Of The Chimeron” would be defrayed by re-recording the period music, rather than paying for the rights to use the authentic singles. As such, composer Keff McCulloch assembled a band which would appear on-screen as the Lorells (originally the Shirells); it included McCulloch himself, his fiancee Tracey Wilson, and her sister Jodie Wilson. In addition to the various cover tracks, they also performed a McCulloch original called Here's To The Future.

Meanwhile, Langford finally confirmed to Nathan-Turner that she intended to wind down her time on Doctor Who. In June, the producer offered her a contract for eight additional episodes, taking Langford to the midway point of Season Twenty-Five and ensuring that she would have appeared in the equivalent of two full seasons. Her agent indicated that the actress would need until Christmas to make her decision, but Nathan-Turner responded that this timeframe was impossible to accommodate, given that scripts would be commissioned several months earlier. Langford then proposed that she remain for 1988's debut adventure only. Nathan-Turner did not want the year to start with the exit of a major character, however, and he concluded that Mel would have to be written out at the end of Season Twenty-Four.

Lynn Gardner was practicing riding a scooter for “Flight Of The Chimeron” when she fell and sustained an injury

It was at this point that the production team settled on Ace, not Ray, as the new companion. Consequently, “Flight Of The Chimeron” would be the season's third broadcast serial, with Dragonfire rounding out the year. As it turned out, fate would have prevented Lynn Gardner from joining Doctor Who's regular cast, even if the production team had elected to retain Ray. On June 14th, Gardner was practicing riding a scooter for “Flight Of The Chimeron” -- part of the advertised requirements for the role -- when she fell and sustained an injury. Following a hospital stay, it was clear that she would be unable to continue as Ray. Griffiths was hired to replace her, although Gardner would still be paid; she was also cast as the Iceworld announcer in Dragonfire.

The first day of work on “Flight Of The Chimeron” was June 24th, with Springwell Lock Quarry in Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire posing as the surface of the Chimeron planet. Make-up designer Gillian Thomas modified a Draconian mask from 1973's Frontier In Space for the Chimeron male, although Nathan-Turner and Cartmel were unhappy with the result. Kohll, meanwhile, was disappointed that his image of a garden world was being ignored in favour of a more traditional alien setting. Don Henderson, playing Gavrok, threw himself into the production; elements such as the Bannermen having purple tongues came at his suggestion.

Cast and crew then travelled to Wales, with their first port of call being Sutton Farm near Penarth on June 25th and 27th for the material in and around Goronwy's cottage. Unfortunately, rain caused the work to fall badly behind schedule; in spite of Nathan-Turner directing a second unit, Clough was unable to capture all of the required shots. In between, on June 26th, Hensol Forest near Welsh St Donats offered venues suitable for Weismuller and Hawk tracking the satellite, some of the Doctor travelling through the countrside via motorcycle, and the sequences at the lake, which was actually the Pysgodlyn Mawr reservoir. The infant Chimeron Princess was played by six-month-old Jessica McGough; her mother, Susan Johnson-Baker, was hired as one of the Navarinos. After a day off, production resumed on June 29th at the valley of Coed y Wallas near Castle upon Alun, for scenes on the forest trails and at the American agents' campsite.

The major location for “Flight Of The Chimeron” was the former Butlin's holiday camp at Barry Island in Barry, originally built in 1966. Newly purchased by Majestic Holidays, it was undergoing extensive renovations after falling into disrepair in recent years, which meant that large areas were unoccupied and available to the Doctor Who team. Filming there ran from June 30th to July 4th, taking in all of the material at Shangri-La. In addition, much of the work on the first day involved scenes set inside the Navarino tour bus and the Bannerman spacecraft, the latter having been erected in a service tunnel. At Clough's request, Nathan-Turner allowed his dog Pepsi to appear as Burton's pet.

One additional day of filming at Barry Island was planned for July 6th, but Clough's team got so far ahead of schedule that it was no longer needed. Instead, the day was used to return to Sutton Farm and complete the outstanding sequences at Goronwy's cottage. The last location for “Flight Of The Chimeron” was the British Tissues Hangar on the Llandow Trading Estate at Llandow. On July 7th, it served as the tollport, with comedy legend Ken Dodd playing the Tollmaster. The only studio material required for the serial was aboard the TARDIS. These scenes were recorded on August 12th during work on Dragonfire, at BBC Television Centre Studio 3 in White City, London.

On September 15th, the serial's title changed back to Delta And The Bannermen, with the production team having decided to embrace its Fifties-style goofiness. Meanwhile, Henderson had greatly enjoyed his time on Doctor Who, and he suggested to Nathan-Turner that he should return to the series -- as Gavrok's twin brother! Delta And The Bannermen would turn out to be Kohll's only contribution to the programme, despite Cartmel's interest in working with him again. In the mid-Nineties, however, Kohll would be approached regarding his possible involvement in the TV movie revival Doctor Who (1996).

• Doctor Who Magazine #184, 18th March 1992, “Archive: Delta And The Bannermen” by Andrew Pixley, Marvel Comics UK Ltd.
• Doctor Who Magazine Special Edition #10, 13th April 2005, “Crazy Crazy Nights” by Andrew Pixley, Panini Publishing Ltd.
• Doctor Who: The Complete History #43, 2016, “Story 146: Delta And The Bannermen”, edited by John Ainsworth, Hachette Partworks Ltd.
• Doctor Who: The Eighties by David J Howe, Mark Stammers and Stephen James Walker (1996), Virgin Publishing.
• Doctor Who: The Handbook: The Seventh Doctor by David J Howe and Stephen James Walker (1998), Virgin Publishing.
• In·Vision #93, December 2000, “Production” edited by Anthony Brown, Cybermark Services.