Last updated 16 November 2022

Doctor Who: The Gunfighters

The Gunfighters

Story Number: 25 (Z)
No of Episodes: 4




Writer: Donald Cotton
Director: Rex Tucker
Producer: Innes Lloyd
Designer: Barry Newbery

Starring: William Hartnell, William Hurndell, David Cole, Peter Purves, Jackie Lane, David Graham, Anthony Jacobs, Richard Beale, Laurence Payne


BBC One (United Kingdom):
First Broadcast: Saturday 30th April 1966 - Saturday 21st May 1966
Running Time: 1 hour, 35 minutes, 20 seconds

Average Audience: 6.25 Million   Average AI: 38




The TARDIS lands in the Wild West town of Tombstone in 1881. The Doctor, suffering from toothache, seeks out the local dentist, who turns out to be none other than the notorious Doc Holliday (Anthony Jacobs), currently engaged in a feud with Pa Clanton (Reed de Rouen) and his sons Ike (William Hurndell), Phineas (Maurice Good) and Billy (David Cole). Lawmen Wyatt Earp (John Alderson) and Bat Masterson (Richard Beale) are meanwhile doing their best to keep the peace.

For once, the Doctor is unable to help and, in the climactic shoot-out, the young Clanton brothers and their gunman ally Johnny Ringo (Laurence Payne) are all killed by Holliday, Earp and Earp's brother Virgil (Victor Carin).

Synopsis from Doctor Who: The First Doctor Handbook by David J. Howe, Mark Stammers and Stephen James Walker, reprinted with permission; further reproduction is not permitted. Available from Telos

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