The Happiness Patrol is the second serial of the 25th season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in three weekly parts on BBC1 from 2 to 16 November 1988.
The Seventh Doctor and Ace visit a human colony on the planet Terra Alpha, to investigate its strangely joyful facade.
After escaping the Waiting Zone, The Doctor and Ace meet an unhappy patrolwoman, Susan Q, and Earl Sigma, a wandering harmonica player.
[citation needed] The production team considered transmitting this story in black and white to fit with its intended film noir atmosphere.
Andrew Cartmel, the story's script editor, said that he "was very angry about the social injustice in Britain under Thatcher" and was "delighted that came into the show.
"[4][5] The Doctor calling on the drones to down tools and revolt was intended as an allusion to the 1984–85 miners' strike and other industrial disputes in then-recent memory.
Lesley Dunlop previously played Norna in 1984's Frontios and Harold Innocent would go on to appear in the 1993 radio serial The Paradise of Death.
[citation needed] Radio Times reviewer Patrick Mulkern awarded The Happiness Patrol a full five stars and described it as a "clever and funny satire" and praised the acting and political commentary.
[7] Authors Graeme Burk and Robert Smith included The Happiness Patrol in their 2013 book Who's 50: The 50 Doctor Who Stories to Watch Before You Die.
Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, made a brief reference to the story in his 2011 Easter sermon on the subject of happiness and joy.
Adapting his scripts rather than the televised version, Curry's book includes scenes cut during editing and his original envisioning of the Kandy Man with a human appearance, albeit with powdery white skin and edible candy-cane glasses.