Doctor Who: The Happiness Patrol

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. There, they discover that a secret police force known as the Happiness Patrol are roaming the streets, hunting down and killing so-called ‘Killjoys’. Their leader is Helen A, who governs the colony and is fanatically obsessed with eliminating unhappiness.

Also in her employment is the Kandy Man, a grotesque, sweet-based robot created by Gilbert M, one of Helen A’s senior advisers. After discovering the Patrol painting the TARDIS pink, much to Ace’s disgust, she and the Doctor are arrested by Patrol member Daisy K. The Doctor is suspected of being a spy while Ace is taken to be recruited to join the Happiness Patrol.

While in the Waiting Zone, The Doctor and Ace meet an unhappy guard, Susan Q, and Earl Sigma, a wandering harmonica player. They become allies to the Doctor and Ace after they escape, along with the native inhabitants of Terra Alpha, the Pipe People. They work together to overthrow the tyranny of Helen A by supporting public protests of unhappiness, encouraging the people to revolt, and attempting to expose Helen A’s population control programme to Trevor Sigma, an official galactic census taker.

The first to be disposed of is Helen A’s pet Stigorax, Fifi, a rat-dog creature used to hunt down the Pipe People, as it is crushed in the pipes below the city when Earl causes an avalanche of crystallised sugar with his harmonica. Then they destroy the Kandyman in a flow of his own “fondant surprise” which had previously been used to execute the Killjoys.

Realising that she cannot defeat the Doctor, Helen A attempts to escape the planet in a rocket, only to discover that the rocket has already been commandeered by Gilbert M and Joseph C, her husband. Angry at their betrayal, she tries to flee, but is stopped by the Doctor. He tries to teach her about the true nature of happiness, as he believes that it can only be understood if counterbalanced by sadness.

Helen A, refusing to listen to the man who helped topple her regime, sneers at him and says she’ll do it all over again. But when she discovers a dying Fifi emerging from the sewers, she rushes over to it and collapses into tears. Knowing that she has finally felt some sadness of her own, the Doctor tells Ace, “‘Tis done,” and they leave Helen A to mourn.

As the TARDIS is being repainted its natural blue color, the Doctor and Ace bid farewell to Susan Q and Earl, who plans to repair the damage caused by Helen A by singing the blues. The Patrol finishes painting just as they leave. Before leaving Terra Alpha and the colony behind them, the Doctor says to Ace, “Happiness will prevail,” hoping that the people and Helen A will now understand what it’s like to be truly happy.

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To view the list of other Doctor Who serials, please click this link

Doctor Who Episode Guides for Sale on Amazon

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