1988–1994 British broadcasting voice restrictions

From October 1988 to September 1994 the British government banned broadcasts of the voices of representatives from Sinn Féin and several Irish republican and loyalist groups on television and radio in the United Kingdom (UK). The restrictions, announced by the Home Secretary, Douglas Hurd, on 19 October 1988, covered eleven organisations based in Northern Ireland. The ban followed a heightened period of violence in the course of the Troubles (1960s to 1990s), and reflected the UK government's belief in a need to prevent Sinn Féin from using the media for political advantage.

Broadcasters quickly found ways around the ban, chiefly by using actors to dub the voices of banned speakers. The legislation did not apply during election campaigns and under certain other circumstances. The restrictions caused difficulties for British journalists who spoke out against censorship imposed by various other countries, such as by Iraq and India. The Republic of Ireland had its own similar legislation that banned anyone with links to paramilitary groups from the airwaves, but this restriction lapsed in January 1994. This increased pressure on the British government to abandon its policy; John Major lifted the broadcast ban on 16 September 1994, a fortnight after the first Provisional Irish Republican Army ceasefire (declared on 31 August 1994).

## Background

Throughout the Troubles, UK broadcasters were regularly required to stop or postpone the broadcast of documentaries and other programmes relating to Ireland. One of the most prominent instances of this was the 1985 Real Lives documentary for the BBC, At the Edge of the Union. The programme featured extensive footage of Sinn Féin's Martin McGuinness and the Democratic Unionist Party's Gregory Campbell discussing the Troubles, and following direct intervention by the government it was temporarily blocked from being aired. The incident led to a one-day strike by members of the National Union of Journalists, who walked out in protest that the BBC's independence was being undermined.

The months leading up to the introduction of the ban had also seen a particularly intense period of Troubles-related violence. One of the bloodiest episodes of that time was the Ballygawley bus bombing which resulted in the deaths of several British soldiers. Another incident, the killing of two off-duty British soldiers who drove into an IRA funeral procession, brought the media into conflict with the government after journalists present at the funeral declined a Royal Ulster Constabulary request to hand over footage of the incident amid concerns doing so would put them at risk. In response the Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, told the House of Commons journalists had a "bounden duty" to assist with the investigation. "Either one is on the side of justice in these matters or one is on the side of terrorism". Film was subsequently seized from the BBC and ITN under the Prevention of Terrorism and Emergency Provisions Acts.

The Conservative government believed there was a need for it to act to prevent Sinn Féin from using the media to defend the actions of the IRA, and the measures were part of a wider government response to the increase in violence, which also included changes to the right to silence and the tightening of rules allowing paramilitary prisoners early release. Further controversy also erupted in September 1988 over an intended edition of the Channel 4 discussion programme After Dark which was to have featured the Sinn Féin president, Gerry Adams, as a guest. The show was dropped after the conservative academic Paul Wilkinson – a professor at Aberdeen University who specialised in the study of terrorism and political violence – voiced strong objections to its transmission.

## The ban

On 19 October 1988, the Home Secretary, Douglas Hurd, issued a notice under clause 13(4) of the BBC Licence and Agreement to the BBC and under section 29(3) of the Broadcasting Act 1981 to the Independent Broadcasting Authority prohibiting the broadcast of direct statements by representatives or supporters of eleven Irish political and military organisations. The ban prevented the UK news media from broadcasting the voices, though not the words, of ten Irish republican and Ulster loyalist paramilitary groups, as well as Sinn Féin. Among the other groups affected were the Provisional IRA, Irish National Liberation Army, Ulster Defence Association and the Ulster Volunteer Force, although the ban was targeted primarily at Sinn Féin. Addressing the House of Commons on the ban, Hurd said, "the terrorists themselves draw support and sustenance from access to radio and television ... the time has come to deny this easy platform to those who use it to propagate terrorism", while the Conservative Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, said it would "deny terrorists the oxygen of publicity".

The 1981 Act allowed the Home Secretary to introduce measures in the event of a public interest issue. A parliamentary debate was not required, though Hurd acquiesced to one, and the issue was discussed in the House of Commons on 2 November 1988. The opposition Labour Party introduced an amendment condemning the government's decision as "incompatible with a free society", but it was rejected, despite some Conservative MPs voting with Labour. The legislation was condemned by the National Council for Civil Liberties. The National Union of Journalists planned a one-day strike in protest at the ban for 10 November, but the action was called off after its members failed to reach consensus. A group of broadcast journalists subsequently launched a legal challenge to overturn the ban, but in May 1989 the High Court decided the Home Secretary had acted lawfully. A later hearing at the Appeal Court upheld that decision in December 1989.

Hurd's belief was that the ban would place the print and broadcast media on a level footing, but opponents of the restrictions argued they were affecting the quality of news reporting from Northern Ireland, and consequently people's understanding of the issues. The broadcaster Scarlett McGwire, one of those to challenge the regulations, said in 1989, "The case is not just about journalists and being able to report Northern Ireland properly. It is about people not being able to understand what is happening there because it is not reported properly". Marmaduke Hussey, Chairman of the BBC, called the ban a "very dangerous precedent". A petition organised by the Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom, and including the signatures of 50 MPs, was presented at 10 Downing Street on the first anniversary of its commencement.

## Implementation

Media outlets were usually left to interpret the restrictions in their own way, and the ban's remit was at first applied retroactively to archive material, though this was later relaxed following government advice. In 2005 John Birt, a former Director-General of the BBC, said Hurd's announcement came "right out of the blue", while Danny Morrison, who in 1988 was director of publicity for Sinn Féin, spoke of the total confusion that resulted. "I asked television and radio journalists, 'what can be done?'" Subtitling was initially used, but one of the main ways the new law was circumvented was by substituting the voices of actors for those who could not speak directly. The BBC and its commercial counterparts compiled a list of actors who could be called upon to record voiceovers for news items and documentaries about the Troubles, often at short notice. The actors frequently spoke the words in real time along with the person whose voice was being dubbed. One such interview with Gerry Adams once appeared on the US CNN network without anyone realising they were hearing an actor speak.

The restrictions were also applied to television drama, documentary and discussion programmes. In December 1988 the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Tom King, ordered Channel 4 to cancel an episode of the US drama series Lou Grant that featured the story of a fictional IRA gunrunner, even though it had aired previously. Mother Ireland, a 1988 documentary about women and Irish nationalism that included an interview with Mairéad Farrell, subsequently shot dead during an SAS operation in Gibraltar, was also initially banned. When screened by Channel 4 during a season about censorship in April 1991, Farrell's words on republicanism were re-dubbed. On a later occasion the appearance of the political activist Bernadette Devlin McAliskey on an edition of the BBC's Nation discussing reasons for political violence was also censored when much of what she said was subtitled.

The ban was sometimes interpreted as also applying to historical figures. An example of this occurred in 1990, when the voice of the former Taoiseach and President of Ireland Éamon de Valera was removed from a schools television documentary on Channel 4, due to de Valera – who died in 1975 – having been President of Sinn Féin from 1917 to 1926.

County Sound, a radio station in Surrey, dropped an interview with Errol Smalley, a campaigner for the Guildford Four, although he made a later appearance after overturning the decision. In November 1988 "Streets of Sorrow/Birmingham Six" – a song by The Pogues expressing support for the Birmingham Six and Guildford Four – was subject to the regulations because it included "general disagreement with the way in which the British government responds to, and the courts deal with, the terrorist threat in the UK".

However, the ban was not always enforced. Restrictions were briefly lifted during the 1992 general election, allowing a political debate between the Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams and the Social Democratic and Labour Party leader John Hume to be heard during the election campaign, but the ban resumed once the polls were closed, even preventing Adams' reaction to the loss of his parliamentary seat from being directly aired. An individual's real voice could also be broadcast if the news item in question did not directly relate to their political beliefs or paramilitary activities. Similarly, anyone subject to the restrictions who was an eyewitness to an event or incident could be heard. In February 1992, the voice of Gerard McGuigan, a Sinn Féin councillor, was broadcast when he spoke about an attack on his house by the Ulster Defence Association. Adams was also allowed to speak about a similar attack against his property. On another occasion, the journalist Peter Taylor was given access to inmates at the Maze Prison for a documentary about the jail, but while the prisoners were allowed to speak freely about their personal lives, a complaint by the IRA prisoners' food spokesman concerning the size of the prison's sausage rolls had to be revoiced. In 2005, Francis Welch, a television producer, described the incident as one that highlighted "the surreal nature of the restrictions".

In 1994, a sketch in The Day Today comedy series by Armando Iannucci and Chris Morris parodied the restrictions, with Steve Coogan impersonating a Gerry Adams-esque Sinn Féin leader, spouting rhetoric while inhaling helium to "subtract credibility from his statement".

## Lifting of regulations

Thatcher's successor as Prime Minister, John Major, announced a review of the regulations in November 1993, telling the House of Commons that the general belief within the Conservative Party was that interviews with those subject to the restrictions were being stretched "to the limit and perhaps beyond". His decision followed a television interview with Gerry Adams, which a Conservative MP, Jill Knight, described as having caused "offence to a great number of people". Conservative backbenchers and unionist MPs wanted more rigid restrictions, and The Irish Times reported a "widespread feeling" that Major favoured a complete ban, but that journalists were opposed to this. It quoted the BBC's John Simpson, who said that reporting events from Northern Ireland would become "virtually impossible". At that time coverage of Northern Ireland-related topics was becoming more frequent with the increasing pace of the peace process. The review was conducted by the Secretary of State for Heritage, Peter Brooke. In February 1994, Major's government decided to maintain the status quo.

Pressure to reverse the restrictions grew after the statutory instruments of Section 31 of the Irish government's Broadcasting Authority Act 1960 were allowed to lapse in January 1994. These had prohibited radio and television interviews with representatives of paramilitary groups and Sinn Féin (see: Censorship in the Republic of Ireland). From that point, anyone in Northern Ireland with access to the Republic of Ireland's state broadcaster, RTÉ, could hear the voices of anyone still banned from the airwaves by the UK regulations. Responding to the Dublin government's decision, Gerry Adams said, "Over 20 years of political censorship has served to stunt any hopes of a resolution of the conflict. It has denied the right of information. Good riddance." The regulations particularly came under the spotlight during a visit Adams made to the United States in 1994, where he gave a speech that was widely broadcast around the world, but had to be dubbed in the UK because of the ban. In May 1994 the National Union of Journalists launched a legal challenge with the European Commission of Human Rights, seeking to take the British government to court for breach of freedom of expression under the European Convention of Human Rights, but the case was rejected. A similar challenge brought against the Irish government in 1991 over its broadcast ban had also been thrown out.

The UK ban was lifted on 16 September 1994, a fortnight after the first IRA ceasefire was declared. On the same day Major announced that ten roads linking Northern Ireland with the Republic (which had been closed by British security forces) would reopen, and promised any negotiated deal on the future of Northern Ireland's governance would be subject to a referendum. The deputy leader of Sinn Féin, Martin McGuinness, gave his first direct interview to Ulster Television shortly after the restrictions ceased.

The decision to end the ban was welcomed by broadcasters. Michael Grade, who was then chief executive of Channel 4, said it had ended "one of the most embarrassing attempts to censor coverage of the most important domestic political story of post-war years", while John Birt commented, "We can once again apply normal and testing scrutiny to all sides in the debate". Sinn Féin also signalled their approval, but the ban's lifting was viewed with more caution by unionist politicians. Peter Robinson of the Democratic Unionist Party felt the decision was premature while the IRA remained an armed organisation. "It gives de facto recognition to a body of men who still have their guns and bombs under the table, who still reserve the right to murder if they don't get their way".

## Analysis

Francis Welch, the producer of Speak No Evil, a 2005 BBC documentary that discusses the restrictions, argued that the legislation "added pressure to the process of reporting events in Northern Ireland", while Sinn Féin's Danny Morrison believed the ban "was a weapon of war used by the government" in an attempt to silence the Republican movement. However, Norman Tebbit, a former Conservative MP, said that the media was giving Sinn Féin and the IRA "publicity that they shouldn't have had". Peter Robinson of the Democratic Unionist Party argued the use of legislation was "a legitimate weapon for the state to use".

In 1994 Tony Hall, the head of the BBC's News and Current Affairs, argued that the restrictions did not allow viewers to make a proper judgment about those subject to the rules, as the subtle changes to their voices could not be heard. In particular he cited the example of the appearance of Gerry Adams on the BBC's On the Record in September 1993, in which he spoke about the prospect of peace in Northern Ireland. Hall said Adams was nervous and defensive throughout the interview as the presenter, Sheena McDonald, argued that peace could not be achieved while the IRA continued its violent stance, but that viewers were unaware of these aspects of the discussion. He also said that some countries, such as India and Egypt, had quoted the restrictions to BBC journalists who complained about the over use of censorship by authorities in those countries. Additionally Hall argued that Sinn Féin and the IRA had manipulated the ban by using it as an excuse to decline interviews.

The BBC Foreign Affairs Editor John Simpson encountered similar difficulties on the issue of censorship while reporting from Iraq during the Gulf War in 1990–91. "When I worked in Baghdad, officials there always used to mention our Sinn Féin ban if you criticised their censorship. I don't like to see this country appearing on the same side of the dividing line as Saddam Hussein on anything at all." At a conference on the reporting of Northern Ireland-related issues at the University of London in November 1993, chaired by the Irish journalist Mary Holland, several participants claimed it was undermining the practice of investigative reporting.

Research by the Glasgow Media Group indicates that coverage of Sinn Féin by the BBC before the ban was minimal. In 1988 Sinn Féin was only heard or seen on television 93 times, had only 17 of the 633 formal BBC interviews as compared to 121 interviews with the Conservative Party and 172 with the Royal Ulster Constabulary and the civil service, and were never interviewed in the studio like many other participants. However, after the ban there was a steep decline in coverage of Sinn Féin and Republican views, with television appearances being reduced to 34 times in the following year, and the delays and uncertainties caused by ambiguities, voice-overs and subtitles often led to coverage and films being dropped entirely.

## See also

- BBC controversies
- Censorship in the United Kingdom

Partial ban on voices of specific speakers

Censorship of broadcasting in the United Kingdom


Star Trek: Phase II

Star Trek: Phase II was the initial working title for what officially became titled Star Trek II, an unproduced American science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry as a sequel to (and continuation of) the original Star Trek, which had run from 1966 to 1969. The plans for the series were first developed after several failed attempts to create a feature film based on the property, coupled with plans for a Paramount Television Service (PTS) as a fourth broadcast television network in the United States.

Both PTS and the Star Trek revival were announced in early June 1977, with PTS to debut as one evening of programming each Saturday night and to gradually expand to other nights; a strategy successfully employed by the Fox Broadcasting Company a decade later. Star Trek: Phase II was to be the flagship show, and be broadcast at 8pm EST, followed by a movie of the week starting at 9pm. The initial order was for a two-hour pilot, followed by 13 hour-long episodes.

With the exception of Leonard Nimoy as Mr. Spock, who had ongoing disputes with Roddenberry and Paramount, the entire regular and recurring cast of The Original Series were contracted to return, notably William Shatner as Captain Kirk. Three new and younger regular characters were created, science officer Lt. Xon, navigator Lt. Ilia, and ship's executive officer Willard Decker. Xon, Decker and Ilia were later influential in the development of characters on Star Trek: The Next Generation, and two of the scripts written for Phase II would be re-developed for use in that series.

Behind the cameras, Roddenberry recruited Trek-novices Harold Livingston and Robert Goodwin as producers. Veterans of The Original Series were few, and included costume designer William Ware Theiss and illustrator Mike Minor. Art director Matt Jefferies was otherwise employed and brought in as a "technical advisor" and to update the design of the starship USS Enterprise. Special effects (on set) were to be by Jim Rugg. Science fiction novelist Alan Dean Foster received the assignment to write the story outline for the two-hour pilot, but, with a looming production deadline and unable to find a suitable writer to develop this story into a teleplay, Harold Livingston took on the writing job himself. Of the remaining 12 script assignments handed out, about half were to veterans of The Original Series.

Pre-production began in earnest, with the emphasis on what would be the standing sets of the Enterprise, which differed radically in layout, design and detailing from those for The Original Series. Many costumes and props, too, were designed. Ultimately, Paramount's plans for its network and Star Trek's TV return faltered, as the low anticipated advertising revenues for the Paramount Television Service indicated that it was not viable, and the Paramount Pictures parent company Gulf and Western's chairman, Charles Bluhdorn, refused to back the plan, resulting in eventual exit of Paramount chief executive officer Barry Diller. In August 1977 Paramount president Michael Eisner announced—internally—that the two-hour pilot script was to be the long sought-after feature film story. However, In order to prevent negative publicity, the "cancellation" of the series and network was not immediately disclosed and development of the series and its scripts continued for a further five months, during which time tests were filmed on the incomplete Enterprise sets in widescreen format, a clear indication that whatever Star Trek was going to be was not a TV movie.

On March 28, 1978, any illusions that Star Trek would be returning to television were ended when Paramount announced that instead of a series it would be producing what became the big budget film titled Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979), which was itself a massive reworking of the "In Thy Image" two-hour movie script.

Preproduction work on the series did not entirely go to waste. The standing Enterprise sets would be extensively reworked for the film (and its eventual sequels), and an unfinished admiral's office set's walls became part of the Enterprise cargo deck. However, the visual effects people hired for the feature film decided that the miniatures under construction were not up to the standards of a post-Star Wars feature, and all were scrapped. Director Robert Collins, who had been hired to direct the pilot, and promised he was to direct the feature, was replaced by Robert Wise.

The concept of a "Paramount Network" led by a flagship Star Trek series finally came to fruition in January 1995 when Paramount launched the United Paramount Network (UPN) and the Star Trek: Voyager series.

## Background

Star Trek: The Original Series was cancelled in 1969, following three seasons on NBC. Afterward, it saw success in broadcast syndication, resulting in science fiction conventions being held for the fans of the show. Influenced by this success, Paramount Pictures soon sought to create a new film from the series. Series creator Gene Roddenberry told the Associated Press in March 1972 that NBC wanted a Star Trek television film as pilot for a new series. Barry Diller, the chief executive officer of Paramount Pictures between 1974 and 1984, later explained that Arthur Barron, the chief financial officer at the time, was pushing for renewing Star Trek as a low-budget film, and that any suggestions that Paramount's owner Charles Bluhdorn had some involvement were untrue.

In May 1975, Roddenberry signed a contract with Paramount for Star Trek: The God Thing, with a budget of \$5 million. However, his contract was terminated in August of the same year after inviting several writers to pitch story ideas for the film. Paramount instead placed Jerry Isenberg in charge of the project as executive producer in July 1976. Chris Bryant and Allan Scott were hired to write a script, which they entitled Star Trek: Planet of the Titans. Bryant and Scott turned in their script on March 1, 1977, which was rejected by Paramount. The duo left the project, citing conflicts in the film's scope between Roddenberry and director Philip Kaufman. Shortly before the scheduled release of Star Wars on May 25, the Star Trek film was cancelled on May 9. Kaufman claimed that Paramount attributed this to the idea that science fiction fans would not go see two films released so close together.

## Production

### Conception

The Paramount Television Service was announced on June 10, 1977. Seven days later, Roddenberry announced that Star Trek would be returning to television on the new service, saying that "Hopefully it will be even superior" to The Original Series and that casting would include "as many of the old faces as possible, as well as an infusion of new ones". At the time, The Original Series was being broadcast on 137 stations in the United States in syndication, and it was expected that the new television service would provide a single evening package that could be broadcast by these independent stations as well as Paramount's recently acquired Hughes Television Network. It was hoped that this station could become the fourth national network in the United States; Diller and his assistant Michael Eisner had hired Jeffrey Katzenberg to manage Star Trek into production, with a television film due to launch the new series at a cost of \$3.2 million – which some claimed would have made it the most expensive television movie ever made to date.

Roddenberry said that the show would continue to cover modern themes in a science fiction way as had the first series, saying that these could include hijacking, nationalism, and radicalization of both individuals and groups. He also wanted to show 23rd-century Earth for the first time, and said that this had been the answer to Paramount executives asking him if there had been anything he wanted to do on The Original Series but could not. A further change was to be the number of female cast members, as NBC had a requirement of a maximum of one-third, and Roddenberry wanted to have them appear in authority positions.

### Crew and production design

The expectation was that the two-hour pilot film would be broadcast in February 1978, with weekly episodes following, broadcast in an 8 pm EST timeslot on Saturday nights. Gary Nardino, who was placed in charge of the new network, said that "Star Trek was absolutely the lead horse of the new network. Because the advertisers recognized the strength of Star Trek in the syndicated market." Prior to commencing production on the new series, Roddenberry took a two-week vacation in order to rid himself of negative feelings about the way that production on the feature film had gone. He described his concerns saying that he did not want to "drag a corpse of anger, defeats and double-crossing behind me" onto the new show. Robert Goodwin was placed in charge of developing the feature films that would follow each week's episode of Star Trek, and the movie-length pilot as well. Roddenberry wanted to meet him, and despite Goodwin's lack of Star Trek background, he was convinced to be a producer on the series instead. Roddenberry described him as the "producer producer", in that Goodwin would deal with all the technical aspects of the production. For the screenwriting aspect of the production, Harold Livingston was recruited, who recalled that the technical/screenwriting split of the executive producer role was innovative for the time. Like Goodwin, Livingston had not previously worked on Star Trek, but had worked on Mission: Impossible, a different Desilu Productions television series.

Roddenberry was given complete creative control over the new television project by Paramount, which had promised him that it would be able to make the project a "first-class effort" with the budget to suit. Matt Jefferies, who had worked on The Original Series, was recruited as a technical advisor. He had designed the original USS Enterprise alongside Pato Guzman, but was unwilling to give up a position on the television series Little House on the Prairie for a 13-episode order on a new Star Trek series. Roddenberry was adamant that Jefferies was the right person to update the Enterprise, and agreed a position that the designer could advise the new show, but would have to choose between it and his main duties on Little House on the Prairie if the Star Trek work started to interfere. This occurred quite quickly, after Jefferies conducted design work on the new version of the Enterprise at a hotel in Tucson, Arizona, while on a location shoot for Little House on the Prairie, and could not attend meetings with Roddenberry and the producers in Los Angeles. He recommended Joseph R. Jennings as the main art director on the series; Jennings had worked for Jefferies during the second and third seasons of The Original Series. Jefferies' re-design of the Enterprise was based on the principle that the technology was updated over time, but the general silhouette remained the same. He highlighted that the engines would specifically be designed to be replaced, so the external design of them was completely changed. Brick Price Movie Miniatures was hired to produce the physical models of the vessel in two sizes, an 18-inch (46 cm) version for long shots, and a larger 5-foot (1.5 m) model built by Don Loos cast in moulds of fiberglass. Other models were built specifically for the pilot film included an open frame orbital drydock, tetrahedron shaped models for a space office complex and space taxi, and the golden head and neck of the impossibly long "Vejur" space entity.

Only a few former Star Trek crew members were recruited. Costume designer William Ware Theiss began working on new designs for the Starfleet uniforms, some based on his creations for The Original Series, others being a radical departure. Michael Minor—who had created set decorations and props for The Original Series' third season—was brought in as a production illustrator, working with Lee Cole in the Art Department under Jennings.

Other creations that were updated included the phaser, which were built to the same design as in the previous series, but were built out of aluminium instead of the fiberglass resin props used before. The battery packs were detachable, and contained actual batteries that activated strobe lighting on the main body of the prop. Technical advisers were recruited, such as Marvin Minsky, of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and his wife Gloria Rudisch.

Set production was underway by the start of August, with stage 8 on the Paramount lot designated as the "planet set", while stage 9 was where the Enterprise sets were located. By August 9, the foundations of the bridge set was built, with a plaster mould used to produce fiberglass "skins" for the various prop consoles and walls.

By August 16, Livingston had held pitch meetings with more than 30 writers who were interested in scripting episodes of Phase II. Some of these, such as Theodore Sturgeon, David Gerrold and Norman Spinrad, had previously written episodes of The Original Series. Also pitching to write an episode was Star Trek actor Walter Koenig. In order to have the scripts delivered in an efficient manner, Roddenberry decided that he wanted all the scripts for the first batch of episodes completed prior to filming began on the pilot. He was confident that because of The Original Series, that the writers would not have difficulty in writing new scenes with already established characters. However, Livingston and the writers did not know how the new characters would relate to the original ones. Despite this, Roddenberry claimed at the time that the relationships between the characters would take time to be built over the course of several episodes, and that fan reaction to certain characters and events would define how frequently they would appear.

By September, it had become apparent that they needed to hire a story editor. Roddenberry's assistant, Jon Povill, had already been conducting these duties on a script entitled "The Child", and so Livingston suggested that Povill should be recruited in that role permanently. Roddenberry disagreed, but Livingston threatened to quit unless Povill was hired. Povill was subsequently recruited as story editor, but Livingston said that this action was the one that caused a breakdown in the relationship between Roddenberry and himself.

The two-hour pilot film was to be based on a story outline Roddenberry had written for the aborted series follow-up to his 1973 Genesis II TV movie. That story, titled "Robot's Return" featured a gigantic alien craft coming to Earth searching for its origin. Alan Dean Foster, who had previously adapted episodes of Star Trek: The Animated Series in a series of short stories published in the Star Trek Logs series of books, was hired to adapt this story idea for Star Trek and in the process introduce the newly redesigned and refitted USS Enterprise and its crew, both old and new, as they confront a gigantic, aggressive, seemingly omnipotent alien intruder bound for Earth. With a looming production deadline and unable to find a suitable experienced TV writer to develop this story into a teleplay, Harold Livingston took on the writing job himself.

### Cast

By August 1977, discussions had been held with the main cast from The Original Series, as well as some of the actors who had played recurring characters. While none had been signed at the time, Roddenberry expressed confidence that they could do so with the exception of Leonard Nimoy, who had stated that he would not return to television. However, Nimoy said separately that the first offer he received from Roddenberry for Phase II was only for the pilot and then guaranteed appearances in two out of every 11 episodes that followed, which he rejected. Nimoy and Roddenberry were not on good terms, following a legal suit launched by the actor against Paramount over merchandising rights featuring his likeness; Roddenberry had refused to support Nimoy in the case. There was also a problem with the return of William Shatner: owing to the pay he was to receive for the pilot and the first thirteen episodes, the studio wanted a contingency plan to replace him afterwards. Shatner was aware at the time that the plan was either to reduce his appearances after the initial episodes and reduce his ongoing fees, or—he believed—to kill off the character permanently if he refused the pay cut. Negotiations began with Shatner on June 10, but it was not until September 12 that his return was announced.

Each of the returning former cast members was signed to contracts stipulating that they would be paid for the pilot and the 13 episodes regardless of whether the series went into production. They were also given substantial pay increases over what they had received on The Original Series. For example, DeForest Kelley was paid \$17,500 for the first four weeks, then \$7,500 per episode for the rest of the first season. Regulars actors including James Doohan, Nichelle Nichols, George Takei, Walter Koenig, Majel Barrett had on The Original Series only had contracts for a certain number of appearances or been freelance players paid a daily rate, but here all were under contract for the initial series order.

The problems with Nimoy and Shatner necessitated the creation of two new characters. In Goodwin's first draft show bible, he included descriptions for a new "Ship's commander" character, and a "Young Vulcan". The latter character was specifically attributed as being a second-cousin of Spock, and also a half-human/half-Vulcan. He also added a new Yeoman character, but Roddenberry was concerned at the time about the character, writing to Livingston "Simply adding a 'flunky' female to the bridge may not satisfy our needs for gender equality." This discussion began the process that resulted in the creation of Ilia, a new female character who was not intended to replace one of the previous cast members. In charge of casting these new members of the crew was Robert Collins, who had been hired to direct the pilot. Xon would later be changed to a full-blooded Vulcan.

David Gautreaux was cast as Xon on September 26, after approaching the casting director himself, having no agent. He had heard about the part, as he was dating the employee of an agent at the time. The final audition for the role had eight actors, including Gautreaux, of various ages and sizes. Gautreaux later said that the one thing they all had in common was a slightly alien appearance. He was hired to a \$15,000 fee for the pilot, a guaranteed payment for the 13 episodes whether or not they were filmed, and a six-year option on his contract. Despite this, he was required to return for a further audition within a couple of weeks. Majel Barrett was due to return as Christine Chapel, this time as a doctor, and the actress was concerned that the romantic chemistry she shared with Nimoy might not work with a younger actor. She instead wanted an older British actor to play the role. Gautreaux, now with an agent, secured a further \$2,500 fee to return and audition again, since it would cause him to miss out on a guest appearance for the same fee on the television series Fantasy Island. He retained the part, saying that the other actor was "absolutely abominable". It was only after this further audition that he was told what few others knew at the time: that Phase II had already been cancelled, and they were instead going to make a feature film.

Following announcements of Gautreaux's Xon replacing Nimoy's Spock, Gautreaux began to receive threatening fan-mail suggesting that he was going to be poisoned or dosed with LSD. He began to prepare for the role by purchasing a television set and watching old episodes of Star Trek, in order to portray the most accurate Vulcan he could. He fasted over the course of ten days and grew his hair long. Gautreaux sought out potential coaches who had worked on The Original Series, and later highlighted the help provided by Jeff Corey who had appeared in "The Cloud Minders". Despite not being a Star Trek fan previously, he said he had begun looking forward to portraying Xon by that point.

On October 28, Persis Khambatta was hired to portray Ilia. She had been required to wear a bald cap for her screen test, although at this point the character also wore elaborate headgear in some footage. Roddenberry was insistent on this as a character attribute, but others such as Eisner hated the idea of a bald female character. His notes said that while a bald female character would be an interesting addition, it may prevent the audience from feeling at ease with Ilia and so the style may need to be given to a different character entirely. The auditions by this time were not held under the pretence that they were to play a part in a television series, but were openly talking about Star Trek becoming a feature film.

The casting for first officer Willard Decker had been delayed, both because of a slight delay in the production but also because the writers were no longer sure that the character was needed at all. This was despite auditions being conducted at the same time that Gautreaux was cast as Xon, during which, in his second audition with Barrett, he also read lines against ten actors competing for the role of Decker.

One further change to the cast was to have been the return of Grace Lee Whitney as Janice Rand. In 1977, having read the back cover of Susan Sackett's Letters to Star Trek book and discovering that one of the frequently asked questions sent into the production team was "Whatever happened to Grace Lee Whitney?", Whitney herself got in touch with Sackett and was invited along to meet with Roddenberry at his office in Paramount Studios. He was excited and happy to see her, and immediately offered to bring back the character for Phase II, describing the removal of Rand from The Original Series as his greatest mistake and blaming it on NBC executives. He said that "when Captain Kirk came back from having affairs with all these other women on all these other planets – he'd have to deal with [Rand]. What a great plot-thickener that would have been!".

### Cancellation

A key premise of the "In Thy Image" story was to see Earth itself threatened for the first time in Star Trek. Producer Goodwin proposed that this story should be the two-hours pilot of the series at a meeting with Eisner on August 3. He would later recall that this specific meeting changed the direction of the franchise, as Eisner declared that Foster's story was the one that he had been looking for to make a feature, not a television, film. At the same time, Paramount had come to realize that the expected advertising revenues for the Paramount Television Service could not support a fourth network, and so there was no possibility of creating the series. By this point, costs for the series had already reached \$500,000, and the studio was looking to recoup those expenses in some manner. The initial concept was to continue with the pilot, and then attempt to sell the series to NBC, CBS, or ABC. But the Paramount executives were concerned about losing control of a potential franchise, and by moving the pilot into a feature film, it gave them the ability to keep it in-house.

However, because of the number of times that a Star Trek film was announced in the 1970s, the Paramount executives decided that they could not lose face once more by making an announcement, only to potentially reverse the decision in several months time. Because of this, production continued on Phase II for a further five months after the decision was made that it would not go into production. By November, Livingston and Roddenberry were no longer working well together. They had each re-drafted "In Thy Image" themselves, and presented these versions to Eisner. The Paramount executive's response was that Roddenberry's version was suited for television, and Livingston's was better for a motion picture – and better overall. Collins was assigned to combine certain elements of Roddenberry's version into Livingston's and to complete that draft by the end of the month.

The first public announcement of the cancellation of the Paramount Television Service and Phase II came at the hands of the gossip columnist Rona Barrett at the start of December. In response, Paramount released a statement that said the new network had been pushed back to the fall of 1978, and that Phase II had its episode order increased from 13 to between 15 and 22. Despite this, behind the scenes, production continued on Star Trek as a film, not as a series. One of the changes around the same time as Barrett's reports was the realization that all the model work completed thus far had to be restarted from scratch, as it was not detailed enough to be blown up on a motion picture-sized screen. Two further changes took place in December: Collins was dropped as director, for Paramount wanted a motion picture director and not one with experience only in television; and Livingston allowed his contract to run out and left the production, owing to the poor relationship he had with Roddenberry. By January, Paramount no longer pretended that Star Trek was to be anything other than a feature film. Livingston was brought back, but only in a writing capacity, and Robert Wise was hired as director on the film to replace Collins.

## Scripts

## Legacy

After production was underway on The Motion Picture, and Nimoy signed up for the film, Gautreaux requested that Xon be eliminated from the script entirely instead of being shown in a reduced capacity. Gautreaux would go on to portray Commander Branch in the film instead, in his only appearance in the franchise. At the time of the production on the film, the idea was to keep Xon in reserve for a future film or television series. Gautreaux was subsequently called in for an interview with Nimoy during the early work on Star Trek III: The Search for Spock. The pair started talking about the impact that Nimoy's return to Star Trek had made on Gautreaux, with the latter telling Nimoy that he had treated it as a play that had been cancelled on the first night of the performance, which had not made a major impact on his career.

The Phase II sets were located on stage 9 of the Paramount lot. The main layout and structures remained when those sets were overhauled to appear in The Motion Picture and various following films within the franchise. The sets were re-worked and converted prior to the start of Star Trek: The Next Generation to appear on television for the first time, and when Star Trek: Voyager aired, they were used once more. It was only with the start of Star Trek: Enterprise that the setup of the Star Trek sets at Paramount were completely changed and the Phase II foundations no longer remained.

The idea of a young male Vulcan scientist was once again proposed early in the work on Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, which was attributed by later reviewers to the influence of Xon from Phase II. The gender of this character was subsequently changed to female, and called Saavik. She was played by Kirstie Alley in that film, and later by Robin Curtis in The Search for Spock and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.

Several minutes of test footage, including a view of the redesigned Engineering Room, costume tests with crew, screen test footage of Gautreaux as Xon and costume test footage of Khambatta as Ilia, were included in a featurette on the DVD release of the Director's Edition of Star Trek: The Motion Picture. The presence of a second five-year mission, as would have been shown in Phase II, was included in the Star Trek timeline in the Star Trek Chronology book by Michael and Denise Okuda in 1993. This would have taken place after the events of The Motion Picture.

A book based on the production of the series, Star Trek Phase II: The Lost Series was published in 1997 by Pocket Books. It was written by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens, and went into detail about the conception of the planned and later aborted series, looking at several aspects of production, with behind-the-series information, color artwork, storyboards, blueprints, technical information and photos. It also contained two full scripts from the planned series.

James Cawley purchased the costumes that would have been used in Phase II, and later repurposed them for his fan series Star Trek: New Voyages. He felt that they represented the step between those seen in The Original Series and the uniforms in The Motion Picture. The series also made other references to Phase II, as Xon was added in the episode "Blood and Fire", which was based on an unused script for Star Trek: The Next Generation. In New Voyages, Xon was played by Patrick Bell. In February 2008, Cawley announced that New Voyages would be re-titled Phase II in reference to the abandoned 1970s series. The change was reverted following an announcement by Cawley on June 9, 2015.

### Star Trek: The Next Generation

Phase II would prove influential on The Next Generation, whose creation began just over seven years later. The characters of Xon, Decker and Ilia were used as the basis for the creation of Data, William Riker and Deanna Troi. However, the series was allowed to be different in tone from the planned Phase II, for the feature films that had come before it had changed the audience expectations of what Star Trek was. It was originally proposed in Gerrold's The Worlds of Star Trek to have the second-in-command leading the away team, and it was anticipated that this would be included in Phase II – it was instead first introduced in The Next Generation.

Owing to the 1988 Writers Guild of America strike, work on the second season of The Next Generation was delayed. The producers sought scripts that could be put into production as quickly as possible once the strike was lifted, and so "The Child" from Phase II was picked as one that could be used in the new series with Ilia's place in the script swapped out in favor of Troi. A further Phase II script was adapted later in the series, when "Devil's Due" was converted for The Next Generation in the fourth season.

Certain elements of Klingon culture, such as the Emperor, and a general influence of Japanese culture with honor at the forefront, were first explored with the script for the two-part "Kitumba". Writer John Meredyth Lucas said that "I wanted something that we had never seen before on the series, and that's a penetration deep into enemy space. I started to think of how the Klingons lived. Obviously for the Romulans we had Romans, and we've had different cultures modeled on those of ancient Earth, but I tried to think of what the Klingon society would be like. The Japanese came to mind, so basically that's what it was, with the Sacred Emperor, the Warlord and so on." While the episode itself was later filmed for the fan production Star Trek: New Voyages, Star Trek first visited the Klingon homeworld in The Next Generation episode "Sins of the Father", and the themes would be revisited through the series.

### Star Trek: Voyager

Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens described Voyager as the "conceptual cousin" of Phase II, in that it was used to launch the United Paramount Network (UPN) in January 1995. This was the fifth network, as Diller had moved to the Fox Entertainment Group in the years between Phase II and Voyager, where he launched the fourth network, the Fox Broadcasting Company. They hypothesised that Phase II would have seen a similar decline in ratings as seen by Voyager during the course of the first season, except this decline would have resulted in the cancellation of Phase II at the time of first broadcast in 1970s. While they felt this would not have been the end of the franchise, they suggest it would have resulted in a more immediate reboot with the entire crew re-cast.

Un-aired television program


Dan Leno

George Wild Galvin (20 December 1860 – 31 October 1904), better known by the stage name Dan Leno, was a leading English music hall comedian and musical theatre actor during the late Victorian era. He was best known, aside from his music hall act, for his dame roles in the annual pantomimes that were popular at London's Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, from 1888 to 1904.

Leno was born in St Pancras, London, and began to entertain as a child. In 1864, he joined his parents on stage in their music hall act, and he made his first solo appearance, aged nine, at the Britannia Music Hall in Coventry. As a youth, he was famous for his clog dancing, and in his teen years, he became the star of his family's act. He adopted the stage name Dan Leno and, in 1884, made his first performance under that name in London. As a solo artist, he became increasingly popular during the late 1880s and 1890s, when he was one of the highest-paid comedians in the world. He developed a music hall act of talking about life's mundane subjects, mixed with comic songs and surreal observations, and created a host of mostly working-class characters to illustrate his stories. In 1901, still at the peak of his career, he performed his "Huntsman" sketch for Edward VII at Sandringham. The monarch was so impressed that Leno became publicly known as "the king's jester".

Leno also appeared in burlesque and, every year from 1888 to 1904, in the Drury Lane Theatre's Christmas pantomime spectacles. He was generous and active in charitable causes, especially to benefit performers in need. Leno continued to appear in musical comedies and his own music hall routines until 1902, although he suffered increasingly from alcoholism. This, together with his long association with dame and low comedy roles, prevented him from being taken seriously as a dramatic actor, and he was turned down for Shakespearean roles. Leno began to behave in an erratic and furious manner by 1902, and he suffered a mental breakdown in early 1903. He was committed to a mental asylum, but was discharged later that year. After one more show, his health declined, and he died aged 43.

## Biography

### Family background and early life

Leno was born in St Pancras, London. He was the youngest of six children, including two elder brothers, John and Henry, and an elder sister, Frances. Two other siblings died in infancy. His parents, John Galvin (1826–1864) and his wife Louisa (née Dutton; 1831–1891), performed together in a music hall double act called "The Singing and Acting Duettists". Known professionally as Mr. and Mrs. Johnny Wild, they did not achieve much success, and the family struggled in poverty.

Having had very little schooling, and being raised by performers, Leno learned to entertain as a child. In 1862, Leno's parents and elder brothers appeared at the Surrey Music Hall in Sheffield, then performed in Manchester, Glasgow and Northampton later in the year. In 1864, at the age of four, Leno joined his parents on stage for the first time, at the Cosmotheca Music Hall in Paddington, under the billing "Little George, the Infant Wonder, Contortionist, and Posturer".

When Leno was four years old, his alcoholic father died, aged 37; the family then moved to Liverpool, where his mother married William Grant (1837–1896), on 7 March 1866. Grant was a comedian of Lancastrian and Irish descent, who performed in music halls throughout the British provinces under the stage name of William Leno. He was a seasoned actor and had been employed by Charles Kean in his theatre company at the Princess's Theatre in London. In 1866, the family home in Marylebone was demolished to make way for St Pancras railway station, and as a result Leno's sister Frances was sent to live with an uncle, while his brother John, who had occasionally performed with his parents, took full-time employment. Leno, his mother, stepfather and brother Henry moved north and settled in Liverpool, where they performed in various halls and theatres, including the Star Music Hall, but they often returned to London to perform in the capital's music halls.

### Early career

In 1865, Leno and his brother Henry, who first taught Leno to dance, formed a clog dancing double act known as "The Great Little Lenos". This was the first time that Leno used his stepfather's stage name, "Leno", which he never registered legally. The same year, Leno also appeared in his first pantomime, in Liverpool, where he had a supporting part as a juvenile clown in Fortunatus; or, The Magic Wishing Cap alongside his parents, who appeared as "Mr and Mrs Leno – Comic Duettists". On 18 July 1866, Leno, Henry and their parents appeared on the opening night of the Cambridge Music Hall in Toxteth, Liverpool, under the billing "Mr. and Mrs. Leno, the Great, Sensational, Dramatic and Comic Duettists and The Brothers Leno, Lancashire Clog, Boot and Pump Dancers". The following year, the brothers made their first appearance without their parents at the Britannia music hall in Hoxton. Although initially successful, the pair experienced many bouts of unemployment and often busked outside London pubs to make a living. Tired of surviving on little or no money, Henry left the clog dancing act to take up a trade in London, forcing Leno to consider a future as a solo performer. Henry later founded a dance school. Henry was replaced intermittently in the act by the boys' uncle, Johnny Danvers, who was a week older than Leno. Leno and Danvers had been close from an early age.

Leno made his debut as a solo performer in 1869, returning to the Britannia music hall in Hoxton, where he became known as "The Great Little Leno, the Quintessence of Irish Comedians". The name was suggested by his stepfather, William, who thought the Irish connection would appeal to audiences on their upcoming visit to Dublin. Arriving in Ireland the same year, the Lenos were struggling financially and stayed with William's relatives. In addition to his performances as part of the family act, young Leno appeared as a solo act under an Irish-sounding stage name, "Dan Patrick". This allowed him to earn a separate fee of 23 shillings per performance plus living expenses. The name "Dan" may have been chosen to honour Dan Lowery, a northern music hall comedian and music hall proprietor whom the Lenos had met a few months earlier. During this tour of Ireland, the Lenos appeared in Dublin in a pantomime written by Leno's father: Old King Humpty; or, Harlequin Emerald Isle and Katty of Killarney (1869), for which Leno was praised by Charles Dickens, who was in the audience and told him: "Good little man, you'll make headway!"

In 1870, the Lenos appeared in another pantomime by Leno's father, Jack the Giant Killer; or, Harlequin Grim Gosling, or the Good Fairy Queen of the Golden Pine Grove, in which Leno played the title character and featured in the variety entertainment that preceded the pantomime. Throughout the 1870s, Leno and his parents performed as "The Comic Trio (Mr. & Mrs. Leno and Dan Patrick) In Their Really Funny Entertainments, Songs and Dances". In the family act with his parents and Johnny Danvers, young Leno often took the leading role in such sketches as his stepfather's The Wicklow Wedding. Another of their sketches was Torpedo Bill, in which Leno played the title role, an inventor of explosive devices. His parents played a "washerwoman" and a "comic cobbler". This was followed by another sketch, Pongo the Monkey. Opening at Pullan's Theatre of Varieties in Bradford on 20 May 1878, this burlesque featured Leno as an escaped monkey; it became his favourite sketch of the period.

The teenage Leno's growing popularity led to bookings at, among others, the Varieties Theatre in Sheffield and the Star Music Hall in Manchester. At the same time, Leno's clog dancing continued to be so good that in 1880 he won the world championship at the Princess's Music Hall in Leeds, for which he received a gold and silver belt weighing 44.5 oz (1.26 kg). His biographer, the pantomime librettist J. Hickory Wood, described his act: "He danced on the stage; he danced on a pedestal; he danced on a slab of slate; he was encored over and over again; but throughout his performance, he never uttered a word".

### 1880s

In 1878, Leno and his family moved to Manchester. There he met Lydia Reynolds, who, in 1883, joined the Leno family theatre company, which already consisted of his parents, Danvers and Leno. The following year, Leno and Reynolds married; around this time, he adopted the stage name "Dan Leno". On 10 March 1884, the Leno family took over the running of the Grand Varieties Theatre in Sheffield. The Lenos felt comfortable with their working-class Sheffield audiences. On their opening night, over 4,000 patrons entered the theatre, paying sixpence to see Dan Leno star in Doctor Cut 'Em Up. In October 1884, facing tough competition, the Lenos gave up the lease on the theatre.

In 1885, Leno and his wife moved to Clapham Park, London, and Leno gained new success with a solo act that featured comedy patter, dancing and song. On the night of his London debut, he appeared in three music halls: the Foresters' Music Hall in Mile End, Middlesex Music Hall in Drury Lane and Gatti's-in-the-Road, where he earned £5 a week in total (£ in 2023 adjusted for inflation). Although billed as "The Great Irish Comic Vocalist and Clog Champion" at first, he slowly phased out his dancing in favour of character studies, such as "Going to Buy Milk for the Twins", "When Rafferty Raffled his Watch" and "The Railway Guard". His dancing had earned him popularity in the provinces, but Leno found that his London audiences preferred these sketches and his comic songs. Leno's other London venues in the late 1880s included Collins's Music Hall in Islington, the Queen's Theatre in Poplar and the Standard in Pimlico.

Leno was a replacement in the role of Leontes in the 1888 musical burlesque of the ancient Greek character Atalanta at the Strand Theatre, directed by Charles Hawtrey. It was written by Hawtrey's brother, George P. Hawtrey, and it starred Frank Wyatt, Willie Warde and William Hawtrey. The Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News praised Leno's singing and dancing and reported that: "He brings a good deal of fun and quaintness to the not very important part of Leontes." Leno accepted the role at short notice, with no opportunity to learn the script. But his improvised comedy helped to extend the life of the show. When Leno and another leading actor left a few months later, the production closed.

### Music hall

During the 1890s, Leno was the leading performer on the music hall stage, rivalled only by Albert Chevalier, who moved into music hall from the legitimate theatre. Their styles and appeal were very different: Leno's characters were gritty working-class realists, while Chevalier's were overflowing in romanticism, and his act depicted an affluent point of view. According to Leno's biographer Barry Anthony, the two "represented the opposite poles of cockney comedy".

For his music hall acts, Leno created characters that were based on observations about life in London, including shopwalkers, grocer's assistants, beefeaters, huntsmen, racegoers, firemen, fathers, henpecked husbands, garrulous wives, pantomime dames, a police officer, a Spanish bandit and a hairdresser. One such character was Mrs. Kelly, a gossip. Leno would sing a verse of a song, then begin a monologue, often his You know Mrs. Kelly? routine, which became a well-known catchphrase: "You see we had a row once, and it was all through Mrs. Kelly. You know Mrs. Kelly, of course. ... Oh, you must know Mrs. Kelly; everybody knows Mrs. Kelly."

For his London acts, Leno purchased songs from the foremost music hall writers and composers. One such composer was Harry King, who wrote many of Leno's early successes. Other well-known composers of the day who supplied Leno with numbers included Harry Dacre and Joseph Tabrar. From 1890, Leno commissioned George Le Brunn to compose the incidental music to many of his songs, including "The Detective", "My Old Man", "Chimney on Fire", "The Fasting Man", "The Jap", "All Through A Little Piece of Bacon" and "The Detective Camera". Le Brunn also provided the incidental music for three of Leno's best-known songs that depicted life in everyday occupations: "The Railway Guard" (1890), "The Shopwalker" and "The Waiter" (both from 1891). The songs in each piece became instantly distinctive and familiar to Leno's audiences, but his occasional changes to the characterisations kept the sketches fresh and topical.

"The Railway Guard" featured Leno in a mad characterisation of a railway station guard dressed in an ill-fitting uniform, with an unkempt beard and a whistle. The character was created by exaggerating the behaviour that Leno saw in a real employee at Brixton station who concerned himself in other people's business while, at the same time, not doing any work. "The Shopwalker" was full of comic one-liners and was heavily influenced by pantomime. Leno played the part of a shop assistant, again of manic demeanour, enticing imaginary clientele into the shop before launching into a frantic selling technique sung in verse. Leno's depiction of "The Waiter", dressed in an oversized dinner jacket and loose-fitting white dickey, which would flap up and hit his face, was of a man consumed in self-pity and indignation. Overworked, overwrought and overwhelmed by the number of his customers, the waiter gave out excuses for the bad service faster than the customers could complain:

> Yes, sir! No, sir! Yes, sir! When I first came here these trousers were knee-breeches. Legs worn down by waiting. Sir! What did you say? How long would your steak be? Oh, about four inches I should say, about four inches. No, sir! sorry sir. Can't take it back now, sir. You've stuck your fork in and let the steam out!

### Pantomime

Leno's first London appearance in pantomime was as Dame Durden in Jack and the Beanstalk, which he performed at London's Surrey Theatre in 1886, having been spotted singing "Going to Buy Milk" by the Surrey Theatre manager, George Conquest. Conquest also hired Leno's wife to star in the production. The pantomime was a success, and Leno received rave reviews; as a result, he was booked to star as Tinpanz the Tinker in the following year's pantomime, which had the unique title of Sinbad and the Little Old Man of the Sea; or, The Tinker, the Tailor, the Soldier, the Sailor, Apothecary, Ploughboy, Gentleman Thief.

After these pantomime performances proved popular with audiences, Leno was hired in 1888 by Augustus Harris, manager at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, to appear in that year's Christmas pantomime, Babes in the Wood. Harris's pantomime productions at the huge theatre were known for their extravagance and splendour. Each one had a cast of over a hundred performers, ballet dancers, acrobats, marionettes and animals, and included an elaborate transformation scene and an energetic harlequinade. Often they were partly written by Harris. Herbert Campbell and Harry Nicholls starred with Leno in the next fifteen Christmas productions at Drury Lane. Campbell had appeared in the theatre's previous five pantomimes and was a favourite of the writer of those productions, E. L. Blanchard. Blanchard left the theatre when Leno was hired, believing that music hall performers were unsuitable for his Christmas pantomimes. This was not a view shared by audiences or the critics, one of whom wrote:

> I am inclined to think "the cake" for frolicsome humour is taken by the dapper new-comer, Mr. Dan Leno, who is sketched as the galvanic baroness in the wonderfully amusing dance which sets the house in a roar. The substantial "babes", Mr. Herbert Campbell and Mr. Harry Nicholls, would have no excuse if they did not vie in drollery with the light footed Dan Leno.

Babes in the Wood was a triumph: the theatre reported record attendance, and the run was extended until 27 April 1889. Leno considerably reduced his music-hall engagements as a consequence. Nevertheless, between April and October 1889, Leno appeared simultaneously at the Empire Theatre and the Oxford Music Hall, performing his one-man show. By this time, Leno was much in demand and had bookings for the next three years. On 9 May 1889 he starred for George P. Hawtrey in a matinee of Penelope, a musical version of a famous farce The Area Belle, to benefit the Holborn Lodge for Shop Girls. In this benefit, he played the role of Pitcher opposite the seasoned Gilbert and Sullivan performer Rutland Barrington. The Times considered that his performance treated the piece "too much in the manner of pantomime". During Leno's long association with the Drury Lane pantomimes, he appeared chiefly as the dame. After Harris died in 1896, Arthur Collins became the manager of the theatre and oversaw (and often helped to write) the pantomimes.

In their pantomimes, the diminutive Leno and the massive Campbell were a visually comic duo. They would often deviate from the script, improvising freely. This was met with some scepticism by producers, who feared that the scenes would not be funny to audiences and observed that, in any event, they were rarely at their best until a few nights after opening. George Bernard Shaw wrote of one appearance: "I hope I never again have to endure anything more dismally futile", and the English essayist and caricaturist Max Beerbohm stated that "Leno does not do himself justice collaborating with the public". He noted, however, that Leno "was exceptional in giving each of his dames a personality of her own, from extravagant queen to artless gossip". In Sleeping Beauty, Leno and Campbell caused the audience to laugh even when they could not see them: they would arrive on stage in closed palanquins and exchange the lines, "Have you anything to do this afternoon, my dear?" – "No, I have nothing on", before being carried off again. Leno and Campbell's pantomimes from 1889 were Jack and the Beanstalk (1889 and 1899), Beauty and the Beast (1890 and 1900), Humpty Dumpty (1891 and 1903), Little Bo-Peep (1892), Robinson Crusoe (1893), Dick Whittington and His Cat (1894), Cinderella (1895), Aladdin (1896), Babes in the Wood (1897) and the Forty Thieves (1898).

Leno considered the dame roles in two of his last pantomimes, Bluebeard (1901) and Mother Goose (1902), written by J. Hickory Wood, to be his favourites. He was paid £200 (£ in 2023 adjusted for inflation) for each of the pantomime seasons. Leno appeared at Drury Lane as Sister Anne in Bluebeard, a character described by Wood as "a sprightly, somewhat below middle aged person who was of a coming on disposition and who had not yet abandoned hope" The Times drama critic noted: "It is a quite peculiar and original Sister Anne, who dances breakdowns and sings strange ballads to a still stranger harp and plays ping-pong with a frying-pan and potatoes and burlesques Sherlock Holmes and wears the oddest of garments and dresses her hair like Miss Morleena Kenwigs, and speaks in a piping voice – in short it is none other than Dan Leno whom we all know". Mother Goose provided Leno with one of the most challenging roles of his career, in which he was required to portray the same woman in several different guises. Wood's idea, that neither fortune nor beauty would bring happiness, was illustrated by a series of magical character transformations. The poor, unkempt and generally ugly Mother Goose eventually became a rich and beautiful but tasteless parvenu, searching for a suitor. The production was one of Drury Lane's most successful pantomimes, running until 28 March 1903.

### Later career

In 1896, the impresario Milton Bode approached Leno with a proposal for a farcical musical comedy vehicle devised for him called Orlando Dando, the Volunteer, by Basil Hood with music by Walter Slaughter. Leno's agent declined the offer, as his client was solidly booked for two years. Bode offered Leno £625 (£ in 2023 adjusted for inflation) for a six-week appearance in 1898. Upon hearing this, the comedian overrode his agent and accepted the offer. Leno toured the provinces in the piece and was an immediate success. So popular was his performance that Bode re-engaged him for a further two shows: the musical farce In Gay Piccadilly! (1899), by George R. Sims, in which Leno's uncle, Johnny Danvers appeared (The Era said that Leno was "attracting huge houses" and called him "excruciatingly funny"); and the musical comedy Mr. Wix of Wickham (1902). Both toured after their original runs. In 1897, Leno went to America and made his debut on 12 April of that year at Hammerstein's Olympia Music Hall on Broadway, where he was billed as "The Funniest Man on Earth". Reviews were mixed: one newspaper reported that the house roared its approval, while another complained that Leno's English humour was out of date. His American engagement came to an end a month later, and Leno said that it was "the crown of my career". Despite his jubilation, Leno was conscious of the few negative reviews he had received and rejected all later offers to tour the United States and Australia.

The same year, the comedian lent his name and writing talents to Dan Leno's Comic Journal. The paper was primarily aimed at young adults and featured a mythologised version of Leno – the first comic paper to take its name from, and base a central character on, a living person. Published by C. Arthur Pearson, Issue No. 1 appeared on 26 February 1898, and the paper sold 350,000 copies a year. Leno wrote most of the paper's comic stories and jokes, and Tom Browne contributed many of the illustrations. The comedian retained editorial control of the paper, deciding which items to omit. The Journal was known for its slogans, including "One Touch of Leno Makes the Whole World Grin" and "Won't wash clothes but will mangle melancholy". The cover always showed a caricature of Leno and his editorial staff at work and play. Inside, the features included "Daniel's Diary", "Moans from the Martyr", two yarns, a couple of dozen cartoons and "Leno's Latest – Fresh Jokes and Wheezes Made on the Premises". After a run of nearly two years the novelty wore off, and Leno lost interest. The paper shut down on 2 December 1899.

A journalist wrote, in the late 1890s, that Leno was "probably the highest paid funny man in the world". In 1898, Leno, Herbert Campbell and Danvers formed a consortium to build the Granville Theatre in Fulham, which was demolished in 1971. Leno published an autobiography, Dan Leno: Hys Booke, in 1899, possibly assisted by a ghostwriter, T. C. Elder. Leno's biographer J. Hickory Wood commented: "I can honestly say that I never saw him absolutely at rest. He was always doing something, and had something else to do afterwards; or he had just been somewhere, was going somewhere else, and had several other appointments to follow." That year, Leno performed the role of "waxi omo" (a slang expression for a black-face performer) in the Doo-da-Day Minstrels, an act that included Danvers, Campbell, Bransby Williams, Joe Elvin and Eugene Stratton. The troupe's only performance was at the London Pavilion on 29 May 1899 as part of a benefit. Leno's song "The Funny Little Nigger" greatly amused the audience. His biographer Barry Anthony considered the performance to be "more or less, the last gasp of black-face minstrelsy in Britain".

Between 1901 and 1903, Leno recorded more than twenty-five songs and monologues on the Gramophone and Typewriter Company label. He also made 14 short films towards the end of his life, in which he portrayed a bumbling buffoon who struggles to carry out everyday tasks, such as riding a bicycle or opening a bottle of champagne. On 26 November 1901, Leno, along with Seymour Hicks and his wife, the actress Ellaline Terriss, was invited to Sandringham House to take part in a Royal Command Performance to entertain King Edward VII, Queen Alexandra, their son George and his wife, Mary, the Prince and Princess of Wales. Leno performed a thirty-five-minute solo act that included two of his best-known songs: "How to Buy a House" and "The Huntsman". After the performance, Leno reported, "The King, the Queen and the Prince of Wales all very kindly shook hands with me and told me how much they had enjoyed it. The Princess of Wales was just going to shake hands with me, when she looked at my face, and couldn't do it for some time, because she laughed so much. I wasn't intending to look funny – I was really trying to look dignified and courtly; but I suppose I couldn't help myself." As a memento, the King presented Leno with a jewel-encrusted royal tie pin, and thereafter, Leno became known as "the King's Jester". Leno was the first music hall performer to give a Royal Command Performance during the King's reign.

## Personal life

In 1883, Leno met Sarah Lydia Reynolds (1866–1942), a young dancer and comedy singer from Birmingham, while both were appearing at King Ohmy's Circus of Varieties, Rochdale. The daughter of a stage carpenter, Lydia, as she was known professionally, was already an accomplished actress as a teenager: of her performance in Sinbad the Sailor in 1881, one critic wrote that she "played Zorlida very well for a young artiste. She is well known at this theatre and with proper training will prove a very clever actress." She and Leno married in 1884 in a discreet ceremony at St. George's Church, in Hulme, Manchester, soon after the birth of their first daughter, Georgina. A second child died in infancy, and John was born in 1888. Their three youngest children – Ernest (b. 1889), Sidney (b. 1891) and May (b. 1896) – all followed their father onto the stage. Sidney later performed as Dan Leno, Jr. After Leno's mother and stepfather retired from performing, Leno supported them financially until their deaths.

Leno owned "an acre or so" of land at the back of his house in Clapham Park, producing cabbages, potatoes, poultry, butter and eggs. In 1898, Leno and his family moved to 56 Akerman Road, Lambeth, where they lived for several years. A blue plaque was erected there in 1962 by the London County Council.

### Charity and fundraising

The Terriers Association was established in 1890 to help retired artists in need of financial help. Leno was an active fundraiser in this and in the Music Hall Benevolent Fund, of which he became the president. He was an early member of the entertainment charity Grand Order of Water Rats, which helps performers who are in financial need, and served as its leader, the King Rat, in 1891, 1892 and 1897. Near the end of his life, Leno co-founded The Music Hall Artistes Railway Association, which entered a partnership with the Water Rats to form music hall's first trade union. Some of Leno's charity was discreet and unpublicised.

In the late 1890s, Leno formed a cricket team called the "Dainties", for which he recruited many of the day's leading comedians and music hall stars. They played for charity against a variety of amateur teams willing to put up with their comedic mayhem, such as London's Metropolitan Police Force; Leno's and his teammates' tomfoolery on the green amused the large crowds that they drew. From 1898 to 1903, the Dainties continued to play matches across London. Two films of action from the matches were produced in 1900 for audiences of the new medium of cinema. In September 1901, at a major charity match, the press noted the carnival atmosphere. The comedians wore silly costumes – Leno was dressed as an undertaker and later as a schoolgirl riding a camel. Bands played, and clowns circulated through the crowd. The rival team of professional Surrey cricketers were persuaded to wear tall hats during the match. 18,000 spectators attended, contributing funds for music hall and cricketers' charities, among others.

### Decline and mental breakdown

Leno began to drink heavily after performances, and, by 1901, like his father and stepfather before him, he had become an alcoholic. He gradually declined physically and mentally and displayed frequent bouts of erratic behaviour that began to affect his work. By 1902, Leno's angry and violent behaviour directed at fellow cast members, friends and family had become frequent. Once composed, he would become remorseful and apologetic. His erratic behaviour was often a result of his diminishing ability to remember his lines and inaudibility in performance. Leno also suffered increasing deafness, which eventually caused problems on and off stage. In 1901, during a production of Bluebeard, Leno missed his verbal cue and, as a result, was left stuck up a tower for more than twenty minutes. At the end of the run of Mother Goose in 1903, producer Arthur Collins gave a tribute to Leno and presented him, on behalf of the Drury Lane Theatre's management, with an expensive silver dinner service. Leno rose to his feet and said: "Governor, it's a magnificent present! I congratulate you and you deserve it!"

Frustrated at not being accepted as a serious actor, Leno became obsessed with the idea of playing Richard III and other great Shakespearean roles, inundating the actor–manager Herbert Beerbohm Tree with his proposals. After his final run of Mother Goose at the Drury Lane Theatre in early 1903, Leno's delusions overwhelmed him. On the closing evening, and again soon afterwards, he travelled to the home of Constance Collier, who was Beerbohm Tree's leading lady at His Majesty's Theatre, and also followed her to rehearsal there. He attempted to persuade her to act alongside him in a Shakespearean season that Leno was willing to fund. On the second visit to her home, Leno brought Collier a diamond brooch. Recognising that Leno was having a mental breakdown, she gently refused his offer, and Leno left distraught.

Two days later, he was admitted into Camberwell House Lunatic Asylum, London, where he spent several months under the care of Dr. Savage, who treated Leno with "peace and quiet and a little water colouring". On his second day, Leno told a nurse that the clock was wrong. When she stated that it was right, Leno remarked, "Well if it's right, then what's it doing here?" Leno made several attempts to leave the asylum, twice being successful. He was found each time and promptly returned.

### Last year and death

Upon Leno's release from the institution in October 1903, the press offered much welcoming commentary and speculated as to whether he would appear that year in the Drury Lane pantomime, scheduled to be Humpty Dumpty. Concerned that Leno might suffer a relapse, Arthur Collins employed Marie Lloyd to take his place. By the time of rehearsals, however, Leno persuaded Collins that he was well enough to take part, and the cast was reshuffled to accommodate him. Leno appeared with success. Upon hearing his signature song, the audience reportedly gave him a standing ovation that lasted five minutes. He received a telegram from the King congratulating him on his performance.

Leno's stage partner Herbert Campbell died in July 1904, shortly after the pantomime, following an accident at the age of fifty-seven. The death affected Leno deeply, and he went into a decline. At that time, he was appearing at the London Pavilion, but the show had to be cancelled owing to his inability to remember his lines. So harsh were the critics that Leno wrote a statement, published in The Era, to defend the show's originality. On 20 October 1904, Leno gave his last performance in the show. Afterwards, he stopped at the Belgrave Hospital for Children in Kennington, of which he was vice-president, to leave a donation.

Leno died at his home in London on 31 October 1904, aged 43, and was buried at Lambeth Cemetery, London. The cause of death is not known. His death and funeral were national news. The Daily Telegraph wrote in its obituary: "There was only one Dan. His methods were inimitable; his face was indeed his fortune ... Who has seen him in any of his disguises and has failed to laugh?" Max Beerbohm later said of Leno's death: "So little and frail a lantern could not long harbour so big a flame".

Leno is commemorated by the Dan Leno Gardens on Patmos Road in London, situated behind St John the Divine, Kennington, which are designated for use by disabled people.

English music hall comedian, actor and singer


Francium

Francium is a chemical element with the symbol Fr and atomic number 87. It is extremely radioactive; its most stable isotope, francium-223 (originally called actinium K after the natural decay chain in which it appears), has a half-life of only 22 minutes. It is the second-most electropositive element, behind only caesium, and is the second rarest naturally occurring element (after astatine). Francium's isotopes decay quickly into astatine, radium, and radon. The electronic structure of a francium atom is [Rn] 7s1; thus, the element is classed as an alkali metal.

Bulk francium has never been seen. Because of the general appearance of the other elements in its periodic table column, it is presumed that francium would appear as a highly reactive metal if enough could be collected together to be viewed as a bulk solid or liquid. Obtaining such a sample is highly improbable since the extreme heat of decay resulting from its short half-life would immediately vaporize any viewable quantity of the element.

Francium was discovered by Marguerite Perey in France (from which the element takes its name) in 1939. Before its discovery, francium was referred to as eka-caesium or ekacaesium because of its conjectured existence below caesium in the periodic table. It was the last element first discovered in nature, rather than by synthesis. Outside the laboratory, francium is extremely rare, with trace amounts found in uranium ores, where the isotope francium-223 (in the family of uranium-235) continually forms and decays. As little as 200–500 g exists at any given time throughout the Earth's crust; aside from francium-223 and francium-221, its other isotopes are entirely synthetic. The largest amount produced in the laboratory was a cluster of more than 300,000 atoms.

## Characteristics

Francium is one of the most unstable of the naturally occurring elements: its longest-lived isotope, francium-223, has a half-life of only 22 minutes. The only comparable element is astatine, whose most stable natural isotope, astatine-219 (the alpha daughter of francium-223), has a half-life of 56 seconds, although synthetic astatine-210 is much longer-lived with a half-life of 8.1 hours. All isotopes of francium decay into astatine, radium, or radon. Francium-223 also has a shorter half-life than the longest-lived isotope of each synthetic element up to and including element 105, dubnium.

Francium is an alkali metal whose chemical properties mostly resemble those of caesium. A heavy element with a single valence electron, it has the highest equivalent weight of any element. Liquid francium—if created—should have a surface tension of 0.05092 N/m at its melting point. Francium's melting point was estimated to be around 8.0 °C (46.4 °F); a value of 27 °C (81 °F) is also often encountered. The melting point is uncertain because of the element's extreme rarity and radioactivity; a different extrapolation based on Dmitri Mendeleev's method gave 20 ± 1.5 °C (68.0 ± 2.7 °F). A calculation based on the melting temperatures of binary ionic crystals gives 24.861 ± 0.517 °C (76.750 ± 0.931 °F). The estimated boiling point of 620 °C (1,148 °F) is also uncertain; the estimates 598 °C (1,108 °F) and 677 °C (1,251 °F), as well as the extrapolation from Mendeleev's method of 640 °C (1,184 °F), have also been suggested. The density of francium is expected to be around 2.48 g/cm3 (Mendeleev's method extrapolates 2.4 g/cm3).

Linus Pauling estimated the electronegativity of francium at 0.7 on the Pauling scale, the same as caesium; the value for caesium has since been refined to 0.79, but there are no experimental data to allow a refinement of the value for francium. Francium has a slightly higher ionization energy than caesium, 392.811(4) kJ/mol as opposed to 375.7041(2) kJ/mol for caesium, as would be expected from relativistic effects, and this would imply that caesium is the less electronegative of the two. Francium should also have a higher electron affinity than caesium and the Fr− ion should be more polarizable than the Cs− ion.

## Compounds

As a result of francium being very unstable, its salts are only known to a small extent. Francium coprecipitates with several caesium salts, such as caesium perchlorate, which results in small amounts of francium perchlorate. This coprecipitation can be used to isolate francium, by adapting the radiocaesium coprecipitation method of Lawrence E. Glendenin and C. M. Nelson. It will additionally coprecipitate with many other caesium salts, including the iodate, the picrate, the tartrate (also rubidium tartrate), the chloroplatinate, and the silicotungstate. It also coprecipitates with silicotungstic acid, and with perchloric acid, without another alkali metal as a carrier, which leads to other methods of separation.

### Francium perchlorate

Francium perchlorate is produced by the reaction of francium chloride and sodium perchlorate. The francium perchlorate coprecipitates with caesium perchlorate. This coprecipitation can be used to isolate francium, by adapting the radiocaesium coprecipitation method of Lawrence E. Glendenin and C. M. Nelson. However, this method is unreliable in separating thallium, which also coprecipitates with caesium. Francium perchlorate's entropy is expected to be 42.7 e.u (178.7 J mol−1 K−1).

### Francium halides

Francium halides are all soluble in water and are expected to be white solids. They are expected to be produced by the reaction of the corresponding halogens. For example, francium chloride would be produced by the reaction of francium and chlorine. Francium chloride has been studied as a pathway to separate francium from other elements, by using the high vapour pressure of the compound, although francium fluoride would have a higher vapour pressure.

### Other compounds

Francium nitrate, sulfate, hydroxide, carbonate, acetate, and oxalate, are all soluble in water, while the iodate, picrate, tartrate, chloroplatinate, and silicotungstate are insoluble. The insolubility of these compounds are used to extract francium from other radioactive products, such as zirconium, niobium, molybdenum, tin, antimony, the method mentioned in the section above. The CsFr molecule is predicted to have francium at the negative end of the dipole, unlike all known heterodiatomic alkali metal molecules. Francium superoxide (FrO2) is expected to have a more covalent character than its lighter congeners; this is attributed to the 6p electrons in francium being more involved in the francium–oxygen bonding. The relativistic destabilisation of the 6p3/2 spinor may make francium compounds in oxidation states higher than +1 possible, such as [FrVF6]−; but this has not been experimentally confirmed.

The only double salt known of francium has the formula Fr9Bi2I9.

## Isotopes

There are 37 known isotopes of francium ranging in atomic mass from 197 to 233. Francium has seven metastable nuclear isomers. Francium-223 and francium-221 are the only isotopes that occur in nature, with the former being far more common.

Francium-223 is the most stable isotope, with a half-life of 21.8 minutes, and it is highly unlikely that an isotope of francium with a longer half-life will ever be discovered or synthesized. Francium-223 is a fifth product of the uranium-235 decay series as a daughter isotope of actinium-227; thorium-227 is the more common daughter. Francium-223 then decays into radium-223 by beta decay (1.149 MeV decay energy), with a minor (0.006%) alpha decay path to astatine-219 (5.4 MeV decay energy).

Francium-221 has a half-life of 4.8 minutes. It is the ninth product of the neptunium decay series as a daughter isotope of actinium-225. Francium-221 then decays into astatine-217 by alpha decay (6.457 MeV decay energy). Although all primordial 237Np is extinct, the neptunium decay series continues to exist naturally in tiny traces due to (n,2n) knockout reactions in natural 238U.

The least stable ground state isotope is francium-215, with a half-life of 0.12 μs: it undergoes a 9.54 MeV alpha decay to astatine-211. Its metastable isomer, francium-215m, is less stable still, with a half-life of only 3.5 ns.

## Applications

Due to its instability and rarity, there are no commercial applications for francium. It has been used for research purposes in the fields of chemistry and of atomic structure. Its use as a potential diagnostic aid for various cancers has also been explored, but this application has been deemed impractical.

Francium's ability to be synthesized, trapped, and cooled, along with its relatively simple atomic structure, has made it the subject of specialized spectroscopy experiments. These experiments have led to more specific information regarding energy levels and the coupling constants between subatomic particles. Studies on the light emitted by laser-trapped francium-210 ions have provided accurate data on transitions between atomic energy levels which are fairly similar to those predicted by quantum theory.

## History

As early as 1870, chemists thought that there should be an alkali metal beyond caesium, with an atomic number of 87. It was then referred to by the provisional name eka-caesium. Research teams attempted to locate and isolate this missing element, and at least four false claims were made that the element had been found before an authentic discovery was made.

### Erroneous and incomplete discoveries

In 1914, Stefan Meyer, Viktor F. Hess, and Friedrich Paneth (working in Vienna) made measurements of alpha radiation from various substances, including 227Ac. They observed the possibility of a minor alpha branch of this nuclide, though follow-up work could not be done due to the outbreak of World War I. Their observations were not precise and sure enough for them to announce the discovery of element 87, though it is likely that they did indeed observe the decay of 227Ac to 223Fr.

Soviet chemist Dmitry Dobroserdov was the first scientist to claim to have found eka-caesium, or francium. In 1925, he observed weak radioactivity in a sample of potassium, another alkali metal, and incorrectly concluded that eka-caesium was contaminating the sample (the radioactivity from the sample was from the naturally occurring potassium radioisotope, potassium-40). He then published a thesis on his predictions of the properties of eka-caesium, in which he named the element russium after his home country. Shortly thereafter, Dobroserdov began to focus on his teaching career at the Polytechnic Institute of Odesa, and he did not pursue the element further.

The following year, English chemists Gerald J. F. Druce and Frederick H. Loring analyzed X-ray photographs of manganese(II) sulfate. They observed spectral lines which they presumed to be of eka-caesium. They announced their discovery of element 87 and proposed the name alkalinium, as it would be the heaviest alkali metal.

In 1930, Fred Allison of the Alabama Polytechnic Institute claimed to have discovered element 87 (in addition to 85) when analyzing pollucite and lepidolite using his magneto-optical machine. Allison requested that it be named virginium after his home state of Virginia, along with the symbols Vi and Vm. In 1934, H.G. MacPherson of UC Berkeley disproved the effectiveness of Allison's device and the validity of his discovery.

In 1936, Romanian physicist Horia Hulubei and his French colleague Yvette Cauchois also analyzed pollucite, this time using their high-resolution X-ray apparatus. They observed several weak emission lines, which they presumed to be those of element 87. Hulubei and Cauchois reported their discovery and proposed the name moldavium, along with the symbol Ml, after Moldavia, the Romanian province where Hulubei was born. In 1937, Hulubei's work was criticized by American physicist F. H. Hirsh Jr., who rejected Hulubei's research methods. Hirsh was certain that eka-caesium would not be found in nature, and that Hulubei had instead observed mercury or bismuth X-ray lines. Hulubei insisted that his X-ray apparatus and methods were too accurate to make such a mistake. Because of this, Jean Baptiste Perrin, Nobel Prize winner and Hulubei's mentor, endorsed moldavium as the true eka-caesium over Marguerite Perey's recently discovered francium. Perey took pains to be accurate and detailed in her criticism of Hulubei's work, and finally she was credited as the sole discoverer of element 87. All other previous purported discoveries of element 87 were ruled out due to francium's very limited half-life.

### Perey's analysis

Eka-caesium was discovered on January 7, 1939, by Marguerite Perey of the Curie Institute in Paris, when she purified a sample of actinium-227 which had been reported to have a decay energy of 220 keV. Perey noticed decay particles with an energy level below 80 keV. Perey thought this decay activity might have been caused by a previously unidentified decay product, one which was separated during purification, but emerged again out of the pure actinium-227. Various tests eliminated the possibility of the unknown element being thorium, radium, lead, bismuth, or thallium. The new product exhibited chemical properties of an alkali metal (such as coprecipitating with caesium salts), which led Perey to believe that it was element 87, produced by the alpha decay of actinium-227. Perey then attempted to determine the proportion of beta decay to alpha decay in actinium-227. Her first test put the alpha branching at 0.6%, a figure which she later revised to 1%.

Perey named the new isotope actinium-K (it is now referred to as francium-223) and in 1946, she proposed the name catium (Cm) for her newly discovered element, as she believed it to be the most electropositive cation of the elements. Irène Joliot-Curie, one of Perey's supervisors, opposed the name due to its connotation of cat rather than cation; furthermore, the symbol coincided with that which had since been assigned to curium. Perey then suggested francium, after France. This name was officially adopted by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) in 1949, becoming the second element after gallium to be named after France. It was assigned the symbol Fa, but this abbreviation was revised to the current Fr shortly thereafter. Francium was the last element discovered in nature, rather than synthesized, following hafnium and rhenium. Further research into francium's structure was carried out by, among others, Sylvain Lieberman and his team at CERN in the 1970s and 1980s.

## Occurrence

223Fr is the result of the alpha decay of 227Ac and can be found in trace amounts in uranium minerals. In a given sample of uranium, there is estimated to be only one francium atom for every 1 × 1018 uranium atoms. Only about one ounce of francium is present naturally in the earth's crust.

## Production

Francium can be synthesized by a fusion reaction when a gold-197 target is bombarded with a beam of oxygen-18 atoms from a linear accelerator in a process originally developed at the physics department of the State University of New York at Stony Brook in 1995. Depending on the energy of the oxygen beam, the reaction can yield francium isotopes with masses of 209, 210, and 211.

197Au + 18O → 209Fr + 6 n

197Au + 18O → 210Fr + 5 n

197Au + 18O → 211Fr + 4 n

The francium atoms leave the gold target as ions, which are neutralized by collision with yttrium and then isolated in a magneto-optical trap (MOT) in a gaseous unconsolidated state. Although the atoms only remain in the trap for about 30 seconds before escaping or undergoing nuclear decay, the process supplies a continual stream of fresh atoms. The result is a steady state containing a fairly constant number of atoms for a much longer time. The original apparatus could trap up to a few thousand atoms, while a later improved design could trap over 300,000 at a time. Sensitive measurements of the light emitted and absorbed by the trapped atoms provided the first experimental results on various transitions between atomic energy levels in francium. Initial measurements show very good agreement between experimental values and calculations based on quantum theory. The research project using this production method relocated to TRIUMF in 2012, where over 106 francium atoms have been held at a time, including large amounts of 209Fr in addition to 207Fr and 221Fr.

Other synthesis methods include bombarding radium with neutrons, and bombarding thorium with protons, deuterons, or helium ions.

223Fr can also be isolated from samples of its parent 227Ac, the francium being milked via elution with NH4Cl–CrO3 from an actinium-containing cation exchanger and purified by passing the solution through a silicon dioxide compound loaded with barium sulfate.

In 1996, the Stony Brook group trapped 3000 atoms in their MOT, which was enough for a video camera to capture the light given off by the atoms as they fluoresce. Francium has not been synthesized in amounts large enough to weigh.

Chemical elements predicted by Dmitri Mendeleev

Chemical elements with body-centered cubic structure