The Gd - Pr solid solution of the `123' crystal structure, (GdPr-123) with has been prepared by the standard solid-state reaction technique. Details of sample preparation and results of XRD, SEM, TGA, DT, , and measurements are reported. For , GdPr-123 is non-superconducting down to 10 K and does not show `metallic' conduction. Samples have a predominantly single-phase orthorhombic structure with Pmmm symmetry and a small percentage () of the Ba sites are occupied by Pr ions in some Pr-rich samples. The lower critical field value measured lies in the range of 10 mT. The nominal valence of the Cu ion in the whole range of x is determined; at the metal - semiconductor boundary , which is smaller by only 0.18 than the value 2.33 of the fully oxygenated (Gd-123) system. However, the valence of Pr is 3.86+. We suggest that the increasing band filling and localization of states due to the disorder effects together with Pr doping could cause the observed metal - semiconducting transition; qualitatively this is the same as the oxygen depletion case.