Introduction
The thirtieth season of Doctor Who, airing in 1993. Would be the second season for David McCallum as the Doctor, the second and final season for Neil Pearson as Marcus Fawns, the first full season for Lisa Bowerman as Bernice Summerfield, the third season for Ian Fraser as producer, the second season for Ben Aaronovitch as script editor and finally, the second season produced by World Productions and Tony Garnett as an executive producer.
Ever since almost being cancelled in 1989, Doctor Who had bounced back to be very popular in the general public eye. With the thirtieth anniversary coming. New BBC1 controller Alan Yentob had ordered a new season of a reduced run of 16x25 minute episodes with five serials. With on the 20th of November 1993, a special ninety minute television special would air on BBC1 to act as the anniversary of the show.
Apart from a new and more Who friendly controller of BBC1. And a new mandate from said controller to, "Make Doctor Who more like Star Trek". Not many changes would be made from Season 29 to Season 30.
So, with that. Let's dive into the season.
Serial One (Ep. 1-4): LEGACY
Written by Gary Russell
Directed by Alan Dossor
Air Dates: 31 July-21 August 1993
This serial would feature several returning races. With the most notable ones being the Ice Warriors, who try to sentence the Doctor to death for theft that has occurred in the planet's citadel.
It turns out that a Federation Representative by the name of "Nic Reese" was killed by the criminal mastermind and disguised as him to steal a relic known as, the Diadem. Which was a mind parasite that took the form of a tiara on Peladon.
In the end, the Doctor along with his companions are able to save the day.
Serial Two (Ep. 5-7): GETTYSBURG
Written by Rona Munro
Directed by Peter Smith
Air Dates: 28 August-11 September 1993
Most of the readings surround a Confederate general, who is played by sitcom actor, Rik Mayall. Who, at the end of part one, is revealed to be a new incarnation of the Meddling Monk.
The Monk is there at the Battle of Gettysburg. To try and stop a Union victory in the war. As the Monk had came to the conclusion that if the Confederates were to win, there would be an uprising within a new union and put a more progressive America on the map. With non-white men allowed to be in positions of power a lot sooner and women would be allowed to vote and stand in elections a lot sooner as well.
This episode would hammer in the message from the show's classic serial The Aztecs on, "You can't re-write history, not one line." Where, despite the fact that the Doctor, Marcus and Bernice want to help the Monk. They also have to keep the timeline in check. With this, the Doctor and co. regrettably stop the Monk and then pre-program his TARDIS to take him away from Gallifrey.
This serial would be a popular and favorite of the season as well as the McCallum era. With audiences giving massive amounts of praise to Rik Mayall's portrayal of the Monk.
Serial Three (Ep. 8-9): GOTH OPERA
Written by Paul Cornell
Directed by Robert Bierman
Air Dates: 18 September-25 September 1993
In this serial, the Doctor takes Marcus and Bernice to Manchester in the year 1993 for a holiday. But, that soon begins to unravel. As they get attacked by several vampires. One of which ends up biting Bernice and turning her into a vampire herself.
With this, the Doctor does some investigation. And he finds out that an old friend of his, Ruath, is actually trying to resurrect a Great Vampire named Yarven. Ruath then gets the idea to use the Doctor's blood. Which also, in return starts to turn the Doctor into a Vampire as well. This revealed along with the fact that Ruath had turned themselves into a vampire.
The Doctor throughout the second part of the serial, tries to come up with a cure to it. And manages to build a machine that freezes time. One that Ruath wanted to use to freeze time at night and allow the Vampires to roam freely.
The Doctor is able to destroy the machine, and accidentally kill all of the Vampires at the same time. The Doctor at the end, takes Ruath to Gallifrey to be tried for their crimes. And the Doctor heads back to Manchester 1993 to spend his holiday with his companions.
Serial Four (Ep. 10-11): ICEBERG
Written by David Banks
Directed by Robert Bierman
Air Dates: 2 October-9 October 1993
This serial would take place a cruise-ship, heading towards Antarctica. And be mainly told through the eyes of one of the passengers on the ship. The passenger being Ruby Duvall. Who is a Sarah-Jane Smith like character, being a feisty reporter.
This serial would show a new side to the Cybermen (despite keeping the big and bulky Earthshock designs). With the Cybermen invading Earth and converting the humans. But this time, out of compassion. To make sure that the Human race does not have to go through what they went through. As the Earth is on the course that Mondas was on.
With this serial's environmental message and new take on the Cybermen. This would be another popular one of McCallum's era.
Serial Five (Ep. 12-16): BLOOD HEAT
Written by Jim Mortimore
Directed by Richard Standeven
Air Dates: 16 October-13 November 1993
In this universe, after some initial investigation is revealed to be a universe where the Doctor failed to create a cure for the Silurian plague in Doctor Who and the Silurian's. As such, the Silurian's and Sea Devils are now roaming the Earth. While the rest of humanity as been trying and failing to fight a guerilla style campaign. Against the two races. But, nothing has worked.
The Doctor tries to organize a revolution on Earth. With the Brigadier being by his side. While this is going on. Marcus becomes close with Benton and Yates. With them saying that Marcus is perfect UNIT material.
Throughout the later half of the serial, the revolution happens. With the Doctor able to overthrow both the Silurian's and Sea Devils. And at the end of episode four. The Brigadier uses a biological weapon against the two races. Which leaves the Doctor in extreme anger.
The final episode of the serial sees the Doctor and company staying in the parallel universe for a few days as he tries to get the TARDIS to take off and leave the universe. This is happening alongside Marcus becoming more and more chummy with the UNIT personnel. And at the end of the episode, the Doctor is able to restart the TARDIS and is ready to take off. Once he tells Bernice and Marcus this. Marcus says that he is going to stay in the universe. The Doctor talks with Marcus. Asking him if he is sure. As, he'll never be able to return home. Marcus points out that he never had a home. But, he does now. Marcus says goodbye to the Doctor and Bernice and they enter the TARDIS as it departs.
30th Anniversary Special: THE UNRAVELING OF TIME
Written by Ben Aaronovitch
Directed by Graeme Harper
Air Dates: 20 November 1993
The serial begins in the TARDIS. The Eighth Doctor at the console, flicking levers and pushing buttons. Bernice enters the console room. Bernice asks if everything is alright. The Doctor says that everything is peaceful and quiet. And... he does not like that. And suggests they go on an adventure.
After the Doctor says this. The TARDIS starts violently shaking with the Cloisters ringing. The Doctor and Bernice is knocked to the floor. And while the shaking happens, the Doctor slowly pulls himself off the floor and pushes a couple of buttons. The shaking stops and Bernice gets off the floor. The cloisters still ringing. The Doctor then feels a big pain. He looks at Bernice and says, "Someone is messing with my personal history."
The Doctor and Liz mention the Ambassadors being returned to Mars as well as the remaining conspirators being arrested by UNIT. And that the Doctor is considering moving the console to a place with a nuclear powerplant seeing if that could help him with his predicament about being stranded on Earth.
After this, a TARDIS lands outside UNIT H.Q. and a platoon of Sontaran's exit the ship. (Just a quick side-note, originally in the scripting process. This was supposed to be the Master. However, due to Ian Richardson being unavailable with him filming To Play the King. He was not able to appear in the special and for the Third Doctor's villain. It was re-written to feature the Sontarans). The Sontaran leader, General Nekko says, "To avenge Commander Linx, We must prevent the biggest threat to the Sontaran race! We must kill the Doctor!".
The TARDIS lands in a sandy looking planet. The Doctor exits the TARDIS with K-9 and he says, "This isn't Brighton." The Doctor turns around and insults the TARDIS. Calling her a stupid machine.
A different TARDIS lands next to the Doctor and K-9. And out walks none other than Sarah Jane Smith. She tells the Doctor that she had been kidnapped by someone and the next thing she knew. She was being held at gunpoint forced outside of someone else's TARDIS. The Doctor being puzzled tells Sarah that it's best that she stays with him for the time being.
The trio walk alongside the sandy planet until they come to a cliff edge and look down below and they see a group of Daleks. The Doctor says that... they are in trouble now.
The TARDIS lands on a Earth like planet. The Doctor and Nyssa walk around for awhile. Before they are ambushed by gunfire. The Doctor and Nyssa do some some running throughout the streets of the Earth like planet.
The Doctor and Nyssa hide in some buildings and when they are hiding. We see who was shooting at them. And we see that it is the Cybermen. A Cyber Leader leading the group tells them that under his orders, they must hunt down and kill the Doctor and his companion.
The TARDIS then lands on the beaches of Blackpool. With the Doctor and Peri trying to take a holiday. But, get caught up in some people dying after playing a specific video game.
When there is panic going on. The Doctor and Peri see someone looking at the chaos and laughing. And we see that it is the Rani.
The Doctor and Ace do some investigation and come across an archeological team excavating the underground cavern on Mars. With them eventually coming across an Ice Warrior hive. The Doctor and Ace tries to get them to stop from waking up the Ice Warriors. But, they fail to do so and the Ice Warriors begin waking up.
We then cut back to the Eighth Doctor's TARDIS as it finally lands on Gallifrey. The TARDIS doors open. Romana and Leela walk in and do some injections into the Doctor, which stabilizes him. The Doctor is able to stand up and the four of them exits the TARDIS. The four of them sit in Romana's office as she says that someone has been messing with time. Trying to erase the Doctor from history. And they have already managed to destroy both the First and Second Doctor's incarnations. However, for some reason. This is only effecting the Doctor's eighth incarnation.
The Doctor comes up with an attack strategy. He writes down a list of items he needs for Romana to provide him. Romana has a guard grab the items he needs. And the Doctor and Bernice load the items onto the TARDIS. He asks Romana for the known coordinates of the troubles of his Third, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth and Seventh incarnations. Romana supplies him with the list. And the Doctor says that he needs to stop his other incarnations being wiped from history first. With this, the Doctor and Bernice depart in the TARDIS.
The two Doctors come up with a plan to use a Gallifreyan force-field to put it around UNIT H.Q. and a special signal out that makes all Sontaran weapons unable to fire their weapons. With this, the rest of the UNIT soldiers kill the Sontarans.
The Eighth Doctor then go into the Third Doctor's TARDIS to do some repairs. And then writes down some Space/Time coordinates. He hands them to the Third Doctor and says that he'll need all of his own help to defeat whoever is behind this. The Doctor and Bernice then leave for the their next location as the Third Doctor asks Liz if she would like... an off world trip.
The Doctor and Bernice are then taken to the Fourth Doctor, Sarah and K-9. The Doctors talk as the Eighth catches the fourth up on what has been happening.
The Fourth and Eighth Doctors along with the help of their companions come up with a plan. Which tricks the Daleks into letting them go and for them to self-destruct. The Doctors and companions then escape. While this is happening. The Eighth Doctor tells the Fourth Doctor where he and Sarah need to go to fight who is behind the events.
The Eighth Doctor lands his TARDIS next to the Fifth Doctor's TARDIS. The two Doctors do some research of the planet and they are surprised to find out that they are on Mondas. Which confuses the two Doctors as Mondas is supposed to be destroyed. The Eighth Doctor suspects that someone has been messing with time.
The two Doctors along with Nyssa formulate a plan to wipe the Cybermen off the planet. And they come to the conclusion that using both TARDIS' shields, they can knock the Cybermen off the planet. In which, they are successful in doing so. The Eighth Doctor tells the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa where to pilot the TARDIS.
Once the two TARDIS' take off. The Doctor starts talking to Bernice. Telling her that he has a few sneaking suspicions about who is behind the activities they have been dealing with.
The Sixth Doctor and Peri are imprisoned and are basically immediately freed by the Eighth Doctor and Bernice. And the Doctor quickly catches them up on what's happening while dodging laser fire by the Rani's guards. The Two Doctors then come up with an idea on how to stop the Rani. The two of them surrender themselves to the Rani and as she begins to plug them into a massive computer. The Doctor's use their combined brain power to overflow the computer. Which causes it to explode with the four of them getting out of the building before it blows up.
The Doctors talk about what is going on. And the Eighth Doctor admits that he thought it was the Rani who was behind the attack on his lives. The Sixth Doctor points out that he has one more incarnation to save. The Eighth Doctor realizes it that. Gives the coordinates to his previous self. And he and Bernice leave in the TARDIS.
The Seventh Doctor acts normal and asks the Eighth Doctor, "So. We have some problems with our timeline?". The Eighth Doctor taken aback says that they are. And asks "Who-". Before the Eighth Doctor could finish. The Seventh Doctor says, "The Ice Warriors."
The Eighth and Seventh Doctors as well as Bernice and Ace help the archeologists fight off the Ice Warriors and also so that the archeologists escape from the planet. After they trap the Ice Warriors in the caves of Mars, the archeologists are able to escape in their vessels. The Seventh Doctor puts Ace in the TARDIS. And then tells the Eighth Doctor that he will rendezvous on Gallifrey. He then enters his TARDIS and leaves.
Romana says that she has had her CIA contacts do some digging on who could be behind it and, while not a definite name. It is agreed by everyone that she asked has agreed that a Time Lord is behind it. Someone with a vendetta against the Doctor.
A man's voice then interrupts them saying, "I believe I could give you a few answers to what I did. Doctor, Lady President."
The Doctor and the Monk have words. And the Monk says that he wanted to try and tamper the Doctor's timeline so that he can turn all of his victories into defeats so that the Monk can meddle with time as much as he wants to. The Doctor says that it is the ridiculous plan. As it's not just him. But the Chancellery Guard and the CIA would eventually get him and put a stop to his plans.
The Monk laughs at that claim. And then runs out of the building into the streets of Gallifrey in which he is cornered by the Third, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth and Seventh Doctor's. They are later joined by the Eighth Doctor. The Monk then opens his TARDIS and several monsters are let out of his TARDIS. Including the Voord (from The Keys of Marinus), the Macra (from The Macra Terror), the Ograns (from Day of the Daleks and Frontier in Space), the Wirrn (from The Ark in Space), the Terileptils (from The Visitation), the Vervoids (from Terror of the Vervoids), the Tetraps (from Time and the Rani) and the Verdak (from Victorian Machinery). The Doctors and companions fight off the monsters while the Monk slips away with the Eighth Doctor pursuing him.
The Doctor and the Monk end up in the outsider's village. As the two of them have a mental battle, which is intercutted by the previous Doctors and companions dealing with the monsters. And right when it seems that the Monk was about to kill the Doctor. His previous incarnations come in and help the Eighth Doctor overpower the Monk. As the Monk collapses to the ground. Leela is joined by CIA officers to arrest the Monk, who is taken to a Gallifreyan prison.
The Eighth Doctor then one-by-one says goodbye to each of his predecessors, full of easter-eggs related to each Doctor's era. After everyone says goodbye and heads back into their timestreams. The Doctor and Bernice head back to the city and into the building with Romana's office. The Doctor talks to Bernice about Time Lords and their culture. And on how, it has seemingly changed with his friends being in charge of the planet.
They enter Romana's office. And Romana jokes about the last time this had happened on a major scale, Gallifrey was in an unstable place where the Time Lord hierarchy was rife with corruption. And that the Chancellor at the time thought the right person to take on the role as President.
The Doctor stops her and says that he still has no intention of wanting to become Lord President of Gallifrey. Romana laughs and says that she has no intention of forcing that onto Gallifrey nor the Doctor. But, if she ever needs his advice or help on any matters. The Doctor immediately cuts in and says that he would be more than willing to help out a friend. Romana smiles and says that she will try and keep him out of anything unless completely needed. The Doctor and Bernice then enter the TARDIS and the ship dematerializes.
The Doctor pilots the ship away from Gallifrey and he talks to Bernice about his life in the TARDIS. This morphs into a scene taken from An Unearthly Child where the First Doctor and Susan explain to Ian and Barbara about themselves and the TARDIS. With it cutting back to the Eighth Doctor and Bernice. Saying that so much time has changed, yet it feels like nothing has changed at all. The Doctor smiles and then goes to the TARDIS console. He looks at Bernice and says,. "Any requests madam?" Bernice smiles and says, "Somewhere fun." The Doctor pulls a lever as we cut to the end credits.
Season Conclusion
So that was the 30th season of Doctor Who. The season overall received high critical praise and huge appreciation from audiences. With the anniversary special itself getting a big boosts in the ratings for the BBC.
However, behind the scenes times were a-changing. As, a month before the 30th anniversary special aired. David McCallum publicly announced he'd be standing down as the Doctor and the end of the following season.
Come Back Next Time for Doctor Who: Season Thirty-One
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