Doctor Who (season 26)

Doctor Who (season 26)
Starring	Sylvester McCoy Sophie Aldred
Country of origin	United Kingdom
No. of stories	4
No. of episodes	14
Release
Original network	BBC One
Original release	6 September – 6 December 1989

The twenty-sixth season of British science fiction television series Doctor Who began on 9 September 1989 with the serial Battlefield, after a regular series of four serials was broadcast finishing with Survival which was the final episode of Doctor Who to air before a 16-year absence from episodic television following its cancellation.

Casting

Main cast

• Sylvester McCoy as the Seventh Doctor
• Sophie Aldred as Ace

Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred both continue their roles as the Seventh Doctor and Ace for their final season.

Recurring stars

• Nicholas Courtney as Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart
• Anthony Ainley as The Master

Nicholas Courtney returned to play Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart in Battlefield. He first appeared with the Second Doctor in 1968 in The Web of Fear before becoming a recurring character throughout the Second Doctor to the Fifth Doctor and last appearing in The Five Doctors.

Anthony Ainley returned to play The Master in Survival, having last appeared in The Ultimate Foe (1986). This was Ainley's final television appearance in the role, though he portrayed the Master one last time in the 1997 computer game Destiny of the Doctors.

Guest stars

Former First Doctor companion actor Jean Marsh, who had portrayed Sara Kingdom in The Daleks' Master Plan, also appeared in Battlefield playing the part of the main antagonist.

Serials

Continuing on from Season 25, Season 26 continued script editor Andrew Cartmel's move to push the series towards a darker approach, focusing this time more on Ace's personal life as well as The Doctor's past and manipulations.

Story	Serial	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original air date	Prod. code	UK viewers (millions) [1]	AI [1]
152	1	Battlefield	Michael Kerrigan	Ben Aaronovitch	6 September 1989 13 September 1989 20 September 1989 27 September 1989	7N	3.1 3.9 3.6 4.0	69 68 67 65
The Doctor and Ace join forces with UNIT and his old friend the Brigadier against Morgaine (Jean Marsh) and Mordred, Arthurian villains who recognize the Doctor as Merlin.
153	2	Ghost Light	Alan Wareing	Marc Platt	4 October 1989 11 October 1989 18 October 1989	7Q	4.2 4.0 4.0	68 68 64
The Doctor brings Ace to Gabriel Chase, an old house that she once burnt down in her home town of Perivale. However, trying to get Ace to accept her guilt is not the real reason the Doctor came here; a mysterious and highly mentally unstable being slays below them.
154	3	The Curse of Fenric	Nicholas Mallett	Ian Briggs	25 October 1989 1 November 1989 8 November 1989 15 November 1989	7M	4.3 4.0 4.0 4.2	67 68 68 68
It's 1943, and Fenric plans a last game of chess with a Time Lord. The Doctor also has a very important secret he's been keeping from Ace since they met.
155	4	Survival	Alan Wareing	Rona Munro	22 November 1989 29 November 1989 6 December 1989	7P	5.0 4.8 5.0	69 69 71
A visit to the suburbs of Ace's home town lands the Doctor and Ace on a planet of killer cats. Also, the Master's up to his old tricks once again, but what could he be after this time?

Broadcast

The entire season was broadcast from 6 September to 6 December 1989. The Curse of Fenric was originally intended to be aired before Ghost Light, but was subsequently rescheduled.

DVD Release

All serials of season 26 were released individually in between 2003 and 2008.

Serial name	Number and duration of episodes	R2 release date	R4 release date	R1 release date
Battlefield	4 × 25 min. (Broadcast Version) 1 × 96 min. (Special Edition)	26 December 2008	5 February 2009	5 May 2009
Ghost Light	3 × 25 min.	20 September 2004	3 February 2005	7 June 2005
The Curse of Fenric	4 × 25 min. (Broadcast Version) 1 × 104 min. (Special Edition)	6 October 2003	11 February 2004	1 June 2004
Survival	3 × 25 min.	16 April 2007	6 June 2007	14 August 2007

In print

Serial name	Novelisation title	Author	First published
Battlefield	Battlefield	Marc Platt	1991
Ghost Light	Ghost Light	Marc Platt	1990
The Curse of Fenric	The Curse of Fenric	Ian Briggs	1990
Survival	Survival	Rona Munro	1990

Season 27

Initial planning work had begun on Season 27, intended for the end of 1990, in mid-1989 with Andrew Cartmel and a group of regular writers, including Ben Aaronovitch, Ian Briggs and Marc Platt, discussing potential story ideas. One of the major intentions was to have been the departure of Ace halfway through, which would have seen the character taken to Gallifrey to become a Time Lord. This would also have seen the subsequent introduction of a new companion, planned as an "aristocratic cat burglar". The cancellation of the series meant that no detailed work was undertaken beyond these initial ideas:^[2]

• Earth Aid by Ben Aaronovitch: Intended to feature a new monster called the "Metatraxi", a race of samurai like insect warriors, this was planned as a story concerning the politics of humanitarian aid. The only significant detail was the idea of the opening, which would have featured Ace as the captain of a starship.
• Thin Ice by Marc Platt: Planned as the serial that would see the departure of Ace, this was to see the return of the Ice Warriors and be set in London in 1968.
• The third serial was planned as the introduction of the new companion, who would have come across the Doctor in the midst of robbing a country house.

The proposed Season 27 serials have subsequently been commissioned by Big Finish as part of its Doctor Who: The Lost Stories range of audio adventures.

Although the first series of Doctor Who's return in 2005 is the 27th full series of the show, the production team officially restarted the series numbering from scratch. This was mainly due to the 16-year gap between Season 26 and the new series (not counting the 1996 television movie).

References

1. "Ratings Guide". Doctor Who News. Retrieved 27 December 2014.
2. Molesworth, Richard (Producer) (2007). "Endgame (documentary)". Survival. Doctor Who. London: BBC Worldwide.