Doctor Who

It was the final season of the "classic" series. Unusually for a Doctor Who season, aside from some scenes in Survival, all the stories took place on Earth. Apart from Battlefield, the stories followed a loose character arc, as Ace came to terms with her past. As for the Doctor, he had become darker in personality, treating others as pawns in the battle between good and evil while dressing in dark clothes to match his personality change. This was the first and so far only season to be produced entirely out of broadcast order.

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  E1Battlefield (1)

  Sep 6, 1989· 25m

  As UNIT are transporting a nuclear warhead around Carbury, knights in armour arrive to continue waging a war that began thousands of years ago, but in a wholly different dimension.

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  E2Battlefield (2)

  Sep 13, 1989· 25m

  The Doctor and Ace discover a stone spaceship underneath Warmsley's archaeological dig while Mordred summons Morgaine to Earth's dimension.

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  E3Battlefield (3)

  Sep 20, 1989· 25m

  The Brigadier rescues the Doctor from the stone spaceship before they set out to locate Morgaine before she gains Excalibur.

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  E4Battlefield (4)

  Sep 27, 1989· 25m

  Morgaine forces Ace and Shou Yuing to hand over Excalibur by threatening to release the Destroyer, so the Doctor and the Brigadier enter a dimensional portal to stop her.

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  E5Ghost Light (1)

  Oct 4, 1989· 25m

  The Doctor and Ace explore Victorian house Gabriel Chase and realise it hides just as many dark secrets in its drawing room as it does in its dark cellar.

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  E6Ghost Light (2)

  Oct 11, 1989· 25m

  The Doctor manages to rescue Ace from the husks and then tries to uncover the truth about the goings on in Josiah's house.

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  E7Ghost Light (3)

  Oct 18, 1989· 25m

  Only Redvers, still searching for the elusive Saxe-Coburg, seems able to withstand Light and communicate with Control. Ace realises her past actions need to be dealt with.

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  E8The Curse of Fenric (1)

  Oct 25, 1989· 25m

  England, the 1940s. The TARDIS brings the Doctor and Ace to a secret naval base during WWII. There, the time-travellers battle vampiric Haemovores and an ancient Viking curse!

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  E9The Curse of Fenric (2)

  Nov 1, 1989· 25m

  The Doctor and Ace manage to convince Sorin to release them while Millington and Judson attempt to translate the Viking runes.

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  E10The Curse of Fenric (3)

  Nov 8, 1989· 25m

  The Doctor and his friends come under attack from the Haemavores, allowing Millington to retrieve the flask containing Fenric's essence.

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  E11The Curse of Fenric (4)

  Nov 15, 1989· 25m

  Fenric is loose and planning to use the Ancient Haemovore to poison the Earth with chemicals, unless the Doctor can defeat him in their centuries old game.

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  E12Survival (1)

  Nov 22, 1989· 25m

  Perivale, England, the late 1980s. People are vanishing into thin air under the baleful stare of a very strange cat. The Doctor and Ace learn that, in the battle for survival, success can carry a terrible price...

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  E13Survival (2)

  Nov 29, 1989· 25m

  The Doctor and Paterson manage to escape from the Master and join up with Ace and her friends, where the Doctor tries to find a way to get them all off the planet before it explodes.

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  E14Survival (3)Finale

  Dec 6, 1989· 25m

  Ace manages to transport the Doctor and the others back to Perivale but the Master is also there, preparing for a final showdown with the Doctor.

As the silver anniversary season, it included several stories noting the milestone: Remembrance of the Daleks, which featured the final "classic series" appearance of the Daleks and Davros and which would feature scenes set at Coal Hill School and 76 Totter’s Lane, both significant locations in the first episode, An Unearthly Child; and Silver Nemesis, the final classic series appearance of the Cybermen, which had its first episode broadcast on the actual 25th anniversary of the series. It also showed the lighter side of the Seventh Doctor's personality fade and be replaced by darker qualities. The Greatest Show in the Galaxy was also the last episode to have the Doctor dressed in bright colours. This would also be the first season that would be recorded with the intention of, and be broadcast in, a stereo mix.

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  E1Remembrance of the Daleks (1)

  Oct 5, 1988· 25m

  London, 1963. Returning to the scenes of his first televised adventure, the Doctor and new companion Ace play a tricky game of bluff and deceit involving two rival Dalek factions, local soldiers, and the awesomely powerful Gallifreyan artefact, the Hand of Omega...

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  E2Remembrance of the Daleks (2)

  Oct 12, 1988· 25m

  With two factions of Daleks involved in a race war on Earth, the Doctor takes care of old business by having the Hand of Omega ceremoniously but quietly buried in a churchyard. His actions do not go unobserved, and leaving behind a bored Ace without a purposeful outlet could spell trouble as well.

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  E3Remembrance of the Daleks (3)

  Oct 19, 1988· 25m

  The Doctor plans to let one of the Dalek factions have the Hand of Omega (but not too easily, of course) while keeping Gilmore and his military men preoccupied in a safe territory, but that plan could be threatened by a mole in their midst and a miscalculation on the Doctor's part.

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  E4Remembrance of the Daleks (4)

  Oct 26, 1988· 25m

  The Omega device is in jeopardy. A giant Dalek warship hangs above the Earth. London has become a battleground for ruthless alien intelligences.

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  E5The Happiness Patrol (1)

  Nov 2, 1988· 25m

  The Earth colony Terra Alpha, the future. With the aid of her sweet-natured executioner, Helen A, ruler of the planet, has ensured the population is happy - on pain of death! The Doctor and Ace decide to fight for the right to be miserable.

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  E6The Happiness Patrol (2)

  Nov 9, 1988· 25m

  The Doctor and Earl manage to escape from the Kandy Man and join up with the planet's natives, the Pipe People, enlisting their help to rescue Ace.

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  E7The Happiness Patrol (3)

  Nov 16, 1988· 25m

  As the Doctor leads the Pipe People towards reclaiming their world, Helen A faces betrayal from those closest to her.

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  E8Silver Nemesis (1)

  Nov 23, 1988· 25m

  The Doctor and Ace battle the time traveller Lady Peinforte and the Cybermen for possession of the incredibly powerful Nemesis statue, which is on its way back to the planet Earth to rendezvous with a destiny set in stone by the Doctor himself.

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  E9Silver Nemesis (2)

  Nov 30, 1988· 25m

  As hostilities break out between factions vying for ownership of the comet, the Doctor goes after the worst of the lot - Cybermen, using Ace's upgraded boom box to flood Cyber Communications with jazz music while trying to locate the whereabouts of the fleet beyond this mere scouting party.

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  E10Silver Nemesis (3)

  Dec 7, 1988· 25m

  With the Cyber Fleet poised nearby, the Doctor may have no choice but to let them have Nemesis. Meanwhile, Lady Peinforte and Richard navigate modern society, De Flores encounters an open betrayal, and Ace combats Cybermen with a slingshot.

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  E11The Greatest Show in the Galaxy (1)

  Dec 14, 1988· 25m

  The Doctor and Ace visit the Psychic Circus on the planet Segonax, where they find the standard of judging at the talent contest distressingly astringent.

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  E12The Greatest Show in the Galaxy (2)

  Dec 21, 1988· 25m

  The Doctor and Ace reach the Psychic Circus, where the Doctor is imprisoned with the other contestants while Ace draws the attention of the Chief Clown.

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  E13The Greatest Show in the Galaxy (3)

  Dec 28, 1988· 25m

  Mags helps the Doctor escape and Deadbeat leads him to Ace, where Bellboy tells them what happened to the Psychic Circus.

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  E14The Greatest Show in the Galaxy (4)Finale

  Jan 4, 1989· 25m

  Mags goes to find Ace and Kingpin, pursued by the Chief Clown, while the Doctor confronts the power behind the Psychic Circus.

Unlike season 23, there was no overall story arc, and the episode allotment - two four-episode stories, two three-episode stories - would be retained for the remainder of the original series. Notably, the season featured the introduction of new companion Ace, who would be a prominent figure in the spinoff fiction that kept the Doctor Who name alive following its cancellation in 1989 and was the final official onscreen companion until Rose Tyler in the revived series.

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  E1Time and the Rani (1)

  Sep 7, 1987· 25m

  The alien world of Lakertya. With the aid of the savage Tetraps, the Rani has conquered this planet to allow her to continue her depraved biochemical experiments. But she finds herself needing the Doctor's assistance...

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  E2Time and the Rani (2)

  Sep 14, 1987· 25m

  The Rani's impersonation of Mel backfires badly because Urak can't tell the difference, while the Doctor attempts to learn the secret of the Loyhargil.

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  E3Time and the Rani (3)

  Sep 21, 1987· 25m

  The solstice nears, making it time for the Rani to bring her plans into fruition. The Doctor's sympathies for Beyus, ruler of the Lykertyans, are rather qualified. Beyus' heart is for his people yet something prompts him to collaborate fully in helping the Rani reach all her objectives. The answer, he's told, lies within the Center of Leisure.

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  E4Time and the Rani (4)

  Sep 28, 1987· 25m

  The Rani, at last, links the Doctor into her great brain machine, the crowning jewel in her component packet of geniuses brought together to turn Lakertya itself into one vast cerebral mass capable of redirecting time anywhere in the universe, giving her absolute power over all creation.

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  E5Paradise Towers (1)

  Oct 5, 1987· 25m

  The legendary Paradise Towers is supposed to be the height of luxury but when the Doctor and Mel arrive, they find it is as far from paradise as possible...

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  E6Paradise Towers (2)

  Oct 12, 1987· 25m

  With the Doctor condemned to death by the caretakers and their bizarre rulebook, Mel faces cannibalistic OAPS. Is Pex going to be the true hero of Paradise Towers?

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  E7Paradise Towers (3)

  Oct 19, 1987· 25m

  Mel and Pex play cat and mouse with the lethal cleaner robots while the Doctor and the surviving Kangs learn all about Kroagnon the Great Architect.

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  E8Paradise Towers (4)

  Oct 26, 1987· 25m

  Meeting up at the pool, the Doctor leads the surviving Rezzies, Kangs and Caretakers as they draw the line together on the 245th floor against the systematic cleansing of all life by Kroagnon and his robotic Cleaners.

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  E9Delta and the Bannermen (1)

  Nov 2, 1987· 25m

  Wales, 1959. A top-secret US satellite has mysteriously gone missing. This could have something to do with the arrival of a party of alien tourists en route to Disneyland, amongst their number Mel and the Doctor, and the Queen of the Chimerons - who's fleeing the Bannermen and their genocidal leader Gavrok...

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  E10Delta and the Bannermen (2)

  Nov 9, 1987· 25m

  Mel's just discovered something very interesting about the life cycle of her new friend and the Doctor has been cornered by an alien bounty hunter wearing blue suede shoes.

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  E11Delta and the Bannermen (3)

  Nov 16, 1987· 25m

  As Billy and Ray do what they can to help save Delta and the baby, the Doctor and Goronwy the beekeeper face Gavrok and his Bannermen one last time...

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  E12Dragonfire (1)

  Nov 23, 1987· 25m

  The deep-space trading post of Iceworld, the far future. The Doctor, Mel, their old friend Glitz and time-lost waitress Ace go in search of a fabulous treasure, supposedly guarded by a fire-breathing dragon. But what is the link between the treasure and Iceworld's proprietor, the frosty Mr Kane?

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  E13Dragonfire (2)

  Nov 30, 1987· 25m

  While Mel and Ace run from Glitz's former crewmen (whom he sold to Kane), officers Belazs and Kracauer conspire to overthrow Kane. The Doctor, meanwhile, discovers there really is a dragon in the ice caverns, which turns out to be a bio-mechanoid with a very interesting function.

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  E14Dragonfire (3)Finale

  Dec 7, 1987· 25m

  At last learning the location of the missing key to his spaceship, Kane has the dragon hunted down and Iceworld brutally purged of all visitors; but, the Doctor, visiting the Ice Garden, learns something significant that will put the chagrin on Kane's grand plans for home world vengeance.

This season had a unique format, never again repeated in the show. Doctor Who had returned to production after a near-cancellation and an eighteen-month production hiatus. For the first time, a season consisted of a single story, The Trial of a Time Lord, although this was made up of four serials from a production perspective: each serial was written by a different person (save for The Mysterious Planet and the first part of The Ultimate Foe, both of which were written by Robert Holmes) and featured a different story presented as evidence, excluding the final two episodes which concluded the ongoing story of the trial; the trial storyline itself acted as a framing device to bracket the first three serials. As a result, whether The Trial of a Time Lord should be considered one story or four has been intensely debated. This single-story format, sometimes referred to as a "miniseries", would later be utilised for the third and fourth series of Torchwood.

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With this season the BBC experimented with the format of the series, reducing the number of episodes to thirteen, but making each episode forty-five minutes long. The experiment did not result in improved ratings and at the end of the season the BBC announced it was cancelling the series; uproar from fans resulted in the BBC changing its mind and putting the series on an eighteen-month hiatus instead. This season is notable for featuring the final appearance of Patrick Troughton as the beloved Second Doctor, in a storyline that gave rise to a popular fan theory known as Season 6B.

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The Twin Dilemma, the first story with Colin Baker as the Sixth Doctor, aired last in the season. This season saw the departure of companions Tegan, Turlough and Kamelion and introduced Peri. Most episodes were the traditional twenty-five minute length. However, due to coverage of the 1984 Winter Olympics, Resurrection of the Daleks was re-edited before airing and shown as two forty-five minute episodes.

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Structurally, the season retread season 18's formula of including a trilogy of stories bound together by an overarching theme. In this instance, the tripartite tale involved Turlough's attempts to kill the Doctor at the behest of the Black Guardian.

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Two milestones occurred in Earthshock. Firstly, the Cybermen returned, unannounced, for the first time since Revenge of the Cybermen in 1975 with a completely different design, with David Banks' first appearance as Cyber-Leader, a role he would return to in subsequent stories involving the Cybermen until Silver Nemesis. Secondly, for the first time since The Daleks' Master Plan which had aired in 1965 and 1966, a companion died. Other milestones included Black Orchid, the first non-science fictional historical serial since 1966's The Highlanders, and the destruction of the Doctor's sonic screwdriver in The Visitation. A cliffhanger ending to the series appeared to have left Tegan stranded at Heathrow Airport with the Doctor abandoning her by mistake (the Doctor had spent most of the series trying to get Tegan back to Heathrow, which almost became a running theme).

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The season featured a story arc involving E-Space and the return of the Master who had stolen a new body rather than regenerate. The stories were darker and more adult in tone than those during the Graham Williams era. They also attempted to emphasise science, much to the satisfaction of both script editor Christopher H. Bidmead and executive producer Barry Letts. Notably, this season revolves around the theme of entropy, linking together all of its stories in a rare phenomenon for the show (while other story arcs would be linked together via people, objects, etc, the use of an overarching theme for a season was unprecedented). This theme would eventually foreshadow and culminate in the Doctor's regeneration at the end of the season.

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It consisted of five stories, plus the incomplete Shada, unfinished as a result of an industrial strike. Lalla Ward joined as Romana II, and the season is notable for the involvement of Douglas Adams in the writing department. This was the last season to use the traditional Delia Derbyshire "Doctor Who theme" arrangement.

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This season saw the introduction of the Black and White Guardians as well as the companion Romana, who became only the second female Time Lord companion since Susan. This season is sometimes colloquially known as The Key to Time season after the story arc involving the Key to Time. Although not the first season to consist of linked stories (Season 8 in 1971 was the first, as all the stories that year featured the Master), it was the first to be recognised as having a series long arc. Although multi serial arcs would occur again, such a full- season experiment wouldn't be attempted again until Season 23. The arc has a number of similarities to the Season 1 story The Keys of Marinus. The storyline was originally proposed for Season 15, but it required more planning.

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This season introduced K9 to the series and saw the departure of Leela. It was originally intended to include Terrance Dicks' story The Vampire Mutations but, due to a major BBC production of Dracula, it was postponed. It later became Season 18's State of Decay. To replace it, Dicks quickly scripted the season opener, Horror of Fang Rock. The season took a two week transmission break over the 1977 Christmas period, between the broadcast of part four of The Sun Makers and part one of Underworld.

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The season is notable for the departure of Sarah Jane Smith in The Hand of Fear and for The Deadly Assassin, a story set entirely on Gallifrey which expounded greatly upon the culture and history of the Time Lords, and the Eye of Harmony and Rassilon are mentioned for the first time. The Deadly Assassin also featured the return of the Decayed Master in a degenerated form and had the Doctor without a companion for an entire story for the first time in the history of Doctor Who. This story is also the first time the limit of regenerations is set.

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It was during this season that the Doctor cut ties to UNIT (after Terror of the Zygons, the Brigadier would not appear again until Mawdryn Undead in 1983, and The Seeds of Doom marked the last occasion to date that the Doctor was explicitly said to be working for UNIT - as opposed to working with them as occasions warranted). Several of the serials in this season, particularly Pyramids of Mars and The Brain of Morbius, are among the best-known of the 1970s-era storylines. Though it was aired as a part of Season 13, Terror of the Zygons was actually filmed as part of the previous season; this holdover allowed the series to switch back to an autumn season start.

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All the stories in this season were interconnected, several forming a loose story arc relating to Space Station Nerva. The Cybermen returned to the series for the first time since The Invasion. Genesis of the Daleks, a story which introduced Davros and showed the creation of the Daleks, is one of the most famous of all Doctor Who serials.

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It was Jon Pertwee's final season as the Doctor and included, very briefly, the first appearance of Tom Baker as the Fourth Doctor. The Time Warrior, the season opener, introduced Sarah Jane Smith, who was a frequently featured character in the Doctor Who universe decades after her departure in Season 14. The same story also, for the first time, named the Doctor's homeworld as Gallifrey. UNIT also began to be phased out of the series during this season.

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William Hartnell returned in a cameo as the First Doctor and Patrick Troughton in a more substantial role as the Second Doctor in The Three Doctors. This story marked the end of the Doctor's exile on Earth, opening up the series to more off-world adventures and beginning a gradual reduction of UNIT-related stories.

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It was noted for being the beginning of the end of the Doctor's exile on Earth, with the Doctor's TARDIS still under the control of the Time Lords (The Mutants) and restricted freedom (The Curse of Peladon and The Time Monster), as well as UNIT and the Master appearing less frequently in compared to the previous two series. As well as the return of the Daleks and the Ice Warriors, this series also introduced Alpha Centauri, Aggedor and the Silurians' aquatic cousins the Sea Devils.

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As of 2017, season 8 remains notable for being the season with the most number of regular characters. Not only did it see a new companion in the form of Jo Grant, but it featured a regular enemy — The Master — who was the first regular Time Lord enemy of the Doctor to appear more than twice, and an expanded regular UNIT cast that now included Sergeant Benton and Mike Yates in most episodes. Adding in returning regulars Jon Pertwee and Nicholas Courtney, the regular cast swelled to six.

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It was the first series produced and broadcast in colour and the first set entirely in one time period and almost entirely on Earth (the latter of these factors would later be repeated for Season 26 and Series 1, although in those two cases there was no attempt at an in-universe explanation for confining the Doctor to the planet). Although the series did not have an overall story arc, it did feature a recurring subplot of the Doctor trying to adjust to life as an exile while trying to circumvent the restrictions placed upon him by the Time Lords, and began the process where the Doctor would try to gain more control over his TARDIS. Beginning with this series and continuing for the next few years, most storylines involve the Doctor working with UNIT.

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This season featured the first ever UNIT story, The Invasion, which showcased the return of Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart. It also featured the first official appearance of Time Lords and the as yet unnamed Doctor's home planet (another member of Susan and the Doctor's race, the Monk, had appeared previously, but without much elaboration and without using the term "Time Lord"). It also marked the tenure of Patrick Troughton as the Second Doctor. It consisted of seven serials and forty-four episodes, including two epic-length storylines: the eight episodes of The Invasion and the ten-episode The War Games.

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No complete stories from the season were known to have survived until the early-1990s when archivists recovered a complete version of The Tomb of the Cybermen. A second complete story, The Enemy of the World was recovered in 2013, along with a nearly complete recovery of the story that followed it, The Web of Fear. The season is also notable for having Patrick Troughton play a double-role as both the Doctor and Salamander in The Enemy of the World.

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This season was a season of major changes for Doctor Who, including some that have influenced the series and franchise ever since. Most notably, season 4 saw William Hartnell's First Doctor hand off the baton to Patrick Troughton's Second Doctor in the very first regeneration. When Hartnell announced his plans to leave the series, the show's writers came up with the idea of having the Doctor change his appearance and personality. In 1966, while it was not uncommon for actors to change in ongoing TV and film roles, this was possibly the first time a change in appearance was written into the very nature of the character.

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At twelve episodes, The Daleks' Master Plan was the longest story in the show's history until superseded by the fourteen-episode The Trial of a Time Lord in 1986. The season also had the greatest number of different companions (seven) and producers (three). This was the longest season in the history of the franchise to date, at 45 episodes. It also featured the first appearance of actor Nicholas Courtney, although not in his most famous role as the Brigadier. The Daleks' Master Plan also saw the return of Peter Butterworth as the Monk, who became the second Doctor Who enemy to make a return (after the Daleks themselves) to the show. This was also the season of The War Machines, to date the only televised story in which the taboo of never referring to the Doctor directly by the name "Doctor Who" is broken, with the exception of Missy's teasing in World Enough and Time.

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Milestones this season included not one but two encore appearances by the Daleks; the departure of the original three companions, Susan Foreman, Barbara Wright and Ian Chesterton; and the first appearance of someone else from the Doctor and Susan's home planet, and the first Time Lord enemy to appear.

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The season introduces William Hartnell as the First Doctor, an alien who travels through time and space in his TARDIS, which appears to be a British police box on the outside. Carole Ann Ford is also introduced as the Doctor's granddaughter Susan Foreman, who acts as his companion alongside her schoolteachers Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright, portrayed by William Russell and Jacqueline Hill, respectively. Throughout the season, the Doctor and his companions travel throughout history and into the future. Historical stories were intended to educate viewers about significant events in history, such as the Aztec civilisation and the French Revolution; futuristic episodes took a more subtle approach to educating viewers, such as the theme of pacifism with the Daleks.

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