Season 30 - 1993

 

By 1993, Doctor Who was rising in popularity and the general public were taking interest in the show for the first time in many years, Griffiths’ Doctor was extremely popular among fans and the Fraser and Aaronovitch era was highly praised, however 1993 was a special year for Doctor Who as it was 30 years since the show began and Fraser and Aaronovitch would make this season their last.

In 1993, Jonathan Powell left as controller of BBC1 and Alan Yentob took over, Yentob didn’t resent Doctor Who unlike Grade and Powell and instead saw the importance of the show and gave it his full support. Even though Doctor Who had just reached a high point at the end of the last season Ian Fraser and Ben Aaronovitch announced that they would not stay on for Season 31, they said that now was the right time to leave and they didn’t want to over stay their welcome on the show, they said they’d pretty much rescued the show from the mess it was and they didn’t want to be responsible for it going downhill again.

Due to it being the 30th Anniversary year, the BBC made three audio dramas these were ‘The

Universe Paradox’, ‘Warriors of War’ and ‘The Paradise of Death’ starring
Richard Griffiths and Lisa Bowerman and Jon Pertwee, Elisabeth Sladen and Nicholas Courtney, along with this more new merchandise was made including badges, card games and the resurrection of the Doctor Who annual.

This season was seen by Fraser as a test, it starts off with a companion introduction story as well as the last chapter in the Dalek civil war arc, a psychological thriller inside the TARDIS, an alternate universe with the Silurians, a living god from the time of the ancient Aztecs, a prequel to Battlefield, a political story on Gallifrey and the 30th Anniversary special.

This season would feature regular and new writers to write these stories: Colin Brake would write the first story introducing the new companion and ending the Dalek Civil War, Marc Platt would write the story completely set inside the TARDIS, Jim Mortimore would write the Alternate Silurian Earth story, Kate Orman would write the third story, Script Editor Ben Aaronovitch would write the prequel to his Season 26 story and newcomer Russell T Davies would write the finale of the season before Ben Aaronovitch would write the 30th.

The 30th Anniversary was the biggest problem Fraser and Aaronovitch were facing due to story ideas and former Doctors returning, the most obvious story being passed around as a potential 30th Anniversary special was ‘The Dark Dimension’ which would’ve been set in an alternate timeline, where the Fourth Doctor never survived his deadly fall in Part 4 of Logopolis, thus meaning Doctors 5, 6, 7 & 8 never existed. The story would be cantered around an older Fourth Doctor, the Brigadier & Bernice and the new companion trying to fix the universe as well as defeating whoever caused history to go wrong. This special, had it gone any further, would’ve been written by Adrian Rigelsford but it would’ve been to expensive to film and Jon Pertwee and Colin Baker refused to return unless they were given a bigger role with Tom Baker being given most of the screen time, Destination: Holocaust was also suggested which would’ve been written by David Roden and would’ve seen the Doctor reuniting with the Brigadier and facing the Cybermen but Fraser wasn’t particularly favourable of it, other ideas that were suggested were ‘Ascend from Darkness’ and ‘The Eyes of Death’. What was eventually decided upon was a story about Daleks attacking the Doctor’s timeline and Doctors 3-8 trying to restore the timelines, originally the story had a variety of different titles which were ‘Time’s Champion’, ‘The Darkness of Time’, ‘The Champion of Time’ and ‘The Lords of Gallifrey’, Fraser eventually decided that ‘The Champion of Time’ would be the better title for the 30th.

This season would see the introduction of a new companion as Fraser thought there would be a lot of potential for that sort of thing and so Aaronovitch asked Colin Brake to write the Dalek story involving the introduction of a new companion, in the end Brake and Aaronovitch created the character of Sergeant David Lyons and soon Samuel West was given the job.

Conflict of The Daleks

By Colin Brake

Aired: 3rd July - 17th July

This story would be a UNIT story and introduce David, we would see UNIT fighting both factions of Daleks as they try and keep people safe. We find out that the Imperial Daleks are planning to

wipe out the renegade Daleks by using a machine known as ‘The Skaro Project’ which can wipe out all Daleks which are not ideal with their vision of the Daleks. Throughout the story we would see the Doctor and Bernice trying to stop them whilst also becoming friendly with David, however at the end of Part Two the Imperials activate their machine causing the renegade Daleks to disintegrate and with that the Imperials win the war, ow with the renegades gone they plan to reuse the machine but this time on humanity, thankfully the Doctor uses the machine to only effect the Daleks and the story ends with both Dalek factions dead and David ends up becoming a companion.

The Terror Inside

By Marc Platt

Aired: 24th July - 7th August

This story would be entirely set inside the TARDIS, we would’ve seen an entity drain the TARDISes power and the trio would have to go and restore it, however they get separated along the way and they would have to cope on their own. This would be quite a psychological and dark story, we would’ve seen the Doctor have visions of Bernice and David dying after being killed by Kate out of revenge due to what he did to Jan, Bernice have a mental break down due to disembodied voices telling her she’ll die if she stays with the Doctor and David hearing similar voices telling him to kill the Doctor and experiencing visions of him aging to death as he goes on walking through the TARDIS.

In the end they all find each other, restore power back to the TARDIS and banish the entity, overall this would’ve been one of the best stories of all-time.

Blood Heat

By Jim Mortimore

Aired: 14th August - 28th August

This story would see the TARDIS land in alternate universe where the Third Doctor was killed during the events of ‘Doctor Who and The Silurians’ we see alternate versions of the Brigadier,

Liz Shaw, Benton and Jo Grant who has gone insane, we also see an alternate version of Morka the Silurian. At the end of the story we see Earth and the Silurians make peace and when the Doctor, Bernice and David leave this universe the Doctor discovers that the alternate universe is draining energy from the real universe and because there’s no other way the Doctor destroys the alternate universe, David becomes angered by this but eventually comes to terms with it.

The Left-Handed Hummingbird

By Kate Orman

Aired: 4th September - 25th September

This story would see the TARDIS trio be contacted by a man named Cristian Alvarez after a mass shooting takes place in Mexico City but they don’t know who Cristian is because they haven’t met him yet, throughout the story we’d see the TARDIS team go to many historical events from

the Aztec Empire in 1487, the sinking of the Titanic in 1912, London 1968, the discovery of the Aztec temples in 1978 and the assassination of John Lennon as they try and stop the Aztec god Huitzilin. In the end Huitzilin is defeated when his last life is used and he’s shot in the chest.

The Battle of Merlin

By Ben Aaronovitch

Aired: 2nd October - 23rd October

This story would see how the Doctor became Merlin and is a prequel to Season 26’s Battlefield, in that story it was said that a future incarnation of the Doctor would take the title of Merlin and banish Morgaine. In this story we see what was spoken of in Battlefield and would’ve seen the Doctor take the role of Merlin, banishing Morgaine, defeating the Destroyer, meeting King Arthur and preparing everything for his past incarnation as to not do any damage to the timeline.

The Fateful Election

By Russell T Davies

Aired: 30th October - 13th November

This story would focus of the election of Gallifrey and would see Romana re-running for president against the Imperium Chapter led by Arkadian (Played by Tim Piggot-Smith), in this story we see Arkadian kill members of the Prydonian chapter and other members of different chapters to make

sure he gets full power over Gallifrey, we see the Doctor helping Romana even though he’s not happy with it as he dosen’t care about politics but Arkadian concerns him and the Doctor soon finds out his scheme. If he wins, he’ll abolish all Gallifreyan chapters and either kill or imprison all political enemies but in the end the Doctor, Bernice, David, Romana, Leela and K-9 mark I and II expose all what Akadian has done and he is soon imprisoned and Romana wins the election and is crowned the new president.

The Champion of Time

By Ben Aaronovitch

Aired: 27th November 1993

We begin with a shot of London, it’s destroyed and a ufo lies damaged in the river thames, we then see the Eighth Doctor running back down some destroyed streets as he runs from Dalek laser fire, three Daleks are pursing the Doctor repeating “Exterminate!”

The Doctor starts to reach the TARDIS when the doors open and David gets him inside, Bernice standing behind the console asks the Doctor what happened, he says he dosen’t know but theorises he’s landed at an earlier point in the Dalek invasion of Earth before he stopped them, suddenly the TARDIS console's central column begins to move by itself. Bernice and David look at The Doctor who says quietly and gravely, "It's the Time Lords. We’re being taken to Gallifrey. Things are about to get very serious." As we cut to the opening credits.

We then see the TARDIS materiallise in Gallifreyan hallway in the citadel, two timelords greet the Doctor and co. before leading them into a white marble room, and the Doctor is surprised to find his five previous incarnations waiting for him.

He asks what the situation is and the third Doctor tells him that there are Daleks where they shouldn’t be and Romana and a new Timelord, Tyrell (played by Jeremy Brett) enter the room and explain this is an attack on their timeline and they reveal that those Daleks are from an alternate universe and reason they’re here is because the Eighth Doctor destroys the Daleks at some point in his future, but it’s an event that shouldn’t happen but has and they theorise someone or something has used a machine called the Omega event, which can create historical events which can’t or should never happen and knowing the damage the Omega event can cause the timelords have called upon the Doctors to stop the event.

We then cut to 2002, where we see Brigadier Bambera and UNIT get reports of Daleks landing all around the UK and we see she’s very stressed and very busy. She enters her office and sees the Third Doctor sitting on a chair and explaining to her he’s an earlier version of the Doctor and he’s here to help them stop the Daleks, Bambera is quite relieved about this as she can trust the Doctor to help her however a UNIT soldier bursts in and tells them that Daleks are attacking and they look out the window to see UNIT fighting the Daleks, the Doctor then notices a wormhole of sorts and he realises what it is in full horror and shock as he tells Bambera that it’s a Dalek time portal and that floods of Daleks can get through, he and Bambera think of a plan and the Doctor builds a device and Bambera then asks what they do with it  and the Doctor winks and says “Leave it with me.” We then see the Doctor driving Bessie and Bambera keeping the device safe, the Doctor disembarks from Bessie with the device. Making sure he has it on the right setting, the Doctor activates the device which shoots out an energy beam that destroys all the Daleks.

We then see the Fourth Doctor land in a stable in a mediaeval castle and explores some of the castle, until he gets caught by some guards and taken to Lord Anthony, played by Michael Kitchen, who orders him to be executed and he’s taken into the courtyard where he’s about to be shot with arrows by knights until a vortex opens up and Daleks start to slaughter everyone, the Doctor escapes but has to deal with Guards and Daleks. After sometime he gets back to the TARDIS and finds a bacteria which can effect Dalek casings and uses that on the Daleks and with a device he stole from Gallifrey closes the Dalek time portal, he gets chased around by guards a little more and eventually leaves in the TARDIS.

Elsewhere, the TARDIS has just landed and in the console room, The Fifth Doctor is studying the scanner. Outside appears to be a deserted patch of land. There are a few small buildings nearby and in the distance what appears to be an aircraft hangar. Beyond all that appears to be sea. Finally he spots a house and he steps outside and walks through a hedge-like maze, and after a while he makes his way to the house and is arrested by some androids and taken to ‘The Director’ played by Frank Finlay who says he’s stumbled upon Project: Proelium and he must be imprisoned, we then see androids throw the Doctor in a cell and we see the director and two other people get into an elevation and an observation room and start Project: Proelium and we see 35 people try and get to the end of the maze and if they are caught by the androids they’re eliminated and killed, we see the Doctor brake out of his cell and heading back into the maze to find the TARDIS and destroys one of the droids and finds a Dalek mutant inside the droid and realises he must stop the Director and the Daleks, he later finds the Director and finds that in the observation room and finds water tanks filled with Dalek-like creatures, but not exactly the same – it turns out that these are people who have won the previous tournaments have been kidnapped and are being turned into new Dalek mutants. the Doctor, inevitably, defeats them, by cracking open the incubator tanks, of the half-converted Daleks, which as they are in many ways still half human, they are filled with rage for what the Director has done to them, and they all kill the director, and they all die due to the experiments.

The Sixth Doctor arrives on a planet at night time and he finds a cave, he sees light in there and investigates where he finds a cult and whilst he’s spying on them someone grabs him and takes him into the centre of the circle and the leader of the cult, played by Murray Melvin, he says "Destroyer of Skaro, you shall pay! Bind him to the altar!" they try to tie him up to the altar and the Doctor realises they’re inhabitants of Skaro and the leader explains they lived on Skaro until he destroyed it and now he’ll pay for his crimes, the Doctor is now on the altar about to be tied up when a Dalek from the future comes through via time portal and starts to exterminate everyone, the Doctor takes some explosives from out his pocket and starts setting them up and it detonates sealing the Dalek inside.

The Seventh Doctor then lands on a colony world which he discovers has been invaded by the Daleks because they’re looking for a mineral which powers a new superweapon of theirs, the Doctor is then captured and is put into slave labour and meets some of the slaves who are Deus, Angelos and Millie, played by Martin Shaw, Alfred Burke and Joanna Lumley we find out they invaded the planet a couple of years ago and they get very little food and water and the Doctor says he’s gonna change that and he, Deus, Angelos and Millie all plan a revolution, they do this but most of the slaves are killed, Deus is exterminated and Angelos is killed by a Dalek Collaborator, played by Geoffrey Bayldon, so Millie is elected as leader of the planet and the Doctor eventually leaves.

The Eighth Doctor, Bernice and David land in London, 1993 and we see a full-on alien invasion where the Doctor, Bernice and David fight the Daleks and the Doctor has to think of something and he theorises that because history has somewhat been changed they’re DNA must be unstable and with help of the TARDIS sends a temporal rift around the Earth, which ages the Daleks by centuries killing them.

We then see all the Doctors land on the mothership where they confront the Emperor Dalek and we see the Doctors teaming up and stopping the Daleks from what they were doing and destroy the equipment for the Dalek time portals and rescuing their companions who are Jo, Sarah Jane, Nyssa, Peri and Ace.

They all go back to Gallifrey and we see Romana greet the Doctors and she says that the Omega Event is still active and we find out it was the work of Tyrell who wanted to cause chaos and see time suffer, he tries to get away but is arrested by the CIA and all the Doctors go back to their rightful times and places, but we see the TARDIS land in a cottage garden and the Eighth Doctor, Bernice and Henry step out and we see the Doctor visit Ian Chesterton, Ian asks what’s happened and the Doctor replies with “Ian, it’s a very long story.” As we cut to the closing credits.

And that concludes Season 30 of Doctor Who, an extremely popular season and it was the start of Doctor Who luring back the general public with the show getting more attention, the next season is Season 31 of Doctor Who, until then thank you for reading and goodbye.

Thank You To:

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