Season 37 - 2000
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This season would also be the final season of Jaye Griffiths as Alison Harding who would leave in the final story of the season, her departure was originally announced in Doctor Who Magazine before officially being announced a couple days later.
This season would be the first season to be produced by BBC Wales, in order to give the show a new and modern feel as well as the variety of locations it could offer. Because of this, head of drama at BBC Wales Matthew Robinson would become Executive Producer along with Verity Lambert and Mal Young would also join as an Executive Producer, Ann
Harrison-Baxter would join as a producer along with Jonathan P. Llewelyn.
This season also saw a brand new logo introduced, the new logo was a lot more simpler in design than the previous one but still worked as a Doctor Who logo. There was also a new title sequence with a new theme tune by David Arnold, composer of the Bond movies ‘Tomorrow Never Dies’ and ‘The World is Not Enough’, his take on the theme was to be much more mysterious than all things prior and had an edgy feel to them.
This season would also have a brand new TARDIS exterior, the new exterior was similar in-design of the 1980s though being more modern and a few things changed and we would also have a new interior, this time reminiscent of his first incarnation's control room with similar white walls and roundels, albeit with new coral support beams and a matching console, essentially it’s the War Doctor TARDIS console room from real life though with differences, for example it would be more 2000 based.
This season would now have ten stories with thirteen episodes, this meant 3 two-parters and 10 single part stories which was becoming a more favoured format.
This season’s writers were Paul Cornell, Justin Richards, Jacqueline Rayner, Jonathan Blum, Mark Gatiss, Mike Tucker, Robert Shearman, Russell T Davies and Steven Moffat and the stories included where Ten’s first story, NASA’s mission to Mars, Queen Mary, battling the Fearmonger, English Civil War, a missing painting, religion, Man-Eating Monsters, the return of Bernice and Alison’s departure.
The Ghosts of Fleming’s Asylum
By Paul Cornell
Aired: 30th September - 7th October
This story would’ve seen the TARDIS land in an psychiatric hospital in Victorian Cardiff, where the Doctor is suffering from post-regenerative stress and Alison is freaking out about everything due to the Doctor changing, this story would’ve been about entities roaming the asylum and people dying in fear as they
take their souls. We would eventually learn that these are aliens known as ‘The Norval’ who have been trapped inside the asylum for decades, in the end the Doctor defeats them when he uses a ghost-capture machine and we soon see the Doctor pick out a new outfit which as black suit, dark pink shirt and a purple tie. We also see the Doctor checking on Alison to see if she’s ok about his new incarnation to which she says “yes” and they leave in the TARDIS.
Red Dawn
By Justin Richards
Aired: 14th October
This story would be set on mid 21st century Mars and also would’ve been the return of the Ice Warriors
and would’ve focused on the first man mission to Mars, this story would see the Doctor and Alison deal with Izdaal, the greatest Ice Warrior who ever lived in Martian society.
The Marian Conspiracy
By Jacqueline Rayner
Aired: 21st October
This story would’ve seen the Doctor tracking a nexus point distortion and due to some changes made in history as Queen Mary I is still on the throne and Queen Elizabeth I is still imprisoned, because of Alison being an unknown descendant of Queen Elizabeth I, in the end history is restored to it’s proper course and Alison is saved as she was effected by the changes in history.
The Fearmonger
By Jonathan Blum
Aired: 28th October
Alerted of the presence of the Fearmonger on Earth, the Doctor and Alison travel back to Bethnal Green, arriving some time after Stephen Keyser and Walter Jacobs' attempt to assassinate Sherilyn Harper, leader of the far right party ‘New Britannia’. After talking with Stephen in a mental ward, the Doctor and Alison track down Walter, and persuade him to call off another attempt against Harper; they believed his story about Harper being the host of the Fearmonger. The Doctor built a trap to draw the Fearmonger out of Harper; however, even when he managed to trap Harper, it still didn't come out. In the end, the Doctor realised the Fearmonger travelled from host to host, and eventually passed from Walter to Alison. After revealing the truth behind the attacks against Harper (which she staged herself), the Doctor was threatened by Alison (who thought he was possessed) with a bomb, but was able to calm her down.
The Roundheads
By Mark Gatiss
Aired: 4th - 11th November
This story would cover the English Civil War, we would’ve seen the Doctor being arrested and Alison becoming an accomplice to rescue the king.
Dust Breeding
By Mike Tucker
Aired: 18th November
Recalling that Edvard Munch's The Scream was about to disappear under "mysterious circumstances", the Doctor decides to travel to the gallery housing it, planning to add it to his personal collection, as it was part of established history that it would be stolen. He and Alison arrive on Duchamp 331, a barren, dusty
planet, and discovered the painting had been inhabited by the Warp Core, which was animating the planet's dust. Whilst investigating, they encountered Bev Tarrant and encountering Terrance Hardiman’s Master. The Master plans to unleash the Warp Core on the universe as an animated planet, but the Doctor, Alison and Bev manage to stop him.
The Holy Terror
By Robert Shearman
Aired: 25th November
The story sees the Doctor and Alison arriving in a mediaeval castle after the crowning of the new emperor Pepin VI, to learn more about the society, the Doctor visits the scribe Eugene who is responsible for writing the new bible. However the Doctor soon notices that all the other bibles of previous emperors have been written by Eugene himself, then later on in the story the Doctor find a secret chamber beneath the castle, where Childeric has his son locked up in a small room cut off from society as he hopes that by raising a person who has never interacted with people he can become a god who speaks the language of the gods as he would not know what the human voice sounds like. Eugene is terrified by the boy as he believes he’s seen the face of the boy somewhere before, eventually the boy is released and when he is it’s like he’s an evil god and wants to kill everyone.
He begins to look for his father and after scanning childeric he discovers he is not his father and this results in the boy using his powers to destroy him, the boy then begins shifting round the castle searching for his father and anyone who isn’t ends up being killed and we eventually learn from the Doctor and Eugene that Eugene is in fact the father, it turns out the castle is a prison created by Eugene for himself after he murdered his son, he made the castle and filled it with generic stereotype characters in an attempt to escape his guilt for murdering his son.
However his son has become apart of the dream and we learn that Eugene has been reliving the same events for a long time where his son goes in search of his father before Eugene is forced to kill him again which would restore everything back to normal and everything repeats over and over again, eventually the Doctor helps Eugene by breaking the cycle by convincing him not to kill his son but instead Eugene lets his son kill him, which involves everything around them fading from existence leaving only the Doctor and Alison.
Hidden Truths
By Russell T Davies
2nd December
This story sees the Doctor and Alison land on the colony world Merkena, they investigate the disappearances of several people. They then contact several people and the Doctor learns they communicate with people using a device called ‘Smart Spheres’, the Doctor manages to persuade them to escape the city by proving to them that people were going missing, after he and Alison see that one of the citizens were being eaten by the Ensnarers. The people communicate with the Doctor as they try to escape but a few are eaten by the Ensnarers, until it’s just two people left, Joel and Beth. The Doctor tries to get them to join in the TARDIS along with other survivors, but instead the survivors choose war instead of fleeing, the story ends with the Doctor and Alison going back into the TARDIS as the survivors venture back into the main city to fight a battle they can’t win.
Destruction
By Paul Cornell
Aired: 9th December
The TARDIS lands Manchester where the Doctor helps a group called ‘The Earth Defence Agency’ led by Bernice Summerfield, we discover that Bernice and her team have disbanded since the death of her father and she formed this organisation, we soon learn Bernice is investigating a string of murders which appear to have been committed with an alien weapon and we discover it was one of Bernice’s old friends
who has been doing this to try and get her attention, eventually he’s defeated and at the end of the episode the Doctor has a touching farewell scene with Bernice and he and Alison leave in the TARDIS.
The Dead Army
By Paul Cornell
Aired: 16th December - 23rd December
The story sees the Doctor and Alison landing on an abandoned spaceship, and encounter a small group of people very clearly still alive. They reveal that they are part of what is known as the Undertaker Force, and that this ship is used as a cemetery to store the dead bodies of humans due to Earth's overpopulation not leaving enough room to bury them underground. Normally, they would only install bodies in the cryogenic compartments, however, something strange happened that forced them to look into events- there was a distress signal in the name of a corpse. The Doctor and Alison offer to help, and nearly turn a corner into a pair of people walking around. The Undertaker Force pull them back and reveal that those are the corpses that are believed to have given the distress signal. However, they are clearly not alive, and worse, they are also diseased. All they seem to want is to be put back out of their misery, but nothing they can do will let them have their wish. The Doctor tells Alison to head back to the TARDIS and fetch the ghost-catching machine from the beginning of the season, however, as Alison goes to do so, a pair of other cryogenic chambers fly open in front of her and the bodies get out. She runs back to alert the Doctor, however, the door she went through shuts, leaving her cornered.
Before the corpses can do anything with her, however, Alison finds a second door nearby and manages to force it open by messing with the wires controlling it, allowing her to escape. The Doctor and the Undertaker Force, in the meantime, hear the door close, and so do the corpses. Deciding there is no time to wait around for Alison to maybe return, the Undertaker Force insist on finding another exit, and the Doctor is forced to go with them, hoping that he will run into Alison again. Alison, alone, manages to hide from the increasing number of corpses that seem to be coming to life across the ship, only for her to find a light still on between the cracks in a door. She goes to leave, but the person inside tells her to "Come in. I know you're there." Alison goes to run, but a corpse sees her, and starts making its way towards her, asking to be killed. She decides it best to do as the voice says, and upon entering, sees an incredibly emaciated-looking man with red eyes. He reveals that he is best described as a "Nachzehrer", and he sent out the distress signal, with the intention of getting people here to feed him. When a person approaches the corpses, the disease the corpses emit sucks out some of their life energy, which he can then feed himself on. To give an example, he reveals a member of the Undertaker Force, who had been taken away and zombified earlier, stating that they had put up quite the struggle. He knew full well that setting up this kind of situation would bring the Doctor here, as he wished to take the life force of a Time Lord, and having Alison here is the perfect bait. The Doctor and the Undertaker Force, whose members are slowly picked off to about two or three members over the course of the episode, are hiding from the corpses when they hear a message to arrive at the Editor's office in five minutes. The Doctor is confused, only for the leader of the Undertaker Force to reveal the truth of the ship: they are on Satellite Five.
They arrive at the Editor's Office in time, and the Nachzehrer reveals himself to the Doctor. We learn that it was present on board the ship during the events of *The Long Game*, and that it could feel even then how much energy it could gain from if it consumed the Doctor. To blackmail the Doctor into complying, he reveals a half-zombified Alison, whom he bit previously. Against the wishes of the Undertaker Force, the Doctor decides to comply, and allows himself to be zombified, losing his morals in the process. However, it is with a plan in mind, which he acts on immediately, overpowering the Nachzehrer's influence over the
corpses to get them to head for the Editor's office. Telling Alison and the Undertaker Force to hide, the Doctor opens the doors to the Editor's office, allowing the corpses to come in and surround the Nachzehrer. He gets the group to back out slowly and follows them, and, after shutting the doors, lets the corpses tear the Nachzehrer apart. With the threat clear, the Doctor bids the Undertaker Force farewell, and goes to recover from what happened in the Zero Room. Once he returns, he is shocked at what he allowed to happen, and accepts Alison's desire to leave, as the events on the spaceship proved too much for her. After dropping her off and saying goodbye on relatively good terms, the Doctor sets off, determined to never let his companions fall as much into harms' way again.
And that concludes Season 37 of Doctor Who, this season was quite good on the whole though with some floors, thank you to Our Holy Leader Sylvester McCoy on Discord for helping me out with the finale and the name of the team in Destruction, the next season is Season 38 of Doctor Who until then thank you for watching and goodbye.
Thank You To:
Our Holy Leader Sylvester McCoy
Opticalspectre
Conbow
Knottyorchid
DonNeutron
Toffa
The Name's Jim
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