Season 39 - 2002

 

Season 39 of Doctor Who would be quiet turbulent in production terms, Verity Lambert would

announce that he would be leaving the show at the end of Season 39 after she took over in 1998, many fans thought her era of the show was good but could’ve been done better but they laid the blame on the BBC as they didn’t let Lambert have a lot of creative control. Sandy Johnson was also a last minute addition before the season began production, he would be a producer, although he was mainly a director, and would work alongside Ann Harrison Baxter.

This season would also see Doctor Who not having any story arc for this season, Lambert and Cornell decided not to go through with it but revealed there was a planned story arc involving Terrence Hardiman’s Master but it ended up not going to plan and going through development hell and was soon dropped.

Also in early-2002, The Sun rumoured that the characters from the spin-off ‘Earth Defence’ would have a crossover episode involving the Daleks, which was debunked by BBC a few weeks later.

The Symphony of Horror

31st August - 7th September

By Paul Cornell

This story sees the Doctor and Samantha arrive in Germany 1921 to witness the film of Nosferatu, the first adaptation of Dracula. They meet many of the cast and crew including the director F.W. Murnau and the film’s star Max Schreck who plays Max Schreck, the Doctor and Sam notice Schreck is acting weird and soon later people working on the film start acting weird too and it turns out Schreck is an actual vampire but it’s not what it seems. It turns out there’s an amulet on the set which causes an actor to become the role or creature they are playing and therefore Schreck has become a vampire, in the end the Doctor and Murnau team up and they film Count Orlok’s death scene and due to Orlok being killed by the sun Schreck also begins to die but the Doctor destroys the amulet and Schreck and the crew members go back to normal.

Blind Eye

14th September

By Ashley Pharoh

This story would see the Doctor and Samantha land in London 2304 where they discover Britain to be under ‘The Council’, everyone turns a blind eye to their atrocities and the Doctor basically tries to get a revolution started which he eventually does.

The Dying Empire 

21st - 28th September

By Mark Gatiss

This story would see the Doctor and Samantha land on Mars in 6725 and discover that the Martian Empire is on it’s last legs and the Ice Warriors are slowly dying out, the story would see

Mars being invaded by humans and the Doctor trying to help the Ice Warriors for once but in the end the Ice Warriors are defeated and the Doctor is disgusted in them.

Clown Night

5th October

By Robert Shearman

This story sees the Doctor and Samantha arriving in a village and discovering everyone to be living in fear due to children going missing and the sightings of clowns, then at night the clowns invade the village and the Doctor discovers that the children are afraid of the clowns and the only reason the clowns are living is because of the fear. In the end the Doctor defeats the clowns and frees the children.

The Grinning Man

19th October

By Steven Moffat

This story would see the Doctor and Samantha arrive at a party at a mansion and the guests soon being killed one by one, the Doctor, Samantha and the guests try to solve who is killing the guests and in the end the discover a legend about the house and how it’s stalked by ‘The Grinning Man’, the Doctor knows it’s got to be a legend but even he becomes scared. In the end
they discover that the Grinning Man is in fact a species of alien known as a ‘Nightmare Sentient’ which the Doctor defeats.

Mine, All Mine

26th October - 2nd November

By Paul Abbott

This story would see the Doctor and Samantha visit the Dakagon kingdom and meet their insane ruler Carrados, played by Andy devine, who believes wherever his army goes then that territory

automatically becomes his. The story would see Carrados being unaware that his kingdom is on the brink of falling and him being too insane to see it and the Doctor doesn't want to get involved as it could go wrong for him and Samantha and they leave as Carrados’ kingdom falls.

The Modern Prometheus

9th November - 16th November

By Russell T Davies

This story would see the Doctor and Samantha land in a town during the winter of 1953, the story would see the Doctor learning of a creature who is only seen every winter and the locals are terrified of him. It turns out the creature is actually a mutated human who was experimented on and the Doctor learns that he doesn't live like the way he is, as every time winter ends she has to go into the cryogenic chambers of an abandoned research facility. In the end the Doctor  takes it to the arctic where it can live out the rest of its days.

Access Denied

23rd November - 30th November

By Paul Cornell

This story sees the Doctor and Samantha land in 2005 where they find that a new computer has been released, the Doctor later discovers that virtual beings live inside the computer. We find out that they are called Computer Mites and they travel through the cables and wires which connect to other computers and machines. In the end, the Doctor makes a device that, when activated, will destroy all Computer Mites which he successfully does.

And that concludes Season 39 of Doctor Who, the season received mixed reactions but was mostly good on the whole, and that concludes the Verity Lambert era overall his era was good but had some floors. The next season is Series Two of Earth Defence, until then thank you for watching and goodbye.