Season 40 - 2003

 

This season would be the first season for new showrunner Paul Cornell who’d been script editor ever since season 37, 2003 marked the 40th anniversary for Doctor Who. Because of this, it was decided to fill the 40th season with many throwbacks to the show's past. In early 2003 both Trevor Eve & Tamzin Malleson announced their departure from Doctor Who after Season 40. The casting of the next Doctor would not be announced until a few weeks before Season 40 premiered. To mark the 40th anniversary special, a 90 minute TV Movie was commissioned, which would air on the show's 40th anniversary.

The Treacherous Plague 

26th July - 2nd August

By Paul Cornell

This story would see the return of the Daleks, the story would focus on the Doctor and Samantha landing on a research facility in the middle of the solar system until it becomes under attack and the Daleks invade. The Daleks want to use a plague that was being researched on then facility to wipe out the universe so they can rule it on their own, eventually the Doctor uses the plague on the Dalek fleet which wipes all of them out and the Doctor believes he has killed them all.

Spare Parts

9th - 16th August

By Marc Platt

This story would be set on Mondas and would be the origin story for the Cybermen, we would see how the Cybermen were created as well as their uprising, we would’ve saw the horrors of

early conversion and would’ve been a very dark story. Overall this would’ve been one of the best Cybermen stories of all-time and one of the best of the Trevor Eve era.

The Wild West End

23rd August

By Matthew Graham & Ashley Pharoh

This story sees the return of the Meddling Monk, played by Tony Haygarth, we would see the

Monk has used a device to turn the West End of London into a Wild West style town and cowboys and outlaws are present in the area. In the end, however, the Doctor defeats the Monk by using the machine to restore everything back to normal.

Midnight

30th August

By Russell T Davies

This is pretty much the same as it is in real life, so I don’t need to discuss it.

Colditz

6th September

By Steve Lyons

This story is about the Doctor and Samantha arriving at Colditz Castle during the Second World War, the Doctor is shot in the shoulder by Nazis as the TARDIS was confiscated, and Samantha was captured. Surviving his wounds, the Doctor was questioned over his strange biology and unusual possessions, and was placed in Elizabeth Klein's custody after handing her his TARDIS key to ensure Samantha's safety, though he failed to understand how Klein knew about his TARDIS. It soon transpired that Klein originated from a divergent timeline, where the Germans had won the war, the Doctor's TARDIS was discovered and he was apparently killed, with Klein travelling to the Doctor's timeline to capture him so he could teach her to fully control the TARDIS. Forced to cooperate for Samantha's life, the Doctor discovered that the TARDIS in which Klein had arrived had dematerialised, forcing her to demand use of the TARDIS the Doctor and Samantha had arrived in. Returning to Colditz Castle, the Doctor manipulated Kurtz, a duty-bound officer, into exposing Klein, and prevented Klein's timeline from ever coming about. Attempting to gain access to the TARDIS whilst it was dematerialising, Kurtz was torn apart on a molecular level, while Klein, now an anomaly, escapes.

LIVE 34

13th September

By James Parson & Andrew Stirling-Brown

This story involves the Doctor and Samantha arriving on Colony 34, the Doctor discovers a conspiracy involving the government and decides to run for president. The reigning leader is trying to avoid an election for fear of losing, and is using his power to stage terrorist attacks and discredit the parties that stood against him. After faking his own death, Samantha helps the Doctor to expose everything the government had been trying to keep secret, including the deaths of colonists whose bodies were used as fuel.

Creatures of Beauty

20th September

By Nicholas Briggs

The story sees The Doctor Causing a collision with a Koteem ship, the Doctor and Samantha then land on Veln and discover dyestrial poisoning in the atmosphere. The Doctor goes to warn the locals, but Samantha is arrested for murder. He breaks her out of custody and discovers that the Koteem and Forleon are creating hybrids to prolong both their races. He leaves the planet not knowing that all their problems were because of the things the Doctor caused.

Fear of The Dark

27th September

By Trevor Baxendale

The story sees the Doctor and Samantha arriving on the moon of Akoshemon, the Doctor learns that an entity known as "the Dark" has been imprisoned on the moon millennia in the past, but was manipulating events to ensure its release. Although the mining vessel the Adamantium was destroyed along with most of its crew through the Dark's efforts, the Doctor is able to defeat the Dark by tricking it into fighting a genetically-engineered life form known as the Bloodhunter, with the Bloodhunter wounding the Dark before it was destroyed so that it could be sent back into the abyss where it had been trapped before.

The Silurian Age

4th October - 11th October

By Steven Moffat

This story is the return of the Silurians, part one we would see the Doctor and Samantha investigate disturbances underground and would help UNIT investigate. It turns out the Silurians are waking up and are planning to take Earth back, the Doctor tries to negotiate a peace treaty with Humans and Silurians but is unsuccessful and the Silurians make the Doctor and Samantha their primary targets and send a few Silurians to hunt them down and part one would end with the Silurians invading London.

Part Two would see the Doctor and Samantha, now in a world ruled by Silurians, TARDISless and still being hunted. The Doctor is still trying to get the Humans and Silurians to negotiate for a peace treaty, in the end this fails as the Humans attack the Silurians and force them back underground and the Doctor becomes furious with them. The end of the episode sees the Doctor and Samantha in the TARDIS talking about the adventure and as that happens the TARDIS violently shakes and when they step outside they find London now a mix of different time zones as the Monk stands in front of them.

The Meddling of History

18th October

By Paul Cornell

This story would involve the Monk ruling over a world where everything is split in different eras, the Monk used the machine from ‘The Wild West End’ and modified it into having a bigger effect, but there’s a problem as because of this history has broken and threats from every point in time can wreak havoc on everyone everywhere. The Doctor has to help the Monk repair everything as the web of time won’t be able to handle the pressure and will tear apart. Thankfully they manage to repair history by wiring the machine to the Doctor’s TARDIS and rewinding time to make everything back to normal and after that’s done the Doctor turns his attention to the Monk and he escapes, the Doctor and Samantha then leave in the TARDIS and we see the TARDIS fly through space past dozens of planets as the credits begin.

The Land of Time

By Paul Cornell

Aired: 23rd November

This would be the 40th Anniversary special and final stories for Trevor Eve as the Doctor and Tamzin Malleson as Samantha Poole.

The Doctor and Samantha are in the TARDIS, when it suddenly lands even though the Doctor didn’t dematerialise, they exit the TARDIS and are greeted by the white guardian, played by Derek Jacobi. He tells the Doctor that Rassilon has returned and Gallifrey is under threat from a race called ‘The Izons’ and

Rassilon is waging a war Gallifrey will not win, the Doctor says that there’s got to be a way they can stop him and the Izons and the Guardian says there is one way. He then tells the Doctor of a weapon within the Matrix that can stop him called ‘The Lost’ a weapon that was forbidden to use and that Rassilon hid in the Matrix so nobody could use it, the Guardian also tells him that due to the Matrix being unstable he may see people as former incarnations and companions, the Doctor tells the Guardian he’ll stop him and he and Samantha travel to Gallifrey.

The TARDIS materialises in the Panopticon where the Doctor finds Romana and Leela and they talk about what’s going to happen, it’s also revealed that the Master is here to help them, naturally the Doctor doesn’t approve but Romana says that as soon as the war’s over he’ll be sent to Shada although he doesn’t know and the Doctor soon tells them to put him into the Matrix.

The Doctor then wakes up in a churchyard and a man named Reverend Michael, played by Peter Davison helps him up and asks him if he’s alright, Michael then helps the Doctor to a seat in the church which he soon realises is the Church of Gallifrey, the Reverend and the Doctor talk for a while about ‘the Lost’ and the Reverend tells him where he can find it, in the tomb of Rassilon. The Doctor then thanks him and runs outside towards the citadel.

Back in the real world we see Rassilon, Played by John Hurt, talk to a timelord about detaining leaders of all the timelord chapters however the other time lord disagrees and Rassilon starts to strangle him and throws him out of the window sending him to plummet down to his death.

Romana and Leela ask Samantha what the Doctor’s looking for and Samantha tells them the Doctor is looking for a weapon called ‘the Lost’, Samantha doesn’t know what it is and the Master explains it can wipe out an entire army on a planet but it can also be dangerous as the shockwave can affect other races on the planet.

Back in the Matrix we see the Doctor being arrested by a chancellery guard played by Nick Berry and being taken to a detention centre for trespassing, he’s in a cell with a man called Androlan, played by Richard Griffiths and they talk for a while before, the Doctor is taken to a man played by Nicholas Courtney, with two other guards played by John Levene and Richard Franklin, they let the Doctor go on a warning and he leaves, the Doctor wanders around for a while and spies on a meeting with the prydonians played by Carole Ann Ford, Peter Purves, Anneke Wills, Frazer Hines, Deborah Watling and Wendy Padbury and their leader Dundeth, played by William Russell, states that a weapon known as ‘the lost’ is hidden inside the tomb of Rassilon and they must retrieve it, the Doctor quickly makes his way up  through the citadel and ends up in the panopticon and a debate is going between the leaders of the Cerulean Chapter, played by Terry Molloy and leader of the Arcalian Chapter played by Colin Baker, after a while the Arcalian Chapter leader reveals he is one of the great vampires named Lord Siddig and he unleashes his army in the Panopticon, the Doctor gets away with nobody noticing he than finds his way to a shuttle and gets in it. However, the Security council, played by Katy Manning, Elisabeth Sladen, Mary Tamm, Geoffrey Beevers, Stuart Bevan and Nicholas Briggs alert security but the Doctor gets away.

Back in real life, Samantha, Romana and Leela realise that enemy ships are closing in and we get scenes inside the Izon ships and Rassilon looks out his window and states “Today, it begins!”

In the Matrix the Doctor lands in the hills of Gallifrey, due to a malfunction in the ship and he soon finds people sitting around a table and man runs up to the Doctor greeting himself as the Mad Hatter, played by Sylvester McCoy and he makes the Doctor sit around a table with the friends of the Mad Hatter, played by Janet Fielding, Sarah Sutton, Mark Strickson and Nicola Bryant and then the Mad Hatter’s daughter Sally, played by Bonnie Langford, rejoins after going on an adventure. The Doctor then says he needs to repair his ship and then everyone around the table starts to run away as an Secret Army of the Prydonian chapter arrive with their leader, Played by Sophie Aldred, tells her soldiers, played by Lisa Bowerman, Samuel West, Gillian Kearney, Jaye Griffiths, Marc Warren, Sophie Okonedo and Jason Merrells to shoot them all, the Doctor runs away whilst everyone else is killed, except for the Mad Hatter who the Army leader goes over to and snaps his neck. The Doctor repairs it as quickly as he can and flies away.

Back in the real world, Samantha, Romana, the Master and Leela block entrances around the room where the Matrix is in and have weapons showing they’re ready to fight if anyone forces they're way in and Samantha whispers in the Doctor’s ear telling him to hurry up.

The Doctor finally gets to the Tomb of Rassilon and finds ‘the Lost’ and suddenly a loud commanding voices echos and the spirit of Rassilon, Played by Tom Baker, approaches the Doctor and tells him to save Gallifrey and be rid of any threat and then the Doctor is pulled out of the Matrix and tells everyone he’s got it, entrances are then forced open by Chancellery Guard members and everyone begins to fight which the Doctor’s side wins, Romana tells the Doctor, Samantha and the Master to go and she and Leela will hold them off.

The Doctor, Samantha and the Master then make their way down the corridors and the Doctor asks why the Master is helping them and the Master says that although he wants to rule the planet he doesn’t want to see it being invaded as it’s his home as well.

The trio are then caught in a battle with Izon warriors and the Doctor and the Master fight them off and went it looks like they’ve won a dying Izon shoots the Master, the Doctor looks in horror as his oldest friend begins to die, he says that he’s sorry that things turned out the way they did and he and the Master talk about some of their old adventures, mainly from the Pertwee era, as this is happening we have flashbacks to Terror of the Autons, The Claws of Axos, The Dæmons, the Sea Devils and Frontier in Space, as the flashbacks

end the Master drifts into death as the Doctor can’t bare to see his friend die. Romana and Leela catch up with the Doctor and Romana says she’s sorry for what happened, the Doctor wipes away his tears and says “Time to finish this once and for all.” More Izons then attack them but Leela tells them to run as she fights them off, as the Doctor, Samantha and Romana run they are unaware that Leela is shot multiple times and dies.

The trio make their way to the president’s office, the Doctor confronts Rassilon where Rassilon later brings up the terrible things the Doctor has done and how his morals have at times let him down. The Doctor he will bring down Rassilon and a brutal fight soon breaks out, Samantha soon helps the Doctor, but Rassilon soon stabs her with a shard of glass from the broken window, the Doctor then goes

completely mad and kicks him out the window and comforts a dying Samantha, he then cries over her dead body.

The Doctor then takes ‘the Lost’ from Romana and says he’s going to wipe out every last Izon, Romana tells him not to wipe out all of them as it’s genocide but the Doctor says he doesn’t care, Romana scolds the Doctor for what he has become and tells him to do the right thing.

The Doctor tells Romana to get all the Time Lords to safety and he’ll handle the Izons, Romana looks at the Doctor in anger and walks away. She then orders high council members to get in the bunkers as she looks at the Doctor from outside the president’s office, the Doctor starts to prime up the machine, however as he does it he has a few flashbacks to An Unearthly Child, The Mind Robber, The Green Death, Genesis of The Daleks, Frontios, Vengeance on Varos, The Greatest Show in the Galaxy, The Survival Fights, Damaged Goods and a few of the Tenth Doctor’s recent adventures as this reminds him he’s a good man and he reprogrammes the device to kill most of the Izons but not all of them.

As he primes up the machine the Doctor realises that there’s a catch as the Doctor has to sacrifice himself in order to activate the machine, ‘the Lost’ produces a dagger for the Doctor and he then takes the knife and stabs both of his hearts, then a sonic boom ripples across the planet as most of the Izons are dead but the few that are still alive get away in their ships.

The Doctor stumbles down the corridors of the Citadel, trying to reach the Panopticon so he can leave in the TARDIS; he believes that the Time Lords are dead due to what has happened and is riddled with guilt and

pain. As he reaches the Panopticon he collapses to the floor, he looks up and sees Samantha standing before him – a ghostly figure. She tells him that the hour is coming to an end and the Eleventh hour is just beginning, the Doctor struggles to his feet as the ghostly figure of Samantha says “You were the most amazing man I have ever known - I’ll miss you.” This gives the Doctor the last bit of strength he needs to make it to the TARDIS.

The Doctor enters and stumbles over to the console where he notices his right hand starting to glow with regenerative energy as he sets the TARDIS in flight and he soon collapses.

The dying Doctor finds his fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth selves waiting for him in his subconscious, the Doctor believes this time there will be no regeneration but the other Doctor tell him he will regenerate and that the universe still need him and they soon fade away. 

The Doctor wakes up and finds the strength to stand as he says that the universe still needs him and then he begins to regenerate as he says “Time’s change and so must I.” The regeneration begins as a bright light engulfs the TARDIS as the Doctor’s face morphs into a younger man, then the regeneration completes and we see the Eleventh Doctor – Douglas Henshall.

The new Doctor is shaken and scatterbrained and pulls down a lever, then all of a sudden the TARDIS goes haywire as the Doctor tries to control it and the story ends with the TARDIS hurtling towards Earth.

And that concludes the 40th Anniversary, a popular episode on the whole and a lot of call backs to the past, whilst also doing something new. And that concludes Season 40 of Doctor Who, it was a pretty good on the whole and a good conclusion to the Trevor Eve era, on the whole Eve’s Doctor was seen as a fan-favourite Doctor. The next season is the final season of Earth Defence, until then thank you for watching and goodbye.