Season 47 - 2010

 

After the immense scale of success the RTD and Tennant years had brought, Doctor Who was seen as a must watch on TV. Part Two of ‘One Last Life’, David Tennant’s swan song, achieved viewing figures of 12.27 million viewers with an appreciation index of 91.

2009 was Doctor Who’s golden year with Season 46 being a very popular season (basically what Series Four in real life is like) and the new production team knew they had to follow up that success.

This would be the debut season for the 13th Doctor Toby Jones, this Doctor would’ve been an

exuberant and adventurous figure, with a cheerful and witty sense of humour. This season would also be the debut season for Hannah Smith and Mike Whelan, a couple from 2010, played by Annabel Scholey and Martin Compston.

This would also be the debut season for the new showrunner Robert Shearman who’d written The Holy Terror, the Chimes of Midnight and Jubilee. Shearman wanted to give the show a shake up and make it a lot like the Hartnell years and Shearman decided to

make the show a lot like the early years of who with a couple of pure historicals, returning villains and references to the past whilst also doing something new and interesting.

The show would get a new logo and new title sequence along with a new theme tune done by Murray Gold, and a new TARDIS exterior and interior, the exterior would be the Matt Smith and Peter Capaldi exterior from real life and the interior would be the same as the Series 5 console room. Finally an update on the production team, Julie Gardner left as executive producer and was replaced by new head of BBC Wales Piers Wenger along with Beth Willis and Marcus Wilson and Denise Paul joined as producers.

The Man Outside

September 4th 

By Robert Shearman

This story would introduce us to Hannah and Mike, we would’ve seen them move into a new

house in Cardiff and settle into their new life. We would see Hannah notice a blue box on the corner of the street and a man walk in and out of it every night, she’s awakened one night from noises outside and encounters the man who tells her to go home and get some rest.

Hannah keeps thinking about the strange man and one night the couple hear a bang outside, they investigate and encounter the strange man again, he

tells them to go home but Hannah and Mike are adamant that they know what's going on. The man says he’s called ‘The Doctor’ and he’s been investigating some activity in the area and Hannah asks if they can help and eventually the Doctor agrees, we would see the trio investigate strange disappearances of the residents of the area and we would soon learn that beings called ‘The Night Wanderers’ are killing the residents when they are out alone in the night, the Doctor manages to defeat them when he calls UNIT for assistance.

At the end of the episode, the Doctor asks Hannah and Mike if they want to travel with him for a little while and after some time they agree. We get the usual bigger on the inside routine and the Doctor explains who he is and what he does, he warns them that once they leave their lives will never be the same but they still agree to travel with him. Also a mysterious man, played by David Warner, would turn up around the episode.

The Supreme Rulers

September 11th

By Robert Shearman

This story would see The TARDIS arriving in June 1940 in Nazi Germany, the story would see

the Doctor, Hannah and Mike working with some allied agents to investigate some new German secret weapons and to the Doctor’s horror the new secret weapons are the Daleks. The trio discover an android named Anton Werner who claims the Daleks are his inventions, in the end the trio are able to stop the Daleks but Anton is exterminated and so are the allied agents and a few German officers.

The Matchstalk Men

September 18th

By Phil Ford

This story would see the Doctor, Sophia and Mike meet famous painter L.S. Lowry and take on

aliens who feed off Lowry’s paintings and we find out these paintings are perfect for the aliens and the Doctor inevitably defeats them, in the final part of the story the trio visit Lowry on the day before his death in the hospital and Lowry tells them of a painting he made after their first meeting called ‘The Magic Box’, the trio visit Lowry’s home and they discover the artwork to be a painting of the TARDIS.

The God Complex

September 25th

By Toby Whithouse

This is pretty much the same story as in real life, so I don’t need to discuss it but the only real difference is that the Doctor sees the man played by David Warner.

The Great White Hurricane

October 2nd

By Guy Adams

This story would be Doctor Who’s first pure historical since Black Orchid and regularly since the Highlanders, the story would see the trio land in New York during the blizzard of 1888. This story would see the trio get involved with different problems as the Doctor is arrested and Hannah is

kidnapped so it’s up to Mike to get them back, the main villain of the story would be the extreme weather and the rest of the story focuses on the gangs in New York.

Thos episode would’ve received mixed reactions as some would’ve loved it due to it’s return to natural history and some would’ve hated it as they found it boring and lacking in an actual alien threat.

The Enemy Within

October 9th

By Neil Gaiman

This is basically ‘The Doctor’s Wife’ with the only change being the actress of Idris who will instead be played by Tamsin Grieg.

The Lighthouse

October 16th

By Matthew Graham

The story would see the trio land outside a lighthouse in Wales 1876, they would meet two people named Barclay and Stowe and the two explain that weird things have been happening in the lighthouse. The trio would eventually discover that alien traders are kidnapping people to trade off to different worlds and the lighthouse is their spaceship, in the end the Doctor saves the people who are yet to be traded and the lighthouse is destroyed. Also the man, played by David Warner, would be seen briefly by the Doctor.

Hide

October 23rd

By Neil Cross

This is pretty much the same from real life, the only difference is that there would be two companions instead of one.

Hannah’s Choice

October 30th

By Simon Nye

This is pretty much ‘Amy’s Choice’ from our own universe, the only real difference is that the Dream Lord is now played by Andrew Scott.

The War of My Mistakes

November 6th

By John Dorney

This story sees the Doctor, Hannah and Mike land on a planet which houses nothing but a village, the trio take a look around but the Doctor goes back inside the TARDIS to get something when it dematerialies and leaves Hannah and Mike on the planet. The TARDIS lands back on the planet 50 years later and finds an entire civilisation which came from Hannah and Mike, the Doctor is reunited with Mike who is bitter towards him and we learn Hannah has died. We see the Doctor find the city, which was once the village, in poor conditions due to Mike’s rule and eventually one side of the city sides with the Doctor and the other with Mike and a war breaks out. The Doctor’s side win and Mike is killed so the Doctor goes back and gets Hannah and Mike which completely erases the civilisation.

The New Game

November 13th

By Robert Shearman & Joseph Lidster

This episode would see the return of the Toymaker, played by David Bailie, the story would see the Doctor, Hannah and Mike land in a mansion where we later learn is the Toyroom and the

Doctor is soon reunited with the Toymaker. We see the trio split into three different scenarios, the Doctor is put into a life-sized version of ‘Cluedo’ where he has to figure out who the murderer is and finds it to be Miss Scarlett with the revolver in the library. Hannah is thrown into a twisted version of ‘Hide and Seek’, we see that she has to hide until the countdown goes off and she has to hide from a clown called ‘Oddbob’ and just when she’s about to be found the countdown ends and she wins the game. Mike has to play puzzle games to advance into different escape rooms and if he doesn’t get out by a certain time he will die, but he manages to get out of the last room unharmed. The trio are then reunited where they witness the Doctor and the Toymaker play a guessing game where they have to try and guess which bag the TARDIS key is in, if the Toymaker wins he gets the key but if the Doctor wins he and friends leave and the round is best of five, the Doctor wins three of the rounds to the Toymaker’s two rounds and wins. As the rules of the game stand the trio get to leave in the TARDIS as the Toyroom starts to implode.

The Morgue

November 20th

By Robert Shearman

The story sees the Doctor, Hannah and Mike land in a council estate and decide to enjoy themselves, Hannah then sees a newspaper article which says that many dead bodies from the morgue have gone missing and a cleaner who worked there had his neck snapped,

The Doctor and Hannah want to go and check it out whilst Mike stays behind to see what information he can gather.

The Doctor and Hannah go to the morgue at night and investigate the morgue, they split and go to different points and after investigating for a while Hannah gets attacked by a rotting and decaying Cyberman, the Doctor turns up and defeats the Cyberman after he saves Hannah.

Mike eventually turns up and the Doctor and Hannah explain to him what just happened whilst

Mike says that he’s got some information and that several weeks ago a man named Michael Bowers bought the Morgue after a shooting star crashed next to the morgue.

The Doctor, Hannah and Mike go down to the basement and find a passageway inside a locker and they go down the passage and find a crashed cyber-ship, they go inside and investigate but before long they’re captured by Cybermen and take to the control room, a man is inside the ship and the Doctor asks who he is and a voice replies “You should know, you’ve been seeing me throughout your adventures.”

The Doctor is in shock and horror as the man turns round and we see a man played by David Warner, Mike asks the Doctor who he is and the Doctor replies with “The Valeyard.” The Valeyard tells the Doctor that he was taking the bodies and giving them new life as Cybermen and nothing will stop them, the Doctor tells Mike and Hannah to run and whilst they get out, the Valeyard stuns the Doctor and the Cybermen go after Hannah and Mike and we end the episode with the Valeyard laughing.

Decay of The Cybermen

November 27th

By Robert Shearman

The episode begins where we left off and Hannah and Mike getting away from the Morgue and they discuss what they’re going to do, we then see the Doctor being beaten by the Valeyard as he talks about that everywhere the Doctor was he was they’re.

After a while Hannah and Mike go back to the TARDIS and look through the Doctor’s book of contacts and settle on UNIT, they call UNIT and explain what’s been happening.

We then cut back to the Doctor and the Valeyard and they talk about the Valeyard being everywhere the Doctor was this season and the conversation ends up with the Valeyard manipulating the Doctor and leading him to question his morales and it almost becomes a reverse version of the famous ‘Do I have the right’ scene from Genesis of The Daleks, soon later UNIT storm the base and the Doctor knocks out the Valeyard and for the remainder of the episode the fight the Cybermen and plant explosives in the ship, in the end the bombs are set and everyone gets out and the Doctor tells the Valeyard to go with them but he refuses and they all get out in time before the Morgue blows up and the Doctor, Hannah and Mike thank UNIT and they leave in the TARDIS.

We hear a teleport beam, then we see the Valeyard, his arms folded and looking furious, he then says “The Doctor survived but with me you know with me you will be masters of the universe,” we then hear the unmistakable voice of the Dalek Emperor, the lights turn on and the Valeyard is in a room full of Daleks.

The Dalek emperor asks “What are your plans!” and the Valeyard says “Give me the Dalek Empire.” The Valeyard destroys the Dalek Emperor with a ray gun and the Valeyard shouts “Now the Empire belongs to me!” and we cut to the end credits.

The Bells of Christmas 

25th December

By Robert Shearman

This story would see the Doctor, Hannah and Mike land in a village on Christmas Eve 1954, the trio discover mysterious murders happening when the bells ring on the hour. Eventually the Doctor discovers it to be a man named Clark who has a parasite bug attached to him and when the bells ring at Midnight the bug will become more powerful. In the end a fight breaks out between the Doctor and Clark on the bell tower and Clark falls to his death just as the bell rings for midnight.

And that concludes Season 47 of Doctor Who, this was a pretty good season on the whole, however some fans thought the show had now reached it’s peak and it would be a slow decline until the 50th Anniversary. The next season is Season 48 of Doctor Who. Until then thank you for watching and goodbye.