Season 50 - 2014/15

 

Season 50 was a brand new era for the show and a radical change for the show itself, the Fourteenth Doctor was the first, in the show's history, to be played by a woman as she would be played by actress Michelle Gomez. However an idea of a female Doctor had been explored previously, the idea that a female actor could play the Doctor was first introduced by John Nathan-Turner and Tom Baker in 1980. By Baker's suggestion, he told

the press, "I certainly wish my successor luck, whoever he—or she—might be."

The Doctor’s new companion was to be Rosalyn Pierce, a Paramedic from 2014, she would be played
by Faye Marsay.

Steven Moffat joined as Showrunner and Executive Producer, he was a popular writer on the show and with his recent works being favourable with fans and due to the success of Sherlock he was appointed showrunner. Nikki Wilson & Peter Bennett joined on as producers and Brian Minchin joined as an executive producer.

A new TARDIS interior was created for the new Doctor, being designed by Michael Pickwoad, the interior is basically the Matt Smith Series 7A console room, but with a green colour scheme. 

The Doctor Who logo was also changed for the first time since 2010, along with the new

logo came a new title sequence, as well as a new arrangement of the Doctor Who theme. The new theme music would’ve been composed by the show's new composer Blair Mowat, who would do all the music for this season. 

Also this season would have 13 episodes but Episodes 1-6 would air in late 2014 and episodes 7-12 would air in early 2015 but a Christmas special would air on Christmas Day.

The London Crisis

By Steven Moffat

20th September 2014

This would’ve been the first story for the new Doctor & the new companion, Rosalyn Pierce. This would’ve been a very different first story due to the fact that it isn’t a post-regeneration story, as Moffat decided that he wanted to open the season with an already seasoned Doctor.

The story would see Rosalyn in her job, saving lives and doing what she can to help and we see outside of her job that she’s got good friends and family.

When she’s off work one night she notices a man in pain as he transforms into an Insectoid creature and a woman runs down the street telling her to run which is what they both do, they get chased by the creature but the Doctor defeats it and she introduces herself to Rosalyn. Throughout the story we would see the insectoid creatures, who we find out to be called ‘The Trekneds’, are using London

as a breeding ground for their race, naturally the Doctor defeats them when she uses the TARDIS to use a spray which can kill all Trekned eggs and the Trekneds themselves. At the end of the story the Doctor invites Rosalyn on-board the TARDIS and she happily accepts.

The Dalek Massacre of Stockbridge

By Phil Ford

27th September

The story sees the Doctor and Rosalyn landing in Stockbridge 2014 after they were drawn off course, we would’ve seen the Doctor and Rosalyn enjoying themselves. However this joyful adventure soon takes a turn as a flying saucer is seen over Stockbridge and the Doctor is horrified as she identifies it as a Dalek ship.

The saucer lands and a platoon of Daleks roll down the ramp and begin to kill the residents while a few others run away, The Doctor and Rosalyn fight the Daleks, with

the help of UNIT and General Wilson played by Rupert Graves, and when Stockbridge has been saved from Daleks the TARDIS materialises on the Dalek ship and the Doctor uses several buttons and levers to make the ship self-destruct and the Doctor and Rosalyn materialise back in Stockbridge to see the explosion.

One Small Step

By Toby Whithouse

4th October

This story covers the famous 1969 moon landing, it’s a unique story as it’s told from the perspectives of the three astronauts on the spacecraft that day, but an alien parasite starts to attack the spacecraft from outside and the spacecraft is in danger of malfunction, but the Doctor and Rosalyn appear on a communications screen and help the astronauts through the malfunctions and the TARDIS soon arrives as the Doctor catches the parasite.

Robot of Sherwood

By Mark Gatiss

11th October

This is pretty much the same as it is in real life, so there’s nothing to discuss.

Flatline

By Jamie Mathieson

18th October

Again, pretty much the same as it is in real life, so there’s nothing to discuss.

Starliner Heist

By Stephen Thompson

25th October

This story would see the Doctor and Rosalyn land on a starliner which is carrying several expensive and rare alien crystals back to Earth, however the story would focus on the Doctor investigating a group of people as she’s becoming suspicious of them and it turns out they are thieves working for a crime syndicate and they steal the crystals, however the Doctor gets them back as she causes the ship to crash but she gets the crystals back just in time.

A Christmas Carol

By Steven Moffat

25th December

This is pretty much the same as it is in real life, the only difference is that instead of Amy and Rory a few bits would have to work with Rosalyn as just the one companion.

Unseen and Unheard

By Steven Moffat

24th January

This story sees a planet where everything is supposedly perfect and everybody acts happy all the time, the Doctor and Rosalyn investigate this and find that there is slavery on the planet but it’s kept secret from the residents. In the end the Doctor orchestrates a rebellion and the planet ceases to be a paradise.

Kill The Moon

By Peter Harness

31st January

This is pretty much the same, so there’s nothing to discuss.

Mummy on The Orient Express

By Jamie Mathieson

7th February

Again, pretty much the same, so there’s nothing to discuss.

Fight The Beast

By Neil Cross

14th February

This story mainly focuses on what Rosalyn can do as a character, the story would see the Doctor and Rosalyn land in Manchester 1952 and find that the residents of the city are afraid of a creature who appears at night. The creature is actually a Zygon stranded on Earth and it captures the Doctor and so it’s up to Rosalyn to save her which she manages to do.

Invasion of The Zulgeths, Part One

By Steven Moffat

21st February

This story sees the Doctor and Rosalyn land in London, 2015. We would see the country in the aftermath of a General Election where William Dominic, played by Ariyon Bakare, has officially become the Prime Minister and the country soon gets reports of alien sightings and the aliens make themselves known, they are a bird-like race called the Zulgreths and the PM seems to be very friendly with them already, the Doctor and Rosalyn sneak into No. 10 Downing Street and search Dominic’s office and Rosalyn opens the door and says “Didn’t know normal places could be bigger on the inside,” the Doctor looks concerned and looks for herself and finds it to be a TARDIS, it’s similar to the Doctor’s console room but a black colour scheme and desaturated. Dominic closes the door behind him and the Doctor confronts him and Dominic says “Well, I was never keeping it up forever. I was Prime Minister once before, do you remember?” The Doctor gasps as she says “The Master.”
He smiles and says “Hello Doctor, my you have changed a bit,” the Master explains his plan involving the

Zulgreths and we learn that they feast on humans' deceitful nature and that is why they are known as the ‘Vultures of the Truth’. The Master then knocks out the Doctor and Rosalyn and laughs as the episode ends.

Invasion of The Zulgeths, Part Two

By Steven Moffat

28th February

This story sees the Doctor and Rosalyn escaping as they discover more people are lying to each other and being deceitful and the Doctor realises that when they feed of Deceit they produce mind control and control people to lie and be secretive with the people knowing, the Doctor says the Master must’ve known this and she says that he needs to be stopped. We then see the Doctor sneaking on-board the Zulgreth’s spaceship and finding a machine which powers the Zulgreths to mind control people and they destroy the people break free and fight the Zulgreths the Doctor tells the Master that he’s lost and they both fight, the Doctor is about to lose but Rosalyn knocks him out where General Wilson and UNIT come to arrest him, we see the Doctor and Rosalyn leave and at the end of the episode the Master escapes UNIT custody and get into his TARDIS, we hear his laugh as we see the his TARDIS de-materialises.

And that concludes Season 50 of Doctor Who, while it was a good season it wasn’t as good as the last couple of seasons of the show. The next season is Season 51 of Doctor Who, until then thank you for watching and goodbye.