Season 26 (Doctor Who 1963)

Season 26 — 1989
Doctor:	Seventh Doctor
Companions:	Ace, The Brig
Key crew
Producer(s):	John Nathan-Turner
Script editors:	Andrew Cartmel
Series details
Start date:	6 September 1989
End date:	6 December 1989
Premiere network:	BBC1
Typical episode length:	25'
More info
Main DWMSE coverage in issues:	10, 21
Key reference books about the season:	The Discontinuity Guide, The Seventh Doctor Handbook, The Eighties, JN-T: The Life and Scandalous Times, Ace! The Inside Story, About Time 6
Key documentaries about the season:	Doctor Who: Endgame
Relevant Myth Makers interviews:	John Nathan-Turner, Sophie Aldred, Sylvester McCoy, Andrew Cartmel, Keff McCulloch
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Season 26 of Doctor Who starred Sylvester McCoy as the Seventh Doctor. It aired between 6 September 1989 and 6 December 1989. This was the last season of the original BBC series. BBC Wales revived the show in 2005.

Overview

The season consisted of four stories and fourteen twenty-five-minute episodes. It was the final season of the "classic" series; the BBC announced in 1990 that it would not be producing a 27th season. However, Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred reprised their roles as the Doctor and Ace respectively for a special episode of Search Out Science entitled Search Out Space, which aired during that same year. A one-off Children in Need special, Dimensions in Time, appeared in 1993, after which a television film, co-produced by an American network, followed in 1996. The series finally returned in 2005. However, the BBC chose to restart the season numbering with Series 1. Season 26 featured the return of Nicholas Courtney as the Brigadier and the last televised appearance of Anthony Ainley as the Tremas Master. Unusually for a Doctor Who season, aside from some scenes in Survival, all the stories took place on Earth. Apart from Battlefield, the stories followed a loose character arc, as Ace came to terms with her past. As for the Doctor, he had become darker in personality, treating others as pawns in the battle between good and evil while dressing in dark clothes to match his personality change.

Television stories

#	Title	Writer	Episodes	Notes
1	Battlefield	Ben Aaronovitch	4	Reintroduction (and final appearance in Doctor Who) of Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart; first UNIT story since 1976 and last appearance of UNIT in the original series.
2	Ghost Light	Marc Platt	3	Last story of the original series ever filmed.
3	The Curse of Fenric	Ian Briggs	4	Debut of Fenric; heavily examines Ace's past and reveals the origins of the time storm.
4	Survival	Rona Munro	3	Final appearance of Ace and the Master portrayed by Anthony Ainley in the original series; last serial in the original series. Story arcs which ended here would be picked up by both Virgin New Adventures novels and Big Finish Productions, with varying degrees of canonicity and interchangeability.

Cast

Recurring

• The Seventh Doctor - Sylvester McCoy
• Ace - Sophie Aldred
• Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart - Nicholas Courtney
• The Tremas Master - Anthony Ainley

Guest

• Winifred Bambera - Angela Bruce
• Doris Lethbridge-Stewart - Angela Douglas
• Morgaine - Jean Marsh
• Ancelyn - Marcus Gilbert
• Josiah Samuel Smith - Ian Hogg
• Lady Pritchard - Sylvia Syms
• Redvers Fenn-Cooper - Michael Cochrane
• Dr. Judson - Dinsdale Landen
• Kathleen Dudman - Cory Pulman
• Rev Wainwright - Nicholas Parsons
• Paterson - Julian Holloway
• Karra - Lisa Bowerman
• Midge - William Barton

Adaptations and merchandising

Home media

VHS

• Battlefield (single episode version) (1998)
• Ghost Light (1994)
• The Curse of Fenric (single episode version) (1991)
• Survival (1995)

DVD

All serials of season 26 were released individually between 2003 and 2009.

Serial name	Number and duration of episodes	R2 release date	R4 release date	R1 release date
Battlefield	4 × 25 min. (Broadcast Version) 1 × 96 min. (Special Edition)	26 December 2008	5 February 2009	5 May 2009
Ghost Light	3 × 25 min.	20 September 2004	3 February 2005	7 June 2005
The Curse of Fenric	4 × 25 min. (Broadcast Version) 1 × 104 min. (Special Edition)	6 October 2003	11 February 2004	1 June 2004
Survival	3 × 25 min.	16 April 2007	6 June 2007	14 August 2007

Novels

• Battlefield
• Ghost Light
• The Curse of Fenric
• Survival

Behind the scenes

• The producers had already outlined basic plots for the next season of Doctor Who when the programme's cancellation hit. In that season, it was proposed that Ace should leave, and a new companion should join. Also planned was that the entire season should do more to explore the darker side of the Doctor. While the scripts never saw a TV screen (and in some cases did not exist beyond a rough outline), they were eventually completed and produced as full-cast audio plays in Big Finish Productions' collection The Lost Stories.
• This is the last series not to feature the Daleks.

External links

• BBC website guide to Season 26