Doctor Who (season 26)

The twenty-sixth season of British science fiction television series Doctor Who began on 9 September 1989 with the serial Battlefield, after a regular series of four serials was broadcast finishing with Survival which was the final episode of Doctor Who to air before a 16-year absence from episodic television following its cancellation.

Doctor Who
Season 26
Cover art of the Blu-ray release for the complete season
Starring	Sylvester McCoy Sophie Aldred
Country of origin	United Kingdom
No. of stories	4
No. of episodes	14
Release
Original network	BBC1
Original release	6 September (1989-09-06) – 6 December 1989 (1989-12-06)
Season chronology

Casting

See also: List of Doctor Who cast members

Main cast

• Sylvester McCoy as the Seventh Doctor
• Sophie Aldred as Ace

Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred both continue their roles as the Seventh Doctor and Ace for their final season.

Recurring stars

• Nicholas Courtney as Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart
• Anthony Ainley as the Master

Nicholas Courtney returned to play Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart in Battlefield. He first appeared with the Second Doctor in 1968 in The Web of Fear before becoming a recurring character throughout the Second Doctor to the Fifth Doctor and last appearing in The Five Doctors (1983).

Anthony Ainley returned to play The Master in Survival, having last appeared in The Ultimate Foe (1986). This was Ainley's final television appearance in the role, though he portrayed the Master one last time in the 1997 computer game Destiny of the Doctors.

Guest stars

Jean Marsh, who had portrayed Sara Kingdom in The Daleks' Master Plan (1965–66), also appeared in Battlefield playing the part of the main antagonist.

Serials

See also: List of Doctor Who episodes (1963–1989)

Continuing on from Season 25, Season 26 continued script editor Andrew Cartmel's move to push the series towards a darker approach, focusing this time more on Ace's personal life as well as The Doctor's past and manipulations. This season was broadcast on Wednesdays.

Story	Serial	Serial title	Episode titles	Directed by	Written by	Original air date	Prod. code	UK viewers (millions) [1]	AI [1]
152	1	Battlefield	"Part One"	Michael Kerrigan	Ben Aaronovitch	6 September 1989 (1989-09-06)	7N	3.1	69
			"Part Two"	Michael Kerrigan	Ben Aaronovitch	13 September 1989 (1989-09-13)	7N	3.9	68
			"Part Three"	Michael Kerrigan	Ben Aaronovitch	20 September 1989 (1989-09-20)	7N	3.6	67
			"Part Four"	Michael Kerrigan	Ben Aaronovitch	27 September 1989 (1989-09-27)	7N	4.0	65
The Doctor and Ace discover that a UNIT platoon has come under assault whilst transporting a nuclear warhead. The attackers are knights from another dimension led by the legendary sorceress Morgaine, half-sister of King Arthur, whose magical powers appear to be real. The Doctor learns that one of his future incarnations will become Merlin, and bury Arthur beneath the waters of a nearby lake. With Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart at his side one last time, the Doctor must confront Morgaine, who has summoned a demonic entity known as the Destroyer of Worlds.
153	2	Ghost Light	"Part One"	Alan Wareing	Marc Platt	4 October 1989 (1989-10-04)	7Q	4.2	68
			"Part Two"	Alan Wareing	Marc Platt	11 October 1989 (1989-10-11)	7Q	4.0	68
			"Part Three"	Alan Wareing	Marc Platt	18 October 1989 (1989-10-18)	7Q	4.0	64
The Doctor takes Ace back to 1883 to a Perivale house called Gabriel Chase which Ace recognises. Josiah Smith, an alien who has spent millennia adapting to humanity, intends to assassinate Queen Victoria and seize the British throne. Meanwhile, buried in the basement is Smith's former master – a powerful entity who intends to halt all evolution on Earth.
154	3	The Curse of Fenric	"Part One"	Nicholas Mallett	Ian Briggs	25 October 1989 (1989-10-25)	7M	4.3	67
			"Part Two"	Nicholas Mallett	Ian Briggs	1 November 1989 (1989-11-01)	7M	4.0	68
			"Part Three"	Nicholas Mallett	Ian Briggs	8 November 1989 (1989-11-08)	7M	4.0	68
			"Part Four"	Nicholas Mallett	Ian Briggs	15 November 1989 (1989-11-15)	7M	4.2	68
The Doctor and Ace land in England during World War II, at a secret seaside base which houses the Ultima Machine, a powerful codebreaking device. But disturbances plague the installation: Russians are trying to steal the Ultima, mysterious Viking runes are found in a church crypt, and vampiric Haemovores are rising from the ocean. The Doctor discovers his ancient foe, Fenric, has manipulated events in order to gain his freedom. And central to Fenric's schemes is none other than Ace.
155	4	Survival	"Part One"	Alan Wareing	Rona Munro	22 November 1989 (1989-11-22)	7P	5.0	69
			"Part Two"	Alan Wareing	Rona Munro	29 November 1989 (1989-11-29)	7P	4.8	69
			"Part Three"	Alan Wareing	Rona Munro	6 December 1989 (1989-12-06)	7P	5.0	71
Ace returns to Perivale to visit her friends, only to find many of them have gone missing. The Doctor discovers that they have been abducted to an alien planet by a race called the Cheetah People. Pursuing them, the time travellers find the Cheetah People are being controlled by the Master, who is trapped on the planet, and is slowly turning into a Cheetah Person himself. The Doctor must find a way off the planet, before they all succumb to the dying world's savage influence.

Broadcast

The entire season was broadcast from 6 September to 6 December 1989. The Curse of Fenric was originally intended to be aired before Ghost Light, but was subsequently rescheduled.

Home media

See also: List of Doctor Who VHS releases and List of Doctor Who home video releases

VHS releases

Season	Story no.	Serial name	Number and duration of episodes	R2 release date	R4 release date	R1 release date
26	152	Battlefield	4 x 25 mins	March 1998	October 1998	March 1998
	153	Ghost Light	3 x 25 mins	May 1994	July 1994	June 1996
	154	The Curse of Fenric	4 x 25 mins	February 1991	July 1991	January 1992
	155	Survival	3 x 25 mins	October 1995	November 1996	September 1996

DVD and Blu-ray releases

Season	Story no.	Serial name	Number and duration of episodes	R2 release date	R4 release date	R1 release date
26	152	Battlefield	1 × 96 min.	26 December 2008[2]	19 March 2009[3]	5 May 2009[4]
	153	Ghost Light	3 × 25 min.	20 September 2004[5]	3 February 2005[6]	7 June 2005[7]
	154	The Curse of Fenric	1 × 104 min.	6 October 2003[8]	11 February 2004[9]	1 June 2004[10]
	155	Survival	3 × 25 min.	16 April 2007[11]	6 June 2007[12]	14 August 2007[13]
	152–155	Complete Season 26[lower-alpha 1]	14 × 25 min.	27 January 2020 ^(B)[14]	11 March 2020 ^(B)[15]	24 March 2020 ^(B)[16]

1. Released as Doctor Who: The Collection – Season 26 in Region B. Released as Doctor Who – Sylvester McCoy: Complete Season Three in Region A.

In print

Main article: List of Doctor Who novelisations

Serial name	Novelisation title	Author	First published
Battlefield	Battlefield	Marc Platt	18 July 1991
Ghost Light	Ghost Light	Marc Platt	20 September 1990
The Curse of Fenric	The Curse of Fenric	Ian Briggs	15 November 1990
Survival	Survival	Rona Munro	18 October 1990

Season 27

Initial planning work had begun on Season 27, intended for the end of 1990, in mid-1989 with Andrew Cartmel and a group of regular writers, including Ben Aaronovitch, Ian Briggs and Marc Platt, discussing potential story ideas. One of the major intentions was to have been the departure of Ace halfway through, which would have seen the character taken to Gallifrey to become a Time Lord. This would also have seen the subsequent introduction of a new companion, planned as an "aristocratic cat burglar". The cancellation of the series meant that no detailed work was undertaken beyond these initial ideas:[17]

• Earth Aid by Ben Aaronovitch: Intended to feature a new monster called the "Metatraxi", a race of samurai-like insect warriors, this was planned as a story concerning the politics of humanitarian aid. The only significant detail was the idea of the opening, which would have featured Ace as the captain of a starship.
• Thin Ice by Marc Platt: Planned as the serial that would see the departure of Ace, this was to see the return of the Ice Warriors and be set in London in 1968.
• The third serial was planned as the introduction of the new companion, who would have come across the Doctor in the midst of robbing a country house.
• The fourth and final serial was tentatively to be Alixion, by then-newcomer Robin Mukherjee.[18] It would have featured the Doctor playing a series of deadly games on an asteroid, and would have likely led to the Seventh Doctor's regeneration and Sylvester McCoy's departure.

The proposed Season 27 serials, with the exception of Alixion, have been commissioned by Big Finish as part of its Doctor Who: The Lost Stories range of audio adventures.

Although the first series of Doctor Who's return in 2005 is the 27th full series of the show, the production team officially restarted the series numbering from scratch. This was mainly due to the 16-year gap between Season 26 and the new series (not counting the 1996 television movie).

References

1. "Ratings Guide". Doctor Who News. Retrieved 27 December 2014.
2. "Doctor Who - Battlefield". 26 December 2008. Retrieved 24 July 2017 – via Amazon.
3. "Doctor Who Battlefield by Roadshow Entertainment - Shop Online for Movies, DVDs in Australia". Fishpond. Retrieved 24 July 2017.
4. "Doctor Who: Battlefield". 5 May 2009. Retrieved 24 July 2017 – via Amazon.
5. "Doctor Who : Ghost Light". 20 September 2004. Retrieved 24 July 2017 – via Amazon.
6. "Doctor Who Ghost Light by Roadshow Entertainment - Shop Online for Movies, DVDs in Australia". Fishpond. Retrieved 24 July 2017.
7. "Doctor Who: Ghost Light". 7 June 2005. Retrieved 24 July 2017 – via Amazon.
8. "Doctor Who - The Curse of Fenric". 6 October 2003. Retrieved 24 July 2017 – via Amazon.
9. "Dr. Who - Curse of Fenric [2 Discs] by Roadshow Home Ent - Shop Online for Movies, DVDs in Australia". Fishpond. Retrieved 24 July 2017.
10. "Doctor Who: The Curse of Fenric". 1 June 2004. Retrieved 24 July 2017 – via Amazon.
11. "Doctor Who - Survival". 16 April 2007. Retrieved 24 July 2017 – via Amazon.
12. "Doctor Who Survival by Roadshow Entertainment - Shop Online for Movies, DVDs in Australia". Fishpond. Retrieved 24 July 2017.
13. "Doctor Who: Survival". 14 August 2007. Retrieved 24 July 2017 – via Amazon.
14. "Doctor Who - The Collection - Season 26 [2019]". Retrieved 27 November 2019 – via Amazon.
15. "Doctor Who - The Collection - Season 26 [2020]". Retrieved 28 January 2020 – via Sanity.
16. "Doctor Who - Sylvester McCoy - Complete Season Three [2020]". Retrieved 28 January 2020 – via Blu-ray.com.
17. Molesworth, Richard (Producer) (2007). "Endgame (documentary)". Survival. Doctor Who. London: BBC Worldwide.
18. James T. (19 June 2011). "Doctor Who episodes and spin-offs that never happened". Den of Geek. Retrieved 12 September 2019.