The twenty-fifth season of

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

science fiction television Science fiction first appeared in television programming in the late 1930s, during what is called the Golden Age of Science Fiction. Special effects and other production techniques allow creators to present a living visual image of an imaginary ...

series '' Doctor Who'' began on 5 October 1988. It comprised four separate serials, beginning with ''

Remembrance of the Daleks ''Remembrance of the Daleks'' is the first serial of the 25th season of the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who''. The serial was first broadcast in four weekly episodes from 5 to 26 October 1988. It was written by Ben Aaronovi ...

'' and ending with '' The Greatest Show in the Galaxy''. To mark the 25th anniversary season, producer

John Nathan-Turner John Nathan-Turner (''né'' Turner; 12 August 1947 – 1 May 2002) was an English television producer. He was the ninth producer of the long-running BBC science fiction series ''Doctor Who''. He was also the final producer of the series' firs ...

brought back the

Dalek The Daleks ( ) are a fictional extraterrestrials in fiction, extraterrestrial race of mutants principally portrayed in the British science fiction on television, science fiction television programme ''Doctor Who''. They were conceived by write ...

s and the Cybermen. The American

New Jersey Network The New Jersey Network (NJN) was a network of public television and radio stations serving the U.S. state of New Jersey. NJN was a member of the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) for television and the National Public Radio (NPR) for radio, br ...

also made a special behind-the-scenes documentary called ''The Making of Doctor Who'', which followed the production of the 25th anniversary story '' Silver Nemesis''.

Andrew Cartmel Andrew J. Cartmel (born 6 April 1958) is a British author and journalist. He was the script editor of ''Doctor Who'' during the Sylvester McCoy era of the show between 1987 and 1989. He has also worked as a script editor on other television serie ...

script edited the series.

Background

Season 25 saw script editor

, who had joined for the previous season, exert a greater influence on the style of the series. He had watched serials from the

Philip Hinchcliffe Philip Michael Hinchcliffe (born October 1944) is a retired English television producer, screenwriter and script editor. After graduating from Cambridge University, he began his career as a writer and script editor at Associated Television befo ...

and Robert Holmes era such as ''

The Seeds of Doom ''The Seeds of Doom'' is the sixth and final serial of the 13th season of the British science fiction television Science fiction first appeared in television programming in the late 1930s, during what is called the Golden Age of Science Fic ...

'' and ''

The Talons of Weng-Chiang ''The Talons of Weng-Chiang'' is the sixth and final serial of the 14th season of the British science fiction television series '' Doctor Who'', which was first broadcast in six weekly parts on BBC1 from 26 February to 2 April 1977. In the seria ...

'' in preparation for it and concluded that the series should return to a more serious and dramatic approach. The season also saw the start of a move to explore the Doctor's past; Cartmel had felt that as more of the character's own history, together with the history of the

Time Lords The Time Lords are a fictional ancient race of extraterrestrial life, extraterrestrial people in the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'', of which the series' main protagonist, The Doctor (Doctor Who), the Doctor, is a memb ...

, had been revealed, some of the mystery about the Doctor had been lost. As a consequence, together with new writers

Ben Aaronovitch Ben Dylan Aaronovitch (born 22 February 1964) is an English author and screenwriter. He is the author of the ''Rivers of London'' series of novels. He also wrote two ''Doctor Who'' serials in the late 1980s and spin-off novels from ''Doctor Who' ...

and Marc Platt, he began developing the seeds of a new backstory, which would be hinted at throughout the season, that suggested the Doctor to be more powerful than most people were aware of. This concept eventually came to be known as the "

Cartmel Masterplan The Cartmel Masterplan is a fan name for the planned ''Doctor Who'' backstory developed primarily by script editor Andrew Cartmel and writers Ben Aaronovitch and Marc Platt, by which they intended to restore some of the mystery of the Doctor's ...

Casting

Main cast

Sylvester McCoy Percy James Patrick Kent-Smith (born 20 August 1943), known professionally as Sylvester McCoy, is a Scottish actor. Gaining prominence as a physical comedian, he became best known for playing the seventh incarnation of the Doctor in the lon ...

as the

Seventh Doctor The Seventh Doctor is an incarnation of the Doctor, the protagonist of the BBC science fiction television series '' Doctor Who'', and the final incarnation of the original Doctor Who series. He is portrayed by Scottish actor Sylvester McCoy. ...

Sophie Aldred Sophie Aldred (born 20 August 1962) is an English actress and television presenter. She has worked extensively in children's television as a presenter and voice artist. She played the Seventh Doctor's companion, Ace, in the television series ''D ...

Ace An ace is a playing card, die or domino with a single pip. In the standard French deck, an ace has a single suit symbol (a heart, diamond, spade, or club) located in the middle of the card, sometimes large and decorated, especially in the c ...

Recurring stars

Terry Molloy Terry Molloy (born 4 January 1947) is an English actor. He is known predominantly for his work on radio and television, especially his portrayal of Davros, creator of the Daleks, in the BBC television science fiction series '' Doctor Who''. C ...

Davros Davros () is a character from the long-running British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who''. He was created by screenwriter Terry Nation, originally for the 1975 serial ''Genesis of the Daleks''. Davros is a major enemy of the se ...

makes his final appearance as

, the

creator (now acting as the Dalek Emperor) in ''

''.

Guest Stars

John Leeson who previously regularly voiced the robot companion K9 from 1977–1978 and 1980–1981, appears as one of the Dalek voices in ''Remembrance of the Daleks''. David Banks makes his final of four appearances in the series in '' Silver Nemesis'' as a Cyber-leader.

Serials

This season was broadcast on Wednesdays.

Broadcast

The entire season was broadcast from 5 October 1988 to 4 January 1989. Transmission moved to Wednesday nights. Season twenty-five was originally to have been broadcast in production order, with ''The Greatest Show in the Galaxy'' second. However, the expected start of the season on 7 September was postponed to 5 October as a result of BBC coverage of the Seoul Summer Olympics. Nathan-Turner still wanted to lead off the year with ''Remembrance of the Daleks'' and have episode one of the twenty-fifth anniversary story, ''Silver Nemesis'', broadcast on 23 November – the actual date of Doctor Who's 25th anniversary. This left only three weeks in between the two serials. Consequently, the original season finale, ''The Happiness Patrol'', was exchanged with ''The Greatest Show in the Galaxy''.

Home media

VHS releases

DVD and Blu-ray releases

In print

References

Bibliography

* {{Doctor Who episodes, C25 1988 British television seasons 1989 British television seasons Season 25 Season 25 25