SEVENTH DOCTOR

SYLVESTER McCOY —1986-1989

The Seventh Doctor's era was one of reinvention, thanks in large part to new Script Editor Andrew Cartmel. Cartmel wanted to infuse the show with that sense of mystery that used to surround the central character in the Hartnell and Troughton days. The problem was that after so many years (decades, in fact) on the air, the audience had learned a great deal about the character. So Cartmel wanted to call into question everything the audience thought it knew about the Doctor.

The first season was shaky at best. With Colin Baker having just been fired, and Bonnie Langford, rather unpopular with fans, staying on as Mel, it was off to a bleak start. The scripts of that first season varied wildly in tone and quality, with the somewhat traditional "Time and the Rani" (with its faked regenerations scene at the beginning), the embarrassingly dreadful "Paradise Towers", the goofy and lightweigth "Delta and the Bannermen" and the downright boring "Dragonfire". The one bright moment in "Dragonfire", aside from a welcome reappearance of Sabalom Glitz, was the introduction of a new character, Ace.

Ace stayed on as the new companion going into the show's 25th season, and was just one of the many improvements that would be evident in the coming two years. Season 25 hit the ground running, with the near-perfect "Remembrance of the Daleks". Everything about this was solid: the scripting, the directing, the editing, and the acting, not only by the two principles, but the stellar supporting cast as well. Featuring two warring factions of Daleks meeting up for their final smackdown, "Remembrance" had everything: it was gripping, fast paced, played on the show's history, had lots of explosions (thanks mainly to Ace and the newly introduced Special Weapons Dalek), etc. The best part, though, was that the Doctor and Ace had an instant repoire; seeing this for the first time, one would believe that they'd been onscreen together for years.

Also, "Remembrance" was the first step in what came to be known as the Cartmel Masterplan. He took the fact that the story played heavily on the show's history to begin casting doubt upon what viewers accepted as truths about the Doctor. "Remembrance" hinted that the Doctor was around when Rassilon and his contemporaries developed time travel.

This continued on for the next two years, but played directly into "Silver Nemesis", part one of which was broadcast on, and took place on, the day of the show's 25th (silver) Anniversary. This featured the return of the Cybermen as well as an 18th century ne'er do well called Lady Pienforte, who claimed to hold great secrets of the Time Lords and threatened to reveal them to force the Doctor into doing her bidding. The final episode ends with Ace whispering, "Doctor.....who ARE you?", which is what the producers wanted the audience to be asking as well.

The season ended on a high with "The Greatest Show in the Galaxy", a wonderfully fun story which was a thinly veiled parody of the show itself in its current situation: low ratings, failure to attract a new audience or please its unseen overlord bosses, the fans who are too young to have ever seen the production in its early days but are dead certain that the current show isn't as good as it used to be, etc. The story is populated with colourful, quirky and unusual characters.

And Season Three got even better. The show was now focusing on unusual, quirky stories, which sometimes got lost underneath the layers of weirdness (like "Ghost Light"), and sometimes hit just the right tone and created some of the classic tales of the series history (like "The Curse of Fenric"). What is most unusual about the Cartmel era, though, is the amount of background and development we get in the companion. With Ace, we gradually learn a great amount about her (her troubled past, her broken relationship with her mother, etc), to the point where nearly all the stories in Season 26 are generated from Ace's background. The Season begins with "Battlefield", in which we are treated to Ace telling a new friend stories about her school days. After that, we have "Ghost Light" in which the Doctor takes Ace back to a house that scared her as a child; "The Curse of Fenric", in which Ace rescues a baby that turns out to be her mother, plus we learn that Fenric had guided Ace to cross the Doctor's path; and "Survival", which which the Doctor takes Ace back home to Perivale to check in with her old mates, only to find that they are disappearing one-by-one. The stories, while odd, were strong and weighty.

However, the ratings continued on their downward slope, with each season drawing fewer numbers than its predecesssor. What's interesting, though, is that each of McCoy's three seasons ended with higher ratings than they began (with "Greatest Show" part 4 drawing 6 million), which suggests that the seasons were too short, and each ended just as it was finding its audience. The show then suffered from 9 month breaks between seasons, losing any momentum that each season managed to build. The plug was pulled at the conclusion of the 26th season. Doctor Who was no more.

The show managed to rally itself for its 35th Anniversary, with a 14 minute slapped together production called "Dimensions in Time", which was broadcast in two parts during the Children in Need telethon. "Dimensions" featured a return of all the living Doctors and many of their companions, plus the Rani and a slew of monsters.

The Seventh Doctor returned to the screen one final time in the Eighth Doctor television movie, "The Enemy Within".

Recommended Viewing

Listed below are some of the standout stories from the Seventh Doctor era, hand selected by members of the Atlanta Gallifreyans. The titles are listed in order of most votes.

"Remembrance of the Daleks" (1988)
Starring Sylvester McCoy (the Doctor), Sophie Aldred (Ace), Terry Molloy (Davros)

The Doctor and Ace return to the England of 1963, the same time as the Doctor and Susan used to live in a scrap yard in Totters Lane. Returning to the school where Susan studies, the Doctor discovers that all is not as it should be. It soon becomes clear that a war between two Dalek factions is being fought, while they both seek a device the Doctor had hidden on Earth on his last visit.

***

"Battlefield" (1989)
Starring Sylvester McCoy (the Doctor), Sophie Aldred (Ace)

The Doctor and Ace arrive near the site of an archeological dig to discover strange goings on that have already attracted the attentions of UNIT, now commanded by Brigadier Winifred Bambera. Soon a battle between the mythological characters of Arthurian legend is raging, but why do they all refer to the Doctor as Merlin?

****

"The Curse of Fenric" (1989)
Starring Sylvester McCoy (the Doctor), Sophie Aldred (Ace)

A small coastal village in wartime England is the setting. A historian discovers that an ancient curse has unleashed the Wolves of Fenric, and a number of the local residents have become Vampires. During their investigations they make some disturbing discoveries about Ace's past.

****

"The Greatest Show in the Galaxy" (1988)
Starring Sylvester McCoy (the Doctor), Sophie Aldred (Ace)

The Doctor and Ace discover a Circus in which all is not as it seems. Can they help the innocents trapped by the deadly robotic clowns escape from a fatal trip to the circus ring? What is the secret of the family of three who are the only audience?

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