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Doctor Who Season 26 Synopsis
DOCTOR WHO: THE PROGRAMME GUIDE
Season Twenty-Six
The following is an addition to Jean-Marc L'Officier's DOCTOR WHO: THE
PROGRAMME GUIDE, Second Edition. The entries are short in the proper
format. By Jim Shaun Lyon (72571,3002). This file does not intend to
infringe upon the rights of the BBC, L'Officier or any holders of the
DOCTOR WHO Copyright.
Twenty-Sixth Season
Producer Script Editor
John Nathan-Turner Andrew Cartmel
7N 6 September 1989 to 27 September 1989
BATTLEFIELD (4 episodes)
Writer Director
Ben Aaronovitch Michael Kerrigan
Regular Cast: Sylvester McCoy (the Doctor), Sophie Aldred (Ace)
Guest Star: Nicholas Courtney (Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart)
Cast: Jean Marsh (Morgaine), Christopher Bowen (Mordred), Angela
Bruce (Brigadier Winifred Bambera), Marcus Gilbert (Ancelyn),
Ling Tai (Shou Yuing), Angela Douglas (Doris), June Bland
(Elizabeth Rowlinson), Noel Collins (Pat Rowlinson), James
Ellis (Peter Warmsley), Mark Anton (the Destroyer), Dorota Rae
(Pilot Lavel), Robert Jezek (Sgt. Zbrigniev), Paul Tomany
(Major Husak), Stefan Schwartz (Knight Commander)
Story: The TARDIS encounters a distortion traveling sideways in
time and tracks it to England in the mid-1990's, encountering a
UNIT convoy with a nuclear missile stranded near an archaeolo-
gical dig. Morgaine, an alien witch who was on earth in the
eighth century, and her army have come here in search of Excali-
bur, the sword of King Arthur, who was actually a time traveler
like herself. While the Doctor and Ace are assisted in their
battle by a Chinese girl named Shou Yuing, Ancelyn, the enemy of
Morgaine's son Mordred, and UNIT Brigadier Winifred Bambera,
retired Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart comes to Lake Vortegon to
take charge of the situation. The Doctor realizes that he has
set these events in motion sometime in his future; Arthur is
really dead and Excalibur, useless. When Morgaine realizes this,
she unleashes the Destroyer, the most evil being in the universe,
to deal with Earth, but the Brigadier stops it, nearly at the
cost of his own life. Morgaine tries to launch the nuclear
weapon but the Doctor helps her stop the killing and realize her
struggle is over.
Book: Battlefield, by Ben Aaronovitch (August 1990)
7Q 4 October 1989 to 18 October 1989
GHOST LIGHT (3 episodes)
Writer Director
Marc Platt Alan Wareing
Regular Cast: see 7N above
Cast: Ian Hogg (Josiah Samuel Smith), Sharon Duce (Control), John
Hallam (Light), Carl Forgione (Nimrod), Sylvia Syms (Mrs. Prit-
chard, Katharine Schlesinger (Gwendoline), Michael Cochrane
(Redvers Fenn-Cooper), Frank Windsor (Inspector Mackenzie),
John Nettleton (Reverend Matthews), Brenda Kempner (Mrs. Grose)
Story: The TARDIS lands in the late 19th century at Gabriel
Chase, a mansion in old Perivale to which the Doctor has brought
Ace to face her fear - in 1983 she entered the house on a dare
and felt a terrible evil. The Doctor meets Josiah, master of the
house and advocate of Darwin, his housemaid Mrs. Pritchard, ward
Gwendoline, the crazed Redvers Fenn-Cooper and Nimrod, the
manservant whom the Doctor notes as a Neanderthal. Everyone in
the house seems to be insane - Fenn-Cooper was driven mad by
something he saw, which Nimrod worships and Josiah somehow
controls. In actuality, in the basement of Gabriel Chase is a
Galactic survey vessel cataloguing life forms that crashed here;
Josiah, one of three aliens, seized power, locked Control in a
dungeon and kept the master, Light, in stasis. The Doctor aids
in Control's release - she is evolving into a "ladylike" - and is
powerless when Light escapes, taking over the household. The
Doctor convinces Light that nothing stays the same, that all is
in flux, evolving; Light activates a firestorm program that will
destroy Earth. The Doctor is able to stop Josiah's plot to
overthrow England, stop Light and get to the ship, where he sends
Control, Fenn-Cooper and Nimrod on the ship's original mission.
Having faced her fear of the house, Ace and the Doctor depart.
Book: Ghost Light, by Marc Platt (September 1990)
7M 25 October 1989 to 15 November 1989
THE CURSE OF FENRIC (4 episodes)
Writer Director
Ian Briggs Nicholas Mallett
Regular Cast: see 7N above
Cast: Dinsdale Landen (Dr. Judson), Alfred Lynch (Commander Mil-
lington), Tomek Bork (Sorin), Joann Kenny (Jean), Joanne Bell
(Phyllis), Peter Czajkowski (Sergeant Prozorov), Nicholas
Parsons (Reverend Wainwright), Cory Pulman (Kathleen Dudman),
Marek Anton (Vershinin), Stevan Rimkus (Captain Bates), Marcus
Hutton (Sergeant Leigh), Janey Henfrey (Ms. Hardacre), Anne
Reid (Nurse Crane), Mark Conrad (Petrossian), Christien Anholt
(Perkins), Aaron Handley (Baby), Cy Town (Ancient Haemovore)
Story: The TARDIS lands in Yorkshire, circa 1942, where a squad
of Russian commandoes have landed in pursuit of the ULTIMA
machine, an Allied code-cracker developed by Dr. Judson. Judson
is studying the mysterious Viking runes in the basement of a
local parish, runes that speak of a terrible curse. The Doctor
and Ace aid Judson while Commander Millington, Allied commander,
has actually altered ULTIMA's programming into a top secret
weapon that will annihilate the Germans. But the curse proves
deadly; strange beings, Haemovores, arise from the sea, intent on
destruction. The Haemovores prove merely the pawns for an
horrific being called Fenric, an old enemy of the Doctor's whose
essence he stranded here seventeen centuries previous. Fenric's
curse has been passed along to all the descendants of the Viking
who buried his flask...among them Judson, Millington, and even
Ace herself; Fenric transported Ace to Iceworld. When Ace saves
a young secretary at the naval base and her baby, a baby who
will eventually become her mother, the Doctor plays his final
move, shattering Ace's confidence in him and allowing the
Ancient Haemovore to destroy Fenric. The Doctor and Ace depart,
the seventeen-century chess game over.
Book: The Curse of Fenric, by Ian Briggs (October 1990)
7P 22 November 1989 to 6 December 1989
SURVIVAL (3 episodes)
Writer Director
Rona Munroe Alan Wareing
Regular Cast: see 7N above
Guest Star: Anthony Ainley (the Master)
Cast: Julian Holloway (Sergeant Patterson), Lisa Bowerman
(Karra), William Barton (Midge), Sakuntala Ramanee (Shreela),
David John (Derek), Sean Oliver (Stuart), Gareth Hale (Harvey),
Norman Pace (Len), Kate Eadon (Ange), Adele Silva (Squeak),
Michelle Martin (Neighbour), Kathleed Bidmead (Woman)
Story: The town of Perivale is becoming increasingly silent; mys-
terious disappearances prevail, and the townfolk are training to
defend themselves. The Doctor and Ace arrive in Perivale, 1989,
and meet Patterson, who is helping locals, at the youth center.
The Doctor ties the disappearances to a plague of stray cats; in
reality, Kitlings, servants of the wandering alien race known as
the Cheetahs. When Ace encounters a Cheetah, she is teleported
by a kitling to the Cheetah homeworld, where she meets some of
her old friends, who are bait for them to hunt. The Doctor and
Patterson meet a similar fate, and find who is behind it all -
the Master, who is using both races as servitors. The Doctor
leads a hunting party against the Cheetahs and returns to Earth
to battle the Master, while Ace becomes a Cheetah but is rescued
later. Finally, the Cheetah homeworld becomes unstable and they
move on, all save Karra, the leader, whom Ace discovers is
actually a human girl before she dies. The Master is sent into
oblivion, and the Doctor and Ace leave Earth.
Book: Survival, by Rona Munroe (November 1990)
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