Overview of Season 26 of Doctor Who
“I always said I’d retire to here some day. Get myself a little house, live a quiet life. What about you Doctor? Have you ever considered retirement?”
“What do you mean? I am retired!”
“What, gallivanting around the universe saving planets is retirement? What did you do before?”
“I was a scientist on Gallifrey. Not a very good one either. It was frightfully boring, so one day I decided I’d retire, stole a TARDIS and ran off with my granddaughter. I’ve never really stopped running since.”
- Dr Rachel Vance and the Doctor discuss retirement, taken from
This Sceptred Isle.
Battlefield
The Doctor and Rachel land in England in 1992, following a distress signal. Following the sound of explosions, they find a UNIT nuclear missile convoy, led by Brigadier Bambera, who has taken over from the now retired Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart. Soon after, Bambera is caught in the crossfire between two groups of knights using a mixture of medieval and futuristic weaponry. As the retired Brigadier is brought to meet with the Doctor, it becomes clear to him and Rachel that there may be more to Arthurian legend than just myth, and that the Doctor may have a part to play in the story.
Guest Star: Nicholas Courtenay as the Brigadier
First Frontier
At Rachel’s request, the Doctor and her visit the USA in 1957. The Cold War is raging, but it is soon clear to the Doctor that Earth’s greatest threat is not mutually assured destruction, but rather alien conquest. The Tzun Confederacy have set their sights on the planet, and have infiltrated the highest ranks of the military. Two nuclear warheads have been stolen, and as chaos begins to reign, only one person seems to have any idea as to what is happening, the mysterious military advisor “Major Kreer”, who knows the Doctor all too well.
Guest Star: J.E. Freeman as the Master
The Element of Surprise
The TARDIS lands on the Moon in the year 2147. Humanity has begun its trek among the stars, and the many pioneers are setting off from the growing lunar cities. But as tensions rise between those who stay in the solar system and the more far flung colonies, increasingly supported by Earth’s alien rivals, the Doctor and Rachel find themselves at the centre of a riot that will shape humanity’s future, and Rachel’s past. Rachel knows the gruesome way the riot will finish, but events seem to be going differently to how history describes them in Rachel’s time.
The Time of Your Life
Dr Rachel Vance has lived a good and happy life so far. Ever since she made the find of a lifetime on the planet Heaven two years ago, her career has gone from success to success. She now has a beautiful husband and baby girl, but there is trouble in paradise. A mysterious individual calling himself “The Doctor” is following her, and claims to know her. Danger seems to follow him, but something tells her that he may be right in his mad ramblings that none of this is real. Danger could be around any corner, and now nobody can be trusted, especially not this wild stranger.
Survival
The Doctor and Rachel travel to Beta Caprisis, the planet of Rachel’s birth. Upon arrival, the find that people are going missing, including many of Rachel’s old friends. The Doctor, however, seems more preoccupied by the behaviour of a strange black cat, that seems to be selecting who goes missing. Soon, Rachel finds herself selected, and hunted down by Cheetah People riding on horseback. The Doctor soon follows, and is met on the planet by an old adversary, the Master, who has been trapped on the planet, and wants the Doctor’s help to escape. As they spend more time on the planet, it becomes clear that the planet is turning all those on it into Cheetah People too.
Guest Star: J.E. Freeman as the Master
The Left-Handed Hummingbird
Someone, or something, is messing with time. The Doctor and Rachel are doing their best to rectify the temporal faults, but they are on the back foot. As they travel to the Aztec Empire, the Swinging Sixties, and the sinking of the Titanic, they are confronted by a mysterious power from Central America’s past, one that is seemingly unstoppable, and out for blood.
No Future
Time is being altered, and now the Doctor finds that even his own past is different to what it should be. The Doctor and Rachel travel to London in 1976, where history is changed once more. Anarchists riot in the street, the Queen has barely escaped assassination, and the UK is on the cusp of revolution. Rachel has disappeared, the Doctor has no idea who is behind the changes to history, and the Brigadier has turned his back on the Doctor. The Doctor is on his own, and it’s up to him to save the Earth from destruction.
Guest Stars: Eric Idle as the Monk and Nicholas Courtenay as the Brigadier
Birthright
The TARDIS is malfunctioning, and Rachel is left stranded on Earth in the early twentieth century, while the Doctor is sent to a barren world in the far future. In the East End, a string of murders has been committed, and a grand sorcerer is finishing his centuries-long quest for a fabled wand. Meanwhile, the Doctor leads a group of guerilla fighters in their struggle against an alien oppressor. These events could be linked, but nobody knows enough to piece together the whole puzzle.
Down Comes the Rain
On the planet Raska IV, the climate is in chaos. Wildfires run rampant one minute, only to be replaced by raging blizzards the next. The TARDIS arrives at what was once a tropical paradise, only to find it frozen over. The Doctor and Rachel decide to investigate the strange weather, and find signs that the rapidly cycling weather may have an artificial origin. The race is on to find who created it and to stop them before the planet’s population is wiped out by the weather.
Lucifer Rising
Rachel asks the Doctor to take her to the planet Lucifer, which is of interest to her. Three centuries before her birth, the archaeological expedition halted suddenly, and the planet was never investigated again. Upon arrival, they soon find a story of sabotage, murder, and ancient powers that once called the planet home.
Last of the Magicians
The TARDIS lands in London 1706, where the Doctor and Rachel intend to relax. While visiting a bar, they encounter Sir Isaac Newton, Master of the Mint, who is investigating a counterfeiting ring that seems to have near-limitless resources. The Doctor and Rachel decide to help him out, and together they find an alien plot to overthrow the monarchy and use the island as a staging ground for a conquest of the planet.
Indigo
The Doctor and Rachel visit 1992 San Francisco, where the secretive Indigo Corporation has set up shop. They sell revolutionary mobile phones that are far more compact and powerful than their competitors’. But there are rumours that you can hear strange voices on the Indigo network, as though there is some entity trapped inside the network trying to get out. When Indigo’s critics begin to disappear, the Doctor and Rachel decide to investigate the shady corporation and get to the bottom of the mysteries.
This Sceptred Isle
The Doctor is summoned by UNIT to investigate a town in Northern England that has disappeared. The Doctor and Rachel arrive, and find the town where it should be, but to the inhabitants, the outside world has disappeared. The town is slowly fading out of reality, and the Doctor realises that the Web of Time has been damaged, and holes in reality are forming. The Doctor travels to Gallifrey to ask for help from the Time Lords, but they are adamant that it is the Doctor’s own meddling that has damaged time. As he desperately tries to heal the damage, the Doctor must come face to face with the possibility that his travels through time may inadvertently be causing damage.