And here's the continuation! Again with a very lacklustre wikibox, for which I apologize.
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The twenty-first season of British science fiction television series
Doctor Who began on the 5th January 1984 with the serial Warriors of the Deep, and ended with the serial The Caves of Androzani. It was the third series to star Peter Davison as the Doctor, and saw the departures of companions Tegan (Janet Fielding) and Turlough (Mark Strickson) and the introduction of Peri (Nichola Bryant) during its run.
While Davison had considered leaving with his co-stars, he chose to stay on for a fourth series, partly thanks to the strength and positive reception of Resurrection of the Daleks and The Five Doctors the previous year. In interviews, he has cited Season Twenty-one as his favourite of the four series he did as the Doctor.
With the exception of the fourth story, Vengeance on Varos, each serial of Season Twenty-one was broadcast twice weekly on Thursday and Friday evenings; that story was broadcast in two parts on two consecutive Wednesday nights due to the BBC's coverage of the 1984 Winter Olympics taking up
Doctor Who's normal timeslot.
Serials
Warriors of the Deep by Johnny Byrne (4 episodes, 5-13 January 1984)
The TARDIS arrives on the undersea base of Sea Base Four, where the crew are to face a siege by the Doctor's old enemies, the Silurians and Sea Devils.
The Awakening by Eric Pringle (2 episodes, 19-20 January 1984)
In the village of Little Hodcombe, home to Tegan's grandfather, a re-enactment of an English Civil War battle is being held. But the local magistrate is desperate to make the games more realistic to the point of putting its locals in mortal danger, and a malevolent force seems to be afoot.
Frontios by Christopher H. Bidmead (4 episodes, 26 January- 3 February 1984)
After the TARDIS arrives on the mysterious planet Frontios, the Doctor seems aloof about helping its apparently doomed people. But when the TARDIS is mysteriously destroyed by a force on the planet, he is forced to help protect them from the creatures under the planet's surface.
Vengeance on Varos by Philip Martin (2 episodes, 8-15 February 1984)
Faulty after being repaired on Frontios, the TARDIS is forced to land on planet Varos, a mining colony where political prisoners are subjected to game-like torments for the amusement of the population, and the Doctor and his companions are forced to participate in them too.
Planet of Fire by Peter Grimwade (4 episodes, 23 February-2 March 1984)
Seeking to convince Tegan to stay with him after the horrors of Varos, the Doctor takes the TARDIS crew to Lanzarote, but when Turlough discovers an artifact from his home planet Sarn and Peri, a young American student, has her stepfather murdered by the Master, it becomes clear the Doctor will have to worry about more than one companion.
The Elite by Barbara Clegg (4 episodes, 8- 16 March 1984)
The Doctor promises Peri a pleasant trip to the paradise world of Florana to initiate her to the TARDIS, but instead the two of them are taken to a planet devastated by warfare, where a young population are fighting for the approval of 'the Elite'.
The Caves of Androzani by Robert Holmes (4 episodes, 22-30 March 1984)
The Doctor and Peri land on the mining planet Androzani Minor, with a serious plot occurring on its larger twin planet Androzani Major as an underground conflict between the rich mine owner Morgus and his psychopathic former business partner Sharaz Jek erupts into a massive war.
Reception
With a few exceptions, Season Twenty-one was quite well received by
Doctor Who fans and enjoyed stronger average ratings than Season Twenty, though nowhere near those of Davison's first season as the Doctor. Despite this, the season opener Warriors of the Deep has been very heavily criticized by fans, particularly in the years since its broadcast, for its poor special effects and plotting; a
Doctor Who Magazine poll ranking every TV story in 1998 saw it placed in the bottom ten.
The series was also criticized in some quarters for what was considered excessive violence, particularly Vengeance on Varos (which has often been defended by fans as satirizing violent media like 'video nasties'), with such criticisms also being levelled at The Elite and The Caves of Androzani. Despite this, all three serials are generally well-liked by
Doctor Who fans, particularly The Caves of Androzani, which is often considered one of the series' best stories.
Behind the scenes, the series was divisive; Peter Davison was quite complimentary of the material he was given and what he considered better direction from directors like Graeme Harper on The Caves of Androzani, and despite her frequent criticism of how Tegan was handled Janet Fielding has stated she liked her departure in Planet of Fire (quipping 'And I don't just say that because I got to go to Lanzarote to do it- I had to convince them to let me do that, for a start!').
By contrast, producer John Nathan-Turner was reportedly quite frustrated with the script for Vengeance on Varos (which he considered dangerously political as well as too violent), tried to have The Elite cancelled due to its unorthodox depiction of a Dalek mutant with little involvement from the regular Daleks, and initially objected to script editor Eric Saward effectively giving The Caves of Androzani's writer Robert Homes carte blanche on his script despite Holmes being a greatly respected writer and former script editor on
Doctor Who.
The positive reception of the aspects of the series Nathan-Turner had objected to weakened his position behind the scenes and led to friction with Davison and other colleagues which the actor later said convinced him he 'had' to leave the series after Season Twenty-two, which he would indeed do.
(By the way, I should've mentioned the changes will kind of snowball as we go along.)
