Doctor Who season 26 | |||
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Title card as used in this season |
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Country of origin | United Kingdom | ||
No. of episodes | 14 | ||
Broadcast | |||
Original channel | BBC One | ||
Original run | 6 September 1989 | – 6 December 1989||
Home video release | |||
DVD release | |||
Region 1 | as individual stories: June 2004 - 5 May 2009 |
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Region 2 | 6 October 2003 - 26 December 2008 |
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Region 4 | 11 February 2004 - 5 May 2009 |
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Series chronology | |||
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List of Doctor Who serials |
The 26th season of British science fiction television series Doctor Who began on 9 September 1989 with the serial Battlefield, after a regular series of four serials was broadcast finishing with Survival which was was the final episode of Doctor Who to air before a 16-year absence from episodic television following its cancellation.
Contents |
Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred both continue their roles as the Seventh Doctor and Ace for their final season. Sylvester McCoy returned to portray the Doctor once again in Doctor Who: The Movie .
Nicholas Courtney returns to play Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart in Battlefield. Having first appeared with the first Doctor in 1965 in The Daleks' Masterplan before becoming a recurring character throughout the second Doctor to the fifth Doctor and last appearing in The Five Doctors.
Anthony Ainley returns to play The Master in Survival having last appeared in The Ultimate Foe (1986).
The final season continued to push the series towards a darker approach, focusing this time more on Ace's personal life as well as The Doctor's past and manipulations.
Story No. | Serial | Title | Directed by | Written by | UK viewers (million) |
Original air date | Production code |
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152 | 1 | "Battlefield" | Michael Kerrigan | Ben Aaronovitch | 3.65[1] | 6-27 September 1989 | 7N |
The Doctor and Ace join forces with UNIT and his old friend the Brigadier against Morgaine (Jean Marsh) and Mordred, Arthurian villains who recognize the Doctor as Merlin. | |||||||
153 | 2 | "Ghost Light" | Alan Wareing | Marc Platt | 4.1[2] | 4-18 October 1989 | 7Q |
The Doctor brings Ace to Gabriel Chase, an old house that she once burnt down in her home town of Perivale. | |||||||
154 | 3 | "The Curse of Fenric" | Nicholas Mallett | Ian Briggs | 4.1[3] | 25 October - 15 November 1989 | 7M |
It's 1943, and Fenric plans a last game of chess with a Time Lord. | |||||||
155 | 4 | "Survival" | Alan Wareing | Rona Munro | 4.9[4] | 22 November - 6 December 1989 | 7P |
A visit to the suburbs lands the Doctor and Ace on a planet of killer cats. |
All serials of season 26 were released individually inbetween 2003 and 2009.