Survival ( TV story ) Survival was the fourth and final story of season 26 of " Doctor Who " . As such it was the final story to be broadcast , although not produced , of the show ' s original run . Following the airing of its last episode , the series would enter a period of wilderness years devoid of new televised adventures until an attempt was made to revive it in 1996 . As a TV show , " Doctor Who " would not see any regular airings for 16 years , with these wilderness years being both a period of cancellation and a hiatus simultaneously ; while the show was officially discontinued , there were official attempts to revive it and the BBC officially classified the wilderness years as a hiatus during and after its occurrence . The next story in the show to be part of a regularly airing program would be " Rose " , broadcast in 2005 . This story would finally mark the undoing of " Doctor Who " ' s cancellation , though taking place significantly later in the Doctor ' s life . It marks the final appearance of Sophie Aldred as Ace in a regular television serial ; although she would reappear for the special 1993 Children in Need special " Dimensions in Time " . It was also the last time that Anthony Ainley appeared as in a regular televised story ; he appeared one more time in the video game " Destiny of the Doctors " . Ainley ' s final portrayal of the Master in the original series is considerably different - subtle and darker than the often bombastic and forceful impression he had been told to deliver since " Logopolis " ; Ainley had always intended to portray the Master with this calmer characterisation . Lisa Bowerman would ironically make her debut in " Doctor Who " during its final classic episode , as Karra . However , she would later become more widely recognisable for her portrayal as Bernice Summerfield , a character introduced in and adapted from the Virgin New Adventures novels which continued the series and the adventures of the Seventh Doctor in printed format . Despite making his final full appearance in " Survival " , Sylvester McCoy would return as the Doctor in the 1996 television film , marking his final outing as the Doctor both chronologically and from a production standpoint . Since the film focused mainly on his immediate successor , McCoy was brought in to mark his own departure , with the Seventh Doctor regenerating into the Eighth shortly into the film . Additionally , " Survival " is the last televised adventure to feature Tom Yardley - Jones ' s TARDIS prop commissioned by John Nathan - Turner , which debuted in " The Leisure Hive " and remained in use for the whole of his time as producer . It saw one more brief use in the Search Out Space special . The final story to be recorded on analogue tape , it was also the final story to be broadcast from a videotape master . Synopsis . The Doctor brings Ace back to her home town of Perivale . Her old friends are being kidnapped by a race of alien hunters called the Cheetah People , who were shown the way to Earth by the Doctor ' s old enemy . Plot . Part one . The Seventh Doctor brings Ace back to her home town of Perivale in the suburbs of North West London . A mysterious black cat is wandering around and humans are hunted down and made to disappear to another world . Ace grows worried ; most of her old friends seem to have disappeared , but the Doctor is preoccupied with the behaviour of the strange cat . It becomes apparent it is controlled by a strange being in the other world , viewing Perivale through its eyes and choosing which humans to chase and transport . An unhappy young man , Stuart , is his next victim . Ace follows soon afterwards , hunted down by a Cheetah Person on horseback , with a hunting affinity with the curious cat . The Doctor and a keep - fit instructor called Paterson are chosen and teleported to another world , bathed in a blood - red sky , where the Doctor finds his nemesis greeting him . Part two . is evidently unwell . His eyes and mouth show feline characteristics and he uses the black cat , a kitling , to create a dimensional bridge for the Cheetah People to hunt prey on Earth . His reasons are unclear ; he seems keen to keep the Cheetah People occupied . He tells the Doctor the planet is alive and has a bewitching influence . The indigenes bred the kitlings and had a great civilisation , then regressed into animals . The Master is beginning to show changes and needs the Doctor ' s help to escape . Ace has seen some of her friends , Shreela and Midge , hiding in woods with a young man called Derek . The planet is clearly dangerous . Ace and her friends find the Doctor and Paterson . The Time Lord deduce s they are on an ancient , dying planet . A Cheetah Person hunts and kills a terrified milkman , prompting a Cheetah pack to attack the Doctor , Ace and friends . During the fight , Midge kills one Cheetah person and Ace injures another , called Karra . Ace forms an attachment to Karra and tends her injuries . Karra is intrigued by Captain Sorin ' s shiny cap insignia which Ace has on her jacket , ( TV : " The Curse of Fenric " ) and gently paws at it . This worries the Doctor . He says that the only way they can return to Earth is if one of them turns into a Cheetah and then brings his prey home . That happens with Midge and the Master uses him to return to Earth . Karra appears again and Ace ' s eyes change and she begins to transform into a Cheetah herself . Part three . Ace abandons the Doctor to go hunting with Karra but he eventually wins her around . Midge has fallen to the power of the planet and is turning into a beast . The Master seizes on this and has Midge teleport back to Earth , away from the dying world . He possesses Midge and goes with him to the youth club , using his hypnotic powers to enslave Paterson ' s students . The Doctor persuades Ace to help him return to Perivale , also letting Paterson , Derek and Shreela flee the planet . Patterson insists nothing is amiss , falling back on his " survival of the fittest " mantras and self - defence classes . The Doctor and Ace roam Perivale in search of Midge and the Master . They find them at the youth club . They have killed Paterson for sport ; Midge , too , is killed in the Master ' s machinations . Karra ' s arrival brings comfort to Ace , whose transformation continues , but the Master kills Karra too . As she dies , she transforms into a human woman , her metamorphosis having been reversed by death . With her final breath , Karra praises the hunt before another Cheetah Person teleports her dead body away . Meanwhile , the Doctor catches up to the Master , and finds him trying to pick the lock to the TARDIS . The Master gloats that he is capable of controlling the raw power given to him by the planet and declares that he will use it to destroy the Doctor , before grabbing him and taking him back to the Cheetah Planet for a final confrontation . In the ensuring struggle , the Master starts out having the upper hand , but the Doctor , drawing from the planet ' s power , manages to turn the tables on him , and soon has him at his mercy , and raises a skull to bash him with . But in a moment of clarity , the Doctor realises what he is doing is wrong and manages to resist the planet ' s pull , turning away from violence . The Master demands that they finish their fight , but the Doctor tries to convince him to let go of the violence too , pointing out that they will destroy both the planet and themselves if they keep fighting . The Master , however , rejects this and , grabbing the Doctor in a stranglehold , he spitefully tells him that he should have killed him while he had the chance . The Doctor screams out " If we fight like , animals we ' ll die like animals ! " , as the Master raises a club over his head to hit him with . But before the Master can strike him , the Doctor is teleported away . The Master is left for dead as the planet begins to break up . The Doctor has gone back to the TARDIS and Earth , where he finds Ace . Her metamorphosis has reversed . He tells her she will have grown through the experience ; the element of the Cheetah Planet , however , will remain within her forever . Ace is glad ; it gave her a wonderful feeling . She then asks what happened to the Master . " Who knows ? " answers the Doctor with a hint of sadness , before he asks Ace where they should go to now . " Home , " answers Ace with a smile , " The TARDIS . " The two walk off into the distance arm in arm , as the Doctor talks of adventures that await . As they walk , the Seventh Doctor ponders that " there are worlds out there where the sky is burning , the seas sleep , and the rivers dream ; people made of smoke and cities made of song . Somewhere , there ' s danger ; somewhere , there ' s injustice ; and somewhere else , the tea ' s getting cold ! " Knowing his place in the world , the Doctor assures Ace that " we ' ve got work to do . " Story notes . Cancellation . Having surmised that part three of " Survival " was likely to be the last episode of " Doctor Who " for some time and possibly the last ever , producer John Nathan - Turner decided close to airing that a more suitable conclusion should be given to the final episode . Script editor Andrew Cartmel wrote a short , melancholic closing monologue for actor Sylvester McCoy , which McCoy recorded on 23 November 1989 - by coincidence , the show ' s twenty - sixth anniversary . " " There are worlds out there where the sky is burning , where the sea ' s asleep and the rivers dream , people made of smoke and cities made of song . Somewhere there ' s danger , somewhere there ' s injustice , and somewhere else the tea ' s getting cold ! Come on , Ace — we ' ve got work to do ! " " The quote above was dubbed over the closing scene as the Doctor and Ace walked off into the distance , heading for further , unseen adventures . The " Doctor Who " production office at the BBC finally closed down , for the first time since 1963 , in August 1990 . Although " Survival " was the last " Doctor Who " serial of the original series to be transmitted , it was not the last to be produced ; that was " Ghost Light " , which had been broadcast some weeks earlier . This story is the last to feature Anthony Ainley as . He was not asked to return as the Master for the 1996 " Doctor Who " television movie . Instead , Gordon Tipple was cast as the Master for the prologue , and Eric Roberts played the Master ( possessing another character ' s body , a - la Ainley ) for the rest of the film . Ainley reprised the role of the Master for the 1997 computer game " Destiny of the Doctors " , which marked his final appearance as the character until his death . He continued to be active in " Doctor Who " , attending conventions and recording a commentary track for the DVD of the 1981 serial " The Keeper of Traken " . Ainley died on 3 May 2004 after a lengthy period of ill - health , aged seventy - one . A sound - clip of his laugh was later used alongside excerpts of Roger Delgado ' s performance in " The Daemons " for the 2007 episode " Utopia " . This story was also the last to entirely feature Sylvester McCoy as the Doctor . McCoy returned briefly to the role in 1996 at the start of the American television movie continuation of the series , " Doctor Who " , to regenerate into the Eighth Doctor . Finally , this story was the last to feature Sophie Aldred as Ace . Aldred would have continued in her role had the series been renewed for Season 27 ; however , her contract was set to expire at the middle part of that season . The character of Ace was set to be written out of the series in an Ice Warrior story called " Ice Time " by Marc Platt , with her character joining the Pyrodonian Academy on Gallifrey to become a human Time Lord . According to interviews with the production team , the new companion would have been a female safecracker named Raine Cunningham , whom the Doctor would have taken under his wing , with her gangster father as a recurring character . " Doctor Who " eventually returned to production as a BBC television series in 2004 , produced by BBC Wales . " Rose " , the first episode of the new series , aired on 26 March 2005 . As the new series is produced as 45 - minute episodes , this makes " Survival " the final serial in the series proper to date to be produced in 25 - minute instalments , which had been the standard for the series since 1963 ( except for a one - season experiment with forty - five - minute episodes in 1985 ) . A spinoff series , " The Sarah Jane Adventures " , which debuted in 2007 , returned to the 25 - minute , serialised episode format . DVD , video , and audio releases . DVD releases VHS Releases