Season 28

**Season 28** of *Doctor Who* ran between 4 September 1991 and 4 December 1991. It starred Richard Griffiths as the Eighth Doctor & Elizabeth Hurley as Kate Creevy. The season opened with *Survival of the Daleks* and concluded with *Lungbarrow.*

 Overview

After Season 27 aired with the departures of four major cast and crew members, the BBC were optimistic that the show could hit it’s stride and become popular again, however in order to do that the next season would be put to the test otherwise the BBC would lock the TARDIS and throw away the key for good.

Ian Fraser was recommended by John Nathan-Turner to Michael Wearing who later chose Fraser despite him being unsure, due to Fraser not knowing the writers too well he asked former Script Editor Andrew Cartmel to pick his successor, Cartmel eventually picked Ben Aaronovitch who wrote Battlefield, Remembrance of the Daleks and Earth Aid. Fraser and Aaronovitch started to plan out their era and they both decided it would be a lot more darker then Nathan-Turner’s era.

This season would also be the first for the new Doctor played by Richard Griffiths who was the top choice for the BBC to play the Doctor, however there were other options in case he declined including Ian Richardson, David McCallum and the second choice for Eight: William Gaunt.

After Fraser cast Griffiths, he originally wanted the Doctor to go back to a grandfatherly figure. However Ben Aaronovitch painted the Doctor as a dark and manipulative figure who did not clearly know right from wrong; Fraser loved the idea and went with it as he thought there could be an arc resolved at some point in Griffiths’ era and he could lose his dark ways. Originally, both Aaronovitch and Griffiths wanted the Doctor to wear a morning suit, with a blue trench coat topped off with a red silk scarf, beetle badge and a navy blue dotted bowtie. However Fraser eventually decided he should wear a Demob suit with a patterned cravat, to which Griffiths agreed with.

This season was also significant as it rounded off the fan named ‘Cartmel Masterplan’, an arc that started in Season 25 by exploring the Doctor’s past and backstory after it was hinted in Remembrance of the Daleks when the Seventh Doctor claimed that he is "far more than just another Time Lord." It would conclude in the last story, where it is revealed that the Doctor was previously known as the Other and founded Time Lord society with Omega and Rassilon.

The season would be made up of four stories of 14 episodes, Ben Aaronovitch would write the first story: A post regeneration story and an apocalyptic story but focusing on the Daleks. Edward Young would write a story about murder in an old house, Production Designer Mike Tucker and his writing partner Robert Perry would write a World War 2 story involving the Cybermen and Marc Platt would write the final story of the season, whilst also rounding of ‘The Cartmel Masterplan’.

This season would feature a brand new title sequence and theme tune, the new titles would consist of an explosion forming into a nebula as the TARDIS flies into the vortex, we then see Griffiths’ face morph and soon fades out as we see an explosion of bright light and the logo against a starry background as the episode and writers name appear under the Doctor who logo. The new theme would be composed by Mark Ayres and consisted elements of the Delia Derbyshire and Peter Howell themes.

A new logo was also introduced, this logo was made to resemble the 1970 Jon Pertwee logo whilst also standing on it’s own feet. Originally Fraser wanted a logo that was ‘out there’ in terms of design resembling something like the diamond logo, but when Fraser saw this design he immediately accepted and when it was announced as the Doctor Who logo many fans were pleased and thought it was a much better logo than the 1987 logo, which was disliked by the fans, media and merchandising companies.

Fraser and Aaronovitch then had a meeting with the BBC and they told Fraser and Aaronovitch that if the show didn’t improve by the end of the season, the show would be cancelled which meant that Season 28 was a real test to prove the show wasn’t dying and it could continue.

## Cast

* The Doctor - Richard Griffiths
* Kate Creevy - Elizabeth Hurley

## Television stories

11/09/1991
 2
02/10/1991
09/10/1991
 3
30/10/1991
 4
20/11/1991
27/11/1991
04/12/1991

## Aliens and enemies

* The Daleks
* Davros
* Major Dickens
* George Limb
* The Cybermen
* Cybermats
* The Nazis
* Glospin
* The CIA

## Adaptations and merchandising

### Home media

#### VHS

* Survival of the Daleks
* Night Thoughts
* Illegal Alien
* Lungbarrow

### Novels

* Survival of the Daleks
* Night Thoughts
* Illegal Alien
* Lungbarrow