The Champion of Time (TV Story)

Sixth Doctor

Fifth Doctor

Fourth Doctor

Third Doctor

***The Champion of Time*** was the 30th Anniversary Special of *Doctor Who*. It was written by Ben Aaronovitch, directed by Graeme Harper and starred Richard Griffiths as the Eighth Doctor, Lisa Bowerman as Bernice Summerfield & Samuel West as David Lyons.

## Synopsis

Summoned to Gallifrey by the Time Lords in a desperate time of crisis, the Doctor realises that the Daleks are attacking his timeline, he is in the most danger he has ever known and must prevent the attacks on his own history but he isn't alone. The Doctors must work together to prevent the destruction of their timeline.

## Plot

We begin with a shot of London, it’s destroyed and a ufo lies damaged in the river thames, we then see the Eighth Doctor running back down some destroyed streets as he runs from Dalek laser fire, three Daleks are pursing the Doctor repeating “Exterminate!”

The Doctor starts to reach the TARDIS when the doors open and David gets him inside, Bernice standing behind the console asks the Doctor what happened, he says he dosen’t know but theorises he’s landed at an earlier point in the Dalek invasion of Earth before he stopped them, suddenly the TARDIS console's central column begins to move by itself. Bernice and David look at The Doctor who says quietly and gravely, "It's the Time Lords. We’re being taken to Gallifrey. Things are about to get very serious." As we cut to the opening credits.

We then see the TARDIS materiallise in a Gallifreyan hallway in the citadel, two timelords greet the Doctor and co. before leading them into a white marble room, and the Doctor is surprised to find his five previous incarnations waiting for him.

He asks what the situation is and the third Doctor tells him that there are Daleks where they shouldn’t be and Romana and a new Timelord, Tyrell enter the room and explain this is an attack on their timeline and they reveal that those Daleks are from an alternate universe and reason they’re here is because the Eighth Doctor destroys the Daleks at some point in his future, but it’s an event that shouldn’t happen but has and they theorise someone or something has used a machine called the Omega event, which can create historical events which can’t or should never happen and knowing the damage the Omega event can cause the timelords have called upon the Doctors to stop the event.

We then cut to 2002, where we see Brigadier Bambera and UNIT get reports of Daleks landing all around the UK and we see she’s very stressed and very busy. She enters her office and sees the Third Doctor sitting on a chair and explaining to her he’s an earlier version of the Doctor and he’s here to help them stop the Daleks, Bambera is quite relieved about this as she can trust the Doctor to help her however a UNIT soldier bursts in and tells them that Daleks are attacking and they look out the window to see UNIT fighting the Daleks, the Doctor then notices a wormhole of sorts and he realises what it is in full horror and shock as he tells Bambera that it’s a Dalek time portal and that floods of Daleks can get through, he and Bambera think of a plan and the Doctor builds a device and Bambera then asks what they do with it  and the Doctor winks and says “Leave it with me.” We then see the Doctor driving Bessie and Bambera keeping the device safe, the Doctor disembarks from Bessie with the device. Making sure he has it on the right setting, the Doctor activates the device which shoots out an energy beam that destroys all the Daleks.

We then see the Fourth Doctor land in a stable in a mediaeval castle and explores some of the castle, until he gets caught by some guards and taken to Lord Anthony who orders him to be executed and he’s taken into the courtyard where he’s about to be shot with arrows by knights until a vortex opens up and Daleks start to slaughter everyone, the Doctor escapes but has to deal with Guards and Daleks. After sometime he gets back to the TARDIS and finds a bacteria which can effect Dalek casings and uses that on the Daleks and with a device he stole from Gallifrey closes the Dalek time portal, he gets chased around by guards a little more and eventually leaves in the TARDIS.

Elsewhere, the TARDIS has just landed and in the console room and the Fifth Doctor is studying the scanner. Outside appears to be a deserted patch of land. There are a few small buildings nearby and in the distance what appears to be an aircraft hangar. Beyond all that appears to be sea. Finally he spots a house and he steps outside and walks through a hedge-like maze, and after a while he makes his way to the house and is arrested by some androids and taken to ‘The Director’ who says he’s stumbled upon Project: Proelium and he must be imprisoned, we then see androids throw the Doctor in a cell and we see the director and two other people get into an elevation and an observation room and start Project: Proelium and we see 35 people try and get to the end of the maze and if they are caught by the androids they’re eliminated and killed, we see the Doctor brake out of his cell and heading back into the maze to find the TARDIS and destroys one of the droids and finds a Dalek mutant inside the droid and realises he must stop the Director and the Daleks, he later finds the Director and finds that in the observation room and finds water tanks filled with Dalek-like creatures, but not exactly the same – it turns out that these are people who have won the previous tournaments have been kidnapped and are being turned into new Dalek mutants. the Doctor, inevitably, defeats them, by cracking open the incubator tanks, of the half-converted Daleks, which as they are in many ways still half human, they are filled with rage for what the Director has done to them, and they all kill the director, and they all die due to the experiments.

The Sixth Doctor arrives on a planet at night time and he finds a cave, he sees light in there and investigates where he finds a cult and whilst he’s spying on them someone grabs him and takes him into the centre of the circle and the leader of the cult, he says "Destroyer of Skaro, you shall pay! Bind him to the altar!" they try to tie him up to the altar and the Doctor realises they’re inhabitants of Skaro and the leader explains they lived on Skaro until he destroyed it and now he’ll pay for his crimes, the Doctor is now on the altar about to be tied up when a Dalek from the future comes through via time portal and starts to exterminate everyone, the Doctor takes some explosives from out his pocket and starts setting them up and it detonates sealing the Dalek inside.

The Seventh Doctor then lands on a colony world which he discovers has been invaded by the Daleks because they’re looking for a mineral which powers a new superweapon of theirs, the Doctor is then captured and is put into slave labour and meets some of the slaves who are Deus, Angelos and Millie. We find out they invaded the planet a couple of years ago and they get very little food and water and the Doctor says he’s gonna change that and he, Deus, Angelos and Millie all plan a revolution, they do this but most of the slaves are killed, Deus is exterminated and Angelos is killed by a Dalek Collaborator, so Millie is elected as leader of the planet and the Doctor eventually leaves.

The Eighth Doctor, Bernice and David land in London, 1993 and we see a full-on alien invasion where the Doctor, Bernice and David fight the Daleks and the Doctor has to think of something and he theorises that because history has somewhat been changed they’re DNA must be unstable and with help of the TARDIS sends a temporal rift around the Earth, which ages the Daleks by centuries killing them.

We then see all the Doctors land on the mothership where they confront the Emperor Dalek and we see the Doctors teaming up and stopping the Daleks from what they were doing and destroy the equipment for the Dalek time portals and rescuing their companions who are Jo, Sarah Jane, Nyssa, Peri and Ace.

They all go back to Gallifrey and we see Romana greet the Doctors and she says that the Omega Event is still active and we find out it was the work of Tyrell who wanted to cause chaos and see time suffer, he tries to get away but is arrested by the CIA and all the Doctors go back to their rightful times and places, but we see the TARDIS land in a cottage garden and the Eighth Doctor, Bernice and Henry step out and we see the Doctor visit Ian Chesterton, Ian asks what’s happened and the Doctor replies with “Ian, it’s a very long story.” As we cut to the closing credits.

## Cast

* The Doctor - Richard Griffiths
* The Doctor - Sylvester McCoy
* The Doctor - Colin Baker
* The Doctor - Peter Davison
* The Doctor - Tom Baker
* The Doctor - Jon Pertwee
* Bernice Summerfield - Lisa Bowerman
* David Lyons - Samuel West
* Romana - Lalla Ward
* Tyrell - Jeremy Brett
* Brigadier Bambera - Angela Bruce
* Lord Anthony - Michael Kitchen
* The Director - Frank Finlay
* Cult Leader - Murray Melvin
* Deus - Martin Shaw
* Angelos - Alfred Burke
* Millie - Joanna Lumley
* The Collaborator - Geoffrey Bayldon
* Jo Grant - Katy Manning
* Sarah Jane Smith - Elisabeth Sladen
* Nyssa - Sarah Sutton
* Peri Brown - Nicola Bryant
* Ace - Sophie Aldred
* Dalek Voices - Roy Skelton, Royce Mills, Brian Miller, John Leeson
* Dalek Operators - Hugh Spight, John Scott Martin, Tony Starr, Cy Town
* Ian Chesterton - William Russell

## Crew

* Writer - Ben Aaronovitch
* Producer - Ian Fraser
* Director - Graeme Harper
* Script Editor - Ben Aaronovitch
* Lighting - John King
* Designer - David Laskey
* Visual Effects Designer - Dave Chapman, Malcom James
* Make-Up Designer - Helen Barrett
* Casting Director - Anne Henderson
* Music - Mark Ayres
* Original Theme Music - Ron Grainer
* Title Sequence - CAL Video

## Story Notes

* This is the final story to be produced by Ian Fraser and script edited by Ben Aaronovitch
* The 30th Anniversary was the biggest problem Fraser and Aaronovitch were facing due to story ideas and former Doctors returning, the most obvious story being passed around as a potential 30th Anniversary special was ‘The Dark Dimension’ which would’ve been set in an alternate timeline, where the Fourth Doctor never survived his deadly fall in Part 4 of Logopolis, thus meaning Doctors 5, 6, 7 & 8 never existed. The story would be cantered around an older Fourth Doctor, the Brigadier & Bernice and the new companion trying to fix the universe as well as defeating whoever caused history to go wrong. This special, had it gone any further, would’ve been written by Adrian Rigelsford but it would’ve been to expensive to film and Jon Pertwee and Colin Baker refused to return unless they were given a bigger role with Tom Baker being given most of the screen time, Destination: Holocaust was also suggested which would’ve been written by David Roden and would’ve seen the Doctor reuniting with the Brigadier and facing the Cybermen but Fraser wasn’t particularly favourable of it, other ideas that were suggested were ‘Ascend from Darkness’ and ‘The Eyes of Death’. What was eventually decided upon was a story about Daleks attacking the Doctor’s timeline and Doctors 3-8 trying to restore the timelines, originally the story had a variety of different titles which were ‘Time’s Champion’, ‘The Darkness of Time’, ‘The Champion of Time’ and ‘The Lords of Gallifrey’, Fraser eventually decided that ‘The Champion of Time’ would be the better title for the 30th.
* Although the Doctor are on Gallifrey their companions were abducted by the Daleks.

## Continuity

* The Doctor notes that he's arrived at an earlier part of the Dalek invasion which featured in 'The Dalek Invasion of Earth'.
* The Emperor Dalek says that he is filled with hatred for the Doctor after the events of 'Evil of The Daleks'.
* The Cult Leader says he and his people have struggled after Skaro was destroyed in 'Remembrance of the Daleks'.

## Home video releases

### DVD

* This story was first released on DVD in 1999.
* This story along with the other stories in Season 30 were released as *Doctor Who: The Complete Thirtieth Season* in 2004.

### Blu-ray

* This story along with the other stories in Season 30 were upscaled in 1080i50 high definition and were released as *Doctor Who: The Collection - Season 30* in the UK in 2022.