Season 33

**Season 33** of *Doctor Who* ran between 7 September 1996 and 1 February 1997. It starred Nick Berry as the Ninth Doctor & Gillian Kearney as Lillian Truscott. The season opened with *Night of the Master* and concluded with *Vampire Science.*

 Overview

By 1995, Doctor Who was experiencing a wave of popularity it had not seen since the Tom Baker era, with Richard Griffiths in the title role since 1991. The show had been impressively saved by Producer Ian Fraser and Script Editor Ben Aaronovitch who both took over in 1991 and left after the 30th Anniversary The Champion of Time aired in 1993.

The reigns of the show were passed onto Producer Stephen Garwood and Script Editor Colin Brake who decided to make the show a lot like Doctor Who's American Rival: Star Trek.Due to Garwood and Brake making the show like Star Trek the show's popularity grew immensely with Griffiths' incarnation rivalling Pertwee and Baker, however Griffiths had announced his departure after the conclusion of Season 31 and the Eighth Doctor's final season was now in development.

Garwood and Brake now had a big question to answer: Who would play the Ninth Doctor?

Many actors were considered including Rowan Atkinson, Robert Lindsay, Ian Richardson, Tim McInnerny, Anthony Head and Richard E. Grant. But the most favoured choice was that of Irish actor Liam Cunningham who was unfortunately busy at the time, during the audition process Garwood received a letter from casting director John Hubbard who recommended the star of ITV's Heartbeat Nick Berry. Garwood at first was unsure as he felt Berry wouldn't be able to pull off the role of the Doctor, however when the audition process was over Garwood and Brake were amazed and Berry was offered the role of the Doctor to which he happily accepted.

Berry was announced as the Doctor in August 1995 when the second story of Season 32 aired, Berry said in DWM Issue 229 that "He was honoured to take the reigns of the TARDIS and he couldn't wait to start his adventures in Space and time." Many fans were happy that a younger actor was cast as the Doctor, others thought that Garwood and Brake should've stock with the older actor route which had worked well with Griffiths. The final Eighth Doctor story aired on 2nd December 1995 with 'The Fatal Rebellion' one of the Darkest regeneration stories of all time with David being killed off and the Eighth Doctor being injected with poison causing his regeneration.

With the Doctor now cast Garwood and Brake needed to create a new companion, they felt that they should have a companion from the modern day at first as fans could relate more to the companion, however Garwood decided that they need a companion from the past and they created the character of Lillian Truscott, a woman from 1940s Britain.

Garwood and Brake thought this could be unique as it would boost the show in popularity and it would also and show that not all companions need to be from the present day. Eventually Gillian Kearney was cast in the role despite Garwood wanting Chloe Annett, but again Kearney impressed with her audition and she was cast in the part of Lillian.

With a new Doctor now cast, Garwood ordered that a new title sequence be made and a new arrangement of the theme be made. Garwood asked that a new title sequence be made and to make it 'very sci-fi' as Doctor Who was competing with Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager, the titles consist of a clock floating in space before it explodes and flies into the vortex where we get the main cast names and Berry's portrait before the logo appears whilst we get a few shots of Earth.

A new theme tune was composed by Roger Bolton, who gave a new take on the  theme, and was much more different to the Mark Ayres theme.

For the new era of the show it was decided there would be an entirely new TARDIS interior, the interior would now be vastly different from the last and would be a dim lighted room whilst the console gave off a blue light and the roundels weren’t lighted and instead the light would come from the pillars around the console. The exterior of the TARDIS was also changed as the colour was changed to a darker blue colour, the lantern on the top of the TARDIS was made thicker and the 'Police Public Call Box' sign had a new and bold font.

The new series was heavily promoted by the BBC with trailers and a front page on the radio times, the series was seen as a big deal as the BBC, Garwood and Brake knew that if the success of the show was to continue it had to be promoted as much as possible and it was important that Berry's first season was a success and therefore it had to have much attention and promotion. It also needed to compete with the Star Trek franchise as both Deep Space Nine and Voyager both aired around the same time and Doctor Who had to compete with those shows and The X Files as it was seen as the only show at the BBC, and Britain, that could compete with American Sci-Fi shows.

## Cast

* The Doctor - Nick Berry
* Lillian Truscott - Gillian Kearney

## Aliens and enemies

* The Master
* Zodaal
* The Daleks
* The Jagrafess
* The Editor
* The Gortons
* The Crimson Raiders
* Vladek
* The Tractators
* Slake

## Adaptations and merchandising

### Home media

#### VHS

* Night of the Master
* The English Way of Death
* The Time Ravagers
* The Long Game
* Life’s End
* World On Fire
* The Pit
* Vampire Science

### Novels

* Night of the Master
* The English Way of Death
* The Time Ravagers
* The Long Game
* Life’s End
* World On Fire
* The Pit
* Vampire Science