Season 27

**Season 27** of *Doctor Who* ran from 15 September 1990 to 15 December 1990. It starred Sylvester McCoy as the Seventh Doctor, Sophie Aldred as Ace and Julia Sawalha as Raine Cunningham. The season opened with *Ice Time* and ended with *Alixion*.

## Overview

### Doctor Who Doomed?

Doctor Who's future on the BBC looked uncertain following 1989. After some debate and lobbying from John Nathan-Turner and the outgoing Andrew Cartmel, Director of BBC2 Alan Yentob offered to move the programme from BBC1 to BBC2, with it returning to weekend viewing.

### The End of an Era

With Doctor Who moving to BBC2, John Nathan-Turner asked Yentob as to whether he could finally leave the show after having wanted to do so for so long. He was allowed to, on the proviso that he could find a replacement. He found one in production manager Ian Fraser. Earlier in the year, Andrew Cartmel had announced his decision to step down from being script editor of Doctor Who to work on Casualty, as that guaranteed work. Replacing him, after much deliberation amongst the writing staff, would be *Ghost Light* writer Marc Platt.

In addition, both Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred announced that they would be stepping down as the Doctor and Ace. Replacing Ace would be a cat burglar named Raine Cunningham, played by Julia Sawalha.

## Television Stories

22/09/1990
29/09/1990
 2
20/10/1990
27/10/1990
 3
17/11/1990
 4
08/12/1990
15/12/1990

## Cast

### Main

* The Doctor - Sylvester McCoy
* Ace - Sophie Aldred
* Raine Cunningham - Julia Sawalha

### Recurring

* Sam Cunningham - Tom Georgeson
* Raina Kerenskaya - Julia Goodman
* Maxim Felnikov - Richard Marner

### Guest

* Sezhyr - Michael Fillis
* Hhessh - Martin Wilkie
* Adjudicator - Frank Finlay
* Glarva - Derek Handley
* Yevgeni - Nick Gillard
* Vitali - Nigel Lambert
* Yasha - Peter Meakin
* Oscar Yates - Hubert Rees
* Prince Sayf Udeen - Karan Kapoor
* Palock - David Jason
* Party Guest - Dennis Waterman
* Waiter - Guy Oliver-Watts
* Salock - Peter Firth
* Valentin - Ralph Brown
* Parvez - Brian Capron
* Walnuf - Mark Williams
* Gunman - Jeffrey Robert
* Voice of the Metatraxi - Peter Tuddenham
* Major Dickens - Bernard Kay
* The Bursar - Joanna McCallum
* Dr O'Neil - Andrew Forbes
* Sue - Holly Aird
* The Deacon - Ann Beach
* Joe Hartley - Michael York
* The Abbot - Alun Armstrong
* Brother Urnie - Craig Charles
* Brother Ialgo - Nick Berry
* Brett - Dexter Fletcher
* Herrel - Pauline Collins
* Lillie - Lucy Speed
* Olvic - Robert Urquhart
* Kniles - Michael Keating
* Tourist Victim - David Banks

## Adaptations and Merchandising

### Home Media

#### VHS

* *Ice Time*
* *Crime of the Century*
* *Night Thoughts*
* *Alixion*

#### DVD

* *Alixion* was released on a DVD box set alongside *Avatar* and *The Herald* entitled *The Making of Time's Champion* in 2003.
* All of Season 27 was released on DVD in 2005.

#### Blu-Ray

* The complete series has been upscaled in 1080i50 high definition and was released as *Doctor Who: The Collection - Season 27* in the UK.
* It was released in the US under the title *Doctor Who: Sylvester McCoy - Complete Season Four.*

#### Novels

* Ice Time
* Crime of the Century
* Night Thoughts
* Alixion