Season 27

**Season 27** of *Doctor Who* ran between 5 September 1990 and 5 December 1990. It starred Sylvester McCoy as the Seventh Doctor, Sophie Aldred as Ace & Elizabeth Hurley as Kate Creevy. The season opened with *Earth Aid* and concluded with *The Outbreak.*

 Overview

It was 1989 and Doctor Who had just aired it’s 26th Season, however it was looking quite clear that the show wouldn’t return for 1990, however head of BBC1 Jonathan Powell decided against cancelling the show and commissioned a new series set to air in 1990.

Peter Creegan the head of Serials had now left meaning Doctor Who wasn’t in his hands and was replaced with Michael Wearing. Nathan-Turner met up with Wearing to discuss the possibility of him leaving in 1990 after Season 27 as he didn’t want to stay on any longer as he’d been Doctor Who’s producer for a decade and expressed his desire to move on to which Wearing agreed as he felt it would freshen things up if there was a new team in front and behind the camera.

As production on Season 26 was taking place Nathan-Turner had meetings between Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred and Nathan-Turner had stated that Season 27 would be his final season and McCoy and Aldred later agreed that they would leave when the showrunner left, Andrew Cartmel had also planned to leave as he felt he should exit when Nathan-Turner, McCoy and Aldred left.

Production wrapped on Season 26 in August 1989 and thus Cartmel and Nathan-Turner started planning for Season 27 and it was at this point Nathan-Turner contacted Wearing to ask the story count be extended from 4-6, but Wearing explained the only way that could happen is if Doctor Who’s ratings went up even though the show was putting a good fight against soap opera’s like Coronation Street. After a few weeks of planning they eventually settled on Earth Aid as the first serial, Ice Time as the second, Crime of The Century as the third and a yet undecided regeneration story, the two most popular suggestions were Alixion by Robert Mukherjee and Animal by Andrew Cartmel. It was later decided that Ben Aaronovitch would write Earth Aid, Marc Platt would write Ice Time, Andrew Cartmel would write Crime of The Century and Ian Briggs would write Seven’s regeneration story.

At first Nathan-Turner felt that Ace should leave in Crime of The Century and they could introduce a new companion in that very same story, but Cartmel then suggested that Ace leave in Ice Time and Crime of The Century would be a companion introduction story, Cartmel then created the character of Raine Creevy, an upper class cat burglar, Nathan-Turner liked the idea but had one request change the name to Kate Creevy to which Cartmel agreed. A few actresses were considered and among them were Julia Ormond, Julia Sawalha and Elizabeth Hurley, Sawalha was not keen on taking it as she considered the role of a Doctor Who companion as an ‘actress graveyard’, Ormond also declined as she didn’t feel committed to taking a role on Doctor Who, so in the end Elizabeth Hurley was approached and after a superb audition she was given the role of Kate Creevy, Cartmel said that for the character of Kate he wanted ‘a posh English-rose type of actress’ to play her and many fans and the press would dub her ‘an Emma Peel for the nineties’.

Even though Cartmel had commissioned Ian Briggs to write Seven’s regeneration story Briggs wasn’t sure whether he could write it at first but the backup writer would be Kevin Clarke if he couldn’t write it, he and Cartmel then had a conversation on the phone and Cartmel told Briggs that “Write something to do with an apocalypse, you know that sort of thing.” Briggs then wrote the story ‘The Outbreak’ which originally was supposed to be written by Platt for Season 28 however Platt was still promised a place for Season 28, but it meant production on Season 27 could start.

Recurring characters this season would be Sam Creevy (played by Don Henderson), Colonel Felnikov (played by Paul Darrow) and the Metatraxi voiced by Peter Tuddenham.

Production began in April 1990, the season may have looked like Earth Aid, Ice Time, Crime of the Century and The Outbreak but due to production logistics Ice Time would be produced first as a location/studio 4 parter, Earth Aid entirely in studio as a three parter, Crime of the Century was an all-location three parter and The Outbreak being a Studio/location four parter. Alan Wareing would direct Earth Aid, Nicholas Mallet would direct Crime of the Century and Chris Clough would direct Ice Time and The Outbreak.

Nathan-Turner and Wearing were now trying to find a successor and Nathan-Turner suggested production manager Ian Fraser, Wearing however was not particularly favourable to Nathan-Turner’s choice and tried to find an experienced producer but Wearing was out of luck as anybody he approached were unsuitable, unavailable or uninterested. It wasn’t until late May when Wearing agreed to Nathan-Turner’s idea and appointed Ian Fraser as Doctor Who’s new producer.

For this season, and the resulting new era, a new TARDIS interior was designed, this interior is quite unique as nothing like it had come previously in the show. This interior consisted of a large hexagonal room and the Console hung from the ceiling, with the console’s rounded bottom being off the ground with no support.

## Cast

* The Doctor - Sylvester McCoy
* Ace - Sophie Aldred
* Kate Creevy - Elizabeth Hurley

### Recurring

* Sam Creevy - Don Henderson
* Felnikov - Paul Darrow
* Metatraxi - Peter Tuddenham

## Television stories

12/09/1990
 2
03/10/1990
10/10/1990
 3
31/10/1990
07/11/1990
 4
28/11/1990
05/12/1990

## Aliens and Enemies

* Victor Espinosa
* The Metatraxi
* Major Felnikov
* The Ice Warriors
* Amanda Richardson
* The Seekers of Doom

## Adaptations and merchandising

### Home media

#### VHS

* *Earth Aid*
* *Ice Time*
* *Crime of the Century*
* *The Outbreak*

### Novels

* Earth Aid
* Ice Time
* Crime of the Century
* The Outbreak