| Season Thirty-One (2010):
Fairytales |
| Companions and Recurring Characters |
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Amy Pond met the newly-regenerated Doctor when
she was seven years old; he later returned to save the adult Amy from
the insidious Prisoner Zero.
Karen Gillan (bio) made her first appearance as Amy
in The Eleventh Hour (April
2010) and her last in The Time Of The
Doctor (December 2013).
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Rory Williams was Amy Pond's fiance, and later
her husband. He helped the Doctor and Amy defeat Prisoner Zero and
subsequently accepted the Doctor's invitation to join them aboard the
TARDIS.
Arthur Darvill (bio) made his first appearance as
Rory in The Eleventh Hour (April
2010) and his last in The Angels Take
Manhattan (September 2012).
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Winston Churchill was twice the Prime Minister
of the United Kingdom, and also possessed a direct line to the
TARDIS.
Ian McNeice (bio) made his first appearance as
Churchill in The Beast Below
(April 2010) and his last in The Wedding
Of River Song (October 2011).
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The kind of man who could acquire anything for anyone -- as long as the
price was right -- Dorium Maldovar was
nonetheless a reluctant ally of the Doctor.
Simon Fisher-Becker (bio) made his first appearance
as Dorium in The Pandorica
Opens (June 2010) and his last in The Wedding Of River Song (October
2011).
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A new era for Doctor Who dawned as Russell T Davies, the man who
had brought the programme back from oblivion, departed after six years.
He was replaced as executive producer and showrunner by Steven Moffat (bio), who had written several popular
stories starting with The Empty
Child / The Doctor Dances.
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The Eleventh Hour by Steven Moffat,
directed by Adam Smith
In the English village of Leadworth, a Scottish girl named Amelia Pond
is frightened by a strange crack in her bedroom wall. When the
newly-regenerated Doctor crashlands in her back garden, he discovers
that the crack is really a fracture in space and time, through which an
alien criminal has escaped. Before the Doctor can recapture Prisoner
Zero, he's forced to leave to stabilise the TARDIS. When he returns, he
inadvertently does so twelve years after his previous visit. Now, with
the help of a grown-up Amy, the Doctor must contend not only with the
shape-shifting Prisoner Zero, but with its ruthless Atraxi jailers as
well.
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Two years after defeating Prisoner Zero, the Doctor returns to fulfil
his promise to take Amy with him.
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The Beast Below by Steven Moffat,
directed by Andrew Gunn
Far in the future, the population of Britain has fled an Earth ravaged
by solar flares. But while trying to help a young girl whose classmate
has gone missing, the Doctor and Amy discover that something about the
mammoth Starship UK is very wrong. The vessel moves even though
its engines are idle, holes in the floor divulge enormous tentacles, and
the sinister robotic Smilers punish the disobedient. The Doctor finds
himself assisted by an enigmatic female vigilante called Liz 10, while
Amy learns the truth at the heart of Starship UK... but it's a
truth that she can't bear to remember.
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Victory Of The Daleks by Mark
Gatiss, directed by Andrew Gunn
Prime Minister Winston Churchill summons the Doctor and Amy to
Blitz-torn London. The British forces are at their lowest ebb, but a
scientist named Bracewell has come to Churchill with a series of amazing
ideas and inventions: hypersonic flight, gravity bubbles... and powerful
miniature tanks he calls “Ironsides”. The Doctor, however,
recognises the Ironsides for what they really are: Daleks. With a Nazi
bombing run closing in, and Churchill convinced of the Ironsides'
benevolence, the Doctor unearths a terrible scheme to initiate a new era
of Dalek supremacy.
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The Time Of Angels / Flesh And
Stone by Steven Moffat, directed by Adam Smith
A message left on a museum artefact brings the Doctor to the rescue of
River Song, at a point in time before his first encounter with her, but
after her first meeting with him. River is helping a militant group of
Clerics led by Father Octavian investigate the Byzantium, a
spaceship which is smuggling a dormant Weeping Angel. By the time the
Doctor, Amy and River catch up to the vessel, however, it has
crashlanded atop a ruined Aplan temple. To reach it, they must traverse
a mortuary labyrinth filled with crumbling statues. Too late, the Doctor
realises that the Weeping Angel is not alone -- and that he has walked
into a trap.
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The Vampires Of Venice by Toby
Whithouse, directed by Jonny Campbell
The Doctor escorts Amy and Rory on a date to Venice in 1580. Soon after
they arrive, they meet a disconsolate father named Guido whose daughter,
Isabella, no longer recognises him. Since enrolling in a school for
young women run by the powerful Rosanna Calvierri, she even shuns the
sunlight. After witnessing Rosanna's son, Francesco, attack a flower
girl, the time travellers become convinced that there are vampires on
the loose in Venice. Amy volunteers to enter the House of Calvierri and
investigate -- but could the truth be even more sinister?
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Determined to prevent Amy's adventures from breaking up her engagement,
the Doctor invites Rory to join them aboard the TARDIS.
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Amy's Choice by Simon Nye, directed
by Catherine Morshead
The Doctor, Amy and Rory are confronted by the enigmatic Dream Lord, who
forces them to oscillate back and forth between two different realities.
In one, they're stranded aboard a crippled TARDIS, being inexorably
drawn towards a cold star. In the other, the Doctor is visiting Rory and
a pregnant Amy in Leadworth when they discover that the residents of a
nursing home have become the hosts of alien parasites called the
Eknodines. In both cases, the trio faces a mortal peril... but they must
first deduce which is the true reality, or become trapped in the dream
for the little time that remains to them.
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The Hungry Earth / Cold Blood by
Chris Chibnall, directed by Ashley Way
In 2020, Tony Mack and Dr Nasreen Chaudhry are in charge of a drilling
project in the tiny Welsh village of Cwmtaff. Their goal is to identify
the source of unusual trace minerals in the local grass. But interred
coffins have begun to vanish from the town cemetery, and now Tony's
son-in-law has disappeared down a hole which suddenly opened in the
ground. When the TARDIS arrives, Amy soon vanishes into the Earth as
well. The Doctor and Rory lay a trap and snare a Silurian warrior called
Alaya. They learn that a city full of her people has been reawakened by
the drilling... and now they're ready to wage war against humanity.
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Rory is shot saving the Doctor's life, and is then wiped from existence
by the mysterious cracks in time and space.
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Vincent And The Doctor by Richard
Curtis, directed by Jonny Campbell
At an exhibition of the works of Vincent van Gogh, the Doctor and Amy
discover a disturbing image hidden in one of his final paintings. They
travel back to Provence in 1890, where a penniless van Gogh is haunted
by his personal demons and despised by the local townsfolk. An invisible
monster called a Krafayis is roaming the streets, and the Doctor
realises that the artist is the only person who can perceive it. But as
the time travellers rely on van Gogh to help them stop the Krafayis'
lethal rampage, they must also navigate his tortured moods -- knowing
full well that, within two months, he will have taken his own life.
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The Lodger by Gareth Roberts,
directed by Catherine Morshead
No sooner has the Doctor stepped out of the TARDIS into modern-day
England than it dematerialises again, trapping Amy inside. A strange
force is preventing the time machine from landing, and the Doctor traces
it to a seemingly ordinary house in Colchester. The downstairs resident,
Craig Owens, is searching for a roommate, so the Doctor moves in. Soon,
he's inadvertently involved himself in every aspect of Craig's life --
including his unspoken love for his best friend, Sophie. Meanwhile, a
toxic stain is forming on Craig's ceiling... and the mysterious tenant
on the top floor is luring people up the stairs, never to be seen again.
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The Pandorica Opens / The Big Bang
by Steven Moffat, directed by Toby Haynes
A message transmitted down through history draws the Doctor and Amy to
England in AD 102. There they find River Song waiting for them, with a
warning that a legendary prison called the Pandorica -- hidden beneath
Stonehenge -- is about to open. Too late, the Doctor realises that the
Pandorica is actually a trap set for him by an alliance of his enemies.
They hold him responsible for the cracks in time, and want to prevent
universal destruction. Meanwhile, a mysterious force has seized control
of the TARDIS, setting in motion the very explosion which the Pandorica
was intended to prevent. Will silence fall across all time and space?
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Revived by the Doctor's reality reboot, Rory rejoins his new bride, Amy,
and the Doctor in the TARDIS.
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Almost everything about Doctor Who changed in 2010. A new
production team was in place behind the cameras, a new regular cast
appeared on television screens, and even elements such as the logo, the
TARDIS console room and the police box shell were revamped. Nonetheless,
Doctor Who retained much of its popularity, even as Steven Moffat
pushed the programme in new directions with a story arc which stretched
beyond the confines of a single season.
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| Specials (2010-11): In The Deep
Midwinter |
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A Christmas Carol by Steven Moffat,
directed by Toby Haynes
Amy and Rory's Christmas honeymoon is interrupted when their spaceship
suddenly plummets through a maelstrom of fog towards a crash landing on
the planet below. Miserly Kazran Sardick possesses a machine which can
control the fog, but when the Doctor implores him to save the doomed
vessel, he refuses. Determined to rescue not only his friends but all
four thousand people aboard the ship, the Doctor travels back in time on
a mission to change Kazran's life for the better... but only if he can
navigate the shoals of bitterness and heartbreak which have made Kazran
the man he is today.
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Space / Time by Steven
Moffat, directed by Richard Senior
Amy distracts Rory while he's helping the Doctor repair the TARDIS,
causing the time machine to materialise inside itself. Time and space
start to behave in unpredictable ways, and the three travellers realise
that they may be trapped within the ship for all eternity.
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The tradition of the Doctor Who Christmas special continued for a
sixth year despite the massive changes which the preceding twelve months
had wrought to the cast and production team. Doctor Who also
maintained its connection to the BBC's charity telethons, this time
contributing a special two-part mini-adventure to the 2011 edition of
Red Nose Day for Comic Relief. Airing in March, it offered the dual
appeal of raising funds for a worthy cause and starting the countdown
to Season Thirty-Two.
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| Season Thirty-Two (2011): Death Comes To
Time |
| Companions and Recurring Characters |
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A key figure in the religious order known as the Silence, Madame Kovarian sought the Doctor's death, and
chose to act against him by kidnapping the pregnant Amy Pond.
Frances Barber (bio) made her first appearance as
Madame Kovarian in Day Of The
Moon (April 2011) and her last in The Wedding Of River Song (October
2011).
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Madame Vastra was a Silurian who was
reawakened in the 19th century and, following the Doctor's example,
became a renowned private investigator known as “The Great
Detective”.
Neve McIntosh (bio) made her first appearance as
Vastra in A Good Man Goes To War
(June 2011) and her last in Deep
Breath (August 2014).
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Jenny Flint was Madame Vastra's maid, as well
as her partner -- both personally and professionally.
Catrin Stewart (bio) made her first appearance as
Jenny in A Good Man Goes To
War (June 2011) and her last in Deep Breath (August 2014).
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Commander Strax was a Sontaran nurse who died
fighting for the Doctor at the Battle of Demons Run. He was subsequently
resurrected and joined Madame Vastra as her butler.
Dan Starkey (bio) made his first appearance as Strax
in A Good Man Goes To War (June
2011) and his last in Deep
Breath (August 2014).
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The Impossible Astronaut / Day Of
The Moon by Steven Moffat, directed by Toby Haynes
Amy, Rory and River are summoned to the Utah desert, where they witness
the Doctor's murder at the hands of an astronaut who rises from the
waters of Lake Silencio. The Doctor's final message directs them to
travel to 1969 with a slightly younger version of himself. Materialising
in the White House, they meet President Richard Nixon and ex-FBI agent
Canton Delaware III. Nixon wants Canton to investigate the phone calls
he receives every night from a mysterious child, warning of alien
invasion. But the aliens, immune to capture by human memory, arrived
long ago...
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The Curse Of The Black Spot by
Steve Thompson, directed by Jeremy Webb
In the seventeenth century, the Doctor, Amy and Rory find themselves
aboard the Fancy, a pirate ship captained by Henry Avery. The
vessel has been becalmed for days, marooned in waters that seem to be
haunted by a Siren: a beautiful but demonic woman who stalks the sick
and injured. She sings a mournful, bewitching melody, and her arrival is
foreshadowed by a livid black spot which appears on the victim's skin.
Soon, both Rory and Avery's stowaway son, Toby, are marked as the
Siren's next targets. It falls to the Doctor and the reluctant Captain
to unearth the creature's true nature, before it's too late.
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The Doctor's Wife by Neil Gaiman,
directed by Richard Clark
The Doctor receives a distress call from an old Time Lord friend called
the Corsair, summoning him to a place beyond the universe. Clinging to
the hope that there may still be survivors of Gallifrey, the Doctor
pilots the TARDIS through a rift, only to find his time machine suddenly
lifeless. Landing on a sentient planetoid called House, the Doctor
discovers that he has been lured into a trap. But as House tries to
devour the TARDIS -- and Amy and Rory along with it -- the Doctor finds
an ally in Idris, a woman with whom he shares a deep, personal and
unexpected connection.
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The Rebel Flesh / The Almost
People by Matthew Graham, directed by Julian Simpson
In the twenty-second century, the TARDIS lands on a tiny Earth island
during a solar storm. A factory there pumps out acid so corrosive that
the work is performed by artificial humans, created from programmable
matter called the Flesh. These Gangers take the form of the employees
who control their duplicates remotely. They share all the memories and
personalities of the real humans, but are supposed to lose their
sentience once the connection is broken. When a power surge during the
solar storm causes the Gangers to stabilise, however, the Doctor must
avert a war between the humans and their Flesh counterparts.
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A Good Man Goes To War by Steven
Moffat, directed by Peter Hoar
Months ago, a newly-pregnant Amy was kidnapped by the Headless Monks and
their agent, the ruthless Madame Kovarian. Now, on an asteroid called
Demons Run, she has given birth to her daughter, Melody, who will be
taken away to be used as a weapon against the Doctor. But the Doctor and
Rory have called in favours and gathered a strike force to rescue Amy
and Melody. Only River Song refuses to heed the Doctor's summons. She
knows that this is the day of the Doctor's greatest victory, and his
greatest defeat... and the day that he will finally learn who she really
is.
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Let's Kill Hitler by Steven
Moffat, directed by Richard Senior
When the Doctor returns to Leadworth to update Amy and Rory on his
search for their daughter, Melody, their friend Mels shows up too. She
forces the Doctor to take them to 1938 Berlin so she can kill Adolf
Hitler, but her plans go awry due to the presence of the
Teselecta, a shapeshifting Justice Department Vehicle from the
future. Although she's mortally wounded, Mels doesn't die. Revealing
that she's really Melody Pond, she regenerates... into the woman whom
the astonished time travellers know as River Song. But little do they
realise, Melody has been brainwashed by the Silence -- into murdering
the Doctor.
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Night Terrors by Mark Gatiss,
directed by Richard Clark
A plea for help reaches the Doctor via his psychic paper: “Please
save me from the monsters.” The TARDIS follows the distress call
to a tower block on modern-day Earth. There the Doctor meets Alex, a
frustrated father whose son, George, is seemingly afraid of everything
-- especially the cupboard in his bedroom. When the Doctor tries to
help, he realises that something strange really is lurking in George's
cupboard. And this mysterious force has already trapped Amy and Rory in
a macabre dollhouse, where they're stalked by sinister toys who seek to
transform intruders into more of their kind.
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The Girl Who Waited by Tom MacRae,
directed by Nick Hurran
The TARDIS lands on Apalapucia, a planet ravaged by a plague which is
fatal to beings with two hearts. With the Doctor consigned to the Ship,
his companions become separated across two time streams which move at
very different rates. Amy is forced to venture into a medical facility,
where she is stalked by Handbots carrying lethal medication. Meanwhile,
the Doctor manages to synchronise the time streams, enabling Rory to go
in search of his wife. But when he finally finds Amy, he discovers that
she has been waiting thirty-six years for rescue -- and may no longer
want to be saved.
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The God Complex by Toby Whithouse,
directed by Nick Hurran
The Doctor, Amy and Rory find themselves in what appears to be an
Eighties-era hotel on Earth. But they quickly discover that the outer
doors and windows open onto walls, while the rooms and corridors move
about, separating them from the TARDIS. Soon they encounter a small band
of humans and aliens, and learn that there is a room for each of them,
somewhere in the hotel, containing their deepest fear. Once they find
it, they will inevitably begin to worship a mysterious entity which
stalks the hotel, killing those who praise it. One by one, the hotel
claims its victims... and even Amy cannot resist its lure.
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Closing Time by Gareth Roberts,
directed by Steve Hughes
Having left Amy and Rory behind for their own safety, the Doctor must
soon face his death at Lake Silencio -- but first, there's an old friend
he wants to visit. Craig Owens is now a father, struggling to care for
baby Alfie while his wife, Sophie, is away. As a result, he's oblivious
to the strange events unfolding around him. People are going missing,
unexplained electrical surges plague the neighbourhood, and a mysterious
silver rat stalks the local shopping mall. Before long, the Doctor and
Craig uncover a teleport relay which connects an out-of-order lift to a
Cyberman spaceship. But is this an invasion, or something else?
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The Wedding Of River Song by Steven
Moffat, directed by Jeremy Webb
The Doctor is destined to die on the shores of Lake Silencio, Utah, at
5.02pm on April 22nd, 2011. However, River Song refuses to let events
play out as they were intended, and she inadvertently fractures time in
the process. The Doctor now finds himself on an Earth where all history
is happening simultaneously: Charles Dickens sits for a television
interview, while Winston Churchill is the Holy Roman Emperor. Only a
special few -- including Amy and River -- remember time as it was meant
to be. Even as the Silence spring their final trap, the Doctor knows
that he must meet his fate at Lake Silencio, or all of time will
disintegrate.
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Season Thirty-Two saw a wholesale change to the Doctor Who
broadcast schedule, which was split into two halves to avoid the summer
months, when ratings traditionally dropped due to the warmer weather.
This was not a novel decision: in the past, some seasons had taken a
break across the Christmas period. But the length of the hiatus --
twelve weeks -- was unique for Doctor Who to that point. Also
unprecedented was the integration of the gap into the year-long story
arc, with the mid-season finale, A Good
Man Goes To War, ending on a major cliffhanger.
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| Special (2011): Home For The
Holidays |
| Companions and Recurring Characters |
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Madge Arwell once rescued a gravely-injured
Doctor. Several years later, he attempted to return the favour by
visiting Madge and her children during a time of great personal
crisis.
Claire Skinner (bio) played Madge in The Doctor, The Widow And The
Wardrobe (December 2011).
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The Doctor, The Widow And The
Wardrobe by Steven Moffat, directed by Farren Blackburn
Just days before Christmas 1941, Madge Arwell's airman husband is lost
over the English Channel. Madge dreads telling the terrible news to
their children, Lily and Cyril, so instead she takes them out of London
to an old mansion house owned by a distant relative. The caretaker of
the estate turns out to be the Doctor, whom Madge rescued from a crisis
years earlier. He plans to ease Madge's heartbreak by giving Lily and
Cyril the merriest Christmas ever. But when the Doctor opens a portal to
a wintry alien wonderland in the far future, he inadvertently places all
of them in terrible danger.
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| Season Thirty-Three (2012-13): The
Impossible Girl |
| Companions and Recurring Characters |
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A nanny from modern-day London -- and later an English teacher at Coal
Hill School -- Clara Oswald was brought into
the Doctor's life as part of Missy's schemes, and later found herself
scattered throughout the Doctor's timestream as a result of the
machinations of the Great Intelligence.
Jenna Coleman (bio) made her first appearance as
Clara in The Snowmen (December
2012) and her last in Twice Upon A
Time (December 2017).
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The daughter of Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, Kate
Stewart became UNIT's head of scientific research, and renewed
her family's close bond with the Doctor.
Jemma Redgrave (bio) made her first appearance as
Kate in The Power Of Three
(September 2012) and her last in The Giggle (December 2023).
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Corrupted by the Great Intelligence as a child, Dr
Walter Simeon spent half a century in its service before dying
and becoming a vessel for its evil.
Richard E Grant (bio) made his first appearance as
Dr Simeon / the Great Intelligence in The Snowmen (December 2012) and his
last in The Name Of The Doctor
(May 2013).
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One of the children for whom Clara was caring when she met the Doctor,
Angie Maitland discovered the truth about her
nanny's time-travelling adventures. But when she blackmailed the Doctor
into an invitation aboard the TARDIS, she was inadvertently thrust into
a confrontation with the Cybermen.
Eve De Leon Allen (bio) made their first appearance
as Angie in The Bells Of St John
(March 2013) and their last in The Name
Of The Doctor (May 2013).
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Angie's younger brother was Artie Maitland,
who accompanied his sister, Clara, and the Doctor on their journey to
Hedgewick's World of Wonders in the distant future.
Kassius Carey Johnson (bio) made his first
appearance as Artie in The Bells Of St
John (March 2013) and his last in The Name Of The Doctor (May
2013).
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Asylum Of The Daleks by Steven
Moffat, directed by Nick Hurran
Their relationship in tatters, Amy and Rory find themselves kidnapped by
the Daleks and reunited with the Doctor. They have been brought together
by the Dalek Prime Minister, who requires them to infiltrate a prison
planet called the Asylum which houses the insane outcasts of the Dalek
race. A spaceship has crashed there, offering a means of escape for the
millions of inmates. Now the Daleks wish to destroy the Asylum, and need
the Doctor to deactivate its force field. Furthermore, one passenger
survived the accident: a junior entertainment officer named Oswin, for
whom the Doctor may be her only salvation.
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Dinosaurs On A Spaceship by Chris
Chibnall, directed by Saul Metzstein
In 2367, Earth's security forces are on high alert as an unidentified
spaceship hurtles towards the planet. The Doctor assembles a team to
investigate, including the legendary Queen Nefertiti, a big game
hunter named Riddell, Amy, Rory... and, inadvertently, Rory's father
Brian. Materialising aboard the mystery ship, they're surprised to find
it populated by dinosaurs. It turns out to be a Silurian ark, launched
from Earth millions of years ago and now hijacked by a vicious criminal
named Solomon. With time running out before the vessel is annihilated,
the Doctor may be forced to extreme measures to save both the dinosaurs
and his friends.
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A Town Called Mercy by Toby
Whithouse, directed by Saul Metzstein
The Doctor, Amy and Rory arrive in Mercy, a frontier town in the Old
West which boasts electricity a decade too early. Mercy is being
terrorised by a murderous cyborg in his search for Kahler-Jex, an alien
surgeon who took refuge there after his spaceship crashed in the nearby
desert. The townsfolk -- led by their marshal, Isaac -- are determined
to safeguard Kahler-Jex, but supplies and morale are beginning to run
low. As the Doctor uncovers the sordid history between Kahler-Jex and
the cyborg, he begins to realise that, sometimes, the line between
victim and monster is very blurry indeed.
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The Power Of Three by Chris
Chibnall, directed by Douglas Mackinnon
Amy and Rory wake up one morning to find that the entire Earth is
overrun with little black cubes. The Doctor is already investigating,
suspicious that an alien invasion is in progress, but the cubes are
featureless and inert. Even the assistance of both Brian Williams and
Kate Stewart -- UNIT's head of scientific research and the daughter of
the Doctor's old friend, the Brigadier -- brings him no closer to
solving the mystery. As the Doctor's stay in their home stretches into
weeks and then months, Amy and Rory are forced to confront their own
future as adventurers in time and space. And then, one day, the cubes
activate...
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The Angels Take Manhattan by Steven
Moffat, directed by Nick Hurran
A tranquil stop for the TARDIS crew in modern-day Central Park becomes a
crisis when the Weeping Angels send Rory back to 1938. A pulp detective
novel suddenly begins narrating his fate, providing clues that allow the
Doctor and Amy to come to his rescue. The book's main character, private
investigator Melody Malone, turns out to be River Song. She's become
embroiled with Julius Grayle, a mob boss fascinated with the Angels,
who has learned that they occupy a New York apartment building called
Winter Quay. But when the Doctor sets out to learn why, he puts in
motion a tragedy that even he can't avert...
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The Weeping Angels send Amy and Rory back in time, beyond the reach of
the TARDIS.
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The Great Detective by Steven
Moffat, directed by Marcus Wilson
London in 1892 is protected by Madame Vastra, the so-called
“Lizard Woman of Paternoster Row”, her wife Jenny, and the
dimwitted Sontaran Strax. It's also home to a fourth enigma: a former
traveller in space and time. Unlike Vastra and her associates, however,
the Doctor is no longer interested in defending the Earth...
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The Snowmen by Steven Moffat,
directed by Saul Metzstein
The Doctor has retired to 1892 London. Despite the protests of former
allies such as Madame Vastra, Jenny and Strax, he is determined to keep
out of humanity's affairs. But one day, almost in spite of himself, the
Doctor saves a barmaid named Clara from monstrous Snowmen made of
sentient snow. Clara also works as a governess at the Latimer household,
where the sinister Dr Simeon is abnormally interested in the frozen pond
which was the scene of her predecessor's death. And there is another
mystery afoot: Clara is the spitting image of Oswin Oswald, whom the
Doctor saw perish in the Dalek asylum...
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The Bells Of Saint John by Steven
Moffat, directed by Colm McCarthy
All over the world, people are found dead, slumped next to their
computers. What no one realises is that the victims' minds are being
harvested, uploaded through an insidious new wi-fi network run by Miss
Kizlet on behalf of an enigmatic client. Using robotic servers called
Spoonheads, Miss Kizlet's reach extends virtually everywhere -- and to
almost everyone. But her latest victim, a young nanny named Clara
Oswald, has already made contact with the Doctor under mysterious
circumstances. Having realised that Clara is the same woman he has
already seen die twice, the Doctor is determined not to lose her for a
third time.
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Eager to unravel the mystery surrounding Clara, the Doctor invites her
aboard the TARDIS.
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The Rings Of Akhaten by Neil Cross,
directed by Farren Blackburn
The Doctor takes Clara to a market in the system of rings which
surround the planet Akhaten. It is the gathering place for the people of
many worlds, all of whom harbour a belief in the Grandfather, a godlike
entity who must be appeased with song and story. Central to these rites
is the Queen of Years, a role currently filled by a frightened young
girl named Merry Gejelh whom Clara befriends. But when the Queen of
Years' ceremony goes wrong, the Doctor's intervention reawakens an
ancient power -- forcing both time travellers to risk the things they
treasure most.
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Cold War by Mark Gatiss, directed
by Douglas Mackinnon
The year is 1983, in the midst of the Cold War between the United States
and the Soviet Union. The TARDIS materialises aboard a Russian submarine
which is transporting Professor Grisenko to Moscow. He is escorting a
block of ice, discovered during drilling operations, in which something
is entombed. Against Grisenko's wishes, the creature is freed... and
turns out to be Grand Marshal Skaldak, an Ice Warrior who has lain
frozen for five thousand years. When the Soviets react with fear and
hostility, Skaldak declares war on the human race -- and the Doctor must
stop him from taking control of the submarine's nuclear arsenal.
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Hide by Neil Cross, directed by
Jamie Payne
The Doctor and Clara travel to Caliburn House in 1974. The owner of the
estate, Alec Palmer, is investigating the Witch of the Well, a ghost
which has stalked the halls of Caliburn House for centuries -- and whose
legend even predates the mansion's construction. To assist him, he has
recruited an empathic telepath named Emma Grayling, who can sense the
ghost's immense loneliness. The Doctor discovers that the Witch of the
Well is a mystery which transcends time and space -- and that the ghost
is not the only thing haunting Caliburn House.
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Journey To The Centre Of The
TARDIS by Stephen Thompson, directed by Mat King
Aware that his companion is uncomfortable around the TARDIS, the Doctor
shifts the time machine into a low-power mode to help Clara get
accustomed to her new home. In the process, however, he inadvertently
leaves the TARDIS vulnerable to an intergalactic salvage vessel run by
the van Baalen brothers, whose attempts at seizure critically damage the
interior. With time and space running amok, Clara is trapped in the
Ship's expanse while strangely burned monsters prowl the corridors. To
rescue her, the Doctor is forced into an uneasy alliance with the van
Baalens and their android, Tricky.
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The Crimson Horror by Mark Gatiss,
directed by Saul Metzstein
In 1893 Yorkshire, Mrs Winifred Gillyflower warns that humanity's moral
depredations are sure to bring about an imminent doomsday. She and her
disfigured daughter, Ada, recruit followers for a community they have
established called Sweetville. But something strange is afoot: no one
who moves to Sweetville ever returns, and corpses have been found
floating downriver, their skin turned a lurid red. With the body count
rising, Madame Vastra, Jenny and Strax are asked to investigate Mrs
Gillyflower's activities. But they soon discover that the latest victim
of the so-called “Crimson Horror” is none other than the
Doctor himself.
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Nightmare In Silver by Neil Gaiman,
directed by Stephen Woolfenden
When she isn't adventuring in the TARDIS, Clara is a nanny to Angie and
Artie. And when her two charges discover that Clara is a time traveller,
they convince the Doctor to take them to Hedgewick's World of Wonders in
the far future. Unfortunately, when the TARDIS lands, they discover that
the legendary theme park has been abandoned by imperial decree. The only
people left are a platoon of half-hearted soldiers, an impresario named
Webley, and his assistant, the diminutive Porridge. But lurking in the
shadows are the universe's last Cybermen, who believe the Doctor to be
the final hope for the survival of the Cyber race.
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The Name Of The Doctor by Steven
Moffat, directed by Saul Metzstein
An enigmatic warning from a serial killer leads Madame Vastra to
initiate a psychic conference with Jenny, Strax, Clara and River Song.
But the Paternoster Gang has fallen into a trap set by the Great
Intelligence, who despatches his monstrous Whisper Men to kidnap them. He
plans to lure the Doctor to Trenzalore -- the planet which, at some
point in his future, will become the Time Lord's last resting place.
There, the Great Intelligence will take his ultimate revenge, while the
mystery of Clara Oswald, the Impossible Girl, will finally be
unravelled. But not before the Doctor's darkest secret is laid bare...
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Like Season Thirty-Two, Doctor Who's thirty-third season saw its
broadcast split in two halves, with five episodes airing in the autumn
of 2012 and eight in the spring of 2013. As a result, the 2012 Christmas
special, The Snowmen, fell in
the middle of the season, as did The
Great Detective, a prequel story transmitted as part of the
BBC's Children In Need charity appeal. Season Thirty-Three also
marked the first season of Doctor Who to be comprised entirely of
single-episode stories. Nonetheless, some plot threads continued to bind
the individual stories together, especially as the production team
sought to lay the groundwork for Doctor Who's fiftieth
anniversary.
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| Specials (2013): The Golden Age |
| Companions and Recurring Characters |
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A UNIT scientist who harboured a degree of infatuation with the Doctor,
Petronella Osgood became the pivotal figure in a
tenuous peace with Zygon refugees on Earth.
Ingrid Oliver (bio) made her first appearance as
Osgood in The Day Of The Doctor
(November 2013) and her last in The
Zygon Inversion (November 2015).
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The Day Of The Doctor by Steven
Moffat, directed by Nick Hurran
On the last day of the Time War between the Daleks and the Time Lords, a
man who refuses to call himself “the Doctor” is faced with an
appalling choice. In order to end the bloodshed, he must use the Moment --
an ancient Gallifreyan weapon -- to slaughter billions. Elsewhere, the
Tenth Doctor becomes entangled with Queen Elizabeth I while hunting Zygons
in sixteenth-century England. In the present day, UNIT summons the
Eleventh Doctor and Clara to investigate a mystery at an art gallery.
These events become intertwined, leading three incarnations of the same
Time Lord to confront the most terrible decision of their lives.
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The Time Of The Doctor by Steven
Moffat, directed by Jamie Payne
A message echoing through all of time and space emanates from the
farming village of Christmas on the planet Trenzalore. With the
assistance of Clara and Tasha Lem, pontiff of a mysterious religious
order, the Doctor discovers that the signal is a message from Gallifrey,
coming through a crack in time from another universe. Soon Trenzalore is
under siege from massed hordes of the Doctor's worst enemies, as the
spectre of the Time War is raised anew. Years give way to centuries, and
it seems that the last days of the Doctor's final life are destined to
be spent saving Christmas...
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As the Doctor's last seconds tick away, the lost Time Lords bequeath
him a new cycle of regenerations.
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To mark Doctor Who's fiftieth birthday, a special episode was
filmed in 3-D and simulcast in more than seventy-five countries around
the world, as well as various movie theatres. The Day Of The Doctor focussed on
Matt Smith as the Eleventh Doctor, David Tennant as the Tenth Doctor,
and John Hurt as the War Doctor, but it also featured cameo appearances
by Tom Baker, who had played the Fourth Doctor, and Peter Capaldi, who
was newly cast as the Twelfth Doctor. Archival footage was used to
represent the remaining Doctors. A month later, The Time Of The Doctor drew the
curtains on both the golden anniversary celebrations and Smith's tenure
as the Eleventh Doctor.
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