Getting Acquainted With “Doctor Who” – Five Iconic Seventh Doctor Stories

To prepare for Doctor Who’s arrival on Disney+ in 2023, and as Laughing Place’s resident Doctor Who expert, I wanted to do a series of articles to get Disney fans acquainted with the world of the traveling Time Lord. Following the criminally short tenure of Colin Baker, we come to the final Doctor of the classic era, Slyvester McCoy. Originally, McCoy portrayed his Doctor with a comedic spin, but over the course of his tenure, a darker side emerged, with this Doctor becoming a master manipulator.

But who is the Doctor, you might ask? Well he’s a traveling Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey. The line that best sums up the Doctor, no matter his portrayal is “Never cruel, never cowardly.”

In these articles, I will introduce you to what I think are the five stories from each Doctor that best represent that era, and also serve to move the show’s mythos forward. After a near cancellation of Doctor Who in 1985, would the show survive and thrive with a new Doctor? Let’s find out…

Delta and the Bannermen

Slyvester McCoy’s first season in Doctor Who was quite the jarring change in tone from the bleakness of the Colin Baker era. Each story in this season had an almost campy feel to it, none more so than “Delta and the Bannermen.” While I think with the other stories, it doesn’t work quite as well, this one leans so far into the camp that it makes for a joyfully good time.

The Doctor and his companion Mel (Bonnie Langford) are looking for a holiday, and expecting to pay a toll, they are instead surprised with a galactic time travel trip to Disneyland in 1959: the rock ‘n roll era! Of course, in typical Doctor Who fashion, the ship is blown off course, and instead ends up at a Welsh holiday camp in 1959. Here, the Doctor must protect Delta from the Bannermen. The story features a wide collection of fun characters portrayed by well-known character actors from the time, and all in all is just a fun, relatively light hearted romp.

Remembrance of the Daleks

Speaking of tonal whip, the show’s 25th season kicked off with a true return to form in “Remembrance of the Daleks.” Here, two different factions of Daleks are battling each other, and are each seeking the Hand of Omega, a mythical Time Lord artifact. And it’s with this story that the Doctor’s more manipulative tendencies come into play, as it's revealed that he originally placed the Hand of Omega on Earth, and basically manipulated many of the events of this story in order to trick the Daleks.

The portrayal of the Daleks is strong here, after they became a bit of second fodder to their creator Davros. He does appear here, but only in a minimal role at the end of the story. “Remembrance” also gives us our first clear instance of a Dalek going upstairs, which had long been a joke demeaning their villainous prowess. Keep in mind, this happened 16 years before a Dalek was also memorably seen going upstairs in the first season of the revived series.

Again, we have a great supporting cast here, along with stellar performances by McCoy and his new companion Ace, played by Sophie Aldred. Add to that some good social commentary with a 1960s setting, that actually takes us back to the junkyard where the show began in 1963, and you have a great celebratory story of 25 years of Doctor Who!

The Greatest Show in the Galaxy

One of the last serials I watched from this era was the finale to McCoy’s second season, “The Greatest Show in the Galaxy.” This is quite the odd story, featuring lots of clowns, and lots of different and interesting characters. But in typical Doctor Who fashion, everything is not as it seems. The sinister and very creepy Chief Clown and his robotic clown henchmen, who we think are the main threat, actually end up being a ruse for the Gods of Ragnarok – powerful creatures with an insatiable craving for entertainment who invariably destroy those who fail to please them.

There’s a lot of fun and clever parallels in the writing here, comparing our own viewing habits to that of the Gods of Ragnarok. Much of this serial was filmed in an actual circus tent, leading to some excellent shots and quite the creepy vibe. One notable character is the Whizz Kid, a clear parody of some of the more obsessive Doctor Who fans of the time. The final episode also gives us one of the most iconic single shots in the show’s history, of McCoy walking away from the exploding Psychic Circus with a cool swagger. While still leaning slightly towards the silly tones of McCoy’s first season, this serial does give a glimpse of the darker places the show will go in his third and final year.

The Curse of Fenric

“The Curse of Fenric” is one of the stories that was part of what fans dubbed “the Cartmel Masterplan.” This was basically an informal plan of script editor Andrew Cartmel and some of the show’s writers to add more intrigue and mystery into the show. The final three stories of the show’s run all had something to do with the backstory of companion Ace. “The Curse of Fenric” showed her meeting her mother as a baby, made all the more awkward by the fact that she hates her mother. We also meet the titular Fenric, who is skilled at possession and never shows a true form. It’s revealed he has been manipulating many events in Ace’s timeline. This level of character backstory and plot relevance was something never-seen-before in classic Doctor Who, and it paved the way for the more character-based plots of the revived series.

Aside from the writing, “The Curse of Fenric” is a beautiful acted and directed serial. The serial features lots of fog-filled, moody on-location scenes. Both McCoy and Aldred put in excellent performances here, perhaps best symbolized in the emotional final scene, where Ace jumps into the water to “free herself” from some of the pain related to her mother. On the flip-side, we also get an equally iconic scene when the Haemovores (mutations from mankind's far future) emerge from the water.

Survival

And now we come to the final story from the classic run of Doctor Who, fittingly called “Survival.” This is a story all about survival of the fittest, putting the Doctor up against his greatest enemy, The Master, played one final time by Anthony Ainley. He has been trapped on the Planet of the Cheetah people, a race of hunters of which the Master is slowly turning into. Throughout the story, we see the Doctor, Ace, and many of her contemporaries from her Earth home trying to survive on the planet, and not be affected as the Master was.

The themes on display in this story are very strong, particularly as we see Ace begin to be affected by the planet. Despite not being planned as the final story of the show’s run, it has an epic feel that feels like a perfect send off. The final battle between the Doctor and the Master is more epic than anything we’d seen in the show thus far, and you really wonder how exactly our heroes are going to survive. Pun intended.

With the likelihood of this being the final story for the show, script editor Andrew Cartmel added in a speech at the end of the episode spoken by the Doctor, which I think is a truly wonderful scene and a great mission statement for the show. "There are worlds out there where the sky is burning, and the sea's asleep, and the rivers dream; people made of smoke and cities made of song. Somewhere there's danger, somewhere there's injustice, and somewhere else the tea's getting cold. Come on, Ace.”

Although the classic series has come to an end, this isn’t the end of our journey. Join us next time as we look at the very short tenure of the Eighth Doctor, as well as a “bonus Doctor” – the War Doctor.

Classic episodes of Doctor Who from 1963-1989 are available to stream on BritBox, while the modern series is on HBO Max. Beginning later this year, all new episodes of Doctor Who will be available on Disney+.