Overview: Doctor Who Classic: Season 26

This last season saw the bond between Doctor
and Companion grow stronger than it ever had
before.

Written 1/7/12.

The last season of Doctor Who's original run was certainly worthy of heaped praise. Even the much-maligned Battlefield contains a lot of interesting ideas that more than stand up to the heavyweights of the Ace Trilogy, three stories that form some of the best Who I've ever seen. The characters are perfect, the settings are very well executed and the sheer level of sci-fi/fantasy quality is absolutely superb. In previous seasons I've liked the stories ironically, seeing past their faults and just enjoying them warts and all. It's come as a great relief that in Season 26 I haven't had to do that at all - it's been one great story after another.
     The story opens a bit shoddily, with Battlefield's attention-grabbing premise of UNIT and the Brigadier trying to hold up a story that is fundamentally overstuffed. It's the only place where Season 26 falls down, and that's a shame, but the ideas within this first story are still on par with the rest. The Arthurian Parallel Universe is an awesome idea, and with the right execution it could have dwarfed everything else. As it stands, the only thing coming close to decent is the characterisation of Morgaine, which is enjoyably complex. It's nice to see the Brigadier one last time, but his and UNIT's presence don't make up for a story where half of the characters are uninintentionally hilarious in their sheer incompetance.
     The next three stories visit Ace's past, and this in-depth examination of her history is what makes her one of the most well-developed Classic Companions. In Ghost Light we see her troubled childhood, in Curse of Fenric her maternal issues and her manipulation by both The Doctor and Fenric, and in Survival we see her home town and her fight to seperate her own ego from her id. Adding to this are the hints, in her blatant flirting with certain guest characters, that Ace is a bisexual, making her the first LGBT companion. It's a shame that this wasn't allowed to come through on screen, especially as RTD paved the way into equality the moment he came back.
    Of the three stories in the Trilogy, my favourite is probably The Curse of Fenric, which shows the Seventh Doctor at his most manipulative, although not directly. He doesn't do as much direct scheming as in Remembrance of the Daleks and The Happiness Patrol, but it does reveal in part that he's been planning to use Ace to defeat Fenric ever since he met her on Iceworld. It's also got a great atmosphere and a great set of characters, all of which are utilized to their optimal potential.

This series had some great villains, including
a more subtle and controlled Ainley Master.

    This season has some awesome villains, and they're all really complex, which makes a change from the norm. Morgaine is honourable and wise, willing to both kill a woman to test her worth and to cure a blind woman as an act of charity. Light and Josiah Smith are metaphors for the Evolution Versus Creationism debate, with Light as the Creationist so afraid of change that he's willing to harm those around him and then himself. Fenric is dark and scheming, a master chess player who has manipulated hundreds of people over a thousand years. And The Ainley Master gets one last chance to try out his more subtle characterisation, creating a villain that is, for Who, truley unique in his priorities.
     As a final season, we couldn't have asked for anything better. The last third of the Cartmel era, and by extension the end of the Original Run, is an absolute triumph in variety of complex characterisation, setting and theme. The brilliance exhibited here only emphasises the tragedy that so few people were watching, and that this saw the last Who produced by the BBC for a decade and a half. After this, I'll be heading to Bidmead to finish the JNT era as a whole. Before I go though, I just have to say... thank you, Professor. But I've got to go. We've got work to do.

Thanks.