| The following article is written from an Out of Universe perspective. |
Season 28 of Doctor Who, ran between 4 September 1991 and 4 December 1991.
It starred Richard Griffiths in his first season as the Doctor, Julia Sawalha as Katie Tollinger and John Banks as Henrick, and although they all appeared in some capacity in the previous season, this became their first full season together.
Ian Fraser and Ben Aaronovitch, took over control of the series, as Producer and Script editor respectively.
Overview
The new Script Editor
As early as 1988, Andrew Cartmel had decided that his successor was going to be Ben Aaronovitch: he hadn't told anyone, especially not John Nathan-Turner, but in his head, he had made that decision. When Ian Fraser took office as Doctor Who's new producer, he began to look for a new Script Editor, Cartmel told him very firmly that it had to be Ben Aaronovitch. With not many alternatives, Fraser agreed to hiring Aaronovitch as the new Script Editor and Michael Wearing cautiously approved of the decision.
Early Script Commissioning
Aaronovitch instantly got to work with Fraser, explaining that they already had two scripts commissioned for the season: Alixion and Night Thoughts. Fraser read through them; both were written with the Seventh Doctor and Ace, and decided that he liked Night Thoughts a lot, but that he wanted Alixion cancelled entirely as he wasn’t fond of the idea. They also agreed to have the three part Night Thoughts be the season opener, but proceeded by an extra episode set largely on the TARDIS: introducing the Eighth Doctor and extending the serial to four parts.
Introducing a second companion
Ian Fraser and Ben Aaronovitch realised that Richard Griffiths, who had been cast as the Eighth Doctor, was not as energetic or as mobile as some of his predecessors, so it was decided that a younger, male companion would be created to handle the action scenes. Instead of creating an entirely new character, Aaronovitch suggested keeping on the character of Sergeant Henrick from Blood and Iron as the new companion, with him accidentally entering the TARDIS in the first few minutes of Night Thoughts.
When it was decided to make Henrick a companion, John Banks was contracted for a season with the option of a second.
Further Script Commissions
Several more scripts were being looked at for commission for the season, but the main one that Aaronovitch was keen on was Marc Platt's script for a serial called Lungbarrow. John Nathan-Turner had vetoed its production back in Season 26, but Ian Fraser was more keen to produce it, and so, Aaronovitch commissioned it as the four part closer to the season.
A script idea by Tony Etchells, centred around the First World War was commissioned, as Fraser was very keen to do a proper historical in the season.that had a lot of real world weight to it. Finally, a script by Neil Penswick was commissioned, which had been sent back and forth through Andrew Cartmel's office over the past few years, but one that Aaronovitch was confident could be made.
Aaronovitch decided to not continue Cartmel's tradition of using a holdover script for the next season as he didn’t want to make promises to writers that he perhaps couldn’t keep, especially after what had happened to Robin Mukherjee's Alixion script.
Possible Time Slot Change
During the commissioning process, Fraser visited Jonathan Powell to see about a time slot change for the show, but Powell refused; saying that Doctor Who was better than ever in its Wednesday tea time slot. Fraser put this excuse down to Powell's well known dislike of the show and hoped that it wouldn't be long before he moved on from his role as controller of BBC1.
Cast
Regular
Recurring
- Leela - Louise Jameson
- Romana - Lalla Ward
- Voice of K-9 - John Leeson
- Andred - Christopher Tranchell
- Rodan - Hillary Ryan
- Lord Ferain - John Franklin-Robbins
Guest
- Major Dickens - Bernard Kay
- The Bursar - Joanna McCallam
- Dr O' Neil - Andrew Forbes
- Sue - Holly Aird
- The Deacon - Ann Beach
- Joe Hartley - Rory Bremmer
- James Black - Ben Chandler
- Captain Lawrence Jones - Chris Barrie
- Mr. Protecue - John Cleese
- Otto Muller - Paul Harman Elliott
- Oliver Richards - Martin Neil
- Ian Solventson - Anthony Andrews
- The Warden - Michael Kitchen
- Kopyion Liall a Mahajetsu - Christopher Ryan
- Butler - Steve Punt
- Swarf - Hugh Dennis
- Archon - Jack Docherty
- Spike - Roger Blake
- Thomas - Gordon Kennedy
- Marilyn - Cindy Shelley
- Chaney - Nicholas Ball
- Major John Carlson - Robert McCulley
- Bulbir Singh Mann - Art Malik
- Academian Brown - Richard Willis
- Jarak Romer - Adam Woodyay
- Ell Romer - Martina Berne
- Melanie Carson - Geraldine Alexander
- Glospin - Stephen Fry
- Innocent - Frances de la Tour
- Satthralope - Margot Van der Burgh
- Arkhew - Andrew Sachs
- Quences - Darren Nesbitt
- Badger - David John Pope
- The Other - Richard Griffiths
Television Stories
| Serial | # | Title | Writer | Director | Air Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Night Thoughts | Edward Young | Chris Clough | 4 September 1991 |
| 2 | 11 September 1991 | ||||
| 3 | 18 September 1991 | ||||
| 4 | 25 September 1991 | ||||
| 2 | 5 | Glory School | Tony Etchells & Ben Aaronovitch | Alan Wareing | 2 October 1991 |
| 6 | 9 October 1991 | ||||
| 7 | 16 October 1991 | ||||
| 3 | 8 | The Hostage | Neil Penswick | Michael Kerrigan | 23 October 1991 |
| 9 | 30 October 1991 | ||||
| 10 | 6 November 1991 | ||||
| 4 | 11 | Lungbarrow | Marc Platt | Nicholas Mallett | 13 November 1991 |
| 12 | 20 November 1991 | ||||
| 13 | 27 November 1991 | ||||
| 14 | 4 December 1991 |
Production
Crew
To be added.
Shooting blocks
To be added.
Filming
To be added.
Aliens and Enemies
Viewing Figures
To be added.