Season 40 (Doctor Who): Difference between revisions

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Season 40 aired between 26 July 2003 and 18 October 2003. It contained eight stories, making up thirteen 45-minute episodes. It was the second and final season to be produced by Bill Shapter and script edited by Russell T Davies. It was also the third and final season of Richard E. Grant's run as The Tenth Doctor and the second and final outing for Anna Hope as Commander Sandra Armstrong.

This season specially marked the fortieth anniversary of Doctor Who and was followed by the first motion picture of the franchise.

Overview

Forty Years of Who

2003 was a special year for Doctor Who as it marked the 40th anniversary since the show began. Big plans were ahead for the show including a 40th-anniversary motion picture that would be released in cinemas on the anniversary week. Not only that but the news came early on that Richard E. Grant was to hang up the coat as The Doctor in the movie due to necessary continuity with it that would later result in the Doctor regenerating in future movies.

Return of some old friends

For this season, Renwick and Davies decided to bring back previous Doctors for their own stories in this season. Unfortunately, it resulted in the incumbent Doctor having very little screen time in this season with just two stories in single-part episodes with Doctors 4-9 returning with their companions making up the other eleven episodes. This would eventually be a problem fans would have after the release of the first movie with the similarities in structure.

As a result of Doctors 4-9 returning, Renwick decided to act out as if those stories were from that era, thus previous title sequences were brought back for the necessary Doctors albeit in 16:9 widescreen and with the BBC logo, in the beginning, to fit within the rules of most BBC titles and that of the incumbent titles introduced in Season 35 in 1998 (with several minor changes over time) when the rules were put in place.

Cast

Regular

Recurring

Guest

To be added.

Television Stories

Serial	#	Title	Written by	Directed by	Air Dates (UK)
1	1	The Curse of the Tower	Paul Cornell	Sandy Johnson	26 July 2003
2	2	The Sands of Time	Justin Richards	Hettie MacDonald	2 August 2003
	3				9 August 2003
	4				16 August 2003
3	5	Creatures of Beauty	Nicholas Briggs	James Hawes	23 August 2003
4	6	The Horrors of War	Robert Shearman	Graeme Harper	30 August 2003
	7				6 September 2003
	8				13 September 2003
5	9	LIVE 34	James Parsons and Andrew Stirling-Brown	David Livingston	20 September 2003
6	10	The Societal Step	Toby Whithouse	David Tucker	27 September 2003
7	11	Spare Parts	Marc Platt	Euros Lyn	4 October 2003
7	12	Spare Parts	Marc Platt	Euros Lyn	11 October 2003
8	13	The Other	Russell T Davies	Sandy Johnson	18 October 2003

Home Media

DVD

This season released as the Complete Season 40 Box Set in February 2004.
The season, along with all other Tenth Doctor stories was included in The Complete Richard E. Grant Era Box Set.

@@ Line 27: / Line 27: @@
 [[Janet Wells]]|producer = [[Bill Shapter]]|script_editor = [[Russell T Davies]]|start_date = 26 July 2003|end_date = 18 October 2003|premier_network = BBC One|typical_episode_length = 13x45 minutes|previous_season = [[Season 39]]|next_season = [[Season 41]]|chief_executive_producer = [[David Renwick]]
-[[Russell T Davies]]|prev = Season 39|next = Season 41|seasondesc = <center><strong> 13 episodes, comprising of 8 serials, starting with <i>[[The Curse of the Tower (episode)|The Curse of the Tower]] </i></strong></center>}}{{Realworld}}'''Season 40''' aired between 26 July 2003 and 18 October 2003. It contained eight stories, making up thirteen 45-minute episodes. It was the second and final season to be produced by [[Bill Shapter]] and script edited by [[Russell T Davies]]. It was also the third and final season of [[Richard E. Grant|Richard E. Grant's]] run as [[Tenth Doctor|The Tenth Doctor]] and the second and final outing for [[Anna Hope]] as [[Commander Sandra Armstrong]].
+[[Russell T Davies]]|prev = Season 39|next = Season 41|seasondesc = <center><strong> 13 episodes, comprising of 8 serials, starting with <i>[[The Curse of the Tower (episode)|The Curse of the Tower]] </i></strong></center>|title1 = Season 40 - 2003|aka = <i> Chapter Three, Part IV: Series 6 </i>}}{{Realworld}}'''Season 40''' aired between 26 July 2003 and 18 October 2003. It contained eight stories, making up thirteen 45-minute episodes. It was the second and final season to be produced by [[Bill Shapter]] and script edited by [[Russell T Davies]]. It was also the third and final season of [[Richard E. Grant|Richard E. Grant's]] run as [[Tenth Doctor|The Tenth Doctor]] and the second and final outing for [[Anna Hope]] as [[Commander Sandra Armstrong]].
 This season specially marked the fortieth anniversary of ''[[Doctor Who (TV Series)|Doctor Who]]'' and was followed by the [[Doctor Who (2003)|first motion picture]] of the franchise.