| The following article is written from an Out of Universe perspective. |
Season 44 of Doctor Who aired between 6 October 2007 and 24 November 2007. It starred Paterson Joseph as the Twelfth Doctor and Jacqueline Pearce as Angela Jensen in their first season. The season opened with The Silurian Awakening and concluded with The Scream.
Overview
A fresh clean slate
After spending the previous three seasons, known as the 'Gallifrey Arc' as a sci-fi political drama, this season saw the return of the show to its usual premise having been concluded with the recent film, Doctor Who: Revelation. The film saw the debut of the Twelfth Doctor, played by Paterson Joseph who was the first actor of colour to play The Doctor.
Joining the new Doctor in this season was the Rt. Hon. Angela Jensen, the Prime Minister of the UK from 2007. Jensen was played by Jacqueline Pearce who previously played in the show before in The Two Doctors from Season 22 as Chessene. The idea of having someone in political power to be the Doctor's companion was to remind him of what he once was as Lord President of Gallifrey. Although it's never clearly stated, it's remarked that Jensen is a Conservative Prime Minister.
In charge
As well as the new main cast members, the season also marked the debut of Gary Russell as the producer who shared a long history with the programme, having written two stories during the 1990s for Richard Griffiths and Michael French's Doctors and making an appearance in Season 33's The Time Ravagers as Captain Stride.
Remaining on as script editor was Paul Cornell in his second season into the role. He would write two of the eight episodes in this season, which saw the episode format remain as 8x90 since Season 41. Unlike the previous three seasons, the season wasn't serialised but plot and character arcs continue and develop throughout the season whilst having elements of an episodic structure.
Notably behind the scenes, CBS' merger with Paramount Television was complete, thus unlike last season where the endcap was credited as CBS Paramount Television, the Paramount name was dropped in favour of it just being CBS Corporation. This didn't largely affect with the way it co-produced the show with BBC Wales as they have done since Season 35.
A new feature
As the Doctor was now of colour, Russell wanted to save some time in episodes in favour of having more plot time, especially in historical episodes where he would be poorly treated to prevent repetition throughout his era. Thus came the perception device which allows anyone to see the Doctor as someone they expect to see to get into place quickly to avoid people not knowing and distrusting him, introduced in episode two. Alongside this, other new elements included a brand new TARDIS console which was briefly introduced at the end of Revelation.
The move to High Definition and Budget increase
By 2006, the BBC had started to slowly roll out their programmes being filmed in high definition with the launch of the trialed BBC HD channel. Since Doctor Who was one of their landmark shows, it was decided alongside this whole new era that the programme would now be filmed and broadcast in HD to go along with a budget increase.
Whilst the season was into filming, the success of the second movie allowed the season to have an even bigger budget during principal photography which would be put into use for post-production, which was helpful for the visual effects for the season were now made by ZOIC Studios as well as a brand new title sequence by Industrial Light & Magic, who did the visual effects for the movies.
New Title Sequence
The new titles begin with space shots of the sun before moving onto two moons colliding with each other as a red vortex appears. The Doctor Who logo (remaining mostly the same but made wider) spins and zooms in past the camera, followed by Joseph and Pearce's names, now just appearing by themselves without the 'starring/and as character name; credits. A few asteroids zoom in during the process, whilst one flies out from the camera as the vortex goes to space with a sun as Joseph's face briefly appears with the episode title and writer subsequently appearing.
John Debney returned for his second season as regular music composer with yet another rearrangement of the theme tune. Russell insisted that the theme should be more upbeat than the previous season and Revelation themes; showing off the adventures The Doctor was embarking on. The opening arrangement has a slow build-up which then goes into the middle-eight when the logo appears (the first time since Season 34 that it is heard in the title sequence) with the main melody and the first section of it looping at the end in a callback to the later Derbyshire, Howell and Ayres themes in the titles.
New spin-off
During production of the season, a possible spin-off set on Gallifrey was commissioned continuing much of the story after Revelation. This was hinted behind the scenes as early as production during the movie. It was named Panopticon and starred Timothy Dalton reprising his role as The Rogue, who made a surprise debut in the regeneration in Season 43's The Noble Sacrifice. He would be an occasional character in the season; appearing in three of the eight episodes. The first series of Panopticon would eventually debut in Spring 2008.
Cast
Regular
- The Doctor - Paterson Joseph
- Rt. Hon. Angela Jensen M.P. - Jacqueline Pearce
Recurring
- Brigadier Winifred Bambera - Angela Bruce
- Rt. Hon. Brian Green - Nicholas Farrell
- Rt. Hon. Rick Yates - Nicholas Briggs
- Rt. Hon. Albert Dumfries - Nicholas Gecks
- The Rogue - Timothy Dalton
- Lieutenant Fassile - Alexander Siddig
- The Rani - Siobhan Redmond
Guest
- Bleytal - Richard Hope
- Ishkan - Neve McIntosh
- Jaldane - Stephen Moore
- Tukok - Daniel Hogarth
- Shvak - Helen Goldwyn
- Lokan - Jez Fielder
- Voice of the Shalka - Charlotte Eaton
- Nancy - Florence Hoath
- The Child - Albert Valentine
- Mrs Lloyd - Cheryl Fergison
- Mr Lloyd - Graham Samuels
- Algy - Robert Hands
- Jim - Joseph Treman
- Ernie - Jordan Murphy
- Alf - Brandon Miller
- Dr Constantine - Richard Wilson
- Nightclub Singer - Kate Harvey
- Timothy Lloyd - Luke Perry
- Mrs Harcourt - Vilma Hollingberry
- Voice of Empty Child - Noah Johnson
- Voice of Bellonsion computer - Elisabeth Sladen
- Raj Kahu - James Joyce
- Pazmi - Olivia Poulet
- Brejesh - Dominic Thorburn
- Chowdras - Tim Bentick
- Dregoor - Chris Porter
- Montain - Eric Loren
- Security Leader - Gugu Mbatha-Raw
- Governor - Elize du Toit
- Guard - Gerard Horan
- Dr. Amadeus Zirkov - Alan Rickman
- Harold MacMillan - Hugh Grant
- Alice Pempperton - Billie Piper
- Nelson - Alan Cumming
- Davids - Thomas Frederson
- Ganeshi - Aqbool Terud
- Susie - Katy Sarahs
- Guards - Derick Maloney, Harold Simon
- Trooper Salway - Nitin Ganatra
- Delong - Daniel Anthony
- Farroll - Liz Sutherland
- Winslet - Ian Brooker
- Voice of the Wirrn Queen - Beth Chalmers
- Nigel Rochester - Martin Jarvis
- Farrow - Steven Elder
- Miriam Rochester - Rosalind Ayers
- Lamb - Kai Simmons
- Doctor Who Actor - Jack Galagher
- Plenty O'Toole - Georgina Carter
- Presenters - Jane Goddard, Lachele Carl
- Voice of the Aarchnaught - John de Lancie
- Voice of the Daleks - Nicholas Briggs
- Agatha Christie - Fenella Woolgar
- Lady Eddison - Felicity Kendal
- Reverend Golightly - Tom Goodman-Hill
- Colonel Hugh - Christopher Benjamin
- Robina Redmond - Felicity Jones
- Roger Curbishley - Adam Rayner
- Greeves - David Quilter
- Davenport - Daniel King
- Professor Peach - Ian Baritt
- Miss Chandrakala - Leena Dhingra
- Mrs Hart - Charlotte Eaton
- Old Agatha - Daphne Oxenford
- Nurse - Natalie Barrett
- Lizzie Clarke - Sophie Okonedo
- Dawson - Conor Maloney
- Greaves - Noel Clarke
- Max - Andrew Dunn
- Jim Hernandez - Tom Hooper
- Mathilda Pearce - Anna Calder-Marshall
- Major Kennet - Jim Norton
- Caretaker - Craig Kelley
Television Stories
Viewing Figures
| No. | Title | Official BARB Figures (7-day) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Consolidated (m) | Weekly Rank | ||
| 1 | The Silurian Awakening | 10.81 | 1 |
| 2 | The Empty Child | 10.23 | 3 |
| 3 | Miasimia Goria | 9.82 | 8 |
| 4 | You Can Only Time Travel Twice | 9.64 | 6 |
| 5 | Wirrn Dawn | 10.09 | 10 |
| 6 | Jubilee | 10.35 | 6 |
| 7 | The Unicorn and the Wasp | 9.98 | 6 |
| 8 | The Scream | 10.16 | 8 |
| Series Average | 10.135 | ||
Home Media
Physical Media
To be added