The first 6 episodes, and the two-part special were covered in part one of this post. However, between the broadcast of the Elysium Season 4 Part One (which is now available to read as a blog post), and this half of Doctor Who’s season, it would have been announced that the new showrunner of Doctor Who, for Season 53, would be… Adrian Hodges. For more details about this, stick around to the end of the video. So, without further ado, let’s continue with Season 52 of Doctor Who.
GOD FAMILIARS, PART TWO
Season 52, Episode 7
Written by TOBY WHITHOUSE
Directed by MICK JACKSON
TX Date – 2 September 2018
This episode is the final of the three-episode arc, whereby 15’s character is ‘fixed’ by Espenson’s new regime, and featured not one, but three villains, the Weeping Angels, the Rogue and the Daleks (although they are really just in a very minor capacity). This episode plays out like an escape film, as the Doctor, Sally, Pete and Annie help the Rogue to escape from his prison, guarded by the Weeping Angels and controlled by the Daleks (for a yet unknown reason). Mostly it plays on the horror of the angels, and the character dynamics of the Doctor and the Rogue, as well as having some subplots about the three companions, as they get into their own dangers. We find out that Miasmia Goria was invaded by the Daleks, and he and the Rani were both held as prisoners. The Doctor, of course, says she doesn’t understand was she thought all the Daleks were dead, but the Rogue says that they always have a nasty habit of turning up again. Eventually, they break out, only to be confronted by the Daleks, whereby the Doctor, engineers the situation, so the Weeping Angels surround them and send all the Daleks back in time, before they all make an escape back to the TARDIS. However, just as they are about to leave, one of the angels catches up with the five of them, and takes Sally, as we cut to end credits.
BLISS
Season 52, Episode 8
Written by JANE ESPENSON
Directed by SALLIE APRAHAMIAN
TX Date – 9 September 2018
This episode uses the A and B plot formula to its max, with the A plot following the Doctor, Pete, a distraught and angry Annie, as well as the Rogue as they try and rescue Sally from the past (more on that in a bit, as it gets complicated) and the B plot following Annie in the past, as she arrives in 17th Century Paris. But first let’s focus on the TARDIS crew. As basically, the Rogue takes control of the TARDIS, as expected, when the team are en route to find Sally, and he uses the telepathic circuits to give everyone hallucinations and such. This allows the Rogue to keep the Doctor and her friends sedated, while he pilots the TARDIS back to Miasmia Goria where he intends to try and rescue the Rani. Of course, in a not so unexpected manner, this fails, as the Doctor, Pete and Annie resist temptation and break out of their visions, despite them being a reality they don’t want to leave, and they take back control of the TARDIS landing in 17th Century Paris and rescuing Sally. The Doctor confronts the Rogue at the end, where, in a character change (from Jane Espenson) she forgives him, and says that she understands, but they need to build up a better level of trust than this.
CROOKBACK
Season 52, Episode 9
Written by ADRIAN HODGES
Directed by SALLIE APRAHAMIAN
TX Date – 16 September 2018
This episode started out life as Kevin Murphy episode 2, but after severe rewrites it now forms another leg in this arc, started a few episodes ago. The Doctor, Pete, Sally, Annie and the Rogue land in 15th Century England and we actually meet Richard III, this time, unlike his fake out appearance way back in the Curse of the Tower. The episode is pretty much what you’d expect and it’s a run around with Richard III, really just retelling the events of the Shakespeare play, but in a Doctor Who way, as the Rogue is manipulating events and trying to take hold of the throne, because… he loves a bit of political power. The episode ends with the Rogue getting stranded in 15th century England and having to fend for himself as the TARDIS takes off, however, as we find out in the last scene, this was accidental, and the Doctor wanted to save him.
THEIR STORY
Season 52, Episode 10
Written by ADRIAN HODGES
Directed by SALLIE APRAHAMIAN
TX Date – 23 September 2018
The final episode before the finale started out life as a Pete based Weddle and Thompson episode 4, but now it’s a still a Doctor lite story, but focusing on all three of the companions. Essentially, during an adventure, in modern day London, the three of them get separated from the Doctor and the TARDIS (more on what happens to the Doctor in the next episode), and we just focus on Pete, Sally and Annie, having an adventure on their own. It’s a lot of fun and really develops the characters and their relationships, especially as we come to the end of their second season together. It features the return of the Silicons, from Season 39, as they return to infect the 4G network and try and invade everyones phones. Together, the three of them defeat them and save the day. At the end of the episode, they still can’t get hold of the Doctor, and the three return to Beasmere, where Sally and Annie agree to let Pete stay in their cottage.
THE NEW EMPIRE, PART ONE
Season 52, Episode 11
Written by JANE ESPENSON
Directed by RACHEL TALALAY
TX Date – 30 September 2018
So, this episode is the finale, and it’s a Dalek finale, and it was *heavily* promoted, as to not repeat the mistakes of Comerecilla, the previous year. We begin with the start of ‘Their Story’ as the Doctor gets separated from her companions, however we see it from the Doctor’s perspective as she is abducted and teleported onto an alien ship. It turns out to actually be a Pirate Collective Ship, as seen in the Elysium Season 4, although this isn’t important and isn’t a Season 51 style tie in, more a money saving scheme. Anyway, the Pirates take the Doctor as a slave and sell her at a market, on an alien planet, to the highest bidder. And that highest bidder is… the Master. The next ten minutes sees us intercutting between the Doctor and the Master talking, as the Master transports the Doctor in his TARDIS, and us seeing what Sally, Annie and Pete are getting up to.
So, back on Earth, we see that it’s been about a week since the last episode now, and Sally and Annie’s son Ricky shows up, with Jade. We get a whole very domestic subplot finding out a bit about Sally and Annie’s backstory and how Ricky’s always been a bit of a waste of space, but with the influence of Pete, we see the three begin to bond, a little.
Back with the Doctor, and the Master’s TARDIS arrives on an alien spaceship. The Doctor asks where they are, and the Master just tells her that his clients are here. The Master takes the Doctor to an empty room, where he leaves her, before the doors opens, and outcomes, a Dalek, with a brand-new design, looking as sleek as ever. Terror strikes on the Doctor’s face as she thought the Dalek’s were extinct. The Dalek then simply says to the Doctor that they want her help. After some more scenes with the companions on Earth, the Doctor is taken to the Dalek control room, where she sees thousands of Daleks, all ready and poised. The Doctor speaks to the Supreme Dalek who says that one Dalek (him, the Supreme) survived the Doctor’s genocide in Comerecilla and travelled back in time to before the events of Vexterminate and brought an entire battlefleet of Daleks into the future. However, the quick and unstable temporal displacement has damaged the DNA of all the Daleks, and if they are to survive, they need the life force of a Time Lord. The Doctor says ‘No’, but the Supreme Dalek says she doesn’t have a choice, as we cut to end credits.
THE NEW EMPIRE, PART TWO
Season 52, Episode 12
Written by JANE ESPENSON
Directed by RACHEL TALALAY
TX Date – 7 October 2018
This episode picks up from where the last one left off, with the Doctor being teleported off the Dalek ship, right as she is cornered. We see she’s back in the Master’s TARDIS, after he’s just saved her. The Doctor is confused as to why, and the Master explains that a mysterious client contracted him to bring the Doctor to them, so he planted a bug on the Doctor, so he could find out why – now the two of them can stop the Daleks, now they know what they want. The Doctor smiles and simply says thank you. The Master tells the Doctor that this is only an alliance of convenience.
Meanwhile on the Dalek ship, they trace the Master’s TARDIS’ artron signature following it to Earth – 2018. When the Doctor and the Master land there, the Doctor finds Pete, Annie and Sally and picks them up, but gets involved into the domestic squabbles going on with Ricky and Jade. In desperation, the Doctor just tells the two of them to come along as well, as the Doctor picks up her TARDIS and as she and the Master are planning to stop the Supreme Dalek succeeding when he went back in time, however, they are stopped in their tracks as a fleet of Dalek ships descend into Earth’s sky, poised for invasion.
The next half hour of the episode, taking us about to about the 45-minute mark, is a full-on alien invasion of Earth by the Daleks, with the Doctor, the Master, Sally, Annie, Ricky and Jade fighting against the Daleks, plus UNIT, led by Caitrin, show up and fight off the Daleks. Meanwhile, during this, around 20 minutes, into these 30 minutes, the Doctor and the Master sneak away in the TARDIS, while the others hold the fort on Earth and go back to the point of the Supreme Dalek transporting the Daleks into the future, however, it ends up being a bootstrap paradox as all the Doctor and the Master achieve is causing the temporal displacement to malfunction causing the Dalek DNA problem. When they get back to the future, they continue to fight off the Daleks, until Sally says that if the Daleks’ DNA is unstable, at some point this is going to kill them. The Doctor and the Master smile as they both think of the same idea. With the help of UNIT, and using both two TARDISes, they send a temporal rift around the Earth, affecting just Dalek DNA, which makes about 150 years pass in the course of a minute, as they let the Dalek’s age to death as the infected DNA encompasses them and kills them, leaving just the Supreme Dalek left.
The Doctor goes alone to the Dalek ship, poised to exterminate it, and kill every last stinking Dalek. We get a scene with the Doctor confronting the Supreme Dalek, intercut with the Master cornering the Doctor’s companions and turning on them, saying that with the Doctor out of the way he can finally have some ‘fun’. A scuffle follows, with Sally and Annie trying desperately to protect Ricky and Jade, ending in the Master shooting Sally, killing her.
Meanwhile, the Doctor has a gun aimed at the Supreme Dalek and is ready to kill it. The Dalek taunts the Doctor though, making her feel guilty, saying that she’s a good person and would never kill anything.
Meanwhile, we get the fallout from Sally’s death and Annie full on attacks the Master, who is ready to kill her too, but Ricky manages to grab the gun and aims it at the Master’s head, ready to fire. However, we see Pete walk off, looking sick, almost in a zombie like state, after what’s just happened. He walks into the Master’s TARDIS, and takes the controls, not really knowing what to do, but he finds the fast-return switch and manages to pilot the TARDIS onto the Dalek ship.
The Master’s TARDIS lands on the Dalek ship, surprising the Doctor, as Pete joins her. He tells her that she needs to make her exit now, and he’ll deal it from here. The Doctor tries to stop Pete, but he tells her that the Master killed Sally and he’s going to kill everyone else, unless she does something. The Doctor leaves in her TARDIS as Pete aims the gun at the Supreme Dalek. The Dalek tells Pete that the ship is rigged to self-destruct if it is killed, but Pete says that’s rubbish and he’s just saving his own skin, but when Pete fires, the Dalek ship erupts as the rest of the companions watch on from Earth, as the Doctor joins them, of an explosion in the sky.
The Doctor deals with the Master, punching him in the face, grabbing the gun off Ricky and aiming it at the Master, before she drops it, in a moment of conscience, and takes the Master into the TARDIS, taking him to prehistoric Earth and stranding him there.
The episode ends with both Sally and Pete’s funerals, as everyone is in mourning. The Doctor makes a quick exit and heads to the TARDIS, however, Annie chases after her and in tears and just tells the Doctor to have a ‘good life’ and to travel well. The Doctor hugs Annie and breaks down, saying that she will miss her, as the Doctor steps into the TARDIS and it dematerialises.
And there we have it the end of Season 52, so this means now it’s time to look at what would have been in the Moore version. Episode 7 would have been another full-fledged Elysium crossover as the Daleks are defeated with their help, before Episode 8 would have been just a generic episodic episode, which just fell through, Episode 9 would have been Terror on Tolia which became Episode 4 and Episode 10 would have been Kerblam! which became Episode 2. Episode 11 and 12 would have been the finale, where the Doctor and Pete would have found themselves at the beginning of Time Lord creation and we would have seen the origin story of the Time Lords, however, the Doctor would have ended up teaming up with the Master, the Rogue and the Rani to change the DNA of the original time lord’s so they would be resistant to the process of Ascension. At the end of Episode 12, Pete would have sacrificed his life to stop this, which would have made the Doctor realise she has gone too far and has to stop, leading into the planned Christmas Special, where Adjoa Andoh would have originally regenerated.
However, under the new Adrian Hodges regime, Andoh signed onto do a full Season 53, however, it would have been announced as her third and final full season. However, Hodges did announce a big format change to the show, which he’d collaborated with the BBC controllers on to make Doctor Who big event television again. Firstly, he decided to bring back the serial format of Pre-Chapter Three Doctor Who again, with every story in Season 53 being a two-or-three parter, (still 1 hour of 13 episodes though), with just one title overall. Secondly, Hodges devised a new way of airing the season, and that was to air each serial on each bank holiday weekend, throughout the entire year, meaning that Doctor Who was on throughout the entirety of 2019, just sometimes serials were months apart. This meant that Season 53 Episode 1 was on New Year’s Day and Episode 13 was on Christmas Day, 12 months later.
But for that, you’ll have to wait a while, as first it’s the long-awaited Paterson Joseph movie: Doctor Who: Until the World Ends. So, until then, goodbye.
WIDWWA 