Doctor Who 2000
Perhaps the most catastrophic chapter in Doctor Who's illustrious history occurred at the end of the twentieth century. As soon as the show was cancelled in 1989, a large number of suitors appeared, all attempting to work out a co-production agreement with the BBC. Philip David Segal was the most tenacious, eventually bringing together American network FOX, production business Universal Television, commercial arm BBC Worldwide, and BBC Drama in November 1995. The outcome was the 1996
telefilm Doctor Who, in which Paul McGann played the role of the Eighth Doctor. Although it had been created with the intention of inspiring other TV films and possibly even a whole new series, the concept was doomed to fail due to the broadcast's low North American ratings in May 1996.
Over the course of the following year and a half, Universal searched for additional potential partners, but none emerged. Furthermore, unlike in 1989, no other businesses made their interest in co-production known to the public. As a television concern, Doctor Who now essentially seemed to be gone.
But there were still hints of hope here and there. The BBC executives' distaste for Doctor Who, and occasionally their outright animosity toward it, had contributed to the show's termination. With Mal Young's appointment as
Head of Drama Series in October 1997, that started to change in the middle of the 1990s. Patrick Spence became Young's Head of Drama Development. A mutual acquaintance, BBC producer Tony Wood, introduced Spence to Russell T. Davies at the end of 1998. At the time, Davies was working on the ground-breaking show Queer As Folk on Channel 4. He told Spence that Doctor Who was the project that would most likely persuade him to join the BBC. Young and Peter Salmon, BBC One's Controller of Programmes, both agreed with this idea. Davies was briefly associated with a revival known as Doctor Who 2000 in some places.
Early in 1999, Davies, Young, Spence, and Peter Salmon, the controller of BBC One, met. After that, talks moved swiftly forward, and on January 14th, Salmon formally commissioned the twenty-seventh season of Doctor Who.
In an interview that was published on January 16th, he then affirmed the comeback of the program. For many years, it was thought that Survival would be the final Doctor Who story the BBC would make internally, however that is no longer the case.
It was decided that the show would be produced by BBC Wales, Head of Drama at BBC Wales Pedr James and Mal Young would help the programme usher in a new era, Nicola Shindler was also introduced at this time as the show’s producer, Pedr James would work on this season only but for the Christmas Special he was replaced by Matthew Robinson.
Doctor Who would undoubtedly revert to the 25-minute formula that it had followed for the majority of its initial run. The production team soon decided that 45-minute episodes would better appeal to the international market, even if the majority of BBC dramas were now an hour long. Regarding the number of episodes and their format, there was minimal agreement. Six parts, split into three two-part adventures, were proposed by James and Young. Davies believed that multi-part serials were now more effectively used to highlight significant events within the season, even though he was fully aware that cliffhanger endings had been a defining feature of Doctor Who in the twentieth century. He was quickly pressing for thirteen episodes, the majority of which would be stand-alone pieces, after first considering an eight-episode slate.
Davies' plan for the Doctor's companion was to defy expectations by matching the Time Lord with an old grandfather who occasionally received assistance from his pensioner buddies. However, he soon reverted to his original idea of a young woman who cleaned offices. From the beginning, the character was known as Rose Tyler.
Young had anticipated that the Daleks would be the first episode's antagonists, but Davies thought they would be more effective as a mid-season marketing boost. Davies envisioned the opening the episode with Rose doing her usual job, Inspired by the BBC's successful series Walking With Dinosaurs, he suggested that she might find dinosaurs in the basement of the high rise where she worked. She would be saved by the Doctor, with one sequence involving an escape using a window cleaner's cradle.
In addition to introducing Rose, Davies made the decision that those closest to her would be recurrent characters in the season. Both Davies and Young believed that Doctor Who ought to follow American television shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer by contrasting aspects of science fiction and fantasy with real human emotions and relationships. Davies therefore presented Rose's mother, Judy and Aidan, her boyfriend. In order to maintain the pace of each episode, the Doctor would once again wield his sonic screwdriver, a device which had been introduced in 1968's Fury From The Deep and destroyed in 1982's The Visitation, Davies also introduced the Psychic Paper.
Davies had now made the decision that the new series would pick up where Doctor Who (1996) had left off, but it would use and acknowledge the show's past very sparingly. The Ninth Doctor would undoubtedly be the main character, although McGann's Eighth Doctor would have undergone regeneration at some point in the past. At this point, it was anticipated that Davies would create the plots for the remaining six episodes and write seven of the thirteen episodes, including the premiere, himself. JK Rowling, the author of the best-selling Harry Potter fantasy books, was one of the authors he contacted regarding the series. She was too busy to accept the invitation, though.
Soon after Davies was chosen to be the next showrunner for Doctor Who, the search for the Ninth Doctor began. Davies wanted to start off the show right, so he felt that he needed to cast the right actor to play the Doctor. He initially asked Simon Callow to take the part, but he declined, so other actors were considered, including Aidan Gillen from Queer as Folk, Anthony Head, Hugh Grant, Richard E. Grant and Christopher Eccleston, In the end Davies asked Craig Kelly and after being impressed by his performance during his audition the role was offered to him. Kelly was officially contracted as the Doctor and he was announced as the Ninth Doctor on August 15th, 1999.
For the new Doctor's outfit, costume designer Lucinda Wright adopted a more low-key approach than
had been taken in the past, Kelly’s Doctor would wear a blue leather jacket, white shirt, jeans and brown boots. Meanwhile, production designer Mike Tucker was developing the look of the TARDIS console room. Davies had always intended it to be a departure from its previous realisations; his pitch document described a room where only the console itself was plainly visible, with other architectures glimpsed in the darkness beyond. Tucker managed to push for a more futuristic console room, to which Davies accepted.
For the character of Rose, many actresses auditioned but the one who won the role was Jane Danson who had recently left the role of Leanne Battersby on Coronation Street. Danson, like Craig Kelly, had
worked with Davies before on his ITV show The Grand. Davies later decided to call the opening episode “Rose”.
Lesley Sharp would play Judy Tyler and Karl Collins would play Aidan, for the second two-parter of the season Russell T Davies asked writer Steven Moffat to introduce a new companion who’d be in the show for a few episodes, this companion would be Captain Vince Bannerman played by Jonathan Kerrigan.
The title sequence for the series starts with the TARDIS spinning through a blue time vortex, followed by the main cast credits. The new Doctor Who logo appears and the vortex then becomes red before the episode title and writer’s credit appear, Murray Gold would compose the incidental music as well as the theme tune.
The logo for the show was a long, silver and red oval with the black Doctor Who text in bold writing upon the oval, the new logo was revealed on the BBC website on 9th February 2000.
Principal photography for the first episode began on November 7th, 1999, on site in Cardiff, the series was shot around South East Wales, largely in or near Cardiff, and each episode took about two weeks to shoot. Filming ended on May 7th, 2000.
Episodes one, four, five, twelve, and thirteen were directed by Joe Ahearne, episodes two and three were directed by Euros Lyn, episodes six, eight, and nine were directed by James Hawes, episode seven was directed by Brian Grant and episodes ten and eleven were directed by Hettie Macdonald.
The first, second, fourth, fifth, seventh, eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth episodes would be written by Russell T Davies, while the third episode would be written by Mark Gatiss, the sixth episode by Robert Shearman, the eighth episode by Paul Cornell, and the ninth and tenth episodes by Steven Moffat.
The season would air from September 2nd through November 25th, 2000 and a Christmas special, written by Davies, would air on December 25th.
Rose
By Russell T Davies
they flee the building by using a window cleaner’s cradle and proceeds to blow up the building. The next day, Rose and her boyfriend, Aidan Smith visit a man named Clive who runs a conspiracy theory website, concerning a man fitting the Doctor's description, who has appeared throughout history. While Rose is talking to Clive, Aidan is kidnapped and
The End of The World
By Russell T Davies
The Doctor takes Rose to the year five billion, where they land on a space station orbiting the Earth
named Platform One. Among the elite alien guests assembled to watch the Earth be destroyed by the expanding Sun is Lady Cassandra, who takes pride in being the last pure human, though she has received many operations that have altered her image. It is discovered that Cassandra, to receive money for her many operations, plans to let the guests die and then profit from the stock increases of their competitors. She releases discreet robotic spiders all over Platform One, and they start interfering with the systems. She departs via teleportation and the spiders bring down the shields, causing harmful direct solar radiation to penetrate the station. The Doctor manages to reactivate the system and save Rose, after which he brings Cassandra back and she ruptures from the intense solar heat.
Invaders From Mars
By Mark Gatiss
This story covers the famous Orson Welles radio play of ‘War of The Worlds’ broadcasted in 1938 and asks the question of what if there were aliens that day, it would’ve been about a race of aliens known as the Laiderplacker trying to invade the Earth however the Doctor works with Orson Welles as they convince the Laiderplacker that a bigger invasion is happening and uses the War of The Worlds radio broadcast to trick them into believing a much larger invasion is taking place on Earth.
Level Up
By Russell T Davies
The Doctor intends to take Rose back to her home 12 hours after she left, but they arrive a year after instead. Her mother Judy is furious with the Doctor, and Aidan has been suspected of murdering Rose. The main plot centres around a video game which is taking the world by storm called ‘Galactic Conflict’ where you play as an alien race called ‘The Strovax’ fighting a robot race called ‘The Ulgri’, however the video game uses mind control the players and they soon go missing which is what happens to Aidan and the Doctor and Rose try to find him.
They go to the game company’s HQ in London and see Aidan and several other missing people being teleported away, the Doctor and Rose are captured and questioned by the developers of the game but soon escape. They go to the TARDIS and trace the teleport signals where they land on the planet Varodin II which is the planet in the game.
Last Checkpoint
By Russell T Davies
The Doctor and Rose would then work with the Ulgri as this is their planet and the Doctor also explains their situation to the Ulgri and they work together, the Doctor would sneak behind enemy lines where he reveals to Aidan and convinces several other gamers who ended up here to join the Ulgri which they eventually do, they then work on a plan of action to try and stop the Strovax.
In the end the Ulgri are the victors and the Doctor takes everybody back home.
Jubilee
By Robert Shearman
This story would take place in an alternate universe created by the Doctor and Rose when they protect
England from an invasion of the Daleks. This alternate Earth would be ruled by a brand new English empire which had conquered the globe and end up using Dalek technology to exterminate any other races that are not British.
The Long Game
By Russell T Davies
The Doctor and Rose travel to the year 200,000 and land on the space station Satellite 5, which controls journalism. Ever since the satellite began broadcasting, something has held the human race's attitude and technology back. The Editor invites the Doctor and Rose to the elite Floor 500, where he holds them captive, explaining that he and a creature known as the Jagrafess have made, through Satellite 5, the "Fourth Great and Bountiful Human Empire" a place where the news has installed fear in the human race, keeping them in a closed society.
The journalist Cathica redirects the heat to Floor 500, allowing Rose and the Doctor to escape, while the Editor and the Jagrafess are destroyed by the heat.
Father’s Day
By Paul Cornell
Rose asks the Doctor to take her back to the day her father Pete Tyler, played by Robson Green, died in a hit and run accident. Instead of being with him as he dies, Rose saves Pete's life, creating a wound in time and space, which flying creatures known as Reapers attempt to treat by consuming everyone in it. The guests at the wedding of Judy and Pete's friends hide in a church while the Doctor tries to summon the TARDIS inside.
Judy accuses Pete of having another daughter, and to prove that Rose is the same as the baby Rose, he puts the baby in the older Rose's arms, causing a Reaper to appear inside the church and kill the Doctor. Pete realises he must die for everything to be repaired, and throws himself in front of the car, which has been appearing and reappearing around the corner of the church, causing everyone the Reapers consumed, including the Doctor, to return.
The Empty Child
By Steven Moffat
Chasing a metal cylinder through the Time Vortex, the Doctor and Rose land in London during the Blitz. Rose follows a young boy in a gas mask who repeatedly asks if she is his mother. She climbs a rope attached to a barrage balloon that rises into the air, and is rescued by Captain Vince Bannerman (previously a Time Agent, now a con man), who interests her in buying a valuable warship. The Doctor talks with a young woman named Nancy who knows the boy is connected to a bomb-like object that recently fell. She directs the Doctor to a hospital where Dr Constantine shows him patients with injuries and gas masks identical to the boy's. Nancy reveals the child is her brother, Jamie. Rose and Vince arrive in time to save the Doctor as Constantine begins to transform like his patients.
The Doctor Dances
By Steven Moffat
Vince explains that he sent the metal object through the time vortex to attract Time Agents to this time period, where he would have them pay for the object, but before they could receive it, a German bomb would fall on it. Vince claims that it is a perfectly safe and "empty" old medical transport, but the Doctor is suspicious.
At the site where the transport is held, the Doctor realises that it once contained nanogenes that are able to heal wounds, and deduces that the nanogenes attempted to heal Jamie, but thought that all humans should have similar injuries and gas masks.
Nancy claims it is all her fault as she is actually Jamie's mother, which she admits in front of the child. As they hug, the nanogenes identify Nancy's DNA as being his mother's and reverse Jamie's transformation so that they resemble each other; the rest is done to all the others who had been converted. Vince captures the bomb that would have fallen on the site and the Doctor and Rose rescue him before it explodes, inviting him on the TARDIS.
The Cardiff Rift
By Russell T Davies
The Doctor, Rose, and Vince visit Cardiff to refuel the TARDIS at the rift, and Aidan meets them there. The Doctor and Vince discover that an intergalactic criminal of time, Vadon, is now a businessman and they try to investigate what he’s done. He’s started a nuclear project which is supposed to open the rift and destroy Earth, the Doctor, Rose, Vince and Aidan would break into the factory where this is taking place and after being caught and then later escaping they shut down the project and the Doctor informs UNIT as the Doctor sabotages Vadon’s time teleport device which will leave him flying through the vortex with no escape.
The Dalek Surge
By Russell T Davies
The Doctor, Rose and Vince land in Manchester 2095, they find the streets to be completely deserted and after finding a group of survivors they learn that it happened two years ago where the government started to act strangely and nobody realised what was happening until it was all over and that it was an invasion in disguise and the revelation is made that the invaders were the Daleks. The story then turns into a ‘Doctor helps the rebels story’ where he launches an assault on the Dalek base but they fail, through a communications device the Doctor asks the Daleks how they are this powerful and a deep booming voice says “I gave them the power!” and we see the Dalek Emperor and he announces that the Daleks have already won and they must surrender if they wish to live, the story ends with the Doctor saying that this time he can’t win.
The Oncoming Storm
By Russell T Davies
The Doctor, Rose and Vince, along with the survivors, try to plan a way they can defeat the Daleks and the Doctor rushes back into the TARDIS and gets a handheld cannon sort of weapon and says he’s going to destroy the Dalek emperor and the main mothership, he tells Rose to get something from the TARDIS where the Doctor points the sonic screwdriver at the ship, making it dematerialise with Rose on board. Rose finds the TARDIS doors locked, and a hologram of the Doctor appears, explaining to Rose that if she is receiving this message, then the Doctor is either dead or about to die with no chance of escape. Emergency Program One will take her home, and the TARDIS will not return for him for fear that its technology will fall into the Dalek hands. He asks her to just let the TARDIS moulder away and die, and, in remembrance of him, to have a fantastic life. The TARDIS lands Rose at her estate in 2000. The Doctor, Vince and the remaining rebels kill the Daleks on Earth as the Doctor uses a Dalek teleport where he lands on the Mothership where he confronts the Emperor, during these scenes we see a fleet of Daleks land on Earth as the rebels fight and get killed, alongside Vince, we would see Rose trying to take the TARDIS back and she would end up absorbing the time vortex. We would see the Emperor Dalek taunt the Doctor and ask him whether he’s a coward or a killer, the Doctor replies “Coward.” and the Emperor gives the order to exterminate him, then the TARDIS lands as Rose reveals she looked into the heart of the Time Vortex. She uses her new powers to vaporise the Dalek fleet, and scatter the words "Bad Wolf" throughout time and space to lead herself here, we also see Vince being brought back to life. To prevent the power from killing Rose, the Doctor absorbs it by kissing her; she wakes up in the TARDIS just as the time energy is destroying the Doctor's cells, causing him to regenerate. His final words are “Rose… before I go, I just wanna tell you, you were fantastic. Absolutely fantastic. And do you know what? So was I." He then regenerates into the Tenth Doctor - Michael French.
The Christmas Invasion
By Russell T Davies
Rose Tyler and the newly regenerated Tenth Doctor return to her mother Judy's flat, where her mother and former boyfriend Aidan Smith carry the Doctor inside to rest. When out shopping, Rose and Mickey are attacked by Santa robots; the Doctor theories that energy from his regeneration has lured them there. Prime Minister Vicky Harrington is threatened by the leader of the Sycorax to give them half of the Earth's population as slaves; Vicky tries to negotiate and is teleported onto their ship. The Sycorax detect the TARDIS and transport it to their ship, with Rose, Aidan, and the Doctor inside. After the Doctor has fully recovered, he challenges the Sycorax leader to a sword fight for the future of the Earth, which he eventually wins. However, the Sycorax ship is destroyed against the Doctor's wishes by Vicky Harrington, who had called Voidwatch on the matter.
And that Concludes Series One of Doctor Who, the series was a success with it receiving high praise from audiences and critics alike, at the end of the first series it was confirmed it would return for a second, due to the chaotic nature of the series’ production Craig Kelly chose not to return for a second, his popularity would be similar to Eccelston’s.
Thank you to Opticalspectre, for designing the titlecard and help with the vortex, also thank you to Billybob for creating the awesome fan art of the magazines which are now canon to this series.
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