Doctor Who: The Cancelled Years | Season 34 (1997)

Over the past three years, the Doctor Who series had undergone a dramatic reshuffle. Under the stewardship of Carnival Films, the show had been modernised for audiences of the 90s, with a more modern runtime & a younger actor in the lead role.

Season 33 had been a success for the current production team, with Bonneville proving to be a likeable Doctor. And as one year closed, another year began, with work soon commencing on Bonneville’s second year - Season 34

DOCTOR WHO: SEASON 34 - 1997

Season 34 of Doctor Who would've starred Hugh Bonneville as the Ninth Doctor, along with Beverley Cressman as Abigail Norwood. It would also see Stephen Garwood acting as Producer & Gary Russell as Script Editor.

Season 34 would see the debut of a new Script Editor, Gary Russell, who was suggested to Garwood by Colin Brake. It would also be the final season for Stephen Garwood as Producer, as he’d been offered the role of Producer on EastEnders & only wanted to do 3 seasons on Doctor Who anyways. Replacing Garwood in Season 35 would be Lynn Grant, who, like Garwood, had progressed up the production ladder from Assistant Floor Manager to Production Manager.

For this season, Garwood requested the construction of a new TARDIS interior set, as he felt it was time to finally retire the 1983 console, which was starting to look really outdated. Inspired by the sets of American Sci-Fi shows (notably the sets of recent Star Trek starships), the new TARDIS was designed to feel more akin to the bridge of a ship, with a more metallic design, whilst still retaining the basic design of a TARDIS interior & the roundels.

Season 34 would air between the 5th of July, 1997, and the 20th of September, 1997. It would consist of 12 episodes across 7 stories, with two single-parters & two 2-parters, and would go out weekly on Saturday Night.

PLACEBO EFFECT
Written by: Gary Russell
Directed by: Nicholas Briggs
Parts: 2

The story sees the Doctor taking Abigail to an artificial planet named Micawber's World in the year 3999 to see the Intergalactic Olympics, which is the same as Earth's Olympics, but on an intergalactic scale. However, the Doctor soon finds himself wrapped in a mystery, after discovering reports of security guards going missing underneath the stadium.

The story sees the Dotor & Abigail investigating the missing security case, as well as investigating a new performance enhancing drug that's being used by some of the Olympic athletes. It turns out that the Wirrn are responsible for both mysteries. The Doctor finds that the security were kidnapped by the Wirrn & were converted into Wirrn. He also discovers that the Wirrn developed the drug, which is actually designed to eventually turn the athletes into Wirrn; & the Wirrn also plan to spread the drug throughout the universe.

However, the Wirrn are ultimately defeated when the Doctor creates an antidote drug which stops the athletes from being converted into Wirrn, although the athletes will be permanently damaged from the experience & will never fully recover.

THE NIGHTMARE SCENARIO
Written by: Russell T Davies
Directed by: John Henderson
Parts: 2

The story begins with the Doctor receiving a call from Leela on Gallifrey, who tells the Doctor that something seems wrong with Romana. She’s become much more isolated & not like herself. She also explains that her entire council has recently changed after the entirety of her old one was assassinated by an unknown assailant. She says that apparently, each new member of the council has a somewhat sketchy past & that Romana has been making decisions which go against what she previously stood for.

Realising that something must be up, the Doctor sets course to Gallifrey in order to investigate. We see the Doctor testing Romana by casually talking with her, as well as learning more about the new council, in order to determine whether Romana has been compromised in some way. We see that the council is slowly but surely turning Gallifrey into a dictatorial state, with posters that glamorise the current government & very harsh punishments for minute crimes.

As the Doctor continues testing Romana, Leela & Abigail find themselves helping a squad of guards, led by Leela’s husband, Andred, to capture an escaped cryogenic prisoner known as Prisoner 672. & while searching on their own, Leela & Abigail find Prisoner 672: a Time Lady played by Chloë Annett. The prisoner begs the two of them to not hand her over & that she’s being framed. She says she doesn’t know who she is, but she swears she’s not the real Prisoner 672. Abigail says she believes 672, and so Leela & Abigail take her back to Leela’s quarters.

Meanwhile, we see the Doctor continuing to test Romana in her office. Then suddenly, the office is breached by a Time Lord guard wielding a Staser rifle - the assassin. The Doctor attempts to overthrow the Assassin, but is knocked out & thrown to the ground. The assassin swings his arm back up to shoot Romana, before he’s shot down by Romana, who’s revealed to be in possession of her own Staser. The room is then swarmed by a group of guards, who make sure Romana is unarmed. However, when asked what happened, Romana says the Doctor, who’s now awakening from his coma, is the Assassin. The Doctor tries to claim his innocence, yet Romana swears & insists he is Gallifrey’s number one enemy & has him sentenced to death.

Back in Leela’s quarters, the group hear an announcement over the intercom from Romana, who tells the people of Gallifrey that the Doctor is to be executed. While Leela & Abigail state that this can’t be right, 672 is taken back by Romana’s voice - claiming that it’s HER voice. Leela & Abigail are confused as to what 672 means, believing that she mustn't be well. But then 672 says she’s starting to remember who she was. She is Romana & the woman currently acting as President is not the real Romana. She says she has vague memories of being attacked & a sharp, deadly pain in her neck, before being placed in the place of Prisoner 672.

In order to determine whether this woman really is Romana, Leela throws some personal questions at her, which she gets right. She & Abigail then take her for a DNA test, which fully confirms that this woman is Romana. But then that begs the question - If this is Romana, then who’s the President of Gallifrey?

After convincing Andred & his guards to stand down & that the president may be a fake, the group make their way to the security logs to find out who exactly imprisoned the real Romana. This, meanwhile, is intercut with the Doctor being escorted to the execution chamber. The group find the footage of Romana having her neck being snapped & placed into cryogenic, but find that the real assassin is using a perception blur to cover their identity on the footage. Romana uses her clearance to un-distort the assassin's identity, and we see the assassin to be Kalien.

The group continue to sieve through more security footage, where they’re eventually able to create a full timeline of events. It’s revealed that a year ago Kalien escaped from her imprisonment, killed Romana & imprisoned her in her place. She then obtained an ancient elixir named the Elixir of Rejuvenation, which allowed her to regenerate into any form she wished. She regenerated into the form of Romana & took her place as president. She then proceeded to have Romana’s high council killed off & had them replaced with people that would be able to help her in her ultimate plan: to have full control over the people of Gallifrey.

With all the evidence gathered, the group rushes to the execution chamber, where they’re able to save the Doctor just in the nick of time. Romana then exposes Kalien to her guards by showing them the evidence. Romana orders her men to have Kalien restrained, however Kalien uses a device on her arm & teleports away.

We then see the Doctor leading the group through the corridors of Gallifrey, as they attempt to track down Kalien. They eventually trace her down to the old workshop, where they find Kalien attempting to escape in a Type 80 TARDIS. However, the Doctor fully raises the transduction barrier & brings the TARDIS back down.

The story then ends with Romana sentencing Kalien to eternal imprisonment, as she’s to be sealed within a Dwarf Star Alloy Chamber - a room that exists outside of time & space itself. Romana then thanks the Doctor for his help, before he & Abigail return to the TARDIS.

VAMPIRE SCIENCE
Written by: Kate Orman & Jonathan Blum
Directed by: Renny Rye
Parts: 2

The story sees the Doctor arriving in San Francisco in 1997, where he becomes aware of a group of Vampires living on Earth in an abandoned theatre. However, these Vampires don’t wish to conquer the Earth, and instead live normal lives on Earth. But, due to them being vampires, they do feed off human blood, resulting in the death of 200 homeless people.

Being a Time Lord, the Doctor has a natural duty to wipe out the vampires. However, wishing to find a peaceful solution, as well as not wanting the Time Lords to find out about the presence of Vampires, which could result in San Francisco being wiped out, the Doctor agrees to work with the leader of the local vampire coven, a vampire lady from the year 1087 named Joanna Harris, to try & develop an artificial food source so they don’t have to kill to survive. Harris admits that she’d also been working along similar lines for some time, but she isn’t sure whether she can trust the Doctor. So, in order to ensure mutual cooperation, the Doctor & Harris undergo a bloodfasting, which establishes a psychic link that’ll cause each to suffer any injuries inflicted upon the other, up to and including death.

The story sees the Doctor working with Harris & UNIT North America, led by Brigadier-General Adrienne Kramer, to try & make peace with the Vampires, as well as helping to develop a kill-free food source. However, a vampire named Slake, who first agreed to become a vampire for the dark romance of it, gets angry at Harris for trying to end the Hunt. Wishing for the bloodshed to continue, Slake begins to stir up the younger vampires with visions of a life beyond morality & attempts to provoke a war.

Slake takes full command of the younger vampires & orders them to begin attacking groups of humans. When the Doctor & Harris learn about Slake’s attack, they realise they have no choice but to fight back. They then develop a repellent which, when ingested by the Vampires, will kill them stone dead. We then see the Doctor, Abigail & Harris travelling to the abandoned theatre to wipe out the Vampires. However, their plans are foiled when Slake takes Abigail as a hostage.

The Doctor then meets with Slake, who sacrifices his life to save Abigail. Slake agrees to free Abigail & he, along with the rest of the Vampires, begin feeding off the Doctor’s blood. However, as the vampires feed off the Doctor’s blood, they begin to keel over & die.

The Doctor, claiming to be dying, then asks Harris to convert him into a Vampire. Harris then also begins consuming the Doctor’s blood, where it’s revealed that the Doctor ingested a sample of the Vampire repellent, which killed Slake’s army & then kills Harris. However, after Harris dies, the Doctor revives her using CPR, where he reveals that  although the vampire factor in her cells has been destroyed, their bloodfasting enabled her to survive as a human. The story then ends with Adrienne Kramer offering Harris a chance to work for UNIT NA & the Doctor & Abigail depart in the TARDIS.

THE SCREAMING DARKNESS
Written by: Steven Moffat
Directed by: Stuart McDonald

The story sees the Doctor & Abigail landing the Starship 'Fore-'Frost, a luxury cruise ship for deep space vacations. Immediately after realising they’re on a cruise ship, Abigail suddenly decides that they could do with a vacation, and wishes to stay on-board & take a holiday.

We initially see the Doctor & Abigail exploring the ship to see what it offers, which includes a giant swimming pool room, fine-dining restaurants, top-of-the-range leisure activity simulations & luxurious bedrooms. They also take some time to meet the rest of the passengers, including a young human couple named Amelia & William, a space researcher named Ivan & an elderly rich couple named Judy & Frank. Everything seems to be going well & relaxing at first, until the Doctor & Abigail are discovered by the captain of the ship, Bowman, who believes them to be stowaways & plans to have them locked up.

Suddenly, the starship is shaken violently & the automatic alarms are raised, alerting everyone of a breach in an observation deck. We see everyone onboard panicking & being sucked as the air is pulled out of the ship. The Doctor is able to seal the hole, but not before the ship's power is drained & the lights go out, leaving only a few emergency lights. Bowman tells the passengers that an automatic SOS will have been sent out & asks for everyone to return to their rooms, while he deals with the Doctor & Abigail.

As we see the Doctor & Abigail being thrown into jail, we cut to Amelia & William returning to their room. Then suddenly, a blue wisp flies down the corridor & crashes into Amelia. We see her eyes turning an electric light-blue colour, before she emits an ear-piercing scream, which slowly begins to kill William. The sound of the scream echoes throughout the entire ship, and everyone rushes to the scene, with the Doctor & Abigail breaking out of jail to investigate.

The story would then evolve into a Base-Under-Siege-esque story, with the entire cast hunting down Amelia, who the Doctor discovers to be possessed by a space-entity he’s unfamiliar with, as well as trying to find a way to defeat this entity &, if possible, somehow save Amelia. Throughout the story, we get to learn more about this entity through the entity communicating with the cast, as well as possible theories for its motives. We learn that the entity entered the ship through the breach, after having swimming through empty space for decades. It can possess anyone & has the power to kill anyone using a high-frequency scream, which destroys the brain.

We also learn that it has the ability to switch bodies at ease, as we see it possess Amelia, Ivan & even Bowman. We never get to learn what the entity is or what it wants, but the Doctor theories that it knows about the SOS call & that it must be planning to escape to the nearest civilisation & cause havoc.

Eventually however, this entity is defeated when the Doctor traps the entity in an emergency stasis chamber & freezes the entity, which is possessing Bowman, in Liquid Nitrogen. The story then ends with the Doctor & Abigail making sure the survivors are OK, before they quietly leave in the TARDIS just as the SOS team begins to arrive.

THE ENGLISH WAY OF DEATH
Written by: Gareth Roberts
Directed by: Sandy Johnson
Parts: 2

The story sees the Doctor arriving in London in 1930 in order to return some old library books. However, before the Doctor can leave, the TARDIS warns the Doctor about the presence of time-warmed chronons in the atmosphere, meaning that there is an unshielded time corridor somewhere in the vicinity. This leads to the Doctor investigating this potential threat, where he sees Heath Porteous, a well known seismologist, being kidnapped by a woman named Julia. However, before the Doctor can catch Julia, the entire city begins to rumble & shake unexpectedly; something which the Doctor knows isn't right.

The story then sees the Doctor & Abigail trying to find out why Porteous was kidnapped, as well as the cause for the trembles & the time corridor, which the Doctor suspects are all connected in some way. It turns out that a creature of gas known as Zodaal is responsible, a criminal from a distant planet who had imprinted his mind into a cloud of radium. We learn that Zodaal has possessed a millionaire known as Hepworth, who was responsible for the kidnapping of Porteous. Zodaal is planning on forcing Porteous to program a seismic stimulator, which would destroy the Earth. He then plans  to channel the power of its destruction so that he could imprint himself permanently onto a new host.

Eventually however, Zodaal is defeated when the Doctor forces his ship to take off after sabotaging his equipment. Hepworth chooses to commit suicide before Zodaal can take control, which leaves Zodaal drifting helplessly through space.

THE MILLENNIUM BUG
Written by: Steve Lyons
Directed by: Stuart McDonald

The story sees the Doctor being summoned to Earth by Winifred Bambera on the 31st of December, 1999. She explains to the Doctor that at Midnight this day, every single piece of technology transmitted a message to the human race which read 'The end of days is here' before shutting off permanently. Since then, most, if not all, technology has failed to work, with everyone cut off from the rest of the world.

No one has any idea what this means, who's causing this or why, but Bambera believes that this has something to do with the turn of the millennium & maybe related to the Y2K bug, a scare amongst the population that all technology would break down at the start of the year 2000.

The story would see the Doctor working with Bambera to try & track down the source of this transmission using very primitive technology, while also trying to work out a way to restore all technology on Earth. They eventually discover that a race of aliens known as the Xytrons are responsible - creatures that are made of glass & feed off electricity. The Doctor discovers that the Xytrons plan to conquer the Earth by firstly cutting off all communications around the world, which would throw Earth into a state of panic & war. Then, arising from the smoke, the Xytrons would be able to successfully invade & conquer the planet.

However, the Xytrons are defeated when the Doctor restores Earth's technology by draining energy from the Xytrons' spacecraft. This, however, also results in the deaths of the Xytrons, as without electricity, the Xytrons simply die out & collapse to the ground, before shattering into tiny shards of glass.

The story then ends with Bambera thanking the Doctor for his help, with the Doctor & Abigail celebrating the turn of the millennium in London.

SIDE NOTE: Credit must go to The Dalek Hunter, who originally devised this story & has allowed us to use it in this series.

GENOCIDE
Written by: Paul Leonard
Directed by: Andrew Grieve
Parts: 2

The story sees the Doctor & Abigail arriving in what they expect to be London 2109. However, upon exiting the TARDIS, they find themselves on what appears to be an alien world named Paratractis. Furthermore, the planet is inhabited by horse-like aliens named The Tractites. However, to the Doctor's horror, he discovers that Paratractis is actually Earth - something or someone has changed the timelines.

Through some investigation, he finds that, somehow, the Tractites travelled back in time & came to Earth at a point where mankind was still evolving & wiped out the population; taking the planet as their own. Now, in the year 2109, Paratractis is home to the Tractites - a much more peaceful & civilised race than any form of human civilisation. Feeling conflicted about what he must do next, but realising the danger to the timeline, the Doctor realises that  he has no choice but to find the point of historical divergence and correct it.

The story then sees the Doctor travelling through time in order to work out when, how & why the Tractites took over Earth. We learn that in the far future, the human empire invaded & nearly wiped out the entire Tractite race on their original home planet. However, the survivors of the bloodshed came into possession of a Time Tree - a tree which enabled time travel to a random point in history simply by plucking its seeds. The Tractites then used the Time Tree to travel to the dawn of human history to establish a colony & prevent the human race from evolving. However, one of the survivors, named Gavril, ended up in the 20th Century, where he worked with a mad UNIT soldier named Jacob Hynes, to test & develop a virus which could wipe out the human race.

 The story would see the Doctor & Abigail working with a Tractite named Kitig, who comes to realise that their timeline & existence must end, to stop the virus from spreading, as well as stopping Mauvril, a survivor of the Tractite genocide who is now a leader, from wiping out the human race. Eventually, Hynes is injected with the virus himself, which ultimately kills him. Mauvril's plans are eventually foiled, but the Doctor offers her the chance to start again - to let him use the TARDIS to & her people to a new world where they can make a fresh start. However, to the Doctor's horror, Mauvril & the rest of the Tractites are wiped out by a Tractite laser cannon by one of the supporting characters, with the Doctor left unsure whether the cannon was used on accident or maliciously.

CONCLUSION

Season 34 was considered a successful season, but was considered a little underwhelming compared to Season 33. Whilst people continued to praise Bonneville, Cressman & most stories this year, many felt that there wasn't anything too special or massively standout about the season.

And so, 1997 came to a close, and so did the tenure of Stephen Garwood. And with Lynn Grant taking over as Producer, work soon commenced on the following season - Doctor Who’s 35th Anniversary.