Doctor Who: The Cancelled Years - Season 54

Season 54 would've been the second season for Jemma Redgrave as the Doctor, the first season for Rebecca Root as Joanne Tilley & the second season for Pete McTighe & Sarah Dollard as showrunner.

This season would've  the introduction  companion, Joanne. Joanne would've been played by trans actress Rebecca Root, thus it was decided to make Joanne the first transgender companion.

Behind the scenes, Season 54 had somewhat of a rocky production. The BBC wanted to start airing Doctor Who in a winter time slot, in an attempt to fix the issue of declining viewing figures. Therefore, it was decided to delay Season 54 & begin broadcasting in January 2019, making this the first time Doctor Who had broadcast early into the year since Season 22. However, to make sure there was no Doctor Who content in 2018, it was decided to rework the Xmas special & have it air before Season 54 premiered.

SANTA’S COMING TO TOWN!

WRITTEN BY: Pete McTighe
DIRECTED BY: Mark Tonderai

The story sees the Doctor arriving in 21st Century London on Christmas Eve, where she discovers something very wrong, as she sees a real sleigh being towed by flying reindeers flying across the sky, as the people of London celebrate. Somehow, not only has Santa become real, but he’s also become a natural part of life, as though he’s always been there.

After tracking down “Santa” It turns out that this person isn’t actually Santa but instead the Meddling Monk, once again played by Jim Broadbent, with his sleigh actually being his TARDIS. We find that the Monk has been meddling with Earth’s history so much, he’s turned Santa into a real thing by posing as Santa & messing with people throughout history.

Eventually however, the Doctor is able to stop the Monks’ meddling by tracking down the first time the Monk posed as Santa & breaking his TARDIS, thus leaving him stranded in the North Pole.

THE CONTAGION

WRITTEN BY: Sarah Dollard
DIRECTED BY: Lee Haven Jones

This would be the first story for our new companion, Joanne Tilley. Unlike every companion since 2004, Joanne isn't from the modern day, as we open the episode on her, where we see her to be a Doctor from the 67th Century.

We see Joanne on a space ambulance shuttle, which is transporting injured soldiers back to the main hospital on a pre-programmed flight. We learn a bit about the fight that these soldiers are from but most importantly, we learn that their enemies are highly advanced. We also see 1 of the patients on board this ship is actually the Doctor, who is posing as a trainee nurse, but is actually wanting to get to the hospital after she landed on the battlegrounds & the TARDISes HADS Systems activated, which relocated the TARDIS to the hospital.

At first everything seems relatively normal. However we & the rest of the crew discover that 1 of the soldiers has been infected with a deadly nanogene, which rewrite the soldiers DNA into this rabid creature which starts killing off the crew.

The story sees the Doctor working with Joanne to try & dispose of the soldier before they arrive in the hospital, as it turns out the shuttle is on a pre-programmed flight which can't be stopped. Eventually however, the soldier is tricked into entering an airlock, where they're ejected into space.

We end the story with the shuttle arriving at the hospital, where the Doctor reveals her identity to Joanne, before she shows her the TARDIS & invites her in. After growing fond of Joanne, the Doctor asks her if she'd like to join her. Joanne is unsure at first, as she doesn't want to abandon the people who need her help. However, after the Doctor reveals that the TARDIS can travel in time, she says "well... oh go on then" & accepts the Doctor's invitation

MOLTEN HEART

WRITTEN BY: Una McCormack
DIRECTED BY: Daniel Nettheim

The story sees the Doctor & Joanne arriving on Adamantine, where the entire civilisation lives inside the hollowed shell underneath the planet's exterior. There they befriended Ash, one of the native silicon-based life forms, and the daughter of the planet's first scientist, Basalt.

However, the Doctor soon determines that the civilisation is under threat as the exterior of the planet begins to crack & lets in water which threatens to cool the lava that Basalt's people needed to survive. While Joanne attempts to calm the people, the Doctor travels up to the surface with Ash, learning that the cracks were caused by a mining expedition that had been abandoned after the original team were killed by an exploding gas pocket while leaving their equipment running.

Eventually however, the Doctor is able to contact the original company & obtain the necessary command codes to shut down the equipment & use it to repair the worst of the damage threatening Basalt's home city.

NIKOLA TESLA’S NIGHT OF TERROR

WRITTEN BY: Nina Metivier
DIRECTED BY: Nida Manzoor

This would’ve been pretty much the same story as it is in our history, with the only obvious change being the removal of 2 companions.

THE CONQUEST OF FAR

WRITTEN BY: Nicholas Briggs
DIRECTED BY: Lee Haven Jones

This would've been a 2-part story & would've saw the return of the Daleks.

The story begins with the TARDIS being drawn to the planet Far, a planet on the far limits of Earth's empire, where the Doctor had once assisted in the construction of a hypergate to help ships travelling long distances.

Discovering that the abandoned planet has a platoon of Daleks on it, the Doctor & Joanne are separated when they try to escape, with the Doctor falling into an underground chamber while Joanne meets a member of the local resistance. The Doctor is eventually able to make her way to a Dalek fuelling station run by human slaves who have suffered serious mutations due to exposure to the radioactive substances the Daleks uses for fuel, where she meets Jickster, the admiral who had once been in charge of Far's defences & was now the least twisted of the Dalek slaves.

Working together, Jickster and the Doctor are able to steal a Dalek saucer & reactivate the hypergate, allowing them to escape & make contact with an Earth Alliance fleet. Talking with Jickster, the Doctor learns that the Daleks have two secret weapons on Far; a Dalek army in stasis, numbering over a million Daleks, & a giant transmitter that would broadcast a signal enabling the Daleks to turn the attacking Earth fleet into Robomen slaves en masse once they got into range.

Eventually, although Joanne was nearly forced to help set a trap for the Doctor, the Doctor is able to return to Far in her stolen saucer, accompanied by an Earth Alliance strike team. The Doctor is then able to reprogram the robotization weapon to target the Dalek army, with the overload of Dalek instructions causing them to self-destruct, with the Alliance fleet eliminating the rest.

THE CURSE OF LADY MACBETH

WRITTEN BY: Lizzie Hopley
DIRECTED BY: Nida Manzoor

The story sees the Doctor & Joanne arriving in mediaeval Scotland, where they meet Gruach, the wife of Macbeth, & help her solve the mystery of a mysterious disease affecting the local children.

Together they determine that the cause was an ancient entity disturbed by some sailors & feeding on the psychic energy of the young Lulach, heir to the previous king. The Doctor then recognises that the creature took hold of Kinade, Gruach's father, & also reveals he had been spreading lies about Macbeth, falsely accusing him of having killed the king to take the throne.

However, the Doctor is able to remove the influence of the creature from Kinade, & in doing so cured the children, leaving them to Grouch's care.

THE INVENTION OF DEATH

WRITTEN BY: John Dorney
DIRECTED BY: Jamie Magnus Stone

The sees the Doctor & Joanne arriving on the planet Ashtallah, home of the Ashtallans, an immortal race with prodigious healing abilities. After witnessing their cells quickly healing Joanne, the Doctor discusses many scientific concepts with Brenna, one of the first Ashtallan scientists, before a mysterious plague begins killing the aliens.

After the Doctor helps Brenna create a method via which the Ashtallans could reproduce, Joanne finds that another scientist named Sharlan had been killing their people, via a sample of Joanne's own blood. Eventually however, the Doctor & Joanne are able to save the day & halt the spread of the plague. & so with the day saved, the 2 of them leave the planet, wondering about the impact they had on the Ashtallans.

BLACK POWDER

WRITTEN BY: Joy Wilkinson
DIRECTED BY: Daniel Nettheim

The story sees the Doctor taking Joanne to 1605 only to discover that history had been altered so the Gunpowder Plot was successful. Travelling to the night of the explosion, the 2 of them witness Guy Fawkes being arrested & Berthold Schwarz taking his place to cause the explosion. They end up failing to stop Schwarz lighting the gunpowder, so they travel back in time to meet his younger self.

There, they discover that he inadvertently summoned an alien knight in an alchemy ritual & stole its gun, killing it. Joanne tries to interfere but is shot in the shoulder by Schwarz, so the Doctor takes her back to the TARDIS to deal with the wound. She explains to Joanne that the alien knight had used its dying breath to curse Schwarz to be immortal until being shot by the last gun on Earth.

They then travel forwards in time to find Schwarz in the ruins of Earth, where he agrees to help them put history right. The Doctor then takes him back to the Gunpowder Plot where the older Schwarz convinces his younger self not to detonate the gunpowder, thus breaking the curse.

THE ETERNAL GAMES

WRITTEN BY: Pete McTighe & Sarah Dollard
DIRECTED BY: Jamie Magnus Stone

This would be a 2-part story, as well as the season finale. 

The story begins with the Doctor & Joanne waking up in a hall, with no memories of who they are or what they're doing there. They find themselves with nothing but an orange jumpsuit. They're also surrounded by a lot of other people (298 to be precise), with everyone else appearing to be just as confused as them. However, it's not long until everyone in the room is teleported out. 

After the teleport, the Doctor & Joanne find themselves in what appears to be a waiting zone with 8 other people. Suddenly, an intercom explains that the group are in an Escape Room & must find the exit & escape within 5 minutes or "face the consequences". Eventually however, the Doctor, Joanne & 5 other people are able to find the exit within the vent system & escape the room just as the room begins to burn in flames, which kills 3 people. 

After this, the survivors are teleported back to the starting hall, where everyone realises that people have died, with the population now totalling 254. Then an announcement is made on an intercom, welcoming everyone to The Games. The rules are simple: complete the games or face death. Only 1 person can survive the games, with that survivor being given back their freedom. Then suddenly, everyone realises that they can remember who they are now, including the Doctor & Joanne. They also remember how they came to be here, with the Doctor recalling that something took control over the TARDIS while it was in flight 

With part of her memories back, the Doctor begins to investigate the hall for any clues as to what's going on. Then to her horror, she notices a painting of a hamsa on one of the walls, which she recognises as a symbol of a group of rogue eternals. Then the lights go out & everyone is ordered to go to bed, where we see the Doctor awake at night with her thoughts & formulating a plan. We also see a group of eternals in a luxurious room watching over the hall with amusement.

The next day, after everyone is up, everyone gets teleported again, with the Doctor & Joanne being separated. This time, the games involve a maze. A group of 10 must navigate a maze in 30 minutes or face death. However, there is another danger, as part way through the game, rabid killer space wolves are thrown into the maze. We'd have intercut footage of the Doctor & Joanne working with their teammates to escape both the maze & the wolves, which they're able to do, give or take a few deaths. 

Back in the hall, the Doctor & Joanne agree that no matter whether they're separated or not, they're going to break out. Then cut to the next day, as everyone prepares to be teleported away. Everyone is teleported into groups of 5 and the Doctor & Joanne are pleased to find themselves together. There, they find the game to be a ‘murder mystery’ type of game in an old victorian mansion, with the groups having to figure out which staff member killed the owner of the house within 30 minutes.

After convincing the other members of their party to work with them, the Doctor & Joanne begin to search for a hidden way out of the chamber, which they eventually do & the entire group make their escape through a back door & into a big facility. However, their escape is discovered by the Eternals, who send down guards to kill the group. With the group being hunted down, the Doctor & her group dash their way through the complex to a storage bay, where they find the TARDIS being stored. Everyone dashes to the TARDIS as the guards close in on them. However, before she can reach the door, Joanne trips & is captured by the guards. The Doctor watches through the TARDIS door as a guard pulls out a weapon & shoots Joanne, causing her to zap out of existence. The Doctor slams the door shut & leans against it, filling with sadness & rage.

With Joanne dead, the Doctor is determined to not let anything stop her. Without saying a word to the rest of the group, she uses the TARDIS to track down the Eternals' hideout & locks onto their location. We see the TARDIS landing & the Eternals looking at the TARDIS in curiosity. However, their curiosity quickly turns into fear, as the Doctor walks out of the TARDIS holding a big energy weapon, which the Eternals identify as an Ouroboros Harvester, an outlawed weapon that has the ability to kill Eternals. The Doctor tells them to give them one good reason why she shouldn’t open fire & wipe every single one of them out.

Fearing for their lives, the Eternals reveal that they don’t run the games & that they’re just monitors for their Master. The Doctor, now puzzled, though still filled with rage, demands them to tell her who their Master is. Suddenly, a very familiar laugh is heard as everything & everyone around the Doctor, except the TARDIS, morphs into a completely different landscape, and the Doctor finds herself in a mediaeval hall, filled with old & new toys as well as strange machines. Suddenly, a figure begins to fade into existence & to the Doctor’s horror, this figure is revealed to be the Celestial Toymaker.

The Doctor asks what the Toymaker wants of her, who reveals that he is the Master of the Eternal Games. Since his last defeat, the Toymaker has been struggling to find people he can turn into his play-things, so he devised the concept of the Eternal Games. 300 people enter a series of challenges. Only 1 person will be allowed to return home. The Doctor then asks what happened to the other victims, before the Toymaker opens a nearby door to reveal a ginormous corridor with shelves of action figures of every victim on every side. The Toymaker then reaches into his pocket & pulls out his newest addition to his collection, who we see to be Joanne.

Part 1 would then end with the Doctor asking what’ll happen to her, before the Toymaker snaps her fingers & she passes out. He then snaps his fingers again & 2 people dressed as mediaeval guards emerge. They pick up the Doctor & we end with the 2 of them dragging the Doctor away, as the Toymaker laughs to himself.

Part 2 would begin with the Doctor waking up in UNIT HQ, surrounded by Joanne, Nicholas Lethbridge-Stewart, Florence Benton & Ellen Yorke, with Nicholas telling the Doctor that they must stop the Master from summoning the ancient Dæmon Azal. The Doctor looks over at a nearby TV, where she sees a news report of the Master, played by Mark Bonnar.

It turns out that the Doctor has been connected up to a simulation device, created by the Toymaker. The Toymaker has chosen 4 random adventures from the Doctor’s life & the Doctor must remember what she did to win those adventures to win the challenge & escape. However, if she fails just one adventure, she’ll be forced to relive every single adventure over-and-over forever.

The story would’ve saw the Doctor being forced to relive 4 previous adventures & to remember exactly what she did to win those adventures. The 5 stories she would be reliving are The Dæmons, Attack of the Cybermen, The Apocalypse Element & The Deadly Alliance. Each story would last around 10-15 minutes, with each adventure starting around half-way through each adventure. However, each story would be slightly different to how things played out, the most striking difference being the cast. Jemma Redgrave would be playing the 3rd, 6th, 9th & 13th Doctor, with Rebecca Root taking on the roles of Jo, Peri, Abigail & Kelsey. The current UNIT family would also be playing the UNIT families of the Pertwee era, as well as the Master being played by Mark Bonnar, Romana being played by Annabel Scholey & Cybermen & Daleks being replaced with the modern designs.

We initially see the Doctor going through the events of The Dæmons as normal, while also trying to find a way to break the game. However, after moving on to Attack of the Cybermen, she manages to find a backdoor she never went through during this adventure. This gives her access to the simulation servers & she begins to use the server to glitch the game & essentially give her cheats, much to the Toymaker’s annoyance.

Moving onto The Apocalypse Element, the Doctor continues to cheat her way through the adventure. In an attempt to stop the Doctor however, the Toymaker tries to alter the story by introducing the Galatrins from the Season 39 finale. However, the Doctor is still able to succeed & moves onto The Deadly Alliance, where she finds herself in the Space-Realm as the Valeyard & Daleks arrive. By this stage, the Toymaker is raging at the Doctor & is actively trying to fail the Doctor by making the Daleks more powerful & also bringing in the Sontarans. However, by continuing to use cheats, the Doctor is able to push back the Valeyard’s army.

With the Doctor on the verge of winning the game, the Toymaker freezes the story & enters the game. He tells the Doctor that he cannot allow her to win, so he is going to keep the story frozen forever, remove her cheating abilities for good & leave her stranded forever. The Toymaker claps his hands & then… nothing. The Doctor then reveals that using her powers, she created a virus that would trap the Toymaker in his own game if he ever tried to trap the Doctor, while also transferring the Toymaker’s powers to her. The Toymaker rages & shouts at the Doctor, demanding her to restore his powers. She tells the Toymaker that she will, given time, before she waves goodbye to him & she vanishes from the simulation.

We then see her waking up in a very futuristic room, before she makes her way back to the main hall. She then uses her newly acquired powers to shut down the Eternal Games for good, as well as returning all of the Toymaker’s victims back to normal & sending every one of them back home.

The story ends with the Doctor reunited with Joanne, as the 2 of them head back to the TARDIS. However, before entering, the Doctor decides to transfer her powers back to the Toymaker, stating that she doesn’t wish to have god-like powers & that with his powers back, the Toymaker will eventually be able to escape his prison.

That concludes Season 54 of Doctor Who. Overall, this season was received better than the previous season, with more people growing to like the Fifteenth Doctor, as well as Joanne quickly becoming a fan-favourite companion. However, not every story was a winner, such as Part 2 of The Eternal Games, which was heavily criticised for its Deus Ex Machina ending. As always, a crowd of ‘Not My Doctors’ continued to grow, but the show pushed on for Season 55.

Join me next time for Series 2 of The Jo Jones Chronicles

Thank you & goodbye!

(Thanks to TimeLordMaster108 for help with Pt. 2 of The Eternal Games)