Season 31 (Doctor Who)

Season 31 of Doctor Who ran between 23 July 1994 and 17 December 1994. It starred Richard Griffiths as the Doctor, Lisa Bowerman as Bernice Summerfield and John Banks as Henrick who departed at the end of the season.

Another new direction
With a new producer and script editor under Stephen Garwood and Colin Brake respectively, Season 31 wouldn't feel as dramatically different as expected, only further pushing a darker edge to the show, therefore, the show felt largely the same as it had been over the last few seasons.

Furthermore, as the BBC began to take interest in the show once again with ratings rising again, it was decided for the camera equipment used in the 30th-anniversary special, The Lords of Time, would be continued into this season and onwards. This dramatically improved the look of the show, with a more drama-esque look and closely having production values similar to American sci-fi shows as the BBC began to realise that Doctor Who was starting to compete with them; more notably the Star Trek franchise and didn't want British sci-fi to feel left out so to help, they gave Doctor Who a budget increase for the first time on many years.

Scheduling and Format
Like Season 29, this season consisted of 22x25 minute episodes. It aired on BBC1, from July until December 1994, and occupied the Saturday tea-time slot, as Doctor Who had been doing, again, since 1992.

The BBC put the show in a relatively consistent time slot, with the earliest at 18:30, and the latest at 19:35, but averaging out, overall, at 19:05, with 7 whole episodes, in a row, scheduled at 19:10. While not in the exact same time slot every week, this showed the BBC were beginning to trust Doctor Who, scheduling wise, again, more and more.

The End of Henrick
John Banks announced early on that he would be leaving the show to prevent him from outstaying his welcome; having been on Who consistently since Season 27, making this his fifth and final season. His departure provided a benefit from former script editor Ben Aaronovitch who penned the finale, The Prisoner of Time, who wanted to make Gregori much more of a threat by killing Henrick off.

Stories
The seven stories featured included the return of the Ice Warriors, a battle with medieval Knights, exploring an ancient temple, Silurians and Sea Devils together, the power of broadcasting in space and its secrets and the return of Gregori and Gallifrey from the 30th anniversary special.

Title sequence colour change #2
Again keeping with the idea of giving the show a different feel from time to time from his predecessor but also with the new production values in place, Garwood changed the title sequence colour to blue.

Regular

 * The Doctor - Richard Griffiths
 * Bernice Summerfield - Lisa Bowerman
 * Henrick - John Banks

Recurring

 * The Rani - Kate O' Mara
 * The Other - Richard Griffiths
 * Brigadier Winifred Bambera - Angela Bruce
 * Romana - Lalla Ward
 * Voice of K-9 - John Leeson
 * Lady Flavia - Dinah Sheridon
 * Leela - Louise Jameson
 * The Master - Anthony Ainley

Home Media

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