Season 36 (Doctor Who)

Season 36 aired between 25 September 1999 and 18 December 1999. It was the first season with Sue Vertue as producer, the second season to be script edited by Steven Moffat and to feature Laurie Holden as Sammy Thompson, as well as the fourth season starring Michael French as The Doctor.

Format and chapter details
This season consisted of five stories, three three-part stories and two-part episodes with all thirteen episodes 45 minutes long; retaining the 13x45 format introduced in the previous season. It is the only season with this format to not feature any single part stories. It was later assigned to Chapter Two Part Three.

Husband and Wife in charge
Despite enjoying her work on Season 35, Susan Belbin had fallen ill once again and thus could not continue into Season 36 therefore she left. Script Editor Steven Moffat suggested bringing in his wife Sue Vertue along having worked together on many shows and it would give them the opportunity to continue. The BBC and Paramount (in their second season of the Paramount Deal) approved of this, making this the first Producer and Script Editor pairing to be related.

Going Rogue
For the season's first story, Vertue, Moffat and Renwick got together to create another Time Lord enemy of the Doctor, acting similar in a way to the Master but "darker". Eventually, this became the character of The Rogue; a renegade Time Lord known for causing chaos just to spite the Doctor, played by Derek Jacobi. As time goes on, he became one of the most important characters in the Whoniverse.

The switch to widescreen
After being in 14:9 last season, and with many programmes adopting the new aspect ratio, the BBC allowed Season 36 to be produced and broadcast in 16:9 widescreen. As with the case of widescreen programmes, analogue viewers would see it in 14:9 with horizontal bars at the top and bottom of their screens. Only those who had digital television would be able to see the show in its new aspect ratio of 16:9 widescreen which would continue to grow over the years. This only resulted in minor changes to the title sequence with the CGI elements cropped to be widescreen.

Resurrection of an old friend
Early in production for Season 36, former Doctor Who script editor, Terrance Dicks and former producer Barry Letts were in early stages of devising a Doctor Who spin-off with talks along with Renwick, featuring former companions working together. He suggested bringing back companion Katie Tollinger as they felt she deserved a lot more to her character. They later came to an agreement to base a story for Season 36 on the return of Katie which would partly serve as a prequel to the eventual spin-off, Leftover.

Stories
Along with The Rogue and Katie Tollinger, other stories focused on a casino killer, religion and power as well as the one-off return of Sylvester McCoy as the Doctor.

Regular

 * The Doctor - Michael French
 * Sammy Thompson - Laurie Holden

Recurring

 * The Rogue - Derek Jacobi
 * The Rani - Kate O'Mara
 * Katie Tollinger - Julia Sawalha
 * The War Chief - Laurence Tomlinson
 * Lord President Flavia - Makila Ghansa
 * Mitahi Leader - Frances Brogm

Guest

 * The Doctor - Sylvester McCoy
 * Obioduis - Morgan Freeman
 * Dobson / Voice of The Daleks - Nicholas Briggs
 * Computer Voice - Elisabeth Sladen

Home Media
To be added.