Season 33 (Doctor Who)

Season 33 of Doctor Who ran from 7 September 1996 to 1 February 1997.

It was the first season for Michael French as The Doctor and the first for Rakie Ayola as Janet Wells.

Format and chapter details
This season consisted of eight stories with twenty-two 25-minute episodes. It was the tenth season in Chapter Two Part III of Doctor Who.

A brand new era
Season 33 felt quite dramatic in different to recent seasons due to it featuring not only a new Doctor under Michael French, but also a new companion in his debut story unlike Eight, Katie and Henrick who had joined at different points in Season 27. Other than Garwood and Brake remaining on along with major crew members, everything else felt vastly different due to the BBC slowly progressing the competitiveness with other American sci-fi shows which would be noted with the frequent use of alien planets in recent years.

Janet the Traveller
The new companion would be Janet Wells, a Lancashire traveller from the year 1956. Played by Rakie Ayola, she was the first black actress to play a companion with a sub-arc of her dealing with themes of race across several stories and especially her debut story considering the time period she was in.

New titles and theme
As expected by now, new titles and theme for a new Doctor. Unlike other title sequences, this one was vastly different to all the others. Since the BBC wanted to push an American feel within the show, it was suggested for the new titles to be made by an American VFX company, that of Santa Barbara Studios who also did titles for Star Trek: Voyager. Additionally, this made the title sequence look even better in execution with a simple structure of various shots around Earth with the occasional appearance of the TARDIS. Cast and creator names were also introduced with these titles, but also retaining the basic elements such as French's face and the TARDIS as well as the iconic theme.

Garwood decided to search for various themes done in the past and came across a version by Dominic Glynn named 'The Terror Theme' from 1989. Despite being almost seven years apart, he felt it sounded very of the time for 1996 and asked for Glynn to not just use it for the show, but also to add orchestra since the BBC Radiophonic Workshop was coming to an end as the season also saw the debut of an orchestra for incidental music.

Stories
The eight stories featured in this season included the Master, a hot London summer, the return of the Daleks and Vardans, a planet of demons, a Well, surviving a laser strike and resurrecting the Autons.

Regular

 * The Doctor - Michael French
 * Janet Wells - Rakie Ayola

Recurring

 * To Be Added.

Guest

 * To Be Added.

Home Media
To be added.