Season 41 (Doctor Who)

Season 41 of Doctor Who aired between 11 September 2004 and 30 October 2004. It contained eight ninety-minute episodes. It was the third season with Russell T Davies as Script Editor, first to be produced by Tony Redston, the first to be executive produced by Ira Steven Behr and the first to feature Anthony Head as The Doctor, as well as the first part of the 'Gallifrey Arc' and Chapter Three.

Rough plans
When Tony Redston was cast as new producer in early 2003, he met up with his predecessor Bill Shapter, executive producer David Renwick and script editor, Russell T Davies during the production of the 40th-anniversary movie to help set up his first series. Starting with the basic outlines they had made since late 2002, Redston slowly developed these plans that the entire season would consist of the Doctor being locked down to one place and one time. This was vaguely similar to what happened in the early Pertwee years. The main difference was that Pertwee was locked down to Earth, while the new Doctor would not only be locked down to his home planet Gallifrey, but is also forced to serve as Lord President by the Keeper.

Redston wanted to make these changes for two main reasons. Firstly, to increase the possibility of a whole season serialisation (one story spanning across a number of episodes) and to give the show a much-needed reboot, as many fans including Redston felt that the show had started to become stale and dull within recent years despite a brief shake-up in the last two seasons.

A new format
The season introduced a brand new format of 8x90 episodes, making it a total runtime of 720 minutes (12 hours) which was more than the 13x45 format that was introduced in 1998. The new format was considered a gamble by Redston as the BBC wasn't too sure on the idea of viewers watching Doctor Who for 90 minutes every Saturday evening for eight weeks. To avoid backlash, it was eventually decided to change the format, still 12 hours long, for syndication and repeat releases with 16x45 episodes.

Also at this point was the beginning of classing the show as "chapters". For example in the US, UPN promoted the season as "A New Chapter" but this wouldn't be officially classified by the BBC until 2007.

New executive producers
Shortly after production was complete in the movie, Paramount Television (co-producers of the show with BBC Wales since 1998) wanted to have a larger role instead of just distributing and funding as they did since starting involvement with Who. They decided to allow some of their people to work on their show. On board from Paramount was former Star Trek: Deep Space Nine executive producer, Ira Steven Behr to work on the same role for Doctor Who. Inspired by this, BBC Wales also placed an executive producer of their own to work with Behr: Julie Gardner.

Also being brought on was former producer of the show from 1994-1998, Stephen Garwood. This echoed the idea done in Season 18 (1980) when Barry Letts overlooked John Nathan-Turner in his first season as producer. The creative partnership from those three, including Davies and Redston work, and they helped to give the show a very different feel.

New producer, same story, new feel
Rather unusually, Redston wanted his view on the show to continue on from the Renwick-Shapter era by continuing plot threads and character arcs into this series. The main advantage was that it helped further develop the Bellonsion storyline that began in Season 39. This also impacted the character of the Doctor himself as his more recent companion, Sandra Armstrong, was a Bellonsion but was killed off at the end of the movie as he led her to her death following his first appointment as Lord President.

Something is missing for a reason
Arguably one of the biggest changes in the show's history was that there was no central companion as we now follow a main cast on Gallifrey. Another disappearance from the show's beginning was the TARDIS, which wouldn't appear at all due to the Keeper locking it in a warehouse out of the Doctor's reach. The main story of the season was the conflict between them and their main enemy, the Poplne which also involves the Time Lords. The main settings in this season were the Panopticon where much of the season's action took place, and the Doctor's office.

New titles, theme and logo
With many changes about and the new style for the show, it was necessary for a new title sequence to be commissioned. It begins with a compilation of the previous Doctors from Hartnell to Grant. Cut then to a Pertwee-esque vortex where the Seal of Rassilon appears in flames as the new logo appears which both subsequently disappear. The main cast names then take place before it cuts to space where Head's face now appears in the style of a presidential portrait as it gets closer. The last segment fades to the Citadel in the background where the episode title and writer appear before a flash goes into the episode. Additionally, a new logo was also put in place which in fact first debuted with the movie. It's the first for the show's title to appear horizontally instead of being stacked, although some merchandise uses the latter variant. The font used is the same as those used on many other sci-fi shows since the 1990s.

Additionally, there was a new arrangement of the theme tune to suit the new format, the first to be composed by Murray Gold for the TV series after composing the music for the movie. His theme has been criticised for being too 'over the top' and 'Buffy-esque' as it's possible with the frequent use of guitars and beat to emphasise that Anthony Head had already been on Buffy the Vampire Slayer with a similar arrangement. Furthermore, it is the first full theme not to feature the middle eight, due to Gold's dislike of it. However, for the first time in the show, two different arrangements of the theme were used. The rock version used for the opening, and the movie theme for the closing featuring the middle eight.

Regular

 * The Doctor - Anthony Head
 * The Rogue - Derek Jacobi
 * The Keeper - Don Warrington
 * The Rani - Kate O'Mara
 * Leela - Louise Jameson
 * Francs - John Paton

Recurring

 * Voice of K-9 - John Leeson
 * Francis - Christopher Biggins
 * The Prophet - Michael Gambon
 * Father Billard - William Bleach
 * Fen Do'nel - Tucker Smallwood
 * Duo Famsar - Alexander Balie
 * Duo Deathtrick - Alan Dale
 * T'var - James Stern
 * Gral - David Prell
 * Dasyt'op - Fredrick Boulevard
 * Fell - Harris Gibson
 * Time Lord #1 - Patrick Alexander
 * Time Lord #2 - Graham Samuels
 * Duo Dram - Quinn Lawrence
 * Duo Herl - Craig Wasson
 * Admiral Samuels - Barry Sonya
 * Sub-Commander Arkque - Jillian Bach
 * Fen Gearla - Otto Rem
 * Lh. Achti - Wendy Simmons

Guest

 * Metatraxi Commander - John Banks
 * Voice of Alpha Centauri - Ysanne Churchman
 * Voice of The Cybermen - Nicholas Briggs
 * The Rani - Siobhan Redmond

Reception
Initially, this season divided the fanbase. While some fans were very glad for a change from Renwick's formula and lauded the story, others didn't find the idea of The Doctor locked on Gallifrey entertaining or suitable and were unhappy about removing serializing in favour of one continuous narrative. Making Doctor Who political thriller is one of the moves heavily debated to this day. Another is choosing Gallifrey as the main setting, as many fans think it demystified the race of the Time Lords, making them less meaningful in the grand scale. Other fans, however, were fine with that, claiming that Time Lords aren't as powerful and big-headed and Redston's portrayal pays them enough respect.

Later, the season was remembered as "good, but the weakest of Gallifrey arc". While all the performances and the character of the Eleventh Doctor itself are all praised, the story is criticized for being very "black & white" and for all "evil" factions teaming up at the end. Other popular criticisms include underdevelopment of Francs and Rogue's character transition being too sudden. Most of those issues were resolved by Season 42, which made them more notable for the audience rewatching Season 41.

Respective episodes are rarely reviewed separately, since they are part of one ongoing story. The exceptions are Lord President of Gallifrey (praised for being great opening to a story), Forgotten in Time and Trust is a Lie. The latter is a fan favourite, as it tries to add some grey into the main conflict and influences the views of The Doctor. Forgotten in Time gets mixed review, because fans have different takes on Rogue's evolution and the treatment of Poplne in this story.

It is also a subject of discussion if this series works as a starting for new viewers. The continuity bonds with Season 39 and 2003 Movie are strong, and many things about the characters with a longer story than Season 41 (especially The Rogue and The Cybermen) are treated as obvious.

It is sure this season attracted many new viewers, as Lord President of Gallifrey noticed the massive viewing increase compared to late Season 39 and season 40. However, by the time The Order of Rassilon aired the figures dropped significantly, probably due to some of the old audience being unhappy with format change and some of the new being scared off (possibly by continuity). The ratings continued to drop slowly throughout the season until The Enemy Uncovered, where they slightly went up. The Battle of the Strong also noticed a rise, getting the figures similar to War of The Poplne. The BBC was said to be satisfied by those scores.

Home Media
To be added.