Hello everyone! 🙂
Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog and I’m Tim Bradley!
Whilst Season 19 is my favourite season out of the Peter Davison/Fifth Doctor era, Season 20 is arguably my second favourite season. I acknowledge that Season 20 had its problems, particularly in the production values affected by industrial action, but I enjoyed this season more than Season 21. 🙂
Season 20 is of course the season to celebrate 20 years of ‘Doctor Who’. Thus, there are callbacks made to past seasons with returning characters appearing in each story of Season 20. The returnees included Omega in ‘Arc of Infinity’, the Mara in ‘Snakedance’, and Nicholas Courtney as the Brigadier in ‘Mawdryn Undead’.
The Black Guardian had his own trilogy of stories from ‘Mawdryn to Undead’ to ‘Enlightenment’ whilst the White Guardian returned in ‘Enlightenment’. Anthony Ainley as the Master returned in ‘The King’s Demons’, and ‘The Five Doctors’ celebrated the 20th anniversary with plenty of returning Doctors, friends and enemies.
What stood out for me from Season 20 was the creative ideas behind each story, particularly in ‘The Black Guardian Trilogy’ where ‘Mawdryn Undead’ was inspired by the Flying Dutchman sailing ship, whilst ‘Terminus’ had Norse characters like the Vanir and the Garm aboard a run-down hospital ship.
For me, Season 20 is significant in being Sarah Sutton’s last regular season as Nyssa of Traken. I didn’t enjoy the rest of Season 20 and the whole of Season 21 as much as I enjoyed Season 19 and the first four stories of Season 20 with Nyssa not around. After all, she is my favourite ‘Doctor Who’ companion. 🙂
The first half of Season 20 worked better for me compared to the second half, although it was interesting to see how Mark Strickson as Turlough developed as a ‘Doctor Who’ companion from being assigned to kill the Doctor to not wanting to kill him and soon joining him in his TARDIS travels.
Thanks for reading!
Bye for now!
Tim 🙂
Bradley's Basement 
Hi Tim.
I enjoyed reading your overall thoughts on Season 20. I actually prefer it over Season 19 overall. There are more stories in this season that are among my favourites (Snakedance, the Black Guardian Trilogy, the Five Doctors), than the previous season (Four to Doomsday, Black Orchid). As much as I like Nyssa, I honestly think it would be boring if she was in every ‘Doctor Who story. That being said though, and despite the fact that I can’t entirely agree with how you feel about Tegan’s character development, Season 21 is for me the weakest of the 3 seasons that the Fifth Doctor was in, but more on that when I comment on your Season 21 reflection. As for Turlough’s character development, I do think it could have been handled better.
Hopefully once I’ve listened to ‘Aquitaine’, I’ll watch the updated versions of ‘Mawdryn Undead’ and ‘Terminus’, as well as the special editions of ‘Enlightenment’ and ‘The Five Doctors’.
Take care, WF92.
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Hi Xav/WF92,
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on Season 20. Glad you enjoyed my thoughts on the season. Interesting you prefer Season 20 over Season 19. Of course, for me, it’s the other way around, but then that’s me. I don’t think having Nyssa in every story would be boring. As far as I’m concerned, that would be pretty exciting. 😆 I’m glad you agree with me about Season 21 being the weakest season of the Peter Davison/Fifth Doctor era, but that’s something we’ll get to when we come to that season in the 60th anniversary marathon.
Hope you enjoy ‘Aquitaine’, the updated versions of ‘Mawdryn Undead’ and ‘Terminus’ and the Special Edition versions of ‘Enlightenment’ and ‘The Five Doctors’.
Many thanks for your comments.
Tim 🙂
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After The Five Doctors, the downhill slide for classic Dr. Who became evident. Because the need for it to match most other SF shows and films of the 80s was clearly taking its toll. After an anniversary season or special, the consequential demands for any franchise to be at its best are tough. Star Trek after its 30th suffered similarly. I still found good reason to tune into classic Dr. Who until its finale. Not sure if it’ll be the same with the modern series. So reminiscing with the best moments from the earlier years of the Whoniverse is always refreshing. Thank you, Tim, for your summaries.
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Hi scifimike,
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on Season 20. Glad you’re enjoying my ‘Doctor Who’ summaries so far. Yeah, it’s a shame ‘Doctor Who’ started to go downhill after the 20th anniversary celebrations. I enjoyed Peter’s third season, the Colin Baker era and the Sylvester McCoy era, but it’s clear the TV show was struggling in terms of its production values when conpeting with other sci-fi shows made in the 1980s, mostly in the USA like ‘Star Trek’. It’s a shame the BBC didn’t consider providing more in terms of budget for UK sci-fi shows, very often because they didn’t care for sci-fi and they didn’t consider the potential in the competition with sci-fi shows in the US. I don’t know how things would have been under different management at the BBC in the 1980s, but it seems to be a lost opportunity. Like I said though, I enjoyed the rest of ‘Doctor Who’ in the 1980s despite that issue, and it’s thanks to the performances of the cast playing their characters that enabled me to enjoy the rest of the TV show in the 1980s.
Many thanks,
Tim 🙂
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Same for me pretty much. The guest casts could still be interesting indeed like Stubby Kaye, Brian Blessed and Honor Blackman.
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Hi scifimike,
Oh indeed, yes. The guest casts are often a joy to watch in the 1980s stories after the 20th anniversary. For me, it’s Rodney Bewes, Clive Swift, Geoffrey Hughes, Richard Briers and Judy Cornwall. 😀
Thanks,
Tim 🙂
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