Time Runs Out On Doctor Who Headcanon, Season 5: Time Runs Out

Last season ended with the promise of A Darker Direction. And it's hard to take that too seriously when the new Doctor's costume is so clowny. But this era is a shade darker than Baker's jellybabies and Davison's celery.  This season is filled with Mean Old Time Lo-- Time La-- Time People. I wish some sort of war would wipe them out of space once and for all.

The clown pictured is not Colin Baker as Doctor Who. His costume isn't ridiculous enough.

Season Five: Time Runs Out
(Sylvester McCoy, Colin Baker, and Paul McGann)

Serial 1: Caves Of Androzani
(5, Peri, Adric, Nyssa, Tegan, Vislor, The Master, 6)
100 minutes

This final Peter Davison episode shows up on virtually every Best Episode of Doctor Who list I've ever seen. It's got social commentary, heroics, and some surprise cameos, including the introduction of the new Doctor who is going to take the series in a darker direction.


Serial 2: The Mark Of The Rani
(6, Peri, The Master, The Rani)
90 minutes

It's not Colin Baker's fault that a lot of his episodes aren't very good. They gave him a ridiculous costume, the writing was fairly mediocre, and he inherited the companion with the awful fake accent. But here he runs afoul of that goddamned evil Time Lord, The Ma---wait, nope. It's a NEW evil Time Person, The Rani. Oh, wait, The Master is there, too.  Stupid Time People.


Serial 3: The Two Doctors
(6, 2, Peri, Jamie, Sontarans)
135 minutes

Usually, a multiple Doctor episode features the most recent faces of The Doctor teaming up to battle something Time Lord related. But this time we go way back to the second face of The Doctor as he and Jamie (remember him?) end up being trapped by Sontarans who are trying to master time travel. It's up to the current face of The Doctor and his poorly-accented companion to rescue them and restore the timeline. Or whatever. 


Serial 4: Revelation Of The Daleks
(6, Peri, Davros, Daleks)
90 minutes

It's been a while since the genocidal grey trash cans have bugged The Doctor. So The Supreme Dalek and his army set out to kill The Doctor....yawn. But, oh wait, it's Davros, and his New Even More Perfect (TM) Daleks. They're so dreamy and creamy. Surely a war between two Dalek armies will result in fewer Daleks by the end of it. How could this be a bad thing?


Serial 5: Terror Of The Vervoids (Trial Of A Time Lord)
(6, Mel, Timelords, Vervoids, Valeyard)
100 minutes

This is part of a season long arc where The Doctor is put on trial by Time People for being un-Time like or something. So the framing device is The Doctor in court recounting his un-Time Lord like adventures. It's not a great season. It's not even a good season. But Terror Of The Vervoids introduces a new companion, and focuses more on the adventure with the aliens than on the trial aspect.
​

Serial 6: The Ultimate Foe (Trial Of A Time Lord)
(6, Mel, Glitz, Timelords, The Master, Valeyard)
55 minutes

It's  the end of the arc that we mostly skipped! Who is The Valeyard? Do we care? Is The Doctor guilty of anything besides not being as much of an jerk as those other Time People? Oh, also The Master is in this for some reason? And the trial is in a future that won't ha--look, it's an okay episode, and I didn't want to cut out all of Colin Baker's run, since it's totally not his fault that his era was so blah.


Serial 7: Dragonfire
(7, Mel, Ace, Glitz)
75 minutes

It's time for a changing of The Companions. Mel, we hardly knew ye, so Get Out. It's really strange to try and describe the episodes of this era. Drama goes down between characters and aliens you've never seen before, and never will again. Some of it is interesting.


Serial 8: Remembrance Of The Daleks
(7, Ace, Davros, Daleks)
100 minutes

​Davros and The Daleks are back for the second time in one season. This is really the first ever Easter Egg episode of Doctor Who. There's a ton of references to previous storylines, as this episode celebrated the twenty-fifth anniversary of Doctor Who. 


Serial 9: The Greatest Show In The Galaxy
(7, Ace)
100 minutes

Ok, this is fairly easy to explain, The Doctor and the companion we met in the last episode go to a Psychic Circus. Evil clowns. No escape. Robots. This is the kind of weird sci-fi adventure you can explain to your friends and not have them immediately ask "Why do you watch this?"


Serial 10: The Enemy Within
(8, 7, Grace, The Master)
90 minutes

Usually, a regeneration episode involves The Doctor doing something heroic, and at the very end of the episode turning into a new person, saying one cool line, and then ending. In this episode we get to spend a decent amount of time with Sylvester McCoy. It's unclear how long it's been since Survival, but he is on his own, bringing the ashes of The Master to dump out in space or something. But ohhhhhh, even as ashes, The Master creates chaos, and his chaos leads to The Doctor having to regenerate in America. This wraps up what is easily The Weakest Season of Doctor Who. 


Holiday Special: Dimensions In Time
(3, 4, 5, 6, 7, Sarah Jane, Brigadier, Susan Foreman, Victoria, Liz, Mike Yates, Leela, Romana, Nyssa, Peri, Mel, Ace, K-9, The Rani, Cybermen)

This is a silly crossover with a long-running British soap opera. It was for charity, and it looks like it was made on a budget of four dollars, but it's a fun end to the Classic Era of Doctor Who that lets many of your favorite characters take what they probably imagined was their final bow, even though many of these characters will get cameos in the modern series.