Season 24

Season 24 of Doctor Who ran from 7 September 1987 to 7 December 1987. It starred Sylvester McCoy as the Seventh Doctor, Bonnie Langford as Melanie Bush and introduced Sophie Aldred as Ace. The season opened with Time and the Rani and concluded with Dragonfire.

Overview
The season consisted of four serials comprised of fourteen episodes. Unlike season 23, there was no overall story arc, and the episode allotment - two four-episode stories, two three-episode stories - would be retained for the remainder of the original series. Notably, the season featured the introduction of new companion Ace, who would be a prominent figure in the spinoff fiction that kept the Doctor Who name alive following its cancellation in 1989 and was the final official onscreen companion until Rose Tyler in the revived series.

Unlike the previous regenerations of the Doctor, the Sixth Doctor's happened at the beginning of the season's episode. Colin Baker, who played the Sixth Doctor, would not come back to shoot a few episodes leading up to the regeneration as he felt insulted at being replaced after a short time as the Doctor and was displeased to make fans think he was still the Doctor for another year when he was only offered one story before his dismissal. His Doctor's life was instead wrapped up through an audio series entitled The Sixth Doctor: The Last Adventure in 2015. As such, Sylvester McCoy briefly portrayed the Sixth Doctor when regenerating into the Seventh Doctor, the first actor to play two incarnations of the Doctor.

This was the last season of the original series where someone either left or joined the main cast.

This was the first season since Season 17 to not feature the Master.

Cast

 * The Doctor - Sylvester McCoy
 * Mel - Bonnie Langford

Recurring

 * - Kate O'Mara
 * Ace - Sophie Aldred
 * Sabalom Glitz - Tony Selby

Guest

 * Ikona - Mark Greenstreet
 * Faroon - Wanda Ventham
 * Beyus - Donald Pickering
 * Sarn - Karen Clegg
 * Urak - Richard Gauntlett
 * Lanisha - John Segal
 * Chief Caretaker/The Great Architect - Richard Briers
 * Deputy Chief Caretaker - Clive Merrison
 * Tabby - Elizabeth Spriggs
 * Tilda - Brenda Bruce
 * Maddy - Judy Cornwell
 * Pex - Howard Cooke
 * Fire Escape - Julie Brennon
 * Bin Liner - Annabel Yuresha
 * Blue Kang Leader - Catherine Cusack
 * Yellow Kang - Astra Sheridan
 * Young Caretaker - Joseph Young
 * Video Commentary - Simon Coady
 * Gavrok - Don Henderson
 * Delta - Belinda Mayne
 * Weismuller - Stubby Kaye
 * Hawk - Morgan Deare
 * Tollmaster - Ken Dodd
 * Burton - Richard Davies
 * Billy - David Kinder
 * Ray - Sara Griffiths
 * Murray - Johnny Dennis
 * Keillor - Brian Hibbard
 * Chima - Tim Scott
 * Bollitt - Anita Graham
 * Adlon - Leslie Meadows
 * The Lorells - Robin Aspland, Keff McCulloch, Justin Myers, Ralph Salmins
 * Vocalists - Tracey Wilson, Jodie Wilson
 * Goronwy - Hugh Lloyd
 * Vinny - Martyn Geraint
 * Callon - Clive Condon
 * Arrex - Richard Mitchley
 * Young Chimeron - Jessica McGough, Amy Osborn
 * Chimeron Princess - Laura Collins, Carley Joseph
 * Kane - Edward Peel
 * Belazs - Patricia Quinn
 * Kracauer - Tony Osoba
 * Customer - Shirin Taylor
 * Anderson - Ian Mackenzie
 * McLuhan - Stephanie Fayerman
 * Bazin - Stuart Organ
 * Zed - Sean Blowers
 * Pudovkin - Nigel Miles-Thomas
 * The Creature - Leslie Meadows
 * Announcer - Lynn Gardner
 * Stellar - Miranda Borman
 * Archivist - Daphne Oxenford
 * Arnheim - Chris MacDonnell

Stories set before this season
(see 'Stories set during this season' section)

Stories set during this season

 * PROSE: The Useful Pile, AUDIO: Unregenerate! and AUDIO: Red (Between Time and the Rani and Paradise Towers)
 * AUDIO: Bad Day in Tinseltown and AUDIO: The Ribos Inheritance (somewhere between Paradise Towers and Dragonfire)
 * AUDIO: Bang-Bang-a-Boom!, AUDIO: Flip-Flop and COMIC: Plastic Millenium (Between Paradise Towers and Delta and the Bannermen)
 * AUDIO: The Fires of Vulcan (Between Delta and the Bannermen and Dragonfire)

VHS releases

 * Time and the Rani (1995)
 * Paradise Towers (1995)
 * Delta and the Bannermen (2001)
 * Dragonfire (1993)

DVD & Blu-ray releases
All serials of season 24 were released individually on DVD between 2009 and 2012.

Download/streaming availability
All four stories were released in a Blu-ray box set in the UK on 28 June 2021.

Novelisations

 * Time and the Rani
 * Paradise Towers
 * Delta and the Bannermen
 * Dragonfire