SEASON 24: COMIC RELIEF

In 1987 Sylvester McCoy took on the role of the Doctor  at a time of turnoil for the series. It had been rescheduled for weekdays against the most popular TV Programme of the time Coronation Street.
Bonnie Langford as Mel and John Nathan-Turner as the series producer were the only two major elements left from the previous series. Andrew Cartmel became the new script editor after the departure of Eric Saward and the task of bringing the show back to it's feet began, still reeling from the cancellation 2 years previous.
Time and the Rani started the season and was the start of more a comic book feel to the series in which the situations account for a fantasy world and were no longer properly grounded in Science Fiction, Paradise Towers was the first attempt in two years to put some sort of paraody of the world into the series, focusing on the suffering of high-rise living that was blighting the UK in the 1980's. Delta and the Bannermen was a more traditional romp with a straight battle of good verses evil in the typical Doctor Who setting of British Institutions, this time being a Welsh Holiday camp. This story sat Andrew Cartmel's first attempt at a female companion with the character Ray, to travel with the Doctor after Bonnie Langford announced she was leaving the series. The second attempt was the street-wise teenager from Perivale called Ace who along with the return of Sablom Glitz, played by Toby Selby were involved in finding the Dragonfire and ultimately destroying Iceworld's dictator, Kane.
McCoy's character was portrayed comically, natural on the basis that it was all the McCoy really knew as an actor but even by dragonfire there were changes that make the Doctor darker, more sinister and ultimately bring the drifting ship of Doctor Who, back to port and popularity.