1989 was a pretty good time to be a Doctor Who fan. This might seem like a strange assertion, given that history now tells us the programme was on the brink of cancellation, but consider what it was like to live in the moment.
At the beginning of the year we’d just come out of Season 25, four stories that – under the stewardship of script editor Andrew Cartmel – had dramatically revitalised the series. Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred had now settled into the lead roles, while stories such as Remembrance of the Daleks and The Happiness Patrol pointed to a bright future.