The sixth and final episode of Dark Season premieres on CBBC (the BBC’s children’s programming block). This is the first drama series created and written by future Doctor Who showrunner Russell T. Davies, and is one of the earliest acting jobs in Kate Winslet’s career. Jacqueline Pearce (Blake’s 7) guest stars.
The Behemoth battle computer, with Miss Pendragon in its clutches, bursts through the floor of the school and locks the outside doors. Mr. Eldritch arrives to give Behemoth its instructions to destroy the entire world and the human race with it, but Marcie challenges that order, forcing Eldritch into a bizarre debate about the merits and foibles of humanity, leaving Behemoth’s own artificial intelligence to decide the fate of the world.
written by Russell T. Davies
directed by Colin Cant
music by David FergusonCast: Martina Berne (Inga), Ben Chandler (Thomas), Marsha Fitzalan (voice of Behemoth), Brigit Forsyth (Miss Maitland), Victoria Lambert (Marcie), Grant Parsons (Mr. Eldritch), Jacqueline Pearce (Miss Pendragon), Kate Winslet (Reet)
Notes: Russell T. Davies would later reuse the exchange “Stay where you are!” “Where am I gonna go, Ipswich?” in the 2005 Doctor Who episode The End Of The World. Jacqueline Pearce is, of course, best known as the recurring arch-nemesis of Blake’s 7, Supreme Commander Servalan. Davies later wrote a novelization of Dark Season which hinted at a third storyline, involving a video arcade, but that story never materialized, either on television or the printed page.
LogBook entry by Earl Green