Made up of six 25-minute episodes, the two linked three-part stories tell the adventures of three teenagers and their battle to save their school and their classmates from the actions of the sinister Mr Eldritch.
To this end, he wrote an on-spec script for the first episode of Dark Season – originally titled The Adventuresome Three – and used the BBC's internal mail system to send it directly to the Head of Children's Programmes, Anna Home.
He would later go on to write a second children's science-fiction serial for the BBC, Century Falls, in 1993, before forging a long and successful career in adult television drama.
Dark Season was re-shown on BBC One in 1994, and in 2002 was also repeated on the CBBC Channel on digital television, cropped to 14:9 widescreen with the loss of the top and bottom sections of the original picture.
However, the second three episodes tell of the actions of Miss Pendragon, who works for Eldritch and is attempting to revive the massive, secret Behemoth computer from its long-hidden location beneath the school.
There were several supporting actors who were well-known names on British television: Miss Maitland was played by Brigit Forsyth who had starred in the popular sitcom Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads?
in the 1970s, and Miss Pendragon was played by Jacqueline Pearce, who was well known for her role as the villainous Servalan in the late 1970s / early 80s BBC science-fiction series Blake's 7, and known by Cant from working with her on the serial Moondial.
The show received increased critical attention following both its release on DVD and Davies' announcement of his programme aimed at the same target audience, The Sarah Jane Adventures.
Television Heaven's review concluded by saying, "By turns amusing, aware, suspenseful, exciting and imaginative, 'Dark Season' stands as an almost criminally overlooked example of children's genre television of the highest quality, and also as an early indication of a future major creative talent in the form of Russell T Davies taking his first steps on the long and winding creative road to a glittering future.
Later, when Doctor Who was again being produced on television, Davies trapped Rose Tyler behind a door that refused to open In "The End of the World" – just as he had done with Reet in Episode Six of Dark Season.