Doctor Who (season 6)
| Doctor Who (season 6) | |
|---|---|
 Cover art of the Region 2 DVD release for first serial of the season | |
| Starring | |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| No. of stories | 7 |
| No. of episodes | 44 (7 missing) |
| Release | |
| Original network | BBC One |
| Original release | 10 August 1968 – 21 June 1969 |
| Season chronology | |
The sixth season of British science fiction television series Doctor Who began on 10 August 1968 with the first story of season 6 The Dominators and ended Patrick Troughton's reign as the Doctor with its final story The War Games. Only 37 out of 44 episodes are held in the BBC archives; 7 remain missing. As a result, 2 serials are incomplete.
Casting
Main cast
Patrick Troughton, Frazer Hines and Wendy Padbury make their final appearances as the Second Doctor, Jamie McCrimmon and Zoe Heriot respectively. Troughton and his fellow actors collectively decided that the workload of Doctor Who was exhausting them, and that they would soon depart from the show. From Season 7 onwards the show would never have such a high number of episodes again. The three actors remained with the show until the conclusion of the final season six serial The War Games.
Guest stars
Nicholas Courtney reappears as Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart in The Invasion, last seen (as a Colonel) in The Web of Fear. He would soon make regular appearances in the program beginning with season 7's Spearhead from Space.
John Levene makes his first appearance as Corporal Benton in The Invasion. He would continue to make regular appearances, with the character promoted to sergeant, from season 7 until season 13.
Alan Bennion makes his first of three appearances in the series playing an Ice Warrior. In this, his first appearance, he portrays Lord Slaar in The Seeds of Death.
Serials
Terrance Dicks took over from Derrick Sherwin as script editor from The Invasion, with Sherwin resuming the role for The Space Pirates. Derrick Sherwin took over as producer from Peter Bryant for The War Games.
Season 6 is the most complete of all the Second Doctor's seasons, with only seven episodes missing (compared with twenty-eight from Season 4 and eighteen from Season 5), none of the season's stories missing in their entirety and only two stories (The Invasion and The Space Pirates) incomplete. This compares to the first two seasons of the Second Doctor from which only two complete serials (The Tomb of the Cybermen and The Enemy of the World) survive. The missing two episodes of The Invasion have since been reconstructed using animation and released on DVD.
The War Games, which was the final serial of the season, and the last of Patrick Troughton's tenure as the Doctor, was also the second longest serial up to that point, spanning 10 episodes – only the 12-part serial The Daleks' Master Plan from Season 3 was longer.
The Dominators and The Mind Robber were both produced at the end of the fifth recording block and held over to Season 6.[1]
| Story | Serial | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date | Prod. code | UK viewers (millions) [2] | AI [2] |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 44 | 1 | The Dominators | Morris Barry | Norman Ashby (Mervyn Haisman and Henry Lincoln) | 10 August 1968 17 August 1968 24 August 1968 31 August 1968 7 September 1968 | TT | 6.1 5.9 5.4 7.5 5.9 | 52 55 55 51 53 |
| Arriving on an irradiated island, The Doctor, Jamie and new companion Zoe Heriot find an alien craft bearing the imperious and ruthless Dominators. | ||||||||
| 45 | 2 | The Mind Robber | David Maloney | Peter Ling and Derrick Sherwin | 14 September 1968 21 September 1968 28 September 1968 5 October 1968 12 October 1968 | UU | 6.6 6.5 7.2 7.3 6.7 | 51 49 53 56 49 |
| By blowing a fluid link, the Doctor is forced to use the emergency unit to take the TARDIS away from danger and indeed out of reality itself: to the Land of Fiction. Here, he meets fictional characters, such as Rapunzel, Lemuel Gulliver and Medusa. | ||||||||
| 46 | 3 | The Invasion (episodes 1 & 4 missing) | Douglas Camfield | Derrick Sherwin and Kit Pedler | 2 November 1968 9 November 1968 16 November 1968 23 November 1968 30 November 1968 7 December 1968 14 December 1968 21 December 1968 | VV | 7.3 7.1 7.1 6.4 6.7 6.5 7.2 7.0 | 55 53 54 51 52 56 55 53 |
| After becoming invisible, the TARDIS arrives in England. While looking for a missing scientist at an electronics company, the TARDIS crew find out that the Cybermen are hidden within London's sewers and are planning an invasion. | ||||||||
| 47 | 4 | The Krotons | David Maloney | Robert Holmes | 28 December 1968 4 January 1969 11 January 1969 18 January 1969 | WW | 9.0 8.4 7.5 7.1 | 59 57 56 55 |
| On an unnamed planet, a race called the Gonds are subject to the mysterious Krotons, unseen beings to whom they provide their brightest members as "companions". | ||||||||
| 48 | 5 | The Seeds of Death | Michael Ferguson | Brian Hayles and Terrance Dicks | 25 January 1969 1 February 1969 8 February 1969 15 February 1969 22 February 1969 1 March 1969 | XX | 6.6 6.8 7.5 7.1 7.6 7.7 | 57 59 55 55 57 59 |
| The Ice Warriors plan to destroy every living thing on Earth by making Earth more habitable for them. | ||||||||
| 49 | 6 | The Space Pirates (episodes 1, 3 – 6 missing) | Michael Hart | Robert Holmes | 8 March 1969 15 March 1969 22 March 1969 29 March 1969 5 April 1969 12 April 1969 | YY | 5.8 6.8 6.4 5.8 5.5 5.3 | 57 52 55 53 56 52 |
| Space beacons on the space lanes are being blown up and plundered for precious argonite by a gang of space pirates led by Caven and his associate Dervish. | ||||||||
| 50 | 7 | The War Games | David Maloney | Terrance Dicks and Malcolm Hulke | 19 April 1969 26 April 1969 3 May 1969 10 May 1969 17 May 1969 24 May 1969 31 May 1969 7 June 1969 14 June 1969 21 June 1969 | ZZ | 5.5 6.3 5.1 5.7 5.1 4.2 4.9 3.5 4.1 5.0 | 55 54 53 50 53 53 53 53 57 58 |
| Brainwashed soldiers are being abducted from Earth by aliens and forced to fight in simulated environments, reflecting the periods in history whence they were taken. The aliens' aim is to produce a super army from the survivors. The Doctor is forced to make a choice that will change who he is. | ||||||||
Missing episodes
- The Invasion – Episodes 1 & 4 (of 8 total)
- The Space Pirates – Episodes 1, 3 – 6 (of 6 total)
DVD releases
| Serial name | Number and duration of episodes |
R2 release date | R4 release date | R1 release date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Dominators | 5 × 25 min. | 12 July 2010 | 2 September 2010 | 11 January 2011 |
| The Mind Robber | 5 × 20 min. | 7 March 2005 | 5 May 2005 | 6 September 2005 |
| The Invasion (episodes 2–3 & 5–8 of 8, animation of 1 & 4) | 8 × 25 min. | 6 November 2006 | 3 January 2007 | 6 March 2007 |
| The Krotons | 4 × 25 min. | 2 July 2012[3][4] | 2 August 2012[5] | 10 July 2012 |
| The Seeds of Death | 6 × 25 min. | 17 February 2003 | 5 May 2003 | 2 March 2004 |
| The Seeds of Death – Special Edition Only available as part of the Revisitations 2 box set in Regions 2 and 4. | 6 × 25 min. | 28 March 2011 | 5 May 2011 | 12 June 2012[6] |
| The War Games | 10 × 25 min. | 6 July 2009 | 3 September 2009 | 3 November 2009 |
Lost in Time
All existing episodes from otherwise missing Second Doctor serials from this season have been released on the Lost in Time collection, with the exception of The Invasion which had its missing episodes animated for its DVD release. Lost in Time was released in two formats in Region 1, with individual releases for volumes one and two (which cover First Doctor and Second Doctor episodes respectively), as well as an edition combining both volumes. In Regions 2 and 4, Lost in Time is available only as the combined single volume.
| Includes episodes from | Number and duration of episodes |
R2 release date | R4 release date | R1 release date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Space Pirates (episode 2 of 6) | 1 × 25 min. |
1 November 2004 | 2 December 2004 (Original release) 1 July 2010 (Re-release) |
2 November 2004 |
In print
| Serial name | Novelisation title | Author | First published |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Dominators | The Dominators | Ian Marter | 19 April 1984 |
| The Mind Robber | The Mind Robber | Peter Ling | 20 November 1986 |
| The Invasion | The Invasion | Ian Marter | 16 May 1985 |
| The Krotons | The Krotons | Terrance Dicks | 13 June 1985 |
| The Seeds of Death | The Seeds of Death | Terrance Dicks | 17 July 1986 |
| The Space Pirates | The Space Pirates | Terrance Dicks | 15 March 1990 |
| The War Games | Doctor Who and the War Games | Malcolm Hulke | 25 September 1979 |
References
- ↑ "Serial TT: The Dominators". Shannon Sullivan. 18 January 2011. Retrieved 29 March 2017.
- 1 2 "Ratings Guide". Doctor Who News. Retrieved 27 December 2014.
- ↑ "The Doctor Who News Page: DVD Schedule Update". Doctorwhonews.net. 3 May 2011. Retrieved 18 May 2011.
- ↑ "Twitter / Classic Doctor Who: All content for KROTONS DV". Twitter.
- ↑ "Doctor Who: The Krotons". Ezydvd.com.au. Retrieved 2012-07-18.
- ↑ "Doctor Who: The Seeds of Death – Special Edition – DVD". Bbc americashop.com. Retrieved 18 May 2011.