| Season Four (1966-67): Renewal |
| Companions and Recurring Characters |
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Jamie McCrimmon was a young Scottish piper
who met the Doctor during the Highland uprising of 1746.
Frazer Hines (bio) made his first appearance as
Jamie in The Highlanders (December
1966) and his last in The Two
Doctors (March 1985).
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Victoria Waterfield was an orphan from 1866
England whose father was murdered by the Daleks.
Deborah Watling (bio) made her first appearance as
Victoria in The Evil Of The Daleks
(May 1967) and her last in Dimensions In
Time (November 1993).
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With both Innes Lloyd and Gerry Davis expressing a desire to move on from
Doctor Who, Peter Bryant (bio) was added to
the production team. Initially working as Davis' assistant, he was
promoted to associate producer and finally story editor when Davis
departed at the end of the season.
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The Power Of The Daleks by David
Whitaker, directed by Christopher Barry
Ben and Polly are still suspicious of the younger man claiming to be the
Doctor, as the TARDIS lands on the colony world of Vulcan.
The Doctor witnesses the murder of a newly-arrived examiner from Earth,
and decides to assume the man's identity in order to investigate. He
soon learns that a scientist named Lesterson has unearthed a crashed
capsule containing the inert forms of three Daleks. The Doctor is
horrified to discover that Lesterson has started reactivating them,
intending to use them to serve the colony's populace -- ignorant of the
fact that the Daleks have a far more sinister agenda. (All six
episodes are missing.)
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The Highlanders by Elwyn Jones and Gerry
Davis, directed by Hugh David
The TARDIS materialises in 1746 Scotland, following the defeat of the
Jacobites by the Redcoats in the Battle of Culloden. The Doctor, Polly
and Ben meet the McLarens and their piper, Jamie McCrimmon, who are
being hunted by the English while they try to care for their wounded
Laird. The men are captured by the foppish Lieutenant Algernon ffinch,
who promptly sells them to Solicitor Grey. Polly becomes determined to
rescue her friends, and aims to dupe ffinch into helping her. Meanwhile,
the crooked Grey is planning to sell captive Highlanders as slaves in
the West Indies... and Ben is to be amongst the first shipment. (All
four episodes are missing.)
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To save Jamie from reprisals against the Jacobites, the Doctor invites
him aboard the TARDIS.
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The Underwater Menace by Geoffrey Orme,
directed by Julia Smith
When the TARDIS lands on a volcanic island, the time travellers are
kidnapped and taken through a passageway to the lost city of Atlantis.
While Ben and Jamie are sent to toil in the mines, Polly is fated to
undergo an operation to turn her into a water-breathing Fish Person.
Meanwhile, the Doctor meets the famous scientist Professor Zaroff, who
has convinced the Atlanteans that he can raise their city back above the
waves. But the Doctor realises that Zaroff is insane and, if he isn't
stopped, his plan to drain the ocean's waters into the planet's core
will doom the Earth. (Episodes one and four are missing.)
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The Moonbase by Kit Pedler, directed by
Morris Barry
The Doctor, Polly, Ben and Jamie find themselves on the Moon in the year
2070. When Jamie is injured, his friends seek help at a nearby Moonbase,
which houses the weather-controlling Gravitron. However, a plague has
erupted amongst its crew, and the Gravitron has started experiencing
mysterious faults. Hobson, the Moonbase commander, begins to suspect
that the time travellers are responsible for the crisis. But the Doctor
soon discovers that the culprits are his old foes, the Cybermen, who
are preparing to seize control of the Gravitron as part of a new attempt
to invade the Earth. (Episodes one and three are missing.)
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The Macra Terror by Ian Stuart Black,
directed by John Davies
An Earth colony in the far future has all the look and feel of a holiday
camp. Immediately after arriving, however, the TARDIS crew is confronted
by a disturbed man named Medok. He warns them of monsters which have
secretly infiltrated the colony, even as the Pilot dismisses his claims,
insisting that there is no such thing as Macra. The Doctor believes
Medok and begins to investigate, so the colony's mysterious Commander
orders the time travellers to be brainwashed. While the Doctor is able
to save Polly and Jamie, he is too late to prevent Ben from being turned
against his friends... (All four episodes are missing.)
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The Faceless Ones by David Ellis and
Malcolm Hulke, directed by Gerry Mill
The TARDIS materialises in 1966 London, on the runway at Gatwick
Airport. In the Chameleon Tours hangar, Polly witnesses a pilot murder a
police detective. But soon after she tells her friends what she saw,
Polly goes missing... and when her exact double is found working at the
Chameleon Tours kiosk, she denies any knowledge of the Doctor or the
murder. Ben soon vanishes too, while Jamie befriends a young woman named
Samantha Briggs whose brother disappeared after taking a Chameleon Tours
flight. The culprits are faceless aliens, whose theft of human
identities is the first step in their conquest of the Earth.
(Episodes two and four through six are missing.)
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Having arrived back on present-day Earth, Polly and Ben decide to stay.
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The Evil Of The Daleks by David
Whitaker, directed by Derek Martinus
When the TARDIS is stolen from Gatwick Airport, the Doctor and Jamie
follow a trail of clues in an attempt to recover it, little realising
that they're walking into a trap. Kidnapped by scientist Edward
Waterfield, they're taken back in time to 1866. There they discover that
Waterfield is the reluctant ally of the Daleks, who are holding his
daughter, Victoria, hostage. The Daleks claim that they're trying to
isolate the Human Factor -- that which makes mankind truly human -- and
Jamie is compelled to endure a series of perilous trials to assist them.
But the Doctor suspects that his old enemies have even more sinister
motivations... (Episodes one and three through seven are
missing.)
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Orphaned by the Daleks, Victoria joins the Doctor and Jamie.
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Innes Lloyd and Gerry Davis' regeneration gamble proved a success, and
Doctor Who's survival was assured for the time being.
Furthermore, with the Cybermen, Davis and Kit Pedler had devised a
monster to rival the popularity of the Daleks. Their creations would
come to dominate the Troughton era much as the mutants from Skaro had
helped define William Hartnell's time as the Doctor. It was also during
Season Four that Lloyd and Davis completed their reformulation of
Doctor Who by eliminating historical adventures altogether; from
this point onwards, virtually every Doctor Who story would
exhibit some science-fiction content, moving further away from the
educational remit originally envisaged by Sydney Newman.
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| Season Five (1967-68): Monstrous
Encounters |
| Companions and Recurring Characters |
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Zoe Heriot was a brilliant astrophysicist
from the twenty-first century who met the Doctor during a Cyberman
invasion of the space station on which she worked.
Wendy Padbury (bio) made her first appearance as Zoe
in The Wheel In Space (April 1968)
and her last in The Five Doctors
(November 1983).
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Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart first
worked with the Doctor when he was a colonel in the British army. He was
subsequently promoted to brigadier in order to head up the British
division of the United Nations Intelligence Task Force (UNIT), which was
established to combat alien interference on Earth.
Nicholas Courtney (bio) made his first appearance as
Lethbridge-Stewart in The Web Of
Fear (February 1968) and his last in Dimensions In Time (November
1993).
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Innes Lloyd's wish was finally granted midway through the season when he
departed Doctor Who, leaving it in the hands of Peter Bryant. To
that point, Bryant had been acting as story editor, although he had
already been given a trial period as producer, during which his
assistant, Victor Pemberton (bio), was promoted to story
editor. However, when Pemberton decided against remaining on Doctor
Who, Derrick Sherwin (bio) was hired to replace him, and
became the new story editor.
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The Tomb Of The Cybermen by Kit Pedler
and Gerry Davis, directed by Morris Barry
An archaeological expedition from Earth lands on the desolate planet
Telos, on a mission to explore the fabled tombs to which the dying
Cybermen retreated long ago. But the frozen tombs are filled with traps
and, as the TARDIS arrives, one team member has already perished. The
Doctor's curiosity compels him to help the scientists, even as it
becomes clear that the expedition's backers -- the logicians Klieg and
Kaftan -- harbour sinister motives. Soon Victoria is menaced by the
silverfish-like Cybermats, while the Doctor and Jamie are trapped below
ground, witnesses to the emergence of the Cybermen from their long
hibernation...
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The Abominable Snowmen by Mervyn Haisman
and Henry Lincoln, directed by Gerald Blake
When the TARDIS lands near the Detsen monastery in Tibet, the Doctor
sets out to return a sacred ghanta, which he took with him for
safekeeping centuries earlier. But when he arrives at Detsen, he is
accused of murder by Travers, a British explorer who has been searching
for the mythical Yeti, and whose companion has been savagely killed. The
monks know of the Yeti, and believe that the Doctor is responsible for
the violent tendencies they have recently displayed. Jamie and Victoria
discover evidence that the Yeti are actually robots, convincing the
Doctor that he must uncover the Intelligence controlling their actions.
(Episodes one and three through six are missing.)
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The Ice Warriors by Brian Hayles,
directed by Derek Martinus
The Earth is on the brink of a new Ice Age. The TARDIS arrives at
Brittanicus Base in England, where a small team of scientists
desperately tries to hold back the glaciers. But even as their equipment
starts to fail, Leader Clent's faith in the infallibility of the Base
computer's instructions remains unshakable. Meanwhile, a Brittanicus
team has unearthed a reptilian figure from the glacier, which they dub
an Ice Warrior. But the Ice Warrior soon revives, and reveals himself to
be a Martian named Varga, whose spaceship crashlanded on Earth long ago.
Varga sets out to free his dormant crew from the glacier -- no matter
the cost. (Episodes two and three of this story are missing.)
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The Enemy Of The World by David
Whitaker, directed by Barry Letts
The Doctor, Jamie and Victoria land on Earth in the near future, where
they are rescued from an attack by a woman named Astrid. She explains
that the Doctor strongly resembles Salamander, a scientist who has
developed a network of Sun-Catcher satellites intended to ease global
hunger. But some believe that Salamander's real goal is global
domination, and Astrid asks the Doctor to masquerade as his doppelganger
to uncover the truth. The time travellers must navigate treachery and
murder to uncover Salamander's true schemes, which are more devious than
anyone suspects.
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The Web Of Fear by Mervyn Haisman and
Henry Lincoln, directed by Douglas Camfield
In modern-day London, the Doctor, Jamie and Victoria discover that the
city has been evacuated, and is now covered in mist and a weird,
cobweb-like substance. In the Underground, they encounter the military
and Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart, and discover that the Great Intelligence
and its Yeti are active once again. Although the soldiers are being
assisted by their old friend, Professor Travers, and his daughter, Anne,
they have been unable to prevent the relentless advance of the Yeti. To
make matters worse, the Doctor begins to suspect that one of their
allies is secretly in league with the Great Intelligence... (Episode
three is missing.)
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Fury From The Deep by Victor Pemberton,
directed by Hugh David
The TARDIS lands amidst the waters of the North Sea in the modern day.
Coming ashore, the Doctor, Jamie and Victoria detect the sound of a
heartbeat in a pipeline connecting rigs off the coast to a nearby
refinery. The time travellers learn that the refinery has been plagued
by problems: the pipeline pressure keeps dropping, and there is
intermittent loss of contact with the rigs. The strain is taking its
toll on Robson, the head of the refinery, but his assistant, Harris, is
troubled by a mysterious attack on his wife. The Doctor realises that a
parasitic seaweed has invaded the pipeline, and is preparing to take
control of all humanity. (All six episodes are missing.)
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Victoria decides to stay behind to live with the Harrises.
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The Wheel In Space by David Whitaker and
Kit Pedler, directed by Tristan de Vere Cole
The unmanned rocket Silver Carrier is millions of miles off
course, drifting near a space station known as the Wheel. The Wheel's
highly-strung commander, Jarvis Bennett, initially plans to destroy the
rocket outright, but instead agrees to despatch some of his crew to
investigate. When they discover the Doctor and Jamie on board the
Silver Carrier, Bennett is convinced that the time travellers are
saboteurs. But nobody is aware of the rocket's other passengers: the
Cybermen. Using their Cybermats to wreak havoc aboard the Wheel, the
Cybermen plan to use it as a stepping stone in their conquest of the
Earth. (Episodes one, two, four and five are missing.)
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Astrophysicist Zoe Heriot sneaks aboard the TARDIS.
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Season Five would become renowned in Doctor Who history as the
Year of the Monsters. As the populist science-fiction approach
championed by Innes Lloyd and Gerry Davis took hold, every story bar The Enemy Of The World featured
monsters: the Cybermen, the Yeti, the Ice Warriors, the Weed. Indeed,
the Yeti and the Ice Warriors would join the pantheon of Doctor
Who's most memorable monsters -- the former in spite of the fact
that they would never star in a televised story again!
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| Season Six (1968-69): Running Out Of
Time |
| Companions and Recurring Characters |
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John Benton was originally a UNIT corporal,
later a sergeant, and finally an RSM. He worked frequently with the
Doctor during his exile to Earth.
John Levene (bio) made his first appearance as
Benton in The Invasion (November
1968) and his last in The Android
Invasion (December 1975).
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Peter Bryant's role in Doctor Who gradually decreased over the
course of Season Six, and script editor Derrick Sherwin officially
replaced him toward the end of the season, having already assumed many of
Bryant's responsibilities. Meanwhile, Terrance
Dicks (bio)
was introduced into the team as the new script editor, a position he
would occupy for longer than anyone else, before or after.
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The Dominators by Norman Ashby, directed
by Morris Barry
On the peaceful planet Dulkis, war has been eradicated, but the Island
of Death remains as a memorial to the Dulcians' violent past. Two alien
Dominators land on the Island, and begin drilling into the planet's
surface with the help of their diminutive but lethal robots, the Quarks.
When the TARDIS arrives nearby, the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe befriend a
rebellious young Dulcian named Cully, whose friends were murdered by the
Quarks. But even with Cully's help, the time travellers find themselves
unable to rouse the passive, sententious government of Dulkis to act
against the Dominators -- and time is running out.
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The Mind Robber by Peter Ling and
Derrick Sherwin, directed by David Maloney
After an emergency dematerialisation, the TARDIS lands in a weird white
void. Jamie and Zoe are tempted out of the time machine into a trap,
while the Doctor fends off a psychic assault. In a desperate bid to
escape, the Doctor tries to pilot the TARDIS somewhere else, only for
the time machine to break apart. Suddenly, the three companions find
themselves in a surreal world where imagination has become reality,
populated by characters out of folklore and literature. They must
navigate a series of riddles and deadly encounters to reach the
mysterious Master of the realm. But what designs does he have for the
Doctor?
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The Invasion by Derrick Sherwin and Kit
Pedler, directed by Douglas Camfield
After being attacked in space, the TARDIS materialises on Earth. There
the Doctor is reunited with his old friend, Lethbridge-Stewart, who is
now a brigadier in charge of the newly-formed United Nations
Intelligence Taskforce: UNIT. The Doctor and Jamie are recruited to help
UNIT's investigation of a company called International Electromatics,
run by the sinister Tobias Vaughn, while Zoe meets Isobel Watkins, whose
scientist father is missing. Vaughn is facilitating an invasion of the
Earth, while forcing the captive Watkins to construct a device to
double-cross his allies -- the Cybermen! (Episodes one and four are
missing.)
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The Krotons by Robert Holmes, directed
by David Maloney
Every year in the city of the Gonds, the two brightest youths are taken
into the bowels of a strange machine to join their people's gods, known
as the Krotons. When the TARDIS lands nearby, however, the time
travellers discover that the young people are somehow drained of their
mental energies, then secretly ejected from the machine and killed. As
this discovery sparks revolution and counter-revolution, Zoe succumbs to
her inquisitiveness and activates a Gond learning machine. When she,
too, is summoned to serve the Krotons, the Doctor has no choice but to
confront the mysterious gods himself.
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The Seeds Of Death by Brian Hayles,
directed by Michael Ferguson
The Doctor, Jamie and Zoe arrive on Earth at a time when all
transportation is conducted via T-Mat, a matter teleportation system
operated from the Moon. The TARDIS materialises in a museum owned by
Eldred, who resents T-Mat for rendering rocket technology obsolete. When
the Ice Warriors invade the Moon, the humans manage to stall their plans
by disabling T-Mat. The time travellers volunteer to journey to the
control station aboard a rocket which Eldred has maintained. But it's
just a matter of time before the Ice Warriors repair T-Mat, and use it
to launch a global assault with deadly alien seed pods.
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The Space Pirates by Robert Holmes,
directed by Michael Hart
The TARDIS lands on a space beacon, which is in the process of being
stolen by the cruel pirate Caven, who wants to harvest its valuable
argonite. The Doctor, Jamie and Zoe are rescued by an aging pioneer
named Milo Clancey. However, General Hermack of the Space Corps suspects
Clancey of being the pirates' ringleader. Clancey flees to the planet
Ta, home of the Issigri Mining Company, which is run by the daughter of
his late business partner. But Ta is also the location of Caven's secret
lair -- and the time travellers must uncover the connection between the
pirates and Madeleine Issigri before it is too late. (Episodes one
and three through six are missing.)
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The War Games by Malcolm Hulke and
Terrance Dicks, directed by David Maloney
The Doctor, Jamie and Zoe believe the TARDIS has brought them back to
Earth, in the midst of World War One. But it soon becomes apparent that
they are nowhere of the sort. In fact, a race of aliens has been
kidnapping soldiers from various points in the Earth's history and
transporting them to another planet, with the intention of using them to
form the greatest army the universe has ever seen. At the helm of this
plot is the War Chief, a renegade Time Lord like the Doctor. To stop him,
the Doctor may be forced to call upon his own people and give up his
wandering in time and space forever.
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The Time Lords return Jamie and Zoe to their own times, and force the
Doctor to regenerate as punishment for his crimes of interference.
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As the Sixties wound to a close, Season Six bade farewell to many
elements which had previously characterised Doctor Who. Most
obviously, an exhausted Patrick Troughton elected to draw his tenure as
the Second Doctor to a close, and both Frazer Hines and Wendy Padbury
decided to leave with him -- meaning that no regular castmembers would
be continuing on to Season Seven. Eager to rein in budgets and aware of
a growing sentiment that Doctor Who was growing stale, the
production team piloted a new, Earthbound format involving the UNIT
organisation, portending the new status quo of the following year. The
veil of mystery surrounding the Doctor's past was drawn back, just a
little, with The War Games
introducing his people: the Time Lords. And these would be the
programme's final monochrome episodes, as Doctor Who prepared to
make the move to full colour. In more ways than one, it was the end of
an era.
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