Doctor Who (season 15)

The fifteenth season of British science fiction television series Doctor Who began on 3 September 1977 with the episode Horror of Fang Rock, and ended with The Invasion of Time.

Doctor Who
Season 15
Cover art of the Region 2 DVD release for first serial of the season
Starring	Tom Baker Louise Jameson John Leeson
Country of origin	United Kingdom
No. of stories	6
No. of episodes	26
Release
Original network	BBC1
Original release	3 September 1977 (1977-09-03) – 11 March 1978 (1978-03-11)
Season chronology

Casting

See also: List of Doctor Who cast members

Main cast

• Tom Baker as the Fourth Doctor
• Louise Jameson as Leela
• John Leeson as Voice of K9

Tom Baker and Louise Jameson continue their roles as the Fourth Doctor and Leela. K9, played by John Leeson, makes his first appearance during the second serial The Invisible Enemy. Louise Jameson makes her final appearance as Leela in The Invasion of Time.

Serials

See also: List of Doctor Who episodes (1963–1989)

Graham Williams took over as producer from Philip Hinchcliffe. Robert Holmes was replaced as script editor by Anthony Read, during The Sun Makers. The season took a short transmission break of two weeks over the Christmas 1977 period, between the broadcasts of The Sun Makers and Underworld.

Story	Serial	Serial title	Episode titles	Directed by	Written by	Original air date	Prod. code	UK viewers (millions) [1]	AI [1]
92	1	Horror of Fang Rock	"Part One"	Paddy Russell	Terrance Dicks	3 September 1977 (1977-09-03)	4V	6.8	58
			"Part Two"	Paddy Russell	Terrance Dicks	10 September 1977 (1977-09-10)	4V	7.1	—
			"Part Three"	Paddy Russell	Terrance Dicks	17 September 1977 (1977-09-17)	4V	9.8	60
			"Part Four"	Paddy Russell	Terrance Dicks	24 September 1977 (1977-09-24)	4V	9.9	57
Three lighthouse men face their fears when something comes in from the sea, which brings death to all it touches.
93	2	The Invisible Enemy	"Part One"	Derrick Goodwin	Bob Baker and Dave Martin	1 October 1977 (1977-10-01)	4T	8.6	—
			"Part Two"	Derrick Goodwin	Bob Baker and Dave Martin	8 October 1977 (1977-10-08)	4T	7.3	—
			"Part Three"	Derrick Goodwin	Bob Baker and Dave Martin	15 October 1977 (1977-10-15)	4T	7.5	—
			"Part Four"	Derrick Goodwin	Bob Baker and Dave Martin	22 October 1977 (1977-10-22)	4T	8.3	60
A shuttle crew encounters a cloud in space that infects them with an intelligent virus. When the Doctor answers the distress call, he is infected as well.
94	3	Image of the Fendahl	"Part One"	George Spenton-Foster	Chris Boucher	29 October 1977 (1977-10-29)	4X	6.7	—
			"Part Two"	George Spenton-Foster	Chris Boucher	5 November 1977 (1977-11-05)	4X	7.5	75
			"Part Three"	George Spenton-Foster	Chris Boucher	12 November 1977 (1977-11-12)	4X	7.9	—
			"Part Four"	George Spenton-Foster	Chris Boucher	19 November 1977 (1977-11-19)	4X	9.1	61
Scientists investigating an ancient skull unwittingly start to revive the Fendahl, an ancient life-form feared even by the Time Lords.
95	4	The Sun Makers	"Part One"	Pennant Roberts	Robert Holmes	26 November 1977 (1977-11-26)	4W	8.5	—
			"Part Two"	Pennant Roberts	Robert Holmes	3 December 1977 (1977-12-03)	4W	9.5	—
			"Part Three"	Pennant Roberts	Robert Holmes	10 December 1977 (1977-12-10)	4W	8.9	68
			"Part Four"	Pennant Roberts	Robert Holmes	17 December 1977 (1977-12-17)	4W	8.4	59
In the far future, the planet Pluto is habitable, heated by several miniature suns. However, the heat is available only to the ruling classes.
96	5	Underworld	"Part One"	Norman Stewart	Bob Baker and Dave Martin	7 January 1978 (1978-01-07)	4Y	8.9	65
			"Part Two"	Norman Stewart	Bob Baker and Dave Martin	14 January 1978 (1978-01-14)	4Y	9.1	—
			"Part Three"	Norman Stewart	Bob Baker and Dave Martin	21 January 1978 (1978-01-21)	4Y	8.9	—
			"Part Four"	Norman Stewart	Bob Baker and Dave Martin	28 January 1978 (1978-01-28)	4Y	11.7	—
The remnants of the Minyans have an old link to the Time Lords. The Doctor must help them to find the hidden race banks that will save their dying race.
97	6	The Invasion of Time	"Part One"	Gerald Blake	David Agnew (Graham Williams and Anthony Read)	4 February 1978 (1978-02-04)	4Z	11.2	56
			"Part Two"	Gerald Blake	David Agnew (Graham Williams and Anthony Read)	11 February 1978 (1978-02-11)	4Z	11.4	—
			"Part Three"	Gerald Blake	David Agnew (Graham Williams and Anthony Read)	18 February 1978 (1978-02-18)	4Z	9.5	—
			"Part Four"	Gerald Blake	David Agnew (Graham Williams and Anthony Read)	25 February 1978 (1978-02-25)	4Z	10.9	—
			"Part Five"	Gerald Blake	David Agnew (Graham Williams and Anthony Read)	4 March 1978 (1978-03-04)	4Z	10.3	—
			"Part Six"	Gerald Blake	David Agnew (Graham Williams and Anthony Read)	11 March 1978 (1978-03-11)	4Z	9.8	—
The Doctor returns to Gallifrey, having claimed the Presidency. He orders Leela expelled from the Capitol Citadel. However, the Doctor is doing this to prevent a Sontaran-instigated disaster.

Production

Season fifteen proved to be a difficult transition period. Philip Hinchcliffe's departure coincided with the loss of a number of long-time contributors to the show as Graham Williams took over as Producer. Williams remarked, "I had to try and find some new ones, and that wasn't the least of the problems. Bob Holmes was stuck on Weng-Chiang for ages... all the scripts were coming in late...".[2]

Robert Holmes remained to work on the three stories he had commissioned, while his successor, Anthony Read, trailed him in preparation of taking over the position. Read, an experienced director and producer had only agreed to the position of Script Editor because he was intrigued by the chance to work on Doctor Who. Holmes completed The Horror of Fang Rock and The Invisible Enemy, before leaving due to creative exhaustion. Image of the Fendahl fell to Read, who had to hastily write K-9 into the story when Holmes made him a regular character.

While Tom Baker enjoyed working with John Leeson (the voice of K-9) in rehearsals, he disliked the prop. Holmes recalled, "it used to drive Tom spare, and more often than not, he'd kick it out of frustration."[2] Holmes agreed to write The Sun Makers, and while the story was meant to follow K-9's introduction and establish him as a regular character, scheduling problems- resulting the shelving the scripts that Fang Rock had to replace- required the story order to change, with Fendahl preceding it.[2]

Baker had found it difficult to accept the violent Leela character since her introduction, contributing to growing tensions between himself and Louise Jameson. According to Jameson, the tension came to a head during the recording of Fang Rock, when she finally confronted Baker over multiple takes of a scene caused by him entering early and cutting her off.[3] Tensions between the two eased over the course of the season.

Read commissioned Bob Baker and Dave Martin to write Underworld, the penultimate story of the season. Right away, the production was hit hard by record inflation, resulting in the design staff working day and night and inventing new techniques and processes to complete the story on time.[4] The final story, The Invasion of Time, proved even more chaotic: with a reduced budget, a complete last-minute re-write by Read and Williams, and a BBC industrial-dispute between the props department and the electricians.

Broadcast

The entire season was broadcast from 3 September 1977 to 11 March 1978.

Home media

See also: List of Doctor Who VHS releases and List of Doctor Who home video releases

VHS releases

Season	Story no.	Serial name	Number and duration of episodes	R2 release date	R4 release date	R1 release date
15	092	Horror of Fang Rock	4 x 25min.	July 1998	November 1998	March 1999
	093	The Invisible Enemy	4 x 25 min.	September 2002	November 2002	October 2003
	094	Image of the Fendahl	4 x 25 min.	March 1993	July 1993	June 1996
	095	The Sun Makers	4 x 25 min.	July 2001	September 2001	February 2002
	096	Underworld	4 x 25 min.	March 2002	May 2002	May 2003
	097	The Invasion of Time	6 x 25 min.	March 2000 2 x VHS	August 2000	August 2000 2 x VHS

DVD and Blu-ray releases

Season	Story no.	Serial name	Number and duration of episodes	R2 release date	R4 release date	R1 release date
15	092	Horror of Fang Rock	4 × 25 min.	17 January 2005[5]	7 April 2005[6]	6 September 2005[7]
	093	The Invisible Enemy[lower-alpha 1]	4 × 25 min.	16 June 2008[8]	4 September 2008[9]	2 September 2008[10]
	094	Image of the Fendahl	4 × 25 min.	20 April 2009[11]	4 June 2009[12]	1 September 2009[13]
	095	The Sun Makers	4 × 25 min.	1 August 2011[14]	1 September 2011[15]	9 August 2011[16]
	096	Underworld[lower-alpha 2]	4 × 25 min.	29 March 2010[17]	3 June 2010[18][19][20]	6 July 2010[16]
	097	The Invasion of Time[lower-alpha 3]	6 × 25 min.	5 May 2008[21]	3 July 2008[22]	2 September 2008[23]

1. Only available as part of the K9 Tales box set with the Doctor Who spin-off K-9 and Company in all regions.
2. Only available as part of the Myths and Legends box set in Regions 2 and 4. Only available individually in Region 1.
3. Available individually or in the Bred for War box set in Regions 2 and 4. Only available individually in Region 1.

In print

Main article: List of Doctor Who novelisations

Serial name	Novelisation title	Author	First published
Horror of Fang Rock	Doctor Who and the Horror of Fang Rock	Terrance Dicks	30 March 1978
The Invisible Enemy	Doctor Who and the Invisible Enemy	Terrance Dicks	29 March 1979
Image of the Fendahl	Doctor Who and the Image of the Fendahl	Terrance Dicks	26 July 1979
The Sun Makers	Doctor Who and the Sunmakers	Terrance Dicks	18 November 1982
Underworld	Doctor Who and the Underworld	Terrance Dicks	24 January 1980
The Invasion of Time	Doctor Who and the Invasion of Time	Terrance Dicks	21 February 1980

References

1. "Ratings Guide". Doctor Who News. Retrieved 27 December 2014.
2. The Doctors: 30 Years of Time Travel. Boxtree Ltd|Adrian Rigelsford, 1994.
3. "The Horror of Fang Rock" DVD, Commentary Track.|BBC, 2005.
4. "Underworld" DVD, Into the Unknown, Making-of Documentary.|BBC, 2010.
5. "Doctor Who - Horror of Fang Rock". 17 January 2005. Retrieved 16 November 2017 – via Amazon.
6. "Doctor Who Horror At Fang Rock by Roadshow Home Ent - Shop Online for Movies, DVDs in Australia". Fishpond. Retrieved 16 November 2017.
7. "Doctor Who: Horror of Fang Rock". 6 September 2005. Retrieved 16 November 2017 – via Amazon.
8. "Doctor Who: K9 Tales Box Set". 16 June 2008. Retrieved 16 November 2017 – via Amazon.
9. "Doctor Who K-9 Tales by Roadshow Entertainment - Shop Online for Movies, DVDs in Australia". Fishpond. Retrieved 16 November 2017.
10. "Doctor Who: The Invisible Enemy". 2 September 2008. Retrieved 16 November 2017 – via Amazon.
11. "Doctor Who - Image of the Fendahl". 20 April 2009. Retrieved 16 November 2017 – via Amazon.
12. "Doctor Who Image of the Fendahl by Roadshow Entertainment - Shop Online for Movies, DVDs in Australia". Fishpond. Retrieved 16 November 2017.
13. "Doctor Who: Image of the Fendahl". 1 September 2009. Retrieved 16 November 2017 – via Amazon.
14. "Doctor Who - The Sun Makers". 1 August 2011. Retrieved 16 November 2017 – via Amazon.
15. "Doctor Who The Sun Makers by Roadshow Entertainment - Shop Online for Movies, DVDs in Australia". Fishpond. Retrieved 16 November 2017.
16. "Doctor Who: The Sun Makers". 9 August 2011. Retrieved 16 November 2017 – via Amazon.
17. "Doctor Who: Myths and Legends Box Set (DVD)". BBC Shop. Retrieved 19 October 2013.
18. "Doctor Who Myths and Legends (The Time Monster, Underworld, and The Horns Of Nimon)". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 29 November 2013.
19. "Doctor Who Myths and Legends". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 29 November 2013.
20. "Doctor Who Myths and Legends 3 DVD Set". BBC. Retrieved 29 November 2013.
21. "Doctor Who: Bred for War - The Sontaran Collection". 5 May 2008. Retrieved 16 November 2017 – via Amazon.
22. "Doctor Who Invasion of Time by Roadshow Entertainment - Shop Online for Movies, DVDs in Australia". Fishpond. Retrieved 16 November 2017.
23. "Doctor Who: The Invasion of Time". 2 September 2008. Retrieved 16 November 2017 – via Amazon.