Doctor Who (season 11)

The eleventh season of British science fiction television series Doctor Who began on 15 December 1973 with the serial The Time Warrior, and ended with Jon Pertwee's final serial Planet of the Spiders. The season's writing was recognized by the Writer's Guild of Great Britain for Best Children's Drama Script.[1]

This article is about the 1973–74 season. For the 2018 series, see Doctor Who (series 11).

Doctor Who
Season 11
Cover art of the Region 2 DVD release for the first serial of the season
Starring	Jon Pertwee Elisabeth Sladen Nicholas Courtney John Levene Richard Franklin
Country of origin	United Kingdom
No. of stories	5
No. of episodes	26
Release
Original network	BBC1
Original release	15 December 1973 (1973-12-15) – 8 June 1974 (1974-06-08)
Season chronology

Casting

See also: List of Doctor Who cast members

Main cast

• Jon Pertwee as the Third Doctor
• Elisabeth Sladen as Sarah Jane Smith

Jon Pertwee makes his final appearance as the series lead in Planet of the Spiders, although he would reprise the role of the Third Doctor in the 20th anniversary special episode, The Five Doctors. Elisabeth Sladen makes her first appearance as Sarah Jane Smith in The Time Warrior. Tom Baker makes his first uncredited appearance as the Fourth Doctor in Part 6 of Planet of the Spiders, when Jon Pertwee's Doctor is fatally wounded and regenerates into the Fourth Doctor.

Recurring cast

• Nicholas Courtney as Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart
• John Levene as Sergeant Benton
• Richard Franklin as Mike Yates

Nicholas Courtney and John Levene continue their roles of Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart and Sergeant Benton, while Richard Franklin makes his final regular appearance as Captain Yates in Planet of the Spiders

Guest stars

Alan Bennion makes his third and final appearance in the series as an Ice Warrior, portraying Lord Azaxyr in The Monster of Peladon.

Serials

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

This season was the last to have Barry Letts as Producer and Terrance Dicks as Script Editor, ending the relationship that had gone through the whole of Jon Pertwee's tenure as the Doctor. It saw the introduction of a new logo that would be used nearly throughout the fourth Doctor's era, as well as the new companion Sarah Jane Smith and the alien race, the Sontarans.

Story	Serial	Serial title	Episode titles	Directed by	Written by	Original air date	Prod. code	UK viewers (millions) [2]	AI [2]
70	1	The Time Warrior	"Part One"	Alan Bromly	Robert Holmes	15 December 1973 (1973-12-15)	UUU	8.7	59
			"Part Two"	Alan Bromly	Robert Holmes	22 December 1973 (1973-12-22)	UUU	7.0	—
			"Part Three"	Alan Bromly	Robert Holmes	29 December 1973 (1973-12-29)	UUU	6.6	—
			"Part Four"	Alan Bromly	Robert Holmes	5 January 1974 (1974-01-05)	UUU	10.6	60
In the Middle Ages, a rabble of criminals find the crashed spaceship of a Sontaran warrior. Meanwhile in the 1970s, the Third Doctor is investigating the disappearance of several scientists from a top secret research complex.
71	2	Invasion of the Dinosaurs	"Part One"	Paddy Russell	Malcolm Hulke	12 January 1974 (1974-01-12)	WWW	11.0	62
			"Part Two"	Paddy Russell	Malcolm Hulke	19 January 1974 (1974-01-19)	WWW	10.1	—
			"Part Three"	Paddy Russell	Malcolm Hulke	26 January 1974 (1974-01-26)	WWW	11.0	63
			"Part Four"	Paddy Russell	Malcolm Hulke	2 February 1974 (1974-02-02)	WWW	9.0	—
			"Part Five"	Paddy Russell	Malcolm Hulke	9 February 1974 (1974-02-09)	WWW	9.0	—
			"Part Six"	Paddy Russell	Malcolm Hulke	16 February 1974 (1974-02-16)	WWW	7.5	62
The Doctor and Sarah Jane arrive in 1970s London to find that it has been evacuated due to the mysterious appearance of dinosaurs.
72	3	Death to the Daleks	"Part One"	Michael E. Briant	Terry Nation	23 February 1974 (1974-02-23)	XXX	8.1	61
			"Part Two"	Michael E. Briant	Terry Nation	2 March 1974 (1974-03-02)	XXX	9.5	—
			"Part Three"	Michael E. Briant	Terry Nation	9 March 1974 (1974-03-09)	XXX	10.5	61
			"Part Four"	Michael E. Briant	Terry Nation	16 March 1974 (1974-03-16)	XXX	9.5	62
Travelling through space, the TARDIS suffers an energy drain and crash-lands on the planet Exxilon.
73	4	The Monster of Peladon	"Part One"	Lennie Mayne	Brian Hayles	23 March 1974 (1974-03-23)	YYY	9.2	—
			"Part Two"	Lennie Mayne	Brian Hayles	30 March 1974 (1974-03-30)	YYY	6.8	—
			"Part Three"	Lennie Mayne	Brian Hayles	6 April 1974 (1974-04-06)	YYY	7.4	—
			"Part Four"	Lennie Mayne	Brian Hayles	13 April 1974 (1974-04-13)	YYY	7.2	—
			"Part Five"	Lennie Mayne	Brian Hayles	20 April 1974 (1974-04-20)	YYY	7.5	—
			"Part Six"	Lennie Mayne	Brian Hayles	27 April 1974 (1974-04-27)	YYY	8.1	—
The Doctor returns to Peladon, which has been taken over by some Ice Warriors.
74	5	Planet of the Spiders	"Part One"	Barry Letts	Robert Sloman and Barry Letts (uncredited)	4 May 1974 (1974-05-04)	ZZZ	10.1	58
			"Part Two"	Barry Letts	Robert Sloman and Barry Letts (uncredited)	11 May 1974 (1974-05-11)	ZZZ	8.9	60
			"Part Three"	Barry Letts	Robert Sloman and Barry Letts (uncredited)	18 May 1974 (1974-05-18)	ZZZ	8.8	57
			"Part Four"	Barry Letts	Robert Sloman and Barry Letts (uncredited)	25 May 1974 (1974-05-25)	ZZZ	8.2	—
			"Part Five"	Barry Letts	Robert Sloman and Barry Letts (uncredited)	1 June 1974 (1974-06-01)	ZZZ	9.2	—
			"Part Six"	Barry Letts	Robert Sloman and Barry Letts (uncredited)	8 June 1974 (1974-06-08)	ZZZ	8.9	56
A giant spider from the planet Metebelis Three is summoned to an English meditation retreat by an out-of-work salesman.

Broadcast

Episode one of The Time Warrior saw the first appearance of the iconic diamond-shaped Doctor Who logo. This would be used throughout the Third Doctor's final season and almost through the Fourth Doctor's tenure before retiring in part four of The Horns of Nimon (not including the unbroadcast and incomplete serial Shada which would have followed The Horns of Nimon).

The entire season was broadcast from 15 December 1973 to 8 June 1974.

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
11	070	The Time Warrior	1 × 100 min.	June 1989[3][4] Edited	March 1989[4]	April 1991[4]
	071	Invasion of the Dinosaurs	6 × 25 min.	October 2003[5][6]	February 2004[6]	October 2003[6]
	072	Death to the Daleks	1 × 100 min. 4 x 25 min.	July 1987[7][8] (Edited) February 1995[8][9] (Unedited)	December 1987[8]	March 1990[8]
	073	The Monster of Peladon	6 × 25 min.	January 1996[10][11] (2 x VHS)	May 1997[11]	May 1997[11] (2 x VHS)
	074	Planet of the Spiders	6 × 25 min.	April 1991[12][13] (2 x VHS)	September 1991[13]	May 1994[13]

DVD and Blu-ray releases

Season	Story no.	Serial name	Number and duration of episodes	R2 release date	R4 release date	R1 release date
11	070	The Time Warrior[lower-alpha 1]	4 × 25 min.	3 September 2007[14][15]	3 October 2007[16]	1 April 2008[17]
	071	Invasion of the Dinosaurs[lower-alpha 2]	6 × 25 min.	9 January 2012[18][19]	5 January 2012 [20][21]	10 January 2012[22]
	072	Death to the Daleks	4 × 25 min.	18 June 2012[23][24]	5 July 2012[25][26][27]	10 July 2012[28]
	073	The Monster of Peladon[lower-alpha 3]	6 × 25 min.	18 January 2010[29][30]	4 March 2010[31][32][33]	4 May 2010[34]
	074	Planet of the Spiders[lower-alpha 4]	6 × 25 min.	18 April 2011[35]	2 June 2011[36][37][38]	10 May 2011[39]

1. Available individually or in the Bred for War box set in Regions 2 and 4. Only available individually in Region 1.
2. Only available as part of the U.N.I.T. Files box set in Regions 2 and 4. Only available individually in Region 1.
3. Only available as part of the Peladon Tales box set in Regions 2 and 4. Only available individually in Region 1.
4. Available individually or in the Regeneration box set in Region 2. Only available individually in Regions 1 and 4.

In print

Main article: List of Doctor Who novelisations

Serial name	Novelisation title	Author	First published
The Time Warrior	Doctor Who and the Time Warrior	Terrance Dicks and Robert Holmes	29 June 1978
Invasion of the Dinosaurs	Doctor Who and the Dinosaur Invasion	Malcolm Hulke	19 February 1976
Death to the Daleks	Death to the Daleks	Terrance Dicks	20 July 1978
The Monster of Peladon	Doctor Who and the Monster of Peladon	Terrance Dicks	20 November 1980
Planet of the Spiders	Doctor Who and the Planet of the Spiders	Terrance Dicks	16 October 1975

References

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28. "Doctor Who - Story #072: Death to the Daleks". TVShowsOnDVD.com. Archived from the original on 3 December 2013. Retrieved 30 November 2013.
29. "Doctor Who: Peladon Boxset (DVD)". BBC Shop. Retrieved 19 October 2013.
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33. "Doctor Who - Peladon Tales 3 DVD Set". BBC. Retrieved 28 November 2013.
34. "Doctor Who - Story #073: The Monster of Peladon". TVShowsOnDVD.com. Archived from the original on 14 November 2013. Retrieved 30 November 2013.
35. "Doctor Who: Regeneration". British Video Association. Retrieved 28 November 2013.
36. "Doctor Who - Planet of Spiders". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 29 November 2013.
37. "Doctor Who Planet of the Spiders". Roadshow Entertainment. Retrieved 29 November 2013.
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39. "Doctor Who - Story #074: Planet of the Spiders". TVShowsOnDVD.com. Archived from the original on 3 December 2013. Retrieved 30 November 2013.