Doctor Who season 10

This article is about the 1972–73 season. For the 2017 series, see Doctor Who series 10.

The tenth season of British science fiction television series Doctor Who began on 30 December 1972 with the tenth anniversary special The Three Doctors, and ended with Katy Manning's final serial The Green Death. This is the Third Doctor's (played by Jon Pertwee) fourth series, as well as fourth for producer Barry Letts and script editor Terrance Dicks.

Doctor Who
Season 10
Cover art of the Blu-ray release for the complete season
Starring	Jon Pertwee Katy Manning Nicholas Courtney John Levene Richard Franklin Patrick Troughton William Hartnell
No. of stories	5
No. of episodes	26
Release
Original network	BBC1
Original release	30 December 1972 (1972-12-30) – 23 June 1973 (1973-06-23)
Season chronology
List of episodes

Casting

See also: List of Doctor Who cast members

Main cast

• Jon Pertwee as the Third Doctor
• Katy Manning as Jo Grant

Jon Pertwee continues his role as the Third Doctor, and Jo Grant played by Katy Manning makes her final regular appearance in The Green Death.

Recurring and guest cast

• Nicholas Courtney as Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart
• John Levene as Sergeant Benton
• Richard Franklin as Mike Yates
• Roger Delgado as The Master
• Patrick Troughton as the Second Doctor
• William Hartnell as the First Doctor

Nicholas Courtney, John Levene and Richard Franklin continue their recurring roles of UNIT personnel Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, Sergeant Benton and Captain Mike Yates respectively.

Previous lead actors William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton return to guest as the First and Second Doctors in the programme's tenth anniversary serial, The Three Doctors, although illness limited Hartnell's involvement. This was the first time that previous incarnations of the Doctor had returned to the programme, in what would become a regular feature of anniversary episodes.

Roger Delgado makes his final appearance as The Master in Frontier in Space. He died in a car crash in Turkey shortly after the story's transmission.^[1]

Serials

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

At the conclusion of The Three Doctors, the Doctor is finally released from his sentence of exile by the Time Lords, enabling him to travel through time and space once again. This ends the cycle of mostly Earth-bound stories where the Doctor was stranded that began at the conclusion of The War Games in 1969.

The serials Frontier in Space and Planet of the Daleks both feature the Daleks and lead directly from the first into the second, forming a rough twelve-part epic.

No. story	No. in season	Serial title	Episode titles	Directed by	Written by	Original release date	Prod. code	UK viewers (millions) [2]	AI [2]
65	1	The Three Doctors	"Episode One"	Lennie Mayne	Bob Baker and Dave Martin	30 December 1972 (1972-12-30)	RRR	9.6	—
			"Episode Two"			6 January 1973 (1973-01-06)		10.8	—
			"Episode Three"			13 January 1973 (1973-01-13)		8.8	—
			"Episode Four"			20 January 1973 (1973-01-20)		11.9	—
When Omega, a pioneer of Time Lord civilisation trapped in another universe, starts ripping our universe apart, the Time Lords enlist the help of the Doctor - all 3 incarnations of him.
66	2	Carnival of Monsters	"Episode One"	Barry Letts	Robert Holmes	27 January 1973 (1973-01-27)	PPP	9.5	—
			"Episode Two"			3 February 1973 (1973-02-03)		9.0	—
			"Episode Three"			10 February 1973 (1973-02-10)		9.0	—
			"Episode Four"			17 February 1973 (1973-02-17)		9.2	—
The Doctor and Jo are trapped in a miniscope, a peepshow device for displaying humans and other life-forms for entertainment.
67	3	Frontier in Space	"Episode One"	Paul Bernard	Malcolm Hulke	24 February 1973 (1973-02-24)	QQQ	9.1	—
			"Episode Two"			3 March 1973 (1973-03-03)		7.8	—
			"Episode Three"			10 March 1973 (1973-03-10)		7.5	—
			"Episode Four"			17 March 1973 (1973-03-17)		7.1	—
			"Episode Five"			24 March 1973 (1973-03-24)		7.7	—
			"Episode Six"			31 March 1973 (1973-03-31)		8.9	—
Materialising on an Earth cargo spaceship, the Doctor is caught up in the tensions between the Earth and Draconian Empires.
68	4	Planet of the Daleks	"Episode One"	David Maloney	Terry Nation	7 April 1973 (1973-04-07)	SSS	11.0	—
			"Episode Two"			14 April 1973 (1973-04-14)		10.7	—
			"Episode Three"			21 April 1973 (1973-04-21)		10.1	—
			"Episode Four"			28 April 1973 (1973-04-28)		8.3	—
			"Episode Five"			5 May 1973 (1973-05-05)		9.7	—
			"Episode Six"			12 May 1973 (1973-05-12)		8.5	—
The Time Lords have landed the TARDIS on the planet Spiridon, where the Daleks are awakening the biggest Dalek army the galaxy has ever seen.
69	5	The Green Death	"Episode One"	Michael E. Briant	Robert Sloman and Barry Letts (uncredited)	19 May 1973 (1973-05-19)	TTT	9.2	—
			"Episode Two"			26 May 1973 (1973-05-26)		7.2	—
			"Episode Three"			2 June 1973 (1973-06-02)		7.8	—
			"Episode Four"			9 June 1973 (1973-06-09)		6.8	—
			"Episode Five"			16 June 1973 (1973-06-16)		8.3	—
			"Episode Six"			23 June 1973 (1973-06-23)		7.0	—
Waste produced by an oil company causes mutated giant maggots to appear in South Wales.

Broadcast

The entire season was broadcast from 30 December 1972 to 23 June 1973.

Home media

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

VHS releases

Season	Story no.	Serial name	Number and duration of episodes	UK release date	Australia release date	USA/Canada release date
10	65	The Three Doctors	4 × 25 min.	August 1991[3][4] (Original) September 2002[5] (Re-release as part of The Time Lord Collection X4 VHS)	September 1992[4] Original) April 2003[5] (Re-release as part of The Time Lord Collection X3 VHS)	January 1992[4]
	66	Carnival of Monsters	4 × 25 min.	April 1995[6][7]	May 1995[7]	March 1996[7]
	67	Frontier in Space	6 × 25 min.	August 1995[8][9] (2 x VHS)	November 1995[9]	March 1996[9] (2 x VHS)
	68	Planet of the Daleks	6 × 25 min.	November 1999[10][11] (2 x VHS)	December 1999[12]	November 2000 [12] (2 x VHS)
	69	The Green Death	6 × 25 min.	October 1996[13][14] (2 x VHS)	April 1997[14]	February 1997[14] (2 x VHS)

DVD and Blu-ray releases

All releases are for DVD unless otherwise indicated:

• ^(B) indicates a Blu-ray release

Season	Story no.	Serial name	Number and duration of episodes	R2 release date	R4 release date	R1 release date
10	65	The Three Doctors	4 × 25 min.	24 November 2003[15][16]	12 November 2003[17][18]	2 March 2004[19]
		The Three Doctors (Special Edition)[a]	4 × 25 min.	13 February 2012[20][21][22]	1 March 2012[23][24]	13 March 2012[25]
	66	Carnival of Monsters	4 × 25 min.	15 July 2002[26][27]	29 August 2002[28]	1 July 2003[29]
		Carnival of Monsters (Special Edition)[b]	4 × 25 min.	28 March 2011[30][31][32]	5 May 2011[33]	10 April 2012[34]
	67–68	Frontier in Space Planet of the Daleks[c]	12 × 25 min.	5 October 2009[35][36][37]	4 February 2010[38][39][40]	2 March 2010[41]
	69	The Green Death	6 × 25 min.	10 May 2004[42][43][44]	5 August 2004[45][46]	1 March 2005[47]
		The Green Death (Special Edition)[d]	6 × 25 min.	5 August 2013[43][48][49]	7 August 2013[50]	13 August 2013[51]
	65–69	Complete Season 10[e]	26 × 25 min. 1 × 150 min.	8 July 2019 (B) [52]	13 November 2019 (B) [53]	15 October 2019 (B) [54]

1. Only available as part of the Revisitations 3 box set in Regions 2 and 4. Only available individually in Region 1.
2. Only available as part of the Revisitations 2 box set in Regions 2 and 4. Only available individually in Region 1.
3. Double release known collectively as the Dalek War box set. Each serial has six episodes each.
4. Also includes The Sarah Jane Adventures serial Death of the Doctor
5. Released as Doctor Who: The Collection – Season 10 in Region B. Released as Doctor Who – Jon Pertwee: Complete Season Four in Region A.

In print

See also: List of Doctor Who novelisations

Season	Story no.	Library no.[a]	Novelisation title	Author	Hardcover release date[b]	Paperback release date[c]	Audiobook release date[d]
10	065	64	The Three Doctors[e]	Terrance Dicks	20 November 1975		1978 [f] 7 April 2010
	066	8	Doctor Who and the Carnival of Monsters		20 January 1977		1978 [f] 13 November 2014
	067	57	Doctor Who and the Space War	Malcolm Hulke	23 September 1976		4 February 2008
	068	46	Doctor Who and the Planet of the Daleks	Terrance Dicks	21 October 1976[g]		5 June 1995 (abridged) 6 June 2013 (unabridged)
	069	29	Doctor Who and the Green Death	Malcolm Hulke	16 April 1981	21 August 1975	4 September 2008

1. Number in Target's Doctor Who Library, if applicable
2. Published by Target's parent companies (Allen Wingate, W. H. Allen, BBC Books) unless otherwise indicated
3. Published by Target Books (or by BBC Books under the Target Collection umbrella) unless otherwise indicated
4. Unabridged from BBC Audio/AudioGo unless otherwise indicated
5. The 1976 edition (and subsequent reprintings until 1991) is titled Doctor Who and the Three Doctors on the front cover.
6. Published by the Royal National Institute of the Blind
7. An abridged version was first published in Doctor Who and the Daleks Omnibus in September 1976