Doctor Who season 11

This article is about the 1973–74 season. For the 2018 series, see Doctor Who series 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 is the Third Doctor's fifth and final series, and also the last consecutively to be produced by Barry Letts and script edited by Terrance Dicks. Both Letts and Dicks would work for the programme again, however - Letts in Season 18 and Dicks on future stories, e.g. Horror of Fang Rock.

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
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
List of episodes

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.

No. story	No. in season	Serial title	Episode titles	Directed by	Written by	Original release 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"			22 December 1973 (1973-12-22)		7.0	—
			"Part Three"			29 December 1973 (1973-12-29)		6.6	—
			"Part Four"			5 January 1974 (1974-01-05)		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"			19 January 1974 (1974-01-19)		10.1	—
			"Part Three"			26 January 1974 (1974-01-26)		11.0	63
			"Part Four"			2 February 1974 (1974-02-02)		9.0	—
			"Part Five"			9 February 1974 (1974-02-09)		9.0	—
			"Part Six"			16 February 1974 (1974-02-16)		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"			2 March 1974 (1974-03-02)		9.5	—
			"Part Three"			9 March 1974 (1974-03-09)		10.5	61
			"Part Four"			16 March 1974 (1974-03-16)		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"			30 March 1974 (1974-03-30)		6.8	—
			"Part Three"			6 April 1974 (1974-04-06)		7.4	64
			"Part Four"			13 April 1974 (1974-04-13)		7.2	—
			"Part Five"			20 April 1974 (1974-04-20)		7.5	—
			"Part Six"			27 April 1974 (1974-04-27)		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"			11 May 1974 (1974-05-11)		8.9	60
			"Part Three"			18 May 1974 (1974-05-18)		8.8	57
			"Part Four"			25 May 1974 (1974-05-25)		8.2	—
			"Part Five"			1 June 1974 (1974-06-01)		9.2	—
			"Part Six"			8 June 1974 (1974-06-08)		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 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
11	70	The Time Warrior	1 × 100 min.	June 1989[3][4] Edited	March 1989[4]	April 1991[4]
	71	Invasion of the Dinosaurs	6 × 25 min.	October 2003[5][6]	February 2004[6]	October 2003[6]
	72	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]
	73	The Monster of Peladon	6 × 25 min.	January 1996[10][11] (2 x VHS)	May 1997[11]	May 1997[11] (2 x VHS)
	74	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

All releases are for DVD

Season	Story no.	Serial name	Number and duration of episodes	R2 release date	R4 release date	R1 release date
11	70	The Time Warrior[a]	4 × 25 min.	3 September 2007[14][15][16]	3 October 2007[17]	1 April 2008[18]
	71	Invasion of the Dinosaurs[b]	6 × 25 min.	9 January 2012[19][20][21]	5 January 2012 [22][23]	10 January 2012[24]
	72	Death to the Daleks	4 × 25 min.	18 June 2012[25][26][27]	5 July 2012[28][29][30]	10 July 2012[31]
	73	The Monster of Peladon[c]	6 × 25 min.	18 January 2010[32][33][34]	4 March 2010[35][36][37]	4 May 2010[38]
	74	Planet of the Spiders[d]	6 × 25 min.	18 April 2011[39][40]	2 June 2011[41][42][43]	10 May 2011[44]

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

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]
11	070	65	Doctor Who and the Time Warrior	Terrance Dicks[e]	18 May 1978	29 June 1978	13 November 2008
	071	22	Doctor Who and the Dinosaur Invasion	Malcolm Hulke	19 February 1976		5 November 2007
	072	20	Death to the Daleks	Terrance Dicks	20 July 1978		3 March 2016
	073	43	Doctor Who and the Monster of Peladon		20 November 1980	4 December 1980	5 March 2020
	074	48	Doctor Who and the Planet of the Spiders		20 November 1975	16 October 1975	4 June 2009

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. Prologue by Robert Holmes (uncredited)