Season 12 (Doctor Who 1963)

The twelfth season of Doctor Who ran between 28th December 1974 and 10th May 1975. It was the first season of the series to feature Tom Baker as the Fourth Doctor. It consisted of 5 serials, and 20 episodes, which made it the shortest season to date. The season was shortened due to a decision by the BBC to move Terror of the Zygons, originally intended as the finale, to the start of Season 13 in order to allow the next season to begin earlier and allow Doctor Who to better compete against the soon-to-debut Space: 1999.[1] All the stories in this season were interconnected, with several forming a loose story arc relating to Space Station Nerva. The Cybermen return to the series for the first time since the late 1960s. Genesis of the Daleks is one of the most famous of all Doctor Who serials.

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Stories

• Robot (4 episodes)
• The Ark in Space (4 episodes)
• The Sontaran Experiment (2 episodes)
• Genesis of the Daleks (6 episodes)
• Revenge of the Cybermen (4 episodes)

Main Cast

• The Doctor - Tom Baker
• Sarah Jane Smith - Elisabeth Sladen
• Harry Sullivan - Ian Marter (introduced Robot)

Recurring

• Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart - Nicholas Courtney (Robot)
• Warrant Officer Benton - John Levene (Robot)

Notes

• While a short line of dialogue in Planet of the Spiders mentioned him, Harry Sullivan first appears in Robot.
• Though they only appeared in one story during Season 12, the Brigadier and Benton had appeared more prominently in previous stories.

Adaptations and merchandising

Video

VHS

• Robot
• The Ark in Space
• The Sontaran Experiment/Genesis of the Daleks
• Revenge of the Cybermen
• The Tom Baker Years (extracts from each of the stories)

DVD

• Robot
• The Ark in Space
• The Sontaran Experiment
• Genesis of the Daleks

Novelisations

• Doctor Who and the Giant Robot
• Doctor Who and the Ark in Space
• Doctor Who and the Sontaran Experiment
• Doctor Who and the Genesis of the Daleks
• Revenge of the Cybermen

Contemporaries

Other selected TV series launched during the 1974-75 season that included the run of Season 12:

• Land of the Lost
• Rhoda
• Little House on the Prairie
• The Rockford Files
• Name That Tune
• The Sweeney
• Wheel of Fortune
• The Jeffersons
• Barney Miller
• Jim'll Fix It
• The Good Life

External Links

BBC website guide to Season 12

Previous season: Season 11

Next season: Season 13