Season 6 (Doctor Who 1963)

It consisted of seven serials and forty-four episodes. This season featured the first ever UNIT story, The Invasion, which showcased the return of Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart. It also featured the first official appearance of Time Lords and the as yet unnamed Doctor's home planet (another member of Susan and the Doctor's race, the Monk, had appeared previously, but without much elaboration and without using the term "Time Lord"). It also marked the end of the black-and-white era and the tenure of Patrick Troughton as the Second Doctor. It consisted of seven serials and forty-four episodes, including two epic-length storylines: the eight episodes of The Invasion and the ten-episode The War Games. This season is, fortunately, more complete than the previous three seasons, of which only five serials exist. Seven episodes from this season are lost, although audio recordings remain for all; as a result, the DVD release of The Invasion uses animation to recreate the two missing episodes from that story. Season 6 is also the last season of Doctor Who to contain missing episodes, with all subsequent seasons affected by the then-in-effect junking policy restored through various means.

Television stories

#	Title	Writer	Episodes	Notes
1	The Dominators	Norman Ashby, aka Mervyn Haisman Henry Lincoln (episode 5: with Derrick Sherwin, uncredited)	5	First story to be written under a pseudonym. Final story to be written by Mervyn Haisman and Henry Lincoln.
2	The Mind Robber	Peter Ling (episode 1: with Derrick Sherwin, uncredited)	5	Episode 1 first and only instalment to have no on-screen writer's credit. First and last story set in the Land of Fiction. First story to be directed by David Maloney
3	The Invasion	Derrick Sherwin Concept by Kit Pedler	8	First appearances of UNIT and John Benton, reintroduction of the Cybermen.
4	The Krotons	Robert Holmes	4	Robert Holmes’ debut script for Doctor Who.
5	The Seeds of Death	Brian Hayles (with Terrance Dicks, uncredited)	6	First Terrance Dicks script for Doctor Who, return of the Ice Warriors. (To keep the reappearance of the Ice Warriors a surprise, Steve Peters was credited as 'Alien' in Radio Times for episode 1.)
6	The Space Pirates	Robert Holmes	6	First story of Doctor Who to be filmed using a "double banking" strategy.
7	The War Games	Terrance Dicks Malcolm Hulke	10	Final regular appearances of the Second Doctor, Jamie McCrimmon and Zoe Heriot; first identified appearances by the Time Lords; and first look at Gallifrey (not identified by name). Final episode to be filmed in black and white and the final story broadcast during the 1960s.

Cast

Season 6 was the first season since Season 1 in which the core cast remained unchanged for the entire series:

Recurring

Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart - Nicholas Courtney
Corporal Benton - John Levene
Tanya - Clare Jenkins

Guest

Rago - Ronald Allen
Toba - Kenneth Ives
Cully - Arthur Cox
Kando - Felicity Gibson
Teel - Giles Block
Balan - Johnson Bayly
Senex - Walter Fitzgerald
Quark Voices - Sheila Grant
Master of the Land - Emrys Jones
Gulliver - Bernard Horsfall
Princess Rapunzel - Christine Pirie
Karkus - Christopher Robbie
Isobel Watkins - Sally Faulkner
Tobias Vaughn - Kevin Stoney
Packer - Peter Halliday
Captain Turner - Robert Sidaway
Sergeant Walters - James Thornhill
Professor Watkins - Edward Burnham
Selris - James Copeland
Vana - Madeleine Mills
Thara - Gilbert Wynne
Eelek - Philip Madoc
Beta - James Cairncross
Kroton Voices - Roy Skelton, Patrick Tull
Radnor - Ronald Leigh-Hunt
Eldred - Philip Ray
Gia Kelly - Louise Pajo
Fewsham - Terry Scully
Phipps - Christopher Coll
Slaar - Alan Bennion
Grand Marshall - Graham Leaman
Caven - Dudley Foster
Dervish - Brian Peck
General Hermack - Jack May
Major Ian Warne - Donald Gee
Milo Clancey - Gordon Gostelow
Madeleine Issigri - Lisa Daniely
Dom Issigri - Esmond Knight
Technician Penn - George Layton
Lieutenant Carstairs - David Savile
Lady Jennifer Buckingham - Jane Sherwin
General Smythe - Noel Coleman
Von Weich - David Garfield
War Chief - Edward Brayshaw
Scientist - Vernon Dobtcheff
Sergeant Russell - David Weston
Security Chief - James Bree
War Lord - Philip Madoc
First Time Lord - Bernard Horsfall

Stories set during this season

AUDIO: Fear of the Daleks (after The Wheel in Space)
Future Imperfect (during Episode 5 The Mind Robber)
PROSE: Aliens and Predators (between The Invasion and The Krotons)
Involvement in PROSE UPVC (between The Invasion and The Krotons)
Involvement in PROSE The Colony of Lies (between The Invasion and The Krotons)
PROSE: Foreign Devils (between The Invasion and The Krotons)
AUDIO: The Isos Network (between The Invasion and The Krotons)
PROSE: Vortex of Fear (between The Seeds of Death and The Space Pirates)
PROSE: The Final Sanction (between The Seeds of Death and The Space Pirates)
AUDIO: Echoes of Grey (between The Wheel in Space and The Space Pirates)
AUDIO: Tales from the Vault (between The Wheel in Space and The Space Pirates)
AUDIO: The Memory Cheats (between The Wheel in Space and The Space Pirates)
AUDIO: The Jigsaw War (between The Wheel in Space and The Space Pirates)
AUDIO: The Uncertainty Principle (between The Wheel in Space and The Space Pirates)
PROSE: Please Shut the Gate (between The Seeds of Death and The Space Pirates)
PROSE: Constant Companion (between The Seeds of Death and The Space Pirates)
PROSE: The Indestructible Man (between The Seeds of Death and The Space Pirates)
AUDIO: The Glorious Revolution (after The Seeds of Death)
PROSE: The Wheel of Ice (between The Seeds of Death and The Space Pirates)
PROSE: The Menagerie (between The Space Pirates and The War Games)
PROSE: Fallen Angel (between The Space Pirates and The War Games)
Involvement in PROSE: The Eight Doctors (during episode 9 of The War Games)
PROSE: War Crimes (during episode 10 of The War Games)

Adaptations and merchandising

Home media

VHS

The Dominators (1990)
The Mind Robber (1990)
The Invasion (with narration of episodes 1 and 4) (1993)
The Krotons (1991)
The Seeds of Death (1985/1987) (Edited Movie Format)
The War Games (1990/2002) (on 2 tapes)
The Troughton Years (1991) (The Space Pirates episode 2)

Loose Cannon VHS releases

The Invasion (2003) (Episodes 1 and 4 only)
The Space Pirates (1998/2007) (Episodes 1, 3-6 only)

DVD

Serial name	Number and duration of episodes	R2 release date	R4 release date	R1 release date
The Dominators	5 × 25 min.	12 July 2010	2 September 2010	11 January 2011
The Mind Robber	5 × 20 min.	7 March 2005	5 May 2005	6 September 2005
The Invasion (episodes 2-3 & 5-8 of 8, animation of 1 & 4)	8 × 25 min.	6 November 2006	3 January 2007	6 March 2007
The Krotons	4 × 25 min.	2 July 2012	2 August 2012	10 July 2012
The Seeds of Death	6 × 25 min.	17 February 2003	5 May 2003	2 March 2004
The Seeds of Death – Special Edition Only available as part of the Revisitations 2 box set in Regions 2 and 4. Only available individually in Region 1.	6 × 25 min.	28 March 2011	5 May 2011	12 June 2012
The War Games	10 × 25 min.	6 July 2009	3 September 2009	3 November 2009
The Space Pirates (episode 2 of 6)	1 × 25 min.	1 November 2004	2 December 2004 (Original release) 1 July 2010 (Re-release)	2 November 2004

Download/streaming availability

Serial name	Amazon Video	BritBox	Google Play	iTunes
The Dominators (5 episodes)		✓
The Mind Robber (5 episodes)		✓	✓	Except UK
The Invasion (8 episodes with animated reconstructions of episodes 1 & 4)		✓
The Krotons (4 episodes)	UK	✓		✓
The Seeds of Death (6 episodes)	UK	✓		✓
The Space Pirates
The War Games (10 episodes)		✓

BritBox is available only in the US. iTunes stores carry Doctor Who serials in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the UK and US, unless stated otherwise.

Novels

Other information

Novels and other media contend that further adventures of the Second Doctor occurred during Season 6B prior to his regeneration into the Third Doctor as seen in Season 7 of the television series.

External links

BBC Website Guide to Season 6