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Season 6 of Doctor Who ran between 10 August 1968 and 21 June 1969. It starred Patrick Troughton as the Second Doctor, Frazer Hines as Jamie McCrimmon and Wendy Padbury as Zoe Heriot. The season opened with The Dominators and concluded with The War Games.
- You may wish to consult
Series 6for other, similarly-named pages.
Overview
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. It is the most complete season of the Patrick Troughton-era.
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)
- PROSE: 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)
- AUDIO: The Dying Light (between The Space Pirates and The War Games)
- AUDIO: Last of the Cybermen (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 & Blu-ray
| 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, animated reconstructions of episodes 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 |
| Lost in Time: Patrick TroughtonThe 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.