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* [[John Leeson]] returns portraying the voice of K9, having been persuaded by John Nathan-Turner to reprise the role for this season. By this time, Leeson could provide K9's voice by vocal power alone, and thus no longer required the vocal modulator he had previously used. | * [[John Leeson]] returns portraying the voice of K9, having been persuaded by John Nathan-Turner to reprise the role for this season. By this time, Leeson could provide K9's voice by vocal power alone, and thus no longer required the vocal modulator he had previously used. | ||
* This story features the first use in ''Doctor Who'' of the digital Quantel image processing system. Amongst the effects created by the use of this system was a moving shot of the TARDIS materialising on Argolis (whereas the roll back and mix technique by which the materialisation was achieved normally necessitated a completely static shot). | * This story features the first use in ''Doctor Who'' of the digital Quantel image processing system. Amongst the effects created by the use of this system was a moving shot of the TARDIS materialising on Argolis (whereas the roll back and mix technique by which the materialisation was achieved normally necessitated a completely static shot). | ||
* ITV, the commercial TV competitor to the BBC, premiered the American series ''Buck Rogers in the 25th Century'' directly opposite the first episode of '' | * ITV, the commercial TV competitor to the BBC, premiered the American series ''Buck Rogers in the 25th Century'' directly opposite the first episode of ''The Leisure Hive'', after a high-profile promotional campaign. ITV had never previously attempted to compete with ''Doctor Who'' by scheduling science fiction in that slot before, and its change of policy in 1980 is credited as being a major factor in the significant slump in ratings seen for the early stories in ''<nowiki>Doctor Who'</nowiki>''s eighteenth season. Not only did small audiences watch the first episode of ''The Leisure Hive'', but figures dropped each week. By week three, ''Doctor Who'' did something it hadn't done in eighteen years: it fell out of the top hundred programmes for the week it was transmitted. | ||
* Production of the serial was extremely challenging. [[Tom Baker]] and [[Lalla Ward]]'s tumultuous off-screen relationship was at a nadir, causing the mood on set to be distinctly chilly. [[Director]] [[Lovett Bickford]]'s management of the shoot caused it to go so badly over budget that John Nathan-Turner was severely reprimanded by his superiors. Bickford would never work on ''Doctor Who'' again.<ref name="Sullivan" /> | * Production of the serial was extremely challenging. [[Tom Baker]] and [[Lalla Ward]]'s tumultuous off-screen relationship was at a nadir, causing the mood on set to be distinctly chilly. [[Director]] [[Lovett Bickford]]'s management of the shoot caused it to go so badly over budget that John Nathan-Turner was severely reprimanded by his superiors. Bickford would never work on ''Doctor Who'' again.<ref name="Sullivan" /> | ||