Doctor Who season 14

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Doctor Who
Season 14
Doctor Who Season 14 Blu-ray.jpg
Cover art of the Blu-ray release for the complete season
Starring
No. of stories6
No. of episodes26
Release
Original network BBC1
Original release4 September 1976 (1976-09-04) 
2 April 1977 (1977-04-02)
Season chronology
 Previous
Season 13
Next 
Season 15
List of episodes

The fourteenth season of British science fiction television series Doctor Who began on 4 September 1976 with The Masque of Mandragora , and ended with The Talons of Weng-Chiang . The third Fourth Doctor series, it was the final series of Philip Hinchcliffe's production, whilst Robert Holmes stayed till The Sun Makers in the next series.

Contents

Casting

Main cast

Tom Baker continues his role as the Fourth Doctor. Sarah Jane Smith (Elisabeth Sladen) departs in The Hand of Fear, before the Doctor is joined by Leela (Louise Jameson) in The Face of Evil. Uniquely in the 'classic' era of Doctor Who, no companion appears in The Deadly Assassin.

Guest stars

The Master reappears in The Deadly Assassin as the main antagonist, his first appearance since Frontier in Space (1973), this time played by Peter Pratt. The character would not make a further appearance until five years later in 1981.

Serials

The Masque of Mandragora saw the debut of the new wood-panelled "Secondary Console Room" set, which was to be used as the main TARDIS console room throughout the season. The season took a five-week transmission break between the broadcasts of The Deadly Assassin and The Face of Evil in order to extend the season further into 1977, allowing Robert Holmes time to work on the final serial The Talons of Weng-Chiang.

No.
story
No. in
season
Serial titleEpisode titlesDirected byWritten byOriginal air dateProd.
code
UK viewers
(millions) [1]
AI [1]
861 The Masque of Mandragora "Part One" Rodney Bennett Louis Marks 4 September 1976 (1976-09-04)4M8.358
"Part Two"11 September 1976 (1976-09-11)9.856
"Part Three"18 September 1976 (1976-09-18)9.2
"Part Four"25 September 1976 (1976-09-25)10.656
An encounter with the living energy structure known as the Mandragora Helix leads the TARDIS to 15th century Italy.
872 The Hand of Fear "Part One"Lennie Mayne Bob Baker and Dave Martin 2 October 1976 (1976-10-02)4N10.5
"Part Two"9 October 1976 (1976-10-09)10.2
"Part Three"16 October 1976 (1976-10-16)11.162
"Part Four"23 October 1976 (1976-10-23)12.0
The Fourth Doctor and Sarah Jane are caught in a mining explosion. Sarah Jane is found clutching what appears to be a fossilised hand, buried in a 150-million-year-old stratum.
883 The Deadly Assassin "Part One" David Maloney Robert Holmes 30 October 1976 (1976-10-30)4P11.8
"Part Two"6 November 1976 (1976-11-06)12.159
"Part Three"13 November 1976 (1976-11-13)13.0
"Part Four"20 November 1976 (1976-11-20)11.861
The Doctor returns to his homeworld, Gallifrey. When the President of the High Council is assassinated, however, he becomes the prime suspect.
894 The Face of Evil "Part One" Pennant Roberts Chris Boucher 1 January 1977 (1977-01-01)4Q10.761
"Part Two"8 January 1977 (1977-01-08)11.1
"Part Three"15 January 1977 (1977-01-15)11.359
"Part Four"22 January 1977 (1977-01-22)11.760
The Doctor arrives on a planet where two tribes are at war and discovers that their god of evil is him.
905 The Robots of Death "Part One" Michael E. Briant Chris Boucher29 January 1977 (1977-01-29)4R12.862
"Part Two"5 February 1977 (1977-02-05)12.4
"Part Three"12 February 1977 (1977-02-12)13.1
"Part Four"19 February 1977 (1977-02-19)12.657
A vessel is commanded by a crew of indolent or avaricious human staff. It is a happy partnership until the human crew start being murdered one by one.
916 The Talons of Weng-Chiang "Part One"David MaloneyRobert Holmes26 February 1977 (1977-02-26)4S11.3
"Part Two"5 March 1977 (1977-03-05)9.8
"Part Three"12 March 1977 (1977-03-12)10.2
"Part Four"19 March 1977 (1977-03-19)11.460
"Part Five"26 March 1977 (1977-03-26)10.1
"Part Six"2 April 1977 (1977-04-02)9.358
The Doctor and Leela travel to Victorian London where they encounter a sinister Chinese stage magician and his master, a fugitive from the 51st century.

Broadcast

The entire season was broadcast from 4 September 1976 to 2 April 1977.

Home media

VHS releases

SeasonStory no.Serial nameNumber and duration
of episodes
UK release dateAustralia release dateUSA/Canada release date
1486 The Masque of Mandragora 4 x 25 min.August 1991October 1992February 1994
87 The Hand of Fear 4 x 25 min.February 1996May 1997February 1997
88 The Deadly Assassin 4 25 minOctober 1991March 1992March 1989 (edited)
89 The Face of Evil 4 x 25 minMay 1999June 1999March 2000
90 The Robots of Death 1 x 100 min
4 x 25 min
February 1988 (edited)
February 1995 (unedited)
March 1988 (edited)July 1987 (edited)
91 The Talons of Weng-Chiang 1 x 150 min. (edited)November 1988April 1987February 1988

Betamax releases

SeasonStory no.Serial nameNumber and duration
of episodes
UK release dateAustralia release dateUSA/Canada release date
1490 The Robots of Death 1 x 100 min
April 1986 (edited)

DVD and Blu-ray releases

All releases are for DVD unless otherwise indicated:

SeasonStory no.Serial nameNumber and duration
of episodes
R2 release dateR4 release dateR1 release date
1486 The Masque of Mandragora 4 × 25 min.8 February 2010 [2] 5 May 2010 [3] 4 May 2010 [4]
87 The Hand of Fear 4 × 25 min.24 July 2006 [5] 7 September 2006 [6] 7 November 2006 [7]
88 The Deadly Assassin 4 × 25 min.11 May 2009 [8] 2 July 2009 [9] 1 September 2009 [10]
89 The Face of Evil 4 × 25 min.5 March 2012 [11] 5 April 2012 [12] 13 March 2012 [13]
90 The Robots of Death 4 × 25 min.13 November 2000 [14] 2 July 2001 [15] 6 September 2001 [16]
The Robots of Death (Special Edition) [lower-alpha 1] 4 × 25 min.13 February 2012 [17] [18] [19] 1 March 2012 [20] [21] 13 March 2012 [22]
91 The Talons of Weng-Chiang 6 × 25 min.28 April 2003 [23] 30 June 2003 [24] 7 October 2003 [25]
The Talons of Weng-Chiang (Special Edition) [lower-alpha 2] 6 × 25 min.4 October 2010 [26] 2 December 2010 [27] 11 October 2011 [28]
86–91Complete Season 14 [lower-alpha 3] 26 × 25 min.4 May 2020 (B) [29] 15 July 2020 (B) [30] 4 August 2020 (B) [31]
  1. Only available as part of the Revisitations 3 box set in Regions 2 and 4. Only available individually in Region 1.
  2. Only available as part of the Revisitations 1 box set in Regions 2 and 4. Only available individually in Region 1.
  3. Released as Doctor Who: The Collection – Season 14 in Region B. Released as Doctor Who – Tom Baker: Complete Season Three in Region A.

In print

SeasonStory no.Library no. [lower-alpha 1] Novelisation titleAuthorHardcover
release date [lower-alpha 2]
Paperback
release date [lower-alpha 3]
Audiobook
release date [lower-alpha 4]
1408642 Doctor Who and the Masque of Mandragora Philip Hinchcliffe 19 January 19788 December 19779 April 2009
08730 Doctor Who and the Hand of Fear Terrance Dicks 18 January 19797 January 2021
08819 Doctor Who and the Deadly Assassin 20 October 197719 March 2015
08925 Doctor Who and the Face of Evil 19 January 197819 January 2011 [lower-alpha 5]
7 April 2022
09053 Doctor Who and the Robots of Death 24 May 19791 February 2018
09161 Doctor Who and the Talons of Weng-Chiang 17 November 19771 January 2013
  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. Published by the Royal National Institute of the Blind

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Philip Michael Hinchcliffe is a retired English television producer, screenwriter and script editor. After graduating from Cambridge University, he began his career as a writer and script editor at Associated Television before joining the BBC to produce Doctor Who in one of its most popular eras from 1974 to 1977. In 2010, Hinchcliffe was chosen by Den of Geek as the best ever producer of the series.

The Talons of Weng-Chiang is the sixth and final serial of the 14th season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts on BBC1 from 26 February to 2 April 1977. In the serial, which is set in 19th-century London, the 51st century criminal Magnus Greel travels to the city and poses as an ancient Chinese god to find his missing time machine.

Dudley George Simpson was an Australian composer and conductor. He was the Principal Conductor of the Royal Opera House orchestra for three years and worked as a composer on British television. He worked on the BBC science-fiction series Doctor Who, for which he composed incidental music during the 1960s and 1970s. When Simpson died aged 95 in 2017, The Guardian wrote that he was "at his most prolific as the creator of incidental music for Doctor Who in the 1960s and 1970s, contributing to 62 stories over almost 300 episodes – more than any other composer."

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References

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  19. "Doctor Who: Revisitations 3". British Video Association. Archived from the original on 8 November 2021. Retrieved 2 August 2013.
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  28. "Doctor Who: The Talons of Weng-Chiang". 11 October 2011. Archived from the original on 12 February 2021. Retrieved 16 November 2017 via Amazon.
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  31. Doctor Who - Tom Baker: Complete Season Three [Blu-ray] (Blu-ray). ASIN   B0851M8YT3.

Bibliography