The fifteenth season of

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

science fiction television Science fiction first appeared in television programming in the late 1930s, during what is called the Golden Age of Science Fiction. Special effects and other production techniques allow creators to present a living visual image of an imaginary ...

series ''

Doctor Who ''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series depicts the adventures of a Time Lord called the Doctor, an extraterrestrial being who appears to be human. The Doctor explores the u ...

'' began on 3 September 1977 with the episode ''

Horror of Fang Rock ''Horror of Fang Rock'' is the first serial of the 15th season of the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'', which was first broadcast in four weekly parts on BBC1 from 3 to 24 September 1977. The serial is set on the ficti ...

'', and ended with ''

The Invasion of Time ''The Invasion of Time'' is the sixth and final serial of the 15th season of the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'', which was first broadcast in six weekly parts on BBC1 from 4 February to 11 March 1978. It features the fin ...

''. The fourth series for the

Fourth Doctor The Fourth Doctor is an incarnation of the Doctor, the protagonist of the BBC science fiction television series ''Doctor Who''. He is portrayed by Tom Baker. Within the series' narrative, the Doctor is a centuries-old alien Time Lord from the ...

, new producer Graham Williams became producer for this series (and the two following), while Robert Holmes left script editing for

Anthony Read Anthony Read (21 April 1935 – 21 November 2015) was an English television producer, screenwriter, script editor and author. He was principally active in British television from the 1960s to the mid-1980s, which included a period as a script ...

midway through.

Casting

Main cast

Tom Baker Thomas Stewart Baker (born 20 January 1934) is an English actor and writer. He is well known for his portrayal of the Fourth Doctor, fourth incarnation of The Doctor (Doctor Who), the Doctor in the science fiction television series ''Doctor Wh ...

as the

Louise Jameson Louise Jameson (born 20 April 1951) is an English actress with a wide variety of television and theatre credits. Her roles on television have included playing Leela in ''Doctor Who'' (1977–1978), Anne Reynolds in ''The Omega Factor'' (1979), ...

as Leela *

John Leeson John Francis Christopher Ducker (born 16 March 1943), known professionally as John Leeson, is an English actor, voice artist and freelance wine educator. He is known for portraying Bungle in ''Rainbow'' and voicing K9 in ''Doctor Who'' and s ...

as Voice of K9

and

continue their roles as the

and Leela. K9, played by

, makes his first appearance during the second serial ''The Invisible Enemy''. Louise Jameson makes her final appearance as Leela in ''The Invasion of Time''.

Serials

Graham Williams took over as producer from Philip Hinchcliffe. Robert Holmes was replaced as script editor by

, during ''The Sun Makers''. The season took a short transmission break of two weeks over the Christmas 1977 period, between the broadcasts of ''The Sun Makers'' and ''Underworld''.

Production

Season fifteen proved to be a difficult transition period.

Philip Hinchcliffe Philip Michael Hinchcliffe (born October 1944) 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 befo ...

's departure coincided with the loss of a number of long-time contributors to the show as Graham Williams took over as Producer. Williams remarked, "I had to try and find some new ones, and that wasn't the least of the problems. Bob Holmes was stuck on '' Weng-Chiang'' for ages... all the scripts were coming in late...".''The Doctors: 30 Years of Time Travel''. Boxtree Ltd, Adrian Rigelsford, 1994. Robert Holmes remained to work on the three stories he had commissioned, while his successor,

, trailed him in preparation of taking over the position. Read, an experienced director and producer, had only agreed to the position of Script Editor because he was intrigued by the chance to work on ''Doctor Who''. Holmes completed ''

'' and '' The Invisible Enemy'', before leaving due to creative exhaustion. ''

Image of the Fendahl ''Image of the Fendahl'' is the third serial of the 15th season of the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'', which was first broadcast in four weekly parts on BBC1 from 29 October to 19 November 1977. The serial was Chris Bo ...

'' fell to Read, who had to hastily write K-9 into the story when Holmes made him a regular character. While Tom Baker enjoyed working with John Leeson (the voice of K-9) in rehearsals, he disliked the prop. Holmes recalled, "it used to drive Tom spare, and more often than not, he'd kick it out of frustration." Holmes agreed to write ''

The Sun Makers ''The Sun Makers'' is the fourth serial of the 15th season of the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'', which was first broadcast in four weekly parts on BBC1 from 26 November to 17 December 1977. The serial is set on Pluto. ...

'', and while the story was meant to follow K-9's introduction and establish him as a regular character, scheduling problems--resulting in the shelving of scripts that ''Fang Rock'' had to replace--required the story order to change, with ''Fendahl'' preceding it. Baker had found it difficult to accept the violent Leela character since her introduction, contributing to growing tensions between himself and Louise Jameson. According to Jameson, the tension came to a head during the recording of ''Fang Rock'', when she finally confronted Baker over multiple takes of a scene caused by him entering early and cutting her off. Tensions between the two eased over the course of the season. Read commissioned Bob Baker and Dave Martin to write ''

Underworld The underworld, also known as the netherworld or hell, is the supernatural world of the dead in various religious traditions and myths, located below the world of the living. Chthonic is the technical adjective for things of the underworld. ...

'', the penultimate story of the season. Right away, the production was hit hard by record inflation, resulting in the design staff working day and night and inventing new techniques and processes to complete the story on time."Underworld" DVD, Into the Unknown, Making-of Documentary., BBC, 2010. The final story, ''

'', proved even more chaotic: with a reduced budget, a complete last-minute re-write by Read and Williams, and a BBC industrial-dispute between the props department and the electricians.

Broadcast

The entire season was broadcast from 3 September 1977 to 11 March 1978.

Home media

VHS releases

DVD and Blu-ray releases

In print

References

{{Doctor Who episodes, C15 1977 British television seasons 1978 British television seasons Season 15 Season 15 15