The sixth 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'' began on 10 August 1968 with the first story of season 6 ''

The Dominators ''The Dominators'' is the first serial of the sixth season of the British science fiction television series '' Doctor Who'', which originally aired in five weekly parts from 10 August to 7 September 1968. In the serial, the Second Doctor (Patri ...

'' and ended

Patrick Troughton Patrick George Troughton (; 25 March 1920 – 28 March 1987) was an English actor who was classically trained for the stage but became known for his roles in television and film. His work included appearances in several fantasy, science fiction ...

's reign as the Doctor with its final story ''

The War Games ''The War Games'' is the seventh and final serial of the sixth season of the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'', which originally aired in ten weekly parts from 19 April to 21 June 1969. In the serial, an unnamed alien r ...

''. Only 37 out of 44 episodes are held in the BBC archives; 7 remain missing. As a result, 2 serials are incomplete: only episode 2 of the 6-part story ''

The Space Pirates ''The Space Pirates'' is the mostly missing sixth serial of the sixth season of the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'', which originally aired in six weekly parts from 8 March to 12 April 1969. In this serial, the TARD ...

'' still exists, while '' The Invasion'' has had its two missing episodes (episodes 1 and 4) reconstructed using animation.

Casting

Main cast

as the

Second Doctor The Second Doctor is an incarnation of the Doctor, the protagonist of the BBC science fiction television series ''Doctor Who''. He was portrayed by actor Patrick Troughton. While the Troughton era of ''Doctor Who'' is well-remembered by fans an ...

Frazer Hines Frazer Simpson Frederick Hines (born 22 September 1944) is an English actor. He began his career as a child actor and appeared in ''A King in New York'' (1957) with Charlie Chaplin. He later played Jamie McCrimmon in ''Doctor Who'', appearing i ...

Jamie McCrimmon James Robert McCrimmon, usually simply called Jamie, is a fictional character played by Frazer Hines in the long-running British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who''. A piper of the Clan MacLeod who lived in 18th-century Scotland, ...

Wendy Padbury Wendy Padbury (born 7 December 1947) is a British actress and former talent agent. She has appeared in television series since 1966, including as Zoe Heriot, a companion to Patrick Troughton's Doctor in ''Doctor Who'', from 1968 to 1969. Earl ...

Zoe Heriot Zoe Heriot (sometimes spelled Zoe Herriot) is a fictional character played by Wendy Padbury in the long-running British science fiction television series '' Doctor Who''. A young astrophysicist who lived on a space wheel in the 21st century, ...

and

make their final regular appearances as the

and

respectively. Troughton and his fellow actors collectively decided that the workload of ''Doctor Who'' was exhausting them, and that they would soon depart from the show. From Season 7 onwards the show would never have such a high number of episodes again. The three actors remained with the show until the conclusion of the final season six serial ''

''. Troughton reprised his role in three subsequent special stories, one of which also featured Hines.

Guest stars

Nicholas Courtney William Nicholas Stone Courtney (16 December 1929 – 22 February 2011) was an Egyptian-born British actor. He was known for his long-running role as Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart in the BBC science fiction television series ''Doctor Who''. Ea ...

reappears as

Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart Brigadier Sir Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart, generally referred to simply as the Brigadier, is a fictional character in the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'', created by writers Mervyn Haisman and Henry Lincoln and ...

in '' The Invasion'', last seen (as a Colonel) in ''

The Web of Fear ''The Web of Fear'' is the partly missing fifth serial of the fifth season of the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'', which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from 3 February to 9 March 1968. The serial is set on the ...

''. He would soon make regular appearances in the program beginning with season 7's ''

Spearhead from Space ''Spearhead from Space'' is the first serial of the seventh season in the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'', which was first broadcast in four weekly parts on BBC1 from 3 to 24 January 1970. It was the first ''Doctor Who'' ...

''.

John Levene John Levene (born John Anthony Woods; 24 December 1941) is an English actor, producer, entertainer and singer. Although he has appeared in a large number of films and television series, Levene's best-known role is that of Sergeant Benton, of UNI ...

makes his first appearance as Corporal Benton in '' The Invasion''. He would continue to make regular appearances, with the character promoted to sergeant, from season 7 until season 13.

Alan Bennion Alan Bennion (18 April 1930 – 27 July 2018) was a British actor. He was best known for his work on the science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'' and the police drama ''Z-Cars''. He made a total of five appearances on ''Z-Cars'', and a ...

makes his first of three appearances in the series playing an

Ice Warrior The Ice Warriors are a fictional Extraterrestrials in fiction, extraterrestrial race of List of reptilian humanoids, reptilian humanoids in the long-running British science fiction on television, science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'' ...

. In this, his first appearance, he portrays Lord Slaar in ''

The Seeds of Death ''The Seeds of Death'' is the fifth serial of the sixth season of the British science fiction television series '' Doctor Who''. Written by Brian Hayles and an uncredited Terrance Dicks and directed by Michael Ferguson, it originally aired ...

''.

Serials

Terrance Dicks Terrance William Dicks (14 April 1935 – 29 August 2019) was an English author and television screenwriter, script editor and producer. In television, he had a long association with the BBC science-fiction series ''Doctor Who'', working a ...

took over from Derrick Sherwin as script editor from ''The Invasion'', with Sherwin resuming the role for ''The Space Pirates''. Derrick Sherwin took over as producer from Peter Bryant for ''The War Games''. Season 6 is the most complete of all the Second Doctor's seasons, with only seven episodes missing (compared with twenty-eight from

Season 4 Season 4 may refer to: * "Season 4" (''30 Rock'' episode), an episode of ''30 Rock'' See also * * Season One (disambiguation) * Season 2 (disambiguation) Season 2 may refer to: * ''Season 2'' (Infinite album) * '' 2econd Season'' See also * ...

and eighteen from Season 5), none of the season's stories missing in their entirety and only two stories (''The Invasion'' and ''The Space Pirates'') incomplete. This compares to the first two seasons of the Second Doctor from which only two complete serials (''

The Tomb of the Cybermen ''The Tomb of the Cybermen'' is the first serial of the fifth season of the British science fiction television series '' Doctor Who'', which was originally broadcast in four weekly parts on BBC1 from 2 to 23 September 1967. In the serial, the ...

'' and ''

The Enemy of the World ''The Enemy of the World'' is the fourth serial of the fifth season of the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'', which originally aired in six weekly parts from 23 December 1967 to 27 January 1968. The serial is set in Aus ...

'') survive. The missing two episodes of ''The Invasion'' have since been reconstructed using animation and released on DVD. ''The War Games'', which was the final serial of the season, and the last of Patrick Troughton's tenure as the Doctor, was also the second longest serial up to that point, spanning 10 episodes – only the 12-part serial ''

The Daleks' Master Plan ''The Daleks' Master Plan'' is the mostly missing third serial of the third season in the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'', which originally aired in twelve weekly parts from 13 November 1965 to 29 January 1966. Thi ...

'' from

Season 3 A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's axial tilt, tilted orbit around the Sun. In tempera ...

was longer. Both of these would be beaten in 1986 by the 14-part season-spanning story ''

The Trial of a Time Lord The twenty-third season of British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'', known collectively as ''The Trial of a Time Lord'', aired in weekly episodes from 6 September to 6 December 1986. It contained four adventures: ''The Mysterious ...

'' ''The Dominators'' and ''The Mind Robber'' were both produced at the end of the fifth recording block and held over to Season 6. : Episode is missing

Missing episodes

*''The Invasion'' – Episodes 1 & 4 (of 8 total) (Animated recreations exist) *''The Space Pirates'' – Episodes 1, 3 – 6 (of 6 total)

Home media

VHS releases

Betamax releases

DVD releases

In print

Notes

References

Bibliography

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Doctor Who (season 06) 1968 British television seasons 1969 British television seasons Season 06 Season 06 6 Black-and-white British television shows