DEEP SPACE
AN INSIDE GUIDE INTO DOCTOR WHO SEASON 18
If you're a Doctor Who fan or a sci-fi fan or simply a standard nerd, take a look at this inside guide with everything you need to know about Doctor Who: Season 18.
The eighteenth season of Doctor Who began on 30th August 1980 with Part One of The Leisure Hive, and ended with Tom Baker's last story Logopolis on 21st March 1980.
At the time, it seemed like quite an exciting change to the average Doctor Who fan watching it. Doctor Who was being revamped into the 1980s with a new title sequence and theme. Even the Doctor got a makeover with his new burgundy themed outfit.
So what is there to know about Season 18 for the average reader?
- Season 18 sees the swang song of Tom Baker - The Fourth Doctor, ending his time after seven years on the programme.
- It introduced new companions to the series. Adric (Played by Matthew Waterhouse) in "Full Circle", Nyssa (Played by Sarah Sutton) in "The Keeper of Traken", Tegan Jovanka (Played by Janet Feilding) in "Logopolis".
- Romana (Played by Lalla Ward) departs from the series at the end of "Warriors Gate" along with John Leeson who returns to voice the robot dog K9.
The Master returns to the series, played by Geoffry Beavers and after "The Keeper of Taken" by Anthony Ainley who would go on to play the master for the rest of the classic series run.
Jacqueline Hill, who played the First Doctor's companion, Barbara Wright, returns in "Meglos", although this time playing the one-off character Lexa.
For Season 18 John Nathan-Turner replaced Graham Williams as producer. Barry Letts who had successfully produced Doctor Who in the 1970s returned as an executive producer, for just this season only.
Christopher H. Bidmead also replaces Douglas Adams as script editor. In a return to the format of early seasons, virtually all serials from Season 18 are linked together, with stories running directly into each other. Three serials – Full Circle, State of Decay, and Warriors' Gate – are all part of a trilogy known as "The E Space Trilogy" within the season. These three serials include the arrival of Adric and the departure of Romana and K9.
Over the period of Christmas 1980, the season took a two-week transmission break between the broadcasts of State of Decay and Warriors' Gate.
Season 18 Episode Guide
An in-depth synopsis to the stories in Season 18.
The Leisure Hive
30th August - 20th September 1980
In search of a holiday, the Doctor and Romana travel to the famous Leisure Hive on Argolis, a planet ravaged by a nuclear war with the reptilian Foamasi years earlier. The main attraction of the Hive is a device called the Tachyon Recreation Generator, but when things start to go mysteriously wrong with the machine, the Doctor realises that evil is afoot in the Hive. He and Romana begin to unearth a tangled conspiracy which may lead to a new, deadlier war between the Argolins and the Foamasi.
Meglos
27th September - 18th October 1980
The Doctor is summoned back to the planet Tigella, where the population is divided along religious and scientific lines. Something is going terribly wrong with Tigella's main power source, the Dodecahedron, but the Savants are prevented from investigating by the zealous Deons. To make matters worse, before the Doctor can solve the problem with the Dodecahedron, he is accused of its theft. The true culprit is Meglos, a shapeshifting Zolfa-Thuran, who intends to unleash the full might of the Dodecahedron upon the universe.
Full Circle
25th October - 15th November 1980
Romana is recalled to Gallifrey, but en route the TARDIS is drawn through a Charged Vacuum Emboitment into another universe, called E-Space. Landing on the planet Alzarius, the Doctor meets a group of humans who are trying to rebuild their spacecraft which crashlanded generations ago. When Marshmen begin rising from the swamps during the dreaded time of Mistfall, however, the Doctor realises that there is something amiss on Alzarius, and begins to unravel a genetic riddle which stretches back centuries.
State of Decay
22nd November - 13th December 1980
Still trapped in E-Space, the TARDIS materialises on a medieval planet. The townsfolk live in fear of the Three Who Rule, who govern from their mighty castle. Investigating, the Doctor discovers that the Three Who Rule are ancient astronauts who were turned into vampires long ago, and their castle is actually their spaceship. When Romana and Adric are kidnapped, the Doctor must ally himself with a band of renegade peasants to stop the resurrection of one of Gallifrey's greatest enemies: the Great Vampire itself.
Warrior's Gate
3rd - 24th January 1981
Trying to escape from E-Space, the Doctor, Romana, Adric, and K9 instead land in an eerie white void whose only feature is a crumbling old keep. Also trapped in the void is a slave ship captained by the cruel Rorvik, whose time sensitive pilot, the leonine Tharil Biroc, escapes and lures the Doctor into the keep and the mirror gateway beyond. There, the Doctor witnesses the rise and fall of the once-mighty Tharil Empire. He realises that he must free the Tharils enslaved on the ship and escape through the gateway before Rorvik's vengeful actions destroy them all.
The Keeper of Traken
31st January - 21st February 1981
The Union of Traken is governed by a Keeper gifted with the powers of the Source. The current Keeper is nearing the end of his thousand-year tenure, however, and asks the Doctor and Adric – who have escaped from E-Space – to go to Traken and stop an evil he believes is plotting to destroy the Union. But the source of the evil, the Melkur, has already infiltrated the Consuls of Traken,
and has the Doctor declared a criminal. Allying himself with Consul Tremas and his daughter, Nyssa, the Time Lord must uncover the true power behind the Melkur – someone who knows the Doctor of old.
Logopolis
28th February - 21st March 1981
After her aunt is murdered by the Master, an airline stewardess named Tegan Jovanka becomes an unwitting stowaway aboard the TARDIS as it travels to the planet Logopolis. There, the Doctor discovers that the Master's interference with the Logopolitans' advanced mathematics has unleashed a wave of entropy which threatens to consume the entire universe. The two Time Lords enter into an uneasy alliance. Their only hope lies on Earth... but then, in the moment of greatest crisis, the Master plays his ultimate trump card.
Tom Baker’s final year saw the programme undergo radical changes in front of the cameras and behind the scenes.
Producer John Nathan-Turner revamped the series with new writers, new directors, a new title sequence and theme arrangement, glossy production standards and – throughout the course of the season – a brand new regular cast. Over seven classic adventures, the Doctor and his companions encountered the Foamasi, Meglos, the Marshmen, vampires, and Tharils, building to a final deadly showdown between the Doctor and his arch-nemesis the Master.
All of this and more can be seen on the new Blu ray box set Doctor Who The Collection Season 18. Packed with every episode of Season 18 remastered for Blu Ray and all new special features including new special features and making of documentary for "Logopolis"
Available from 25th February 2019
Available to Pre Order Now.
