Season 11

Season 11 of Doctor Who ran between 15 December 1973 and 8 June 1974. It starred Jon Pertwee as the Third Doctor, Elisabeth Sladen as Sarah Jane Smith and Nicholas Courtney as Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart. The season opened with The Time Warrior and concluded with Planet of the Spiders.

Overview
It consisted of five serials comprised of twenty-six episodes. It was Jon Pertwee's final season as the Doctor and included, very briefly, the first appearance of Tom Baker as the Fourth Doctor. The Time Warrior, the season opener, introduced Sarah Jane Smith, who was a frequently featured character in the Doctor Who universe decades after her departure in Season 14. The same story also, for the first time, named the Doctor's homeworld as Gallifrey. UNIT also began to be phased out of the series during this season.

Some of the production team's original intentions for the season - notably to conclude it with a final showdown between the Doctor and - had to be dropped due to the tragic death of Roger Delgado in a car accident in Turkey. As a result of his death, Kismet Delgado was later cast in the final story of this season as a tribute to him.

The diamond shaped Doctor Who logo and tunnel effects with Jon Pertwee were introduced, paving the way for the Tom Baker era.

Season 11 was the last season to be subject to the BBC's then-current policy of junking old episodes. For reasons unknown, only the first episodes of Invasion of the Dinosaurs and Death to the Daleks were erased; copies of both episodes were later reacquired, albeit only in black-and-white in the former's case. It is believed by some that the first episode of Invasion of the Dinosaurs may have been accidentally wiped as a result of confusion between it and The Invasion (as the title card for the episode reads as simply Invasion).

This season also had an incredibly good write-up. The five writers for this season — Robert Holmes, Malcolm Hulke, Terry Nation, Brian Hayles and Robert Sloman — won an award from the Writer's Guild of Great Britain for Best Children's Drama Script.

This was the last season of Terrance Dicks' run as script editor, as well as the last season to feature more than one six-part story. This is also the first season since Season 7 to not feature the Master, who would not appear again until The Deadly Assassin in Season 14.

Cast

 * Doctor Who - Jon Pertwee
 * Sarah Jane Smith - Elisabeth Sladen
 * Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart - Nicholas Courtney

Recurring

 * Sergeant Benton - John Levene
 * Mike Yates - Richard Franklin
 * Alpha Centauri - Stuart Fell as body and Ysanne Churchman as voice
 * Aggedor - Nick Hobbs
 * Dalek Voices - Michael Wisher

Guest

 * Linx - Kevin Lindsay
 * Professor Rubeish - Donald Pelmear
 * Irongron - David Daker
 * Bloodaxe - John J. Carney
 * Eleanor - June Brown
 * Edward of Wessex - Alan Rowe
 * Hal - Jeremy Bulloch
 * General Finch - John Bennet
 * Charles Grover M.P. - Noel Johnson
 * Professor Whitaker - Peter Miles
 * Butler - Martin Jarvis
 * Ruth - Carmen Silvera
 * Adam - Brian Badcoe
 * Dan Galloway - Duncan Lamont
 * Peter Hamilton - Julian Fox
 * Jill Tarrant - Joy Harrison
 * Bellal - Arnold Yarrow
 * Richard Railton - John Abineri
 * Eckersley - Donald Gee
 * Thalira - Nina Thomas
 * Ortron - Frank Gatliff
 * Gebek - Rex Robinson
 * Ettis - Ralph Watson
 * Azaxyr - Alan Bennion
 * Sskel - Sonny Caldinez
 * Lupton - John Dearth
 * Barnes - Christopher Burgess
 * Moss - Terence Lodge
 * Cho-Je - Kevin Lindsay
 * Tommy - John Kane
 * Spider Voices - Ysanne Churchman, Kismet Delgado, Maureen Morris
 * Arak - Gareth Hunt
 * Sabor - Geoffrey Morris
 * K'anpo - George Cormack

Stories set during this season

 * AUDIO: The Prisoner of Peladon (between The Green Death and The Time Warrior)
 * AUDIO: The Paradise of Death (between The Time Warrior and Invasion of the Dinosaurs)
 * AUDIO: Kaleidoscope (somewhere between Invasion of the Dinosaurs and Planet of the Spiders)
 * PROSE: The Hungry Bomb (between Death to the Daleks and The Monster of Peladon)
 * PROSE: The Ghosts of N-Space / AUDIO: The Ghosts of N-Space (between Death to the Daleks and The Monster of Peladon)
 * PROSE: Island of Death (after The Ghosts of N-Space)
 * PROSE: Amorality Tale (between The Monster of Peladon and Planet of the Spiders)
 * PROSE: An Overture Too Early (shortly before Planet of the Spiders)

VHS releases

 * The Time Warrior (1989) (edited movie format)
 * Invasion of the Dinosaurs (2003) (Invasion part 1 in B/W)
 * Death to the Daleks (1987/1995)
 * The Monster of Peladon (1995)
 * Planet of the Spiders (1991)

DVD & Blu-ray releases
All serials of season 11 were released on DVD between 2007 and 2012.

Download/streaming availability
  BritBox is available only in the US and Canada. iTunes stores carry Doctor Who serials in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the UK and US, unless stated otherwise.

Novels

 * Doctor Who and the Time Warrior
 * Doctor Who and the Dinosaur Invasion
 * Death to the Daleks
 * Doctor Who and the Monster of Peladon
 * Doctor Who and the Planet of the Spiders