Season 14

Season 14 of Doctor Who ran from 4 September 1976 to 2 April 1977. It starred Tom Baker as the Fourth Doctor, Elisabeth Sladen as Sarah-Jane Smith and Louise Jameson as Leela. The season opened with The Masque of Mandragora and concluded with The Talons of Weng-Chiang.

On 20 April 2020, the season was released on a Blu-ray Box Set.

Overview
It consisted of six serials comprised of twenty-six episodes. The season is notable for the departure of Sarah Jane Smith in The Hand of Fear and for The Deadly Assassin, a story set entirely on Gallifrey which expounded greatly upon the culture and history of the Time Lords, and the Eye of Harmony and Rassilon are mentioned for the first time. The Deadly Assassin also featured the return of in a degenerated form and had the Doctor without a companion for an entire story for the first time in the history of Doctor Who. This story is also the first time the limit of regenerations is set.

The season also introduced new companion Leela. The overall gothic ambience of the season was supported by the introduction of the TARDIS' secondary console room, which would be used in lieu of the traditional console room into the next season. A new TARDIS police box prop was also created for this season by Barry Newbery, as the original prop was now too decayed to continue using on the show. This new prop would be used for the next few seasons.

Like the 2011 series, it was comprised of two distinct "halves", separated by a chunk of time when the programme wasn't transmitting new episodes. Though not quite as long as the 2011 gap, the show stopped broadcasting in mid-November and didn't return until New Year's Day. Contemporaneous marketing suggested that The Face of Evil — the serial which began on 1 January 1977 — was actually the start of a new series of Doctor Who. (INFO: The Face of Evil) This fact, however, is ill-remembered and no reference work published since the event has ever seriously suggested that Face was the season 15 opener.

Cast

 * Doctor Who - Tom Baker


 * Sarah Jane Smith - Elisabeth Sladen
 * Leela - Louise Jameson

Guest

 * Count Federico - John Laurimore
 * Giuliano - Gareth Armstrong
 * Marco - Tim Piggott-Smith
 * Captain Rossini - Antony Carrick
 * Hieronymous - Norman Jones
 * Dr. Carter - Rex Robinson
 * Professor Watson - Glyn Houston
 * Eldrad - Judith Paris
 * Kastrian Eldrad - Stephen Thorne
 * Chancellor Goth - Bernard Horsfall
 * Castellan Spandrell - George Pravda
 * Co-ordinator Engin - Erik Chitty
 * Commentator Runcible - Hugh Walters
 * The Master - Peter Pratt
 * Neeva - David Garfield
 * Tomas - Brendan Price
 * Calib - Leslie Schofield
 * Jabel - Leon Eagles
 * Gentek - Mike Ellis
 * Uvanov - Russell Hunter
 * Toos - Pamela Salem
 * Poul - David Collings
 * D84 - Gregory de Polnay
 * SV7 - Miles Fothergill
 * Li H'sen Chang - John Bennet
 * Jago - Christopher Benjamin
 * Professor Lifefoot - Trevor Baxter
 * Mr Sin - Deep Roy
 * Casey - Chris Gannon
 * P.C. Quick - Conrad Asquith
 * Weng-Chiang - Michael Spice

Stories set during this season
After The Deadly Assassin :
 * PROSE: Ghost Ship
 * PROSE: Millennium Shock
 * PROSE: Asylum

After The Robots of Death :
 * PROSE: Drift
 * PROSE: Last Man Running
 * PROSE: Corpse Marker
 * PROSE: Psi-ence Fiction
 * PROSE: Match of the Day
 * AUDIO: The Foe from the Future
 * Involvement in AUDIO: The Light at the End

VHS releases

 * The Masque of Mandragora (1991)
 * The Hand of Fear (1996)
 * The Deadly Assassin (1991)
 * The Face of Evil (1999)
 * The Robots of Death (1986) (edited movie format)
 * The Robots of Death (1995)
 * The Talons of Weng-Chiang (1988)
 * The Tom Baker Years (extracts from all of the stories) (1991)

DVD & Blu-ray releases
All serials of season 14 were released between 2000 to 2012. The complete season was upscaled in 1080i50 high definition and released on Blu-ray as Doctor Who: The Collection - Season 14 in the UK on 20 April 2020.

Novels

 * Doctor Who and the Masque of Mandragora
 * Doctor Who and the Hand of Fear
 * Doctor Who and the Deadly Assassin
 * Doctor Who and the Face of Evil
 * Doctor Who and the Robots of Death
 * Doctor Who and the Talons of Weng-Chiang