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Tardis
RealWorld

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.[1]

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 the Decayed Master 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.

Television stories[]

# Title Writer Episodes Notes
1 The Masque of Mandragora Louis Marks 4 Debut of the secondary TARDIS console room.
2 The Hand of Fear Bob Baker
Dave Martin
4 Final regular appearance of Sarah Jane Smith. Final story to be directed by Lennie Mayne.
3 The Deadly Assassin Robert Holmes 4 First story set entirely on Gallifrey. Only story of the classic series in which the Doctor does not have a companion. First appearance of the Matrix and Borusa, and the debut of the Decayed Master. First mention of Rassilon. Introduction of the twelve regeneration limit for Time Lords.
4 The Face of Evil Chris Boucher 4 First appearance of Leela. First story to be written by Chris Boucher and the directorial debut on the programme for Pennant Roberts.
5 The Robots of Death 4 First appearance of the Sandminer robots, and introduction of Kaldor City. Final story to be directed by Michael E. Briant. Last appearance of the secondary console room.
6 The Talons of Weng-Chiang Robert Holmes 6 First appearance of Jago and Litefoot. Final story to be produced by Philip Hinchcliffe and directed by David Maloney.

Cast[]

Guest[]

Stories set during this season[]

Novels[]

Short stories[]

Audio[]

Comics[]

to be added

Adaptations and merchandising[]

Home media[]

VHS releases[]

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.

Serial name Number and duration
of episodes
R2 release date R4 release date R1 release date
The Masque of Mandragora 4 × 25 min. 8 February 2010 31 March 2010 4 May 2010
The Hand of Fear 4 × 25 min. 24 July 2006 7 September 2006 7 November 2006
The Deadly Assassin 4 × 25 min. 11 May 2009 2 July 2009 1 September 2009
The Face of Evil 4 × 25 min. 5 March 2012 5 April 2012 13 March 2012
The Robots of Death 4 × 25 min. 13 November 2000 2 July 2001 11 September 2001
The Robots of Death – Special Edition
Only available as part of the Revisitations 3 box set in Regions 2 and 4.
Only available individually in Region 1.
4 × 25 min. 13 February 2012 1 March 2012 13 March 2012
The Talons of Weng-Chiang 6 × 25 min. 28 April 2003 30 June 2003 7 October 2003
The Talons of Weng-Chiang – Special Edition
Only available as part of the Revisitations 1 box set in Regions 2 and 4.
Only available individually in Region 1.
6 × 25 min. 4 October 2010 2 December 2010 11 October 2011
The Collection - Season 14 26 x 25 min. 20 April 2020 15 July 2020 4 August 2020

Download/streaming availability[]

Serial name Amazon Video BritBox (US) BritBox (Canada) iTunes
The Masque of Mandragora (4 episodes)
The Hand of Fear (4 episodes)
The Deadly Assassin (4 episodes)
The Face of Evil (4 episodes)
The Robots of Death (4 episodes)
The Talons of Weng-Chiang (6 episodes)

Novels[]

See also[]

External links[]

Footnotes[]

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