Tardis

New to Doctor Who or returning after a break? Check out our guides designed to help you find your way!

READ MORE

Tardis
Register
Advertisement
Tardis

RealWorld
You may be looking for series 6.

The sixth season of Doctor Who ran between 10 August 1968 and 21 June 1969. It featured Patrick Troughton as the Second Doctor.

Overview

Season 6 featured the first ever UNIT story, The Invasion, which showcased the return of Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart. It also featured the first official appearance of Time Lords and the Doctor's home planet (as yet unnamed). (Another member of Susan and the Doctor's race, the Monk, had appeared previously, but without much elaboration and without using the term "Time Lord".) It also marked the end of the black-and-white era and the tenure of Patrick Troughton as the Second Doctor. It consisted of seven serials and forty-four episodes, including two epic-length storylines: the eight episodes of The Invasion and the ten-episode The War Games. This season is fortunately more complete than the previous three seasons, of which only five serials exist. Seven episodes from this season are lost, although audio recordings remain for all; as a result, the DVD release of The Invasion uses animation to recreate the two missing episodes from that story. Season 6 is also the last season of Doctor Who to contain missing episodes, with all subsequent seasons affected by the then-in effect junking policy restored through various means.

Television stories

# Title Writer Episodes Notes
1 The Dominators Norman Ashby, aka
Mervyn Haisman
Henry Lincoln
(episode 5: with Derrick Sherwin, uncredited)
5 First story to be written under a pseudonym.
2 The Mind Robber Peter Ling
(episode 1: with Derrick Sherwin, uncredited)
5 Episode 1 first and only instalment to have no on-screen writer's credit. First and last story set in the Land of Fiction.
3 The Invasion Derrick Sherwin
Concept by Kit Pedler
8 First appearances of UNIT and John Benton, reintroduction of the Cybermen.
4 The Krotons Robert Holmes 4 First Robert Holmes script for Doctor Who.
5 The Seeds of Death Brian Hayles
(with Terrance Dicks, uncredited)
6 First Terrance Dicks script for Doctor Who, return of the Ice Warriors. (To keep the reappearance of the Ice Warriors a surprise, Steve Peters was credited as 'Alien' in Radio Times for episode 1.)
6 The Space Pirates Robert Holmes 6 First story of Doctor Who to be filmed using a "double banking" strategy.
7 The War Games Terrance Dicks
Malcolm Hulke
10 Final regular appearances of the Second Doctor, Jamie McCrimmon and Zoe Heriot; first identified appearances by the Time Lords; and first look at Gallifrey (not identified by name). Final black and white episode.

Cast

Season 6 was the first season since Season 1 in which the core cast remained unchanged for the entire series:

Recurring

Guest

Stories set during this season

Adaptations and merchandising

Home media

VHS

  • The Dominators (1990)
  • The Mind Robber (1990)
  • The Invasion (with narration of episodes 1 and 4) (1993)
  • The Krotons (1991)
  • The Seeds of Death (1985/1987) (Edited Movie Format)
  • The War Games (1990/2002) (on 2 tapes)
  • The Troughton Years (1991) (The Space Pirates episode 2)

Loose Cannon VHS releases

  • The Invasion (2003) (Episodes 1 and 4 only)
  • The Space Pirates (1998/2007) (Episodes 1, 3-6 only)

DVD

Serial name Number and duration
of episodes
R2 release date R4 release date R1 release date
The Dominators 5 × 25 min. 12 July 2010 2 September 2010 11 January 2011
The Mind Robber 5 × 20 min. 7 March 2005 5 May 2005 6 September 2005
The Invasion (episodes 2-3 & 5-8 of 8, animation of 1 & 4) 8 × 25 min. 6 November 2006 3 January 2007 6 March 2007
The Krotons 4 × 25 min. 2 July 2012 2 August 2012 10 July 2012
The Seeds of Death 6 × 25 min. 17 February 2003 5 May 2003 2 March 2004
The Seeds of Death – Special Edition
Only available as part of the Revisitations 2 box set in Regions 2 and 4.
Only available individually in Region 1.
6 × 25 min. 28 March 2011 5 May 2011 12 June 2012
The War Games 10 × 25 min. 6 July 2009 3 September 2009 3 November 2009
The Space Pirates (episode 2 of 6) 1 × 25 min.
1 November 2004 2 December 2004
(Original release)
1 July 2010
(Re-release)
2 November 2004

Download/streaming availability

Serial name Amazon Video BritBox Google Play iTunes
The Dominators
(5 episodes)
The Mind Robber
(5 episodes)
Except UK
The Invasion
(8 episodes
with animated reconstructions of episodes 1 & 4)
The Krotons
(4 episodes)
UK
The Seeds of Death
(6 episodes)
UK
The Space Pirates
The War Games
(10 episodes)

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

Novels

Other information

Novels and other media contend that further adventures of the Second Doctor occurred during Season 6B prior to his regeneration into the Third Doctor as seen in Season 7 of the television series.

External links

Advertisement