Fang Citadel

Lore & Background

Graham Williams took over as producer from Philip Hinchcliffe. Robert Holmes was replaced as script editor by Anthony Read, during The Sun Makers. The season took a short transmission break of two weeks over the Christmas 1977 period, between the broadcasts of The Sun Makers and Underworld.

In Their Own Story

Season fifteen proved to be a difficult transition period. Philip Hinchcliffe's departure coincided with the loss of a number of long-time contributors to the show as Graham Williams took over as Producer. Williams remarked, "I had to try and find some new ones, and that wasn't the least of the problems. Bob Holmes was stuck on Weng-Chiang for ages... all the scripts were coming in late...". Robert Holmes remained to work on the three stories he had commissioned, while his successor, Anthony Read, trailed him in preparation of taking over the position. Read, an experienced director and producer, had only agreed to the position of Script Editor because he was intrigued by the chance to work on Doctor Who. Holmes completed Horror of Fang Rock and The Invisible Enemy, before leaving due to creative exhaustion. Image of the Fendahl fell to Read, who had to hastily write K-9 into the story when Holmes made him a regular character. While Tom Baker enjoyed working with John Leeson (the voice of K-9) in rehearsals, he disliked the prop. Holmes recalled, "it used to drive Tom spare, and more often than not, he'd kick it out of frustration." Holmes agreed to write The Sun Makers, and while the story was meant to follow K-9's introduction and establish him as a regular character, scheduling problems—resulting in the shelving of scripts that Fang Rock had to replace—required the story order to change, with Fendahl preceding it. Baker had found it difficult to accept the violent Leela character since her introduction, contributing to growing tensions between himself and Louise Jameson. According to Jameson, the tension came to a head during the recording of Fang Rock, when she finally confronted Baker over multiple takes of a scene caused by him entering early and cutting her off. Tensions between the two eased over the course of the season. Read commissioned Bob Baker and Dave Martin to write Underworld, the penultimate story of the season. Right away, the production was hit hard by record inflation, resulting in the design staff working day and night and inventing new techniques and processes to complete the story on time. The final story, The Invasion of Time, proved even more chaotic: with a reduced budget, a complete last-minute re-write by Read and Williams, and a BBC industrial-dispute between the props department and the electricians.

Reader's Guide

Read approached David Weir, an old co-worker of his, to write the planned finale to the season, Killers of the Dark. This would have had elements of Asian culture, and included a race of cat people with links to Gallifrey; it was determined impossible to shoot within the show's budget, and scrapped two weeks before filming, resulting in The Invasion of Time being hastily produced to serve as the season's finale. Douglas Adams' The Krikkitmen was a proposal submitted to the production office around the time he was working on The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy radio series. Holmes rejected the script and encouraged Adams to work on The Hitchhiker's Guide and future proposals for Doctor Who, leading to his commission for The Pirate Planet. Adams would later revise the script as part of a pitch in 1980 for a Doctor Who feature film, though plans failed to develop. Ideas from The Krikkitmen were later incorporated into his book Life, the Universe and Everything, the second sequel of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Another story by Moris Farhi titled The Divided was left unproduced and scrapped, with Farhi later stating he didn't remember what the story was about.

Did You Know?

• The entire season was broadcast from 3 September 1977 to 11 March 1978, but with a three week break between the fourth and fifth serials from 17 December 1977 to 7 January 1978.
• Tom Baker and Louise Jameson continue their roles as the Fourth Doctor and Leela.
• K9, played by John Leeson, makes his first appearance during the second serial The Invisible Enemy.
• Louise Jameson makes her final appearance as Leela in The Invasion of Time.
• The season took a short transmission break of two weeks over the Christmas 1977 period, between the broadcasts of The Sun Makers and Underworld.