Doctor Who (season 7)

This article is about the 1970 season. For the 2012/13 series, see Doctor Who (series 7).

Doctor Who (season 7)
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Starring	Jon Pertwee Caroline John Nicholas Courtney John Levene
Country of origin	United Kingdom
No. of episodes	25 4 stories
Release
Original network	BBC One
Original release	3 January 1970 (1970-01-03) – 20 June 1970 (1970-06-20)

The seventh season of British science fiction television series Doctor Who began on 3 January 1970 with Jon Pertwee's first story Spearhead from Space and ended with Inferno.

Casting

See also: List of Doctor Who cast members

Main cast

• Jon Pertwee as the Third Doctor
• Caroline John as Liz Shaw

Jon Pertwee makes his first appearance as the Third Doctor replacing Patrick Troughton in the role. Caroline John makes her first appearance as companion and assistant Liz Shaw in Spearhead from Space and last in Inferno.

Recurring cast

• Nicholas Courtney as Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart
• John Levene as Sergeant Benton

Nicholas Courtney returns as Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart and he would continue to make regular appearances in Doctor Who until season 13.

John Levene also makes his first appearance as Sergeant Benton since The Invasion in The Ambassadors of Death and would continue to make regular appearances until season 13.

Serials

Barry Letts took over as producer from Derrick Sherwin after Spearhead from Space. From this season onwards the programme was produced in colour. To accommodate the new production methods the number of episodes in a season was cut: season 6 has 44 episodes; season 7 has 25 episodes. The seasons would continue to have between 20 and 26 episodes until season 22. Following the opening four parter, the remaining episodes were divided into three serials each of seven episodes. This, along with setting the entire season exclusively on Earth, had been the choice of Peter Bryant and Derrick Sherwin, which Letts and script editor Terrance Dicks were unhappy with.

Spearhead from Space was intended to be produced identically to previous serials, with a mixture of location material shot on 16mm film, and studio based material on videotape. Owing to industrial action by studio technicians at the BBC, the planned studio recording sessions were cancelled, with instead all four episodes being shot on location on 16mm film.

Story	Serial	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original air date	Prod. code	UK viewers (millions)	AI
51	1	Spearhead from Space	Derek Martinus	Robert Holmes	3 January 1970 10 January 1970 17 January 1970 24 January 1970	AAA	8.4 8.1 8.3 8.1	54 — — 57
The newly regenerated Doctor is exiled to Earth in the 20th century. At the same time, a swarm of meteorites fall in Oxley Woods. The Doctor has to devise a way to destroy the Autons before they replace the people of the earth with a plastic population.
52	2	Doctor Who and the Silurians	Timothy Combe	Malcolm Hulke	31 January 1970 7 February 1970 14 February 1970 21 February 1970 28 February 1970 7 March 1970 14 March 1970	BBB	8.8 7.3 7.5 8.2 7.5 7.2 7.5	58 58 57 60 58 57 58
Awoken from their sleep , creatures named as Silurians are lurking under a nuclear power research centre, driving people insane. A cave exploration goes wrong and a plan to wipe out humans is brewing below
53	3	The Ambassadors of Death	Michael Ferguson	David Whitaker, Trevor Ray and Malcolm Hulke	21 March 1970 28 March 1970 4 April 1970 11 April 1970 18 April 1970 25 April 1970 2 May 1970	CCC	7.1 7.6 8.0 9.3 7.1 6.9 6.4	60 61 59 58 — 61 62
The British space programme oversees the launch of the Recovery Seven probe that has been sent to Mars to make contact with the missing Mars Probe Seven and its two astronauts, who lost contact with Earth eight months earlier. Van Lyden makes contact with the Probe but is then silenced by a piercing unearthly sound.
54	4	Inferno	Douglas Camfield and Barry Letts	Don Houghton	9 May 1970 16 May 1970 23 May 1970 30 May 1970 6 June 1970 13 June 1970 20 June 1970	DDD	5.7 5.9 4.8 6.0 5.4 6.7 5.5	61 61 60 60 — 58 60
Inferno is the nickname given to a project to penetrate the Earth's crust. The project, however, has its own problems and the Doctor is sent to an alternate universe.

Broadcast

The entire season was broadcast from 3 January to 20 June 1970. Peter Bryant and Derrick Sherwin had originally envisaged replacing Doctor Who with a Quatermass-style serial, with Nigel Kneale involved, but this fell through when Kneale refused to write for the show. The plan did, however, have an effect on the programme, seeing the Doctor exiled to a near-future earth as UNIT's scientific advisor.

DVD/Blu-ray releases

See also: List of Doctor Who home video releases

Serial name	Number and duration of episodes	R2 release date	R4 release date	R1 release date
Spearhead from Space	4 × 25 min.	29 January 2001	12 September 2001	11 September 2001
Spearhead from Space – Special Edition Only available as part of the Mannequin Mania box set in Regions 2 and 4.	4 × 25 min.	9 May 2011	2 June 2011	14 August 2012
Spearhead from Space – Blu-ray Edition Includes bonus features exclusive to Blu-ray	4 × 25 min.	15 July 2013	17 July 2013	13 August 2013
Spearhead from Space - "Doctor Who DVD Files" Issue 35	4 × 25 min.	5 May 2010	5 May 2010	N/A
Doctor Who and the Silurians Only available as part of the Beneath the Surface box set in Regions 2 and 4. Available individually or in the box set in Region 1.	7 × 25 min.	14 January 2008	5 March 2008	3 June 2008
Doctor Who and the Silurians - "Doctor Who DVD Files" Issue 65	7 × 25 min.	29 June 2011	29 June 2011	N/A
The Ambassadors of Death	7 × 25 min.	1 October 2012	3 October 2012	9 October 2012
Inferno	7 × 25 min.	19 June 2006	6 July 2006	5 September 2006
Inferno - Special Edition	7 x 25 min.	27 May 2013	5 June 2013	11 June 2013
Inferno - "Doctor Who DVD Files" Issue 44	7 × 25 min.	8 September 2010	8 September 2010	N/A

In print

Main article: List of Doctor Who novelisations

Serial name	Novelisation title	Author	First published
Spearhead from Space	Doctor Who and the Auton Invasion	Terrance Dicks	1974
Doctor Who and the Silurians	Doctor Who and the Cave Monsters	Malcolm Hulke	1974
The Ambassadors of Death	The Ambassadors of Death	Terrance Dicks	1987
Inferno	Inferno	Terrance Dicks	1984