Doctor Who (season 18)

The eighteenth season of British science fiction television series Doctor Who began on 30 August 1980 with the serial The Leisure Hive, and ended with Tom Baker's last story Logopolis.

Doctor Who
Season 18
Cover art of the Blu-ray release for the complete season
Starring	Tom Baker Lalla Ward John Leeson Matthew Waterhouse Sarah Sutton Janet Fielding
Country of origin	United Kingdom
No. of stories	7
No. of episodes	28
Release
Original network	BBC1
Original release	30 August 1980 – 21 March 1981
Season chronology

Casting

Main cast

• Tom Baker as the Fourth Doctor
• Lalla Ward as Romana
• John Leeson as Voice of K9[note 1]
• Matthew Waterhouse as Adric
• Sarah Sutton as Nyssa
• Janet Fielding as Tegan Jovanka

Season 18 sees the swan song of Tom Baker as the Fourth Doctor, ending his time after seven years on the program. New companions Adric (Matthew Waterhouse), Nyssa (Sarah Sutton), and Tegan Jovanka (Janet Fielding) make their introductions in Full Circle, The Keeper of Traken, and Logopolis, respectively. Romana, played by Lalla Ward, departs from the series in Warriors' Gate, along with John Leeson who returns to voice the robot K9. With the arrival of Adric, this season marks the first time since 1967 that the show has given the Doctor a party of three travelling companions.

Guest stars

The Master returned to the show, this time played by Geoffrey Beevers, in The Keeper of Traken. After the events of Traken the Master was thereafter played by Anthony Ainley, who would continue in the part for the rest of the classic series' run.

Jacqueline Hill, who had played the First Doctor's companion Barbara Wright, returned in Meglos, although this time playing a different character, the alien priestess Lexa.

Serials

For Season 18 John Nathan-Turner replaces Graham Williams as producer. Barry Letts returns as executive producer, for just this season. Christopher H. Bidmead also replaces Douglas Adams as script editor. In a return to the format of early seasons, virtually all serials from Seasons 18 through 20 are linked together, often running directly into each other. Three serials – Full Circle, State of Decay, and Warriors' Gate – are part of a trilogy within the season. These three serials include the arrival of Adric and the departure of Romana and K9.

Over the period of Christmas 1980, the season took a two-week transmission break between the broadcasts of State of Decay and Warriors' Gate.

Story	Serial	Serial title	Episode titles	Directed by	Written by	Original air date	Prod. code	UK viewers (millions) [1]	AI [1]
109	1	The Leisure Hive	"Part One"	Lovett Bickford	David Fisher	30 August 1980	5N	5.9	—
			"Part Two"	Lovett Bickford	David Fisher	6 September 1980	5N	5.0	—
			"Part Three"	Lovett Bickford	David Fisher	13 September 1980	5N	5.0	—
			"Part Four"	Lovett Bickford	David Fisher	20 September 1980	5N	4.5	65
In search of a holiday, the Doctor and Romana travel to the famous Leisure Hive on Argolis, a planet ravaged by a nuclear war with the reptilian Foamasi years earlier. The main attraction of the Hive is a device called the Tachyon Recreation Generator, but when things start to go mysteriously wrong with the machine, the Doctor realises that evil is afoot in the Hive. He and Romana begin to unearth a tangled conspiracy which may lead to a new, deadlier war between the Argolins and the Foamasi.
110	2	Meglos	"Part One"	Terence Dudley	John Flanagan & Andrew McCulloch	27 September 1980	5Q	5.0	61
			"Part Two"	Terence Dudley	John Flanagan & Andrew McCulloch	4 October 1980	5Q	4.2	64
			"Part Three"	Terence Dudley	John Flanagan & Andrew McCulloch	11 October 1980	5Q	4.7	—
			"Part Four"	Terence Dudley	John Flanagan & Andrew McCulloch	18 October 1980	5Q	4.7	63
The Doctor is summoned back to the planet Tigella, where the population is divided along religious and scientific lines. Something is going terribly wrong with Tigella's main power source, the Dodecahedron, but the Savants are prevented from investigating by the zealous Deons. To make matters worse, before the Doctor can solve the problem with the Dodecahedron, he is accused of its theft. The true culprit is Meglos, a shapeshifting Zolfa-Thuran, who intends to unleash the full might of the Dodecahedron upon the universe.
111	3	Full Circle	"Part One"	Peter Grimwade	Andrew Smith	25 October 1980	5R	5.9	—
			"Part Two"	Peter Grimwade	Andrew Smith	1 November 1980	5R	3.7	—
			"Part Three"	Peter Grimwade	Andrew Smith	8 November 1980	5R	5.9	—
			"Part Four"	Peter Grimwade	Andrew Smith	15 November 1980	5R	5.4	65
Romana is recalled to Gallifrey, but en route the TARDIS is drawn through a Charged Vacuum Emboitment into another universe, called E-Space. Landing on the planet Alzarius, the Doctor meets a group of humans who are trying to rebuild their spacecraft which crashlanded generations ago. When Marshmen begin rising from the swamps during the dreaded time of Mistfall, however, the Doctor realises that there is something amiss on Alzarius, and begins to unravel a genetic riddle which stretches back centuries.
112	4	State of Decay	"Part One"	Peter Moffatt	Terrance Dicks	22 November 1980	5P	5.8	—
			"Part Two"	Peter Moffatt	Terrance Dicks	29 November 1980	5P	5.3	—
			"Part Three"	Peter Moffatt	Terrance Dicks	6 December 1980	5P	4.4	—
			"Part Four"	Peter Moffatt	Terrance Dicks	13 December 1980	5P	5.4	69
Still trapped in E-Space, the TARDIS materialises on a medieval planet. The townsfolk live in fear of the Three Who Rule, who govern from their mighty castle. Investigating, the Doctor discovers that the Three Who Rule are ancient astronauts who were turned into vampires long ago, and their castle is actually their spaceship. When Romana and Adric are kidnapped, the Doctor must ally himself with a band of renegade peasants to stop the resurrection of one of Gallifrey's greatest enemies: the Great Vampire itself.
113	5	Warriors' Gate	"Part One"	Paul Joyce & Graeme Harper (uncredited)	Stephen Gallagher	3 January 1981	5S	7.1	59
			"Part Two"	Paul Joyce & Graeme Harper (uncredited)	Stephen Gallagher	10 January 1981	5S	6.7	—
			"Part Three"	Paul Joyce & Graeme Harper (uncredited)	Stephen Gallagher	17 January 1981	5S	8.3	—
			"Part Four"	Paul Joyce & Graeme Harper (uncredited)	Stephen Gallagher	24 January 1981	5S	7.8	59
Trying to escape from E-Space, the Doctor, Romana, Adric and K9 instead land in an eerie white void whose only feature is a crumbling old keep. Also trapped in the void is a slave ship captained by the cruel Rorvik, whose time sensitive pilot, the leonine Tharil Biroc, escapes and lures the Doctor into the keep and the mirror gateway beyond. There, the Doctor witnesses the rise and fall of the once-mighty Tharil Empire. He realises that he must free the Tharils enslaved on the ship and escape through the gateway, before Rorvik's vengeful actions destroy them all.
114	6	The Keeper of Traken	"Part One"	John Black	Johnny Byrne	31 January 1981	5T	7.6	—
			"Part Two"	John Black	Johnny Byrne	7 February 1981	5T	6.1	—
			"Part Three"	John Black	Johnny Byrne	14 February 1981	5T	5.2	—
			"Part Four"	John Black	Johnny Byrne	21 February 1981	5T	6.1	63
The Union of Traken is governed by a Keeper gifted with the powers of the Source. The current Keeper is nearing the end of his thousand-year tenure, however, and asks the Doctor and Adric – who have escaped from E-Space – to go to Traken and stop an evil he believes is plotting to destroy the Union. But the source of the evil, the Melkur, has already infiltrated the Consuls of Traken, and has the Doctor declared a criminal. Allying himself with Consul Tremas and his daughter, Nyssa, the Time Lord must uncover the true power behind the Melkur – someone who knows the Doctor of old.
115	7	Logopolis	"Part One"	Peter Grimwade	Christopher H. Bidmead	28 February 1981	5V	7.7	—
			"Part Two"	Peter Grimwade	Christopher H. Bidmead	7 March 1981	5V	7.7	61
			"Part Three"	Peter Grimwade	Christopher H. Bidmead	14 March 1981	5V	5.8	—
			"Part Four"	Peter Grimwade	Christopher H. Bidmead	21 March 1981	5V	6.1	65
After her aunt is murdered by the Master, an airline stewardess named Tegan Jovanka becomes an unwitting stowaway aboard the TARDIS as it travels to the planet Logopolis. There, the Doctor discovers that the Master's interference with the Logopolitans' advanced mathematics has unleashed a wave of entropy which threatens to consume the entire universe. The two Time Lords enter into an uneasy alliance. Their only hope lies on Earth... but then, in the moment of greatest crisis, the Master plays his ultimate trump card.

Broadcast

The entire season was broadcast from 30 August 1980 to 21 March 1981.

Home media

VHS releases

Season	Story no.	Serial name	Number and duration of episodes	R2 release date	R4 release date	R1 release date
18	110	The Leisure Hive	4 x 25 min.	January 1997	September 1997	May 1997
	111	Meglos	4 x 25 min	March 2003	June 2003	October 2003
	112 113 114	The E-Space Trilogy Full Circle State of Decay Warriors' Gate	12 x 25 min	November 1997 3 x VHS	October 1997 3 x VHS	July 1998 3 x VHS
	115	The Keeper of Traken	4 x 25 min	June 1993	September 1993	February 1994
	116	Logopolis	4 x 25 min	March 1992	September 1992	October 1993

DVD and Blu-ray releases

Season	Story no.	Serial name	Number and duration of episodes	R2 release date	R4 release date	R1 release date
18	109	The Leisure Hive	4 × 25 min.	5 July 2004[2]	7 October 2004[3]	7 June 2005[4]
	110	Meglos	4 × 25 min.	10 January 2011[5]	20 January 2011[6]	11 January 2011[7]
	111–113	Full Circle State of Decay Warriors' Gate	12 × 25 min.[lower-alpha 1]	26 January 2009[8]	9 April 2009[9]	5 May 2009[10]
	114	The Keeper of Traken[lower-alpha 2]	4 × 25 min.	29 January 2007[11]	7 March 2007[12]	5 June 2007[13]
	115	Logopolis[lower-alpha 3]	4 × 25 min.	29 January 2007[11]	7 March 2007[12]	5 June 2007[14]
	109–115	Complete Season 18[lower-alpha 4]	28 × 25 min.	18 March 2019^(B)[15]	17 April 2019^(B)[16]	19 March 2019^(B)[17]

1. Known collectively as The E-Space Trilogy. Each serial comprises four episodes.
2. Only available as part of the New Beginnings box set in Regions 2 and 4. Available individually or in the box set in Region 1.
3. Available as part of the New Beginnings box set or the Regeneration box set in Region 2. Only available as part of the New Beginnings box set in Region 4. Available individually or as part of the New Beginnings box set in Region 1.
4. Released as Doctor Who: The Collection – Season 18 in Region B. Released as Doctor Who – Tom Baker: Complete Season Seven in Region A.

In print

Serial name	Novelisation title	Author	First published
The Leisure Hive	Doctor Who and the Leisure Hive	David Fisher	22 July 1982
Meglos	Meglos	Terrance Dicks	5 May 1983
Full Circle	Full Circle	Andrew Smith	16 September 1982
State of Decay	Doctor Who and the State of Decay	Terrance Dicks	17 September 1981
Warriors' Gate	Doctor Who and Warriors' Gate	John Lydecker	15 April 1982
The Keeper of Traken	Doctor Who and the Keeper of Traken	Terrance Dicks	20 May 1982
Logopolis	Logopolis	Christopher H. Bidmead	21 October 1982

Notes

1. Spelt "K.9" in the credits of Meglos and Full Circle

References

1. "Ratings Guide". Doctor Who News. Retrieved 27 December 2014.
2. "Doctor Who: The Leisure Hive". 5 July 2004. Retrieved 16 November 2017 – via Amazon.
3. "The Doctor Who - Leisure Hive by Roadshow Home Ent - Shop Online for Movies, DVDs in Australia". Fishpond. Retrieved 16 November 2017.
4. "Doctor Who: The Leisure Hive". 7 June 2005. Retrieved 16 November 2017 – via Amazon.
5. "Doctor Who - Meglos". 10 January 2011. Retrieved 16 November 2017 – via Amazon.
6. "Doctor Who Meglos by Roadshow Entertainment - Shop Online for Movies, DVDs in Australia". Fishpond. Retrieved 16 November 2017.
7. "Doctor Who: Meglos". 11 January 2011. Retrieved 16 November 2017 – via Amazon.
8. "Doctor Who: The E-Space Trilogy". 26 January 2009. Retrieved 16 November 2017 – via Amazon.
9. "Doctor Who by Roadshow Entertainment - Shop Online for Movies, DVDs in Australia". Fishpond. Retrieved 16 November 2017.
10. "Doctor Who: The E-Space Trilogy". 5 May 2009. Retrieved 16 November 2017 – via Amazon.
11. "Doctor Who - New Beginnings". 29 January 2007. Retrieved 16 November 2017 – via Amazon.
12. "Doctor Who New Beginnings by Roadshow Entertainment - Shop Online for Movies, DVDs in Australia". Fishpond. Retrieved 16 November 2017.
13. "Doctor Who: The Keeper of Traken". 5 June 2007. Retrieved 16 November 2017 – via Amazon.
14. "Doctor Who: Logopolis". 5 June 2007. Retrieved 16 November 2017 – via Amazon.
15. "Doctor Who - The Collection - Season 18 - Limited Edition Packaging [Blu-ray] [2019]". Retrieved 27 November 2018 – via Amazon.
16. "Doctor Who: Classic Season 18". JB Hi-Fi. Retrieved 16 April 2019.
17. Doctor Who - Tom Baker: Complete Season Seven [Blu-ray] [2019]. ASIN 6317626030.CS1 maint: ignored ISBN errors (link) CS1 maint: ASIN uses ISBN (link)