Doctor Who (season 21)

The twenty-first season of British science fiction television series Doctor Who began on 5 January 1984 with the 5th Doctor (Peter Davison) serial Warriors of the Deep, and ended with Colin Baker's first serial The Twin Dilemma. For only the second time (the first being during season 4), the entire TARDIS crew changed over the course of a single season.

Doctor Who
Season 21
Cover art of the Region 2 DVD release for first serial of the season
Starring	Peter Davison Janet Fielding Mark Strickson Gerald Flood Nicola Bryant Colin Baker
Country of origin	United Kingdom
No. of stories	7
No. of episodes	24
Release
Original network	BBC1
Original release	5 January – 30 March 1984
Season chronology

Casting

Main cast

• Peter Davison as the Fifth Doctor
• Janet Fielding as Tegan Jovanka
• Mark Strickson as Vislor Turlough
• Gerald Flood as Voice of Kamelion
• Nicola Bryant as Peri Brown
• Colin Baker as the Sixth Doctor

The Doctor

Peter Davison makes his final regular appearance as the Doctor in The Caves of Androzani. Colin Baker makes his first full appearance as the Doctor in the final serial The Twin Dilemma.

Companions

Janet Fielding (Tegan Jovanka) and Mark Strickson (Vislor Turlough) continue their roles as the Fifth Doctor's companions for their final season, Janet Fielding leaves in Resurrection of the Daleks and Mark Strickson departs in Planet of Fire. New companion Peri Brown played by Nicola Bryant makes her first appearance in Planet of Fire.

The Shape-shifting Android Companion Kamelion, played by Gerald Flood, makes his second and final appearance in Planet of Fire, though the character itself – along with other Fifth Doctor companions who left by this story (Tegan, Nyssa, Adric, and Turlough) – all make illusionary cameos as the Doctor regenerates at the climax of The Caves of Androzani.

Recurring stars

• Anthony Ainley as The Master

Anthony Ainley returns yet again in Planet of Fire as the Master, which was intended to be his final appearance. Ainley, like other departed fifth Doctor companions make illusionary cameos as the Doctor regenerates.

Guest stars

Davros makes his first appearance since Destiny of the Daleks (1979) this time played by Terry Molloy.

Serials

Episodes were broadcast twice weekly on Thursday and Friday evenings, with Resurrection of the Daleks broadcast on two consecutive Wednesday nights.

Resurrection of the Daleks was planned as a standard four-parter.[1] However, the BBC's coverage of the 1984 Winter Olympics meant that Doctor Who's normal timeslot was unavailable. Rather than delay broadcasting the story, the decision was taken to produce it as a pair of double length episodes and broadcast it in the unfamiliar Wednesday timeslot.

The Caves of Androzani was the first time since Season 4's The Tenth Planet that the introduction of a new Doctor had taken place before the final serial of the season.

Story	Serial	Serial title	Episode titles	Directed by	Written by	Original air date	Prod. code	UK viewers (millions) [2]	AI [2]
130	1	Warriors of the Deep	"Part One"	Pennant Roberts	Johnny Byrne	5 January 1984	6L	7.6	65
			"Part Two"	Pennant Roberts	Johnny Byrne	6 January 1984	6L	7.5	64
			"Part Three"	Pennant Roberts	Johnny Byrne	12 January 1984	6L	7.3	62
			"Part Four"	Pennant Roberts	Johnny Byrne	13 January 1984	6L	6.6	65
The TARDIS materialises in a seabase in the year 2084. Earth in the late 21st century is divided between two power blocs waging a bitter cold war, forever threatening to escalate into violent conflict. Mysterious accidents have been occurring on the seabase, including the deaths of key personnel. Investigating, the Doctor, Tegan and Turlough discover that not only have double agents infiltrated the seabase, but the Doctor's old foes, the Silurians and Sea Devils, are plotting to use the seabase to set off a war which will decimate humanity.
131	2	The Awakening	"Part One"	Michael Owen Morris	Eric Pringle	19 January 1984	6M	7.9	65
			"Part Two"	Michael Owen Morris	Eric Pringle	20 January 1984	6M	6.6	63
The Doctor takes Tegan to the village of Little Hodcombe to visit her grandfather. The villagers, led by Sir George Hutchinson, are reenacting events from the English Civil War, including skirmishes which took place near the town. But the recreations have revived the Malus, an alien entity buried beneath a ruined church which feeds on the passions inflamed by war and death. Time is becoming distorted while Hutchinson – who has fallen under the Malus' influence – works to set the creature free, putting Tegan's life at risk in the process.
132	3	Frontios	"Part One"	Ron Jones	Christopher H. Bidmead	26 January 1984	6N	8.0	66
			"Part Two"	Ron Jones	Christopher H. Bidmead	27 January 1984	6N	5.8	69
			"Part Three"	Ron Jones	Christopher H. Bidmead	2 February 1984	6N	7.8	65
			"Part Four"	Ron Jones	Christopher H. Bidmead	3 February 1984	6N	5.6	65
The TARDIS arrives on the planet Frontios in the far future, where the last vestiges of humanity crashlanded years earlier. The struggling colony is beset by disasters, including deadly meteorite showers and the disappearance of several prominent colonists who have been sucked down beneath the ground. The Doctor, Tegan and Turlough discover that the culprits are the Gravis and his Tractators, giant insects with incredible powers over gravity. The Gravis intends to transform Frontios into an enormous spaceship, and spread the terror of the Tractators across the galaxy.
133	4	Resurrection of the Daleks	"Part One"	Matthew Robinson	Eric Saward	8 February 1984	6P	7.3	69
			"Part Two"	Matthew Robinson	Eric Saward	15 February 1984	6P	8.0	65
The Doctor, Tegan and Turlough are nearly torn apart in a Dalek time corridor which connects a warehouse on modern-day Earth with a spacecraft in the future. The Daleks have lost the war with the Movellans due to a virus which affects only their kind. Now, with the help of the mercenary Lytton, they intend to free the imprisoned Davros and force him to create an antidote. Once successful, the Daleks will at last be in a position to destroy the Movellans and rampage across the cosmo.
134	5	Planet of Fire	"Part One"	Fiona Cumming	Peter Grimwade	23 February 1984	6Q	7.4	—
			"Part Two"	Fiona Cumming	Peter Grimwade	24 February 1984	6Q	6.1	—
			"Part Three"	Fiona Cumming	Peter Grimwade	1 March 1984	6Q	7.4	—
			"Part Four"	Fiona Cumming	Peter Grimwade	2 March 1984	6Q	7.0	—
Turlough rescues a drowning botany student named Peri Brown and brings her to the TARDIS to recuperate. Before Peri can bid her farewells, Kamelion – once again under the Master's control – takes the TARDIS to the planet Sarn. There his mission is to find the Master, who has been diminished to just inches in height following a mishap with his tissue compression eliminator, and restore him using the healing properties of Sarn's miraculous numismaton flames. But Sarn hides a mysterious connection to Turlough's past – a connection which may prove to be the catalyst in the Master's scheme.
135	6	The Caves of Androzani	"Part One"	Graeme Harper	Robert Holmes	8 March 1984	6R	6.9	65
			"Part Two"	Graeme Harper	Robert Holmes	9 March 1984	6R	6.6	—
			"Part Three"	Graeme Harper	Robert Holmes	15 March 1984	6R	7.8	65
			"Part Four"	Graeme Harper	Robert Holmes	16 March 1984	6R	7.8	68
After landing on the planet Androzani Minor, the Doctor and Peri develop lethal spectrox toxaemia poisoning. As the two search for a cure before it is too late, they become enmeshed in a decades-old feud between the disfigured roboticist Sharaz Jek and businessman Morgus. Jek falls in love with Peri, but the situation only degenerates when the girl rebuffs his affections. Between threats from Magma beasts and gun runners, it quickly becomes apparent that the Doctor will never find a cure in time to save both himself and his companion.
136	7	The Twin Dilemma	"Part One"	Peter Moffatt	Anthony Steven	22 March 1984	6S	7.6	61
			"Part Two"	Peter Moffatt	Anthony Steven	23 March 1984	6S	7.4	66
			"Part Three"	Peter Moffatt	Anthony Steven	29 March 1984	6S	7.0	59
			"Part Four"	Peter Moffatt	Anthony Steven	30 March 1984	6S	6.3	67
The Doctor experiences serious regenerative instability, causing him to attack Peri and then decide to live as a hermit on the barren asteroid Titan 3. There he stumbles upon a plot by his old friend, the Time Lord Azmael, who has kidnapped twin mathematical geniuses named Romulus and Remus. Azmael's adopted planet, Jaconda, has been taken over by the sluglike Mestor and his Gastropods, forcing the Time Lord to do Mestor's bidding. But even Azmael is unaware of Mestor's true plan – to destroy Jaconda's sun, and thereby scatter Gastropod eggs throughout the universe.

Production

Title card as used in the season finale The Twin Dilemma.

During this season, the title card was slightly modified for the final serial The Twin Dilemma, and continued during Colin Baker's reign as the Sixth Doctor until the end of the season 23 14 episode epic The Trial of a Time Lord.

Broadcast

The entire season was broadcast from 5 January to 30 March 1984. Transmission moved to Thursdays and Fridays, except for Resurrection of the Daleks which was aired in two double-length episodes on Wednesdays.

Home media

VHS releases

Season	Story no.	Serial name	Number and duration of episodes	R2 release date	R4 release date	R1 release date
21	130	Warriors of the Deep	4 x 25 mins	September 1995	July 1996	May 1997
	131 132	The Awakening Frontios	6 x 25 mins	September 1997 2 x VHS	March 1998	March 1998 2 x VHS
	133	Resurrection of the Daleks	4 x 25 mins	November 1993	February 1994	May 1994
	134	Planet of Fire	4 x 25 mins	September 1998	January 1999	November 1998
	135	The Caves of Androzani	4 x 25 mins	February 1992	May 1992	October 1992
	136	The Twin Dilemma	4 x 25 min.	May 1992	May 1993	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
21	130	Warriors of the Deep[lower-alpha 1]	4 × 25 min.	14 January 2008[3]	5 March 2008[4]	3 June 2008[5]
	131	The Awakening[lower-alpha 2]	2 × 25 min.	20 June 2011[6][7]	4 August 2011[8]	12 July 2011[9]
	132	Frontios	4 × 25 min.	30 May 2011[10]	7 July 2011[11]	14 June 2011[12]
	133	Resurrection of the Daleks[lower-alpha 3]	4 × 25 min.[lower-alpha 4]	18 November 2002[13]	30 January 2003[14]	1 July 2003[15]
		Resurrection of the Daleks (Special Edition)[lower-alpha 5]	4 × 25 min.[lower-alpha 6] 2 × 46 min.[lower-alpha 7]	28 March 2011[16][17]	5 May 2011[18]	12 June 2012[19]
	134	Planet of Fire[lower-alpha 8]	4 × 25 min.[lower-alpha 9] 1 × 66 min.[lower-alpha 10]	14 June 2010[20]	5 August 2010[21]	7 September 2010[22]
	135	The Caves of Androzani[lower-alpha 11]	4 × 25 min.	18 June 2001[23]	7 January 2002[24]	2 April 2002[25]
		The Caves of Androzani (Special Edition)[lower-alpha 12]	4 × 25 min.	4 October 2010[26]	2 December 2010[27]	14 February 2012[28]
	136	The Twin Dilemma	4 × 25 min.	7 September 2009[29]	3 December 2009[30]	5 January 2010[31]

1. 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.
2. Only available as part of the Earthstory box set in Regions 2 and 4. Only available individually in Region 1.
3. Available individually or in The Complete Davros Collection box set in Regions 2 and 4. Only available individually in Region 1.
4. Resurrection of the Daleks was originally intended to comprise four 25-minute episodes, but was broadcast as two 46-minute episodes due to the BBC's coverage of the 1984 Winter Olympics. The DVD contains the story in a four-part format (supposedly as originally intended, but episodes 1 and 3 do not end on a cliffhanger).
5. Only available as part of the Revisitations 2 box set in Regions 2 and 4. Only available individually in Region 1.
6. Four-episode version
7. Broadcast version
8. Only available as part of the Kamelion Tales box set in Regions 2 and 4. Only available individually in Region 1.
9. Broadcast version
10. Special edition
11. Available individually or in the Regeneration box set in Region 2. Only available individually in Regions 1 and 4.
12. Only available as part of the Revisitations 1 box set in Regions 2 and 4. Only available individually in Region 1.

In print

Serial title	Novelisation title	Author	Date	ISBN
Warriors of the Deep	Warriors of the Deep	Terrance Dicks	24 May 1984	ISBN 0426195612
The Awakening	The Awakening	Eric Pringle	14 February 1985	ISBN 0426201582
Frontios	Frontios	Christopher H. Bidmead	20 September 1984	ISBN 0426197801
Resurrection of the Daleks	Resurrection of the Daleks	Eric Saward	18 July 2019[32]	ISBN 9781785944338
Planet of Fire	Planet of Fire	Peter Grimwade	18 October 1984	ISBN 0426199405
The Caves of Androzani	The Caves of Androzani	Terrance Dicks	15 November 1984	ISBN 0426199596
The Twin Dilemma	The Twin Dilemma	Eric Saward	10 October 1985	ISBN 0491031246

References

1. Braxton, Mark. "Resurrection of the Daleks ★★★". Radio Times. Retrieved 11 September 2019.
2. "Ratings Guide". Doctor Who News. Retrieved 27 December 2014.
3. "Doctor Who - Beneath the Surface". 14 January 2008. Retrieved 4 September 2017 – via Amazon.
4. "Doctor Who: Beneath the Surface - The Silurian Collection - Australia Buy Online. Buy Discount DVD Movies Online". gamehead.com.au. Archived from the original on 4 September 2017. Retrieved 4 September 2017.
5. "Doctor Who: Warriors of the Deep". 3 June 2008. Retrieved 4 September 2017 – via Amazon.
6. "Doctor Who: Earth Story (DVD)". BBC. Retrieved 29 July 2013.
7. "Doctor Who: Earth Story". British Video Association. Retrieved 29 July 2013.
8. "Doctor Who Earth Story by Roadshow Entertainment - Shop Online for Movies, DVDs in Australia". Fishpond. Retrieved 4 September 2017.
9. "Doctor Who: The Awakening". 12 July 2011. Retrieved 4 September 2017 – via Amazon.
10. "Doctor Who - Frontios". 30 May 2011. Retrieved 4 September 2017 – via Amazon.
11. "Doctor Who Frontios by BBC - Shop Online for Movies, DVDs in Australia". Fishpond. Retrieved 4 September 2017.
12. "Doctor Who: Frontios". 14 June 2011. Retrieved 4 September 2017 – via Amazon.
13. "Doctor Who - Resurrection Of The Daleks". 18 November 2002. Retrieved 4 September 2017 – via Amazon.
14. "Doctor Who The Resurrection of the Daleks by Roadshow Entertainment - Shop Online for Movies, DVDs in Australia". Fishpond. Retrieved 4 September 2017.
15. "Doctor Who: Resurrection of the Daleks". 1 July 2003. Retrieved 4 September 2017 – via Amazon.
16. "Doctor Who: Revisitation Boxset Volume 2 (DVD)". BBC. Retrieved 2 August 2013.
17. "Doctor Who: Revisitations 2". British Video Association. Retrieved 2 August 2013.
18. "Doctor Who Revisitations 2 (6 DVD Set)". BBC. Retrieved 3 August 2013.
19. "Doctor Who: Resurrection Of The Daleks". 12 June 2012. Retrieved 4 September 2017 – via Amazon.
20. "Doctor Who - Kamelion Tales Box Set: The King's Demons / Planet of Fire". 14 June 2010. Retrieved 4 September 2017 – via Amazon.
21. "Doctor Who Kamelion Tales (Box Set) by Roadshow Entertainment - Shop Online for Movies, DVDs in Australia". Fishpond. Retrieved 4 September 2017.
22. "Doctor Who: Planet of Fire". 7 September 2010. Retrieved 4 September 2017 – via Amazon.
23. "Doctor Who - The Caves Of Androzani". 18 June 2001. Retrieved 4 September 2017 – via Amazon.
24. "Doctor Who The Caves of Androzani by Roadshow Entertainment - Shop Online for Movies, DVDs in Australia". Fishpond. Retrieved 4 September 2017.
25. "Doctor Who: The Caves of Androzani". 2 April 2002. Retrieved 4 September 2017 – via Amazon.
26. "Doctor Who Revisitations, Vol. 1". 4 October 2010. Retrieved 4 September 2017 – via Amazon.
27. "Doctor Who by Roadshow Entertainment - Shop Online for Movies, DVDs in Australia". Fishpond. Retrieved 4 September 2017.
28. "Doctor Who: The Caves of Androzani". 14 February 2012. Retrieved 4 September 2017 – via Amazon.
29. "Doctor Who - The Twin Dilemma". 7 September 2009. Retrieved 9 June 2017 – via Amazon.
30. "Doctor Who Twin Dilemma by Roadshow Entertainment - Shop Online for Movies, DVDs in Australia". FishPond. Retrieved 9 June 2017.
31. "Doctor Who: The Twin Dilemma". 5 January 2010. Retrieved 9 June 2017 – via Amazon.
32. Doctor Who: Resurrection of the Daleks: Amazon.co.uk: Eric Saward: 9781785944338: Books. ASIN 1785944339.