Brief Summary
This video summarizes Season 15 of Doctor Who, highlighting the shift in tone from dark and brooding to broad comedy under the new producer, Graham Williams. It covers each story arc, including "Horror of Fang Rock," "The Invisible Enemy" (introducing K9), "Image of the Fendahl," "The Sun Makers," "Underworld," and "The Invasion of Time" (Leela's departure). The season is characterized by a decline in quality and a move towards more comedic elements, setting the stage for the next season's planned story arc.
- Season 15 marks a significant tonal shift in Doctor Who, moving towards broad comedy.
- The season includes stories like "Horror of Fang Rock," "The Invisible Enemy" (K9's introduction), and "The Invasion of Time" (Leela's exit).
- The Time Lords are portrayed as increasingly incompetent, particularly in "The Invasion of Time."
Producer Philip Hinchcliffe was removed after Season 14 due to conflicts with Mary Whitehouse, who opposed Doctor Who being entertaining. Graham Williams replaced him, bringing a different style that would gradually turn Doctor Who into something resembling a sitcom. Season 15 ran from September 3, 1977, to March 11, 1978.
The TARDIS arrives in a lighthouse in the early 20th century, where a Rutin begins killing and impersonating people. The Rutins are an alien race at war with the Sontarans. This story is grim, with almost everyone dying except the Doctor and Leela. Despite not being the best or cleverest story, it remains a personal favorite.
This four-part story introduces K9. In the future, humanity is colonizing space, and a sentient infection affects space travelers. The Doctor is infected and cloned along with Leela. The clones, with a 10-minute lifespan, are shrunk and enter the Doctor's brain to destroy the infection's nucleus. Professor Marius, K9's creator, gives K9 to the Doctor at the end of the story.
On Earth, an archaeological dig discovers a 12-million-year-old skull from a Fendahl, an energy-eating life form that the Time Lords supposedly eliminated. A scientist, Thea Ranson, is possessed by the Fendahl and transforms into it. Local witches attempt to control the Fendahl, with predictable negative results.
Inspired by Robert Holmes' frustration with taxes, the TARDIS arrives on Pluto in the future. A company charges workers exorbitant taxes to use artificial suns. The story revolves around a rebellion against this brutal dictatorship. The main villain, the Collector, is based on Dennis Healey, the British finance minister at the time. The story highlights the casual brutality common in 70s Doctor Who, with rebels throwing the planet's governor to his death.
This four-part story is inspired by ancient Greek legends. Millions of years ago, the Time Lords shared technology with the Minos, who later expelled them. The Minos then used Time Lord technology and engaged in a civil war, leading to their planet's destruction. The surviving Minos are locked in ships, one of which becomes a planetoid. The other ship eternally seeks the lost one. This story is considered one of the weakest of the season.
This six-part season finale portrays the Time Lords as a joke. Gallifrey is invaded, and the Doctor becomes President. He allies with the Vardans to occupy Gallifrey and banishes Leela. The Doctor's plan involves lowering the capital's shield to allow more Vardans in, while Leela invades with non-Time Lord Gallifreyans. The Sontarans then invade, succeeding where the Vardans failed. The story features the first extended exploration of the TARDIS interior. Leela leaves at the end of the story, taking K9 with her. The story is considered pathetic, especially the last two episodes.
Season 15 represents a shift from Hinchcliffe's dark tone to Williams' broad comedy. The season is seen as a decline in quality, setting the stage for the next season's planned story arc, "The Key to Time," the introduction of a Time Lord companion, and Douglas Adams as head scriptwriter.
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Transcript
Full transcript of “A Quick Guide to Classic Who Season 15”. Click a timestamp to open the video at that moment. Need another video? Use the YouTube transcript generator.
0:00 [Music] knowy Treasures of [Music] hisory of all the handworks remain only [Music] Dre Philip hinchcliff was removed as producer after season 14 there' been
0:47 long-term conflicts between hinchcliff and Mary White House she was the self-appointed head of a media Watchdog group who was severely opposed to Doctor Who being entertaining even though Doctor Who's writings were the highest had ever been she event won and the BBC sent henchcliffe off to produce some adult television they brought in gram Williams to repl him and uh his style was a little bit different but like usual it would take a while for his style to really crystallize on television what was his style well um turning Doctor Who into something that vaguely resembled a sitcom season 15 ran from the 3rd of September 1977 until the 11th of March 1978 it opened with my favorite Tom Baker Adventure the four-part hor horror of fang Rock not to be mistaken for the PA Madu Adventure
1:34 the horror of glamrock the TARDIS arrives in a lighthouse in the early years of the 20th century just in time for ruttin to arrive and start killing and impersonating people and due to the killing it's going to eventually run out of people to impersonate the Rons were mentioned in many more episodes than they appeared in today this is their only appearance they kept being mentioned because they are the alien race that the Sans were locked in Millennial long war with I can't recall them being mentioned in the new series which I feel kind of makes the sarin less three-dimensional the idea was that they literally remade their species as dedicated Warriors to fight their endless war while in Yoo they just like fighting a lot so what are the rutins like they're deliberately as far removed from the centar as possible they're
2:19 ethereal Blobby things that fly and possess people Leela's eyes Chang color from brown to Blue in this story because she looked into a massive explosion it was a handwave away because Louis Jameson had refused to come back if they forced her to wear brown contact lenses again this is one of the most grim and D stories of classic who no one survives this story except for the doctrine Leela just this once Leela everybody dies it's not the best story it's not the cleverest it's not the scariest and it's not the funniest it doesn't best represent the Tom Bay career but for some reason I love the horror of fang Rock I can't quite explain it the invisible enemy is a four parter and introduces K9 he'll go through two actors five incarnations and three
3:06 spin-off shows before he's done it's the future and humanity is colonizing space and a weird sentient infection begins to affect space Travelers the Tardis flies through the same area of space and the doctor is infected because he's a Time Lord he's chosen to be infected by the nucleus of the infection so when the most mind-bendingly insane plant remove the nucleus and cure the doctor Leela and the doctor are cloned the clones have a 10-minute lifespan and all their memories so they're aware they have 10 minutes to live the Clones then Get shrunk and have a Fantastic Voyage into the doctor's brain to destroy the nucleus and save his life and then Escape before they die because even if you don't grow back to normal size having a dead clone of yourself rotting in your brain is not a very good result of course this all works even if I am
3:51 embellishing what happens a little bit but only to make it more sane but embellishment or not it's still insane in a show dedicated to insane science this stands out there's a bunch more stuff going on besides the brain stuff but it is the most interesting like there is the scene where K9 gives the doctor a affirmative k9's Creator Professor Marius heads home to Earth at the end of the story and so gives him to the doctor and thus Begins the reign of the robot dog the next story is the four-part image of the fandal they're back on Earth and an archaeological dig has discovered a 12 million year old skull the skull was sent for tests in England but unfortunately it's from a fandal an energy eating gal life form that the
4:36 time Lords were supposed to have ended millions of years ago they time lipped the fal's entire planet meaning that they eventually fell into Intergalactic myth and before you can say this is a tiny bit reminiscent of the hand of fear a scientist called Thea Ransom has been possessed by the fandal and is slowly turning into it one of her fellow characters was called Mr fendelman it ignored him because no one could take The Coincidence of a fendel possessing a Mr fendelman seriously even if they spell fendel very differently so some local witches decide to try and control the growing fendle and as you can guess it's not going to end well don't do that don't do that again we have another good solid though very average Tom Baker Story the first few years of Tom Baker's year were
5:23 probably the most consistently good time the show ever had from there we have another Robert holes script the sun makers remember when I mentioned that Holmes would often get inspired by things that irritated him well this one happened because he was angry at having to pay taxes the Tardis arrives on Pluto in the future a company set up some artificial Suns nearby and charge the workers who toil in the planet a small fortune in taxes to use them use them to be alive it's a very traditional story about a rebellion against a hilariously unnecessarily brutal dictatorship it's a conflict that pretty much has one dimension taxes this story has a lot of very traditional ideas mashed together the main villain is the collector now you might think they were clearly based on
6:08 Davos but with that wheelchair and they might have been but he was even more clearly based on Dennis Healey who was in charge of the finances of the British government at the time this story in one small way really demonstrates the Casual brutality that was common in 70s Doctor Who once the revolution has been won the heroic Rebels grab the planet's governor and throw him to his death off the nearest tall building that can find this like most Robert Holmes scripts is hilarious dark and flooded with bitterness now I'm not trying to insult him or his work Robert Holmes had the talent to turn things that pissed him off into usually brilliant and hilarious scripts this story is evidence that you don't actually need originality to be great and when I say it doesn't have originality and referring to the
6:55 construction the doctor arrives the doctor sees a problem the doctor over throws the government the end in some other ways it is very original the doctor becomes a terrorist underworld comes next it's four parts Long and it's the latest in a long line of stories inspired by the ancient Greeks millions of years ago the time Lords visited the planet Minos where they were woried as gods they shared their technology with the minions minions who eventually kicked them out after that the time Lords changed to a policy of non-interference unless the rereading time C race didn't exist all the Warlords from the war games or one of the other races the time Lords have destroyed over the years and way the minions use Time Lord technology and got into a massive Civil War and it went
7:40 about as well as you'd expect oh there goes the planet so the whole race is locked in a couple of ships heading to a new home planet but one of them got lost and over time is turned into a planetoid for some reason and over successive Generations the Minions on board have forgotten that they're on a spaceship the other ship is on a an eternal quest to find the first ship and reach their new home its crew have been using time technology to extend their lives so they're the same people who left Minas it doesn't sound much like it but this was inspired by the legend of the Golden Fleece this is probably the weakest story of the season and maybe even the weakest in the last few seasons but don't forget the show has been on an incredible run recently from that the season finale the only sixth parter of
8:26 the season the Invasion of Time feel like seeing the time Lords become even more of a joke good because GFR has been invaded and the invading Force doesn't even have the decency to the dox the doctor returns home and takes over the presidency now I'm fairly sure that in an earlier episode I sarcastically talked about how the time Lords were so useless later on that the doctor could do just this so I told you so he's Allied himself with an alien race called The vardan Who mean to occupy Gala Fray and banishes Leela to the waist inside the Dome because she's a human and a way it's all a massive Gambit because while the doctor lowers the capital's Shield supposedly to allow more vardan in Leela invades with a force of non-time Lord gal Frans the rest of the doctor's plan was to send the vardan home and time
9:11 Loop their entire planet Unfortunately they were only the first wave of attackers because two-thirds of the way through the story the Saran happen this is how pathetic the time Lords are right now the Sans who spent millions of years battling the same race and never winning the Sans who had send reconnaissance in before they would dare attack the Earth even though the Earth was abandoned at the time the sonaran who weren't even allowed to be part of the time War because they're too managed to plan and succeeded invading the time lord capital and they did it all while looking like this guy I want him captured intact but unharmed if the two doctors didn't exist I'd be ranting right now about how terrible this makeup looks and how it couldn't possibly be worse as it
9:59 happens the two doctors does exist and you'll be getting that rant in a few seasons time this story features the first time we spend an extended period of time inside the Tardis going from room to room place to place I know there was edge of Destruction in the mask of mandrag but they were hardly Journeys to the center of the TARDIS in story it's because this onaran chased the doctor and Leela inside unfortunately the budget didn't stretch to um anything really so they filmed stuff in a Leisure Center Leela leaves at the end of the story and takes K9 with her so even though the doctor received K9 as a gift in the invisible enemy he happens to have several more all with the same mind in some boxes in the Tardis Louise Jameson wanted Leela kild off saving the doctor but the producers decided it would be much more
10:45 logical for her to stay behind in Maria gfre and guard that she had said about two words to and had no chemistry with I was fine with that in the green death because they spent six episodes making Joe Grant and Clifford Jones's relationship somewhat believable then like the rest of the story is pathetic actually it's not all pathetic most of the first four parts is good if they' ended it with the defeat of the varans this would be at worst average but the last two episodes kill it I was wrong about underworld invasion of time is the worst story this season at the beginning of the Season we had Hing Cliff's dark and brooding tone but by the time invasion of time came along it had completely shifted to the grah Williams broad comedy tone could you imag IM this happening last
11:34 season even the Sonic Screwdriver won't get me out of this one I hope you like this sort of thing the show's going to be a lot like this for the next few seasons season 15 is like one long slow shift in tone and I would argue quality don't get me wrong the Graham Williams era has its good points he just hasn't arrived yet join me next time for the first planned season long Arc of classic who the the key to time the First Time Lord companion and of course the introduction of Douglas Adams's head script writer [Music]
