Doctor Who season 14

This article is about the 1976–77 season. For the 2024 series, see Doctor Who series 14.

The fourteenth season of British science fiction television series Doctor Who began on 4 September 1976 with The Masque of Mandragora, and ended with The Talons of Weng-Chiang. The third Fourth Doctor series, it was the final series of Philip Hinchcliffe's production, whilst Robert Holmes stayed till The Sun Makers in the next series.

Doctor Who
Season 14
Cover art of the Blu-ray release for the complete season
Starring	Tom Baker Elisabeth Sladen Louise Jameson
No. of stories	6
No. of episodes	26
Release
Original network	BBC1
Original release	4 September 1976 (1976-09-04) – 2 April 1977 (1977-04-02)
Season chronology
List of episodes

Casting

See also: List of Doctor Who cast members

Main cast

• Tom Baker as the Fourth Doctor
• Elisabeth Sladen as Sarah Jane Smith
• Louise Jameson as Leela

Tom Baker continues his role as the Fourth Doctor. Sarah Jane Smith (Elisabeth Sladen) departs in The Hand of Fear, before the Doctor is joined by Leela (Louise Jameson) in The Face of Evil. Uniquely in the 'classic' era of Doctor Who, no companion appears in The Deadly Assassin.

Guest stars

The Master reappears in The Deadly Assassin as the main antagonist, his first appearance since Frontier in Space (1973), this time played by Peter Pratt. The character would not make a further appearance until five years later in 1981.

Serials

See also: List of Doctor Who episodes (1963–1989)

The Masque of Mandragora saw the debut of the new wood-panelled "Secondary Console Room" set, which was to be used as the main TARDIS console room throughout the season. The season took a five-week transmission break between the broadcasts of The Deadly Assassin and The Face of Evil in order to extend the season further into 1977, allowing Robert Holmes time to work on the final serial The Talons of Weng-Chiang.

No. story	No. in season	Serial title	Episode titles	Directed by	Written by	Original release date	Prod. code	UK viewers (millions) [1]	AI [1]
86	1	The Masque of Mandragora	"Part One"	Rodney Bennett	Louis Marks	4 September 1976 (1976-09-04)	4M	8.3	58
			"Part Two"			11 September 1976 (1976-09-11)		9.8	56
			"Part Three"			18 September 1976 (1976-09-18)		9.2	—
			"Part Four"			25 September 1976 (1976-09-25)		10.6	56
An encounter with the living energy structure known as the Mandragora Helix leads the TARDIS to 15th century Italy.
87	2	The Hand of Fear	"Part One"	Lennie Mayne	Bob Baker and Dave Martin	2 October 1976 (1976-10-02)	4N	10.5	—
			"Part Two"			9 October 1976 (1976-10-09)		10.2	—
			"Part Three"			16 October 1976 (1976-10-16)		11.1	62
			"Part Four"			23 October 1976 (1976-10-23)		12.0	—
The Fourth Doctor and Sarah Jane are caught in a mining explosion. Sarah Jane is found clutching what appears to be a fossilised hand, buried in a 150-million-year-old stratum.
88	3	The Deadly Assassin	"Part One"	David Maloney	Robert Holmes	30 October 1976 (1976-10-30)	4P	11.8	—
			"Part Two"			6 November 1976 (1976-11-06)		12.1	59
			"Part Three"			13 November 1976 (1976-11-13)		13.0	—
			"Part Four"			20 November 1976 (1976-11-20)		11.8	61
The Doctor goes to Gallifrey to prevent a precognitive vision; and fights his way to a conspicuous sniper rifle, but the assassin shoots the President dead from the crowd. He realises that it was the Master who had sent him the vision through the Matrix; he enters the Matrix, confronts an assassin who reveals himself as Chancellor Goth; the Master tries to trap the Doctor, but he escapes. He arrives in their chamber, and find the Master pulse-less and Goth fatally burnt and dying. The Doctor finds that the President has access to the Sash and Great Key of Rassilon, and the Doctor realises that the Eye of Harmony is actually a black hole's nucleus, and the Sash and Key its control devices. He also realises that the Master used a neural inhibitor that mimics a deathlike state. The Master makes his way to the Eye, and the two fight, until the Master loses his footing and falls into a chasm. As the Doctor's TARDIS dematerialises, the Master sneaks into his own TARDIS and escapes.
89	4	The Face of Evil	"Part One"	Pennant Roberts	Chris Boucher	1 January 1977 (1977-01-01)	4Q	10.7	61
			"Part Two"			8 January 1977 (1977-01-08)		11.1	—
			"Part Three"			15 January 1977 (1977-01-15)		11.3	59
			"Part Four"			22 January 1977 (1977-01-22)		11.7	60
The Doctor arrives on a planet where two tribes are at war and discovers that their god of evil is him.
90	5	The Robots of Death	"Part One"	Michael E. Briant	Chris Boucher	29 January 1977 (1977-01-29)	4R	12.8	62
			"Part Two"			5 February 1977 (1977-02-05)		12.4	—
			"Part Three"			12 February 1977 (1977-02-12)		13.1	—
			"Part Four"			19 February 1977 (1977-02-19)		12.6	57
A vessel is commanded by a crew of indolent or avaricious human staff. It is a happy partnership until the human crew start being murdered one by one.
91	6	The Talons of Weng-Chiang	"Part One"	David Maloney	Robert Holmes	26 February 1977 (1977-02-26)	4S	11.3	—
			"Part Two"			5 March 1977 (1977-03-05)		9.8	—
			"Part Three"			12 March 1977 (1977-03-12)		10.2	—
			"Part Four"			19 March 1977 (1977-03-19)		11.4	60
			"Part Five"			26 March 1977 (1977-03-26)		10.1	—
			"Part Six"			2 April 1977 (1977-04-02)		9.3	58
The Doctor and Leela travel to Victorian London where they encounter a sinister Chinese stage magician and his master, a fugitive from the 51st century.

Broadcast

The entire season was broadcast from 4 September 1976 to 2 April 1977, but with a six week break mid-season between the third and fourth serials from 20 November 1976 to 1 January 1977.

Home media

See also: List of Doctor Who home video releases and List of other Doctor Who home video releases

VHS releases

Season	Story no.	Serial name	Number and duration of episodes	UK release date	Australia release date	USA/Canada release date
14	86	The Masque of Mandragora	4 x 25 min.	August 1991	October 1992	February 1994
	87	The Hand of Fear	4 x 25 min.	February 1996	May 1997	February 1997
	88	The Deadly Assassin	4 25 min	October 1991	March 1992	March 1989 (edited)
	89	The Face of Evil	4 x 25 min	May 1999	June 1999	March 2000
	90	The Robots of Death	1 x 100 min 4 x 25 min	February 1988 (edited) February 1995 (unedited)	March 1988 (edited)	July 1987 (edited)
	91	The Talons of Weng-Chiang	1 x 150 min. (edited)	November 1988	April 1987	February 1988

Betamax releases

Season	Story no.	Serial name	Number and duration of episodes	UK release date	Australia release date	USA/Canada release date
14	90	The Robots of Death	1 x 100 min	April 1986 (edited)	—	—

DVD and Blu-ray releases

All releases are for DVD unless otherwise indicated:

• ^(B) indicates a Blu-ray release

Season	Story no.	Serial name	Number and duration of episodes	R2 release date	R4 release date	R1 release date
14	86	The Masque of Mandragora	4 × 25 min.	8 February 2010[2]	5 May 2010[3]	4 May 2010[4]
	87	The Hand of Fear	4 × 25 min.	24 July 2006[5]	7 September 2006[6]	7 November 2006[7]
	88	The Deadly Assassin	4 × 25 min.	11 May 2009[8]	2 July 2009[9]	1 September 2009[10]
	89	The Face of Evil	4 × 25 min.	5 March 2012[11]	5 April 2012[12]	13 March 2012[13]
	90	The Robots of Death	4 × 25 min.	13 November 2000[14]	2 July 2001[15]	6 September 2001[16]
		The Robots of Death (Special Edition)[a]	4 × 25 min.	13 February 2012[17] [18][19]	1 March 2012[20][21]	13 March 2012[22]
	91	The Talons of Weng-Chiang	6 × 25 min.	28 April 2003[23]	30 June 2003[24]	7 October 2003[25]
		The Talons of Weng-Chiang (Special Edition)[b]	6 × 25 min.	4 October 2010[26]	2 December 2010[27]	11 October 2011[28]
	86–91	Complete Season 14[c]	26 × 25 min.	4 May 2020 (B) [29]	15 July 2020 (B) [30]	4 August 2020 (B) [31]

1. Only available as part of the Revisitations 3 box set in Regions 2 and 4. Only available individually in Region 1.
2. Only available as part of the Revisitations 1 box set in Regions 2 and 4. Only available individually in Region 1.
3. Released as Doctor Who: The Collection – Season 14 in Region B. Released as Doctor Who – Tom Baker: Complete Season Three in Region A.

In print

See also: List of Doctor Who novelisations

Season	Story no.	Library no.[a]	Novelisation title	Author	Hardcover release date[b]	Paperback release date[c]	Audiobook release date[d]
14	086	42	Doctor Who and the Masque of Mandragora	Philip Hinchcliffe	19 January 1978	8 December 1977	9 April 2009
	087	30	Doctor Who and the Hand of Fear	Terrance Dicks	18 January 1979		7 January 2021
	088	19	Doctor Who and the Deadly Assassin		20 October 1977		19 March 2015
	089	25	Doctor Who and the Face of Evil		19 January 1978		19 January 2011[e] 7 April 2022
	090	53	Doctor Who and the Robots of Death		24 May 1979		1 February 2018
	091	61	Doctor Who and the Talons of Weng-Chiang		17 November 1977		1 January 2013

1. Number in Target's Doctor Who Library, if applicable
2. Published by Target's parent companies (Allen Wingate, W. H. Allen, BBC Books) unless otherwise indicated
3. Published by Target Books (or by BBC Books under the Target Collection umbrella) unless otherwise indicated
4. Unabridged from BBC Audio/AudioGo unless otherwise indicated
5. Published by the Royal National Institute of the Blind