Doctor Who season 21

The twenty-first season of British science fiction television series Doctor Who began on 5 January 1984 with the Fifth Doctor (Peter Davison) serial Warriors of the Deep, and ended on 30 March 1984 with Colin Baker's first serial The Twin Dilemma. For the third time (the first being during Season 4 and second being Season 18), the entire TARDIS crew changed over the course of a single season. John Nathan-Turner produced the series, with Eric Saward script editing.

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
No. of stories	7
No. of episodes	24
Release
Original network	BBC1
Original release	5 January (1984-01-05) – 30 March 1984 (1984-03-30)
Season chronology
List of episodes

Casting

See also: List of Doctor Who cast members

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 actors

• Anthony Ainley as The Master

Anthony Ainley returns 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

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

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.

No. story	No. in season	Serial title	Episode titles	Directed by	Written by	Original release date	Prod. code	UK viewers (millions) [2]	AI [2]
130	1	Warriors of the Deep	"Part One"	Pennant Roberts	Johnny Byrne	5 January 1984 (1984-01-05)	6L	7.6	65
			"Part Two"			6 January 1984 (1984-01-06)		7.5	64
			"Part Three"			12 January 1984 (1984-01-12)		7.3	62
			"Part Four"			13 January 1984 (1984-01-13)		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 (1984-01-19)	6M	7.9	65
			"Part Two"			20 January 1984 (1984-01-20)		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 (1984-01-26)	6N	8.0	66
			"Part Two"			27 January 1984 (1984-01-27)		5.8	69
			"Part Three"			2 February 1984 (1984-02-02)		7.8	65
			"Part Four"			3 February 1984 (1984-02-03)		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 (1984-02-08)	6P	7.3	69
			"Part Two"			15 February 1984 (1984-02-15)		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 cosmos.
134	5	Planet of Fire	"Part One"	Fiona Cumming	Peter Grimwade	23 February 1984 (1984-02-23)	6Q	7.4	—
			"Part Two"			24 February 1984 (1984-02-24)		6.1	—
			"Part Three"			1 March 1984 (1984-03-01)		7.4	—
			"Part Four"			2 March 1984 (1984-03-02)		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 (1984-03-08)	6R	6.9	65
			"Part Two"			9 March 1984 (1984-03-09)		6.6	—
			"Part Three"			15 March 1984 (1984-03-15)		7.8	65
			"Part Four"			16 March 1984 (1984-03-16)		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 (1984-03-22)	6S	7.6	61
			"Part Two"			23 March 1984 (1984-03-23)		7.4	66
			"Part Three"			29 March 1984 (1984-03-29)		7.0	59
			"Part Four"			30 March 1984 (1984-03-30)		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.^[3]

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

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
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

All releases are for DVD

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[a]	4 × 25 min.	14 January 2008[4]	5 March 2008[5]	3 June 2008[6]
	131	The Awakening[b]	2 × 25 min.	20 June 2011[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[c]	4 × 25 min.[d]	18 November 2002[13]	30 January 2003[14]	1 July 2003[15]
		Resurrection of the Daleks (Special Edition)[e]	4 × 25 min.[f] 2 × 46 min.[g]	28 March 2011[16]	5 May 2011[17]	12 June 2012[18]
	134	Planet of Fire[h]	4 × 25 min.[i] 1 × 66 min.[j]	14 June 2010[19]	5 August 2010[20]	7 September 2010[21]
	135	The Caves of Androzani[k]	4 × 25 min.	18 June 2001[22]	7 January 2002[23]	2 April 2002[24]
		The Caves of Androzani (Special Edition)[l]	4 × 25 min.	4 October 2010[25]	2 December 2010[26]	14 February 2012[27]
	136	The Twin Dilemma	4 × 25 min.	7 September 2009[28]	3 December 2009[29]	5 January 2010[30]

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.
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

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]
21	130	87	Warriors of the Deep	Terrance Dicks	24 May 1984	16 August 1984	5 June 1995 (abridged) 4 May 2023[31] (unabridged)
	131	95	The Awakening	Eric Pringle	14 February 1985	13 June 1985	8 July 2010
	132	91	Frontios	Christopher H. Bidmead	20 September 1984	10 December 1984	2 March 2010[e] 16 April 2015
	133	—	Resurrection of the Daleks	Eric Saward	18 July 2019	11 March 2021	1 August 2019
	134	93	Planet of Fire	Peter Grimwade	18 October 1984	17 January 1985	5 June 2025[32]
	135	92	The Caves of Androzani	Terrance Dicks	15 November 1984	14 February 1985	1 November 2018
	136	103	The Twin Dilemma	Eric Saward	10 October 1985	13 March 1986	5 January 2012

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