Doctor Who season 12
The twelfth season of British science fiction television series Doctor Who began on 28 December 1974 with Tom Baker's first serial Robot, and ended with Revenge of the Cybermen on 10 May 1975.
This article is about the 1974–75 season. For the 2020 series, see Doctor Who series 12.Doctor Who
This is the first season to feature Tom Baker as the fourth incarnation of the Doctor, an alien Time Lord who travels through time and space in his TARDIS, which appears to be a British police box on the outside. He is accompanied by companions Sarah Jane Smith (Elisabeth Sladen), continuing from season eleven, and Harry Sullivan (Ian Marter), who joins in this season. With Barry Letts and Terrance Dicks having both departed along with Jon Pertwee, new producer Philip Hinchcliffe and new script editor Robert Holmes worked on this series. Letts's last story as producer was Robot, with Hinchcliffe producing the rest of the season. Holmes had previously written for the programme.
Production[edit]
Barry Letts served as producer for Robot, after which he was succeeded by Philip Hinchcliffe. Robert Holmes took over from Terrance Dicks as script editor.[10]
Robot was written by Dicks, who cited King Kong as an influence for the serial.[11] Dicks incorporated several familiar elements from the Third Doctor's first story Spearhead from Space (1970), which helped the audience transition between actors.[12][13] The Ark in Space was written by Robert Holmes from a story by John Lucarotti that was considered unusable.[14][15] Letts and Dicks were eager to have Terry Nation return to write the Daleks, but initially found his script too similar to past Dalek adventures. They suggested that he write a Dalek origin story instead, which became Genesis of the Daleks.[16] However, under Hinchcliffe, the serial gained a darker tone.[16]
The sets of The Ark in Space were reused for Revenge of the Cybermen.[17] Genesis of the Daleks was the last serial of the season to be filmed, after Revenge of the Cybermen.[18] This took place in January and February 1975.[19]