Doctor Who (season 7)

The seventh season of British science fiction television series Doctor Who began on 3 January 1970 with Jon Pertwee's first story Spearhead from Space and ended with Inferno. 

Casting

Main cast 
 Jon Pertwee as the Third Doctor
 Caroline John as Liz Shaw

Jon Pertwee makes his first appearance as the Third Doctor replacing Patrick Troughton in the role.   Caroline John makes her first appearance as companion and assistant Liz Shaw in Spearhead from Space and last in Inferno. 

Recurring cast
 Nicholas Courtney as Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart
 John Levene as Sergeant Benton

Nicholas Courtney returns as Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart and he would continue to make regular appearances in Doctor Who until season 12.  

John Levene also makes his first appearance as Sergeant Benton since The Invasion in The Ambassadors of Death and would continue to make regular appearances until season 12. 

Serials 

Barry Letts took over as producer from Derrick Sherwin after Spearhead from Space.  From this season onwards the programme was produced in colour.  To accommodate the new production methods the number of episodes in a season was cut: season 6 has 44 episodes; season 7 has 25 episodes.  The seasons would continue to have between 20 and 26 episodes until season 22.  Following the opening four parter, the remaining episodes were divided into three serials each of seven episodes.  This, along with setting the entire season exclusively on Earth, had been the choice of previous producer and script editor Peter Bryant and Derrick Sherwin, which Letts and script editor Terrance Dicks were unhappy with. 

Spearhead from Space was intended to be produced identically to previous serials, with a mixture of location material shot on 16mm film, and studio based material on videotape.  Owing to industrial action by studio technicians at the BBC, the planned studio recording sessions were cancelled, with instead all four episodes being shot on location on 16mm film. 

Broadcast
The entire season was broadcast from 3 January to 20 June 1970.  Peter Bryant and Derrick Sherwin had originally envisaged replacing Doctor Who with a Quatermass-style serial, with Nigel Kneale involved, but this fell through when Kneale refused to write for the show.  The plan did, however, have an effect on the programme, seeing the Doctor exiled to a near-future earth as UNIT's scientific advisor. 

Home media

VHS releases

DVD and Blu-ray releases

In print

References 

Category:1970 British television seasons
Season 07
Season 07
7