Doctor Who: The Classic Series Episode Guide – 1974-1981

The newly regenerated Fourth Doctor initially resists his responsibilities to UNIT, but Sarah Jane and Harry Sullivan accompany him into a sequence of tightly connected adventures. The season moves from contemporary Earth into humanity’s distant future before confronting the creation of the Daleks.

Story 75: Robot – 4 Episodes

The Doctor’s recovery is interrupted when a powerful experimental robot is used to steal classified equipment. Sarah investigates the scientific organisation responsible, while Harry attempts to determine whether the eccentric stranger leaving UNIT headquarters in a hat and scarf is medically fit to go anywhere.

Story 76: The Ark in Space – 4 Episodes

The TARDIS reaches a space station containing the cryogenically preserved survivors of humanity. The station has been infiltrated by the Wirrn, an insectoid species whose reproductive cycle presents a horrifying threat to the sleeping population.

Story 77: The Sontaran Experiment – 2 Episodes

The Doctor, Sarah and Harry descend to a future Earth supposedly abandoned after a solar catastrophe. There they find human survivors being subjected to brutal experiments by a Sontaran preparing for war.

Story 78: Genesis of the Daleks – 6 Episodes

Skully’s Pick

The Time Lords send the Doctor to Skaro during the final stages of the conflict between the Kaleds and Thals. Scientist Davros is developing a new armoured life form, leaving the Doctor to consider whether he has the right to prevent the Daleks from ever existing.

Story 79: Revenge of the Cybermen – 4 Episodes

The travellers return to Nerva Beacon thousands of years earlier, where a mysterious plague is killing its crew. The Cybermen intend to use the station to attack the planet Voga, whose valuable gold poses a direct threat to their survival.

Harry returns to Earth while the Doctor and Sarah continue travelling together. Producer Philip Hinchcliffe and script editor Robert Holmes push the programme towards atmospheric Gothic horror, blending alien science with possession, ancient evil and several houses best avoided after sunset.

Story 80: Terror of the Zygons – 4 Episodes

The Doctor, Sarah and Harry reunite with UNIT in Scotland after oil rigs are destroyed by an enormous creature. Shape-shifting Zygons are operating from beneath Loch Ness, replacing influential humans while preparing a new home for their people.

Story 81: Planet of Evil – 4 Episodes

A scientific expedition on the edge of the known universe is being attacked by an unseen force. The Doctor discovers that the team’s attempt to remove a new energy source has disturbed the boundary between the physical universe and a realm of antimatter.

Story 82: Pyramids of Mars – 4 Episodes

Skully’s Pick

The TARDIS arrives in an English country house in 1911, where archaeologist Marcus Scarman has returned from Egypt under the control of an ancient power. The Doctor and Sarah must prevent Sutekh from escaping imprisonment and bringing his destructive influence to the universe.

Story 83: The Android Invasion – 4 Episodes

The Doctor and Sarah appear to return to Earth but find an eerily deserted village populated by familiar people behaving strangely. Their investigation reveals preparations for an infiltration in which appearances are very deliberately deceptive.

Story 84: The Brain of Morbius – 4 Episodes

On the planet Karn, the Doctor encounters the Sisterhood of the Flame and a scientist assembling a new body for the executed Time Lord criminal Morbius. Its laboratories, lightning and borrowed body parts make this the programme’s enthusiastic contribution to Frankenstein-inspired horror.

Story 85: The Seeds of Doom – 6 Episodes

Skully’s Pick

An Antarctic expedition discovers two alien seed pods buried in the ice. One reaches obsessive plant collector Harrison Chase, whose determination to cultivate an extraterrestrial specimen threatens to unleash a rapidly growing organism capable of consuming animal life.

Sarah Jane’s time aboard the TARDIS concludes and the Doctor briefly travels alone before meeting the warrior Leela. The season explores Renaissance Italy, Gallifreyan politics, artificial intelligence and Victorian horror, giving the Fourth Doctor some of his most confident material.

Story 86: The Masque of Mandragora – 4 Episodes

The TARDIS carries a fragment of the Mandragora Helix to fifteenth-century Italy, where political rivals are competing for control of San Martino. The alien energy joins forces with an astrologer determined to prevent the approaching Renaissance.

Story 87: The Hand of Fear – 4 Episodes

A quarry explosion exposes a fossilised hand that exerts a powerful influence over Sarah. The object draws her towards a nuclear facility as it begins regenerating its owner, the alien Eldrad.

Story 88: The Deadly Assassin – 4 Episodes

Skully’s Pick

The Doctor returns alone to Gallifrey after experiencing a vision of the Time Lord president’s assassination. Framed for the crime, he enters the Matrix to uncover a conspiracy involving an enemy believed to be dead and a struggle over the future of Time Lord society.

Story 89: The Face of Evil – 4 Episodes

The Doctor lands among the Sevateem, a warrior tribe who recognise his face as that of their malevolent god. He meets the fearless Leela and begins uncovering how his forgotten involvement with an earlier expedition shaped the tribe’s beliefs.

Story 90: The Robots of Death – 4 Episodes

Skully’s Pick

Aboard a vast mining vehicle, human crew members are being murdered despite being surrounded by robots programmed never to harm them. The Doctor and Leela are treated as the obvious suspects while distrust between humans and their mechanical servants steadily grows.

Story 91: The Talons of Weng-Chiang – 6 Episodes

The Doctor and Leela investigate disappearances connected to a Victorian music hall, a sinister magician and rumours of a figure called Weng-Chiang. The serial offers memorable performances and rich Gothic atmosphere, but its yellowface casting and racial stereotypes are serious flaws that have become more uncomfortable with age.

Leela continues learning about worlds beyond her upbringing while the robotic K9 joins the TARDIS crew. The production remains rooted in horror but gradually becomes lighter and more science-fiction driven, culminating in a return to Gallifrey and a concealed invasion.

Story 92: Horror of Fang Rock – 4 Episodes

Skully’s Pick

The Doctor and Leela arrive at an isolated lighthouse where the keepers have witnessed a strange light falling into the sea. A shipwreck brings survivors to the rock as an alien presence begins hunting everyone trapped inside.

Story 93: The Invisible Enemy – 4 Episodes

An intelligent space virus infects the Doctor and takes control of personnel throughout a medical facility. Leela and Professor Marius attempt an unusual treatment involving miniature duplicates, while the Doctor meets the newly constructed K9.

Story 94: Image of the Fendahl – 4 Episodes

Scientists examining an ancient human skull awaken a force that has influenced evolution throughout Earth’s history. The Doctor traces the disturbance to Fetch Priory, where scientific curiosity and occult ritual are rapidly becoming indistinguishable.

Story 95: The Sun Makers – 4 Episodes

Humanity lives on Pluto under a corporate regime that taxes almost every aspect of existence. The Doctor and Leela join an underground resistance against the Collector, whose bureaucracy has turned exploitation into a particularly efficient branch of accountancy.

Story 96: Underworld – 4 Episodes

The Doctor, Leela and K9 encounter Minyan travellers who have spent millennia searching for a missing colony ship. Their quest leads into a newly formed planet ruled by a powerful computer, with much of the alien environment created through ambitious but visibly limited electronic compositing.

Story 97: The Invasion of Time – 6 Episodes

The Doctor returns to Gallifrey and behaves with unusual arrogance while claiming the presidency. Leela and K9 suspect that his actions conceal a larger plan as alien invaders gain access to the Time Lords’ supposedly secure home.

The White Guardian recruits the Doctor and assigns him a new Time Lady companion, Romana. Together they must locate the six disguised segments of the Key to Time, creating the classic series’ first full season-long quest.

Story 98: The Ribos Operation – 4 Episodes

Skully’s Pick

The search begins on Ribos, where con artists Garron and Unstoffe are attempting to sell the planet to the ruthless Graff Vynda-K. The Doctor and Romana must identify the first segment while avoiding the competing schemes unfolding around it.

Story 99: The Pirate Planet – 4 Episodes

The second segment leads to Zanak, a prosperous planet ruled by a cybernetic Pirate Captain. Its population celebrates miraculous mineral wealth, but the Doctor discovers that Zanak’s prosperity is built upon devastation elsewhere.

Story 100: The Stones of Blood – 4 Episodes

The trail brings the Doctor and Romana to an ancient stone circle in Cornwall. Professor Amelia Rumford assists their investigation as the stones reveal a taste for blood and a connection extending far beyond Earth.

Story 101: The Androids of Tara – 4 Episodes

Romana quickly locates the fourth segment on Tara but is captured because of her resemblance to Princess Strella. The Doctor becomes involved in a royal succession dispute filled with sword fights, doubles and android replacements.

Story 102: The Power of Kroll – 4 Episodes

The fifth segment lies on a moon where native Swampies are resisting the crew of a methane refinery. Their worship of the enormous squid-like Kroll becomes more complicated when the creature begins attacking both sides.

Story 103: The Armageddon Factor – 6 Episodes

The quest concludes amid an apparently endless war between Atrios and Zeos. The Shadow is manipulating the conflict on behalf of the Black Guardian, while the Doctor must decide whether completing the Key is truly the responsible course.

Romana regenerates before rejoining the Doctor and K9. Douglas Adams brings a lighter, more openly comic sensibility to the season, producing ingenious ideas and sharp dialogue alongside some stories whose production resources struggle to keep pace with the scripts.

Story 104: Destiny of the Daleks – 4 Episodes

The TARDIS returns to Skaro, where the Daleks are searching beneath the ruined city for Davros. Their war against the robotic Movellans has reached a logical stalemate that neither side can resolve without assistance.

Story 105: City of Death – 4 Episodes

Skully’s Pick

A holiday in Paris is interrupted when the Doctor and Romana experience disturbances in time. Their investigation leads to Count Scarlioni, a stolen Mona Lisa and a scheme connected to the earliest beginnings of life on Earth.

Story 106: The Creature from the Pit – 4 Episodes

Lady Adrasta controls the metal-poor planet Chloris by keeping its only apparent monster imprisoned beneath her palace. The Doctor enters the pit and discovers that the feared creature may be considerably more reasonable than the people guarding it.

Story 107: Nightmare of Eden – 4 Episodes

Two spacecraft become fused together after a collision, trapping passengers, crew and dangerous creatures in the same space. The Doctor and Romana uncover drug smuggling linked to a zoological recording device that stores living environments.

Story 108: The Horns of Nimon – 4 Episodes

The planet Skonnos sends young sacrifices into a labyrinth occupied by the bull-headed Nimon. The Doctor and Romana investigate a relationship that promises imperial restoration while concealing the true scale of the creatures’ plans.

Unfinished Production: Shada – 6 Planned Episodes

Retired Time Lord Professor Chronotis is living quietly at Cambridge University when the alien Skagra seeks a book capable of unlocking the prison planet Shada. Industrial action halted studio recording before the serial could be completed, although surviving footage and later animation have since been assembled into several official versions.

Tom Baker’s final season introduces a more restrained visual style and a stronger emphasis on scientific concepts. Romana and K9 depart during the E-Space trilogy, Adric joins the Doctor and the return of the Master begins a chain of events leading towards another regeneration.

Story 109: The Leisure Hive – 4 Episodes

The Doctor and Romana visit the leisure planet Argolis, built by survivors of a devastating war. Experiments with tachyon technology promise economic salvation but attract hostile investors and produce alarming changes in the Doctor.

Story 110: Meglos – 4 Episodes

A sentient cactus impersonates the Doctor and steals an immensely powerful energy source from the planet Tigella. The real Doctor, Romana and K9 must escape a time loop before they can prove which version of him has been committing sabotage.

Story 111: Full Circle – 4 Episodes

The TARDIS falls through a spatial phenomenon into E-Space and lands on Alzarius. As mist descends and Marshmen emerge, teenager Adric discovers that his community’s understanding of its own history contains significant gaps.

Story 112: State of Decay – 4 Episodes

The travellers reach a feudal world ruled by three aristocrats from an ancient tower. The Doctor recognises evidence of the Time Lords’ legendary war against vampires and suspects that something immense is hiding beneath the castle.

Story 113: Warriors’ Gate – 4 Episodes

Skully’s Pick

The TARDIS becomes trapped in a white void between universes alongside a vessel using the lion-like Tharils as navigators and slaves. The Doctor, Romana and K9 confront a collapsing gateway where time operates in increasingly unstable ways.

Story 114: The Keeper of Traken – 4 Episodes

The elderly Keeper of the peaceful Traken Union asks the Doctor and Adric to prevent a source of evil from disrupting the succession to his position. They meet Consul Tremas and his daughter Nyssa while a calcified figure called the Melkur exerts a growing influence.

Story 115: Logopolis – 4 Episodes

Skully’s Pick

The Doctor prepares to repair the TARDIS’s broken chameleon circuit by visiting the planet Logopolis, whose mathematicians maintain stability through precise calculations. The appearance of the Master and a mysterious white-clad observer gives the journey an ominous sense that the Fourth Doctor’s time is running out.

The conclusion brings Tom Baker’s record-breaking seven-season tenure to an end. The fourth and final classic episode guide begins with Castrovalva, following Peter Davison’s Fifth Doctor before continuing through Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy and the 1996 television movie starring Paul McGann.