Season 13 of Doctor Who, airing from 1975 to 1976, marked another shift in tone. The last script commissioned in the Barry Letts/Terrance Dicks era was shot for this season and Philip Hinchliffe and Robert Holmes took over in full force. It's the first season where their vision of a show aimed at an older audience really kicks in, and it's the season that finally kills off the traditional "UNIT format" of the Doctor working alongside UNIT and Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart on Earth that has dominated the show since Season 7. Season 12 began shutting down that format, and Season 13 finally ends it altogether. This season also marks a new format, still with 26 half-hour episodes, but now making up six stories, with only one six-parter and more four-parters. This makes things a bit snappier.
This is also, easily, Doctor Who's darkest and more horror-infused season to date (and possibly ever, though Season 14 is also in that conversation). Each of these stories is heavily inspired/influenced by a classic horror story, sometimes several, and it's no surprise this move was highly controversial, with the show taking heavy criticism from various viewers' groups concerned that the show had become too disturbing for children to watch.
Terror of the Zygons kicks us off with a story that's a huge amount of fun. We're in Scotland and local oil rigs are being attacked by an unknown force. The Doctor helps UNIT investigate, uncovering the threat of the alien Zygons, shapeshifters who can take on the form of humans. This is a bonkers story that has an absolute ton of crazy ideas (an alien posing as Harry, a cyborg Loch Ness Monster, organic alien technology), some very good prosthetics work and some very nice dialogue and characterisation, particularly of the Brigadier. It's not Doctor Who's subtlest hour and the Skarasen's stop-motion model shots are overly ambitious, but it's a fun story. It's also the effective end of the traditional UNIT era, and the last appearance of the Brigadier for over seven years. It's also the least horror-driven story of the season, though the shapeshifting aliens do recall Invasion of the Body-Snatchers.
Planet of Evil is a more direct homage to Forbidden Planet (itself a take on The Tempest, of course). The Doctor and Sarah arrive on a jungle planet with an invisible creature lurking in the jungle, a scientific expedition meddling with things they don't understand and a military back-up expedition about to arrive and complicate things further. The star of the show is the terrific alien jungle set, which the BBC loved so much they even let the team shoot a lot of it on film to make it look more convincing. Unfortunately, it goes a bit to waste as the second half of the story is mostly set on a spacecraft with some fairly nondescript visuals. The story has a lot of promise, but it's let down by the starship captain over-acting and the Doctor and Sarah having to spend about two-thirds of the story trying to prove their trustworthiness versus the blatant alien creature killing people. A shame as there's a lot of potential here, but it's a fun watch.
Pyramids of Mars has acquired a reputation of being almost unassailably superb over the years, and Russell T. Davies loved it so much he made a direct sequel to it in Series 14 of Modern Who. The main influence here is from every Egyptian and mummy-based horror story that came before it. The plot revolves around servants of the powerful alien Sutekh trying to free him from his prison which is powered by a structure on Mars. The story has a cracking pace with some fine acting from the likes of Michael Sheard, Bernard Archard and Gabriel Woolf, and some good action beats with a minimum of the "Doctor getting captured for half the story" shenanigans that have bogged down some recent serials. Sutekh is also a formidable, pitiless foe with an imposing presence. The late shift to a Crystal Maze-alike series of puzzles on Mars is a bit odd though, and feels like a close retread of Death to the Daleks (something that Sarah even notes in dialogue), with a rushed conclusion. Pyramids is still a very good story, but perhaps marginally overrated.
The Android Invasion is a Terry Nation story not to feature the Daleks, only his second script of that kind (after Season 1's The Keys of Marinus, twelve seasons earlier). Instead it opens with the Doctor and Sarah arriving in a rural English village which gets really weird, very quickly. There's a vague Wicker Man "cosy" horror angle here which is quite interesting, although the android duplicates risk feeling a bit too similar to Terror of the Zygons. There's one very clever plot twist, a lot of running around and some fun action scenes - including the Doctor memorably giving up on smart-arse dialogue or scientific exploration and just diving head-first through a window - but it feels like the story runs out of steam towards the end. The story is particularly disappointing as being a UNIT story lacking the Brigadier, and for being the final swansong of both Harry Sullivan and Benton (the latter bowing out having appeared in at least one story every season from Seasons 6 to 13, a formidable track record) but not really giving either character much interesting to do. Still, it's an entertaining story.
The Brain of Morbius goes full bonkers, riffing on Frankenstein but throwing enough curveballs to make it interesting. The Doctor and Sarah arrive on Karn, a planet near Gallifrey, where the scientist Solon (Philip Madoc) desperately seeks a humanoid head to house the brain of executed Time Lord criminal Morbius, whilst avoiding the wrath of the enigmatic Sisterhood of Karn. The barmy plot is offset by Philip Madoc's magnificently controlled performance as Solon and the effective, extremely weird vibe of the Sisterhood. But this is easily Doctor Who's most horrific story premise yet, with Solon waxing lyrical about cracking open the Doctor's skull and replacing his brain with Morbius', Sarah spending a chunk of the story blind, and a monster made out of the bits of other creatures. It's very effective but maybe let down a little by plot logic: why is the Doctor so quick to trust Solon again after he tries to crack his head open like an egg? And if the Sisterhood can peer inside Solon's lab to kidnap the Doctor, why can't they do the same to monitor his attempts to resurrect their foe Morbius? Still, very good stuff, especially Elisabeth Sladen's "blind acting" selling you on the absolute terror of her predicament.
The Seeds of Doom is our solitary six-parter for the season and it's clear that the writers decided to go overboard in trying to avert the normal pacing problems associated with long-haul stories. The first two episodes are effectively their own tale with the Doctor and Sarah visiting an isolated research base in the Antarctic where the discovery of alien pods in the permafrost naturally results in a horrific creature running amok. This is The Thing from Another World with a light dollop of Mountains of Madness thrown in for good measure. Eventually the threat, and thus the Doctor and Sarah, relocate to England where one of the alien pods is hatched out in the country retreat of the eccentric plant expert Harrison Chase, leading to further shenanigans.
It's all good fun, with a great guest turn from a pre-Only Fools & Horses John Challis, and a solid villainous turn from Tony Beckley as Harrison Chase. But it's definitely still a somewhat thin story, with the country house setting and tiny cast not really helping the latter four episodes with their pacing. It also tries to segue into being a UNIT story, but with no recurring UNIT characters available, that connection feels a bit unnecessary. It's clear the writers agreed, as this would become the last UNIT story of any kind until Season 26's Battlefield, a full thirteen seasons later.
Season 13 of Doctor Who (****½) is terrific viewing, with no real duds. When your weakest stories are still as enjoyable as Planet of Evil and The Android Invasion, and your strongest are of the quality of Pyramids of Mars, it's not really possible to complain. This is a very strong season of Doctor Who, even if the show is very clearly moving away from its original family-friendly vibe at a rate of knots, something that will only accelerate hard in the next season.
Some caveats with this season. The season is available on DVD and will be released later this year on Blu-Ray. The season is available on the BBC iPlayer and some other international streaming platforms, but due to a rights issue, Terror of the Zygons and The Seeds of Doom are both missing. I ended up buying those two stories on DVD and then watching iPlayer for the rest. When and if this problem will be rectified remains unclear.
- Terror of the Zygons (****)
- Planet of Evil (***½)
- Pyramids of Mars (****½)
- The Android Invasion (***½)
- The Brain of Morbius (****½)
- The Seeds of Doom (****)
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