The Harvesters

Main cast

Patrick Troughton as the Second Doctor. He is a Time Lord who travels throughout time in space in a ship known as the TARDIS, which greatly resembles a British police box. While traveling, he and his traveling companions get involved in various adventures across the universe. The Second Doctor has an unassuming, clownish demeanor which belies a deep intelligence and inquisitive prowess. His shabby clothing has led to critics describing him as a "cosmic hobo". Troughton also portrays the character of Salamander, a dictator who appears in The Enemy of the World who is identical in appearance to the Second Doctor.

Frazer Hines as Jamie McCrimmon. Jamie is a young man who hails from the Scottish highlands in 1746, joining the Doctor after meeting him following Battle of Culloden. Due to hailing from several centuries in the past, Jamie is largely unfamiliar with many aspects of the future, such as airplanes, though he is highly intelligent and adapts quickly to his newfound environment. He trusts the Doctor deeply and does his best to keep him safe, though is willing to call him out on his actions if need be. He treats Victoria like a younger sister, and has a friendly, albeit bickering, relationship with Zoe.

Deborah Watling as Victoria Waterfield. Victoria is a young girl from the Victorian era, now an orphan following the death of her father while combatting the Daleks. She has a "prim", demure personality, though also has a tendency to scream when encountering monsters. She longs to settle down in one place, and eventually stops traveling with the Doctor and Jamie, tired of winding up in dangerous situations, electing to stay behind and settle down with a 20th century family.

Wendy Padbury as Zoe Heriot. Zoe is a teenage genius who hails from the far future. She is highly intelligent and assertive, acting as an intellectual challenge to the Doctor. Zoe is trained in logic and uses it to approach situations, leading to conflict with the Doctor and Jamie, who follow a less logical approach in their adventures. Zoe ends up stowing away aboard the TARDIS and joining them in their adventures.

Serials

^†: Episode is missing

Production

Development

Innes Lloyd continued as the show's producer in The Tomb of the Cybermen, though had no great desire to continue in the role and thus sought to leave. He suggested Gerry Davis become producer, though Davis rejected his offer. Davis suggested to Lloyd that Peter Bryant take over as producer instead. Bryant had joined the production team in January 1967, having previously stepped in for Lloyd in the producer role, and had additionally worked as an assistant story editor with Davis and as an associate producer on The Faceless Ones (1967). Bryant ended up taking over Davis's story editor role in April 1967. Victor Pemberton was brought on as Bryant's assistant story editor. Bryant was enthusiastic about the role, but was unconfident in his skills as a producer; as a result, the final recording block of The Tomb of the Cybermen was given to Bryant as a "test run", with Pemberton acting as main story editor during this period. The story's success resulted in Bryant's position as producer being "virtually sealed". As the fifth season wore on, Bryant gained more creative input on the stories.

Tomb required little editing from Pemberton, though he attempted to add more atmosphere in places. Many rewrites were unable to be fulfilled due to Davis's departure from the production team to work on The First Lady, resulting in Pemberton undertaking the bulk of needed rewrites, with many concerning the character of Victoria. Initial story editing for subsequent serial The Abominable Snowmen was done by Pemberton, though the bulk of story edits were done by Bryant, who returned to his post during this story. Pemberton found himself unhappy with his new position, and desired to return to writing. Bryant took over his post once again after this serial, but shadowed Lloyd in preparation for taking over as producer at the end of the year. The Enemy of the World served as Lloyd's final story for the series, with Bryant taking over his role. Derrick Sherwin took over as assistant script editor. Sherwin was not particularly keen on being story editor, and thus contacted Terrance Dicks to serve as an uncredited story editor in 1968, with Sherwin planning to train and make Dicks his successor. Sherwin officially became the main story editor starting with The Web of Fear.

For The Tomb of the Cybermen, Sandra Reid served as costume designer while Gillian James handled makeup. This serial served as their final time working on the show, and Dorothea Wallace took over from Reid for the final two studio recording sessions due to Reid being hospitalised during production. Starting with The Abominable Snowmen, costume design work was largely handled by Martin Baugh, who took over from Reid's post, with Sylvia James operating makeup in Gillian's place. Baugh designed the costumes of several characters and creatures during this season, including the Yeti and the Ice Warriors.

Writing

The season was notable for repeatedly utilising the "Base Under Siege" story format, in which the characters, largely isolated on one set, were invaded by a given monster of the week. Additionally, there was a character type called the "Unstable Commander", often a figure of authority who provides "extra jeopardy" for the other characters. This story style is attributed to producer Lloyd, who used the format in the previous season's The Tenth Planet (1966), which introduced the recurring Cybermen as antagonists, and were used again later in that season for another Cyberman serial, The Moonbase (1967). Each story in the fifth season uses the Base Under Siege format in different capacities, though largely stick to a similar model, with the exception of The Enemy of the World. The story format ended up having a large effect on the show's story content for years afterward, even following Lloyd's departure.

The fifth season saw an increase in the emphasis on recurring "monsters" for the Doctor to fight. Lloyd hoped to find monsters to match the popularity of the Daleks, who were the only major recurring antagonist of Troughton's predecessor, William Hartnell, in the role of the Doctor. The season introduced the Ice Warriors and Yeti as part of this initiative, as well as further establish the Cybermen as antagonists following their two appearances in the prior season. Though attempts to find Dalek replacements had already been tried, such as with the titular monsters of The War Machines (1966), the need to find new monsters was further emphasised by the Daleks being written out of the series in the previous season's The Evil of the Daleks (1967) as a result of their creator, Terry Nation, seeking to pitch a Dalek television series in America.

Fury from the Deep also introduced an item known as the sonic screwdriver, representing a change in policy by the production team where the Doctor should use more "magical" gadgets. The screwdriver recurs throughout the rest of the series, being given several further functions as the show has progressed.

Several storylines were proposed but never produced: Roger Dixon's The King's Bedtime Story, in which the Doctor and his companions must perpetually enact a king's favourite story without changing it; Douglas Camfield and Robert Kitts's Operation Werewolf, wherein the Doctor arrives in Normandy before the D-Day landings to stop the Nazis from using a form of matter teleportation (later adapted by Big Finish Productions into an audio drama); and Brian Hayles's The Queen of Time, which would have seen the Doctor encounter an evil force named Hecuba, who was a relative of the Toymaker, another creation of Hayles's. In December 1967, Nation was approached regarding a serial potentially featuring both Daleks and Cybermen, but refused to allow the villains to appear together, though was open to the Daleks returning on their own if he was granted right of first refusal on any proposals.

Casting

Patrick Troughton and Frazer Hines reprised their main cast roles as the Second Doctor and Jamie McCrimmon from the prior season. Troughton also portrayed the dictator Salamander, marking the second time in the series an actor playing the Doctor portrayed another character in the same story, following William Hartnell in The Massacre (1966).

Deborah Watling portrays companion Victoria Waterfield in the season, following her introduction in the previous season's finale, The Evil of the Daleks. It had been hoped that Pauline Collins's character from The Faceless Ones (1967) could be brought on as a companion following the departure of Michael Craze and Anneke Wills as companions Ben and Polly. However, Collins declined to return, resulting in Victoria being shifted into a companion role for the season instead. Watling left the series in Fury from the Deep, stating that she had only intended to stay on the series for a year to avoid typecasting; Watling also stated that she left due to a lack of strong material given to the character. She gave the production team three months notice, and the production team began interviews to find an actress to play the next companion in January 1968. Watling later reprised her part onscreen in 1993's Dimensions in Time and in the 1995 spin-off direct-to-video film production Downtime.

Wendy Padbury is introduced in The Wheel in Space (1968), as Zoe Heriot. Sherwin envisaged a scientifically minded young woman to replace Victoria's role. Writer Peter Ling suggested the character be named Zoe. Interviews began in early January 1968, with Padbury's casting announced on 14 March 1968 alongside a special photoshoot, where several photographs were taken to serve as promotion for her debut in the serial's second episode.

Jack Watling, Deborah Watling's father, appears in a recurring role as the character Edward Travers. He makes his first and last appearances in the series in the serials The Abominable Snowmen and The Web of Fear, respectively. Watling went on to reprise his role of Travers thirty years in Downtime. Michael Kilgarriff also makes his first appearance in the series as the Cyber-Controller in The Tomb of the Cybermen. Kilgarriff later reprised the role eighteen years later in Attack of the Cybermen (1985). The Wheel in Space served as Peter Hawkins' final performance in the series, with Hawkins having served as the voice of the Daleks and Cybermen in every prior story featuring them.

Filming

Filming for the first serial, The Tomb of the Cybermen, was due to begin shortly after recording for The Evil of the Daleks, though the former serial was held over to season five in order to act as its opener. Scenes were inserted in the start of Tomb in order to allow for a reintroduction of the characters and setting, which was particularly important for Victoria's character due to her recent introduction. Morris Barry was invited back to direct the serial following his work on The Moonbase. Barry made few changes to the script, and largely aimed "to make it more violent and exciting." Filming began on 12 June 1967 with scenes shot at Gerrards Cross Quarry for shots depicting the exterior of the Cybermen's city. Filming was largely done at Ealing Studios from the 13th to the 16th, with scenes depicting the Cybermen's tombs shot at the BBC Television Centre Puppet Theatre on the 19th. Remaining filming was done at Lime Grove Studios from 1 July to 22 July.

The Abominable Snowmen was initially planned to be the fifth season opener due to its large amount of location work, with production starting over the summer of 1967. The serial was directed by Gerald Blake, who had not previously worked on Doctor Who before, though he had previously been planned to direct for the show back in 1964 for a scrapped story. Filming began on 23 August 1967, with location filming was done from 4 to 9 September 1967. The North Wales mountain pass at Nant Ffrancon in Snowdonia doubled as Tibet for the filming of this serial. This six day shoot was, at the time, the longest on-location shoot for the series. The rest of the filming was shot in studio at the Ealing Studios and Lime Grove Studios, with filming wrapping on 14 October 1967.

The Ice Warriors was considered to be the first story in the season, but was subsequently shifted to follow The Abominable Snowmen. Derek Martinus directed the story, though reluctantly, since he had previously directed numerous serials and wished to move away from the show, though he later claimed The Ice Warriors to be his favorite to direct for because of the serial's guest cast. Filming for the serial was conducted at Ealing Film Studios from 25 September 1967 to 2 October 1967, with production shifting to Lime Grove from 21 October to 25 November when filming wrapped.

Barry Letts directed The Enemy of the World, with this story being his first assignment on the programme, though he had previously tried to write for the series back in 1966. Letts later served as the show's producer throughout the era of Troughton's successor, Jon Pertwee. Sherwin worked closely with Letts during filming to add more action to the story, as it was largely dialogue heavy. Location filming took place at Climping Beach near Littlehampton, West Sussex. For scenes at the beach, a helicopter and hovercraft were hired and built, respectively. Filming at the beach took place from 5 November to 8 November. Scenes were filmed at the Villiers House in Ealing for scenes involving guards on a fire escape on the 9th, with filming at Walpole Park in Ealing used for scenes depicting Jamie in a park the same day. The rest of filming was done at Ealing Film Studios from the 10th to the 13th of November, and at Lime Grove from 2 December 1967 to 6 January 1968. Hines and Watling were on break during the filming of The Enemy of the World's fourth episode, and thus did not appear in the episode. Following this story, Letts saw Troughton's exhaustion regarding filming multiple stories simultaneously and suggested Doctor Who's episode count should be trimmed to 26 episodes to allow for an extra week of recording, which removed the need for stories to be filmed simultaneously. This was taken into effect for the show's sixth season.

Release

Promotion

Doctor Who was one of the shows promoted in bulletins regarding the BBC's autumn drama productions, which was covered by The Daily Telegraph and Daily Express in August 1968. Radio Times featured the Cybermen from The Tomb of the Cybermen on its cover on 31 August, and a trailer for the serial was produced which ended with a shot of a Cyberman from the first story coming into view. Watling was the subject of a photo feature in the Daily Mirror on 7 October to promote the second episode of The Abominable Snowmen, with Troughton featuring with a Yeti in the October edition of BBC magazine Ariel. A short trailer to promote The Ice Warriors was released shortly after the airing of The Abominable Snowmen's sixth episode. A half-page feature was run in Radio Times on 9 November, while the Daily Mirror ran an item on the 11th focusing on Bernard Bresslaw, who portrayed Ice Warrior Varga in the serial. Hayles appeared on Midlands Today to promote the serial on 16 November, while Radio Times ran a short piece regarding composer Dudley Simpson's music to promote the second episode. The week later, a similar item was run focusing on Peter Barkworth, who also appeared in the serial. On 27 November, Blue Peter held a competition for fans of Doctor Who to design a monster that could beat the Daleks, with Troughton himself judging entries. This was set to tie into an exhibition of the show's monsters, and the competition received newspaper coverage and garnered a quarter of a million submissions. It became one of the most popular contests run by the series. The three winners were revealed on 14 December, with Troughton posing with the winners and their constructed monsters. Newspapers covered the winners, including the Daily Sketch, who included a sketch of one of the winners, a creature with a giant eye named the Hypnotron, getting eye surgery.

On 16 December, a trailer for The Enemy of the World was broadcast after the sixth episode of The Ice Warriors. Radio Times ran numerous promotional pieces on the story, including a cover photo featuring a promotional shot of Troughton from The Ice Warriors. The monster exhibition opened at Empire Hall Olympia on 27 December, and featured monsters such as the Fungoid and Mire Beast from The Chase (1965), a Varga Plant from "Mission to the Unknown" (1965), a Rill from Galaxy 4 (1965) and Cybermen, a Dalek, Ice Warrior, and Yeti. A BBC2 documentary for the series Whicker's World aired on 27 January 1968 and featured an interview with Terry Nation and an appearance by a Yeti stalking host Alan Whicker through Highgate Cemetery. A trailer for The Web of Fear was broadcast shortly after the sixth episode of The Enemy of the World on 27 January 1968. Several pieces multiple pieces in Radio Times, including a full page preview on 1 February and interviews with cast members. London Transport Magazine covered Myerscough-Jone's set design for the London Underground in the serial. A trailer for Fury from the Deep after the broadcast of episode six of The Web of Fear on 9 March. Radio Times also carried a small feature on the story on 14 March. BBC1's viewer feedback programme Talkback covered the Cybermen's return in The Wheel in Space on 14 April, discussing the violence in their prior story The Tomb of the Cybermen. A trailer for episode one of The Wheel in Space was broadcast on 20 April. Radio Times included several promotional pieces on the serial. Daily Mirror ran a feature on 18 May discussing behind the scenes information regarding the show's monsters, Baugh, and visual effects designer Bernard Wilkie.

Broadcast

The entire season was broadcast from 2 September 1967, starting with the first episode of The Tomb of the Cybermen, to 1 June 1968 with the final episode of The Wheel in Space. Each of the stories in the season were broadcast across six parts, except for The Tomb of the Cybermen, which was broadcast across four parts. Following the broadcast of The Wheel in Space, a rerun of The Evil of the Daleks was shown over the following weeks to bridge the summer gap between the fifth and sixth seasons. Footage from The Evil of the Daleks is displayed on the TARDIS's scanner in the final moments of The Wheel in Space to link the rerun to in-universe events.

Several serials were sold overseas in the late 1960s and early 1970s, including to Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Zambia, Gibraltar, Nigeria, and New Zealand. Until the establishment of the Film and Videotape Library in 1978, the BBC wiped and reused the videotapes of old programmes deemed to hold no further commercial value. The Tomb of the Cybermen's 405-line tapes were wiped in September 1969, though 16mm film copies were offered for sale until 1974 when all remaining copies were junked. The Abominable Snowmen's were cleared for wiping in July 1969, with all episodes wiped by September. The remaining 16mm copies were offered for sale until 1974, and were eventually destroyed by 1978. The Ice Warriors was ordered to have its 405-line tapes destroyed in 1969, with all of its parts being destroyed by October of that year. Its 16mm copies were offered for sale until 1974, and were destroyed by 1978. The Enemy of the World's tapes were cleared for wiping in July 1969, and were all destroyed by October. All of the 16mm recordings were destroyed by 1974 except for Episode 3, which was retained by the BBC as an example of the output of the fifth season, alongside The Wheel in Space's sixth part. The Web of Fear was cleared for wiping in July 1969, and was entirely wiped by September. In 1974, Fury from the Deep's 625-line tapes were wiped, with its 16 mm film copies junked. It was the final story from the series to be wiped, and it is the only story from the fifth season serial for which no episodes are held in the BBC's archives. The Wheel in Space was still marketed by 1974, but by this point only the 35mm film copy of episode six was retained in the archives.

The Tomb of the Cybermen and The Enemy of the World are the only two stories to exist in their entirety from season five in the BBC's archives. All six parts of The Tomb of the Cybermen were later recovered in Hong Kong in 1992, and the remaining five missing episodes of The Enemy of the World were discovered in October 2013 in a television relay station in Jos, Nigeria. The Abominable Snowmen's second episode was returned in 1982 by a private collector after a call for missing episodes of the show was put out, with the other five episodes remaining missing; an animated reconstruction of the story, using audio of the original broadcast recorded by fans, released in 2022. In August 1988, recordings of the first, fourth, fifth, and sixth episodes of The Ice Warriors were recovered from a cupboard in Villiers House in Ealing while BBC Enterprises was in the process of moving out of the building. Episodes two and three remain missing, and an animated reconstruction was released in 2013. In 1978, The Web of Fear's first episode was discovered by chance in a rack of film reels returned from Hong Kong. The serial's remaining episodes were discovered alongside The Enemy of the World's in 2013, though the third episode was not returned and is believed to have been lost "en route". An animated reconstruction of the missing third episode was released in 2021. Episode three of The Wheel in Space was recovered in 1984 from a private collector in Southampton, with all other episodes of the serial remaining missing.

Home media

All releases are for DVD unless otherwise indicated:

(D) indicates a DVD release for a specific date

(D,B) indicates a simultaneous DVD and Blu-ray release

Reception

Ratings

In comparison to his predecessor, Troughton's tenure as the Doctor saw a marked increase in viewership, with the fifth season in particular averaging 7.2 million viewers for each episode, and did not receive much fluctuation in terms of viewership. Season opener The Tomb of the Cybermen attained solid viewing figures, with the number of viewers rising from 6.0 to 7.4 million by the time of its conclusion. Viewing figures were especially solid compared to fourth season opener The Smugglers (1966), though maintained average audience appreciation figures ranging from 49 to 53. The serial's fourth part was the second highest rated children's programme of that month. Ratings for The Abominable Snowmen were similar, with viewership gradually increasing as the weather grew colder outside. Its second episode received the lowest figures of the serial with 6 million viewers, with its highest being its final episode with figures of 7.4 million. It received audience appreciation scores ranging from 50-52. The Ice Warriors saw a slight improvement, with its first episode receiving its lowest figures of 6.7 million viewers and its fifth receiving its highest of 8 million viewers; it received acceptable audience appreciation scores similar to the prior serial.

The Enemy of the World was a slight improvement on prior serials, with episode six attaining the highest viewing figures of the season by that point with 8.3 million viewers. The serial received appreciation scores ranging from 48 to 52. The Web of Fear saw a further rise in viewing figures, and the serial's sixth episode featured in the Top 40 programmes for the week. The serial's lowest rated episode was the second, with 6.8 million viewers, with its highest being the fifth with 8.4 million viewers. Appreciation scores ranged from 51 to 55. Fury from the Deep was a slight step down from The Web of Fear, though audience scores were on the up, averaging 55 to 57. The fifth episode was the lowest viewed, garnering 5.9 million viewers, with episode one being the highest with 8.2 million viewers. The Wheel in Space's lowest viewing figure was 6.5 million viewers in its sixth episode, while its highest was viewership of 8.6 million for its fourth episode. Its sixth episode saw the highest appreciation score since the first episode of The Dalek Invasion of Earth (1964) four years earlier, with the episode scoring a rating of 62. The rest of the serial's scores ranged from 55 to 60.

Critical response

Since its airing, the fifth season of the show has been met with a positive response. Critic John Kenneth Muir regarded the season as being one of the best of the show's original run despite the large amount of missing episodes, writing that it "may have been the most inventive and exciting time the series ever saw". Muir regarded Troughton and Hines as strong presences, The Tomb of the Cybermen as a highlight story, and the important introductions of the recurring Yeti and Ice Warriors to the series as some of its strengths. Some of the season's stories have been cited by critics as being some of the best and most iconic in the show's history, including The Tomb of the Cybermen The Abominable Snowmen, and The Web of Fear. Andrew Blair of Den of Geek stated that the season's Base Under Siege format "shaped a lot of people's view on Doctor Who", and in retrospect the season would popularly be known as the "season of monsters" by fans due to its numerous popular antagonists, such as the newly introduced Ice Warriors and Yeti. The emphasis on monsters resulted in Troughton's era of the show being regarded as one of the most terrifying eras of the show by viewers of the time, particularly younger viewers.

In a variety of fan-voted popularity polls run by Doctor Who Magazine, The Tomb of the Cybermen, The Abominable Snowmen, The Web of Fear, and Fury from the Deep have consistently ranked in the top one hundred stories across the entire show, with Tomb and Web both being ranked in the ten best stories of all-time in the first series wide poll in 1998. The Ice Warriors ranked within the top 30 in the 1998 poll, before dropping to 141st place by the time of a poll conducted in 2014. The Enemy of the World ranked below the top 100 until 2014's poll, where it rose to 56th place. The Wheel in Space has consistently placed below the top 100 in these polls. In a 2023 poll, The Tomb of the Cybermen, The Abominable Snowmen, The Web of Fear, The Enemy of the World, and Fury from the Deep were voted to be among the ten best stories of Troughton's tenure as the Doctor, with Tomb ranking second overall and Web placing fifth.

The Tomb of the Cybermen has received positive responses since its release, though shortly after release it received criticism for being too violent. Muir described the story as being perhaps the best serial in the show's original run. However, several critics have regarded the story as being racially insensitive in its depiction of the character Toberman. The Abominable Snowmen is regarded as a classic serial from the show and is well-liked by fans, with Muir noting the Yeti as a well thought out and effective antagonist that had a lasting influence in the series. The Ice Warriors received largely positive commentary from critics, who liked the setting and guest performances, though some criticised aspects of the story, such as the story's extensive focus on the subplot involving the base's computer. The Enemy of the World received largely positive responses from critics, though Troughton's double performance as the Doctor and Salamander received mixed responses.