Season 1 of Doctor Who premiered on November 23, 1963
The season introduces William Hartnell as the First Doctor, an alien who travels through time and space in his TARDIS, which appears to be a British p...Read more
Season 2
6.2
1964 • 39 Episodes
Season 2 of Doctor Who premiered on October 31, 1964
Milestones this season included not one but two encore appearances by the Daleks; the departure of the original three companions, Susan Foreman, Barba...Read more
Season 3
6.0
1965 • 45 Episodes
Season 3 of Doctor Who premiered on September 11, 1965
At twelve episodes, The Daleks' Master Plan was the longest story in the show's history until superseded by the fourteen-episode The Trial of a Time L...Read more
Season 4
6.3
1966 • 43 Episodes
Season 4 of Doctor Who premiered on September 10, 1966
This season was a season of major changes for Doctor Who, including some that have influenced the series and franchise ever since. Most notably, seaso...Read more
Season 5
6.3
1967 • 40 Episodes
Season 5 of Doctor Who premiered on September 2, 1967
No complete stories from the season were known to have survived until the early-1990s when archivists recovered a complete version of The Tomb of the ...Read more
Season 6
6.1
1968 • 44 Episodes
Season 6 of Doctor Who premiered on August 10, 1968
This season featured the first ever UNIT story, The Invasion, which showcased the return of Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart. It also featured the first o...Read more
Season 7
7.3
1970 • 25 Episodes
Season 7 of Doctor Who premiered on January 3, 1970
It was the first series produced and broadcast in colour and the first set entirely in one time period and almost entirely on Earth (the latter of the...Read more
Season 8
7.1
1971 • 25 Episodes
Season 8 of Doctor Who premiered on January 2, 1971
As of 2017, season 8 remains notable for being the season with the most number of regular characters. Not only did it see a new companion in the form ...Read more
Season 9
6.2
1972 • 26 Episodes
Season 9 of Doctor Who premiered on January 1, 1972
It was noted for being the beginning of the end of the Doctor's exile on Earth, with the Doctor's TARDIS still under the control of the Time Lords (Th...Read more
Season 10
6.7
1972 • 26 Episodes
Season 10 of Doctor Who premiered on December 30, 1972
William Hartnell returned in a cameo as the First Doctor and Patrick Troughton in a more substantial role as the Second Doctor in The Three Doctors. T...Read more
Season 11
6.8
1973 • 26 Episodes
Season 11 of Doctor Who premiered on December 15, 1973
It was Jon Pertwee's final season as the Doctor and included, very briefly, the first appearance of Tom Baker as the Fourth Doctor. The Time Warrior, ...Read more
Season 12
7.8
1974 • 20 Episodes
Season 12 of Doctor Who premiered on December 28, 1974
All the stories in this season were interconnected, several forming a loose story arc relating to Space Station Nerva. The Cybermen returned to the se...Read more
Season 13
7.5
1975 • 26 Episodes
Season 13 of Doctor Who premiered on August 30, 1975
It was during this season that the Doctor cut ties to UNIT (after Terror of the Zygons, the Brigadier would not appear again until Mawdryn Undead in 1...Read more
Season 14
7.1
1976 • 26 Episodes
Season 14 of Doctor Who premiered on September 4, 1976
The season is notable for the departure of Sarah Jane Smith in The Hand of Fear and for The Deadly Assassin, a story set entirely on Gallifrey which e...Read more
Season 15
6.5
1977 • 26 Episodes
Season 15 of Doctor Who premiered on September 3, 1977
This season introduced K9 to the series and saw the departure of Leela. It was originally intended to include Terrance Dicks' story The Vampire Mutati...Read more
The Key to Time
6.4
1978 • 26 Episodes
Season 16 of Doctor Who premiered on September 2, 1978
This season saw the introduction of the Black and White Guardians as well as the companion Romana, who became only the second female Time Lord compani...Read more
Season 17
6.8
1979 • 20 Episodes
Season 17 of Doctor Who premiered on September 1, 1979
It consisted of five stories, plus the incomplete Shada, unfinished as a result of an industrial strike. Lalla Ward joined as Romana II, and the seaso...Read more
Season 18
6.3
1980 • 28 Episodes
Season 18 of Doctor Who premiered on August 30, 1980
The season featured a story arc involving E-Space and the return of the Master who had stolen a new body rather than regenerate. The stories were dark...Read more
Season 19
6.3
1982 • 26 Episodes
Season 19 of Doctor Who premiered on January 4, 1982
Two milestones occurred in Earthshock. Firstly, the Cybermen returned, unannounced, for the first time since Revenge of the Cybermen in 1975 with a co...Read more
Season 20
6.2
1983 • 22 Episodes
Season 20 of Doctor Who premiered on January 3, 1983
Structurally, the season retread season 18's formula of including a trilogy of stories bound together by an overarching theme. In this instance, the t...Read more
Season 21
6.1
1984 • 24 Episodes
Season 21 of Doctor Who premiered on January 5, 1984
The Twin Dilemma, the first story with Colin Baker as the Sixth Doctor, aired last in the season. This season saw the departure of companions Tegan, T...Read more
Season 22
4.6
1985 • 13 Episodes
Season 22 of Doctor Who premiered on January 5, 1985
With this season the BBC experimented with the format of the series, reducing the number of episodes to thirteen, but making each episode forty-five m...Read more
The Trial of a Time Lord
4.9
1986 • 14 Episodes
Season 23 of Doctor Who premiered on September 6, 1986
This season had a unique format, never again repeated in the show. Doctor Who had returned to production after a near-cancellation and an eighteen-mon...Read more
Season 24
6.5
1987 • 14 Episodes
Season 24 of Doctor Who premiered on September 7, 1987
Unlike season 23, there was no overall story arc, and the episode allotment - two four-episode stories, two three-episode stories - would be retained ...Read more
Season 25
7.7
1988 • 14 Episodes
Season 25 of Doctor Who premiered on October 5, 1988
As the silver anniversary season, it included several stories noting the milestone: Remembrance of the Daleks, which featured the final "classic serie...Read more
Season 26
7.5
1989 • 14 Episodes
Season 26 of Doctor Who premiered on September 6, 1989
It was the final season of the "classic" series. Unusually for a Doctor Who season, aside from some scenes in Survival, all the stories took place on ...Read more