Season 18, Episode 7 | 4 parts | First broadcast: 28 February – 21 March 1981 | Writer: Christopher H. Bidmead | Director: Peter Grimwade
Cast
- Tom Baker as the Doctor
- Matthew Waterhouse as Adric
- Sarah Sutton as Nyssa
- Janet Fielding as Tegan Jovanka
- Anthony Ainley as the Master
Summary
Investigating strange readings while attempting simple TARDIS repairs, the Doctor travels to Logopolis, a planet of mathematicians who use recursive calculations to literally hold the fabric of a decaying universe together. As the Master’s meddling triggers a catastrophic chain reaction that threatens all of reality, the Doctor is drawn into a final, desperate confrontation atop the Pharos Project radio telescope, one that will cost him his fourth incarnation entirely.
Interesting Facts
- This is Tom Baker’s final regular serial as the Doctor, ending with his dramatic fall from the Pharos Project telescope and regeneration into the Fifth Doctor.
- It introduces Tegan Jovanka, played by Janet Fielding, who accidentally boards the TARDIS and becomes a companion for both the Fourth and Fifth Doctors.
- The concept of Block Transfer Computation, in which Logopolitan mathematics directly shapes physical reality, was one of incoming script editor Christopher H. Bidmead’s signature hard-science ideas for the era.
- The Watcher, a mysterious white-clad figure who appears throughout the story foreshadowing the Doctor’s regeneration, was a novel storytelling device not used in quite the same way before or since.
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