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| The Ice Warriors |
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 This season could be seen as a continuation of the previous with the same key characters continuing their roles. With both Jon Pertwee and Katy Manning well established, as Doctor and companion, the only significant change was less involvement by the members of UNIT and for The Master, as played by Roger Delgado, not appearing in every story. This was partly due to not every story being set on Earth.
The most notable thing about this season though is the welcome return, after an absence of five years of the dreaded Daleks. Their previous appearance was in the 1967 Second Doctor story " The Evil of the Daleks" – so making "Day of the Daleks" the first Dalek story for the Third Doctor and their first on television in colour. Another previously encountered enemy would also make a return in "The Curse of Peladon", in the form of the Ice Warriors – but their return would contain an unexpected twist… The next story "The Sea Devils" would see the debut of the aquatic cousins of the Silurians. This story also included the first of two appearances for The Master. "The Sea Devils" being, for The Master at least, the sequel to last season’s final story "The Dæmons" in which, at the end of that story he was finally caught and imprisoned by UNIT.
It was not until the fifth story, "The Mutants", that no elements from the past would be included. This story also was the second time that the Third Doctor and Jo Grant would visit an alien planet (the first for this season being "The Curse of Peladon"). In both cases The Doctor would be in fact running errands for the Time Lords.
The final story "The Time Monster" would again be set on Earth and would involve The Doctor, Jo and UNIT trying to thwart yet another of The Master schemes to take over the world. Interestingly whereas in the previous season all but one story involved UNIT only the first and the final story in Season Nine could be classed as being ‘UNIT stories’. This season certainly had taken the best elements from the previous and improved on them.
With no significant changes taking place behind the scenes this period of the show was the most stable – thus enabling one season to flow seamlessly into the next. The viewing figures also remained at a respectable average for the whole show up until that point in its history. They did though fall steadily (but slowly) during the duration of this season with "Day of the Daleks" having 9.6 million viewers and "The Time Monster" dropping to 7.4. The highest viewed episode though was the second part of "The Curse of Peladon" (at 11.0).
Although "The Time Monster" was the final story for Season Nine, the ninth production block included one further story. For the first time since the Sixties, it had been decided to record a story for the next season prior to the summer break, and so the recording block continued, in May and June 1972, with "Carnival of Monsters". But unlike previous seasons, where stories had been recorded in advance, this story would not be the one that started Season Ten. This slot would go to a very special story - the tenth anniversary special "The Three Doctors" which would, as the title suggests, see the First Doctor (played by William Hartnell ) and the Second Doctor (played by Patrick Troughton) joining Jon Pertwee.
Exciting things for the show were just around the corner…
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| The Daleks |
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Daleks in colour for the first time on television, the welcome return of the Ice Warriors in (where, in a very clever twist, they turn out not to be the villains), the introduction of the Sea Devils (with the classic scene of them coming out of the sea, and) The Master watching The Clangers.
Even though the Daleks had been seen in colour before (in the two Peter Cushing films) "Day of the Daleks" has the accolade of being the first full colour television story to include them. It is however, the scene in which The Doctor is shocked to see the appearance of one of them in the tunnels that sticks in the mind – that and the amusing scene in which Jo Grant attempts to feed Sergeant Benton only to be thwarted by the appearance of Captain Mike Yates who replies to Jo’s annoyance with the line ‘Rank has its privileges’.
Despite containing the very annoying Alpha Centauri "The Curse of Peladon" is more memorable for re-introducing to the viewers to the Ice Warriors. But instead of being the baddies they are the good guys – the first time in the show that a foe has turned into a friend. Also listen out for The Doctor singing a Venusian lullaby, and a new use for his sonic screwdriver, to soothe Aggedor.
As well as the scene of The Master watching The Clangers, "The Sea Devils" included the Silurians' aquatic cousins. But it was the location filming around Portsmouth, on the Isle of Wight and on No Man's Land Fort in the Solent which makes this story a classic. This story contains many ‘not to be missed’ scenes that it is impossible to list them all. It is therefore worth watching the whole story.
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(Position = 20 out of 31)
