The most recent season to be streamed in full on the YouTube channel Doctor Who: Classic is Season 15. For Tom Baker's fourth season as the Doctor, there were significant changes behind the scenes. Graham Williams was the new producer, one who would have a clear impact on Doctor Who for the next three years. While Robert Holmes remained as script editor for the first half of the season, Anthony Read took over for the second half.
As a result, Season 15 felt like a gradual but significant shift in tone. "Horror of Fang Rock" is a gloriously atmospheric and horrific story with both a great monster and a fantastic setting: a lighthouse on a dark and foggy night. It would've fit in any of the previous three seasons perfectly.
However, the next story, "The Invisible Enemy", certainly feels different from what came before. The story of a sentient virus that wants to infect everything feels lighter in tone, not just compared to the previous serial but also to the previous three seasons.
A clear indication of how much of a turning point this story is is the introduction of a Doctor Who icon: K9. The introduction of the robotic dog was a hit with younger viewers, and even decades later, the character has made appearances in New Who, The Sarah Jane Adventures, and was even given his own spin-off series (one that, legally, could have no other connections to Doctor Who due to the lack of involvement from the BBC).
An ambitious season
While Season 15 delved into horror once more with "Image of the Fendahl", the second half of the season gave us a mixture of stories that were both light in tone and ambitious. "The Sun Makers" is a great slice of satire, written by a very angry Robert Holmes who didn't exactly enjoy paying his tax bill.
"Underworld" was meant to be a big, sci-fi take on the classic story "Jason and the Argonauts". Unfortunately, due to a production budget that was by this point extremely low, it suffers from weak effects (even more so than usual for Classic Doctor Who).
We then reach the six-part final story of the season: "The Invasion of Time". Some of the stories during Graham Williams's era as producer could be extremely ambitious, and "The Invasion of Time" is a great example of that. The serial initially depicts an invasion of Gallifrey by a brand new race, the Vardans, before throwing the audience a great twist with part 4's excellent cliffhanger. It does suffer from issues of pacing at times, but it's easy to respect the ambition.
Honestly, that sense of ambition is something that I genuinely admire about this season. Season 15 didn't just aim to be lighter in tone than previous seasons. It also aimed to push further in terms of special effects, of testing what could truly be done with Doctor Who's extremely limited budget. It didn't always work, of course, But it's hard not to admire the production team for trying to push the show into bigger and bolder directions.
You can judge for yourself how well Season 15 worked by watching the whole season right here. If you enjoy the season and you're someone who enjoys a large variety of special features, you might be curious about last year's Blu-ray box set, released in the US as Tom Baker: Complete Season Four. If so, be sure to check out our review.