Doctor Who (1963) Season 14 Episode 9

Novelisation: Doctor Who and the Deadly Assassin by Terrance Dicks (ISBN 0 426 11965 7) first published by Wyndham Publications in 1977.

This episode marks the first appearance of the politically-motivated Time Lord Borusa. He will next appear in The Invasion of Time, and continue to complicate The Doctor's life in Arc of Infinity and The Five Doctors. In every story he will be played by a different actor.

Working title: The Dangerous Assassin

With the exception of the computer voice in episode four, there are no women in this serial.

Bernard Horsfall, who plays Chancellor Goth, also played a Time Lord in The War Games - the assumption is he is playing the same character in both episodes.

The Doctor signs his note with a circular symbol: this was originally created by designer Roger Murray-Leach for the Vogans in Revenge of the Cybermen. The symbol then became associated with Gallifrey and appeared on clothing and walls in subsequent episodes: the BBC later trademarked it.

For the only time in the series, the episode starts with a rolling caption and a voiceover narration by the Doctor.

Peter Pratt plays the now-hideously disfigured Master, the character's first appearance since Roger Delgado's death after making Season 10's Frontier in Space.

Goth says that he found the Master "on the planet Tersurus... he was dying." The story of how the Master got into this condition is revealed in the original Eighth Doctor novel Legacy of the Daleks.