The Sun Makers

095 – The Sun Makers
Doctor Who serial
The Doctor and Leela, examining Pluto.
Cast
Doctor Tom Baker (Fourth Doctor)
Companions Louise Jameson (Leela) John Leeson (Voice of K9 Mk. I)
Others Henry Woolf — The Collector Richard Leech — Gatherer Hade Jonina Scott — Marn Roy Macready — Cordo David Rowlands — Bisham William Simons — Mandrel Adrienne Burgess — Veet Michael Keating — Goudry Carole Hopkin — Nurse Derek Crewe — Synge Colin McCormack — Commander Tom Kelly — Guard
Production
Directed by	Pennant Roberts
Written by	Robert Holmes
Script editor	Robert Holmes and Anthony Read (both uncredited)
Produced by	Graham Williams
Executive producer(s)	None
Incidental music composer	Dudley Simpson
Production code	4W
Series	Season 15
Length	4 episodes, 25 minutes each
Originally broadcast	26 November – 17 December 1977
Chronology
← Preceded by Followed by → Image of the Fendahl Underworld
List of Doctor Who serials

Doctor Who and the Sunmakers

Author	Terrance Dicks
Cover artist	Andrew Skilleter
Series	Doctor Who book: Target novelisations
Release number	60
Publisher	Target Books
Publication date	18 November 1982
ISBN

The Sun Makers is the fourth serial of the 15th season in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 26 November to 17 December 1977.

The inhabitants of Pluto in the far future are taxed to desperation, including the functionary Cordo, who is so overwhelmed by the size of his tax bill that he decides to take his own life. He is interrupted by the arrival of the Doctor and Leela from the TARDIS, who save him and discover that false suns have been created around Pluto to provide the ability for some of mankind to live. However, the Company which owns the suns and the buildings on Pluto is using its economic stranglehold to extort ever growing taxes through extreme usury. The Doctor is concerned at this economic and social structure, where each Megropolis is ruled by a taxation Gatherer, and the entire operation on the planet reports to a malevolent Collector. Some citizens have rejected this social order and live in the dark tunnels of the Undercity. The Doctor, Leela and Cordo venture there and encounter the renegades of the undercity, vicious thieves and dropouts led by the brutal Mandrel. He tells the Doctor that he must use a stolen consum-card to obtain money from a cashpoint or Leela will be killed.

The Gatherer of Megropolis One, Hade, is alerted to the arrival of the TARDIS. He uses an electronic tracker to follow K9, who has departed the craft in search of his master. K9 finds the Doctor and Cordo at a cashpoint where the Gatherer sees them and suspects they must be arms dealers. He orders his private guard, the Inner Retinue, to deal with them. When the Doctor tries the stolen card, he is overpowered by noxious gas and falls unconscious.

When the Doctor awakes, he is in a Correction Centre alongside a similarly incarcerated man named Bisham. They are likely to be tortured, but the Doctor is concerned for Leela, whom Mandrel threatened to kill if the Doctor did not return. Leela has defended herself, though, and Cordo, who evaded capture, returns to the Undercity with news of the Doctor’s capture. This increases Leela’s standing with the thieves, and the threat over her life diminishes. The Doctor’s lot improves when he is released for questioning by Gatherer Hade, but Hade orders his movements tracked, believing the Doctor will lead him to the heart of a conspiracy against the Company. Not knowing about this change in fortunes, Leela, Cordo and K9 attack the Correction Centre to try to rescue the Doctor. He has left, but they free Bisham. As they depart the Centre, they find their travel routes blocked by Inner Retinue troopers.