Өлім елшілері: Ғарыштан келген қауіп

The Ambassadors of Death is the third serial of the seventh season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in seven weekly parts on BBC1 from 21 March to 2 May 1970. The serial's script was credited to David Whitaker but completed primarily by Malcolm Hulke and Trevor Ray. It was directed by Michael Ferguson. The serial is set in London, Hertfordshire and the Earth's orbit. In the serial, the alien time traveller the Third Doctor (Jon Pertwee) and the international organisation UNIT investigate the disappearance of astronauts who have lost contact with Earth. They become involved in a conspiracy and meet alien ambassadors who have arrived on Earth.

The United Nations Intelligence Taskforce attempts to make contact with the missing Mars Probe Seven and its two astronauts, who lost contact with Earth eight months earlier. When the recovery crew returns to earth, it is captured by General Charles Carrington, who has captured the missing astronauts. Carrington is now introduced to the Doctor by Sir James Quinlan, the Minister for Technology, as head of the newly formed Space Security Department. Carrington says his actions were to protect the astronauts, as they have been infected with contagious radiation. Quinlan states the government did not want the public to become panic stricken and reveals that Carrington has been acting with government authority. The Doctor believes the real astronauts are still in orbit, and that the three space suits contain alien beings. An intelligent but ruthless criminal named Reegan engineers the kidnapping of Liz Shaw to aid his own scientist, Lennox, in keeping the aliens alive. Reegan sends the creatures to the Space Centre to kill Quinlan. Liz helps Lennox escape, and he tries to reach the Brigadier, but Reegan finds and kills him. Cornish is determined to launch another spacecraft to retrieve his astronauts from the Mars Probe capsule in Earth orbit. The Doctor volunteers to pilot the rocket himself, but the rocket is taken prisoner by an alien spaceship. Aboard the craft, an alien being explains the humans are being held pending the safe return of the alien ambassadors, who have been sent to Earth to make peaceful contact with mankind. The Doctor gives his personal guarantee to return the ambassadors safely. When the Doctor touches down, he is kidnapped by Reegan, who reunites him with Liz. Reegan's paymaster, and the real organiser of the conspiracy, is revealed: General Carrington. In the previous Mars Probe Six mission, Carrington was one of the crew members who discovered and made contact with these peaceful alien beings. Unfortunately, their contact went awry, as the radiation emitted by the creatures is lethal to humans, which killed the other crew members. Out of a misplaced sense of guilt and duty, The General has lured the three aliens to Earth in order to expose them on television and intends to call on the nations of the world to attack them. The use of the ambassadors to kill was done simply to arouse public opinion against them. The Doctor manages to send a radio message, and the Brigadier and UNIT soldiers rescue him and Liz, arresting Reegan. They race to the Space Centre, where the Brigadier arrests Carrington. The Doctor arranges for Ralph Cornish and Liz to return the ambassadors to their own people so that the three human astronauts can be released.

David Whitaker, despite being the sole credited writer for the serial, drafted the first three episodes only. Trevor Ray, the series' assistant script editor, completed episode one; Malcolm Hulke finalised episodes two and three, and wrote the remaining four episodes. Because it was uncomfortable for the actors, the make up was applied shortly before they had to go on set. Geoffrey Beevers later played the Master in The Keeper of Traken (1981) and a number of Big Finish Productions audio plays. William Dysart had previously appeared in The Highlanders (1967). Peter Halliday, who provided the voices of the aliens, and also supplied the voices of the Silurians in the previous story, had first appeared in Doctor Who in The Invasion the previous season, and later appeared in Carnival of Monsters (alongside Michael Wisher), City of Death (1979) and Remembrance of the Daleks (1988). Cyril Shaps previously played Viner in The Tomb of the Cybermen (1967), and subsequently appeared with Jon Pertwee in Planet of the Spiders (1974) and with Tom Baker in The Androids of Tara (1978).

A novelisation of this serial, written by Terrance Dicks, was published by Target Books in October 1987.

Although the entire story was made on colour videotape, only the first episode was retained in this format. In fact, it is the earliest episode that survives in the series' original videotaped format, either in colour or black and white. In May 2002, a restoration project for the story's VHS release combined the usable colour information from the domestic recordings with the black and white picture from the film prints, creating a high quality colour picture. All told, over half of the serial's running time was presented in colour, including all of episodes 1 and 5, and sections from 2, 3, 6 and 7. The remaining footage, including all of episode 4, was deemed unsuitable for restoration, and so remained in black and white. The January 2011 edition of Wired UK magazine, published in December 2010 carried a full page article on the recolourisation of the story. It was stated in the article that the Restoration Team expected to deliver a fully restored colour version of the story to the BBC "within weeks". In issue 430 of Doctor Who Magazine the DVD was announced but later set back due to restoration difficulties. The release was delayed until 2012 when Doctor Who Magazine issue 449 confirmed that the full colour version would soon be out on DVD. It was later announced that the story would be released on DVD on 1 October 2012. Among the special features on the DVD is a documentary entitled Mars Probe 7: Making The Ambassadors of Death. Although David Whitaker is the sole credited writer on the actual episodes, the DVD sleeve credits The Ambassadors of Death as being written by David Whitaker, Malcolm Hulke and Trevor Ray. The linking narration was provided by Caroline John.

A book length study of the serial, written by LM Myles, was published as part of The Black Archive series from Obverse Books in 2016. The serial was covered in number 15 of the Doctor Who: The Complete History book series, which reprinted Andrew Pixley's Archive features from Doctor Who Magazine and the various Doctor Who Magazine Special Editions, as well as new articles created specifically for the book.