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This starts our look at the stories of the Second Doctor, portrayed by Patrick Troughton, during the 1960s.
The Second Doctor, Part 1
Patrick Troughton is the reason we are still talking about Doctor Who all these years later. He took over the lead role in a popular and successful show and continued the success. It might have been a disaster, but it wasn’t. And Troughton did not attempt to be another Hartnell, he had his own distinct way of playing the part. He established the principle that the personality of the Doctor changes when he (or she) regenerates. This made it much easier on all the actors who followed him in the role, and each one has been very distinctive in how they embodied the Doctor. Sadly, many of his episodes, and some complete stories, are missing now due to the short-sighted policy of the BBC the discard older shows, in many cases wiping video tapes for reuse. Of course, you can’t blame them too much since I doubt anyone in the 1960s would have believed that the show would still be going over 60 years later. But there is always hope that some more episodes will be recovered. There are people who collect old TV shows in various formats such as film and video tape, and it is virtually certain that some missing Doctor Who episodes still exist in private collectors’ hands, though how many is not known.
To take the place of the missing episodes we have reconstructions using telesnaps (photos taken of the monitor screen), animations, and for a few Troughton stories fans have re-staged the stories as stage plays. So there are ways to experience at least a little of these missing episodes. And even as I write this there are indications that more episodes may be found and returned to the BBC .
Troughton took over in the third story of Season 4, which aired in late 1966.
Power of the Daleks
This is the first story for Patrick Troughton as the Doctor, and starting with the Daleks was a smart move. They were so popular that they guaranteed a good audience and would get Troughton off to a good start. The TARDIS lands on a planet called Vulcan, where a scientist has found a derelict ship containing a few Daleks. He thinks he can bring them back to life, and won’t listen to the Doctor who tries to warn him. Meanwhile, rebels on Vulcan are trying to overthrow the government there. In the end, the scientist sacrifices himself to help stop the Daleks, the rebels succeed in overthrowing the fascist dictator, and all is well. For now. Ben and Polly are along as the companions continuing their stay on the TARDIS after starting with the First Doctor in the War Machines
This is one of the completely missing stories, but there is an animated version which is available on DVD, or you can watch it on YouTube.
The Highlanders
And another historical story, taking us to the Battle of Culloden in 1746, where the last gasp of the Jacobite rebellion was snuffed out by the English army. The TARDIS crew are first captured by the Scots, who are not kindly disposed to people who are obviously English. Then they are captured by the English, who have decided they are traitors and want to hang them. After various adventures, they get away, and bring with them a young Scottish lad named Jamie, who becomes the third member of the TARDIS team when he promises to teach the Doctor to play the bagpipes. An average historical story made memorable by the introduction of the next truly beloved companion, Jamie. He would stay with the Doctor all the way through the end of Troughton’s run, and is still in high demand as a guest at Doctor Who conventions around the world. He was not actually intended to be a companion at first. They had shot two endings, one where he joins the Doctor, and another where he is left in Scotland. They did decide to keep him, but in the next few stories, for which the scripts had already been written, he is less central to the plot and sometimes get lines originally written for another character.
This is another story where all of the episodes are missing, though there are reconstructions available.
The Underwater Menace
The TARDIS team arrives on an island formed by an extinct volcano, where they are brought underground to a sunken city. They are told that their arrival was foretold by the goddess of the city, and that they would be sacrificed. They are rescued by a scientist known to the doctor, but it turns out he has gone quite mad. The city is Atlantis, and he says he will raise it, but his plan involves blowing up everything with nuclear bombs. The underwater scenes of swimming ladies are quite hilarious, but it is an inventive little story. The scene of the mad scientist raging as he disappears under the water is pretty good too, in a campy way.
Early in Patrick Troughton’s run as The Doctor the show dropped much of the history and focused more on monsters and SF to compete with shows like Lost in Space and Land of the Giants.
This story is missing two of the 4 episodes, but reconstructions exist for the two missing episodes.
The Moonbase
The Cybermen are back, and this time they are attacking a base on the Moon. They have been infiltrating the base through a hole in a basement wall, which is where you scratch your head and wonder why the air doesn’t all leak out through this hole. And since the Cybermen are still significantly organic, how are they breathing in vacuum? Still, the Doctor puts the emphasis on science as the way to defeat them. The return of the Cybermen was sufficiently popular for them to become the acknowledged second best enemy of the Doctor, after the Daleks, of course. And as such they would come back again in several of the Troughton’s stories, and continued up to the present to be featured in Doctor Who.
This story is also missing two of its episodes, but they have been animated so you can get a decent experience of the story now. And there is at least one decent jump scare here.
The Macra Terror
The Macra made an appearance in the David Tennant story Gridlock, but this is where they began. The TARDIS materializes on a planet where a colony seems very happy, except for one malcontent who claims he has seen huge crab-like beings at night. Then the Doctor sees them as well, but no one else seems to notice them. It turns out these creatures are good at conditioning people to not see them, and to believe what they are told to believe. Ben ends up brainwashed by them, though the others escape this. And the colony is busily engaged in producing some kind of gas, and this turns out to be essential to the Macra. Oxygen is poisonous to them, they need the gas. Finally Ben breaks his conditioning and rescues the others, and the Macra are defeated. Why they reappeared in Gridlock was never clear to me, it looked like an Easter Egg for long-time fans that was never explained or justified.
This is another story that is missing all of its episodes in original form, but an animated version has been released, and is available on DVD and on YouTube.
The Faceless Ones
This is a very good, inventive story that purports to take place at Gatwick Airport, though it is of course not really shot there, but at a smaller place nearby. The TARDIS materializes there, and the first problem is that none of them have passports! This is the only thing matters to the immigration people at the airport. Meanwhile, something puzzling is going on with a company called Chameleon Tours. One young lady, played by Pauline Collins, is trying to find out what happened to her brother, who went on a tour with them, sent a postcard, and then vanished. It turns out that the folks running Chameleon Tours are an alien race of Shape-shifters, hence the “Faceless Ones”, who are kidnapping people to help repopulate their planet. The obvious plot hole is that this would involve repopulating with people, not Chamelelons, but never let that get in the way of what is otherwise a nice romp full of action and suspense. The production team was hoping to get Collins as a companion, but she turned them down. At the end, Ben and Polly take advantage of the fact they are on Earth at the proper time, and decide to leave the TARDIS and get on with their lives. So now only Jamie is left. I bet that won’t be true for long.
For this story 4 of the 6 episodes are missing, but again this is a story that got the complete animation treatment. You can purchase the DVD, or watch it on YouTube.
Links:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Troughton
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Power_of_the_Daleks
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gX1DN7yHneA
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Highlanders_(Doctor_Who)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Underwater_Menace
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Moonbase
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Macra_Terror
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unipaGm8Pbo
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Faceless_Ones
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovSHAcu7g4A
https://www.palain.com/science-fiction/intro-to-doctor-who/the-second-doctor-part-1/
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