N.B. there might (or might not) be spoilers in this article!
Two years! Two years it’s taken to get this far. But as The War Games illustrates, there’s something to be said for taking the slow road when it comes to 60’s Doctor Who.
There’s an excellent overview of Patrick Troughton’s time in Doctor Who in the documentary Second Time Around on The Krotons DVD, which gives a real sense of how some of the great ideas – regeneration, the Time Lords, the first episode of The Mind Robber – came out of the adversity and chaos in making the show.
In the documentary it was also remarked that Patrick Troughton’s portrayal made the show much more about the viewer following the Doctor on the journey (rather than his companions). Certainly the way the Second Doctor would manipulate events to his advantage almost from the sidelines compared to the First Doctor’s more authoritarian taking over of situations meant you couldn’t take your eyes off him. It’s arguably something that remained true until the show’s 21st century restart, when Russell T Davies made Rose Tyler the initial focus of the adventures.
But enough of that – what’s my impression of the Second Doctor? Well, it’s impossible not to love him. Whether he’s seemed on top of the situation or making it up as he goes along, clowning around or being serious, Patrick Troughton has been every bit as magnificent and compelling in the role as his predecessor, making it forever possible for an actor to take the role and make it his own.
Can I split the first two Doctors as to who is my favourite? Do I even want to? Even a statistical analysis of the merits and quality of stories would leave it too close to call. I know who my favourite Doctor was going into this marathon, but since I was prepared to have that opinion challenged, I might leave such a declaration for when I’m finished this marathon, or since the shows no signs of stopping just yet, at the very least, caught up with the contemporaneous transmission.
“No! Stop, you’re making me giddy! No, you can’t do this to me! No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no! “
The Doctor, The War Games:
Episode Ten
Now that I’m leaving the 60’s behind, it would be remiss of me not to give a properly (over)due hat-tip to all those dedicated off-air recorders without whom we would not have any record of many of the missing episodes (and of course to Mark Ayres whose painstaking restoration enabled us to hear them). There isn’t a single episode from now on that I can’t watch in something close to its original glory and whilst I wouldn’t have it any other way, there is a part of me that will miss those episodes where it’s been left to the mind’s eye.
I’m not quite finished with the Second Doctor yet. I’ve still got the recent DVD release of The Underwater Menace to catch up with, but when Unearthly Times (and Doctor Who) returns it will be in colour!
