Last time I talked about Doctor Who, I focused on the First Doctor, and the…somewhat lacking early seasons of the show. In my watch-through, though, I was very happy to discover that the show gets better quite quickly.
All it takes is Patrick Troughton.
Doctor Where?
But before I start talking about why the Second Doctor helped solidify everything good about Doctor Who, it’s worth pointing out one of the big downsides of his tenure in the role, which was entirely out of his control. I mentioned last time that several episodes of Classic Who are missing, thanks in part to the BBC’s cheapskate habit of recording over old episodes. But for the most part, you can watch the First Doctor’s tenure, even with the missing episodes, and not feel confused. A few later companions come and go without any explanation, but there’s nothing terribly memorable about the post-Ian-and-Barbara companions, anyway.
Unfortunately, it’s different for the Second Doctor. His entire first season is missing–including the episode where the First Doctor regenerates into him. It’s arguably the most important episode of the entire show–the one that introduced the concept that would allow Doctor Who to continue forever–and it’s missing! At least the soundtrack for the Second Doctor’s first serial was released years later with some dodgy accompanying animation, so you can still sort of watch his debut. But if you want to see the introduction of his longest-running companion, Jamie McRimmon, you’re out of luck.
Building a Doctor
Even with the missing footage of his debut, though, the Second Doctor makes an impression the minute he enters the picture. I truly think that most of the character traits modern fans associate with the Doctor originated with Patrick Troughton’s portrayal. The exact nature of regeneration was still a bit murky when it was introduced (it wouldn’t even be called “regeneration” for years to come), so it’s a little unclear at first whether he’s supposed to be a new character entirely, or just the same old guy with a different face. Troughton’s performance clarifies things. He acts like he remembers all of his predecessor’s adventures, but his personality couldn’t be farther removed from Hartnell’s. He’s childlike and silly in a way the First Doctor never was: playing a flute (badly) to get out of answering questions, pulling goofy faces to distract opponents, and generally behaving like a space clown–up until the moment he needs to get serious. Playing dumb to put an enemy off-guard, then revealing that he’s been ten steps ahead of them the whole time, would become the Second Doctor’s signature move, and Troughton, with the help of a rumpled suit and a Beatles haircut, sold it completely.
Partly, I think, because of this performance, the writing for the Doctor improved quite a bit during his run. He started becoming explicitly heroic. The First Doctor had been an amoral scientist who usually only helped others when it suited his own interests, but the Second goes out of his way to stop invasions, prevent disasters, and generally help the innocent wherever he ends up in the universe. He’s also a lot more openly affectionate towards his companions. It helps that he has the same two for the majority of his surviving serials: Zoe Heriot, a scientist from the distant future, and the aforementioned Jamie, a Scot from the 18th century. They spend so much time together onscreen that, by the end of the run, they feel like the tight-knit TARDIS family all companion groups should be. With his dishevelled appearance, goofy mannerisms, and penchant for risky schemes that pay off against all odds, the Second Doctor gives big “fun uncle” energy, with his younger-than-usual companions filling in the role of gullible teenagers willing to go along with him.
Attack of the Lore of Doom
Unfortunately, while the Doctor himself was more fun in his Second incarnation, the stories he wound up in were often pretty formulaic. Having abandoned all pretense of being educational, the show was trying to go in a more action-packed, sci-fi direction, but the writers simply couldn’t think of any monsters better than the Daleks, so too often the TARDIS crew just found themselves fighting invasions by boring Dalek clones–usually in a human military or research base made of Britain’s finest cardboard. The Second Doctor’s seasons featured the first uses of the title formula “The [Aggressive Noun] of [Ominous Adjective],” which most serials would follow for several years to come, and with a few exceptions, the stories weren’t much more imaginative than you’d expect from that sort of title.
However, one very impactful story element was added during the Second Doctor’s era: lore. During Hartnell’s time in the role, we viewers didn’t learn much more about his character’s backstory than was revealed in the very first episode. We know the Doctor is an alien from another time who was exiled from his home planet, but the show is uninterested in explaining why, or where and when this planet might be. Half the time, the show’s writers treat the Doctor like an eccentric human, and half the time he reveals magical alien powers out of the blue to solve whatever story problem he’s facing. Towards the end of the Second Doctor’s last season, his identity and past become more clear. We’re introduced to the Time Lords, a race of super-advanced aliens who have the power to travel through time and space, but don’t believe in using it to do anything other than observe the universe. The Doctor, we learn, was exiled for meddling in the affairs of other times and places. It’s also confirmed that Time Lords are functionally immortal, that they have telepathic abilities, and that it’s commonplace for them to travel by TARDIS. And with those little tidbits of lore, the show stopped being an episodic collection of unrelated adventures, and took its first steps toward becoming the byzantine labyrinth of tangled continuity that it is today.
And honestly, I think Doctor Who is all the better for it. I love worldbuilding in my science fiction, even when it’s silly, and the Doctor desperately needed more depth as a character. So even though the Second Doctor doesn’t have as much surviving screentime as some other regenerations, he played an undeniably pivotal role in creating the show we all know and love.
The Second Doctor Era (Seasons 4 1/2-6)
Best Serial: “The War Games.” This lengthy epic is what introduced most of the lore discussed above, as well as a character who fans widely believe is an early regeneration of the Doctor’s eventual archnemesis, The Master. Despite its cheesiness, it’s big and bold enough to feel like the sendoff the Second Doctor and his companions deserved. Honorable mention goes to “The Mind Robber,” just for how weird it is. I wish there were more Doctor Who stories with unicorns.
Worst Serial: “The Dominators.” Out of all the show’s failed attempts to recreate the success of the Daleks, this serial features the worst example thus far–at least, in terms of effective villainy. The Quarks are kind of cute, but that’s clearly not what the story was going for. Also, it’s one of the Season 6 episodes where Patrick Troughton appears to be losing interest with the part–or with the writers, which would be understandable.
Best TARDIS Crew: Zoe and Jamie are really the only viable option, but I would pick them anyway. They’re genuinely the most entertaining pair of companions in the first decade of Doctor Who. I love how Zoe, despite being the first companion to whom the term “eye candy” could be applied (what with her tendency to wear glitzy miniskirts), is consistently treated as the Doctor’s intellectual equal, and rarely fills a “damsel in distress” role. That job more frequently falls to Jamie, a lovable himbo (the first of many in this show) who is in a constant state of confusion about what’s going on, but always tries his best to help anyway. The trio is delightful together, and their eventual departure is genuinely sad.
With the Second Doctor’s regeneration, the black-and-white era of Doctor Who ended, and the show reinvented itself for the second, but hardly the final, time.
Wizard at the Clicks 