Relative Dates: 5th April 2012 - 9th May 2012
Well I'm slowly catching up with this blog, time to talk about the days I spent watching the first stories of the second Doctor - Patrick Troughton.
The Power Of The Daleks
Of all the stories to be missing from the BBC archives I think this is the one that hurts the most. A six part story seemingly lost forever with just the audio and a few snapshots remaining. The reason why I say it's the one that hurts the most is that there is so much here that would be fantastic to see such as Ben and Polly's reactions to the "renewed" Doctor.
Speaking of the Doctor I think it's worth acknowledging here what a truly brave decision it was to replace the lead actor in such a way. I'm sure actors had been replaced in other programmes prior to this but here the change was actually acknowledged on screen. Also the obvious decision would have been to replace the actor with another William Hatnell-like actor to keep a firmer continuity in the character. Do they do that here? Nope! They completely change both the Doctor's look and personality. This must have been so freaky to watch when it was first broadcast!
BEN - "It's not only his face that has changed! He doesn't even act like him!"
Ben and Polly are instrumental in the changeover period. They question the Doctor's identity and basically act as the viewers as at least some reassurance as to what the hell is going on. At this stage the term "regeneration" is still not being used and the Doctor implies that his renewal, as he calls it, is actually part of the TARDIS functions. Additionally the Doctor's clothes somehow manage to change with him!
This is without a doubt one of the second Doctor's finest stories, despite the fact that Patrick Troughton has not yet quite developed the character that we would go on to love. In his first scenes he refers to himself in the third person
THE DOCTOR - "The Doctor was a great collector wasn't he?"
The Doctor's new habit of playing the recorder whenever he is trying to think is in full force in this story. He plays it a lot! Maybe this is just more noticeable due to the lack of moving pictures and therefore the further reliance on the audio.
So to the actual story. The TARDIS lands on the planet Vulcan (but not that planet Vulcan..I'm not sure who had the name first actually, Star Trek or Doctor Who?) where they find a human settlement that have started the process of using Daleks as their willing servants. Of course the humans are not aware of the Dalek's true nature and some really great scenes come out of this where the Doctor is desperately trying to persuade the colonists that the Daleks cannot be trusted.
The Daleks are using the humans to receive the power supply and parts they need to create more Dalek travel machines and therefore reproduce.
Meanwhile there is another side plot going on where a rebel group of colonists who want to overthrow the current regime are planning on using the Dalek servants as weapons in their plans. The Daleks play off the two group of humans excellently for their own needs. Never before have the Daleks been so devious!
The Highlanders
Another 4 part (completely missing story!!) and to be honest I can remember very little about it! Sorry!
From what I remember I think Polly has quite a good story, getting quite involved in what's going on instead of just being relied upon to make coffee. Also the second Doctor continues to pine after the perfect hat which was a weired little habit that was introduced and soon forgetten about. I wonder of that is why the eleventh Doctor is so fond of his fez..
There are two important factors about this story that should be noted. Firstly this is the last of the purely historical stories. By "pure historical" I mean a story set in the past without any alien or sci fi related matters (apart from the Doctor himself of course). Up until now the series had tried to alternate between historical stories and straight out sci fi stories. In fact the first two companions, Ian and Barbara, clearly signposted this intention with one being a history teacher and one being a science teacher. It seems that at this point it was decided to drop the historical stories which is a shame because some of the early historical stories are very good.
Secondly this story introduces one of the longest running Doctor Who companions in the form of Jamie McCrimmon. In fact he may be the longest serving companion ever but I'm not sure. He's definitely a contendor! Jamie appears in every single second Doctor story, except Power Of The Daleks (and arguably The Three Doctors if you want to be nit picky!) The relationship between Jamie and the Doctor would be one of the most successful and enduring but it seems odd here that he joins the TARDIS as he doesn't really seem to do much in this story.
The Underwater Menace
Until very recently this story had 3 out of the 4 episodes missing but back in 2011 another episode was found! I'm not sure how to describe to non Doctor Who fans just how exciting the discovery of a missing epiosde is as there is no comparison that I can draw. Unfortunately the discoveries are drying up now. I believe the last discovery prior to 2011 was in 2004 so as you can see they are few and far between! There probably always will be 106 missing Doctor Who stories (oh how I hope that I'm wrong!)
Anyway, the TARDIS lands on a beach and soon the Doctor and his companions find themselves travelling under the sea to the lost city of Atlantis. Not sounding great? That's because it's not great to be honest. Living with the Atlanteans is the crazy scientist Professor Zaroff who has promised the Atlanteans that he can raise the city from the sea again. In fact what he really intends to do is blow a hole in the planet so that the oceans drain into the core of the Earth and boil away until the planet explodes. Now you may be wondering why he would want to do this and this leads me to something that I actually quite like about this story. Zaroff doesn't want to take over the planet or hold the world to ransom, he simply wants to destroy it for the pure scientific achievement! The three words, Stark, Raving and Mad spring to mind.
Zaroff is such an over the top character that I can't help but enjoy watching him especially when he works himself up into such a frenzy that he screams the immortal line:
PROF. ZAROFF "Nothing in the world can stop me now!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Brilliant
The Moonbase
The Cybermen are back! And this time they're on the moon!
The Cybermen have had a redesign and are now looking more like the Cybermen that we are used to. The Cybermen have got to be one of the Doctor Who monsters that changes the most during the course of the show. Everytime we see them they seem to look and sound slightly different. I guess they must be constanty upgrading themselves.
So I believe (again my memory is failing me, that's why I should have kept up with this blog at the time!) that they are trying to invade the moonbase (well done Sherlock!) so that they can use the Gravitron in the base that the humans use to control the weather on Earth. The Cybermen will then be able to use the Gravitron to destroy the Earth.. I guess.
I'm not sure if this story was written before they decided that Jamie would be coming on board the TARDIS as he seems to be pretty much written out of the story when he gets injured early on and conseuquently spends the rest of the story in the sick bay of the moonbase.
One of the greatest moments occurs when, knowing there is a Cyberman lurking around somewhere, a full search is put orchestrated using the sick bay as the HQ. No Cyberman is found and then the Doctor realises it's because the only room they have not checked...is the room they are currently standing in! We suddenly see a Cyberman whip back the cover from the bed he has been hiding in. So so spooky.
Patrick Troughton is finally devloping into the true Doctor that he would later become. Some of his clowning around is toned down and we get some superb dialogue from him including one of my favourite quotes of all time:
THE DOCTOR "There are some corners of the universe that have bred the most terrible things. Things which act against everything that we believe in. They must be fought!"
I remember a few years ago when I went to see Doctor Who Live. The story was basically about a guy who had captured loads of Doctor Who monsters that he then brought out for our entertainment. After a few less frightening aliens were paraded in front of us, he suddenly went deadly serious, turned to us and said "There are some corners of the Universe that have bred the most terrible things.." and I got goosebumps because I knew exactly which creatures were being brought out next!
The Macra Terror
A while back when Matt Smith appeared on Alan Carr's Chatty Man, Alan introduced him as "The only doctor who never has to deal with a bad case of crabs" or something along those lines anyway.
Now I like Alan Carr but this comment clearly shows what lack of research he must have put into that joke as in this story the Doctor has to cope with a serious case of crabs! Giant ones.
I'm really struggling to remember some of these Patrick Troughton stories! In my defense I've only watched most of them once and when I say "watched" I mean staring at still images whilst listening to the audio for the post part. Again this is a completely missing story.
The Macra look pretty terrible it's got to be said. In fact they look so bad that I'm convinced that if another missing epiosde does turn up then it'll be one from The Macra Terror just because fate can be a really bastard sometimes (sorry fate, love you really!)
The Macra are using and oppressing humanity and there is some good old fashioned mind control going on here when Ben is turned against his friends.
I hadn't seen this story before seeing the tenth Doctor story Gridlock in which the Macra make a surprise return. I'm not sure how I would have reacted. I think seeing the surprise return of any old adverosry would have elicited a feeling of thrilling excitement from me, but in this case I think I would have just been left bewildered "Really?... They brough the Macra back?....Why?"
Not recommending this one I'm afraid!
The Faceless Ones
The TARDIS lands at a London airport and the team get separated as they run away from an approaching aircraft. Soon the Doctor realises that something is seriously wrong with the sinister company, Chameleon Tours.
I really enjoyed this story despite the fact that only 2 out of the 6 episodes still exist. It's a crying shame because there are some really good ideas going on here, with aliens kidnapping young people by putting them on an aeroplane which is then flown straight upwards into space to dock with a spaceship. This part happens in one of the episodes that is now missing and it would be great if we could see how the model work was pulled off.
Ben and Polly go missing fairly early on in this story and it very quickly becomes the Doctor and Jamie's show. This is the Patrick Troughton era that I am most familiar with, the Doctor and Jamie.
Ben and Polly turn up at the end of the story to discover that the date that the TARDIS is landed in is in fact the exact same date that they started travelling with the Doctor way back in The War Machines. Discovering this, they decide to stay behind on Earth. I'm not really sure what I feel about Ben and Polly as most of their stories are missing but they were very important to the series as they helped to bridge the gap between the first and second Doctors.
Now then, do you remember way back when I spoke about The War Machines, I told you to bear in mind the Doctor's comments about feeling that the Daleks are near despite the fact they they don't appear in that story? I didn't think you would. But I did say that. Well the interesting thing is that the next story, The Evil Of The Daleks continues straight from The Faceless Ones in the same time and place. And since we know that the Faceless One is actually set at the same time as The War Machines then the First Doctor was correct when sensing that the Daleks were near because they were in fact setting a trap for his future incarnation! I think that's interesting anyway. To be honest I don't think it was planned. I think it was just a happy coincidence.
The Evil Of The Daleks
And so season 4 comes to a close with this fantastic epic Dalek story!
The Dalek's kidnap the Doctor and Jamie and transport them back in time to the Victorian era and the home of Edward Waterfield who has been conducting experiments in time travel, which unfortunately allowed the Daleks through into our world. There are so so many great moments in this story. When the Doctor and Jamie first get transported back through time, they have no idea that the Daleks are behind it all and the first reveal of the Dalek to the Doctor as it bursts out of the time cabinet is beyond thrilling!
DALEK - "NOW DO YOU UNDERSTAND DOCTOR?!"
The Daleks tell the Doctor that they realise they are missing something from their DNA meaning they are not quite ideal for surviving. They realise that humans are the great survivors and therefore are trying to develop "the human factor" so that it can be introduced into the Daleks themselves. To do this, they persaude the Doctor to secretly put Jamie through a series of tests. This shows some of the first signs of how the second Doctor can be quite manipulative and his treatment of his companion is a little shocking leading to a massive row between himself and Jamie which is played to perfection by Patrick Troughton and Frazer Hines. Jamie takes the bait however and sets off to rescue Edward Watefield's daughter, Victoria. Meanwhile he is being monitored by the Doctor and the Daleks so that they can extract the human factor.
Another great moment comes when the Doctor finally injects some Daleks with the human factor and they being acting like little children. They start "playing trains" with the Doctor, pushing him round on a chair. Just like in The Power Of The Daleks, we are seeing a whole new side to the Daleks in this story.
Finally the story takes another leap as we are transported to the Daleks home world of Skaro where the Doctor finally comes face to face with the Emperor Dalek as shown in the picture above. The Emperor reveals the Daleks true plan. Instead of trying to work out the human factor, they are actually going to reverse the idea and use the findings of the Doctor to inject all humans with the Dalek factor making them Human-Dalek hybrids!
The Doctor creates his own army of Daleks to fight back by tricking them into being subjected to the human factor and a huge civil war kicks off on Skaro between the two factions! In the process Edward Waterfield is killed, which conveniently leaves Victoria Waterfield as yet another orphan that the Doctor can take with him on his travels.
This would be the last Dalek story for a long time and in fact the Doctor believes this to be "the final end" of them. In fact this was intended to be the final end of the Daleks and the Daleks creator, Terry Nation was attempting to mount his own Dalek television show in America meaning that they needed to be written out of Doctor Who. In fact, it would only be a matter of time before the evil pepper pots would make their return!
Well there we have it! It took me a couple of blog posts to get this one complete but that is Season Four complete. My next entry will most likely be on The Power Of Kroll which is the story I'm just about to finish watching and then I'll return to my look back at the prior seasons with my review of Season Five! I can almost sense your mounting anticipation!
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