The Second Doctor

 

Another Doctor had been and gone so it was time to get reflective and look back at the second Doctor himself and each of his companions, but first here's another great tribute video from Babelcolour, this time covering the second Doctor's era.

 

 

 

 

With the end of the second Doctor it really felt like I was moving into a properly new chapter of the series, more so than the transition from first Doctor to second Doctor. The 1960s were over and the show was moving from black and white to colour! Also, with the exception of the Brigadier, there were would be no crossover in companions in this period as was the case with Ben and Polly helping with the transition from the first to the second Doctor. It would really feel like a whole new beginning for Doctor Who, reborn in a new decade.

But first I need to look at the main characters from this era of the show. I was torn about including the Brigadier but he is a much more important and relevant character in the third Doctor era so I shall be talking about him and the rest of UNIT then.

The Second Doctor

I've probably said this before but it must have been a very brave decision to replace the Doctor in the way that they did. They clearly wanted to get rid of William Hartnell but I would have thought that the obvious decision therefore would have been to get in another actor who was similar to William Hartnell and just take it from there. Instead the new Doctor is radically different, both in appearance and personality. It was this very brave move that has probably allowed the show to survive for as long as it has because it allows the show to be completely refreshed every few years with a brand new take on the character.

The second Doctor himself starts off very mysteriously and it seems to take Ben in particular a while to begin to trust him and believe that he is in fact the same man. It's a tragedy that so many of the early Patrick Troughton stories no longer exist as we can no longer see him taking his first few steps into the role and developing it as he seems to do over the first few stories. For example, the Doctor seems to have developed the habit of playing the recorder, particularly in times when he is deep in thought. This is something that was toned down in later stories. As was his obsession with finding the perfect hat. He went through several during his first year on the show before this habit was also faded out of the show. It's nice to see the eleventh Doctor has also picked up some of these tendencies with his Fez and Stetson wearing antics of the last couple of seasons.

The second Doctor is far less grumpy than his prior incarnation. Although that seems a bit harsh to say, as William Hartnell's Doctor wasn't quite as grumpy as people are led to believe, he certainly mellowed out as the years went by.

Where as William Hartnell should be congratulated for launching the series and making it such a success, Patrick Troughton should be congratulated on turning the Doctor into the more familiar character that we know today. Many of the later actors who would go on to play the Doctor would name Patrick Troughton as one of their favourites and therefore their inspiration for the character. This includes Matt Smith who had not seen much of Doctor Who before winning the part and, as the story goes, watched Tomb Of The Cybermen and was completely enthralled by Troughton's performance.

I think one of the reasons that the second Doctor is amongst the most popular is because of the perfect balance that he treads between appearing to be an out right clown when really he knows exactly what is going on.

Also hidden beneath the clownish exterior is a manipulative streak. This is most noticeable in The Evil Of The Daleks when he manipulates Jamie into trying to rescue Victoria so that the Daleks can secretly monitor his attempt, and also in The Tomb Of The Cybermen when he secretly opens the hatch that leads down to the tombs so that he can satisfy his own curiosity. Clearly he is still the same man who secretly sabotaged the TARDIS so that himself, Susan, Ian and Barbara will be forced to explore the Dalek city way back in the very first season.

Finally we begin to find out a little more of the Doctor's past. He is a Time Lord who ran away from his own planet simply because he was bored and strongly disagreed with the Time Lords' policy of non interference in the affairs of other worlds. As he says himself, he does "tend to get involved".

Ben and Polly

It is very difficult to judge Ben and Polly as companions as they only have the one full story in existence and that is their debut story. However they do hold the prestigious status of being the first companions to witness the regeneration of the Doctor and are therefore important to the series as they would have helped the viewer to feel comfortable around the new Doctor.

I can't really remember much about these two, which I actually feel quite bad about. They were by no means bad companions (I'm looking at you Dodo and Katarina!) it's just that I'm very unfamiliar with their stories.

Polly is unfortunately given the task of making the coffee on far to many an occasion and Ben is sidelined somewhat by the arrival of Jamie in The Highlanders.

Ben has a good story in The Macra Terror when he is hypnotised to work against the Doctor, Polly and Jamie. It's quite well done actually because Michael Craze doesn't play it as your usual standard hypnotised zombie but more as a Ben who has simply been given another viewpoint. This makes it all the more sinister as it really does feel like Ben has turned against them.

Their departure in The Faceless Ones is also one of the poorer companion departures. It's not terrible but it's not great either. They go missing early on in the story, a little like Dodo does in The War Machines but unlike Dodo they do at least turn up at the end to bid their farewells to the Doctor and Jamie.

Jamie McCrimmon

Jamie McCrimmon! One of the most popular of all Doctor Who companions! And the strangest thing about that is that he's male! There aren't a great deal of male companions when you look at the whole history of Doctor Who.

Also (and I'm putting my fan status on the line here!) I believe Jamie is the longest serving companion..possibly. I mean it depends on how you look at it. For number of episodes, it's got to be Jamie! He is in every single second Doctor story except the first one and as such I was very familiar with the Doctor/Jamie relationship so it surprised me how long it took for it to properly form.

Patrick Troughton and Frazer Hines spar off each other brilliantly and remained very good friends in real life. This friendship comes across on screen. But for the first few stories Jamie is not really given the opportunity to shine while Ben and Polly are still in the picture. It's not until The Faceless Ones when Ben and Polly mysteriously disappear that I noticed the relationship between the Doctor and Jamie forming into the one that I am familiar with. Not to mention Jamie's flirtatious relationship with Samantha in the same story!

Jamie was also useful in most stories as he served as a protector to first Victoria and then Zoe which allowed the Doctor to go off and get up to his own affairs.

Due to Jamie being in the show for such a long time, when he finally departs it is truly heartbreaking. The fact that he is going to have his memory erased too so that he will remember nothing past his first adventure with the Doctor makes it all the more tragic. This also mean that he will never remember Zoe as they don't meet her until much later in the second Doctor's travels.

While at times Jamie can come across as a bit thick, at least in comparison to Zoe and The Doctor, the one thing that is never in doubt is his complete loyalty to the Doctor. The moment in The Evil Of The Daleks when Jamie over hears the Doctor making a deal to use him in the Daleks' experiment is the one moment when their relationship wavers, which is understandable because I would be pretty pissed off too!

Victoria Waterfield

Speaking of The Evil Of The Daleks, this was the debut story for Victoria Waterfield. Similar to Ben and Polly she is very unlucky in that so few of her episodes still survive today. Her only complete story being The Tomb Of The Cybermen. As such my memory of her stories is a little thin.

Victoria was also one of those unfortunate companions who join the Doctor after being orphaned. You can see why they do this as it avoids the problems associated with them having to leave family members behind, particularly in a time when the Doctor was incapable of steering the TARDIS. Once leaving a location, the chances of getting back to that same location were very slim.

The death of Edward Waterfield at the hands (or should that be the plungers?) of the Daleks is not completely forgotten though as it is brought up again in The Tomb Of The Cybermen where Victoria and the Doctor have an emotional heart to heart about family and what it's like to lose them.

During her time in the show Victoria would meet Daleks, Cybermen, Yeti, The Great Intelligence and The Ice Warriors. As a list of classic monsters, that's a pretty impressive one!

Victoria's departure is handled quite well in Fury From The Deep. Instead of being tacked on at the end like Ben and Polly's departure was, it is actually hinted at throughout the story as Victoria grows more and more hysterical at the terrifying things that are happening around her and begins to realise that she doesn't want to keep travelling with the Doctor.

Zoe Heriot

This is the second Doctor "TARDIS team" that I'm most used to. The Doctor, Jamie and Zoe.

With Zoe being a character from the future she was far more intelligent that Victoria (sorry Victoria!) and there are some great scenes of her competing with the Doctor as to who is the cleverest. This scene in The Krotons is hilarious and actually one of the only good things about The Krotons!

She's also able to put her brains to good use to solve some major problems. She is instrumental in the success of the UNIT missile strike on the Cyber ships trying to invade the Earth. She calculates the optimal way of firing the missiles to cause maximum destruction throughout the fleet, and all the while having her ass checked out by horny soldiers! The dirty devils!

When she first joins the TARDIS she comes across as a little cold and unemotional, preferring to act from sheer logic but as the Doctor says "Logic my dear Zoe, merely allows one to be wrong with authority". Fortunately this is a character trait that soon disappears and she becomes one of the shows best loved companions.

I would probably say I prefer Zoe to Victoria but I'm never sure whether this is simply because Zoe's stories are actually around to be watched and haven't been junked by a short sighted BBC!

As with Jamie, her departure is truly tragic as the Doctor's world is completely torn apart. Zoe is forced to return to where she came with only limited memories of her time with the Doctor.

So the Doctor had been exiled to Earth, without friends and even without the ability to use his own TARDIS. The blue box materialises in a wooden glade and as the doors slowly open....a new man appears...

Well I've got there! Two Doctors done and coming soon I will be going over the years of the third Doctor - Jon Pertwee!

 

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