The Three Doctors

Season Ten of Doctor Who, the classic series before the recent resurrection of the series, featured something that must have been a delight to fans of the show: William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton, and Jon Pertwee all appearing together.

Well, “together” isn’t exactly right. Let me explain.

Season Ten, consisting of 26 episodes comprising five serials, began with an attack on time itself. And, the plot line called for the Time Lords not being able to spare resources to help The Doctor. So, they sent The Doctor. And when The Doctor and The Doctor didn’t get along, they called on The Doctor to help.

I don’t think I explained that very well. Except that’s exactly what happened. Through some Time Lord mumbo jumbo, they managed to pull the Second Doctor (Patrick Troughton) into the time stream of the Third Doctor (Jon Pertwee), so they could combine forces and battle Omega, who’s a Time Lord gone mad. Or rogue. There seems to be a lot of them.

Anyway, The Doctor (3.0) and The Doctor (2.0) don’t get along, so they bring The Doctor (1.0) to keep them in line. After all, he was the mature one. He wasn’t impressed with his third or second incarnations, calling them “a dandy and a clown.” Due to William Hartnell’s health, he was only able to appear in studio, communicating via video screen with the other Doctors. Regardless, it was great to see William Hartnell in action again.

Hartnell’s appearances in the serial were his last role of any kind, not just in Doctor Who. The episodes were filmed in late 1972, and aired beginning just before New Year’s, and ran into late January 1973. Hartnell’s health continued to decline, and he was hospitalized in December 1974, and died in April of 1975.

At the end of The Three Doctors (4 episodes), the Time Lords removed the sentence of exile from The Doctor, allowing him to use the TARDIS as before. He made some trips with Jo, but returned to Earth, no longer unable to control the TARDIS. He did experience some issues with landing where he expected, but it wasn’t the completely lost in time and space situation from the first six seasons.

Being a Time Lord can sometimes be a drag.

The Master returned in Frontier in Space (6 episodes). It was Roger Delgado’s last appearance on Doctor Who. He died around three months after the episode aired while filming a movie in Turkey. Pertwee and Delgado were close friends, and Delgado’s death was one of the reasons that contributed to Pertwee’s decision to leave the role of The Doctor after the next season.

The Daleks returned at the end of that serial, and followed as the primary antagonist in the next serial, Planet of the Daleks (6 episodes). That serial was could be considered a sequel to Season One’s The Daleks, the second Doctor Who serial, and the one that introduced those characters. In Planet of the Daleks, The Doctor encounters Thals, who are still battling the Daleks after all these years.

The season ended with the departure of companion Jo Grant (Katy Manning) after she married a hippie environmentalist professor. The serial, The Green Death (6 episodes) was a typical 1970s environmentalist piece. It was typical leftist promotion, with a giant chemical company actively working to poison the planet. The episode also featured a scene of The Doctor in drag. Those wacky Brits.

I’ve enjoyed Jon Pertwee’s time as The Doctor, especially since he’s able to cross time and space again. He had one more season in the role before turning it over to Tom Baker. I’m looking forward to seeing Pertwee’s last season. Not to say farewell to him, but to see him as The Doctor some more. As long as he’s in space and not doing more left-wing hippie stuff.

Season Nine of the classic Doctor Who series — I’m watching them all from the 1963 beginning — featured the return of the Daleks. And, as always, they want to exterminate, exterminate, EXTERMINATE! The season consisted of five serials, made up of 26 episodes.

It was a welcome break when the first serial, Day of the Daleks (4 episodes) didn’t feature The Master. He had appeared in all serials of the previous season. The serial was also the first time the Daleks appeared in color in the show. There were a couple of color films starring Peter Cushing, but those aren’t considered canon. They don’t count.

The serial also introduced the Ogrons, who look and dress like there were based on the Klingons from the Star Trek movies. Another instance of The Doctor going into the future to steal ideas from other shows, I suppose.

The version I watched is the Special Edition, which means they added some CGI effects. I understand there is also a difference in a scene where The Doctor battles an Ogron.

The Ice Warriors made an appearance in The Curse of Peladon (4 episodes), although they aren’t villains in this episode. It also featured Patrick Troughton’s son, David, as one of the major characters in the serial. It was an off-Earth serial, with a reference that the Time Lords directed the TARDIS there so The Doctor could solve a problem. They got the idea for temporarily paroling the hero to solve a problem by going forward in time and stealing the plot point from 48 HRS.

The Mutants (6 episodes) was another off-Earth serial, as was The Time Monster (6 episodes), at least partially. With three of the five serials occurring completely, or with a good deal of the action, off Earth, it’s almost as it was before the exile.

The Master did show up in the third serial, The Sea Devils (6 episodes), and the fifth serial, The Time Monster. The Sea Devils, which featured an aquatic race related to the Silurians, was the episode where The Doctor first uttered the phrase “reverse the polarity of the neutron flow.” The Third Doctor used a shortened version, “reverse the polarity,” in other serials, including The Time Monster. That serial is the third one dealing with Atlantis, by the way. We now have three different versions of the destruction of that civilization. I’m sure they’re all true.

One other thing about The Time Monster: it featured The Doctor and Jo traveling in both Bessie and the TARDIS. Not at the same time, of course. The TARDIS did get a slight makeover inside. The original setup was nine years old by this time, and was falling apart. So, not only is it bigger on the inside, it’s newer, too.

And, we’ll be taking a trip to the tenth season next.

The eighth season of Doctor Who featured the return of the Autons, first seen in Season Seven’s Spearhead from Space. It also introduced Jo Grant (Katy Manning) as The Doctor’s new assistant, replacing Liz Shaw (Caroline John) who was mentioned as having left for Cambridge. Also introduced, or maybe re-introduced, was The Master (Roger Delgado), a renegade Time Lord.

I’m kinda thinking The Master might be the same Time Lord as The War Chief from Season Six’s The War Games, but some research says it’s a different Time Lord. If that’s the case, that’s now three renegade Time Lords: The Doctor, The War Chief, and The Master. Oh, wait. I forgot about the Monk from Seasons Two and Three. That’s four renegade Time Lords. Somebody needs to get a handle on the Time Lords.

During each of the five serials (25 episodes), The Doctor battled The Master. The Doctor did finally leave present-day Earth in Colony in Space (6 episodes) when the Time Lords sent the TARDIS, with The Doctor and Jo on board, to some far off planet 500 years in the future. It seems The Master stole the plans to some doomsday weapon, so the exile is temporarily lifted, and The Doctor and Jo wind up on some planet being colonized by Earthmen in 2472. That was the only off-Earth serial in the season. It’s also the most left-leaning episode, since it was written by communist Malcolm Hulke.

Season Five is the first season to have all episodes available on Hulu. Of the first seven seasons, only Season Four and Season Five have no episodes available on Hulu. While Amazon Instant Video (and Amazon Prime) has one serial each from Seasons One, Five, Six, and Seven, there are none from Eight.

While the season was okay, there was nothing particularly outstanding abut the season. Yes, the introduction of The Master brought a major villain to the show, but if he’s not another incarnation of The War Chief, then he’s simply another version of a renegade Time Lord.

The serial The Dæmons (5 episodes) featured a community covered by an invisible impenetrable dome. I think they must have stolen the idea from Stephen King. Yes, I know Stephen King published Under the Dome in 2009, but he it’s a rewrite of an unfinished story from 1972. It’s obvious The Doctor took the TARDIS forward in time from 1971 (when this episode first aired) and stole the idea from King. He should sue.

That serial also featured a community dance. A lot of townsfolk were dancing in the street, then grabbed The Doctor and tied him to a Maypole. It seemed like something straight out of The Prisoner.

The season-long arc of battling The Master certainly made for a different style of show, and I do miss the leaping about the galaxy and across the barriers of time.

But, once The Doctor gets the TARDIS back fully functional and returns to galavanting across the universe, that’ll be the end of Bessie. Though at first I wasn’t a fan, I’ve come to like the little yellow car. I think I want one.

The seventh season of Doctor Who (the original run, not the 2005 series) was in color. That’s about the only extra expense they put into the show. The special effects are pretty much on par with the first six seasons. That is to say, it’s 1960s British television. Only, it’s not. It’s 1970s British television, since Season Seven premiered in 1970.

There were only four serials in the season, totaling 25 episodes, the fewest number of any season so far. This would be normal, though, for the next decade and a half.

The first serial, Spearhead from Space (4 episodes), was produced in a different manner than the other episodes. It was filmed, rather than videotaped. With the move to color, the video camera operators went on strike demanding more money to operate the color cameras. So, the BBC filmed the episode, since film camera operators were in a different union. The next episode was videotaped after the labor issues were settled.

Spearhead from Space saw the return of Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart (Nicholas Courtney) and the introduction of Liz Shaw (Caroline John), both of whom are full cast members. Not a particularly good or bad serial, it did feature Jon Pertwee (The Doctor in his third incarnation) battling a multi-tentacled creature, much as Bela Lugosi fighting the octopus at the end of Bride of the Monster.

The Doctor gained a car in the second serial, Doctor Who and the Silurians (7 episodes). It’s a yellow Siva Edwardian kit car, and he nicknamed it “Bessie.” I suppose this replaces the TARDIS.

In the last serial of the season, Inferno (7 episodes), The Doctor accidentally gets sent to a parallel universe where everyone’s evil. Like the Mirror, Mirror episode of Star Trek except that the bad guys had less facial hair.

Pertwee is more forceful as The Doctor. He reminds me somewhat of William Hartnell in this regard, as well in his better manner of dressing. While Hartnell was proper in his dress, appearing in the style of an Edwardian gentleman, Patrick Troughton was more Charlie Chaplin in his dress. The First Doctor never displayed fear, though the Second Doctor seemed to cower a lot. Pertwee’s portrayal is somewhere between Hartnell’s and Troughton’s.

There are reports that the showrunners had actually planned to replace Doctor Who with a series similar to the Quatermass shows that ran on the BBC in the 1950s. When the creator of the Quatermass character, Nigel Kneale, decided to not participate, they kept the Doctor Who series going, but spent more focus on Quatermass-style of episodes. Kneale did not like Doctor Who.

Being bound to earth is certainly a change, although Season Five did have five consecutive episodes occur on the planet, as was mentioned by Jamie and Victoria. The premise of the show being earth-bound due to The Doctor’s exile by the Time Lords won’t last, based on my past watchings of Tom Baker (Fourth Doctor) episodes. I’m ready for him to get back into space and time.

When I first saw the show, I was bothered by the idea of a Police Call Box being the outward appearance of the TARDIS. And, until I watched An Unearthly Child, the first Doctor Who serial, I didn’t understand that it had changed its appearance to blend in with its surroundings, and the circuit broke, leaving it stuck as a Police Call Box. And now that Season Seven has mothballed the TARDIS, I miss it.

Season Eight is next, and since I won’t be taking the TARDIS there, it’s up to Bessie.

I’m watching the original Doctor Who episodes. I forget why, but now that I’ve started, I don’t think I can stop. I’ve now watched six seasons, covering two incarnations of The Doctor. William Hartnell originated the role, but left the series early in Season Four. Patrick Troughton took over the role, and remained through Season Six. He left, and a new actor, Jon Pertwee takes over in Season Seven. More about the Troughton to Pertwee transition in a bit.

The sixth season consisted of 7 serials, composed of 44 episodes. Seven episodes from two of the serials are missing. The other five serials have all their episodes. And, from late Season Six on, there are no more missing episodes. That doesn’t mean they’re all available on home video.

Hulu Plus has a lot of episodes available, including 3 of the 5 complete serials from Season Six. Amazon has only one serial from the season available. YouTube has some official clips, as well as some unofficial uploads of episodes. DailyMotion has them all.

The show speaks against violence while containing much (whole races wiped out). This season, they preached against nuclear power in The Dominators (5 episodes). The race on the planet Dulkis was developing nuclear power, but realized the destructive power of nuclear weapons, so they abandoned it. They also started wearing dresses.

The show does’t say if they abandoned wind power after seeing hurricanes or tornadoes, or hydroelectric power after seeing floods, or solar power after seeing droughts, or cooking with fire after seeing forest fires, or … okay, you get my point. It’s 1968 when the shows aired, and it’s Britain, so we get hippie messages from Doctor Who, and Sean Connery quitting James Bond. I know Connery came back. I’ll see if Doctor Who keeps up all the hippie talk.

The Mind Robbers (5 episodes) is the serial that’s on both Amazon (Prime) and Hulu Plus. Not sure why, but the Hulu version is a better quality picture. It’s also an odd serial for a couple of reasons. First, there’s the odd things going on. Characters from literature are wandering around. Next, there’s the temporary recasting of Jamie. Hamish Wilson took over for two episodes when Frazer Hines was ill. The Doctor solved a puzzle incorrectly and Jamie’s face was changed. A later puzzle put it back. The character of Lemuel Gulliver (yes, from the book) spoke only lines that were from the Jonathan Swift book. The did a good job of working his lines into the plot of the story. They also did a good job of showing off one of Zoe’s other great assets besides her mind.

The episodes of that serial were shorter than normal. From what I’ve read about the serial, they needed to expand it from the original four to five episodes. Rather than write a while new chapter in the middle somewhere, they shifted the scenes around, making five 20-minute episodes rather than four 25-minute episodes. That helped explain how Frazer Hines was able to appear in an episode in which he was too sick to appear. The scene at the beginning was actually the last of the previous episode.

The Invasion (8 episodes, 2 missing animated by BBC) was one of the season’s two battles against previous enemies. The Cybermen, who appear for the third consecutive season, are the villains again. The serial also features Colonel (now Brigadier) Lethbridge-Stewart, who will turn up in later seasons. The animation of the two missing episodes is of better quality than that of The Ice Warriors from Season Five. Speaking of whom, the Ice Warriors made a return appearance in The Seeds of Death (6 episodes).

The Space Pirates (6 episodes, 5 missing) is the last Doctor Who serial with missing episodes. After that serial, all episodes exist.

The final serial, The War Games (10 episodes), was Patrick Troughton’s last during his run as Doctor Who. It also saw the end of the run of Jamie (Frazer Hines) and Zoe (Wendy Padbury), the first time a Doctor and his companions left in the same episode. This is the episode where we first find out about Time Lords. The Doctor, as it turns out, is a Time Lord who ran from his race of people because … he was bored. After calling on the Time Lords to deus ex machina his way out of an impossible situation, they put him on trial — they have been looking for him for … a long time — and sentence him to exile on 20th century Earth with his appearance changed. And he has to forget how to use the TARDIS. They didn’t actually say he would regenerate, just change his appearance. Oh, Jamie and Zoe? They were sent back to where they were when they left with The Doctor.

The sixth season was the last season in black and white. The next season would be in color. Or colour. Since it’s British and all.

After six seasons, I have to say I do like the Doctor Who character. William Hartnell was absolutely awesome as The Doctor. At least, he was to me. Patrick Troughton made the character much less serious, but did, I thought, a very good job transitioning the character. I’m curious as to what Jon Pertwee brought to the role.

The fifth season of Doctor Who saw another cast change, as well as a few recent discoveries. Two recently discovered serials (or nearly-complete serials) were released on home video in 2013. The season featured two battles against the Cybermen, and two against robot yetis. More on all that in just a bit.

There were 7 serials (the fewest in any season so far) consisting of 40 episodes. 21 episodes are missing. Only two serials are complete, and one of those was only made complete in 2013 after the discovery of a copy of the episodes in Nigeria. One serial, Fury from the Deep, is missing all its episodes, the last serial to have no surviving tapes. Only two more serials after this season are missing any episodes; the rest of the series is complete.

Victoria Waterfield (Deborah Watling) left in a late-season adventure, and Zoe Heriot (Wendy Padbury) joined The Doctor and Jamie as the season concluded.

There were one production goof that caught my eye and ear. Jamie, who’s from 18th century Scotland, used a 19th century phrase, “gives me the willies” in The Abominable Snowmen (6 episodes, 5 missing).

By the way, the yeti in The Abominable Snowmen and in The Web of Fear (6 episodes, 1 missing but reconstructed by BBC) — the second and fifth serials respectively — reminded me of Ro-Man from Robot Monster, except for lack of a diving helmet. I don’t like abominable snowman shows unless I have Joel or Mike and a couple of robots helping me watch it.

The third serial, The Ice Warriors (6 episodes, 2 missing) has been released on home video with the two missing episodes animated. Unlike the Season One Reign Of Terror animated episodes, which looked like graphic novel style, the animation of The Ice Warriors is more like Johnny Quest or Adult Swim’s Sealab 2021 animation. The Web of Fear was also released on home video in 2013, but with reconstruction, not animation for the missing episode. I wish they had animated it.

To me, the most interesting serial was The Enemy of the World (6 episodes). Patrick Troughton played the villain as well as The Doctor. Even though the characters looked alike, they didn’t. Troughton’s talents as an actor made them appear to truly be different characters.

In the season’s 6th serial, Fury from the Deep (6 episodes, all missing), Victoria decided to remain behind, tired of the constant danger The Doctor found himself (and his traveling companions) in. As has been the pattern, in the next serial, The Wheel in Space (6 episodes, 4 missing), The Doctor gained a replacement companion for the one just lost. Zoe Heriot (Wendy Padbury) stowed away aboard the TARDIS after the defeat of the Cybermen, and would be part of the crew for the next season.

Now off to the TARDIS to land on Season Six.

The Classic Doctor Who fourth season was, as the third, difficult to watch. Part of it was the storylines, particularly early in the season, but most of the problem is that most of the episoded don’t exist. None of the serials are complete.

As mentioned before, the missing episodes have been reconstructed by fans using the audio from the TV broadcast (which still exists), while stills from (or representing situations in) the episodes are shown. The reconstructions are augmented with text describing the action where it’s not obvious what is happening.

There were nine serials, consisting of 43 episodes. Four of the serials were missing all the episodes. That accounted for 18 of the missing episodes. The other five serials were missing a total of 15 episodes. None of the serials were complete. Only 10 episodes exist.

The other reason that Season Four was so hard to watch were the stories. William Hartnell’s last full serial, The Smugglers (4 episodes, all missing), was about pirates. It was the first episode for new companions Polly (no last name, played by Anneke Wills) and Ben Jackson (Michael Craze). Since the Ben character was a British seaman, the pirate smugglers and ship setting fit right in. For him. I’m not a fan of the Rum And Sodomy stories, but I managed to stay awake through them.

Hartnell left the series at the conclusion of the next serial, The Tenth Planet (4 episodes, 1 missing). The missing episode from that serial is the last one, where The Doctor dies after battling the Cybermen. He is, of course, replaced by The Doctor. A clip of the regeneration (they called it “renewal” at the time) exists, so the grainy black-and-white footage of the closeup of Hartnell’s face, illuminated by a bright light, morphing into Patrick Troughton’s face still exists.

Troughton’s Doctor took some getting used to, but he actually eased viewers (okay, me) into it by getting used to it himself. He looked himself over, checked out his surroundings, and referred to his previous incarnation in the third person. It was as if he was getting his bearings, clearing his head, trying to remember things, trying to ease himself into the situation. He did a good job on that. I accepted him as The Doctor about the same time he did. In his first serial, The Power of the Daleks (6 episodes, all missing), the Daleks seemed to recognize him, so that emphasized that he was, indeed, The Doctor, despite the appearance and personality changes.

The Highlanders (4 episodes, all missing) was the only historical episode of the fourth season featuring the Second Doctor. It took place after Battle of Culloden (1746), where the Duke of Cumberland defeated Charles Edward Stuart. The serial introduced Jamie McCrimmon (Frazer Hines), who would become The Doctor’s long-time male companion. Make of that what you will.

The Highlanders was another Rum And Sodomy episode, with much action taking place on British ships.

A science fiction staple I hate is Atlantis. I’ve never seen a good TV show or movie featuring characters from Atlantis. And, the serial The Underwater Menace (4 episodes, 2 missing) was no exception. It would have been tolerable had Joel and the Bots been there to enjoy it with me. As it was, it was as bad as Undersea Kingdom, minus the MST3K crew.

The Macra Terror (4 episodes, all missing), was the first one to feature an image of The Doctor in the opening theme. The next-to-last serial, The Faceless Ones (6 episodes, 4 missing) was actually pretty good, despite most of the episodes only being available via reconstruction. But the real reason I bring it up is because that’s the episode where Polly and Ben leave The Doctor. The action took place immediately before and ended on the same day as Season Three’s The War Machines, meaning that, as far as the normal Earth timeline is concerned, they never left. Which means Ben never went AWOL, and was spared the lash, or whatever the 1966 equivalent was.

That meant that the season would end with the entire cast — The Doctor and his companions — all being replaced. Another companion, Victoria Waterfield (Deborah Watling), was introduced in the final serial of the season, The Evil of the Daleks (7 episoded, 6 missing). That episode also featured the second appearance of a Beatles song. Paperback Writer was playing on a jukebox during a 1966 scene (yes, the song was current for the time in the story). In Season Two’s The Chase (1: The Executioners), The Doctor and his companions watched The Beatles perform Ticket To Ride on television.

One other thing about The Evil of the Daleks: Jamie, who’s from 1746, understood what The Doctor meant when he said some items were from the Victorian Era. In case you forgot, she didn’t take the throne until 1837.

One final note: Patrick Troughton died here in Columbus, Georgia, in 1987. There are rumors he was having sex with a fan at a sci-fi convention being held in town when he had a heart attack, but I can’t confirm that (the having sex part; I can confirm the sci-fi convention was in town). Troughton was a notorious horndog, but that doesn’t mean he was using his Sonic Screwdriver when he died.

I’m not from Columbus, by the way, but I moved to this area some years ago. And not because of the Time Lord-killing sex. That’s a bonus.

On to Season Five.

Watching the original Doctor Who series from the beginning is a very strange experience. I’ve not seen the new show (the 2005 revival), and, as I mentioned before, I only had previously seen some Tom Baker (mostly) and Peter Davison (very few) episodes on PBS back in the ’70s and ’80s.

I’ve now watched all of the first three seasons, featuring William Hartnell as The Doctor. And the third season was the most difficult to watch. Partly because of the 10 serials (45 episodes), only three (12 episodes) are complete. There are five episodes that still exist from three serials, and four serials (13 episodes) that are completely missing. So, of 45 episodes, 27 are missing.

Of the missing episodes, the sorta-standalone Mission to the Unknown, was animated by the BBC for inclusion on a home video release. The others have audio tracks available, and have been reconstructed using stills and snippets of video from the episodes, along with the occasional home video fill-in (some actually well done, some not).

The season featured massive turnover in the Doctor’s companions. Season Three began with Steven and Vicki, but that didn’t last long. Vicki (Maureen O’Brien) left after the Siege of Troy (the 4-episode serial The Mythmakers, all missing), being replaced by Katarina (Adrienne Hill), who was killed off four episodes later during the 12-episode serial, The Daleks Master Plan (9 episodes missing). That serial was notable for the introduction and departure of Sara Kingdom (Jean Marsh), who traveled with The Doctor and Steven, just like a companion. Sources vary on whether or not to count her as an official companion. She was around longer than Katarina, who was officially a companion, so I say she counts.

“Mission to the Unknown”

Another thing about that serial was actually its prequel, Mission to the Unknown (reconstructed by BBC animation). After the first serial, the standalone episode was broadcast as part of the Doctor Who series, but none of the Doctor Who regulars — The Doctor or his companions — were in the episode. That episode was followed by the serial that saw Vicki leave, then the 12-episode The Daleks Master Plan was aired, using plot points from Mission to the Unknown. I don’t know why they didn’t include the standalone into the Master Plan serial, unless it was because they were planning to spin off characters and situations, and separated it from the rest of the serial. I’m just guessing.

Another companion, Dodo (like the bird), joined at the end of The Massacre of St Bartholomew’s Eve (4 episodes, all missing), an historical serial about, you guessed it, the St Bartholomew’s Eve Massacre. At the end, they tied Dodo Chaplet (Jackie Lane) to one of the characters in 1572 Paris, and had her accidentally joining The Doctor and Steven around the universe.

There was one other historical episode, but it was awful. Atrocious. Even — dare I say it? — bad. The Gunfighters (4 episodes) took place in 1881 Arizona, in the little town called Tombstone. Yes, it was their Gunfight at the OK Corral episode. Star Trek did a better job with it. They got it all wrong, from the reason for the gunfight, to the participants, to who was killed, to … well, they got it all wrong.

Oh, and the usual horrible British-as-Western accents. Apparently, the BBC couldn’t find anyone who could do an American accent free to appear on Doctor Who. And, the writers couldn’t find their Encyclopedia Britannica to look up anything about the Gunfight.

Steven (Peter Purves) left at the end of the next-to-last serial of the season, The Savages (4 episodes, all missing). Dodo left at the end of the last serial, The War Machines (4 episodes), which took place in 1966 London. Two characters from that serial, Polly (Anneke Wills) and Ben (Michael Craze), accidentally left with The Doctor as the episode, serial, and season ended.

A little more about The War Machines. The plot was to hook up computers from all over the world together (pre-Al Gore Internet?). Oh, and the central computer decided to take over the world and enslave humanity. Kind of a pre-Terminator Skynet. And, next time you’re on Jeopardy and the answer is “The only serial of the classic Doctor Who series where The Doctor is called ‘Doctor Who,'” you’ll have the question ready.

Oh, that season was hard to get through. Some of the stories were okay, but the reconstructed episodes are often hard to follow. I find it necessary at times to read synopsis after reconstructed episodes to make sure I didn’t miss anything. I often do.

Funny thing, though. I had understood that William Hartnell left at the end of Season Three. I wasn’t expecting him at the opening of Season Four. Well, now I am.

Time to tune the Roku to the TARDIS and see how that worked out.

My venture into the world of Doctor Who (explained here) continued into the second season. I was under the weather in the days after Christimas, and spent lots of time doing nothing but relaxing. TV was always an option, and I watched several episodes of the show.

The second season was 9 serials comprising 39 episodes. Almost all the episodes exist — only 2 are missing.

The cast changes started. The entire complement of companions was changed by the end of the season.

Carole Ann Ford, who played Susan Foreman (the Doctor’s granddaughter) left early in the season because she was displease with the development of the character. They wrote her out by having her fall in love with a farmer and having the Doctor decide she needed her own life, so he left her behind as she pleaded with him at the door of the TARDIS.

In the next serial (The Rescue, 2 episodes) introduced Vicki (no last name) played by Maureen O’Brien. I read reports that the producers wanted her to cut her hair and darken it, leading her to tell them that if they wanted someone that looked like Carole Ann Ford, they ought to sign Carole Ann Ford. She kept her hair.

Late in the season (The Chase, 6 episodes), Barbara Wright (Jacqueline Hill) and Ian Chesterton (William Russell) left the show. The Doctor allowed them to take a Dalek time machine and return to their own time. Sorta. They returned to 1965 London, having left 1963 London two years earlier. I wonder how they explained their disappearance from the school where they were teaching, along with one of their students. I also wonder how they knew the song Ticket To Ride. During the first episode of the serial, they all watched The Beatles performing that song on television. Barbara and Ian seemed to know it. Considering they left Earth in November 1963 before With The Beatles (the group’s second UK album) has been released, and over a week before I Want To Hold Your Hand was released, there’s no reason for them to be familiar with the song. Unless The Doctor had one heckuva iPod.

They picked up an astronaut, Steven Taylor (Peter Purves), who stowed away aboard the TARDIS after the most recent defeat of the Daleks (The Chase). Purves got the job after having appeared as a rube from Alabama atop the Empire State Building earlier in the Dalek series that saw Barbara and Ian leave the show (The Chase).

The season had three historical serials, The Romans (4 episodes, during the time of Nero), The Crusade (4 episodes, 2 missing but reconstructed via stills and the audio soundtrack, dealing with Richard I and the Third Crusade), The Time Meddler (4 episodes, set just before the Battle of Stamford Bridge).

There were two serials featuring the Daleks, The Dalek Invasion of Earth (6 episodes, ending with Susan’s departure) and The Chase (6 episodes, ending the Ian’s and Barbara’s departures). The Dalek Invasion of Earth would later be the basis for the Dr. Who movie, Daleks – Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. starring Peter Cushing (the RiffTrax crew recently had fun with that one).

The really cheesy giant ants (the Zarbi) in The Web Planet gave me a chuckle.

The giant butterflies (the Menoptra) in that serial were also kinda funny, as were the Optera (not really caterpillars), who where wingless butterflies with faux Japanese accents. Maybe the accents were supposed to be faux Chinese. It’s hard to tell which particular Orientals were being insulted by the actors, but I lean towards the Japanese.

I gather that the Daleks are the most popular villains in the Doctor Who universe. I still think they’re silly, and get tired of them wanting the Doctor and his companions to be exterminated, exterminated, exterminated.

Oh, well. I’ll watch Season Three and see what happens. I know that the Second Doctor is in Season Four. I’m curious to see the regeneration, which so far, hasn’t been mentioned. Every threat to the Doctor’s life has seemed to be permanent. Perhaps they hadn’t thought if it yet, and won’t until they figure a way to write out William Hartnell.

For now, it’s back to the TARDIS.

I mentioned a this past week that I was watching the classic Doctor Who episodes. Harvey asked me to let him know if I found any redeeming qualities in them. After watching Season One, I’ll give my impressions and perhaps answer his question.

I mentioned that I was only able to watch some episodes, since not all are available.

Turns out there are more of those than I thought. Hulu carries many episodes from the first season, but some episodes are missing from their lineup. Some, Hulu just doesn’t carry (not sure why, but there’s probably a good reason). Some simply no longer exist, after the tapes were destroyed. But, it seems, the Doctor Who world (that is, the shows legions of fans, not Gallifrey) won’t let a silly thing like episodes not existing stop them.

Here’s the deal. While Hulu carries 23 episodes from Season One, a total of 42 were made. Of those remaining 19 episodes, 10 exist, and 9 are lost/destroyed. But, I’ve watched them all. Kind of.

Turns out that DailyMotion has a lot of episodes available, including those missing-from-Hulu ten from Season One, plus two others that were reanimated by the BBC; those look like some of the Japanese cartoons you’ll see on Adult Swim. That left seven missing episodes. Some fans have obtained the audio (the videos were destroyed, but audio tracks still exist) and made movies using stills from the missing episodes.

All that means I’ve now watched all 42 episodes from Season One.

To answer Harvey’s question, I’m not sure if there are redeeming qualities. But, I find the show oddly appealing. It’s a little silly at times, cheaply made like most TV from that era, particularly British shows. Some shows are played for laughs, others try to be serious.

One of the criticisms I read of The Reign of Terror series was that it expected the viewer to know some actual history about the French Revolution. And any show that treats the audience as if they’re at least half-way intelligent can’t be all bad.

In the first season, I learned why the TARDIS always looks like a Police Call box (the thingy that makes it change appearances to blend in with its surrounding broke after it landed in 1963 London), saw the Doctor’s first encounter with the Daleks (I still they they look silly, with the plumber’s helper coming out the front), heard him give a full name for himself (“John Smith,” but he wasn’t serious), and learned that the Aztecs spoke with British accents.

Redeeming qualities? Other than expecting the audience to have a little bit of sense, there’s not much. But that, in and of itself, is head and shoulders above just about everything you see on TV today.

I’ll watch at least another season of cheesy episodes. But, unless you really want to hear about it, I’ll keep the reviews to myself.

For now, excuse me. I have a TARDIS to catch.