The Second Doctor – Patrick Troughton (1966-69)

To be fair, I have always adored Troughton’s Doctor. He was able to be mischievous, cheeky, funny, scared, excited, sinister, authoritative and strange on the flip of a coin. Watching him at work – in anything he’s been in – is a masterclass in acting and it’s no surprise he was never out of work in the years that followed. Although his time on the programme is the least represented in the BBC Archives it hasn’t stopped his performance shining through, even on the audio soundtracks that we’re fortunate enough to have.

“There are some corners of the universe which have bred the most terrible things; things which act against everything that we believe in. They must be fought.”

The Second Doctor presented us with many wonderful adventures but his era presented us with three hugely important things. Firstly, he topped and tailed his time with the two most important events in the history of the programme: he proved that the series could survive a change of leading man – something that was not guaranteed in those early days – and in his final story we discovered what race he was from and were introduced to the Time Lords of Gallifrey.

Second, this Doctor proved beyond doubt that he was a Hero (with a capital H) and that the anti-hero of the programmes early beginning was long gone. The ambiguity of the Doctor’s character had all but disappeared after the first series and he battled against monsters, injustice and cruelty but the Second Doctor was the first to so explicitly state his intention to fight evil. It is a moment that, in my view, just as significantly redraws the line the series will take in the future.

Finally, and probably most importantly, he brought a sense of fun to the TARDIS and made it a place you really wanted to be. To travel with the Doctor, Ben, Polly, Victoria, Jamie and Zoe  would be a hair-raising, frightening, exhilarating adventure – but an adventure with friends who would always look out for each other. Possibly the friendliest TARDIS crews of all time!

Ultimately, it almost always comes down to Troughton’s performance. Whatever the script brings you Troughton is never anything less than mesmerising. Even when he was flagging at the 42 week schedule he brought everything he could to the part. What more could you possibly ask for?

Coming in fifth place I’ve chosen Nyssa of Traken. I love Nyssa. She’s so underrated, yet brings intelligence, beauty and a regal nature to the TARDIS in a far less snooty and condescending way than Romana II ever did. Peter Davison always said she was his favourite companion and I can totally see why. I think she got sidelined on TV, thanks to the ever-gobby Tegan, but the Big Finish audios have proved what a great connection she and the Doctor share. Sarah Sutton gives a lovely performance and although everyone likes to think of Rose or Donna’s personal stories as tragic, Nyssa has one of the worst. Her mother died, her step-mother was brainwashed and killed by the Master, her father was murdered by the Master and his body re-animated for him to inhabit and then he proceeded to obliterate her home planet. That’s a lot for anyone to take on. Then to be stuck in the TARDIS with Adric…

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In fourth place comes the lovely Jo Grant. I’ve been rewatching the Pertwee era recently for the podcast and I had forgotten just how good Katy Manning is. Jo tends to be regarded as a bit of a fluffy, pretty clothes horse, fulfilling the ‘dumb blonde’ stereotype – but she really isn’t. Yes, she starts off a little clumsy but there is a real progression in her character and by the time we get to Frontier in Space, the naive young agent whose uncle pulled a few strings to get her in UNIT has gone, to be replaced by a maturing young woman. You can see this in Manning’s acting, the writing of Jo’s character, the clothes she wears and her relationship with the Doctor. When she finally leaves it is a genuinely moving moment and she left her mark as the Third Doctor’s companion, in just the same way as Jamie did for the Second.

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Third up are Sarah and Harry.  It’s funny, because although I always knew Sarah would be in this list, it’s actually her partnership with Harry and the Doctor where I think she’s at her best. It’s a TARDIS team to die for and Naval officer Harry Sullivan is one of the unsung heroes of the Tom Baker era.

Harry is a four-square fellow. Rock solid, loyal, charming, a bit bumbly at times but utterly dependable. He obviously adores Sarah and respects the Doctor and is absolutely the friend you’d want on your side in an unexpected punch-up. It was sad that Ian Marter chose to leave the series after only one season but, not knowing who was going to replace Jon Pertwee, Marter was hired to fulfill the same role as William Russell was back in 1963. William Hartnell was an older man and they needed a younger hero to do all the running around and engage in fisticuffs. Tom Baker’s appointment unfortunately made Harry a bit unnecessary and so he had to go…

Sarah, of course, needs no real explanation. Elisabeth Sladen made Sarah into the perfect companion and you can find my thoughts on her here. She could argue with the Doctor without seeming ungrateful and moany, she could tease him and puncture his pomposity without being mean and, certainly in the case of the Fourth Doctor, they were absolutely the best of friends. I never really bought into the whole ret-conning of her relationship with the Doctor, to make out she had fallen in love with him. I have nothing against romance in Doctor Who but this just seemed unlikely to me – and certainly not something we were ever given any hint of. Up until School Reunion, Sladen herself always said in interviews that she viewed the Doctor as Sarah’s best friend. After that episode, it became the in-thing to imply that every companion has fancied him at some point, although God knows why… Ultimately though, Robot through to Terror of the Zygons are some of my favourite stories because all three actors work so well together and it comes across in their characters. Brilliant.

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In a hotly-contested second place are Ian & Barbara. I struggled as to whether or not they should be in first place. As part of the podcast, we’re watching the series in order from the start and something that struck me by the end of the first series was just how massively important they are to the whole of Doctor Who history. They know nothing about the Doctor at this point, will never see him regenerate, never know about his race or the many things he will go on to do – but it is they who set him on that path.

Without Ian and Barbara, the Doctor would continue to plod along from planet to planet, not getting involved and keeping out of the way. Through them, we see the Doctor realising that the evil in the universe must be fought. They provide the moral and ethical base from which the Doctor will develop and they are the human beings that spark his love for Earth.

Despite the Doctor kidnapping the pair of them and proving openly hostile towards them, Ian shows his heroic and practical capabilities and Barbara refuses to let the unpleasant old man intimidate or bully her. Overcoming this tricky start they eventually become such firm friends that the Doctor is absolutely distraught when they finally choose to go home. So was I and I don’t mind telling you I shed a little tear. They are superb and William Russell and Jacqueline Hill bring so much to the roles. For me, they absolutely make those first two years of the programme and I am absolutely convinced it would not have been as successful without them.

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In first place, the winners are (just)…

Ben and Polly

I have a real soft spot for these two and they take the spot together because I can’t think of them apart. I have always loved the characters of Ben and Polly. They were the first companions, after Ian and Barbara, who joined and left the TARDIS as a pair. They were the first companions to represent the new ‘swinging’ Sixties. They were also the first companions ever to witness a regeneration, encounter the Cybermen and actually be returned to Earth on the exact same day that they left!

When I read the Target books as a kid they really stood out for me. Cheeky Cockney sailor Ben, always ready for a fight and would protect his ‘Duchess’ to the end… And lovely, mini-skirted, Sixties dolly bird Polly, all long legs and big eyelashes, being flung around the TARDIS console room in Doctor Who and the Cybermen, or mistaken for a boy in The Smugglers (how??). Then I saw them in their surviving episodes and fell in love with them all over again.

Ben (Michael Craze) is a salt of the Earth bloke, dependable and faithful, but gets suspicious if he’s kept in the dark or doesn’t understand what’s going on. He’s always ready for a fight but has a heart of gold. He’s obviously very attached to Polly, thinks of her as her posh, giving her the nickname of “Duchess” and appoints himself as both her protector and the Doctor’s. Polly (Anneke Wills) is a sophisticated and hip young woman of the 1960s — vivacious, attractive, and alternately shy and aggressive. She and Ben make an odd, chalk and cheese, couple but she is more than receptive to Ben’s protective urges and it’s clear that she has strong feelings for him too, even if she tries to hide it at times.

I think they work better with the Second Doctor than the First, largely because the contrast is almost too much. The First Doctor is a creation of the early 1960s, the grandfather figure who can be severe and haughty whereas the Second Doctor embraced the mid-Sixties with vigour and fun and is much more in tune with his young companions. They teased each other of course but they were good people who cared about each other and their friends. The TARDIS crew, particularly after Jamie joined, was like a little gang, but not an exclusive one. I always felt that they’d welcome you in immediately – and that was such a warm feeling it made adventures in the TARDIS seem exciting and fun.

I always hoped they got together after The Faceless Ones and lived happily ever after. Soppy idiot that I am, I still do.

Davros

It had to be really – but the only reason he is my favourite villain is due entirely to Michael Wisher’s performance in 1975′s Genesis of the Daleks.

Unlike his successors, Wisher’s original creation was fanatical, obsessed and ruthless. Mad? Not at this point – a little deranged perhaps but not completely insane – and that’s one of his many strengths as you are never quite sure what he will do next and just how far he will go. This Davros was a worthy adversary for the Doctor. Incredibly intelligent and devious to the extreme, the Doctor doesn’t defeat Davros out of any superior strength – he just gets lucky.

Wisher’s performance is electrifying and overshadows almost everything, and everyone, else in the story. The mask he wears is truly grotesque and yet, where many actors would disappear under the layers of layex, he gives a powerhouse performance that can convey quiet charm, ruthless menace, harsh Dalek-like aggression and extreme intelligence. He was a real person, a character of light and shade, miles away from the Davros we see in Journey’s End who, by this point, has gone completely tonto.

And that is why, for me, he remains the original and best Davros. David Gooderson’s was too flippant, Terry Molloy’s just seemed like a creepy old man (despite his excellent performances for Big Finish) and Julian Bleach, although looking and sounding more like Wisher’s version than anyone, started well in The Stolen Earth but degenerated into a character so cartoonish it was almost embarrassing. In hindsight, I wish that Davros had stayed dead at the end of Genesis. His return meant the Daleks of the Eighties became simply ‘heavies’ and lost the individuality they had in the Sixties. Although I love those three Dalek stories, it’s the re-introduction of Davros each time that lets them down. Ironically, the new series gave them their independence again and I would prefer it if it stayed that way.

Davros was an iconic villain, appropriately enough for the creator of an iconic monster, who burned very brightly for one very special story. Michael Wisher’s performance stands out in the series’ almost fifty year history as truly exceptional.

The Zygons

John Woodnutt does a tremendous job giving Broton, Leader of the Zygons, an intelligence and wit that so many monsters/aliens lack. In fact he’s so good I almost put him in the Favourite Villains category, as he clearly is one. However their design, by James Acheson and John Friedlander, is brilliant and this felt like the right place for them. Directed by Douglas Camfield and lit beautifully by John Dixon, they are fantastic.

Terror of the Zygons is one of the best Doctor Who stories ever, helped massively by the incredible monsters of the piece. Like the Draconians, I really can’t understand why this marvellous creation has never made another appearance on the show. They’re prime cliffhanger material, as their ability to shape-change makes them the perfect recurring villain because you’d never know until one of them reverted back to their natural form. A missed opportunity…

Looking at the roster of Masters listed above it shouldn’t be too hard for anyone to work out where I’m heading. My favourite Master is, of course…

Roger Delgado

I don’t subscribe to the theory that the first person in any role is the definitive version. I don’t think Connery is the best Bond in the same way I don’t believe Hartnell is the best Doctor. The theory goes that as they created the role they are obviously the best, ignoring the fact that they have a blank slate to do with what they want. I think that any successor has to work a damn sight harder in order to bring something new and individual to a part, which can’t be easy with iconic roles.

Having said all that, I genuinely don’t believe anyone has come close to Delgado in the forty-two years since he first appeared (that’s right folks, January 1971). Charming, fiercely intelligent, suave, immaculate, devious, manipulative and thoroughly evil, he dominates the screen and certainly gives Pertwee a run for his money in the screen presence stakes. There is a respect between the two Time Lords despite their being diametrically opposed and Delgado’s Master, much like Davros a few years later, is a more credible threat because he isn’t mad. He knows exactly what he is doing and he is doing it because he wants to – and that is what makes him dangerous.

In hindsight, everyone involved agrees that having him as the villain in every story for a whole series was a mistake from a creative point of view but, given the tragedy of his untimely death, I’m glad that they got as many performances out of him as they could for us to enjoy. A wonderful actor and a classic villain.

My overall winner is…

Series 13

The stories that make up this winning series are: Terror of the Zygons, Planet of Evil, Pyramids of Mars, The Android Invasion, The Brain of Morbius and The Seeds of Doom. 

The two that are generally considered the weakest by fans are Planet of Evil and The Android Invasion. However, I think the former has a great jungle set, a great guest cast, a fun story and a tremendous central performance from Baker and Sladen. Let’s not forget that this is the first story where the Fourth Doctor and Sarah are travelling on their own and this is where they really start to bond.

As for The Android Invasion, well it may not be the tightest script (it was written by Terry Nation, after all) but I have always had a soft spot for the ‘deserted English village’ story and it’s lovely to see Harry again. Interestingly, like The Seeds of Doom later in the series, the one element that’s missing is Nick Courtney as the Brigadier.

The first story, the wonderful Terror of the Zygons, is directed by Douglas Camfield and written by Robert Banks Stewart which, along with his only other story for the show, The Seeds of Doom (also directed by Camfield), topped and tailed this series. Pyramids of Marsis brilliant but has been so over-watched across the years that sometimes I think people forget just how good it is. The Brain of Morbius is wonderfully macabre, with Philip Madoc giving an exceptional performance as Solon, and The Seeds of Doom is just brilliant. With two superb villains in Harrison Chase and Scobie, some fantastic cliffhangers and a cast firing on all cylinders, it’s a tremendous finish to the series. Hinchcliffe and Holmes were confidently and firmly in the driving seats and Baker and Sladen at their best, I think this series was (along with the 12 and 14) possibly the absolute peak of the original run of Doctor Who. 

However, the eagle-eyed among you may have realised that my favourite writer for Doctor Who is…

Robert Holmes

I know it’s not particularly original but he was a man who, along with Terrance Dicks, really got Doctor Who. He knew how to write good, solid, exciting stories with great characters, witty dialogue and great scares. Okay, he didn’t always get it right – but even among his (rare) failures there are still plenty of things to love. Look at his tracklist:

The Krotons, The Space Pirates, Spearhead from Space, Terror of the Autons, Carnival of Monsters, The Time Warrior, The Ark In Space, Pyramids of Mars, The Brain of Morbius, The Deadly Assassin, The Talons of Weng-Chiang, The Sun Makers, The Ribos Operation, The Power of Kroll, The Caves of Androzani, The Two Doctors, The Mysterious Planet and The Ultimate Foe (Ep 1).

For me, there are only two duds in there (you can have a guess which two I’m thinking of) and even they have their plus points. I can’t think of anyone else who has written for the show so often with such a hit rate. He wrote for five Doctors and nine companions, created the Autons, the Sontarans, the Wirrn, Morbius, Jago & Litefoot, introduced the Master, completely re-designed the Time Lords, re-introduced the Master and wrote the best finale for any Doctor to date.

And that’s just his achievements as a writer for the show. Peerless.

In at number three is: David Maloney. He directed The Mind Robber, The Krotons, The War Games, Planet of the Daleks, Genesis of the Daleks, Planet of Evil, The Deadly Assassin and The Talons of Weng-Chiang. Whether you like all these stories or not, four of them are considered classics and the other three are extremely well directed, making them more than the sum of their parts.

In second place is Graeme Harper. It’s a tragedy that he came so late to Classic Who. The two stories he directed; The Caves of Androzani and Revelation of the Daleks are both brilliant and he knew exactly what they needed. He brought an energy to Eighties Who that had been missing since Peter Grimwade’s Earthshock. It says a lot of his skill and reputation as a director that Russell T Davies brought him on board the modern day series to re-introduce a classic monster in Rise of the Cybermen/The Age of Steel, tackle the Daleks once more in Army of Ghosts/Doomsday, re-introduce the Master in Utopia, bring back the first Classic series Doctor in Time Crash, and bring an energy and excitement to Planet of the Ood, The Unicorn and the Wasp, Turn Left, The Stolen Earth,and Journey’s End – as well as Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane?, The Temptation of Sarah Jane Smith and Enemy of the Bane for The Sarah Jane Adventures. I think it’s a shame he hasn’t yet worked on any of Matt Smith’s stories, as I think he could bring something special.

However the winner (and it was close between him and Graeme Harper – interesting as Harper used to be his assistant on the show) is…

Douglas Camfield

Legendary in the Classic Who world for bringing a military precision to the stories he directed his connection with the series starts at the very beginning, having been production assistant on the original pilot episode as well as the broadcast first story An Unearthly Child and Marco Polo.

He would go on to direct the first four Doctors in  Planet of Giants (Part 3), The Crusade, The Time Meddler (notable for the introduction of the Meddling Monk, the first person we meet from the Doctor’s own race), The Daleks’ Master Plan, The Web of Fear (the story that introduced Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart, and saw the return of the Yeti), The Invasion (which became the most expensive Doctor Who serial up to that time, featuring an unprecedented amount of location filming as well as introducing UNIT to the series), Inferno (he became ill during the recording of this serial and the remaining studio scenes were directed by the series’ producer, Barry Letts, but he was still credited for these scenes), Terror of the Zygons (the story that saw the departure of companion Harry Sullivan) and The Seeds of Doom.

The majority of his stories are seen as classics and with good reason. Even on the weaker serials, his direction raises the game and it’s easy to see why Graeme Harper was inspired by him. He died of a heart attack in 1984, aged 52. Like his contemporaries Robert Holmes and Terrance Dicks, he really understood the show, enjoyed it and gave it everything he had.

Philip Hinchcliffe

He was young (29, only a year older than Verity Lambert was when she took the job), ambitious, creative and hit it off with his (already appointed) script editor, Robert Holmes, immediately. Their visions and styles gelled and they ushered in a change in tone for the television series. The series became darker and more adult than previously, with a gothic atmosphere influenced by the horror films produced by Hammer and created the strongest and most fondly remembered period that Doctor Who has ever seen.

Doctor Who was his first full production job, initially trailing and then succeeding Barry Letts. Although he trailed Letts on Tom Baker’s debut story Robot, he was first credited on The Ark in Space, although throughout his first year he was mostly producing scripts commissioned by the previous production team before their departure and it was not untilPlanet of Evil in late 1975 — Tom Baker’s second series in the title role - that Hinchcliffe’s full influence would come to bear.

During his tenure the show achieved a popularity only previously seen during the ‘Dalekmania’ years of the mid 1960s. However, the BBC had received complaints from Mary Whitehouse, chairwoman of the National Viewers’ and Listeners’ Association, that the series was unduly frightening for children and could traumatise them. The NVALA had been critical of the series ever since the beginning of the 1970s and the complaints reached their peak during The Deadly Assassin. While the BBC publicly defended the show, after three series Hinchcliffe was moved onto the adult police thriller series Target in 1977, and his replacement Graham Williams was specifically instructed to lighten the tone of the storylines. After his departure Classic Who never achieved such consistently high viewing figures again.

When you look at the stories he was responsible for - The Ark in Space, The Sontaran Experiment, Genesis of the Daleks, Revenge of the Cybermen, Terror of the Zygons, Planet of Evil, Pyramids of Mars, The Android Invasion, The Brain of Morbius, The Seeds of Doom, The Masque of Mandragora, The Hand of Fear, The Deadly Assassin, The Face of Evil, The Robots of Death and The Talons of Weng-Chiang - it’s impossible to find, to this day, such a consistently impressive run in Doctor Who‘s history. It’s a perfect example of how strong the show could be when the two most important people on the production team are partnered so well.

The role of the script editor on Doctor Who today is very different to the role back in the original run. During the original series, the script editor worked in conjunction with the series producer in developing the creative direction of the series and they held the power to commission scripts, effectively becoming second in command to the producer.

However, since the shows return in 2005, the role of the Doctor Who script editor has diminished significantly, in deference to the rise of the new position of ”Head Writer”. Script editors of the new series don’t have the power to commission scripts, instead they act as liaisons between the production staff and the screenwriter, before passing their joint work to the Head Writer for a “final polish”. Moreover, script editors for the modern day Who are assigned not to whole seasons, but to individual episodes — or at most “blocks” of 2-4 episodes produced concurrently. Acknowledging that the Head Writer is much closer to being the script editor of the past, Helen Raynor said (in DWM #379) that the modern Doctor Who script editor’s job isn’t a creative one, but “in the next seat to creativity … a nuts and bolts job [in which] you do participate, you are a part of it, but you aren’t driving it.”

It comes down to three people for me. All of them had good, strong ideas, were good writers themselves and by all accounts got on pretty well with almost everyone who wrote for the show. Where they differ is that whereas Terrance Dicks was personally and creatively in tune with his producer, Barry Letts, in much the same way as Robert Holmes and Philip Hinchcliffe – this cannot be said for Eric Saward and John Nathan-Turner. Their turbulent working relationship is well known and well documented and this is, I think, unfortunate for Saward as I genuinely believe that, had that relationship been smoother, the Davison/Baker eras would have suffered less. Of all the stories he was responsible for, I struggle with seven of them. Not a bad number by any means but it definitely puts him in third place.

Terrance Dicks started his Doctor Who career only a short while before Robert Holmes, both of them getting screen credits for the work during 1968′s sixth series, Patrick Troughton’s final year. When you consider that Dicks was brought in just as the series was facing the chop, you can appreciate what a huge difference he and Barry Letts made. The first great comeback in the show’s history, it was his time in the role as script-editor that saw the creation of the Master, the re-introduction of the Daleks, the UNIT family, iconic companions in the form of Jo Grant and Sarah Jane Smith, the Tenth Anniversary special…  It was a great time for Doctor Who and a fondly remembered era of the show. Of the twenty-eight stories Terrance Dicks script-edited, I think there are only 4 that I have trouble watching. Which means that, unsurprisingly, with twenty stories script-edited – and only two I struggle to watch – my favourite script editor is

Robert Holmes

I’ve said pretty much what I want to say about him earlier in this challenge, but I would add that it was well known for him to do Page One rewrites of scripts that fell through, be it through writer illness, unavailability, budgetary challenges or simply the scripts not working out as originally intended. He was almost burned out by the time he left the show but his legacy remains…

Robot, The Ark in Space, The Sontaran Experiment, Genesis of the Daleks, Revenge of the Cybermen, Terror of the Zygons, Planet of Evil, Pyramids of Mars, The Android Invasion, The Brain of Morbius, The Seeds of Doom, The Masque of Mandragora, The Hand of Fear, The Deadly Assassin, The Face of Evil, The Robots of Death, The Talons of Weng-Chiang, Horror of Fang Rock, The Invisible Enemy and Image of the Fendahl.

Not bad, eh?