Getting Acquainted With “Doctor Who” – Five Iconic Second Doctor Stories

To prepare for Doctor Who’s arrival on Disney+ in 2023, and as Laughing Place’s resident Doctor Who expert, I wanted to do a series of articles to get Disney fans acquainted with the world of the traveling Time Lord. Last month, we started our journey looking at the First Doctor, William Hartnell. So naturally, now it’s on to the Second Doctor, played by the incredible Patrick Troughton.

But who is the Doctor, you might ask? Well he’s a traveling Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey, although he wasn’t named a Time Lord until the very last serial of the Second Doctor. The line that best sums up the Doctor, no matter his portrayal is “Never cruel, never cowardly.” Assuming the role of the Doctor, Patrick Troughton played the character very differently from his predecessor, and almost single-handedly ensured the show’s lasting longevity.

In these articles, I will introduce you to what I think are the five stories from each Doctor that best represent that era, and also serve to move the show’s mythos forward. This time, we continue our journey as we follow on from the show’s first ever regeneration…

The Power of the Daleks

The inclusion of “The Power of the Daleks” on this list is, for me, mainly down to its historical importance. While it is a perfectly serviceable Dalek tale, with the Daleks showing some of the most clever, cunning prowess, what is truly remarkable about this story is how it introduced Patrick Troughton as the Second Doctor. At the end of the previous story, “The Tenth Planet,” the Doctor collapsed, seemingly out of nowhere, noting that “this old body of mine is wearing a bit thin.” William Hartnell, the actor who first played the Doctor, was getting increasingly sick, and the producers decided to recast the role. But where the stroke of genius came was in transforming the Doctor into a different persona. He is without a doubt the same man, with the same ideals at his core, but Troughton plays him as more of a “cosmic hobo,” childlike to fool his enemies, as opposed to the more gruff exterior of the First Doctor. This was clearly a gamble for the show at the time, but the idea, and Troughton’s performance ensured the show’s longevity to this day.

Another genius idea was using the Doctor’s most formidable adversaries, the Daleks, in the new Doctor’s very first story. If the audience was unsure about the new Doctor, then surely the Daleks would ease them in. Troughton immediately gets to show his more dramatic and authoritative side, whether the other characters listen or not, when the Daleks appear to be docile servants, chillingly stating “I am your servant” in those eerie Dalek voices.

An interesting note about this story is that none of the episodes actually exist anymore, thanks to the BBC’s policy at the time to junk old stories for storage reasons. However in 2016, the entire story was animated alongside the existing audio recording (followed by an updated version in 2020), allowing fans to view the story as closely as it would have originally appeared as possible.

The Tomb of the Cybermen

Following their first appearance in “The Tenth Planet,” the Cybermen went on to make an additional four appearances through the end of the 1960s. With each appearance, their physical appearance was updated and refined, while the stories themselves remained relatively similar. Things were shaken up slightly in Patrick Troughton’s second season, with “The Tomb of the Cybermen.” Here, the Cybermen are dormant, frozen in tombs on the planet Telos. It is here that we get one of the most iconic scenes in the history of Doctor Who, that of the Cybermen being freed from their tombs. The impressive set-work, along with the chilling music, makes for a truly iconic moment.

The Cybermen themselves are really creepy here, with monotone computer-like voices, and their goals to be freed of their entombment and convert the explorers to be like them. This story subverts a typical story structure of the time, that of a “base under siege” story, and dormant tomb to be explored. Putting a rather outdated stereotyped character aside, there is some great character work in this story too. Particularly touching is the scene between the Doctor and his new companion Victoria, where he consoles her about her father’s death in the previous serial. The writing here really shifted the tone of the show towards what we know it as today, and remains a wonderful scene.

“Our lives are different to anybody else's. That's the exciting thing! Because nobody in the universe can do what we're doing.”

The Web of Fear

Thought to be mostly missing from the BBC Archives, “The Web of Fear” (minus Episode 3) was discovered in Nigeria in 2013. This story brings back the Yeti, robotic creatures controlled by the evil Great Intelligence, who first appeared earlier in the season in “The Abominable Snowmen.” However this time, instead of taking place in a monastery, the setting is in the London Underground, adding an extremely creepy element to the proceedings. The excellent direction from Douglas Camfield also helps give this story its iconic status.

The design team did such a great job recreating the London Underground in studio, that they actually got a complaint from officials as they thought they filmed in the real tunnels without permission!

A long-lasting character introduced in this serial is the future Brigadier, now Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart, played by Nicholas Courtney, who would go on to be a staple of the show during the Third Doctor’s era. Here, we’re not sure of his intentions at first, but he quickly proves to be a great friend and asset to the Doctor. We’ll see more from him later in this list.

Episode 3 of “The Web of Fear” is missing from the BBC Archive, but releases of the story contain both a reconstruction or a strange 3D animation alongside the existing audio recording.

The Mind Robber

By this point in Doctor Who’s history, the show had deeply delved into the genres of science fiction and history, but one realm it mostly stayed away from is fantasy. “The Mind Robber” is the exception to that rule, as the Doctor and his companions Jamie and Zoe get drawn into the Land of Fiction. The first episode of the five part serial is actually somewhat different from the rest, and is a really unique episode for this era of the show. The team is trapped in an endless void which leads to a really meta and unique story. That first episode ends with one of the show’s all-time greatest cliffhangers, where the TARDIS seemingly explodes.

Upon escaping from the endless void, the TARDIS team then enters the Land of Fiction, where they come across characters such as Gulliver and Rapunzel, all part of an elaborate scheme by the Master of Fiction (no connection to the as-of-yet to debut arch-nemesis of the Doctor, the Master). This leads to a fun tale that interestingly uses these and other characters in a fantasy setting that, appropriately for Doctor Who, still has a science fiction based explanation.

During episode two, Frazier Hines, who played companion Jamie McCrimmon, was unable to appear. Instead of just not using the character, the production team fully made use of the story’s fantasy setting, where a game was devised for the Doctor to put Jamie’s face back together. Unfortunately, the Doctor doesn’t quite get it right, allowing for a different actor to portray Jamie for that episode.

The Invasion

“The Invasion” was an important turning point for Doctor Who. For a few years now, the show’s ratings had been going down from the highs of the William Hartnell era. Some fresh life was needed, and with that came the thought of exiling the Doctor on Earth, giving him a “family” and a means to tell stories grounded on Earth. This plan would fully come to pass in the next season, Jon Pertwee’s first as the Doctor, but “The Invasion” serves as a testing ground. This eight-part epic brings back Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart from the aforementioned “The Web of Fear” and creates the organization UNIT: the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce. UNIT is an element of the show that has survived to this day, which is a testament to the idea cooked up in the late 1960s.

At eight episodes, “The Invasion” can be a bit of a chore to sit through, but the action-based set pieces really help the story move along. In this serial, the world’s largest electronics company, led by Tobias Vaughn, played with wonderful glee by Kevin Stoney, is trying to take over the world with the assistance of the Cybermen. There’s a lot of the Doctor and friends getting captured, and then escaping, but honestly, it’s all fun. Plus, we get another iconic Doctor Who moment, where the Cybermen are seen coming down the steps of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London.

Only Episodes 2-3 and 5-8 of “The Invasion” still exist today, however, Episode 1 & 4 have been animated alongside the existing audio recording.

Classic episodes of Doctor Who from 1963-1989 are available to stream on BritBox, while the modern series is on HBO Max. All new episodes of Doctor Who from next year on will be available on Disney+.