* indicates a Must See story.
Even though Patrick Troughton isn’t my favorite Doctor, this season is a triumph for him. Several excellent stories, starting with the second of the season, the mind-blowing The Mind Robber and culminating with the amazing The War Games, one of the best Doctor Who stories ever told.
A season of Classic Who not to be missed, and probably one of the better exit seasons for any Doctor.
* indicates a Must See story.
This is the season that seemingly wasn't meant to be for modern viewers. Until Tomb was discovered in 1991, there wasn't a single complete story from this season. And now, as of a few months ago, suddenly we have three complete stories and another reconstructed with animation.
Going by audio and video snap reconstructions, The Web of Fear was considered the classic that fans pined to see in full glory, and The Enemy of the World didn't seem to get too much attention. Now that we have both, there has been at least some fan reconsideration, realizing that Enemy is in fact a classic, and Web maybe wasn't quite all that.
We're fortunate that we now have these stories and can experience much more of the Troughton era. His charms elude me a bit, though, and I don't see what makes so many consider him their favorite Doctor. However, he has one more season to win me over...
* indicates a Must See story.
What season?
All we've got is Hartnell's final episode, and just recently the animated reconstruction of The Moonbase.
It's a shame we don't have the start of the Troughton era...but at least we now have a lot more of his work on the show than we had for the last few decades. Unless more miracles happen, we'll just have to live with that.
On to the now much more meaty Season 5...
* indicates a Must See story.
It's truncated. Very truncated. It's particularly unsatisfying that we're zipped through a number of companions with no real chance to get to know them.
Fortunately the three stories that survive are worth watching. The recent discovery of two Patrick Troughton stories at least allows us to hold out vague hope that alleged classics like The Myth Makers will someday be uncovered.
As for the stories we do have, they are good but not up to the level of the outstanding second season. The producers have become disappointingly blasé about companions, as well -- we've gone from the heart-rending exit of Susan last season to not even bothering to complete the story of or say goodbye to Dodo. Steven had an excellent start in last season's The Chase, but almost immediately has the edges of his personality shaved off so he can be the blank slate action stand-in for the Doctor.
We're almost to the Patrick Troughton era, the favorite of many who saw it, and thankfully we now have more stories available to see what the fuss was about.
So, let's dust the disappointment off, pick up a flute, and move onward!
* indicates a Must See story.
Well, it's a pretty damn good season.
Much better and more even quality than the first season. Given that other than the opening episode, I only rated the last three stories of the first season as worth watching, it's really like the this season started with The Aztecs and just roared on from there.
The Dalek Invasion was as serious as it gets (and I appreciate that the invasion is not forgotten after the story is over; the repercussions through the centuries are mentioned multiple times by Vicki in subsequent stories), The Romans was as enjoyably silly as it gets, and The Time Meddler was a nice mix of the two.
We end this season with none of the original companions, which to the show's credit does feel like losing friends. But Vicki is intriguing and gets to actually influence stories (sorry, Susan), and we'll see how this Steven guy develops.
The Doctor seems to have a more even-handed relationship with his new companions, not bogged down by the baggage of them starting out as unwelcome stow-aways, as Ian and Barbara did.
Now we head into season 3, more or less. That is, we now enter the desert of wiped stories, where for a while we miss out on more than we get to see due to misunderstandings (BBC offices assuming someone else must have a copy), attempts to save money by reusing video tape, and the pressure from the actor's union to get rid of recorded material to ensure that actors would continue to have jobs.
After getting this chance to go back and see the first two seasons almost completely and being surprised by how much I enjoy what's here, it honestly upsets me to think of all the lost stories.
Well, here we go. Sigh.
* indicates a Must See story.
When I first saw a subset of the season 1 episodes I liked William Hartnell's crusty version of The Doctor, but wasn't impressed with much of the rest of the show. On re-watching -- and having the opportunity to see all the episodes this time (except the wiped Marco Polo) -- my estimation of the season has risen considerably. At least, as shown by the list above, my estimation of the last half of the season.
The standout for me is Barbara, played by Jacqueline Hill. The actress and her character are easy to under-estimate, but over and over again Barbara exceeds expectations as the intelligent, common-sense anchor of the show (her pretensions in The Aztecs not-withstanding, and she later admits she was in error). She becomes the moral force of the show, and often the smartest person in the story, pointing out things The Doctor hasn't figured out.
Ian Chesterton is a fine character, and actor William Russell is clearly an outstanding human being respected by all who worked with him, but nothing about his character is particularly interesting. He lacks the diamond-edged sharpness of Barbara.
Susan, played by Carole Ann Ford, is the biggest disappointment as I've noted several times. Not due to Carole herself, who seems a potentially very interesting actor, but to the callous and stereotypical way the writers and producers handled her. This is somewhat mystifying, given that the creator/producer of this season was a woman, the groundbreaking Verity Lambert.
The doctor starts crusty, but warms into a mostly-nicer being, for better or worse. Yet he still veers into selfish nastiness from time to time, keeping him from becoming a complete care bear.
The season is saved by the last three episodes, all quite watchable and showing a maturity and consistency that didn't exist in the earlier episodes, which is understandable. My favorite individual episode of the season is the very first, An Unearthly Child, and my favorite complete story is probably The Sensorites, for the exploration of the relationship between The Doctor and his companions.
Unfortunately the next season will prove that consistency is not to be a hallmark of the series; we'll encounter some of the best in all of Doctor Who and some of the eye-scratchingly worst. Thankfully I'm here to save you from the latter.
As Hartnell's Doctor would say:
"Well, then, let's get on with it, shall we? Hmm?"