Serial 41: The Web of Fear

Doctor: Patrick Troughton  (2nd Doctor)

Companions: Jamie, Victoria

Written by: Mervyn Haisman & Henry Lincoln

Directed by: Douglas Camfield

Background & Significance: Almost a year ago we talked about "The Abominable Snowmen" and how The Doctor went to a far off and exotic location to fight some Yeti, or rather, more correctly, he fought a disembodied sentience who created massive creatures (Yeti) to carry out their bidding. The story met various degrees of success when it was first out. I found it middling, but I know others quite like it.

Then again, those people probably knew more than I did when I watched it for the first time... They'd already seen this one, the one that made the Yeti transcendentally legendary.

It's not hard to see why "The Web of Fear" would be legendary. I mean, in terms of check lists, it is the televisual return of the Yeti, thereby elevating them above other such popular monsters like Zygons, Wirrn, Krynoids, and Macra by proving their viability as recurring monsters and meaning that in eventual Doctor Who visual companions The Yeti can get, say, a page to themselves whereas other monsters like the Zygons will still get a page but that page is much more padded and stretched because there's possibly less to say about them. I jest, but the point remains that I feel like more people would care to see the new series bring back the Ice Warriors (who had four classic appearances) than they would, say, Zygons.

So yes, the Yeti are back.

But there's more! This is the story that really kicks the door down to allow The UNIT era to happen. It's the first time The Doctor teams up with the military to take down an evil foe (the first time hardly counts) and that means he's back on Earth to deal with a problem at home. It's also the introduction of The Brigadier in the first of many, many recurring appearances and he's cast by director Douglas Camfield, who had previously directed "The Daleks' Master Plan" and "The Time Meddler" and would go on to direct other such greatnesses as "The Terror of the Zygons" and "The Seeds of Doom". He's an action man through and through and who better to direct this story?

So let's get to it!

Serial 42: Fury From The Deep

Doctor: Patrick Troughton (2nd Doctor)

Companions: Jamie, Victoria

Written by: Victor Pemberton
Directed by: Hugh David

Background & Significance: When you look at season five of Doctor Who, the famous, so called "Monster" season (so named because the season featured two Cybermen stories, two Yeti stories, an Ice Warrior story, and Troughton "blacking himself up" to look like a dark-skinned Spaniard) stands out for a number of reasons, most notably, perhaps, because the season itself largely doesn't exist. Of the 40 episodes in season five only 13 are still around, there's only one complete story, and only one other of the seven for which half of the story exists. Most of the stories have at least one episode to hint at what the story must have looked/felt like.

Except for this one. This one is missing in its entirety.

It's written by Victor Pemberton and directed by Hugh David. Pemberton briefly stepped in as script editor for "Tomb of the Cybermen" when they decided to try that little experiment and Hugh David was last and first seen in the previous season to help introduce Jamie in "The Highlanders", so it is something of a mystery as to how exactly it would have been done. There's very little that would hint at the way that these two people affected Doctor Who for this one installment of theirs, and that (like with all the missing episodes) is a shame, especially considering they never really returned after this. At least with someone like Douglas Camfield we can extrapolate based on his later work as to how well he might have directed something, but here.... we don't really have that luxury. Not exactly.

It's also the last story featuring Victoria Waterfield, bringing to a close the scares and dares of the season in a very palpable way and ending one of the most conceptually interesting companions in the history of the programme (in my honest opinion). But I'll talk about that in a bit.

All these things give "Fury From the Deep" something of a fetishized reputation. It's extremely well-regarded and considered a highlight of what is also considered an extremely strong and highlight-worthy season. Known for its scares and B-movie horror, the story actually happens to be seaweed and foam, of all things, inserting that as "its monster" while maintaining your typical "base under siege" story that is the formula for every story this season.

So let's get to it!

Serial 44: The Dominators

Doctor: Patrick Troughton (2nd Doctor)

Companions: Jamie, Zoe

Written by: Norman Ashby (aka Mervyn Haisman & Henry Lincoln)

Directed by: Morris Barry

Editor's Note: Hello, gentle faithfuls! It's Matt here introducing another round of Cassandra, here to this time talk about "The Dominators", and by "introducing" I mean apologizing profusely (I didn't know it would suck this bad when I gave it to her. I'M SORRY). But she's back and again she has a story that is... not strong. Le sigh. But all is well! She will have some good stuff in the future. That is a guarantee! I'll be back next week with some fun goodness but for now let's see if Cassandra can find anything redeeming in "The Dominators."

Background & Significance: It all comes down to merchandising.

Season Six is a really interesting season of Doctor Who, one that is at the same time both incredibly rocky and incredibly important. I say rocky, because in comparison to the previous season (which, barring "The Wheel in Space," is pretty phenomenal story quality wise across the board), it's fairly up and down. To go from a story like "The Dominators" to one like "The Mind Robber" (which we haven't talked about yet, but we will, and it'll be fantastic) just shows you what I mean. It reminds me a lot of this past season of Nu-Who (also a season six, hmmm), with the massive fluctuations in quality episode to episode. But I digress.

The people behind Doctor Who at this time (then-producer Peter Bryant specifically) were always looking for a new monster to take the world by storm in the way that the Daleks had. Upon their introduction in Season Four, the Cybermen proved to be serious contenders for another "Dalekmania"; likewise, Season Five introduced a lot of other cool monsters, including the Yeti and the Ice Warriors. But they all never quite reached the popularity of their fellow aliens from Skaro.

Following the relative success and great fan reception of the Yeti in the previous season, Peter Bryant approached the creators, Mervyn Haisman and Henry Lincoln, to come up with a new monster that would be potentially as marketable as the Daleks. What they came up with are the Quarks, and "The Dominators" would be their introductory story.

Needless to say, since you've probably never heard of quarks outside of physics class the creepy little robots never showed up again, "The Dominators" is a pretty terrible story, and the Quarks' attempt at dethroning the Daleks in the toy department failed hardcore. But that's what you get when you put merchandising ahead of storytelling.

But enough of all that. Let's take a closer look, shall we?

Serial 43: The Wheel in Space

Doctor: Patrick Troughton (2nd Doctor)
Companions: Jamie, Zoe

Writtten by: David Whitaker and Kit Pedler
Directed by: Tristan de Vere Cole 

Editor's Note: Hey guys! Matt here reminding you that this week Cassandra's in to talk a little bit about... well... some Cybermen. I guess she's back to the weaker stories? BUT I DON'T KNOW! It's not like I planned this. (Wait. I did.) But oh well. She'll get some good stuff again quite soon, but for now let's hear her talk about the much maligned "Wheel in Space" and I'll be back next week for some more "in Space" action. But for now: TO HER.

Background & Significance: Cybermen were the new Daleks.

At least, that's how it was during the Troughton era. Much like Daleks kept popping up all over the place in Hartnell stories, so too did the Cybermen in Troughton stories. Which increasing the probability of really terrible Cybermen stories, but who doesn't love our funny-talking cybernetic kindred from Mondas? I mean, really.

Unfortunately, "The Wheel in Space" is one of those really terrible Cybermen stories and all because Terry Nation wouldn't agree to a Cybermen/Dalek team-up. (Which quite possibly could have been the greatest thing ever if Nation stayed out of it and David Whitaker scripted, but alas, that only leads to frustrated speculation on my part. And now yours too. (You're welcome.))

The great irony of this story, for me anyway, is that it is scripted by David Whitaker, who wrote "Power of the Daleks" and "Evil of the Daleks", among other things. We know he's a good writer, so how did he go from that level of awesome to "Wheel in Space" level of dull? Personally I think it's the story by Kit Pedler, but I'll get into that a little more in the commentary.

Another thing I do need to talk about before we dive in, though, and that's the fact that this story is the first appearance of Zoe Heriot, played by the adorable Wendy Padbury, who we all know goes on to be a Companion alongside Jamie for the duration of Troughton's tenure as the Doctor. Her predecessor, Victoria, departed in the previous story "Fury from the Deep", and the character of Zoe is a sort of response to Victoria's character; Zoe is from the future and extremely intelligent and forward-thinking, which contrasts with Victoria being from the past and her more conservatively Victorian-era sensibilities.

But enough of all that. Let's take a closer look, shall we?

Serial 51: Spearhead from Space

Doctor: Jon Pertwee (3rd Doctor)
Companion: Liz Shaw

Written by: Robert Holmes
Directed by: Derek Martinus

Background & Significance: Because of the way Classic Doctor Who worked as a convention, the way the stories were told and how they were serialized individual stories but without any real overarching serialization or continuity, it's rare for a Doctor Who story to be "important". "Pyramids of Mars" can be all the fantastic in the world. Still doesn't make it "important." Important stories are typically regeneration stories (not even necessarily companion arrivals or departures because they're almost always backgrounded excepting certain instances).

"Spearhead From Space" is one of those stories that is... well... Extremely important.

For one thing, "Spearhead from Space" is the first time in Who history that the Classical-Gallifrey-favourite line "God damn, Robert Holmes" comes into play. Holmes had previously done two Doctor Who stories ("The Krotons" and "The Space Pirates"), both Patrick Troughton stories (to lesser or greater effect), but "Spearhead From Space" is the first one that really mattered in the overall scope of Doctor Who both from a Robert-Holmes-quality standpoint and from a game-changer standpoint (Holmes would later change the game with such stories as "The Ark in Space", "The Deadly Assassin", and "The Caves of Androzani").

"Spearhead from Space" is significant for a number of reasons.

It's the first Jon Pertwee serial. It's the first time Doctor Who was broadcast in colour. It's the first Doctor Who story to be entirely shot on film. It's the first story of The Doctor's five-year exile on Earth, commonly known as "The UNIT years", which was the five year run under producer Barry Letts and script editor Terrance Dicks (despite Letts's noninvolvement here (it was produced by Derrick Sherwin) it really feels like a fairly "typical" Pertwee story) And it's the introduction of one of my personal favourite villains, The Autons (and oh my god what an introduction).

And Autons aside, all of that groundbreaking firsts stuff has nothing to do with Robert Holmes (the story concepts were developed by Producer Derrick Sherwin and Script Editor Terrence Dicks, the-all-shot-on-film bits was because of a labour strike, and the colour broadcast was a BBC mandate). And yet, it's easily one of my favourite Robert Holmes stories ever. It's exquisite science fiction horror, and all of the "mandates" (specifically the introduction of possibly the show's biggest format change of the classic series: that of The Doctor being confined to Earth during the UNIT years) feels like an afterthought amidst the gorgeous distraction of this tremendous story.

So let's get to it!

Serial 50: The War Games (Part 2 of 2)

Doctor: Patrick Troughton (2nd Doctor)
Companion: Jamie McCrimmon, Zoe Heriot

Written by: Malcolm Hulke & Terrance Dicks
Directed by: David Maloney

Background & Significance: As said in part one, much of Patrick Troughton's tenure helped define the show moving forward. Troughton's era established UNIT and he was the first of many many regenerations. It showed many returns of The Cybermen as a seriously badass threat, saw two of the best Dalek stories of all time, and introduced a whole cadre of monsters (Ice Warriors, Yeti, etc.) in exotic alien locales.

And then they pulled a rabbit out of their hat.

Terrance Dicks (most famous for being script editor for the last half season of Troughton and all of Jon Pertwee) decided to send out Patrick Troughton with a bang, co-writing a story that removed some of the mystery surrounding The Doctor. And by that I don't just mean any mystery or a small mysteries like his favourite brand of cat nip.

No. They decided to introduce The Time Lords.

Up until this point, The Doctor had identified himself as non-human (except early on when people weren't so sure) but had never explicitly stated what his race was actually called. Here, we get the introduction of The Time Lords and the ultimate exile of The Doctor to Earth.

Interestingly enough, we already know that this isn't the first time a non-Doctor Time Lord has appeared, but for all intents and purposes that doesn't count. The gag with the Meddling Monk was nothing short of a cheap shot, designed to just heighten the stakes without answering any bloody questions or delivering on the potential of meeting another rival Time Lord.

But this is some crazy. Seriously. You'll see. This is proper Time Lords, being a right threat and a real menace that makes you understand The Doctor and why he left and what his whole deal with leaving is. It gives us a lot of information, it sets up a radical new status quo that Doctor Who won't ever possibly escape from (although they certainly tried), and it delivers an emotional wallop in the final episode as Troughton and co. go out with an amazing bang that's still felt over forty years later.

And it really helps that the story doesn't suck.

So let's get to it!

Serial 50: The War Games (Part 1 of 2)

Doctor: Patrick Troughton (2nd Doctor)
Companion: Jamie McCrimmon, Zoe Heriot

Written by: Malcolm Hulke & Terrance Dicks
Directed by: David Maloney:

Background & Significance: In my humble opinion, I think Patrick Troughton is, in fact, the most important actor to ever play The Doctor. That's not to say he's the best Doctor of all time (he's not, but he's certainly up there), but in terms of sheer importance, Troughton's the one who cast the widest influence on the show, and it would never the same without him.

This is, for many reasons, because he's the Second Doctor. He helped redefine the role with grace and energy that Hartnell, quite frankly, wasn't capable of. And he did that without completely discarding all of Hartnell's interpretation. Without Troughton, it's easy to assume later Doctors would have been too much like Hartnell, but Troughton took the part and made it his own.

And then he left. After just three years.

Rounding out his list of contributions to the fabric of Doctor Who, Troughton established a "it's time to move on" precedent. After three years, Troughton decided to move off the role (although he would later make return appearances in the role several times) and onto different things, fearing type-casting.

While this sentiment wasn't echoed by his immediate successors (Pertwee left after five years for various reasons, citing type-casting as one of them; Tom Baker left the role because it was just that time), Davison (his own interpretation very influenced by Troughton's) departed the role after three years on Troughton's suggestion (despite later claiming he wish he had stayed on longer), and fan-favourite David Tennant (himself a huge Davison fan) left after three seasons just like Davison, just like Troughton.

To celebrate Troughton's ending, he was given a mammoth ten-part story (easily the longest story after "The Daleks' Master Plan"). Because no one wants to see me review a ten part story in 5,000 words or less (and no, I really won't because that wouldn't do it justice) I'll be separating this particular serial into two halves and reviewing the other half later this week. There, we'll talk more about the actual ramifications of the story as they're all relegated to the back half and, most specifically, the last few episodes (and they are total doozies, lemme tell you).

But we'll worry about that later. For now, let's just talk about the first half of what is easily my favourite Doctor Who story so far.

So let's get to it!