Serial 45: The Mind Robber

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

Written by: Peter Ling
Directed by: David Maloney

Background & Significance: Patrick Troughton's final season was one giant limp to the finish line for 1960s Doctor Who. As it was originally conceived, Doctor Who was a smaller, less technically-demanding show and could thusly fit more into a weekly production schedule. Recycle your sets for a few weeks, keep the stories coming, no one would be the wiser. It's why the show was able to crank out forty episodes per year for almost six years: less location shooting, less ambition.

Fortunately, given its growing popularity, Doctor Who got more and more ambitious. There was location shooting and aliens and bigger sets and a bigger, more action-based show than the one that was originally conceived.

Needless to say, this was one of the contributing factors to the massive overhaul the show saw starting in "Spearhead From Space". The show's episode count was dropped from 40+ to 25. There was a transition to colour. And all of a sudden Doctor Who became much more producible and less demanding on its actors. Indeed, one of the reasons Patrick Troughton left the role (besides his fear of typecasting) was to take a break from the grueling pace of putting out so many frakking episodes in a year (and to his credit, he didn't take nearly as many days off as other actors did; to be fair, though, Hartnell was remarkably sick when he took the role).

"The Mind Robber" is one of those stories that suffers from this scheduling push. The production team behind Doctor Who was a revolving door around this time, There were new script editors and producers coming in and leaving more or less constantly and the upheaval the show was in led to a "let's just get these out" mentality. Despite this, though, there was the notion that the writers wouldn't sacrifice quality if they could help it, and when it became clear that the story preceding "The Mind Robber" was going to be rubbish (it's "The Dominators" if you must know) they hacked the episode count of that story from six episodes to five episodes in the hope that maybe (just maybe) they could make it a little more bearable. And in their defense, I'm fairly sure a five episode "Dominators" is slightly more bearable than a six episode one, but only fairly.

With the need to fill another episode in the order (and wanting to not get slammed like they did with "Mission to the Unknown" a few seasons back when they cut an episode out of "Planet of the Giants") it was up to script editor Derrick Sherwin to come up with an extra episode to tack onto the top of "The Mind Robber" so they would fill their seasonly quota. To compensate for the overrun, the episodes were all condensed from the usual 25 minutes to an experimental 20 minutes, so we're still getting a hundred minutes of story, only spread out over five episodes instead of the usual four (with the first being a prologue to establish the setting at hand, or at least, to weird you the fuck out for twenty minutes before they slam you with something even more mindblowing).

Written by Peter Ling and introducing the direction of the fantastic David Maloney, it makes "The Mind Robber" something remarkably special and iconic for so many different reasons.

So let's get to it!

Serial 48: The Seeds of Death

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


Written by: Brian Hayles
Directed by: Michael Ferguson

Background & Significance: So now that we're back in this season again, I probably don't need to go into the sordid details about just how much work it was to produce Doctor Who by this point. Now in its sixth year, the show was getting more and more ambitious, and its ambition was getting harder and harder to produce on a shooting schedule as rigorous as it currently had. They were doing over forty episodes a year and the grind was relentless. The previous season had the benefit of being impossibly formulaic and unambitious. But now that the show as under Peter Bryant's producership, it was trying increasingly new and different things.

Or at least, it seems that way to me.

"Seeds of Death" is something of an anomaly for the season. It's very obviously a base-under-siege story and is the second story of the season about a massive invasion of Earth. The previous base-under-siege story also happened to be a backdoor pilot to the UNIT era and featured lots and lots of Cybermen. This one features the return of the Ice Warriors, elevating them to "return monsters" status and the Ice Warriors' creator Brian Hayles does a lot to expand the Ice Warriors' mythology and make them a bigger threat than they were previously. But it really does function as a last hurrah to the base under siege format that... well... plagued the Troughton era.

So let's get to it!

Serial 47: The Krotons

Doctor: Patrick Troughton (2nd Doctor)

Companions: Jamie, Zoe

Written by: Robert Holmes

Directed by: David Maloney

Background & Significance: If you know me, or how I talk about Doctor Who, you know that the way I come into the show is based almost entirely around writing and the way in which Doctor Who is constructed. A lot of that is down to the writers because they are (in so many ways so many people could never understand) possibly the most important linchpin to any creative endeavor. Without the writer, there is nothing.

I say all this to underline the fascination I have with "The Krotons". Which (for those not in the know) is the first Doctor Who story that Robert Holmes ever wrote.

Produced as the "middle serial" of season six, it's worth pointing out that this is the last story of the first half of Patrick Troughton's last season. By this point, the burnout factor of Doctor Who in the 1960s was starting to take its toll on the show. And hey, who can blame them? This isn't a soap opera with the fortitude to produce THAT many episodes, and this was the sixth year in a row that Doctor Who had produced forty or more episodes. So everyone was tired and really pushing forward to just finish out the season by any means necessary so they could get to the colour and the UNIT and the producing 26ish episodes a year as opposed to the usual 40+. It was at this time that Derrick Sherwin stepped aside as script editor to help Doctor Who in other ways, making way for his assistant Terrance Dicks to step in and drive the script editing for the show...

And wouldn't you know it, but it was at this same time that Robert Holmes jumped into the picture.

Now Toby Hadoke mentions this in Running Through Corridors, but it bears repeating here: it's interesting that two of the three most influential writers in Classic Doctor Who made their first appearance around this time, almost six years into the show's existence. And it's interesting how the two were almost meant to write the show. According to reports, Holmes's initial draft for this story was turned in almost two months early and rushed into production when the original story assigned to this production ("The Prison in Space") bowed out due to the writer not getting along with notes (or something; don't quote me on that). And really, who turns in a draft so early without someone pointing at him and saying "Damn. He might be something?"

"The Krotons" is his first story, and it's one of the first stories directed by David Maloney, who would go on to direct some fantastic other ones (don't worry, you've seen them) and had already previously directed "The Mind Robber", and it's interesting how it's overlooked/forgotten, or that Robert Holmes outright wrote for five different Doctors on television, but how Holmes's real work on the show almost really doesn't start until he introduces the 3rd Doctor and starts getting all Holmesy. Think of this and "The Space Pirates" as... trial runs, almost. That's not to say they're not good, but I'd hardly consider "The Krotons" indicative of what Holmes would write later ("Mysterious Planet" notwithstanding, but I'll discuss that I guess). No. "Spearhead" is almost a better fresh start to say "look at this guy stumbling onto the scene with some geniusness".

And yet, "The Krotons" is his first. And it's... Well... I think we should talk about it.

So let's get to it!

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 49: The Space Pirates

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

Writtten by: Robert Holmes
Directed by: Michael Hart

Background & Significance: "The Space Pirates" will forever be remembered as "The One Before The War Games", and that's not just because "The War Games" is so influential and spanning and all-important. The regulars and the cast and crew themselves were in a bit of a transitionary phase while the show prepared to undergo what was essentially a square one reboot.

By season six, Patrick Troughton's final season, Doctor Who as a show was starting to become a bit tired. Nevermind Troughton himself, who cited the rigorous television schedule as grueling and tiring without any prompting from anyone else, but to have a show like Doctor Who with all its scifiness and special effects and shooting schedules etc. produce an average of over forty two stories per year, week in, week out for six years would be exhausting to any production team, and it's no wonder, therefore, that the show needed to slow down and take measure of itself and return to a place of quality or what have you. So in a lot of ways, "The War Games" becomes the last final sprint of what was essentially (at that point) weekly Doctor Who, and its quality reflects that last, final burst of energy to get it across the finish line, almost atypical in how frakking good it ended up being.

And that leaves "The Space Pirates", which is essentially the shadow of that tired show limping along before that final burst of speed.

When you start to get into the nitty gritty of Troughton's final season, it's clear to see that the production crew was absolutely languishing. "The Dominators" was supposed to be six episodes, but they trimmed it to five to enhance the quality of the remaining story. "The Invasion" was as long as it was to stall for time as other things got ready. Doctor Who legend Terrence Dicks (arguably one of the most important figures in Doctor Who's history) was emergency-promoted from assistant script editor to script editor due to outgoing script editor Derrick Sherwin's continued influence in becoming producer on the show. Dicks himself was pulled off of script editing duties towards the end of the season to co-write "The War Games" with Malcolm Hulke with Sherwin stepping in to fill in for this story, "The Space Pirates", and because of the massive scope and the finale's ten episode length, The Doctor and his companions had to pre-film their contribution to episode six.

Clearly, the behind-the-scenes of Doctor Who by this point was just... a nightmare, trying to keep the ship afloat long enough to make it to the complete relaunch with "Spearhead From Space".

Sorry. I'm rambling. Anyways...

"The Space Pirates" is writer Robert Holmes's second contribution to Doctor Who after a strong initial outing in "The Krotons". Unfortunately, "The Krotons" was meant to be the penultimate story for season six, but when the planned fourth story of the season had to be abandoned, "The Krotons" was pushed up to take its place and "The Space Pirates" was born to fill the spot left by "The Krotons." (See? Season six. Huge mess.)

The story itself is one that isn't regarded too strongly by the fandom. Most infamously for most, The Doctor and his companions don't show up until fifteen minutes into the first episode and then stays largely removed from most of the action until well into the third episode. There's probably many reasons for this, not the least of which is Holmes's own recollection that he turned in a four-part story and then was quickly asked to expand it into six parts. That alone sets off warning bells in my head, but my god... Talk about the signs of age and just stretching things out until they can make it to that glorious glorious finale and everyone can sleep a bit more.

But enough talking about silly politics. We're here to talk about some god damn Space Pirates! (Or are we?)

So let's get to it!

Serial 37: The Tomb of the Cybermen

Doctor: Patrick Troughton (2nd Doctor)
Companions: Jamie McCrimmon, Victoria Waterfield

Written by: Kit Pedler & Gerry Davis
Directed by: Morris Barry

Background & Significance: I've said it before and I'll say it again: Patrick Troughton's era on Doctor Who was one of those defining times that helped shape the show's ultimate evolution. Because of the role of a producer and script editor on a show, each Doctor has a sort of ethos to his stories (except Tom Baker, who has three), a real tone or zeitgeist if you will. Prior to Troughton, the only format the show had ever known was predominantly educational and children's television.

The Troughton era was decidedly not nearly so educational. It saw the rise of off-planet adventures, the abandonment of historicals, the return of old and the creation of new alien-monsters, and sci-fi stories that were much more rooted in action/adventure than anything else. To be honest, it's a lot closer to what it is today than what it was just a few seasons before. It really reminds me of the current Steven Moffat era, which is about having big ol' adventures with big ol' fun and all that lovely noise and the like. (Also apt because Smith reminds me a whole hell of a lot of Troughton, so that's another little tie; but I'm getting ahead of meself.)

It was also The Golden Age of The Cybermen.

"The Tomb of the Cybermen" is the kickoff to Patrick Troughton's second season and it's.... It's good. Really good. If there's one problem with The Cybermen as villains over the course of their forty plus year long history, it's that they always seem to get a story that feels more or less the same. The Cybermen invade or attack a place. They try to convert everyone into Cybermen to add to their growing army. The Doctor beats them back. The Cybermen maybe march a bit. The Cybermen are defeated.

But this story is decidedly different. This shows The Cybermen in a far off future, long after they've died out, trapped in their Ice Tombs on the planet of Telos, stuck in suspended animation, waiting to be re-awakened.

What happens next is a taut sci-fi thriller not so unlike "The Robots of Death", but with a nice, healthy dose of horror/action with Patrick Troughton at the helm. It's high adventure and insane tension escalating as the story goes on. Well told, totally ethosy/zeitgeisty, and a total look into one of my all time favourite eras of the show ever. Honestly, it feels like something out of a classic pulpy adventure/sci-fi magazine, and I really think that if there's one thing Doctor Who should do more of it's pulp adventure. Not just that, but pulp adventures in the Troughton era, which just has the best of feels.

Unfortunately, it's also the earliest story that survives in its entirety from the Troughton era, and the only one that exists in its entirety from this season. That doesn't diminish the fact that this is a great story to have survived the BBC wiping campaign (miraculously. It was only discovered in the early 90s and is probably the most famous recovery to date). But it's a great introduction for new viewers to Troughton and the classic series, and it's a very famous Cybermen adventure. I mean, just take the title. "The Tomb of the Cybermen". That's a phenomenal title and it gets your imagination spinning in the best of ways.The best part is the story's living up to that title, which, if I may be honest, is no mean feat.

So let's get to it!

Serial 46: The Invasion

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


Writer: Derrick Sherwin (based on an original idea from Kit Pedler)
Director: Douglas Camfield

Background and Significance: After William Hartnell's health forced him to abdicate the role of Doctor Who, the producers of the program (who saw what popularity the show had) sought to continue the show with a new actor playing The Doctor. A wild departure from the original, the new incarnation played by Patrick Troughton was designed as a "Cosmic Hobo" of sorts. His energy and mannerisms brought about a new life to the show in a completely different way than it had had before. The show became more action oriented, with heavy emphasis on more adventurey aspects. As such, Troughton's era saw the appearance of old favorites like Daleks and Cybermen, but also saw the creation of new alien races like The Ice Warriors and Robot Yeti.

Such is the era of Patrick Troughton. Big adventure. Big energy. Big humour. Big excitement.

Oh. And most of it's missing.

For those not in the know, the BBC had a policy in the 1960's of recycling old videotapes to save money and space, which means they wiped old episodes of Doctor Who. All of them. There has since been an effort towards extensive recovery based on lent-out screeners to foreign countries and restoration of home video recordings. This, however, has left many gaps in the original series. The hardest hit is Patrick Troughton (even though William Hartnell was also particularly affected; Hartnell's final episode doesn't even exist really at all), with all but one of the serials from Troughton's first two seasons (and he only did three) missing at least in part if not in their entirety. He has 63 episodes missing from 15 serials (out of 119 episodes and 21 serials he did in total).

The Invasion is one such story. An eight episode story, it's been reconstructed and recovered excepting two episodes (the first and the fourth). For the DVD release, the remaining two episodes were actually animated and the recovered audio was laid on top of them. Know what that's called? Badass. But more on that later.

But for now, let's talk Doctor Who!