Patrick Troughton

Dear Gary—

And now to pause briefly in my viewing of Doctor Who to say a word about Patrick Troughton as the Doctor.

In going back over my original rankings I see that I had placed him sixth as an afterthought. Now that I have watched all of his stories through, and having seen all of the reconstructed episodes for the first time, I am going to edge him up a bit to five. (This moves Matt Smith down to sixth, and after having rewatched his second season recently I have no trouble doing that.)

Patrick Troughton was the perfect choice to follow William Hartnell as the Doctor. Hartnell had so defined the character and inspired such immediate respect and confidence as the Doctor; Troughton had to step into those shoes to redefine the role while at the same time maintaining the character. He and the show’s creators handled this brilliantly in classic Doctor Who style. Questions abound as William Hartnell morphs into Patrick Troughton on the TARDIS floor; but only vague answers are offered up as the action takes off.

We the audience, along with companions Ben and Polly, have no choice but to accept this new Doctor.

But our acceptance doesn’t have the same immediate respect and confidence. We’re skeptical; we’re unsure; we’re dubious. The Doctor will be victorious in the end; we are sure of that; but how he gets to that point is rather ambiguous.

We ask along with Polly, “Doctor, you did know what you were doing  . . . didn’t you?”

This sense of fuzzy faith in Patrick Troughton’s Doctor is personified in Jamie. While Jamie places his life and trust completely in the Doctor’s hands, he is constantly questioning and continually skeptical. And Gary, I have to say that the result of this is that Patrick Troughton’s Doctor is more accessible than William Hartnell’s Doctor.

With Patrick Troughton we have fun.

With Patrick Troughton we can enjoy the ride and forget about those nagging questions.

And I did enjoy the ride, Gary. I just wish so many of the stories were not reconstructions. That definitely hinders the enjoyment and I can only imagine how much higher Troughton would rise in my rankings if all of his stories were restored to their original form.

There were so many strong scripts in the Troughton era; it’s hard for me to single any out.  Although two stories that I particularly enjoyed were not necessarily the strongest script wise—The Underwater Menace and The Dominators. It is also hard, given the number of reconstructions, to pick out a defining story for Troughton. If pressed I would have to go with The Tomb of the Cybermen.

Several Doctor Who staples were born during the Patrick Troughton era; let’s start with the sonic screwdriver. This first surfaced in Fury From the Deep and made several brief appearances in subsequent stories, including the The War Games where the Doctor uses it to demonstrate to one of the conditioned soldiers that he is no longer on Earth, although it is not yet the multifaceted implement it will become in later years. 

Next we have the use of John Smith as an alias for the Doctor. Jamie first gives him this name in The Wheel in Space, and the Doctor resurrects this pseudonym in The War Games.

And let’s not forget the Brigadier and UNIT.

Finally, and most significantly, we have the Time Lords. While Patrick Troughton was able to be off and running from the beginning with no questions answered, his departure and the introduction of a third Doctor begs for some sort of explanation. The War Games therefore supplies us with the Time Lords and their policy of non-interference.

This brings me to the evolution that started with Hartnell and is solidified with Troughton—the Doctor has become one who actively fights against evil and injustice. He is no longer motivated merely by curiosity or self preservation or a sense of adventure. He learns that the Daleks are around and says, “That’s why we have to stay.” Or of the Cybermen, “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.” However, he doesn’t rush in or assume evil:  “Which side is good; which side is bad; and why should I interfere?”

But interfere he does, and this gets him in hot water with the Time Lords and brings us to our next Doctor, John Pertwee.

And so, Gary, while I will miss the fun of the Troughton era, I look forward to a fresh Doctor and no more reconstructions; and I send this out with that forward vision and hope it echoes back . . .