The Second Doctor is an incarnation of the Doctor, the protagonist of the BBC
science fiction television series Doctor Who. He was portrayed by character actor
Patrick Troughton. Within the series' narrative, the Doctor
is a centuries-old Time Lord alien from the planet Gallifrey who travels in time
and space in his TARDIS, frequently with companions. When the Doctor is
critically injured, he can regenerate his body; in doing so, his physical
appearance and personality change. The transformation into the Second
Doctor, a figure who was the same 'essential' character as the first but
with a very different persona, was a turning point in the evolution of the
series, and eventually became a critical element of the series' longevity.
Biography The First Doctor grew progressively
weaker while battling the Cybermen during the events of The Tenth Planet
and eventually collapsed, seemingly from old age. His body renewed itself and
transformed into the Second Doctor. Initially, the relationship between the
Second Doctor and his predecessor was unclear. In his first story, the Second
Doctor referred to his predecessor in the third person as if he were a
completely different person. His companions Ben and Polly are at first
unsure how to treat him and it is only when a Dalek recognises him that they
accept that he is the Doctor. In the second story, The Highlanders,
Jamie McCrimmon joined the TARDIS crew, and remained with the Second Doctor for
the rest of his travels. Ben and Polly left together when the TARDIS landed at
Gatwick Airport on the same day they originally left with the First Doctor,
after they had stopped the mass kidnapping of tourists by shape shifting
aliens. The Doctor and Jamie then became involved in a plot by the Daleks to gain
both the "Human and Dalek Factors" when the TARDIS was stolen, which led to them
meeting Victoria Waterfield in the 19th century. The Doctor used the situation
to engineer a Dalek civil war that seemingly destroyed the Daleks forever.
However, Victoria's father was among the casualties. Now an orphan, Victoria
chose to accompany the Doctor and Jamie on their travels. Although she felt
great affection for the Doctor and Jamie, she was never able to completely
come to terms with life in the TARDIS and the constant danger that resulted.
She eventually chose to leave after the events of Fury from the Deep and was
adopted by someone in the 20th Century. The Doctor was then joined by Zoe
Heriot, an extremely intelligent woman from the 21st century, who helped defeat
the Cybermen attack on a space station known as the Wheel. She then stowed away
in the TARDIS and, despite the Doctor's warnings about what she might encounter,
chose to remain. During his second incarnation, the
Doctor confronted familiar foes such as the Daleks and the Cybermen, as well as
new enemies such as the Great Intelligence and the Ice Warriors. It
was during this time that he first met Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart, in
the tunnels of the London Underground. Following the defeat of the Great
Intelligence, Lethbridge-Stewart was promoted to Brigadier and became the
leader of the British contingent of UNIT, a military organisation tasked to
investigate and defend the world from extraterrestrial threats. The Doctor
reteamed with him to defeat an invasion of Cybermen in league with industrialist
Tobias Vaughan. The Second Doctor's time came to an end
when the TARDIS landed in the middle of a warzone, created by a race of alien
warlords who, with the help of another renegade Time Lord the War Chief,
progressively kidnapped and brainwashed humans into becoming soldiers for them,
hoping to use the ones who survived to conquer the Galaxy. Although the Doctor
was able to defeat their plan, he realised he would be unable to return
the human subjects to their various original points in Earth's history. He
therefore contacted the Time Lords, sacrificing his own freedom in the
process, and despite an attempt to escape was forced to return to his home
planet. He was then put on trial by the Time Lords, for breaking their laws of
non-interference. Despite the Doctor's argument that the Time Lords should use
their great powers to help others, he was sentenced to exile on 20th century
Earth, the Time Lords forcing his regeneration into the Third Doctor in
the process. Jamie and Zoe were returned to their own time, with their memories
of all but their first encounter with the Doctor wiped and the secret of the
TARDIS was also taken from the Doctor. Personality
The Second Doctor has been nicknamed the "Cosmic Hobo", as the impish Second
Doctor appeared to be far more scruffy and childlike than his first
incarnation. Mercurial, clever, and always a few
steps ahead of his enemies, at times he could be a calculating schemer who would
not only manipulate people for the greater good but act like a bumbling
fool in order to have others underestimate his true abilities.
Sometimes this appears simply as a joke, such as in The Tomb of the Cybermen,
where he finishes the archaeologists' calculations behind their backs, but at
other times, it seems much darker. In The Evil of the Daleks he coldly
manipulates Jamie into trying to rescue Victoria and is unsympathetic when
Edward Waterfield tries to apologise for his collaboration with the Daleks.
Despite the bluster and tendency to panic when events got out of control,
the Second Doctor always acted heroically and morally in his desire to
help the oppressed. This Doctor is associated with the
catchphrases "Oh my giddy aunt!" and "When I say run, run!", and is noted for
playing the recorder. = Appearance=
Troughton's costume was the result from discussion between the actor himself,
producer Innes Lloyd, and script-editor Gerry Davis. He wore a black frock coat,
several sizes too big, over a light-coloured shirt and very baggy
trousers, which, like his bow-tie, were fixed with a safety pin. In his first
two stories, the trousers were orange and black two-inch check. He also tended
to wear a stovepipe hat and pixie boots. The actor denied suggestions that his
distinctive mop of jet black hair was a wig.
In stories set in colder environments, Troughton wore a cloak or a short fur
coat. Story style
With the arrival of a younger Doctor and changing tastes, the Second Doctor's
tenure was characterised by a faster pace and a preference toward "monster of
the week"-style horror stories, whilst the purely historical adventures that
were a recurring feature of the Hartnell era ceased with The Highlanders, the
only Troughton-era entry in that genre. While Troughton's Doctor would still
visit the Earth's past, he would always encounter an alien, such as the Daleks
or the Ice Warriors. It was also during this era that Doctor Who began to come
under fire for its purportedly violent and frightening content.
As with his predecessor, all the Second Doctor's original episodes were in
black-and-white. Later guest appearances in The Three Doctors, The Five Doctors
and The Two Doctors were in colour. However, Troughton's reign as the Doctor
was more notable for what does not exist than for what does, as many of the
episodes featuring the Second Doctor were junked by the BBC; a full list of
incomplete Doctor Who serials shows how many of these episodes are missing from
the BBC Archives. Only two stories in Troughton's first
two seasons - The Tomb of the Cybermen and The Enemy of the World - still exist
in their entirety; ten stories only exist partially; and four are lost in
their entirety: his first story, The Power of the Daleks; Jamie's first
adventure, The Highlanders; The Macra Terror; and Victoria's last adventure,
Fury From the Deep. Later appearances
The Second Doctor would return to the series on three occasions: in 1973 for
the 10th anniversary serial The Three Doctors, in 1983 for the 20th
anniversary special, The Five Doctors, and once more in 1985 in The Two
Doctors. Other mentions
Visions of the Second Doctor appear in Day of the Daleks, The Brain of Morbius,
Earthshock, Mawdryn Undead, Resurrection of the Daleks, "The Next Doctor", "The
Eleventh Hour", "Vincent and the Doctor", "The Lodger", "Nightmare in
Silver", and The Sarah Jane Adventures story Death of the Doctor.
A sculpture of his head, along with that of the First Doctor, appears in the 1993
special for Children In Need titled Dimensions In Time. The Fourth Doctor
calls him "the flautist." He briefly appears in "The Name of the
Doctor", where archive footage from "The Five Doctors" is used to show him
running past Clara Oswald in an unseen adventure.
The Second Doctor appears, via archival images, in the series' 50th anniversary
special, "The Day of the Doctor". He is seen piloting the TARDIS and acting in
unison with twelve other incarnations of the Doctor to save Gallifrey on the
final day of the Time War. Reception
Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy and Matt Smith, who played the
Fifth Doctor, Sixth Doctor, Seventh Doctor and Eleventh Doctor respectively,
have stated that the Second Doctor is their favourite. Smith has also stated
that his Doctor costume, in particular the bow-tie, was also influenced by the
Second Doctor's, after Smith cited the Troughton story The Tomb of the Cybermen
as a favourite episode. Other appearances
References External links
Second Doctor on TARDIS Data Core, an external wiki
The Second Doctor on the BBC's Doctor Who website
Second Doctor Gallery Second Doctor's theme music QuickTime
file Second Doctor title sequence