Second Doctor

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Doctor
The Second Doctor
Portrayed by Patrick Troughton
Tenure 19661969
First appearance The Tenth Planet
Last appearance The War Games (regular)
The Two Doctors (guest star)
Number of series 3
Appearances 21 stories (119 episodes)
Companions on television:Ben, Polly, Jamie, Victoria, Zoe
in spin-offs: John and Gillian
Related Articles
Preceding First Doctor (William Hartnell)
Succeeding Third Doctor (Jon Pertwee)
Series Seasons 4 to 6

The Second Doctor is the name given to the second incarnation of the Doctor seen on screen in the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He was portrayed by the actor Patrick Troughton.

Contents

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The First Doctor grew progressively weaker during the events of The Tenth Planet while battling the Cybermen and eventually collapsed, seemingly from old age, his body renewing itself and transforming into the Second Doctor.

During this incarnation, the Second 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, a military man who would later become the leader of the British contingent of UNIT, a military organisation tasked to investigate and defend the world from extraterrestrial threats.

The Second Doctor's time came to an end after he was put on trial by his own people, 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.

While the clever, impish Second Doctor appeared to be far more scruffy and child-like than his first incarnation, at times he could be a calculating schemer who would not only manipulate people for the greater good, but who would act like a bumbling fool in order to have others underestimate his true abilities (The Tomb of the Cybermen and The Evil of the Daleks). More than any other, this Doctor was a wolf in sheep's clothing. However, despite his tendency to panic when events got out of control, he always acted heroically and morally in his desire to help the oppressed.

With the arrival of a younger Doctor and changing tastes, the Second Doctor's tenure was characterized 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 Great Intelligence. 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. However the later guest appearances in The Three Doctors, The Five Doctors and The Two Doctors were all in colour. Regrettably, 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.

Some fans have speculated that certain continuity elements within Doctor Who suggest that the Time Lords used the Second Doctor as an agent after the events of The War Games, and that he did not in fact immediately regenerate and enter his exile on Earth. (See Season 6B for further details).

The Second Doctor would return to the series on three occasions: in 1973 for the 10th anniversary serial The Three Doctors (which also saw the return of William Hartnell as the First Doctor), in 1983 for the 20th anniversary special, The Five Doctors, and once more in 1985 in The Two Doctors. An official accounting of where these three adventures fit within the Second Doctor's chronology has yet to be offered, although there is longstanding fan speculation that the latter two stories might take place within the hypothetical Season 6B. (The Second Doctor is the only Doctor to have appeared in all of the multi-Doctor episodes, namely The Three Doctors The Five Doctors, and The Two Doctors.)

  • The Extortioners
  • The Trodos Ambush
  • The Doctor Strikes Back
  • The Zombies
  • Master of the Spiders
  • The Exterminator
  • The Monsters from the Past
  • The TARDIS Worshippers
  • Space War Two
  • Egyptian Escapade
  • The Coming of the Cybermen
  • The Faithful Rocket Pack
  • Flower Power
  • The Witches
  • Cyber-Mole
  • The Sabre Toothed Gorillas
  • The Cyber Empire
  • The Dyrons
  • Dr. Who and the Space Pirates
  • Car of the Century
  • The Jokers
  • Invasion of the Quarks
  • The Killer Wasps
  • Ice Cape Terror
  • Jungle of Doom
  • Father Time
  • Martha the Mechanical Housemaid
  • The Duellists
  • Eskimo Joe
  • Perils at 60 Fathoms
  • Operation Wurlitzer
  • Action in Exile
  • The Mark of Terror
  • The Brotherhood
  • U.F.O.
  • The Night Walkers

  • Barnabus
  • Jungle Adventures
  • Return of the Witches
  • Masquerade
  • The Champion
  • The Entertainer

  • Attack of the Daleks
  • Pursued by the Trods
  • The Time Museum
  • The Electrodes
  • Death Race
  • Test Flight

  • Land of the Blind

  • Bringer of Darkness

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:
 v  d  e The Doctors
First Doctor (William Hartnell) | Second Doctor (Patrick Troughton)
Third Doctor (Jon Pertwee) | Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker)
Fifth Doctor (Peter Davison) | Sixth Doctor (Colin Baker)
Seventh Doctor (Sylvester McCoy) | Eighth Doctor (Paul McGann)
Ninth Doctor (Christopher Eccleston) | Tenth Doctor (David Tennant)
Other Doctors
Cushing Doctor (Peter Cushing) | Shalka Doctor (Richard E. Grant)
 v  d  e Companions of the Second Doctor
←Season 4 Season 5 Season 6
030 031 032 033 034 035 036 037 038 039 040 041 042 043 044 045 046 047 048 049 050
Ben Victoria Zoe
Polly
Jamie
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