The Patrick Troughton Years

Before we move onto the next stage of our journey, it's time to look back on the Patrick Troughton era. Here are Hannah's scores:

10/10
The Power of the Daleks: "it's the dog's bollocks"
The Enemy of the World: "one of those stories that makes me really happy that we're doing this"
The Invasion: "that was excellent"
The War Games: "one of the best stories I've seen in the entire programme"

9/10
The Macra Terror: "I could probably give it a 10 if I actually saw it"
The Ice Warriors: "there could have been more snow"

8/10
The Evil of the Daleks: "it was very, very good, but it wasn't stunning for the full seven episodes"
The Abominable Snowmen: "the people that wrote this have a strange imagination"
The Web of Fear: "it's taking far too long to make any kind of sense"

7/10
The Highlanders: "I like this Doctor, a lot"
Fury from the Deep: "it's really hard to judge this one"
The Mind Robber: "that was a lot of fun"

6/10
The Moonbase: "kind of middling"
The Faceless Ones: "far-fetched and stupid"
The Wheel in Space: "the whole story is just nonsensical"
The Seeds of Death: "riddled with problems and stupid ideas"

5/10
The Dominators: "I like the story they were trying to tell, but not the one they actually told"
The Krotons: "I think its saving grace is that it's not longer"

4/10
The Underwater Menace: "what a pile of shite"
The Tomb of the Cybermen: "why is all of this so rubbish?"

3/10
The Space Pirates: "I don't even have enough interest in this story to criticise it strongly"


Me: First, the obvious question: do you prefer Troughton to Hartnell?
Hannah: Yes. Hartnell's a little bit too mean.
Me: I think maybe the word you're looking for is "austere".
Hannah: I'm not saying he's a bad character or a bad person; I'm just saying I prefer Troughton because I like the Doctors who are more fun, whereas Hartnell was more impatient and crotchety. I like the Troughton approach, it just feels friendlier.
Me: So how would you rank him against all the Doctors you've seen so far?
Hannah: (after some thought) I'd probably put him right at the top. I was actually on the phone to Kayleigh this morning and said I think I like him more than David Tennant.
Me: So you'd place him above all the modern Doctors?
Hannah: I like Tennant because of what he brought to the modern show, and I like Troughton for what he brings to old Who. It's hard to compare the two. I mean, I used to love Tennant but then I realised how much he isn't really a Doctor in comparison with all of the others, because he's a very human character and he does a lot of things that you shouldn't imagine the Doctor doing; I know they're all different, but you can only get so far away from the central character before it becomes a bit too far. I never thought I'd like another Doctor as much as I like Tennant, but seeing it now in a different light I don't really see that he's as interesting as Troughton. Tennant was entertaining, but he was just overly-emotional all the time.
Me: You gave four stories a perfect score: The Power of the Daleks, The Enemy of the World, The Invasion and The War Games. Which one is your favourite?
Hannah: The War Games, because I love a good back story.
Me: What will you remember most about Patrick Troughton?
Hannah: The Doctor's facial expressions; all the "oh dear" and looking really upset or disturbed by things, and getting exasperated when he's desperately trying to tell people what's best for them and can't get through to them. It's hard to remember a lot of his first series or so, because there's so much missing and my memories are visual. I remember him finding listening devices in fruit, and I remember him being a bit rude and ignoring people with his recorder. I love that scene where he gets the questions wrong in The Krotons. His personality is what I remember the most, and all his comedic bits, like holding hands with Jamie in The Tomb of the Cybermen when they go to take Victoria's hand and she's not there. I'm glad Jamie was there for pretty much all of his era, because I think they're my favourite duo. Even when there's someone else there, I think they're best together.
Me: If you could only re-watch one story, what would it be?
Hannah: The answer's probably going to be The War Games, because it's my favourite.
Me: Well, you say that, but during our William Hartnell retrospective you only gave one story a perfect score and then you chose The Web Planet instead.
Hannah: That's because the aliens are cute.
Me: Okay, so which Troughton story has the cutest aliens? The Underwater Menace?
Hannah: No. Maybe The Highlanders, because I want to see them meet Jamie again. And I want to see the Doctor dress up as a woman. And possibly The Macra Terror, because I liked the themes. But I also really love The War Games. I'd watch any of those again.
Me: We could re-watch The War Games in a single sitting if you like.
Hannah: Why? I don't actually want to watch any of them again. Well, I do, but I don't have time in my life to do that. I know The Space Pirates is the one I would burn horribly and wish it had never actually been recovered.
Me: Well, that's an interesting question. If you had to lose an existing story and watch it as a reconstruction, which one would it be?
Hannah: Urgh, that's not a question! Who would ask that question?
Me: Okay, say you had to lose an existing story to get back The Macra Terror.
Hannah: The Space Pirates.
Me: That's not an existing story.
Hannah: It's got one episode, hasn't it?
Me: How about a story with more than 50% remaining?
Hannah: (sighing) The Tomb of the Cybermen. I don't care about that. I wouldn't mind it going missing again if it meant we could do some kind of exchange to get something else back, as long as what we got back in return wasn't The Space Pirates. Imagine if we could do some kind of celestial deal, where we could exchange some missing episodes and swap them for different ones.
Me: If we could do that I wouldn't be giving them Doctor Who, I'd be telling them to burn Mrs Brown's Boys or Little Britain instead. Anyway, during the Hartnell retrospective I asked about your expectations of the Troughton era and you said that you didn't really have any, except that you didn't like his appearance. How has he matched up to those minimal expectations?
Hannah: Well, I started off not liking the Beatles haircut and the tatty clothes, and I thought he was going to be silly and unappealing, but I was judging purely on appearance and now I realise that the appearance suits his character completely. He's still a bit of an old gentleman, but very fun and lively at heart; a bit of a clown, and doesn't really care about his appearance because there are so many more important things to worry about. He spends his entire last story with a hole in his trousers, and it feels like it belongs there because he's an active Doctor and he gets knocked about a bit. You can't imagine such an active Doctor being primly-dressed.
Me: On that note, what are your expectations of Jon Pertwee?
Hannah: Again, I'm judging by appearance alone because I literally know nothing about what kind of Doctor he is, except that he goes around in an old Chitty Chitty Bang Bang jalopy, but he looks a bit strange. I don't like frilly shirts. He looks younger than Hartnell but older than Troughton, so I've got the vibe of someone who's going to do a bit of running around and getting into scrapes, but unfortunately looks like he's going to be slightly more boring in terms of how physical and lively he is. I'm assuming he's not going to be as physically active as Troughton.
Me: Are you looking forward to it? Or will you be too busy missing Troughton?
Hannah: I'm looking forward to it; there's always going to be things to enjoy, even if I'm missing someone. It's like when you lose a favourite companion and you have to carry on, and then you find another one; if you'd stopped watching you never would have known them, so there's no point holding on for too long. It's not like they're gone forever; I can always go back and watch them again. You know how I always get upset when I finish a book, and wish I could carry on because I'm so invested in it? I'll miss Troughton, but I am looking forward to seeing the changes they make. Does the Doctor keep the TARDIS while he's stranded on Earth, or do they scrap it? Do they eventually give him back the same TARDIS, or a different one? I assume he's going to be exiled for a while. I'm also curious as to whether he can finally steer the TARDIS after this. Do they fix his TARDIS, do they give him a new one, or do they not give him one at all and he has to steal a different one? I'm looking forward to seeing how things develop.
Me: We've finished the 1960s! How does it feel?
Hannah: No different. When the seventies started, there wasn't this great big axe coming down and replacing short skirts with flares; fashion didn't change overnight. I mean, how much of a shift was there from 1999 to 2000? We all wanted it to be some kind of great big new adventure, but it didn't really make a difference. I doubt that 1970 is going to be that much different to 1969.
Me: Well, we might come back to that later. The point is that we've watched a whole decade's worth of Doctor Who.
Hannah: It's exciting, but I'm more interested in percentages. How much of the whole series have we gotten through?
Me: We're going to reach the halfway point during the Pertwee era.
Hannah: So the first three Doctors have more episode than all the rest?
Me: They made a lot more episodes during the sixties; they were churning out around 45 per year, then it dropped to 26 in the seventies, and by the late eighties it was down to 14.
Hannah: That's sad. But at least the production values went up.
Me: Erm...
Hannah: To some extent?
Me: (silence)
Hannah: We'll see when we get there.

The William Hartnell Years

You didn't ask for it, but here it is anyway: before we embark on the next phase of our journey, it's time to look back on our adventures so far.

First, let's recap Hannah's scores:

10/10
The Savages: "I love that kind of sci-fi story"

9/10
The Daleks: "I don't see much room for improvement"
The Keys of Marinus: "I like the fact that it was a quest story"
The Aztecs: "a lot of this is very believable"
The Dalek Invasion of Earth: "an amazing story"
The Time Meddler: "I feel like I wanted more"
The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve: "this could have been a 10 out of 10"

8/10
Marco Polo: "not much to say, it's just a really good story"
The Romans: "the comedy grew on me"
The Ark: "I liked the twist"
The Gunfighters: "it's just the shit bits that I don't like"

7/10
The Chase: "so much weirdness and rubbishness that it doesn't flow properly"
The Myth Makers: "you say this is a comedy?"
The Daleks' Master Plan: "it wasn't awful"
The Celestial Toymaker: "I really do like the concept"
The War Machines: "it feels a little bit anticlimactic"

6/10
An Unearthly Child: "I didn't like it a huge amount"
The Sensorites: "I'm disappointed with the amazing potential they had"
The Reign of Terror: "the way that the story is told felt a bit rubbish"
The Web Planet: "it's like your child has made you a painting, but it's shit"
The Crusade: "it was interesting... no, it wasn't"
Galaxy 4: "it's just silly"
Mission to the Unknown: "it was interesting but it didn't feel quite right"
The Tenth Planet: "it's all a bit messy and clumsy"

5/10
Planet of Giants: "very middle-of-the-road"
The Rescue: "there's so much more they could have done"
The Space Museum: "it feels like the writer got bored"
The Smugglers: "I really wish it had been a better story"

3/10
The Edge of Destruction: "total crock of shit"


Me: So... will you miss William Hartnell?
Hannah: Yes. Of course I'll miss him. I liked his character; it was deep and complex with a general abundance of grandfatherly silly man, and then little pokey bits of Doctor came out. It was like a great big shell of somebody that I don't recognise, and then every now and again a little bit pokes out and says "I'm the Doctor, and I'm just like all the other Doctors that you already know." And then, over time, I realised that those weren't special bits; he obviously was the Doctor, the original, the first, and so those little bits sticking out were just a part of the whole.
Me: What memories stand out for you?
Hannah: His fluffs. Especially when they're funny. Any time that he stands up for something worthwhile. When he has a laugh with people. I can't think of any specifics.
Me: If you could only watch one story again, what would it be?
Hannah: I can't remember them all. Well, the one I gave 10 out of 10.
Me: The Savages?
Hannah: Actually no, it wasn't the most exciting story, it was just the best-done episode. The Menoptra one. The Web Planet.
Me: Really?! Why?
Hannah: Just to remind myself whether it really was as bad as... what did I give it?
Me: 6.
Hannah: Anything with aliens I really liked. So either the Menoptra or the Chumblies or something. Yeah, I think I'd watch The Web Planet, just to see those creatures again. I liked them as an alien species; the Menoptra and the Zarbi and the gun lice. They were fun. It's not my favourite, I just have an urge to see all the aliens again.
Me: How has the Hartnell era matched up to your expectations?
Hannah: Well, I knew that it would probably be nothing at all like new Who, and nothing at all like anything I would usually choose to watch, so I thought it would be a bit of a slog really. I thought the episodes would be interesting, but I knew all the pacing and the style would be slower and cheaper and less sophisticated than the stuff I usually watch. And I was right, but that didn't make it... less worthy of watching. I mean, I thought all those things would be bad things, but then I started watching it and realised that, no, in their own way they're amazing and I was wrong for judging it so harshly. Yes, it's a different style, but it's not a worse style; yes, it is slower in pace, but that just means that you can feel it more in-depth. Modern television goes past so quickly and then it's over, whereas this was designed to be somewhat educational, and being slower-paced does it no harm. And it took me a while to get used to it, but I've really, really enjoyed it. So, it was what I thought it would be, but I learned to love it.
Me: And what are your expectations of the Patrick Troughton era?
Hannah: Well... I know almost nothing. Old Who is all the same to me until I've seen it. The first three I just see as old men in black and white, and then Tom Baker's fun, and the others are just weird and I know very little about them.
Me: So you have no expectations?
Hannah: Not really, other than that I don't like his appearance. Just on a purely superficial level; I don't like him visually.
Me: Are you looking forward to it?
Hannah: Yes, because I know he's your favourite, and I want to finally share in something that you love so much.
Me: You already are.
Hannah: Yes, but if he's in your favourite part of the whole thing...
Me: I wouldn't say it's my favourite period of the series, just that he's my favourite Doctor. It doesn't mean they're my favourite stories; that would probably be the Matt Smith era.
Hannah: Well anyway, I want to meet the person that you like.
Me: Hopefully you'll like him as well.
Hannah: Maybe. I don't see why not.
Me: So you are looking forward to doing Patrick Troughton?
Hannah: Yes. I want to meet all of them and compare all of them. It's just that I'm going to miss Hartnell a lot, so it's going to be hard. I've just about gotten over Ian and Barbara, but this is maybe too much.
Me: This is what happens every time he changes, though. Every new Doctor. You have to get over the loss of the old one and learn to love the new one, just like with the modern series.
Hannah: Yes, I've had to do that before; I liked Eccleston much less when I realised that he could have been David Tennant all along. So I can get used to new Doctors.