 |
| Three Time Lords |
|
 After the highs of the previous season, this season is seen by many to be rather a let-down. Season Five is renowned for its more futuristic and alien invasion storylines with many classic monsters attempting to invade Earth. Season Six, in contrast, sees the return of only two previously seen monsters; the Cybermen and the Ice Warriors. The remaining stories all take place on alien worlds or, in the case of "The Space Pirates", in outer space or, in the case of "The Mind Robber", in the Land of Fiction.
Very few episodes and only one complete story exists in the previous seasons for the Second Doctor. Ironically this is not the case for this, less popular season. Only two stories, out of the seven made, are incomplete and of these the eight-part "The Invasion" only has two episodes missing and the other story, "The Space Pirates", all but one episode is missing. As this story is considered to be rather lacklustre the fact that the majority of this story is missing is not considered to be a huge loss by many fans.
However, few seasons before or since have been as important as Season Six. With viewing figures declining and the increased sentiment at the time that Doctor Who had past its prime, it was clear that, once again, the series needed to be revamped. The introduction of UNIT, along with the need to have more recurring Earth-based stories, was to enable a cut-back on the more expensive futuristic storylines. Furthermore, it was finally decided to reveal more about The Doctor's past. And so in "The War Games", a visit was made to The Doctor's (then unnamed) home planet and the truth was revealed about him being a Time Lord and his flight from that culture. This was the beginning of finally explaining who The Doctor is, where he comes from and why he gets so involved in the affairs of others. Facts that had so far been lacking in the show. As history has shown this was the beginning of a trend that will continue in the next season and beyond.
Behind the scenes Peter Bryant's role as Producer gradually decreased over the course of this season, and Script Editor Derrick Sherwin officially replaced him in the final story, having already assumed many of Peter Bryant's responsibilities. Meanwhile, Terrance Dicks was introduced into the team as the new Script Editor - a position he would occupy for longer than anyone else – thus marking the start of an association with the show that continues to this day.
This season though is more renowned for being the last for the Second Doctor. Patrick Troughton, who was wary of typecasting, had elected to leave the show. Frazer Hines (who had appeared in 113 episodes - more than any other companion) also decided to leave. This prompted Wendy Padbury to also leave the show. Therefore the entire regular cast departed at the same time – the first and, so far, only time this has occurred in the show. The only characters that would remain would be key members of UNIT – namely The Brigadier and Sergeant Benton.
With the lead role about to be played by Jon Pertwee - an actor more famous for playing comedy roles - and huge changes in the way the show is made this truly was the end of an era. Doctor Who was about to enter the Wonderful World of Colour and so would never be the same again…
|
|
 |
| I'm a genius! |
|
Unlike the previous two seasons for the Second Doctor there are more complete stories remaining in the archives for Season Six. From these two are worthy of a mention, along with one of the two incomplete stories – thankfully the majority of which is still held and, for the DVD release, has the two missing episodes cleverly replaced with a superb animation. We are of course talking about "The Invasion".
In this story The Doctor, Jamie McCrimmon and Zoe Heriot have to face once again the Cybermen. To defeat them they have the help of the newly-formed United Nations Intelligence Taskforce (UNIT), led by their old friend Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart - now promoted to Brigadier. This story has the addition of a fantastic villain in the form of Tobias Vaughn - a businessman gone bad. He has been conspiring with the Cybermen and has become partially cybernised himself. Tobias Vaughn is assisting the Cybermen in their plans to take over the Earth. But in fact he has plans of world domination himself. Only The Doctor it seems can stop him... but as it is soon to be discovered the Cybermen have already arrived and a whole Cyber-army is massed in the sewers under London – waiting patiently for the signal to take over the capital. And when it comes we witness the classic scenes of the Cybermen leaving the sewers and marching down the streets of London. With the population incapacitated they meet no resistance until they are confronted by UNIT soldiers. Let battle commence…
In "The Seeds of Death" we have the welcome return of the Ice Warriors. They have taken over a matter teleportation system operated from the moon called T-Mat which they intend to use to spread special seeds over the planet which will alter the Earth's climate so as to turn the Earth into a new Mars. This is a well thought out story but the best part and what must be considered as the most unexpected scene ever is where The Doctor is cornered by a couple of Ice Warriors, and he announces to them 'Your leader will be angry if you kill me; I'm a genius!' to prevent them shooting him. And it works!
The final story of the season is seen as a true classic. "The War Games" sees The Doctor, Jamie and Zoe believing that the TARDIS has brought them back to Earth, albeit in the midst of World War One. But it soon becomes apparent to them that this is not the case when they discover that a race of aliens has been kidnapping soldiers from various points in the Earth's history with the intention of using them to form the greatest army the universe has ever seen. At the helm of this plot is The War Chief, a renegade like The Doctor. It is though in the final episode that the plot suddenly changes when The Doctor is forced to return to his home planet and to face his own kind – The Time Lords. He is put on trial for interfering with others – a trial that ends in a forced regeneration...
|
|
 |
| The Brigadier |
|
There have been a number of high points; namely the first appearance of the Time Lords ("The War Games"), the return of the Ice Warriors ("The Seeds of Death") and the fifth appearance of the Cybermen ("The Invasion") – the later of which also heralds the first story for the newly-formed United Nations Intelligence Taskforce (UNIT), led by The Brigadier.
In the "The Seeds of Death" we see for the first time the concept of a caste system within Martian society. There are two distinct (unnamed on screen) classes of Martians; the Ice Warriors, which were previously seen in the 1967 story "The Ice Warriors", and the Ice Lords. This story is also seen by many to be the best Ice Warrior story of the four made - so much so this story has the accolade as being the first, other than a Fourth Doctor, story to be released by the BBC on video.
The final episode, of the ten-part story "The War Games", one could argue could be classed as either a highest point of the season or its lowest. This story has the lowest viewing figures for Season Six – but the number of viewers declined for all the stories during the later half of the season. But in a Doctor Who Magazine poll in 2009, where readers were asked to vote for their favourite stories of the 200 made at that time, "The War Games" came out top for this season and the fifth overall for the Second Doctor. What makes this story special is the finale episode contains the very first visit to The Doctor’s home planet and the first appearance of members of The Doctor’s own race - the Time Lords. Both events that go down in the show’s history. This episode though ends with the Second Doctor’s forced regeneration – so ending Patrick Troughton’s era of the show. For many a sad event.
Putting the final episode of "The War Games" aside the truly low point of this season has to go to the penultimate story of the Second Doctor’s era - "The Space Pirates". If only the BBC had a bigger budget at the time it was recorded and the ability to use the more sophisticated visual effects that would become available later in the show, then this story could have been far better. As it is this story has been voted many times as one of the least liked. Not only for this season but for the whole programme.
|
|
|
|
(Position = 21 out of 31)
