For any of you who read this blog, you probably know I am a huge Doctor Who fan, and of late have grown to love Patrick Troughton’s second Doctor as my second favorite (after my first Doctor, the Fourth Doctor, Tom Baker), and having exhausted all the available videos of the second Doctor, have delved into his missing episodes. For those of you who don’t know the story, in the early 1970′s the BBC in it’s infinite wisdom decided to destroy much of it’s archive to save space, and many episodes of the first, second and third Doctor were destroyed, with the second doctor taking the brunt of the damage (all of the 3rd’s exist, though some are no longer in color) and only clips exist of many, and only stills of others, but all the audio has been preserved, mostly through the recordings of fans at the times. The BBC has taken these audio recordings of missing episodes, and gotten one of the companions to come in and record the narration, so you can tell what is going on in between dialogue, in this case they got Anneke Wills who played the companion Polly. These are in fact really successful, and even in some cases serve to enhance the story if the sets were not quite up to snuff (though of course we would all love to have the missing episodes instead). This is the first appearance of the Second Doctor, and a rip roaring Dalek adventure, that is a must listen for any Doctor Who fans out there! I love the quirkiness of the second Doctor, which is so different than William Hartnells doctor, and has been describes as a kind of Cosmic Hobo, which I think is pretty fitting.

The first Doctor (William Hartnell) having fallen to the ground after being radiation poisoned regenerates into the Second Doctor (Patrick Troughton). Polly (Anneke Wills) seems to accept this strange, recorder obsessed man as the Doctor, but Ben Jackson (Michael Craze) is not quite so accepting. The TARDIS ends up landing on the planet Vulcan in a strange swamp, and they go out to investigate, where they watch an Earth Examiner get murdered. The Doctor takes the man’s identification and badge, and then head toward the human colony on the planet, where the Doctor poses as the Examiner to gain access. They are found by Bragen (Bernard Archard) and his security team and brought to the colony. There is currently a rebellion going on at the colony, though the Governor does not think it significant, though the good Deputy Governor Quinn (Nicholas Hawtrey) does, but Bragen is out to get him and has him locked up. The Doctor meets the scientist Lesterson (Tobert James) and his assistant the lovely Janley (Pamela Ann Davy) who are experimenting on a capsule that crashed before the colony was established. The Doctor uses a strange piece of metal he got out of his trunk on the Tardis, and opens it revealing 2 Daleks, and the place of a third, but the third is missing, though he and his companions do see a strange creature scurry away. The Doctors attempts to convince Lesterson and the Governor to destroy the Daleks, but the Governor overrules him, and orders Lesterson to try and revive them, without knowing how dangerous they are!

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

Lesterson has the 3rd Dalek and with Janley and his helper Resno (Edward Kelsey) they manage to re-activate it, though it shoots Resno and kills him. Janley pretends he was only wounded though, to get leverage on Lesterson, and disposes of the body herself. And they remove the gunstick from the Dalek.

The communications module has been destroyed, and Quin is accused of doing it, and jailed, though in fact he contacted Earth to have the Examiner sent, so he obviously did not do it, but Bragen is given Quinn’s job, which is exactly what he wanted. Lesterson brings the Dalek to the trial, and it recognizes the Doctor, and the Doctor knows they are in a huge amount of trouble, but no one will listen to him.

Lesterson activates the other 2 Daleks, and they all claim to be servants of the humans.

The Doctor realizes he has seen more that 3 Daleks, so he knows they must be making more of themselves, but no one will listen, and the Doctor, Polly and Ben are locked up next to Quinn. The Doctor manages to open the cell by using water in a wine glass, since it uses a sonic key.

Lesterson goes into the capsule and realizes the Daleks are manufacturing themselves, seeing it for himself, and they are against the colony, and loses it, but can do nothing. He watches mutants put into new Dalek bodies, and these with weapons.

Meanwhile it turns out that Bragen and Janley are running the revolution just so that Bragen can take power from the governor, which he does, killing the Governor, but the Daleks attack and take out the colony security, and many people. Bragen is killed by the head of the resistance Valmar (Richard Kane), and the Doctor manages to short circuit the colony power and the static electricity it is making, thus shorting out the Daleks (and the whole colonies power).

Quin is made Governor, and the Doctor, Ben and Polly quickly sneak away.

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Quite an amazing opening to the adventures of the 2nd Doctor. I love how quirky he is, but still so smart and in control. SUch a great doctor, it is such a shame these episodes are almost completely missing, as the Dalek manufacturing process would be amazing to see in more than still form.