Okay, so I am going to admit my bias right up front: Patrick Troughton is my favorite Doctor, hands down. I can certainly understand when someone picks Tom Baker (or David Tennant, depending on their age), there is a strong argument to be made for either. But it was Patrick Troughton who invented the Doctor as we know him today. William Hartnell was a proto-Doctor, a waspish prick at the end of his first life who spent most of his time imperiously bossing people around with wild arrogance. With the Second Doctor we finally see the mirthful genius who can effortlessly glide between clownishness and terrifying resolve. He set the template for every Doctor to follow, and it is his performance that energized and rejuvenated the show.

Let's talk about that.

The Power of the Daleks - Episodes 1 & 2

(TARDIS Data Core recap)

Of course, the real tragedy of Patrick Troughton's Doctor is that his is the era hardest hit by the unfortunate purge of the BBC archives. Out of 21 stories, only 7 still exist in their entirety.  Four years ago that number was only 6, until (amazingly) a complete copy of all of the missing episodes of The Enemy of the World was found in 2013. Last year, for the 50th anniversary of this pivotal story, all of The Power of the Daleks was reconstructed with exhaustively researched animation. It was released in both color and black & white versions, of which I am currently watching the b&w edition out of deference to the original broadcast version. I may go back and re-watch the color version, but not for this project.

In any case, the first episode largely deals with Ben and Polly's confusion over the Doctor's sudden complete change in form. Their uneasiness is not helped by the fact that the Doctor behaves bizarrely and erratically, frequently referring to himself in the third person as he rummages through old keepsakes and diaries. Eventually he decides to go for a walk outside the TARDIS, which is when the story proper gets rolling. They have arrived near an Earth colony on the planet Vulcan, and of course there are nefarious things afoot. Murder, political unrest, plots and counter plots, and against it all a scientist who has found a mysterious space capsule that is hundreds of years old. I am sure you won't be surprised to learn that it contains Daleks. The cool thing is, for the first time in the history of the show we get a clear and unobstructed view of an actual Dalek in all its blobby and multi-tentacled glory as it skitters across a floor. Good stuff!

As for the second episode, have you ever seen the Ninth Doctor story Dalek? Well, that one was either "inspired by" or "completely ripped off from" this story, depending on how generously you feel towards the writer. The thrust of the story has a scientist working in secret to revive a Dalek, with no knowledge of what the Daleks are or how deadly they can be. It's all there - the inability to open the case, the hooking up of a power source to revive it, the death of a lab assistant when the Dalek powers up enough to use its gun...  No joke, 2005's Dalek was cribbed wholesale from this episode. Even worse (for the modern series), 2010's Victory of the Daleks lifted from the ending of the episode, in which the Doctor is pleading with all present to destroy the Dalek while they can, while the Dalek proclaims, "I am your servant!" It was a shocking moment the first time it happened in 1966. I am sure the modern series writers would prefer the word "homage" over "plagiarized", but there you have it. Roll credits.

This is the first Dalek story not to be written by Terry Nation, and also the first story to use the "...of the Daleks" pattern in the title. Surprisingly, as sick to death as I am of the Daleks, I am enjoying this one quite a bit. Possibly because so far in the first hour of the story there has only been two inert Daleks, one partially activated Dalek, and one skittering tentacled blob of a Dalek outside its pepperpot tank. I have no doubt that will change rapidly.

I wonder if the animators replicated the artificiality of the obvious cardboard cutout background Daleks in the upcoming episodes? I hope so...

STATS:

Doctor(s): Second
Companion(s): Ben Jackson, Polly Wright
Episode(s): The Power of the Daleks - Episodes 1 & 2
Steps Walked: 6,901 today, 467,486 total
Distance Walked:  3.48 miles today, 219.79 miles total
Weight: 285.88 lbs (five day moving average), net change -21.42 lbs