Netflix
finally sent me Patrick Troughton’s Lost
in Time collection of “orphan episodes” so I could incorporate them into my
listening of the Second Doctor lost episode audios. All in all, I did a lot of “Stupid BBC!”
fist-shaking, because there’s a ton a creative storytelling on display here and
Patrick Troughton was so fantastically wonderful as Two. Still, I’m glad I have a means of enjoying
these stories at all. My favorites are
as follows.
“The Power of the Daleks” (Series 4, Episodes
8-14)
– Sigh… When will people learn that the Daleks are always running the game, even when they’re pretending to be helpful
and submissive? Silly humans. The real draw here is that it’s Two’s first
serial, and we get him in all his Two-ish glory. I imagine ‘60s viewers experiencing their
first regeneration probably felt a lot like Ben and Polly – confused and
suspicious at first, but soon won over.
I love Two testing the capabilities of his new body, the recorder
(obviously!), and the DIY precursor to the sonic screwdriver.
“The Macra Terror” (Series 4, Episodes 27-30) – Oh my gosh, this
story is so insane and creepy and awesome – I love it. It has overly-cheerful dystopian citizens
singing unsettlingly-cheerful jingles, team TARDIS (the Doctor, Ben, Polly, and
Jamie) visiting an alien spa that of
course turns out to be evil, and hyper-intelligent giant crabs playing the
men behind the curtain. I love it so
much!
“The Faceless Ones” (Series 4, Episodes
31-36)
– I’m glad to have finally listened to the lost Ben, Polly, and Jamie stories, ‘cause
there’s some really good stuff here. Ben
and Polly’s farewell tale finds our heroes investigating a shady touring
company – that, naturally, happens to be run by aliens – at Gatwick Airport. We get the TARDIS materializing on an
airstrip, frozen people in packing crates, and Jamie’s famous description of an
airplane as a “flying beastie.”
“Fury from the Deep” (Series 5, Episodes
29-34)
– Another goodbye story, Victoria’s this time.
Okay, so the resolution to the alien plot is pretty silly, and
malevolent alien seaweed as a general rule isn’t going to crack anyone’s Top
Baddies list, but there’s a nice base-under-siege vibe and some super-creepy possessed people going
around being creepy. Victoria’s exit
feels earned, and her goodbyes to the Doctor and Jamie are lovely.
“The Wheel in Space” (Series 5, Episode 35-40) – I love Two-era Cybermen, and this is a fine story for them, as they manipulate the inhabitants of a space station into bringing them aboard for shifty Cybermen purposes. Our introduction to Zoe is great – I like that we get some background on her genius status and her position as a glorified human computer. She and Jamie exchange some delightful snark right off the bat, and the Doctor’s connection with Gemma, the station’s physician, is fantastic. And I’m really happy that the last episode is one of the two that survive, so we can have the hilarious sight of Frazer Hines and Wendy Padbury flailing around on wires for Jamie and Zoe’s “spacewalk.”
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