Top Five Stories: The Second Doctor

Two is undoubtedly my favorite classic Doctor.  I just adore the little cosmic hobo – he’s wonderful and funny and Doctory and has fantastic companions.  It’s insane that so many of his stories were scrapped.  Yet, even though I’ve recently started listening to audios of the lost episodes, I’m not including them here.  To be honest, it was hard enough narrowing down the seven serials I’ve seen; the audios might need their own separate post later.  Despite Two’s limited extant episodes, there’s still too much to love!
 

“The Mind Robber” (Series 6, Episodes 6-10)

 

This is just a delightfully creative serial.  The Doctor, Jamie, and Zoe find themselves flung out of our reality into the Land of Fiction, where the trees form words and storybook characters and monsters alike make their home.  Zoe kicks some serious butt, and it takes the Doctor two tries to put Jamie’s face together – love it.

 

“The War Games” (Series 6, Episodes 35-44)

 

Two’s last story has another remarkably original premise.  What seems at first to be a World War I battlefield soon proves far more complicated, what with all the British redcoats, Confederate soldiers, and Roman centurions running around.  Plus, we get our first look at the Time Lords!  The Doctor, Jamie, and Zoe are all fantastic, and the final moments are heartbreaking.

 

“The Invasion” (Series 6, Episodes 11-18)

 

This almost-complete serial (filled in with two animated episodes) is an awfully nice Cyberman yarn.  We get an early Brigadier appearance as vintage Cybermen terrorize London.  While the Doctor and Jamie get amusingly captured, Zoe is all kinds of amazing – she wears a fabulous boa and blows up a computer with her words.  Really, though, this is one of my favorites because, at the start of the story, a cloaked TARDIS is left invisible in a cow field, all so we can have the incredible visual of our intrepid heroes groping around trying to find it at the end.  So much love.

 

“The Tomb of the Cybermen” (Series 5, Episode 1-4)

 

The sole story I’ve seen with Victoria.  While I love Zoe more, Victoria’s no slouch, and she works well with the Doctor and Jamie.  There are low-budget Cybermats, an amazing frozen Cyber-hive, cool Cyber-hieroglyphics, and one awesomely terrible Cyber-pun.  The Doctor mocks Jamie’s kilt, has a lovely conversation with Victoria about his family, and accidentally opens the door to a Cyber-tomb because he just can’t help solving puzzles.  What’s not to love?

 

“The Dominators” (Series 6, Episodes 1-5)

 

Okay, so the plot is a bog-standard “team TARDIS saves a race from a group of robot-wielding oppressors,” but that’s not important.  What’s important is Zoe grumbling about the ugly local clothes she has to wear, the Doctor playing stupid to stay under the radar, and Jamie bending the heavens to get back to his friends.  Also, the sonic screwdriver is actually used on screws!