Top Five Audio Serials: The Second Doctor

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.”