"Better a fallen rocket than never a burst of light."
~ Tom Stoppard, The Invention of Love

Sunday, October 13, 2019

Favorite Characters: The Second Doctor (Doctor Who)


Hands down, my favorite classic-series Doctor by a mile (sorry, Four – I love you, but Two has my heart.)  I’ve long thought that, while William Hartnell and the rest of the original cast and creative team deserve a huge amount of credit for Doctor Who’s longevity, there’s no way the show would be where it is today without Patrick Troughton’s performance as the Second Doctor.

It was an incredible task:  convince the audience, who’s grown immensely attached to the Doctor, that despite having never brought it up before, he has the ability to regenerate into a new actor, and that new actor is 100% still the Doctor, even though he looks nothing like him and really doesn’t act much like him.  If people hadn’t been able to accept Two as the Doctor, the show would’ve gone the way of the dodo and might be remembered as a creative little it-was-fun-while-it-lasted sci-fi curiosity rather than the British TV institution it’s become.  Regeneration was the key for the show to 1) outlive the contract of any one valuable actor and 2) take the story in new directions by reconfiguring the personality of its protagonist.  It couldn’t have lasted a fraction as long as it has without it.  But it was a huge gamble, and those dice were rolled on a funny little cosmic hobo in 1966.

From his earliest moments, Two is massively different than One.  He’s kookier, warmer, and less self-important.  In a way, he’s the start of many of the traits I associate with the Doctor today – absolutely a hero and undoubtedly a genius, but such an odd, unlikely one that frequently comes out of nowhere and has people gawking at his eccentricities as he impossibly saves the day.  I don’t want to take away from One’s characterization, because as I’ve said, I’ve come to appreciate him a lot more (especially since getting to know Twelve,) but for me, Two is kind of the blueprint for the Doctor as we know them today.  His offbeat sensibilities echo most clearly in fan favorites like Four, Ten, and Eleven, who all take that aura and run with it, but you can see his influence in nearly every Doctor (except maybe Six, who I maintain is mostly just a chore.)

So, so much to love in Two.  His sly, borderline-smartmouth way of dealing with authority figures he doesn’t like.  His inability to leave an intellectual loose thread hanging because he has such a drive to know.  His rather immature sense of fun, at times leading his companions to roll their eyes at him as he makes plans for building sandcastles.  His forcefulness in the face of cruel enemies, a scarecrow standing up to a hurricane.  His gentleness and care in dealing with those who have suffered.  His outpouring of affection – sometimes teasing, sometimes admiring, sometimes dear – for his companions.  His endless readiness to go tearing down corridors as he’s being chased by some monster or another.

An intriguing aspect here is the fact that Troughton (and his comic partner in crime, Fraser Hines as Jamie) was well-known for sneaking in jokes and little bits of comic business, most of which he knew would end up on air because the show’s budget was too small to do many cuts.  It makes me wonder how much of that Doctory humor we’ve all come to know and love is rooted, not in the scripts, but in the second actor play the Doctor.  How many of those little traces of Two that we find in contemporary Doctors have Troughton to thank for their presence?  I don’t know nearly enough on the subject to answer definitively, but it makes me value both Two and Troughton even more.

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