The Three Doctors

At this point in this series of blogs, I recognize that I have lost all but the most loyal of fans of this show, so what can be said that is not already known by that particular segment of people? (Nothing) On the other hand, what can be said in the off chance that someone who has never seen this show is still interested in seeing some of the very early days of Doctor Who. Honestly, this blog entry is evidence of a need for completion of thought process more than a argument in favor of the first three incarnations of the Doctor. That is not to say they are not good, they all are in their own way. However, they are very much a product of their time, and that time is not often embraced by people used to today’s standards of television production.

That being said, here is a brief glimpse into each of the first three Doctor’s eras:

The 3rd Doctor

John Pertwee’s Doctor was very British and proper and old school. He was patronizing to his “assistants” and somewhat classist in that older English way. His era was an activist era. Ecology and politics were often the topic of the stories. Many a child of this era grew up to be liberal and idealistic. The top stories are probably “Inferno,” “The Green Death,” and “The Daemons.”

The 2nd Doctor

Patrick Troughton played the Doctor as a baffoon and a bumbler, but it was all an act that the character himself was putting on to keep his enemies off guard. Unfortunately, most of his stories were taped over by the BBC so they no longer exist. Those that do are still great, even by today’s standards. “The Mind Robber,” “The Invasion,” and “Tomb of the Cybermen” are all stand-outs.

The 1st Doctor

William Hartnell started the whole thing off. To be honest, nobody had any idea what they had or what they were doing when the show started. It just evolved over time. Had writer Terry Nation not stumbled on the idea of the Daleks the show would not have lasted more than a couple of years. “The Dalek Invasion of Earth” from the second season is still a great story and a good allegory for fascism and processing what Europe went through during WWII.