In the second season some interesting developments occurred, and some very nice stories were broadcast. Unlike today, when a season would last a couple of months and then no Doctor Who for most of another year, in the 1960s it was close to a year-round broadcast schedule. So when the first season ended with Reign of Terror which finished up on September 12, 1964, the first show of the second season, Planet of Giants, aired on October 31, 1964. So there was a small break in the schedule, but only a few weeks.
Also I want to remind everyone that many episodes from these early stories are missing. The BBC, in a badly conceived cost-cutting move, reused the videotape from many, and discarded all copies they had from other stories, leaving gaps. Collectors have produced a few, but some that were found in 2024 are still in private hands because the owner is reluctant to return them to the BBC. But at the time of writing there are 97 episodes still missing for the First Doctor, William Hartnell, and the Second Doctor, Patrick Troughton, and that is out of a total of 254 episodes produced. For the missing episodes I have used the reconstructions from projects like Loose Cannon.
Planet of Giants
This story was actually filmed during the production block for the first season, but held over to the second season. It was originally 4 episodes, but after the shooting was done the producers decided it was dragging, so they edited the footage down to 3 episodes. The main gimmick here is that somehow the TARDIS, moving from Revolutionary France to modern London, has malfunctioned in such a way that it, and everyone inside, has shrunk to the size of insects (literally). And somehow they materialize in the yard of an evil business man who kills a government scientist to protect his investment in an insecticide. The attraction of this story lies in how these tiny people come up with ways to cope while trying to both stay alive and bring justice to the bad guy. In the days before CGI this was probably pretty exciting since it was done with trick photography.
The Dalek Invasion of Earth
The Daleks had become a bit of a sensation on their introduction in story #2, and would prove to be the most successful and enduring of all the Doctor’s opponents. In this story, the TARDIS materializes back on Earth, and in London, but this time it is the 22nd century, and things are just wrong. It turns out the Daleks had found a way to invade the Earth, and enslave or kill all of the inhabitants save a few resistance fighters. Our four travelers soon join up with the resistance and eventually dispatch all of the Daleks, and leave the humans to rebuild their planet. Only not all of them. The Doctor’s grand-daughter, Susan, has fallen for one of those resistance fighters and stays behind to share the life of the man she has come to love. Behind the scenes, Carole Ann Ford felt that all she was doing was screaming and getting rescued, and wanted to do more challenging roles than Doctor Who could ever provide her, so she elected to leave the show, somewhat to the consternation of William Hartnell, who could not imagine why anyone would leave a successful production. But Carole Ann Ford, despite her appearance, was not a young teenager, she was married and had a child at the time of this show. She just looked like a teenager. So this story marks the first of many times in the show’s history that a principle character would leave. It also marked one of the first times the show did extensive outdoor location shooting, rather than using studio trickery to imitate locations.
The Rescue
This two-part episode was primarily written as a vehicle to introduce the replacement for Carole Ann Ford, a young lady named Vicki, played by Maureen O’Brien. Apparently Verity Lambert and the BBC thought it very important that there be a young girl in the cast that the kids could “identify” with. The story is set in the 26th century, so she observes that Ian and Barbara must be 550 years old! To which they smile and agree that in some sense that is true. The plot is not outstanding, but has its moments of charm. Note that in the credits for the first part of this two-parter, a certain “Sidney Wilson” is credited for being the alien creature, Koquillion. This is made-up fiction, using the names of Sydney Newman and Donald Wilson, two BBC department heads associated with the show. Why would they do that instead of using the real actor’s name? Part 2 would explain that. The development of this story has Vicki become an orphan, which helps for getting her on the TARDIS.
The Romans
This is another historical story, with the TARDIS landing near Rome. The group initially finds an abandoned villa and become squatters, but soon the Doctor takes Vicki and heads for Rome. But along the way he finds a body in the bushes, and is then mistaken for the dead man and taken to meet the Emperor, who of course is Nero, though nothing like the actual historical Nero. Still, the violence and savagery of Rome is not sugar-coated at all. Meanwhile, Ian and Barbara get captured by slave traders, and are taken to Rome to be sold. Of course, Barbara becomes a slave to Nero’s wife, and Ian is sold to be a gladiator. They all wind up around Nero, but somehow the Doctor and Vicki never meet up with Ian and Barbara until after they all escape and get back to that still-abandoned villa. This is the kind of story that you can nit-pick some details, such as the portrayal of Nero, but on the whole it does an admirable job of displaying Rome’s serious issues such as poisonings, slavery, and violence.
The other thing this story demonstrates is humor. It is just a fun watch. One example is Hartnell’s scene where he does a variation on “The Emperor’s New Clothes” and plays (so to speak) a tune on the lyre that is so refined that only the most discerning listener can hear it. Of course, he is not playing anything at all, but no one will admit they can’t hear anything. And Nero chasing Barbara around in the palace is pretty standard, but still fun. This is a story where you can see Hartnell really digging in to his role of The Doctor.
The Web Planet
Having just done an historical story, it is of course time for a science fiction story to balance it out. In this case, you can either decide to make fun of it for being cheesy, or just go with it and realize it is in fact a nice story. This planet, Vortis, has several insectoid races. One is the ant-like Zarbi, who are controlled by an evil being called The Animus, which lives in a gradually spreading web city. The other, the Menoptera, are supposed to be like butterflies, but look more like bees with butterfly wings attached. Then later on they find an underground race, the Optera, who are descended from the Menoptera, but are hostile to anyone from the surface. What may be harder to appreciate today is that for its time this was a very radical concept to have a planet populated entirely by insectoid races. Sure, the special effects budget was so small that the costumes are cheesy, but I admire the fact that they dared to think big. This is a classic story from the early days.
What you always have to keep in mind with these early stories is that the budget was tiny. When they started out the budget per episode was 2,500 pounds. And that was for everything: salaries, props, costumes,locations, filming, and the whole works. And one of those expenses was for writers, and they had some good ones. These days we can watch a TV episode that costs $1,000,000 and not think twice about it. Doctor Who always prioritized getting good stories, and when you watch the old shows you always need to be looking at the story, not the special effects.
The Crusade
And after a classic science fiction story, back to an historical story. This takes place during the Third Crusade, pitting the Europeans led by Richard the Lion-Hearted against the Arabs led by Saladin. Julian Glover plays Richard, and is suitably kingly. His sister, Princess Joanna, is played by Jean Marsh, who would appear again in The Daleks’ Master Plan. Barbara is captured by the Arabs, and is destined for harem life. Ian has to rescue her, and is suitably heroic. The Arabs are little hokey, and some are evil and some are good. The story was written by David Whitaker, who had been the show’s story editor during the first season, and was directed by Douglas Camfield, who is highly regarded as one of the best director’s of The Doctor’s early years