Discussing the Second Doctor

“While you have been content merely to observe the evil in the galaxy I have been fighting against it!”

Back in my discussion of the First Doctor I talked about the two types of characters, dramatic and iconic. Dramatic characters are those on a journey, while iconic characters never really change, it’s just the situations around them that alter. To me the Second Doctor is iconic, in every meaning of that word and I’m not just saying that because Patrick Troughton is my favourite Doctor, period. To me the Second Doctor is the quintessential Doctor, the pure distillation of everything I love about this character. If the First Doctor was setting the foundation for the hero to come, then the Second Doctor is the frame on which every future incarnation will build, so let’s talk about that.

Unlike his prior incarnation, the Second Doctor is someone who will always rush towards danger, forever curious and willing to stick his nose in wherever he feels like it. When this Doctor lands on a planet and notices that something is off, his immediate reaction is to start poking and prodding around until he figures out what’s going on. Take his very first story, ‘The Power of the Daleks’, as an example. The Doctor has just regenerated, he’s aloof and seemingly a little scatter-brained, but after witnessing a murder and getting struck in the back of the head, his primary goal is finding out what is happening in this colony, and he doesn’t even know about the Daleks yet. So many of the First Doctor’s stories are about him and his companions being separated from the TARDIS and going on adventures to get back to it, but that’s hardly ever a concern for this Doctor. As he’ll argue to the Time Lords later, he’s made it his business to fight the evil in the universe.

One of my favourite interactions on this topic is in the ‘The Ice Warriors’, where the Doctor notices something wrong with the pitch of a computer and his companions, Victoria and Jamie, are immediately concerned.

“Oh no. Now look it might be dangerous. Now let’s leave it.”

“No.”

“Doctor.”

“Let’s go in.”

It just so perfectly sums up this Doctor’s attitude, there he is grinning liking a mischievous schoolboy and walking straight in despite the potential danger. His companions meanwhile follow along behind him, either exchanging worried glances or just rolling their eyes as they’ve come to accept the inevitable.

Now I mentioned that the Doctor was aloof back when he first regenerated and I feel like that’s an aspect of the Second Doctor that doesn’t get talked about enough. He’s the reverse of the First Doctor in a lot of ways. The First Doctor liked to display himself as serious and intellectual, but was really just a giddy kid underneath it all. The Second Doctor acts like a goofy uncle most of the time, but so much of that is just a mask for his keen razor-sharp intellect. The Seventh Doctor is often called the chess master, but I feel that moniker suits the Second Doctor as well. He’ll play the fool and bumble around, but he’s always watching everyone, studying their reactions and moving everything he needs into place without anyone noticing. As he says to Klieg in ‘Tomb of the Cybermen’.

“Oh I used my own special technique.”

“Oh really Doctor and may we know what that is?”

“Keeping my eyes open and my mouth shut.”

Not that this way of operating doesn’t backfire on the Doctor a lot of the time. Playing the fool is all well and good for lulling your opponents into a false sense of security, but it does make it hard for people to take you seriously when you really need them to. So many stories in this era have the Doctor really having to work to gain the trust of authority figures when he’s trying to warn them of the impending doom. Going back to ‘The Power of the Daleks’, would the Governor really have been so quick to dismiss the Doctor’s warnings about the Daleks if he’d had more of an air of authority himself? If it had been the Third, Fourth or Sixth Doctors who strutted in would someone have listened? Just because I regard the Second Doctor as the quintessential Doctor doesn’t mean he doesn’t still have things to learn.

One last thing I want to talk about with this Doctor is his emotional growth. To compare him with his predecessor once again, this is a much more mature and emotionally healthy Doctor. The First Doctor struggled with the departures of his companions early on, either having to do it entirely on his own terms or refusing to look back at them. The Second Doctor on the other hand is very present and open when his companions decide to leave, shaking their hand and wishing them all the best.

To me Victoria gets one of the best companion exits in ‘Fury From the Deep’, showing signs of her struggle throughout the story and the Doctor picks up on that. He even goes so far as to decide to stick around for an extra day after the adventure is over just to give Victoria some more time to think about it and he ensures she has some place safe to be if she decides to stay. There’s no pressure, there’s no distancing, the Doctor is 100% willing to go along with whatever Victoria decides and while Jamie is far more visibly upset by her choice, the Doctor does quietly admit that he’s going to miss her too. It’s a far cry from locking Susan out of the TARDIS and removing all of her agency from a monumental decision.

I’ve said it a couple of times now, but I’ll say it again. To me Patrick Troughton’s Doctor is the quintessential Doctor. From the moment he first steps out of the TARDIS the hero that we will know and love for the decades to come is right there, fully formed. There’s still a few things to learn and mistakes to grow from, but the core tenants of their personality are firmly in place. Curious to a fault, always willing to lend a helping hand and, despite the propensity for running, forever ready to fight the evil of the universe. They’re a hero, an explorer and a good friend.

I’m Chris Joynson, aka Neverarguewithafish, I’m a writer and blogger and if you want to chat with me you can find me on twitter @ChrisGJoynson. See you out there in the vortex.