The Two Doctors

This is part of a series of reviews of Doctor Who in chronological timeline order.

Previous Story: The Mark of the Rani

This would be such a good story if it weren't so horrifically flawed. There's an underlying theme of eugenics throughout this story that really put me off, since it primarily came from a Second Doctor (who I assume to be post-War Games) I was originally willing to excuse it as some heavy Time Lord conditioning. Of course this is a retcon and doesn't change the content of this episode in anyway. Add that onto the fact that the Sixth Doctor reiterates most of these ideas later on in the story and it means you can't justify it in anyway. Even though this is technically regarding aliens, it still feels really icky and wildly out of character for either Doctor (and the Doctor in general).

Considering Robert Holmes wrote stories with 2 you'd think he'd be able to get it right. At the very least he does get the dialogue for Jamie and the Doctor down to a tee and their (minimal) interactions with the Sixth Doctor and Peri are really fun. Honestly I was willing to let most of this go until the third part. Not only is it so boring and largely irrelevant to the plot, it also features a scene where the Doctor is being pursued, finds a jar of cyanide, has enough time to soak some cotton wool in it, waits for his pursuer to ambush them by putting a butterfly net around their head and choking them with cyanide until they die. And then quips about it. One of quite a few needlessly gruesome, offensive or idiotic moments that plague what could otherwise be a fun adventure featuring beloved returning characters.

Next Story: Davros

I'm glad Patrick Troughton seemed to have fun doing this because I wasn't having fun watching it

There's a lot wrong with this serial starting primarily with the eugenics. Chessene is "fixed" - unlike others of her species she isn't violent, nor does she eat meat - which is initally presented as a good thing. Isn't it just great that we can take this awful beasts and make them functioning members of society (and also make them conventionally attractive too), the Two Doctors seems to say. This position is reversed by the end, finishing on a note of isn't it awful how some species are uniformly Bad and Evil and any attempt to change that is misguided at best, which isn't an improvement even a little bit

I also didn't like how they treated Peri (but then again, when do I ever. JNT be normal challenge failed miserable) nor Jamie (don't? make someone with an English accent insult the way he speaks?)

All in all, boring, long, and bad

The Two Doctors is an unusual Multi-Doctor story. It wasn't to celebrate an anniversary (NB: This is less unusual nowadays, with Twice Upon A Time having happened outside of an anniversary too), it doesn't feature a major catastrophe that brings the Doctors together and weirdly of all, it doesn't feature much Multi-Doctor action.

The latter is also its flaw. The lack of screen time with Colin Baker and Patrick Troughton onscreen together ultimately means Patrick Troughton's talents feel wasted. You've got two great actors: why not show them together more? They only interact together near the end of the story and the serial is comprised of three 45 minute episodes. 135 minutes and there's hardly any Patrick Troughton/Colin Baker interaction!

The Sontarans are ridiculously tall also. Somebody on the production team clearly missed the memo that they are supposed to be small. Sometimes this can be distracting to the story as you're wondering why, when the Sontarans are a clone race, two of them would be taller than others seen in the series.

The plot is interesting though. It sees the Sontarans try to take the symbiotic (that allows safe travel through time) from the 2nd Doctor, messing with his DNA and turning him into an Androgum. Meanwhile, Androgum Shockeye has a strange fetish for people and chases Peri (Nicola Bryant) around intending to cook her. Shockeye (John Stratton) is a great villain and one whom I wouldn't mind seeing return in the new series; he seems genuinely disturbing, especially the way he leers over Peri in one of the cliffhangers.

I also like the idea of the Time Lords sending the Seconc Doctor and Jamie on missions. This seems to tie in with the popular fan theory 'Season 6b'; the idea was that there was an off-screen season between Patrick Troughton's last and Jon Pertwee's first where the Second Doctor was sent on secret missions by the Time Lords before his regeneration and was reunited with Jamie. The biggest clue that The Two Doctors makes this canonical is that Patrick Troughton looks visibly older. It can't be time differential as it is noticeable when he and Jamie are in the TARDIS together - no 6th Doctor present there - and unless the Time Lords wipe the Doctor and Jamie's memories it cannot take place before The War Games as the Doctor didn't tell Jamie about the Time Lords before then.

If this seems heavy on continuity, you can blame my review not the serial. The Two Doctors is a good story but it is let down by a disappointing lack of Multi-Doctor action and a silly decision to make the Sontarans tall.

I watched this in black and white to give it that s5 feel after black hole and trust me it worked like a charm perfect viewing in this placement I’ll rewatch it in my 6th doctor marathon too

If I could pick any Doctor to guest star for a story it would be Patrick Troughton’s. His original run is one I know very well at this point, despite many of the missing visuals, so to get a brand new, unfamiliar second Doctor story should be a treat. In part one, the returning Robert Holmes sensibly keeps the two Doctors apart so you can appreciate their performances separately before the big coming together. Part one is handled pretty well, but the further the story goes on, the less Troughton is treated like a returning hero. His character is ultimately misused.

I don’t see the point of getting a beloved doctor back just to have them lying down half the time and - even worse - being turned into a bad guy with irritating makeup. Troughton spends a sizable chunk of part three acting as a different character, taking Shockeye to dinner. Seeing our second doctor, in a different form, brushing off the death of an innocent bystander is particularly unfortunate, it doesn’t sit right. The story devolves into a gruesome, slapstick run around, which is unusually bland and bad taste for Holmes. I do wonder how much these are characteristics of the era from the script editor and producer rather than Holmes’ pen itself. The waiter being stabbed and killed in a comedy way is shockingly misjudged.

Jamie too is at points reduced to an insensible vegetable on the floor, which is not that fun. I would have liked him to be communicating with the 6th Doctor and Peri on better form.

It’s a shame as in the first third of the story Troughton’s Doctor and Jamie are written well. The dialogue does not play it safe and reveals something new about both characters. The Second Doctor is a little spikier here and talking no holds barred about his race, the Time Lords - so we feel on unfamiliar territory. Baker’s Doctor and Peri funnily enough have a similar dynamic.

The Sontarans are grating in this story and serve no purpose, other than to give the story a monster. They don’t talk like Sontarans - their straightforward, stoic attitude has been removed. “It is not easy being commander, the loneliness of responsibility”. Seeing them tower over the characters they talk to of course does not help - these two seem to be members of the clone race who come from an unusually tall batch.

There is a difficult to understand uneasy alliance between these sontarans, Dastari and Chesseme. Dastari is trying to steal the second doctor's time travel powers and give it to Chessene, who he is building up. The sontarans also hope to leverage these powers and need their allies in order to be able to obtain it. Unfortunately this does not give the sontarans much to do and means they just stand around being uncharacteristically placid. They are about as wasted as the overseas setting which adds little to the production.

Season 22, with the exception of Vengeance on Varos seems to be home to stories that start well but then go south somewhere in the middle of the run time.