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The creators of Doctor Who, Sidney Newman
and Donald Wilson, could not have imagined that the show would run for
26 years. Indeed, few people probably expected it to last a full season.
However, Doctor Who did indeed prosper and became a television icon - due
in no small part to the Daleks, of course. Nevertheless, as the program
neared the end of its third season, William Hartnell decided that it was
time to leave ... |
| His health was becoming a concern,
and indeed, illness forced a rewrite of Episode three of Hartnell's final
episode, The Tenth Planet, to account for his absence. To enable the program
to continue without Hartnell, the producers hit upon the idea of having
him change his physical form, allowing another actor to take over the role.
It had already been established that the Doctor was an alien, so it was
perhaps a logical extension of this that he could 'regenerate'. |
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| And so the final scene of The
Tenth Planet featured William Hartnell undergoing a transformation, after
his body 'wore a bit thin'. The last thing the viewer saw as the credits
rolled for the end of the Hartnell era was a tantalising glimpse of what
was to come, as Patrick Troughton stepped into the role that William Hartnell
had made his own. Sadly, the final episode of the Hartnell era has been
lost, although the actual regeneration scene is intact. Troughton's debut
episode, The Power of the Daleks, also no longer exists, except as an audio
track, although like Tenth Planet, it has been reconstructed. |
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Unlike later regenerations, which
usually occurred at the end of a season, the first one took place at the
end of the second story of season four, meaning that Troughton did not
complete three full seasons (although it should be noted that back then,
a season was considerably longer than the 26 episode seasons that were
typical from 1974 to 1985). Troughton's portrayal of the Doctor was very
different to his predecessor. His Doctor is often described as a bit of
a clown, |
| but he could also be very serious,
especially when the fate of a world was at stake. Sadly, only 6 of his
21 stories have survived intact, and all stories from his first season
are either missing or only partially available. And of course, Tomb of
the Cybermen, regarded by many as one of the best stories of all time,
was only recovered in the early 1990s. Patrick Troughton's final story
was the epic 10-part The War Games, which introduced the Doctor's own people. |
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| This story was originally meant to be a four-part one,
but the cancellation of a previous story meant it had to be rewritten and
extended. Troughton's Doctor regenerated after calling in the Time Lord
to stop the War Lords, and his punishment for being found guilty of interfering
in the affairs of other races was to have a forced regeneration and exile
to the planet Earth. Unlike many future regeneration episodes, the new
Doctor was not seen in a cameo at the end of this story, leaving Doctor
Who fans with a six-month wait for their first look at the new Doctor. |
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| And so on to 1970, and the start of a new
year brought both a new Doctor and the first broadcast of Doctor Who in
colour. Jon Pertwee offered another unique take on the Doctor's personality,
very much a man of action and intrigue, and not unlike James Bond in some
ways - the succession of attractive women, the constant battles against
an evil foe, and a range of clever gadgets such as the sonic screwdriver
and the Bond-like flying car/hovercraft. |
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| Pertwee stayed in the role for five seasons
and 24 stories, an era which many fans believe to be the best. Highlights
of this era included encounters with the Daleks and Ice Warriors, the Silurians
and Sea Devils, and the introduction of the Sontarans. The first three
Doctors were reunited in a 20th anniversary episode, The Three Doctors,
in which they fought one of the greatest Time Lords of all time, Omega.
Surprisingly, however, the Cybermen did not make an appearance during the
Pertwee era. However, the Third Doctor is probably best remembered for
his regular confrontations with another renegade Time Lord, The Master. |
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Pertwee's final story was another epic, a
six-part one featuring giant spiders and the blue crystals of Metebelis
Three. The Doctor sacrifices his life to prevent an invasion of Earth,
by returning the crystal he "borrowed" in The Green Death, knowing that
the radiation in the chamber of the Great One would kill him. It would
not be the first heroic death for the Doctor, whose future regenerations
would often occur as an act of self-sacrifice. |
>>> Part Two of the Regenerations Special |