There was concern with recasting such an iconic character, and so producers came up with the unique idea that Time Lords regenerate at the point where their bodies are weak and cannot continue, rather than dying off.
Replacing Hartnell was Patrick Troughton. The final episode sees Hartnell falling to the ground, with his face awash in a white glow as it slowly morphs to that of Troughton in an extreme close-up.
Unfortunately, video of this regeneration is lost, and only snippets of it exist.
* * *
As bad as Hartnell’s missing series count was, Troughton is even worst, with a huge portion missing.
Once again I’ve had to rely on recons heavily to be able to view all of Troughton’s series. Below of the Top Five series, followed by a numerical listings of the remaining series.
Unlike the Hartnell Years, there was no bottom group which stood out are particularly bad. The War Games is a good example. It’s looked upon as one of the iconic series of classical Doctor Who. I ranked it as low as it is on a good part that it was way too long in my eyes compared to most series (it bulges out to 10 episodes!).
1 – THE MOONBASE – The Cybermen are back after their home world of Mondas had been destroyed in the previous season. By this time Jamie, the Scotsman from the 1700s is still getting us to the idea of traveling through time. It’s funny to see his reactions during this trip to the Moon. Like a kid in a candy store he goes bounding about, and ends up knocking himself silly. His first meeting with the Cybermen is comical as he rationalizes that they are the “Phantom Piper” a legend from his own place and time.
2 – THE POWER OF THE DALEKS – At the beginning we can tell there’s something big coming up. But, we’re not quite sure what. Then they make their appearance! Despite the humans acting like they have the situation firmly under control, you just knew it was going to go bad for them, with the Doctor having to bail them out. The pace of this Dalek series was much better than the previous attempts. Its such as shame the original recordings have been lost and we’ve had to rely on animations and reconstructions to watch this series.
3 – THE ABOMINABLE SNOWMEN – Another one of those rather unique looking episodes, being set in a Tibetan monastery. The Yeti were not the main bad guys. But, rather filled the henchmen role, and looked nothing like the real Yeti is supposed to be like. The big balls of fur with chicken feet and not real face gave them a comical appearance as they slowly lumbered towards their targets.
4 – THE TOMB OF THE CYBERMEN – A flavor of a dig in Ancient Egypt with the sterile environment of a laboratory. When the actual actors come wriggling out of their individual sarcophagus it sends a shiver down the spine. The one thing I didn’t like was the costume change of the Cybermen. The leader looked like a rigger with a hardhat.
5 – THE ICE WARRIORS – Our introduction to those formidable reptilian Martians who seemed so invincible. The fact the Earth society is so advanced, yet can’t seem to fight off the attack from the Teutonic looking Ice Warriors is what does it for me.
6 - The Underwater Menace
7 - The Web of Fear
8 - The Wheel in Space
9 - The Enemy of the World
10 - The Mind Robber
11 - Fury from the Deep
12 - The Seeds of Death
13 - The Krotons
14 - The Space Pirates
15 - The War Games
16 - The Evil of the Daleks
17 - The Invasion
18 - The Faceless Ones
19 - The Macra Terror
20 - The Dominators
21 - The Highlanders
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