The Two Doctors
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''The Two Doctors'' is the fourth serial of the 22nd season of the British
science fiction television Science fiction first appeared in television programming in the late 1930s, during what is called the Golden Age of Science Fiction. Special effects and other production techniques allow creators to present a living visual image of an imaginary ...
series ''
Doctor Who ''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series, created by Sydney Newman, C. E. Webber and Donald Wilson (writer and producer), Donald Wilson, depicts the adventures of an extraterre ...
'', which was first broadcast in three weekly parts on
BBC1 BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's oldest and Flagship (broadcasting), flagship channel, and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includ ...
from 16 February to 2 March 1985. The serial is set on an alien space station and in and around Seville. In the serial, the alien time traveller the
Sixth Doctor The Sixth Doctor is an incarnation of The Doctor (Doctor Who), the Doctor, the protagonist of the British Science fiction on television, science fiction television series ''Doctor Who''. He is portrayed by Colin Baker. Although his televisual t ...
( Colin Baker), his former travelling companion
Jamie McCrimmon James Robert McCrimmon, usually simply called Jamie, is a fictional character played by Frazer Hines in the long-running British Science fiction on television, science fiction television series ''Doctor Who''. A Bagpipes, piper of the Clan Mac ...
(
Frazer Hines Frazer Simpson Frederick Hines (born 22 September 1944) is an English actor. He began his career as a child actor and appeared in ''A King in New York'' (1957) with Charlie Chaplin. He later played Jamie McCrimmon in ''Doctor Who'', appearing i ...
) and his current companion Peri Brown ( Nicola Bryant) work to save the younger
Second Doctor The Second Doctor is an incarnation of The Doctor (Doctor Who), the Doctor, the protagonist of the British Science fiction on television, science fiction television series ''Doctor Who''. He was portrayed by actor Patrick Troughton. Out of his 1 ...
(
Patrick Troughton Patrick George Troughton (; 25 March 1920 – 28 March 1987) was an English actor. He became best known for his roles in television, most notably starring as the Second Doctor, second incarnation of The Doctor (Doctor Who), the Doctor in the lo ...
) from the biogeneticist Dastari ( Laurence Payne), who intends to steal the knowledge of how to travel in time from the Second Doctor's genetic make-up. This serial marks Troughton's final appearance as the Second Doctor before his death in 1987.


Plot

The
Second Doctor The Second Doctor is an incarnation of The Doctor (Doctor Who), the Doctor, the protagonist of the British Science fiction on television, science fiction television series ''Doctor Who''. He was portrayed by actor Patrick Troughton. Out of his 1 ...
and
Jamie McCrimmon James Robert McCrimmon, usually simply called Jamie, is a fictional character played by Frazer Hines in the long-running British Science fiction on television, science fiction television series ''Doctor Who''. A Bagpipes, piper of the Clan Mac ...
land the
TARDIS The TARDIS (; acronym for "Time And Relative Dimension(s) In Space") is a fictional hybrid of a time machine and spacecraft that appears in the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'' and its various spin-offs. While a TARDI ...
on board
Space Station A space station (or orbital station) is a spacecraft which remains orbital spaceflight, in orbit and human spaceflight, hosts humans for extended periods of time. It therefore is an artificial satellite featuring space habitat (facility), habitat ...
Camera, where they talk to Dastari, the Head of Projects. The Doctor tells Dastari that the Time Lords want the time experiments stopped, but Dastari refuses. Also on board are the Androgums, a gluttonous alien species who are conspiring with the Sontarans to take over the station. The ship's Androgum cook, Shockeye, drugs the crew's dinner to give the Sontarans an opportunity to invade. In the TARDIS, the
Sixth Doctor The Sixth Doctor is an incarnation of The Doctor (Doctor Who), the Doctor, the protagonist of the British Science fiction on television, science fiction television series ''Doctor Who''. He is portrayed by Colin Baker. Although his televisual t ...
has a vision of his second incarnation being put to death. He decides to consult his old friend Dastari to see if he can help. The Doctor and Peri arrive on the station and are attacked by the ship’s computer. The ship lands in Seville, Spain, where the Androgums and Sontarans take over a local hacienda to use as a base of operations. Dastari reveals his plan to dissect the Second Doctor's cell structure to isolate his symbiotic nuclei and give them to Chessene, an Androgum technologically augmented to genius levels. Upon discovering there are two Time Lords on the ship, Chessene asks Dastari to turn the Second Doctor into an Androgum instead. They also intend to eliminate the Sontarans. Dastari implants the Second Doctor with a 50 per cent Androgum inheritance. The Second Doctor and Shockeye go to a restaurant and order gargantuan amounts of food. When the restaurant's owner, Oscar, demands that they pay, Shockeye fatally stabs him, just as the Sixth Doctor and the others arrive. Shockeye leaves the Second Doctor, who slowly reverts to normal. Chessene and Dastari take them back to the hacienda at gunpoint. The Sixth Doctor frees himself and kills Shockeye. Chessene sees the Doctor's blood and starts licking it. Dastari realises that no matter how augmented she may be, Chessene is still an Androgum, and decides to free the Second Doctor, Peri, and Jamie. When Chessene sees this, she shoots and kills Dastari. She tries to shoot the Second Doctor and Peri, but Jamie throws a knife at her wrist, making her drop the gun. Chessene goes into the module, hoping to escape, but the sabotaged module explodes, killing Chessene and reverting her back to her Androgum self. Jamie and the Second Doctor depart in their TARDIS, whilst the Sixth Doctor tells Peri they're both going on a vegetarian diet from now on.


Production

Robert Holmes wrote the serial as an allegory about meat-eating, hunting and butchering. "Androgum" is an
anagram An anagram is a word or phrase formed by rearranging the letters of a different word or phrase, typically using all the original letters exactly once. For example, the word ''anagram'' itself can be rearranged into the phrase "nag a ram"; which ...
of "gourmand". Holmes's original brief from producer John Nathan-Turner was to write a serial taking place in
New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...
, involving the Sontarans, the First Doctor portrayed by Richard Hurndall and the Doctor's granddaughter
Susan Foreman Susan Foreman (also known as Susan Campbell in spin-off media) is a fictional character in the British science fiction on television, science fiction television series ''Doctor Who''. The granddaughter of the Doctor and original Companion (Docto ...
, played by Carole Ann Ford, reprising their roles from " The Five Doctors". Hurndall's death in April 1984 saw the brief revised to feature the Second Doctor and Jamie, but the setting had to be changed to Spain instead when the expected funding for location filming in the United States fell through. In his 1986 interview for '' Starburst'', script editor Eric Saward said he thought this story was "poorly directed".


Cast notes

This story marked the final appearance of Patrick Troughton as the Second Doctor and the final on-screen appearance of Frazer Hines as Jamie. Veteran actress Aimee Delamain appears in a cameo role as the ill-fated hacienda owner the Doña Arana. Laurence Payne appeared in the Season 18 debut, '' The Leisure Hive'' and the Hartnell story, '' The Gunfighters''.


Broadcast and reception

''The Two Doctors'' was one of several stories from this era to provoke controversy over its depiction of violence. In 1985, Australasian ''Doctor Who'' Fan Club president Tony Howe criticised the murder of Oscar with a kitchen knife as being an instance of "sick, shock violence" that was present for "cheap shock value only". Patrick Mulkern of ''
Radio Times ''Radio Times'' is a British weekly listings magazine devoted to television and radio programme schedules, with other features such as interviews, film reviews and lifestyle items. Founded in September 1923 by John Reith, then general manage ...
'' awarded the serial two stars out of five, stating: "''The Two Doctors'' wasn't dire, but the actors and audience deserved better." In ''Doctor Who: The Complete Guide'', Mark Campbell awarded ''The Two Doctors'' seven out of ten, describing it as "a ''Doctor Who'' version of ''
Last of the Summer Wine ''Last of the Summer Wine'' is a British sitcom set in Yorkshire created and written by Roy Clarke and originally broadcast by the BBC from 1973 to 2010. It premiered as an episode of ''Comedy Playhouse'' on 4 January 1973, and the first seri ...
'' as sponsored by the
Vegetarian Society The Vegetarian Society of the United Kingdom (VSUK) is a British Registered charity in England, registered charity. It campaigns for dietary changes, licenses Vegetarian Society Approved trademarks for Vegetarianism, vegetarian and Veganism, v ...
." Television historian Marcus Harmes says of it "Besides the inherent joy of having Troughton and Hines back, the location filming around the hacienda and up and down the alleys in Seville is evocative, and the guest cast is brilliant".


Commercial releases


In print

The novelisation of this serial, by Robert Holmes, was published in hardback and paperback in August 1985 as the 100th ''Doctor Who'' release by Target Books. This was Holmes's only complete novelisation and seeks to clear up some of the continuity errors in the original broadcast. With a gold foil-embossed cover, it was billed on release as the 100th novelisation and featured an introduction by John Nathan-Turner.


Home media

''The Two Doctors'' was released on
VHS VHS (Video Home System) is a discontinued standard for consumer-level analog video recording on tape cassettes, introduced in 1976 by JVC. It was the dominant home video format throughout the tape media period of the 1980s and 1990s. Ma ...
in November 1993. It was released on
DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...
in the UK in September 2003 in a two-disc set as part of the ''Doctor Who'' 40th Anniversary Celebration releases, representing the Colin Baker years, with many extra features, including the '' Jim'll Fix It'' sketch '' A Fix with Sontarans''. The DVD contains a full-length commentary provided by director Peter Moffatt and actors Colin Baker, Nicola Bryant, Frazer Hines, and Jacqueline Pearce. The DVD was subsequently incorporated into the
box set A boxed set or (its US name) box set is a set of items (for example, a compilation of books, musical recordings, films or television programs) traditionally packaged in a box, hence 'boxed', and offered for sale as a single unit. Music Artists ...
''Bred for War'', along with '' The Time Warrior'', '' The Sontaran Experiment'' and ''
The Invasion of Time ''The Invasion of Time'' is the sixth and final serial of the Doctor Who (season 15), 15th season of the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'', which was first broadcast in six weekly parts on BBC One, BBC1 from 4 February to 11 ...
''. Following the sexual abuse accusations regarding
Jimmy Savile Sir James Wilson Vincent Savile (; 31 October 1926 – 29 October 2011) was an English media personality and DJ. He was known for his eccentric image, charitable work, and hosting the BBC shows ''Top of the Pops'' and ''Jim'll Fix It''. A ...
, the DVD was withdrawn from sale but has since been rereleased with the offending sketch removed. The BBC has made the serial available for download on Apple
iTunes iTunes is a media player, media library, and mobile device management (MDM) utility developed by Apple. It is used to purchase, play, download and organize digital multimedia on personal computers running the macOS and Windows operating s ...
. It was released in issue 45 of
Doctor Who DVD Files This is a list of ''Doctor Who'' serials and episodes that have been released on DVD and Blu-ray. DVD Release Most ''Doctor Who'' DVDs have been released first in the United Kingdom with DVD region code#Region codes and countries, Region ...
. It was released as part of the ‘Doctor Who The Collection: Season 22’ blu-ray box set on 20 June 2022. An extended cut of Part One was included as an extra on the set with a runtime of 47:33, running 3 minutes and 11 seconds longer than the original broadcast episode.


Notes


References


External links

*


Target novelisation

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Two Doctors, The Second Doctor serials Sixth Doctor serials Doctor Who multi-Doctor stories 1985 British television episodes Doctor Who serials novelised by Robert Holmes (scriptwriter) Doctor Who stories set on Earth Fiction set in 1985 Television episodes set in Spain Television shows set in Seville Television episodes set in the 1980s