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| Three Time Lords |
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 After the highs of the previous season, this season is seen by many to be rather a let-down. Season Five is renowned for its more futuristic and alien invasion storylines with many classic monsters attempting to invade Earth. Season Six, in contrast, sees the return of only two previously seen monsters; the Cybermen and the Ice Warriors. The remaining stories all take place on alien worlds or, in the case of "The Space Pirates", in outer space or, in the case of "The Mind Robber", in the Land of Fiction.
Very few episodes and only one complete story exists in the previous seasons for the Second Doctor. Ironically this is not the case for this, less popular season. Only two stories, out of the seven made, are incomplete and of these the eight-part "The Invasion" only has two episodes missing and the other story, "The Space Pirates", all but one episode is missing. As this story is considered to be rather lacklustre the fact that the majority of this story is missing is not considered to be a huge loss by many fans.
However, few seasons before or since have been as important as Season Six. With viewing figures declining and the increased sentiment at the time that Doctor Who had past its prime, it was clear that, once again, the series needed to be revamped. The introduction of UNIT, along with the need to have more recurring Earth-based stories, was to enable a cut-back on the more expensive futuristic storylines. Furthermore, it was finally decided to reveal more about The Doctor's past. And so in "The War Games", a visit was made to The Doctor's (then unnamed) home planet and the truth was revealed about him being a Time Lord and his flight from that culture. This was the beginning of finally explaining who The Doctor is, where he comes from and why he gets so involved in the affairs of others. Facts that had so far been lacking in the show. As history has shown this was the beginning of a trend that will continue in the next season and beyond.
Behind the scenes Peter Bryant's role as Producer gradually decreased over the course of this season, and Script Editor Derrick Sherwin officially replaced him in the final story, having already assumed many of Peter Bryant's responsibilities. Meanwhile, Terrance Dicks was introduced into the team as the new Script Editor - a position he would occupy for longer than anyone else – thus marking the start of an association with the show that continues to this day.
This season though is more renowned for being the last for the Second Doctor. Patrick Troughton, who was wary of typecasting, had elected to leave the show. Frazer Hines (who had appeared in 113 episodes - more than any other companion) also decided to leave. This prompted Wendy Padbury to also leave the show. Therefore the entire regular cast departed at the same time – the first and, so far, only time this has occurred in the show. The only characters that would remain would be key members of UNIT – namely The Brigadier and Sergeant Benton.
This season also has the accolade of having the longest number of weeks for the show during the original series. Season Three has the most stories and the most episodes - 10 and 45 respectively. But due to this season having a two week gap between "The Mind Robber" and "The Invasion" this season comes in at 46 weeks long – one more week than Season Three.
With the lead role about to be played by Jon Pertwee - an actor more famous for playing comedy roles - and huge changes in the way the show is made this truly was the end of an era. Doctor Who was about to enter the Wonderful World of Colour and so would never be the same again…
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| I'm a genius! |
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Unlike the previous two seasons for the Second Doctor there are more complete stories remaining in the archives for Season Six. From these two are worthy of a mention, along with one of the two incomplete stories – thankfully the majority of which is still held and, for the DVD release, has the two missing episodes cleverly replaced with a superb animation. We are of course talking about "The Invasion".
In this story The Doctor, Jamie McCrimmon and Zoe Heriot have to face once again the Cybermen. To defeat them they have the help of the newly-formed United Nations Intelligence Taskforce (UNIT), led by their old friend Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart - now promoted to Brigadier. This story has the addition of a fantastic villain in the form of Tobias Vaughn - a businessman gone bad. He has been conspiring with the Cybermen and has become partially cybernised himself. Tobias Vaughn is assisting the Cybermen in their plans to take over the Earth. But in fact he has plans of world domination himself. Only The Doctor it seems can stop him... but as it is soon to be discovered the Cybermen have already arrived and a whole Cyber-army is massed in the sewers under London – waiting patiently for the signal to take over the capital. And when it comes we witness the classic scenes of the Cybermen leaving the sewers and marching down the streets of London. With the population incapacitated they meet no resistance until they are confronted by UNIT soldiers. Let battle commence…
In "The Seeds of Death" we have the welcome return of the Ice Warriors. They have taken over a matter teleportation system operated from the moon called T-Mat which they intend to use to spread special seeds over the planet which will alter the Earth's climate so as to turn the Earth into a new Mars. This is a well thought out story but the best part and what must be considered as the most unexpected scene ever is where The Doctor is cornered by a couple of Ice Warriors, and he announces to them 'Your leader will be angry if you kill me; I'm a genius!' to prevent them shooting him. And it works!
The final story of the season is seen as a true classic. "The War Games" sees The Doctor, Jamie and Zoe believing that the TARDIS has brought them back to Earth, albeit in the midst of World War One. But it soon becomes apparent to them that this is not the case when they discover that a race of aliens has been kidnapping soldiers from various points in the Earth's history with the intention of using them to form the greatest army the universe has ever seen. At the helm of this plot is The War Chief, a renegade like The Doctor. It is though in the final episode that the plot suddenly changes when The Doctor is forced to return to his home planet and to face his own kind – The Time Lords. He is put on trial for interfering with others – a trial that ends in a forced regeneration...
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(Position = 21 out of 31)
