 Even though episodes stopped having individual titles as of the 1966 First Doctor story "The Savages" the individual rehearsal scripts for episodes 3 and 4 bore titles as well, respectively "Servants of Masters" and "The Destiny of Doctor Who".
This is Patrick Troughton's debut story. Patrick Troughton taped his first on-screen appearance as the new Doctor on October 8th, during recording of the final episode of the previous story "The Tenth Planet".
Although the first episode of this story began with an image of the First Doctor, William Hartnell was not required for the recording, a slide caption taken two weeks earlier, during the recording of "The Tenth Planet", was used instead. (This is very similar to the shot of William Hartnell fading into a slide of Patrick Troughton in the previous story but from a different angle.) Another caption was used for the scene in which the new Doctor sees a glimpse of his former incarnation in a mirror.
Unlike later changes of lead actor in the show' history, in this instance The Doctor's clothes were transformed along with his body, although The Doctor would uncover his cape and hat after rummaging around the TARDIS. He is unable to wear the First Doctor's ring which Ben Jackson thinks proves he isn't The Doctor ('I'd like to see a butterfly fit into a chrysalis case after it's spread its wings').
The new Doctor's first words are 'Slower... Concentrate on one thing'. Afterwards he refers to his previous incarnation in the third person ('The Doctor was a great collector, wasn't he?') – furthering Ben’s suspicions as to who this ‘stranger’ really is.
The regeneration is explained thus: 'I've been renewed... It's part of the TARDIS. Without it I couldn't survive.' - A reference to either the zero room ("Castrovalva") or a property of the TARDIS itself ("Mawdryn Undead").
The process of the regeneration actually goes unnamed. The change of actors was retrospectively labelled ‘regeneration’ by Doctor Who fans, then subsequently by the production team in the Third Doctor’s last story "Planet of the Spiders".
Polly Wright and Ben were the first companions to witness and so serve as transitional aides during the regeneration from one Doctor to the next. Other companions who have served a similar transitional function in The Doctor's later regenerations include: Sarah Jane Smith, Adric, Nyssa, Tegan Jovanka, Peri Brown, Melanie Bush, and Rose Tyler. Captain Jack Harkness, Donna Noble, and Rose Tyler also assisted The Doctor in a false regeneration in "The Stolen Earth/Journey's End".
This story features the return of the Daleks for which their creator Terry Nation received a credit at the end of the story for his creations. We also see the actual Dalek creatures within the travel machines for the first time in the show's history. These are tentacled blobs placed into the casings of the new Daleks created in their capsule. (Those seen in "The Daleks' Master Plan" were implied to have been regressed to a primordial form by the time destructor.)
Whereas they die without static, in the very first Dalek story "The Daleks", in this story they just become dormant.
Despite receiving no onscreen credit Dennis Spooner actually penned the final version of the scripts.
Unusually, this story was captured on 35mm film rather than videotape.
Anneke Wills and Michael Craze were absent from filming episodes four and five, respectively, as both were away on holiday during the recording of these episodes.
The year this story took place is 2020 AD, but this is only noted so in the scripts.
The planet Vulcan was theorised to be located within the Solar System, closer to the sun than Mercury. This theory suffered a renewed burst of popularity in the 1960s. David Whitaker first listed it as a planet of the Solar System in the 1964 spin-off The Dalek Book. In 1966 Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry gave the name of Mr. Spock's homeworld and race as Vulcan (but placed it in another star system, later claiming coincidence and denying knowledge of the real-world theorizing). Some fictional tie-ins, including Lance Parkin's "A History of the Universe" timeline, speculate that Vulcan is a rogue planet that entered the Solar System, so as to reconcile this story with others that do not mention the planet as existing.
Bernard Archard returned to Doctor Who, playing Marcus Scarman, in the 1975 Fourth Doctor story "Pyramids of Mars".
A novelisation of this story, written by John Peel, was published by Virgin Books in July 1993. Although still published under the Target Books banner, this was the first novelisation to be published under the new format introduced by Virgin Books for The New Adventures and The Missing Adventures series. The most notable difference is the increased page count.
In 2004, all known surviving clips were released on the "Lost in Time" DVD. Following this DVD's release, two further short clips - along with a higher-quality version of one of the extant scenes - were discovered in a 1966 episode of the BBC science series Tomorrow's World. The clips only came to light on 11th September 2005, when the relevant section was broadcast as part of an edition of the clip-based nostalgia show Sunday Past Times on BBC Two. These clips were subsequently included in the documentaries "The Dalek Tapes", on the "Genesis of the Daleks" DVD release, and "Now Get out of That", on the "Terror of the Vervoids" disc that was released as part of The Trial of a Time Lord box set.
In November 2016 an animated version of this story, with the original soundtrack, was released on DVD. This was followed, in February 2017, by a Limited Edition Blu-Ray Steelbook boxed set containing black & white and colour versions of the animated episodes.
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The Firsts:
Patrick Troughton's first credited appearance as the Second Doctor.
The first time The Second Doctor confronts the Daleks.
The first Doctor Who story to be written by Elwyn Jones.
The first Dalek story completely written by someone other than Terry Nation.
The first Doctor Who story to be captured on 35mm film rather than videotape.
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(Position = 18 out of 159)
(Position = 21 out of 200)
