DOCTOR WHO: SEASON-BY-SEASON - SEASON 2

I know! I know! I said I was going to do my Season-by-Season Reviews from "time-to-time" and write regular entries in between. And, ultimately, that will happen. As I can only watch an entire season of Doctor Who so quickly! 

But I was nearly done Season Two as I was posting my Season One Review. So I thought I would keep the ball rolling just a little bit longer... 

SEASON TWO - BEING A BIT OF A NEGATIVE NANCY

Since I might be dwelling on the negative a bit for a good chunk of this essay, I thought I should start this whole thing by saying I do think Season Two is still a pretty solid piece of work. It's certainly good enough to earn the program a further run beyond its second year (who knew it would go this far, though?!). The show is definitely beginning to "find itself" in this season and, in many ways, is playing a bit more to its strengths. Most importantly, the Doctor is being pushed harder to the forefront in this season. He is becoming more of the sort of superhero-type character that we will love him for in later years. Season One worked very well as an ensemble cast but the program is called "Doctor Who" - the Doctor should be a bit more of a central character in his own show. 

Having said all that, however, I do feel there's a bit of a dip in quality that happens, here. Overall, Season One is considerably stronger. But I think we can easily forgive things at this stage. The show is so unique and different from a lot of what the BBC had to offer back in the 60s. Figuring out the actual formula was going to take some time and there were going to be some misfires along the way. Inevitably, there would be a lot of adjustments before the engine really started humming. 

There are, however, some unpleasant issues we should definitely look at as we analyze things. Don't worry, though, we'll discuss a few more positives too.  

LOTS OF SINS REPEATED

Perhaps what makes Season Two the most difficult to watch is that the production team doesn't seem to learn much from its mistakes. Many of the errors in judgement that were made in Season One repeat themselves. To get a better idea of what those missteps might have been, check out my Review of Season One, first: https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2022/06/doctor-who-season-by-season-season-one.html. But even if you don't have a look at the link, you should still be able to understand my points. 

Starting Off Good But Not Finishing Well

Both An Unearthly Child and The Daleks (or is it The Dead Planet? I'm never quite sure....) display this problem. The whole thing begins quite well but then, very quickly, sort of peters out into something considerably less exciting. 

There is no story that exemplifies this better, however, than The Space Museum. I absolutely adore that first episode (so much so, that I consider it one of my favorite episodes ever! https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2018/11/book-of-lists-top-six-doctor-who.html). While some fans claim that the other three episodes are absolute crap, I think there is some exaggeration going on in a comment of this nature. Episode Two, in fact, also holds up fairly well. But it does start getting pretty bad during Parts Three and Four. 

Biting Off More Than They Can Chew

This is a problem that we only see a bit of in Keys of Marinus. The story is just demanding a bit too much and can't really be effectively made on the budget it's been given. This same problem happens with a few stories in Season Two.  

The Dalek Invasion of Earth really is just too grandiose of a vision for the money it's been given to make it. A lot of fans do seem to go on quite a bit about some of the super-effective imagery of the story. The sequence where Barbara and Jenny are trying to sneak Dortmun across London seems to be a moment that many find very visually-stunning. To me, it looks kinda cheap and goes on for way longer than it needs to! All the drumwork that's playing in the background quickly becomes annoying! This is clearly a bit of padding that feels quite flat. 

Dalek Invasion of Earth is riddled with this sort of stuff. The show just couldn't support the idea of effectively conveying a future Earth occupied by Daleks at this point in production. It makes a valiant attempt. And, in some cases, succeeds nicely. But a lot more of it just looks overambitious. While others do seem to regard this a Classic, I find it just looks way too dated to really be able to appreciate it much. 

To add insult to injury, we also get The Web Planet. 

This story works great in concept. It is very nice to see the show trying to do an adventure where all the characters except for the TARDIS Crew are genuinely alien. But it is just such a difficult story to sit through because it cannot achieve what it wants. Most of it looks very silly - even if you try to watch it contextually. 

To its credit, Web Planet still looks good on paper. Whereas there are elements to Dalek Invasion of Earth's plot that make little or no sense. But I do consider both of these stories to be pretty low points in the season. Even though fans tend to love Dalek Invasion. To me, the show just wasn't ready to make these sort of stories. I applaud the production team for their ambition but these are just tough episodes to enjoy. 

HISTORICALS SAVE THE DAY!  

Before we harp too much on past mistakes, let's examine some things that the show continued to do right. Once more, the Historicals really do rise above the rest of what the season has to offer. 

The Crusades is, very much, in keeping with the excellent stories we got from the first season when the TARDIS Crew got stuck in the past. David Whitaker was another writer that should have gotten much more recognition than he did (everyone was so in love with Terry Nation - even though so many of his scripts were riddled with serious problems!). The two existing episodes really show off his gift for characterization.  The monologue he writes for the Earl of Leicester in Part Three is especially impressive. This might just be the very first Great Monologue of Doctor Who (there would be many more to come).  

The casting for this story was also very impressive. Particularly Julian Glover as Richard the Lionheart and Jean Marsh  as the Lady Joanna, Both would come back and dazzle us again as other characters in the series. But they are also quite brilliant, here. Amazing enough to get us to nearly forget that some of the other actors in the serial are, sort of, performing in Blackface!    

But we must truly marvel at all of the Historicals of this season. Especially since a few of them stray enormously from the formula of the Historicals of Season One. The Crusades is a great story - but it makes no attempt to give us anything different from what we've seen before. 

The Romans, on the other hand, is hugely divergent from Season One. But it still gives us something very enjoyable. It is  the first time Doctor Who makes a whole-hearted attempt to deliver a comedy. And, although most fans could be infuriated by the fact that it's not taking itself all that seriously, we still tend to love this adventure. And rightfully so. There is so much fun to be had, here. Particularly the antics of Nero. How can we not love a character who introduces himself in his first scene with an awful belch?! 

The Time Meddler, however, goes even further. It is the show's first indulgence in what would come to be known as a "pseudo-historical". Some complain that it is a bit slow, in places. Or that the Vikings are just a tad too cliched. I tend to disregard such criticism. In fact, I'm amazed this story doesn't find its way into more fan discussion than it does. It makes a huge contribution to the show's canon by suddenly revealing quite a bit more about Time Lord society. 

The Monk is also a great character, of course. So glad he comes back next season. Wish we'd seen him more often.    

SOME NEW MISTAKES! 

Repeating past sins isn't the only major problem we see in Season Two. There are also some bad judgement calls made that never happened previously.  

The biggest one, of course, was producing content that was merely there to fuel Dalekmania. 

While Dalek Invasion of Earth might have some problems with its plot - it, at least, has one! The Chase really is just six episodes of Daleks parading about for all the kids to see and hide behind the sofa from. There's little or no substance to the thing. Admittedly, it is a Guilty Pleasure (https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2016/05/book-of-lists-five-guilty-pleasures.html). But calling it that implies it is something that is so poorly done that we shouldn't actually like it. 

Without a doubt, The Chase definitely wins the award for: "Greatest Piece of Fluff Doctor Who Has Ever Produced"!    

SOME PLEASANT SURPRISES

Oddly enough, there are some other aspects to the season that really look like they should have failed but, instead, turn out half decent. Not incredible in any way - but still pretty good. 

The Rescue is a very simple little Two-Parter that is really just there to usher in a new companion. But it ends up having some sizeable charm to it. Again, Whitaker's writing really does lift the whole thing up. With the tiniest of casts, he creates a cute little tale that satisfies us quite nicely for the duration of two short episodes. 

Planet of Giants has a premise that would probably be more at home in a Scooby Doo Cartoon than Doctor Who. But it also does okay. Trimming it down to three episodes was probably a very smart move, though. A shrunken TARDIS Crew really can only hold our attention for so long!    

FINAL VERDICT

While I do consider Season One to be of a better quality than this one, there are a few failings from that first year that this season seems to correct. Probably the biggest fix is its ability to keep us engaged on such a poor budget. There are some very slow and ponderous moments in Season One that were created out of necessity. Run-time had to be filled so scenes were written that weren't really all that good at holding our attention but provided padding. There's a lot less of this going on with Season Two. Overall, everyone seems to be doing a better job with pacing, this year. 

In many ways, Season Two reminds me a lot of Series Two in New Who. I don't think Production really expected the show to actually make it this far and had no real blueprint for the creative direction of a second season. Things were probably slapped together a little too quickly. Which may account for a lot of the problems that do ensue  as the season was being made. 

As I said, though, at least it's good enough to get us a Season Three!