The Two Doctors Part Three

The one where the Doctor murders someone with cyanide...

I think The Two Doctors is where Doctor Who really did go off the rails. There's so much about this story that feels fundamentally ill-judged. I go through so many different emotions while watching it - repugnance, disgust, horror, shock, disbelief - but one emotion I don't seem to experience is joy. I don't find watching The Two Doctors fun, or uplifting in any way. I like Doctor Who to be bright and breezy, fun and adventurous, witty and clever. Occasionally I enjoy its forays into darker territories (The Talons of Weng-Chiang, The Caves of Androzani) but I look for entertainment when I come to Doctor Who, and I don't find much of that in The Two Doctors (or, indeed, in Season 22).

This story in particular, with its theme of cannibalism, leaves me cold. There are so many little moments which make me feel repulsed by what I'm watching, such as John Stratton's "woof woof" when he captures the helpless Peri at the start ("Just in your prime and ripe for the knife!"), or when Chessene succumbs to her Androgum ways and licks the Doctor's spilt blood off the ground. There are so many instances where you have to remind yourself this is Doctor Who, and not some low-rent video nasty.

The Two Doctors Part Two (includes 'A Fix with Sontarans')

The one where the Sixth Doctor is reunited with his old friend Jamie McCrimmon...

What exactly is the savage creature trying to do when it attacks Peri? She claims it's her own fault as it was merely "protecting its nest", but when we subsequently learn that this growling, feral entity is actually Jamie McCrimmon, it's not made clear how or why he's ended up this way. How long has it been since the space station was attacked, leaving all but Jamie massacred by the Sontarans? In the meantime Jamie appears to have undergone a bizarre regression, reverting back to an unconvincing primitivism to survive. Protecting his nest he may have been, but why physically molest Peri? Why is he dressed in grubby overalls? Why has he built a nest in the bowels of the station and surrounded himself with half-eaten animal carcasses?

The whys and wherefores are disappointingly ignored, presumably because it made a good cliffhanger and that's it. When the Doctor sees that the poor creature is actually Jamie, he's barely moved at all to be reunited with his old friend (and one of the most faithful companions he'd ever had). "I seem to remember I was always very fond of Jamie," recalls the Doctor. Well, obviously not fond enough to be pleased to see him, or want to reminisce, even briefly. He does very little to convince Jamie that he is the Doctor, he just tells him that he is a future version without the Scotsman understanding that there can even be different versions of him. Jamie knows nothing of regeneration, but just accepts what he's told without question.

The Two Doctors Part One

The one where the Second Doctor and Jamie get a brand new adventure...

Opening a new story with a different Doctor is a brave but refreshing thing to do. For those viewers finding the Sixth Doctor a little hard to take, it's a welcome side-step to be able to revisit the programme's more palatable past. It's a lovely touch to have the first few seconds in monochrome, reminding us of the Second Doctor's black and white origins, with the gentle fade to colour bringing this figure from the past firmly into the current series. It would have been even braver to have Troughton's face in the titles for one week only, or even to have Troughton's original opening titles, but I understand why that didn't happen! It's also a nice little touch to have the old TARDIS console prop, just to reinforce that this is a different period.

The dialogue tells us that this is taking place during Season 5 for the Doctor and Jamie, as they've dropped Victoria off somewhere to learn graphology (the 1993 novel Birthright adds that Victoria sailed to Vienna to study). There's a whole wad of spin-off adventures featuring just the Doctor and Jamie that fans have slipped between The Ice Warriors and The Enemy of the World, from Big Finish audios like Helicon Prime, to Short Trips such as The Time Eater. And this is where The Two Doctors takes place for the Doctor and Jamie (despite Troughton's greying hair!).