Doctor Who Notes 2

The second season of Doctor Who sees the first major cast shake-up. By the end of the season, the Doctor has a completely new compliment of traveling companions. Another notable event ends the season, as we meet the first of many other renegades from the Doctor’s home planet, the troublemaker commonly called the Meddling Monk.


From “Planet of Giants”

A peculiar malfunction of the TARDIS miniaturizes the Doctor, Susan, Ian Chesterton, and Barbara Wright. Although they have returned to 1960s England, they are only an inch tall. However, they are still able to prevent an unethical scientist from unleashing a deadly pesticide.


From “The Dalek Invasion of Earth”

The Doctor, Susan, Ian, and Barbara find themselves in 22nd century London only to discover the Earth has already been conquered by Daleks. The Doctor and Ian are captured while Susan and Barbara are rescued by a group of human resistance fighters. The four travelers are all soon separated and find themselves with different members of the resistance movement, all making their way to the Daleks’ mining operation in Bedfordshire. There they discover the Daleks intend to convert the Earth into a gigantic spacecraft. However, they manage to turn the Daleks’ explosives against them, destroying the invasion force in a volcanic eruption.

Returning to the TARDIS, the Doctor realizes that Susan has fallen in love with one of the resistance fighters, David Campbell, and as they are preparing to depart, David asks Susan to stay behind to marry him. She is torn between her love for him and her loyalty to her grandfather, so the Doctor makes the decision for her, locking the doors of the TARDIS. He then speaks to her over the communications system.

The Doctor: During all the years I’ve been taking care of you, you in return have been taking care of me.
Susan: Grandfather, I belong with you!
The Doctor: Not any longer, Susan. You’re still my grandchild and always will be, but now you’re a woman, too. I want you to belong somewhere, to have roots of your own. With David, you’ll be able to find those roots and live normally as any woman should do. Believe me, my dear, your future lies with David and not with a silly old buffer like me. One day, I shall come back. Yes, I shall come back. Until then, there must be no regrets, no tears, no anxieties. Just go forward in all your beliefs and prove to me that I am not mistaken in mine. Good-bye, Susan. Good-bye, my dear.

With that, the TARDIS dematerializes, and a clearly stunned Susan goes off with David. The Doctor must have certainly believed that living on her beloved Earth was a better life for Susan than the fugitive existence they had led since leaving Gallifrey. Also, with Earth’s population devastated as a result of the Dalek plague, the Doctor may have hoped that her advanced knowledge would help humanity recover. Susan would some years later be reunited with her grandfather on Gallifrey when they were both kidnapped as part of Borusa’s last scheme. It is unclear whether Susan’s alien physiognomy would pose any problems in adjusting to life on Earth, but her lifespan would surely complicate her relationships eventually. If indeed she had many regenerations ahead of her, then humanity probably benefited from the presence of the mysterious woman named Susan for several centuries.


From “The Rescue”

When the TARDIS materializes in a cave on the planet Dido, Ian and Barbara go out to have a look around. The Doctor, however, elects to remain inside, claiming he wants to take a nap.

Barbara: Look, Ian, all the old associations are still in the ship. You can’t expect him to say goodbye to Susan and then forget about it the next minute.
Ian: No, I suppose not. I wonder what she’s doing now.
Barbara: If I know anything about David, she’s learning to milk cows.

The travelers discover a crashed spaceship from Earth with only two survivors, a gruff man named Bennett and a traumatized girl named Vicki, who have been menaced by a creature called Koquillion. However, the Doctor soon learns that Bennett and Koquillion are one and the same, part of Bennett’s scheme to get away with mass murder. When he dies in a fall, the Doctor invites Vicki to join them on their travels.

Vicki left Earth in 2493 after her mother died and her father took a job on the planet Astra. They were en route to Astra when the ship crashed on Dido and her father was killed in the explosion set off by Bennett that killed the rest of the crew and a number of Dido natives as well. Having no one to go back to, Vicki accepted the Doctor’s invitation and traveled with him until they arrived in ancient Troy and she fell in love with Troilus. Assuming the identity of Cressida, she remained behind to begin a new life -- one that, by all accounts, would end unhappily.


From “The Romans”

Upon materializing a few miles outside Rome in 64 AD, the TARDIS takes a tumble, but the Doctor decides to leave it hidden in the shrubbery. They move themselves into an empty villa and live peacefully among the Romans for a month until Ian and Barbara are kidnapped by slave traders while the Doctor and Vicki are visiting the court of Nero. The Doctor inadvertently inspires Nero to start the Great Fire of Rome.


From “The Web Planet”

A mysterious force captures the TARDIS and forces it to materialize on the planet Vortis, where the ship loses all power. However, the Doctor is able to open the doors by passing his ring before a lighted instrument, exclaiming it is “not merely a decorative object.” The Doctor, Ian, Barbara, and Vicki discover the planet’s inhabitants, the moth-like Menoptra, have been subjugated by the ant-like Zarbi, which are under the control of an alien conqueror called the Animus. The Doctor’s astral map unit is damaged in overcoming the Animus, but the creature is ultimately destroyed.


From “The Crusade”

The TARDIS brings the Doctor, Ian, Barbara, and Vicki to 12th century Palestine, where they find King Richard the Lionheart at war with the Saracen ruler Saladin. When Barbara is captured by the Saracen army, Ian rescues her while the Doctor and Vicki get into trouble at King Richard’s court.


From “The Space Museum”

When the TARDIS materializes in a museum on the planet Xeros, the travelers are shocked to find themselves among the displays. They set out to prevent this possible future from coming to pass and in the process help a band of native rebels overcome their alien oppressors.


From “The Chase”

Aboard the TARDIS, Ian, Barbara, and Vicki are getting on each other’s nerves while the Doctor tinkers with a time-space visualizer, a device which can transmit images of any past event to its viewscreen. Among the displays is a view of the Daleks planning their revenge against the Doctor and his companions for foiling their invasion of the Earth. The Daleks have perfected a time machine of their own and intend to pursue the TARDIS throughout eternity, if necessary, until their enemies are exterminated. On the planet Aridius, the Doctor loses the TARDIS in a sandstorm, but the Daleks dig it out in order to destroy it, allowing the travelers to escape.

The Doctor: That’s my time-path detector. It’s been in the ship ever since I constructed it. But, you know, I don’t remember it registering before.
Barbara: What does it show?
The Doctor: Well, it surveys the time path we’re travelling on. The fact that it’s registering can only mean one thing!
Ian: Yes, go on!
The Doctor: There’s another time machine travelling on the same route!

The TARDIS then materializes on top of the Empire State Building in 1966, much to the surprise of a tourist from Alabama. Vicki recognizes it from her history books, stating the city was ultimately destroyed in the Dalek invasion. Next, the TARDIS shuttles back to a Victorian sailing ship, where the Daleks then drive the entire crew overboard. When the time machines materialize in a haunted house full of robotic monsters, Vicki is left behind in the confusion, prompting her to stow away aboard the Dalek time capsule.

Barbara: Isn’t there anything we can do? Is there no way of going back for Vicki?
The Doctor: You don’t think I’d be standing here doing nothing, do you, if there were? Hmm? We’re helpless! And you of all people should know the TARDIS can’t land in the same time and place twice!
Ian: Look, shut up! We’ve never stayed long enough in any one place to repair the time mechanism of the TARDIS! If we did, is there a chance of going back for Vicki?
The Doctor: Yes, of course it’s possible, but it might take months -- even years!

As both time machines arrive on the planet Mechanus, the Daleks unleash an android duplicate of the Doctor. Vicki is able to warn her friends, and the two Doctors battle each other until the robot is destroyed. However, the travelers are captured by the Mechanoids, spherical robots that are already holding prisoner a human astronaut named Steven Taylor. They manage to escape while the Daleks and the Mechanoids fight it out. Discovering the Dalek time capsule is now abandoned, Ian and Barbara decide to use it to get home. It returns them successfully to London in December 1965 before exploding. Overjoyed to be back, Ian and Barbara realize they must think of a way to explain their two-year disappearance. Once that was all sorted out, however, they most likely settled back into a normal routine, and it would come as no surprise if they eventually married.

Steven Taylor was an astronaut fighting an interplanetary war when his ship crashed on Mechanus. He was held prisoner by the Mechanoids for two years, until the Doctor and his friends arrived. Steven stowed away aboard the TARDIS while the Doctor was sending Ian and Barbara home. He traveled with the Doctor until being asked to remain on the planet of the Elders and Savages as their new leader. His subsequent fate is unknown.


From “The Time Meddler”

As the Doctor and Vicki discover Steven aboard the TARDIS, the ship materializes on the coast of England in 1066, where they find another member of the Doctor’s race, known only as the Monk, meddling with the course of history. Outraged, the Doctor sabotages the Monk’s time capsule, causing its interior to be reduced to miniature proportions.

The Doctor: You know, all this is very surprising. That’s a Mark IV.
The Monk: Yes. Yes, indeed.
Vicki: Is that later than yours, Doctor?
The Doctor: Hmm?
Vicki: Oh, I forgot all about it!
The Doctor: Oh? Forgot? Forgot what, child?
Vicki: Doctor. Doctor, we haven’t got a time machine anymore.
The Doctor: Haven’t we now? Oh, I say, well, I wonder what that’s supposed to mean!
Vicki: Well, you know… you know we left it on the beach?
The Doctor: Yes, I remember very well. Yes, it so happens that I was there at the time! My dear, I may appear a little half-witted at times, but—
Vicki: Doctor! The tide came in.
The Doctor: Oh, is that all, my child?
Steven: Isn’t that enough?
The Doctor: The water cannot affect the TARDIS. It won’t wash away. It’ll still be there when the tide goes down. Now, stop fretting, my dear. Well, I must confess, I do congratulate you. It’s a splendid machine. Although I do note there’s been quite a few changes.
The Monk: Oh, yes, indeed, Doctor. In fact, this one is fitted with the automatic drift control.
The Doctor: Oh, I see, yes, of course. And thereby you can suspend yourself in space with absolute safety.
The Monk: Precisely, Doctor. By the way, I tried to get into your police box, but the door was locked. Ha ha ha. What type’s yours, Doctor?
The Doctor: Mind your own business.
Steven: Look, I take it you both come from the same place, Doctor?
The Doctor: Yes, I regret that we do. But I would say that I am fifty years earlier.

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