Ice Warriors and the robotic Yeti helping to build up a feeling of expectation and excitement in viewers. Many one-off creatures were also featured, including the Macra (giant crabs who made a brief return in the David Tennant adventure Gridlock ), killer robots called Quarks in The Dominators and the Krotons, crystalline entities feeding off human intelligence. This approach gave the show a distinctly different identity from previous years, beyond the change of lead actor. However, it was a restrictive format that could not last too long. Regular change – in front of and behind the cameras – would become part of Doctor Who ’s unique signature.
One very noticeable effect of this revised approach to the series was the end of the purely historical adventures. Doctor Who had abandoned long ago any pretence at fulfilling its original educational remit. Shortly after the Daleks arrived, the bug-eyed monsters took over. A rapid progression of Dalek wannabes (Mechanoids, war machines) and ever more fanciful alien creatures (Voord, Sensorites, Zarbi and Menoptra) continued into the Troughton period with a parade of menacing monsters. Innes Lloyd disliked the history tales, as did many of the viewers. After Troughton’s second story, The Highlanders , the purely historical story (with no science-fiction elements apart from the Doctor, his companions and the TARDIS) lay dormant for 15 years, only returning briefly when Peter Davison took on the leading role.
The Highlanders was notable for one other significant reason: the arrival of Jamie McCrimmon (Frazer Hines), one of the Doctor’s longestlasting companions. The role of the companion had changed during the three years the series had been on air, moving from the audience-identification figures of Susan and her teachers to an alternative team of three, each of whom served a key narrative purpose. While Hartnell’s era worked through a variety of unsuccessful Susan replacements (Vicki, Dodo, Polly), the removal of Ian and Barbara allowed for a more fundamental change. The mid-1960s line-up comprising the Doctor, lost astronaut Steven Taylor (Peter Purves) and rescued space orphan Vicki (Maureen O’Brien) would serve as a template for some of the series’ most successful character combinations over the years.
These three symbolised the brains (the Doctor), the brawn (Steven/Jamie) and the emotions (Vicki/Victoria/Zoe), the acceptable gender stereotypes of the period. Thus the Doctor could solve the problem in an intellectual way, the young male companion would function as a strong-arm physical resource, while the female companion could humanise the alien Doctor and (more often) scream at the monster or be captured to await rescue. It was a formula settled on in the Troughton period following the departure of Ben and Polly in The Faceless Ones , leaving the Doctor, Jamie and Victoria Waterfield (Deborah Watling) – and later Zoe Heriot (Wendy Padbury) – to see out the 1960s.
Later years would see this line-up recreated many times, with Jon Pertwee’s Doctor teamed up with UNIT soldiers or the Brigadier, and with Liz Shaw (Caroline John), Jo Grant (Katy Manning) and Sarah Jane Smith (Elisabeth Sladen). The early Tom Baker era saw him teamed with Sarah Jane and Harry Sullivan (Ian Marter), a throwback to the Ian- or Steven-type character, and, later, with Leela (Louise Jameson), a primitive warrior, who took on the physical role. Later still, the Doctor’s robot dog K-9 was often used as the mindless muscle, a weapon as a pet. Even in the twenty-first century, the formula still proved useful when Christopher Eccleston’s Doctor, shellshocked from the Time War, came to rely on Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman) for the strong-arm stuff, while moulding young shop girl Rose Tyler (Billie Piper) into an intergalactic warrior.
Frazer Hines proved to be an effective partner for Troughton’s Doctor, sticking with him right up to the end of the 1960s (Troughton would
One very noticeable effect of this revised approach to the series was the end of the purely historical adventures. Doctor Who had abandoned long ago any pretence at fulfilling its original educational remit. Shortly after the Daleks arrived, the bug-eyed monsters took over. A rapid progression of Dalek wannabes (Mechanoids, war machines) and ever more fanciful alien creatures (Voord, Sensorites, Zarbi and Menoptra) continued into the Troughton period with a parade of menacing monsters. Innes Lloyd disliked the history tales, as did many of the viewers. After Troughton’s second story, The Highlanders , the purely historical story (with no science-fiction elements apart from the Doctor, his companions and the TARDIS) lay dormant for 15 years, only returning briefly when Peter Davison took on the leading role.
The Highlanders was notable for one other significant reason: the arrival of Jamie McCrimmon (Frazer Hines), one of the Doctor’s longestlasting companions. The role of the companion had changed during the three years the series had been on air, moving from the audience-identification figures of Susan and her teachers to an alternative team of three, each of whom served a key narrative purpose. While Hartnell’s era worked through a variety of unsuccessful Susan replacements (Vicki, Dodo, Polly), the removal of Ian and Barbara allowed for a more fundamental change. The mid-1960s line-up comprising the Doctor, lost astronaut Steven Taylor (Peter Purves) and rescued space orphan Vicki (Maureen O’Brien) would serve as a template for some of the series’ most successful character combinations over the years.
These three symbolised the brains (the Doctor), the brawn (Steven/Jamie) and the emotions (Vicki/Victoria/Zoe), the acceptable gender stereotypes of the period. Thus the Doctor could solve the problem in an intellectual way, the young male companion would function as a strong-arm physical resource, while the female companion could humanise the alien Doctor and (more often) scream at the monster or be captured to await rescue. It was a formula settled on in the Troughton period following the departure of Ben and Polly in The Faceless Ones , leaving the Doctor, Jamie and Victoria Waterfield (Deborah Watling) – and later Zoe Heriot (Wendy Padbury) – to see out the 1960s.
Later years would see this line-up recreated many times, with Jon Pertwee’s Doctor teamed up with UNIT soldiers or the Brigadier, and with Liz Shaw (Caroline John), Jo Grant (Katy Manning) and Sarah Jane Smith (Elisabeth Sladen). The early Tom Baker era saw him teamed with Sarah Jane and Harry Sullivan (Ian Marter), a throwback to the Ian- or Steven-type character, and, later, with Leela (Louise Jameson), a primitive warrior, who took on the physical role. Later still, the Doctor’s robot dog K-9 was often used as the mindless muscle, a weapon as a pet. Even in the twenty-first century, the formula still proved useful when Christopher Eccleston’s Doctor, shellshocked from the Time War, came to rely on Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman) for the strong-arm stuff, while moulding young shop girl Rose Tyler (Billie Piper) into an intergalactic warrior.
Frazer Hines proved to be an effective partner for Troughton’s Doctor, sticking with him right up to the end of the 1960s (Troughton would
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