Doctor Who: Every Doctor's DEFINITIVE Episode

14. The Evil Of The Daleks (The Second Doctor)

You can see Patrick Troughton working out what does and doesn't work throughout his first season as the Doctor. His experiments with hats, disguises, and performance styles eventually allow him to perfect the Second Doctor that we know and love.

The Evil of the Daleks is all the better for this, given that David Whitaker's script demands a Doctor who is every bit as multi-faceted as Patrick Troughton was.

This serial allows Troughton to demonstrate multiple layers of the character across all seven episodes, from reluctant hero, to manipulative schemer, to scientific genius, and back again. It's a truly marvellous and well-rounded Doctor performance. 

Troughton balances the Doctor's scientific curiosity with a childlike glee and defines future portryals of the character as he does so. The Evil of the Daleks is also an absolute corker of a story, taking us from 1960s London to Skaro, via Victorian Kent! It's the perfect distilation of what Doctor Who – and the Doctor – is.