10 Times Doctor Who Gave Fans EXACTLY What They Wanted (And They Hated It)
3. Patrick Troughton In The Two Doctors
Doctor Who fans love a multi-Doctor story... right up until the moment they didn't.
Case in point: 1985's The Two Doctors, featuring Colin Baker and Patrick Troughton. Where previous multi-Doctor stories had been big celebratory stories, The Two Doctors was brutal and nasty, featuring some of Doctor Who's most gruesome deaths. The most egregious element of the story is that the Second Doctor becomes a cannibalistic monster with orange eyebrows and a top hat.
While giving Troughton something new to do was a good idea to avoid trotting out the same old quirks, it didn't quite work. Worse still, the Sixth Doctor is basically there to rescue his previous self and secure his future. There's none of the 'meeting of minds' stuff that defined previous multi-Doctor stories.
The other issue is that Colin Baker's Doctor was struggling to make an impact with higher-ups, so bringing back Troughton only served to undermine him further. Interestingly, it was Doctor Who co-creator Sydney Newman who suggested that Troughton return to the role to save the show. It's unclear if Newman ever actually saw The Two Doctors.