The Second Doctor Made A Big Comeback!
Perhaps the 50th anniversary year didn't belong to Matt Smith's Eleventh, as good as he always was on screen. No, rather surprisingly I think this year belonged to the comeback kid that was Patrick Troughton's Second Doctor. Poor Troughton suffered most from the BBC cull in the early 1970s, so this year there was finally the chance for audiences to reacquaint themselves with this bubbling, flute-playing Doctor. First up we had 'The Ice Warriors' on DVD, released (missing episodes animated), coincidentally just as the classic big bad made their long-overdue return in 'Cold War'. Of course, if that had been it then, well, he would have been bettered by the First Doctor's 'The Reign Of Terror' and 'The Tenth Planet'. But then eleven episodes only went and turned up in Nigeria. And really good ones too. Suddenly audiences had the chance to catch two mesmerising performances in Troughton as the heroic Doctor and villainous Salamander in 'The Enemy Of The World'. Up next was 'The Web Of Fear'. The Great Intelligence from this year's series 7b. The legendary Yeti. The first story to feature Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart (then Colonel), though sadly his first appearance is still missing (episode 3). I suspect this may be animated and the reason for the DVD release date being 2014, though this hasn't been confirmed yet. And with 'The Moonbase' and 'The Underwater Menace' joining 'The Web Of Fear' on DVD in 2014 (The Moonbase missing episodes will be animated too), there's more Second Doctor still to come!