The Second Doctor
The Style: The Second Doctor's title sequence despite using the same techniques manages to refine those techniques and look completely different. It doesn't look as experimental, but also it doesn't look as exciting either. It was due for a change as even at the time it was looking dated, having an experiment run for 4 years. Plus it's difficult to imagine the Hartnell sequence playing before a Troughton story despite it being the case up to 'The Faceless Ones'. It was a change made out of necessity, because they had to rather than because they had a great idea. Of course the major change was the addition of the face! This would become a trademark for the rest of the classic run and was a great way of establishing the new identity of the character. Troughton's expression in the image used oozes character and it makes the sequence a warmer introduction to the show and offer some safety and security. The Doctor was now your friendly traveling companion.
Score: 3 The Logo: The logo suffers the same issue as its predecessor. Having changed to a serif font it now looks more gothic which is appropriate for some of Troughton's stories such as 'Tomb of the Cybermen', 'The Abominable Snowmen' and 'The Web of Fear'. If anything though it is even less stylized. At least the previous logo had some subtle design influences. On its own it's a very bland looking design.
Score: 2 The Theme: When you listen to this theme it feels a lot more complete compared to the original. The updates are subtle but make it more dramatic and reinvigorate the original and it would remain this way for much of the next decade. The spangles and glittery sounds don't make it tacky, if anything they finish the theme off nicely and the original is still at the heart of it. What is unusual though is how the original theme was still used as the closing music for most of the episodes... When watching stories on DVD as one episode ends and another begins the difference is extremely noticeable.
Score: 8
Overall Score: 13