The Second Doctor: The War Games
What the regeneration of the Second Doctor didnt have in shock value, it made up for in sheer epic-ness.
The War Games is a massive 10 episodes long perhaps a episode of two longer than it needs to be, but there is a momentum that keeps the audience going. The Doctor, Jamie and Zoe find themselves in the trenches of the First World War. With the sudden appearance of Roman centurions it quickly transpires that they arent on Earth at all and human soldiers are being abducted across time to complete in tests made by a renegade time lord, the War Chief. His master, the War Lord, is an alien who plans to use human soldiers to conquer the galaxy. As if that wasnt enough, the Doctor is forced to call upon his own people (named as the Time Lords for the first time) to help return the soldiers to their homes. The first appearance of the Time Lords is probably their best. Patrick Troughton coveys so much fear about them that we realise calling upon his people is the only option he has left. And what do they do? They wipe Zoe and Jamies memories from their times travelling with the Doctor and punish the Doctor for stealing the Tardis and interfering with other races by forcing a regeneration on him and exiling him to Earth. While we dont see the physical transformation into the Third Doctor, our last image of the Second is floating helplessly, screaming, his face contorted as drifts into the darkness. Coupled with the preceding emotional farewells to Jamie and Zoe, (who now know what is coming) this is a grim farewell to a great Doctor. It would be a long wait until Pertwees Third Doctor stumbled out of the Tardis in the Second Doctors clothes and we were introduced to the show in all new colour. And scratch my earlier point. It might not have the shock of the first regeneration, but it is shocking nonetheless. In this regeneration, the Doctor looses everything Ranking: 5th Shock Value: 10 Epic Scale: 3 Emotional trauma: 6