Doctor Who: Ranking All 12 Doctors From Worst To Best
9. The Second Doctor (Patrick Troughton)
STORIES: 3
ALIENNESS: 7
HEROISM: 5
LIKABILITY: 10
LEGACY: 4
OVERALL SCORE: 29
Arguably it was the Daleks and not Hartnell who gave the show its early success, but the very first change of lead could have spelled disaster, and probably would have done had Troughton played him as he originally wanted to – heavily disguised whether as a pirate or even blacked up and wearing a Turban.
Troughton quickly discovered that this was one role that an actor cannot hide behind and he learnt to play to his natural strengths, bringing his own personality to the fore. Fortunately, his unique physical features helped to highlight the alienness of the Doctor in contrast to Hartnell’s grumpy Grandfather/school master who had to sound mysterious in order to be mysterious.
The Second Doctor scores highly on the likebility front. This was a Doctor who was fun to be around, who lacked hubris, and who conveyed genuine fear and panic making him easier to relate to than most. It might seem like he was always on the run but very often it turned out he was running into danger. His heroism was not always immediate, but it was there nonetheless.
Legacy wise, Troughton is the actor’s Doctor of choice, cited by a number of his successors as a source of inspiration.
The Second Doctor was let down by his stories which lack variety when compared to the First Doctor’s run. The loss of the historicals after Troughton’s second adventure (The Highlanders) needed to be compensated for, whether by more developed alien and futuristic worlds or by more fantastical scenarios, but rarely did the writers move beyond the monster of the week approach (The Mind Robber and The War Games being notable exceptions).
There is a predictability about the Second Doctor’s stories which in the hands of a less watchable lead would have been as dull as dishwater.