Country of origin United Kingdom No. of episodes 39 (2 missing) | No. of stories 9 Original network BBC One | |
Starring William Hartnell
Carole Ann Ford
Jacqueline Hill
William Russell
Maureen O'Brien
Peter Purves Original release 31 October 1964 (1964-10-31) – 24 July 1965 (1965-07-24) | ||
The second season of British science fiction television series Doctor Who began on 31 October 1964 with the story Planet of Giants and ended on 24 July 1965 with The Time Meddler. Only 37 of 39 episodes exist in the BBC archives; 2 remain missing. As a result 1 serial is incomplete.
Contents
Main cast
William Hartnell continued his role as the First Doctor accompanied by his original companions: his granddaughter Susan Foreman (Carole Ann Ford), and schoolteachers Ian Chesterton (William Russell) and Barbara Wright (Jacqueline Hill).
Susan departed at the end of the second story The Dalek Invasion of Earth, and was soon replaced by Vicki (Maureen O'Brien) in The Rescue.
The penultimate story The Chase saw the departure of Ian and Barbara, and the arrival of Steven (Peter Purves) as a regular member of the TARDIS crew. At the end of the season, aside from the Doctor, the main cast had changed and would do so the following season when it finished.
Guest stars
Peter Butterworth makes his first of two appearances as the Meddling Monk in the serial The Time Meddler.
Serials
Dennis Spooner replaced David Whitaker as script editor after The Dalek Invasion of Earth, and edited the remainder of the season apart from The Time Meddler, which was edited by Donald Tosh. Verity Lambert continued in her role as producer for the entire season while Mervyn Pinfield served as associate producer until the end of The Romans. This season was originally intended to have 40 episodes with Planet of Giants originally shot and edited as 4 x 25 minute episodes. After viewing the episodes, Head of series and serials Donald Wilson found them to be lacking in action and ordered that the final two episodes be edited into 1 episode. The episode left over was later used to produce the single-episode teaser "Mission to the Unknown" in Season 3.
The Time Meddler is the first example in the series of what became known as "pseudo-historical" stories - these are serials that are set in the past, but have a story that involves significant science-fiction elements (beyond the presence of the TARDIS and its crew).
Season 2 is the most complete season of Doctor Who during its black-and-white era, as only two episodes, both from The Crusade, are missing from the BBC archive.
^† Episode is missing
Production
The first two serials were produced in the programme's first production block, but were held back until the beginning of the second season. Verity Lambert began lobbying for a second season in August 1964, and was initially only guaranteed 13 episodes. Nine were already planned as Planet of Giants and The Dalek Invasion of Earth, and with only four episodes after that Lambert felt it was too short a time to retain the regular actors and it would be then pointless to write Susan out at the end of The Dalek Invasion of Earth. In best interest of the actors and their agents, a deal was struck of an additional 13 episodes, and the commitment of 26 episodes in the second production block was accepted the day The Dalek Invasion of Earth finished filming.
Missing episodes
DVD releases
Lost in Time
All existing episodes from otherwise missing First Doctor serials from this season have been released on the Lost in Time collection. Lost in Time was released in two formats in Region 1, with individual releases for volumes one and two (which cover First Doctor and Second Doctor episodes respectively), as well as an edition combining both volumes. In Regions 2 and 4, Lost in Time is available only as the combined single volume.