Season 22 - Patrick Troughton and Colin Baker - 'The Two Doctors'

The Two Doctors saw the return of Patrick Troughton and Frazer Hines to reprise their roles as the second Doctor and his companion Jamie McCrimmon alongside Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant as Peri Brown. In this episode the Sixth Doctor has a vision of his previous self being put to death at the hands of a Sontaran so Peri and her Doctor home in on Patrick Troughton’s whereabouts and race to save his life? 

The Episode is partially based in a very 80s Neon and chrome space station and partially based in a grand manor house estate in Spain where Dastari and Chessene (a genetically enhanced Androgum) are conducting time experiments with the help of the Sontarans which are threatening the very fabric of time itself. It’s always fun to see a Doctor interact with himself and this is the third time that Patrick Troughton returned to his role for a one off episode so it must have been very exciting for the audience at the time who had seen him interact with all of the other Doctors in turn. However there isn’t actually a lot of interaction between the Two Doctors in this episode at all something I was really quite disappointed about. 

Season 22 - Colin Baker - Attack of the Cybermen

We chose 'Attack of the Cybermen' for Day 20 as we had not seen an episode with Colin Baker and as the first serial from Season 22 it seemed a good place to start with this Doctor. Unfortunately we did find ourselves a little disappointed with the episode which didn’t seem to flow particularly well and facets of the story were quite farcical.

Colin Baker’s Doctor is, if this is possible, almost more eccentric than many of the other incarnations and has an arrogance about him that actually makes him quite abrasive. The episode has a very slapstick feel to it which is partly due to the physical nature of Colin Baker’s portrayal and partly due to the very 80s feel to the storyline.

Peri, as ever, is partially clothed and a little whiney through most of the episode and is almost killed on several occasions but even though the character of Peri doesn’t really hold up amazingly well alongside other classic companions such as Sarah Jane and Jo Grant her sparring with the sixth Doctor brings a comedy element to Season 22 and provides a voice for the audience giving us a much appreciated reprieve from the Doctor’s showing off.

Though the story line wasn’t amazing and the relationship between this newly regenerated Doctor and his companion Peri is a little tense, it was great to see a different take on the Cybermen and was interesting, if comical, to see just what could happen if the chameleon circuit in the Tardis was working.  

Unfortunately we couldn’t find it in our hearts to award this episode more than a 2/5, hopefully we have a little more luck with some of Colin Baker’s other episodes.