From 1966 - 1969 Patrick Troughton played the Doctor, you may have considered my time with William Hartnell too brief, but this is because in the terms of Doctor Who Mythology, while Hartnell was one of the best Doctors, he was not bogged down with too much Timelord history.
Patrick Troughton was the first Doctor to have recurring enemies that were not The Daleks, and his Doctor became part of the mythology we are familiar with now.
Joining the series part way in Series Four saw the arrival of a new Doctor, and his assistants Ben and Polly had to adapt to his new ways. But there was little time for introduction, because our heroes were flung straight into the firing line in the story The Power Of The Daleks.
The second story The Highlanders saw a new addition to the Tardis in the form of Jamie (Frazer Hines), Jamie stayed with Patrick Troughton until his final episode, and returned in two of the reunion stories made in the 1980's.
The Cybermen made a return, and had slightly evolved in the story Moonbase, in which with the aid of small rat type creatures called Cybermats they invade a Moonbase. Having been allowed to return it was time to give the Cybermen a bit of back story, as the enemies became the key villain during Troughtons era, making four appearances during Troughtons time.
In the story The Macra Terror, crab type creatures invade a colony. Interestingly The Macra Returned 40 years later in the story Gridlocked, starring David Tennant as the Doctor.
While Ben & Polly said goodbye in The Faceless Ones, Victoria appeared in The Evil Of The Daleks, which was due to be the final story to ever feature the Daleks. At the end of the final episode and the season end all the Daleks were destroyed, and this was the last time that Troughton ever saw the pepper pot aliens.
Season Four Stories: The Power Of The Daleks, The Highlanders, The Underwater Menace, The Moonbase, The Macra Terror, The Faceless Ones, The Evil Of The Daleks.
The Cybermen's return scored my favourite story of the series.
With series five return was the order of the day, the Cybermen both started and ended the series with the episodes The Tomb Of The Cybermen, and The Wheel In Space. While not necessarily a big deal at the time, 30 years on Tomb became a very big deal, because after being lost for years it was suddenly found giving fans the hope of future missing stories. This I guess needs some explaining, some bright spark ordered the destruction of 100+ episodes of Doctor Who from the 60's due to the arrival of colour shows. It was felt nobody would ever want to watch black and white episodes again so hundreds were sent to the scrap heap, fortunately Tomb Of The Cybermen and several others made it through, though were thought destroyed. To this day the hunt goes on for missing episodes, and only a few years back episodes from missing stories surfaced.
The creatures known as The Yeti made their first and second appearance in the stories The Abominable Snowmen and The Web Of Fear (both stories have missing episodes). While the Ice Warriors made their first appearance in the story The Ice Warriors.
Victoria exited in The Fury From The Deep, and was quickly replaced by Zoe played by Wendy Padbury, who like Jamie stayed with Troughton for the rest of his stories.
Series five stories - The Tomb Of The Cybermen, The Abominable Snowmen, The Ice Warriors, The Enemy Of The World, The Web Of Fear, Fury From The Deep, The Wheel In Space.
While Enemy Of The World was great, as our travellers entered into a parallel world where they fought an evil dictator who looked just like the Doctor; The Tomb Of The Cybermen was my favourite episode, causing an outcry when it was thought that children might kill themselves imitating the cybermen as they break free from their tombs. The Cybermen were seen breaking through cellophane style material.
Series six, the final series to feature Troughton saw its second story The Mind Robber feature a character known as The Master make an appearance, although never named it is strongly implied that the character makes his first appearance, The Master went on to be the most featured enemy in the series history.
The Cybermen invaded London in The Invasion, and this was most impressive creating a visual feast for tourists and magazines, as the Cybermen were seen marching by St. Paul's Cathedral.
The Ice Warriors returned in The Seeds Of Death, another story that for a while was deemed as being missing.
In The Wargames the Doctor had his first feel of being on trial as he Jamie, and Zoe returned (rather unwillingly) to the Doctor's home planet Gallifrey, it was in this episode that the mythology of the character The Doctor came into play. Having effectively have been put on trial and lost, the Doctor was found guilty of meddling in the course of time by the Timelords. The penalty was that he would have his 2nd regenerative life stolen from him, and as further punishment he was condemned to Earth without means of his Tardis to serve a less meddling life. Sadly the Doctor was not allowed to take Jamie and Zoe with him, their memories were wiped of their time with the Doctor, and they were returned to their time in space.
Series six ended with the regeneration of Patrick Troughton, but as a successor had not been named you never saw him transform into his new form.
Season six stories:- The Dominators, The Mind Robber, The Invasion, The Krotons, The Seeds Of Death, The Space Pirates, The Wargames.
I never liked the Wargames, and have little memory of the Krotons, so am tied between The Invasion and The Seeds Of Death as the best of the series, I think Seeds wins by a nudge.
