The Underwater Menace

(Series 4, Episodes 20-23)

Summary: Newsflash!  Atlantis is not lost!  They’re still hanging around under the sea, waiting for a crazy Russian scientist to help them rise from the waves.  Jamie, despite being from the 18^th century, is remarkably nonplussed by all this.  Polly, predictably, spends a lot of time screaming, but doesn’t get to make any tea.  The Doctor and Ben have a Titanic moment as the city floods, but thankfully both make it out alive.

Watch it because: The fish people of Atlantis are curiously beautiful.

Original Air Date: 14 January – 4 February 1967.

Doctor: Patrick Troughton.

Companions: Ben Jackson (Michael Craze), Polly (Anneke Wills) and Jamie McCrimmon (Frazer Hines).

Writer: Geoffrey Orme.

Director: Julia Smith.

Producer: Innes Lloyd.

Available on DVD? Yes, although Episodes 2 and 4 are reconstructions.

Lost Episodes V

The Power of the Daleks

(Series 4, Episodes 9-15)

Significant for: It’s Patrick Troughton’s first episode, and the first time the Doctor has to explain regeneration to his companions (though it is not referred to by this name yet).

NOTE: A full-length animation will be released on DVD TOMORROW!

The Highlanders

(Series 4, Episodes 16-19)

Significant for: The arrival of Jamie McCrimmon, a Scottish piper from the 18^th Century.

The Tenth Planet

(Series 4, Episodes 5-8)

Summary: It’s the far distant future: 1986.  An international space base exists in Antarctica, yet still no women serve in the military.  A mysterious ‘tenth planet’ appears in the sky (someone should break the news about Pluto to these guys).  It turns out to be an upside down version of Earth, for reasons never fully explained.  We meet the Cybermen, Polly screams a lot and makes tea and Ben gets very angry at the audacity of these cybernetic geezers.  The Doctor is so worn out by the whole experience that he stumbles back to the TARDIS and regenerates into Patrick Troughton.

Watch it because: It’s the first time we meet the Cybermen and the last time we see William Hartnell as the Doctor.  Sob.

Original Air Date: 8 – 29 October 1966.

Doctor: William Hartnell.

Companions: Ben Jackson (Michael Craze) and Polly (Anneke Wills).

Writer: Kit Pedler & Gerry Davis.

Director: Derek Martinus.

Producer: Innes Lloyd.

Available on DVD? Yes, although Episode 4 is only available as an animation, which sadly means we don’t actually see William Hartnell’s final scenes.

Lost Episodes IV

The Smugglers

(Series 4, Episodes 1-4)

Significant for: Being the first episodes to be filmed on location outside of London, in Cornwall.

The War Machines

(Series 3, Episodes 42-45)

Summary: London, 1966.  A computer named WOTAN wants to take over the world by controlling the minds of a few scientists up the BT Tower.  The military are called in but are hapless and ineffectual.  The Doctor defeats the computer’s tank-like robots by roping them off in a VIP area, picking up a cockernee sailor and a posh secretary in the process.  Meanwhile, Dodo disappears in episode two, never to be seen again.

Watch it because: Doctor Who does the swinging sixties.

Original Air Date: 25 June – 16 July 1966.

Doctor: William Hartnell.

Companions: Dodo Chaplet (Jackie Lane), Ben Jackson (Michael Craze) and Polly (Anneke Wills).

Writer: Ian Stuart Black.

Director: Michael Ferguson.

Producer: Innes Lloyd.

Available on DVD? Yes.

Lost Episodes III

The Savages

(Series 3, Episodes 38-41)

Significant for: Steven leaving, to help two future races build a lasting peace.  Peter Purves was the last of his fellow actors that William Hartnell really trusted and it’s heartbreakingly obvious in Hartnell’s final few stories that, on top of his health issues, there is a spark missing in his performance.