The Second Doctor is an incarnation of the Doctor, the protagonist of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. He was portrayed by actor Patrick Troughton. Within the series' narrative, the Doctor is a centuries-old alien Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey who travels in time and space in the TARDIS, frequently with companions. At the end of life, the Doctor regenerates; as a result, the physical appearance and personality of the Doctor changes. The introduction of the Second Doctor was the first to portray the concept of regeneration (a concept not yet fully realised, instead called "renewal") and was a significant moment in the evolution of the series, eventually becoming a critical element for its longevity.
Preceded in regeneration by the First Doctor (William Hartnell), he is followed by the Third Doctor (Jon Pertwee). Troughton's Doctor was an outwardly scruffy, light hearted and bumbling tramp, a portrayal that was called the "cosmic hobo". The Second possessed a comical demeanor that he used to manipulate his enemies. His original companions were Ben Jackson and Polly Wright (Michael Craze and Anneke Wills), a sophisticated socialite and a working-class sailor, who were companions of his previous incarnation. They were later joined by Jamie McCrimmon (Frazer Hines), an 18th century Scotsman, who became the Second Doctor's longest-serving companion. Following Ben and Polly's departures, the Doctor and Jamie were joined by the Victorian orphan Victoria Waterfield (Deborah Watling) and 21st century astrophysicist Zoe Heriot (Wendy Padbury). The Second Doctor would be colloquially dubbed "the monster Doctor" for the prevalence of new and returning monsters, an encompassing term for the series' antagonists, in his episodes.
The Second Doctor concluded his tenure by the end of the 1969 serial The War Games, where he is forced to regenerate by the Time Lords, with his future incarnation banished to Earth as further punishment, although the existence of a "Season 6B" suggesting the Second Doctor continued to live past the finale of The War Games has remained a popular topic within Doctor Who expanded universe media. After his departure, Troughton reprised the role for multiple guest appearances in later episodes of the series, beginning with The Three Doctors (1973). He made his last appearance in The Two Doctors (1985) alongside the Sixth Doctor (Colin Baker), with Troughton dying two years later. Since then, the Second Doctor has been featured in video games, novels, and via archival footage in the revival series.
Despite contemporary reception being mixed towards the Second Doctor, the character would undergo a critical reevaluation that has proven largely favourable. The Second has frequently been cited as a significant influence on later actors that went on to portray the Doctor, being referred to by several of them as their personal favourite. The Second Doctor's era was victim to wiping, a process where tapes of older episodes would be erased for newer material to be recorded over, which was common practice at the BBC between the 1950s to the latter half of the 1970s. As a result, nearly half of the episodes featuring the Second Doctor have been lost.
Biography By the end of The Tenth Planet (1966), the First Doctor's (William Hartnell) health had degraded rapidly as he feebly tells companions Ben and Polly (Michael Craze and Anneke Wills) "[it's] far from being all over." Shortly thereafter he collapses and seemingly dies from old age. As he lies on the floor of the TARDIS, his face morphs, and his physical form changes into that of the Second Doctor.
At the beginning of The Power of the Daleks (1966), the Second Doctor awakens discombobulated, "referring to his old incarnation in the third person" and having to rely on notes from within his predecessor's diary to recall his memories. He has an initially adversarial first encounter with a sceptical Ben and Polly, where he attempts to explain that he had been "renewed". Not long after, they arrive on the Earth colony planet of Vulcan, where the Doctor is mistaken for a dead Earth official, summoned by the deputy governor to investigate rebel activities. There, the Doctor finds out that their chief scientist has found inert Daleks that he plans to repower, which the Doctor tries to warn against due to the Daleks' evil nature. The reactivated Daleks pretend to be the colonists' servants, convincing them to produce more of their kind, but in actuality have allied with the colony's rebels with plans for a coup d'état. The Doctor eventually stops the Daleks by overloading their power, saving Vulcan, although with many of its people having been "massacre[d]" by the end.
In The Highlanders (1966–67), the three arrive in Scotland after the Battle of Culloden where they meet Jamie McCrimmon (Frazer Hines), a member of the Highland Army, who joins their crew by the adventure's end. The Moonbase (1967) marked the return of the Cybermen, last seen in The Tenth Planet, who would become a recurring threat for the Second Doctor, facing him an additional three times after in The Tomb of the Cybermen (1967), The Wheel in Space (1968) and The Invasion (1968). Companions Ben and Polly departed the Doctor's company at the end of The Faceless Ones (1967), returning to their original time of the Swinging Sixties.
In The Evil of the Daleks (1967), the Second and Jamie were joined by Victoria Waterfield (Deborah Watling) after an adventure in Victorian England. Once again facing the Daleks, the story saw the Doctor infuse the "human factor" into a large segment of their population, sparking a civil war that, to the Doctor's knowledge, wipes out the Daleks for good, as he calls it "[t]he final end". Victoria remained with the Doctor until Fury from the Deep (1968), when she, after vocalising her weariness throughout the adventure, decides to bid him farewell.
The Second Doctor was the first of his incarnations to meet Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart (Nicholas Courtney), crossing each others' paths as they battled the Great Intelligence (Jack Woolgar) and his Yetis in the London Underground in The Web of Fear (1968). The Brigadier would become a recurring ally of the Doctor's and one of the founders of UNIT, a military organisation with the purpose of "defend[ing] the world from alien incursions" starting in The Invasion.
At the conclusion of The Wheel in Space, companion Zoe Heriot (Wendy Padbury), a 21st century astrophysicist, would join the Second Doctor after sneaking aboard the TARDIS as a stowaway and convincing him to let her stay. The Second travelled with Jamie and Zoe for the remainder of his tenure until The War Games (1969), when the Doctor, after defeating the villainous War Lord (Philip Madoc), is forced to contact the Time Lords to help return displaced soldiers who had been abducted from different conflicts throughout human history back to their own times. Facing judgment for interfering with human history, the Time Lords wipe Jamie and Zoe's memories, sentence the Doctor to exile on Earth, and force him to regenerate into his next incarnation.
The Second would return in subsequent eras presumably set prior to his regeneration. He would tag along to aide the First and Third Doctor (Jon Pertwee), joined by companion Jo Grant (Katy Manning), in defeating Omega (Stephen Thorne) in The Three Doctors (1972–1973), having been sent there on behalf of the Time Lords. Returning in "The Five Doctors" (1983), the Second, alongside his predecessor and their next three succeeding incarnations, are extracted from time by Lord President Borusa (Philip Latham) and placed in the Death Zone back on their home planet of Gallifrey. In the Second's case, he was abducted while in the midst of "bend[ing] the laws of time" to reunite with Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart. In the Second's last full appearance in The Two Doctors (1985), Jamie and him are tasked by the Time Lords with stopping unlawful time travel experimentation aboard an alien spacecraft as carried out by Dastari (Laurence Payne), the station's head of projects, only for them to be ambushed and kidnapped by Sontarans, allied with augmented Androgums Chessene (Jacqueline Pearce) and Shockeye (John Stratton). Thanks to the interference of the Sixth Doctor (Colin Baker) and companion Peri Brown (Nicola Bryant), the Second and Jamie are rescued and able to succeed in their mission.
Season 6B
A popular fan theory which has been explored within the Doctor Who continuity is "Season 6B", a concept first conceived in 1996's The Discontinuity Guide by Paul Cornell, Martin Day and Keith Topping. Season 6B attests that the Second Doctor, following the end of The War Games (1969), did not immediately regenerate into the Third Doctor but was assigned to various missions by the Time Lords before he was allowed to.
Attributed to this are apparent continuity errors within the Second Doctor's reappearances in later episodes following his tenure. Whereas the end of The War Games is "clearly the Doctor's first contact with the Time Lords since he left Gallifrey", the Second credits them in The Three Doctors (1972–1973) as having sent him to assist the Third, and in "The Five Doctors" (1983) the Second makes reference to companions Jamie and Zoe having their memories wiped, which occurred at the very end of The War Games. The Two Doctors (1985) not only sees the Second make reference to the Time Lords sending him on a mission once more, with companion Jamie aware of who they are, but he has also visibly aged with "considerable signs of graying".
Season 6B was acknowledged and adopted as canon by Terrance Dicks for his work in the Past Doctor Adventures and Eighth Doctor Adventures novelisation lines, with entries such as The Eight Doctors, Players and World Game exploring the subject. Season 6B was also incorporated into Big Finish Productions's audio drama series Beyond War Games, released in July 2022, which takes place directly after the events of The War Games and sees the Second Doctor (played by Troughton's son, Michael) continue to exist past his "supposed regeneration".
Other appearances
The Second Doctor has been featured in numerous expanded universe material in the Doctor Who franchise. He has also been portrayed in the revival series via archival footage in such episodes as "The Name of the Doctor" and "The Day of the Doctor" (both 2013). The Second has featured in Big Finish's Second Doctor Adventures since 2022 as portrayed by Michael Troughton, previously having guest appearances in stories such as 2013's The Light at the End.
Novels
The Second Doctor headlined novels from the Virgin Missing Adventures line beginning in 1995, such as The Menagerie by Martin Day and Invasion of the Cat-People by Gary Russell. The Second also featured in BBC Books's Past Doctor Adventures, appearing in novels such as Foreign Devils by Andrew Cartmel, featuring Jamie and Zoe in 19th century Qing China, and The Roundheads by Mark Gatiss, featuring Jamie, Ben and Polly where they encounter the eponymous Roundheads at the end of the Second English Civil War.
The Second Doctor makes a cameo appearance in the Sixth Doctor Past Doctor Adventures book Players by Terrance Dicks, where he meets Winston Churchill in France during World War I, set after the events of The War Games (1969). The Second also cameoed in the Eighth Doctor Adventures entry The Eight Doctors, also by Dicks, where the Eighth Doctor meets the Second Doctor, set during the events of The War Games.
Video games