Winter is Coming
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Doctor Who: Why Patrick Troughton’s Doctor is hugely underrated

By James Aggas

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There is an actor who’s left a huge influence on Doctor Who. Who’s incredibly important, and yet, while loved, still gets overlooked. (And no, it’s not Christopher Eccleston.) We look at Patrick Troughton’s Doctor, and why he might be highly underrated.

Recently, I came across a poll from YouGov ranking the British public’s list of favorite Doctors. Unsurprisingly, some of the old favorites – including David Tennant and Tom Baker – were considerably high up. And, as much as I love these incarnations, I wasn’t surprised to see Paul McGann or Colin Baker towards the bottom of the list.

However, the poll did have a couple of surprises. The biggest one of all was where Patrick Troughton was listed – at number twelve, just one place above Sylvester McCoy.

I’m not going to lie – that surprised me. No, shocked me, even. How could Patrick Troughton – arguably one of the most important Doctors ever – be ranked so low?

Thinking about it, I can see a few reasons for this. This is a poll based not on the fans’ point of view, but on the general public’s. And so much of Patrick Troughton’s material is sadly missing from the BBC archives. Also, perhaps the general public aren’t as into black and white as some of us are.

Still, I’m shocked to see him rank that low. Other low ranking Doctors had problems such as problematic eras, or even just having a one-off appearance. Those, I can understand. Not necessarily agree with, but understand, at least.

But Patrick Troughton arguably had an excellent era. More than that, I’d say that without him, we wouldn’t have Doctor Who today. In fact, we might not have had it after the Sixties.

Patrick Troughton’s Doctor is of course hugely influential. But his opening story, The Power of the Daleks, surprisingly didn’t appeal to viewers on its original transmission.

(Image credit: Doctor Who/BBC.

Image obtained from: official Doctor Who website.)

The importance of Troughton

You could say the same about William Hartnell, and indeed, that would be true. Without Hartnell kicking off the series with a consistently strong performance, Doctor Who wouldn’t have been the huge success that it was. Even when he was suffering from poor health, he gave the role his very best.

But Troughton had to do something even trickier. It wasn’t enough that he gave a performance as good as Hartnell’s. He also had to establish that, even with the original lead’s departure, the show could continue with a new lead.

This isn’t as much of a problem now. These days, we either look forward to seeing what the new actor will bring, or hate them before they even start. Either way, we all know that, even if the new lead doesn’t work out, we just have to wait a couple of years for the next one, at most.

But back then, this was something that Doctor Who had never done before. How many shows are audiences willing to stick with once the original lead’s been replaced? Usually, it’s just a bad sign of the show jumping the shark.

In fact, when Patrick Troughton’s Doctor debuted with The Power of the Daleks, believe it or not, audiences hated his Doctor. They thought he was more of a clown compared to Hartnell’s more serious Doctor, and no one could believe that they were supposed to be the same person. It’s even more surprising to look back on now, when you watch The Power of the Daleks and see just how brilliant it is as an opening story.

From beginning to end, the Second Doctor’s era shaped the series for decades to come.

(Photo credit: Doctor Who/BBC.

Image obtained from: BBC Press.)

An influential Doctor

But over time, of course, the audience warmed up to Troughton. More than that: his Doctor truly helped to shape, to some extent, all subsequent Doctors. Hartnell’s Doctor was great, especially on the journey that he went on and how much he grew.

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But Troughton was more openly heroic, more whimsical, and his era was filled with stories of good versus evil, of heroes and monsters. Stories that would become very common to virtually all later Doctors. We had a few of these with Hartnell, but not quite that many.

To really show how influential Troughton’s Doctor was, it was in his era that we got our first ever UNIT story with The Invasion. That story, while longer than any other UNIT serial, was also hugely influential, especially on Pertwee’s era.

But perhaps most important of all, Troughton was, quite frankly, absolutely brilliant. You watch all of his surviving episodes, and his performance is always fantastic. Whether comedic, dramatic, or alien, Troughton was able to portray so many sides to his Doctor so easily.

For all of these reasons, this is why Troughton is such a brilliant Doctor. It’s also why, while he’s often been highly thought of in fandom, he’s still in some ways underrated. Despite the popular expession “Don’t skip Nine!”, he’s arguably even more underrated than Eccleston’s Doctor. (If you need proof of that, just see where Eccleston is in the poll.) Honestly, I think David Tennant said it best:

"If Patrick Troughton didn’t play the Doctor so comfortably and with such charm, and so brilliantly, I don’t think I’d be sitting here today."

Next. Gallifrey review: Reborn almost provides a fresh start for the series. dark

Is Troughton one of your favorite Doctors? Do you consider him to be underrated? What’s your favorite Second Doctor serial? Let us know in the comments below.

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