Doctor Who: Happy fiftieth anniversary to the Third Doctor!

Fifty years ago today, we said hello to the Third Doctor for the first time. We look back on what makes Jon Pertwee’s era so special in Doctor Who’s long history.

On Jan 3 1970, the first episode of the classic Doctor Who serial Spearhead from Space was broadcast. This was a particularly important episode, for several reasons. Firstly, it was the first episode of the series broadcast in color. Secondly, it pushed the show into a brand new direction, with the Doctor beginning his long exile on Earth. And, most important of all, it introduced a brand new Doctor: Jon Pertwee.

While many new Doctors have been seen at the end of the previous incarnation’s last adventure, we didn’t see who the Second Doctor regenerated into at the end of The War Games. So Jon Pertwee’s first full story was also the first real glimpse the audience had of his Doctor.

It didn’t take long for Pertwee to make an impression. Serious, authoritative and with a dry sense of wit, the Third Doctor was radically different to Patrick Troughton’s light and humorous Second Doctor. This was a bold choice, particularly as Jon Pertwee was well-known for comedy at the time, but it worked.

The Third Doctor’s era featured a gritty start in Season 7, before shifting to a lighter tone in later seasons.

(Photo by Express/Express/Getty Images)

A gritty start

His first season was also extremely different to what we had seen before in Doctor Who – or even since. With the Doctor entirely exiled on Earth, Season 7 gave us stories of alien invasions, huge conspiracies and parallel worlds.

It was also considerably grittier than what we had seen before, with the series taking at least some inspiration from the classic sci-fi series Quatermass. Despite featuring only four serials (three of which were seven episodes long each), Season 7 was quite possibly one of the strongest seasons we’ve had in Doctor Who. However, that doesn’t mean that the rest of Pertwee’s era was weak by comparison. Far from it, in fact.

Shifting tone

While Season 7 was fantastic for featuring darker and grittier storytelling, Season 8 managed to radically shift things, giving us a lighter programme with a little more charm. It also gave us one of the biggest villains of the series: the Master, as played by the brilliant Roger Delgado.

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Jon Pertwee’s era of the series still stands out today because it was so much fun. Despite being exiled on Earth for so much of it, we still had so many great Doctor Who stories, stories that featured memorable monsters and villains, not to mention a more action-packed Doctor.

And that’s the biggest key point about why the Third Doctor’s era was so brilliant: Jon Pertwee himself. He brought so much of his own personality to the role, but he also gave a consistently brilliant performance, too. (The ending of The Green Death particularly stands out – I challenge any Whovian not to shed a tear at the Doctor’s quiet goodbye in that story.) Aided by the strong direction of both producer Barry Letts and script editor Terrance Dicks, the Third Doctor’s era remains greatly loved to this day – and it will remain loved for decades to come.

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Are you a fan of the Third Doctor’s era? What’s your favorite Third Doctor story? Let us know in the comments below.

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