Sunday 15 December 2019

Unseen Stories (2)


Patrick Troughton's very first story, Power of the Daleks, throws up some questions about unseen stories. A Dalek recognises him, despite his just having got this new face. Clearly the Daleks must have encountered him in this incarnation in his future / their past. The problem is that Troughton only met the Daleks twice on screen - and the other story was supposed to be set at the end of Dalek history. That was the intention behind The Evil of the Daleks, though most fans don't see it that way. The Daleks survived the civil war and rebuilt. The Daleks in Power come from a time well before the civil war on Skaro, however, so Evil doesn't necessarily explain how they recognise the Doctor. A later, unseen, adventure for the Second Doctor with the Daleks might also explain how they know he is travelling with Jamie in The Evil of the Daleks. Evil also has the Doctor seemingly knowledgeable about the layout of the Dalek city, which doesn't quite match what we saw in The Daleks - suggesting a possible return trip to Skaro.
We also have a comment from Ben that the Doctor is always going on about Daleks - despite them never being mentioned in any story Ben appears in. There are no gaps to put unseen stories in. The TARDIS goes straight from Fitzroy Square to 17th Century Cornwall, then to the South Pole, and then to Vulcan.
Very few of the unseen stories mentioned by the Second Doctor are likely to have taken place during this incarnation. He picks up Jamie in his second story, and he accompanies the Doctor right to the end of this incarnation, so if Jamie isn't aware of a previous visit to an alien world then it must have been during his first incarnation - or yet more adventures from before Totters Lane.
The Doctor's assertion that he studied medicine in Glasgow, under Lister in 1888, must certainly have been before he travelled with Ian and Barbara. A degree takes years, and it is highly unlikely that he took all that time off during his travels with any of his companions. A lengthy stay in Scotland might explain how he knows some Jacobite tunes in The Highlanders, and can quote Robert Burns in The Underwater Menace.
The Doctor claims to have personally witnessed the Charge of the Light Brigade, meaning an unseen visit to the Crimea on 25th October, 1854.
The Tomb of the Cybermen finally gives us the Doctor's age. He has to think about it, but it's about 450. The scope for many, many unseen adventures before Totters Lane is therefore opened up.
The Fourth Doctor will describe 750 as being middle-aged, but if the First Doctor lived to nearly 450, and a Time Lord can have 13 lives, then their life expectancy should be around 5850.
This incarnation is the one that suddenly starts using a 500 Year Diary. It contains notes on Cybermats, and the Doctor seems to have a vague memory of them. This implies an unseen Cyberman story. You'll recall how Polly identifies the Cyberman in The Moonbase, despite these more robotic Cybermen not looking anything like the ones who came from Mondas.
A definite unseen adventure is the Doctor's first visit to Det-Sen Monastery in Tibet. This was in 1630, and he helped defend the monastery against Chinese bandits. He appears to have left before the situation was resolved, as he has to ask what happened. He also took the Ghanta for safe-keeping, so the monastery must have still been at risk when he left.
The Second Doctor spends more time on future Earth than any other incarnation, yet doesn't know about the Ice Age around 5000 AD, and is unaware that a world dictator looks just like him in the 21st Century. He doesn't know about T-Mat either.
In The Dominators, we hear that the Doctor has visited the planet Dulkis once before. He liked it so much that he stuck around for a while, and thinks it's a great place for a holiday. This visit must have been long before the development of nuclear weapons on the planet, as he doesn't know about the Island of Death.
One of the most talked about unseen adventures crops up in The Invasion, as the Cyber-Director recognises the Doctor and Jamie from Planet 14. On screen, the Cybermen have only been seen on Earth, on the Moon, and on Telos. Planet 14 might just be Telos, although they will later refer to that planet by its name, rather than by a number. I think we can safely say that this must be a reference to another unseen story. (A Sixth Doctor comic strip posits that Planet 14 is actually Marinus, where the Voord became Cybermen - something which The Doctor Falls seems to confirm. That story suggests that Cybermen evolve spontaneously across the universe, so Mondas wasn't unique in producing them).
Before we go, there is the small matter of The Five Doctors and The Two Doctors. The Second Doctor in the first of these stories knows that Jamie and Zoe are just illusions as they had their memory of him wiped at the conclusion of The War Games. (Not strictly true, as they were to retain their memories of their first encounter with him, but certainly neither should know who the Brigadier is). For the Doctor to know this he must come from a point in time after the trial, yet he's seen visiting the Brigadier at his UNIT reunion. The Two Doctors actually has the Doctor working for the Time Lords, and Jamie knows who the Time Lords are - so they cannot come from a time before The War Games. These stories have led to a theory known as Season 6b, which claims that the Doctor was forced to carry out some missions for the Time Lords between his trial, and his eventual regeneration and exile to Earth, and he was allowed at some point to have Jamie and Victoria travel with him again. It's hard to reconcile these stories with the Troughton era unless you accept Season 6b.

No comments:

Post a Comment