A tough one this time, for a 1960's fan like myself especially.
This round sees the first William Hartnell season compete against his last (which was also Patrick Troughton's first). Season 4 featured Hartnell in only the first two stories, after which Troughton took over for the remainder.
Season 1 comprises An Unearthly Child, The Daleks, The Edge of Destruction, Marco Polo, The Keys of Marinus, The Aztecs, The Sensorites and The Reign of Terror.
The companions throughout are Ian, Barbara and Susan, and behind the scenes the production team was a stable one - Producer Verity Lambert and Story Editor David Whitaker.
We are fortunate in that the vast majority of this season has survived. Only one story is missing in its entirety - Marco Polo - plus two episodes from The Reign of Terror (although these have been animated).
The season balances sci-fi stories with historical ones, including two of the most highly regarded - Marco Polo and The Aztecs. Other than the Daleks, there aren't many aliens on view here - only really the Voord and the Sensorites. The first story has a fantastic opening episode, but even the production team were unhappy with the three episodes which followed - thinking it a weak launch to the series.
The Daleks is such an influential story, but it does show some padding in the second half.
The Keys of Marinus is interesting in that it is a quest story, comprising different segments in different locations, with different threats in each. The Voord are under-utilised, however. We get our first spaceship in The Sensorites, and the titular aliens are better presented than the Voord were.
The companions at the start of the season are Ben and Polly, but they are soon joined by Jamie in The Highlanders. Ben and Polly depart in The Faceless Ones, and we see the arrival of Victoria Waterfield in Evil of the Daleks. The Producer throughout is Innes Lloyd, but Story Editor Gerry Davis departs part way through the final story, replaced by Peter Bryant.
This season includes the first ever regeneration, the first appearance of the Cybermen, the final pure historical story, and two of the most highly regarded Dalek stories. The Cybermen have been introduced to help replace the Daleks, and they are quickly brought back in a story which is almost a rerun of the first, with the Cybermen themselves fully redesigned. The era of the base-under-siege begins here.
The historical stories are phased out. These are genre-history stories, based more on classic adventure novels than academic history.
This season is particularly badly hit by the episode wiping that went on from 1967 to 1977. The Highlanders was wiped only a month or two after its broadcast. Luckily a lot of what is now missing has been covered by animation, so we can have a relatively good idea of what they might have looked like. Most animations are faithful to the original episodes, although The Macra Terror uses the medium to give us things which could never have been achieved on screen.
Only the two historicals lack episodes or animations, but we do have the soundtracks and telesnaps to go by.
As much as I love Season 1, the winner for me has to be Season 4, mainly because of the wide variety of stories on show. It also benefits from having two Doctors, two Cyberman stories and two Dalek stories - all good ones. Only The Underwater Menace lets the season down, but even that has some arresting images and sound design.
Next time: the final bout of Round 1. Season 2 versus Season 14.
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