My project to list my favourites of every era of Doctor Who continues! You can read The One List right here.

Top 20 Second Doctor Stories

The Mind Robber – one of the most wonderfully bonkers Doctor Who stories of all time, every second of this one is burned on to my soul. Thank goodness it survived or we’d never have believed it was this good.The Highlanders – glorious adventure which is one of the best examples of how to use a three companion TARDIS crew, giving perfect storylines to each character. Funny, clever and a bit political. The true historicals went out in style. I fell in love with Ben and Polly because of the novelisation of this story, but the audio version also works really well.The War Games – excellent serial which somehow cannot be watched too many times, so basically magic. Hartnell serial storytelling for the Troughton era – pure gold.The Enemy of the World – it’s just so good. Tightly plotted with so much to say, and excellent performances from all the main cast and guest starsThe Faceless Ones. Gorgeous, creepy and packed with character moments, this story might suffer slightly from the loss of Ben and Polly in the middle but Jamie and Sam more than make up for it as an unexpected one-off dream team. Excellent production and scripting, high concept… the recent animation release pushed it up into a top position.The Invasion – an iconic story for so many reasons, but also just jolly good epic storytelling in its own right.The Web of Fear — massively overrated and yet somehow still really, really great. Anne Travis deserves all the love and so does our Brigadier even if he’s only a Colonel. Wonderful iconic story.Fury From The Deep — super creepy, great premise, excellent and respectful writing out of a companion. It works brilliantly on audio and I can’t wait to see the animated version which JUST arrived.The Three Doctors – a splendid Second Doctor romp in which he is forced to join forces with his future self and face off against Omega, with only his trusty recorder as a companion. And Jo, sometimes.The Ice Warriors — simply epic, a classic base under siege with some fascinating future world building and a great new ‘monster’The Tomb of the Cybermen — one of the first stories to Return in a way that was suitably dramatic, this excellent SFF thriller still holds up apart from the racist bits. The visuals are extraordinary. Victoria and the cybermat is one of the all-time great moments. Do not put it in your handbag!The Abominable Snowmen — I like this one loads and the animated eps help a LOT.The Evil of the Daleks – one of the more interesting shifts in Dalek storytelling, shame they didn’t go further with that whole human factor thing at the time. Great (if horrid) introduction of epic new companion Victoria via family murder, a tradition that keeps on giving.The Underwater Menace — ambitious, great fun and full of some excellent nonsense. I do enjoy how often they try to give Ben water/nautical subplots.The Power of the Daleks – a good bit of space base drama with some clever Dalek moments and (more importantly) some excellent Ben and Polly moments as they try to figure out what on earth has happened to their newly-regenerated Doctor.The Seeds of Death – lots of good bits.The Macra Terror — great premise, solid story. The new animated version is great except for Polly’s hairThe Five Doctors – worth a mention for the glorious re-team up between Two and the Brig, who get some of the best material in this unholy mash up of nostalgia chaosThe Two Doctors – another excellent team up story that shows off the sharper edge of Troughton’s Doctor, plus was the space vessel that launched Season 6A, a glorious piece of fannish headcanon that took on a life of its own.The Dominators and the Krotons – I honestly cannot tell these two stories apart.

MY FAVE SECOND DOCTOR ERA CALLBACKS

Polly in the Five Companions – specifically the bit where the Fifth Doctor asks if she ever sees anything of Ben and she replies “I see all of him every day.”Polly & Ben Cyberman 10th anniversary photo spread in the Radio Times (1977) which allowed us to see these characters in colour for the first time.Sarah wearing Victoria’s Dress in Pyramids of MarsThe Cybermat my mother made me as a small child, and the 2nd generation of tiny cloth Cybermats she then made for my own children.That bit in Robot of Sherwood where they show us the face of Patrick Troughton in an old Robin Hood.