The Smugglers The Tenth Planet Power of the Daleks The Highlanders The Underwater Menace The Moonbase The Faceless Ones Evil of the Daleks

BBC Season Four

• Change and Renewal by Alex Keaton

Change and Renewal by Alex Keaton 7/5/01

Season 4 refurbishes the experimental notions of seasons 2 and 3 by basically supplying the series with a fresh new lease of life, in both the literal sense of change in the main character himself, and the underlying renewal in the formatting approach. Season 4 advances on a whole new range of Doctor Who mythology by again injecting a new, original and definitive dimension to it - that of the Doctor's ability to regenerate. The eccentric, aging scientist played by Hartnell changes into a clownish, whimsical, avuncular and 'cosmic hobo' played by Patrick Troughton and a whole new list of possibilities is opened up for the future of the series.

Troughton complies with the original traits of the Doctor by retaining the character's intellect and moralistic codes while injecting a whole new persona into the character, often Troughton himself would cover up forgotten lines by pulling out and playing a tune on his recorder and thus draw even more of a comic element to the character. At the time when Troughton became the Doctor, many viewers disliked him claiming that he was too comical and too hard to understand but little did they realise that this was indeed a virtue as it meant that he had succeeded in re-defining the character into the mysterious enigma that had originally been devised for Doctor Who. Had he been a mere replica of Hartnell's Doctor, or too like him, the idea of regeneration never would have done exactly what the series' needed - to open up the character's versatility, unpredictability and most of all, tolerance.

There is an innocence that is drained from the series format in this season as the production team decide to abolish the historical visits from the format - marked for one last time in The Highlanders. The overwhelming educational input previously aspired is thus relinquished with it and the series' credibility is expanded, now speculated by a more scientifically intellectual and good versus evil approach - and this is a good thing as it becomes more entertaining, less confined and maintains its originality to increase the series to a higher quality of sophistication. The Doctor even underlines his new found quest of traveling to different planets and defeating evil when Troughton makes his excellent speech: "There are some corners of the universe that have bred the most terrible things. Things that act against everything we believe in. They must be fought."

The first phase of the series' beginning was over, Hartnell had introduced us to the series and now Troughton, along with the production team, would open up new areas for it to explore and complete the experimentation ignited in Season 2. They had already succeeded in securing the series future for the time being, with a new actor in the lead speculating as a cause for great improvement in ratings (the highest being The Moonbase with an average of 8.3 million viewers) but would now have to continue their pace for, forever, would the series keep changing...

Awards; Season 4

It was quite a formidable task this time, as this was season was caught up in sort of experimenting for the new Doctor and didn't concentrate on stories as heavily, but here are the achievements for this season anyway...

The Evil of the Daleks: (4) - Best Serial, Best Director ( Derek Martinus), Best Acting by the regular cast, Best Art Direction.

The Tenth Planet: (2) - Best Sound, Best Visual Effects.

The Power of the Daleks: (2) - Best Original Screenplay (David Whittaker), Best Cliffhanger Sequence (Part 2) - The Doctor attempts to warn the colnists of the danger of the daleks but fails as his cries are drained over by a grating, metallic voice...

The Macra Terror: (1) - Best Supporting Cast Actor (Peter Jeffrey as the Pilot).

The Moonbase: (1) - Best Music.

The Smugglers: (1) - Best Costume Design.

The Underwater Menace: (1) - Best Make Up.