Episode: 4620
Title: The Second Doctor, Part 1
Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr4620/hpr4620.mp3
Transcribed: 2026-07-31 16:15:18 (official HPR transcript)

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This is Hacker Public Radio Episode 4620, for 2026-04-17
Today's show is entitled, "The Second Doctor, Part 1"
The host is Ahuka and the duration is 00:13:16
The flag is Clean, and the license is CC-BY-SA
The summary is "We start a look at the Second Doctor Who, Patrick Troughton."
Hello, this is a hookah welcome you to Hacker Public Radio and another exciting episode in our ongoing series on science fiction and fantasy
And we're talking again about Dr. Who
Previously we looked at the first doctor and
You know at a certain point he just became unable to continue and
In most shows that would have been the end of the show now
There have been occasional situations of
A new actor coming in and taking over a previous actor's role, but they're unusual
Particularly when you're the lead actor and the focus of the show
But that did happen here and the reason is Patrick Trouton
Because he is he's the reason we're still talking about Dr. Who
He took over the lead role in a popular and successful show and continued the success
It might have been a disaster, but it wasn't and
Trouton did not attempt to be another heart and all he had his own distinct way of playing the part
He established the principle that the personality of the doctor changes when he or she regenerates
This made it much easier on all the actors and followed him in the role and
Each one has been very distinctive and how they embodied the doctor
Sadly many of his episodes and some complete stories are missing now due to the short-sighted policy of the BBC
That they would discard older shows in many cases wiping video tapes for reuse
Of course you can't blame them too much since I doubt anyone in the 1960s would have believed that the show would still be going over
60 years later
But there is always hope that some more episodes will be recovered
There are people who collect old TV shows in various formats such as film and video tape and it is virtually
Certain that some missing doctor who episodes still exist in private collectors hands though how many is not known
Now to take the place of the missing episodes we have in
Reconstructions in a number of cases some of them using tell us snaps
Telly snaps are photos taken of the monitor screen and
You can
Put those together is almost like a storyboard of what the story is and they always had the soundtracks
Because a lot of a lot of kids and maybe older people as well would tape the
Audio tape the show when it was broadcast
Then there's animations and there've been a number of those
And there's even for a few trout and stories where fans have restage the stories a stage place
And I've watched some of those on YouTube so there are ways to experience at least a little of these missing episodes
And even as I write this, there are indications that more episodes may be found and returned to the BBC
Now trout and took over in the third story of season four which aired in late
And his first story was power of the Daleks
This is the first story for Patrick Trouton is the doctor and starting with the Daleks was a smart move
There were so popular that they guaranteed a good audience and would get trout enough to a good start
The Tardis lands on a planet called Vulcan
Where a scientist has found a derelict ship containing a few Daleks
He thinks he can bring them back to life and won't listen to the doctor who tries to warn him
Meanwhile rebels on Vulcan are trying to overthrow the government there
In the end the scientists sacrifices himself to stop the Daleks
The rebels do succeed in overthrowing the fascist dictator and all as well for now
Ben and Polly are
Along as the companions
Continuing their stay in the Tardis after starting with the first doctor in the war machines
Now this is one of the completely missing stories
But there is an animated version which is available on DVD where you can watch it on YouTube and I've put a link in the show notes
Next was the Highlanders
It's another historical story
Now historical stories would largely be dropped
Around this point
But this one takes us to the Battle of Kalodin in 1746
Where the last gasp of the Jacobite rebellion was snuffed out by the English army
The Tardis crew are first captured by the Scots
Who are not kindly disposed to people who are obviously English
Then they are captured by the English who have decided their traders and want to hang them
After various adventures they get away and bring with them a young Scottish lad named Jamey
Jamey McCrimon who becomes the third member of the Tardis team when he promises to teach the doctor to play the bagpipes
Now
This is just an average historical story
The most memorable part of it is the introduction of Jamey as
They truly beloved companion and he would stay with the doctor all the way through the end of Trouton's run
So there was only one Trouton story that Jamey was not a companion
And the fellow who
The whole who plays him is still in high demand as a guest
Dr. Who conventions around the world his name is Frazier Hines
He was not actually intended to be a companion at first
Now they had shot two endings one where he joins the doctor and another where he is left in Scotland
Well, they did decide to keep him
But in the next few stories for which scripts had already been written
He is less central to the plot and sometimes gets lines originally written for another character
Now, this is another story where all the episodes are missing though there are reconstructions available
Then there is the underwater menace
um, and this is an example of
High Kitch
So bad that it's good the Tardis team arrives on an island formed by an extinct volcano
Where they are brought underground to a sunken city
They are told that their arrival was foretold by the goddess of the city and that they would be sacrificed
Now they're rescued by a scientist who is known to the doctor
But it turns out he has gone quite mad
The city is Atlantis and he says he will raise it but his plan involves blowing up everything with nuclear bombs
Underwater scene of swimming ladies that is absolutely hilarious
But it is an inventive little story
The scene of the mad scientist raging as he disappears under the water is pretty good too, and it can't be like
Now as we mentioned
Early in Patrick Fountain's run as the doctor
This show decided to drop
Most of the history and focus more on monsters and science fiction to compete with shows like lost in space and land of the giants
Now this particular
Story is missing two of the four episodes but reconstructions exist for the two missing episodes
Then here's the moon base
The cybermen are back and this time they're attacking a base on the moon
They have been infiltrating the base through a hole in the basement wall
Which is where you scratch your head and wonder why the air doesn't all leak out through this hole
But ignoring that
How about since the cybermen are still significantly organic how are they breathing in a vacuum
Still the doctor puts the emphasis on science as a way to defeat them
The return of the cybermen was sufficiently popular for them to become the acknowledged second best
Enemy of the doctor after the Daleks of course
And as such they would come back again in several of Troutton stories and continued up to the present to be featured in Dr.
Now this story is also missing two of its episodes
But they have been animated so you can get a decent experience of the story now and there is at least one decent jump scare here
Next story the macrotera
The macra made an appearance in the David Tenant story gridlock
But this is where they began
The tardis materializes on a planet where a colony seems very happy
Except for one malcontent who claims he has seen huge crab like beings at night
Then the doctor sees them as well, but no one else seems to notice them
It turns out these creatures are very good at
Conditioning people to not see them and to believe what they are told to believe
Ben ends up brainwashed by them though the others escape this
And the colony is busily engaged in producing some kind of gas and this turns out to be essential to the macra
Oxygen is poisonous to them they need this gas
Finally Ben breaks his conditioning and rescues the other and the macra are defeated
When they reappeared in gridlock
I was never clear to me what the purpose was
It just looked like an Easter egg for long time fans and was never explained or justified
This is another story that is missing all of its episodes in the original form
But an animated version has been released and is available on DVD and on YouTube and again link in the show notes
And finally the faceless ones
This is a very good inventive story that purports to take place at Catwick Airport
Though it is of course not really shot there, but it is a smaller place nearby
The tardis materializes there and the first problem is that none of them have passports
This is the only thing that matters to the immigration people of the airport
Meanwhile something puzzling is going on with a company called Kameleon tours
One young lady, played by Pauline Collins, is trying to find out what happened to her brother,
who went on a tour with them, sent a postcard, and then vanished
It turns out that the folks running Kameleon tours are an alien race of shapeshifters
Hence the faceless ones who are kidnapping people to help repopulate their planet
The obvious plattle is that this would involve repopulating with people, not Kameleons
But never let that get in the way of what is otherwise a nice romp full of action in suspense
Now a production team was hoping to get Collins as a companion, but she turned them down
At the end Ben and Pauli take advantage of the fact that they are on earth at the proper time
And decide to leave the tardis and get on with their lives
So now only Jamie is left
But I bet that won't be true for long
Now for this story four of the six episodes are missing
But again, this is a story that got to complete animation treatment as before
You can purchase the DVD or watch it on YouTube link in the show notes
So this is a hookah for our hacker public radio signing off and encouraging you to support free software. Bye bye
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