Season 2 (Doctor Who 1963)

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You may wish to consult Series 2 for other, similarly-named pages.

Season 2 of Doctor Who ran from 31 October 1964 to 24 July 1965. It starred William Hartnell as the First Doctor, Carole Ann Ford as Susan Foreman, William Russell as Ian Chesterton, Jacqueline Hill as Barbara Wright, Maureen O'Brien as Vicki Pallister and Peter Purves as Steven Taylor. The season opened with Planet of Giants and concluded with The Time Meddler.

Overview

It consisted of nine serials comprised of thirty-nine episodes. Milestones this season included not one but two encore appearances by the Daleks; the departure of the original three companions, Susan Foreman, Barbara Wright and Ian Chesterton; and the first appearance of someone else from the Doctor and Susan's home planet, and the first Time Lord enemy to appear.

Amongst the black and white seasons, season 2 has the most extant telerecordings; only the two missing episodes of The Crusade have not been recovered as of 2022.

Television stories

# Title Writer Episodes Notes
1 Planet of Giants Louis Marks 3 First story other than the pilot episode to be set on present day Earth. First story to be written by Louis Marks and the first to have an episode directed by Douglas Camfield.
2 The Dalek Invasion of Earth Terry Nation 6 Final regular appearance of Susan Foreman and first encore appearance of an enemy with the Daleks return.
3 The Rescue David Whitaker 2 First appearance of Vicki.
4 The Romans Dennis Spooner 4 First story to feature the talents of a major actor with Derek Francis as Nero.
5 The Web Planet Bill Strutton 6 First appearance of a Great Old One.
6 The Crusade David Whitaker 4 First story with a true multi-ethnic cast. First story to be fully directed by Douglas Camfield.
7 The Space Museum Glyn Jones 4 First story to depict the dimensions of time and space.
8 The Chase Terry Nation 6 First appearance of Steven Taylor and final appearances of Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright. First, and only, televised appearance of the Mechanoids.
9 The Time Meddler Dennis Spooner 4 First appearance of the Monk, and of another member of the Doctor's species, though not yet identified as Time Lords.

Notes

  • Planet of Giants is notable in that it is one of few Classic Who stories to not have had a making-of documentary produced as part of the DVD range for its release on that medium. As noted on the DVD release, this was due to the lack of individuals involved in the story still being alive, with only William Russell and Carole Ann Ford surviving to the release.

Cast

Recurring

Guest

Stories set before this season

The following stories are the known stories set between the Season 1 finale The Reign of Terror and the Season 2 opener Planet of Giants.

Novels

BBC Past Doctor Adventures

Short stories

Doctor Who Magazine

Short Trips

Audio

The Companion Chronicles

Short Trips

The Early Adventures

The First Doctor Adventures

Stories set during this season

Novels

Virgin Missing Adventures

BBC Past Doctor Adventures

Short stories

Decalogs

Short Trips

The Target Storybook

Audio

The Companion Chronicles

Short Trips

The Early Adventures

The Lost Stories

Specials

Comics

Give-a-Show-Projector

Ratings

  • Average: 10.5 million
  • Highest: 13.5 million (The Web Planet episode 1 - "The Web Planet")
  • Lowest: 7.7 million (The Time Meddler episode 3 - "A Battle of Wits")

Adaptations and merchandising

Home media

VHS releases

  • Planet of Giants (2002)
  • The Dalek Invasion of Earth (1990) (in 2 parts)
  • The Rescue/The Romans (1994)
  • The Web Planet (1990)
  • The Crusade and The Space Museum (1999) (Contains episodes 1 and 3 of The Crusade with narration of missing episodes)
  • The Chase (1993)
  • The Time Meddler (2002)
  • The Hartnell Years (1991) (The Crusade Episode 3)

Loose Cannon VHS releases

  • The Crusade (2000) (episodes 2 and 4 only, with narration of existing episodes)

DVD & Blu-ray releases

Serial name Number and duration
of episodes
R2 release date R4 release date R1 release date
Planet of Giants 3 × 25 min 20 August 2012 5 September 2012 11 September 2012
The Dalek Invasion of Earth 6 × 25 min. 9 June 2003 13 August 2003 7 October 2003
The Rescue/The Romans:
The Rescue (2 episodes)
The Romans (4 episodes)
6 × 25 min. 23 February 2009 2 April 2009 7 July 2009
The Web Planet 6 × 25 min. 3 October 2005 3 November 2005 5 September 2006
The Space Museum/The Chase:
The Space Museum (4 episodes)
The Chase (6 episodes)
10 × 25 min. 1 March 2010 6 May 2010 6 July 2010
The Time Meddler 4 × 25 min. 4 February 2008 2 April 2008 5 August 2008
Lost in Time: William Hartnell

The Crusade (episodes 1 & 3 of 4; soundtracks of 2 & 4)

2 × 25 min.
+ 2 × 25 min. audio
1 November 2004 2 December 2004
(Original release)
1 July 2010
(Re-release)
2 November 2004
The Collection - Season 2 39 x 25 min. 5 December 2022 TBA TBA

Download/streaming availability

Serial name Amazon Video BritBox (US) BritBox (Canada) iTunes
Planet of Giants
(3 episodes)
The Dalek Invasion of Earth
(6 episodes)
UK
The Rescue
(2 episodes)
The Romans
(4 episodes)
The Web Planet
(6 episodes)
The Crusade
The Space Museum
(4 episodes)
The Chase
(6 episodes)
The Time Meddler
(4 episodes)

BritBox is available only in the US and Canada. iTunes stores carry Doctor Who serials in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the UK and US.

Novels

Audiobooks

  • The Crusade

Theatrical film

External links