- So, I guess you're wondering
just what was the Third Doctor like
immediately after regeneration.
In this video I talk all
about the post-regeneration
of the Third Doctor in
the "Doctor Who" episode
Spearhead from Space, coming up.
(mechanical whooshing)
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Long, long ago in a galaxy far away,
I started my post-regeneration
analysis videos
looking at the first
episode of a new Doctor
after they have regenerated.
The series, unfortunately,
has fallen into neglect
on this channel.
I thought it was about
time I resurrected it.
So without further ado,
I jump straight back in to start
in the next episode in the series,
which is analyzing the first
episode of the Third Doctor
played by Jon Pertwee.
The first thing of note
is this is the only regeneration episode
that we actually saw on the screen,
bar seven to eight, where the Doctor,
the new Doctor doesn't inherit
the, kind of the permanent
companions of his predecessor.
So we've got a one to two, no, no,
three to four had someone,
four to five had someone,
five to six had someone,
six to seven had someone,
eight to nine doesn't matter,
nine to 10, yes, 10 to 11, yes.
Every single other doctor regeneration
that we saw on-screen in the series
had the previous
incumbent's companion there.
This is the first one
where we not only did we get a new Doctor,
but also we got a new
companion at the same time
in Liz Shaw.
Arguably, you could say the Brigadier
did know the Doctor before,
but he wasn't with the
Doctor when he regenerated
and so it doesn't really count.
Plus he's not really
a full time companion.
No, wait, wait.
Of course, 12 to 13 didn't
have a companion, of course.
How can I forget 13th Doctor?
No, 12 and 13.
Yes, that's the only other one
besides seven to eight where
the companion wasn't there
and we got a new set of companions.
Anyway, rewind back to where we were.
Yes, so we didn't get the
usual stuff with the companions
not trusting the Doctor
'cause it's a new face
and we have to go through
that whole explanation process
of them coming to trust the Doctor
and him explaining who he is
and why he has changed his
face, that kind of stuff.
So it was quite refreshing.
We've got a little bit of explanation
that kind of was thrown in very quickly
and very briefly when the Brigadier
finally comes face to
face with this person
who is reporting to be the Doctor
when he's in the hospital bed.
But really apart from that,
that's all the explanation you get.
And actually to be fair to the Brigadier,
he just accepts it.
He kind of is a little bit
suspicious to begin with,
but when the Doctor
finally walks into the lab
and demands the key to the TARDIS,
he's kind of accepted it by
then that he is the Doctor,
which, again, is quite refreshing.
The Brigadier is quite a
pragmatic character anyway
and he's seen a lot,
he's witnessed a lot in
his tenure with UNIT,
so I suppose he's naturally
going to be more flexible
to the idea of the Doctor
being a different person
and it just kind of works.
It's just kind of natural in the episode,
which is quite nice.
So do we get the usual manic
post-regeneration episode
that we tend to get with the
Doctor who's regenerating?
We did get a little bit of
it in Power of the Daleks
and we get a smidge of it
again with the Third Doctor
in the sense that he is effectively,
he collapses out of the TARDIS
and he's picked up by UNIT
and taken it to the
local cottage hospital.
And he spends most of the
first couple of episodes
either lying in bed groaning or moaning,
or being tried to be
kidnapped by plastic soldiers.
So I suppose in some ways his predicament
in the fact that he's collapsed,
the fact he is lying in bed
and he is actually quite feverish
and he's quite kind of
erratic in his behavior
in such that he is trying to
get out of his hospital bed
and escape.
Well, being fair,
getting out of his hospital
bed to find his shoes,
'cause that's where he's
put the spare TARDIS key.
As we know, the Autons
tried to kidnap the Doctor
when they realized that he
might be a threat to their plan
and subsequently the Doctor
escapes in his wheelchair
and goes buzzing around
the hospital campus
and somehow ends up in the woods
and get shot by a trigger
happy UNIT soldier
and ends up back into the hospital again.
And I think this is where you
get to see a little bit more
of what we know now as the
post-regeneration energies
taking effect,
where he does get shot not
fatally by the soldier,
but he does get shot and
the wound on his head
and he effectively puts himself in a coma.
I like to think that is
because he's completing
his regeneration
and he's using that
leftover artron energy,
was it regeneration energy?
You know, it made the
hand and things like that.
I think that was him
consciously doing that
to complete his regeneration
and to get all his faculties
back in the right order.
Because soon after he
awakes from that coma,
he is (speaks foreign language),
he knows exactly what he's doing.
And this is the point where
he chooses his new outfit
and escapes from the hospital
to go and find the TARDIS.
So it's very much at the point
where he reawakens himself from the coma,
he becomes 100% the new Doctor.
The way he picks his outfit is quite nice.
I'm pretty confident that it
might have been a callback,
but if you remember the 11th doctor,
when he picks his new outfit,
he also goes through a,
I think, I'm pretty confident it was,
yes, it was,
he goes through a doctor's changing room
and picks his outfit from the
clothes that are lying around.
And back here in the 60s
you've got the Third Doctor
doing it for the first
time, doing it the same.
And it's quite nice that
he picks a frilly shirt
and he picks the cape and he picks the hat
from the consultant who has been called in
to review him who is no longer there.
And actually he goes
ahead and steals his car,
which is a forerunner for Bessie.
I've seen this episode
before and I didn't catch it,
there's a little quote right
at the end of the episode
where the Doctor talks about
his terms and conditions
for working for UNIT,
and he asked for a car.
Now, I didn't, just
never heard that before.
I think following that, once
the Doctor gets his outfit,
once he finds the TARDIS
with, with, again,
I've never seen this one
before, a homing watch,
he points to his watch and
says, this homes in the location
of the TARDIS.
Have we ever seen that again
in any other incarnation of the Doctor,
in any other episode, him
wearing a homing watch?
Don't know.
And likewise, the
metabolism lock on the key,
I think we've seen other things
about how he can open the TARDIS,
obviously clicking the fingers,
the TARDIS naturally opening,
and things like that.
But have we seen the genetic
lock on the key as well?
Not too sure.
I'm sure all the companions,
certainly new Who,
have used the key to open it before.
But certainly once he's back
in the lab with Liz Shaw
and he's investigating
the antics of the Autons
and what is going on in
the plastics factory,
it is all new Doctor.
The regeneration has gone,
the Second Doctor has
completely been dispensed.
And apart from the classic
rubber face bit with the mirror,
that is all the reference
you get to regeneration.
There is one point, one
point in this episode,
Spearhead from Space, where
you do see a little bit,
just a little bit of the Second Doctor
coming through in the
Third Doctor's performance.
If you remember the bit where
the Doctor persuades Liz
to steal the key for the
TARDIS from the Brigadier,
and he takes a key, goes into the TARDIS,
of course, he's gonna find
his science experiment,
his lab, and then tries to escape
and you see the TARDIS going
and the Brigadier gets really annoyed,
because he said, that's
what he's going to do.
And he comes out with all the smoke
and the Brigadier proceeds to tell him off
about trying to leave.
He sits down in the lab,
he kind of swings his legs
and he kind of looks a bit
dejected and a bit childlike.
And that really reminded
me of the Second Doctor.
For me, I think the
introduction of the Third Doctor
feels very organic,
it's certainly one of
the most organic ways
of introducing the Doctor
that think I can remember.
The way he goes from an invalid in the bed
to the full fledged
fully formed Third Doctor
is done in a really nice organic
way through the storyline
and it doesn't feel forced,
it doesn't feel shoehorned in.
In fact, it becomes part
of the Spearhead from Space storyline,
as the Doctor is woven into
what's going on with the Autons,
and the plan they've
got to dominate earth.
And by the end of it,
you've actually forgotten
that the Second Doctor has regenerated
into the Third Doctor in the first place.
So what do you think of
Spearhead from Space?
What do you think of the regeneration
from the Second Doctor
into the Third Doctor?
Stick a comment in the comments below
and let me know what you think.
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- [Man] Yeah, all right.
- Sau Til is all about
celebrating the awesomeness
that is a TV show "Doctor Who".
I'll be back soon with some more
"Doctor Who" related videos,
as well as some more videos
in this post-regeneration
and analysis series.
Until next time, cheerio for now, bye bye.
