Ranking Doctor Who’s pure historicals

This week’s Doctor Who episode, Rogue, will be this era’s second jaunt into the past, and, as usual, it seems aliens will be following. But once upon a time, sometimes, the Doctor just walked into history, and walked out. The show’s early seasons were built around being a history and science fiction program, but not combined. So making use of the BBC’s vast costume department, William Hartnell’s era of Doctor Who became an excuse to teach kids history and dive into the rich complexities of the past.

I’ve long wanted a return – at least once – to this format, and whilst I’ve seen the surviving pure historicals in the past, I wanted to experience them all for the purposes of a list. Whilst sadly most of them have been purged from the archives, as they were frequently deemed to be “lesser” than the science fiction stories (although that mentality didn’t save Master Plan), they survive through audio and reconstructions, and many fans yearn for a return. So, to celebrate the Doctor’s latest trip into the past, let’s have a literal trip to the past into Doctor Who’s early years, with a 20 year later detour to start –

12. Black Orchid

One of John Nathan-Turner’s goals with his soft reboot of the show in 1982 was a return to the old formula, with four main characters and alternating sci-fi and history. Unfortunately, this two part oddity in the middle of Peter Davison’s first season really doesn’t justify itself, and is a waste of the format. The Doctor and his companions end up in the 1920s, the Doctor plays some cricket, Adric eats food, Tegan dances, Nyssa has a double and then BOOM MURDER MASKED KILLER LET’S RESOLVE THE PLOT. That’s it. Not very interesting.

Of all the fascinating historical events to explore, I’m confused why Terence Dudley decided to just… not do history at all, and just stick the characters into a bland cliche of the times. Sure, you can argue that George Cranleigh represents the dark side of British imperialism hidden under the wealth and prosperity of the mansion and that this reflects the coming darkness of Earthshock… but no way was that intentional. At all. This can’t be the last televised pure historical! We need another!

The “Doctor-lite” story was quietly invented in 1966

This Saturday’s Doctor Who episode, 73 Yards, looks set to be a major deviation from most Who episodes – the Doctor doesn’t seem to play a huge role at all. This is due to Ncuti Gatwa finishing his other projects, but in-universe, it means that in contrast to Boom, this week will focus entirely on Millie Gibson and Ruby Sunday.

The “Doctor-lite” was a recurrence during Russell T Davies’ first era, with Love and Monsters and Blink removing the main cast entirely, whilst Midnight and Turn Left split the regulars up into their episodes. This was so other episodes could be filmed at the same time, and they’re certainly memorable episodes (if not entirely successful in Love and Monsters’ case!)

Since then, there have been some “mild” examples of double banking the regular casting, such as The Girl Who Waited and Flatline locking the Doctor up in the TARDIS whilst Matt Smith and Peter Capaldi filmed Closing Time and Mummy on the Orient Express respectively, and it’s this type of Doctor lite I THINK might be happening. Even the spin-offs did these types of episodes – Sarah Jane Adventures gave Elisabeth Sladen a story off every season, Torchwood split episodes between Gwen and the rest of the team as a double bank… even Class did it! Welcome to British TV!

BUT… what if I told you that removing the Doctor from the story, as a narrative device to overcome production difficulties, did NOT start in 2006? 40 years previously, a quietly revolutionary story became the template for the revival… or at least it would if a single frame of it survived.

The final thirteen Doctor Who missing storylines: The case for each

Go back in time to 1968 and tell someone who’s been watching and enjoying Patrick Troughton’s Doctor, that in fifty year’s time the majority of his stories will be given new life as animations. At the beginning of the month, The Evil of the Daleks were announced, and The Abominable Snowman is also on the way (it’s not been officially announced, but it’s next, trust me). That gives us 13 stories until every single Doctor Who story is available on DVD. Which is INSANE. So let’s break them all down and I’ll try and figure out the order they’re going to be made, because make no mistake, I can guarantee that all of them are going to be made –

The case for… Marco Polo

Marco Polo looks like he’s been sent to the principal’s office and the Doctor’s his very disappointed granddad.

The show’s first lost epic, Marco Polo is a sprawling seven part serial that’s been lost to legend. The narrated soundtrack exists of course, as does the novelisation, but the original tapes are missing even though the rest of the premier season is pretty much intact. Despite this serial’s popularity, I don’t think we’re getting this any time soon. For starters, animation is expensive, and there’s seven parts to handle. The Evil of The Daleks is based on Dalek models that already exist, plus it’s not purely historical with dozens of costumes and location changes. Marco Polo literally takes place over MONTHS. It’s a huge story. And with no surviving episodes or even any footage (unlike Evil), all we have are telesnaps and behind the scenes photographs to animate this vast adventure. That’s a pretty big hurdle. It’ll happen one day, but I think the animation team will want to tackle other historicals first before doing this, one of the crown jewels of missing serials.