30. The Power of the Daleks

Hello Patrick Troughton and welcome to Doctor Who! And so begins the reign of the 2nd Doctor! With the genius story device of "regeneration" or "renewal" as they say at this point, the show was able to recast the lead actor with someone completely new and didn't have to look like their predecessor, quite the contrary in fact. And so from crotchety old man to the so-called cosmic hobo we go!

The great tragedy of the 2nd Doctor's tenure is that many of his episodes are missing from the BBC library. Season's 4 and 5 were hit the hardest, with only random episodes and film clips existing. The first victim is Patrick Troughton's debut story, The Power of the Daleks.

Who else but the Doctor's greatest enemy should come back to give this new Doctor a trial by fire. In the 50 year history of Doctor Who, the Daleks have kicked off a new season only a handful of times and they never battle the Doctor in his first episode post-regeneration again.

There are a few surviving clips and a trailer for this story which are wonderful little morsels that tease at a great feast that we will probably never see again.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Power_of_the_Daleks

Next exciting episode: The Highlanders!