Metal monsters in human form?  Self-programmed, semi-sentient and (more importantly) evil robotic life forms, evolved into a planet-conquering,galaxy-ravaging, warmongering race?  Yep, that’s the Cybermen.

Cold, logical, unfeeling and ruthless, their mission is almost always to capture and colonise a planet – and to convert the inhabitants into Cybermen themselves.  Conversion seems not to be a pleasant experience.  However, if you’re a woman, they replace your underwear first to preserve your dignity.  Don’t believe us?  Torchwood’ll tell you…

There are reasons for their Cyber villainy.  Not that you’d know it from the walking Kenneth Williams statues that John Lumic built.  But those ones are from an alternative dimension I suppose.  Sticking with this one, it’s sort of important to remember they were the unfortunate victims when the earth’s twin planet, Mondas (the home world of these Cyber-chaps), left its regular orbit around the sun and froze.

As the planet became less hospitable, they started trying to colonise other worlds.  Like Telos, where they built tombs where they could hang out in suspended animation until salvation came in the form of well-meaning human idiots; and Voga, where they were beaten by a group of frail, beardy fellas who happened to have some gold dust.

Having quite obviously watched too many re-runs of Top Gear on Dave while swigging far too many cans of Castrol GTX, the Cyber lads decided to hook up a propulsion system to Mondas and drive it round the universe looking for a 24-hour service station.

They were beaten by the Doctor on several occasions, but also at times with the help of others – for example, most fondly in the mind of a certain Ood Cast member, when someone in a lycra suit and crash helmet threw arrows at them in a quarry.  Other notable battles took place with Nazis and Elizabethan women (at the same time – who says metal men can’t multi-task, eh?) and with a group of Daleks – who rather unfairly pulled out a special box that produced more Daleks – in the Battle of Canary Wharf.

In the alternative universe – a place where dirigible flight was the best they could do while advertising had already reached the magical Daily Prophet level - John Lumic had “invented” the next stage in human evolution.  It would not end well.  They were beaten when the Doctor essentially confused them.  They then reappeared in Victorian Britain, using child labour and offcuts of shagpile carpet to build a Cyber King.  This, also, did not end well.  And was daft.

Essentials

First appearance: The Tenth Planet (1966)

Best story: Tomb of the Cybermen (1967).

Worst, but funniest story: Silver Nemesis (1988).

Most pointless and incompetent appearance: The Five Doctors (1983)

Weaknesses: Gold things – from gold teeth to dust.  Oh, and confusion.  So maybe a good defence might be to show them a photo of say, David Guest and ask them why he’s famous.  If they tell you, please let us know.  It’s one of life’s enduring mysteries…

Surely the greatest of all the Doctor’s foes.  Best-known horrors in the universe.   The first villainous creature from Who to get itself snapped by Lord Snowdon for a postage stamp, get its own movie deal, get voted as better than both Godzilla and Gollum in the same poll and to have a small, wheeled library stool named after it.  Also, of course, the first Doctor Who characters to find a regular position both on a condiments tray and in a plumber’s van.

Created by Davros to be the final and greatest weapon of the brutal Skaro civil war, the Daleks soon grew a little too big for their shiny metallic boots and disobeyed their creator.  Essentially weapon-wielding toddlers in over-sized walking frames constantly throwing paddies, they are mutated Kaleds (one of the humanoid native races of Skaro), which – depending on which particular part of the mythos you catch – are a sort of green-ish gooey blob with several legs, a kind of glass vial with something crammed into it or even an one-eyed leggy octopus in a sheltered motorised scooter.

But these tin squid cases have been an all-conquering, ruthless force in interplanetary warfare for more generations than you’ve had cups of tea (which, incidentally, they’re pretty nifty at serving to military leaders).  Devoid of emotions other than hatred, Daleks are efficient, authoritarian and determined to achieve complete conformity – by wiping out every non-dalek lifeform, race and species.    But occasionally they show some fear – and although that used to be when they came across a spiral staircase, later it happened when they were confronted by an angry, gun-toting female.

Over the millennia, Dalek life has been beset and divided by civil wars – initially between the Thal and Kaleds (or was that the Dals and the Thals), Imperial Daleks and Renegade Daleks, and later on with the Dalek version of Scientology – the Cult of Skaro…  But most recently we saw a new generation being created when Dalek DNA was accidently mixed with a packet of Smarties.

They have been defeated by the Doctor on numerous occasions, using various methods – including turning pacifist Thals into genocidal bludlusting Dalek killers, but much more commonly, using something to blow them up… volcanic explosions, self-destruct devices, straightforward bombs and the Hand of Omega have all been used the destroy dalek ships, and on at least one occasion, the building they were in was blown up to stop their attempts at conquest.

There’s little to distinguish between Daleks – they share speech patterns, tones and voices as well as thought processes and instincts… and not one has thought to embellish the catchphrase they first uttered on screen in 1963: “Exterminate”.  That’s a little lazy, right?

—-

Essentials:

First appearance: “The Daleks” [AKA “The Mutants”/ “The Survivors”] (1963)

Best story: Genesis of the Daleks (1976).  Or maybe “The Daleks” (1963)

Most inexplicable appearance: The Five Doctors (1983)

Favourite invention: Escalators

Weaknesses: Eyes on rather easy to snap off/cover up stalks.  Other than that, a bomb clearly seems to do the trick.

So, where was I…?  Oh yeah – somewhere, the 8th Doctor regenerated – as I said before, possibly during (or as a consequence of) the events of the Time War. But as we have no proof, however vague, let’s assume he was just bored to death by the advent of Big Brother in his absence from the screen and had to regenerate. Perhaps a foolish mistake for an experienced Time Traveller, but maybe a small gesture towards the dungheap of Reality TV… We’ll never know for sure. But just when Star Trek fans had started to think they could claim the longest-running series title… here’s the Oodcast Guide to what happened next: Doctors 9, 10 and 11.

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Ninth Doctor

Emerging from the swirling mists of time and onto a North London housing estate to pick up a cockney sparra and whisk her off around the universe, the Ninth incarnation of the Doctor looked for all the world like he’d just wandered out of the bookies after he backed a winner at 100/1 odds. His northern accent did nothing to move away from the stereotype. He was also hairless – a new image for the TARDIS’ designated driver.

In terms of companion, there was the cockney shop-girl, the unemployed Coronation Street actor/dull milksop character… oh, and the omnisexual, immortal cabaret performer.

But this ninth chap was energetic, fun-loving and naturally rather nosey – and although intelligent, quick-witted and very knowledgeable when it came to technological workings, he preferred to stick with the sonic screwdriver and a well-chosen pun in the face of danger. A little like the fourth Doctor, he was often jolly and cheerful when in company or confronting trouble, but melancholy and serious when alone.

During his time, he beat back a fresh invasion attempt by shop window dummies, discovered and then half-defeated the last remaining Dalek, Victorian ghosts, Rose’s should-be-dead dad and a Reaper who wants to make him dead again, children in gas masks, the bloke from Spaced and his hungry ceiling, and (if you were in any doubt as to whether it had anything for the kids) the green aliens distinguishable from other green aliens because they make that funny farting noise a lot… the Slitheen…

A brave and loyal friend, particularly to Rose, he regenerated having kissed her – not as a punishment, but because in doing so, he inhaled the Time Vortex’s energy – and re-emerged younger, skinnier, and in his Sunday best…

—-

Tenth Doctor

The Doctor’s ninth regeneration was a traumatic one, with the poor lamb needing a sleep once it was complete. And while he slept, the world nearly fell to an invasion by the family from the children’s classic Funny Bones. Happily, he woke up in time to beat the Big Skeleton using just a sword and a Satsuma.

And so began the era of the heartthrob Doctor. Good looking, eccentrically suave, sometimes cheeky and with a good mopey face when required, this Doctor was a sort of mixture of the third and fifth incarnations – with the former’s all-action style and enthusiasm for running about; and the youthful wisdom, naivety and touch of sadness like the latter.

Persuading companions to join him was simple (if they were female), and he travelled with the cockney shop girl, a cockney Doctor, and just for a change, a cockney temp… But he also encountered old friends in Sarah and the little tin doggy, was reunited with the Cabaret star and kept a civil face on for the shop-girl’s family and friends.

As for adventures, there were plenty… From cat nurses, werewolves and spiky queens to clockwork Frenchmen, deadly stone angels, interplanetary witches, small girls who could teach animators a thing or two about bringing things to life, northern comedians, robot Santas with Tuba guns, literally huge demons, face-stealing televisions, scarecrows, hungry shadows, fish people (who are all halfway through eating a glass), Aliens hidden under Roman volcanoes, walking diet pills, giant wasps, antsy headmasters and some older foes in a returning Davros, Cybermen, Daleks, Sontarans, Macra and the Master.

He should, of course, be best remembered for meeting the Ood. Without whom we would not have a podcast…

This Doctor’s end was long, drawn out, and I’m not really sure what did for him in the end. Perhaps it was the numbing inevitability. Nope, I remember. He regenerated having absorbed far more radiation than he should have) in order to save Bernard Cribbins so he could carry on with his plan to narrate a new series of the Wombles – at least, that’s what Bernard should be doing. A noble deed either way.

His reluctant firework display over, he went back to his childhood… Isn’t 903 too old for a mid-life crisis?

—-

Eleventh Doctor

Whether you see him as an old head on young shoulders, or simply a bent shoe coincidentally on the same coat hanger as a tweed jacket, the Eleventh incarnation is an exhilarating bundle of energy and floppy fringes. The Time Lord equivalent of Hugh Grant crossed with a Rugrat.

Old school in many ways, he is quick-tempered yet compassionate and bears more than a passing resemblance in manner to the second doctor. He’s the first to deploy sweeping the hair out of his eyes as a method of charming enemies, the second to pull off the bowtie and braces combination (it’s a classy man who can pull off the “Bobby Ball”), and the third to raid a hospital changing room for clothes.

Just a few months in, he’s already faced the threats of Daleks, Silurians, even deadlier deadly stone angels, a space snake with huge teeth, Star Whales, Smilers and gun-toting monarchs, vampirical fish women, a Dream Lord, a pilotless spaceship, a small stone prison and a paradox… Oh, and of course he faced an alien turkey in the crypt of a French church while visiting Vincent Van Gogh.

He also appears to be quite good at football, but I don’t think we need to go into that.

So, after a holiday and everything that surrounds a small Time Lord starting school (he’s doing fine, by the way), The Ood Cast Guide returns with the second of three instalments on our intrepid hero…

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Fifth Doctor

The Fifth incarnation came into being with rather a lot of difficulty, having to be carried around in what remained of the Zero Room to help his recovery from Post-regeneration trauma. No other Doctor suffered from this as badly (unless you count the 10th Doctor’s insistence that he needed bed rest…). And on top of this, he was also a few inches shorter and looked daft in such a big scarf.

Despite being dressed as an Edwardian cricketing gent, this Doctor was younger. While noble and wise with a strong compassionate streak, he was youthful in his wonder, enthusiasm and bravery, but also in his naivety and clumsiness.

He is particularly memorable for rarely being seen with less than three companions at any one time, and being the only Doctor to watch one of them die. His time also saw the destruction of the Sonic Screwdriver, and consequently the adoption of a sort of MacGuyver approach to Time Lord-ing…

In the 3 years he spent stumbling from battle to battle, he faced the threats of Daleks, Terileptils, the Master, Silurians and Sea Devils (along with their – ahem – glistening Myrka), demonic faces in the walls of 17th Century churches, Cybermen, a plot by the Black Guardian to kill him using a companion, the Mara and a deformed explorer who liked dressing up for parties.

His end came about in typically noble fashion, giving his companion all the vaccine for Spectrox Toximia while he regenerated into a bubble-permed bit part actor…

——-

Sixth Doctor

Nostalgia is not often kind to this incarnation. Tempestuous at the best of times, the sixth doctor was a rampaging torrent of blonde curly fury one moment, and a slightly shouty BFG the next – and in the rest of the time a little bit petulant and egotistical… starting from his first moments crammed into the cricketing blazer, when he tried to strangle Peri before recovering his senses (although let’s be honest, if you only heard the voice…).

And even with the temporal-boundary-defying (and headache inducing) fashion sense he displayed, this Doctor had to deal with far more earth politics than other doctors, as well as a full enough roster of aliens: from giant money-obsessed grubs, daleks and Gastropods (no, not a new range of poncey pubs) to Sontarans, a Gallifreyan take on the Femme Fatale, Audrey from the Little Shop of Horrors and in a slightly incomprehensible instance, the Cybermen…

All of which he coped with using his trademark mixture of grumpiness and annoyance, with the help of the vocal stylings of two female companions – a barely clothed American girl and the annoying little girl from Just William who “thcweamed and thwceamed until the wath thick” whenever something looked remotely threatening.

Understandably, he then went mental and let himself be tried on Gallifrey by a possible future incarnation of himself who wanted to steal his remaining lives.

Not sure how the end came about for this doctor, but I’m sure it was dignified.

What? What’s wrong with that?!

—–

Seventh Doctor

After a regeneration which had no bad side effects other than the appearance of an appalling wig and the deduction of several inches from his height, the seventh incarnation begun life as a sort of comical time-travelling gnome who seemed to choose a manic toothy grin as the best way to ignore the high-pitched wailing of his inherited companion.

However, despite the dodgy first steps, this was a doctor who went on much more of a progressive journey than many of his previous selves, and his next companion, Ace, would be the making of him – revealing both a darker, more determined and mysterious side to him.

A staunch pacifist, abhorring any kind of violence, he had a curious side as wide as the berth the production team ought to have given to that question mark tank-top, and his nosiness eventually outweighed the whimsical one. This Doctor was a skilful manipulator… his natural showmanship and ability to play the buffoon convincingly become the only weapon he liked using. It frequently meant he could slip in and out of places without being detected (although Lord knows how with that punctuation rash).

During his time in the TARDIS, he battled a number of familiar faces and some worrying new ones in strange places… such as space bounty hunters in Welsh holiday camps, Arthurian planet-wasting monsters next to a UNIT nuclear transport convoy, evils from the dawn of time in a Second World War military base, Daleks in 1960s London, an evolution-manipulating alien intent on assassinating a monarch in a Victorian Manor house, and cat-people (and the Master) in Perivale. Oh, and that’s not even mentioning the Cybermen, Nazis and Elizabethan strangers on the building site that became the Millennium Dome.

The end came when the Doctor was asked to transport the Master’s remains to Gallifrey after he was executed by the Daleks on Skaro. The Master managed to take control of the TARDIS and make it land in San Francisco. On emerging from the doors, he was predictably shot. Perhaps the most depressing of all Time Lord endings?

—-

Eighth Doctor

The briefest of all incarnations, this Doctor was a romantic soul who had no clue what was going on for most of the time. Half human and probably coping with the trauma of coming round in a body-store in a San Francisco morgue, he eventually showed himself to be a remarkable, enthusiastic and energetic incarnation with a fascination for people and the world around him.

His one outing contained a perilous (and seemingly endless) battle with the Master, some far too exciting car chases and the discovery that this doctor could walk through glass windows without breaking them first…

He dressed like a romantic poet, and enjoyed freaking people out by giving them small visions of their own future to encourage them to make good decisions.

It is thought that this doctor was the one involved in the Time War, regenerating into the 9th Doctor not long before he returned to the screens in 2005, but there’s nothing firm about this, and we still wait to find out how this incarnation regenerated… So hop to it, Mr Moffatt!

An Unearthly Child: The TARDIS scene and its arrival on a strange rocky plain.

While all of An Unearthly Child is a bit scary in a ‘what’s going on?’ way, the moment Barbara barges into the police box is when everything changes. Forget everything you have watched before, this is special and totally boggling. A bright, big SPACE SHIP! A scary man from another world! One of our heroes gets electrocuted; panic and confusion. Now the scary aliens are fighting over the controls, anything might happen, and it does! What’s that NOISE?? It’s the TV equivalent of the ground disapearing from beneath your feet – topped off with a police box standing in the middle of nowhere, covered by a menacing shadow. This is tea time in 1963, telly isn’t meant to DO that! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRsfKK34SFY&feature=related

The Daleks, The Expedition: The whirlpool effect

Our heroes are camped near a large lake on their way to find a way into the Dalek city. They hear a scream, and rush to discover Elyon, one of the Thals, has been dragged into the lake by a mutant. What the viewer actually sees is a massive whirlpool effect. It’s big and defies the brain’s attempt to make sense of how it was achieved. Must have been a huge monster! Gahhh.

…now fast forward twelve years to Andrew’s time. Tom Baker! Philip Hinchliffe! Robert Holmes! Scary!

The Seeds of Doom: End of part two

This one I don’t remember watching, but saw it in my dreams for days afterwards. They were awful nightmares, and I never forgot them. Years later, imagine my surprise when watching the video release of The Seeds of Doom, to find myself watching my recurring nightmare on telly.

It’s set in an antarctic research base, where two alien plant pods have been found. Some baddies have got wind of this and turned up to get the pods, but not before one of the pods turns someone into a big green tentacled plant with horrid rasping breathing. The baddies get the other pod, and tie the Doctor up in the base and Sarah in the power room with a time bomb. Meanwhile, scary-green-tentacles monster is on the loose. . . the Doctor gets free and saves Sarah, just as the scary green fella bursts in on them. They get away, or do they? It’s all a bit grim and ends with a great big explosion. I wake up terrified.

The Hand of Fear: Sarah finds the Hand

My first ever memory of actually watching Doctor Who. And it’s scary.

The Doctor and Sarah arrive in a barren rocky wasteland, and the Doctor declares with marvellous irony – nodding to a back catalogue of years of alien quarry landscapes – ‘We’re in a quarry!’ So far not scary. Then it goes bonkers. The quarry blows up – that’s an amazing sequence. Sarah is nowhere to be seen. Oh, that’s worrying. Sure she’ll be fine, though – the Doctor’s on the case. More toasted teacake please, Mum. The Doctor finds her – she’s in some space under a great big boulder, coughing in that inimitable Sarah way. Then she spots a stone hand. It’s creepy. She screams, and Dudley Simpson’s music does a uniquely big Dudley-Simpson-scary-moment. Toasted teacake everywhere.

The Deadly Assasin: That clown!

Part three of The Deadly Assassin is brilliant. I’m sure you know. It’s the one in the Matrix, the Time Lord Matrix that is. Oh, it’s amazing. Evil train drivers, a Samurai warrior, a scary surgeon, First World War imagery. The Doctor is on the run from all of the above, and is pretty thirsty. He hears running water from somewhere, but where? Is there a stream hidden beneath the sand perhaps? He bends down and sweeps away some sand, to find himself face to face with a blimmin clown! The clown laughs at him. It’s a scary derisory laugh that stayed in my poor head and no amount of toasted teacake would distract from it. How on earth could a clown be beneath that sand? Why, what, gahhhhh! Year’s later a Doctor Who magazine interview with David Tennant revealed that this was one of his all-time scariest memories of Who too. Well, how about that.

The Stones of Blood: Boom boom. Boom boom. Boom boom. Boom boom.

Big stones that can walk and suck your blood. And when they are thristy they make a scary sound: Boom boom. Boom boom. Boom boom. More nightmares. Gahhhhh.

The Power of Kroll: The Doctor nearly gets eaten by a great big scary squid.

This one genuinely terrified me and is the Doctor being his heroic best. One of his many Last Chance Saloons – testing a theory, and if he is wrong he’ll be no more, and if he’s right he’ll save everyone and they’ll all have the opportunity to make good on their mistakes and get a chance to live good lives.

There’s an enormous great big scary squid called Kroll. Kroll is more than a mile across and lives in a swamp. In a tale of science and so-called progress versus indigenous swamp dwellers the nasty exploitative scientists have been drilling for gas and using the swamp dwellers as slaves. Problem is they’ve inadvertently woken up Kroll. The swampies think Kroll is going to protect them from the nasty scientists, but Kroll has other ideas. Actually, he doesn’t have any ideas really. He’s just cross and hungry. And has got really long tentacles that pick off swampy and scientist alike. And even the Doctor. That was really scary. The Doctor in the grip of that tentacle, being dragged slowly towards that massive THING. I held on to my dad for dear life – and why was the sofa so blimmin close to the wall?? Fortunately Kroll was the fifth segment of the Key to Time, and the Doctor was jeeeeust able to convert him into his true form before becoming a tiny morsel. Pheeeewww. The thing was that I went nowhere near the deep end of a swimming pool for weeks. Or anywhere that a mile long tentacle could appear from.

Just recently, the Kroll prop was on sale at the Doctor Who props auction at Bonhams. If I’d had the money (haha, yeh right) I would have bid for it, set it up in my living room and pointed and laughed, going ‘Ner ner ne ner ner, not so scary now are you?’

City of Death: End of part one

Doctor Who is so clever at mining genres. Here we have a creepy inversion of body horror. Instead of someone inexorably turning into a big green tentacled plant or something, the villain of the story reveals that he’s not only a millionaire art criminal, he’s a ONE-EYED MONSTER! It was such a shock that there was probably another toasted teacake incident. This had just got bogglingly interesting. Doctor Who is good at being boggling. Wow. Scary green one-eyed monster with the technology to manufacture a well fitted convincing human mask that can blink, eat, drink, talk and everything. I’m not being sarcastic by the way, that is what I thought – we are up against something pretty amazing in this one. And isn’t the incidental music good. Shame you can see the actor’s nose through the green skin…

The “Whoniverse” is a complicated place.  Ever aware of this, and the confusions that can arise, your friendly Oodcasters present the beginning of the end of your confusions…  The Oodcast Guide.  Each entry in this weighty online tome will be compiled using the very best of what remains of the Oodcast’s collective memory, and therefore absolutely and thoroughly under-researched.

So, let’s get cracking.  First up, we’ll take you through the most important part of the series…  The Doctor.

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The First Doctor __

The Doyen of doctors, the original was a crotchety old man who insisted on surrounding himself with young people and wearing a hat the shape of a fur-lined cone (which, combined with his white hair gave him the appearance of a time travelling Mr Whippy…)  He also chose the TARDIS with the broken chameleon circuit, presumably, so we can’t assume his judgement in travelling methods was any less flawless than his fashion sense.

He travelled with teachers, space pilots, resistance fighters, rescued spaceship passengers, secretaries and sailors before collapsing and regenerating for the first time.

Tremendously knowledgeable on scientific matters, but curiously awful at flying his own time machine, was the first to encounter Daleks and Cybermen, as well as taking jollies to Mexico, Ancient Greece, China and revolutionary France, met cowboys, cavemen and the Celestial Toymaker.

Oh yes, and he had a library card (see Vampires of Venice).  Eventually, old age took its toll and he regenerated for the first time, into a time-travelling bad-hair-day.

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The Second Doctor __

Slightly shambolic and unpredictable, the second doctor had the appearance of a tramp that wandered into Mr Benn’s favourite costume shop: with a shaggy pudding-bowl haircut, the occasional massive fur coat and Rupert Bear’s favourite trousers.

But there was more to him than fashion statements.  He was mercurial and fascinatingly clever, while clumsy and caring towards those in distress.  He also established the formidable team with Alastair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart, and was the first to openly (and shamelessly) use a sonic screwdriver on screen.

Surrounded by frightened Victorian teenagers, certain UNIT officers, hot-headed Scottish warriors and stupidly intelligent young women, he took on the cybermen and daleks again with nothing but his intelligence and a recorder, is still the only Doctor to take on the Ice Warriors as enemies, guided his friends through an attempted mind robbery, faced creatures from the deep and Yetis in the London Underground before being forced to become Worzel Gummidge by the Time Lords.

___

The Third Doctor

Geriatric jujitsu exponents everywhere raised a cheer – for this was their doctor…

Beginning as a victim of friendly fire, and then becoming a confused clothing and vehicle thief as well as saviour of mankind in a plastics factory was something of a rollercoaster of a first day.  If it was possible for a Time Lord to have a mid-life crisis, this was it: fast machines, short-skirted female companions and more action than is seemly for someone of advancing years, this doctor was a kind of Budget Bond.  With his own Blofeld too: enter… the Master.

During the course of his careering about, he encountered the daleks again, the Master, daemons in Bronze age barrows, the Master, giant green poisonous maggots, the Master, fascist versions of reality, the Master, two sets of underwater cousins (who’s idea of “self-defence” is creeping aboard sea forts and murdering people), the Master, mind control machines, the Master, lost aliens, the Master, potato-headed warrior Sontarans, the Master, and the giant spiders which would ultimately be his end.  And the Master.

Did remarkably little travelling around his immediate environs for someone with itchy interstellar feet confined to just the one planet.  He did, however, reverse the polarity of more things than any other doctor.

Radiation brought his dashing about to an abrupt halt, and he regenerated soon after into that one-legged sailor in Blackadder II that drank his own wee and wanted to marry Nursey.

__

The Fourth Doctor

Described as looking like a “Space vagrant”, the fourth incarnation was eccentric both in action and dress sense (although not quite as much as the previous doctors, it has to be said).  He pioneered the use of scarves as weaponry (see Hand of Fear), the use of confectionary to calm agitated beings, and the construction of jacket pockets from Mary Poppins’ old carpet bags.

Superbly intelligent, witty and fond of jelly babies, this doctor would stick around longer than any other and inspire thousands of children to beg mothers everywhere to get knitting.

In the TARDIS, which gained a glorious oak-panelled look for a time, he entertained journalists, (oddly clumsy but very likeable) UNIT medical officers, savage warriors, Time Ladies, robotic dogs, one rather annoying stowaway boy genius, an aristocratic brainbox and, just before his end, a loudmouth air hostess.

His battles though, were many and varied – taking on all manner of robots (giant ones, servile mining ones, mummified ones, half-human pirate captain ones and reproduction human ones), ancient alien powers, criminal time lords, Sontarans again, female radioactive creatures conveniently buried for centuries under a quarry, disturbing scary mannequins, amphibious lifeforms hiding in lighthouses, art-dealing monsters and – perhaps most famously – the daleks.

His end came when he met the Master again, and fell from a radar dish.  Thus becoming the chap off of All Creatures Great and Small.

Next time…  Doctors 5 – 8…