Hello everyone! 🙂
Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog and I’m Tim Bradley!
Season 3 of the classic ‘Doctor Who’ TV series is a transitionary season for William Hartnell as the First Doctor. What he used to know about ‘Doctor Who’ in the previous seasons with Ian, Barbara and Susan is mostly absent, especially when Verity Lambert has left the producer role of the TV series.
She’s taken over by John Wiles before he’s soon taken over by Innes Lloyd. The script editor Donald Tosh also soon gets taken over by Gerry Davis during the making of Season 3. William Hartnell’s Doctor has more companions that keep coming in and out throughout the ten stories of Season 3. 😀
He loses Vicki about three stories in Season 3 and has Steven for the majority of the season. The Doctor and Steven are joined by Katarina for a bit before she gets killed and they’re joined by Sara Kingdom for a bit before she’s aged to death. Both Katarina and Sara died in ‘The Daleks’ Master Plan’, which is a 12-part epic story.
After having only Steven for ‘The Massacre of St. Bartholomew’s Eve’, he and William Hartnell’s Doctor are soon joined by Dodo Chaplet. Steven soon leaves in Season 3’s penultimate story ‘The Savages’ and Dodo leaves in the season finale ‘The War Machines’, and in quite a shoddy manner. 😦
Season 3 ends with William Hartnell’s Doctor joined by Polly and Ben for Season 4. To say that ‘Doctor Who’ went through a messy phase in the production of Season 3 is an understatement. But I still enjoyed Season 3 in its forms on DVD and on audio, and William Hartnell shines as the Doctor. 🙂
It’s a shame most of Season 3 is missing. ‘The Ark’, ‘The Gunfighters’ and ‘The War Machines’ are the only complete stories intact. ‘Galaxy 4’ is mostly animated on DVD and Blu-ray and there are only three episodes of ‘The Daleks’ Master Plan’ and one of ‘The Celestial Toymaker’ in existence so far. 🙂
Thanks for reading!
Bye for now!
Tim 🙂
Bradley's Basement 