"Life depends on change."

The first episode with the second Doctor, indeed, the whole story arc- The Power of the Daleks, is lost to time. But those wonderfully ridiculous hardcore Whovians dug up whatever they could find on it, and reconstructed it the best they could.


The reconstructed episode begins in the TARDIS, after the Doctor had run inside and regenerated on the floor. His current companions, Ben and Polly, are with him at this point, wondering what's just happened and if that's really the doctor or not.
He sort of freaks out for a bit, and when he finally comes to his senses, he just chuckles sinisterly and says, "it's over!"


Ben and Polly are understandably confused and scared. Ben tried to get his attention but the Doctor doesn't seem to be very aware of them. Polly is convinced it's him, but Ben points out that he looks different and doesn't even act like him.

The doctor has some odd problems recognizing that he himself is the Doctor, denying that he's the same person. Ben tries to prove it by making him try on a coat that the first Doctor always wore, reasoning that it ought to fit if he's the same person. The Doctor replies by saying that's like trying to make a butterfly fit back into its chrysalis after its spread its wings. Polly starts to realize she was right, that he did change, but they don't seem to quite believe it yet.


As the Doctor goes to look for the 1st Doctor's journal, he finds a recorder instead. the 2nd Doctor adopts this as his quirk for the rest of his tenure.


Just as suddenly as he changed, he decides that now is the time to go for a walk and check out where they've landed. What happens after this gets a little unclear to me. The Doctor wanders around testing something (maybe it was the sonic screwdriver!), and then a man appears and shouts to him, "Hello! Hello, is there anyone there? Hello? Hello! Why don't they come?" and then he says, as if he's seen someone now, "ah, so you've come at last. I'm from Earth. I'm the examiner-"
 and then he cuts off. There's a sound sort of like a gunshot and he's silent. The reconstruction shows the Doctor pointing something at the man, and then standing over him. And...then and odd, cryptic and uncomfortably long photo of a guy's butt. it stays on the screen for 18 seconds (I counted) with the quiet bubbling sounds of whatever planet he's on still playing in the background.

 

 

 

 

this is what I hate about reconstructions.

The Doctor then investigates the man's body apparently- it's still unclear if the Doctor has shot him- and assumes his identity as the Earth investigator by taking what seems like a piece of paper granting this Earth investigator access to everything. We only know that there's some kind of paper because the Doctor reads it aloud.

Meanwhile, the Doctor has totally abandoned Ben and Polly. They're wandering around in some area full of bubbling quicksilver pools. Polly starts coughing and then Ben panics and calls out for the Doctor, which wasn't working at all before but he tries it again anyway.

Then the images change from a still of Ben and Polly to some guys in what looks like hazmat suits. they've found the Doctor passed out and discuss their astonishment as to why people don't use the kits they send them, and that Ben and Polly's sickness was due to "a bad dose of fumes" that one claims she'll recover from just fine. This is where we learn that the planet they're on is called Vulcan, and they're surprised that Earth has just now decided to send an inspector because one wasn't due for another 2 years.


They take the three back to their station, and we're introduced to a woman telling a scientist that they've arrived. it's clear he's working on some kind of space capsule, and that's what the Earth inspector is there to look at. He's very focused on it. it seems they didn't make it, they found it. He says it was buried in a mercury swamp for 200 years and he's fascinated by the fact that it's not corroded at all.


Considering the title of the episode, we can probably guess what its origin is.


We're then rejoined with the Doctor, Ben and Polly all reunited and recovered nicely, the Doctor fiddling around on his recorder while Ben processes that "the man that was murdered" was the real examiner. We're not exactly sure how he knows about the murdered man because he wasn't anywhere near the Doctor at the time. We can only guess that the Doctor had just briefed them on every detail of his experiences since they parted (conveniently leaving out the part where, I'm convinced, the Doctor shot the inspector). Polly asks if he's going to let them think he's the real examiner but he just keeps playing that damn recorder. Ben gets as irritated as I would and yells at him to communicate properly and admit to being the Doctor.


They're then introduced to the governor of the colony, who barges in asking why they're there. The Doctor replies simply that they're here to examine, and he intends to start at once. The Vulcan governor seems offended that they're meddling in his business, but then fills the Doctor in on the ancient capsule anyway. They're all led to the science lab where the capsule is, and they show the doctor a piece of the capsule that fell off during transport. The scientist seems eager to open it, explaining that the incredible resilience of the metal could revolutionize space travel. They decide that the Doctor is the best man for the job of opening the thing, and when he does, the Doctor and the scientist step through. The Doctor suggests that the area they're in is some kind of entry bay, and the Doctor tells him it's definitely not from this planet.


After it seems that everyone has gone back to their quarters for the night, Polly sees the Doctor in the corridor, headed for the lab with the capsule. They follow him into it this time, and the Doctor seems to have been able to open another door inside it, a door hiding a couple of web and dust covered Daleks.

"Come meet the Daleks," he says, as if they were a newlywed couple at a party. As they're wandering around looking at them, Ben is startled by the sight of a dalek outside of the shell we're used to seeing. Then the episode ends, leaving you hanging and wondering just what is that thing?




The 2nd Doctor is kind of hard for me to evaluate as a whole. I feel like he did a great job as the Doctor, but he just was too like the 1st Doctor. you can't really blame Patrick Troughton, what else did he have to go on? But I feel like his Doctor was a little lacking, and it also feels like he had a shorter run than William Hartnell. Nothing really sticks out as exceptional to me about the 2nd Doctor. Maybe all the lost episodes would have given me a better sense of who he was, but we'll never really know for sure.