The mythology builds
After the deliberate move to keep the origins of the Doctor enigmatic from the get-go, these mysteries start to be tackled during the Second Doctor’s era. We have to wait until his final story, ‘The War Games’, to discover that he is a Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey. There, we even meet some of his own people, not least Edward Brayshaw’s memorable War Chief. Along the way a few ‘Doctor Who’ staples are introduced. It’s actually companion Jamie who first uses the pseudonym ‘Dr John Smith’ for the Doctor in the story ‘The Wheel in Space’. Pertwee’s Doctor would take that idea and run with it. We also see the introduction of the sonic screwdriver, though it only screws and unscrews with no contact at this stage. Jon Pertwee’s Doctor would adapt the device for more variable use, and it would resolve almost every plot in Russell T Davies scripts by the time of the remake. But it all started in the Troughton era.
