If we consider the massive news that the missing serial was to be animated, we might think of 2016 as the year of The Power of the Daleks, and The Complete History suitably concludes 2016 with Issue 34, covering the Second Doctor’s first four serials.
Volume 9 of this 80-issue partwork introduces Patrick Troughton’s incarnation of the Time Lord, and Frazer Hines as Jamie McCrimmon. Here’s what the hardback features:
The Power of the Daleks
On the planet Vulcan, the Doctor discovers that a human colony is under threat from a sinister, but familiar menace exhumed from the mercury swamps.
The Highlanders
When the TARDIS arrives in Scotland in 1746, the Doctor and Ben are sold as slaves by the crooked solicitor, Grey.
The Underwater Menace
In the lost city of Atlantis, the insane Professor Zaroff has convinced the Atlanteans that he is going to raise their city to the surface, but in truth he intends to destroy the world.
The Moonbase
On the Moon in the year 2070, a mysterious plague has struck the base that controls the Earth’s weather – the first stage of a Cyberman plan to invade the Earth.
Man, that synopsis for The Underwater Menace makes it sound just completely mad, doesn’t it? And yes, it is nuts, but still. Glorious.
The interesting thing is, if this issue were released a few years ago, a large proportion of the audience would know very little of the serials; only those familiar with the soundtracks or telesnaps would be adequately versed in them. Now, of course, we can look at animated version of The Power of the Daleks, and the missing episodes of The Moonbase, plus two found episodes of The Underwater Menace. Three of the four incomplete stories are part of the DVD range, and that’s cause to celebrate!
I admit to not being overly familiar with The Highlanders – I’ll have to brush up on it! – but I really like the other three stories presented here, especially The Moonbase. Oh, it’s wonderful. Barmy, of course, but it’s the Cybermen on the moon!
I, like many, I’m sure, have a new-found love for The Power of the Daleks too, so finding out more about the behind-the-scenes of the six-parter is too good a prospect to resist.
Doctor Who: The Complete History #34 is out now, priced £9.99 in the UK or $24.99 in Australia and New Zealand. UK readers, however, can take advantage of Hachette’s January sale and get every issue of The Complete History, up to and including #34, for just £5.
