Doctor Who: The Third Doctor

Given that I've done the First and Second Doctors, it was only natural that I get to #3. This was a hard one to accomplish due to the limitations on the paint of the figure, but as far as a "set up" I had an interesting idea that was executed pretty well.

Jon Pertwee had the longest tenure up to that point, staying in the role from 1970-1974, and a number of notable things about his run pop up: following Troughton's departure after The War Games, the BBC grounded the Doctor's adventures and centered them all on Earth in the 1970s. The explanation for this was that the Doctor was exiled to Earth and stripped of his knowledge of how to work the TARDIS by the Time Lords for interfering with too many timelines. Another interesting innovation was the use of the sonic screwdriver, which had been in use sparingly in Troughton's time on the series but used much more effectively in Pertwee's run. Also, it is in Pertwee's time on the show that viewers were introduced to plucky reporter Sarah Jane Smith, played by the late Elisabeth Sladen, as well UNIT and the Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart (played by the sorely missed Nicholas Courtney) and of course the Master, as played by Roger Delgado, considered the best version of the character. The Autons, Silurians, Sontarans, Sea Devils, and renegade Time Lord Omega all made their first appearances during the Pertwee era. Ironically, Pertwee never faced the Cybermen during his time

Pertwee would have stayed on the show just as long as Baker did if it weren't for the combination of a fear of typecasting, the departures of much of his supporting cast, producer Barry Letts and script editor Terrance Dicks leaving at the end of Season 11, and the untimely death of Roger Delgado. But during the four years that he was on the air, Pertwee brought an almost James Bond like air to the series, utilizing gadgets such as the Whomobile and Bessie, his beloved Roadster. While Hartnell was a little more restrained and Troughton doing more reacting, Pertwee preferred going headfirst into the action. Officially he returned to play the Third Doctor one last time in the special The Five Doctors, and again in 1993 for Dimensions in Time, which was his last on-camera appearance as the Doctor.

Pertwee's stories may have been more childlike with titles and premises such as Invasion of the Dinosaurs and Planet of the Spiders, but upon twice or thrice viewings, they reveal a charm that makes his time stand out on their own. If you compare his Doctor to any of the others, I'd say that Colin Baker may have preferred the action-adventure oriented style, and this can also be seen in the early adventures of Christopher Eccleston when the series rebooted. Also, Pertwee may have predicted the new series when said that the only way he could see Doctor Who coming back was if something different was done instead of a continuation of the old series. He may have preferred the new series for all of it's action movie trappings.

Since another notable aspect of the Pertwee era was the introduction of color, I tried to go in two directions: recreate the feel of a Pertwee title sequence and also recreate the feel of a scene. The scene I went for was inspired by The Claws of Axos, also the first Pertwee serial I ever saw, and added my trademark crazy lights to the mix. Pertwee's figures are slightly hard to shoot because there's not much of a dark wash over his white hair (which is slightly wrong since he wasn't this white-haired at the time). But I overcame that problem with lights and shadow and minimal post-processcing, since the lights made the hair darker.