I have recently introduced the wife to Dr. Who through Netflix and we have been completely hooked. We are now up to the third season of the current run of the Dr. and want to watch some of the earlier incarnations.
We have seen a few of the Hartnell episodes and would like to see more. Since many of the earliest shows are lost or are missing parts I’d any recomendations on a good sampling of episodes from each Dr. Eventually, I’d like to see them all plus the extras.
Our preference would be to see them in order, but since there are so many gaps and lost episodes, maybe a few of the best is the way to start.
I think you would enjoy them more in order one doctor at a time The forth doctor is a good starting place. Most of the third doctor is in place and they switch to color during his incarnation.
I say start at one of the Doctors 3rd or above and watch a couple episodes of the 1st and 2nd every once in a while.
Doctor 1:
Get the first couple episodes of the series to see the beginning. The Keys of Marinus is a tied together adventure so get all of the parts at once.
Doctor 3: I always was partial to The Curse of Peladon, and The Monster of Peladon.
I won’t recommend any certain one from the 4th onward.
Not the 5th Doctor? Peter Davison is ALWAYS entertaining, even in his many appearances on Mystery as The Cad. And if one is to be SERIOUS about all of this, one cannot make that claim without memorizing every last one of the some-20,000 episodes, webcasts, books, radio shows, short stories, recorded adventures, etc.
Okay, speaking as a fan who has not seen all of the eps I want to and will regret that either until I do or my death :(, my greatest regret was when my daughters discovered The New Doctor. Like an ex-junkie eyeing a needle full of the sweetest shit ever but proud of the decades he had put it behind him, I was torn, and I’m not built of the sterner stuff. I know that Twain said, “Nobody ever learned from someone else’s bad experience,” but I recommend you run away from this as fast as you can. Become a Rhianna fan. Or a fan of somebody less talented–in my day I could fixate on Suzi Quatro, but it didn’t work. Try Jessica Simpson. Just WORK to ignore The Doctor.
First Doctor
An Unearthly Child (the origin)
The Chase
The Time Meddler
Second Doctor
Tomb of the Cybermen
The War Games
Third Doctor
The Three Doctors
Planet of the Spiders
Fourth Doctor
(So many good ones; I’ll stick with just one for each season)
Genesis of the Daleks
The Brain of Morbius
The Talons of Weng-Chiang
Horror of Fang Rock
The Pirate Planet
City of Death
The Keeper of Traken
Fifth Doctor
Earthshock
Arc of Infinity
Mawdryn Undead
Sixth Doctor
Mind Warp
Terror of the Vervoids (both part of “Trial of a Time Lord”)
Seventh Doctor
Paradise Towers
The Happiness Patrol
Eighth Doctor
Doctor Who Movie (the only one to feature him)
First Doctor:
I’d recommend “The Dead Planet” because it is the first appearance of the Daleks. I think it is on the same disc as “An Unearthly Child”.
Do you really recommend this? I’ve never seen it myself, but I’ve heard the stories. They made him half human, they ignored his backstory, they ruined the Doctor forever, yadda yadda yadda.
It’s the only one with the 8th Doctor, obviously, but is it so bad it’s good? Is it just “blah?” Is it OK to watch while understanding the few missteps they took were an attempt to Americanize it a bit for a new audience?
Yeh, unfortunately the 8th doctor movie is pretty much lousy. No fault of Paul McGann’s (the 8th doctor), the script was terrible.
If you want 8th doctor, you’re better off trying the audio adventures he did, there are a lot of them, done by Big Finish Audio.
There’re several stories of the 4th doctor who (Tom Baker) where the plotlines are updates of old horror films. I love all of those.
I think overall it was good. Making the Doctor half-human was a mistake, of course, and they mentioned in passing that the Daleks had turned the Master’s remains to the Doctor – something that also strained fans’ belief (I think they wanted to mention the Daleks in the script and that was the only way to bring it in).
But they did not ignore the backstory at all – the 7th Doctor was there in the beginning and regenerated. Other than the half-human bit, they stuck pretty well with continuity.
The story would not be one of the top for any of the other Doctors, of course. It was good, but not great. It’s worth checking out McGann’s take on the character. It also may have introduced “the Heart of the TARDIS,”* and the “Eye of Harmony,” something which became part of continuity later on.
*The TARDIS’s power supply had been mentioned in the past, but I don’t think that term was used.
It’s nice to know I’m not the only one who liked the 8th Doctor movie. I always took the half-human thing as a joke, even back before I knew that the Doctor being human at all was blasphemy. I think that the last couple of episodes in Series* 4 confirm my opinion.
The somewhat vague expression “the heart of the Tardis” was used in the '60s. “Eye of Harmony” was used in ‘70s “Who” to refer to a remote source of power for all Tardises - conflating it with the “the heart of [Doctor Who’s] Tardis” was one of the things that sent canon geeks atwitter about the TV movie. Some attempts have been made to retcon the Tardis’ “Eye of Harmony” as either a direct link to the real thing or a perfect simulation of it.
ETA: The Doctor’s being half-human was actually presented as an important plot point in the movie. Attempts have also been made to retcon it, none of which are completely satisfactory. The current series seems to be ignoring it completely, which is probably the best approach. As one of the producers once said, in a series based on time travel and featuring parallel universes, there’s no such thing as a continuity error.
I watched the first-ever episode and then spent a chunk of my childhood behind a couch!
My mate has got every published episode of Dr. Who.
Between us, we have these suggestions/comments:
There are about 100 episodes missing (the BBC threw them away doing ‘housekeeping’ :rolleyes: ). There are audio tapes of these episodes and the BBC are gradually reissuing them with added commentary so you can follow the action.
BBC America has suitable regional versions.
There are three natural introductory points:
right from the start (William Hartnell). This means you don’t have to ‘go back’, but the budget was woeful in those days, so the Monsters look like men in rubber suits and the scenery wobbles. It was also in black and white.
from Jon Pertwee onwards. The series is now in colour and they knew it was a hit, so there’s more money. The stories are longer (4-7 parts) and of course computer effects were not what they are today.
Christopher Eccleston onwards. The scripts are crisp and imaginative, special effects work well and you have top-quality actors. ‘Blink’ is the best-ever episode.
We suggest option 3.
See Dr. Who at its best and decide if you then want to go back - because you like the genre.
Do not watch the movie with Paul McGann. It’s 90 minutes of your life you’ll never get back.
and the scenery wobbles. It was also in black and white.