I so want to like Dr Who. And for the most part I do. The thing that tends to turn me off are those robot things with the annoying voice (Daleks?) I hate that I’m deterred by such a trivial thing but those voices are like fingernails on a chalkboard to me.
Anyway, it’s been a while, so I figure I’ll give it another go with hopes that the Daleks (or whatever they’re called) won’t bother me as much. I was hoping you guys could give me a good starting point because it’s been a long while since I watched.
The Eccleston season (Doctor #9) is a good place to start as well. It orients the viewer pretty well in the first 3 or 4 shows (since it is the start of the reboot) and then leads into the super-shiny 10th Doctor really well, IMO.
It is good at introducing new people to Who, though the special effects were a little weak still that season. Episodes 9 & 10 of season one are among my favorites ever for Doctor Who. ( “The Empty Child” & “The Doctor Dances”)
But much of season one wasn’t all the good and I feel like most of season two was good to great.
I agree with this mostly, but felt that Smith worked best with his ensemble companion group. When he “lost” them (avoiding detailed spoilers), my opinion of the performance went down fast, which may have been deliberate.
Or its just the fact I freaking hate Clara with the fury of a thousand suns. Her role in the series (as well as the difficulty I was having getting episodes around that time) turned me off, and I tuned out early in Capaldi’s run because I was sick of seeing her. Not everyone agrees of course, and I hope you much joy.
But I did love Eccleston’s relaunch best in some ways, because his manic energy was amazing - and you could tell he was someone running FROM something, rather than attempting to go somewhere. Tennant’s run, both the writing and the duration of it, probably allowed for the best overall run of the modern Who. I liked Smith’s run in many ways because it was more about the companions than the Doctor - which worked for Smith’s rather goofy portrayal. Which is why I felt the way I do about the end of his run.
I agree. I sometimes watch the later episodes and go back to the Eccleston ones, and think, holy crap that guy had to have just gone through some crazy stuff.
I don’t think he was the best Doctor by a long shot, but in some ways I think he was the most interesting one.
What did you watch before? Still the new series? Did you watch from the beginning of that run? The Daleks don’t feature a lot in the first Series, IIRC.
And, of course, with old Who, there are a lot of Dalek-free stories.
Eccleston was my first Doctor too. Tennet used to be my favorite Doctor even after seeing everything through Capaldi.
Then in the last year or so of watching re-runs Smith is now my favorite. He is just more fun.
I would say just start at the beginning of New Who with Eccleston. He only does one season but you get to see the beginning of Rose, the companion, and her evolution of being with Tennet culminating with her becoming Bad Wolf.
I also wanted to add that going back to Dr Who is an entirely different experience in the modern era. My first Doctor was Baker - but it was an episodic experience at best - this was the mid 80s or so, and catching Dr Who in the US was more a matter of luck than planning. In my town, it was shown on late Saturday afternoon local PBS.
Sometimes. If literally nothing else pre-empted it, from local High School reporting, sports, ‘specials’, fundraising, etc. And that was just the problems with the channel. As a tween/teen, late Saturday afternoon was prime time for doing just about anything, so even if it was on, I’d likely have been busy with something else. And of course, at that time and age, I didn’t have a VCR…
I caught a bit more at local cons and with fellow Sci-fi nerds, but never had a real grasp of the details of the earlier storylines and incarnations, just the bits of a comparative handful of episodes I did manage to catch. In college, I managed to catch the TV Movie of the 9th Doctor, which felt . . . good overall, but contrasted to the little I knew before felt kind of off - Even I knew the Doctor wasn’t half-human. shrug
So it wasn’t until the age of Modern Who that I was able to enjoy a coherent story, which made me go back and watch some of the ‘historical’ Who. Much of which was fun, if campy.
We are spoiled by our modern expectations of continuity, special effects, and interweaving storylines. If you can turn that part of your mind off (like when I watch/watched classic Trek, which had much, MUCH better scheduling), then you can have a lot of fun watching the classic stuff. If that is harder for you, then the modern runs will be better.
Hey great job for over reacting. Saying a companion does a thing is no more spoilery, for someone who knows nothing of the show, than giving away which companions come up in the future like Clara. Why didn’t you chastise the other posters for giving away future companions that are pretty significant to many story lines? Or are you just prejudice against new posters?
Whoa there Slurm boy, mentioning the name of a companion is a bit different than
Summary
Revealing a key element of the conclusion of the entire first season.
Having said that, the OP didn’t request in the title or the first post that spoilers were to be avoided, so we are all free to interpret as we like. Still, a blur would probably have been a better idea for anyone thinking of going back to Who.
