Neither Mr. Rilch nor I have ever seen an episode of Dr. Who. You’d think, between his love of SF and my fascination with all things British, that that would be our common ground, but DW just slipped under both our radars. Anyway, we want to know what would be the best episodes to start with? Obviously, eps from the Tom Baker era, but which ones?
Remember, I’m pulling for you; we’re all in this together.
—Red Green
Uh, guys? :::hanging head and dragging toe in the dust::: I think I just revealed my utter ignorance of this show. It’s Doctor Who, not Dr. Who, isn’t it. Heh heh…heh… :::scurrying away:::
Remember, I’m pulling for you; we’re all in this together.
—Red Green
Don’t worry, Dr Who is often called just ‘Who’ by the fans, so you’ve no worries in the naming front.
Even though I have drawn comic strips for the NZ Dr Who Fan Club magazine, and even though I have a friend who is utterly obsessed with the show, I still couldn’t tell you which ones of the episodes to see - there are hundreds of the things. So I’ll look 'em up.
Each story is actually (usually) four half hour episodes put together. There have been Eight official Doctors so far, not counting (ooh, what a giveaway) the Valyard.
I would recommend watching the first Doctor’s episodes, as he established them. That’s William Hartnell. There aren’t many of his eps around now. Try ‘The War Machines’.
Second Doctor, played by Patrick Troughton, had some fun ones. Anything with Jamie and Zoe as companions should be a giggle. ‘The Tomb of the Cybermen’
Third Doctor, Jon Pertwee. He was a quirky, esoteric Doc, and most of his cases were earth bound. Get one involving UNIT, with the Brigadier and Liz Shaw. ‘The Daemons’ has a classic line in it.
Fourth Doctor - Tom Baker. Perhaps the most famous, definitely the longest term. Funnier than the rest. A good episode is ‘Ark In Space’ which is frigging scary. Stay away from any K9 or Sarah Jane Smith episodes.
Fifth Doctor is Peter Davison. I always liked him. Even if he was kind of distracted a lot of the time. Had an interesting time with a companion called Adric, who died, and Harry, who betrayed him. See ‘The Five Doctors’ even though it’s not that good.
Sixth Doctor. Bit of a mess this one. Played by Colin Baker, his time was ruined by an annoying busty pseudo-American companion named Peri, and a mess of an ending to his era with the ‘Trial of a Time Lord’ debacle. See ‘Revelation of the Daleks’.
Seventh Doctor - my favourite - played by Sylvester McCoy. Not popular with many fans as he was a bit goofy, and had worst companion of them all, Mel. But then got best companion of them all, Ace. This Doc’s intention was, as the middle Doc, sets up some things that his other incarnations had to encounter. See ‘Battlefield’ or ‘Survival’.
Eighth Doctor was the singular movie Doc played by Paul McGann. Watch and be amazed at the mess they made of the potential franchise.
There. Hope that helps.
-PIGEONMAN-
Hero For A New Millennium!
The Legend Of PigeonMan - Back in the new year! Honest. I promise. No, really.
Ah the good doctor. Tom Baker was the best in my opinion, some of my favorite Baker episodes are as follows: Terror of Fang Rock, The Sun Makers, The Robots of Death. I got hooked on Doctor Who when our local PBS station run the show in the late 1970’s.
I think the episode where they go in and out of the Tardis and then walk around the gravel pit was pretty good. And there were some aliens in there too, somewhere.
heh The Gravel Pit! That rocks!!
I always liked the robot dog, K-9. Then there was the sidekick that dressed up like a cave-woman/barbarian (don’t ignore the “English foxy babe” factor)
The Tom Bakers are all pretty good but the one that came after him was a good one too.
As far as villains go, the Daleks and the Master should be mixed in there early.
A bit of self-promotion–
I moderate a Doctor Who discussion board at www.nitcentral.com/discus. We recently started a disucussion there about episodes for newbies that you may find of interest. Let me know what you think.
Two questions:
(1) Has anyone else noticed that the Doctor Who song often gets played at basketball games?
[using the famous Doghouse Reilly system of musical notation:
Doctor WHOOOOOOOoooo, doc-ter WHOO, doctor WHOOOOOoooo, doc-ter WHOOO]
(2) Has anyone else noticed a certain resemblence between John Pertwee (the third Doctor) and Radovan Karadzic (leader of the Bosnian Serbs)? They’ve got the same hair, at least.
DHR
Guano - Sylvester McCoy is my favoutire too… Probably just love his hat, though. ^__^;;
Eschew Obfuscation
Doghouse–the song you’re hearing is “Rock and Roll, Part One”, by Gary Glitter, released in March 1972. The song “Doctorin’ the TARDIS” by the Time Lords, was released in the late 80’s and borrowed Glitter’s music for their tune.
The words you’re hearing are “Rock and Roooooollll, Huh!, Rock and Roll” ad nauseum.
RTA: Then there was the sidekick that dressed up like a cave-woman/barbarian (don’t ignore the “English foxy babe” factor)
Leela, played by Louise Jameson. Babe indeed! 
Everybody got to elevate from the norm - Rush
Hey, I like Sarah Jane! (K-9 gets on my nerves, though)
The “Key to Time” series with Romana I as the sidekick was pretty good.
My single favorite story is “City of Death”, with the 4th Doctor and the 2nd Romana. Not only is it a great story, and not only was it written by Douglas Adams, but it has cameo appearances by John Cleese and Eleanor Bron. Even non-Who fans should enjoy it.
Trivia time: Tom Baker played the evil wizard in The Golden Voyage of Sinbad.
I think Leela was a great precursor to Xena, she was way ahead of her time for a female character.
And she didn’t wear much, either.
I love Doctor Who! I like Tom Baker best (yeah yeah, I’m just a trendy follower!) but I like most of them that I’ve seen, too…
RFOC (Radio Free OpalCat) plays the gary glitter song mentioned above, plus “doctorin the tardis” by the timelords, plus a song that I have listed as “KLF - Dr Who (Timelords)” which is a combination of Doctorin the Tardis and Rock and Roll Part One. They are three separate songs though Someday if you are bored, catch me when I’m actually “DJing” RFOC and I’ll play them back to back for you.
www.opalcat.com/radio.html
–
Teeming Millions: http://fathom.org/teemingmillions
“Meat flaps, yellow!” - DrainBead, naked co-ed Twister chat
O p a l C a t
www.opalcat.com
Hey, I didn’t see it until I was an adult either. The Key to Time series got me addicted.
I’ve been a Whovian for quite some time now (well, as long as most Americans can be). Episodes do vary in quality, but here are some of my favorites (My top choices start with a *).
First Doctor (William Hartnell)
“The Chase” (with an appearance of the Beatles!)
“The Daleks” (as a historical artifact; a lot of the First Doctor’s shows don’t hold up too well).
Second Doctor (Patrick Troughton)
“The War Games.” I also liked “Tomb of the Cybermen.” Too many of Troughton’s episode have been lost, unfortunately.
Third Doctor (Jon Pertwee)
“The Three Doctors”
“Planet of the Spiders”
Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker – my favorite)
“The Ark in Space”
“Pyramids of Mars”
Fifth Doctor (Peter Davison)
“Arc of Infinity”
Sixth Doctor (Colin Baker)
Episodes 2 and 3 of “Trial of a Time Lord” (Don’t recall their names. The entire season of for adventures went under that umbrella and was an attempt to bring the show back after it had grown a bit tired.)
Seventh Doctor
“East is east and west is west and if you take cranberries and stew them like applesauce they taste much more like prunes than rhubarb does.” – Marx
Read “Sundials” in the new issue of Aboriginal Science Fiction. www.sff.net/people/rothman
Oops – Forgot *“Earthshock” from the Fifth Doctor.
“East is east and west is west and if you take cranberries and stew them like applesauce they taste much more like prunes than rhubarb does.” – Marx
Read “Sundials” in the new issue of Aboriginal Science Fiction. www.sff.net/people/rothman