What are the best "classic" Doctor Who serials(1963-1989)?

Cafe Society
1

My wife and I are watching NuWho and are on series three. I’d like to go back and watch some of the “old” Doctor Who shows. I saw some(on PBS??) in the 1980’s, but I was a kid and my memory was poor. While Colin Baker and Sylvestor Mccoy were the Doctors when I was a kid, I have seen a few with Tom Baker as well.

Anyway, what do you recommend? Don’t worry. I don’t judge cheesiness to badly. I understand the show was on a budget and is now “old”.

Bonus points if it streams on Netflix, though not totally required.

Thanks!

2

Jon Pertwee? Be sure to check out “The Three Doctors”, “Day of the Daleks”, “Carnival of Monsters”, and Jon’s farewell performance, “Planet of the Spiders”. This last one has the best acting by a rubber spider that you will ever see.

Tom Baker? Where do I begin? “Genesis of the Daleks”, “Pyramids of Mars”, “Talons of Weng-Chiang”, “The Sun Makers”, “Androids of Tara”, “City of Death” (that’s the Paris one. In my opinion, it’s the best of the Tom Baker years.) “State of Decay”, and Tom’s farewell in “Logopolis”. Watching these will pair the 4th Doctor up with each companion or combination of companions, so you can get a good feel for each mood.

Peter Davison? Ummm, “Black Orchid” is nice, I guess. “Earthshock” if you enjoy watching Adric die. I know I do. Peter’s farewell is “Caves of Androzani”. Some people like it.

The first two Doctors? Don’t really have too many of those. Some interesting ones you can get are William Hartnell’s “The Dalek Invasion of Earth”, and Patrick Troughton’s “Tomb of the Cybermen”.

Have fun.

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Beat me to it.

4

Yeah, “City of Death” is the absolute classic. Written by Douglas Adams actually, though under a pseudonym. Also seconding “Planet of the Spiders” from the Pertwee years. Peter Davison was the Doctor I grew up with, though it’s been awhile and none of his best serials are on Netflix streaming last I checked. “Castrovalva”, “Kinda” and “Snakedance” are the ones that stand out most in my foggy memories.

5

My favorite stories featuring the First and Second Doctor don’t exist anymore as video, or are at least incomplete, so that makes things more difficult. For Hartnell I’d go with The Aztecs. It’s a pure historical (no aliens or monsters) which is a genre I love and to which I keep wishing the show would return. If you like that, why not take a look at the very first episode, An Unearthly Child, which is great and the rest of the serial, 100,000 B.C., which is ok. For Troughton I’d go with The Tomb of the Cybermen.

The Third Doctor I just love and he has many great stories. From his first and most consistent season you have: Spearhead From Space, Doctor Who & The Silurians and Inferno. They’re all very good but they’re also all overlong, so if I had to choose only one I’d go with Inferno (werewolves and parallel worlds and eye-patches).

The middle three seasons of Pertwee’s era are perfectly represented by The Daemons, even if it’s not the very best story of that time, so you may want to check that out to see you’ll like the rest. Other favorites of mine from the period are Terror of The Autons, The Curse of Peladon, Day of The Daleks, The Sea Devils, Carnival of Monsters and The Green Death.

From Pertwee’s last season I love The Time Warrior and his last story, Planet of the Spiders, is worth a watch. Avoid at all costs: The Time Monster, Colony in Space, Frontier In Space and Planet of The Daleks.

Tom Baker’s Fourth Doctor had my favorite stories. His tenure can be divided in three “eras”. My favorite is the first, led by producer Hinchcliffe and script editor Robert Holmes. From their time we have The Ark in Space, Genesis of The Daleks, Pyramids of Mars, The Brain of Morbius, The Deadly Assassin, The Face of Evil, The Robots of Death and The Talons of Weng-Chiang. If I had to choose only one I’d be split between **Talons **and Genesis. Also, while it’s from the next period of the show, Terror of Fang Rock is still very recognizably a Hinchcliffe/Holmes story and is also very good.

I’m not such a big fan of the next producer, but there were still many good stories from Baker’s middle years as the character. The Graham Williams era mostly eschewed stories set on Earth or in the past and there was usually a lighter and more comedic feel to the stories. I’d highlight Image of The Fendahl and The Androids of Tara. City of Death is just wonderful and if you’ll only watch one classic Who story this is as strong a candidate as any.

For Baker’s last season there was yet another new producer in place. It’s a controversial time for the show in the eyes of many fans but I like it a lot (at least during the beginning. After the Fifth Doctor’s first season things get tricky.) The best stories are Warrior’s Gate, The Keeper of Traken and Logopolis.

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First Doctor – His stories date a bit, but the two that hold up best are “An Unearthly Child” (where the Doctor is introduced), “The Daleks (where his greatest foes are introduced),” and “The Chase (check out the accent on the NYC tour guide – more alien than most aliens).”

Second Doctor – “Tomb of the Cybermen,” (some call it the best of the entire series, though I don’t think it’s even close) and “The War Games.” Too many Second Doctor serials were lost to judge them.

Third Doctor – “The Three Doctors,” “Terror of the Autons” (introduces the Master), “The Green Death,” and “Planet of the Spiders.”

Fourth Doctor – “The Ark in Space,” “Genesis of the Daleks” (introduces Davros; the actor playing him is just great; alas, other actors did the role later), “Planet of Evil,” “Pyramids of Mars,” “The Brain of Morbius,” “The Hand of Fear” (Eldrad must live), “The Face of Evil,” “The Robots of Death,” “The Talons of Weng-Chiang” (Next to “City of Death,” the best classic doctor serial), “The Pirate Planet” (100% Douglas Adams; this got me hooked on the show), “The Armageddon Factor,” “City of Death” (just a great episode), “Nightmare of Eden” (very nicely plotted story), “The Keeper of Traken.”

Fifth Doctor – “Earthshock” (indeed a shock, especially the ending), “Time-Flight,” “Arc of Infinity,” “Mawdryn Undead” (another great episode), “The Five Doctors.” *Doctor Who Magazine *named “The Caves of Androzani” as the best episode ever a couple of years ago, a choice I find mystifying; I kept thinking of W. C. Fields saying “I think I’ll go out and milk the elk.”

Sixth Doctor – “Mark of the Rani,” the entire “Trial of a Time Lord” (best are “Mindwarp” and “Terror of the Vervoids”).

Seventh Doctor – “Paradise Towers,” “The Happiness Patrol,” “The Greatest Show in the Galaxy” (Others will disagree, but “Paradise Towers” was amazingly good and well written. It inaugurated a different style of the show, which a lot of fans hated).

My top ten

  1. City of Death
  2. The Talons of Weng-Chiang
  3. Mawdryn Undead
  4. The Pirate Planet
  5. Paradise Towers
  6. Earthshock
  7. Mindwarp (if you ignore the lame revelation in “The Ultimate Foe.”)
  8. Arc of Infinity
  9. The Keeper of Traken
  10. Genesis of the Daleks
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I split my post in two because it was getting ridiculously lengthy.

The Fifth Doctor was Peter Davison, whom I thought was too young for the part. His first story, Castrovalva, was one of his best and is an immediate sequel to Tom Baker’s last story (which itself was a sequel to the one before). His first season was his strongest by far and the two other highlights are Kinda and Earthshock, but other than Timeflight they’re all good or at least watchable. After the first season the show goes to pieces and I’d only recommend you watch Snakedance (which was a sequel to Kinda) and the very last story, The Caves of Androzani. All the other stories range from ok to terrible, even The Five Doctors, which many people love (for nostalgic reasons, IMO).

The Sixth Doctor (Colin Baker) had the worst scripts of the bunch and his only serial I like from beginning to end was Vengeance on Varos, though Revelation of The Daleks and The Two Doctors both had some good points. This was a terrible waste because Colin Baker had great potential as a Doctor.

The Seventh Doctor was the weakest actor of them all and he begun his tenure with scripts that were almost as bad as his predecessor’s. His last two seasons were very much stronger but many fans hate this whole period. Remembrance of The Daleks is a classic and The Curse of Fenric and Ghost Light are also very strong stories. Survival, The Happiness Patrol, Battlefield and The Greatest Show in The Universe are all very flawed but also have lots of redeeming features as far as I’m concerned, but I think the majority of fans just hate them.

Lastly, Paul McGann’s Eighth Doctor only ever appeared in a movie. The movie is utterly awful, but McGann gave a very strong performance as the Doctor, so if you’ve made it this far you might want to check it out.

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Third Doctor: The Three Doctors, Carnival Of Monsters, Day Of The Daleks, Planet Of The Spiders.

Fourth Doctor: Pyramids Of Mars, The Brain Of Morbius, The Robots Of Death, The Talons of Weng-Chiang, The Horror Of Fang Rock, City Of Death, The Keeper Of Traken, Logopolis.

Fifth Doctor: Castrovalva, Kinda, Earthshock, Snakedance, Mawdryn Undead, The Five Doctors, The Caves Of Androzani.

Sixth Doctor: I do like Colin Baker, but most of the stories from his era don’t really hold up. Maybe try Mark Of The Rani, and pluck the Terror Of The Vervoids out of the Trial Of A Timelord season (episodes 9 to 12).

Seventh Doctor: Remembrance Of The Daleks, The Happiness Patrol, The Curse Of Fenric, Ghost Light, Survival.

Eighth Doctor: Hard to narrow it down, but try Doctor Who: The Movie.

9

If you’re going to watch the original run, be prepared to be patient and endure a bit of padding in even the best stories. A combination of low budgets, cramped studios, generally slower pacing in pre-MTV era series, and the serialized format (necessitating that stories get dragged out sometimes an episode or two longer than the story requires) all together can sometimes cause modern day viewers to grow impatient. My advice - watch all the stories as episodic installments, one episode a day, rather than in the “movie format” versions how they were shown in the mid-80s.

William Hartnell - Part One of An Unearthly Child is a great introduction to the series, but the rest of that serial is forgettable. The Daleks, of course, but IMO the Dalek Invasion of Earth was the best early Dalek story. tThe Aztecs was a terrific historical story, and the Time Meddler showcases a villain who was a pre-cursor to the Master.

Patrick Troughton - Unfortunately, scant complete serials survive. But the Mind Robber was a particularly imaginative story, and the Krotons was decent. The War Games has it’s moments (especially the final episodes showing the first TV series appearance of the Time Lords as a race.)

Jon Pertwee - the Silurians, Inferno, the Daemons, the Sea Devils, the Three Doctors, Frontier In Space and the Time Warrior

Tom Baker - The Ark In Space, Genesis of the Daleks, Terror of the Zygons (if you can forgive the infamously bad Loch Ness Monster), the Seeds of Doom, the Deadly Assassin, the Talons of Weng Chiang, the Sun Makers, the Pirate Planet, Warrior’s Gate, the Keeper of Traken and Logopolis.

Peter Davison - Castrovalva, Kinda, Earthshock, Mawdryn’s Undead and the Caves of Androzani.

Colin Baker - Vengeance on Varos - That’s all. (And that’s being generous.)

Sylvester McCoy - Didn’t see much of his run, but I’ve heard that Ghost Light was supposedly pretty good.

Quite honestly, I’m surprised that “City of Death” is such a fan favorite. I never considered it to be too memorable - save for the Paris location shots and a guest appearance by John Cleese (rather than the story itself.)

What to skip, the worst serials of each Doctor era: the Keys of Marinus, the Dominators, the Time Monster, the Invasion of Time, Time Flight, Twin Dilemma (and everything else during the sixth Doctor’s time except “Varos”), and Dragonfire. Also, don’t bother with the 90s era Fox TV movie - a complete mess from start to finish (too bad though, since Paul McGann shows he could have made a terrific Doctor given good or even halfway decent material to work with.)

10

I just started the Key of Time series(season 16). I figure if Douglas Adams was the script editor, it should be pretty good.

I’m rather enjoying the first part right now.

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Cool! Say hello to the Graff Vynda Ka for me. And Binro.

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  1. Genesis Of The Daleks
  2. The Talons Of Weng Chiang
  3. Terror Of The Autons
  4. The City Of Death
  5. The Robots Of Death
  6. Frontier In Space
  7. The Visitation
  8. Revenge Of The Cybermen
  9. Day Of The Daleks
  10. Logopolis

These are needed in any classic Doctor Who collection

  1. The Pyramids Of Mars
  2. The Caves Of Androzani
  3. The Ark In Space
  4. Terror Of The Zygons
  5. Planet Of The Daleks
  6. The Pirate Planet
  7. Mawdryn Undead
  8. The Sea Devils
  9. The Masque Of Mandragora
  10. Spearhead In Space

Another 10 episodes needed for any collection

If you look at everybody’s comments on the best episodes you will see certain stories come up time and again other stories are personal favourites.

13

If you can find the DVD of Patrick Troughton’s “The Invasion”, I recommend it. It’s the first one with UNIT, and includes a Crowning Moment of Awesome for a companion.

It no longer exists in its entirety in the original version, but fans back in the day tape recorded the audio, and a cartoon was created to match it.

14

My first Doctor was Tom Baker. I saw Pertwee after him. Loved them both, then I saw Davison.

My favorite Baker was “The Masque of Mandragora”, very closely followed by “The Talons of Weng-Chiang”

The final Pertwee episode, “Planet of the Spiders” is a classic. The Doctor knowingly sacrificed himself to save others, not knowing if he’d be able to regenerate or not.

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Featuring Elisabeth Sladen at maximum cuteness.

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The big problem with City of Death is, if you’re much of a Douglas Adams fan you’re going to find some of the plot annoyingly familiar.

17

Am I the only one who likes “The Two Doctors?” Not because of Colin Baker. But because of Patrick Troughton and Frazier Hines.

Otherwise, I think everyone has covered the favorites.

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Or if you’re a big Dr. Who fan, you may find the plot of Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency annoyingly familiar instead. I actually wrote a scathing letter to Mr. Adams after I read that book, but fortunately found out who ‘David Agnew’ was before I mailed it. (Or maybe unfortunately–I’m sure Douglas would have had a very entertaining response.)

19

Two words: Peri’s boobs.

Of course to get there, you had to slog through three and a half god-awful episodes.