Hi there I am a recent viewer of Who, having caught up over the last year with all the NuWho stories. I would like to have a go at the Classic Who eras, but am not sure which series to start with. My favourite NuWho Doctor is David Tennant, closely followed by Chris Eccleston. I don't really like Matt Smith's portrayal of the Doctor however. Based on my above taste, which classic Who era would you recommend I start with, and is there any series I should avoid at first?
Peter Davison's era is the easiest to slide into, I think, and it's a nice mix of old Who and new Who.
Well, the era of the Third Doctor resembles the new show in that it is set on Earth in then present day (with a twist, though). It also features UNIT heavily. I think that David Tennant's take on the Doctor drew a lot from Tom Baker's depiction so that era might also be a good start. That's how far I've watched the old show so far.
I'd say start at the beginning of Tom Baker: it all exists in colour and as originally made, so there's no 'picture quality' issues that aren't also there for later stuff, and while his first story isn't one of the greats, you'll quickly hit some of the very best, as his first three seasons (12-14) are widely regarded as one of the most solidly decent runs in the series's history (when DWM did a poll of the first 200 stories back in 2009, 10 of the top 50 stories came from the first 18 Tom Baker stories*).
I'd also say the Tom Baker years--and there are a lot of them. With the fifth Doctor you at least had a viewsceen for the Tardis.
The 80s is my personal favourite, although it depends on taste. I can't stand a lot of 70s Doctor Who, however it is considered the golden age of the show. I'd say late Baker as from the 80s, the continuity all starts to get "closer". The E-space trilogy is where it really starts of although it is pretty bad. Personally, I'd say Go from the Keeper of Traken (Bakers penultimate story) and go on from there. Although what I'd do first is see "the best" of each doctors era (one story each), view them, choose your favourite/s, and then choose which era to follow.
I would advise the opposite. If you want to sample the Tom Baker era, I would not start with his last season which, while still good, is arguably weaker than the rest of his run. I would start right from the start of his run, keeping in mind that Robot--like many Doctors' first story--is not his strongest. As for the rest of the 80s era: Peter Davison's era is pretty solid all the way through. Colin Baker's era is not the best. I like Colin's performances, but the stories are not the best. Sylvester McCoy - skip the first season.
Watch an assortment and judge for yourself. The 'classic' collection on Netflix helped a lot with sorting out which Doctors/eras I liked best so I could focus my watching on them.
As you've seen, it really doesn't matter where you start. I wouldn't recommend any of the old stories or eras. With exceptions they are pretty hard to watch these days. They are phooooootooooooooon-toooorpeeeeeedooooooooooooo-slow even if not watched back to back.
I usually put them on while Im working and just listen for the most part, glance over every once in a while to see if anything neat is on screen. There usually isn't.
Never really cared for Bakers early stuff. But that's just me. Yeah, Davison has had some awesome stories. Oh no, C. Baker has had some tremendous stories. Yes he's had some stinkers such as Twin Dilemma, Attack of the Cybermen, or Mark of the Rani, but has had some some solid stories too. Vengeance on Varos, The Two Doctors, Revelation of the Daleks, and even Trial of a Timelord had some great momments. Ok, have to agree.
I swear you could fall asleep in, for example, that one story where the third Doctor and the still intelligent (before they dumbed her down) Dr. Shaw are in some underground nuclear government facility (could be the Silurian story?) tinkering away in some chemistry lab, wake up three, four episodes later and there they are still in that damned lab.
I'd start at the very beginning. My original intention 22 1/2 years ago was one tape per Doctor. That fell apart very quickly.
I'd agree with those advocating the Tom Baker era. I personally love the Patrick Troughton era, but if you don't like Matt Smith you might not like Troughton either; Matt based his Doctor on Troughton's somewhat. The Jon Pertwee era is also quite a good place to start.
The middle years of Tom Baker, when Leela and Romana I were the companions. There's a good blend of humor. The Key to Time season is my all time favorite.
The reason I don't recommend anyone wanting to try out Classic Who start with Hartnell or Troughton is because of how many missing episodes they have. It's best to check those eras out when you have a feel for the show having sampled a few of the other classic era Doctors first. By them time I saw anything from Hartnell or Troughton, I had already seen a few from Pertwee, T Baker, Davison and McCoy.
I love Hartnell, but, it's black and white, it's incomplete, some stories are only science fiction in the sense that the Doctor and his crew are time travellers intervening in the historical events, and the more ambitious SF stories tend to have dated worst. It's a jump in the deep end. You'll either love it or hate it, so...