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Dr. Who for the Uninitiated

I have been watching the new series, and I love it. As a result, I tried to go back and watch some older stuff, and it is just SO dated. Every one of my attempts resulted in me falling asleep. The filming style looks somebody's dad stuck a camera on a tripod at a middle school play. There is just nothing dynamic about it at all!

I'm sure some of the stories are decent, but I just couldn't get past the film quality and the pacing. I don't mind old stuff (I've recently discovered the British spy show "The Avengers," and I'm loving it!), but I just don't think old Doctor Who is very well made.
 
At times it was very well made, considering it's budget limitations. Personally I regard most of the new episode stories as significantly inferior to the classic show.
 
My first foray into DW was "The Impossible Planet"/"The Satan Pit". My next foray, a handful of years later, was "The Girl in the Fireplace." After that one, I was finally interested enough to look further into the series. I started with the 1996 movie (yeah, yeah, I know), then moved on to "Rose" and consumed the entirety of "nuWho", in order, in the span of a week and a half.

Since then, I've been dabbling with the classics. I got incredibly interested in the Fifth Doctor after reading the Ten Doctors fancomic, so I started with about half of his episodes, picking eps that sounded interesting from their short summaries. From there, I went to the Sixth Doctor and watched the entirety of his episodes, then went on to the Seventh Doctor. Made it through, I think, one episode of Happiness Patrol and then kinda stopped as I got further into school and holidays and what-not.

Over spring break, I finally got past Unearthly Child (after trying twice before and not getting through it). So I went on, and I'm now at the beginning of Marco Polo.

If you wanna start with the classics, more power to ya! Unearthly Child is a bit hard to get through (well, rather, the first/pilot version; the aired version I found MUCH easier to digest, and was probably how I was able to finally get past it), but you'll make it.

From here on out, I'm planning to just keep watching eps in order until I've watched (and re-watched) all the way up through whatever will be the newest episode by the time I finish. (but of course I'll be watching "nuWho" as it airs; no way am I waiting, LOL)
 
Of all the complaints about the classic series the only one that really annoys me is the pacing issue. I can accept the effects, the acting etc, but are modern audiences so inured to fast cuts and edits that they can't just relax and enjoy a story at a more leisurely pace? I mean, don't get me wrong, a lot of classic serials could do with padding stripping out of them and could be a lot punchier, but the reverse applies to the new show, and sometimes I think the ADD generation really need to slow down a bit.

Time and pacing can give you tension, take Fang Rock, it builds slowly and is a very effective chiller because of that. By contrast much as I like The Unquiet Dead, we're thrown right into ths story so it doesn't have time to get scary because everything has to happen right now!!! One of the things I dislike about Dalek is the way the Doctor goes from guest to stripped prisoner to savior in the space of about 10 seconds.

Some stories need time to breathe, not all of them but some. Things like the Empty Child/Doctor Dances and the Impossible planet/Satan Pit are great for building the story, imagine trying to chop them down into single parters (by the same token some two parters maybe could have been one episode)

Probably the new series has got the balance about right. I certainly wouldn't want 13 standalone episodes (face it Who and cliffhangers go togeather) but 5/6 two parters a series might be too much)
 
Starkers said:
Of all the complaints about the classic series the only one that really annoys me is the pacing issue. I can accept the effects, the acting etc, but are modern audiences so inured to fast cuts and edits that they can't just relax and enjoy a story at a more leisurely pace?
Click to expand...

Well, have you watched The Daleks recently? :D

The thing is many people are able to enjoy the slower pacing, but many people really aren't. Since the OP said he might want to start with the old series I was thinking about the early years. There's probably not as much difference between the pacing of the Tom Baker era and today's standards. (I wouldn't know since I'm still stuck in the black-and-white era.) The new series is extremely fast paced, though.
As I mentioned up-thread I'm a fan of silent films but I don't think I could get a lot of people enthusiastic about that, due to the slow pace (and the lack of spoken dialogue, of course). Personally, I think it's a shame because they're missing out on some great films, but such is life.
 
OP here. Thanks for all your advice. I ended up ordering via Netflix "Dr. Who the Beginning" for the old series and Season 1 of the new series.
 
I don't mind the slower pace of the older series, when it doesn't feel to me like they're just padding for time. I started with the new series (with "Rose"), loved it, and then eventually began working my way backwards through the Doctors going from Eight's one movie, to Seven and so on. I'm generally fine with the longer storylines when stuff is happening, but I've run across far too many episodes which seem to be scene after scene of people walking (or running) through corridors.

Otherwise, my enjoyment of the old series episodes has really depended on the personality of the Doctor. Three and Seven were great (although Seven had some very weak stories). Five didn't do a lot for me, and I liked Six more than I expected. Four...well, he's Tom Baker. He IS the Doctor for a lot of folks. Since he was in the part so long, he had great episodes and ones that weren't so hot. I really enjoyed "City of Death," though. I'm back at Two now. I expected to like him based on his appearances in "The Three Doctors," "The Five Doctors," and "The Two Doctors," but so far he spends too much time being pushed around be events rather than taking any kind of action. I guess I've gotten too used to Ten, who is my favorite.

Back to the original question, if you're looking for a place to start, I'd go with "Rose." If you're looking for a test episode to see if you'd like the series, you might try "The Girl In The Fireplace." You presumably already know that the show is about a guy who travels through time and space in a ship that looks like a Police Box. As long as you know that, you're all set.
 
The original Doctor Who had OKish effects for the budget and time (I liked the sets and haunting atmosphere in "Warrior's Gate") but nothing ever on a patch on Gerry Anderson's contemporary productions (like Thunderbirds and Space 1999).
 
We need to remember about the "old" show, in connection to its pacing, that it was supposed to be watched for half an hour each week, not: slam in the dvd and wade through 3 hours in one sitting. That way it can often seem interminable.

I second Lonemagpie's suggestion of viewing order for a taste test.
 
Honestly, I think "Smith and Jones" is a better introduction to the Doctor Who concept.
 
WillsBabe said:
We need to remember about the "old" show, in connection to its pacing, that it was supposed to be watched for half an hour each week, not: slam in the dvd and wade through 3 hours in one sitting. That way it can often seem interminable.

I second Lonemagpie's suggestion of viewing order for a taste test.
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I agree, the thing I love about the classic DVDs is that I can watch at just 25 minutes at a time. Maybe not an episode a week, but an episode a day works quite nicely.
 
Wish I'd gotten here sooner. 'An Unearthly Child', the first episode of Who is all over Youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2czi2HltlQ probably being the best version.

Theres also http://www.youtube.com/show?p=Ps0e32nFzs0&s=1. Most are blocked for us lowely yanks. But a couple of episodes from other Doctors are accessible (the ones already out on dvd I believe).

Thats always been one of the big problems with the new series. Its a bit rushed and hamstung by the 45 minute timeslot (The Next Doctor for example was way too rushed. Would've been a real epic as a standard two-part story) While yes, sometimes the original show did seem padded or strung out at times, I'd say a lot of stories actually did well with havign that extra breathing space and felt a lot more epic as a result.
 
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It doesn't help that BBC America butchers the episodes to make room for more commercials. I caught The Runaway Bride on BBC America, and it was borderline incomprehensible compared to the version on the DVD.
 
CmdrAJD said:
It doesn't help that BBC America butchers the episodes to make room for more commercials. I caught The Runaway Bride on BBC America, and it was borderline incomprehensible compared to the version on the DVD.
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Pretty much why I go with 'alternate methods' to watch my episodes.

Honestly. If they were serious about stamping out piracy they'd stop being such greedy bastards and quit gutting shows just to squeeze a few extra dollars out of them.
 
Cutter John said:
CmdrAJD said:
It doesn't help that BBC America butchers the episodes to make room for more commercials. I caught The Runaway Bride on BBC America, and it was borderline incomprehensible compared to the version on the DVD.
Click to expand...

Pretty much why I go with 'alternate methods' to watch my episodes.

Honestly. If they were serious about stamping out piracy they'd stop being such greedy bastards and quit gutting shows just to squeeze a few extra dollars out of them.
Click to expand...

And then if they weren't such "greedy bastards" then they wouldn't be able to afford to make the programmes which to me is a far worse option.
 
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