Recommend me a classic runthrough please

[Darth_Daver]

I must admit, my first hand classic experience is terribly lacking.

I've seen Unearthly Child, most of Daleks (skipped the boring part in the middle), most of Aztecs, Castrovalva, the beginning of Four to Doomsday, Five Doctors and the TV Movie.

But I want to get better in time for the 50th...

Could you recommend me a list of episodes to watch, in a scope that's doable in roughly two weeks, so the list shouldn't be longer than ~15-20 episodes.

Also:
- they have to be available readily on dvd or online (if not yet, they should be available before end of october)
- animation (tenth planet, invasion, etc) is ok, reconstruction and narrated stills are not (sorry)
- roughly the same amount of stories for each doctor
- regeneration and multidoctor stories should be included, unless horrible or unavailable

Please help me pick, there is so many good options.

 

[Sindatur]

I must admit, my first hand classic experience is terribly lacking.

I've seen Unearthly Child, most of Daleks (skipped the boring part in the middle), most of Aztecs, Castrovalva, the beginning of Four to Doomsday, Five Doctors and the TV Movie.

But I want to get better in time for the 50th...

Could you recommend me a list of episodes to watch, in a scope that's doable in roughly two weeks, so the list shouldn't be longer than ~15-20 episodes.

Also:
- they have to be available readily on dvd or online (if not yet, they should be available before end of october)
- animation (tenth planet, invasion, etc) is ok, reconstruction and narrated stills are not (sorry)
- roughly the same amount of stories for each doctor
- regeneration and multidoctor stories should be included, unless horrible or unavailable

Please help me pick, there is so many good options.

The Five Doctors (1 - 5; though almost no 4) gets mixed reviews, some like it some don't, I like it. The Three Doctors also I enjoy (1 - 3).

50th has Zygons, so, I'd go with Terror of the Zygons.

That's 12 Episodes right there (Each Serial is 4x 25 minute Episodes long)

Everything Classic Who can be found streaming on Dailymotion (Dailymotion is Like Youtube)

 

[Emperor-Tiberius]

Some recommended viewings, off the top of my hat:

War Games (though its long), Spearhead from Space, The Three Doctors, Genesis of the Daleks, Arc of Infinity and the Big Finish audio story Omega (for resolution to the character, and also setup for...), (...) The Five Doctors, Caves of Andozani, Vengeance on Maros, Remembrance of the Daleks, and one audio story for the Eighth Doctor: Chimes at Midnight.

 

[Darth_Daver]

Sorry I wasn't obvious. I meant 15-20 serials, not episodes. I have *some* time.

Thanks on the tip for Dailymotion.

 

[VDCNI]

Right well

1st Doctor -
The Dalek Invasion Of Earth - I'm not a massive fan but most people like it. The story in which the Daleks became the major villain of the show
The Romans - Funny and fast paced for Who
The Time Meddler - Nice character piece

2nd Doctor
Tomb Of The Cybermen - personaly I don't love this but most people do
The Mind Robber - very different, quite surreal
Invasion - Troughton has fun here and it points the way to the Pertwee years

3rd Doctor
Spearhead In Space - First colour story and a great intro story to the era Could be replaced with Terror Of The Autons to get a Master story into the mix
Inferno - Massively tense and a rare alternate universe story
Carnival Of Monsters - A rare full on non earth bound story for Pertwee

4th Doctor
Pyramids Of Mars - the height of the Tom Baker gothic era
Robots of Death - Just a really well told story
Talons Of Weng Chiang - for me the greatest story of them all
The Ribos Operation - Intro to the Key To Time story and Romana I
City Of Death - Tom Baker & Romana II at their peak for most people

5th Doctor
Kinda - Very different, a much slower internal story than usual
Earthshock - Who goes blockbuster
Caves Of Androzani - Voted the best story of all time

6th Doctor
Vengeance On Varros
Revelation Of The Daleks - Probably his two best stories

7th Doctor
Remembrance Of The Daleks - After a shaky first year McCoy really makes his mark here
The Curse Of Fenric - A really good story for Ace.

 

[Emperor-Tiberius]

While I don't necesarily object to the above listings, I will, however, voice my objection to Revelation of the Daleks - simply put, the worst non-Tom Baler Davros story of them all. Graeme Harper shoots this well, but the story is shit, the characters are insufferable and overall, its a colossal mess.

 

[Turbo]

I've been recommending this list to several friends lately:

An Unearthly Child 1
The Aztecs
The Tomb of the Cybermen
The Mind of Evil
Terror of the Zygons
Earthshock
Vengeance on Varos (or The Terror of Lanyon Moor)
Remembrance of the Daleks
TV Movie
The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances
Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead
The Impossible Astronaut/Day of the Moon

You've already seen some of those. Hm. I'd add:

The Ice Warriors* (Second Doctor)
The Invasion (Second Doctor)
Terror of the Autons (Third Doctor)
Planet of the Spiders (Third Doctor)
The Talons of Weng-Chiang (Fourth Doctor)
The Pirate Planet (Fourth Doctor)
City of Death (Fourth Doctor)
The Caves of Androzani (Fifth Doctor)
Survival (Seventh Doctor)

*The Ice Warriors' second and third episodes are animated. I know you don't like animations/recons, but I would suggest maybe at least this story, as it's fantastic. The second disc has a 15-minute condensed narrated recon of the second and third episodes (from the VHS release) if you just can't get past the animation.

 

[Darth_Daver]

No no, I'm fine with animation. (The clips I've seen from Invasion and the promo shots of Tenth Planet looked amazing) I have problems with narrated stills and similar stuff. That's just too boring for my attention span, sorry.

 

[VDCNI]

While I don't necesarily object to the above listings, I will, however, voice my objection to Revelation of the Daleks - simply put, the worst non-Tom Baler Davros story of them all. Graeme Harper shoots this well, but the story is shit, the characters are insufferable and overall, its a colossal mess.

I'm not in love with it - though i don't think its that bad - but as with much on the list I went with what is generally appreciated and that is usually voted his best story.

 

[Emperor-Tiberius]

Its the most overrated story of his. I know that sounds technically impossible, but it is. The Doctor doesn't really do anything in it anyway, the whole DJ sub-plot is ridiculous, the romantic sub-plot is awful(not to mention terribly acted), and aside from Davros and that Count character whose name isn't even important enough to remember, its a complete waste of time.

The only thing to take away from this serial is that the Count Whatshisname cuts off Davros' hand. Nothing more.

 

[Turbo]

No no, I'm fine with animation. (The clips I've seen from Invasion and the promo shots of Tenth Planet looked amazing) I have problems with narrated stills and similar stuff. That's just too boring for my attention span, sorry.

Ah! Sorry, misread that. Then Ice Warriors is fine.

 

[Green Lantern]

First Doctor:
*Tenth Planet: I've not seen it yet, but give it a try...might as well.
Second Doctor:
Tomb of the Cybermen: Fantastic! A true Classic.
The Third Doctor:
*The Three Doctors: A great team up, I actually think Troughton out-preforms Pertwee in this, but it is a gooden.
*The Green Death: I know it's known as the one with the giant maggots, but I like it and it was my first Pertwee story!
*Planet of The Spiders: Just a personal favourite, a great regeneration story!
-Also, skip stories like "The Silurian's", "The Sea Devils" and "The Mutants", they're famous, but I think they're a bit long winded and over political. Get into the Pertwee era with the three suggested stories first before trying these. Plus they're long.
The Fourth Doctor:
*Genesis of the Daleks: Personally I don't particularly like it, last time I saw it I found it long winded and dragged on and on and on. Then again, it's just something personal I have against the 70s Tom Baker era for some reason, there's something I find dull about it. But everyone else loves it, so.
*The Keeper of Traken: Absolutley love this 80s Tom baker story! Just does everything right!
*Logopolis: The sequel to Traken and goes before Castravalva, this one is just fantastic! Plus a great regeneration!
The Fifth Doctor:
*Earthshock: A true classic. Davison and the Cybermen at their best!
*The Five Doctors: Personally I prefer the Three Doctor by far, 3 just has more to it and a better chemistry between its doctors. But nonetheless, five doctors is a classic and popular, it's still not bad. Personally, I think it's a bit overcrowded though.
*Resurrection of the Daleks: Quite good.
*The Caves of Androzani: I've not seen this one either ( ), but everyone loves it, so give it a chance.
The Sixth Doctor:
*Vengeance on Varos: Just pure awesome! Has everything a good doctor who story should have, plus surprisingly dark for an 80s one. Darker than anything fucking Moffat would do.
*The Two Doctors: I love this one! My favourite cross doctor serial, just does everything right. Plus it has a sensible balance of humour and serious scenes.
*Revelation of the Daleks: Probably one of the best Dalek stories ever. Quite dark again for a classic serial, has a great concept that I saw was clearly copied a bit for the Eccleston era dalek stories, plus Eccleston's daleks share the same concept with revelation that daleks can be made from humans.
*The Trial of a Timelord: If you have the stomach for it, give it a go! All of the four serials (except Terror of the Vervoids) are great!
The Seventh Doctor:
*Remembrance of the Daleks: A great McCoy story! Ace is at her best.
*Survival: Annother great McCoy story! Plus the last classic serial ever.

 

[Emperor-Tiberius]

Once again, Revelation of the Daleks is a must avoid. Its absolutely dreadful, and if you want a really good Sixth-Davros story, seek out Davros, by Big Finish. A superior audio drama, and the characters in it are not caricatures.

 

[VDCNI]

Yeah I think we got the message the first time. However as I mentioned it is generally regarded as his best story - you may not like it but on balance other people mainly do.

 

[Green Lantern]

I love Revelation. It's a good story, and a fan of the new series who want to get into older stories will probably love it too.

Audio Plays are not the way forward, Doctor Who's a TV series after all.

To me, Rvelation also feels like the closest to a nu who dalek story in the classic series.

 

[Mr Pointy Ears]

the 3rd doctor final outing-planets of the spiders.
tom baker-Pyramids of mars,The deadly assassin
colin baker-the 2 doctors.

 

[Darth_Daver]

Allright, thanks for all the recommendations. I'll start my runthrough on the 1st of november, will probably do a review thread about it.

 

[sidious618]

Hmmm... Let's see:

Tomb of the Cybermen
The two recovered stories, The Enemy of the World and Web of Fear
War Games (it's long but fun)
Spearheads From Space
Terror of the Autons
The Three Doctors (I'm not crazy about it but most like it)
Carnival of Monsters
The Ark in Space
Genesis of the Daleks
Pyramids of Mars
The Deadly Assassin
The Talons of Weng Chiang
City of Death
Logopolis
Castrovolva
Kinda
Earthshock
Snakedance
Frontios
Resurrection of the Daleks
Caves of Androzani
Revelation of the Daleks
Remembrance of the Daleks
The Greatest Show in the Galaxy
Survival

That should keep you busy.

 

[Darth_Daver]

Just watched Dalek Invasion of Earth!

It had some fairly pointless bits (Dalek pet attacking Ian, Crocodile attacking Susan, everyone hurting their ankles, etc), and of course the pacing is totally off my today's standards (my gf asked: 'This is before they invented interesting television, right?'), but the story itself was very good, I could easily see it condensed into a Tennant-style double episode with running around London and and the mines. Also, the Robomen are fairly silly, I hope the Daleks come up with better stuff in their later stories. I was surprised to see that Susan's departure was fairly well prepared for, it totally didn't feel like 'oh allright, I'll leave you for no apparent reason'. And of course I was totally NOT surprised to get top notch acting from both the Doctor and Ian. All the classic series companions will have a lot of manning (or girling) up to do if they want to measure up to Ian.

Next up, the Romans.

 

[Darth_Daver]

just finished watching the Romans. Well that was silly. Almost slapstick. But the pacing was much better, and I'm surprised to like Vicki, even more so than Susan.

next up The Chase.