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Recommend me some classic Who!

FallOfFingolfin

Ensign
Red Shirt
Hey all,

I'm just now getting into Doctor Who. I like sci-fi and all things English, and yet somehow it took me this long. I just finished the first series with Eccleston last night and I'm hooked. While I'm waiting for my next DVDs to come from Netflix...what classic episodes/stories would you recommend? I'm watching "The Ark in Space" instant from Netflix right now and I'm enjoying it a fair bit.
 
There are a wide variety of stories, which cover pretty much everything you can imagine. Is there a specific interest you have? Is there a particular story of Nine's that stood out for you? The more we know about your interests, the closer we'll be able to match what you'd like.

You say you liked Ark in Space. That's an early Tom Baker story. Tom played the character for the longest, and has a LOT of stories available. If you want more of that specific Doctor, I'd suggest Robot (there are a few stories with "robot" in the title). It's his first episode, and gives a reintroduction to the character. I'd also suggest Pyramids of Mars (also with Sarah Jane), City of Death (a story you can watch without having to know anything of the series), and The Hand of Fear (Sarah Jane's last story).

If you want more of Sarah Jane, check out The Time Warrior. It's her very first story. It's a good idea to brush up on this character, as she returns repeatedly in the modern series, and gets her own (successful) spin-off. The fourth season of that starts airing this fall.

A great introduction to the series is offered in Spearhead From Space. It is the first story of the Third Doctor, and the first in color.

For some reason, there are fans who cannot handle watching black and white. If you're not like that, there are some amazing stories for the first two Doctors.

I'd recommend The Aztecs, a historical story which is pretty universally loved, as well as The Rescue/The Romans (two stories back to back which were released last year) which introduces a new companion and then sees another historical that includes the burning of Rome, for the First Doctor.

Unfortunately, the overwhelming majority of the Second Doctor has been lost. The two I would highly recommend are Tomb of the Cybermen and The War Games. WG is a ten-part epic that spans various time zones, and has appearances by all kinds of monsters/villains. It also gives us the first real infodump ... telling us just who the Doctor is, where he came from, and even takes us to his home planet.

There's not much I can recommend from the Fifth Doctor's era. There's Resurrection of the Daleks (and everyone loves a good Dalek story, right?), and The Five Doctors. That was a special movie filmed for the 20th anniversary of the series, bringing together the previous Doctors, and a handful of their companions, for a threat to the whole of humanity. Ok, not really, it's just an excuse to see several of the Doctors working together.

Caves of Androzani is apparently a big favorite for this Doctor too. It's more a favorite for me because at the end, he regenerates into my favorite Doctor, Six.

For the Sixth Doctor, I'd recommend The Mark of the Rani, which pits the Doctor against two renegade Time Lords - The Master and The Rani. I'd also suggest Vengeance on Varos, which gives a startling early view of reality television.

For the Seventh Doctor ... um ... Remembrance of the Daleks (his only Dalek story, if I remember correctly) and Survival, the very last story of the original series.

That should get you started. :)
 
Wow, thanks a lot!

I got tired of waiting for people to turn in NuWho DVDs at my library, so I decided to sign up for Netflix. I figure I'll continue watching the new series via instant streaming, while having classic episodes shipped to me.

My favourite episodes of the Ninth Doctor were...
Dalek
Empty Child/Doctor Dances
The Parting of the Ways

Would you recommend "The Beginning" collection for the First Doctor?
 
Would you recommend "The Beginning" collection for the First Doctor?
Yes and no. In the early years, each episode led into the next. While we look back and think "Ok, the second story is now called The Daleks" back then, each episode had its own individual title, and the end of each episode led into the next.

The very first episode, "An Unearthly Child" introduces the Doctor, his grand-daughter Susan, and their first companions, her teachers Barbara and Ian. It is a wonderful pilot, and sets up the concept brilliantly. The acting, writing, and directing are all top-notch, and I can see why so many people tuned in after watching it and telling all their friends.

Unfortunately, it's followed immediately by three of the worst episodes of the series. And I'm being specific about episodes/stories here ... The first story is four episodes long, and has the overall title of "An Unearthly Child" just like the pilot. Great first part, really sucky parts 2, 3, and 4.

This is followed by The Daleks, a 7-episode story which takes place entirely on the Daleks' home planet of Skarro . Since you liked the story Dalek, it might be fun to go back and see their origin. (meaning, first appearance ... in a show about time travel, you know they'll go forward and backward in time eventually). It's a really good four-part story .... told in seven parts. It's something we sort of expect with the writer Terry Nation ... he likes to pad.

This is followed by a two-episode story known as "The Edge of Destruction". To cover the enormous costs of the Daleks story, they needed to do a bottle show. And this is one. But, like TNG's "The Drumhead" it is so much better than it has any right to be.

After the Daleks, the crew is knocked out, and they're suffering some memory losses, and nobody trusts anybody ... one character tries to kill another with a pair of scissors, there's some exploration of the Tardis (which is more than just a control room), and it's one of my favorites. That said, it's entirely about the characters. It's just the four actors together on a locked set, no guests, no new sets, done at minimal cost.

Those are the three stories included in The Beginning box set, and I believe they're all available streaming via Netflix.

There is another partial story on one of the discs, "Marco Polo." It's a lost story, but they have the audio. They edited it down from 3 or 4 hours to one hour, and added it as a bonus.

Finally, a word about Netflix streaming of the original series ... Their source material is NOT dvd quality. For dvd, the restoration team has gone in and completely cleaned up the original film/tapes. Netflix uses old prints, and I've not been impressed with the quality. Tomb of the Cybermen, for example, looks like a 15th generation videotape.

On the dvd The Aztecs, there is a feature that's only a couple minutes long, but it shows what they had to go through to prepare the story for dvd release. They show the original version, then the cleaned up version, and the original is completely unwatchable. I had a new respect for the restoration team after watching it.
 
here are my recommendations:

For the Second Doctor:
Tomb of the Cybermen
The Invasion (special note, you have to put up with some of the episodes being black and white cartoons, not just the whole thing being black and white because the episodes were lost, but it's an epic awesome tale)
The War Games

For the Third:
Spearhead from Space
Doctor Who and the Silurians
Inferno (DW does a Mirror Universe story)
Frontier In Space and Planet of the Daleks (the second follows straight on, it's basically a 12-parter) available as "The Dalek War" boxset
The Three Doctors (a special story with 1, 2 and 3 in)

for Four:
City of Death
Genesis of the Daleks
Destiny of the Daleks

For Seven
Battlefield
Rememberance of the Daleks
 
An off-tangent answer here, but...
Apart from checking out The Beginning box set, to see how it started, just take pot luck while checking out each Doctor. You'll get some stinkers, but even there, you might be one of the handful of people who happen to like that story (and you might like the Doctor in spite of the story).
Asked for a top 20, there's 15 stories almost anyone would list. Ask for a top 50, and we'd be all over the place naming quirky stories that some love and some hate...
 
I'm still working my way through classic Who, but, so far, I'd say these are some "must see" Who serials.

William Hartnell
The Beginning box set, which has the first three Who serials in it from 1963
An Unearthly Child
The Daleks
Inside the Ship

Patrick Troughton
The Invasion

John Pertwee
The Three Doctors
Inferno

Tom Baker
Pyramids of Mars
Brain of Morbius
Genesis of the Daleks

If you've never seen classic Who before, you're going to have to be patient with how slow a lot of it is. They stretched stories into 4 and 6 episode serials and, in the middle eps, there's a lot of running back and forth where nothing happens. :lol:
 
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My feet are pretty wet at this point. I've finished the first three series on NuWho and watched the entire Beginning box set. Now I am watching the Keys of Marinus. I will be moving onto the Aztecs and then concluding my First Doctor adventures with The Dalek Invasion of Earth.

I originally had The Romans, the Rescue, and The Time Meddler on my list as well, but I've decided not to dive too far into any one Doctor at the moment. I'm going to get a taste...4-8 stories from each Doctor and move on, so that I have stuff to come back to later. I don't want to completely exhaust myself in one go.
 
My personal faves are megalithic

ofcourse the Unearthly child, and Aztecs, Time Meddler, and my favorite doctor who of the 1st doctor ever.. the chase!

2nd doctor had some sweet ones as well.. yes we know about the tomb of the cyberman, but also I loved the mind robber, I suggest trying to get as much of the 2nd doctor you can in, he was fun, and was the epitome of why the time lords punished him..the war games was the best finale I ever saw, only wish the bumpers were just ominous music and not bombs and such, gets annoying watching back to back..

3rd doctor had some sweet episodes, the daleks ones are obvious, but also the carnival of monsters was a sweet little gem, light hearted and fun.. a great episode!
I would also look into more of his series before going on to the fourth doctor, but stay away from the green death episodes..IMHO that one sucks..

the 3 doctors is the best ever, and I could watch that special over and over again.. as well as the 5 doctors..

the tome baker era has some sweet episodes, the early stuff with leela was great and had excellent production values, the talons of weng chiang, the Androids of Tara, City of Death, The Robots of death, and my perosnal Favorite, the Horror of fang rock! some of the best episodes there.. the key to time had good episodes and some crappy ones, but overall it was okay.. the logopolis trilogy is pretty cool..

that leads into the 5th doctor who has a lot of adventures showcasing the inside of the Tardis..not to mention some cool villains.. and story arcs.
 
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