Watched My First Classic Who

[od0_ital]

So, yeah, I started watchin' Doctor Who when the 9th Doctor was aired on SciFi. I've watched the entirety of the three seasons, and most of the fourth (really didn't like Donna Noble), as well as the two specials aired on BBC America (so far), Torchwood, and the animated Infinite Quest.

But, yesterday & today, I watched the first classic Doctor Who ever, 'cause aside from the 'Time Crash' special, I hadn't seen any Doctors before Christopher Eccleston got the part.

Now, I have seen Tom Baker's Doctor, and I gotta say...

...really? That's what all the fuss is about?

A friend of mine loaned me his copy of Genesis of the Daleks on DVD, watched the first four parts yesterday, and the last two today.

It had the Doctor (credited as Doctor Who), Sarah Jane Smith, Davros and the Daleks (apparantly, this is the first time they're seen shootin' laser beams!), so enough familiar elements for me to know what was goin' on.

But, sadly, no TARDIS, since, for some reason or another, the Time Lords pulled the Doctor and his two Companions back in time while they were in transit, or something.

And the Doctor was tasked to destroy the Dalek threat by goin' to the beginnin' of their creation.

Thus, Davros.

Honestly, at first, I thought that Davros was a puppet or something!

And why do weasel characters always look the same?

Like Sarah Jane more in 'School Reunion' - she was made of sterner stuff then she was as a youngster.

Sadly, there was no reason for the Doctor to measure anything with his scarf, but he did get to use his sonic screwdriver a couple of times.

Not sure if I'll watch more classic Doctor Who...I know I won't go lookin' for the stuff, but if my buddy wants to loan me another DVD or two, I'll check 'em out.

 

[The]

Depends on what you're looking for, man. If you're looking for technical and creative mastery on par with the modern show, you will be disappointed every single time. If you want a good story, roll the dice. They aren't all perfect. But, some are just right. In other words, if you didn't like Genesis of the Daleks, then who is to say you won't love The Talons of Weng-Chiang? You might loathe The Deadly Assassin, but find The Horns of Nimon irresistible. Who knows? Really is up to you to decide if you want to try and get into the show's history.

Also, there have been/are Eleven Doctors to choose from. Each one brings their own flavor and chemistry to the show. Wit, humor, and a bizarre, bohemian energy? Watch Tom Baker's 4th Doctor in The City of Death. Want a super-Doctor that effortlessly commands his surroundings, and taught David Tennant the core of his Doctor to come? Watch the 4th Doctor roll over every other character in the season-opener to The Key to Time saga titled The Ribos Operation. Want tension and despair where Phantom of the Opera meets intergalactic gun-running? Try Peter Davison's 5th Doctor in The Caves of Androzani. Need something mad and mean and just too bizarrely 80's to give you a sensory-overload buzz? Walk straight into any episode of Colin Baker's 6th Doctor. Need a calculating savant with the soul of Charlie Chaplin and the devious nature of the Norse godling Loki? Sylvester McCoy's second season as the 7th Doctor. Need some 60's Adventure Team with James Bond-a-go-go? Jon Pertwee as the 3rd Doctor spends his exile on Earth with UNIT. Try The Time Warrior.

To sum it up, Doctor Who is the ice cream shop of science fiction: if you don't find a flavor you like at first, there are still plenty of others to try...

 

[Guy Gardener]

"Grab a spoon!"

"I honestly don't know if I'm hungry or horny."

"Then stay out of my refrigerator."

Nostalgia helps.

Expectations and preconceptions will jam, your gears.

Apart from M*A*S*H* (in my heart, I'm thinking season 2, but I can't be bothered looking it up.), there might not have been anything tolerable by modern standards being made on TV in 1975... I saw Annie Hall the other day, which was referenced internally to be setting 1975. 1975 was a very very long time ago.

One needs one of those pressurized chambers the deep sea divers use to get ready for their new environment, but for media.

Ask your pal if s/he has any "The Goodies".

 

[The]

"Grab a spoon!"

"I honestly don't know if I'm hungry or horny."

"Then stay out of my refrigerator."

FRIENDS

Nostalgia helps.

Very.

Expectations and preconceptions will jam, your gears.

Quite.

Apart from M*A*S*H* (in my heart, I'm thinking season 2, but I can't be bothered looking it up.)

Season Three, I think. And, honestly, seasons 1 - 5 are the best of the series...

 

[The Lensman]

So let me get this straight....You're going to judge the entirety of a show that ran for 27 years or so, had seven different Doctors, who knows how many compainions because you didn't like one serial? Seriously?

That'd be like me declaring that I have no interest in watching anymore of nuWho because when I finally decided to watch an ep, I caught five minutes of "Fear Her" and decided "Screw this, this entire show is basically rubbish."

Genesis Of The Daleks is not one of my fave Classic Who's. And Classic Who suffers from budget problems, but some of the stories still rock.

Talons of Weng-Chiang, Horror at Fang Rock (the only Who that ends the way it does I believe) are both nice period pieces of gothic horror. The Ark In Space and Sontaran Experiment are both good...ditto for Robots Of Death.

From the Hartnell Era, an era I've fallen in love with over the last couple of years to the point that it's my fave alongside Baker as far as Classic Who goes.....The Dalek Invasion Of Earth. It's a surprisingly grim serial with a touching ending.

I was happy to see that the Daleks use slave labor.

(Honestly? I can't stand the Daleks, especially in nuWho where their intelligence level is that of a retard. Everytime they encounter the Doctor, they surround him yelling "Exterminate! Exterminate!" for a minute and never actually firing, despite the fact that he's their biggest enemy. An enemy that, given a few extra minutes, always defeats them. It ruins every ep of nuWho they're in where they do this because it's so glaring. They really need to hire Scott Evil to show them how to get rid of an enemy.)

Also from the Hartnell era, The Aztecs and The Meddling Monk are both surprisingly good.

Don't have enough from Troughton, Pertwee, Davison, C. Baker or McCoy to point you to the best DVD releases of those guys. I know that I'm really looking forward to picking up the Davison era in the future. I'd probably recomend The Five Doctors, just because you get the original five incarnations in one story and it'll give you a brief glimpse into the general history and vibe of Doctor Who up until that point.

Also, during the Eccelston years, he was credited as playing "Doctor Who", not "The Doctor". From Hartnell to T. Baker the credits read "Doctor Who". From Davison to McCoy it was "The Doctor". Switched back during the Ecceston run and at Tennet's request, was changed back to "The Doctor".

I'd say give some of the eps I've listed a try. But here's the rub....if you're not into trying to understand where the show Doctor Who came from, if you're not the type of person who likes to get into the mindset of trying to appreciate an older work from the perspective of it's original era, then you might not get into this stuff.

The very first incarnation of Doctor Who is an eccentric old man who, along with his granddaughter, travels space and time with two school teachers. School teachers that the Doctor can't return home because the Tardis can't be controlled. This Doctor relies on one of the school teachers Ian, to do all the action.

It's an incredibly different vibe, even from most of the Doctors in the Classic Who run......but I love it because it's Doctor Who as he was originally envisioned and presented.

 

[Mr Light]

Isn't "Genesis of the Daleks" considered to be one of the best of the original series? I like it. Though I just recently saw it again and it did seem way too long (but you could say that of ALL the old series).

 

[OmahaStar]

really didn't like Donna Noble

You are dead to me.

 

[OmahaStar]

Isn't "Genesis of the Daleks" considered to be one of the best of the original series? I like it. Though I just recently saw it again and it did seem way too long (but you could say that of ALL the old series).

Because he was in the role for so long, Tom Baker is considered the "best" Doctor by a large number of rabid fans. Thing is, he's a clown. Rarely is he ever serious. By comparison, Tenant is stone-faced stoic.

Each actor has high points and they've all got really craptastic episodes (except for Colin Baker as number six, he was always perfect).

Trouton, for example, has a reputation for being silly and over-the-top, but that's based on the character as he was in the multi-Doctor stories (three doctors, five doctors, and two doctors - gee, what imaginative titles). There is nothing comical about the story Tomb of the Cybermen, one of my favorite second doctor stories.


There is a lot of "stretching" when it comes to these serials. Pretty much any six part story could have been done in three or four parts, for example. Though I am looking forward to the upcoming War Games, and that one is ten parts. Yikes.

 

[Blamo]

Isn't "Genesis of the Daleks" considered to be one of the best of the original series? I like it. Though I just recently saw it again and it did seem way too long (but you could say that of ALL the old series).

Well it's considered by many fans to be one of the best. Then again so is Caves of Androzani and Talons of Weng Chiang and I don't like either of them.

As for Tom Baker, he's not a fave Doctor of mine. His companions also weren't all that great (except for Romana II who was fantastic) and the one he started with, Sarah Jane Smith, got worse with each story until you got to the Hand of Fear.

 

[Haggis and tatties]

I'm sorry you did not like classic who, maybe its a thing of its time, maybe you had to be there when TV only had 3 channels and your TV was in Black and white, maybe nu who with its 45 Min's of action packed adventure has made the old 2/4/6 parters with their weekly cliffhanger seem slow and plodding, maybe the production values at times seem a bit funky..............i don't know, but speaking for myself i love them to bits.

Meybe you should consider going right back to the beginning with Hartnel and see what its all about, if not you would be missing out on some classic who and some fine actors and some great stories on the evidence of just one serial.

 

[Starkers]

Hey if you don't like it thats fine, but like The says, you might like other stuff?

The only thing I'd quibble with is your assesment of Sarah Jane, in many respects the classic Sarah Jane is made of sterner stuff than the more modern version...in fact I bought Hand of Fear the other week and the Sarah Jane the Doctor drops off seems very different to the one he meets up with in School Reunion.

 

[Ensign_Redshirt]

Funny, I'm trying to get into Classic Who myself right now. So far I've watched (in that order) "The Five Doctors", "The Genesis of the Daleks", "The Caves of Androzani", and "The Talons of Weng-Chiang".

At first, I was a bit shocked how low the production values and cheap the special effects were. Even Star Trek: TOS looks better. Then again, this was the BBC and this were 70ies and 80ies. So I guess I have to deal with the fact that 1980ies' BBC productions look like 1960ies' Paramount productions. They probably hadn't that much of a budget. On the other hand, I was suprised on how dark and violent some of the stories were (especially Caves of Androzani, but also Genesis of the Daleks). This made it up for me.

I would rank the serials I've seen in that order:
1) The Caves of Androzani
2) The Genesis of the Daleks
3) The Talons of Weng-Chiang
4) The Five Doctors

I mostly enjoyed the first two, while the latter two didn't do that much for me. I guess "The Five Doctors" was primarily made for long-time fans, so you'll have to be a fan to enjoy it... for me, it was pretty boring actually. Overall, I think I prefer Peter Davison (especially in "Caves of Androzani") over Tom Baker as the Doctor.

I also watched the 1996 TV movie btw. Far better production values and at times it was pretty funny actually. I would put it somewhere around "The Cavesof Androzani" (not sure whether it belongs above or below Androzani).

I'll try "City of Death" and "Inferno" next.

 

[Captain Pike]

Seriously, if you watched Genesis.. and didn't like it, I'd stop there and call it a day, as it is, in my opinion, one of the greatest of all classic Doctor Who's.

 

[Cutter John]

It really is a shame these days that classic Who has gotten so hard to find in syndication. Back in the day if you didn't like a story, just wait a week. Now, theres the real possibility that if you pick up a clunker, you're out $20. I know that would make me a lot more hesitant to check it out an unfamiliar show.

Anyway, I do hope the OP will give it another try. I personally always found "Genesis" to be a bit of a bore, so I can understand how he feels. It always amazed me how Terry Nation, the same writer who came up with Blakes 7 could crank out so many dull, repetative Dalek stories.

I don't know. I guess as someone whos used to the old-style program its hard to see how someone could find it boring, as I've been watching since the 80's. I guess the closest could be how I used to feel about Hartnell's stories. But even then I got 'used' to the slow pacing and zero budget.

Heres hoping the dudes friend will come through and lend him a story thats a bit more exciting.

Or heck, just ask us. We can give you quite a list of the better stories. Or else just hopelessly confuse you with a hundred different answers.

 

[Mr Light]

When I was a kid in the early 90s every single Saturday night at 11pm PBS aired a Dr Who serial (all the parts together). And it wasn't just in my hometown but also where my grandparents lived up in Jersey.

 

[Candlelight]

Genesis is very overrated, lots of running around, lots of classic capture and escape moments, worst cliffhanger ending-and-resolution (Sarah Jane on the gantry) and the Doctor deciding at the end not to kill them - seriously he knows what would happen if he didn't, why the hesitation? Yes other aliens would become allies, but they'll all end up being exterminated. And he could've prevented the time war! Twat!

It's definitely not the best story of the classic series, and I'm not surprised you don't like it. If you can stomach a 7-parter, try Pertwee's Inferno.

 

[captcalhoun]

really didn't like Donna Noble

BURN THE HERETIC!!!!!

 

[od0_ital]

So let me get this straight....You're going to judge the entirety of a show that ran for 27 years or so, had seven different Doctors, who knows how many compainions because you didn't like one serial? Seriously?

Didn't say that, just said I'm not goin' to rush out and buy every classic Who DVD I can find.

If my buddy loans me another, I'l watch it, but I was very "meh" by the time Genesis of the Daleks ended.

Watched the "makin' of" documentary on the second disc yesterday, and I will say this, the guy who played Davros really impressed me, after hearin' about what he did to prepare for the role, and what he had to do to be the character durin' filmin'.

But, seriously, the first few scenes, I thought it was a puppet!

really didn't like Donna Noble

You are dead to me.

Martha Jones is made of WIN!

 

[Jim Steele]

Now, I have seen Tom Baker's Doctor, and I gotta say...

...really? That's what all the fuss is about?

Forgive me for employing such a gormless meme, but my immediate reaction can scarcely be put into (permissible) words.

 

[Timby]

If you want to get into Classic Who, for God's sake don't ask us because we'll all give you completely different answers and then have a slapfight about them, in accordance with the First Law of Doctor Who Fans: "No substantive discussion group will be able to entirely agree on the merits (or otherwise) of any given story, not even the "except X, that just sucked/rocked" corollary to this law."

Be aware, the classic show is from a bygone era of television production. I won't say the style's dated - it's just different to what you may be used to, and I'm not referring to things like the props, costumes or 'special' effects when I say "style."

Ignoring that for a moment, some of the less controversial choices:

Hartnell: The Beginning, The Aztecs
Troughton: The Tomb of the Cybermen
Pertwee: Spearhead from Space, Carnival of Monsters
Baker T: The Robots of Death (pick this one)
Davison: Earthshock
Baker C: Vengeance on Varos, Revelation of the Daleks
McCoy: Remembrance of the Daleks, The Curse of Fenric