Who Semi Newbie: Best stories for each classic Doctor and Villains

[JD]

I'm fairly new to the classic Doctor Who, so far I've been working my way through the Key to Time arc on Netflix, and I own Genesis of the Daleks, Pyramids of Mars, Five Doctors, and Caves of the Androzani. So now that I have Netflix's huge DW collection at my disposal I was wondering if you guys could reccomend the best story(ies) featuring each of the classic Doctors. Although I've already seen plenty of Tom Baker (I've really liked him) so feel free to skip him unless there are some other must see arcs that I haven't seen yet. Same goes for the enemies that have popped up on the new DW.

 

[OmahaStar]

You'll get a wide variety of answers to this one.

First - (comedy) The Romans. The first episode drags a lot, but 2-4 are hilarious.

Second - Tomb of the Cybermen. There are only a few stories released for this Doctor, but of the ones out there, this is a big favorite of mine.

Third - Spearhead From Space - gives a good introduction to the Doctor and regenerations, also a pretty good intro to Unit.

Fourth - City of Death - A light, stand-alone story, with a fun cameo by ... a favorite of mine.

Fifth - Caves of Androzani - supposedly his best story.

Sixth - The Mark of the Rani - The Sixth Doctor is my Doctor, and the combination of the Doctor with the evil Time Lady, The Rani, makes me watch over and over again.

Seventh - Remembrance of the Daleks - Had to pick one. Sorry, but at this point, the Seventh is my least favorite of all the Doctors. We'll see if that changes when I visit his era in Project: Who.

Eighth - only one choice, the tv movie, but it's not available in R1. You'll have to buy it and have a multi-region/region-free dvd player.

 

[Cutter John]

Well, I hope you're ready for about a hundred different answers.



Hartnell

An Unearthly Child, The Time Meddler (And I'm rather partial to The Web Planet, even though it'll earn me a few 'WTF'? looks. )

Troughton

The Invasion, Tomb of the Cybermen, The Mind Robber

Pertwee

The Three Doctors, The Green Death, The Sea Devils (or, anything with The Master)

Baker

Robots of Death, Horror of Fang Rock

Davison

Castrovalva, Earthshock

Baker

Revelation of the Daleks, Mark of the Rani

McCoy

Curse of Fenric, Remembrance of the Daleks

 

[JD]

Well, I figured I'd wait and see how many serials popped up in multiple lists, and the pick the most common.If not then I guess I might just pick the ones that sound the most interesting to me.
Why hasn't The Movie been released in R1? Is it something to do with the Fox/BCC deal?

 

[Cutter John]

Yeah, its the usual studio pissing match. I'm sure someone here will post specific details.

 

[captcalhoun]

first: dunno

second: the invasion, tomb of the cybermen

third: spearhead from space, inferno, the three doctors

fourth: city of death, genesis of the daleks

fifth: dunno

sixth: dunno

seventh: rememberance of the daleks, battlefield

 

[Chaos Descending]

...I'm rather partial to The Web Planet...

You and I are in the same boat, mate.

 

[GabeHimself]

First Doctor - The Dalek Invasion of Earth
Second Doctor - The Invasion
Third Doctor - Terror of the Autons
Fourth Doctor - The Deadly Assassin
Fifth Doctor - The Caves of Androzani
Sixth Doctor - The Mark of the Rani
Seventh Doctor - The Greatest Show in the Galaxy

The Dalek Invasion of Earth is very important to the series as a whole, it is probably one of the most important stories to the Doctor personally.

The Second Doctor's best stories are mostly missing. The Invasion is probably the best one though for a newbie -- it is the first UNIT story (It wasn't UNIT in the Web of Fear).

Terror of the Autons is the first Master story, and FAR better than Spearhead From Space. Scarier for kids too. Heh.

You own Genesis. Watch Assassin!

Caves of Androzani is one of the best if not the best Doctor Who story ever.

The Mark of the Rani has high glossy production values, although I'm torn between this and Revelation of the Daleks. Rani shows off the Doctor better imo.

The Greatest Show in the Galaxy is freakin creepy.

 

[Lonemagpie]

Of those available on DVD

First- The Beginning boxed set
Second- Tomb Of The Cybermen
Third- Beneath The Surface boxed set
Fourth- Talons Of Weng Chiang, Genesis of the Daleks
Fifth- Earthshock, or wait for the upcoming Black Guardian set
Sixth- Revelation Of The Daleks
Seventh- Curse Of Fenric
Eighth- well, there is only the TVM

 

[Starkers]

1st: Dalek Invasion of Earth
2nd: The Invasion
3rd: The Time Warrior
4th: Robots of Death, The Horror of Fang Rock
5th:Enlightenment, Earthshock, Black Orchid, Androzani
6th: Vengence on Varos
7th Curse of Fenric

 

[Cutter John]

^ Ah jeez, how did I manage to leave 'The Time Warrior' off my list? That ep was brilliant!

 

[JD]

I just watched the first two parts of Earthshock, and I can see it was on your lists, it was really good so far. Although the Mondasian Cybermen do seem to have more personality than the Cybus ones. Adric, Tygan, and Nyssa seem pretty cool, so I'm thinking I might want to find more episodes with them.

 

[Cutter John]

The Visitation might be a good choice then. And of course Castrovalva, the 5th's first story, although Adric isn't in it much.
I kinda liked Black Orchid as well. Its a historical rather than a SF story. The actors apparently didn't care for it, but I thought it was a nice change from running up and down starship corridors and dodging aliens.

 

[JD]

Cool thanks. I'll have to see if they have them online, ATM I'm focusing on the ones available through NF's Watch Instantly service, but once I get through more of my list I was going to star adding the DVDs.

 

[Captain Pike]

Mileage varies, but IMO, probably the greatest Dr Who story of all is The Seeds of Doom. I'm surprised it made nobodies list.

 

[Timofnine]

Mileage varies, but IMO, probably the greatest Dr Who story of all is The Seeds of Doom. I'm surprised it made nobodies list.

I've never seen it, but I read the book as a kid and I loved the story. I'm worried that actually watching it will shatter my illusion of how good it is!

 

[denmaroca]

Doctor Who Monthly recently ran a poll to list the 200 stories of Doctor Who in order. The 6,000+ fans who responded gave the top five stories for each Doctor that are both out on DVD and which you haven't said you've seen as follows:

First Doctor: The Daleks, The Dalek Invasion of Earth, The Aztecs, An Unearthly Child, The Time Meddler
Second Doctor: Tomb of the Cybermen, The War Games, The Invasion, The Mind Robber, The Seeds of Death
Third Doctor: Inferno, Spearhead from Space, The Green Death, The Silurians, The Time Warrior
Fourth Doctor: The Talons of Weng-Chiang, City of Death, The Deadly Assassin, Horror of Fang Rock, The Ark in Space
Fifth Doctor: Earthshock, Enlightenment, The Visitation, Castrovalva, Resurrection of the Daleks
]Sixth Doctor: Revelation of the Daleks, Vengeance on Varos, The Two Doctors, The Trial of a Time Lord, The Mark of the Rani
Seventh Doctor: Remembrance of the Daleks, The Curse of Fenric, Ghost Light, Survival, Battlefield
Eighth Doctor: The TV Movie

(Hopefully, I didn't miss any more popular ones whilst compiling the list!)

 

[JD]

Sweet! This is exactly the kind of thing I was looking for.

 

[23skidoo]

Hartnell:

Episode one of An Unearthly Child (only - probably a good candidate for Netflixing; also make sure you watch the unaired pilot version for an interesting comparison), The Daleks, The Edge of Destruction, The War Machines.

Troughton

Tomb of the Cybermen, The Invasion, The War Games when it comes out.

Pertwee

Spearhead from Space, Inferno, The Sea Devils, The Time Warrior (I'm not including the Master arc because it's below)

Tom Baker

The Ark in Space, Horror of Fang Rock, City of Death

Davison

Black Orchid, Earthshock, Mawdryn Undead (coming to DVD soon), Warriors of the Deep

Colin Baker

Vengeance on Varos, The Two Doctors

McCoy

Remembrance of the Daleks, Curse of Fenric

McGann

Only one choice here, though you're out of luck getting the TV Movie in North America. You might want to consider investing in some of the Big Finish audio dramas instead. The TV movie has plenty of critics and could have been done better, but it's still of interest from an historical perspective.

Villains

Daleks:

The Daleks, The Dalek Invasion of Earth, Remembrance of the Daleks

Cybermen:

Tomb of the Cybermen, The Invasion

The Master

Roger Delgado version - The entire 1971 season featured the Master, and I recommend any of them (they also rank among some of the best Pertwees, too.

Post-Delgado era: The Deadly Assassin

Anthony Ainley version - You can't go wrong with the Keeper of Traken/Logopolis/Castrovalva trilogy (aka the New Beginnings box set)

The Sontarans:

The Time Warrior, The Sontaran Experiment

Alex

 

[Tomalak]

You'll get a wide variety of answers to this one.

First - (comedy) The Romans. The first episode drags a lot, but 2-4 are hilarious.

Hmmm, but it's also got some very dark stuff with Ian forced into slavery. It's a bit more than just a farce.

I think it's fantastic though, good choice.

Mileage varies, but IMO, probably the greatest Dr Who story of all is The Seeds of Doom. I'm surprised it made nobodies list.

It's because it's not very Doctor Who-ish. The Doctor and Sarah run around like Steed and Mrs Peel, beating people up and threatening them. Tony Beckley is great, but something like Talons of Weng-Chiang is a better use of the Doctor Who format.