Wanting to get into old Doctor Who

[Bad Ambassador]

The Ambassadors of Death: Unsung classic of the Pertwee era, I think in part because it wasn't available in full colour until 2013. A complex, intelligent story and some great action. Even the first episode has a huge shoot-out.
Colony in Space: Boring as fuck.
The Time Monster: Boring as fuck.
Invasion of the Dinosaurs: A really interesting story full of twists and some lovely location work in a deserted London, but hamstrung by the crap dinosaur effects. There's a gamechanging twist halfway through that should be better appreciated.
Planet of Evil: Very gothic and clearly ripped off from Forbidden Planet and Jekyll and Hyde. Good fun with an amazing alien jungle set.
The Masque of Mandragora: A lesser Tom, but with some nice location work at Portmeirion.
The Ribos Operation: Others seem to like this more than me, but it's passable all the same, with one great scene late on involving the Galileo of another planet.
The Armageddon Factor: No one's favourite. Some nice ideas and introduction of the Doctor's old mucker from Gallifrey aside, it's a bit dull and slow, though the final scene in the Key to Time saga is a satisfying ending.
Castrovalva: More like two stories shoved together, with a very strange atmosphere in the TARDIS-bound first half, before opening out into the second. Some nice twists and design, and the central idea is pretty clever.
The King's Demons: Incredibly lightweight. The Master's disguise is so obvious you think there's going to be a twist that it isn't him. Nice song, though.
Vengeance on Varos: Colin's best story, where the grim tone and violence of his era works in the story's favour. Bluntly satirical and very interested in the mechanics of television viewing, with two towering guest performances.
Terror of the Vervoids: As a story in its own right, so insubstantial and generic it feels like it should exist only in folk memory as an idea of "what Doctor Who was like". As part of the trial the central idea makes no sense and it's an obvious replacement for scripts which fell through.
The Ultimate Foe: Without wanting to tread on too many toes, it's the Rise of Skywalker of the trial season, as it tries to tie up a big bunch of loose ends in a story that was being improvised as they went. Some lovely location work and Michael Jayston trying to make the bizarre dialogue and twists work, but it's a mess.
Time and the Rani: Widely hated, and an example of what happens when your show gets recommissioned at three months notice. It's not completely terrible. O'Mara is still an imposing villain, McCoy is immediately a likeable new Doctor and tones down the goofiness fairly quickly and it even manages to make the archetypal quarry look visually interesting.

[Replies From View]

Nooooo no no, Ghost Light is fantastic! A bit confusing, but fantastic.

I'd say get a taste of it all with a few picks - An Unearthly Child,

The first episode in isolation is a lovely stepping-on point.  Watch that first episode and then skip the rest of the story (called 'An Unearthly Child' even though the episodes are titled separately); it's a dull caveman adventure and can be swapped out with any other story from the Hartnell era.  Certainly come back to the rest of the story at a later date, but don't start with it.

[Jerzy Bondov]

Yes, no need to watch the caveman stuff yet. The Aztecs and The Time Meddler are the best Hartnell stories. People will tell you The Sensorites is boring but it's not, it's good, and so is The Ark. I like The Keys of Marinus as well actually.

[Replies From View]

Unfortunately with threads like this you do get lists of favourite stories that ultimately give you every story of Doctor Who to watch.

If you are using BritBox, it's worth noting that the first seven episodes of The Doctors Revisited are up there as well as the stories themselves.  These are nice little 50th anniversary introductions to each Doctor, presented essentially so that fans of the newer series can get into the older stuff, but I genuinely enjoy watching them when I'm not in the mood for the stories themselves.  it's a nice package of modern interviews and clips, and may entice you to reach towards certain eras of the show in a way that suits your mood at the time.

[daf]

Many people think Varos is the best Colin Baker story. Maybe it is. Still crap though.

Mark of the Rani for me - lovely historical, the Rani is great, and loads of it is on film! *

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
* (though, as I never tire of saying, Big Finish is where "Old Sixie" shines - he went from my second least favourite, to my #1 Doctor in just a few stories - purely thanks to his audio work)

[Ambient Sheep]

My standard goto recommendation to anybody who hasn't seen any old Who before is, rightly or wrongly, Pyramids of Mars.

Whether that applies in your case, given that you've already seen some, I dunno.

And yes, do also watch part 1 of An Unearthly Child.

Anyway, if the recommendations in this thread aren't enough for you, there's a whole bunch from when we last did this, ten years ago(! -- how can it be that long ago, but it was!):

Recommend me some Old Doctor Who, drawn from my standard list here.

(Ignore the comments in that thread about some stuff not yet being out on DVD, by now it all is.)

Talking of threads on that list, did you (madhair60) get any further into Watching Doctor Who (2005) from the middle of the beginning?  Perhaps I shouldn't be distracting you by asking that now, though...

Unfortunately with threads like this you do get lists of favourite stories that ultimately give you every story of Doctor Who to watch.

I think that may be a little unfair as, although I know what you're saying, the same stories do tend to come up time and time again across different people's lists thus giving newbies a fair idea of an ultimate consensus.

[samadriel]

And there's nothing you can do to prevent the catharsis of ultimate consensus!

[Replies From View]

While we're at it, then, here's my must-see list, on the basis that these stories communicate strong characters, concepts, themes or atmosphere:

1) An Unearthly Child (episode 1), The Aztecs, The Time Meddler

2) The Invasion, The War Games

3) Spearhead From Space, Inferno, Terror of the Autons, The Daemons, Carnival of Monsters, The Green Death

4) The Ark in Space, Genesis of the Daleks, Terror of the Zygons, Pyramids of Mars, The Seeds of Doom, The Deadly Assassin, The Talons of Weng-Chiang, City of Death

5) Kinda, Frontios, The Caves of Androzani

6) Vengeance on Varos, Revelation of the Daleks

7) Remembrance of the Daleks, Battlefield, Ghost Light, The Curse of Fenric, Survival



By this point you'll have seen three Dalek stories and one Cyberman story; if you want to follow their journey chronologically you'll find there are some missing episodes and some of the stories are quite daft and/or routine, but this would be a solid route: 

1) The Daleks, The Dalek Invasion of Earth, skip The Chase for the time being, The Tenth Planet (fourth episode either using telesnap stills or animated)

2) The Power of the Daleks (all episodes animated), The Moonbase is a pretty routine base-under-seige Cyberman story but your mileage may vary, The Tomb of the Cybermen, you've already seen The Invasion

3) skip Pertwee Dalek stories - they're a bit unneeded until you're more of a completist

4) You've already seen Genesis of the Daleks, Revenge of the Cybermen isn't essential though it does revisit the location used in The Ark in Space, skip Destiny of the Daleks for now

5) Earthshock, Resurrection of the Daleks

6) You may want to watch Attack of the Cybermen but I'm not that fussed with it, you've already seen Revelation of the Daleks

7) You've already seen Remembrance of the Daleks, Silver Nemesis is McCoy's Cyberman one and it's a bit cack



Then after that I'd probably watch all of Pertwee and Tom Baker in order.  It's good to get a sense of the different eras:  Pertwee's earthbound Doctor, Roger Delgado as the Master, Tom Baker under different production teams so you get gothic horror followed by whimsical comedy followed by a more serious, funereal final season.

[Norton Canes]

Here are a few that are pretty awful but at least make for a fun watch. Max length five episodes so nothing that drags.

Hartnell: The Rescue, The Space Museum
Troughton: In the absence of a complete set of The Underwater Menace, I'll have to say The Dominators
Pertwee: The Claws Of Axos (not that bad but visually, probably the most OTT psychedelic 70's story), The Three Doctors (once you remove Troughton from the equation)
Tom Baker: The Android Invasion, The Invisible Enemy, The Power Of Kroll; and a lovely consecutive run - The Creature From The Pit/The Nightmare Of Eden/The Horns Of Nimon
Davison: Terminus, for singularly failing to achieve the level of grittiness to which it aspires. And Warriors Of The Deep I suppose, though lately I just find it infinitely depressing.
Colin Baker: The Mysterious Planet. Could a story be so vexing?
McCoy: Silver Nemesis and Delta And The Bannermen, I guess, though some people think the latter is a postmodern masterpiece.

[PinkNoise]

My tip for dipping into Old Who is: take it in small doses. It's a serial and therefore not meant to be consumed in one go as I discovered to my cost when they released The Seeds Of Death on VHS as a three hour "TV movie". This is particularly important when you do Season 7.

My suggestions would be:

The Daleks - all of it, watched it again the other week on Britbox and it stands up as a cracking adventure. It's the "pure" era of Hartnell without any daftness.
The Aztecs - probably the best surviving Hartnell historical, with The Romans coming a close second.
Tomb Of The Cybermen - archetypal Troughton space adventure, peak Cybermen, great design
The Web Of Fear - perfect Troughton "modern day" story, even with one episode missing
All of Season 7: Spearhead From Space, Silurians, Ambassadors Of Death and Inferno. It's consistently brilliant.
Carnival Of Monsters: my real intro to Pertwee in 1981 and a sparkling script with some great monsters
The Time Warrior: another great script, great actors, great villain
Genesis Of The Daleks: you'll have seen the first Dalek story, you don't need to worry about the rest... yet
The Brain of Morbius: pure Gothic horror for kids
The Deadly Assassin: Tom is great on his own, and for episode 3 (of course)
The Robots Of Death: slick TV sci-fi thriller with ace robots

I can't comment on anything after Season 18 as I still haven't forgiven John Nathan-Turner for changing the theme music.

If you still like it after that, Seasons 12, 13 and 14 are all strong, I have a soft spot for Season 8 and head back and watch the rest of Seasons 1 and 2 just because they're the only 60s series where most episodes still exist.

Another vote for The Sensorites - after years of being told it was crap, I really enjoyed it... and it includes one of two occasions where Old Who managed to spook me as an adult (the other was Ambassadors).

[Ambient Sheep]

While we're at it, then, here's my must-see list...

And the ironic thing is, I agree with just about everything on your list (for the periods I've seen). :-)

[weekender]

You want to watch INFERNO because it's amazing. But you can't watch Inferno without knowing more about the character of the Brigadier; he first appears in The Web of Fear so watch that. After that you should also watch The Invasion, so you can see where UNIT comes from. But you won't really get The Invasion if you don't know the Cybermen, so you'd better watch The Tenth Planet at the very least. Then you can watch Inferno, except you won't know why the Doctor is exiled so you should watch The War Games and Spearhead from Space. In fact, probably best to watch Doctor Who and the Silurians and Ambassadors of Death, so you get the full buildup to Inferno.

This is amazing logic, and I agree with nearly all of it. 

The only changes I would make are to suggest watching An Unearthly Child first, and I'd probably strip out Invasion because despite the UNIT and COLONEL Lethbridge-Stewart introductions it's 8 episodes (2 of which are cartoons) and I want OP to watch The War Games, which is 10 episodes.  24 episodes of Troughton seems a little excessive as an introduction, even if they are all very good.

This approach would give OP two good stories from the each of the first three Doctors, deal with a lot - albeit not all - of the key aspects of Doctor Who canon, as well as give a feel for how some of the missing episodes have been dealt with.  So, putting this in a recommended watching order, this would be:

An Unearthly Child (Hartnell - 4 eps)
The Tenth Planet (Hartnell - 4 eps (1 cartoon))
Web of Fear (Troughton - 6 eps, 1 recon)
The War Games (Troughton - 10 eps)
Spearhead From Space (Pertwee - 4 eps)
Inferno (Pertwee - 7 eps)

If any of the factual details are wrong there, I apologise because I've done it all from memory.  Had a bit of a wobble about Web 3, it was a dodgy recon and not a cartoon, wasn't it?

On review, I've realised that none of these stories cover the Daleks (unless you count that brief cameo in War Games), but that's OK - they become virtually worthless by the time you get to Pertwee, and the Troughton ones are mostly missing anyway.  First Hartnell one is great though, as others have pointed out.

[Kryton]

I started with McCoy and remember shaking at the scenes of the Daleks. Had a bit of a boy-crush on Ace too come to think of it. Basically got into it from then and ended up with loads of VHS of the Pertwee/Tom Baker era. Peter Davison followed. Then I went back to watch Troughton and Hartnell.

I don't think I've ever watched a Colin Baker episode though.

I much prefer the earlier Daleks though before they all started having nicknames and personalities. They work much better as angry, hive-mind, faceless aliens rather than 'comedy' conflicted types. Those new colourful Daleks can fuck off. They were much more menacing when they were like grey and black or whatever.

[weekender]

Had a bit of a boy-crush on Ace too come to think of it.

True fact: I was once locked in a cage with Sophie Aldred.

[weekender]

In the interests of balance, here are some stories from the first three Doctors that tend to polarise opinion:

Web Planet (Hartnell - 6 eps) - experiment

Gunfighters (Hartnell - 4 eps) - comedy

Macra Terror (Troughton - 4 eps) - none of these exist, but no-one seems that bothered having listened to both the soundtrack and the cartoon recon.

Space Pirates (Troughton - 6 eps) - one episode exists and most people think it's a boring episode therefore a boring story.  See also Enemy Of The World.  Who knows?

Claws of Axos (Pertwee - 4 eps) - just a bit weird

Colony In Space (Pertwee - 6 eps) - no-one can ever remember anything about this.  I tried on several occasions to watch it, but fell asleep every time.  This is the last story I watched to complete my claim of having watched every broadcast episode of Doctor Who in some form, and by Allah it was a long Sunday afternoon.

[daf]

My tip for dipping into Old Who is: take it in small doses. It's a serial and therefore not meant to be consumed in one go

Yes - This is absolutely crucial!

Attempting a six or seven-parter all in one go is like trying to swallow a giraffe!

One or two episodes a day is plenty - about the same length as a modern story, and the cliffhangers have a chance to breathe.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
At one time I was slightly unhinged, and watched one episode a week at 5:30pm precisely on Saturdays. But as it'd take something like 13 years to do all 26 seasons at that pace, I eventually went daily.

I'm currently on my second chronological Marathon watch (with info text & commentaries this time). Just finished season 16 - and I'm slotting in the Tom Baker & Mary Tamm Big Finish audios before I move on to season 17)

[purlieu]

The Tenth Planet (fourth episode either using telesnap stills or animated)

Telesnaps are far from ideal for general viewing purposes, but as the actual regeneration exists in proper footage, it's the ideal way of watching this really. I've not even watched the animation, because of possibly the most important moment in the show's history.

Space Pirates (Troughton - 6 eps) - one episode exists and most people think it's a boring episode therefore a boring story.  See also Enemy Of The World.  Who knows?

Enemy of the World is bloody superb and exists in full. Don't even consider comparing it with the utter pointlessness of The Space Pirates.

Attempting a six or seven-parter all in one go is like trying to swallow a giraffe!

One or two episodes a day is plenty - about the same length as a modern story, and the cliffhangers have a chance to breathe.

I don't mind doing them all in one go, but I did a two-episodes-per-day run through last time and it worked pretty well really.

[daf]

Enemy of the World is bloody superb and exists in full. Don't even consider comparing it with the utter pointlessness of The Space Pirates.

Think this refers to when only one episode of Enemy existed - the one set mainly in the kitchen and a (security?) corridor - so people might have thought the whole story was like that slightly under-powered episode.

[The Giggling Bean]

I'm going to suggest a different approach here. Try and watch the documentary "More Than 30 Years in the Tardis" and pick stories based on the clips that appeal to you. It's a cracking documentary anyway and seems to cover enough of the first seven Doctors to get a decent flavour.

I like Colin Bakers 6th Doctor so watched Attack of the Cybermen last night. However classic Who is a bit of a daunting task as there's 26 seasons to choose from, each with their own pros and cons. I'll find myself wanting to watch a classic story then hovering for ages, staring at the DVD collection, trying to make up my mind what to watch. I usually go with something from the 80s as that was my era.

Off the top of my head I'd suggest

The Five Doctors
Remembrance of the Daleks
Vengeance on Varos
Terror of the Zygons
The Time Warrior
Earthshock
Pyramids of Mars
The Visitation
The Daemons
Tomb of the Cybermen
Terror of the Autons
The Web of Fear
Enemy of the World
Mawdryn Undead
The Three Doctors

I'd echo what was said above. Space out the 6/7 parters over a couple of nights otherwise you'll notice the padding. 2 or 3 parters you'd be good to do in one sitting. I watched "The Awakening" the other night in one go and really enjoyed it.

The animations of missing stories are worth checking out as well if you're open to them. "Power of the Daleks" was good but had some dodgy bits of animation in it. They improved with "Shada" and "The Macra Terror" was very good. They seem to be wanting to complete Troughton as soon as possible as we have "The Faceless Ones" and "Fury From The Deep" this year.

Good luck with it anyway.

[SteK]

What ep was it where there were spiders and this disembodied voice kept saying 'Stephens...'?

And these folks were sat in a circle Yoga style and chanting 'Hom-manny-hom-ee-you' over and over again, after Pertwee, but late 70's early 80's.....

Not scary really, but the thought of it creeps me out.....

[Ambient Sheep]

No, that was Planet of the Spiders, Pertwee's last story.  Well the spiders and "Om mani padme hum" were.  Definitely.

"Stevens" was probably the computer called BOSS addressing the human boss in The Green Death, but since I've not seen either since first transmission I could be wrong.


EDIT: There's no "Stephens" or "Stevens" in Planet of the Spiders though, as this excellent website I just found has proved.

I think you've conflated two different episodes from a year apart (both season-closers, interestingly, thus perhaps more likely to stick in your head) together.  Yes, tautology, probably...

[Replies From View]

JUST COMING

[olliebean]

Anyone planning a complete (or as complete as possible) watch, or rewatch, of old Doctor Who, I'd really recommend accompanying it with the TARDIS Eruditorium blogs for cultural context: http://www.eruditorumpress.com/blog/author/phil/tardis-eruditorum/.

[SteK]

No, that was Planet of the Spiders, Pertwee's last story.  Well the spiders and "Om mani padme hum" were.  Definitely.

"Stevens" was probably the computer called BOSS addressing the human boss in The Green Death, but since I've not seen either since first transmission I could be wrong.


EDIT: There's no "Stephens" or "Stevens" in Planet of the Spiders though, as this excellent website I just found has proved.

I think you've conflated two different episodes from a year apart (both season-closers, interestingly, thus perhaps more likely to stick in your head) together.  Yes, tautology, probably...

Jesus, could be, I was only a kid and to be honest the Stephens bit was the creepiest, it was disembodied, funny how your mind does these things....

[Alberon]

I should clarify I've seen a bit, stuff an ex-CaBer showed me and I rather liked - stuff largely reviled like Timelash, Trial of a Time Lord, Ghost Light, etc. I'm sure in the scheme of things this stuff is bad but to my eyes it was fascinating, thoughtful and rich in ideas. I had a fair few DVDs of the series but foolishly sold them all... now they're very expensive.

Maybe you shouldn't watch some of the classics. If you liked the ones above something like City of Death will cause your head to explode.

[Bad Ambassador]

Anyone planning a complete (or as complete as possible) watch, or rewatch, of old Doctor Who, I'd really recommend accompanying it with the TARDIS Eruditorium blogs for cultural context: http://www.eruditorumpress.com/blog/author/phil/tardis-eruditorum/.

Sandifer blotted her copybook quite badly a year ago when she insisted that The Talons of Weng-Chiang was racist against the Chinese, prompting the half-Chinese deputy editor of Doctor Who Magazine - whose aunt was in Talons - to explain why she was taking through her hat. She then allegedly tried to get the editor sacked.

[keir]

It still blows me away how appropriate it is that one of the few tiny fragments of episode 4 of The Tenth Planet that exist because of someone filming the telly is the doctor saying "it's far from all over".

[Replies From View]

It still blows me away how appropriate it is that one of the few tiny fragments of episode 4 of The Tenth Planet that exist because of someone filming the telly is the doctor saying "it's far from all over".

Those fragments of episode 4 of The Tenth Planet were snipped out for use in a 10th Anniversary episode of Blue Peter that survived after the Doctor Who episode itself had been junked.  It being the 10th Anniversary, they were looking precisely for significant details like "it's far from all over" and the first regeneration.

One way of looking at it is that those fragments survived because they were preserved in an episode of Blue Peter; another way is to say that the fourth episode of The Tenth Planet may have survived, in its entirety, alongside the first three if it hadn't been removed from the archives by the Blue Peter editorial team and scrapped once they'd taken out the bits they wanted.


Here's that Blue Peter celebration:  https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2xltjy


Edit:  Watching that clip, only the regeneration itself was restored from Blue Peter.  "It's far from being all over" was indeed filmed from a TV screen with an 8mm camera.  Sorry!

[Kryton]

Maybe you shouldn't watch some of the classics. If you liked the ones above something like City of Death will cause your head to explode.

City of death is amazing. Romana is lovely.

You'll slowly get into the lore too Omega, Rassilon etc.

The scariest creatures in the whole lore in my opinion were the 'antibodies' created by the City of Exxilon in Death to the Daleks. The second scariest thing was the root probe in the tunnels in the same episode. I can still remember the sound it makes.

The Sea Devils is another good, moody episode. Terror of the Zygons. Genesis of the Daleks. Day of the Daleks. Robots of Death. Blink. Vincent and the Doctor. Tomb of the Cybermen. Pyramids of Mars. City of Death. The Brain of Morbius. The Three Doctors. The Five Doctors. Terror of the Autons. The Ark in Space. Earth shock. Remembrance of the Daleks. Spearhead from Space.

Plenty of good watching there. Lots of mixed styles.

[Alternative Carpark]

No, that was Planet of the Spiders, Pertwee's last story.  Well the spiders and "Om mani padme hum" were.  Definitely.

"Stevens" was probably the computer called BOSS addressing the human boss in The Green Death, but since I've not seen either since first transmission I could be wrong.


EDIT: There's no "Stephens" or "Stevens" in Planet of the Spiders though, as this excellent website I just found has proved.

I think you've conflated two different episodes from a year apart (both season-closers, interestingly, thus perhaps more likely to stick in your head) together.  Yes, tautology, probably...

There is a kind of connection because John Dearth played Lupton, the main character in that group of people doing the chanting in Planet of the Spiders...

And he had also supplied the voice of BOSS in The Green Death a year earlier, so it's him uttering the "Stevens" line there...