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Past Seasons: Classic Who

Lisin

By Lisin
in Doctor Who

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Lantern7

Lantern7

Anybody read comics? Right now, there's a Third Doctor miniseries that feels true to Jon Pertwee and that era. And there's a sweet swerve at the end of the third issue that ties in to a Sixties story.

Caught the third episode of POTD last night. Funny to see Daleks acting servile, then conspiring to wreck everything. And I like Animated Doctor getting up in the Dalek's grill.

ETA: CBR ranks all Christmas specials. I don't think "The End Of Time" should have gotten the top slot. And does "The Feast Of Steven" really count?

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Llywela
Llywela

I think this is a hurdle a lot of people face - I struggled at first myself when I went back to the classic show, despite having grown up on it. But just because it is dated doesn't mean it has nothin

benteen
benteen

As I recall, Marwyn Undead was supposed to feature William Russell returning as Ian. It didn't happen so The Brigadier was brought back, having become a math teacher at a boarding school. The Fifth Do

Llywela
Llywela

I love An Unearthly Child. The pacing isn't awful, it's appropriate for the style and the time and the length of the story. It feels odd to modern viewers because just about everything we watch today

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Last Time Lord

Last Time Lord

For the most part, I've been fine with the animation of Power Of The Daleks, but in this one, when Janley told the guard that The Doctor attacked Lesterson, the expression on The Doctor's face was so unintentionally hysterical.

I kinda get the impression the very ending with all the Daleks after being mass produced  was much more visually impressive in animation than it was on a circa 1960 TV budget.

Lantern7

Lantern7

Caught Part Five last night. In the Hartnell years, were the Daleks ever funny? "I am your servant" is a great basis for a drinking game. And then you had the Dalek going off on a power rant to humans, realizing what it was saying, and going subdued with "useful."

"The Daleks are reproducing! But how?!?" "My dear man, have you heard of a singer named Barry White?"

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Lantern7

Lantern7

What's not to love? The Doctor in Paris! Leela Ward's second story as Romana! An alien madman! A tough-as-nails dummy! Leonardo da Vinci! John Cleese! A script so good, K9 had to hang back in the TARDIS!

ETA: Lalla Ward. Totally what I meant. If you got a mental image of Leela gussied up like Romana (either one)? You're welcome.

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Llywela

Llywela

4 hours ago, Last Time Lord said:

So, Web Of Fear was pretty amazing. Episode three being a photo reconstruction was kind of jarring at first, as I've never watched one before, but it didn't take long for me to slip back into finding it extremely compelling.

There are much better photo reconstructions than that out there - Loose Cannon have done some amazing ones. But despite the recon ep being a bit perfunctory, Web of Fear is excellent!

that one guy

that one guy

On 12/23/2016 at 9:12 PM, Last Time Lord said:

I think I read they put it up because of something to do with the Dirk Gently show, so there is the Adams connection.

Douglas Adams re-purposed much of the plot for the first Dirk Gently novel. I guess he retained the rights somehow - he wrote the episode under a pseudonym - so he could do that. City of Death is still probably my favorite Doctor Who episode ever. "Wonderful butler you've got. He's so violent!" Adams' tenure on the show appears to be a big influence on the modern series - his era was the most tonally similar to 21st Century Who.

I've seen 2/3 of the animated POTD so far. The animation isn't the best they've done, but it's pretty dramatic in places. I'm so happy they're doing this - I've listened to a number of lost episodes on Audible, and this is one of my favorites. I'd love to see "the Crusades" and "Evil of the Daleks" done eventually. I enjoy Frazer Hines narrating the lost Jamie McCrimmon episodes enough that I'm not sure I need to see them - although if done well, those could re-establish that era as one of Doctor Who's best. As fans are rediscovering with POTD, Troughton was quite funny. The comic double act with Hines would probably overcome any complaints modern viewers would have about 60's production values.

Lantern7

Lantern7

Thinking about the current version . . . which Christmas episode is your favorite? I liked the latest one, but it barely had anything to do with the holiday. I think my go-to is "The Next Doctor," as Ten tries to escape his traumatic encounter with Davros and the Daleks, meets somebody who might be a future incarnation (with a companion that's a blend of Rose, Martha and Donna), saves Ye Olde London from Cybermen, and actually gets some love afterward. Not much angst, no Tennant acting too mad (i.e., "The Runaway Bride"), and I reckon it was the high point of the specials that ran through "The End Of Time." So. Much. Goodbyes. Just go!!!

ETA: Not really a fan of "Last Christmas." "Hey, kids! Remember . . . any Christmas can be the last one you might have!" Thanks, Steven! And thanks for giving us the sliver of hope that Clara would be gone from the show! I think those two things offset Santa Claus/Father Christmas.

Llywela

Llywela

2 hours ago, that one guy said:

Douglas Adams re-purposed much of the plot for the first Dirk Gently novel. I guess he retained the rights somehow - he wrote the episode under a pseudonym - so he could do that. City of Death is still probably my favorite Doctor Who episode ever. "Wonderful butler you've got. He's so violent!" Adams' tenure on the show appears to be a big influence on the modern series - his era was the most tonally similar to 21st Century Who.

It was mostly the unfinished, unaired story Shada that got re-purposed into the first Dirk Gently novel - comparing the two plots side-by-side is quite an eye-opener. There are bits of City of Death in there too though.

androzani1987

androzani1987

This was one of my favorite shows when I was a kid.  My first story was The Android Invasion was Tom Baker.  I also remember much of the Davison era, particularly the cliffhanger of the first episode from The Caves of Androzani where the Doctor and Peri are facing a firing squad.  Very memorable.  I don't recall anything after that at the time, but after Doctor Who returned in 2005, I started watching as many DVDs of the show as possible. 

My favorite stories from each Doctor of the Classic era:

First Doctor- The Aztecs

Second Doctor-The Enemy of the World

Third Doctor- Inferno

Fourth Doctor-City of Death, Warriors Gate

Fifth Doctor-Earthshock, The Caves of Androzani

Sixth Doctor-Revelation of the Daleks

Seventh Doctor-Remembrance of the Daleks

SusanwatchingTV

SusanwatchingTV

On 12/26/2019 at 5:23 PM, Lantern7 said:

Heads-Up: If case you didn’t hear, BBC America will be running the animated recreation of “The Macra Terror” tonight at 9 p.m. That will be followed by “Shada.”

I didn't bother to watch The Macra Terror, but I did watch Shada. It was such a blast from the past! Tom Baker was my first doctor. I just adore him. The episode was hilariously campy and badly done, but I enjoyed it anyway.  Especially the little surprise at the end! 😄

DanaK

DanaK

(edited)

The introduction of Classic Who to Britbox UK on Dec 26 was apparently a huge hit, with Who episodes being watched 20 to 1 over the other content. It will be interesting to see how it settles

ETA: here’s an article https://www.radiotimes.com/news/2019-12-28/classic-doctor-who-britbox-viewers/

 

Edited by DanaK
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Chyromaniac

Chyromaniac

On 12/28/2019 at 1:02 AM, Lantern7 said:

 

"The Macra Terror" was delightfully bizarre. Colony secretly run by giant crabs using subliminal suggestions? Cake. Random-ass cheerleaders? Icing.

 

Yeah that scene is crazy- I mean, why wouldn’t the crab cult mining colony have a cheer squad?  “We must obey- rah rah rah!”  That’s the kind of bonkers that I enjoy from Dr Who.

I’ve finally been able to watch both Macra and Shada again, and I actually found them both pretty enjoyable.  With Macra, the pacing was a little bloated in the way that classic Who sometimes can be, but with a little trimming it wouldn’t feel out of place as a modern episode.  The performances were pretty good, I liked the twist of a companion being turned against the team, the colony was suitably creepy, and the animation seemed improved over previous efforts.

The story in Shada was also interesting- and certainly has Adams’ energy to it.  I will say that it definitely felt like there was a disconnect between the animation and original footage (besides the obvious).  It’s admirable that they tried to match the audio by using vintage equipment- but the new dialogue seemed more like a radio play than on camera performance.  I actually found the character animation worse here than in Macra- some of the faces look like they were animated in Sharpie.  The monsters and backgrounds generally looked good though- this may be blasphemous, but I actually thought the cartoon monsters were more effective than the originals.  Overall I wouldn’t mind seeing more of these recreations of classic Who produced in the coming years.

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ketose

ketose

On 12/28/2019 at 6:21 AM, DanaK said:

The introduction of Classic Who to Britbox UK on Dec 26 was apparently a huge hit, with Who episodes being watched 20 to 1 over the other content. It will be interesting to see how it settles

ETA: here’s an article https://www.radiotimes.com/news/2019-12-28/classic-doctor-who-britbox-viewers/

 

Britbox has also distributed some classic episodes to Pluto TV.

http://www.plutotv.com

So, is this a new thing for British viewers? In the US, I thought classic series episodes were already available on Britbox.

Llywela

Llywela

(edited)
1 hour ago, ketose said:

Britbox has also distributed some classic episodes to Pluto TV.

http://www.plutotv.com

So, is this a new thing for British viewers? In the US, I thought classic series episodes were already available on Britbox.

Classic Doctor Who hasn't been widely available on a well-known television channel in the UK for a very long time - way back before the reboot was ever a thing, I used to pick up random episodes here and there on a cable channel called UKGold, but that came to an end and then the reboot happened, and then that was all the Doctor who that was ever shown. So Classic Doctor Who being available to stream is very much a new and welcome thing (and I say that as someone who spent about 18 years slowly collecting every Classic serial available on DVD, as they were released).

Edited by Llywela
Llywela

Llywela

(edited)

This morning I successfully introduced my four-year-old niece to Classic Doctor Who for the first time. We watched all six episodes of Invasion of the Dinosaurs, carefully chosen as being relevant to her dinosaur-loving interests. I'm not going to say she was riveted throughout, but she enjoyed the dinosaurs, liked Sarah Jane, and asked lots of questions about the plot. It's a start!

The only time she got nervous and tried to hide behind me was when the T-Rex woke up while Sarah was taking pictures of it - for all that her general sympathies lay with the dinosaurs, she did get scared for Sarah then!

This quote at the end felt very topical today:

Quote

BRIGADIER: The man was mad.
DOCTOR: Yes, well, of course he was mad. But at least he realised the dangers this planet of yours is in, Brigadier. The danger of it becoming one vast garbage dump inhabited only by rats.
BRIGADIER: It'll never happen, Doctor.
DOCTOR: It's not the the oil and the filth and the poisonous chemicals that are the real cause of pollution, Brigadier. It's simply greed.

Those lines were written in 1974 - more than 45 years later, they are more relevant than ever!

To think that there are still people out there in the year 2020 trying to claim that Doctor Who never used to be political...

Edited by Llywela
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benteen

benteen

11 hours ago, Jenniferbug said:

We finally got a subscription to BritBox  and are watching the second episode of An Unearthly Child. I don't think I've ever heard the word fire said so many times in my life!

But I'm super excited to actually be able to watch all these episodes in order for the first time!

LOL.  Yeah they LOVED fire and talking about fire in that storyline.

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Jenniferbug

Jenniferbug

@benteen, they sure did! My husband (who did not grow up with Doctor Who) and I enjoyed chuckling about it. 

I was born during the Peter Davison run so grew up watching reruns on my local PBS station. I don't think they had access to many of the 1st and 2nd Doctor episodes (which makes sense since a lot were still lost or hadn't been reconstructed yet) so a lot of these will be brand new to me! 

ketose

ketose

PBS stations played around a lot with the airings. Mostly, I remember all 4-6 parts of a story airing in a block on Sunday afternoons. One station aired a 30 minute episode each weekday. The last time DW was on my local station, they only bought the first season of Tom Baker, so they spaced them out a half-hour per week for a year or so.

Then there's the pledge drives. My local station decided to air ALL 14 parts of "Trial of a Time Lord" over one weekend as a premier just to get people to watch the pledge drive. That could have been months worth of new content.

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QuantumMechanic

QuantumMechanic

For me it was Boston’s WGBH. They only had Four (if they had anything earlier they stopped showing it by the time I watched it). They’d show an episode every weekday.  Over and over again it would get to the end of “The Invasion of Time” and then back to “Robot”. Then one day the next episode was “The Ribos Operation”. Huzzah! I think after “Logopolis” they did one more full run of Four and then we finally got to see Five.

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Jenniferbug

Jenniferbug

My station always did 2 episodes on Friday nights around 9. I know they had all the Doctors represented because I remember laughing with my mom about them stopping alien machines with some cables (War Machines, maybe?) And I remember thinking that The War Games was interminable. They had the full run from Pertwee to McCoy. Usually pledge week had The Five Doctors or sometimes Curse of Fenric (for some reason). 

gonzosgirrl

gonzosgirrl

(edited)

Another question from a NuWho era fan. Did any of the Classic Doctors ever revisit prior companions? Is there an in-universe reason why they don't? I mean, I get that the Doctor couldn't really go and have a chat with Donna, but why not check in on present-day Martha? Or see how Wilf is doing? Or take their time machine back to visit Amy and Rory*? Or any of the Classic companions who may still be alive in present day?

 

*Disclaimer: I was not the biggest fan of Eleven and didn't always pay rapt attention. I know there was a reason offered up why he couldn't just go and bring Amy & Rory back to the present, but I've forgotten what it was and why it would preclude even an occasional visit.

Edited by gonzosgirrl
DanaK

DanaK

@gonzosgirrl From what I understand, the Doctor doesn't like goodbyes. He/she hates when the companions leave and doesn't make an effort to check in on them after they leave. It's like someone needs people around to keep them sane and have fun with adventures, but doesn't want to make the effort to be friends with them in a normal life. I think the Doctor just doesn't know how to be normal and live a normal life. It's like he/she has been running away from life since at least their first family, especially their children, died. It seems the only real times the Doctor revisits people is when there is an adventure or a problem that involves them. I don't think the Doctor was/is really buddies with Kate Stewart or her dad the Brig (maybe the Doctor's closest friend), or with anyone for that matter; the Doctor just sees them a lot because the interaction involved UNIT/Torchwood/some problem to solve

From what someone else said in another topic, in the Classic series, the Doctor typically just left the companions off where they wanted (the ones that lived that is) and moved on and the companions weren't revisited. School Reunion with the 10th Doctor reunited him with Sarah Jane Smith from the Classic series, who apparently really pined for him after she stopped traveling with him and felt really lost for a long time

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Llywela

Llywela

51 minutes ago, gonzosgirrl said:

Another question from a NuWho era fan. Did any of the Classic Doctors ever revisit prior companions? Is there an in-universe reason why they don't? I mean, I get that the Doctor couldn't really go and have a chat with Donna, but why not check in on present-day Martha? Or see how Wilf is doing? Or take their time machine back to visit Amy and Rory*? Or any of the Classic companions who may still be alive in present day?

It was more common in the classic era for former companions to make return appearances than it has been in the modern era, but as a general rule, no, once someone has left the TARDIS, the Doctor doesn't go back and visit them. Of course, for about half the classic era, the Doctor couldn't control the TARDIS well enough for such visits - for the first decade of the show, he couldn't control the TARDIS at all, in fact. So that precluded return visits automatically.

After that...well, the Doctor's control over the TARDIS isn't always perfect, even now (although more so under Chibnall and Moffat than Davies, to be honest). My personal headcanon is that the reason the Doctor doesn't go back to visit companions after they leave is twofold: partly because that way, they get to live forever in his memory, frozen in time exactly as they were on the day they left, and partly because a clean break is really the only way to ensure that they actually get on with their lives instead of always having one ear open for the TARDIS. If he drops in from time to time, adventure following him around the way it does, those old friends will always be waiting for him, always wondering when the next visit will be - and we saw with Amy and Rory's final season the kind of impact that had on their lives, how difficult it was for them to balance occasional 'Doctor time' with holding down regular jobs and commitments. And if he drops in from time to time, six months later here, a year later there, oops misjudged the landing and now it's ten years later...it is so easy for him to skip through their entire lives that way, watch them grow older with each visit, and then...oops, misjudged the landing again, and now they are dead, and that death and the fact that he never saw them again before the end is now fixed as part of both his and their personal timeline, as it were (as happened in the end with the Brigadier). So he doesn't go back, and therefore - like Schrodinger's cat, in a way - the option of maybe going back someday remains open, indefinitely...but only for as long as he doesn't use it.

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benteen

benteen

In the Classic Era, when a companion was done on the Tardis, they were done.  The exceptions were Harry Sullivan returning in The Android Invasion (he was part of UNIT) and the Susan and Sarah Jane returning for The Five Doctors.  

After Jo left the Third Doctor, she sent a letter to him and UNIT, as well as a gift in Kingdom of the Spiders, the Third Doctor's final appearance.  The actress who played Barbara, Jacqueline Hill, returned in the 4th Doctor era as a completely different character.

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Gareth3

Gareth3

I've mostly watched the new version of Doctor Who, and I've become interested in the "reboot" episodes. That's where the whole cast including the Doctor is new, there's a new showrunner, and a new ongoing story. What's the closest equivalent to these in the classic series? From the new series, I'd count the TV movie, Rose, The Eleventh Hour, and The Woman Who Fell To Earth. The classic series is more episodic and I don't know how the showrunners changed, or even if there were "showrunners". But I'd count the first episode itself, An Unearthly Child, and Spearhead From Space, where there's a new Doctor and a new, Earth-based premise. Anything else?

tessaray

tessaray

I think most of the time when we get a new Doctor things shift enough to fit your premise, even if it's the same showrunner.  RTD was responsible for both 9 and 10 and they couldn't be more different, in spite of Rose. 9 is fresh off the Time War and is in a much different place than 10, which makes the stories different too.   But that's just my opinion. 

I'm not as familiar with the classic series, though I've seen most of them. (Especially BTS info.) For me, I divide them into really, really old stuff, UNIT episodes,  the Doctor ungrounded, (3, 4, 5), the disaster of 6 (I like Colin a lot now but hated him at the time) and then  Time and the Rani, when McCoy took over as the 7th Doctor and the series went in a weirder direction.  If you visit more British-y boards where there are life long fans, they definitely have opinions about it but here in the US, we got DW on public television in the 1970s but mostly without the backstage gossip. 

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SVNBob

SVNBob

YouTube critic/reviewer and Northern Irishperson Diamanda Hagan put out a series of videos a few years ago called "A Quick Guide to Classic Who."  In each video, she goes through a single series, talking about the highlights and lowlights of the stories within, and does regularly go into behind-the-scenes details, like the changes in show-runners and other BBC personnel, for context.  So this might help you some @Gareth3.

Video below is an introduction by Diamanda, setting up how she'll be covering things.

 

Note: Diamanda is generally not safe for work.  She does try to rein her language in for this series, but she's not always that successful.  Mostly when she's talking about something that reminds her of NewWho (she's not what you call a fan of the current series early run), and she starts to rant about that for a bit.  But definitely avoid the rest of her videography at work...except maybe the similar series she did for Red Dwarf and the episodic reviews of the little-known Adam Adamant Lives!.

Llywela

Llywela

(edited)
10 hours ago, Gareth3 said:

I've mostly watched the new version of Doctor Who, and I've become interested in the "reboot" episodes. That's where the whole cast including the Doctor is new, there's a new showrunner, and a new ongoing story. What's the closest equivalent to these in the classic series? From the new series, I'd count the TV movie, Rose, The Eleventh Hour, and The Woman Who Fell To Earth. The classic series is more episodic and I don't know how the showrunners changed, or even if there were "showrunners". But I'd count the first episode itself, An Unearthly Child, and Spearhead From Space, where there's a new Doctor and a new, Earth-based premise. Anything else?

You mean the moments of 'soft reboot', which are a good jumping on point for new viewers?

Spearhead from Space, yes, definitely - not just a new Doctor but a new Earthbound setting, plus the switch from black-and-white to colour (although we'd met the Brigadier, Sergeant Benton and UNIT before). The Classic series didn't have showrunners in the modern style, the show back then was 'run' by a head producer and script editor as a team, and the changing of that production team could at times be classed as a soft reboot for the show. Which gives you Robot/Ark in Space as another soft reboot moment - and I list both because although Robot introduces a new Doctor and a new companion and is the first serial under a new production team, it is also a holdover from the old UNIT era, whereas Ark in Space sees the new Doctor leaving UNIT behind and striking out into the wider universe once more, and with it being Harry's first trip in the TARDIS it can work as a soft reboot story to introduce the show to new viewers, despite also having Sarah Jane, who had been around for a couple of seasons already. Actually, the Fourth Doctor's era has a few good soft reboot moments for new viewers to jump aboard - such as The Face of Evil, which sees the Doctor travelling solo and meeting a new companion in Leela, who has a bit of an Eliza Doolittle-type character arc over the next few adventures. He is travelling solo again at the start of the Key to Time series (season 16), which gives us a new companion in Romana and has an ongoing storyline that follows through the entire season. I would count both of those as soft reboot moments under your definition above.

You're counting An Unearthly Child? That isn't a soft reboot, it's the origin story of the entire show! After that, the First Doctor's companions always overlap. The Second Doctor's first adventure is not a good soft reboot point, as there are companions already with the Doctor and the story itself I think would be confusing for new viewers (plus it exists only as audio and animation). The Fifth Doctor's first adventure is Castrovalva, but again he already has a team of companions with him - although two out of three are brand new, and although the story its a bit abstract, I think I would count it as a decent soft reboot point for new viewers to jump on board. It feels very much like the start of a new era and has a very different tone to what came before.

The Sixth Doctor...well, he has an existing companion with him when he regenerates, and The Twin Dilemma is awful, so not a good soft reboot point. And then Time and the Rani introduces the Seventh Doctor, but again he has an existing companion with him - and spends much of the adventure with the Rani who has disguised herself as Mel, so...probably not a great one to watch as a soft reboot! Dragonfire would probably make a better soft reboot point for the Seventh Doctor's era, as it introduces Ace to take over from Mel and feels very much like a fresh new start.

Does that help?

Edited by Llywela
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BK1978

BK1978

I am a little annoyed over the fact that the Dr. Who station on Pluto keeps on showing Tom Baker episodes over and over again.  Nothing against Tom but there were other Doctors.  I get that he was the most popular of the original Doctor's but damn sometimes I want to see some Sylvester McCoy episodes every once and a while (I did not see much of his era or Colin Baker for that matter, not that there were many episodes in Colin's era).

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