Doctor Who - Past Present and Future:

[thelawgiver]

I love Doctor Who, I guess because of the nostalgia it contains for me, it's legacy as the longest running most successful scifi series, and probably it's innovative origins.
Currently I've started watching every episode and series of Doctor Who starting from the 1960s Hartnell beginning era onwards in consequetive order - I guess this is a  quite obsessive task to take on - lol - but watching the old (and first) series of doctor who and I find them more entertaining and interesting compared to the new series.

So are there any WHO fans or Whovians on here - that are also watching past episodes - or have an opinion on the new series, or the future of doctor who? Speculation and Spoilers are fine , up to you guys if you want to blank them out.

[SmallBlueThing]

Interesting that you're doing this, as my friend karen has recently done the same thing (she's currently up to the sunmakers) and she's loving them. Im an old fan, i grew up with it (earliest memory of the series being planet of the spiders pt 6), but dont watch it any more. While i still enjoy the proper series, especially hartnell and mccoy, i lost interest with the new version soon after that gurning arse david tennant took over, and from what ive seen of it under moffat it'll just make me angry.
My 'favourite bits'- hartnell up to the dalek invasion of earth, season seven, final tom year and seasons 25 and 26, along with the virgin New Adventures range, will always be amongst the things that please me the most, but i would no more go out of my way to watch the thing that goes out under a dr who logo now, than i would sit down and watch 80s and 90s Star Trek.
Enjoy the marathon. Karen tells me it's been great fun!
SBT

[Aaron A Aardvark]

I'm up to Tomb of the Cybermen but it's taken me nearly two years so you'll be over-taking me pretty soon.

I find classic Who is much more ideas-driven than nu-Who. It's the slow pace that took me a while to get used to.

[thelawgiver]

Interesting that you're doing this, as my friend karen has recently done the same thing (she's currently up to the sunmakers) and she's loving them. Im an old fan, i grew up with it (earliest memory of the series being planet of the spiders pt 6), but dont watch it any more. While i still enjoy the proper series, especially hartnell and mccoy, i lost interest with the new version soon after that gurning arse david tennant took over, and from what ive seen of it under moffat it'll just make me angry.
My 'favourite bits'- hartnell up to the dalek invasion of earth, season seven, final tom year and seasons 25 and 26, along with the virgin New Adventures range, will always be amongst the things that please me the most, but i would no more go out of my way to watch the thing that goes out under a dr who logo now, than i would sit down and watch 80s and 90s Star Trek.
Enjoy the marathon. Karen tells me it's been great fun!
SBT

I think a few fans tentatively knock the idea about for a while - but the logistics and cost etc often get in the way - but since I've been 'subscribing' to lovefilm then the idea has become more viable i guess, plus I don't mind alot paying out for the audio/recons etc for the missing episodes (though I may change my mind when it comes to the 2nd doctor series as most of his are flipping missing!).

I actually started early on last year doing this, but lost interest when I stumbled on missing episodes. So I've restarted, and I have to say I'm only on 'the daleks' lol Its a daunting task to be honest since I watch perhaps 2 'epsiodes'/dvds a week and it'll probably take me until I'm in my late 30s to watch all the series lol (well that may be an exageration...maybe until I'm 32).

As for new Who;
I loved Eccleston as the Doctor, and still think that initial series was the best of the new series. But I too wasn't a huge fan of tenant, nor am I a fan of having a Doctor who gets progressively younger and younger - my favorite doctors are 1sr-2nd-4th-7th and 9th - so basically I don't know exactly the runing trend in those particular Doctors, but in my mind the Doctor should be in his late 30s/40s at least lol I do think that Smith will get better with age, but since the doctor has a 1 - 4 year shelf life these days, and Smith's doctor is basically a carrying on of tenants 10th in his character, then audiences may get bored of smith quicker and before he gets really good in the role. I am a fan of steven moffatt and especially his writing for the 10th doctor, and the Sherlock series, but his Doctor Who writing seems dumbed down sometimes, primarily targeting the kids auidence, and verging on Harry Potter territory. of course, the latter points do mean more new and younger fans tune in,and more chance of a movie being financed - and i guess Doctor Who has always straddled the divide between Kids-TV and sci-fi Drama.

[thelawgiver]

I'm up to Tomb of the Cybermen but it's taken me nearly two years so you'll be over-taking me pretty soon.

I find classic Who is much more ideas-driven than nu-Who. It's the slow pace that took me a while to get used to.

well I'm a big fan of film noir and older westerns etc so the slow pace was no problem to me lol

[Cthulouis]

I have recently been doing the same thing!

Me and a few friends have started from the beginning, watching all the stories that a) are complete, and b) don't have a reputation for being the biggest pile of bull ever produced.

Many may point out that this rule is cutting out some good stuff, but it's a long walk to their house from work, and after a tiring day at work, I don't have the energy to listen to the sound recordings of the episodes or anything like that. The second rule was going to be applied quite laxly, but then we watched Edge of Destruction, and decided to be a bit more careful in that respect.

We have just watched Tomb of the Cybermen, our first Troughton story. Meaning, due to rule 1, our next story will be the last Troughton story. Such a shame so little of his stuff survives, there are glimpses of a really interesting character there, the same as Hartnel, yet at the same time so different.

I'm also trying to persuade my friends that we should watch the 60s Dalek movies at some point:)

Doing this has made me realise how old the franchise is. Nearly fifty years! While I already knew the dates involved, actually watching it has made clear the full implications of this. The world has changed so very much since the show started, and the show has changed with it. I'm not just talking about things the show has done to "be cool" (celebrity casting and the like), I also mean the way the writers in different eras of the show have been brought up within different cultural and political backgrounds, leading to this gradual meandering drift in what the show (and, I would guess, television in general) is all about.

This has only begun to be noticeable at the moment, as this Who Marathon is still in its early days, I need to do more watching before I can really make a judgement on whether any of what I have just said is true, it is at this point an idea that has occurred from what we have watched so far.

[Colin_YNWA]

There's loads more complete Troughton out there isn't there isn't there. Off the top of my head 'Seeds of Doom' and 'Minder Robbers'. In  fact isn't most of his last season available?

For what its worth I really enjoyed the animation they did for the two missing episodes of Invasion as well.

[Cthulouis]

Hmmm, animation, ey? Sounds like something I might need to look into.

Having just recheked the internet, it would indeed seem that season 6 is indeed in a better state than I had been led to believe. I think I must have got my information from my brother (the real who fan of the household) who was perhaps applying my second rule too harshly.

The Dominators, The Mind Robber, The Krotons, and The Seeds of Death, would seem to be the ones I have overlooked. Are these any good?

[Cyberleader2000]

I have nearly all the DVDs currently released and every so often try to watch them all thro in order but I usichily only get half way thru the second doctors adventures before I get distracted by something else’s that said I have watch nearly all that are on DVD also did any else start getting tired of Davros constant apairenses by revelation of the Daleks by then he just seemed more of a joke than a serious Villon.

[worldshown]

I've a lot of the DVDs, not enough to watch in any sort of order though. Still plenty of gaps in my collection. I remember Tom Baker as the Doctor but definitely get more flashbacks from watching Peter Davison episodes (Adric's broken star, anyone?)

Cthulouis, I'd recommend "The Seeds of Death" without hesitation. "The Mind Robber" is unfortunately a novelty at best but a great example of what you can do to make an episode with no budget and how to cope when an actor is off sick for two weeks. I've not seen "The Dominators" or "The Krotons" yet.

I have been fortunate enough to uh... acquire all the serials with reconstructed parts made up from still photos taken on set. Other Troughton serials I can recommend in this manner are "Enemy of the World" and "The Web of Fear".

There's a guy on DailyMotion called recon_mission who has done some excellent reconstructions of the missing episodes.

[Cthulouis]

Cool, cheers for that.

[Dark Jimbo]

Cthulouis, I'd recommend "The Seeds of Death" without hesitation. "The Mind Robber" is unfortunately a novelty at best but a great example of what you can do to make an episode with no budget and how to cope when an actor is off sick for two weeks. I've not seen "The Dominators" or "The Krotons" yet.

I found 'Seeds of Death' deadly dull, devoid of humour and riddled with plot holes, myself. The Ice Warriors here are dull, clompy bores, and of the regulars only Troughton gets any decent scenes. The science is nonsense, none of the supporting characters make an impression and at 6 episodes it's at least 2 parts too long. That's just me, though.

The Mind Robber is a nice attempt to do something out of the ordinary. It looks painfully cheap at times, and the final denoument makes very little sense, but it's good fun if you can watch in a forgiving mood, with a great last episode, plenty for all three of the regulars to do and a barnstorming guest turn by Bernard Horsfall.

The Dominators is a turkey, plain and simple. Dull, overlong, and almost nothing to recommend it.

The Krotons is nothing special and the budget works against it at times, but it's a sweet, fun little story that's never a waste of time if you're a fan of the Doctor/Jamie/Zoe team.

And you absolutely MUST pick up 'The Invasion' DVD with the animated missing parts. One of Troughton's best stories, one of the Cybermen's best stories and it has one of 60s Who's best villians.

[SmallBlueThing]

Ditto re seeds of death from me. Overlong, stupid and a cynical runaround. Mind Robber, on the other hand, is gloriously mental, has a spectacularly disturbing first episode, a crazy final episode, and two weeks of knob-out-and-waggling madness in the middle.
Krotons and Dominators though- meh.
Definitely watch The Invasion, and all the surviving episodes on the BBC's Lost In Time dvd collection (available very cheap from the bbc shop in eastbourne).

SBT

[Colin_YNWA]

I really enjoyed the 'Mind Robbers' (but then be warned I also really like 'Edge of Destruction'). I think its a great example of how restraints forced a great story. Also isn't that the one with Zoe hanging on for dear life to the Tardis console in the sparkly catsuit...

[Greg M.]

Yup, the significance of this story as The One With Zoe's Arse is hard to understate.  (For the record, I think The Mind Robber is pretty good. Completely eccentric and mad even for Who, mind.)