Doctor Who - Past Present and Future:

[Cthulouis]

Ah, a wonderful range of opinions, good ol' Doctor Who. Thanks all, much to think about here, I will have to consult the others I am watching it with.

[Kowalsky (formerly JudgeGumpty)]

*whispers* Daily m0tion had quite a few episodes up on that site and I stumbled across a few Tom Baker and Peter Davison episodes I must have seen but vaguely remember up to now.

I just had a little looky and theres craploads worth a bookmark for a lunchtime view

http://www.dailymotion.com/playlists/tardismedia

[Richmond Clements]

I'm currently going through the commentary track on The War Games. It is very poor and dreadfully repetitive (much like the story itself!) but I will not let it defeat me!

Tomb of the Cybermen is one of my favourite Whos ever- but I haven't got The Invasion on dvd... off to Amazon!

[Greg M.]

There's some awfully good stuff in The War Games... it's just a few episodes too long, flagging a bit in the middle, but even in these episodes there's usually something worth watching. For my money, it's often the Security Chief, who is remarkably tetchy and over-ennunciates spectacularly. And whilst millions of others have observed it before, the War Chief is clearly the Master (before the Master was invented.)

[worldshown]

Well, at least we're all agreed on "The Invasion".

"The War Games" I quite liked, but I'll agree it was at least three episodes too long.

[Daveycandlish]

Invasion on DVD is a must, and I really must recommend Web of Fear as a must listen to (there's a bit of video on the Lost Stories DVD collection, but the full soundtrack is a delight to listen to)

And how come no-one's mentioned Pertwee yet? He's my favourite! He's got Katy Manning and Roger Delgado - how can you not like his tenure?!!

[WhizzBang]

I watched all the Tom Baker shows over about 18 months and I know there were some really boring ones but I can only remember the names of the really good ones. Horror Of Fang Rock was one, and City Of Death another. Many of the Romana ones are good, both the first and second Romana. Pyramids Of Mars was very good too.

I have also started watching the Peter Davison era but the Australian assistant (Teagan) is a bit annoying as she moans and whinges about everything. There was one with a snake tattoo on a mans arm that wriggled off his arm onto its victims and sent them into trippy nightmare thingys and when I watched it I could remember being frightened by it when I was 10 or so.

[Greg M.]

I have also started watching the Peter Davison era but the Australian assistant (Teagan) is a bit annoying as she moans and whinges about everything. There was one with a snake tattoo on a mans arm that wriggled off his arm onto its victims and sent them into trippy nightmare thingys and when I watched it I could remember being frightened by it when I was 10 or so.

'Kinda', my all-time favourite Who story. Wonderfully clever and at times extremely atmospheric. I even love the inflatable Mara. Finally out on DVD in March. Davison remains my favourite Doctor and Tegan my favourite companion (they have some very interesting chemistry, and his Doctor is clearly shattered when she leaves him.)

Oh, and if you think Tegan's moany, wait till you get to Peri... "What do you do in the TARDIS?" - "Argue, mostly."

[Richmond Clements]

Mmmm, Peri...

[chris_askham]

While I was a big fan of Who growing up, I've very rarely gone back and rewatched the old shows so it's all pretty well masked in a haze of nostalgic loveliness.

For new Who, one thing I'd really like to see is proper original Cybermen to turn up and stomp all over these poncy other-dimensional chaps. The real Cybermen appear to have been whitewashed from Who continuity from what I can tell, other than the appearance of the head in the episode of the Ecclestone series.

Also, it'd be fun to see an old companion come back, but looking as they were when they originally appeared (as if new doctor has picked them up a couple of years after they last appeared). Obviously they would need to be played by a new actor, but I'm sure they could find someone who looks vaguely like Peri or Tegan or someone.

[Dark Jimbo]

Also, it'd be fun to see an old companion come back, but looking as they were when they originally appeared (as if new doctor has picked them up a couple of years after they last appeared).

On a similar note - and it's something I've said repeatedly here - I'd love to see a bit more imagination exercised with regard to the companions in the new series. Old Who had Jacobite highlanders, victorians, alien schoolboys, Time Ladies, robot dogs, 60s hipsters, spaceship pilots, shapechanging androids - some more sucsessful than others, it must be said, but they always tried to bring a bit of variety to the mix.

[thelawgiver]

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.

- I too am confused as to when I should watch the Daleks Movies; I guess they were done in 60s, so i should try and fit them in roundabout the time when teh 1st changes to the 2nd or something
- Edge of Destruction seemed to me to be a very very very early on effort at doing a 'filler' episode. The 10th doctor episodes where he's in a ship and theres a monster taking control of the crew springs to mind as a modern version of a tense and drama-filled filler epsiode - as well as the one where tennant was on a red london bus for a while in the desert lol
- You say you only watch complete epsiodes only?! I admire you for that, but my obsessive-compulsiveness means that would make me bang my head against the wall several million times lol For the missing episodes I check what IS available to try and see what IS left of the missing episode at wikipedia...then i buy the relevent BBC-audio CD OR Fan-Made Reconstruction, or VHS tape with the remaining bits and episodes on them.
- I could never buy up all doctor who dvds. I began doing it with a few Hartnell releases. But the financial devotion illuded me and I would just gaze at the DVDs longingly in HMV lol But then I had a brainwave and signed up for lovefilm, and they deliver any available WHO dvd release that I want at a particular time.

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

I too love the animated fill-ins for the missing episodes you mentioned - i can't understand why they wouldn't fill-in the gaps with such animations when the 'soundtrack' to every missing episode is always intact. I remember being fed up when Richard E Grant's animated 9th doctor was dismissed from cannon when Eccleston's 9th came on the scene in 2004.
 

[thelawgiver]

Mmmm, Peri...

I agree!
She's still sexy as well! check out the new Doctor Who Mag!

[thelawgiver]

Also, it'd be fun to see an old companion come back, but looking as they were when they originally appeared (as if new doctor has picked them up a couple of years after they last appeared).

On a similar note - and it's something I've said repeatedly here - I'd love to see a bit more imagination exercised with regard to the companions in the new series. Old Who had Jacobite highlanders, victorians, alien schoolboys, Time Ladies, robot dogs, 60s hipsters, spaceship pilots, shapechanging androids - some more sucsessful than others, it must be said, but they always tried to bring a bit of variety to the mix.

I think Moffatt and any new writers are playing it safe with WHO, because the show really was completely out of favour and off the map with the viewing public for so long...Russel T. Davies really did a great job of kickstarting it, and Steven Moffatt seems to be playing it safe with companions and similar sort of doctor in order to keep the young new fans on board for now...in a few series, who knows, he may take the gamble and get a more proper middleaged doctor back in the role...one who wears a huge scarf maybe.

[Cthulouis]

- Edge of Destruction seemed to me to be a very very very early on effort at doing a 'filler' episode. The 10th doctor episodes where he's in a ship and theres a monster taking control of the crew springs to mind as a modern version of a tense and drama-filled filler epsiode - as well as the one where tennant was on a red london bus for a while in the desert lol
- You say you only watch complete epsiodes only?! I admire you for that, but my obsessive-compulsiveness means that would make me bang my head against the wall several million times lol For the missing episodes I check what IS available to try and see what IS left of the missing episode at wikipedia...then i buy the relevent BBC-audio CD OR Fan-Made Reconstruction, or VHS tape with the remaining bits and episodes on them.
- I could never buy up all doctor who dvds. I began doing it with a few Hartnell releases. But the financial devotion illuded me and I would just gaze at the DVDs longingly in HMV lol But then I had a brainwave and signed up for lovefilm, and they deliver any available WHO dvd release that I want at a particular time.
 

-The difference being that the "monster taking control of the crew" episode (Midnight?) was watchable, and I don't say that lightly about Tennant Who! I had heard of Edge's bad reputation, but I though, hell, it's only as long as one modern episode, how hard can it be to watch? Afterwards, we started following rule 2 a little more strictly.
-We watch them on a Saturday, which can be a particularly tiring day at work. The other night I started falling asleep during Tomb. I imagine if I was just listening to a sound recording, I would not last very long. (Don't get me wrong, I love a good radio play, but those are written *as* audio plays).
-Yeah, the pricing of the DVDs is a bit mental, isn't it. Collecting seasons of Who would cost much more than seasons of other shows. I remember when I was a kid, my brother's room was filled with boxes, which were in turn filled with tapes of Who recorded by my Gran, who had UK Gold. They took up a *lot* of space.