Doctor Who - Past Present and Future:

[satchmo]

Play.com is the place to go for the DVDs, most of them end up at £5.99 after they've been out for a while.

My Dr Who watchathon stalled a bit last year, but now the boy is a bit older I'm going to start it up again I think! I got to The Deadly Assassin. Season 6 and 7 have been the highpoints for me so far.

Starting up my Dark Shadows marathon again too, only 700 episodes left to watch...

[SmallBlueThing]

All these negative nancies and haters spreading negativity about the edge of destruction send shards of ice into my heart!

I love it. Remember, that it was 'supposed' to be the end of dr who. In that, the the show was originally commissioned for thirteen episodes only, and after an unearthly child and the dead planet that left only two to fill. It was an inexpensive fill-in using standing sets and no guest cast- and as cheapy fillers go, the series has never equalled it, to my mind. It's worth it for the bizarre weirdness inherent in the plot, that hammers home that the tardis isnt an ordinary ship, and for susan with scissors trying to murder barbara (get away with that nowadays, i dare you). I think those two episodes are what give dr who its early atmosphere, its creepiness. And hartnell is brilliant throughout.

SBT

[Dark Jimbo]

Edge of Destruction is an important little story if you're wathcing in order - it's the one that bonds the four Tardis crew and sees them become friends rather than reluctant travelling companions; before this Hartnell's trying to ditch Ian and Barbara simply because he doesn't want them around, after this it's from a genuine desire to help.

It's a snappy, creepy, atmospheric little story that's a good character piece and reminds us early on that the Tardis is almost more a living thing than a mere machine - just a shame that the whole explanation with the loose spring is so laughable.

[SmallBlueThing]

I actually like the 'loose spring' thing. It reinforces the dr whoishness of it, where tiny insubstantial little things can have a malevolent spin put upon them. And its a very funny reason for all the preceding horrors. And yes, youre spot on with regards to the cementing of the relationships among the tardis crew.
When doing a hartnellathon, as i sometimes do, i usually skip the first dalek story and go straight to edge of destruction after the cave men.
SBT

[Cyberleader2000]

Just out of interest who else’s has the Doctor Who The Key to Time Limited Edition box set?


any way this is one of my favourite doctor who story arks any one else’s agree.

[Richmond Clements]

Just out of interest who else’s has the Doctor Who The Key to Time Limited Edition box set?


any way this is one of my favourite doctor who story arks any one else’s agree.

It's one of the ones I'm circling round at the moment. I've still got a load of amazon money from Santa- but I'm tempted by the set with the first three Hartnells in it.

[worldshown]

Just out of interest who else’s has the Doctor Who The Key to Time Limited Edition box set?


any way this is one of my favourite doctor who story arks any one else’s agree.

I've got the reissue from 2009. A very good arc, though I'm quite partial to the "Black Guardian" arc as well.

[Greg M.]

Yeah, I think mine is the re-issue as well. I'll be honest, it's not one of my favourite Who eras... I think Romana v1 is great (love Mary Tamm, she's fantastic) but about half the stories are pretty wobbly... Armageddon Factor is very weak, and Power of Kroll ain't exactly much better. Ribos Operation is quite hit and miss (I know it's quite popular, it's Robert Holmes, of course it is) but Stones of Blood is excellent, so you win some, you lose some. Don't get me wrong, I'm not writing the season off wholesale... I mean, it's Who, there's always going to be something in it worth your time.

As for the Black Guardian arc... that's much more my thing (and my era)... 'Mawdryn Undead' would make my top 5 Who stories any day. (It might even challenge 'Kinda' for my favourite Who story. The way they glide down the corridors in their robes... spell-binding.)

[Grant Goggans]

And whilst millions of others have observed it before, the War Chief is clearly the Master (before the Master was invented.)

My favorite scene in The War Games is that beautiful bit around part four when the Doctor and the War Chief first lock eyes and they recognize each other, which never happened in Patrick Troughton's time.  Then the Doctor runs.  Magic.

And definitely get The Invasion on DVD.  That's one of the classics, with a great villain played by Kevin Stoney.

[DrRocka]

*whispers* there's a guy called Conbom who hosts a Doctor Who site, at which I think he streams pretty much every episode available, old, new, and obscure. I've whiled away many a morning off watching old Patrick Troughton episodes.
That said, I'm certainly an Ecclestone and Tennant guy (ducks). The old ones I loved as a kid, but I find they seem to drag a lot now, and I'm painfully aware of the filling up of episode time with the running along corridors and moving back and forth from the same location malarky. Oh what a sad product of the four second attention span information age I have become.

[Jim_Campbell]

We were having a rather splendid Tom Baker retrospective -- every Friday we'd watch an entire story, and were enjoying it thoroughly. Until we hit the Key to Time, which has derailed our efforts entirely. I think we managed slog our way through the Ribos Operation in two sittings and rather lost the momentum after that…

I really must acquaint myself with some pre-Baker Who -- I was brought up in Cyprus during the Pertwee era, so it passed me by, although I always thought the Target novelizations suggested that they had some very strong plots…

Cheers!

Jim

[Dandontdare]

Nowadays I'm a bit wary about watching old-Who as it can't ever be as good as I remember.

I do remember how exciting it was when I was in the States in 86-87 to find PBS running Dr Who every night. I watched almost all of the Pertwee/Baker run, which doesn't seem a big deal now, but this was before VHS editions and when the BBC had never repeated any of them.

[SmallBlueThing]

Inspired by this thread, my waned whoism made a brief return today, when i bought dwm for the first time in an age. Largely because there's a hartnell thing in it, as wess as a tom vs pat thing, and the start of a new 'time team' looking at the rtd years.
My grud, i shouldnt have bothered. Did i mention the four pages of 'who to follow on twitter'? Twitter. Really.
Apparently its been redesigned, but it looks the same as i remember it, to be honest. Just a shame it reads so badly, like they dont know what the audience is- or how much they need to cover/ explain the proper series to post-2005 newbies.
Just... Yuck.
SBT

[mogzilla]

couldnt get into the black and white stuff mainly because i grew up watching tom baker and a vague memory of jon pertwee's stint .a few years ago i used to forgo my sunday lie ins to watch the old baker/pertwee episodes on GOLD and wish they still did that. my brother had all the videos i particularly liked pyramids of mars and am i correct in thinking seeds of doom is the one were they put someone in a machine and they come out looking like a pile of sick? thats one of my earliest memories of who and its obviously stayed with me ..

  im slowly building my tom baker dvd collection only having genesis and destiny of the daleks ...

  didnt like ecclestons dr at first its only since rewatching it i got into it...tennant was good at first but i think he got a bit too prima donna-ish with his dr and came across as quite arrogant and up himself .matt smith to me, is excellent his alien face and bumbling proffessor reminds me of baker and cushing in the 60's fillums.

 

[Cthulouis]

We have decided to throw rule two to the wind for season six, given that there is so little complete 2nd Doc stuff.

Just watched episodes 1 and 2 of the Dominators. Can't think of anything overly positive to say about them. Er... The doctor coming out of the Tardis with a big net and handing Jamie a beach ball to blow up was kind of fun. Is this the first "Stepping out of the Tardis hoping for a holiday" moment?