Doctor Who

[Naitch]

Add Spearhead from Space for the Third, and City of Death and the Talons of Weng-Chiang for the Fourth, and that's a pretty comprehensive list. Each Doctor's first story is always a good way to get a feel for the evolution of both the Doctor's personality and the show itself, although not the best stories besides Troughton and Pertwee.

My hope is that Marco Polo one day gets animated or, even better, rediscovered in some abandoned archive. Those early history-focused serials, with no elements of sci-fi beyond the arrival of the main character, are all super enjoyable!

[TheWho87]

3 minutes ago, Naitch said:

Add Spearhead from Space for the Third, and City of Death and the Talons of Weng-Chiang for the Fourth, and that's a pretty comprehensive list. Each Doctor's first story is always a good way to get a feel for the evolution of both the Doctor's personality and the show itself, although not the best stories besides Troughton and Pertwee.

My hope is that Marco Polo one day gets animated or, even better, rediscovered in some abandoned archive. Those early history-focused serials, with no elements of sci-fi beyond the arrival of the main character, are all super enjoyable!

I'll add them, and that first/last story is good, just as long as you avoid Twin Dilemma and Time and the Rani, I'd even give credit to Robot and Castrovalva, they are not perfect but still good fun.

A colour animated Marco Polo I feel would be one of the few I think would be an improvement on the original, I really wish they would do a pure historical story, I don't think there has been one since Highlanders, it does really play on the whole morality of time travel, if you had the chance to change the past, would you and what damage would that do, it would make a good modern two parter, interestingly that kind of story has been done with The Ark, it's not a stand out story, but it's 2 episodes where they introduce the common cold to a colony ship, then return some point later before they reach their destination to find out that it nearly wiped out the crew and made their servant class (think the ood in NuWho) take over the ship.

[Naitch]

Twin Dilemma is almost worth watching for how bad it is... I have a soft spot for Paradise Towers for the same reason!

There's a Fifth Doctor story (Black Orchid or something similar?) with no sci-fi but it's more like someone just dropped the TARDIS into an Agatha Christie story than an actively historic setting.

The Ark is a great shout for a low key serial. I prefer the first episode over the second but the grander story is quite an intriguing one.

[TheWho87]

I think that logic can be used for Classic Who in general, although I think the 80's stories do play into the cheesy campness more than usual.

YES! I forget Black Orchid, that's "the other cricket one", although I think the main cast were not fans of it for that same reason, although I will say if you want an Agatha Christie story, Robots of Death is way better, and has one of my fave Doctor Who quotes from D84 "Please do not throw hands at me."

 

[GhostMachine]

For the Third Doctor, I'd add The Time Monster (season 9) and The Fifth, Terminus (season 20). 

And avoid the Seventh Doctor serial Paradise Towers (season 24). Easily my least favorite Classic Era story. Should have been 3 parts instead of 4, and it is boring as all get out.

 

[TheWho87]

There is going to be a colourised, rescored and edited version of The Daleks to air on November 23rd.

 

Edited November 2, 2023 by TheWho87

[TheWho87]

In relation to the previous post, that story is going to be released on home media in February 2024.

 

Looks like Channel 5 is going to air one of their Secrets & Scandals episodes on Doctor Who on the day the new series drops.

 

[TheWho87]

Two Hartnell episodes have been found, with one reported to being a dalek episode, but reading through it seems they are in the hands of former BBC staff collectors, who don't want to give them back since they were not allowed to take them and they risk any repercussions if they were to return them, with calls for an amnesty for anyone who has footage to not be at risk of any issues if they return them.

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2023/nov/11/lost-doctor-who-episodes-found-owner-reluctant-to-hand-them-to-bbc

[TheWho87]

While I'm here a couple of other things.

Possible colourisation of The War Games

And my fave nerdy Doctor Who YouTube channel dropped a new video on the cybermen.

EDIT

And the first Doctor Who: Unleashed has dropped.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p0gpwxtp/doctor-who-unleashed-extras-children-in-need-doctor-who-unleashed

Edited November 17, 2023 by TheWho87

[DFF]

Anyone else been doing a run through of classic who since they arrived on the iplayer? (I also cheated and watched the first story on ITVX)

An Unearthly Child - quite awkward, and the Doc is a bit of a prick tbh. 

The Daleks - a fair step up on the first serial. Interesting to see the very first iteration of such long standing and iconic villains. Main criticism is the pacing - could be tightened.

The Edge of Destruction - a little two part filler ep thats a bit crap tbh. However, its the very first time they hint at the TARDIS having some kind of consciousness, which is kinda cool. 

Then we skip the lost story of Marco Polo to get to The Keys of Marinus. Am a couple of episodes in so far and its probably been my favourite so far. 

[TheWho87]

3 hours ago, DFF said:

Anyone else been doing a run through of classic who since they arrived on the iplayer? (I also cheated and watched the first story on ITVX)

An Unearthly Child - quite awkward, and the Doc is a bit of a prick tbh. 

The Daleks - a fair step up on the first serial. Interesting to see the very first iteration of such long standing and iconic villains. Main criticism is the pacing - could be tightened.

The Edge of Destruction - a little two part filler ep thats a bit crap tbh. However, its the very first time they hint at the TARDIS having some kind of consciousness, which is kinda cool. 

Then we skip the lost story of Marco Polo to get to The Keys of Marinus. Am a couple of episodes in so far and its probably been my favourite so far. 

If you don't want to skip missing stories, you can find the Loose Cannon reconstructions over on Dailymotion.

Pacing is a key issue for a lot of early Doctor Who, their focus was more to fill episodes rather than the stories, for many you could easilly lose an episode worth of content and you wouldn't lose much, plus they tended to split off the crew and run 2-3 stories within each story, Romans is a good example, they have the Doctor and Vicki go off and Ian and Barbara split up and all three groups have their own stories over the episodes and then get reunited at the end.

[DFF]

8 minutes ago, TheWho87 said:

If you don't want to skip missing stories, you can find the Loose Cannon reconstructions over on Dailymotion.

Pacing is a key issue for a lot of early Doctor Who, their focus was more to fill episodes rather than the stories, for many you could easilly lose an episode worth of content and you wouldn't lose much, plus they tended to split off the crew and run 2-3 stories within each story, Romans is a good example, they have the Doctor and Vicki go off and Ian and Barbara split up and all three groups have their own stories over the episodes and then get reunited at the end.

Ah nice one. The BBC upload on the iplayer actually includes stories where they've animated missing episodes, so they have Reign of Terror, for example. 

[TheWho87]

1 minute ago, DFF said:

Ah nice one. The BBC upload on the iplayer actually includes stories where they've animated missing episodes, so they have Reign of Terror, for example. 

Not all stories have been animated yet, Loose Cannon was the first to do recreations using the original audio and telesnaps, as long as you don't mind watching a slideshow it's the best option till the BBC get round to fully animating, also they didn't recreate surviving episodes (at the time), so you would need to go back to the iPlayer for those gaps.

I do strongly recommend the BBC animations, they do keep getting better and better, Power and Evil of the Daleks, Fury from the Deep and Macra Terror are all amazing, just need them to hurry up and finish the rest, I really want to see a complete Master Plan or Marco Polo.

[DFF]

I'm wondering whether the audiobook novelisations of any of the missing stories might be better than the alternatives. Marco Polo, for example? 

[TheWho87]

I can't comment on the audiobook novelisations, I've only ever gone with the narrated soundtracks, which are good enough for me.

[GhostMachine]

It'll likely never happen for many reasons, but I wish they would animate The Massacre.

 

[Colly]

After seeing one on The Last Leg and being reminded on The One Show, these are the cool Tardis badges David Tennant is wearing all over the shop.

 

 

[jrhodes]

I'm not a Doctor Who fan but my wife is and I want to get her the new David Tennant episodes as a late Christmas present.

We're in the US so it looks like I'll need to import it. Just wanted to make sure this is what I should be buying.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Doctor-Who-Anniversary-Specials-Steelbook/dp/B0CLPJX1PF/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?crid=2VRO35JGWR966&keywords=doctor+who&qid=1700508362&sprefix=doctor+who%2Caps%2C469&sr=8-3 

Edit: Just noticed this isn't released until the end of 2024...so a very late Christmas present!

Edited November 20, 2023 by jrhodes

[Benji]

Yeah that'll be the one.

[TheWho87]

  

22 minutes ago, jrhodes said:

I'm not a Doctor Who fan but my wife is and I want to get her the new David Tennant episodes as a late Christmas present.

We're in the US so it looks like I'll need to import it. Just wanted to make sure this is what I should be buying.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Doctor-Who-Anniversary-Specials-Steelbook/dp/B0CLPJX1PF/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?crid=2VRO35JGWR966&keywords=doctor+who&qid=1700508362&sprefix=doctor+who%2Caps%2C469&sr=8-3 

Edit: Just noticed this isn't released until the end of 2024...so a very late Christmas present!

It was announced that should be releasing on December 18th, after the specials air.

EDIT

My bad, it's December 11th.

Edited November 20, 2023 by TheWho87