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Not sure how many folks on here collect the older Doctor Who's on DVD in America. But I was so excited to get Image of the Fendahl on DVD finally! They release approximately 3 Doctor Who episodes on Region 1 DVD about every 3 months or so. They aren't cheap, but I make it a point to buy them as I can.
This month, they released Image of the Fendahl, The Deadly Assassin and Delta and the Bannermen. You can get The Trial of a Timelord, The Key to Time, the E-Space trilogy and others.
Good stuff. I love the new Doctor Who as well (and Torchwood); but I want to see Tom Baker and the others get some love on Paizo as well!
Anyone have any favorite episodes?
Some of my favorites are State of Decay, Image of the Fendahl, The Hand of Fear, The Curse of Fenric, and The Caves of Androzani.
Some of my other favorites aren't available on Region 1 DVD yet like The Seeds of Death and The Masque of Mandragora.
More to come I am sure.
Anyone have any favorite episodes?
Favorite episodes? Favorite episodes?!? Good lord! There are DOZENS of classic Doctor Who stories that are so great, I couldn't choose between them!
The Daleks
The Edge of Destruction
The Sensorites
The Rescue
The Web Planet
The Space Museum
Galaxy 4
The Power of the Daleks
The Ice Warriors
The Seeds of Death
The Space Pirates
Spearhead From Space
The Ambassadors of Death
Inferno
The Claws of Axos
Colony in Space
The Curse of Peladon
The Mutants
Frontier in Space
The Monster of Peladon
Genesis of the Daleks
Revenge of the Cybermen
...Oh, what's the use? There are too many great ones for me to list.
I'm not a fan of the new series. I saw all of the Christopher Eccleston episodes, and a few of the David Tenant ones, and... I'm sorry, but to me, it's just not Who. The heavy plotting of the old show is gone. I've heard people pooh-pooh the idea of heavy plotting, dismissing it as childish, but I think that can make a great story. Just try to write a novel with a thick plot; I tried, and I can't do it! When I tell stories to my children, it's the plot that matters the most. And my relating Doctor Who episodes has positively mesmerized those kids!
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I agree that there is a world of difference between the new Who and the old Who. Unfortunately, as Stephen King would say: The world has moved on.
I prefer the old Who by a huge margin, but I am very fond of the new Who. And hell, Who in any form is better than NO Who.
I would love to see Sylvester McCoy come back with Ace, and pick up where they left off.
What the new Who brings to the table that the old Who didn't have was melodrama. At first, I was very unhappy with the Doctor-Rose relationship. The Doctor fall in love with anyone, let alone a Companion? Blasphemy! Then I saw "The Girl in The Fireplace" episode. It just tore me up; and I soon made the connection. Russell Davies brought a Joss Whedon mentality to Doctor Who. So it was like my 2 favorite shows of all time got together and made a baby.
When you watch the new Doctor Who; you are there for the pain. What favorite character is going to die? Why can't he keep a Companion longer than a season (besides Rose, and we all saw how that worked out)? How will The Doctor's heart(s) be broken this week?
The old Who never made me tear up (except when Sarah left and when Adric died). But I loved the relationship between Baker and Sladen, McCoy and Aldred, Pertwee and Manning, Davison and Fielding. Great stuff. Great monsters.
I would love to have BOTH Whos continue into the future. Maybe someday we can have that. I just know that Hartnell, Troughton, and Pertwee are gone; I'm going to be depressed for the rest of my life when Tom Baker and the others pass away....
Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying the new show is BAD. I just didn't get hooked on it. One of the charms of the old show was the fascinating concepts, and I can't deny that the new show (what little I've seen of it) has some pretty neat ideas. A race of uplifted trees? Real aliens staging a fake alien crash landing in order to lay a trap? Nanotechnology mistakenly fixing people by turning their faces into gas masks? Neat!
The problem is that Davies (and whoever else) can't seem to write a good STORY to flesh out these ideas. The uplifted tree exists for the sole purpose of providing a noble self-sacrifice, and that's it. The aliens laying the trap are defeated simply by getting a missile shot at them. The nanogenes are corrected by finding the mother... even though the mother is completely irrelevant to the problem.
I would have no problem with a new lineup, or even with the Doctor falling in love, if only the new show could have provided a good STORY to go with that.
And by the way, I might be the only one who thinks so, but my favorite lineup was Hartnell, Ford, Russell, and Hill. The Doctor was impossible, or at least infuriating, the humans were desperately trying to work with him, and Susan was a mediator. It provided some fascinating dialogue!
And my second favorite was Troughton, Padbury, and Hines. Zoe had the computer-like mind, the Doctor had the practical experience, and Jamie had the brawn and bravery. Between them, they could get the job done!
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Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying the new show is BAD. I just didn't get hooked on it. One of the charms of the old show was the fascinating concepts, and I can't deny that the new show (what little I've seen of it) has some pretty neat ideas. A race of uplifted trees? Real aliens staging a fake alien crash landing in order to lay a trap? Nanotechnology mistakenly fixing people by turning their faces into gas masks? Neat!
The problem is that Davies (and whoever else) can't seem to write a good STORY to flesh out these ideas. The uplifted tree exists for the sole purpose of providing a noble self-sacrifice, and that's it. The aliens laying the trap are defeated simply by getting a missile shot at them. The nanogenes are corrected by finding the mother... even though the mother is completely irrelevant to the problem.
I would have no problem with a new lineup, or even with the Doctor falling in love, if only the new show could have provided a good STORY to go with that.
And by the way, I might be the only one who thinks so, but my favorite lineup was Hartnell, Ford, Russell, and Hill. The Doctor was impossible, or at least infuriating, the humans were desperately trying to work with him, and Susan was a mediator. It provided some fascinating dialogue!
And my second favorite was Troughton, Padbury, and Hines. Zoe had the computer-like mind, the Doctor had the practical experience, and Jamie had the brawn and bravery. Between them, they could get the job done!
I'll always be a Tom Baker/Elisabeth Sladen man myself, followed closely by Sylvester McCoy/Sophie Aldred. I definitely thought Peri and Mel were fun to look at, even if they were pretty poorly written.
I got into the show during the Baker years, which might explain why I like the later ones. I do like some of the Pertwee stuff, and I need to see more of the 1st and 2nd Doctor to make judgment.
I'll always be a Tom Baker/Elisabeth Sladen man myself, followed closely by Sylvester McCoy/Sophie Aldred. I definitely thought Peri and Mel were fun to look at, even if they were pretty poorly written.
I got into the show during the Baker years, which might explain why I like the later ones. I do like some of the Pertwee stuff, and I need to see more of the 1st and 2nd Doctor to make judgment.
Oh, I should think that most people who saw the old Doctor Who show started with Tom Baker. I know I did. I started watching the Pertwee episodes with a bad attitude toward it. "Tom Baker is THE Doctor, and no one can convince me otherwise! I just want the Doctor to regenerate already!"
But by the end of Pertwee's first season (the 7th), I decided that Pertwee actually made a BETTER Doctor! It was the Pertwee episodes that turned me from a casual viewer into a rabid Doctor Who fanatic!
Mind you, I consider even the CHARACTERS of the show to be secondary to the true attractions: the premises and the plotlines. And if, like me, you're willing to put up with cheap special effects and poor acting to get a good story, then some of those 1st and 2nd Doctor stories are a treat! You could probably get some old, used copies of the Doctor Who novels fairly cheaply on the web. I would recommend The Zarbi, The Power of the Daleks, The Ice Warriors, The Space Pirates, and maybe The Sensorites and Galaxy 4... but on video, I might recommend The Daleks, The Rescue... ah, there I go again! I can't choose!
Okay, for the past day and a half, when I didn't have internet access, it's been bugging me that I didn't mention The Talons of Weng Chiang. In fact, I was just on the verge of adding that to the list when I stopped. How could I possibly skip The Deadly Assassin?!? I wasn't terribly happy about skipping The Face of Evil, either, although that wasn't the absolute best. Similarly, it pains me not to mention Underworld. And then... how could I fail to mention the Key to Time season... but how can I choose between them?!? This is the sort of difficulty that kept me from finishing my list.
Of course, I have to mention The Liesure Hive and Full Circle. And if possible, I would suggest that you see Keeper of Traken, Logopolis, and Castrovalva IN ORDER!!! Those three stories form a good trilogy. Then there's Mawdryn Undead, Attack of the Cybermen, The Two Doctors, Trial of a Time Lord...
I would move on to the McCoy era, but it sounds like you're pretty well versed in that already.
But of all the episodes I mentioned in this post, The Talons of Weng Chiang is truly the most essential Who.
Chief Technical Officer
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One of the most useful pages on the internet for U.S. Doctor Who DVD fans: http://www.doctorwhodvdfaq.com/
Oh, and to the OP, and to the others with their big lists. I can't believe you're forgetting the bad episodes. See, for me, the bad episodes were so bad that they were good, better than the good episodes even. Horns of the Nimon? Is that ridiculous enough for you? Planet of Evil? Beyond bad. The Brain of Morbius? Blasphemously bad. CITY OF DEATH? Still cracks me up, to this day, after decades and dozens of viewings.
Vic Wertz, I owe you thanks. Even if your post weren't informative (although it was), I would have appreciated your posting anything at all just to revive this thread; I was beginning to think that dmchucky69 and I were the ONLY fans of the old show who frequented this site.
CITY OF DEATH? Still cracks me up, to this day, after decades and dozens of viewings.
And I thought I was the ONLY Who fan who didn't see what was so great about City of Death.
The difference between you and me is that I don't like to watch BAD episodes. And I thought The War Machines was horrendous. That Ian Stuart Black knew NOTHING about writing science fiction!
That is indeed the difference between us. While I agree that City of Death is pure garbage, it is also, hands down, my favorite episode of all time. Take an episode like The Time Warrior - yeah, it's got an interesting story, great acting, fascinating concept - but I still say it's got nothing on the pure, abject silliness of, say, The Happiness Patrol. And that's what keeps me coming back, and will for years to come.
But if you really must insist on a good story, then I've got just a single word for you: Blink. If you only watch ONE episode of the "New Who", make it this one.
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Chief Technical Officer
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But if you really must insist on a good story, then I've got just a single word for you: Blink. If you only watch ONE episode of the "New Who", make it this one.
I'd amend that to "If you only watch ONE episode of Doctor Who, from any era, make it this one."
I get the sense that perhaps some of the posters in this thread gave up on the new series four or five episodes in. It got so much better after that! Especially when Steven Moffatt arrived on the scene. The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances, The Girl in the Fireplace, Blink... all among the best Who stories ever. Paul Cornell's stories, Father's Day and Human Nature/Family of Blood, are also right up there.
And, yes, Russell T Davies has had some bad moments, especially with the aforementioned "four or five episodes in" (Aliens of London/World War III), but I think he's had the hardest ones to write, introducing new Doctors and Companions, and tying up long storylines, and those things hamper his ability to focus on story in those scripts. Nevertheless, his season-ending episodes are pretty fabulous, as was Turn Left.
But... back to the classic stories. As some of you might know, I've been watching every story in order from the beginning (currently up to Kinda), and at this point, I think it has given me a lot of perspective on the series as a whole. And I've decided that the single biggest determining factor for the quality of the show is not the Doctor and his companions, nor even the writer and director, but the producer and script editor. In particular, there are two teams that I think were responsible for the very best classic Doctor Who: Verity Lambert and David Whitaker (1963–1964) and Philip Hinchcliffe and Robert Holmes (1975–1977). While there are certainly occasional gems to be found in other eras, those two teams did the most solid work.
And that knowledge gives me high hopes for the next era, with Steven Moffatt taking charge.
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Chief Technical Officer
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I should also mention that I think the teams consisting of various combinations of Innes Lloyd, Peter Bryant, and Derrick Sherwin (1967–1969) were probably great, but given that most of those episodes are lost and can only be viewed as reconstructions, it's kind of hard to tell.
All the Doctors have had great moments, but I never warmed up to Troughton as much as the others. I love the current series, but also the first, 3rd, and 4th (earlier seasons) Doctors as well. I think the show hit its peak (during the first run) with Pertwee and Baker.
I saw this on the site The Register. It is a recent poll of Dr Who fans.
The full 200-episode league table appears in Doctor Who Magazine #413, out today. The top ten are:
1. The Caves of Androzani (1984 - Peter Davison)
2. Blink (2007 - David Tennant)
3. Genesis of the Daleks (1975 - Tom Baker)
4. The Talons of Weng-Chiang (1977 - Tom Baker)
5. The Empty Child (2005 - Christopher Eccleston)
6. Human Nature (2007 - David Tennant)
7. Pyramids of Mars (1975 - Tom Baker)
8. City of Death (1979 - Tom Baker)
9. The Robots of Death (1977 - Tom Baker)
10. Bad Wolf (2005 - Christopher Eccleston)
As much as I like Doctor 5, I have a hard job saying Caves is better than Blink or Talons. I think all the fans of 4 and 10 split their vote, but the 5 fans all voted for Caves.
Not a big fan of pyramids or city, and Bad Wolf was a complete mystery to me until I realized it was really a vote for both parts. Otherwise, it's a pretty good list. It really needs Girl in the Fireplace in it though.
That is indeed the difference between us. While I agree that City of Death is pure garbage, it is also, hands down, my favorite episode of all time. Take an episode like The Time Warrior - yeah, it's got an interesting story, great acting, fascinating concept - but I still say it's got nothing on the pure, abject silliness of, say, The Happiness Patrol. And that's what keeps me coming back, and will for years to come.
I'm going to guess that you also liked Love & Monsters. It starts out with an absurd monster chase that seems to say "Hey, audience! This is the worst chase scene we could manage! Enjoy!"
(Or does it not count when it's deliberate?)
I couldn't finish watching that episode. In fact, that was the LAST episode of the new show I ever tried to watch.
Happiness will prevail!
Favorite stories:
1st Doctor: The Daleks, The Dalek Invasion of Earth, The Time Meddler
2nd Doctor: Tomb of the Cybermen, Seeds of Death
3rd Doctor: Silurians, Inferno, Daemons, Sea Devils, Three Doctors
4th Doctor: Pyramids of Mars, Seeds of Doom, Talons of Weng-Chiang, Horror of Fang Rock
5th Doctor: Black Orchid, 5 Doctors
6th Doctor: Mark of the Rani
7th Doctor: Curse of Fenric
9th Doctor: Unquiet Dead, Dalek, Empty Child/The Doctor Dances
10th Doctor: School Reunion, Rise of the Cybermen/Age of Steel, Daleks in Manhattan/Evolution of the Daleks, Human Nature/Family of Blood, Blink, Fires of Pompeii, Turn Left
I'm going to guess that you also liked Love & Monsters. It starts out with an absurd monster chase that seems to say "Hey, audience! This is the worst chase scene we could manage! Enjoy!"
(Or does it not count when it's deliberate?)
I couldn't finish watching that episode. In fact, that was the LAST episode of the new show I ever tried to watch.
Er, no. Couldn't stand Love & Monsters, actually. Granted, it had a couple of good lines, like the running joke with the monster's name ("Abzorbaloff, yes, I like that one.") but overall was boring and trite. And featured Jackie waaaay too much.
I guess I should be more specific - I like the bad episodes from the Old show, not from the New show. The New show has its merits, but it seems at times to be way too self-conscious. The Old show was so amusing because it seemed to lack any sense of humor (or "post-post-modern self-awareness" for all you Buffy fans out there) about itself, which is what made it so precious. All of the extras whose performances were so wooden that they seemed less real even than the rubber masks, for example. It just slays me.
Having been fortunate enough to grow up watching Dr Who on the ABC here in Aus., I can still remember the nightmares I had after watching 'Seeds of Doom' as a seven year old. all of my favourites come from the Pertwee/Baker period - although any episode with Sarah Jane or the Brigadier in it was a winner.
Reggie
I've never actually seen any of the Old Who episodes (although British, I'm only 30), but I have to agree that Love & Monsters was a really dire episode. I couldn't stand Torchwood's first season episode Countrycide either, but that was due to gross factor than simply being bad.
Is it just me or is it insane that getting a season of the new Doctor Who series on DVD is >= $70? I really like the show (as well as the old show) but I personally think what they're asking is just too much. I'm thinking a MSRP between $30-$40 is more reasonable.
Is there anywhere one can go to see which episodes of the classic TV series are going to be released on DVD in the US?
L
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Chief Technical Officer
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Is it just me or is it insane that getting a season of the new Doctor Who series on DVD is >= $70? I really like the show (as well as the old show) but I personally think what they're asking is just too much. I'm thinking a MSRP between $30-$40 is more reasonable.
They're definitely a bit high compared to most US TV series boxes of similar size. Each of the first 4 series can be had for under $60, though—and you can get the first two series bundled together for $95. The two specials can be had for around $10 each. (I highly recommend using DVD Price Search to locate the best price on any DVD you're looking for. Using that, I can get all four series, both specials, and the animated Infinite Quest DVD for less than $250. (Search for "Doctor Who (2005)".)
Is there anywhere one can go to see which episodes of the classic TV series are going to be released on DVD in the US?
L
While this site is unofficial, they do seem to usually be the first to post confirmed releases.
Did someone mention they're a big fan of Sylvester McCoy ?
You do know about the Big Finish audios I hope ?
Incidentally I also hated Love and Monsters. Worst.Doctor.Who. Ever.
(And I've seen alot of Who.)
Bring back River Song, say I....