One day, the ex decided we needed to follow up our first watch-through of Buffy the Vampire Slayer with James Marsters kissing another dude. A kindly friend of hers informed us the relevant episode of Torchwood was awesome but we needed to contextualize it with at least the first series of the revived Doctor Who. Russel T. Davies' sci-fi/soap opera/Whedon-worship formula worked well for me. Then I went through a couple regenerations and curiosity about the character really set in. So now through the wonder of Blogspot, you get to read my inane ramblings as I try to watch every surviving episode and in some cases reconstructions of the lost ones!
So here are a few things you should probably know:
1) I'm using the numbering numbering scheme found on Wikipedia's List of Doctor Who Serials.
2) My sources are a combination of the C/W Mars library network, Netflix, and the kindness of fellow Whovians. As such, I've got minimal control over what's available to me when and will jump around.
3) This initiative started a good two years ago but got derailed by multiple deaths in my family. There were some notes made most of which I will endeavor to parse and make readable. Other times, I will find myself bemused by their oddity and just leave them be.
Serial 001 - An Unearthly Child
I was very pleasantly surprised by this serial. People kept talking about how dated everything was. However, the establishing shots of the TARDIS were timeless. I went in knowing why a police box warranted so much screen time and still wanted them to tell me why. Susan spouting science beyond her years/era and her teachers subsequent curiosity felt quite natural. The whole "The Doctor=Grandfather" thing threw me for a bit of a loop at first but I wished Hartnell's Doctor was my own grandfather soon enough and got over my initial shock.
While I wanted to hop in the TARDIS with Grampa Doctor and suffer his awesome brand of contemptuous verbal abuse fairly quickly, that desire faded a smidge once the story kicked into overdrive. I prefer my quests for fire full of dueling guitars and soaring vocals. Still, Hartnell was fun to watch. Started hoping fairly early on that the man-of-science/man-of-action combination I knew from later Doctors would kick in quickly so they could ditch Ian Chesterton. Dig the actor and all but if there's a spare adult around, part of me wants them put solely on "stop Susan from letting off that bloody piercing shriek" duty. All in all, not bad and I'll happily watch some more.
Serial 002 - The Daleks
Part of my sporadic desire to be a British kid in the 1960's stems from the first Dalek experience being 2005's "Dalek." I get that it had a nice long shot establishing stairs were no longer terrifying but when the first unstoppable, remorseless, brutal, supreme killing machine you ever see goes emo seemingly to give The Doctor another reason to want to smooch Rose, it's sort of natural to feel a bit robbed. At least in this episode, the only thing approximating a "human moment" for the Daleks is the fact they want to kill the Thalls. Personally, if I had to deal with a bunch of melodramatic pretty boys prancing around in the forest with their perfect pecs and blond-haired blue-eyed beauty giving soliloquise about peace, I'd want to kill the bastards pretty hard too. There's some serious silly going on in the form of the ultimate enemy being limited to moving on specially treated metal plates but they're still bad ass enough that I had to hide an eye while a toilet plunger was thrust at Barbara. All in all, a very worthwhile viewing experience.
Serial 003 - The Edge of Destruction
The first serial established the "history book" approach and the second did the same for sci-fi stories. This one was all about character development. Ian is shown to be more than just brawn and The Doctor displays a bit of heart. Feel much of what this one accomplished could've been done through subplots woven into "proper" episodes but honestly it's the first season so I can understand some clunking in the gears.
Serial 004 - Marco Polo
When I heard 108 episodes were lost but I needn't fear as geeks who made my charity fundraising in honor of a dead TV show crew look a but south of diehard had done some reconstructions, I was a bit unsure about attempting a watch through. The Loose Cannons crew honestly did a very nice job on this one. They had an amazing variety of stills at their disposal and the audio quality only became an issue on a commuter train once or twice. As for the episodes themselves, I felt the pacing was somewhat shit. If I tried to summarize seven episodes here, it would take one paragraph. So much of what was going on involved showing off set dressing and teaching a bit of history. Perhaps if the video still existed, things wouldn't drag so much. All in all, a bit dry but not too shabby.
Serial 005 - The Keys of Marinus
Interesting approach to storytelling on this one. The TARDIS crew need to gather multiple keys and episodes become little quests to do so. Weird BDSM bikers who I somehow got the impression were reptilian try to stop them. Much "look at science and technology gone awry and BEWARE" and narrow escapery ensue. The plant episode in particular shows a lot of thought went into this serial so I don't want to be flip but it really didn't grab me.
Serial 006 - The Aztecs
This one was a lot more fun than I expected. There was an obvious desire to educate the kids about Aztec culture. However, they approached it in some enjoyable ways. Barbara is mistaken for a god, decides the prime directive is for wimps, and nearly gets her friends killed. Ian winds up in period costumes wrestling another burly man. The Doctor arrogantly professes he understands the meaning of cocoa and winds up accidentally marrying someone. It felt like there was less lecturing about how history worked and more history teaching those who tried to tell it how things were a lesson in this serial. For me, that made things a bit less dry and a lot easier to watch.
Serial 007 - The Sensorites
Conspiracy! Intrigue! Diplomacy! Funky looking aliens! Fairly effective suspense! Important life lessons for our political leaders! (You know those raw, unedited notes I said I might share at some point? Enjoy!)!
p, s, !!!!!!!!
next up: It's still all about Hartnell, Alfie.
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