Damn, that sucks. What little snippets of the audios I've heard sound like fun so it's a real shame that the prices are now so out-of-whack.
I've been stricken with an unfortunate excitement to see where the Fourteen Doctor specials go and after re-watching swathes of Night of the Doctor I really do wish McGann could get new on-camera stuff. It's my hope that the franchise gets a bit more adventurous with its crossovers or on-camera specials from here on out now that Davis is back.
It's so cool seeing Yasmin Finney in this series! I'm hoping she'll officially count as a companion, even if she won't be one of The Fifteenth Doctor's companions due to needing to return to working on Heartstopper.
Oh damn, they're doing an adaptation of the first issue of the marvel comic book! Doctor Who and the Star Beast! I remember that particular story fondly! (Okay, they were colorized reprints from Doctor Who Magazine, but still, I know it from the Marvel printing.)
This is probably legit the most excited I've been for an episode in ages, because I have literal decades of nostalgia on this one.
RTD still the living hype machine.
I just spent the last few days watch the Time Traveller's Wife, since Moffat wrote/showran it and I was curious. I liked it, but didn't love it... did not help that hiit has no actual ending because they didn't get a second season... I might have liked it more if I hadn't seen Moffaatts run of Who.
but wow Moffatt, maybe you shouldn't have taken on this particular project... it just flat out gives away the secret sauce on Amy and RIver.... it's very very easy to see where he was "inspired".
I've been getting caught up on Doctor Who over the past year or two. So far, I've watched the 9th Doctor's run, the 10th Doctor's run, the first season of the 11th Doctor, and a few episodes of the 4th Doctor. (I got a BluRay set of the season where Douglas Adams was involved, so I saw Destiny of the Daleks and The City of Death) I'm enjoying it so far - I'm missing a LOT of context when it comes to some characters, since I haven't watched many of the pre-revival episodes or any of the spin-offs (so I'm a little lost when Torchwood or the cast of Sarah Jane Smith's series show up), but it's still entertaining.
When it comes to the modern series, I'll likely keep going in order, though for the classic series (1-8), I'm not sure which Doctors are worth looking into. When I finish Tom Baker's second-to-last season, I'll likely get the box set for his first one (I've heard good things about Genesis of the Daleks), but I'm not sure which of the other classic Doctors are considered highlights/good ones. (maybe Jon Pertwee?)
@Megadoomer said in Doctor Who:
When it comes to the modern series, I'll likely keep going in order, though for the classic series (1-8), I'm not sure which Doctors are worth looking into. When I finish Tom Baker's second-to-last season, I'll likely get the box set for his first one (I've heard good things about Genesis of the Daleks), but I'm not sure which of the other classic Doctors are considered highlights/good ones. (maybe Jon Pertwee?)
As I'm sure you've gathered already, Tom Baker is pretty much the quintessential Doctor of not only the classic series, but possibly the entire franchise. There are many stories throughout his seven-year career that are worth checking out, of which I would recommend The Ark in Space, Pyramids of Mars, the Brain of Morbius, The Deadly Assassin, the Robots of Death, the Talons of Weng-Chiang and especially Genesis of the Daleks.
As for the other Doctors, I'd say the 2nd, 3rd, and 7th are generally considered to have the best runs aside from Baker. Personally, I believe we've never had a "bad" Doctor, just good Doctors situated with bad stories. But here's a quick breakdown of all of them.
1st, Hartnell - For me, probably the weakest run of the classic series. Hartnell does fine, but the stories haven't aged particularly well in terms of pacing and intrigue. Also, a lot of episodes have unfortunately been lost with only the audio and still frames remaining. You could watch Unearthly Child just for the sake of watching the very first episode of the series (but you can safely skip the following three caveman episodes, which are pretty mid). The Aztecs, The Dalek Invasion of Earth, and The Romans may also be worth a look.
2nd, Troughton - Definitely an improvement from Hartnell's run, and Troughton is a lot more..."Doctory". Again, a lot of missing stories from this run, but there are still many worth checking out: The Tomb of the Cybermen, the Enemy of the World, The Web of Fear, the Mind Robber, and The War Games. Also, even though it's a missing episode, I would highly recommend Power of the Daleks. There's an animated reconstruction of it that's well worth watching.
3rd, Pertwee - Although I personally don't think there are too many strong standout episodes of Pertwee's run, this era of Doctor Who still has an undeniable charm. It shakes things up with the Doctor being stranded on Earth and working with UNIT (at least for a while) and you really get to love the group dynamic of the cast. I recommend Spearhead from Space, Inferno, Day of the Daleks, The Three Doctors, and The Time Warrior.
5th, Davison - Peter Davison is very charming, but fairly subdued as the Doctor. Plus, most of his stories just aren't that great. Still, I would recommend Castrovalva, Earthshock, Enlightenment (though that one may require watching the previous two stories) and especially Caves of Androzani, which is one of the best stories of the entire franchise.
6th, C. Baker - Considered by most to be the worst run of the classic series. Which is a shame because Colin Baker really can act and makes for a great Doctor given the chance, as the Big Finish audios have proven (that's a whole other thing should you choose to go down that road). Sadly, I have to agree the stories are mostly pretty crap. I recommend at least watching Vengeance on Varos.
7th, McCoy - I guess kind of a divisive Doctor in terms of likeabilty, but a very interesting run nonetheless. Remembrance of the Daleks is a fan-favorite, but my personal favorite has always been Greatest Show in the Galaxy. Ghost Light and Curse of Fenric are also worth a watch.
Hope this helps and that you continue to enjoy your journey through the world of Doctor Who.
@Nobodyman Thanks! I'm not sure how long it will take for me to finish the box sets that I'm currently watching, but I'll keep this in mind when I'm deciding where to go next for classic Who.
7th Doctor is very uneven...his first season I think is mostly kind of awful, but there's some charm to the weird stories he's in. His last season was actually pretty good. It's like they got back on track just in time to be canceled.
I'm a big fan of the 5th Doctor personally, though his earlier episodes suffer from crowded TARDIS syndrome.
I'm still getting caught up on the 11th Doctor (just finished The Almost People) and the 4th Doctor (finished The Creature From The Pit), but I saw that they released an audio crossover between the 4th and 10th Doctors a few years back, so I picked that up.
I enjoyed it! There were some continuity details that I wasn't aware of (they mentioned that the 4th Doctor is the president of Gallifrey - I think it's meant to take place at a point where Sarah Jane Smith had left the show and the 4th Doctor had off-screen adventures without any companions), and it was an unusual experience to try following a Doctor Who story with audio alone, but I enjoyed it. Tom Baker and David Tennant did amazing jobs, as you'd probably expect.
Don't know if I'll get more of these, though - I feel like it would quickly get expensive. (it was about $15 Canadian, and other stories look to be much pricier)
@Megadoomer Awesome! Glad to hear you enjoyed your first dive into the world of Doctor Who audio.
I actually haven't listened to the one you're describing, but it sounds like it takes place during or after the Deadly Assassin, in which the 4th Doctor (briefly) becomes president of Gallifrey, and, if memory serves, is the only Classic Who story without a companion. But yeah, the audios are full of great crossovers like that.
And yeah, cost is unfortunately one of the bigger impediments for exploring the audio dramas. A lot of the older ones from the monthly range (going all the way back to 1999!) are pretty inexpensive though, about $3.50 USD for a 2 hour story.
@Megadoomer said in Doctor Who:
they mentioned that the 4th Doctor is the president of Gallifrey -
It's more a trivia point than anything else. He was made president after a particular crisis, handed the job "temporarily" to someone else, then left and never did anything with the position.
For the 60th anniversary they're putting up.... damn near everything on the BBC iplayer.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/2023/doctor-who-archive-on-bbc-iplayer
Only works in the UK for obvious reasons. But if you happen to have a VPN...
They put out some "Tales from the Tardis" specials that reunite some old companions, and doctors 5, 6, and 7, to do intro/outros on classic episodes.
A big hooplah was made about it but I wasn't very excited about it since I figured it was going to be 2-3 minute bits of "Oh my, look at you being here! It's been ages! What have you been up to off camera for 30 years? Yes I'm a timelord and I've aged but lets not dwell on the fact it makes no sense and there's no explanation for either of us being here. Hey, here's a really obvious segue to a classic episode. Yes indeed, let's talk about that time."
And that's... exactly what it is. In theory they're only playing on the BBC player but its probably all up on youtube.
In theory its all canon, and they reference the previous episode of the show but its raw fluff. Track em down if you really want to see them,
hey all seem to be on this channel for the time being but they might get struck at some point, so if you're interested watch em while you can.
https:// www.youtube.com/ @doctorwhotube3638/videos
Five talking about the death of Adric is kind of nice.
A short Children in Need special was released today featuring the 14th Doctor (Tennant).
On the one hand, it's actually fairly ambitious as it gives a new portrayal of one of the Doctor's greatest enemies. On the other, it perhaps indulges a little too much in levity and mockery towards one of the Doctor's greatest enemies. But you be the judge.
The best part of the farce that is the Children in Need specials is... as far as I'm aware... they are all canon.
Even the bizarre crossover ones.
I really enjoyed this episode- it's also great to have an "official" way to watch the episode right as it drops.
@Robby said in Doctor Who:
They put out some "Tales from the Tardis" specials that reunite some old companions…
In theory its all canon,
@Robby said in Doctor Who:
The best part of the farce that is the Children in Need specials is... as far as I'm aware... they are all canon.
Even the bizarre crossover ones.
I love Tales of the TARDIS! Reminds me of the blu-ray announcements, where they add some small "canon" stories with some of the older actors.
My relationship with canon overtime has greatly loosened, it's to the point that I don't care too much for it. This is not an attack on you- I just like talking about this! I like consistency in stories as much as anyone else, but now I'm just thankful for any time we get any of the former actors to return to do some new content for Who. It really is a wonderful time to be a fan.
I know this old blog post by Paul Cornell gets tossed around a lot in canon discussions, but it does sum up my feelings on it pretty well. Canon is a messy beast to attempt in a time travel show. I kind of think of it like the Zelda timeline, it wasn't needed but it's fun to discuss what our thoughts are on the "correct" timeline/canon. There are some tv episodes I wish weren't "canon" because they were dreadful, and on the flipside there's DocWho stories in other formats that I adore and think deserve as much love as any tv episode.
Basically: if it's an opportunity to tell a good story, my response is, "Why not?" I'm about to read a 6th Doctor novel, Shadow in the Glass, where he encounters Hitler (in a way). I've no idea what I'm in for, but it sounds exciting!
God, I wish there was more of Rose. I really wanted her character to be fleshed out, but it felt like the special was really cramming stuff in to as few minutes as possible.
That was the most fun I've had with a Doctor Who episode in a long time. It had the right amount of nostalgia and newness. Bring on specials 2 and 3 next month.
That was better than Who has been in a while, but its still definited RTD and I didn't love his era. Ah well.
I read the original comic years ago so I knew what was coming. I wonder if I would have guessed the plot if I didn't know. For a lot of people those are going to be some surprises in there.
Second special was excellent. Some of the morphing was kind of lite nightmare fuel and I'm here for that. Ending made me a bit sad but was great to see.
Wild Blue Yonder was fantastic. This was the only one of the specials I knew basically nothing about going in as I knew the first one was, of course, an adaptation of The Star Beast and the next one is all but confirmed to have the Celestial Toymaker, so this was definitely a pleasant surprise.
The CGI was the only thing I was iffy about since it was so bizarre I wasn't sure whether to be scared or laugh at it.
And yes, it was great to see Bernard Cribbins one last time.
@Nobodyman said in Doctor Who:
The CGI was the only thing I was iffy about since it was so bizarre I wasn't sure whether to be scared or laugh at it.
I loved it during the chase. Although I wish
But maybe that was considered too scary for kids (image is from the little "making of" video):
Yep, great episode! I actually didn't remember if they got Bernard filmed before he passed away so I was happy to see him.
....well that just happened.
I did enjoy the specials on the whole (especially Wild Blue Yonder), and seeing the Toymaker again was pretty neat (among all the other references) - but man that ending is something, I get they don't want to let the man go but for a show predicated on change and moving on they seem awfully afraid to do so.
New season starts May 11th.
"Give me a number, give me a year."
Wow, that just brings to mind Allistair Beckett's video.
"Give me a number, give me a year."
"Present day London please."
New Doctor being both Black and Gay is pretty cool
Watched the two new episodes that dropped this weekend.
Space Babies was pretty awful. Probably one of the worst of the entire revival era. It's exactly what the title implies and is just as obnoxious as you might think.
The Devil's Chord, however, was a lot more enjoyable. I'm a big music fan, so this definitely struck a chord with me (haha) and the villain was deliciously over the top. And it's really intriguing how they're building up the overarching threat for the season.
Really looking forward to next week since we get the Steven Moffat episode, though it looks like he's taking the opening scene from Genesis of the Daleks and extending it to an entire episode.
Just saw Space Babies. And yeah, it was a pretty dumb episode. The humor felt a little too childish for something like Doctor Who, which I guess I should have expected given the title. I don't think we'd really seen anything like that since the farting aliens back in Eccleston's run. But for me, it was one of those so-bad-it's-good episodes, up there with Paradise Towers for me.
I'm not entirely sold on Ncuti Gatwa yet. But that's really par for the course for me when it comes to new actors playing the Doctor. It usually takes a season for me to warm up.
Yeah Space Babies was pretty grim, RTD channeling the leftover cringe energy from the suited-up Slitheen I guess - but Devil's Chord I did enjoy, Maestro almost would be too high-scale a villain for episode 2 of a series so I'm curious as to how they'll top that for the finale with the villain they're teasing.
Ugh, the start of the new episodes reminded me. I'd forgotten that they nuked Gallifrey, AGAIN.
"Last of the TIme Lords" was fine to relaunch the series and explore that character arc and keep the Doctor unique and special ... and they milked it through three generations of doctors for seven seasons... and then for the 50th anniversary they fixed it! Job well done, move onto new things! They'd clearly intended to have Matt Smith have a season of searching for Gallifrey when they wrote the 50th... and then changed course once they found out he was actually leaving in one more episode... but it was done and fixed!
And then Capaldi's era didn't do much with it except one confrontation, that's fine...
and then the next showrunner, on top of the TImeless Child nonsense... just destroys the planet. AGAIN. For no reason, for no pathos or character depth or self blame... just a random thing the Master did randomly so the Doctor goes back to being an orphan.
And I'd forgotten they did that.
And then the new episode reminds me in the first minute and it just takes me out of it because UGH. I hate basically everything about Jodie's era, and it's not her fault, but ugh.
Anyway, I mostly didn't like the original Davies era, and given the three Tennant episodes and the three Gatwa episodes so far I think that's going to be the case again. It's too silly, too aimed at the kids. Singing gremlins and space babies and long armed stretch Doctor and Spice Girls playing mad god and dinosaurs from stepping on butterflies and changing the word for Gravity, farting spaceships... Which is fine, silly and childish quick dumb colorful jokes is the target audience of kids, not me in my 40's...
but the Moffatt era just kind of hit every note I wanted out of the franchise and that was just a batch of years it was near perfect for me most of the time, especially during Smith's run.
I know why they went back to the safe bet showrunner after Chibnal tanked it, but different new blood and new tone would be nice.
Wasn't crazy about the Space Babies episode, but I enjoyed the music one (Maestro popping out of peoples pianos was weirdly creepy).
Does make me wonder where the show goes from here though. It was inevitable, given Nu Who's obsession with ever increasing stakes, that the Doctors enemies would get increasing powerful, but god-like reality warpers being reduced to 'Villain of the week' baddies seems a step too far.
Plus, I'm not happy with the return of the Super Special Companion.
Devils chord was pretty good. Really fascinating to see what reality warping are essentially.
New Doctor is....I dont know, he comes across more as an overly excited companion than a Doctor. But there's room for him to grow and impress.
Excited for the Moffs episode
Boom was good. Maybe not one of Steven Moffat's best, but still good.
Although that has to be one of the dumbest kid characters ever (I wonder if Steven originally planned for her to be younger).
Didn't like Boom as much as everyone else, felt like it ran into the usual Moffat problem where he writes himself into a corner and has no option but to bolt a lacklustre ending on.
You know, it had been long enough that I'd kind of forgotten how much I didn't like the original Davies era because after 15 or 20 years I mostly just remembered the highlights aside from the fact that I loathe Rose, but Donna was great and Tennant was good in the role and there were some real bangers, but after the Devils Chord just wtf was that.
I understand the show wants to keep topping itself but we've now gone from Omega being a one time sort of god, to facing down two different gods in the space of three episodes and all inclinations there will be at least one more. Toymaker as a one off is okay cause classic villain, new rendition, trick to win but... The higher budget means they're going for even more absurd special effects and just way over the top and hyper cartoonish.
I'm fine with A show ending in a random fourth wall breaking dance number, but Doctor Who?
Just hurry up and reveal the big bad is his granddaughter Susan, as being played by the actress "Susan Twist" (that can't be her real name) and be done with it.
I've long been a staunch defender of the fact the show needs to change to stay fresh and that if its not your personal taste just wait a couple seasons... and that retcons to the continuity happen all the time in a long runner, so however stupid I personally find them, timeless child or bi-regeneration are no more outlandish than regeneration being created in the first place, but... I think they're going too far in the kiddie direction for me right now.
Gonna watch the Mofatt episode but then I think I'm done for a while. I didn't like the last era, and I'm not liking this one for entirely different reasons.
