|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Thu Mar 23, 2006 2:52 pm
For a while now I've been promising a couple of people here a handpicked list of the very finest of over 40 years of Doctor Who episodes, comics, audios and novels...and what better time to do it than - last week some time when we were all dressed up. Oh well.
It's not an easy thing to do since, when you can remember watching a show since you were four years old it's hard to be objective about what might seem fun to 'outsiders'. Stepping outside fan politcs is tricky too - Who fandom falls into "Rads versus Trads" and "Frocks versus Guns". Although I'm an avowed Rad Frock I'll be ignoring all this since then I won't have to pretend that Androids of Tara is any good. I'm not listing the stories that mean most to me, or the stories that are important to continuity, fandom or broadcasting history. Just the best of the stuff that I think is heaps of fun and immediately appreciable as being of the highest quality.
I'm going to go through Doctor-by-Doctor, hopefully at a rate of one a day. The early entries will be more TV-orientated than the later ones, since the decent comics didn't start until the Fourth Doctor, the Seventh and Eighth Doctors had a novel published about them at a rate of one a month for over a decade, and actors who played the first three Doctors had all snuffed it by the time the audios really started.
Here goes then...
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Mar 23, 2006 3:28 pm
1: Hartnell
The BBC, in those days still concerned with its Reithian mission of improving the mental life of the nation, intended early Doctor Who to work in a sugar/pill kind of way. Historical stories designed to teach the children interesting facts about the Crusades and so forth were alternated with the Sci-Fi stories designed to placate the kiddies with some crazy monsters for a few weeks, so that they'd keep on coming back once it was time to learn about the Crusades and so forth again.
One would expect that the Sci-Fi ones would be more fun, but in fact they've dated horribly and just drag on for what feels like days. The only fun to be had here is in watching William Hartnell's legendary fluffs. Getting on in life, not especially bothered with learning the lines of the SF episodes and perhaps not as marble-endowed as once he was, Hartnell mumbles and improvises through every one-take scene. My favourite is when "We'll end up as two cinders floating around in space" comes out as "We'll end up as two cinders floating around in Spain", but there's squillions of them and they really liven things up.
The historicals though need no livening up. They're classic sixties British TV and worth anyone's time. Early on they tend to be very earnest and dramatic, before later turning into rompy escapades. My recomendations reflect both these schools.
THE AZTECS
Must see!
Theives walk among the Gods! High tragedy, moral dilemmas, and the nature of faith and history. The supporting cast act thier socks off here - back when the series started there was none of this "The Doctor is the star and the companions are there to represent the audience" stuff. Ian and Barbara, the unfortuate time-lost teachers, are the lead characters and the Doctor is just the nut job they're stuck with. This is Barbara's story and the "Dare we change the past?" tale that the series had to do at some point. It did it early on and grasped the nettle with both hands.
THE ROMANS
Couldn't be more different. This is history as panto, as bedroom farce. Everyone's loveable, every eyebrow is raised and it's a joy to watch the characters, and the chronology, contort themselves through the antics of Nero's Rome. Divine decline and fall.
THE PLOTTERS
One of Virgin's 'Missing Adventure' novels...and I think the only Hartnell novel I could really recommend. Following more in the tradition of The Romans, this concerns itself mostly with the Gunpowder Plot, but really takes us through every bit of James I's England out of which a joke or a plot twist could be milked. A finely tuned story that just rattles along, pausing only for a nice jibe at Michael Howard. Almost as clever as camp gets.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon May 29, 2006 8:06 am
Well, it's been a good two months so I don't feel bad about interrupting this thread with some Who questions I'm hoping will get answered.
-Have any of the Doctors ever met each other?
-Did the one(s) who showed up in the Fox TV movie ever do anything else?
-Isn't it obvious who Waid based Brainiac 5's characterization on?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon May 29, 2006 8:18 am
I remember something about the Five Doctors and Three Doctors.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon May 29, 2006 8:36 am
Do you mean that the Third and Fifth doctors met, or that at some point five of them met and at another point three of them met?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon May 29, 2006 8:38 am
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon May 29, 2006 11:46 am
On TV then the first three Doctors meet for the Tenth anniversary in The Three Doctors, although Hartnell was very frail by then so had to gibber at the others from a little floaty pyramid on a screen.
For the tenth anniversary then the first five Doctors meet in The Five Doctors, although Hartnell was very dead by then so had to be impersonated badly. Tom Baker was also sulking, so had to be included by means of footage from an old adventure whose filming was never completed.
For no real reason other than ratings then the second and sixth Doctors met in The Two Doctors.
There's also Dimesions in Time - a 3D charity special in which various Doctors run around the set of once popular soap opera EastEnders. I shall not speak of this.
In the audio plays, novels and comics then there's been more inter-Doc meetings than I can think of without sitting down and having a really good ponder. They're generally not much good though, except Cold Fusion - a fifth/seventh Doctor novel that captures perfectly both eras and moves everything forward.
In the current TV series then Russell's said he's not going to do any team-ups of the Doctor with his past-selves as they just don't work. He's probably right, but it's kind of a shame as the week-before-last's episode leaves open a very logical way for the tenth and ninth Doctors to meet.
As for the Eighth Doctor, the one from the Fox Movie, he continued as the Doctor in the novels right up until the new TV series was underway - some of the books are really exceptional (and one of them is co-plotted by me redface ) but when they jumped the shark they crashed very hard. He's also done a good few seasons of the audio plays, but they're pretty patchy. Chimes of Midnight and Stones of Venice are fab though.
Seeing this back on the first page has finally shamed me into doing something about it. The Troughton Era will be covered this very night!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon May 29, 2006 2:45 pm
Come on now. Let's hear the self-endorsement. What should I be ebay-ing?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon May 29, 2006 3:51 pm
Wally_West Come on now. Let's hear the self-endorsement. What should I be ebay-ing? It's not something I talk about much since, had I not gone all scary-depressive-weirdo round about the time we got it comissioned, I'd actually have my name on the front rather than as a "From a story by..." credit on the inside. To tell the truth, it freaks me out a little that the book exists. But if you want to read it then it's The Book of the Still by Paul Ebbs.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue May 30, 2006 1:04 pm
2: Troughton
The first Doctor may have shared with his successors the revolutionary habit of dropping into a given social order and turning it upside-down by teatime, but he was nevertheless a somewhat authoritarian figure. He was a teacher, a scientist, a gentleman...
The second Doctor was a tramp. A smelly looking tramp who looked like he could do with a sponge bath and a nit-comb. With a soft, gentle hypnotic voice, a twinkle never far from his eye and a habit of badly playing a little recorder he carried with him, this was a much more dangerous figure.
Children watching at home had previously been invited to consider the Doctor as being perhaps a bit like the wise but eccentric teacher at school who tells more than you're meant to learn. Now they saw him transform before thier eyes into someone more like the mad old man that hangs around the allotment sheds telling them that the green tomatoes contain genies and the red ones minature werewolves.
Unsettling as he might be, especially when you got flashes of his machiavellian side as he tempted his opponents to thier deaths, the Doctor has never been as sweet, cute and adorable as in this incarnation. Especially once he gained his most lovable companions - Jaime and Zoe, who, with pure Children's TV acting, form such an innocent and loving trio of friends that the BBC had no choice but to throw really large monsters at them.
Yes, a little way into the second Doctor's run, the BBC got a bit fed up with trying to educate through the series and decided to stick to the MONSTERS!
ARGHHHH! MONSTERS!!!!
Yetis! Giant Crabs! Scaly Martian Warriors! More Yetis! Daleks! Lots of Cybermen! Killer Seaweed!
Fiends were errupting out of the TV sets of the late 1960s and the only thing that could hold them at bay was a funny little gnome who seemed like the most gentle soul in the cosmos - except on those occasions when his eyes would glaze over and he'd start talking about his battles against evil like a zealous fanatic. Should we be scared of the Second Doctor who looks like he can't cope, or the Second Doctor who looks like he can? Or should we just give this timid little tramp a big hug? After all, his catchphrase was, "When I say run..."
An awful lot of his episodes got burned by the BBC in the 70s when they thought they'd have a little clear-out and didn't suppose anybody would miss half thier archive of classics. Much of it's been reconstructed now from various sources, but there are whole swathes of this era missing and probably always will be. Bearing that in mind, here are a few stories to try...
Tomb of the Cybermen
Must See!
SF rewritten as a Hammer Horror, with the Freud-factor turned up to ten in a tale of crypts that must not be opened, rocket ships, hives of drones who want to absorb you into thier collective, and a Doctor who's just sitting there quietly, nudging people to where he needs them to be.
The Mind Robber
Or 'My First Metafiction' as the TARDIS lands outside of everywhere and its crew have to play by the rules of the Land of Fiction. I'd recomend this episode partly because it's so sweet (it has a real fairy-tale feel to it) partly because its so stylish (in a shiny catsuit sort of way) and partly because it's so horrific, determinist and chilling.
The War Games
Is way too long (ten episodes!) but is a great showcase for the lead characters and thier relationships, has the introduction of the whole 'Time Lord' mythos, is a big ol' romp through history in which you can just loose yourself and has such superbly out-there electronic music and guest performances.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue May 30, 2006 1:09 pm
Would it be low-class of me to ask for a picture of each of the Doctors? Googling causes confusion in this regard...
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue May 30, 2006 3:47 pm
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue May 30, 2006 4:11 pm
OH you rule so much.
*pokes Sophie*
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Jun 03, 2006 10:11 am
Someone please assure me I'm going to like the new guy, because I'm in love with the ninth doctor!! crying
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Reply
