Classic Doctor Who (1 Viewer)

[Bob Magaw]

Third Doctor John Pertwee's 10 Best Episodes

http://whatculture.com/tv/doctor-jon-pertwees-10-best-episodes.php 

Fourth Doctor Tom Baker's 10 Best Episodes

http://whatculture.com/tv/doctor-tom-bakers-10-best-episodes.php

The Third Doctor's Essential Episode list (top 5), with more suggestions in the comments section

http://www.tor.com/2013/09/27/classic-doctor-who-the-third-doctors-essential-episodes/

The Fourth Doctor's Essential Episode list (top 5)

http://www.tor.com/2013/10/04/classic-doctor-who-the-fourth-doctors-essential-episodes/ 

* Currently the only Classic Doctor Who serial avail. on Blu-ray is Third Doctor Pertwee's initial, Spearhead From Space, because it is the only one shot entirely on film (typically reserved for exteriors and on location shots, the result of a strike by the interior video union). The US Movie (Eighth Doctor Paul McGann) was also shot on film, and could be released on Blu-ray in the future.  

 

[massraider]

Best Doctor Who episodes of all time - 2013 list from The Guardian (reverse chronology by Doctor) Dan Martin

Most avail on iTunes (not serials The Sea Devils and City of Death)

http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/series/the-best-doctor-who-episodes-of-all-time

9) The Talons of Weng Chaing - T. Baker

Scared the crap out of me as a little kid.  Giant man eating rats, crazy Chinese ventriloquist doll that comes to life and attacks.  That episode should have had a warning label.

 

[Bob Magaw]

Every episode/serial (as the case may be) as of 9-17-15 ranked from first to last, Classic and NuWho inclusive, an insane 254 deep.

http://io9.gizmodo.com/every-single-doctor-who-story-ranked-from-best-to-wors-1468104049

Since we're here, a few NuWho only lists, including specials (Christmas, Day of the Doctor, etc.)   

As of 3-26-15

http://www.mtv.com/news/2115401/doctor-who-every-episode-ranked/

As of 11-22-13 (Capaldi won't be accounted for and represented in this list?)

http://www.buzzfeed.com/tomphillips/ranking-every-episode-of-the-modern-doctor-who#.faYXWYVolQ

Possibly a theme germane to what was alluded to in the post immediately above by massraider, it was during the Tom Baker era that Classic Doctor Who reached its peak of popularity and ratings heights, but that was the culmination of a trend that began with the Pertwee era. As highlighted above, the two producer/script director teams/partnerships that roughly overlapped with the Pertwee and Baker eras, Barry Letts/Terrance ##### and Philip Hinchcliffe/Robert Holmes, respectively, deserve a lot of credit. Of course they would probably be the first to credit the Doctor's themselves for the surge in popularity. But the producers and script editors in this case also played a key role, in steering the show in a darker, more mature and serious direction. Doctor Who always had a built in children's audience, so by shifting the tone more in the adult direction, they maintained and preserved their core family audience, while effectively expanding and making greater inroads into older audiences. And this was reflected in ratings increases.

BTW, I started watching NuWho again (Eccleston's first and only season of the reboot, as well as some of Tennant and Smith's Christmas Specials), and a few things stood out in stark, bold relief, compared to the Classic series counterpart. Obviously the bigger budget and more or less state of the art special FX enables NuWho to do some of the space and battle sequences, aliens/monsters much more spectacularly. Part of the charm with the Classic series (and original Star Trek) is precisely the cheesy special FX, costumes, make up, production design and sets, etc, so that isn't a massive deal to me, but noteworthy.

More importantly to me, and no doubt this is a function of the fact that the landscape of TV had changed markedly and pronouncedly in the decade and a half interval between when it went off the air and was resurrected - NuWho, reboot original showrunner, producer, lead writer Russell Davies, and his successor Steven Moffat, have done a great job finding the right balance between family entertainment and mature/adult darkness. That isn't necessarily an easy thing to do, and imo their sensibility was/is commendable.   

 

[SacramentoBob]

City of Death (1979 - Tom Baker)

So stupid.

The plot concerns a scheme by an alien, Scaroth, to steal the Mona Lisa to finance experiments in time travel in the hope of averting the accident that marooned him on Earth four hundred million years previously, which began the existence of life on the planet as well.

 

[SacramentoBob]

Seems like all the best Dr Who lists never have anything before Baker.  I thought War Games was pretty awesome.  I might think otherwise watching it as an adult though.

 

[Buckna]

More importantly to me, and no doubt this is a function of the fact that the landscape of TV had changed markedly and pronouncedly in the decade and a half interval between when it went off the air and was resurrected - NuWho, reboot original showrunner, producer, lead writer Russell Davies, and his successor Steven Moffat, have done a great job finding the right balance between family entertainment and mature/adult darkness. That isn't necessarily an easy thing to do, and imo their sensibility was/is commendable.   

Would agree they have mostly done a great job with this and have also adapted the tone as they've switched doctors in NuWho. For example,  Smith being more lighthearted/whimsical at times and Capaldi being darker, acerbic, even downright mean in some episodes. it even fits the character after Smith's Doctor having lived so long fighting a never ending war clouding his optimism and shaping the next doctor's personality.

That's also a good reason why Torchwood failed in my opinion, they tried too hard to be "more adult" and distance themselves from the kids aspect of Who. Or I couldn't get into Sarah Jane Chronicles for the same reason, went far too much on the kiddie end of the spectrum.

 

[Bob Magaw]

So stupid.

The City of Death scenario admittedly wouldn't have been as effective as an episode of, say, Sanford and Son or The Jeffersons ("Is that a Jagaroth, Weezy?"). 

 

[Bob Magaw]

Sometimes, from certain angles, Second Doctor Patrick Troughton (probably not as well known because more of his serials were scrubbed by the BBC "archives" than either First Doctor Hartnell or Third Doctor Pertwee) reminds me of Cristoph Waltz

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&amp...dxHm_iSJZ5Z0dpK0njTA&ust=1459451412510984https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&amp...jyT0IKG7if77wVGSUrgQ&ust=1459451543343304

 

[Bob Magaw]

Seems like all the best Dr Who lists never have anything before Baker.  I thought War Games was pretty awesome.  I might think otherwise watching it as an adult though.

I've seen some exceptions (Pertwee-era Inferno), but point taken.

It might be instructive to list favorite episodes for each Doctor.

Hartnell - I don't really have any after watching three serials (Unearthly Child, The Aztecs and Dalek Earth Invasion), though glad I watched them for reasons of historical importance.

Troughton - Seen about three so far (including Tomb of the Cybermen), my favorite so far is one of two "Lost Episodes" rediscovered and released in the 50th Anniversary year of 2013 - Enemy of the World, in which he plays two parts. It was not one of the typical monster or Earth Invasion stories from that season, but more like a James Bond-type spy scenario (albeit set about a half century in the future relative to 1967, I think around 2018?).  

Pertwee - Haven't seen all of them, but so far Inferno is my favorite by far. I also liked The Daemons a lot, Spearhead From Space, The Time Warrior. Carnival Of Monsters was a great premise and very good execution of the story. A guilty pleasure is titled Claw of Axos, which may be the most psychedelic Doctor Who EVER.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5w3lPEf2pko

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGFOU8WvLxs

Really liked all the 1971 serials I've seen so far (also Terror of the Autons), which feature the ELP circa Tarkus-like synthesizer scores/incidental music.

Baker - Already pretty well covered, as noted.

Davison - Only seen Caves of Androzani, his last, which consistently scores highly.

* Haven't seen any yet by Colin Baker or McCoy.

 

[Bob Magaw]

Third Doctor Pertwee's Second Season (Season Eight '71)

Doctor Who Meets Glam (Claws of Axos)

http://www.eruditorumpress.com/blog/this-pretty-little-thing-here-the-claws-of-axos/

"It's March 13, 1971. Mungo Jerry is at number one still, followed by dueling ex-Beatles with McCartney and Harrison. But it's week two of the story where it finally happens. T. Rex hits number one with Hot Love, establishing glam rock as no longer the next big thing but simply as the big thing. It's worth pausing here and looking at T. Rex's Top of the Pops appearance for this song just to see the way in which the visual styles of pop music and Doctor Who had merged into a single aesthetic. Elsewhere in the charts are Deep Purple and John Lennon and the Plastic Ono Band."

 

[Bob Magaw]

Collaborating writers Bob Baker and David Martin played importantand roles in Classic Doctor Who history.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Baker_(scriptwriter)

Baker wrote for Doctor Who between 1971 and 1979. For all but the last of his contributions to this series (Nightmare of Eden), Baker collaborated with Dave Martin on numerous scripts including:

• The Claws of Axos (1971)[1]
• The Mutants (1972)[2]
• The Three Doctors (1973)[1]
• The Sontaran Experiment (1975)[3]
• The Hand of Fear (1976)[1]
• The Invisible Enemy (1977)[4]
• Underworld (1978)
  
• The Armageddon Factor (1979)
  

Together, they were nicknamed "The Bristol Boys" by the Doctor Who production teams with whom they worked.[5]

Baker and Martin devised for Doctor Who the robotic dog K-9 (created for The Invisible Enemy), the renegade Time Lord Omega (created for The Three Doctors, Doctor Who's 10th anniversary story) and the Axons. K-9 was originally intended to appear in one story only, but the BBC decided to make it a recurring character.[4] Several of Baker's stories had elements of hard science not often found in Doctor Who, even though they've also been criticised for scientific inaccuracy. Together with Martin, they also created fantasy television serials for children including Sky (1975).

Baker's other contributions to British television include Vision On animation with Laurie Booth, scripts for episodes of Shoestring and Bergerac. On 16 March 2006, it was reported in the free newspaper Metro that he was working on a new series featuring Doctor Who's mobile robot, K-9. This series, created in Australia, aired in the UK and worldwide in 2009 and 2010.

Baker revealed on the DVD commentary for Nightmare of Eden that he contacted Russell T Davies about the possibility of writing for the 2005 revival of Doctor Who but was told in no uncertain terms that writers from the original series were not wanted. As of 2012[update], Baker along with Terrance ##### and actor/writer Trevor Ray are the only surviving Doctor Who scriptwriters from the Third Doctor era.

 

[Bob Magaw]

Doug Camfield is oft-cited as one of the most important directors.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Camfield

He is particularly well known for his work on Doctor Who and was production assistant on its earliest serials, both the pilot and broadcast versions of An Unearthly Child, and Marco Polo. Camfield directed many other stories in its first thirteen years:

• Planet of Giants-episode 3 only
  
• The Crusade
  
• The Time Meddler
  
• The Daleks' Master Plan
  
• The Web of Fear
  
• The Invasion
  
• Inferno
  
• Terror of the Zygons
  
• The Seeds of Doom
  

One of Camfield's notable contributions to the series was the casting of Nicholas Courtney as Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, who became one of the most long-running and popular characters in its history.[3]

He submitted a script for the series to producer Philip Hinchcliffe called "The Lost Legion", which involved aliens and the French Foreign Legion (a subject which fascinated him).[4] However, the story never made it into production.

He was also one of eight members of the then-production team, the image of whom was seen during the mind-bending sequence of the serial The Brain of Morbius and inferred to be an early incarnation of the Doctor.

* His wife was cast in at least one serial, the excellent Inferno, one of the best in the Third Doctor Pertwee's era (with The Daemons).

 

[Bob Magaw]

Seems like all the best Dr Who lists never have anything before Baker.  I thought War Games was pretty awesome.  I might think otherwise watching it as an adult though.

There was a sequel novelization by former script editor Terrance ##### (who co-wrote War Games), titled World Game.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Game_(novel)

 

[Bob Magaw]

Tristram Cary was a pioneering electronic composer, musician and synthesizer designer, who also did some incidental music for several Classic Doctor Who serials.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tristram_Cary

He was one of the inventors of the EMS VCS 3

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EMS_VCS_3


History


It was created in 1969 by Peter Zinovieff's EMS company. The electronics were largely designed by David Cockerell and the machine's distinctive visual appearance was the work of electronic composer Tristram Cary. The VCS3 was more or less the first portable commercially available synthesizer—portable in the sense that the VCS 3 was housed entirely in a small, wooden case, unlike previous machines from American manufacturers such as Moog Music, ARP and Buchla which were housed in large cabinets and were known to take up entire rooms.

Significantly, it retailed for just under £330 in 1969 in the UK. Many people (including the synthesizer enthusiast Gordon Reid in his articles on the EMS company for Sound on Sound magazine in 2000 [1]) found it unsatisfactory as a melodic instrument due to its inherent instability. This arose from the instrument's reliance on the then-current method of exponential conversion of voltage to oscillator frequency, an approach also used on Moog synthesizers; however, the VCS 3 is renowned as an extremely powerful generator of electronic effects and processor of external sounds [according to whom?].

The VCS 3 began to find popularity among artists looking to create exotic synthesised sounds. As a result, prices for the synthesizer climbed much higher than the original asking price.[note 1]

The first album to be recorded using only the VCS 3 was "The Unusual Classical Synthesizer" on Westminster Gold.[2]

The VCS3 was popular among progressive rock bands and was used on recordings by The Alan Parsons Project, Jean Michel Jarre, Todd Rundgren, Hawkwind, Brian Eno (with Roxy Music), King Crimson, The Who, Gong, and Pink Floyd, among many others. A well-known example of its use is on The Who track "Won't Get Fooled Again" on Who's Next. In this instance the synthesizer was used as an external sound processor, with Pete Townshend running the signal of a Lowrey organ through the VCS3's filter and low frequency oscillators. Pink Floyd's "On the Run" (from The Dark Side of the Moon) made use of the VCS 3's oscillators, filter and noise generator, as well as the sequencer. Their song Welcome to the Machine also used the VCS 3. The bass throb at the beginning of the recording formed the foundation of the song, with the other parts being recorded in response.

In addition to the following serials:

The Daleks (Doctor Who serial) (1963) (also reused in The Rescue (1965), The Daleks' Master Plan (1966), The Ark (1966) & The Power of the Daleks (1967))

Marco Polo (Doctor Who serial) (1964)

The Daleks' Master Plan (Doctor Who serial) (1966)

The Gunfighters (Doctor Who serial) (1966)

The Mutants (Doctor Who serial) (1972) - Another "score" that is reminiscent to me of classic ELP 

He also scored a few classic movies:

The Ladykillers, Ealing Studios (1955), remade by the Coen Brothers starring Tom Hanks, the original with Alec Guinness was imo far superior

Quatermass and the Pit, Hammer Films (1967), the Quatermass series written by Nigel Kneale had a profound effect on Doctor Who through the years and generations of British radio/TV and film productions working in the sci fi/horror genre (for that matter, also on Americans like John Carpenter and Stephen King) in general, and the film Quatermass and the Pit on serials like The Daemons from '71 specifically. In the US, the film was released under the title Five Million Years To Earth. I saw it as a child, and it was super creepy.

* The Mutants

Making of, behind the scenes doc excerpt 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSf-1BKgMCQ

Excerpts from the serial itself

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J23hgmCb_lw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRhbLhP8Uho

** A series spanning retrospective 50th Anniversary Collection of Doctor Who Music avail. in several forms (2 CD US version also on iTunes digital, as well as 4 CD UK import - also an 11 CD expanded limited edition, but that appears OOP and long gone) 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_Who:_The_50th_Anniversary_Collection

 

[Bob Magaw]

Good Halloween-related episodes with elements of gothic horror:

The Daemons (Third Doctor Pertwee)

Pyramids of Mars (Fourth Doctor Baker)

The Brain of Morbius (Fourth Doctor Baker)

 

[Bob Magaw]

BBC Brings Destroyed Classic Doctor Who Episodes Back To Life

http://www.bbcamerica.com/anglophenia/2016/09/bbc-america-brings-destroyed-doctor-who-episodes-back-to-life

It’s one of the most celebrated Doctor Who adventures and yet no complete film recordings of The Power of the Daleks are known to have survived — the master negatives were destroyed in an archive purge in 1974.

BBC America and BBC Worldwide have commissioned a brand new animation based on the program’s original audio recordings, surviving photographs and film clips that will be released 50 years after its only UK broadcast on BBC One.

Doctor Who: The Power of the Daleks premieres Saturday, November 19 on BBC AMERICA and will be available the following day to stream right here on BBCAmerica.com and the BBC AMERICA app.

The six-part adventure features the regeneration, or as it was then called “renewal,” of first Doctor, William Hartnell into second Doctor, Patrick Troughton, as the Time Lord and his companions Polly (Anneke Wills) and Ben (Michael Craze) do battle with the Daleks on the planet Vulcan.

First episode aired last Saturday and can be streamed at BBCAmerica.com (this is B & W, also color version) 

http://www.bbcamerica.com/shows/doctor-who/full-episodes/the-power-of-the-daleks/episode-01-episode-1-bw-version

 

[Bob Magaw]

The entire six episodes of the new animated Power of the Daleks reconstruction (with original audio) will aired next Sunday on Christmas.

 

[Andy Dufresne]

All classic Doctor Who streaming on something called Pluto TV

https://wegotthiscovered.com/tv/classic-doctor-streaming-free/amp/

"There’s a hitch, though. Viacom’s Pluto TV doesn’t function as a traditional streaming service like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video or Hulu. Instead, it takes its cues from broadcast television, meaning that content is scheduled to be streamed on a dedicated Doctor Who channelwith ad breaks. This means that if you want to check out the classic Tom Baker serial “The Brain of Morbius” you’ll have to look up when it’s screening and be sure to tune in at that moment."

 

[Maggot Brain]

Been watching the past 2 weeks