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Classic Doctor Who (meta) 

One thing I worry about with my guide is that my ratings are different to other people's.

Doctor Who fans generally want me to put more things into the "watch" category, whereas people who haven't experienced much Doctor Who generally want me to put less...

(Although, there has been one instance where I put a story into "watch" originally, because of nostalgia, but a fan was like "uhh.... no? That's one of the worst stories" and they were right)

Classic Doctor Who :: [Season 5 → The Abominable Snowmen] 

This.… doesn't make sense?

The yeti are being controlled by The Great Intelligence, which has this really complicated plan:

1. Have the 5 items required to complete the plan.
2. Give one of them to the monestary for safekeeping
3. Set everything else up over centuries, until finally ready for the item from the monestary.

ok, makes sense so far? And they have someone at the monestary who is following their commands, so it should be easy

Classic Doctor Who :: [Season 5 → The Abominable Snowmen] 

4. Intentionally send a yeti towards the monestary for no reason, causing you to lose one of the required items.
5. Send more yetis later to get it back
6. THEN send the person at the monestary with the final item.

What???

Classic Doctor Who :: [Season 5 → The Abominable Snowmen] 

wait hold on, I just remembered that there were 2 spheres:

the one that the great intelligence lost in step 4, and one that Jamie stole (unintentinally) at some point.

But the one that was stolen was left in the monastery, why not just get the monk who follows orders to bring it back too?

Classic Doctor Who :: [Season 5 → The Abominable Snowmen] 

I finished The Abominable Snowmen. Surprising no-one, my recommendation is "Don't Watch"

Next is The Ice Warriors.

Petty complaint: "Ice Warriors" and "Abominable Snowmen" are concepts that are too close together, mentally, and I keep having to take a moment to figure out which one I'm watching.

Classic Doctor Who :: [Season 5 → The Ice Warriors] 

There are quite a few early Doctor Who stories that are anti-computer, and I'm not entirely sure where that sentiment comes from

Classic Doctor Who :: [Season 5 → The Ice Warriors] 

ok, this is getting really obnoxious.

I'm all for not blindly trusting computers, but at one point the Doctor does some maths on some pieces of paper, and is offended that they would double-check his results with a computer.

That's exactly the situation the doctor SHOULD be ok with – because if there's a descrepancy, then we know that either the original maths was wrong, or the computer was wrong, and from there we can fix things.

Classic Doctor Who :: [Season 5 → The Ice Warriors] 

(Spoilers below)

Episode 3 cliffhanger:
The Ice Warriors are aiming a gun at Victoria
Ice Warrior 1: we are ready to fire

Episode 4 begins:
Ice Warrior 1: we are ready to fire
Ice Warrior 2: ... not yet.

Wow. What a great cliffhanger. Thanks. /sarcasm

Classic Doctor Who :: [an aside (Season 1)] 

hmm, thinking about The Reign of Terror again.... maybe I should downgrade it from "Watch" to "Maybe"

It wasn't bad, I'm just not sure that people would enjoy it enough to keep watching through it

Classic Doctor Who :: [an aside (re-rankings)] 

I went back through the first 4 seasons, and choosing to re-rank a few of them:

The Reign of Terror :: Yes → Maybe
It's really not that good, and I'm unsure why I ranked it so highly in the first place

The Crusade :: Yes → Maybe
As I was scrolling through the list, I realised that I had forgotten this story even existed - any story that forgettable is not worth a "Yes" (even if it does have one of the best acted scenes from the early show)

Classic Doctor Who :: [an aside (re-rankings)] 

The Gunfighters :: Yes → Maybe
I ranked this higher because I had fond memories, but they didn'thold up to reality

The Savages :: Yes → Maybe
While it was an entertaining watch, it also positioned the Doctor as inherently more "moral"

Classic Doctor Who :: [an aside (re-rankings)] 

I'm still thinking about The Keys of Marinus.

Because in the context of "all stories told"? It's kinda bad. Like.... quite bad.

But it's also the best example of the stories being told in Season 1, so if you said "I can only watch one story from this season", I'd say "The Keys of Marinus", regardless of its many flaws

Classic Doctor Who :: [Season 5 → The Ice Warriors] 

It's been a week since I watched any Doctor Who, and tbh taking a break was a good idea, if unintentional.

I both love and hate The Ice Warriors. I love it because it's well done, but I hate it because it's constant moralising is grating.

I gave it a "maybe" in my recommendations: averylychee.neocities.org/doct

Classic Doctor Who :: [Season 5 → The Enemy of the World] 

Next up is The Enemy of the World.

I'm somewhat excited to see if this is any good, because this is a story that was found in 2013, *after* the last time I watched Doctor Who.

Also, it's set in 2018
o::

Classic Doctor Who :: [Season 5 → The Enemy of the World] 

Patrick Troughton is an incredible actor... Not only is he convincingly playing 2 different characters, he's also playing those characters imitating each other

Classic Doctor Who :: [Season 5 → The Enemy of the World] 

These episodes have some very weirdly timed cuts.... but they also have much better editing than usual for doctor who (there's almost no dead air)

Classic Doctor Who :: [Season 5 → The Enemy of the World] 

holy gosh that was actually really good.

I was expecting to hate it, because I heard someone else say they were disappointed with it and didn't think it was that great.

But....??? I don't know why they thought that???

Classic Doctor Who :: [Season 5 → The Enemy of the World] 

I watched that final scene several times over. It's.... so good...

Classic Doctor Who :: [Season 5 → The Web of Fear] 

They brought the yeti back for this story, which at first I was dubious about, but I'm liking it so far.

It's set in the London Underground, after the yeti menace has forced london to be evacutated. I love apocalyptic stuff that's centred around a train network – Metro 2033, Ghost Lines...

Classic Doctor Who :: [Season 5 → The Web of Fear] 

The cliffhanger at the end of episode 1 could have been better, if they just cut the episode 3 seconds earlier:

The doctor is nearing some explosives, when someone presses the button to detonate.
They could have cut here, but they didn't – they cut after the explosives fail to go off properly and the Doctor is mearly knocked aside.

Classic Doctor Who :: [Season 5 → The Web of Fear] 

The Web of Fear is only missing one episode.

And it just happens to be the first episode to feature Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart (later Brigadier), one of the most beloved characters from the classic series.

Classic Doctor Who :: [Season 5 → The Web of Fear] 

they're using one of the cyberman themes for the yeti

nooooooo

D::

Classic Doctor Who :: [Season 5 → The Web of Fear] 

the web of fear turned out to be pretty good!

next up: ...

wait, I don't actually know what's next, that's a first

Classic Doctor Who :: [Season 5 → Fury from the Deep] 

Fury from the Deep

I don't know anything about this one!
I do appreciate that it doesn't start with "the", though

Classic Doctor Who :: [missing episodes musing] 

Something I've noticed is this: when a doctor who story is missing all but 1 episode, the surviving episode is often the most boring one.

The evil of the Daleks only has episode 2 remaining, which is mostly faffing about with a side character, and only features the Daleks in the last few seconds.

Until 2013, only one episode of The enemy of the world survived, and that was the episode with a bunch of unnecessary filler

Classic Doctor Who :: [missing episodes musing] 

This is technically true of the celestial toymaker as well, but that entire story is boring garbage so it's not really a surprise that the surviving episode is also boring

I guess Galaxy 4's surviving episode is ok? It's not really exciting, though

Classic Doctor Who :: [Season 5 → Fury from the Deep] 

Gosh, it's been 11 days since I last watched any doctor who.

Mostly because Fury from the Deep is missing all of its episodes, so from experience I'm 99% sure it's not going to be worth watching.

Classic Doctor Who :: [Season 5 → Fury from the Deep] 

I'm only just starting the third episode and I can tell you that this one sucks and really isn't worth watching.

I'd skip it, but I know I'd look back in a few months when I've finished watching through and be like "why did I skip those 4 episodes... I can't say I've watched every episode for the guide if I skip 4"

Classic Doctor Who :: [Season 5 → Fury from the Deep] 

"This seaweed is not the sort you'd normally find on the beach! This seaweed happens to be dangerously alive!"

Classic Doctor Who :: [Season 5 → Fury from the Deep] 

It took me 4 days, but I managed to get through Fury from the Deep. I'm glad I did (mostly because of the scenes about Victoria leaving the Tardis) but it still is absolutely NOT worth watching.

On a more positive note: I updated some subtle stylistic things on the page: averylychee.neocities.org/doct

The next story is: The Wheel in Space

I'm excited for this one, but 5 of the 6 episodes are missing so idk how enjoyable it will be

☄ Classic Doctor Who ☄
====================

Want to watch Classic Doctor Who, but don't want to slog through the boring episodes?

Check out my guide!

averylychee.neocities.org/doct

Now with updated recommendations for the first 5 seasons! That's 209 episodes!

Classic Doctor Who :: [ meta ] 

"How long did it take you to watch each season so far?"

Season 1 — 17 days
Season 2 — 18 days
Season 3 — 29 days
Season 4 — 39 days
Season 5 — 35 days

Seasons 3, 4, and 5 were hit the worst by the missing episodes, which is why they took so much longer to watch (the reconstructions truly are a slog, and I honestly can't recommend very many of them).

Classic Doctor Who :: [ meta ] 

In the next season, only 2 of the 7 stories are missing episodes, so I should get through it faster.

And the seasons after that?

Well, they stopped making ~43 episodes a season, and reduced it down to ~25

Additionally, from Season 7 onwards, there are no more missing episodes.

So these timings will most likely get shorter

Classic Doctor Who :: [ Season 6 ] 

Currently watching The Dominators, the first story of Season 6

I loved it as a child, but now I'm rewatching it and it's boring. The only good thing about it is the Quarks:

Classic Doctor Who :: [ Season 6 ] 

Gods, the people on this planet are so intolerable – their answer to everything is to wait.

They're intended as a parody of Hippies - they're peaceful, but completely useless.

And it just makes the entire story frustrating

Classic Doctor Who :: [ Season 6 ] 

"Not to worry, the planet is safe. There's just going to be a localised volcanic erruption on the island."

"Aye, maybe so, but we happen to be ON the island"

Classic Doctor Who :: [ Season 6 ] 

The Dominators gets a "maybe" from me – it's not awful, but also it's not great.

A tangent: The Dominators is better than The Keys of Marinus, which I gave a "Highly Recommended" rating. I consider "Highly Recommended" to answer the question "if you only watch 1 story from this season, which should you watch?", rather than say which story is the best.

Next up: The Mind Robber, which is a story I know I've seen but I remember nothing about it.

Classic Doctor Who :: [ Season 6 ] 

In the second episode of the Mind Robbers, they had to add a scene at the last minute – the actor for Jamie was ill, and so they replaced him with a different actor. But they needed to explain why his face changed between episodes.

Luckily, the story is already set in a weird hallucinatory reality, so it's relatively easy to explain.

Classic Doctor Who :: [ Season 6 ] 

Aside: I've stopped putting the story name in the CW, because the Content Warning was getting too long. If this site was structured more like Tumblr, where the posts are rather wide, then I'd definitely make the post title the full thing, but this UI isn't wide enough

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Classic Doctor Who :: [ Season 6 ] 

"yes, we saw 2 women walk into the building - one fair, one dark"

heck, you wouldn't hear that nowadays – people would think you're describing their skin colour!

Classic Doctor Who :: [ Season 6 ] 

The villain in The Invasion has a huge moving wall that hides a secret machine, and the wall takes several seconds to open or close. I'm surprised he hasn't been caught with it open

Classic Doctor Who :: [ Season 6 ] 

Did you know: they didn't copy the footage from the previous week's cliffhanger scene for the start of the next episode. They re-performed the scene, on a new tape.

Earlier on, this was very obvious, but it's been much less obvious with the last 2 seasons!

Classic Doctor Who :: [ Season 6 ] 

Interesting tidbit I just read about The Invasion (which I've nearly finished watching now) – this was the last story to feature the cybermen until 1975 (7 years later)

Classic Doctor Who :: [ Season 6 ] 

Both The Invasion and The Seeds of Death have women being proactive – it's interesting to see the progress between 1963 (where the women were mostly screaming and running away) and 1969.

Classic Doctor Who :: [ Season 6 ] 

I'm not enjoying this season as much as I hoped I would...

If I had skipped the reconstructions, I probably would be enjoying it more, but now? It's starting to feel formulaic.

Interestingly, this matches opinion of the time – none of this season is particulary bad, it's just starting to feel same-y

Classic Doctor Who :: [ Season 6 ] 

I'm watching The Space Pirates.

It's the only story of Season 6 that's mostly a reconstruction, and gods... I had forgotten how miserable it is to watch these.

Classic Doctor Who :: [ Season 6 ] 

The Space Pirates is one of the worst combinations:

* a relatively slow paced story
* full of clichés
* that is mostly missing, so you have to watch it as still images

Classic Doctor Who :: [ Season 6 ] 

The last episode was better than the others, but still... not worth watching.

On to the last story of the 6th season (and of the 2nd Doctor): The War Games

💫 Classic Doctor Who 💫
====================

Want to watch Classic Doctor Who, but don't want to slog through the boring episodes?

Check out my guide!

averylychee.neocities.org/doct

Now with recommendations for all the first and second doctor stories!

Doctor Who | Season 7 

I'm 3 stories in to season 7, and while I really like Petwee's Doctor, and the Brigadier, and liz shaw, and the concepts behind the stories...

they're really way too long and slow paced.

Spearhead from Space was great, but both The Silurians and The Ambassadors of Death are 7 episode stories that really should only be 4 episodes.

It took until Season 12 for them to realise that 4 episode stories worked much better

Doctor Who | Season 7 

Also: I don't understand why the stories are 7 episodes instead of 6.

A 6 episode format would aleviate at least some of the pacing problems

Doctor Who | Season 7 

a 4 episode story is 1.5 hours total, which is a reasonable amount.

A 6 episode story is 2 hours and 24 minutes, so it's already longer than a feature film.

A 7 episode story is nearly 3 hours long.

Doctor Who | Season 7 

The Ambassador's of Death is really a good example of why you shouldn't make a story that long – for example, there's a whole plotline where, after Liz is captured, she attempts an escape, only to be caught and re-captured just before she can get back to the Doctor.

And the story spends at least 5 minutes on these scenes, which do not progress the story at all – the situation at the end of the scenes is exactly the same as what it was at the start.

Doctor Who | Season 7 

I finished Season 7!

Inferno was much better than I remember it being, but still felt one episode too long.
I really enjoyed the parallel universe stuff this time around.

Thankfully: no stories after Inferno are this long (unless you count trial of a timelord as 1 story instead of 4)

We're now up to the danger zone: the last time I tried to watch through the classic series, this is where I stopped.

Doctor Who | Season 7 

(I won't make a big announcement post this time, since it only took me 2 weeks to get through this season)

Doctor Who | Erasure 

In the early seasons, the theme music (and much of the stock incidental music) was arranged by Delia Derbyshire.

But because Ron Grainer composed the main melody, she was not allowed to get co-writer credit "just" for coming up with the iconic sounds.

So she remained uncredited for her work on the theme until the 50th Anniversary episode.

Doctor Who | Season 8 

This season introduces The Master.

And heck, I had forgotten how sinister Roger Delgado's portrayal of him was...

Doctor Who | Season 8 

I've now watched a third of the episodes!

Doctor Who | Season 8 

There's so much more violence in the classic stories – in one scene from "The Mind of Evil", UNIT attacks a castle prison that's been taken over by convicted criminals.

There are 15 onscreen deaths from the firefight, and it's implied that there are more off screen.

You'd be hard pressed to find a scene in the modern series that contains more than 5 deaths*.

*that aren't like... something explodes and kills everyone

Show newer

Classic Doctor Who :: [ Season 6 ] 

@lizardsquid that's actually kind of cool! if I ever watch the classics, I'll keep an eye out for this XD

Classic Doctor Who :: [ Season 6 ] 

@lizardsquid
So in the years after that you get a lot of jokes about destroying the Cybermen for good--*again*.

Doctor Who | Season 7 

@lizardsquid
Maybe I like these seasons so much because I spent so much effing time with the characters :p

Doctor Who | Season 7 

@DialMforMara As far as I remember, I like the seasons after this one!

But this season just drags on way too much.

(Also, wouldn't we be spending basically the same amount of time with the characters if we had five 4-episode stories instead of three 7-episode stories?)

Doctor Who | Season 7 

@lizardsquid I dunno, but out of all the Doctors, years after I watched any of the show, I’m most attached to Two and Three, and they had most of the 6-parters

(Also to Eight, but that’s more because he’s the handsomest of the old guard)

re: Doctor Who | Season 7 

@lizardsquid
Season 8 might just be my favorite because it is the absolute shippiest thing. I hope it's kinder to you this time around.

re: Doctor Who | Season 7 

@DialMforMara oh, it will be – I love season 8.

I stopped after watching Inferno last time, because the poor pacing of Season 7 was just driving me insane

Doctor Who | Season 7 

@lizardsquid
And yet that's still my favorite few years of the show

Classic Doctor Who :: [ Season 6 ] 

@lizardsquid ...what are they describing then?

Classic Doctor Who :: [ Season 6 ] 

@BatElite their hair colour

(I was confused until I remembered my grandma describing someone that way)

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