I should have finished my script yesterday, but the goddamn sinusitis completely knocked me out. Luckily, used a winning combination of Sudafed, Mucinex, Advil, and sitting on the couch next to a humidifier to prevent this thing from developing into something really nasty, like a Moose Bite.
The best thing about being a geek who makes a living writing about geek stuff is that I get to do the things I love and not feel like I’m goofing off. So even though I was sitting on the couch watching Genesis of the Daleks for the entire afternoon, I felt like I was being productive.
I am aware that it’s a gaping hole in my geek cred, and I’m ashamed to admit that I’ve never watched much Dr. Who. I mean, I’d seen a little bit here and there, but certainly not enough to tell you which Doctor I liked the most, or why the Timelords are cool — in fact, I still can’t — but when I got about halfway through this DVD, I said, out loud, “Where have you been all my life?”
While I don’t think I would have liked Dr. Who as much as I liked The Prisoner when I was a teen (the time I was most likely to have discovered it, because my friend Guy had a knack for introducing me to awesome British television) I’m thrilled that I chose to seriously begin my travels with the Doctor at this time and in this way. Once I get these writing deadlines behind me, I think I’ll go back to Robot, which is the first appearance of Tom Baker as the Doctor, and make my way forward a bit.
Questions for Dr. Who fans:
- What do you call yourselves? Whosiers? Timsies? Time-ers?
- I’m sure a series that ran for decades has uneven stories, but did I serendipitously fall into Dr. Who’s Best of Both Worlds? Because I loved just about every single frame of Genesis of the Daleks.
- Does Dr. Who — which appears to me on one viewing to be awesome in the 70s — suffer the same fate in the 80s as so many things that were awesome in the 70s? (Boston, Grateful Dead, Aerosmith, Rolling Stones, Jefferson Starship — oh, I’m sorry, I mean Starship — I’m looking in your direction.)
- Do Dr. Who fans have blood feuds about their favorite Doctors the way Trekkies do about their favorite captains? I imagine they must, because if there’s one thing all geeks have in common it’s our ability to take something we love and turn it into something to argue about with other people who love it, right?
I’m about 85% of normal today, and not cranky at all, which is quite nice. I’m looking forward to finishing my script, because there’s a bottle of 14 year Oban in it for me when I do.
3rd Doctor (Jon Pertwee)
Spearhead from Space+
Doctor Who and The Silurians++
The Ambassadors of Death
Inferno+
Terror of the Autons
The Claws of Axos+
The Daemons
Day of the Daleks
The Curse of Peladon
The Sea Devils++
The Three Doctors+
Carnival of Monsters+
Frontier in Space
Planet of the Daleks
The Green Death+
The Time Warrior++
Invasion of the Dinosaurs
Death to the Daleks
Planet of the Spiders
+ Available on R1 DVD
++ Scheduled to be released on R1 DVD
5th Doctor (Peter Davison)
Castrovalva+
Kinda
The Visitation+
Black Orchid
Earthshock+
Snakedance
Mawdryn Undead
Terminus
Enlightenment
The King’s Demons
The Five Doctors+
The Awakening
Frontios
Resurrection of the Daleks+
Planet of Fire
The Caves of Androzani+
+ Available on R1 DVD
6th Doctor (colin Baker)
The Twin Dilemma
Attack of the Cybermen
Vengeance on Varos+
The Mark of the Rani+
The Two Doctors+
Revelation of the Daleks+
Trial of a Time Lord: The Mysterious Planet
Trial of a Time Lord: Mindwarp
Trial of a Time Lord: Terror of the Vervoids
Trial of a Time Lord: The Ultimate Foe
7th Doctor (Sylvester McCoy)
Time and the Rani
Dragonfire
Remembrance of the Daleks+
The Happiness Patrol
The Greatest Show in the Galaxy
Battlefield
Ghost Light+
The Curse of Fenric+
Survival+
+ Available on R1 DVD
oops! missed out:
4th Doctor (Tom Baker)
Robot+
The Ark in Space+
The Sontaran Experiment+
Genesis of the Daleks+
Revenge of the Cybermen
Terror of the Zygons
Planet of Evil++
Pyramids of Mars+
The Android Invasion
The Brain of Morbius
The Seeds of Doom
The Masque of Mandragora
The Hand of Fear+
The Deadly Assassin
The Face of Evil
The Robots of Death+
The Talons of Weng-Chiang+
Horror of Fang Rock+
The Invisible Enemy
Image of the Fendahl
The Sun Makers
The Invasion of Time
The Ribos Operation+
The Pirate Planet+
The Stones of Blood+
The Androids of Tara+
The Power of Kroll+
The Armageddon Factor+
Destiny of the Daleks++
City of Death+
Nightmare of Eden
The Leisure Hive+
Full Circle
State of Decay
Warriors’ Gate
The Keeper of Traken+
Logopolis+
+ Available on R1 DVD
++ Scheduled to be released on R1 DVD
The Keeper of Traken… heh! I named my first cat Nyssa.
By the way, the LA Doctor Who convention that somebody mentioned, above, is here:
http://www.gallifreyone.com/gallifrey.php
It has general sci-fi guests as well as specific Doctor Who ones.
Wow, you sure opened up a can of worms of responses.
I have always liked Dr. Who, especially remembering the show as a series where each episode does not really impact the next. There doesn’t really have to be any continuity, kind of like a comic book. The time and the writers really put different spins on it.
Some are cheesy. Some are good science fiction. But they are all worth watching, especially taking them with a grain of salt on special effects. Yes, GENESIS is one of the best episodes ever.
http://mjb0123.blogspot.com
I’d more-or-less agree with tangentier’s suggestions, but if you want to experience Paul McGann (who was badly served by the TV movie, but who has more recently come back and done some excellent audiobooks) give the BBC adaptation of Douglas Adam’s unbroadcast “Shada” script.
And if yo uwant to see a bit of in-joky but reasonably respectful Who humour, see if yo ucan track down “The Curse of The Fatal Death”, a Special ‘old school’ style Doctor who episode done for the British Comic Relief telethon a few years ago – it features Rowan Atkinson as the Doctor (at first) and Jonathan Pryce as The Master, and is great fun!
Oh, and if yo uonly see one ‘New’ Who episode, it HAS to be Season Three’s ‘Blink’ – not only one of the best Who episodes ever, but quite possibly the best piece of British TV drama in 2007…
Au Res.,
Paul
linkerjpatrick posted:
> I heard back in the 80’s they were talks of a Trek/Who crossover but they could have just been the ramblings of fan of both shows.
There actually WAS one, well sort of, in oen of the Star Trek novels (TOS IIRC) where The Doctor was hinted at (not named, but one of the crew was working on converting some old analogue recordings into ‘modern’ holgraphic technology!) I can’t remember which one, but I’m sure someone out there does…
Au Res.,
Paul
OK, so I’m late to the party here, and the original questions have been long-since answered. But as a Brit who has been in love with Doctor Who since he first watched early Tom Baker episodes in the mid-1970s, I can add (or in some cases endorse) the following:
1) Fans of Doctor Who (and no, there is no collective noun, just ones that people feel they have to create to label themselves) are quite capable of fandom feuds, the same as anything. The hate levelled at the show by its fans in the mid-to-late 1980s is comparable to the hate levelled at Wesley Crusher, and some of the “old school fan” hatred of new Doctor Who is just as bad. Personally I love new Who as much as I loved old Who, and the fact that – here in the UK – the TARDIS and Daleks and Cybermen and K-9 are all in the consciousness of children all over again, just as they were in my childhood, makes me go all misty-eyed.
2. Doctor Who fans do pedantry more than anything else. Hence anyone who types ‘Davidson’ instead of ‘Davison’ and ‘Ecclestone’ instead of ‘Eccleston’ is publicly corrected. It has to happen, it is the Law.
3. Similarly, the programme is always ‘Doctor Who’ and the character is ‘The Doctor’. It doesn’t matter that one story was mistakenly broadcast as ‘Doctor Who and the Silurians’ because of an admin error, or that the character was credited as ‘Doctor Who’ or ‘Dr Who’ for the first 18 years or so, fans ignore such things. ๐
4. ‘City of Death’ by (essentially) Douglas Adams is indeed one of the greatest stories of Doctor Who’s run, where – apart from some typically-wobbly sets – everything just fell into place beautifully.
5. Robert Holmes was the greatest writer on old Doctor Who, and his work usually rises above the standards of the stories around it, so the period he was script editor is not surprisingly referred to as the ‘Golden Age’. If you only ever watch one of his stories, the mid Tom Baker story ‘The Talons of Weng-Chiang’ positively drips in atmosphere. OK, it has the usual rubbish monster, but if you can see beyond the Gorn you can see beyond the giant rat. ๐ Or, the Peter Davison swansong ‘The Caves of Androzani’, which – like all the best Doctor Who stories – has some fantastic cliffhangers.
6. Another truth among Doctor Who fans is that American fans remember their first showings in omnibus editions. As the DVDs show, the stories are episodic, and were shown one a week on a Saturday early-evening on first UK showing. Try enforcing a break between episodes wherever possible to re-create the “oh my God what happens next?!?” feeling that we UK fans remember and love. ๐
7. There is something worthy in even the worst of the programme’s times. The 1980s may have been more of a pantomime at times, but every so often a jewel appeared. Colin Baker’s period may have brought us ‘The Twin Dilemma’ with some god-awful acting, but then there was also ‘Vengeance on Varos’ which predicted trial by television-vote and had a fab monster. Sylvester McCoy may have started off as a spoon-playing clown, but soon became a much darker manipulator of those around him, and stories like ‘Remembrance of the Daleks’, ‘Ghost Light’ and especially ‘The Curse of Fenric’ show how Doctor Who could have developed had the BBC not axed it in 1989.
8. To get the full experience of 1970s Doctor Who, after any of the 1960s stories that are on DVD (if you want a bit of really-vintage TV), watch ‘The Three Doctors’ to get a sense of ‘past Doctors’, then skip to ‘Robot’ and carry on from there.
Welcome to a whole new universe, where that strange blue box can go anywhere in time and space… ๐
Oh, and finally:
9) You can watch the new series of Doctor Who without having watched the old. Unlike the infodump at the start of the Paul McGann TV movie, the makers of new Who very wisely pitched the resurrection of Who as something that old fans can enjoy and that new viewers won’t be alienated by. Sure, there are mentions of places and aliens past for those who recognise these things, and some definite misty-eyed moments for old fans watching the return of Sarah Jane Smith and K-9 in ‘School Reunion’, but that’s it. And depsite what some fans may think, it’s clear there’s a love of the show’s past there in those that make it now.
And we’ve just had Kylie Minogue as the companion in the Christmas Day special ‘Voyage of the Damned’, and who’d have thought *that* would ever happen?! Truly we live in wondrous times… ๐
Sweet, I’m glad you liked Genesis of the Daleks, though you might be a bit spoilt for future episodes. ๐
Doctor Who was a seriously formative experience growing up as a young geekgrrl in the ’70s and ’80s. The Doctor epitomized many of the qualities I idolized: he was brilliant, witty, silly, clever, playful, and had a clear moral compass, even though it didn’t always match up with the societies he found himself in.
And, the writing — on a show where the budget for lighting and special effects seemed to only be enough to cover a Maglite and raiding the BBC wardrobe department, the writing had to carry most of the show. While there are a few clunkers in there (to be fair, the show’s the longest-continuously running one in television; they can’t all be wonderful), the writing is generally solid.
Douglas Adams’ stint as script editor on the show is a bonus; you’ve had some solid recommendations already. I second joffonon‘s recommendation to watch ‘The Three Doctors,’ then skip to ‘Robot,’ just for a sense of how the first three incarnations of The Doctor dealt with the world.
I find that a good application of single-malt helps with uneven episodes, too. Try Bowmore. ๐
Guess I’m a bit late to the party on this (got you on RSS on my work PC). Welcome to the addiction! I just discovered Doctor Who 4 months ago and fell madly, helplessly in love with the series. Looks like there’s already a lot of good advice on here, but here’s my (brief) take:
1) Whovians
2) Not really, probably because there wasn’t a “definitive” Doctor for two decades before the next one came along. The banter on the Outpost Gallifrey forum (recently changed to DoctorWhoForum.com) is generally pretty friendly.
3) It does seem like the writing got sloppy in the mid-to-late 80’s before the show was canceled, but IMO it was still better than most stuff out there.
There’s a t-shirt that says “You never forget your first Doctor”, referring to the fact that for many fans, the first Doctor they got to know always remains their favorite. Personally I like Troughton, Pertwee, Tom Baker, Davison, Eccleston, and Tennant – I don’t think I could choose between them. (That’s not to say that I don’t like Hartnell, Colin Baker, McCoy, or McGann – but their characterizations don’t draw me in as much.)
BTW, the first season of the new series is available via Netflix instant viewing – that’s how I got hooked in the first place. You should definitely give Torchwood a try as well, but you may want to watch all of the new series season one beforehand as it’ll give you some background on the character of Captain Jack Harkness.
Good to hear youโre starting to get into Doctor Who. You wonโt be too disappointed. All of the doctors have unique traits that made them fantastic in their own right. Itโs totally DW sacrilege, but I like the current Doctor played by David Tennant. His enthusiasm and ability to change attitude on a dime make his portrayal a LOT of fun. Tom Baker was really funny, though. I do have a strong affinity for Jon Pertwee, though. He was the first doctor I started watching. His portrayal of a time lord was much more realistic as well. He doesnโt just have any automatic sense of responsibility for earth. It builds with time.
Get better, Wil!
A moose bit my sister once.
Happy New Year, Wil and family ๐
I’ve been a fan of Doctor Who since about sixth grade. I started reading the novels, the first viewing was that Peter Cushing movie followed by Patric Troughton’s “War Games,” that I still massively enjoy. Also: Sylvestor McCoy’s “The Curse of Fenric,” was pretty great too.
I was very happy when they announced that they were bringing it back on the air.
I didn’t read through 100+ comments but I feel like most didn’t note that Steven Moffatt (you know from Jekyll) is also writing all the scripts to the Steven Spielberg/Peter Jackson co-directed trilogy of Herge’s Tintin. Which has me massively fired up as well.
For now: I really dig David Tennant as the Doctor. I think he’s better than Eccleston who was a nice alternative choice to get people in. His Doctor was a Doctor that had not been displayed before and I felt was quite a departure for the character and the series in terms of casting and writing.
But by far I like Tennant more, he’s more my style. My favorite episodes were “Blink,” and “The Girl in the Fireplace.”
I just added Jekyll to my Blockbuster cue.
All I have to say is that you never forget your first Doctor! (which for me was Christopher Eccleston….ahhh. Though I do love David Tennant so much now!)
Glad you’re enjoying Doc Who – I know I love it!!!
1) Whovians
2) I’ve heard Tom Baker’s Doctor had some good arcs, but unfortunately, I’m too young to have seen any of them.
3) Yes.
4) There’s this LiveJournal community that does Doctor Who macros and is currently hosting a series of “Nine vs. Ten” macros, but they’re all in good fun.
I got into it when they started the new series on Sci-Fi, and I’m a Tennant girl all the way. The man is a frickin’ comedic GENIUS, and like kobowfet said, has an excellent ability to change his attitude on a dime.
Side note: David Tennant is so damned enthusiastic about the job because he’s wanted to play Doctor Who since he was a little kid. It makes some of the over-the-top happiness have a little more sense now, doesn’t it? ๐
Regarding the spin-offs, it’s probably best to watch them in the order they were originally broadcast in the UK:
Doctor Who Series 1
Doctor Who Series 2
Torchwood Series 1
The Sarah Jane Adventures: Invasion of the Bane*
Doctor Who Series 3
The Sarah Jane Adventures Series 1
Torchwood Series 2**
In Torchwood in particular, there is more resonance if you watch in this order, as it draws on things that have happened in Doctor Who. The Sarah Jane Adventures can all be watched together, but definitely follow on from Sarah Jane’s reappearance in series 2 of the new Doctor Who.
Regarding Sarah Jane, to get the full impact of her return it would be a good idea to sample some of her older stories. She first appears in The Time Warrior and leaves at the end of The Hand of Fear in a scene that gains resonance in the context of her return in School Reunion and her spin-off series. Likewise, if you want to familiarise yourself with K-9 he’s in the original series from The Invisible Enemy to Warriors’ Gate.
If you’re feeling particularly completist you can track down the failed spin-off K9 and Company which explains how K9 and Sarah Jane got together. Although all you need to know is that The Doctor made a version of K9 (Mk3) and sent to it Sarah Jane in a crate.
*This was a single special, shown on New Year’s Day 2007
**Series Two starts transmission on January 16 on BBC2 in the UK and on January 26 on BBC America is the US.
The Paul McGann version of Shada (as recommended by another poster, above) is here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/classic/webcasts/shada/
For more details about Shada, see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shada
Wil,
I won’t answer the already so thoroughly answered questions, but seeing as you have just watched the awesome Genesis of the Daleks, I’d like to take the opportunity to draw your attention to this online Petition of Great Importance.
Frankly, it needs all the publicity it can get, because the response so far is pretty pathetic. Please help us convince Character Options to bring out the HARRY SULLIVAN AND THE GIANT CLAM action figure, Wil, we need you. You know it makes sense.
“Coral Desktop theme? It’s even worse than the Leopard Skin!”.
Wil! Congratulations! I was wondering when you’d get around to watching a bit more of Doctor Who. I think your questions have been more than well-answered by everyone else, but anyway –
1. I prefer to think of Whovians as a marketing term rather than one that was adopted by the fans.
2. Genesis is easily one of (if not the best) Who story ever. So yeah, I think you got lucky there. Be grateful your first Who story wasn’t Timelash.
3. Yes, it definitely took a dip in the Eighties after Peter Davison left the role. Other people have described what those reasons were.
4. I think the feuds about Favourite Doctors seem to have been eclipsed by a Civil War between New Series and Classic Series fans about which series was best. For the record, I like both. Although I sometimes think the New Series does sometimes sacrifice quality story-telling for too much flash and substance (for example: Voyage of the Damned).
Anyway, enjoy discovering Doctor Who. Along with Star Trek it’s one of my favourite series, and the Who Universe rivals Trek in its size and complexity.
Tom Baker was genius. Anyway, a few little things you should know if you’re getting into Dr Who:
1. Lalla Ward played the Time Lord Romana, one of Tom Baker’s travelling companions in Dr Who. Douglas Adams introduced Richard Dawkins to Lalla Ward at a party; they later married.
2. This nerdy Dr Who video from Australia’s Chaser team will be informative.
3. If you’re just getting into Dr Who, I really, really have to recommend Blakes’ 7. Seriously good UK sci-fi with imperfect characters and less perfect sets.
My favorite thing about Doctor Who in general is that if the viewer keeps his or her eyes open, there are all sorts of great cultural references – from ancient to contemporary – hidden within. Some episodes have roots in Classical and Early EU mythology as well as – of course – Star Trek, and were fabulously written (Douglas Adams being among some of the great writers who contributed episodes). Oh, and let’s not forget such dialogue gems as “He’s fastened it… with some sort of locking device” (Invasion of Time).
I also am very pleased that the BBC was able to bring it back after so long a hiatus with relatively little loss of “the magic.” I still squeal when I watch a great episode, and my husband freaks out when I suggest we hide behind the couch during the scary parts.
Wil-
I’m delighted you have discovered Doctor Who, and especially with one of the best episodes ever. With the popularity of the latest version of the show, I’ve been waiting for you to comment on it on your blog, since it seems to me that you’ll really like the show.
Doctor Who, for me at least, was the show for people that were too geeky for even Star Trek and Star Wars. And that made it very, very special.
Carry on the good work. Maybe someday, we’ll see you on an episode as a guest star. Although I bet you’d have a lot more fun on Torchwood.
Wil –
In middle school, every Sunday night I would go to bed at 9:00 and lay there waiting for my parents to go to bed, so I could sneak back downstairs in time to watch Doctor Who at 11:00PM on WTTW Chicago, alone and in the dark, always weighing the risks of coming down early to catch Monty Python or Dave Allen t Large with getting caught. Every creak and groan the house threw off was a possible footstep from my parents coming back down and bust me, adding to the excitement of watching my favorite show. We were a select few in our middle school, the die hards, who traded VHS tapes monthly to catch the episodes when someone missed.
Pertwee spent so many episodes driving around in his jalopy Bessie in the English countryside I felt like I knew the country. I spent 10 days in England in college and my first stop was to a convenience store to pick up Jelly Babies! My friends and the store clerks did NOT understand – this was a far more important stop for me than getting to any site-seeing place like the tower of London, etc.
More than the episodes themselves (which were, to me, far more interesting than the brand of “Western in Space” that was predominant in the US), the series defines a period in my life that was great in its simplicity and the enjoyment of things in life like a TV show. I bought every book I could get my hands on (which ended being the entire series) letting me experience the stories and writing of all the Doctors. My view is that the progression through the Doctors is like anything that stands the test of time, such as sports: each era is special and was the best it could be for the times it was made for.
I’ve been enjoying the new series immensely and my wife got me the second season for Christmas (I know – you’re happy for me) – it was a great gift from someone who doesn’t normally “get” the “nostalgia thing” as an AWESOME gift! – happy in Chicagoland,
Mark
Sorry for replying so late to this. It’s been a kick to read the comments from so many other Who fans. I enthusiastically second the recommendations of tangentier earlier, as well as plug the great writing of Robert Holmes, especially during the first four years of Tom Baker’s tenure and on Peter Davison’s The Caves of Androzani, one of my top 10 Who stories. (But I don’t get the fondness some folks have for “The Key to Time”; aside from The Pirate Planet, that was hard to watch. Oh well.)
Have fun catching up, Wil!
Well, Wil, whether you would enjoy appearing on “Torchwood” more than on “Doctor Who” depends, I suppose, on how you feel about being leered at by John Barrowman (Capt. Jack Harkness)…
Not a spoiler, but in one throwaway line in the “Doctor Who episode “Blink”, they managed to cover any alterations in timeline: “Time isn’t really linear. It’s more of a big ball of wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey… stuff.”
Bit late, but I don’t think anyone’s mentioned… there’s a Doctor Who screen reference in TNG‘s “The Neutral Zone”: when Troi is showing Claire her descendants, at one point the screen lists the actors who played the first six Doctors. It’s a bit hard to make out, but it’s there. (and it’s only the first six actors ’cause DW was still on, and the Seventh Doctor hadn’t yet been cast!)
Recently, DW‘s made a few Trek references, such as Clyde in The Sarah Jane Adventures saying “Who’re you gonna ring, Captain Kirk?” and Rose calling the Ninth Doctor “Spock.” (The Doctor was supposed to give the line “I’d rather have ‘Doctor who?’ than Star Trek,” but it got cut.)
Your reaction to watching DW for the first time was the same as mine. It’s classic, it’s British, and it’s sci fi. Why did it take me so long to watch it?
“Blink” is definitely one of the better recent episodes, with that said here is a list of some of the stories I’m quite fond of.
From the Ninth Doctor:
“Dalek”
“Father’s Day”
“The Empty Child”
“The Doctor Dances”
“Bad Wolf”
“The Parting of the Ways”
There is however a loose story arc over the Ninth’s run on the series dealing with the fallout from the Time War, so there’ll be little bits of info that crop up here and there throughout those 13 episodes.
For the Tenth Doctor; 2006 Episodes:
“Tooth and Claw”
“School Reunion”
“The Girl in the Fireplace”
“The Impossible Planet”
“The Satan Pit”
“Army of Ghosts”
“Doomsday”
2007 Episodes:
“Gridlock”
“Human Nature”
“The Family of Blood”
“Blink”
“Utopia”
Good God. How did I miss this post? How? I love Dr Who. Are you kidding me?
I’m a new Dr Who fan – I started watching on David Tennant, with Freema Agyeman as the companion (2007 episodes – which I highly recommend). Not only did I start on him, but he is a classically-trained actor (like Patrick Stewart, my absolute favorite Trek captain) and I admit to a gigantic crush on him, which are probably some of the reasons I think he is the best Doctor the show has had. But I’ve since watched Eccleston, Davison, Hartnell, and Sylvester McCoy. Tom Baker was the longest running doctor, and there are many fans that think of him as the quintessential Doctor.
Yes, I’ve heard the terms Whovians quite a bit. I think some of the Brits on here could probably be more enlightening on the cultural aspects of it.
But check out Seasons 1-3 of the modern series on DVD. It’s excellent.