Hello guys,
could anyone help me pick the best Classic Who episodes? I don't have time to watch them all, but I would like to watch a few, and make an idea about what it was like. So it would be great if you could give examples of which were your favourite episodes, or which are important for the storyline. Thank you and have a great day everybody.
Why don't you have enough time? Will you be dying soon? If not, there's no rush. You have the rest of your life to see them.
The trouble with asking for the opinions of other people is that they may differ from your own. One person's treasure might be another person's trash - and vice versa.
ant-mac
Actually, yes, I will be dying soon, but thanks for asking anyway. Time is relative right?
Obviously people have different opinions but I can find common ground in them; I am looking for both popular choices as well as One of my favourites although everybody else hates it stories.
"Actually, yes, I will be dying soon, but thanks for asking anyway."
We will all be dying soon. Humans have such short lives compared to some of the other species we share this planet with.
"Time is relative right?"
It's how you use the time left that matters.
"Obviously people have different opinions but I can find common ground in them;"
Which is why if I like something, I watch it all - or at lest as much of it as still exists and that I can obtain. I continue to do so to this day.
"I am looking for both popular choices as well as One of my favourites although everybody else hates it stories."
I'm not quite sure I followed this final sentence that you typed. Sorry.
Best of luck.
ant-mac
Tomb of the Cybermen
The War Games
Inferno
The Three Doctors
The Time Warrior
Tom Baker's first season
The Five Doctors
The show took a massive dip in quality when John Nathan Turner took over - Tom Baker's last year and onwards.
"The show took a massive dip in quality when John Nathan Turner took over - Tom Baker's last year and onwards."
There will still plenty of good stories during that era.
ant-mac
I tend to get attached to characters, so that's why I'm just going to list the stories I would watch from my favorite Doctors/Doctor+companion duos. I like continuity, and prefer watching in order than skipping around. So I'm only going to recommend episodes from Doctors 2, 4 and 7 because they are my favorites. There are plenty of good ones from the other Classic Doctors of course, but I don't know them well enough, maybe someone else can recommend which are the best ones there to watch. (Of course watching the very first episode of the first story, The Unearthly Child, is an obvious good place to start, too.) Hope that made sense.
I love most of the 2nd Doctor (Patrick Troughton) stories, even the stupid ones are redeemed by the presence of Troughton's Doctor and his companions Jamie and Zoe (there are others but those two are my favorites.) I would watch these from that era, many of them are my overall favorites, in chronological order, from seasons 4-6 or 1966-1969:
The Power of The Daleks (maybe watch the story before too, The Tenth Planet - since the first regeneration happens in the end of that one. Besides, it's a very good Cyberman story!)
The Moonbase
The Evil of the Daleks (introduces Victoria, a new companion. Much of this story is missing, but for me personally if there is at least one episode still available I'm able to get a sense of the story better, and then listen to the audios or watch reconstructions of the missing ones.)
The Tomb of the Cybermen
The Ice Warriors
The Enemy of the World
The Web of Fear (first story with The Brigadier)
The Mind Robber
The Invasion (long but one of my very favorites!)
The War Games (^^see The Invasion, same applies.)
My next favorite Doctor is the 4th Doctor (Tom Baker.) I'd watch these, in chronological order, from seasons 12-15 or 1974-1978:
The Ark in Space
The Sontaran Experiment (it's not the most exciting, but it's short and fits here)
Genesis of the Daleks
Revenge of the Cybermen
Terror of the Zygons (this story concludes the Doctor/Sarah/Harry TARDIS trio, which I really adored. It's also maybe my favorite story of Doctor Who, period. It involves a big ensemble cast with UNIT popping up as well, guys in kilts, Scottish feels, etc. Love it.)
Pyramids of Mars
The Seeds of Doom
The Hand of Fear
The Deadly Assassin (Gallifrey/Time Lord stuff!)
The Face of Evil (New companion, Leela, she's my favorite! Super badass.)
The Robots of Death
The Talons of Weng-Chiang (I'm actually not personally a huge fan of this story, but it's such a classic that I felt forced to include it.)
Horror of Fang Rock
The Sun Makers (some hate this but I love it! The premise is cool in that it's extraordinary and mundane at the same time.)
The Invasion of Time (there's some really funny sh-t in this one.)
From here on the Tom Baker era gets more boring, in my opinion. Season 16 is really one big story titled 'Key To Time' and I really like the companion in that one (Romana I) but none of the stories really stand out now that I think of it. There's City of Death in the next season (companion Romana II) which is a very popular episode, I like it a lot too. I haven't seen most stories from the last 3 Tom Baker seasons.
The 7th Doctor (Sylvester McCoy) is my 3rd favorite - he isn't as universally loved as Tom Baker or Patrick Troughton, but in my opinion he was great. I also really like his companion Ace, who I've heard called the "first modern companion" in that her life was central to many plot points.
These are from seasons 24-26, or 1987-1989:
Dragonfire (introduces Ace)
Remembrance of the Daleks
The Happiness Patrol (many people consider this one of the worst Doctor Who serials ever, but I bloody well love it.)
The Greatest Show in the Galaxy
Battlefield (one of my very favs, ft. Morgan le Fey and Mordred)
Ghost Light
The Curse of Fenric
Survival (the last story of Classic Who)
Eh, sorry, that was very long. I got carried away somewhere in there. Hope it helps. Though everyone likes different episodes, these are just the ones I really like and the way in which I personally prefer watching things.
Do you even know what honor is?
- A horse.
Wow, thank you very much for putting all the time into this answer and for explaning your choices :) I basically don't know too much about Classic Who so any information and point of view helps.
I did start yesterday with The Unearthly Child and I loved the way the First Doctor and his companions were introduced. Didn't finish it yet, but I will today.
You're welcome! I hope you enjoy Classic Who. :) I only started watching it last spring, I was on sick leave for about a month so I must have watched half of the whole show in that one month alone, and really liked it. There are still tons of stories I haven't seen, but I'll probably check them out sometime.
Do you even know what honor is?
- A horse.
Gonna suggest 3 stories for each.
First Doctor
Part one of An Unearthly Child is worth checking out to see the very beginning of the show.
- The Aztecs
- The Romans
- The Chase
Second Doctor
- The Tomb of the Cybermen
- Enemy of the World
- The Mind Robber
Also, if you're down to watch 10 part serial, The War Games is exceptional, my favorite Classic Who story.
Third Doctor
- Spearhead from Space
- Terror of the Autons
- The Green Death
Fourth Doctor
- Genesis of the Daleks
- Pyramids of Mars
- City of Death
Fifth Doctor
- Earthshock
- Resurrection of the Daleks
- The Caves of Androzani
Sixth Doctor
- Vengeance on Varos
- Timelash
- Revelation of the Daleks
Seventh Doctor
- Remembrance of the Daleks
- The Greatest Show in the Galaxy
- The Curse of Fenric
-
Eighth Doctor
I've not listened to any Big Finish yet but if you haven't seen it yet, the TV movie is worth watching. A lot of people disagree but to me, it's wasn't quite as bad as people had made it out to be/I was expecting. Paul McGann is lovely as the Doctor.
Thank you so much for giving me examples of stories from each Doctor. As I don't know the characters yet, I don't have an opinion about any of them, only what I have read, so I intend to watch stories from each Doctor to try and get an idea about what they were like and find connecting lines, similarities, between them and the New Doctors.
shareYou're welcome! Yeah when the hype for the 50th anniversary was building, I wanted to know more about Classic Who/Doctors 1-8 so I went back and watched one or two stories from each Doctor before eventually (about a year or so later) going through and watching every story.
shareOf course you can watch them all.
It is totally worth it. When season 9 ended and after the Christmas special Wedding of River Song, I started at the very beginning of classic, and spent 2016 catching up
They are all brilliant.
* Remembrance of the Daleks
* The Curse of Fenric: These two stories are probably the closest thing you'll get to a nu-who adventure in the classic series.
* The Caves of Androzani: You need a little context here. At the time of broadcast, the papers were reporting that Doctor Who about to undergo another regeneration. Consequently every cliff-hanger is the real thing, as you really don't know if the Doctor will survive this one.
* Genesis of the Daleks
* The Talons of Weng-Chiang: Although they have plodding moments, both of these are worthy of your time.
* Pyramids of Mars: Feels very much like a Call of Cthulhu scenario
* The Robots of Death: Agatha Christie in space.
* Horror of Fang Rock: Excellent base-under-pressure adventure.
Thank you for your answer, I think your choices are also some of the most popular. I'm watching The Caves of Androzani today :)
shareGenesis of the Daleks, Part 6
Or do you mean stories, not episodes?
This might sound crazy but this website has the old episodes edited more like modern episodes so they are shorter (filler is removed) and some have new music.
It's a way of watching the 'classic' or 'essential' episodes without getting bored!
https://whoflix.wordpress.com/doctor-who/