I've always wanted to watch Classic Who, but I don't think I can. I don't have the concentration in the new cheese-grater world of editing. Stuff kind of has to move. Not like in an action film, but you know what I mean.
You could try some of Seven's stuff (with Ace - S25 & 26) - they're still old TV, but they were made 88/89, most of them are really good, and Sylvester and Sophie are both actors who like running about, and the SFX team of the time liked nothing better than blowing stuff up - something like Remembrance of the Daleks, Greatest Show in the Galaxy (though that's a little weird), Battlefield, Ghostlight or Curse of Fenric might do. (It's also worth bearing in mind that S26, possibly all of them is better watched in order, because of Ace's story arc. Remembrance is therefore, for lots of reasons, a pretty good one to try.)
I love all of it - 1963-now, but, you're right, the old stuff does take some adjusting to in terms of style. It really does pay off if you're willing to go with it, but I understand people not wanting to do that. TV watching is mainly for fun after all! But by the 80s, the pace had picked up, even if it was still video and not the same sort of style as today. Also, no six parters, which helps. Being stuck in the middle of a Pertwee six parter can be an effort even for those of us who don't mind old TV.
Older ones that often seem to work well for newbies (from my experience - other peopls' varies wildly!) - Robots of Death (Four), The Five Doctors, Earthshock, Caves of Androzani, (mind, lots of Five is quite accessible coming from New Who, but can be very studio bound - and avoid Time-Flight). Vengeance on Varos for Colin, although all of Six's era is very, very Eighties.
(Some of those that are really wonderful from the 60s & 70s still have pacing that can put people off, like Genesis of the Daleks and City of Death, which are amazing, but plod in places here and there to the modern eye, and sometimes "tacky" episodes win out, just for the entertainment value. It just depends.) On the other hand, the occasional hysteria of watching people battle with bubblewrap, tinsel and glove puppet monsters is like nothing modern TV will give you. I'm not in it for the rubbish SFX, but there are moments... Especially those times when the actors are gallantly giving it their all...
(And, hi, sorry, I think you friended me ages ago when I ran my commentfic thing, but we haven't actually spoken as such. I just can't ignore stuff about classic Who on my flist. :-D)
Remembrance of the Daleks. I might give it a go. I really WANT to. It's just my blender-brain won't allow it. LOL a Pertwee six-parter sounds righteous deadly!
YES, I definitely friended you because of the commentfic thing, which was amazing and made me wish I was better at OUTPUT. Thank you for commenting and clueing me on some of the Classic stuff. As I said, I got a wonderful rec list from a con years ago, and hung onto it for ages, but I'm sure it went out with the last cleanse. I can be a bit of a completist, but to watch EVERY DW related thing is sheer madness. Still, it bugs me when I don't "get" a major reference.
Aaannnd since I have worked in video production (and hope to again one day), I'm all about high-quality video and can't bear to watch sub-par things on Netflix, for instance. Ugh, hurdles! So I'm thinking something colorful, with a Doctor I'm inclined to like. I very much like the look of Mr. McGann, but then that's a whole other can of (audio-bound) Doctors (Nooooooo!).
:-) The comment fic thing was very random and amazing. It was only this odd idea I had for my birthday, but it seemed to take off. I do plan to have another one next year. If it's even a third as successful, it would be worth it. (I don't expect it to work as before - it's timing or... who knows what that makes stuff happen.)
Heh, well, at least with late 80s stuff, the pacing's picked up. Of course, to be fair, some Pertwee six-parters are awesome (the ones that have all the UNIT people, mostly) but there are some padded quarry-bound ones that do take some patience. Of course, even then you get rewarded with things like Roger Delgado as the Master who is one of the most marvellous things ever to happen to Doctor Who. I think it's surprising what we can get used to - but you're right, it's not easy and there needs to be a reason/something to push you/getting locked in somewhere with no alternative entertainment. (I mean, I never thought I'd want to bother with black and white TV, or listen to audio dramas, but I did my initial DW fannishness in the wilderness years, and you take whatever you can get and then find you love it more than you can explain, after all.)
Also Classic Who varies wildly, even in particular eras, so the main thing to consider if if you like the Doctor and his companions, and if you do, it's worth trying a different adventure with them. Different writer and different director and it's a whole other thing. If you have that technical background, you might even want to consider choosing by directors. (Graeme Harper's two mid-1980s stories would be worth a try - Caves of Androzani and Revelation of the Daleks - for instance.)
The Five Doctors is another one worth giving a go, because it's daft, but it was meant to be a party, so it's easy to forgive - and you get five (well. ish. three and a half at least) Doctors at once, which is handy for seeing if any of them grab you more than others. At the end of the day, it's usually love for an actor/character/team TARDIS that suddenly makes us willing to sit through the stories that went wrong as well as the best ones. The first season of DW is very slow (it was made in the even-then old-fashioned and limited Lime Grove studios - the second season immediately looks better and pacier) but I'll watch that more happily than far more speedier colour 70s stuff, because there is a magic about the original team TARDIS that I adore.
From what you're saying, though, I'd definitely still recommend Remembrance onwards as a good run of stories to try. (You might want to skip The Happiness Patrol till you're a little more used to the studio-bound things, because that's a divisive one. I love it to pieces, but other people think it's the nadir of the entire series. They're wrong, of course, but it's worth mentioning.)
I could give a list of stories again, if you wanted? The generally-agreed best stories for each era is fairly easy (and I can add notes about length and speed...) :-)
(Sorry, I've had a weird week, forgive the late reply.)
You could try some of Seven's stuff (with Ace - S25 & 26) - they're still old TV, but they were made 88/89, most of them are really good, and Sylvester and Sophie are both actors who like running about, and the SFX team of the time liked nothing better than blowing stuff up - something like Remembrance of the Daleks, Greatest Show in the Galaxy (though that's a little weird), Battlefield, Ghostlight or Curse of Fenric might do. (It's also worth bearing in mind that S26, possibly all of them is better watched in order, because of Ace's story arc. Remembrance is therefore, for lots of reasons, a pretty good one to try.)
I love all of it - 1963-now, but, you're right, the old stuff does take some adjusting to in terms of style. It really does pay off if you're willing to go with it, but I understand people not wanting to do that. TV watching is mainly for fun after all! But by the 80s, the pace had picked up, even if it was still video and not the same sort of style as today. Also, no six parters, which helps. Being stuck in the middle of a Pertwee six parter can be an effort even for those of us who don't mind old TV.
Older ones that often seem to work well for newbies (from my experience - other peopls' varies wildly!) - Robots of Death (Four), The Five Doctors, Earthshock, Caves of Androzani, (mind, lots of Five is quite accessible coming from New Who, but can be very studio bound - and avoid Time-Flight). Vengeance on Varos for Colin, although all of Six's era is very, very Eighties.
(Some of those that are really wonderful from the 60s & 70s still have pacing that can put people off, like Genesis of the Daleks and City of Death, which are amazing, but plod in places here and there to the modern eye, and sometimes "tacky" episodes win out, just for the entertainment value. It just depends.) On the other hand, the occasional hysteria of watching people battle with bubblewrap, tinsel and glove puppet monsters is like nothing modern TV will give you. I'm not in it for the rubbish SFX, but there are moments... Especially those times when the actors are gallantly giving it their all...
(And, hi, sorry, I think you friended me ages ago when I ran my commentfic thing, but we haven't actually spoken as such. I just can't ignore stuff about classic Who on my flist. :-D)
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YES, I definitely friended you because of the commentfic thing, which was amazing and made me wish I was better at OUTPUT. Thank you for commenting and clueing me on some of the Classic stuff. As I said, I got a wonderful rec list from a con years ago, and hung onto it for ages, but I'm sure it went out with the last cleanse. I can be a bit of a completist, but to watch EVERY DW related thing is sheer madness. Still, it bugs me when I don't "get" a major reference.
Aaannnd since I have worked in video production (and hope to again one day), I'm all about high-quality video and can't bear to watch sub-par things on Netflix, for instance. Ugh, hurdles! So I'm thinking something colorful, with a Doctor I'm inclined to like. I very much like the look of Mr. McGann, but then that's a whole other can of (audio-bound) Doctors (Nooooooo!).
Reply
Heh, well, at least with late 80s stuff, the pacing's picked up. Of course, to be fair, some Pertwee six-parters are awesome (the ones that have all the UNIT people, mostly) but there are some padded quarry-bound ones that do take some patience. Of course, even then you get rewarded with things like Roger Delgado as the Master who is one of the most marvellous things ever to happen to Doctor Who. I think it's surprising what we can get used to - but you're right, it's not easy and there needs to be a reason/something to push you/getting locked in somewhere with no alternative entertainment. (I mean, I never thought I'd want to bother with black and white TV, or listen to audio dramas, but I did my initial DW fannishness in the wilderness years, and you take whatever you can get and then find you love it more than you can explain, after all.)
Also Classic Who varies wildly, even in particular eras, so the main thing to consider if if you like the Doctor and his companions, and if you do, it's worth trying a different adventure with them. Different writer and different director and it's a whole other thing. If you have that technical background, you might even want to consider choosing by directors. (Graeme Harper's two mid-1980s stories would be worth a try - Caves of Androzani and Revelation of the Daleks - for instance.)
The Five Doctors is another one worth giving a go, because it's daft, but it was meant to be a party, so it's easy to forgive - and you get five (well. ish. three and a half at least) Doctors at once, which is handy for seeing if any of them grab you more than others. At the end of the day, it's usually love for an actor/character/team TARDIS that suddenly makes us willing to sit through the stories that went wrong as well as the best ones. The first season of DW is very slow (it was made in the even-then old-fashioned and limited Lime Grove studios - the second season immediately looks better and pacier) but I'll watch that more happily than far more speedier colour 70s stuff, because there is a magic about the original team TARDIS that I adore.
From what you're saying, though, I'd definitely still recommend Remembrance onwards as a good run of stories to try. (You might want to skip The Happiness Patrol till you're a little more used to the studio-bound things, because that's a divisive one. I love it to pieces, but other people think it's the nadir of the entire series. They're wrong, of course, but it's worth mentioning.)
I could give a list of stories again, if you wanted? The generally-agreed best stories for each era is fairly easy (and I can add notes about length and speed...) :-)
(Sorry, I've had a weird week, forgive the late reply.)
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