doctor who season one

[kirakira]

I am a huge nerd, and a Doctor Who fan. I'm also slightly obsessive, and like to do things in order. So I decided to watch all of the Doctor Who episodes, from the very first one onwards. I expect this to take a while, but it seemed like a fun thing to do. So I began with the First Doctor, William Hartnell.

An Unearthly ChildThis cluster of four

Comments

[don_negro]

Thank you so much for doing this. I've watched Dr. Who religiously from about age 8. (KUHT in Houston showed an entire story arc every Saturday night for at least a decade, and over those years I saw Tom Baker, William Hartnell -> Peter Davidson, William Hartnell -> Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy.) I love the new Doctor Who, but I've found the lack of interest in the 30+ year backstory of the new fans to be somewhat annoying, to say the least.

I can assure you, it only gets better from here. Bill Hartnell's Doctor has to learn to like being around humans, once that gets going, it's full speed ahead. Patrick Troughton's Doctor's time with UNIT and the Brigadier, John Pertwee's discovery of Sarah Jane, Tom Baker's jelly babies.

The special effects are horrible, but the characters and stories are amazing. There's lots of political allegory to the Pertwee-Baker era, specifically around labor politics in Britain and the rise of Margaret Thatcher. You'll see what I mean when you get to the Baker->Davidson regeneration.

[zuleikhajami]

Have you seen any of the older Dr. Who shows or just the new ones?

A good chunk of the Second Doctor episodes were lost in some archival incident (fire maybe? I forget the details) but you can still read those in the books.

Not a fire...

[creative13]

Some of the early episodes were tossed. Archiving was not a priority for a kids show. Tape takes up a lot of space. Some of the early episodes which we have have been "found" in boxes from random sources. Sometimes fans audio taped the shows, surprisingly I used to do that when I was a kid and did not have a video tape machine. Yes I am that old.

[happydog]

I think you'll really like Patrick Troughton's Doctor. He really brings something to the role that wasn't there before and is a startling contrast to Hartnell.

[bambina_cricket]

Unrelated- but just wanted to say i love you :)

[hermes_wade]

I'm glad you're enjoying the early Doctors! The screaming, hysterical woman companion is pretty much a mainstay of the series all the way through Pertwee, although not as much during his tenure; it tapers off tremendously in the first Baker era.