Almost through S2 of Classic Who. Have slowed down a bit recently because I’ve just been too tired for it to keep my attention but hopefully will pick up steam on it again soon. Have also watched a couple episodes of K9 but not going through them at any great speed.
My wife and I have been watching Torchwood and we’re now halfway through Miracle Day, getting through it pretty slowly because the episodes somehow feel way longer than they are so we only feel up for one every few days. Enjoying it so far but definitely feeling like it’s getting stretched out too much, like others have said.
I’m also basically constantly rewatching 13 episodes, and currently have access to them in the proper aspect ratio for a little bit and while I don’t think the 16:9 edits really lose anything, the more cinematic look of the 2:1 always feels so great and does just make the experience better, so I’m really enjoying getting to do some rewatches with that.
I’m also thinking about a full 12 rewatch sometime soon. I truly believe it’s the best era of the show in so many ways (particularly S9-10, but S8 is still pretty incredible).
There’s a lot to choose from, my personal favourites are The Aztecs, The Sensorites, The Dalek Invasion of Earth, The Crusade, The Time Meddler, The Myth Makers, The War Machines, Power of the Daleks, The Macra Terror, The Evil of the Daleks, The Enemy of the World, The Web of Fear, Fury from the Deep, The Invasion and The War Games. And a lot of those I haven’t mentioned here are still worth a watch.
Sorry for the long list, I really love this era
Thanks. One day I do want to watch more of the Second Doctor; the only serials I’ve seen from his era are The War Games and The Macra Terror. The former I remember being not bad.
I think the two 2nd Doctor Dalek stories are the best there have ever been. And The Enemy of the World is really action packed with great characters and a fantastic plot - those are probably what I would recommend next
I missed this and agree with @BillFiler . I don’t know who all these people are that told you skip the Hartnell and Troughton eras are (or why they were so inclined to guide you) but I would wholeheartedly disagree with them for a multitude of reasons. Not only is this where the groundings of the show began but those eras have some astonishingly good stories which, now you’re used to the style and pace of classic Who a bit more, hold a world of marvels - The Aztecs, The Romans, The Daleks, The Dalek Invasion of Earth, The Mind Robber, The Seeds of Death, The Tomb of the Cybermen. Even the orphaned episodes hold a world of wonder and the plethora of animations now make this whole era something to be experienced anew.
I’ve been rewatching the second doctor era, currently in the middle of the Wheel in Space. I forgot how weird it was watching recons because of the amount of animations there are for the Troughton era now, but this one hasn’t been too bad because there’s a lot of telesnaps. Recons can get boring sometimes, but at least after this one there’s only one more non-animated missing serial for the whole show.
Something struck me about the first episode- it’s just the Doctor and Jamie, who’ve left the TARDIS after being warned by it that the rocket they’ve landed on was dangerous, the TARDIS becomes unavailable to them (due to the Doctor needing to remove the time vector generator), and so the majority of the first episode is just the Doctor and Jamie trying to explore the rocket, figure out how it could possibly be dangerous, meanwhile the only other being in the ship (that we know of so far) is a slow robot. While obviously it’s not the case for the rest of the episodes the first part of the episode reminded me a lot of the first few minutes of Wild Blue Yonder. I just always find it interesting making connections between classic and new who like that even when it likely isn’t intentional at all.
That first episode is also reminiscent of early Hartnell Who - think of episodes like The Dead Planet or the first episode of The Sensorites. And the reason - David Whitaker…
For someone not used to Classic, I personally would actually be on the side of starting at the 3rd Doctor on… but not skipping the first two Doctors altogether, just watching them later.
If you are already not used to classic, watching a point in the show where half the episodes are missing is a big ask, and early first Doctor is still finding its feet. I feel like if you start at the beginning of the 3rd Doctor, which was a soft reboot, you’re more likely to keep watching, where someone starting from the beginning could easily hit Marco Polo with no existing episodes and no animation and just not keep going…
There’s plenty of great stuff in the first two Doctors eras, which is why I do say to come back for it, though. Just after you are already used to the wonky sets and 6-8 episode serials and such, and be ready to skip anything you don’t feel up to.
I very much to want to come back and watch the earlier seasons at some point, but as someone who has tried and failed to watch chronologically multiple times, starting with Three really made it easier. I’ve seen most of S1 and a handful of other early episodes, but it was very difficult to get through a lot of them. I’m hoping to finish all the TV stories this year, though, and that includes the early seasons. If I watch a serial a day it should only take me about 4 months!
Yeah, my eventual decision with the first and second Doctors was to jump around and watch a bunch of the complete or mostly intact ones first, and that helped a lot. I’m very glad Power of the Daleks got an animation, because it was great story, and a lot of the second Doctor episodes I’ve watched were great. Wish there wasn’t so much missing of his era!
When I was watching Classic Who, I skipped the first two doctors at first because I didn’t want to deal with the missing episodes. There are a lot of first and second doctor episodes that I love, but I think it would have been harder for me to get into the classic era if I had started with them.
I think for those of us who grew up in the Wilderness Years, we didn’t have the option to watch in order. We watched the VHS releases in the order they were released. One month it would be a Hartnell and a Pertwee, next month a Tom and a Davison. Doctor Who isn’t a show which has to be watched chronologically - that’s one of its beauties.
For me, the Wilderness Years was more when I was originally watching, rather then rewatching, so, yeah, it was pretty much whatever pbs was broadcasting that week, which was largely 3-7. (And one notable time, one episode from every Doctor.)
Later on, once I decided to rewatch, in order was an option.
For things like companion arcs, or, say, the keys of time/trial of a time lord, watching things in order is nice, though. Earthshock will have more of an impact if you’ve seen Adric before, you could be confused about Turlough, seeing Ace’s arc in order is nice…
There’s a ton of good stories from the sixties!
