Doctor Who - SPOILERS

[SmileOfTheShadow]

Can someone explain the concept, the various incarnations, how they relate and what of it I should watch if anything at all? I'm interested.


Jon

[Radhil]

Think Stargate with a time machine. That happens to look like a phone booth. The "team" is the Doctor and whoever he thinks is good enough to tag along, and the quality seems a cut above your typical SG filler.

I haven't seen much of it lately - SciFi moved the reruns on me so I've seen maybe 2 eps out of this updated version - but my impression is that much like the Doctor himself, the show is bound to do whatever the hell it wants to do. One ep I saw seemed typical sci-fi slapstick, and the next ep was toned personal and touching. So yeah, give it an honest shot. It'll probably suprise you.

[Joe Nazzaro]

Jon, try this website if you really want some comprehensive information:

http://www.gallifreyone.com/

The current series, which started last season with Christopher Eccleston in the lead role, debuted last year and is currently available on DVD. It's a little pricey but well worth it in terms of the amount of material. And the best thing for newcomers is that they can pretty much start fresh without having to worry about four decade's worth of continuity. The new season begins airing on Sci Fi on September 29th with David Tennant taking over the lead role, so you can pretty much jump on there as well. If you like it, you can always work your way backwards. Bear in mind that BBC science fiction is generally done with a miniscule budget, so the original 1963-89 incarnation looks incredibly cheap by today's standards. Even the new version, which has a moderate budget BBC budget doesn't always hold up against more expensive US shows, but I think the quirkiness and characters should make up for it.

Incidentally Jon, I don't want to get into all the Doctor Who back-story here, but the reason that different actors have played the character over the years is that he 'regenerates' into a different persona every so often. It was a device created when the original actor William Hartnell was leaving the series in the early sixties and eventually became a fundamental part of the series, hence the 'regeneration' from Eccleston into Tennant when the former quit after just one season.

[Lunan]

Can someone explain the concept, the various incarnations, how they relate and what of it I should watch if anything at all? I'm interested.


Jon

holyshiat this is a hard one to awnser.

first you have to understand thet your watching for the story lines and the acting not the sfx(i am of course talking of the first 26 seasons)
The Doctor travels thru time with various compainions in his T.A.R.D.I.S. (time and realative dimention in space) and oh boy, too much to say

start with the first, anunearthly child with william hartnell (one of the greatest crotchety old men ever)

[Lunan]

Jon, try this website if you really want some comprehensive information:

http://www.gallifreyone.com/

Incidentally Jon, I don't want to get into all the Doctor Who back-story here, but the reason that different actors have played the character over the years is that he 'regenerates' into a different persona every so often. It was a device created when the original actor William Hartnell was leaving the series in the early sixties and eventually became a fundamental part of the series, hence the 'regeneration' from Eccleston into Tennant when the former quit after just one season.

one must also remeber that the great actor mr hartnell was very old (for the 60's) at the time he left the show and part of the fuzziness and quickieness of his act is that he couldn't remeber his lines, and it was so perfect for the doctor, Doctor who is one of the top 5 scifi of all time (b5, st, star wars[the first 3 from the 70's], Doctor Who, Twilight zone)

[Joe Nazzaro]

Interestingly enough, I was talking to somebody about this recently and I had to explain to them that the first Doctor for many American fans was Tom Baker, because those seven seasons were the first to really get distributed on quite a number of PBS stations. It wasn't until after those season had been repeated a number of times that some stations picked up the three Peter Davison seasons, the Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy seasons and finally went all the way back to the Hartnell/Troughton episode of the sixties and five seasons of Pertwee, which is all terribly confusing if you were a casual fan. My personal favorite is Pertwee, just because Jon was such a wonderful, larger than life guy, who wasn't all that much different in real life than his Doctor Who persona. But that's just my opinion of course.

[Lunan]

my first doctor was tom (though this was in the 90's on scifi before it was everywhere, thought the thing said doctor no, opps, and an obsesson later) but my favorite, tom was great but hartnell and troughton had some amazing stories and writing plus the acting and the pressence of thier doctors is amazing, William Hartnell is my favorite (tom is a close second)

now if we are talking about companions Mary Tam was my favorite(and toms as she left to marry him) the haughty snotty LADY! Romanadravatnalunda (or fred for short) i really really wish she had done a second season so as not to be muddled in all that key of time arc

[Donald]

my first doctor was tom (though this was in the 90's on scifi before it was everywhere, thought the thing said doctor no, opps, and an obsesson later) but my favorite, tom was great but hartnell and troughton had some amazing stories and writing plus the acting and the pressence of thier doctors is amazing, William Hartnell is my favorite (tom is a close second)

now if we are talking about companions Mary Tam was my favorite(and toms as she left to marry him) the haughty snotty LADY! Romanadravatnalunda (or fred for short) i really really wish she had done a second season so as not to be muddled in all that key of time arc

Not to be annoying but he married Lalla Ward, not Mary Tamm. Ward played a different incarnation of Romana.

[Lunan]

Not to be annoying but he married Lalla Ward, not Mary Tamm. Ward played a different incarnation of Romana.

sorry was tired and who can keep 40 plus years of inside outs going on in ones head(especially when only 24)

[SmileOfTheShadow]

Awesome. Thanks for the help people. So there's really not much in terms of continuity between doctors? Or are there little inside jokes that travel troughout all the series and are good to watch? I've seen all of red dwarf and loved it, so I'm used to low budget stuff. I've also watched a low budget canadian sci-fi called Starhunter..which was pretty bad with their using palm pilots spray painted as sci-fi devices. Good show though with a great story arc if anyone's seen it.

[Lunan]

there are a large number of elements that have run thru for 40 plus years now

a certain mystery about the doctor himself

and some of the greatest villians you will ever come accross
Daleks
Cybermen
Silarians
The Master
The Meddling Monk
Sontarins
Yeti
Autons

trust me start with the first story. An Unearthly Child

then you can jump around a bit but for the first bits i say stay with the first 2 doctors. say The Keys of Marinus, Tomb of the Cybermen, The Daleks, The Dalek Invation of Earth and (my favorite story of them all) The War Games
does not have to be in this order but The War Games should be watched last of those i have listed however and An Unearthly Child MUST be watched First

[SmileOfTheShadow]

I downloaded an Unearthly Child and am watching it. I also downloaded an episode of the newer one that I found. The DVDs...I'm not even sure what to make of them, and I'm gonna have ot figure that out before I commit to buying any of them. I'll report back when I'm finished with this ep and tell you what I think

[Shr'eshhhhhh]

Please don't download any episodes.

The dvd sets may be a bit pricey brand new but if you get multi region dvd/vhs players you can get the episodes at very little cost.

[SmileOfTheShadow]

Well I'm really confused as to the format of the dvds..which ones I should get when, etc. Is there a site that kinda clears this up and explains why they're packaged as such? It's so scattered. I did like that first ep I saw though. I don't download shows usually, but if I want to check something out I usually do look for the first episode to see if I like it.

[Joe Nazzaro]

Jon, IÆm not sure if I could explain the DVD release schedule, because IÆm not sure it makes a lot of sense. The original British VHS releases were not done in chronological order, and frankly, I donÆt know what BBC Worldwide use as their criteria for ænewÆ releases.

That said, if I was going to recommend one DVD for each of the Doctors, these are my personal picks:
William Hartnell: The Beginning Collection. YouÆve seen how it starts; these are the first three serials, including the first Dalek story.

Patrick Troughton: Tomb of the Cybermen. One of the best stories from the black and white years. Like many of the early episodes, it looks dated by todayÆs standards, but apparently in the sixties it was pretty damn scary.

Jon Pertwee: Spearhead from Space. The third DoctorÆs first story, as well as Doctor WhoÆs transition from color to black and white. ItÆs not necessarily my all-time favorite Pertwee story, but I donÆt think his best adventures are out on DVD yet.

Tom Baker: The Talons of Weng Chiang. Not only one of the best Baker stories, but one of the absolute best Doctor Who stories ever. Written by Robert Holmes, who is regarded as one of the showÆs best writers.

Peter Davison: The Caves of Androzani. The fifth DoctorÆs final story, and maybe his best.

Colin Baker: Vengeance on Varos. One of the few sixth Doctor stories that is surprisingly thought-provoking, if a little violent. And a very cool villain.

Sylvester McCoy: Ghost Light. A wonderfully atmospheric supernatural piece. A lot of McCoy stories are pretty lightweight. This one is not.

Christopher Eccleston: Doctor Who, the Complete First Season. Hell, if youÆre going to start watching Doctor Who with the revival, this is the starting point.

Other DVD releases I think are well worth it, for different reasons:

Genesis of the Daleks, Pyramids of Mars. Both Tom Baker stories, but probably in the all-time top ten stories of any Doctor.

Lost in Time. A fascinating two-volume set of Hartnell and Troughton episodes and fragments. Many of the early Doctor Who serials were wiped by the short-sighted folks at the BBC. These are some of the ones that survived.

The Three Doctors, The Five Doctors. The two big anniversary serials. Neither of them are particular classics, but theyÆre worth seeing for the interplay between the various Doctors and in the latter case, a ton of former companions and guest stars.

These are my own personal recommendations. Hope some of them are of use to you.