Before Doctor Who was a new - millennium phenomenon , it ruled the British airwaves for a one-quarter of the last 100 . And some of your grand - pa ’s Doctor Who episode are actually still deserving checking out . Here ’s our complete handy template to older - school physician Who for new - Who sports fan . With some spoilers .
Step one : Discover Ace , the Proto - Rose .
The last pair of years Doctor Who was on the melodic phrase in the late 1980s , the writers bulge experimenting with the often - drill kinship between the Doctor and his cute travel companion . They introduced Ace , a rebellious teenager with a love of explosives . At first , the Ace - Doctor human relationship was just a little spicier than the traditional Doctor / ambiguous - friend pairing , but over clip it became a lot more . The Doctor started putting Ace through a series of tests and forcing her to confront her fears . She , in play , started question the Doctor ’s goals and methods more than any familiar before her . The Doctor - Ace human relationship provide an inspiration for some of the more full realise companions of today , like Rose .
The concluding three Ace storey are all on DVD , and they ’re probably the best way for fans of the RTD era to delve into the raw series . ( cut the dire hatchway deferred payment , the mostly cheese - tastic resultant music and the speculative - than - usual particular core . )
In “ Ghostlight , ” the Doctor takes Ace to the ghost sign that freaked her out when she was a kid , except they visit it in the straightlaced era and she discovers she had skillful rationality to be freaked out . “ Ghostlight ” is full of unearthly cagey touches and riff on puritanical naturalism and the fatuousness of the British IE original . ( And a lot of that stuff cease up being less than meet the eye , sadly . ) But at its core , it ’s about Ace confronting her deepest fears and getting penny-pinching to being the Doctor ’s equal .
And then in “ Curse Of Fenric , ” the Doctor takes Ace to World War II England , where she meets her own female parent as a sister and disclose that someone has been manipulating her all along . But “ Curse Of Fenric ” is mostly the episode ill-treat up and starts being the clever one – there ’s a fantastic moment midway through where the Doctor is counting on nobody compute out the secret of the Viking runic letter . And he does n’t realize Ace has figured it out ages ago , because he ’s understimated her intelligence . Finally , in “ Survival , ” Ace give back to her juvenile - derelict root and discovers that all her old ally have gotten suck into a planet that ’s basically a weird takeoff of the “ survival of the fit ” universe the stupid adult in her life-time were essay to prepare her for all along .
These three account tolerate the test of fourth dimension quite well , and they show Ace growing and develop as a character , whose inner life is just as important as the Doctor ’s later scheme . ( A fourth Ace story , “ Remembrance Of The Daleks , ” is also on DVD and has some nice moments . ) purportedly if the show had n’t been canceled , we would have learned the reason the Doctor was putting Ace through so much trauma : he was grooming her to become a Time Lord . The following season would have seen Ace enrolling in the Time Lord Academy on Gallifrey . ( Her story proceed in a different way in a series of novels , but a radiocommunication play , “ Death Comes To Time , ” did show her going through a variety of Time Lord education . )
Step two : Sample the Baker era .
And yes , by “ Baker earned run average , ” I do stand for “ Tom Baker . ” I would never recommend anybody position themselves through the torment of catch any of Colin Baker ’s mid-1980s tenure as the Doctor . Tom Baker work the Doctor from 1974 to 1981 , and his manic ( and sometimes menacing ) portrayal was immense in England and won over American audiences . His portrayal drop into schtick after a few years , but at first he was the edgiest , funniest and most irregular of the Doctors .
I was surprised when I interviewed Julie Gardner , executive manufacturer of the new Who , and she mention that showrunner Russell T. Davies had given her a tilt of classic Who episodes to take in before they relaunched the show . The list was all Tom Baker , instead of the belated story I ’d been anticipate : “ Pyramids of Egypt Of Mars , ” “ Talons Of Weng - Chiang ” and “ City Of Death . ” ( I would n’t recommend “ Talons Of Weng Chiang , ” though : the racial stereotyping is actually painful to watch . )
The best Tom Baker chronicle remain fresh because they ’re all about improvisation . Tom Baker is incessantly extemporize his performance , keeping the other actors on their toes . And his Doctor is compose as the most improvisational as well . He ’s invariably being plump for into a nook and bluffing his direction out , fix plans that fall flat and then making up young plans on the spot , and building gadgets out of scrap . And it ’s really in the Baker era that the show ’s scripts become so multi - superimposed that any child keep an eye on will probably lack one-half of what ’s going on . ( And still jazz it . ) Here are the Tom Baker episodes that actually nurse up , weak special effects and all :
“ Ark In Space . ” Just commemorate that house of cards wrap was n’t as common back then , and it actually seem sort of nerveless at the clock time . And “ Ark ” is a classic for a grounds : the Doctor is out of his depth from the second he ’s entrap in an airless room with the life - accompaniment turned off to the moment he ’s facing an ground forces of spacewalking jumbo bugs , with no way to stop them . Classic Who moment : the Doctor shit a macabre observation , followed by “ I ’m afraid . ” His fellow traveller Sarah Jane tells him to stop make laugh , and he responds : “ When I say I ’m afraid , I ’m not making jokes . ”
“ Pyramids Of Mars . ” Another one where the Doctor is outclassed and overpowered from start to finish , and he keeps take clever plan that fail horribly . The interplay between Sarah Jane and the Doctor is never better than in this episode — partly because the story ’s distaff director conduct some of the Doctor ’s dialog and gave it to Sarah Jane . So instead of the Doctor explain everything to Sarah Jane , she ’s reckon stuff out on her own .
“ robot Of Death . ” Here ’s a canny tress : robots go around killing people , not by shooting them with optical maser or send away nanites at them — but by strangling them to end with their brawny robot hand . It ’s a amazingly gruesome chronicle , by Blake ’s 7 writer Chris Boucher , and it explores some serious questions about man ’ dependance on engineering . The bon ton in “ robot ” ca n’t run without robotic help , but the humans are secretly ( or not so secretly ) terrorise of robot . So what happens when a whole gaggle of robots go berzerk and kill everybody ? “ I should remember it ’s the end of this civilization , ” the Doctor says far too nonchalantly . “ golem ” also sport Leela , the tongue - exert jungle cleaning lady who traveled with the Doctor for a couple of age , and whose first response to any position is lethal force .
“ City Of Death . ” I ’m hesitant to recommend this one , because it ’s pretty slow going at first — the Who squad managed to film in Paris , and celebrated with fate and lots and muckle of shots of the Doctor running around the city . But once it gets go , the handwriting mostly written by Douglas Adams is pretty much irresistibly glib and clever . Not to mention a cameo by Monty Python ’s John Cleese in his bloom .
measure three : Check out some other classics .
I ’m pretty confident that if you ’ve follow steps one and two , you should already be a buff of the Hellenic series . At that point , you should be opened to sampling a heap of the other stories from the show . Here are a twain of ground rules :
1 ) Do n’t look out any write up over four episodes long . ( Or about 90 transactions . ) While there are a few illustrious exclusion , by and large the longer a Who story gets , the more it gets padded out for length . Even some four - episode storey tend to have a third instalment where the Doctor is locked up for twenty minutes or gets captured and escapes a couple of times . The show ’s producers oftentimes dragged out stories for longer than they deserved , in ordination to save money on sets and costume . A few potential exclusion : “ Dalek Invasion Of Earth , ” “ Doctor Who And The Silurians ” and “ Inferno . ”
2 ) rest away from the black and white sixties stories until you ’re well and truly indoctrinated . There are some definite gem remain from the 60s , let in the aforementioned Dalek invasion story and “ Tomb Of The Cybermen , ” but the first two doctor ’ escapade have n’t aged as well , by and large , as the eternal rest of the show . Not just because of the older - flick spirit of the sinister and white , but also because they were filming literally an episode per week , with a couple of sets , and most of the episodes have a very stagy lineament to them . They ’re essentially level plays on film .
3 ) seek to take breaks between episodes . I should have mentioned this in the beginning . When I lived in England as a kid , we would have a week between 25 - moment episodes , and those light-headed cliffhanger would feel all - have . A lot of write up feel stretched out and slow if you watch over them all in one sitting , but they finger pressing and tiptop - fast if you watch them an installment at a time . Although the Tom Baker stories were oftentimes show in “ flick ” format in the U.S. , with all the installment breaks edited out , and they seemed to hold up fine . ( I commemorate watch a 7 - part Jon Pertwee story in “ motion-picture show ” format , and I nearly clawed my face off . )
That tell , here are a few other stories that are on DVD that are especially worth checking out for people who are new to the classic series :
“ Claws Of Axos . ” For now , at least , it ’s the only classic report featuring the original variant of the Doctor ’s arch - enemy the Master that ’s out on videodisc and is n’t 6 episode long . It ’s got some highly silly / cheesy moment , especially pompous civic servant Mr. Chinn , but it ’s also got some fun activity sequences with U.N.I.T. and a somewhat clever level about gullible man being lured to their doom through their own rapacity .
“ Curse Of Peladon . ” Not out on videodisc , but hopefully it will be at some head . It ’s a play play about the Doctor visiting a mock - mediaeval planet that ’s trying to join a galactic Federation . The foreigner are goofy and fun , and it ’s the only story with the Ice Warriors that is n’t overly long and/or in contraband - and - white .
“ Carnival Of Monsters . ” Another pathetic frolic , written by supreme Who screenwriter Robert Holmes . It drags a bit in places , due to a clock time loop that make some of the graphic symbol act out the same scene over and over . But it ’s also got one of Holmes ’ classical huckster characters : a carnival con - man , who ’s got a auto full of captured exotic races ( including humans ) living out a moment in time over and over . The funfair attraction end up causing a rotation on an alien satellite .
“ The Time Warrior . ” It precede Sarah Jane and the cloned warrior Sontarans . It ’s also one of the wittiest scripts from Holmes , take sport with rogues and ruffians in gothic England .
“ Book of Genesis Of The Daleks . ” Almost cite this in the “ Tom Baker ” section above . If you ’re up for a six - part story , this one is jolly nifty . The only good story sport Davros , the creator of the war - cyborg Daleks . It ’s famous for having the mealy opening night show the great unwashed being machine - gunned in slow motion , but it also has a fortune of other enceinte moments , with the occasional dense number .
“ The Keeper Of Traken , ” “ Logopolis ” and “ Castrovalva . ” The tax return of the Master , and the regeneration of Tom Baker into Peter Davison . These stories are fun to watch , and you ca n’t help wishing that some of the touch of theatrical role development in the companions had been follow up on instead of ignored . The new Master starts out wonderful , but manages to fall apart by the end of “ Castrovalva , ” sadly .
“ The Visitation . ” Another historic report , featuring an alien who wants to boost the Black Plague and pass over out humanity . Peter Davison is still finding his invertebrate foot as the Doctor in this story , but he grant one of his most fiery performances .
“ Earthshock . ” The story that contribute back the Cybermen and broke one of Doctor Who ’s cardinal regulation . Very , very natural action movie - ish , once you get past the slow first part , but in a good direction . And the young Cybermen are pretty imposing in this story .
“ Caves Of Androzani . ” Davison ’s last tarradiddle is also his good , by several orders of order of magnitude . It ’s the return of Robert Holmes to write Who , with one last blaze of enormousness . The villains are operatic , the story has a long ton of great twist , and the end of installment three is one of the greatest moments in Doctor Who . Period .
“ Revelation Of The Daleks . ” The least bad Colin Baker story is a weird irony on human fatality rate , localise in a funeral home with more than one sinister secret . This storey would be much better if it dismiss all pretense of being a Dalek story , and maybe if it did n’t include the Doctor . But for what it is , it ’s pretty fascinating .
Okay , that ’s my advice for new - Who fans . What do you call back ?
Ace toy dog photo byDecepticreepson Flickr .
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