Mel and I have started watching from the beginning. We've finished the first serial and are midway through the second.
So far, the first was a bit long-winded and got a little boring. The Daleks have been much more entertaining. We look forward to slowly watching the entire series.
*mooooooooo*
Originally Posted by kerbythepurplecow
There's some good, and some crap, in the first few seasons. They were really avant-garde sometimes, and other times, not so much. During the 60s, there was a Dr. Who almost every week, 45, 48, 46 serials a years. You only had about two hours or so to record a Dr. Who, so you just recorded through the line flubs and moved on. Watch and listen as some people mess up their lines. Also, William Hartnell will regularly flub lines into something else completely. They are called Hartnellisms, but they don;t really start for a while.
The third serial, which is just a two-parter, Edge of Destruction, is really strong, and I really, really like it.
I think the new series takes a lot from the First Doctor era. There are elements of The Aztecs, Edge of Destruction, and more in the new Doctor era, elements removed or ignored or put in the background throughout the rest of the classic era.
When you see The Web Planet, you are going to say, wow, what bad special effects, and wow, what an ambitious storyline. The Web Planet is the only Dr. Who story, ever, to have every member of the cast, other than the Dr and his companions, be non-human. Edge of Destruction is the only storyline, ever, where every episode in it features only the main cast, and no extra characters. The Aztecs, when you watch it, will try to include as many educational bits of information as possible, so you can see it still attempting to be a children;s show. Lots of good stuff.
I figured it was probably a bit of a struggle on the early eps as they get their groove. It's like watching Buffy before they got out of monster of the week and into the 'big bad' idea. I'm excited though, I know there's a lot of goods to be had.
I had wondered about the pace. Weekly, damn! That explains why I have like another 750 episodes to watch. I'm going to assume that this undertaking may take us a year or so as we're only watching a handful per week.
So, the Doctor is like 900 years old, but doesn't have his first regeneration until he's like 840 or 850. Do they talk about that and what he was doing before? Living such a safe life as it were? I assume it'll come up at some point, I was just wondering at the moment.
*mooooooooo*
A running joke is the age of the doctor. Everytime he says his age, its 9 hundred and something, but the something radically changes each time.
When you are on tv from 1963 until 1989, with different producers, writers, head writers, and directors, some care a lot more about continuity than others.
It's generally believed that the First Doctor started running only shortly before the program picks up. First of all, they mention that his granddaughter is quite young, in her teens. Second of all, it seems like the nomadic life has only been a recent occurrence, and in fact several times during their journey, they will stop in one place for months, like 1963 England or Rome. The Doctor quickly leaves this behind as he becomes more comfortable with the nomadic life.
Bump?
We're still slowly chugging along. We watched the first set of episodes wholly contained on the TARDIS. Next up in a serial called Marco Polo. However, it's all reconstructed. Just the audio (which the happily had) with no video (which the BBC lost/destroyed). In the place of the video are various pics and such. We've been debated whether to try and watch with dinner like we normally do or what. I think we're just going to read the plot synopsis and skip past. But, in the meantime, I got Mel into Fringe...
*mooooooooo*
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