Doctor Who: Classic or Dud?

The Web Planet is possibly the most ON DRUQS Who I've seen. Also The Aztecs is quite brilliant in places.
The Mind Robber is probably the best Troughton on sale, and has the maximum ZOE UBER-CUETNESS factor (see also Tomb Of The Cybermen).
Caves of Androzani is one of the best-written Who stories, probably.
Vengeance On Varos actually stands up really well, with a Big Brother-esque plot 20 years before RTD did it, and Jason Connery topless.
I can't think of any reason to recommend any of the McCoy releases except they're better than I remember them being.

I have very fond memories of 'Paradise Towers' from when I was a kid.

Dan's the McCoy fan I think, you might get him defending them. (I actually think McCoy himself isn't that bad, he was just crippled with the two worst comoanions in the history of the show.)

Ghost Light is better than I thought it was at the time but MAKES NO FUCKING SENSE, which even the writer admits. If you watch it with the commentary on, he explains what happens in the scenes that were cut and you can see how it was supposed to work, but it barely saves it.

And you know what - it would work.

Er, hello? It's Doctor Who, not Senior Staff Nurse Who.

Pretty much all of the 4th Doctor/Leela(/K9) stories are must-owns, ESPECIALLY "Talons", "Horror" and "Robots". Also don't sleep on the 5th Doctor; "Frontios", "Black Orchid", "Mawdryn Undead", "Enlightment", "Terminus", "The Caves Of Androzani", "Castrovalva", "The Visitation", "Kinda", "Snakedance"...

...

C'mon, we both know I'm the regenerated version of you. The timeline just hasn't caught up yet.

Doctor Who spin-off 'cancelled'
Billie Piper in Doctor Who
The show would have starred Bille Piper's character, Rose Tyler
Plans for a Doctor Who spin-off show starring Billie Piper were scrapped at the last minute, series producer Russell T Davies has revealed.

"It was actually commissioned by the controller of BBC One and budgeted," the writer told Doctor Who Magazine.

Davies later decided the programme, Rose Tyler: Earth Defence, was "a spin-off too far" and called it off.

Piper, 23, left Doctor Who earlier this year. She will be replaced by Freema Agyeman, 27, in the next series.

"We hadn't formally approached Billie," said Davies, "although we'd mentioned it to her."

Cold feet

"It was going to be fantastic. We'd have had a lovely budget and done brilliant things with it, maybe one Bank Holiday special a year."

However, the writer said he got cold feet while filming Piper's final appearance as Rose Tyler earlier this year.

Captain Jack meets the Doctor
A separate spin-off, Torchwood, stars John Barrowman as Captain Jack
"It spoils Doctor Who if we can see Rose... if we see as a concrete fact that her life continues to be as exciting without the Doctor," he said.

Davies added that the decision to abandon the programme cost him "a fortune".

A separate spin-off from the science fiction series is still going ahead, and will be shown on BBC Three this autumn.

Called Torchwood, it focuses on a squad of secret agents facing human and alien enemies, with actor John Barrowman reprising his role as time traveller Captain Jack.

The 13-part series will also be written by Davies, who acts as executive producer for the Doctor Who programmes.

Meanwhile, the third series of Doctor Who is currently being filmed in Wales.

Monkey Girl: Earth Defence would've been a better title.

Apropos, does anyone know if Bella And The Boys (starring B Piper) will be released on DVD? Torrents hard to come by I've found.

Seriously, had anyone heard anything about this thing before it got "cancelled"?

"Mawdryn Undead"!
"Mawdryn Undead"!
"Mawdryn Undead"!

also, "Warriors of the Deep"! Davison just nails the tragic finish!

Hello ILE. I have decided to educate myself in the way of old-skool Who and am watching as much of it as I can, over the internet, in order.

I have got as far as the second episode, but that lengthy scene with the cavemen arguing about who gets to be the leader is interminable. Talking to someone who'd never heard of Doctor Who, you'd never be able to convince them that it would survive, on and off, for over forty years.

Things get better with "The Daleks".

i have never attempted to watch dr who in any kind of order

well obv except for these latest seasons and i guess when it was on tv when i was younger

i commend you

Dan is right, "The Daleks" is quite brilliant.

Matt, when you say "over the internet", do you mean some streaming thing? Or torrence?

I've been doing exactly the same thing Matt, I'm a few months ahead of you. I'm at the start of T Baker now. I haven't been watching them all, that would be far too much of a mission - what I suggest doing is going to the very comprehensive episode guides on the BBC site and skim reading the review bit at the bottom of each to determine if the serial is worth watching.

"The Daleks" is quite brilliant.

Absolutely, for the first three or so episodes. It does drag rather towards the end. If you don't mind skipping ahead a bit and want an example of how great the Hartnell stories could be, I recommend 'The Ark'.

Oh, are you planning to listen to the audio of the incomplete ones? I didn't bother.

also, "Warriors of the Deep"! Davison just nails the tragic finish!

all I remember of this is the pantomime horse monster.

what's brought this on?

Well it was mostly discovering this really, but also I just wanted to watch them.

It's a real pity about the drop in quality between the first-ever episode and the rest of "An Unearthly Child."

I watched "Ghost Light" for the first time recently. Similar to "Warrior's Gate," in that I spent much of the episode wondering what the powers that be were smoking when they approved the script. "Warrior's Gate" made slightly more sense, though. The first couple episode are marvelously creepy and insane (why the hell does the moth collection come alive?), though the conclusion is kind of a letdown.