What old Dr Who is good?

[alias_sqbr]

Having watched the first two seasons of the new Dr Who I find myself wanting something I never thought I would: to watch old Dr Who.

But (having watched a lot of it as a kid) I know there's a fair chance I won't like any given plot chosen at random, so which stories would people recommend? I know there's a bunch of Old Skool Dr Who nerds who read this, and hopefully are in a mood to evangelise :)

My local video store has these, any of them worth watching?:
Timelash
Sea Devils
Revelation of the Daleks
and the Silverians
The Sontarian Experiment
Wariors of the Deep
Time Flight
Arc of Infinity

Any others I can look up on Quickflix, but it's not as convenient. I did find a few "best of" lists online I might use, I definitely want to watch the Douglas Adams ones again. And yes, I've seen "Curse of the Fatal Death" :)

Also (and I know this sounds silly) the other night I had a dream I was watching a Dr Who episode where he's lured into a trap by someone who wants to use the Tardis for something nefarious, and realising this he leaves the Tardis somewhere safe in the right time-period and travels the distance another way (in this case, by spaceship) Has that ever happened? I realise one of the Tardis's main points is that it's impossible to take over from outside (as much as anything on Dr Who is "impossible") The plot of the dream was a total rip-off of "The Impossible Planet", really.

Comments

[strangedave.livejournal.com]

Timelash is notoriously not good.
Time Flight is not quite as notorious, but at least equally not good.
The Sontaran Experiment is from the classic early Tom Baker era, so if you are after a taste of Old Skool, a good choice.
The Sea Devils is a Pertwee story, so even more Old Skool, and features Roger Delgado as The Master, which makes it fairly much a good example of typical Pertwee era. Whether that is actually to your taste is something you can only discover by trying, I guess.
Arc of Infinity is one of the more continuity heavy stories, as it harks directly back to an earlier one, but I can't remember enough details to know whether this will actually diminish your viewing enjoyment.

[alias_sqbr]

Thanks! This video store has a quite obvious policy of buying whatever disks of a tv series are cheap (even if that means just having disk 7 of season 2 etc) so I thought it best to check :)

I know the master shows up in S3 of Dr Who so I might give that one a shot.

[strangedave.livejournal.com]

I suspect the shop does go for cheap, yes. I didn't mention that The Sontaran Experiment, while neither a notably bad nor notably great episode, is notably short and rushed at the end, because during filming Tom Baker broker his ankle, and so presumably was also cheap.

The character of the Master in the Pertwee era was notably different to the later version, and the character from the Tom Baker era on is somewhat darker (very much so in S3).

[alias_sqbr]

Ok, thanks.

[shrydar.livejournal.com]

The Sontaran Experiment is interesting for having been filmed entirely outdoors, and also without the Tardis making a single appearance (for reasons explained in the preceding adventure, but not really relevant to the enjoyment of this one).

It's a classic episode, and I found it an effective introduction to several of my friends of both Tom Baker's doctor and the whole Sarah/Harry/Doctor trio. The Sontarans have also made a return this year, so it's good for that background, too.

[alias_sqbr]

Cool, thanks.

[edible-hat.livejournal.com]

What people like of the old stories is highly variable, so here's the Wikipedia page listing them all.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Doctor_Who_serials

[alias_sqbr]

You underestimate my laziness in the face of so much choice :)

[shrydar.livejournal.com]

Some all time favourites of mine:
-The Talons of Weng Chiang
-The Robots of Death
-The Invasion of Time.

[ide-cyan.livejournal.com]

Obligatory warning for racism re: The Talons of Weng-Chiang. (It's widely regarded as a classic, but it uses "yellow peril" tropes that are dubious at best.)

[shrydar.livejournal.com]

Good point. That's certainly something that caught me off guard the first time I watched it after a hiatus of over a decade.

To be fair though, all the characters are strongly stereotyped regardless of race or class.

[alias_sqbr]

Thanks! Will have to se if I can get a hold of them.

[shrydar.livejournal.com]

np.
If you have any problems finding them, I've got Talons and Robots on DVD, though I think I've also seen both of those at Planet Video.

I've also just discovered that Face of Evil, Robots of Death and Talons of Weng-Chiang were actually broadcast sequentially - the Tom Baker + Leela era got off to a damn fine start.

[alias_sqbr]

Quickflix has them all, but thanks for offering, and thanks for the advice. *now has enough Dr Who on my queue to last quite some time*

[fe2h2o.livejournal.com]

I asked this same question a few years ago. Angriest and Nevryn pointed me at 'Face of Evil' as being a good 'general' episode. (The selection was 'limited' by us being at a Florence Rd party, so it was _only_ episodes that Angriest possessed:-) )

I enjoyed it:-) Can't remember any details though:-)

[ariaflame.livejournal.com]

That's the first appearance of Leela isn't it?

[fe2h2o.livejournal.com]

No idea:-) I was trying to remember the name by asking Paddington, and he did comment that she was in it...

[pedanther]

Yes, it is.

[alias_sqbr]

Hey, cool, thanks.

[pedanther]

I definitely recommend 'Doctor Who and the Silurians'. It's head-and-shoulders the best story on that list. (Although some of the special effects are a bit dodgy, if that doesn't go without saying.)

Also, if you're thinking of watching 'The Sea Devils', you should watch 'and the Silurians' first, because the one is a sequel to the other.

(And then 'Warriors of the Deep' is supposed to be a sequel to them both, but it's (a) terrible, and (b) very clearly written by somebody who hadn't bothered to rewatch either of them before writing it. To you, I recommend the reverse: watch 'and the Silurians' and 'The Sea Devils', and then don't bother watching 'Warriors of the Deep'.)

[alias_sqbr]

Right, will watch it then, thanks. And yes, I know better than to expect cutting edge special effects :)

[purrdence.livejournal.com]

If you can get hold of most of the first doctor stuff (especially The Aztecs), it'll be worth your while - Ian and Barbara; and Susan are still amongst my favourite companions.

[alias_sqbr]

Aww....you know, now that you remind me, I think I saw "The Aztecs" at Swancon years ago and liked it.