More recs, please
17 Feb 2010 07:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kangeikoOk,
So I watched The Five Doctors, and I realised I'd seen it before and really liked Five, coincidentally. I also watched The Curse of Fenric, which was brilliant, but I think I've figured out my issues there - I really like Ace, but don't like Seven much, mainly because he's so god-awful to Ace (especially in Fenric, right at the end, you know what I'm talking about).
Generally, I seem to get on quite well with Five and Ten, and not so well with One (or at least the version in The Five Doctors), Two or Nine. I wasn't too sure on Three. I think it's something to do with the level of fun I see the Doctor having - I like him more when he's happy and fun to be around, and not so much when he's crotchety. Maybe I'm watching the wrong things? And I haven't seen Four or Six (or Eight) at all.
So. Bearing the above first impressions in mind, what should I watch next? A lost gem that will change my mind about One or Two? The absolute classic story for Five? Seven being nice to Ace? Something else altogether?
In other news, I am going to Naples in a month or so. Pompeii and Vesuvius, here I come!
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Date: 2010-02-17 08:31 pm (UTC)If you want Five-era suggestions, I suggest you watch the three-part Master trilogy. It starts in Four's era with The Keeper of Traken, which is, in my opinion, one of the strongest and best standalone stories they've ever done. Tom Baker is not usually my favorite flavor of Doctor - I like the odd-numbered ones, and Baker 1.0 in particular is such a douche sometimes - but he's surprisingly lovely in Keeper. The second part is Logopolis, in which Baker gives his swan song as the Doctor, and Anthony Ainley just steals the entire damn thing as the Master. Ainley's Master is never as good as he is in Logopolis. Tegan and Nyssa are both introduced, and they both get some great moments, seperately, together, and with Adric (who is actually bearable in this). Then Davison takes over for Castrovalva, which is notable for Davison's send-up of all the previous Doctors and Tegan flying the TARDIS. If you like Five, you should like it.
If you don't like crotchety-Doctor, I suggest you skip a good deal of Six (seriously, I don't think my irritation with him can be exaggerated - he treats Peri so badly, and she mostly doesn't deserve it). Three's also kind of crotchety, too, but have you seen Spearhead from Space yet? It's Pertwee's first serial, and it's a lot of fun, plus the team of Liz Shaw and the Brigadier is one of my favorite Companion teams.
Also, I will stick my fingers in my ears and pretend I didn't hear you disliking Nine (really? You didn't even like "The Doctor Dances" and "Rose, I'm trying to resonate concrete" and "EVERYBODY LIVES!").
And omg, am so jealous of your Naples trip! Have a lovely time!
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Date: 2010-02-17 08:52 pm (UTC)Re: ten and martha, you are completely right there. But I weirdly don't have as many issues with that in a way because I've seen a lot more of martha than I have of ace, and martha struck me as a woman (as opposed to ace, who I saw as quite young - maybe I'm wrong on that?) and one who is able to recognise that he's bad for her and leave... Whereas I've only seen ace in remembrance and fenric, and so I've only seen her look up to the doctor to a ridiculous degree. And he is so mean to her, saying that he only picked her as a tool. I get why, but it just strikes me as unnecessarily cruel. Plus, ace breaks down completely and my heart went out to her and I regressed to a three year old, angry 'cause the mean man made my friend cry. Hmmm.
Re: nine. Ok. So I love Nine, and not just because he was the first Doctor I saw. But I'm not sure I like him, ifthat makes sense. I didn't get any sense of joy out of him, and I am all angered out at the moment I think. And in the doctor dances etc he is joyful, yes... But still in that too-intense, manic way, like hysterical laughter after something horrific. I see Nine as massively traumatised after the loss of gallifrey, so much so that his every reaction is on edge, ready to lapse into laughter or violence... So, yeah. I love him to bits, but he doesn't look like he's having a good time to me, he looks like he's hanging on by a thread. YMMV, of course.
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Date: 2010-02-17 08:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-18 05:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-03-23 10:58 pm (UTC)He WOT?! That's outrageous.
... Someone wanted Opinions on Classic Who?
Date: 2010-02-18 03:13 am (UTC)As for the other Doctors... man, what have you seen of Two? He can be crotchety but I totally think of him as being one of the most happy and excitable Doctors. Some of my faves are The Tomb of the Cybermen, The Mind Robber, and The Invasion. Also The War Games, but that one's like eighty billion hours long. Oh, and if you don't mind watching reconstructions, The Evil of the Daleks has adorable baby Daleks who follow the Doctor around like armor-plated ducklings and it is AMAZING.
My favorite Three episode is Inferno, hands down. The Doctor versus fascist lava werewolves. It is yay. If you want to see Three having FUN, though, I probably would suggest something like The Mind of Evil. And I happen to think The Invasion of the Dinosaurs is quite good, even with that dire title. And it's got Sarah Jane in it!
Four is everyone's go-to Doctor. He's got something for everyone! My fav is Ark in Space, followed probably by City of Death and his last two. Tom Baker himself admits he's gotten a bit crotchety by the end of his run, though.
If you're going to watch Sixth Doctor, watch Terror of the Vervoids completely out of context, and just sort of, um, either ignore or get spoilers for the Trial stuff. That's probably the nicest and most upbeat that Six gets. I happen to love Six, but he's an... acquired taste.
My favorite Five episode is Mawdryn Undead, but that might just be because I'm a huge Doctor/Brigadier shipper. It's a pretty fun episode, though. I haven't seen a lot of Five myself.
And, um, I'm always willing to elaborate...
Re: ... Someone wanted Opinions on Classic Who?
Date: 2010-03-23 11:02 pm (UTC)I have now purchased all three, and shall embark on a watch of them.
also The Happiness Patrol, which is sugar-flavored crack(literally with the sugar.)
Sadly, I don't think that's available on DVD... my flatmate was very fond of that one too, I do want to find myself a copy of it from somewhere.
As for the other Doctors... man, what have you seen of Two?
Only The Five Doctors! So I admit that I have a very biased view...
The Evil of the Daleks has adorable baby Daleks who follow the Doctor around like armor-plated ducklings and it is AMAZING.
AHAHAHAHAHA. How the hell does that happen? That's genius.
Four is everyone's go-to Doctor.
Which is weird, because he's the one I haven't seen!
If you're going to watch Sixth Doctor,
Um,
Long comment is long
Date: 2010-03-24 02:40 am (UTC)You can sometimes find it on VHS from very good rental places. Or off the internets.
AHAHAHAHAHA. How the hell does that happen? That's genius.
Hee! Well, um, it has to do with them isolating the Human Factor from Jamie to try to figure out why the Daleks keep losing to humans? And they put it in a trio of baaaaaaaby Daleks who the Doctor names Alpha, Beta, and Omega, and... and they are the most precious. And then there are like three more episodes of plot, because Second Doctor serials got looooooong.
Which is weird, because he's the one I haven't seen!
A lot of people in America learned about Who because of PBS, which started broadcasting it in the Baker era. And he was the longest-running Doctor, and the Doctor when most of the current fandom were children. His run also coincided with Douglas Adams' tenure as a writer and script editor. So there are a LOT of reasons people remember Tom Baker's Doctor as the definitive one. His serials are good! He's just not my personal favorite.
Um,
Ooooooookay, here's the thing about Six. (And I didn't see that serial, but I believe it, for reasons I will explain.) When Colin Baker came aboard, he and the script editors and the team all decided that his Doctor was going to have an arc--he was going to start off having had a very difficult regeneration (having been poisoned to death in Caves of Androzani) and wake up scrambled. So over the course of his tenure, he was going to have moments of revelation, and eventually grow up into the wise, kind, noble Doctor that everyone remembered. This was to keep things from getting stale, since everyone felt the series had started running out of ideas.
This failed for a few reasons.
One, his Doctor probably started out too harsh. The "calling Peri fat" moment aside, in his first episode he literally had a psychotic break where he grabbed Peri and started throttling her. That did not go down too well. After that, people were ready to jump on anything remotely violent the Doctor did, especially after the almost complete nonviolence of Four and Five (One, Two, and Three had their moments of beating people up, but nobody remembers that.)
Two, some decision-makers at the BBC were pretty determined to kill the series anyway, for a variety of reasons.
Three... well, there was the costume. (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/b1/Sixth_Doctor.jpg) Imagine that guy trying to inject drama into the line "The unmistakable trail of the giant gastropods!" Yeah. The Twin Dilemma SUCKED.
Four, they switched from a three-or-four half-hour episode format to a two 45-minute episode format, and did something awful to the sound team--the music started sounding awful.
Um... there were probably more. But the point is, they finally let the series continue, as long as they got the Doctor to regenerate AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.
Now, me, I absolutely love Six, but it's in the way I absolutely love Crusade--sort of a meta-knowledge of What Might Have Been and an understanding that things are kind of... weird around that era. Also, I met Colin Baker at Gallifrey One and he was an absolute sweetheart. Start with the Trial of a Time Lord stuff, skip Mindwarp (so watch The Mysterious Planet and Terror of the Vervoids and the last two,) and you'll have seen the best of the Six stuff. Then you can decide if you want to see any more. ;)
Re: Long comment is long
Date: 2010-04-04 10:02 pm (UTC)You know, this is most likely to make me watch it...
RE: Six. Hmmm, that's interesting. I don't think it's something that I would enjoy watching, though. :(
I feel like I should say more stuff, but, um, mostly, I think it all sounds interesting to read about (the thought processes behind it, the planning and development hell, etc) but not really to watch it...
Re: Long comment is long
Date: 2010-04-04 10:23 pm (UTC)Well, the reason I suggested the serials I did was because those are the ones in which Six is MOST Doctor-like and nicest. Also, his radio/Big Finish serials are awesome. Especially recommend The Marian Conspiracy and The Spectre of Lanyon Moor. (Another bonus is that you just get to hear Colin Baker acting without being distracted by his coat!)
Re: Long comment is long
Date: 2010-04-04 10:25 pm (UTC)