Classic Who for Modern Whovians

So yeah, not only have I caught up on New Who but I’ve pretty much caught up on every single TV show I watch (except Supernatural because it’s a policy with me to wait until all episodes have come out), and I’m really not sure I want to go back all the way to the 60’s yet, but if you guys think that’s where I should start then I’ll do just that. :)

Given the easygoing continuity of the classic series just about every story makes a decent “start”, but if you’re wanting to watch it strictly in order then the best place aside from the very beginning would probably be Spearhead in Space, the first story for the Third Doctor.

Not only is it the first story for the Third Doctor, it’s also the first story to be broadcast in color, and at the time was intended to be a slight revamp of the show, with the Doctor stranded on Earth and dealing with alien invasions alongside UNIT (don’t worry though, Three gets to use his TARDIS again eventually.)

I do recommend watching the 60s-era stuff because there are some darn good stories in there, but if you’d rather skip them for now then it’s easy to start further along without missing out on too much continuity stuff. :]

(Source: sauronite)

feeny-chan:

Wait. When WAS Doctor Who created? Didn’t it start in the sixties or something? And aren’t there, like, 20 doctors? Guh, see? It’s stuff like this that confuses me and makes me hesitate getting into the show.

Doctor Who started in 1963. The original series ended in 1989, and the modern version debuted in 2005. The current Doctor, Matt Smith, is the 11th.

A show that big can be pretty daunting!  But thankfully, there are plenty of good places for a newbie to dive in.

If you’re really fond of retro sci-fi, you could watch the classic series first. (Just about any story makes a good first one, as the classic series is very laid-back about continuity.)

If you’d rather watch the modern stuff first, the best starting places are either “Rose” (the first episode of the modern series and the 9th Doctor) or “The Eleventh Hour” (the first episode for both the current showrunner and the current Doctor.)

The modern series is a direct continuation of the classic series, but you don’t have to watch the old episodes in order to understand the new ones. The modern series does a good job of getting new viewers up to speed on the basic concept. (900-year-old alien, time-traveling phone box, etc.)

Of course, if you end up liking the modern series, I do recommend going back and watching at least a bit of the classic show! :]

If you’ve been keeping up with the newest episodes of Doctor Who (Series 7.2 as the kids are calling it) you may have noticed a line in The Rings of Akhaten where the Doctor mentions visiting with his granddaughter. Just who is this kid, anyway?

Meet Susan, played by Carole Ann Ford.

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quiltingqueer asked: What's going on with Netflix is that copyright and licensing is different in America than in Britain, and because some seasons only have individual episodes for sale, Netflix would have to negotiate individually for all of the episodes... So yeah. It's a bit complicated. Daily Motion frequently has it available online though.

Hey, an explanation for Netflix’s patchy selection! Thanks, pal.

Many episodes from the First and Second Doctors (106, as I write this) are missing. As in, the tapes got straight-up thrown away or recorded over. A lot of myths have cropped up - such as the evil tape-trashing BBC employee or the tragic warehouse fire - but the truth is simple:

TV shows used to get wiped all the time.

It’s hard to imagine in this age of DVD sets and channels devoted to reruns, but back in the early years of television there wasn’t much to do with an episode once the broadcast was over. (Check this Wikipedia article for an overview of the practice and a heartbreakingly-long list of shows affected.)

For Doctor Who fans, this means that the 1963-1969 years are spottily available. Some serials are missing all their episodes, while many others are a patchwork of intact video and … not-intact video.

However! *cue upbeat Murray Gold music* Doctor Who, resilient little show it is, has an ace up its sleeve.

We still have ALL the audio.

A side effect of shows only being broadcast once is that some TV fans in The Olden Days would run audio recorders during an episode so they could listen to their favorite programs later. Thankfully, proto-Whovians were almost as ridiculously dedicated as they are today, because they recorded the audio for every single episode. Here in Futureville, those recordings have led to:

Audio CDs

The BBC has put out CD sets of the audio from “missing” stories, complete with narration from the actors to explain whatever isn’t clear from the sound effects alone. They’re sort of like audio books on steroids. (Non-steroids’d audio readings of serial novelizations also exist.)

Recons

Fanmade pairings of audio with telesnaps (the weasel-primate ancestors to today’s screencaps.) Typically use captions to describe the action, though some just use the narrated audio.

Animated Reconstructions

Pretty much the pinnacle of awesome. The BBC has slowly been commissioning animation studios to fill in the gaps of partially-missing serials. They’re not Disney-style cartoon masterpieces, (can you imagine if they had that kind of budget???) but they get the job done with Flash-animated likenesses of the actors. So far The Invasion and The Reign of Terror have been produced, with The Ice Warriors recently announced for the animation treatment as well.

Deep down, every Whovian hopes the BBC will someday discover a secret stash of every episode and rain DVDs down upon the populace. (Which does occasionally happen - 2 episodes were found as recently as 2011.)

But if that doesn’t happen, we’ve got some pretty rad substitutes.

crminalsherlockedgames:

I’ve never watched Doctor Who (because amurikah) and yet I can name most of the characters, know to not blink, and understand some fandom jokes/references.

Anyways, I wanna watch it on Netflix but i don’t know if I should start with classic who? I mean, it seems like the right thing to do but then aren’t there a lot of episodes missing? Ahahdkckodjn

Starting with Classic Who would be awesome, especially if you’re a fan of retro TV, but it’s also fine to save it for later. There’s nothing in Classic Who that’s strictly essential to understand the modern series - the 2005 series is a continuation of the show, but it explains the basic premise (guy travels time/space in phone-box-lookin’ ship) on its own.

Starting with Nine is the best way to watch the modern series, but if you want to quickly catch up to where the show is now, you could start with Eleven and fill in the previous episodes on your own time.

As for the “missing” episodes in Classic Who, yes, there are unfortunately a bunch of episodes from the First and Second Doctors that were taped over or thrown out. However, the audio footage remains for every episode! So it is possible to “watch” the entire show, in one way or another. :]

(Netflix’s selection itself is also weirdly incomplete. I have no idea why they have so few Classic serials available for streaming, since the majority are available on perfectly watchable DVDs.)

(Source: shotgunshutshispiehole)