Doctor Who Discussion

Looks like Season 22 may be one of the next few releases for The Collection line as Colin Baker has been seen, presumably on location, filming for a possible trailer or documentary, sporting that wonderful garb that The Doctor wears during Revelation of the Daleks.
 
I started watching Doctor Who again the other day. I really loved it when I was younger, when the reboot first came out. I thought Christopher Eccleston was great! Such a shame he was only in one series. I rewatched some of those episodes recently, and they certainly hold up. It's really scary! Just tiptoeing the line of what might be too scary for kids to watch.

I stopped watching midway through season four. I watched the final parts of that season over the past few days. Sadly, I just didn't think they were that great. I haven't had much interest in the subsequent series as a result.

So my interest now has gone to the classic series. I haven't seen any of them. I think I'm going to watch the first ever episode first, then maybe find out which episodes first introduced the classic enemies, and watch those.

Are there any classic episodes I should definitely watch? Also, are there any newer episodes that are really good? I actually really like Peter Capaldi as an actor, but I haven't seen any of his Doctor Who episodes; are there any highlights? I look forward to anyone's recommendations!
 
Eternal chibi said:
So my interest now has gone to the classic series. I haven't seen any of them. I think I'm going to watch the first ever episode first, then maybe find out which episodes first introduced the classic enemies, and watch those.

Are there any classic episodes I should definitely watch? Also, are there any newer episodes that are really good? I actually really like Peter Capaldi as an actor, but I haven't seen any of his Doctor Who episodes; are there any highlights? I look forward to anyone's recommendations!
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There are loads of great classic series stories, but some personal favourites that I'd recommend as a starting place are:
Pyramids of Mars (the pinnacle of the show's gothic horror era, in my opinion)
Seeds of Doom (basically The Doctor vs The Thing)
City of Death (very entertaining story written by Douglas Adams)
The Deadly Assassin (our best look at the Doctor interacting with Time Lord society)
The Mind Robber (surreal and inventive story)
The Krotons (not a top-tier story, but I have a soft spot for it)
Spearhead From Space (Pertwee hits the ground running in his first story, the first auton story, and the only classic story shot entirely on film (due to a strike at the BBC!))
Doctor Who and the Silurians (first silurian story, and vastly superior to any of their new series appearances)
Image of the Fendahl (another great gothic horror, and one where the Doctor oddly feels like a minor character)
The Curse of Fenric (atmospheric, tense story, and adds to the Doctor's mythology)
Ghost Light (very strange story that probably needs more than one viewing to fully appreciate)

Dalek recommendations:
The Daleks (first appearance)
Genesis of the Daleks (Davros's first appearance)
Remembrance of the Daleks (another that adds to the Doctor's mythology, plus an awesome dalek civil war)

Cybermen recommendations:
Earthshock
Tomb of the Cybermen
I'd actually recommend skipping Tenth Planet until you have plenty of classic series stories under your belt, despite it being both the first cybermen story and the first regeneration story, since it's rather weak.

Capaldi recommendations (most of his run was good, but these especially):
Face the Raven/Heaven Sent/Hell Bent (three parter, with Heaven Sent being one of the contenders for best episode of Doctor Who ever)
The Caretaker
The Zygon Invasion/The Zygon Inversion
World Enough and Time (very, very creepy story)

Matt Smith recommendations:
The Eleventh Hour
Amy's Choice
The Impossible Astronaut/The Day of the Moon
The Doctor's Wife
The Girl Who Waited
The Name of the Doctor
Day of the Doctor
A Christmas Carol

Basically I could waffle on about this show forever.
 
@Eternal chibi I’ve picked out five or so (a few more for Tom Baker’s era) from each of the first Seven Doctors that I’d recommend:

First Doctor (William Hartnell)
The Aztecs
The Romans
The Time Meddler
The War Machines
The Tenth Planet

Second Doctor (Patrick Troughton)
The Moonbase
The Tomb of the Cybermen
The Enemy of the World
The Mind Robber
The Invasion
The Seeds of Death

Third Doctor (Jon Pertwee)
Spearhead from Space
The Dæmons
The Curse of Peladon
The Green Death
Invasion of the Dinosaurs

Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker)
The Ark in Space
Genesis of the Daleks
Any of Season 13 and 14
Horror of Fang Rock
The Ribos Operation
City of Death
Any of Season 18

Fifth Doctor (Peter Davison)
Kinda
The Visitation
Earthshock
The Five Doctors
The Awakening
Resurrection of the Daleks
The Caves of Androzani

Sixth Doctor (Colin Baker)
Attack of the Cybermen
Vengeance on Varos
The Two Doctors
Revelation of the Daleks
Trial of a Timelord (Season 23)

Seventh Doctor (Sylvester McCoy)
Paradise Towers
Remembrance of the Daleks
The Happiness Patrol
The Greatest Show in the Galaxy
Ghost Light
The Curse of Fenric

All the above are great stories IMO though honestly I’d recommend investing in the Collection boxsets that have been coming out since 2018 - they’re re-releasing them in standard editions and these sets have so much value to them.
 
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Thank you both very much for your responses. I am using this as a reference to watch.

I watched face the raven the other day and heaven sent last night. So good! I really like Peter Capaldi, as I thought I would. Heaven Sent was great! I really sensed some Harlan Ellison influence in that episode, really classic sci-fi, and strong horror influence, which I always really enjoy in Dr. Who. It has got me excited to watch more.
 
A couple of updates of sorts for The Collection line:

-Season 22 appears to be releasing 20th June 2022 according to the Swiss retailer which has leaked recent DW releases (manufacturing issues for the sets are the apparent cause of the later-than-planned release date).

-The same info floating around explaining the delay for Season 22 also touts Season 2 as the next release (I’ll believe this when I see it though.)

-Steelbook Central have launched protective covers specialised for The Collection Boxsets - these come in two sizes.
 
A little update on the Steelbook central protective covers: they’re quite good overall once you give the plastic a bit of bending. The excess space for a seven-disc set in an eight-disc protective box isn’t too bad but I would prefer a dedicated protector for that size box - maybe in the future they’ll make them, likewise when the bigger 60’s seasons finally get released (at a minimum they’ll be ten discs or so).
 
HMV have confirmed the 20th June release date for The Collection Season 22 I mentioned before - not long now!
 
HWR said:
View attachment 25843
www.doctorwho.tv

Season 2 announced as the next instalment in The Collection Blu-ray range | Doctor Who

The first full season for William Hartnell’s First Doctor is the next release to come to Blu-ray with Season 2.
www.doctorwho.tv www.doctorwho.tv

Looking forward to revisiting this season!
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Some divisive stories in that seasons. Space Museum and The Chase aren't highly regarded, but I have a soft spot for them, especially since the latter features my favourite dalek specialist (the infamous Maths Dalek). The Web Planet was an early example of the show's ambition outstripping its budget, but just saying, "Sod it, let's do it anyway" with memorable results. The Dalek Invasion of Earth and The Time Meddler are solid stories.
 
Does answer the question of whether they would make collection sets of seasons that have serials that aren't at least animated in some form, granted there is only 1 like that in this season.
 
And so the Chris Chibnall/Jodie Whittaker era of Doctor Who comes to an end. To say the show has struggled in the last few years would be an understatement. While Whittaker made a decent Doctor, Chibnall's initially preachy and joyless approach in series 11 managed to temporarily kill my interest in a show I've watched unerringly for forty years. He injected some sense of adventure back into it in series 12, but the best of his run only matched middling episodes from the RTD and Moffat years. Demons of the Punjab was the only really great episode I can recall.

At least it ended on a high note with tonight's Power of the Doctor. While not the most imaginative story, relying on all the usual villain suspects, it was an entertaining feature-length finale with some welcome cameos, and gave Whittaker's 13th Doctor a satisfying send-off. And that's to say nothing of the jaw-dropping twist at the end!

So rather than the previously announced Ncuti Gatwa, the 14th Doctor turns out to be David Tennant! Seemingly Tennant will star in three specials in November 2023 (that's going to be a long wait) as RTD returns as show-runner, and that story will pave the way to another regeneration into Gatwa being the 15th Doctor. What a rollercoaster!

So how has everyone else felt about the Chibnall era and that latest episode?
 
Doctor Who The Collection Season 2 has finally been given a release date of 5th December. Hopefully the next set will get a trailer in the next month or two. Not sure if we’ll only get two releases again next year or not at this stage.
 
It appears that the same Swiss site that has leaked previous sets has Season 9 listed as the next entry in The Collection range. Season 20 is also rumoured to be coming in the summer. I speculate that we might get season 15/16 or a Troughton (5/6) at the end of the year.
 
It's good to see a release I have a possible reason to buy this time; I skipped season 2 as I already have all it's surviving stories on DVD as well as the Lost in Time set for what's left of The Crusade; I'm still hoping against hope that more Hartnell/Troughton episodes will turn up, maybe for the 60th anniversary🤞.

As for season 9; I've already seen Sea Devils and Time Monster so I'm hoping that the others are good.
 
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