Who?

[Jobi1]

I loved that! DAVID FUCKING TENNANT!

Anyone who wants new monsters or villains every single episode to be defeated with slightly different ear shapes or wrinkles on their heads, please fuck off and stick to Star Trek: Airport Lounge or other similarly thinly-vieled xenophobia.

Absolutely all of this. I was glad though that none of the other modern era Doctors popped up during this episode, allowing the focus to be on Jodie. I've absolutely loved her as the Doctor; just wish she'd had more consistently good writing, better companions, and just simply more time in the role. But it was a decent last run-out for her, probably one of the more classically "Doctorish" episodes of her time – lots of running about, in and out of the Tardis, UNIT, classic villains, a bunch of people coming together to help...

Shout out too to Sacha Dhawan, who has been an absolutely brilliant Master, and to Segun Akinola whose excellent scoring gave Jodie's series a very different (wonderfully uneasy) atmosphere compared to the others post-2005.

[DCI Harry Batt]

So. Yeah. I mean. I watched it.

Are people saying it was good, then?

[Levin]

What's the deal with Disney? Is it just like when Netflix buys a British program and then advertises it as being a Netflix program around the world? Or something else?

[Jobi1]

BBC to launch a gigantic archive of Who? stuff on t'iPlayer: https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/20...on-bbc-iplayer

[Disco Child Ballads]

Excellent news. I can now binge watch the entire Pertwee era.

I'm looking forward to the new episodes with David Tennant. I still think he's the best Doctor of the revived series.

[delicatemoth]

Hope this doesn't mean they're leaving Britbox.

Tennant was great except for his mockney accent which really annoyed me. The episode where he plays a WW1 headmaster and doesn't have that accent is my favourite New Who episode (not that I've seen anything like all of them).

[Jobi1]

I'm particularly interested to revisit Sylvester McCoy – my first 'live' Doctor.

Reflecting on the reboot era to date, it may be that I have a severe case of recency bias, but my ranking of favourite Doctors is simply in reverse chronological order from now (although Tennant and Smith are fairly interchangeable for me). The writing/storylines were undoubtedly better in the Tennant and Smith eras, but I just absolutely love Capaldi and Whittaker, both as actors in general and as the Doctor.

My top three favourite individual episodes though are probably 'Blink' (Tennant), 'Asylum of the Daleks' (Smith), and above all 'Heaven Sent' (Capaldi).

[Patrick Thistle]

Blink is the pinnacle of 21st century Who.

Repeat appearances by the Angels has diminished them somewhat but that first episode was incredible.

[elguapo4]

There's few people who wouldn't have Blink amongst the greatest Who episodes.

Others for me include Family of Blood/ Human Nature, The Girl in the Fireplace, Shakespeare Code ( a bit slight but more humourous than a lot of them) and the wartime one with Richard Wilson and first meeting of Captain Jack.

River Song, Rory and Amy annoyed the shit out of me,so I've few good memories of Matt Smith until Jenna Coleman arrived, and Capaldi just passed me by I'm afraid.

You can't get BBC iPlayer in the Emerald Isle unfortunately, so I'm the urchin with his nose pressed to the glass looking at all the lovely stuff that you have.

[Patrick Thistle]

Yeah, The Empty Child was a great episode. "Are you my mummy?" It was a 2-parter with a nice ending. That first part though, brrrr.

[Patrick Thistle]

River Song was a character that got tiresome but Silence in the Library was a decent episode.

Too many Rory and Amy stories were about people waiting for someone for a very long time. It was the only device Steven Moffat seemed to have in his toolbox. Every other episode was about somebody waiting and growing old while waiting. And waiting some more.

[kokamoa]

I’m looking forward in terms of Old Who to rewatching some stories and catching others for the first time. One example per Doctor means:

Hartnell - The Romans (first time); The Chase (rewatch)
Troughton - All rewatches in his case unless they have a surprise for us, but I’m always happy to see The Enemy of the World and The Mind Robber.
Pertwee - Carnival of Monsters (ft); Spearhead from Space (rw)
T. Baker - The Seeds of Doom (ft); The Deadly Assassin (rw)
Davison - The Visitation (ft); Enlightenment (rw)
C. Baker - The Two Doctors (ft); Vengeance on Varos (rw)
McCoy - Delta and the Bannermen (ft); The Greatest Show in the Galaxy (rw)

I shall finally watch the Paul McGann movie, now there are other things to follow it.

As for the Nu Who debates going on up-page. Eccleston was great though given how things panned out, it makes sense to regard his season in the same way that Jon Pertwee’s first season is regarded - different both from what came before and what came afterwards.
Tennant had the best stories, but Smith has been the most interesting characterisation.
Due to how I consume Who (I’ll watch one story from one Doctor and then move onto another story from the next one, albeit chronologically) I’m about 3/4 of the way through Capaldi and Whittaker’s first seasons. I prefer Jodie’s run so far, it took Capaldi about 8 stories (Mummy on the Orient Express) before they got to one I liked. I like the way that in Jodie’s first season, they went back to basics and the character became someone who travelled with friends and had adventures again - though I’m guessing that isn’t so prevalent in subsequent seasons due to the shrillness of those who got upset about a) a woman playing the part, b) multiple BAME companions c) Rosa and Demons of the Punjab, though I thought the former was brilliant. The whole principle of “You can’t rewrite history. Not one line!” brought to life perhaps better than it’s been since The Aztecs. Somewhere, John Lucarotti would have been smiling.

[David Agnew]

I’m looking forward in terms of Old Who to rewatching some stories and catching others for the first time. One example per Doctor means:

Hartnell - The Romans (first time); The Chase (rewatch)
Troughton - All rewatches in his case unless they have a surprise for us, but I’m always happy to see The Enemy of the World and The Mind Robber.
Pertwee - Carnival of Monsters (ft); Spearhead from Space (rw)
T. Baker - The Seeds of Doom (ft); The Deadly Assassin (rw)
Davison - The Visitation (ft); Enlightenment (rw)
C. Baker - The Two Doctors (ft); Vengeance on Varos (rw)
McCoy - Delta and the Bannermen (ft); The Greatest Show in the Galaxy (rw)

I shall finally watch the Paul McGann movie, now there are other things to follow it.

As for the Nu Who debates going on up-page. Eccleston was great though given how things panned out, it makes sense to regard his season in the same way that Jon Pertwee’s first season is regarded - different both from what came before and what came afterwards.
Tennant had the best stories, but Smith has been the most interesting characterisation.
Due to how I consume Who (I’ll watch one story from one Doctor and then move onto another story from the next one, albeit chronologically) I’m about 3/4 of the way through Capaldi and Whittaker’s first seasons. I prefer Jodie’s run so far, it took Capaldi about 8 stories (Mummy on the Orient Express) before they got to one I liked. I like the way that in Jodie’s first season, they went back to basics and the character became someone who travelled with friends and had adventures again - though I’m guessing that isn’t so prevalent in subsequent seasons due to the shrillness of those who got upset about a) a woman playing the part, b) multiple BAME companions c) Rosa and Demons of the Punjab, though I thought the former was brilliant. The whole principle of “You can’t rewrite history. Not one line!” brought to life perhaps better than it’s been since The Aztecs. Somewhere, John Lucarotti would have been smiling.

Carnival Of Monsters and the Seeds of Doom are a treat. Seeds of Doom is one of my personal favourites, and has (in my opinion) the greatest performance by a guest star, and the greatest cliffhanger ever.

[David Agnew]

In other news, not all of the stories will be on the iPlayer. The only one known is the first story, as the owner of the rights to the script (the scriptwriter's son) is refusing to licence them to the BBC, as he's a massive grifter who appears to want the BBC to make another show he wrote (or his dad wrote, and he's adapted) in return. Given that he's a racist, homophobic, transphobic, antisemite conspiracy theorist (the new show he's written is about the WEF conspiracy) he's not going to get very far. He also searches his name, hence me not naming the story or the writer.

[Levin]

Does anyone fancy doing a watch along of a classic serial? An episode or two a week?

[Patrick Thistle]

Ooh that sounds like it coild be a fun idea.

[Trevor Red]

Count me in!

[delicatemoth]

Go on then.

[Levin]

Well that seems like enough interest! Does anyone have a series they'd like to watch to start? Once we have that I'll start a new thread?

[Patrick Thistle]

I watched the first episode of The Daleks yesterday. The picture quality isn't great. The ruined city is genuinely creepy. And, um, William Hartnell seemed to fluff a few lines.

[delicatemoth]

Is that a suggestion or an observation?

I'd prefer not to do one that's mainly animated, which rules out some Hartnell and Troughton.

My nominations for the first five Doctors:-

1 - The War Machines or The Romans
2 - Enemy Of The World or The Mind Robber
3 - Doctor Who And The Silurians or Carnival Of Monsters or The Time Warrior
4 - The Masque of Mandragora or The Sunmakers or City of Death
5 - Kinda or The Awakening

Feel free to reject those and go for something completely different.

[Patrick Thistle]

Just an observation. I'm tempted to go through and catch up on all the early Dalek stories.

[Trevor Red]

Is that a suggestion or an observation?

I'd prefer not to do one that's mainly animated, which rules out some Hartnell and Troughton.

My nominations for the first five Doctors:-

1 - The War Machines or The Romans
2 - Enemy Of The World or The Mind Robber
3 - Doctor Who And The Silurians or Carnival Of Monsters or The Time Warrior
4 - The Masque of Mandragora or The Sunmakers or City of Death
5 - Kinda or The Awakening

Feel free to reject those and go for something completely different.

I'd go with:
The Romans (not seen this one but I like the historicals)
Enemy of the World
Doctor Who and the Silurians
Masque of Mandragora (Baker and Sladen are my all time favourite Tardis team)
Kinda.

[delicatemoth]

I picked stories that I remember as fun but haven't seen for a long while, and also stories that aren't part of an arc (Key To Time, E-Space) or regen stories. The parameters ruled out a few of my favourites.

Baker and Sladen are my all time favourite Tardis team

They're right up there. Her leaving scene is the best one, along with 'Atomic Reactor Runs Wild' it makes The Hand Of Fear worthwhile.

[Patrick Thistle]

I've watched The Silurians before and it felt a bit too long.