Kevin's Watch

A quick Happy 50th Birthday to the Doctor...

Good pic, The Fallen.

Remember watching William Hartnell in b&w, can't remember ever hiding behind the sofa though (I was 11 when Dr Who started). Then watched through other doctors with my kids, didn't watch much during the 90s but now watching the new ones with my grandchildren! John Pertwee was my favourite.

I've met and shook hands with three of The Doctors at various cons I attended back in the day: Pertwee, Davidson, and Baker #2.

Never met any of them, but Colin Baker was in pantomime at the Theatre Royal, Lincoln when my children were small and we saw him twice, or maybe 3 times. He always played the villain.

Interesting now that we've had it confirmed there's been another incarnation of the Doctor (apparently known as the War Doctor) between the 8th (McGann) and 9th (Eccleston).

This would of course mean that, without a little retconning to satisfy the purists, although officially known as the 12th Doctor, Capaldi would actually be the thirteenth and therefore last Doctor, i.e. the product of 12 regenerations, which is the (at least alleged) limit...

...like that's ever going to be the case.

For those who may not have found it, and as mentioned by a few on the previous page, there's a short (6 and a 1/2 minute) official BBC mini-episode called "The Night Of The Doctor" available here that fills in on the McGann to Hurt regeneration. It's the official prequel to "The Day Of The Doctor" and is the 2nd part of the loose tetraology (the first being "The Name Of The Doctor", the end of Matt Smith's Series Seven and the last being the upcoming Smith to Capaldi Christmas Special "The Time Of The Doctor").

And for the real Whovians amongst you, there's an even shorter official BBC mini-episode prequel set on Gallifrey just at the start of the Time Wars available here. Called "The Last Day", it doesn't feature the Doctor, but being BBC, it's well-made and also fills in a little background immediately prior to the 50th anniversary episode.

Also, in case you can find it, there's a really excellent dramatized documentary made by the BBC called "An Adventure In Time And Space" that shows how the show was first conceived, produced and got onto screen. The actor, David Bradley, who plays William Hartnell is especially good. He's the guy who played Filch the sullen groundskeeper in the Harry Potter films. Catch it if you can.

*** START ADDED LATER EDIT ***

Having now taken the time to read through this entire thread, I've seen that unsurprisingly a fair bit of what I've posted above has already been covered one way or another. So be it...

I also noticed a fair bit of division on the subject of David Tennant's 10th Doctor (or should it now be 11th?). Personal opinion here... I think both David Tennant and Matt Smith gave us simply excellent versions of the Doctor. So much so that I fear Peter Capaldi's going to have to pull something very special out of the bag just to match them.

I just about remember William Hartnell's Doctor in black and white, but I grew up with Patrick Troughton's Doctor, plus then all the later incarnations. If you want a personal ranking, here goes:-

#1. Jon Pertwee - the dandy. Just the best, plus all the UNIT stories were just fabulous.
#2. David Tennant - the geek with chic. Best of the modern doctors. Had both an edge and a depth to him alongside the smart mouth and quips.
#3. Matt Smith - the eccentric nerd. An evolution from rather than a revolution against Tennant. Suitably quirky without being annoying.
#4. Patrick Troughton - the tramp/clown. Fantastic casting after Hartnell's original stake in the ground.
#5. Christopher Eccleston - the Northerner. Did it well and got across the Doctor's troubled soul as well as the humour. Let down a little by kapow-fazam "let's all run around to exciting music" production all too often.
#6. John Hurt - the Oscar winner. Thought I'd include him and stick him in the middle. Only one episode, but a hell of an actor. His Caligula was terrifying.
#7. Tom Baker - the plummy ham. Started brilliantly but soon lapsed into over-acted self-parody, sadly.
#8. Paul McGann - the fop. Gets lots of kudos from me for being the first of the modern Doctors but a little too pre-Raphaelite floppy-haired foppish for my tastes.
#9. William Hartnell - the silver prune. Barely remember him, but he can hardly help being dated.
#10. Peter Davidson - the nice guy. Just too pleasant to be the Doctor and rightly known as "the wet vet". British viewers may remember why.
#11. Colin Baker - the blimp. Overblown comedy idiot, but not as bad as...
#12. Sylvester McCoy - the wimp. A truly appalling buffoon. And with the worst assistants.

*** END ADDED LATER EDIT ***

TheFallen wrote:#1. Jon Pertwee - the dandy. Just the best, plus all the UNIT stories were just fabulous.

He also had the best Master. Nothing against Anthony Ainley or even Eric Robers--unfortunately, I don't even know the "new" Master's names, either the guy who was pretending to be Harold Saxon or the older professor who was so far into the future that the universe was heading towards heat death--but Roger Delgado is still the standard against which all other Masters are measured.

Actually....now that I think about that, I am mistaken. Rowan Atkinson's Doctor and Jonathan Pryce's Master were the best. "They're not breasts; they are Dalek bumps." *laugh*

The Fallen, I do agree with you about JP and the Unit stories. We were of course used to hearing him in The Navy Lark on the radio on a Sunday dinner time. JP's talent for voices was incredible. Unfortunately I never saw him in Worzel Gummidge.

William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton and Tom Baker are the others I most remember.

When my children were small it was Colin Baker, probably riding on his success in The Brothers, a Sunday night serial, and as you say, Peter Davidson rode on the back of his role as Tristan Farnon in All Creatures Great and Small. Sylvester McCoy and Christopher Eccleston I didn't watch, although I remember CE from Our Friends in the North and SM from Vision On. I also missed Paul McGann. Then along came the grandsons and I caught up with, mostly, the current doctor, Matt Smith, but also saw some of David Tennant's episodes. I shall watch Peter Capaldi with interest.

I forgot, I did once meet one of Dr Who's companions - Jamie (Frazer Hines) who was Patrick Troughton's companion, in a kilt IIRC, in the 60s. He was playing in a celebrity football match in Winchester whilst I was at college there between 1970 and 1973, and I spoke to him. By that time he was probably in Emmerdale.

Finally got through the Eccleston episodes. We found them on On Demand, so Dam-sel and I are watching them there, since we don't have BBC America. Am puzzled, as they have season 1-6 plus specials on On Demand, but they all say they are available until the end of the year. If they have previous year episodes, why would they all disappear this year?

Anyway, is Tenant's first episode, The Chr-stmas Invasion, considered episode 1 of season 2? Or do we need to go in to specials to watch that before beginning season 2?

On Demand has all of NuWho available until end of year for catch up purposes for 50th Anniversary, usually On Demand only carries about 6 weeks of current episodes, so, this is a special thing, that's why it will go away at end of year

Yes, Tennant first episode is Christmas Invasion, Then S2, then Runaway Bride, Then S3, then Voyage of the Damned, then S4 and then the Specials Year (The Next Doctor, Planet of the Dead, Waters of Mars, The End of Time Pt1, The End of Time Pt 2).

Christmas Specials between Series are x.0 for the following Series (IE: The Christmas Invasion is Ep 2.0; Runaway Bride is 3.0; Voyage of the Damned is 4.0). It gets more complicated after that

sindatur wrote:On Demand has all of NuWho available until end of year for catch up purposes for 50th Anniversary, usually On Demand only carries about 6 weeks of current episodes, so, this is a special thing, that's why it will go away at end of year

Ah! That explains it. So Dam-sel and I do need to try and get through them all. We were hoping they would reup.

sindatur wrote:Yes, Tennant first episode is Christmas Invasion, Then S2, then Runaway Bride, Then S3, then Voyage of the Damned, then S4 and then the Specials Year (The Next Doctor, Planet of the Dead, Waters of Mars, The End of Time Pt1, The End of Time Pt 2).

Christmas Specials between Series are x.0 for the following Series (IE: The Christmas Invasion is Ep 2.0; Runaway Bride is 3.0; Voyage of the Damned is 4.0). It gets more complicated after that

That helps as well.

Again, much thanks!

I just watched the Eccleston episodes for the first time on Netflix, then went on through the first Tennant season. I'd never seen any Eccleston before, and only the odd episode from Tennant.

Surprised to find, after initially being a bit jarring, that I much prefer Eccleston's Doctor to Tennant's. Eccleston's series suffers for looking very low budget and occasionally dated (the finale with all the references to long gone TV shows, for example), but otherwise that whole first season works very well, particularly in comparison with seasons since Moffat took over. It feels like the season was planned out as a whole before they started.

I'm Murrin wrote:It feels like the season was planned out as a whole before they started.

Didn't Eccleston sign on for one year only from the start? I think they wanted an intense Doctor to reintroduce the series, and bring in new viewers, so it probably was all planned out.

Menolly wrote:

I'm Murrin wrote:It feels like the season was planned out as a whole before they started.

Didn't Eccleston sign on for one year only from the start? I think they wanted an intense Doctor to reintroduce the series, and bring in new viewers, so it probably was all planned out.

We'll never know the whole truth of the matter. Lots of different versions, but, Eccelston is bitter about The Politics on the show. He did take two meetings to appear in the 50th, but, chose not to appear, but, we don't know why he chose not to appear (Still bitter, even with different management, not interested in going back, not happy with script, etc, don't know)

Hashi Lebwohl wrote:No, aside from the fact that it was nice of them to use McGann, since he really got robbed of his time as The Doctor. One movie and that's it? Really?

That was pretty funny, though: "I'm a Doctor, but not the one you were expecting".

It was so awesome that they used McGann for that minisode. And, yes, he needs more time as the Doctor on screen.

He actually has a lot of time as the Doctor on Big Finish audiodramas, though. I've listened to a few of them and they are quite good. Planning to buy more. They are having a Twelve Days of Big Finish sale starting on Xmas day; hoping that some Doctor Who episodes will be on the menu.

Also, has anyone seen The Five-ish Doctors? Classic Doctors poking fun at themselves regarding the 50th Anniversary special and quite amusing.

Running out of time to catch up on the new-Who via On Demand. Dam-sel and I just finished season 2, and said good-bye to Rose. That was some story arc...

...now to find out who the blustery bride is.

Well, if you run out of time on on-demand, there's always Netflix. Seasons 1-6 are up there. Hoping they will get season 7 after the Xmas special, but I have no idea if they will. I caved and bought season 7 from iTunes.

Plus Netflix has a selection of classic Doctor Who that's fun to watch. Not necessarily my favorite classic episodes of all time, but still fun.

MsMary wrote:
He actually has a lot of time as the Doctor on Big Finish audiodramas, though. I've listened to a few of them and they are quite good. Planning to buy more. They are having a Twelve Days of Big Finish sale starting on Xmas day; hoping that some Doctor Who episodes will be on the menu.

Neverland and Zagreus are top notch Audios starring McGann, and are on sale for only $2.99 each for download. They are the lead in to a Spin off Series The Gallifrey Adventures, starring Romana and Leela and their two K9 Units, and I really love the Gallifrey Adventures Series.

Also, Evelyn Smythe as Colin Baker's Companion is a stellar Audio series of about 20 Audios (the first 9 of them are on sale for $2.99 a download)

Can't wait for the Christmas Special tomorrow, chomping at the bit with excitement

Yes, I'm really looking forward to the Xmas special as well. My friend and I are getting together to watch it.


Big Finish permanently reduced the price of the first 50 main range episodes of Doctor Who in honor of the 50th anniversary. So they are all $2.50 apiece for the downloads.

By the way, Big Finish has a free download of a Sherlock Holmes story today, I see.

Oooh, and I should mention that the Doctor Who 50th anniversary special story The Light at the End is worth getting from Big Finish. It features 5 classic Doctors. I got the special edition download (they also have a standard download) and enjoyed it a lot.