More Doctors = More better
Mar. 5th, 2010 11:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethSomeone asked for recs for where to start watching Classic Doctor Who.
... my brain, it did crashed, for I want to rec everything ever OMG all the Doctors are the bestests!!! ... except for the movie with 8. I love 8, I really do, but... no.
Plus there's the massive does-not-compute moment where someone has never seen Doctor Who before. I realise these people exist, it's just... *blink* *blink*.
When a show has existed longer than I has, and I learned to read on the little novelisations of the episodes, and my first book I bought for myself was Doctor Who, and most of my first videos, and my DVDs, and definitely my audiobooks though I don't think they count because I was in my 30s... well, anyway, it's really really difficult to imagine not just knowing this stuff.
I'm better at Doctor Who than I am at christianity. I live in a christian country but I haven't been christian for a loooooong time. Yet I also live in a Doctor Who country. The references have been pervasive for less of our history, but for more than my life, so it feels the same. The Doctor? I have studied. And not just the primary texts but lots and lots of the meta too.
... not generally the DVD commentaries though because my inner five year old is watching the Doctor and gets all puzzled when these people are talking about pretending to be him.
... my inner five year old is having fun and I feel no need to fix this.
ANYway...
... where could you actually start?
Not at the beginning. I mean I haven't watched most of that box set, I haven't watched most of the first doctor DVDs I have bought, so, clearly it's not important to understanding all the rest.
Dalek Invasion of Earth is extra good. But then there's Susan, and it's hard to like the Doctor for a while after you see that.
Different seasons of Doctor Who are playing entirely different games. I mean, there's some where he's partners with a near equal, some where he's the Professor and the story is about someone studying up to become his equal, some seasons where it's a military adventure with this guy in a velvet jacket and a cape wandering around in the middle of it telling them they're doing it wrong, times when it's an ensemble show with 4 in a TARDIS, times where it's just the Doctor, times where it's a lot of the Doctor... I mean The Five Doctors is a sort of multi Doctors sampler, except for the thing where it's not exactly 1, but it was the only 1 I'd seen until the DVDs came out so *big shrug*. And I'm entirely unable to objectively evaluate that story because did I mention it was my first book I bought myself? It was brilliant! The cover was shiny! The Doctor was win!
And some stuff I want to recommend some DVDs *but* only with some audios to go with them. I mean, Nyssa is win, but Nyssa on the TV can be a bit... standing there. So you can start someone with Keeper of Traken but they've got to hear Circular Time because it's just that good and then Nyssa is all Nyssa shaped.
And if I watch it now I've got slash goggles I end up with a different set of interesting. I mean, Ace meets a lot of girlfriends, most excellent, and 7+Ace=win, obviously... but if you're watching for Doctor slash you've got 3/Master and 2/Jamie and 5/Turlough and never watch anything with Adric in unless you find him much less disturbing and jailbait-y than I do. Because he's bad enough without the goggles.
Beginning when a Doctor is newly regenerated doesn't tend to work very well either. It does with 3 because they change the game straight away and 3 is his own self after he wakes up, but with 4 he's still changing and he isn't going to be playing with UNIT long anyway. 5 is unconscious quite a lot and in the middle of a big complicated changeover and not really busy being himself yet. 6 I haven't seen ... possibly since he first regenerated... because he was scary and wrong and I went and hid. Huh. And then there's large sections of his run that just don't make sense anyway. I like the Rani and I like the Daleks and I can't say as I like the TV version of 6 very much. But on audio he's great. Anyway... newly regenerated isn't a great way to meet him either. And 7 is not only not feeling himself yet, with amnesia, but he's got a very confusing companion problem! And no Ace yet. I don't feel like he's properly 7 until he's got Ace. And then he kicks off and really plays. ... for some Doctors that would translate as 'has fun', but with 7? Heh, no... chess match time.
Starting with a new companion may work better. You get to watch them meet the Doctor, so it's like being introduced again.
It's tempting to pull a Dalek narrative thread out and tell them to start with those, or the highlights of the Master, and that... works, but there's such a thing as too much Dalek in a row, and it's possible there's such a thing as too much Master, because they do have their signature tendencies and it's like reading the butler did it again. So you get background and perspective on the new series, yes, but you also get... Easter Egg fullness, with the having chocolate as large as your head after having Lent with no chocolate. It might be good, but in that context, you quickly end up deciding you never want to see another piece again.
You could pull a tragic losses thread too. Instead of all the intros, all the losses. 10 don't half make more sense if you line them all up like that.
But then you don't know anyone or why to be upset when they're gone. So that don't work.
Also you've got to know what their tolerance is for old FX, and if they're looking for visuals or can be happy with it being mostly an audio story when you get back far enough.
Plus, there's the pacing problem. Old TV is just slower. Fun or fascinating though it can be, I have a tendency to have a project on the go when I'm watching old Doctor Who, because I like it, but I can get an awful lot done while they're wandering around.
Nope, it's no use, I can't think of where to start. Too many variables. Does not compute.
I'd give them my favourite shiny and hope.
So that'd be The Five Doctors, for starters, and then 7+Ace, maybe Battlefield so there's at least one character in common, maybe Remembrance of the Daleks because made of win. Or Ghost Light. Or The Curse of Fenric. Or... you know, a few.
But that's what I like. Figuring out what someone else likes is difficult.
... I'm pretty sure The Five Doctors is hopeless as an introduction. It's made of confusing. I just like it. Lots of Doctors and LOTS of monsters and puzzles and battles and winning right quick and all that politics bit where the Doctor is the best out of the Time Lords too. Even Time Lord Presidents, when faced with an impossible puzzle, think more Doctor = more better.
... my brain, it did crashed, for I want to rec everything ever OMG all the Doctors are the bestests!!! ... except for the movie with 8. I love 8, I really do, but... no.
Plus there's the massive does-not-compute moment where someone has never seen Doctor Who before. I realise these people exist, it's just... *blink* *blink*.
When a show has existed longer than I has, and I learned to read on the little novelisations of the episodes, and my first book I bought for myself was Doctor Who, and most of my first videos, and my DVDs, and definitely my audiobooks though I don't think they count because I was in my 30s... well, anyway, it's really really difficult to imagine not just knowing this stuff.
I'm better at Doctor Who than I am at christianity. I live in a christian country but I haven't been christian for a loooooong time. Yet I also live in a Doctor Who country. The references have been pervasive for less of our history, but for more than my life, so it feels the same. The Doctor? I have studied. And not just the primary texts but lots and lots of the meta too.
... not generally the DVD commentaries though because my inner five year old is watching the Doctor and gets all puzzled when these people are talking about pretending to be him.
... my inner five year old is having fun and I feel no need to fix this.
ANYway...
... where could you actually start?
Not at the beginning. I mean I haven't watched most of that box set, I haven't watched most of the first doctor DVDs I have bought, so, clearly it's not important to understanding all the rest.
Dalek Invasion of Earth is extra good. But then there's Susan, and it's hard to like the Doctor for a while after you see that.
Different seasons of Doctor Who are playing entirely different games. I mean, there's some where he's partners with a near equal, some where he's the Professor and the story is about someone studying up to become his equal, some seasons where it's a military adventure with this guy in a velvet jacket and a cape wandering around in the middle of it telling them they're doing it wrong, times when it's an ensemble show with 4 in a TARDIS, times where it's just the Doctor, times where it's a lot of the Doctor... I mean The Five Doctors is a sort of multi Doctors sampler, except for the thing where it's not exactly 1, but it was the only 1 I'd seen until the DVDs came out so *big shrug*. And I'm entirely unable to objectively evaluate that story because did I mention it was my first book I bought myself? It was brilliant! The cover was shiny! The Doctor was win!
And some stuff I want to recommend some DVDs *but* only with some audios to go with them. I mean, Nyssa is win, but Nyssa on the TV can be a bit... standing there. So you can start someone with Keeper of Traken but they've got to hear Circular Time because it's just that good and then Nyssa is all Nyssa shaped.
And if I watch it now I've got slash goggles I end up with a different set of interesting. I mean, Ace meets a lot of girlfriends, most excellent, and 7+Ace=win, obviously... but if you're watching for Doctor slash you've got 3/Master and 2/Jamie and 5/Turlough and never watch anything with Adric in unless you find him much less disturbing and jailbait-y than I do. Because he's bad enough without the goggles.
Beginning when a Doctor is newly regenerated doesn't tend to work very well either. It does with 3 because they change the game straight away and 3 is his own self after he wakes up, but with 4 he's still changing and he isn't going to be playing with UNIT long anyway. 5 is unconscious quite a lot and in the middle of a big complicated changeover and not really busy being himself yet. 6 I haven't seen ... possibly since he first regenerated... because he was scary and wrong and I went and hid. Huh. And then there's large sections of his run that just don't make sense anyway. I like the Rani and I like the Daleks and I can't say as I like the TV version of 6 very much. But on audio he's great. Anyway... newly regenerated isn't a great way to meet him either. And 7 is not only not feeling himself yet, with amnesia, but he's got a very confusing companion problem! And no Ace yet. I don't feel like he's properly 7 until he's got Ace. And then he kicks off and really plays. ... for some Doctors that would translate as 'has fun', but with 7? Heh, no... chess match time.
Starting with a new companion may work better. You get to watch them meet the Doctor, so it's like being introduced again.
It's tempting to pull a Dalek narrative thread out and tell them to start with those, or the highlights of the Master, and that... works, but there's such a thing as too much Dalek in a row, and it's possible there's such a thing as too much Master, because they do have their signature tendencies and it's like reading the butler did it again. So you get background and perspective on the new series, yes, but you also get... Easter Egg fullness, with the having chocolate as large as your head after having Lent with no chocolate. It might be good, but in that context, you quickly end up deciding you never want to see another piece again.
You could pull a tragic losses thread too. Instead of all the intros, all the losses. 10 don't half make more sense if you line them all up like that.
But then you don't know anyone or why to be upset when they're gone. So that don't work.
Also you've got to know what their tolerance is for old FX, and if they're looking for visuals or can be happy with it being mostly an audio story when you get back far enough.
Plus, there's the pacing problem. Old TV is just slower. Fun or fascinating though it can be, I have a tendency to have a project on the go when I'm watching old Doctor Who, because I like it, but I can get an awful lot done while they're wandering around.
Nope, it's no use, I can't think of where to start. Too many variables. Does not compute.
I'd give them my favourite shiny and hope.
So that'd be The Five Doctors, for starters, and then 7+Ace, maybe Battlefield so there's at least one character in common, maybe Remembrance of the Daleks because made of win. Or Ghost Light. Or The Curse of Fenric. Or... you know, a few.
But that's what I like. Figuring out what someone else likes is difficult.
... I'm pretty sure The Five Doctors is hopeless as an introduction. It's made of confusing. I just like it. Lots of Doctors and LOTS of monsters and puzzles and battles and winning right quick and all that politics bit where the Doctor is the best out of the Time Lords too. Even Time Lord Presidents, when faced with an impossible puzzle, think more Doctor = more better.
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Date: 2010-03-06 01:44 am (UTC)For example I couldn't watch all One episodes, then Two, Three and so on cronologically. I just don't like the way One acts too much, Ian and Barbara are what keeps me interested in most stories so far. Haven't seen much of Two yet, but in Two Doctors he is much more fun than Six, who get's on my nerves a bit (though Peri takes the cake in that area, the most annoying companion I've encountered so far). My favourite from the classic series is so far Three, I just love him and the Master antagonizing each other. So much slashy potential there...
And I hear some people really don't like some of the recurring baddies, like the Daleks or the Master, so starting with one of those stories is not neccessarily the best either. So, yes, it's probably best to just watch a random adventure and go from there.