Saturday, November 2, 2013

You Finally Watched WHO?

Well, about a week ago, after years of everyone on the internet going gaga over it, I finally gave in and decided to give the long-running British TV show "Doctor Who" a chance. With 50+ years of canon and 11+ Doctors, where's the best place to start?

Well, going off of certain beginner's guide sites, I opted to start with the 9th Doctor at the beginning of the 2005 revival series, since that one was meant to bring in new viewers in the first place and it's easier to catch up to the present (at which point I can peruse the best of Doctors 1-8 at my leisure).

This post was meant to be a lot longer, giving my first impressions, but I'm going to hold off on that for now. I will say upfront that I very much enjoy the show and am looking forward to catching up. However, there's a disconnect I'm experiencing, and I want to get a few more seasons (or series, as the new ones are called) under my belt before I go off and talk about it.

These nagging thoughts aside, which will be discussed at a future date, I again must state I am officially a fan. I don't like it quite as much as other things - yet - and it's not one of my favorite shows - yet - but I am enjoying pretty much every minute thusfar.

More to come. If you don't want to wait, there's always the TARDIS...

....*whur whur whur*

Okay, so I wrote this earlier, and I'm coming back to edit that apparently the show turns 50 this month so...Anniversary! Bye now.

*whur whur whur*...

16 comments:

  1. Yay!

    2005 is where I started as well (I got into the show sometime late 2010, I think). Very fun, and the first series still holds a special place in my heart.

    If you have Netflix or Hulu Plus, they have a selection of the classic episodes that would be great places to start from once you're ready to get into that. I myself started with "The Ribos Operation", which has the most popular Doctor and starts off a series arc and is tons of fun (also written by arguably the best writer on the show- Robert Holmes). I would say, though, perhaps the best starting point for the classic show would be "The Curse of Fenric"- it comes towards the end of the classic series' run and thus bears similarities to the new series, and is just one of the best things ever (also features perhaps my favorite Doctor).

    Other great starting points would be "City of Death" (written by Douglas Adams of Hitchhiker's fame), "The Caves of Androzani", "The Three Doctors", and "The Mind Robber (which is totally insane and weird and wonderful). Though really, all of the Netflix selections bar maybe 2 or 3 are really great episodes and all would be pretty good jumping off points. Or you can be like I was and once you finish the new series go back to the very beginning and watch it all in chronological order. That has its own advantages and disadvantages as well.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm using Amazon Instant Video since my wife has Prime, but thanks for the suggestions.

      Even though I'm pleasantly surprised by Tenant (he was my least favorite part of Goblet of Fire, due to how the adaptation missed the point of his character completely, but I like him here), I already miss Eccleston.

      Delete
    2. Ah! Amazon Prime has a slightly different selection than the other two platforms, but interestingly enough all of my recs are available via Prime as well (actually, I think Prime has all the Netflix/Hulu stuff plus 3 or 4 extra stories, so you're actually better off there).


      And yeah, I missed him too on my first go-around. That's the thing about the show- the fact it can change like that and endure complete cast and production turnovers is what's kept it around for so long, and yet it's also the very thing that makes it so hard sometimes to go from Doctor to Doctor.

      Delete
    3. Yeah, I just started Series 3 as we speak, and I'm like "this is not the show I started watching."

      Then something ridiculous happens and I said "No, wait, yes it is."

      Delete
    4. Hah, yeah. Craziness kinda defines the show, I think (just look at one of my favorite episodes, in which the Doctor & co. try to go to Disneyland but get sidetracked by a genocidal warlord who to a 1950's holiday camp and get help from mystical beekeepers).

      Just wait 'till you get out of RTD, though, and you actually come to a production turnover. Difference is striking.

      Delete
    5. It just makes me sad I'm American, because The Doctor is the role of a lifetime and, like, perfect for me...but there's no way they'll give such a British institution to a damned Yank (nor should they).

      Delete
    6. Yeah, I feel the same way.

      Of course, both Tennant and McCoy were Scottish, so maybe there's hope in the future...

      Delete
    7. Yes, but that's different and you know it.

      Delete
  2. I started watching the series when I was a kid in the late 80s when the classic series was still being made. Back then a few small local US stations and PBS would show most of the classic series except for the incomplete stories. I remember Ibeing shocked seeing ads for a new Dr Who series on the SciFi channel back in 2005. I really like the new series.

    In some ways the Dr Who fandom is alot like the Star Wars fandom where you have some "purest" classic who fans who complain that the new series is crap, ruining Doctor Who. Much like "purest" Star Wars fans claiming the same about the prequels. British author Philip Pullman noted “the relentless and merciless idiocy of internet ‘criticism’.”

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Interesting. You'd never know it given how half the internet are NewWhovians...

      Delete
    2. It's not an internet thing- that sort of pure hatred for the current iteration of the show has been in place since around the Tom Baker era (a rather infamous example being a huge article written by a fan detailing just how crap "The Deadly Assassin" was and how much it ruined Doctor Who "mythology". The irony being, of course, that "Deadly Assassin" is now hailed as a sterling classic of the series, and actually treated as a sacred stone in Who's 'mythology' (despite rewriting half of it)). The internet didn't create this cultured- it only made it a little louder.

      Delete
    3. Now that sounds familiar. Where have I heard THAT before, let me think.


      *coughstarwarsccough*

      Delete
    4. Well, it's worth pointing out that that sort of thing doesn't *necessarily* discredit arguments against a piece's quality- saying "oh, well, people were like this about the Tom Baker era too" doesn't actually defend the current series, just point out parallel views that may or may not be actually valid.

      Like anything, it's not a 'one-size-fits-all' sorta thing. Sometimes people are like that and they're being silly. Sometimes people are like that and they're still being silly, but there are valid reasons for it that support some views. It's a grey area, to say the least.

      Delete
    5. It kind of shows of how things can go though cycles of popularity and that people's opinions can be influenced by the group. Especially fandom groups in the age of the internet. That there is both hype and anti-hype that can engulf groups of people. Back when TESB came out, it was not considered the best SW film which is often touted as being the best one as a unquestionable fact. It opened to very mixed reviews as was only in the last 10 years when the group opinion has changed into considering it the best SW film. However if you announce on a SW site you don't think it's the best one then the other fans will "correct" you to think in the "correct" way. While the internet didn't create this kind of culture, it has made it much louder and given it much more influence by spreading groupthink. That's not to say a person's opinion is right or wrong, but that it can be greatly influenced by whatever is currently in vogue with the group, culture, society, etc.

      Delete
    6. " It opened to very mixed reviews as was only in the last 10 years when the group opinion has changed into considering it the best SW film."

      This is a somewhat difficult assertion to make, as while it *did* recieve mixed reviews upon release (Return did as well, and Star Wars had its fair share of naysayers), it's "re-evaluation" so to speak happened during the re-releases of the films in '93 and '97 (well before 'internet culture' really became a widespread phenomenon). So it's been thought in that regard for about 15-20 years if not more than that.

      Delete