Hey youtubers it’s Charlie and this week Doctor Who is back, we are within the 7 day
window. I’ve already done a starter guide in case you’ve never watched it before but
that didn’t include any Classic Episodes so the people at the BBC were really nice
and suggested I recommend some classic who before you watch Episode 1 of series 8, so
that’s what this video is going to be. It’s just a starter guide so if you are really
passionate about Classic Who feel free to leave your recommendations in the comments.
and if you are just finding me for the first time I’m going to be doing weekly Doctor
Who videos for series 8 and a weekly giveaway. All you have to do to enter is be a subscriber
and leave a comment. Details in the description.
Super Quick Classic Who Explainer:
Doctor Who as a series has been around for over 50 years, it started back in the 1960s
and ran till it was cancelled in the mid to late 90s. Eventually Russell T Davies helped
the BBC reboot the series in 2005. So everything before the reboot is referred to as Classic
Who.
When you search for Classic episodes on Hulu, Netflix and other streaming services it’s
usually listed as Classic Doctor Who, when you just search for “Doctor Who” it usually
just returns results for the new reboot episodes.
Right now on Hulu there are 413 listed episodes of Classic Doctor Who, that is a shitload
of tv. That’s not all of it though, a lot of the older episodes are missing. As of right
now there are about 800 total episodes if you include the new reboot stuff.
One of the big questions is “Do I have to watch everything to understand?”, the short
answer is no. But watching classic episodes will give you more context for the way Peter
Capaldi’s episodes play out visually and thematically.
Because the general sense I’ve gotten from Capaldi is that his performance leans closest
to the third and fourth doctor’s Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker. I’ll start with those episodes.
But generally it’s a lot of fun to watch the first appearance of important monsters
and villains.
So I’ll explain why I think each of these episodes is important and the logic how I
ordered it.
Starting off with the Third Doctor - He was Capaldi’s introduction to the series. He
even got to visit him on the set as a child.
I’ll try to limit this to five episodes per Doctor. But there’s Spearhead from Space.
It’s the first episode featuring the third doctor in his own episode. A lot of times
when a doctor regenerated. You’d see the new doctor, but it was technically during
a finale. Spearhead from Space was the first episode of a new series. When you search for
it on Hulu it’s Season 7 Episodes 1 through 4. Those are 4 separate 25 minute episodes.
So it was a big story. It’s famous for several reasons.
It was of course the first episode of the third doctor, it was the first Doctor Who
episode to be broadcast in color and it was considered the beginning of the UNIT years.
A period of time where UNIT as a group was a big part of the stories. UNIT for those
that don’t remeber is the Unified Intelligence Taskforce. Spearheaded by Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart,
on the reboot his daughter Kate is head of UNIT, which was featured heavily in the 50th
Anniversary episode.
Spearhead from Space is also interesting because it sets off the running story of the Doctor
in Exile. The Timelords, which were still around then, exiled the Doctor to 1970s earth
for meddling with the time continuum so much.
The main villains were the Autons, creepy mannequin looking replicants. The episode
is a good example of a really scary creepy story that also has a lot of humor. Which
is what people are saying Capaldi’s run is going to be like.
There’s also a lot of Time Lord Biology that gets explained, so for anyone who wanted
a Time Lord Biology lesson. This is a good episode.
Then there’s the first appearance of the Master in Terror of the Autons, the Roger
Delgado Master. This was Season 8 Episodes 1 through 4. This was the beginning of third
doctor’s second series. I know they used the autons in the previous series opener.
But the storyline introduced us to Doctor Who’s greatest villain and from a production
standpoint it was a soft reboot of the Third Doctor’s run.
They brought in new companions, new uniforms for the UNIT characters and a new standing
set. That was a UNIT lab the Doctor always had a lot of scenes in. Remember, these were
the UNIT years.
Usually nowadays in the new episodes the biggest changes people talk about are new Doctor Outfits,
New TARDIS consoles and new Companions. If you watched the 2012 christmas special with
Matt Smith, they did all three of those things. New TARDIS design, New Doctor Costume and
New Companion. Well, she was a short lived companion. Technically Clara Oswald the companion
is different from Clara Oswin Oswald the almost companion.
Side Note: I will address the rumors about Jenna Coleman leaving during the christmas
special this year after my Classic Who recommendations.
Moving On, more Third Doctor: There’s The Daemons, that’s also season 8 episodes 21
through 25. It was the last story of season 8. It brought back The Master in this supernatural
story. It’s a story that invokes a Devil like character, Doctor Who has done versions
of The Devil several times. I love supernatural stories, but this episode does a good job
of addressing the issue of devil as a concept. That is, differentiating powerful supernatural
beings from religious labels put on them.
For any Marvel fans, this is the kind of story you might find in a Doctor Strange comic.
Doctor Who tackling mythology is always a lot of fun.
They might be doing something similar this year, so keep your eyes peeled.
Then my final Third Doctor Recommendation is The Time Warrior. Season 11 Episodes 1
through 4. This was the introduction of Sarah Jane Smith, one of if not the most famous
of all Doctor Who companions. She got her own spinoff, so let’s just agree that she’s
the most famous. She’s like the Tom Baker of Companions.
This was also the episode that revealed the Doctor’s Home Planet was named Gallifrey.
I know it seems strange that it took 11 seasons before Gallifrey was given a name. But whatever.
The episode itself is set in medieval times and since Capaldi has a Robin Hood Robots
of Sherwood episode, it only seems appropriate to watch Time Warrior.
I’ll be really interested to see if there are any direct references to Time Warrior
in Robots of Sherwood. Be sure to watch both episodes and see.
There are some other really notable things in the episode too. The Time Lords lift the
Doctor’s exile and we meet the Sontarans, that’s Strax’s race.
Let’s jump to the Fourth Doctor’s Episodes, Tom Baker. Peter Capaldi famously mailed fan
scripts to the Doctor Who offices as a teenager. I think he was about 15 or so. You can see
his depictions of the Fourth Doctor in his TARDIS.
Someone asked him about the stories he wrote on the World Tour last week and Capaldi answered
that he was a little embarrassed by his 15 year old self as we all are. I think that
means that he won’t be doing any public readings of his childhood Doctor Who fan fiction.
But we can always hope. Because that would awesome.
The Fourth Doctor’s Run gets referenced a lot because internationally it was the most
popular in terms of audience size. It was a period in time when Doctor Who’s popularity
exploded more than ever.
Sarah Jane continued on as his companion for 3 of his seasons. You can either consider
Planet of the Spiders or Robot his first story. Planet of the Spiders was the Third Doctor’s
finale, so Robot, Season 12 episodes 1 through 4 was the fourth doctor’s first official
story.
There are so many good Tom Baker episodes but Genesis of the Daleks is really important.
It’s Season 12 Episodes 11 through 16. It’s a six part story. We learn all about where
the Daleks came from and Davros, who is the Doctor Frankenstein to the Dalek Monster.
Khaled mutants are still some of the most horrific creatures Doctor Who has ever done.
Genesis is a good post-apocalyptic story about the dangers of Mutually assured destruction.
Surprise Surprise that it was produced during the mid 70s when The Cold War was still escalating
between the Soviet Union and NATO countries.
Then there’s Pyramids of Mars, a very cool egyptian mythology episode. It’s Season
13 episodes 9 through 12. It introduced Sutekh, a very powerful villain. I include this pick
just because Peter Capaldi has an episode titled Mummy on the Orient Express.
I’m not expecting a ton of references in the new story, it’s the one that Foxes is
starring in. She’ll be performing a song in the episode. Which reminds me of the time
Kylie Minogue starred in Voyage of the Damned the 2007 christmas special.
There have been a lot of real life performers and celebrities that have starred in Doctor
Who.
Moving on There’s Brain of Morbius it’s Season 13 episodes 18 through 21. For some
reason it’s not on Hulu, but it is on Dailymotion. I’ll have a master Tumblr post with links
to all these episodes so you can watch them on your computer if you want.
Brain of Morbius is just really cool because the doctor has a mental battle like Matt Smith
did in Nightmare in Silver where the faces of the previous doctors flash on screen. During
the scene in Brain of Morbius a picture of a young version of the first doctor flashes
up.
So you get to see what the first doctor looked like as a young man. It’s just a nice piece
of history.
Moving along there’s Deadly Assassin, that’s Season 14 episodes 9 through 12. It’s a
Gallifrey heavy story. And I think it’s the only time he visited Gallifrey without
a companion. It established the Time Lord rules of regeneration. The Rule of 12. Everyone
was a little confused when Steven Moffat rebooted the Doctor’s regeneration cycle in the 2013
Christmas Special. This is the episode where that rule came from.
It features the Peter Pratt Master who tries to hijack a new cycle of regenerations. Because
Roger Delgado died in a real life car accident, the series cast a new actor, Peter Pratt as
the Master and to explain the physical change they used a similar regeneration explanation
that Doctor Who used to explain why each Doctor looks different.
It’s really creepy but there are a lot of cool bits of Doctor Who canon that show up
like the Eye of Harmony and the seal of Rassilon.
Moving on, there’s Logopolis, the Fourth Doctor’s final story. It’s Season 18 episodes
25 through 28. It’s also not on Hulu, so I’ll include some alternate streaming links
on tumblr.
This story isn’t quite as much fun as the other Tom Baker episodes I mentioned but it’s
still an important one. It was the first story to feature Anthony Ainley’s version of The
Master and it was the fourth doctor’s regeneration into the fifth doctor, Peter Davison. Remeber,
in real life David Tennant, the 10th Doctor married Peter Davison’s daughter, Georgia
Moffat. Making the fifth Doctor, the father in law of the 10th Doctor. Nice doctor who
trivia. And Georgia herself went on to play Jenny, the Doctor’s future daughter in the
canon of the series. Very meta, very cool.
So there’s a billion other really important episodes but since I don’t want this to
turn into an hour long video I’m just going to include essentials from the other Doctors
in my tumblr post with streaming links.
If you are a big fan of classic who be sure to write your recommendations in the comments.
I’m not going to do a Q&A for this just because today is a Game of Thrones day too.
But I will do more bonus videos over the course of the week since we are within that 7 day
window.
In case you’re not sure, Series 8 Episode 1 premieres Saturday the 23rd at 7:50PM on
BBC One. That’s in the UK. For those of us elsewhere the time usually tends to be
the same, but the tv stations are usually different. If you’re not sure which channel
it’s on in your country just search your cable guide.
The episode is 80 minutes, so adjust your DVR settings accordingly if you need to.
And if you don’t have a tv subscription or you stream everything. The episode will
be in the BBC iplayer right after it airs. If you’re not in the UK you might have to
use a workaround to get it to play. I’ll add some recommendations in that master tumblr
post of episode links.
Just to address the Jenna Coleman leaving rumors. The Mirror was reporting that Clara
would end her run as a companion in this year’s christmas special. That’s not confirmed
and the BBC is refusing to comment. So I’ll just say it’s a rumor. I can’t confirm
it. Capaldi is supposed to be staying on for series 9 along with Steven Moffat. Coleman
has not made any official announcements yet.
My next Doctor Who video will probably be my Favorite Catchphrases. Everyone is wondering
what Capaldi’s catchphrase is going to be and so far the funniest theory I’ve seen
has been “Kidneys”.
For the giveaway, remember, there’s a new giveaway every week. So I’ll announce the
winner from this one right now, the next time I post a bonus video. Congratulations to last
week’s winner, Persian Monkey Studios. Always be sure to time travel with a banana. It’s
an amazon giftcard. I’ll message you on your channel for details.
While you wait for that Game of Thrones video tonight click here for my last series 8 trailer
video. I list all 12 of the series 8 episodes. Just the titles. and click here for my beginners
guide for reboot episodes.
6 days people, this is happening. Let’s all high five each other now.