The one television show that seems to have drifted in and out of my life has been Doctor Who. It played an important entertaining role to me and I’ve watched it from kid to young man through the sixties, seventies and eighties. Then of course in the fresh century we have had the re-vamped resurrection in its brand new format.
This new Doctor Who is different from the old style and the nostalgic kid inside me does miss the old way. However, I enjoyed the more advanced special effects, but sometimes I can’t adapt to the new fast paced story lines with the Doctor and his assistant running around from one place to another with only a few minuets to save Earth or another collective of beings from annihilation.
The long and the short of it, from a logical point of view, is that the show needed to under go a metamorphosis as well as the Doctor because the ratings did begin to drop in the 1980s. One of the good things about the new stories is that I do think they have a great old Brit presentation. Although, as I have said, the story often moves too fast for my liking, the actual feel of the show is very good. I think the characters and the bad guys all look great and the feel of the show has a wonderful retro – gothic edge.
When I was a kid, my earliest memory of Doctor Who was William Hartnell – the first Doctor. I can remember the giant ant creatures they called Zarbi and of course the Daleks. Many of the stories that stick in my mind are missing from the archives now. I can certainly remember the long drawn out Dalek Master Plan because, as a kid, I loved the fact that the Daleks were in it for so long. I can remember the last episode when the lady helping him collapsed and fell to the sand while the wind was blowing all around. Inside the Tardis, the Doctor and a male assistant watched the lady turn into a skeleton on a t.v. monitor.
I can remember the lady in the picture with the Doctor turned into a skeleton while he and the male assistant watched helplessly on the monitor.
I also remember being once disappointed when waiting for a new story to start and finding out it was about Cowboys. I did not like the stories when he went back in time. It seemed that a lot of William Hartnell stories were set back in the past and I was a little too young to appreciate them. I wanted to see bug-eyed monsters and was more scared of William Hartnell’s grumpy and strict Granddad style image then the monsters. I well remember the last story with William Hartnell for it was the first ever story of the Cybermen.
The last William Hartnell story was the first story to have Cybermen
Patrick Troughton became the second Doctor
When he went through his metamorphic change into Patrick Troughton, I’m sure it was Christmas time or around then and I loved the Dalek story. I remember Ben and Polly were his assistants – the skinny man with glasses and black hair who worked in the complex trying to mend dead Daleks and then getting himself exterminated in the process. I remember Ben kicking a smashed in Dalek at the end before he followed the Doctor and Polly into the Tardis on another adventure. As the Tardis took off, the smashed Daleks eye stalk raises up to the sky allowing the audience to know that the Daleks still lived to fight another day. I don’t remember watching the one about Highlanders, because it was set back in time and I would find it hard to be interested in these stories, but remember being surprised to see the Doctor, Ben and Polly being with a young Scots Highlander called Jamie. They landed on the moon and I can remember the Cybermen really did scare me. I mean real behind the sofa watching stuff – the sort of scared but can’t turn it off stuff little boys liked. One scene that is vivid in my memory is of a man in a space suit running across the Luna surface – terror on his contorted face behind the space visor while a Cyberman chases close on his heels never tiring. I can’t remember Ben or Polly leaving the show, but I do have flashbacks of some of the monsters the Doctor fought against.
The Ice warriors were one of the many monsters that Patrick Troughton confronted
The Abomnible Snowman came back in the Web of fear with guns that covered the victims in cobweb
I can remember the Abominable Snowmen in the Himalayas and something that looked like a chess board that moved the creatures about. Another is set in London with the Yetis and the army fighting in the Underground and the deserted streets of London. The Yetis have guns that leave the victims dead and covered in cobwebs. The Brigadier first appears in this one and came back in another story with Cybermen. I also remember a story with seaweed and foamy water, which was destroyed by sound and people getting possessed by it – not to mention the hissing Ice Warriors in another story. Again, I can remember many of the stories that are now missing from the archives.
The strange man in Power of the Daleks that mended and revitalised the deadly foes only to be exterminated by them.
Jon Pertwee became the third Doctor
Jon Pertwee was one of my absolute favourites. I was older by now, and my mind could wonder and understand things. It also saw the Unit stories come to the fore and Brigadier Stewart. The first story was called Spearhead from Space and I can remember all the shop manikins coming to life and shooting the shoppers in the high street. There were some very good stories and great bad guys during the Jon Pertwee season – the Silurian’s, the Sea Devils, Autons, Ice Warriors, the Daemons and not to mention the good old Daleks. Some of my favourite stories were from this period, especially, The Ambassadors of Death and the Mind of Evil. During the first two seasons, many of the stories were Earth based and set in the present, which was then the 1970s
The Autons come alive as shop manikins during the first Jon Pertwee story
Tom Baker became the fourth Doctor
In 1974 we saw the fourth Doctor, Tom Baker come to the screen and he of course was very popular. Again, there were more stories that would become very well-liked and after a long absence, all through the Jon Pertwee season, the Cybermen returned. I really liked the Tom Baker season too. It was here that the retro – gothic feel to the Sci/fi show really began to look good – even though many of the props left a little to be desired at.
A scene from Tom Bakers Doctor in the Brain of Morbius
Peter Davidson became the fifth Doctor
When Peter Davidson came along as the fifth Doctor, I was always going out and about, so I missed most of this when it was being screened, but I did catch up at a later date. I did see The Five Doctors story and enjoyed it enough to buy the video when it came out. He seemed to come and go very quickly.
Colin Baker was the sixth Doctor in Revelations of the Daleks - a splendid story...
The sixth Doctor, Colin Baker never got a fare crack of the whip, in my opinion, I saw two of his stories when they were broadcast and I caught up with the rest many years after. I thought the Rani story set during the time of the Luddites was very good and the Dalek story with William Gaunt is one of my favourites.
Sylvester McCoy was the seventh Doctor in Paradise Towers - my favorite of his era
Sylvester McCoy had all my attention as my own children were growing up and they were beginning to enjoy the show too. I thought some of his stories were very good, but sometimes it did not take itself seriously enough. I know that might sound a little naff when thinking it is a children’s television show, but I thought Paradise Towers was very good and might have been more sinister if it was not so comically presented. However, it is primarily a show for children and I was now grown up with my own kids.
Paul McGann - eighth doctor in one movie
I was bitterly disappointed by the movie in 1996. I had no complaints against the new Doctor but I did not like the feel of the movie. I thought the inside of the Tardis looked splendid.
The neverending enemy - the retro Daleks always return bringing the good old days to the new...
I used to like the cliff hanger end every week with the four to six episode formats to each story. Now everything seems to happen within forty five minuets or maybe a two – part special. Perhaps I’m getting old and set in my ways, but I still enjoy the show and continue to look forward to watching the Doctor go on into the Universe filled with adventure and danger.
Great Cyberman Christmas Special
Some of the new stories are very imaginative and with the type of technology they have now days, the special effects do look good. I enjoyed the Cyberman story set in Victorian Britain. I try to imagine what I would think of the gigantic Cyberman emerging from the Thames and walking across the tiny houses of London during the 1850s. I suppose the new fast paced formats of the stories are more suitable for children and maybe I look at the show and want it to upgrade to a more adult standard which would be wrong.
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