Post by theretsam on Apr 18, 2014 15:27:41 GMT
I should've started this thread earlier but I didn't have the time. Anyway, I haven't been able to watch much, anyway. Anyway, prepare for a lot of unnecessary exposition.
23 November 1963/2013
Finally it begins. I decide to check out the Classic Era of Doctor Who, one episode per day, starting with William Hartnell's An Unearthly Child. (Actually, I'd started two days earlier, watching An Adventure in Space and Time on first transmission and the unaired first version of AUC, but this is more dramatic.) So I cruise through the Hartnell era, episode to episode to recon... until.
Some time later
Life gets in the way. I got as far as The Space Museum 2. So for a while I had to do other stuff and watched nothing. The Omnishambles still hadn't been solved at this point, so thought let's be daring and I skipped 4 seasons and a bit for after everything else.
Pert-A-Thon
So I ended up at Spearhead from Space. This is the Pert-A-Thon, my diary of watching the Pertwee years... for the first time! (Except Spearhead, which I'd seen before.) Me being a bit slow, I didn't start this thread until some three weeks in... which were mostly filled with not watching Doctor Who once again. Anyway, here's what I can remember from Pertwee up to And the Silurians 5.
Spearhead from Space
Oh my Pert the Blu-Ray looks stunning. This is a must for all Who fans. A must, I say! Loving the music, loving the direction (this was the day Derek Martinus passed away), loving everything! And it's shot almost all on location! And I like the story! The Doctor doesn't do anything, but it still looks great! Look, Liz Shaw does science! Love the outfit!
...but that legendary scene of the Autons attacking is utterly ruined by the actor's melodramatic faces. You can't all be Jon Pertwee, I guess.
and the Silurians
This looks crap. Those caves are fake, and the story is reasonably engaging. If this is the story that's supposed to be so much better than The Hungry Earth... well... I mean that had padding, but this has ridiculous padding! To the story's credit, it manages to engage me (mostly) for the past 5 episodes. But then come to think of it, there was practically a week between them at some point. Trying to watch Doctor Who in any form approximating the original takes ages. Ugh... Here's hoping the end and The Ambassadors of Death are a bit better.