![\"\"](\"http:\/\/johnshepherd.me.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/daleks-300x186.jpg\" "\\"The")
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I recently ran out of things to watch on my Tuesday-and-Thursday-Curry-and-Sci-Fi-Lunch-Break sessions. Battlestar Galactica, right from the start – done. Firefly – done. Every season of Blakes 7 – done. <\/p>\n
What next… Hmmm… how about some “classic” Doctor Who?<\/strong><\/p>\n The problem with watching vintage Doctor Who is deciding where to start. I could maybe try to be a completist, and start from the very beginning… but… I’m not sure I could stomach *all* the early fuzzy Black and White episodes (besides which, a bunch of them are famously lost-without-trace, so it wouldn’t really be a “true” completist approach anyway). So instead of doing that, I thought I’d aim for every episode made during my lifetime, in the right order. And I can always go back and watch the older stuff later, if I have the inclination.<\/p>\n Apparently the Doctor was busy dealing with the Silurians (for the first ever time!) at the moment of my birth… and it was only the 3rd Doctor’s second ever on-screen adventure. Therefore, the start of the Jon Pertwee era (which also happened to be the first episode broadcast in colour) seemed the ideal place to begin.<\/p>\n 128 episodes later: Jon Pertwee = done!<\/strong> \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n Verdict:<\/strong> a bit variable, really. Some of the stories were actually rather good… a few were awful… but most were a perfectly fine no-brains-required accompaniment for a plate full of Lamb Biryani or Chicken Tika Masala. It’s kind of nice to see a lot of the Doctor who mythology (especially all the UNIT stuff, and a whole season pretty much devoted to The Master) clicking into place. I’m not sure how convinced I was by the whole Dandy-Englishman-Adventurer-with-a-black-belt-in-Venusian-Karate approach to the character, low-rent James Bond chase scenes and the flying who-mobile… but I chewed my way through all 5 seasons of it without feeling the compulsion to have a break and watch something different, so it clearly wasn’t be too disagreeable. Oh, and Jo Grant is a way<\/strong> better companion than I ever thought she would be. I think I even preferred her to Pertwee-era Sarah Jane Smith.<\/p>\n So… yeah, all in all, I rather enjoyed that. Tom Baker next…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I recently ran out of things to watch on my Tuesday-and-Thursday-Curry-and-Sci-Fi-Lunch-Break sessions. Battlestar Galactica, right from the start – done. Firefly – done. Every season of Blakes 7 – done. What next… Hmmm… how about some “classic” Doctor Who? The … Continue reading