Because you know what, Doctor? You were my Doctor.
The Tenth Doctor, Doctor Who – “Time Crash”
I’ve been watching Doctor Who for a very long time – more than half my life, and I’m not exactly young anymore. (I feel young, but …) I’ve watched episodes of all of the eleven incarnations of the Doctor, and they’ve all entertained me. Some have entertained me a lot.
The Fifth Doctor, though … he was my Doctor.
I’ve heard Who fans says that their favorite Doctor is the one they first started watching on a regular basis, and that’s more-or-less true with me. The first Who episode I actually watched was “Death to the Daleks”, with Jon Pertwee (the Third Doctor). All I remember was that I was a kid, and I was flipping around the channels at a time when that actually meant turning a dial. I stumbled across this insane show that featured a white-haired gentleman in a blue velvet smoking jacket, suavely chatting with some weird alien while they wandered around corridors
and solved puzzles and got chased by these bizarre robot-looking things called Daleks. I wound up watching whatever was left of the episode, realizing that I was watching something much, much different than I’d ever seen before … and that I was really enjoying it.
Of course, by the time the next week rolled around, I’d totally forgotten about the show.
Maybe a year or two later, I was flipping around the PBS stations again and came across the show again. Gone was the dapper gentleman, replaced with a madman who wore a long scarf and was all “teeth and curls”, as has been said – Tom Baker (the Fourth Doctor). And he was still wandering around corridors … the episode I’d found was “The Horns of Nimon”. Surprisingly, I was still intrigued … and I remembered to watch the show the next week as well.
I got rewarded the next week with a new opening title sequence, and new costumes. Holy shit, what’s this? Maybe this show finally got a budget … nahhhh. But I watched the first few episodes of that season – “The Leisure Hive”, “Meglos”, “Full Circle”, and “State of Decay” – not really knowing anything about the show, and certainly not knowing that it was Tom Baker’s final season. (Gotta love those days before the Internet existed!)
If I remember correctly, I was watching the show on Friday nights, on WNYC – Channel 31, which was a New York City PBS station at the time. For some reason, something else came up for the next couple of Fridays, so I didn’t get to watch the show. So it was a complete surprise when I sat down to watch, expecting more of the adventures of the Fourth Doctor, Romana, and Adric …
… I saw the Doctor change – sorry, regenerate – for the first time. Into Peter Davison, the Fifth Doctor.
To say I was confused, and definitely not happy … that would be an understatement. I vaguely remembered the guy in the velvet smoking jacket, so I knew that “the Doctor” presumably changed, but I hadn’t really given it much thought. I’d really liked the Fourth Doctor and Romana, so having her gone – and having the charming lunatic I’d enjoyed watching transform into this younger, seemingly more serious stranger … not good. I distinctly remember almost switching off the TV, but for some reason I watched anyway.
By the end of that episode – “Castrovalva” – I was hooked. I liked this new Doctor.
And then I watched all of his episodes … and by the time he regenerated again, he’d become my favorite. Even to this day, he’s still my favorite.
Recently, I started watching some older Doctor Who episodes again. I’ve been collecting them on DVD – the “behind-the-scenes” features and mini-documentaries they put on the DVDs are incredible, as are the commentary tracks – but I’ve mostly been watching them out of order, whenever they get released. Somehow, I got the idea to instead watch all of a particular Doctor’s episodes, from beginning to end … one episode a day, or something close to that. No long episode marathons, no complete stories, unless it was a self contained episode (and classic Who doesn’t have very many of those.) Every day would end with a cliff-hanger.
But which Doctor to start with?
Well, the choice was very, very easy.
This blog started with that idea – watch all of the Fifth Doctor’s episodes, from “Castrovalva” to “The Caves of Androzani”, with perhaps his appearance in “Time Crash” as a quick encore. I’ll be writing reviews of each story, along with other related posts that get more in-depth on certain things – maybe a piece on Tegan, or a comparative ranking of the seasons, or something like that. It’ll depend on what watching these episodes stirs up.
Ideally, if I can sustain momentum on the idea, I’ll keep going with the Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth Doctors, and then I’ll see where things go from there. I suppose I’ll be commenting on any goings-on or developments with the new iteration of the series as well – basically, whenever something big goes on with the show, no matter what era, I’ll try and say something. But for now, first things first.
Brave heart. :)
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