Day Zero, Doctor Who

[sophinisba]

I watched Day Zero last week. Didn't really care for the movie but I seem to be writing a drabble set about it, so that's fun. I'm not finished with it yet but let me know if you'd like to beta five or six hundred words for me.

Also finished watching season three of the new Doctor Who. Now that I'm mostly caught up with the new episodes I'd like to check out some of the classic ones but not, you know, all of them. Can any of you recommend some really good serials from the old days (especially Tom Baker era)? The only one I've seen so far is City of Death.

What about fic recs? I'd really like to read something in which Ten apologizes to Martha for being such an idiot and tells her she's awesome. I don't need them to have sex or anything (though I wouldn't complain...), but a grown-up talk and a hug would be really nice, you know?

Comments

oh, Tom Baker!

[bride-no2.livejournal.com]

There's no other Dr. Who for me. Nothing against the new series, but really, the curly hair and long scarf...and Romana and Adric. You simply must see the Castrovalva episodes. So fantastic.

Re: oh, Tom Baker!

[sophinisba]

Tom Baker's scarf is indeed awesome, but I have fallen David Tennant's Doctor and no matter how badly he treats Martha I don't think I'm going to get over it soon. *sigh* I'll check out Castrovalva. If it's the same Romana from City of Death then I like her a lot. Can you recommend any good episodes with Sarah Jane? (Also hello, and welcome, and I like your icon.)

[gentlehobbit.livejournal.com]

I grew up with the Tom Baker series, and my aunt knew his son. ;)

There were two that really scared me as a child. I don't know their names, but one was about the krinoids (I'm sure that finding the name would be easy with that word), and the other was about this radioactive hand. Both are Baker, I believe... although the hand one might possibly be Davison.

[sophinisba]

Okay, thank you for the recs, I will look for those. I remember Doctor Who being on PBS when I was a kid. I saw a couple episodes with Tom Baker and I remember liking him a lot, but I couldn't keep track of the eps to watch them in order so I never knew what was going on. It has been fun watching the new ones on Netflix and seeing everything in order. I'm a little sad to be done with them now (and just when I'm getting interested in a knitting project again).

[dreamflower]

Tom Baker will always be my favorite Doctor. I've gotten quite fond of Nine and Ten, but they won't ever catch up to Four in my heart. I also loved Five, though it was hard at first to not think of him as "Tristan" from "All Creatures Great and Small".

I went digging to see what I could find about the episodes I liked best--

For the fourth doctor: Robot--the first fourth doctor episode, horribly cheesy special effects, dreadful plot, but immensely fun
Terror of the Zygons--the Doctor meets the Loch Ness Monster
The Masque of Mandragora--I loved this one; set in Renaissance Italy

The following are from the Key to Time cycle, which introduced a new companion, Romana

The Ribos Operation
The Pirate Planet
The Stones of Blood--my favorite of the four episodes
The Androids of Tara--also really good. I finally began to forgive Romana for not being Sara Jane.

City of Death--set in Paris, and involving the Mona Lisa

The fourth Doctor's last two adventures, involving the Master as villain
The Keeper of Traken
Logopolis

The fifth Doctor:

Castrovalva--his first adventure

The next two feature the same setting and villain. I really enjoyed them both in spite of my personal phobias about snakes.
Kinda
Snakedance

The King's Demons--medieval setting, really a fun episode; evil King John and androids

The Five Doctors--a special episode, and the first time I got to see Doctors One through Three.

Also, if you are up for a bit of a wild ride, there's this:

The Ten Doctors
http://www.shipsinker.com/wordpress/2007/03/10/a-doctor-who-comic-the-10-doctors/

It's a brilliant webcomic, featuring just about every single character in the Who-niverse!

[sophinisba]

Oh, gosh, thank you. This is great. When I look at the list of all the eps it seems a little overwhelming but with this I should be fine. :D

[fictualities.livejournal.com]

Tom Baker's my favorite Doctor in Old Who! (Love love love new who too; particularly Ten.) Dreamflower02 has given you a great list; I second every bit of it but particularly The Stones of Blood, one of my favorite of the Old Whos. It's set on earth, and one of its many strengths is the presence of a truly great character actress playing an older female character -- something Doctor Who pulls off every once in a while even in New Who and Torchwood (remember Mrs. Moore in The Age of Steel?) There's also a hilarious quarrel between two . . . I won't give it away. Great Old Who episode.

Much as I adore Old Who, I should warn you about the production values -- if New Who can be cheesy once in a while, Old Who can be -- well, after you get used to the shock the Plastic Villain of the Week is endearingly whimsical rather than otherwise, but you must prepare for the shock. Also the rhythm of the episodes is a bit different (well, a lot different) because each story was originally shown as a series of half-hour episodes. Usually the plots weren't quite involved enough to carry quite that amount of time, so by the standards of today's show there's a lot of time devoted to the two Old Who narrative stand-bys: arguing and running away.

With all that in mind, Old Who rocks. The Doctor is a fascinating character in every incarnation. Tom Baker's particular flavor is a combination of zaniness and creepiness and world-weariness; I think you'll enjoy his performance a lot.

[sophinisba]

Endearingly whimsical, I like that way of putting it. I should have clarified that I just watched City of Death last week so, yeah, I've got some idea of the pacing and production values. It should be fun to watch more though. I like Tom Baker's smile.

And thank you for the episode rec. If Dreamflower's list gets to be too much for me I will still be sure to watch Stones of Blood.

[absolutefiction.livejournal.com]

i would love to read your day zero ficlet and would be happy to beta, as much as i am able.

[sophinisba]

I was hoping that you would be interested! I just finished a few minutes ago. I'll put it up on google docs for you. ♥

[sophinisba]

OMG HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! I was thinking your birthday was tomorrow or I would have said something. Since you liked my DZ ficlet I will cheat and make that your present. :D *hugs and hugs*