Watch Doctor Who? Who me?

[Ana Canino-Fluit (Anacoqui- mod)]

So after many years of gentle and not so gentle prodding I have finally started watching Doctor Who.  In the past I have seen snippets of the new series, and generally walked away muttering “…alright …that was odd…don’t see much point in that.” However my friends BatMatt and Doc kept suggesting I try it (much the same way we kept suggesting Rich try watching Firefly…) and since I share a lot of tastes in
common when it comes to TV shows and comics a few months ago I relented and let Doc know that I had come to terms with fact that someday I would eventually ended up watching some Doctor Who but needed to know where to start.

Fast forward to two weeks ago when my father had me open a Netflix account so we could figure out why Netflix streaming wasn’t working for him (no streaming outside the 50 states and DC…you lose out if you live in a Commonwealth of the US it turns out…bummer).  Since I had started the clock on my 2 week trial I figured I might as well take advantage of it once we were back in Rochester.

So early last week I started out watching Season 1 of the New Doctor Who series, starring Christopher Eccleston as the Doctor. The first 13 episodes are available via Netflix streaming, and I have watched 12.

If you haven’t watched the series yet…you might as well stop reading unless you want to be spoiled as to how I reacted…

[The Baron]

My take on the Curator is that he is a future incarnation of the Doctor who has developed enough regenerative control that he was able to choose his appearance ( the way Romana chose to look like Princess Astra in "Destiny of the Daleks") and chose to reproduce a previous appearance that he was especially fond of, hence his talk of "revisiting old favorites".

[Jeff of Earth-J]

I agree.

[Doctor Hmmm?]

Me three.

[Jeff of Earth-J]

Here's the new "War Doctor" doll. It comes with "The Moment" and an alternate Eighth Doctor head.

http://www.kasterborous.com/2013/12/war-doctor-crashes-daleks-forbi...

[Figserello]

I loved this line that sums up why I don't get much out of recent Doctor Who:

...future generations, [...] won't be able to appreciate the Matt Smith era unless they also appreciate superhero movies, the cinema version of Harry Potter, XBox-age video gaming, or the early twenty-first-century version of slash-fic. I don't appreciate any of these things, which is why I find it unwatchable now, and also why I hate the modern world.

From Lawrence Miles blog here.

[The Baron]

I said to someone the other day that I could probably do this without looking it up, so I'm going to see here if I can do it, knowing that there are folks here that can correct me if I'm wrong.

 

The First Doctor was William Hartnell. His first companions were his grand-daughter Susan (Carole Ann Ford), and schoolteachers Ian Chesterton (William Russell) and Barbara Wright (Jacqueline Hill). Susan left at the end of "The Dalek Invasion of Earth". Vicki (Maureen O'Brien) joined in "The Rescue".  Ian and Barbara left at the end of "The Chase". Steven Taylor (Peter Purves) first appeared in the same story, but his first full story was "The Time Meddler".  Vicki left at the end of "The  Myth Makers". Katarina (Adrienne Hill) joined in the same story, but was killed off in "The Daleks' Master Plan." Some people dispute whether Sara Kingdom (Jean Marsh) should be counted a companion, but she first appeared and was killed off all in that same story.  Dodo Chaplet (Jackie Lane) first appeared at the end of "The Massacre", but her first full story was "The Ark".  Steven left at the end of "The Savages".  Dodo was dumped off-screen halfway through "The War Machines". Ben Jackson (Michael Craze) and Polly (Anneke Wills) joined in that same story.  Hartnell left at the end of "The Tenth Planet", replaced by Patrick Troughton, whose first full story was "The Power of the Daleks".   Jamie MacCrimmon (Fraser Hines) joined in "The Highlanders". Ben and Polly left in "The Faceless Ones".  Victoria Waterfield (Deborah Watling) joined in "The Evil of the Daleks".   Colonel Alastair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart (Nicholas Courtney) first appeared in "The Web of Fear".   Victoria left at the end of "Fury from the  Deep".  Zoe Herriott (Wendy Padbury) joined in "The Wheel in Space".   Lethbridge-Stewart (now a Brigadier) re-appeared in "The Invasion". Corporal (later Sergeant) Benton (John Levene) also made his first appearance in this story.  Troughton, Hines and Padbury all left at the end of "The War Games".  Jon Pertwee debuted as the Third Doctor at the start of "Spearhead from Space", along with Liz Shaw (Caroline John).  The Brigadier and Benton became regulars at this time. Liz's last story was "Inferno". Jo Grant (Katy Manning) and Mike Yates (Richard Franklin) first appeared in "Terror of the Autons". This story also marked the first appearance of the Master as portrayed by Roger Delgado. Delgado last appeared in whatever the story was before "Planet of the  Daleks".  Jo left at the end of "The Green Death". Sarah Jane Smith (Elisabeth Sladen) first appeared in "The Time Warrior".  Mike's final appearance was in "Planet of the Spiders". This story also marked Jon Pertwee's finale, replaced by Tom Baker as the Fourth Doctor. Baker's first full story was "Robot".  "Robot" also marked the first appearance of Harry Sullivan (Ian Marter).  Harry appeared regularly until "Terror of the Zygons", which also marked the last regular appearances of the  Brigadier and Benton.  Harry and Benton did appear in "The Android Invasion".  Sarah Jane left at the end of "The Hand of Fear". The Doctor had no companion for "The Deadly Assassin". Peter Pratt appeared as the Master in this story. Leela (Louise Jameson) first appeared in "The Face of Evil". K-9 mark I (voice of John Leeson) debuted in "The Invisible Enemy". Leela and K-9 mark I left at the end of "The Invasion of Time".  Romana I (Mary Tamm) and K-9 mark II (Leeson again) debuted in whatever the first "Key to Time" story was called.  RomanaI last appeared in "The Armaggeddon factor".  Romana regenerated into Romana II (Lalla Ward) in "Destiny of the Daleks".  Sometime around here K-9 mark II was voiced by a different guy for awhile (David Brierley maybe?), but I forget which stories.  Adric (Matthew Waterhouse) joined in Full Circle".  Romana and K-9 left at the end of "Warrior's Gate". Nyssa (Sarah Sutton) first appeared in The Kepeer of Traken", but did not becomes a regular until "Logopolis".  "Traken" marked the sole appearance of Geoffrey Beevers as the Master. He was replaced at the end of that story by Anthony Ainley.  "Logopolis" also marked the debut of Tegan Jovanka (Janet Fielding), and the departure of Tom Baker, replaced by Peter Davison as the Fifth Doctor.  "Castrovalva" was Davison's first story.  Adric was killed off at the end of "Earthshock". Vislor Turlough (Mark Strickson) joined in "Mawdryn Undead", in which the Brigadier re-appeared.  Nyssa left in "Terminus", and Tegan left in whichever of "Revelation of the Daleks" or "Resurrection of the Daleks" came first. Peri Brown (Nicola Bryant) joined in "Planet of Fire", and Turlough left in the same story. Davison left at the end of "The Caves of Androzani", replaced by Colin Baker. Baker's first full story was "The Twin Dilemma". Peri left in the "Mindwarp" section of "The Trial of a Time Lord". Melanie (Bonnie Langford) joined in the "Terror of the  Vervoids" section on that story.  Baker was fired after the "Trial of a Time Lord".  Sylvester McCoy took over as the Seventh Doctor at the start of "Time and the Rani".  Ace (Sophie Aldred) debuted in "Dragonfire", which was also Mel's last story.  The series was cancelled after "Survival".  McCoy handed off to Paul McGann in the 1996 TV movie "Doctor Who". This also featured Grace Holloway (Daphne Ashbrook), Chang Lee (Yee Jee Tso) and a new Master (Eric Roberts).  When the series started up again in 2004 or 2005, Christopher Eccleston played the Ninth Doctor, Billie Piper played Rose Tyler, Noel Clarke played Mickey Smith and Camille Coduri played Jackie Tyler. Adam Mitchell (I forget the actor's name - Bruno something?)) first appeared in "Dalek", but left at the end of whatever the "Fox News in Space" story was called. Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman)  first appeared in "The Empty Child".  Eccleston left after one season in whatever that "Daleks on the space station" story was, to be replaced by David Tennant.  Tennant's first story was "The Christmas Invasion".   Sarah Jane became the first companion from the old show to appear in the new one in "School Reunion".  Mickey left after "The Age of Steel, but reappeared several times after.  Rose left at the end of "Doomsday", but also re-appeared several times. Donna Noble (Catherine Tate) first appeared in "The Runaway Bride", but did not become a regular at this time.  Martha Jones (Freema Agyeman) first appeared in "Smith and Jones".  Derek Jacobi appeared briefly as the Master in "Utopia", quickly replaced by John Simm.  Martha left at the end of "Last of the Time Lords", but would re-appear several times. Kylie Minogue did a one-shot appearance as Astrid Peth in "Voyage of the Damned", which also marked the first appearance of Wilfred Mott (Bernard Cribbins). Donna Noble became a regular in "Partners in Crime". Martha returned for "The Sontaran Strategem", "The Poison Sky" and "The Doctor's Daughter".  River Song (Alex Kingston) first appeared in whatever the first half of the library story was called.   Just about everyone one returned for "The Stolen Earth" and Journey's End". Donna left at the end of that story.  David Morrissey played Jackson Lake in "The Next Doctor". Michelle What's-Her-Monkey that was in the Bionic Woman remake was Lady Christina de Souza in "Planet of the Dead". Lindsay Duncan was Adelaide Brooke in "Waters of Mars". Wilfred and the Master returned in "The End of Time", which saw David Tennant replaced by Matt Smith. Smith's first full story was "The Eleventh Hour", in which he met Amy Pond (Karen Gillan, and I forget what the little girl's name was) and Rory Williams (Arthur Darville).  The Doctor first met an aspect of Clara Oswald in "Asylum of the Daleks". Amy and Rory left in "Angels in Manhattan". The Doctor met another aspect of Clara in"The Snowmen" before meeting Clara Proper in "The Bells of Saint John".  The existence of the War Doctor (John Hurt) was revealed in "The Name of the Doctor".  The Doctor met the Curator (Really Old Tom Baker) in "The Day of the Doctor".  We also get a brief glimpse of the Twelfth Doctor (Peter Capaldi) in this same story.  Smith's last story was "The Time of the Doctor", in which he is replaced by Capaldi.

Peter Cushing played "Dr. Who" in "Dr. Who and the Daleks". Roberta Tovey played Susan, and I forget who played Ian and  Barbara.  Cushing and Tovey returned in "Daleks Invasion Earth 2150 AD" with a different Barbara and Bernard Cribbins as Tom Campbell.

Trevor Martin and David Banks each have played the Doctor in stage plays. Rowan Atkinson, the woman who played Patsy Stone and a couple of others played him in "The Curse of Fatal Death".

Edmund Warwick was Hartnell's stunt double, and Terry Walsh doubled for both Pertwee and Tom Baker.

Oh, and Richard Hurndall subbed for Hartnell in "TheFive Doctors".

I forget who it was played him in that on-line story that they released on DVD not that long ago.

I'm fairly sure I missed a couple of others, too.

[PowerBook Pete, the Mad Mod]

Online Doctor was Richard E Grant, who was one of the others who played the Doctor in "The Curse of Fatal Death."

[Jimmm Kelly]

Peter Cushing played "Dr. Who" in "Dr. Who and the Daleks". Roberta Tovey played Susan, and I forget who played Ian and  Barbara.  Cushing and Tovey returned in "Daleks Invasion Earth 2150 AD" with a different Barbara and Bernard Cribbins as Tom Campbell.

I had to look this up, but I was pretty certain that the second Cushing movie did not feature Barbara--and I was right. In the first movie Barbara (played by Jennie Linden) and Susan are granddaughters of Dr. Who. In the second movie Louise (played by Jill Curzon) is the niece of Dr. Who. In the first movie Roy Castle played Barbara's boyfriend, Ian.

Hugh Grant was another Doctor in that Rowan Atkinson bit.

[The Baron]

Cool. Thanks, gents.

[PowerBook Pete, the Mad Mod]

Also in "The Curse of Fatal Death," Jim Broadbent played the Doctor, and Jonathan Pryce played the Master.

[The Baron]

Awesome.

[Mark S. Ogilvie]

I have a fanfilm from the 1980's that has a woman named Barbara Benedeti playing the Doctor.