A 'Classic Who' post.
I have finished my classic series marathon - watched them all back to back. It's taken a while as I went off it a bit during some of the slower stories and there are some fucking HORRENDOUS episodes out there that should never be spoken of again. Some I had never seen before, others (the later ones - Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy) I can distinctly remember watching as a kid but haven't ever seen since. Battlefield in particular seemed so familiar but I've definitely never seen it since 1989 when it was broadcast.
But one thing I've taken from it is my overall opinion of the portrayal of the lead role. Tom Baker is still streets ahead. Even a bad Tom Baker story can be watchable because of Tom Baker. He was born to play the role. Pat Troughton is great (and I think it's important to give that some context - he was so drastically different to William Hartnell - without such a strong performance from the first 'new' Doctor, the show would never have survived), Pertwee actually a bit of a let down even though he had some brilliant stories - I found him a bit too miserable rather too often. However, the biggest surprise for me is that Sylvester McCoy is a FAR better Doctor than I originally thought. His first series is probably the worst series in the history of the show, and no doubt didn't help in the decision to ultimately cancel the show in 1989. Truly awful. But his last 2 series are actually quite decent and he grew into the role superbly, helped a lot with the excellent chemistry between him and Sophie Aldred. I felt a lot of sympathy for Colin Baker - just as he started to develop the character, he was sacked so never got the chance to take the character in the direction he wanted to. He was very much a victim of the shite production and awful issues that plagued the series in the mid-80s. So I'm going to change my order of favourite Doctors, the new series is fresh enough in my mind that I'm including the Doctors from 2005 onwards - which now includes Peter Capaldi in this for the first time (still omitting poor Paul McGann - I can't rate him on a single outing):
Tom Baker
Matt Smith
Christopher Ecclestone
Patrick Troughton
Peter Capaldi
David Tennant
Sylvester McCoy
Jon Pertwee
Peter Davison
William Hartnell
Colin Baker
As for the stories - Caves of Androzani and Genesis of the Daleks are still the ones to beat IMO. The former is WAY ahead of its time, the latter is CLASSIC who with a very strong cast and the introduction of my favourite villain. But I thoroughly enjoyed stories like The Talons of Weng-Chiang, Robots of Death, The Visitation, Curse of Fenric far more than the last time I saw them.
I might re-watch 'Nu-Who' starting from Rose now that's all out of the way.
