We finished up recapping the most recent series of Doctor Who (TIMEHEAD BABY!), so to kill some time between now and when the show comes back in the fall, we’re going to take a step back and cover series 1-5 of the newest re-boot of the series.
Before we jump in, though, I wanted to get some opinions on the best way to go about it. Would you prefer we start at the beginning and cover each episode, or should we take a more piecemeal approach, and cover the best episodes of each series between Eccelston and when Smith re-booted the universe?
If you’d prefer the hodgepodge, toss in a few episodes you think are particularly critical to looking at the series as a whole, or your favorites. Let’s look at this as a project for both die-hard Whovians and the newbies we’re dragging into our obsession, so we get a good balance of information and fanwankery.
For inspiration, here’s a picture of the fella a lot of us count as our first Doctor, Christopher “Angles and Shadows” Eccleston*.
*There will be Tennant spam later.
12 replies on “RetroRecap: Doctor Who”
I’m so excited! There are too many to list, so I’ll choose a few from each season and try to choose ones that haven’t been mentioned yet.
The End of the World, Dalek, Bad Wolf, The Christmas Invasion (anything with Jackie Tyler, world’s coolest mum), Doomsday (I love a good sappy mess, see also: Journey’s End), Human Nature, Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead (it’s been mentioned already, but it’s a damn good one), Amy’s Choice, Vincent and the Doctor
No love for Turn Left? IMO one of the best eps of S4, if only for doing the whole ‘alternate timeline’ so well (the awkward Rose bits notwithstanding).
I keep thinking of good ones that wouldn’t make my top ten list, so I’m struggling with the idea of doing just some of them! Though you can probably skip the dire Slitheen eps and ‘Fear Her’! Maybe you could do them in pairs? The A.V. Club has done some of its ‘Classics’ series that way (they’re doing Veronica Mars and West Wing S3 now in pairs, and they did Buffy that way before they started doing Buffy and Angel together each week in one go).
Turn Left is one of my very favorites. That is TOTALLY on the list. No matter what anyone says, you can’t stop me.
OH NINE YOUR FACE IS MY FAVORITE FACE.
I also like the idea of just doing the best ones, although I think if you poll enough of us, you’ll probably end up doing them all, ha! Some of my favorites:
The End of the World
The Unquiet Dead (Which has one of my favorite lines of the whole series, Charles Dickens saying “What in the Shakespeare?” I know I’ve said this before, but it gets me every time.)
The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances
Bad Wolf/The Parting of the Ways
Christmas Invasion
School Reunion
The Girl in the Fire Place
Runaway Bride
The Shakespeare Code
Daleks in Manhattan/Evolution of the Daleks
Blink
Partners in Crime
The Fires of Pompeii
The Unicorn and the Wasp
Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead
The Stolen Earth/Journey’s End
The End of Time
Victory of the Daleks
Vincent and the Doctor
The Lodger
I haven’t started Season 6 yet, but… this is a very long list. Pretty much anything with Nine or Donna is the best, I guess?
Also, Harriet Jones, Prime Minister, who even the daleks know who she is. :-p
YES, WE KNOW WHO YOU ARRRREEEE.
:D
I KNEW I could count on you. : D
I cannot tell you how excited I am about this retro-recap, because my husband and I had just decided to start re-watching Eccleston (much to my son’s delight, who at the age of 6, has developed an unhealthy fascination with Billie Piper). This is also fine by me, as Nine makes me go all wibbly-wobbly on the inside…and now I’m blushing.
I agree that you’ll probably end up doing the whole shebang, because it’s going to be awfully difficult to figure out which ones to skip, e.g. you can’t skip the Slitheen episodes because then you miss Harriet Jones!
I think it would be more fun to do the best ones. My favorites are The Empty Child, Blink, Midnight, The Girl in the Fireplace, Family of Blood, and Silence in the Library. Mostly the ones written by Steven Moffat, basically.
Personally, I hated Midnight. I am a terrible Tennant fangirl. The rest are all on my top list too, though.
I also hated Midnight. I felt like I needed to cry from relief at the end of it…
I think it’s more enjoyable to pick the best of the best. So everything including Captain Jack Harkness (*giggles*), “Are you my mummy?” and the transformation episodes.
I should get an episode guide at hand to properly help you.