I used to watch Dr Who all the time when I was kid. My mum used to work with someone who had nearly all the episodes on VHS, and we used to borrow them, so I've probably seen the vast majority of the seven Dr's adventures. :biggrin:

I used to read the old Target books when I was young too, one of my favourites being The Celestial Toymaker, of which I think only two of the televised episodes remain(?). In no way a 'challenging read' ;), but they were absorbing and fun - I could usually read two a night.

My favourite Doctor's were Troughton and Tom Baker - Both legendary! :nod:

As for my favourite story, I would probably have to go with The Tomb of the Cybermen from the Troughton era, yet there were many others that I loved: Genesis of the Daleks, Inferno, The Green Death, Terror of the Autons, The Talons of Weng-Chiang... :cool:

I don't rate the new Dr Who at all. It feels cheap, empty, and very cobbled together. It also seems to have got very 'dumbed down', and almost seems to rely on z-list celebrity cameos to carry it over the ratings barrier. With the classic stories, it used to be enjoyable watching a story unfold over about 8 or so 30 minute episodes, now an entire story is usually crammed into about 40 minutes of cheap CGI-heavy drivel. That said, Christopher Eccleston made a pretty good Dr. :nod:

Pointless Dr Who trivia fact: The story The Five Doctors was released on the day, month, & year I was born! :biggrin:

Yeah, one of the many reasons I dislike the new series is the way it's just one story per 45 minute episode. Whereas the classic series had a story develop over four, six, eight or even twelve episodes in the case of The Daleks' Master Plan. Time was taken for proper plot development, cliff hangers at the end of the episodes were amazing, the Doctor getting into a situation that you think 'How the hell is he going to get out of that situation/survive that?!' :eek:

It just feels like a soap opera these days with flashy CGI, Z-list celebs etc. I understand that they can't make it like the old series because it won't appeal to as wide an audience, but I feel it just doesn't have anything in common with what made the classic series so special.

And all of that coming from a person that grew up when Doctor Who wasn't even actively on TV. I used to watch all the UK Gold weekend omnibuses, all of the VHS I could find and afford, and I also read the novels aswell, just superb stuff.

Yeah me too - I think McCoy was coming to the end of his run when I was a toddler! :biggrin: :lol:

yeah it is such a shame that a lot of troughton stories are missing! he was an amazing doctor!!
i quite liked how they did the invasion using animation to do the missing scenes, they should do that to more i think!
mind robber and robots of death definitely two of the greatest episodes ever!!
i also love genesis of the daleks.

I'm pretty sure they are actually in the process of doing more animations for the lost episodes to get the serials out on DVD.

yaaaaaas thats exciting!!

do u know which stories? i would love it if celestial toymaker was animated.

I'm not sure to be honest, I think The Tenth Planet was one of them, Hartnell's last serial.

that would be cool!
i've always wanted to see tenth planet!
i think the cybermen look pretty scary in this one!

:D

Yeah, the original Cybermen were quite weird looking.

I enjoyed the animated episodes of The Invasion ( the best ever Cybermen story! ) and look forward to other lost serials getting the same treatment.

As for the new series, I have to say I am looking forward to the next series under the guidance of chief writer Steven Moffat, who looks to be taking it away from RTD's ever increasing soap opera slush and into darker territory.

'Smilers', anyone?..

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