The original, irascible, grandfatherly, prickly, funny old man himself.

It was a surprise when I checked out TWoP style recaps of the first stories, and found that the orginal Doctor was quite the pompous asshole, almost a Dr. Smith type character who kept getting everyone else into trouble. Thank god this changed with the others.

Since we're at the start of this thread, perhaps it might be helpful to list the adventures of the 1st Doctor. I have bolded those stories which are available on DVD, or CD if audio only:

Season I (1963-64)
1. An Unearthly Child - 4 eps - Susan, Barbara & Ian
2. The Daleks - 7 eps - Susan, Barbara & Ian
3. Edge of Destruction - 2 eps - Susan, Barbara & Ian
4. Marco Polo - 7 eps (all 7 only exist as audio recordings) - Susan, Barbara & Ian
5. The Keys of Marinus - 6 eps - Susan, Barbara & Ian
6. The Aztecs - 4 eps - Susan, Barbara & Ian
7. The Sensorites - 6 eps - Susan, Barbara & Ian
8. The Reign of Terror - 6 eps (episodes 4 & 5 only exist as audio) - Susan, Barbara & Ian

Season II (1964-65)
9. Planet of Giants - 3 eps - Susan, Barbara & Ian
10. The Dalek Invasion of Earth - 6 eps - Susan, Barbara & Ian
11. The Rescue - 2 eps - Barbara, Ian & Vicki
12. The Romans - 4 eps - Barbara, Ian & Vicki
13. The Web Planet - 6 eps - Barbara, Ian & Vicki
14. The Crusades - 4 eps (episodes 2 & 4 only exist as audio) - Barbara, Ian & Vicki
15. The Space Museum - 4 eps - Barbara, Ian & Vicki
16. The Chase - 6 eps - Barbara, Ian, Vicki & Steven
17. The Time Meddler - 4 eps - Vicki & Steven

Season III (1965-66)
18. Galaxy Four - 4 eps (all 4 eps on audio only) - Vicki & Steven
19. Mission to the Unknown - 1 ep (audio only)
20. The Myth Makers - 4 eps (all 4 eps on audio only) - Vicki, Steven & Katarina
21. The Daleks' Master Plan - 12 eps (episodes 1,3,4,6,7,8,9,11&12 only exist as audio) - Steven & Katarina
22. The Massacre - 4 eps (all 4 eps on audio only) - Steven & Dodo
23. The Ark - 4 eps - Steven & Dodo
24. The Celestial Toymaker - 4 eps (episodes 1,2&3 only exist as audio) - Steven & Dodo
25. The Gunfighters - 4 eps - Steven & Dodo
26. The Savages - 4 eps (all 4 eps on audio only) - Steven & Dodo
27. The War Machines - 4 eps - Dodo, Ben & Polly

Season IV (1966-67)
28. The Smugglers - 4 eps (all 4 eps on audio only) - Ben & Polly
29. The Tenth Planet - 4 eps (episode 4 on audio only) - Ben & Polly

All in all, fifteen of Hartnell's 29 stories are available, though the first three stories won't be out on DVD until March 28th. Granted, a fair number of these stories are incomplete, but you can get the audio recordings, and the official BBC website even has photo snapshots of "The Savages" and "The Smugglers" to gaze upon as you listen to those stories. The "Lost in Time" DVD collects the assorted existing episodes from "The Crusades", "The Daleks' Master Plan" and "The Celestial Toymaker".

Personally, I'm rather fond of this earliest of Doctors. These early adventures were rather experimental at times, and the initial lineup of Hartnell's Doctor with his grand-daughter Susan, and wayward teachers Ian and Barbara works extremely well. The show had a strong sense of continuity, with each story flowing into the next, some running themes and strong characterization. Once Vicki joins the crew, the show gets a bit more light-hearted and fun. Steven is a likeable enough character, though once Vicki leaves, and Katarina has a very short-lived time aboard the Tardis, we have to endure Dodo. The Steven and Dodo era holds up less well, in my opinion, but in all fairness, much of this era has been lost, and only exists as audio. It can be extremely different from story to story, but also a bit jarring as the quality varies quite a bit. By the final few stories of Hartnell's reign, we have a totally new crew, with Ben and Polly representing the very swinging sixties.

I know these tales from the early 1960s may seem creaky and old at first glance, but I find they hold up extremely well, and William Hartnell is quite an amazing actor. While he gets a lot of credit for his dramatic scenes, his comic abilities are very underrated, in my opinion. The man had an incredible gift for comedy!

The first thirteen episodes, comprising the first three stories, will be out on DVD March 28th, and would be my recommendation if you are new to this era. If nothing else, it may be interesting to compare how the series started in 1963, with the current series about to air on Sci-Fi. There are some interesting parallels.

"The Aztecs" and "The Dalek Invasion of Earth" are both strong and dramatic, but I do hope we can see more of the comedy of his era out soon, such as the wonderful "The Romans", "The Time Meddler" or "The Gunfighters".

The many stories of his available as audio CDs can give you a great taste of his later years, especially as so many of them are consecutive, and this show really works best when one can go from adventure to adventure in order, as was originally intended. Seeing how one wouldn't have pictures to go along with most of these stories, does mean that it would be a purchase to pursue once you are well and truly hooked to the series.

After the DVDs, if anyone is interested in the CD versions, I would heartily recommend the biggest of them all - The Daleks' Master Plan (which includes the one-episode "teaser" Mission to the Unknown, which doesn't feature the main cast at all). It's a massive, galaxy-spanning, almost epic, story that sounds great, and the three surviving episodes show that it didn't look too shabby either for being '60s BBC B&W fare made on a shoestring budget. Episodes 4 and 12 are simply amazing - and shocking! - and thrill me each time I listen to them. Part of me would love to see Episode 12 recovered, but another part of me thinks that it could never look as good as the soundtrack and my imagination...

(Episode 7 is a bit of an oddball here - it was a one-off Christmas special only very loosely tied into the rest of the story, and thus is much, much more light-hearted than the rest. But it's a good break from all the grimness, and the momentary change of tone doesn't detract from the rest as a whole).


On the DVD front - The Web Planet has already been released in the UK, and will probably be released in North America sometime later this year.

.


Ah yes, The Web Planet, also known amongst my friends as the episode when the writers and the production staff got ahold of the really good drugs.

Yes! The Web Planet is pretty strange to begin with, featuring actors in what I recall to be moth suits doing some etherial method acting, kind of "floating" around in this odd sort of choreographed insect dance. To make matters a bit more unusual, when a TV station in my area was showing entire stories edited together at midnight, I caught this story. About 1:30 a.m., there was some kind of editing error, and maybe 15 minutes was repeated -- and that was 15 minutes of (as I recall) quite confusing miniature (?) wire work (?!) involving moth-people (?!*%) flying about, coming in for landings, etc. In context, it didn't make that much difference! I have to give the BBC props for going so, uh, avant. Certainly not your average, everyday canned scifi premise.

I can't wait for it to be released on DVD stateside! Sounds like a trip!

I was thinking that one of the great things about dvd is that no more shows like his journeys will never be destroyed since it would not be worth it. I also just started to get into Docter Who and other BBC shows and even the first doctors stories are better then 90% of whats on tv.

I remember seeing "The Web Planet" on WLIW on Long Island many years ago and wondering whether Mom had put the wrong kind of mushrooms in the meatloaf.

Agreed re: "Time Meddler". If memory serves me right, it's the first time we meet another Time Lord, although he's never called that.

I don't know what the general opinion is on the novelizations (or if there is a general opinion,) but I would recommend the paperbacks as a way of checking out some storylines before making the investment. I had a huge collection as a kid, which I got rid of for some reason, and most of them are reasonably well-written.

I didn't realize how much of an impression the books had on me until I found out recently that 3 of the 4 episodes of The Celestial Toymaker had been lost -- I had read the book so many times that I had a clear "memory" of seeing all 4 episodes!

Agree completely with Uncat. Part of it was that many of the novelisations were actually written by the show's writers, so they knew what they were talking about.

Back in the days before VCRs, the novelisations were the only way to revisit Doctor Who except for the infrequent summer repeats! I still have a bunch of them in a box somewhere - must dig them out...

Just as a heads-up, "The Beginning" DVD set - containing the first three serials (a total of 13 episodes), the unaired pilot episode, and several documentaries about the origins of the series and the Daleks - is set for official release in North America on Tuesday, and indeed several places have begun shipping it already. If you are curious to see how the series began all those years ago (and don't mind watching 1963 B&W television), then you might want to check out this set.

Perhaps we should start a "classic series DVD" thread here in this section. If so, what should we call it? "The Space-Time Visualizer: Doctor Who on DVD" perhaps?

I am definitely buying "The Begining" Box set. For all the William Hartnell novices out there, I think the first Dalek story is the best way to introduce yourself to his era. It stands up really well.

I got that a few weeks bad. A bit creaky, with shaky camera-work and the actors occasionally forgetting theri lines (didn't they do re-takes in those days), but in general very good. William Hartnell is excellent showing the Doctor before his contact with humans tamed him

IIRC from various internet sources I read back in the late 90s, the earliest episides were taped in relatively long takes, switching "live" between various cameras, mostly to be cheap -- plus, I think they had to physically cut the videotape and splice it, or something appallingly barbaric like that (as I say, I read about it a long time ago), so it made sense to keep such editing minimal. Maybe the program had to be so cheap that re-takes (and the extended hours and labor costs involved) were an unacceptable frivolity.

I just picked up "The Beginning" box set. I was quite happy with it, too. The first stories look like they were shot like a soap opera, or "Dark Shadows" or something along that line. Everything done in one take, with special effects, titles, etc added as they went along. Hartnell surprised me with his Doctor. He was cranky and acting old and helpless in "An Unearthly Child." I loved the extra with kidnapping Doctor Number Five. All in all, worth the money. The prints were cleaned up very well and it's a blast.

I watched "An Unearthly Child" a little while ago and had to stop it halfway through because Ian annoyed me so much, but I actually liked the first Doctor in this episode and I'm interested in seeing more of him. Actually, he was the only character that I wasn't annoyed by. Really, if I had to put up with those people, I would have been cranky too (note: I'm being a bit silly here, but only a bit).

Just watched some of "The Dalek Invasion of Earth" today (about four episodes) on the local PBS station. William Hartnell is the first of the classic DW Doctors that I will be seeing in any significant amount, since I barely remember the show from my childhood, and I think I'll like him. He's got some traits that I recognize from Nine, so I was pleased at that, and it was lovely to hear the theme music, even in the wavery, black-and-white eps that I saw. Anyway, I also think it'll be nice to see the Doctors in order (er, except for Nine).

And I agree, the Doctor was one of the least annoying characters in the episode. Barbara was actually fairly useful, but Susan? She grated a bit. Ian was all right. The Daleks? Hilarious.

Release date for The Web Planet is September 5th here in the US. Along with the excellent Pertwee story Inferno.

Whoo-hoo! I don't need to save for retirement, after all.

I got the Web Planet for Christmas on VHS many years ago - I never finished it. It was a little dull, but it had men wearing hose and bee costumes dancing around. That was... odd.

Someone mentioned upthread that when they were watching The Web Planet they repeated 15 minutes of the episode. When I lived in Maryland I used to watch Dr.Who on PBS and they would do that to some of the episodes.

As a NewGen fan, I don't really "get" The Beginning. If it were just the lower production quality and lack of special effects, I could handle it. What really gets to me is the antiquated style of writing and acting. It was probably the best that television had to offer back then, but it pales in comparison to the cream of the crop these days, most notably the new Who. I realize that that's probably considered blasphemy around these parts, but it's just my opinion.

I have found a way of enjoying them, though: I try to imagine how Nine would feel if he were to watch them. What first gave me this idea was a part in "The Daleks" where Susan, much to her delight, discovers a petrified flower and exclaims upon it to her grandfather. Without so much as turning his head, One disinterestedly mutters, "Mm? Oh, very pretty." At that point, I could just picture Nine sitting next to me, shouting angrily and helplessly at the image of his past self. "'Pretty'? It's FANTASTIC! Won't you just look at her for a moment? There's your own flesh and blood right next to you, and all you can think about is your stupid scientific enquiries! In another few centuries, she's gonna burn! You hear that, you pompous old fool? They're all gonna burn!" Just the thought made me want to hug both versions of him.

That nearly made me sniffle, Ember.

Thank you, lhb.

I've got some more thoughts, after watching a bit more of Beginnings. The characters are really growing on me, epsecially the Doctor and Susan. Once I stopped expecting One to be anything even resembling Nine, I started liking him for the magnificently flawed and lovable old man he is. I do wonder what changes him, though. Susan, once you get past the screaming, is really rather adorible. She's also everything that her grandfather isn't: compassionate, down-to-earth, easily excited by little things. In those ways she balances him out well, and, especially with her slight ADD, also occasionally reminds me a bit of Nine.

There are still a lot of things I don't like, though. The phrase "different morality" comes to mind. I keep picking up on these prejudicial undertones. Susan is so terrified of the prospect of coming across a mutated Thal that she doesn't want to leave a room with a Dalek in it, but as soon as she sees that they're humanoid and not at all malformed, she trusts them completely. Barbara repeatedly calls the Thals "human," and no one bothers to correct her. Ian says that there's something "not quite human" about the Daleks, and no one bothers to mention that he's merely stating the obvious. The Doctor, in explaining the evolution of the Thals and the Daleks, all but comes right out and says that humanity is the standard which all other lifeforms must strive to reach. And it's not just aliens; in An Unearthly Child, the cavemen are similarly abused when the Doctor informs his Companions that they have no concept of kindness and compassion, and their own actions and dialogue fully support his statement.

The new generation at times almost seems to be apologizing directly for the xenophobia of the past. "The End of the World" villifies "purists," establishes the Doctor as a lover of diversity and proponent of tolerance, and cleary distinguishes between "humans" and "people." Only Human, one of the novels, superimposes Neanderthal Man upon Homo sapiens of three different eras in a way that's somewhat less than flattering to humanity as a whole.

Once again, though, I wonder when the change really started. When was it first established that the Doctor had two hearts? That was certainly a concession to Otherness.

Two things change him, incrimentally. The first is (or rather are) Ian and Barbara. Whereas before the Doctor would only care about himself and Susan, during the course of the stories in The Beginning, he also begins to care about them as well. He originally has no qualms about abandoning those annoying inteloper teachers to their fates, but eventually he becomes protective of them as well. Thus he eventually becomes involved in adventures and causes because Ian and Barbara get in danger, thus changing from someone who cares only about himself and his kin to someone who cares about a wider circle. And eventually, through Ian and Barbara, he begins to discover the admirable qualities of humans, who soon become quite his favorite species (to quote a later Doctor).

The second thing that makes him change are the Daleks. In the third Dalek serial (towards the end of the second season), the Daleks build a time machine of their own and chase him down (the story is called, imaginatively, The Chase). The Doctor attempts time after time to outrun them, but the Daleks doggedly persue them. Finally, the Doctor and his companions decide to stop, make a stand, and actually fight the Daleks. This is a seminal moment in the series: before this point, the Doctor and his companions would never willingly become involved in their adventures - it was always unwillingly thrust upon them, ususally by having the TARDIS being made inaccessable or unusable by them. This is reinforced at the start of the following Dalek serial, The Daleks' Master Plan (in the third season), where the Doctor quite vehemently decides to stand and fight instead of at least attempting to run away from the situation. From this point on, the Doctor's moral core is basically intact, and evolves recognizably from that point to the present day.

As for the beginnings of a more diverse and tolerant viewpoint of the Doctor, that would be from Galaxy Four, which is a story between the two Dalek serials I just mentioned at the start of Season 3. This story features beautiful female aliens and horrifying monster aliens - but the Doctor takes the side of the peaceful monsters against the warlike women. This serial definitely subverts the "pro-human" attitude you mentioned earlier. That's not to say that the series didn't fall into the old cliche of human=good, nonhuman=bad - it did, and quite often actually - but it would also take the opposite viewpoint pretty often, even to the point of rehabilitating an old big bad, the Ice Warriors, and making them the good guys in later stories.

(It may be interesting to note that the three stories I mention and the changes in the Doctor and the series contained within all occured during the transition from the original production team to its successor at the end of Season 2 and the start of Season 3)...

Oh, and the Doctor is established to have two hearts in the first Jon Pertwee story, Spearhead From Space, at the start of Season 6. Which is a major retcon, as it's very much implied (though not stated) earlier that the Doctor only has one heart during earlier medical examinations...

Demetrios, I bow before your superior knowledge. Thank you for sharing that with me.

And, furthermore, I like it. I figured that his human Companions would have a part in it, as it's a pretty old story, touching despite being cliché. But I love that it was also the Daleks. I'm always fascinated by the relationship between heroes and villains, and how they seem to define eachother. That it was the Daleks, the archvillains, that made the Doctor a hero makes me very happy.

I kind of think that you get a better feel for Doctor #1 after seeing some of Tom Baker's episodes where he actually goes home to Gallifrey, like The Deadly Assassin. For the first time, you see why the Doctor looks at the Time Lords as assholes, and that he's pretty much right. They maintain a non-interventionist policy, supposedly to keep from screwing things up, but really because they don't actually care what happens outside of their own little world. And you could see the Doctor wanting to get away and play tourist, see the universe, and struggling to maintain the detachment that he's always been told he should have, only to find that it's hard to view other species as unimportant when you actually get to know them and see them dying. The Doctor's early story arc, such as it is, is basically his increasing inability to just walk away as he's always been told he should do, until by the end of Doctor #2's tenure, he sacrifices what matters most to him, his ability to travel in the TARDIS, so that he can set things right.

Just in case anyone is interested, The Web Planet, a story from Season 2, will have an official release in North America on Tuesday. See an alien world filled with giant insects - all done with a 1960's Doctor Who budget and effects!

Is The Aztecs a good story? I have not seen any of the stories of the First Doctor, so I was just curious to know what stories would be considered the best.

The Aztecs is considered a good story, but be forewarned that it's a "pure historical", meaning the only sci-fi bits are just the TARDIS and its crew - everything else is historical based.

According to what I've read, the First Doctor was the only one without a second heart (although of course the Eighth had his forcibly removed at one point, but that's not really germane here), with the second heart appearing as part of his regeneration at the end of "The Tenth Planet". Whether this is just something appearing in non-television Who stories ("The Man in the Velvet Mask", etc.), and thus possibly not considered canon, is another question.

Hopefully the BBC will release "The Tenth Planet" on dvd sometime in the future. It would require something be done about the episode with with missing video, but the Cybermen were never creepier than in their first appearance, and as Hartnell's swan song it's a real series landmark. After all, if the concept of regenerating the Doctor hadn't caught on with audiences, this episode would have been very close to the end of the road for the series as a whole.

It has been released on VHS with the final episode reconstructed from the full soundtrack, little bits of video which survived (including the actual regeneration scene), and the off-screen photos which a man by the name of John Cura provided as a service to paying TV shows in the pre-video days. When the BBC releases it on DVD, we'll get that reconstruction at the very least. If the animated version of the two missing episodes of The Invasion is a success, hopefully they will decide to fully animate the missing final episode of The Tenth Planet as well...

Just to remind everyone that today (Nov. 23rd) is the 43rd Anniversary of the series, so pop in those DVDs of An Unearthly Child in celebration!

What a time in history. We lost JFK, C.S. Lewis, and got The Doctor--all within the same couple of days.

Was Doctor Who a success because of Hartnell's Doctor, or in spite of him? He had some of the greatest companions (Barbara, Ian), and the Daleks. He's always one of the least popular Doctors in the polls they take for Doctor Who viewers.

I think that one of the biggest reasons why One is less popular is because his era was so long ago. How well does Two do in polls?

Also, many of the traits that we associate with the Doctor were established by Hartnell's successors. The whole "vast intelligence hidden under goofy veneer" thing which the new series has emphasized began with Troughton and was carried on by Tom Baker and Sylvester McCoy.

Doctor Who was a moderate success, but it was the Daleks that really put the series on the map.

However, William Hartnell WAS the Doctor back then. I believe there was a dispute between Hartnell and one of his later producers. The producer actually wanted him off the show and replace him at the end of The Celestial Toymaker. That Hartnell outlasted that particular producer says a lot. In fact, the greatest reason for Hartnell to leave the year after that incident was his fast failing health.

That he is not so popular now is probably more due to the differing formats of the older stories to newer stories (even compared with the 70's and even later 60's stories), the loss of several stories and his comparison with other Doctors.

You might also consider that in the beginning he wasn't very nice. That couldn't have helped his public perception.

Well, I love Hartnell's portrayal and I am a twentysomething American female (and know several others my age who do as well).

As has been said, the Daleks were what guareented that the series lasted past the first 13 episodes. And during those first 13 episodes, the Doctor is a bastard. He kidnaps Barbara and Ian, and he is primarily concerned with his own curiosity and his own safety. He starts to soften in "The Daleks" when he realizes that his selfish actions could have gotten all four of them killed, and by the end of "Edge of Destruction" he is even apologizing for his mistakes. He mellows throughout his serials, changing from a pigheaded bastard into a bonafide hero.

Also it is interesting that, at least for the first two seasons, the Doctor is not the lead of his own show, Ian and Barbara are (it is interesting to see how he picks up traits from the teachers, Ian's speech in "The Daleks" and Barbara's in "Reign of Terror" and "The Crusades" both sound like something a later incarnation would say).

I think the biggest problem with his popularity is that people have preconceived notions about his era being in black-and-white, and so they make judgements about the serials and Hartnell without ever having watched it, which is a shame becuse they are really missing out on some fantastic stories and some of the best companions that the show ever had. Steven, Ben, and Polly are all fantastic, and Barbara and Ian are quite possibly the best companions that the show has ever had (I actually got a friend to watch Hartnell solely for Ian and almighty Babs).

You have to view it in the context that it was filmed mostly without breaks in a very theaterical styles, just like you have to accept that C. Baker's were in the eighties and yes, the fashions and the music will make your eyes and ears bleed if you pay too much attention.

On a side note, I am actually surprised that more people <i>don't</i> watch Hartnell, considering that his era contains the (relatively) most "hanky-panky in the TARDIS", with almost every companion (and the Doctor) having a one-serial fling, and Ian and Barbara's not-explicitly-stated-but strongly-implied romance.

The last poll I saw, Troughton was in fifth place, ahead of all the Doctors but Nine, Four, Ten, and Three.



I think his serials may get an unfair rap for being stodgy or old.

Yes. They're not set at a pace like we want to see today. Plus, they tend to be studio bound and really have the soap opera production value look of the day.

Hartnell's stories are definitely not stodgy, but the pacing is sometimes difficult to take. Speaking of more adult themes and "hanky-panky" I distinctly remember at least twice in the Hartnell stories the implied threat to Barbara being rape. One was is "The Crusades" I think, and the other one was an incident where she was essentially trying to talk her way out of a sketchy situation in a remote cabin with this creepy mountain man who wanted to jump her bones. Maybe someone else will remember which story that was. Nothing graphic, but just a bit jarring because I had started watching them with the mindset that "Hartnell's era was when it was really for the kids".

I agree that the first two seasons are so different, but great, because Ian and Barbara are the lead as much as the Doctor.

I think that scene is in 'The Keys of Marinus', the jump to the ice world. Ian has to leave Barbara or is searching for Barbara...

Hi everyone. I've been catching up with the Hartnell (and other Doctor) episodes as they've become available to me here in the states. I've watched a number of different Doctors over the years, but it's only recently that I've been able to see anything by Hartnell. He's interesting. He's crotchety and annoying, and he, at least in the beginning, seems to care less about what happens to these companions, Ian and Barbara, that he's abducted. I think the Doctor's development from this incarnation throughout the rest of the series is fascinating.

I'm curious. When does the Doctor start handing out keys to the TARDIS to his companions? I'm presently watching an episode where the Doctor's key has been confiscated, and I keep thinking, "Where are the other keys? Surely at least Susan must have one." But, either Susan's lost her key, or she's just not talking about it because none of them have made mention of another key.

ETA: Susan did have a key. Hers is taken away at a later time in the story. But, no key for Ian and Barbara?

I'm not so sure about the key itself, LibraryTeacher, but you birng up an interesting point about those early shows. There was the constant fear about being seperated from the TARDIS--or each other--and possibly being left behind or stranded in that world/time. The exit of Susan is very somber, not just because its the first time a companion left the Doctor but because the implication is that with the unreliability of the TARDIS and the Doctor's fugitive traveller status there is very little chance indeed they will ever be reunited.

Just'sin: I think you're probably right that it was "The Keys of Marinus". Reading about that story it seems it is not particularly popular or well-liked, but I remember really enjoying it at the time.

Thanks, SpecialBrew. I haven't caught up with Susan's exit yet, so I didn't realize that was implied. I figured it was just thought he'd be back eventually, to check on her. (Something like Sarah Jane must have felt he'd eventually return, but then, he didn't for 30 years or so - apart from The Five Doctors. LOL, we had Susan in that eppy too. Interesting.)

Also, the cabin scene with Barbara and the mountain man was, indeed, the Keys of Marinus, the jump to the ice world. I just watched it a couple of weeks ago.

Me too... Can you imagine what Nine would scream at the "One Day I'll come back" speech from The Dalek Invasion of Earth? Or for that matter, what he would scream at Two and Three over their complete non-reaction at seeing Susan in the Five Doctors? That always bugged me, but now that Susan's most probably dead, it bugs me all the more.



Aldous Huxley also died that day.

I've just watched the first ever episode, and I loved the way that they began the show. I had always presumed that it would begin with the Dr, but the fact that our way to him is through Susan was for me very similar to the way that in the first episode of New Who our way to the Dr is through Rose. Obviously the situations are very different, but they had a similar feel to them. I really liked Barbara when they first came across the Tardis and when they first went inside - she seems a lot more accepting and interested than Ian does, and did a fair bit of Excellent Questioning.

The Dr himself was great, a very interesting character from the start, and I can't wait to see how he goes on. I really liked the idea that he had so little interest in humans, but that he was willing to stay among them for Susan's sake, so that she could go to school. Anyway, these are my initial impressions: I have to buy the DVDs and watch them again before I can say more.

I'll think you'll enjoy them. Obviously if the sometimes glacial pace of 1960's studiobound TV doesn't bother you, its great seeing how the show developed across its first few years. Its a shame so many Doc1 and 2 stories don't exist anymore. But with Doc1 especially you'll get a good idea of how they were feeling their way, seeing what worked, and what didn't. It's a fascinating journey!

In the past year or more, I have been diving into the Hartnell releases. I am currently on The Web Planet, but have already seen everything in the Beginnings box set, the Dalek serials, The Time Meddler, and Planet of Giants. Hartnell is not only the original, he has proven to me he was very good at what he did. His portrayal really is one of the very finest.

The Web Planet. Not one of the series finest moments, I'm afraid.

Personally, I'm convinced that the alleged hallucogen in the water that characters on Torchwood keep trying to blame for the world seeing Cybermen during Doomsday, actually exists, and was used on the cast and crew of Doctor Who during the filming of the Web Planet. ;) It's the only thing that explains that bizzare story.