Doctor Who

Doctor Who ran for 26 years, and its last episode was as fresh and imaginative as its first.

The show chronicles the adventures of a time-and-space traveling alien who wanders the universe battling evil conquerors, ruthless corporations, and other exploiters of the innocent and oppressed. Every few weeks, the Doctor would travel to a different planet or time, allowing the show's cast, setting, and tone to constantly change. Even the Doctor himself was periodically replaced by a new actor, "regenerating" his body whenever he was on the verge of death. This format gave the show an amazing freshness and allowed it to last for over a quarter of a century without becoming stale.

Since the show's cancellation, Doctor Who has been sustained by hundreds of books and radio shows. Although the concept is beginning to seem a bit old now, great "Who" stories are still coming out all the time.

Television remains the ultimate format for Doctor Who, however, and the series has something to offer for just about everyone. The early episodes, starring William Hartnell, were mysterious and realistic in tone, and are terribly underrated by the show's fans. Tom Baker, the most popular Doctor internationally, had a succession of wild and colorful adventures that are more entertaining and a lot funnier than most of the sitcoms on TV today. In its dying days, when Sylvester McCoy was in the lead role, Doctor Who became highly allegorical and politically charged.

Every Doctor's era has some merit, though some are obviously more inspired than others. In the early 70s and early 80s in particular, the show suffered from some poor production values and repetitive plots, but even the bad episodes are fun to watch and often redeemed by some strength – good performances, an interesting plot twist, etc.

Lovers of modern, flashy science fiction will probably laugh Doctor Who off the screen because of its modest special effects, but nevertheless it remains one of the most visually inventive TV shows ever made. Episodes like Tomb of the Cybermen and Remembrance of the Daleks contain unforgettable images that stack up to anything Hollywood produced on a 100x bigger budget. If you want to pick the show's visuals apart, you can, but you'll be doing yourself a disservice if you don't suspend your disbelief and allow yourself to be drawn into the Doctor's universe.

I may be in the minority, but I enjoyed the 1996 TV Movie that attempted to resurrect Doctor Who years after its cancellation. I don't buy the argument that Doctor Who couldn't survive in today's big-budget entertainment arena. The intelligence of the X-Men and Spider-Man movies has convinced me that a slick, cerebral version of Doctor Who could be produced today that would be faithful to the not-so-slick, cerebral original. But regardless of whether Doctor Who returns or not, it remains one of the great TV shows of all time. It still wins awards even today, and enjoys widespread popular and critical acclaim. Even Doctor Who's detractors only serve to prove that the show is famous enough to draw criticism!

In short, Doctor Who is smart, fun, and endlessly creative. It has kept me entertained for over fifteen years, and my enthusiasm for it has barely waned. Science fiction is in a dumb rut right now, so you could do a lot worse than look back at this show, one of the genre's crowning achievements.

This series is just too huge to put into words. Classic Who has so many different styles and stories and protagonists. It's amazing concepts and different, iconic things.things that are just common knowledge in our culture today. Eight Doctors. Eight eras. There's just too much of it to put into words. Doctor Who is just part of British culture due to this fine, twenty six season long story of a time travelling alien.

Each Doctor's era is very different. They seem to have the same style as the Doctor. The Doctor ran the show, with the exception of the First Doctor (William Hartnell) to a degree, who let his companions take charge. Each Doctor had unique personalities, and the style and stories of Classic Who matched the Doctor they were assigned to.

The First Doctor was more of an adviser and let his companions take control, but he was still a crazy, lovable alien just like his other incarnations. The Second Doctor (Patrick Troughton) is my favourite, he's very childish but intelligent and was grown up when he needed to be. The Third Doctor (Jon Pertwee) was the earthbound Doctor started off as arrogant and annoyed, but gradually became more loving. The Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker) arguably made the show popular and is the most known Classic Doctor. He's also arguably the most childish and always had that huge smile.

The Fifth Doctor (Peter Davison) was the youngest Classic Doctor, but acted like the oldest at times. He's arguably the most unlucky Doctor as he just wants fun but death surrounds him. The Sixth Doctor (Colin Baker) is arguably (yes, again) the most disliked Doctor due to his arrogance and choice of clothing (not his fault). He was very childish and serious most of the time. The Seventh Doctor (Sylvester McCoy) was the clown to start off with, but gradually got much darker and more manipulative but always remained childish. The Eighth Doctor (Paul McGann) was probably the most human Doctor, and seemed to be one of the most childish but had a hidden sadness and rage, leading into New Who.

The TARDIS is the Doctor's iconic time and space travelling machine. It has became so iconic in British culture that if a child sees an old police box, he'll/she'll probably shout "TARDIS!" and point. The Master is the Doctor's nemesis, his Moriarty, who can also regenerate when injured as they are both the aliens called Time Lords from Gallifrey. Daleks are another iconic thing in Britain now, try and find somebody who doesn't know what one is.

Of course, these are only brief descriptions and don't go into each era, which usually matches the Doctor at the time. The series is so massive that I could describe it for hours. So impressive. A small concept became such an iconic show. Possibly more famous than Robin Hood, another British achievement.

I gave this series a 9 for a reason, though. I believe the pacing is too slow. It's hard to pay attention much of the time as things take so long to happen. This was normal at the time of 1960s Doctor Who, but not the extent this series. As fun and interesting as it is, it can bore me to a very large extent. If only each story was cut in half, bar some of the better paces stories.

So a huge cultural thing, but the series itself has a number of problems. The concepts are so genius, though, that these can be forgiven. I just find the series hard to watch a lot of the time. I'll review New Who (2005-) separately.

This is perhaps one of the finest sci-fi series ever made. The idea is simple; a timelord who travels through time and space in a TARDIS (in the shape of an old Police Box)with various companions to fight the forces of evil in the Universe.

The budget was never large, but the ideas and effort were outstanding. It started going downhill after Peter Davison finished his turn as the Doctor, mainly due to poor stories and weaker scripts, but with the right budget and some seasoned writers, this show could be very great again.

Well worth watching for the ideas alone - especially some of those in the Tom Baker era, this has a massive worldwide following and deservedly so.

I first found Doctor Who on the PBS network in the early eighties, with Tom Baker. Harry and Sarah must be his Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen, I thought. He was some eccentric scientist. At the end of his first adventure, "Robot", he, Harry and Sarah enter this blue cabinet, the strangest noise in the world is heard, and the cabinet disappears. Now the stumper was Brigadier Lethbridge Stewart's non-chalant reaction to the vanishing box. LIttle did I realize there was nearly twenty years history to what I was watching. I knew nothing about Time Lords, Gallifrey or what a Tardis was, let alone a walk-in police call box, something not found in America.

I missed Harry's departure and thought the actor must have just quit the show, but he did show up later. Then Elizabeth Sladen left and I had no idea what to expect. Gallifrey? What was Gallifrey? He has to go back and get Sarah.

The Gallifrean adventure was followed up with the introduction of Leela, the jungle girl. When she stormed into the tardis, I knew I was watching a show I could not begin to predict. K-9? Need I say more? I was destroyed when Leela left, and with Romanadveratrelunder's arrival I just sat back and went for the ride. When Lalla Ward (Romana II) left, I was a little more braced for what I was watching. So I thought. As Tegan, Nyssa and Adric watched, the Doctor saw all his old friends, then his old enemies. What did this mean?

Enter Peter Davison. I would learn that what I had just watched, five episodes a week, like a soap opera in a matter of eight months, was a twenty year old character. Tom Baker had already quit being the Doctor by the time I started watching it.

Davison's reign would be short and not as thrilling as Baker's. After Davison was Colin Baker, whose tenure was even shorter. Sylvester McCoy was an alleged attempt to get back to the second Doctor. In between waiting for new episodes, existing episodes from back to William Hartnell, the first doctor, and 'An Unearthly Child' would be shown. There would even be the movie to re-introduce the Doctor with Peter McGann taking over for Sylvester McCoy and Eric Roberts as the Master.

But today, it is Tom Baker's term that was so spectacular. The first three actors greatly set the pace for the character, but it took Baker to bring him to America. As Baker would say on the 25th anniversary, Doctor Who was fun, fun, fun.

And it was.

`Doctor Who', in a nutshell, is probably the most imaginative show ever created. Initially, it was about an eccentric time-traveller from another planet, who looked human and affected an English manner and style. The interior of his time machine (called a TARDIS) was huge and highly advanced, but the exterior quaintly resembled an English public call box. The Doctor was a self-imposed exile from a race of powerful beings called the Time Lords. The Time Lords observed history, but never interfered with it. This bored the almighty heck out of the Doctor, so he made off with an older TARDIS and decided to see the Universe for himself.

When the original actor who played the Doctor decided to leave the show, the writers came up with the inventive concept of `regeneration'. Whenever the Doctor was close to death, or actually killed, he would `regenerate' into a new body (and persona). The show went through seven highly talented actors in this fashion.

The format of the show was highly adaptable. Didn't like the way the show was going? Just wait two or three years. The style always seemed to change whenever there was a change of Doctor, producer and/or script editor. The series went from educational children's drama to monster show to intelligent adult sci-fi/drama to gothic horror to high camp, et cetera, et cetera, and so forth.

This was a wonderful, imaginative, fun show when it was on. I was sad to see it go.