Doctor Who. The Early Years.

[Meds]

As a lot of you know I've been banging on about classic Who whenever i get the chance so what i thought I'd so is start a post introducing some Classic Who episodes with a little bit of info thrown in.

Righty ho then lets go. We have to start at the beginning and this would be way back in 1963, well November the 22nd 1963. The first episode is called An Unearthly Child, and this was the first of a four part story. Below I've put the first episode but you should note thats below is actually the rare un-aired pilot episode which was shot a month before the broadcast pilot. This has a few mistakes in it but bare with it, the Tardis doors open out of time and Susan is a bit more weird. The Doctor is quite hard and also cruel but i think this adds something to him, lets face it at this point he's around 600 years old and a bit miffed at being wanderers in time and space. Credits obviously go to Verity Lambert and Sydney Newman who are in essence the parents of Dr Who, but lets not forget the great Delia Debyshire who with the team at the BBC stereophonic workshop created the fantastic sound of the Tardis, and the theme music along with Ron Grainer.

Below is the un-aired pilot in 3 parts, you can now easily get this on the beginnings box set along with the proper pilot episode (which is a bit more flowing).Once again with youtube it may stop and start so i hope it gets to you all ok. Have a view and lets here your thoughts. More Classic Who to come.

An Unearthly Child (Part 1)

An Unearthly Child (Part 2)

An Unearthly Child (Part 3)

[Darth Gaos]

Thanks Hawkeye for the post....I found it to be very interesting.  I will admit that I am a Johnny-Come-Lately to Who fandom so I am very interested in how the show was handled in the "early days".  That was great.

[Meds]

More to come mate.

[Meds]

William Hartnell, played the Doctor  for nearly three and a half years.  After filming the pilots hartnell got heavily involved with portraying the Doctor and over time his original moody Doctor changed to that of a more warmer easy going Doctor. His companions through his tint were Carole Ann Ford (Susan), William Russell (Ian) and Jacqueline Hill (Barbara),  Maureen O'Brien (Vicki), Peter Purves (Steven Taylor), Adrienne Hill (Katarina), Jean Marsh (Sara Kingdom), Jackie Lane (Dodo), Anneke Wills (Polly) and Michael Craze (Ben Jackson). Hartnell's second story would be called The Daleks and here we are first introduced to them. Created by Terry Nation these buckets on wheels have remained as important to Dr Who as The tardis and the Doctor himself.

Below we see the first ever showing, well teasing of The Daleks, its the cliffhanging ending to The Dead Planet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4xhs27cbMI&feature=related

And here we see them in all their glory. I don't know about you but i still find this scary.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZ5QVY78VBI&feature=related

Hartnell's stint as The Doctor is obviously ground breaking but he began to suffer with his health. Doctor Who had become very popular and so the decision was to keep the show and recast him. So as we have now come to expect we see the Doctor regenerate, though regeneration was not mentioned till the 4th doctors term.

William Hartnells episodes.

An Unearthly Child
The Daleks
The Edge of Destruction
Marco Polo
The Keys of Marinus
The Aztecs
The Sensorites
The Reign of Terror
Planet of Giants
The Dalek Invasion of Earth
The Rescue
The Romans
The Web Planet
The Crusade
The Space Museum
The Chase
The Time Meddler
Galaxy 4
Mission to the Unknown
The Myth Makers
The Daleks' Master Plan
The Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Eve
The Ark
The Celestial Toymaker
The Gunfighters
The Savages
The War Machines
The Smugglers
The Tenth Planet


At then end of the Tenth Planet and after facing the Cybermen for the first time the first Doctor, William Hartnell, collapses on the Tardis floor and regenerates. Unfortunately the last episode of the Tenth Planet is lost ( 3 out of 4 exist ) except for some clips from the last scenes and here it is.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-c-rvChba9E&NR=1


And then we're on to Doctor number 2 Patrick Troughton.

[Meds]

The Patrick Troughton Years.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0A655AXPkw


The sad thing about the Troughton years is that not a lot still exists. It is such a shame that the second Doctor who gave us highlights such as The Yeti,  The Ice Warriors and the Domintors is the main victim of the BBC's infamous 1970's wiping session. For Troughton he had an amazingly hard job in taking over a popular role made popular by William hartnell. His first episode called The Power of the Daleks has an amazing scene in which the new Doctor looks in a mirror and see's his previous incarnation. Alas this is one of the stories that no longer exists.

[Meds]

Troughton became a very popular Doctor and had some great stories such as The Highlanders in which he meets his companion Jamie, The moonbase with the Cybermen, The Web of Fear and The War games.  Troughton who alas died in 1983 at a convention in Georgia advised 5th Doctor Peter Davison to only do three years, advise in which he did take on hand. He was known as the space hobo but for me i get really excited when watching one of his episodes, worth giving these a chance. Patrick starred in three joint Doctor Stories. The Three Doctors, The Five Doctors and The Two Doctors.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHLIDd02b0Y

Patrick Troughton Episodes

The Power of the Daleks
The Highlanders
The Underwater Menace
The Moonbase
The Macra Terror
The Faceless Ones
The Evil of the Daleks
The Tomb of the Cybermen
The Abominable Snowmen
The Ice Warriors
The Enemy of the World
The Web of Fear
Fury From the Deep
The Wheel in Space
The Dominators
The Mind Robber
The Invasion
The Krotons
The Seeds of Death
The Space Pirates
The War Games

The Three Doctors
The Five Doctors
The Two Doctors

His final episode The War games has the Doctor on trial refuses to pick a new identity and so the Time Lords pick one for him. We see him protest and then his face contorts in pain. We then see The Tardis land on Earth, imprisoned until the Doctor is able to remember the secrets of The Tardis.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GfWp-A7-Tk

[darthcooley]

Hay thanks for the great DR. Who Post . Very helpfull for us new Doctor Who Fans ..

[Bromptonboy]

I actually first started watching Dr. Who (in the states) in my youth, when PBS was showing the Jorn Pertwee incarnation of the Doctor.  At first, we only had a few of them before the Tom Baker episodes came on air.

As such, these 2 actors have a place in my heart as the Doctor

[M-5]

Thanks Hawkeyemeds for this post.  The first I heard of Dr. Who was in the early 70's.  It was the Dr. Who movies(Peter Cushing).  They were alright.  It wasn't until the mid 70's that I started watching Dr.Who (Tom Baker) on PBS.  He is by far my favorite Doctor.  I watched through the Peter Davison and Sylvester McCoy years.  I really didn't like the US movie version of Doctor Who( Really, Eric Robert as The Master!).  Loved Eccelston.  Tenant is great!  In the past few years, PBS has been showing Jon Pertwee years.  They are great!  I didn't know The Doctor dressed like Austin Powers.  I would really like to check out the Hartnell/Troughton years.  I only seen a couple of episodes of each.  A poster from another forum mentioned that a lot of the Troughton years were destroyed by the BBC. If true, that would be a bummer.

All this Doctor Who talk has inspired me.  I think I'll check with my local library to see if they any of the Hartnell/Troughton DVDs.

Great Post!

[Meds]

Yes unfortunatly a lot of Patrick Troughtons episodes are lost. Unlike the new Who series which normally has a story per episode, old who has a story and an average of 6 episodes a story. Troughton had 21 stories making a total of 119 episodes. Out of the 119 episodes only 50 still survive. At the moment their is a DVD called Lost in Time which documents the remaining clips and archive footage. Interestingly the sound still survives so work in development is animation. So if you have say three episodes out of a six part story then they are now animating the lost three. Great idea. I'll be doing the Jon Pertwee years next. Ah dancing Pertwee.

[Meds]

The Jon Pertwee Years.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEl4CgtHxiE

Jon Pertwee took over the role as The Doctor in 1970, gone were the days of black and white and in bounced colour, well for those who owned a colour TV that is. Pertwees Doctor was less the elderly explorer or space hobo that had been the first two generations but in came an adventurer. People class The third doctor as the James Bond version. He had his own car called Bessie and a flying aircraft the who mobile. The third Doctor introduced us to such luminaries a the Master superbly played by the late Roger Delgado

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDrsd4ZhzFA

and Brigadier Alastair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart (Nicholas Courtney) (who was introduced in Patrick Troughtons time but featured more during the Pertwee years.) of UNIT.
Pertwee's companions during his time were  scientist Dr. Elizabeth Shaw (Caroline John), agent-in-training Josephine "Jo" Grant (Katy Manning) ( who we should point out did a naked photo shoot with a Dalek)and intrepid Metropolitan Magazine reporter Sarah Jane Smith (Elisabeth Sladen) who as we all know has made a return to Doctor who with the tenths Doctor.
The Doctor is trapped on earth and only freed during The Three Doctors episode (bringing back Troughton and briefly Hartnell),

[Meds]

In his time the third Doctor would come across The Daleks the Autons; the Sontarans; the Ogrons; Draconians, the Silurians and my favorite The Sea Devils, here's a clip na dlisten out for the amazing music.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wylKV4zEeHk

[Meds]

 Jon Pertwee would reign as a popular Doctor, leaving the show in the care of his successor Tom Baker in 1974,

Doctor who Regeneration 3rd to 4th Doctor

He happily returned several times for the 20th anniversary story "The Five Doctors," reprising his role in the stage play "The Ultimate Adventure," joining the Children in Need adventure "Dimensions in Time" and recording two BBC Radio dramas, "The Paradise of Death" and "The Ghosts of N-Space." Fans were shocked when Pertwee sadly passed away while on holiday in New York in May 1996.


Jon Pertwee Episodes.

Spearhead from Space
Doctor Who and the Silurians
The Ambassadors of Death
Inferno
Terror of the Autons
The Mind of Evil
The Claws of Axos
Colony in Space
The Daemons
Day of the Daleks
The Curse of Peladon
The Sea Devils
The Mutants
The Time Monster
The Three Doctors
Carnival of Monsters
Frontier in Space
Planet of the Daleks
The Green Death
The Time Warrior
Invasion of the Dinosaurs
Death to the Daleks
The Monster of Peladon
Planet of the Spiders

The Five Doctors
Dimensions in Time

[Meds]

The Tom Baker Years.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdVivT0ShC4

Tom Baker took over the role of the Doctor in December 1974, his first episode was Robot. Tom Baker is probably the most well known of the Doctors. It was his tenure that was introduced to America and he also holds the record for the longest serving. Bakers portrayal was of thst of an eccentric but fun time lord. The ridiculous (but excellent) long scarf became his trademark along with his pocket full of Jelly babies. Baker is the quintissential Doctor and is loved by millions.

It was also during his seven year stint that we were introduced to the iconic tin dog K9.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSoC1VUdavE#noexternalembed

Baker had many companions, the most famous was Sarah Jane Smith (Elisabeth Sladen) who got dropped off in Aberdeen instead of London as promised when The Doctor was ordered back to gallifrey (this was brought up in the 10th Doctor episode School Reunion). Other companions were bumbling medic Harry Sullivan (Ian Marter); the savage Leela of the Sevateem (Louise Jameson) the two incarnations of the Gallifreyan student Romana (Mary Tamm and Lalla Ward); the artful dodger Adric (Matthew Waterhouse); and in his final days, the timid Nyssa (Sarah Sutton) and bombastic Tegan (Janet Fielding).

He faced many villains such as Davros the creator of the Daleks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUblzkLwOjU&feature=related

And one of his best stories was Genesis of the Daleks in which he has the chance to destroy the Dalek race, here is a brilliant clip of the Doctor in torment over his decision.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAzilfVNMTI

[Meds]

Bakers final episode Logoplis sees him go against his old adversary The Master and as a result falls from a high walkway, and thus regenerating into The Fifth Doctor, Peter Davison.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kf2peBPTUGI

Tom Baker refused to join in on the anniversary episode The Five Doctors and a wax work model was used in the cast photograph. He did however appear in the charity episode Dimensions in Time.

Tom Baker Episodes.

Robot
The Ark in Space
The Sontaran Experiment
Genesis of the Daleks
Revenge of the Cybermen
Terror of the Zygons
Planet of Evil
Pyramids of Mars
The Android Invasion
The Brain of Morbius
The Seeds of Doom
The Masque of Mandragora
The Hand of Fear
The Deadly Assassin
The Face of Evil
The Robots of Death
The Talons of Weng-Chiang
Horror of Fang Rock
The Invisible Enemy
Image of the Fendahl
The Sun Makers
Underworld
The Invasion of Time
The Ribos Operation
The Pirate Planet
The Stones of Blood
The Androids of Tara
The Power of Kroll
The Armageddon Factor
Destiny of the Daleks
City of Death
The Creature From the Pit
Nightmare of Eden
The Horns of Nimon
Shada
The Leisure Hive
Meglos
Full Circle
State of Decay
Warriors' Gate
The Keeper of Traken
Logopolis

Dimensions In Time