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ladyyatexel In reply to YWYH-s--Morelenmir [2011-03-27 18:23:58 +0000 UTC]

Aww, well thank you very much! What a lovely thing to say.

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ladyyatexel In reply to QuazarShark [2011-03-24 17:09:44 +0000 UTC]

My favorite part of the Doctor is his childlike wonder at the universe, and his ability to be utterly terrifying if that wonder is threatened. Two is my favorite because he has the exact balance of those things that I love, I think. I think the childlike joy doesn't get expressed nearly enough in fandom, though, so that's what I paint!

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ladyyatexel In reply to Seshennu [2011-03-24 16:11:29 +0000 UTC]

Thank you! It's nice to see that the people who are not on this train for the Who stuff still enjoy it!

And that it tempts them into the pit with me!

You certainly don't need to start at the beginning, and I honestly think that with the beginning approaching 50 years old, it would probably not make you a fan. Best to save that for later, I think. I actually started with Nine, to the shock and surprise of everyone in the vicinity. Nine started in 2005 when the show was revived after having gone off the air in 1989. (There was a movie with Eight in 1996, but that was all he got in film form.)

So from the Ninth Doctor onwards, it's a bit more viewing friendly to audiences today. It's faster paced, there's more romance being shoved in your face, the effects are nicer, the companions have intentional development beyond their first and last episodes. I find the Classic series actually allows me to get attached to companions, where the new series does not, but many people find it happening the reverse way. Classic Who is all 'serials', so a complete story is generally four episodes long at twenty something minutes each. It can drag a little in places, and sometimes the cliffhangers are really ludicrous. The companions are also pretty hit or miss in terms of anything approaching feminism. New Who is single 45 minute episodes, but usually does one or two two-parters a Season and I have almost universally enjoyed those more than New Who's standalones.

('Dalek' was a single episode with Nine that I intensely enjoyed. 'The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances' is a two-parter that I loved - it was also my first Who ever.)

If you watch a lot of TV and movies now, and haven't watched much that's more than 20 years old, I'd say starting with one of the new guys is probably your best bet. The pacing of the older stuff will probably turn you off if you jump into it blindly or without attachment to the Doctor in the first place. I find I now prefer the older series' pacing, but I wouldn't have if someone just dropped it in front of me raw.

Eventually, I'd of course recommend anyone go and watch Classic Who, especially what's left of the Second Doctor. 'The Mind Robber' is deliciously crack-tastic fun. Tomb of the Cybermen is generally well-regarded, and the War Games is *AMAZING*, but is ten episodes long and best experienced after you'd had some of the Second Doctor under your belt already, as it's his last serial.

The Fourth Doctor is very popular (he's got the scarf) and he's got some great episodes/seasons. Douglas Adams wrote a few of his. I haven't seen them all, but he starts out really well and I enjoyed almost all of him. (There were a few boring ones, and I'm not through his last season or two yet. EVENTUALLY!)

My first Classic Era was the Fifth Doctor's, which I think I only really enjoyed until it was almost over and Turlough got on board. It had its moments, but a lot of it was pretty boring and moved slowly. I don't know that I'd recommend people actually doing what I did and starting there, as much as I like Five.

Six as a Doctor is magnificent. Six's era (the writing, the sets, the companion) is not. I really would not suggest starting there.

And I love Seven's era! But a lot of people do not. It's got a lot of the 80's tastic music cues and teenage slang, but the companion is kick ass, the stories are strange and fucked-up, and the Doctor looks ridiculous, but is kind of terrifying on occasion. Maybe as a kid who watched a lot of 80's shows, it just gels with me.

I love Eight, but his movie is a confusing info dump. You should probably wait on that for a bit.

RIGHT NOW, though? I'd recommend jumping in at watching the first season with Matt Smith as the Eleventh Doctor -that's 'Series 5', since he's just about to start up Series 6 in a month or so, and you could watch it as the new stuff trickles in. I'm not a fan of Eleven's companion, but I think he's wonderful, and this series does a lot of callbacks to the Classic show in a way that doesn't detract from the enjoyment of it, but also kind of makes you want to check them out and be one with the universe and all that. Then you could go back after Eleven is done making new stuff. One could watch all of Nine and Ten and up to current Eleven in a month, I just can't imagine you'd be doing much of anything else.


/too much information

If that was not actually helpful, I can make another attempt, hahah.

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Seshennu In reply to ladyyatexel [2011-03-25 01:13:28 +0000 UTC]

Oh my goodness! No, this was extremely helpful! (though now I wish I hadn't asked my question right before I ran for work so I could've responded sooner..) Thank you so much for taking the time to write so many helpful little summaries for me. It's very thorough, and I'll probably refer back to it at some point to help pick which season to watch next. But to start, I think I'll take your advice and jump into the fifth season and work backwards-ish from there.

Thank you again, so much. You're a saint for writing all that out.

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ladyyatexel In reply to Seshennu [2011-03-25 21:43:49 +0000 UTC]

Well hooray! You're welcome!

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Seshennu In reply to ladyyatexel [2011-04-22 21:14:24 +0000 UTC]

As a kind of follow-up to that post, I'd just like to say thank you so much for your recommendations! After finishing all of the new Doctor Who seasons, if the classic series(es) are even half as good as what I've seen of the new, I'm going to be a fan for life. Thanks again for getting me into the series through your amazing art.

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ladyyatexel In reply to Seshennu [2011-04-22 21:42:35 +0000 UTC]

Hey, awesome! You're super welcome, and I'm delighted I've dragged someone else on board! Just in time to watch the new episodes with everyone else tomorrow, even!

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QuazarShark In reply to ladyyatexel [2011-03-24 16:52:50 +0000 UTC]

I actually read all that and totally agree with everything, so I might quote you on it, if I may. ^
(although my first episodes were with Three on VHS, a few barely-remembered flashes of "something really cool with a man with a question mark umbrella" as a kid, and finally "Being Human/The Family of Blood" and "The Wire" which really got me hardcore into the thing.)

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ladyyatexel In reply to QuazarShark [2011-03-24 17:07:33 +0000 UTC]

Hahha, sure, quote away!

I've watched something like six and half serials of Three, but I really don't like anything about his era, so I can't make any recommendations based on it. I think my bias against cars and hovercrafts and military involvement and bowing to authority would cloud any objective looks at the thing, so I'd probably have to farm out someone else for Pertwee recs!

'Something really cool with a man with a question mark umbrella' is AWESOME. Best description ever.

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QuazarShark In reply to ladyyatexel [2011-03-24 17:19:59 +0000 UTC]

I know exactly what you mean about Three, and sometimes it can get very tedious (especially the episodes where he's still grounded on Earth), and I think I can recommend to you the "Carnival of Monsters" serial.

While I don't think I've seen all of Three's era, that one was extremely entertaining for me. It has tiny sea monsters, people in ridiculous candy-decorated outfits, and as far I remember not a whiff of UNIT. It also has the shrunk Doctor crawling around the innards of a machine, which was one of the coolest stage sets I've seen on early Who.
I dunno, maybe you've already seen it, but I enjoyed it a lot.

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ladyyatexel In reply to QuazarShark [2011-03-24 17:22:16 +0000 UTC]

I've seen it! It was the only one of his I really liked, haha! Someone pointed me to it because they loved Three's era, but hated that one. So I thought, "Well, if this person LIKES Military intrigue and all that, the episodes they hate must be great!" And so it was.

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ladyyatexel In reply to DaleksinWonderland [2011-03-23 23:23:26 +0000 UTC]

It is indeed watercolor! Thank you!

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DaleksinWonderland In reply to ladyyatexel [2011-03-24 02:59:44 +0000 UTC]

Of course!

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