Since beginning to write these “Doctor Who” articles, I’ve had multiple people come up to me and tell me that they’ve seen some or all of the modern (2005-onwards) series of “Doctor Who”, but have yet to see any of the classic (1963-1989) series. Well, I am here to tell these people (and all of you) exactly why the classic series of “Doctor Who” is worth your while.
As a disclaimer, I have watched every episode of Classic Who. This was mostly because I watched it during the pandemic and there wasn’t much else to do in quarantine. I am not advocating that level of insanity, but I do think a good chunk of the classic series is worth watching. Why? Well, I’ll tell you.
To start with, Classic Who is where the show all began. If you like something about the new series, the odds are high that that idea, theme or creature originated with the classic series. Some recurring villains, like the Cybermen, are far superior in the classic series than the new series. UNIT (the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce, which makes sporadic appearances in the new series) is vastly more important and interesting in the classic series. And, quite often, the Doctors and companions are stronger. My all-time favorite Doctor is the Second Doctor, whose run is in the classic series. More than half of my favorite companions are classic companions. The classic series is constantly delivering quality, and you will be missing out on all of it if you do not watch it.
On the subject of quality, Classic Who is just really good. Is all of it amazing? No. But its hit rate of great stories is far higher than its miss rate. If I were to select my top five favorite “Doctor Who” stories, all of them would come from the classic series (my all time favorite is “The War Games” from Season Six, by the way). The other great thing about Classic Who is practically anything that’s bad is entirely skippable. The classic series has a serialized format, meaning that one story will be split into (most often) four to six 25 minute episodes. Many serials are superb, but a couple (I’m looking at you, “Underworld,” and you, “Time Flight,”) are pretty bad. Luckily for viewers, nothing important happens during those serials, so all you need to do is skip them. It’s as easy as that. Unlike the new series, where most episodes will help to forward long-term plot or character arcs, Classic Who is generally quite episodic, so you can easily cherry-pick the good stuff and forget about the bad stuff. This will make for a far more pleasant overall viewing experience.
The next reason you should watch Classic Who is because it delivers a lot more variety and a wider range of storytelling and characterization. Classic Who is absolutely wild. With a budget of five quid and a cheese sandwich, the production team managed to put together a massive number of storylines, settings, characters and monsters. In one season that has a bit more of a throughline (season 16, which features the quest for the Key to Time) we get a heist, a pirate flick featuring a robot parrot, stones that drink your blood, sparkling lawyer robots, a medieval political drama and a political analogy story criticizing colonialism. The show is far less concerned with meeting arbitrary television standards and is instead just doing whatever the hell it wants, and doing it brilliantly. It’s amazing!
Some of you may have been surprised that I mentioned a story criticizing colonialism. After all, this is an old British television show, so you’re probably expecting it to be behind the times at best and downright offensive at worst. While Classic Who does have some extremely unfortunate moments (cough, “The Talons of Weng Chiang,” cough) they are all, you guessed it, skippable. And, for the most part, Classic Who is quite ahead of its time. The Third Doctor’s run in particular is quite politically biting, delivering searing critiques of Apartheid, the Cold War, capitalist corporations polluting the surrounding environment for their own ends, you name it. Later, the Seventh Doctor story “The Happiness Patrol” absolutely trashed Margaret Thatcher. As a History and International and Global Studies major, I find Classic Who fascinating from an academic perspective. It provides a really intriguing window into the politics of its day and how these politics were transposed onto a family TV show. And it manages to be a great show while doing that.
I will confess that Classic Who can feel quite intimidating. It has 26 seasons, six of which are in black and white. Some episodes are completely missing due to the BBC’s dumb practice of wiping tapes so they could be reused to save money, and those episodes have now been reconstructed with still photos and audio recordings, or some really bad animation. However, with a bit of a guide, it’s quite easy to watch. Some episodes I would suggest starting with are “The Keys of Marinus,” “The Tomb of the Cybermen,” “Spearhead from Space,” “Genesis of the Daleks,” “The Horror of Fang Rock”, “The Pirate Planet” and “Earthshock.” If you’re a fan of the new series, it means more fantastic “Doctor Who” stories to watch for the very first time. If you’re completely new to the show, you’ll get to watch some of the best episodes in sci-fi. I wouldn’t recommend being me and watching the entire thing. But it is absolutely worth it to watch Classic Who’s great serials. And there are a lot of absolutely superb stories to choose from.
