What a long, strange trip it's been.

[shiredancer]

Four years and three months, give or take some. That's how long Peter and I have spent watching the entirety of Dr. Who, from The Unearthly Child through the Tenth Doctor, and swinging in Torchwood at the proper time too. Four AMAZING years! Tonight we watched Parts 1 and 2 of The End of Time, and kissed David Tennant farewell. *sniffle*

Dr. Who was a big subject back in 2008 here on LiveJournal, and my curiosity was piqued by all the references to the different Doctors -- Ten, and Nine, and Four, etc. I asked gillyp about this, as she seemed particularly expert in all things Who, and she really set me on the right course with a whole bunch of information and history. I'd taken a look at the then-currently-running episode The Unicorn and The Wasp, as well as Silence in The Library, before I realized I was too unaware of what was going on and decided I wanted to start at the beginning. Peter's always up for good sci-fi and had always heard about Dr. Who, so he was game too. Now four years later I caught up with myself (and Donna Noble), and moved right along. Watching The Unicorn and The Wasp again felt like, I don't know, a real landmark -- something to celebrate, for sure. Now that we've caught up to the Eleventh Doctor, though, we want to drag our feet a bit. We're going to be soooo unhappy the day we find ourselves without the luxury of lots of shows to catch up on, and have to actually wait for real broadcasts (or worse, wait out a whole season until we can Netflix it). We're already in that position now with Torchwood, and whoa, wasn't The Children of Earth a downer! Now I know what all the uproar was about.

There's still Game of Thrones ahead, but I want to read the books first. I think there are about five of them out so far? So that'll be awhile -- and that's good, because I've kinda gotten in the habit of having something to look forward to, viewing-wise. Alons-y!

Comments

Re: Long strange trip.

[chriselora55.livejournal.com]

How the show has changed over the years. *Sigh*

I remember watching the first Doctor, William Hartnell, on our black-and-white tv set, *Cough, cough* years ago. LOL!

The next Doctor, Patrick Troughton, was one of my favourite doctors of all time.

When his run finished in 1969 we had to wait a whole year to welcome the new doctor, John Pertwee, in 1970, in colour, no less! (Which did not make a lot of difference to me as we still had a black and white set.)

To fill the gap left by the Doctor, we had some fancy new sci-fi US show called Star Trek or something......and that's a whole 'nother story there. *G*

In 1973-4, Tom Baker. He of the curly hair and long,long, scarf. The longest serving Doctor to date.

1980, Peter Davidson, late of All creatures great and small as Tristan Farnon the country vet.

1983 Colin Baker, no relation, followed by Sylvester McCoy 1985-7. There were no new doctor episodes after that, until 1996 when Paul McGann took over the role for a made-for-tv movie. It was not well received by Doctor Who diehards. Personally, I thought he did a good job all things considered. (The Doctor as half human, really? No, nope, sorry, no way.)

2006, we have Christopher Eccleston as Doc 9. ( I really liked him as the Doctor, pity he only did 1 season.)

2007, David Tennant as Doc 10. (He kept it in the family by marrying Georgia Moffat, daughter of Doc 5, Peter Davidson. (Yes, she really WAS the Doctor's daughter.) Dumped girlfriend, Sophia Myles, by text.
She was in the US filming Moonlight with Alex O'Loughlin at the time. Fang-tastic! I'd say she got the better deal. *G*

Doc 11, Matt Smith. Wasn't too sure he would be able to carry it off. He did, though, and more. Geronimo!

Anyway, the rest, as they say, is history..........

Re: Long strange trip.

[shiredancer.livejournal.com]

Yes, we got to see all of that! We watched everything available through Netflix, either streaming or DVD -- plus on the old DVDs there were lots of extras, interviews with actors, directors, writers, producers, so we picked up a lot of the background, history, scandal, etc. on the way. We've been told there are other sources for finding old eps that Netflix hasn't picked up yet, but we get frustrated with Hulu (hard to figure out the segments). Netflix just aired a Traughton ep with Jamie and Zoe, so it was really fun to revisit them.

We have found something to love in all the Doctors, including the movie (I agree with you). Maybe when we catch up completely we'll just have to start all over again... I've already forgotten so much, and mix up companions and characters!

*Hugs* Chris!

[vamysteryfan.livejournal.com]

I admire you for doing it that way. I started with Doctor 4, Tom Baker and then Peter Davison. I've only seen some of the episodes with the first three doctors and I've never seen the movie. One of my first conventions was to hear Tom Baker and Colin Baker speak. They were wonderful. I like the modern day Doctors but sometimes I do miss the sheer cheesiness of the early days. And they keep retconning the history of the Daleks and Cybermen and other races.

Torchwood went from outstanding to rubbish. That last American season - pfui!

[chriselora55.livejournal.com]

Yes, Daleks and Cybermen, oldies, but goodies. Oh, and *shooglie sets.
Absolutely wonderful memories.


*Shakey

[shiredancer.livejournal.com]

Heh heh! "Shooglie" sets, I like that!

[shiredancer.livejournal.com]

Oh dear... so Torchwood doesn't get any better, huh? Seems like they just bailed on it, killing everybody off. Leaving off where we have, it feels like they thought they were ending the series, but we know there's another season not yet available on Netflix (must be the one you're referring to).

Well, we're diehards... we'll watch it just to see where they take it. Can it really be worse than Children of Earth?

Yes, yay for the early cheesiness! And less angsty storylines (but back in the day it was really meant for kids; obviously MUCH more adult now).

[snycock.livejournal.com]

The first three Game of Thrones books are great (really, the series is called A Song of Ice and Fire; only the first book is Game of Thrones), then it all goes to crap in the next two. I think Martin's lost the narrative and doesn't know how to finish the story, unfortunately.

The good news is that the HBO series is really, really good, and with the speed that they're making it, I fully expect that those guys will finish the series before Martin does. :-)

[shiredancer.livejournal.com]

Thanks, Jen -- I stand warned! Peter is on the fifth book now, I think, and he agrees. Too bad! We are looking forward to the series, though (Peter is getting impatient with me not reading the books...).