Doctor Who Stripped Down

Remember when Lorraine Heggessey (gawd bless her) announced the idea of showing repeats of old, dare I say, classic, episodes of Doctor Who in the run up to the new, dare I say, classic, new series?

I'm glad they didn't/haven't. They probably would have just reinforced the old stereotypes (it wobbles!) and they could have put people off before a new episode had even aired (it's shit!). With luck we'll just get a repeat of The Story of Dr Who in some graveyard slot and everybody will be happy.

Now, I don't know about you, but I'm getting seriously excited now. I've even decided to watch some old Who on my own, just to ramp up the tension. Then I thought, why not watch them with my loyal blog audience? You know, the Chavs and Traceurs.

So, I propose that we kick off with a Pertwee (cos the other two are, dare I say it, bloody terrible), specifically Spearhead from Space. There are various reasons for this choice:

1) It's been tarted up on DVD and as a result it looks half-decent

2) It was a series re-boot (so some similarities to 'Rose')

3) It's got the Autons in it (so even more similarities to 'Rose')

4) It's the only Pertwee I can sit through without contemplating suicide.

Here's the deal: one episode a day Monday-Friday at 7pm (just after Hollyoaks).

We start next Monday 28th February and continue with:

Pyramids of Mars, Caves of Androzani, Vengeance on Varos and Remembrance of the Daleks. We finish up with The 1996 TV Movie on Wednesday 23rd March.

All of these stories are available on DVD. Some Blockbusters have been known to rent them, as do the new Amazon.co.uk rental service. They are also going cheap on Play. So there's no excuse. I'd love it if anyone who isn't all that familiar with the show could join in with this, but forcing some kids to watch it would be acceptable too.

Hopefully, this strip-down will:

a) get us in the mood

b) give us the opportunity to discuss what we liked/hated about the old show and what we we'd like to see in the new series

c) rip off Outpost Gallifrey, but in a 24-style real-time kinda way.

I'll open a thread on the day an episode starts and you can feed in your own comments as we go.

So, Who's with me? Geddit?

Comments

[Kev]

OK. I've been lurking a while on your site and consider myself a semi-regular visitor, but have never posted before. Anticipation is certainly building and I've been thinking of ways as to how I could launch myself into the new Who series and this looks a perfect method. The DVDs are warmed up, so, count me in.

[mcblofeld]

7.00pm? And miss Emmerdale? What madness is this?

[JP]

Yes count me in, but do I have to watch Pyramids? Can I slip into an alternative universe and watch Horror of Fang Rock instead - come on, it was made in Birmingham, I just gots to do this :)

[Neil]

OK, instead of 7pm like the rest of us you can "time-shift" and watch it at 7:30pm. Unless you are watching Coronation Street then, in which case, fuck off! ;-)

And as for The Horror of Fang Rock. No, I forbid it.

And a big fat welcome to Kev! Hello, Kev!

[James W]

HI Kev!

Neil, can I watch it twice so I don't have to watch Emmerdale as well as Coronation Street, in fact 3 times so I miss sodding Eastenders as well

[David Absalom]

I was tempted, but not at the cost of missing Corrie. Some things are sacred.

[Neil]

Oh just watch it that evening then! Okay?

[Art]

Watch the soaps or watch Doctor Who? Hmmm tough choice, well since there's loads of decorating going on over here at the minute I think I'll watch paint dry.

;-)

[a]

seconded.....

[James W]

Remembrance of the Daleks, one of my personal fave's, great weapon action from Sophie