My friend made the mistake of having me watch the first season of the 2005 Doctor Who series starring Christopher Eccleston. The mistake was not in having me watch it because I absolutely loved every second of it. The mistake was not knowing how much of a fanatic I can become. This of course does not effect her in the slightest. Me on the other hand: its become a problem. As I said I loved every second of watching Christopher Eccleston be the Doctor. Then I learned that he was the Ninth Doctor and I was like "there are eight more before him plus the ones after him." That, of course, blew my mind and started me on my fanatical journey to watch every episode of Doctor Who that has been or ever will be made.
Now I have only watched the first two seasons of the new series but I recently went back and watched William Hartnell portray the first ever Doctor. His reign lasting from 1963 to 1966. The first big hurdle to my endeavor: The Lost Episodes. Those episodes wiped from the BBC archives due to a policy they had in the 70's. A tragedy in hindsight. But I was still determined and came up with a sort of solution: I am going to read the the novelizations of the Missing Episodes. Also they now have the animated reconstructions of some of the episodes as well. It was kind of hit or miss but I still had great fun with the whole thing and I would like to share some of the highlights and lowlights.
Lets talk about The Doctor himself first. I liked William Hartnell as The Doctor. Sure he was crotchety but I warmed up to him. He was serious, stern and a bit egotistical. I got the distinct impression on several occasions that he enjoyed proving people wrong and proving he was smarter then them. Every companion has had to be convinced that The Doctor was telling the truth about traveling through time and space and he was always indignant until they believed him. There is, of course, no doubt that he is smarter then everyone in existence but he is also unflappable in the face of danger and quite magnanimous. Not to mention what a snazzy dresser he is :). Once or twice he even showed his comical side. Especially in the serial "The Romans." All in all a great Doctor.
Now for the supporting cast. He had a lot of good companions but also some duds. Susan Foreman was ok but she was kind of "non" to me. I don't know how else to describe it. I have to say my favorite of his companions were Barbara Wright, Ian Chesterton and Vicki. Barbara and Ian were unwilling companions but they adjusted well and just rolled with it. Vicki was spunky but also very smart. She had great chemistry with The Doctor, Barbara and Ian. I think that Steven Taylor was the worst of his companions . He was arrogant and I just did not like him. The Doctor went through his companions Katarina, Sara Kingdom and Dodo Chaplet so fast they are almost not worth mentioning. Katarina and Dodo were both kind of useless but Sara was a kick ass woman. Polly and Ben were alright.
My absolute favorite First Doctor serial is "The Dalek Invasion of Earth." It was a great return of one of The Doctors greatest enemies and it had a heartwarming send off for Susan at the end. My least favorite serial was "The Gunfighter." I just couldn't get into it. Probably cause of Steven and Dodo. Another good serial is "The Edge of Destruction." A rare cerebral adventure.
There is no doubt that the Daleks are an iconic and crowd-pleasing Doctor Who enemy and I would not trade them for the world. But I have to say that my favorite villain that the First Doctor faced was The Celestial Toymaker. Having The Doctor and his companions play games for their lives. Creepy. And just as smart as The Doctor. The worst enemy he faced had to be the giant ant creatures that were afraid of dead spiders. Stupid.
... Oh, another good serial was "The Space Museum." Where the TARDIS crew was displaced in time and had to keep themselves from becoming exhibits in a museum.
... Oh and "The Chase." The Daleks chase the TARDIS through time and space in their very own TARDIS.
OK. I have to stop. I Love Doctor Who!
Leah
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