I really think “Ark in Space” is an ideal entry point. It’s fairly self contained and it’s got Baker really settling into the role, but not to the point that he’s out of control. A great script by Robert Holmes and one that shows that story and style often triumph over the visuals.

This is a great article and I agree with you on so many details.

I’ve always thought that Hartnell’s Doctor was vastly underrated. In fact my favourite two Doctors are the first two which surprised my brother as he was always a believer of the whole “your favourite Doctor is the one you grew up with” theory. Incidentally I mainly grew up with McCoy’s Doctor whereas he had grown up with Tom.

I always defend the fluffs too. I’ve always thought the fluffs added a touch of realism to the show that has never been seen since on television since. Do we all not fluff words and sentences in real life? Sometimes we speak without thinking and do make the odd fluff ourselves.

There are a lot more other little details which, for me, make the 60′s my favourite era of Doctor Who. I feel the acting was far superior (both from the regulars and supporting artists) and the stories, for the most part, were more consistently better than some of the later eras. Another little detail I loved was how characters would be dirtied up to reflect certain stories. Dalek Invasion Earth would be a good example as opposed to the nice, healthy clean rebels of the Cushing movie. This element sadly disappeared after a while.

In contrast to Hartnell though Troughton has neither been underrated or overrated as he always has been a fan favourite. I think in the old days this was more a case of the mystery about him since so few of his stories exist in the archives but now with the material available in many forms (audios, reconstructions, books etc) it has changed to Troughton’s actual performance than the mystery.

Sadly though, in my opinion, most of Troughton’s best stories no longer exist at all with the exception of a few clips but even listening to him on the audio you can just imagine what was happening in those stories and of course the telesnaps do give you a rough guide to most of his era. Something fans tend to forget are those telesnaps. It is true that Troughton’s era is largely gone in terms of visual material but at least we do have most of it in more than one form (audio and telesnaps) with only Space Pirates really suffering.

In contrast I find that Hartnell’s era suffers a lot more in this respect with a few stories devoid of telesnaps and in some cases no visual material at all (The Massacre and Mission to the Unknown spring to mind).

I’ve often thought that Tom is overrated. When he was good he was good but there were times when he could tend to go a bit overboard with his acting.

Colin on the otherhand I’ve always thought was also underrated (and I’ve thought this long before Big Finish entered the scene). Ironically his stories don’t really grate on me as I feel his performance can make even some of the less tolerable stories watchable such as Timelash and Terror of the Vervoids.

I also agree with you on all that you have said on the new series for the same reasons that you gave.

I really can’t think of one story under Davies’ run that really appealed to me. At least Turner did produce some very good stories and whilst it his true that’s more down to the script editor credit must also be given to Turner who, as producer, had the final say and could have turned them down.

On Billy, of nine releases I’d strongly recommend three, partly recommend another three and, er, put the remaining three to the back of the queue!

As Andrew says above, The Beginning is superb, with “An Unearthly Child” itself one of the best pieces of television ever made, though the characters are harsher than they ever will be again; The Dalek Invasion of Earth is great fun, especially with the CGI saucers switched on, but has rather less Billy; and The Aztecs is both a superb story and probably the best for Mr Hartnell himself, stern, cunning and romantic.

After those, I’d partly recommend The Rescue and The Romans (I’ve seen them called the Vena, Vidi, Vicki box) are both fun little stories, with Billy loveable in one and comedic in the other, and some fabulous documentaries; The Time Meddler, which has some great moments and invents mixing history and alien interference; and The War Machines, which invents the Internet scare.

Then there’s The Web Planet, of which I’m very fond but few other people are any more, the forthcoming The Keys of Marinus, which has good moments and quite bad half-hours, and Lost In Time, on which the Hartnell fragments are almost uniformly brilliant, but just that – fragments. So I’d leave each of those until you’ve got the others first.

As for Colin – great Doctor, few TV stories to choose from, and fewer still that are much cop. Revelation of the Daleks, cheapest in that Davros Collection, is by a long way the best, though Colin’s not in it much. Andrew recommends Vengeance On Varos; I’d say it’s probably his next-best story, but if I were trying to encourage someone to like his Doctor, I’d go for The Two Doctors. Colin’s definitely at his best when Bob Holmes is writing for him, though Bob’s not necessarily at his best when writing for Colin (Colin’s marvellous in Bob’s bits of The Trial of a Time Lord, too, but it does go on).

Agree with any of that, Andrew? ;-)