#i absolutely LOVE ian and barbara like they are in my top 3 companions ever

[aramielles]

me starting classic doctor who : oh i love ian and barbara, surely they will be my favourite companions

jamie : appears

me : oh no here’s my fave

[unwillingadventurer]

Hey! You absolutely haven't indicated you wanna play this ask game, but ask games are fun (and I think you like 'em too??) so I am gonna send you this one anyway because also I think it's my favourite ask game ever -- the Top 5 Anything one! (Ignore this at leisure tho, if you don't wanna play!!) My Top 5 ask for you is.... Your Top 5 incarnations of The Doctor!

Yes, we do love an ask game so its never a bother and thanks for asking :)

This is a tough question. There’s three Doctors that both of us love a lot and then a bunch of great others and its hard to pick just five but let’s try.

1. First Doctor

Shock horror! He’s the ‘original you might say’, ‘citizen of the universe and a gentleman to boot’. He can be grumpy and difficult but he can also be giggly and excitable and hilarious, Hartnell is comedy gold. He’s mysterious and you really don’t know what to expect from him. We love it that he has a lot of growth over his era, in our opinions the most of any Doctor, starting out as a strict observer, barely tolerating humans, to a man who will stand up to right wrongs and protect his companions. Everything was new to him so you got a really interesting man who seemed so wise and old but at the same time so vulnerable and confused. He couldn’t work his TARDIS so every trip for him was a surprise and he was fascinated by everything and everyone he came across. He had interesting dynamics with his companions especially as he travelled with his granddaughter, but also his relationships with Ian, Barbara, Vicki, Steven especially were all lovely to watch. 

2. Ninth Doctor

He was the first Doctor we watched new as he was on TV and we loved him immediately. We wish he’d done another series or two but he still manages to make so much out of the short time he had. We love his understatement and the way he gets grumpy in domestic situations. But he can be so funny. Eccleston really is a great comedy actor too (*cough* The A Word). Like One, he’s got the mysterious quality and the build up of a character arc, finding out who he is etc. He has a great relationship with Rose and we love going back and watching all their stories together.

3. Thirteenth Doctor

We’ll be honest, we weren’t really fussed if the Doctor was a woman or not. We probably wouldn’t have cared either way but we love Jodie Whittaker as an actress so when she was announced we thought ‘ooh interesting’. We liked her immediately as she brought a positive presence to the show that we feel was missing in recent years. She’s funny and so cute with her companions and we love the build up between series 11 and 12, the gradual hope that gets lost but never dies. She can be so distant too and doesn’t want to or can’t share with her friends. She takes on so much and tries to do the best for everyone. Can’t wait to see where she goes next.

4. Third Doctor

We’re mostly putting him here because he’s the Doctor we both remember watching as kids on repeats or when we watched our Day of the Daleks VHS tape over and over. And he just makes us feel cosy and smiley. He’s so cool with his fashion and his manner and we love his rapport and dynamic with UNIT and Jo. He can be a bit pompous and wrapped up in his own work but he’s also so loveable and cares about everyone and everything around him. Plus he gets to travel in style.

5. Second Doctor

This was hard to pick number 5 because there’s so many others we could’ve put here but we both love the black and white era so much and recently we’ve just been so into Patrick’s performance. He did such a great job taking over from Hartnell and we love how different he is. He’s fun and silly and clever and brave. And he gets some really lovely moments with his companions. 

[mysticharleyquinn]

Hrrmph! A Hartnell Era Meta

I’ve just finished the William Hartnell’s run as The Doctor and the first Doctor’s run in Doctor Who, so I figured I’d write a meta about the characters and the acting instead of the production. So, let’s start off with the man who would make sure Doctor Who shone like the star it’s meant to be: 

Have you ever thought what it's like to be wanderers in the Fourth Dimension? Have you? To be exiles? Susan and I are cut off from our own planet - without friends or protection. But one day we shall get back. Yes, one day. William Hartnell was the perfect choice for Early Doctor Who. We first meet the Doctor in An Unearthly Child and he’s a far cry from the man we’re used to be. This is The Doctor at the very beginning of his life and he has yet to understand the compassion that drives him and his future incarnations. He kidnaps Ian and Barbara (more on them later) and whisks them away to the stone age, and during their first adventure he almost kills a caveman! In The Daleks he purposefully sabotages the TARDIS just so he can explore this strange planet that he’s never been too before, the gall! He starts to soften overtime during the first season but The Aztecs give one of Harnell’s most memorable lines:  You can't rewrite history. Not one line! By the end of Season 1, he’s come to think of Ian and Barbara as family just as much as Susan is his granddaughter. His character has been evolving over the stories and Hartnell is a master performer, able to bring the character to life with his indignant outrage, soft and gentle, and later down the road absolute comedy gold. With Season 2 comes a changing of the guard. Susan (more on her later) has left the TARDIS on Earth and that leaves the Doctor, Ian, and Barbara traveling alone for an unknown amount of time.  Then in The Rescue comes a series tradition: The Orphan in the TARDIS. Vicki is all by her lonesome in the 25th century until she meets Ian, Barbara, and The Doctor. From then on she’s practically adopted by the Doctor. Vicki coming aboard provides a vital element towards The Doctor’s character. Gone are the days where he’s a rough and calloused old man, instead he treats Ian and especially Barbara like his own children, doting on them and constantly making sure that they’re alright. When Vicki comes along, his mischievous side comes out. You can feel the chemistry in the actors when he’s on screen with them, and The Romans highlights how glorious Vicki and The Doctor’s relationship is. That is until The Chase happens and we’re suddenly losing Ian and Barbara. The Doctor is devastated, he sounds heartsbroken. “I HAVE TRIED FOR TWO YEARS TO GET YOU TWO BACK HOME!” He’s roaring at them in total anger, calling them idiots and stupid but we at home know how much he’s hurting. Vicki promises that she won’t leave and that she’s staying with The Doctor, and in turn gain a new companion: Steven. (Definitely more on him later) The final episode of Season 2 is “The Time Meddler.” And this is extremely important because it shows off for the first time another member of The Doctor’s species: The Monk.  The Monk has already changed history, and instead of a villain he’s more treated like a naughty child. The way The Doctor giggles and hoots with the Monk before rounding on him in righteous anger is a treat to see.  Now we move onto Season 3, where most of his stories are lost but they are some of his best. The Myth Makers shows Vicki being lost to the Trojans in a whirlwind of chaos, and it’s just Steven and The Doctor in what is doubtlessly the masterpiece of Hartnell’s first era: The Dalek’s Master Plan The prologue of Mission to the Unknown sets up the scene of what is one of the grandest stories and shows how desperate Doctor Who was to push the envelope and go to such exotic locations. Galaxy 4 already took us to an alien world, and sooner than that was The Web Planet, but the Master Plan shows everything coming together. Hartnell is in top form here, but the devastation weighs heavy on his heart. “ What a waste. What a terrible waste.” And we see him at his most broken and defeated in The Massacre with a somber soliquity after Steven storms out of the TARDIS: “My dear Steven, history sometimes gives us a terrible shock, and that is because we don't quite fully understand. Why should we? After all, we're too small to realise its final pattern. Therefore don't try and judge it from where you stand. I was right to do as I did. Yes, that I firmly believe. [Steven leaves the TARDIS] Steven... Even after all this time, he cannot understand. I dare not change the course of history. Well, at least I taught him to take some precautions; he did remember to look at the scanner before he opened the doors. And now, they're all gone. All gone. None of them could understand. Not even my little Susan. Or Vicki. And as for Barbara and Chatterton — Chesterton — they were all too impatient to get back to their own time. And now, Steven. Perhaps I should go home. Back to my own planet. But I can't... I can't... “ Soon after that, Steven returns and the infamous Dodo Chaplet joins the TARDIS, and his character quickly returns to the grandfatherly figure we all know and love. I would like to skip ahead to his final story, and one of the most important in Doctor Who history: The Tenth Planet. Not only does it introduce the Cybermen, but it introduces the one concept that would change the foundation of the show forever: Regeneration. In hindsight, the signs seem to be there. The Doctor was at the heart of The Dalek’s gigantic time bomb in The Master Plan and during The Savages he’s had his energy drained more. Maybe one starts to think this was planned.  “This is not the end...” He staggers towards the TARDIS and changes into a new man. He started out as an old grump in a junkyard, but he leaves with his head held as high as he can, the warm and loving grandfather. Of course, no Doctor is complete without his companions, and The Doctor has plenty of them. Let’s start with the first of them: His own Granddaughter, Susan Foreman.   

Grandfather and I don't come from Earth. Oh, it's ages since we've seen our planet. It's quite like Earth, but at night the sky is a burned orange, and the leaves on the trees are bright silver. Susan is a bit of an oddity. As the first companions along side Ian and Barbara, her time in the TARDIS is mostly unmemorable. I’ll be honest, the writing at the time never gave her the type of character she was meant to be. She would scream her head off like a frightened little girl and cling onto the adults for dear life.  We see later on that she’s starting to grow up, but her departure is perhaps her most famous.  The Doctor: During all the years I've been taking care of you, you in return have been taking care of me. Susan: Oh, Grandfather, I belong with you! The Doctor: Not any longer, Susan. You are still my grandchild and always will be. But now, you're a woman too. I want you to belong somewhere, to have roots of your own. With David, you will be able to find those roots and live normally like any woman should do. Believe me, my dear, your future lies with David and not with a silly old buffer like me. One day, I shall come back. Yes, I shall come back. Until then, there must be no regrets, no tears, no anxieties. Just go forward in all your beliefs and prove to me that I am not mistaken in mine. Goodbye, Susan. Goodbye, my dear How does one speech dictate how a show will continue on? Susan’s importance in the episodes themselves might not have been very memorable, but it’s her departure that changes something in The Doctor. She isn’t someone to be coddled anymore, and even though it rips his hearts apart, he has to let her go. The scenes where he’s asking for Susan to fiddle with the controls and realizes she’s no longer there, it’s disheartening. Without Barbara and Ian, he’d be lost. Speaking of which...

Ian: There is someone coming. Barbara: Goodbye, Doctor! Thanks for the ride. Ian: Yeah, it was fun, Doctor. goodbye. If The Doctor is the soul of the show, then for the longest time Ian and Barbara were the heart. It is impossible to talk about one without mentioning the other due to how influential they are to this show. As I mentioned earlier, during their first adventure with The Doctor he kidnapped them and whisked them away throughout time and space. It’s Ian who first changes The Doctor’s ways and turns him into the moral champion of justice we would come to know him as. It’s Barbara who gives him a good tongue lashing when Ian is out. These two represent everything a companion should be. Smart, Dependable, and Curious. Every time Ian fights for his life for his friends, you can feel the desperation and later the joy when he wins. When Barbara believes they should help, no force in the universe will get them to stop.  Ian and Barbara quickly become family to The Doctor, and helped shape his moral compass that can be felt even into the current series. The ending scene in The Chase where they’re frolicking about modern London and just enjoying being home is a fitting send-off for two of the best.

After all. That's why he went out there, to find out where we are. Anyway, that man looks quite friendly now. He's probably showing him to the nearest town. The changing of the guard is a difficult thing. While I have no doubts that Ian and Barbara could have carried the show beautifully, they too had to leave at some point. Before that though, they brought the beautiful and clever Vicki aboard the TARDIS.  Hailing from the 25th century, Vicki marks a turning point in Doctor Who. She is the first companion to willingly be brought aboard during Hartnell’s Era (something literally every other companion bar Susan cannot lay claim too) and her chemistry with Hartnell is instantaneous. Although there are some moments where she’s nothing more than Susan Lite, Vicki quickly marks out her own character by being everything Susan should have been. She’s witty, funny, and bursting with curiosity. One of her finest adventures is in The Romans, a hilarious tale where she and Hartnell get along like a pair of mischievous school children, off to the capital and leaving the old fusspots lazing around.  Vicki was there on the cusp of a turning point, and her absence is painful and noticeable during The Master Plan and her mere prescience is sorely missed. Mercifully, we have in my opinion one of the First Doctor’s greatest companions. 

What a gorgeous specimen Peter Purves is. He is not only one of the longest male companions The Doctor had (Jamie has taken that spot) but he is one of the best early ones. Steven Taylor is one of if not the best companion the 1st Doctor had. He’s hot-headed, rash, trusts the Doctor implicitly but he’s not afraid to give him a good yelling when it boils down to it. Season 3 was a transformative year for Doctor Who. They were throwing everything at the wall to see if it stuck, with Steven being the sole constant through a whirlwind. His anger and grief after The Master Plan over losing both Katarina and Sara is palpable, and the sheer frustration about The Doctor’s insistence to keep History on course is ultimately forced him out. “Oh, no. You just sent her back to her aunt's house where the guards were waiting to catch her. I tell you this much, Doctor, wherever this machine of yours lands next, I'm getting off. If your researches have so little regard for human life, then I want no part of it.” During Him and Dodo’s run, he’s treating her like an exasperated big brother, scolding her and making sure she’s safe. During The Gunfighters we show off his impressive singing ability! Purves as an actor could do it all, providing the seriousness and drama when required and later making us bust a gut with laughter.  It’s only fitting that Steven is picked to make peace in The Savages and thus end his time in the TARDIS. His absence in my opinion is most noticeable even as new faces come and go.

No, it isn't. I'm crying this time. Oh boy. The Infamous Dodo Chaplet. Is she really as bad as they say she is? So much so that she’s most famous for dying of an STD and getting gunned down. No one can seem to have a high opinion of her, and I find myself in the middle. I don’t believe Dodo was an awful character. The Celestial Toymaker has shown however her almost incredulous stupidty but it’s marred by other stories such as The Gunfighters that dare I say she was even competent. She burst from the TARDIS full of gusto and adventure and she could shine when the time is right. She had the second shortest run of any of The 1st Doctor’s companions and it’s most noticeable in her departure. Not a proper goodbye, just a not stating she’d like to stay home. I feel like if given more time, she could have been remembered more fondly.

Ben: Hey, come on Doctor, wakey wakey! It's all over now. Polly: Doctor? The Doctor: What did you say, my boy? It's all over. That's what you said. No, but it isn't all over. It's far from being all over. Ben: What are you talking about? Now, Ben and Polly are most famous for being the 2nd Doctor’s companions, but they got their start in Hartnell’s Era and my word do they shine wonderfully. With only two stories under their belt with the 1st Doctor it’s agnozing we never saw these three together more because the results are wonderful. Both Polly and Ben’s performers are so full of emotion and character you can forget that they’ve only been with the TARDIS for two adventures. The Smugglers is a wonderful piece of storytelling that sets us up nicely for The Tenth Planet, and that serial really shows off how wonderful these two are. Polly’s indignant objections to the Cybermen and Ben’s clever methods of stalling and defeating them prove why they are instrumental for the 1st Doctor’s final installment. They’re a wonderful representation of the Swinging Sixties coming to life in the TARDIS and on Doctor Who.

Dalek Supreme: Rebels of London, this is your last offer - our final warning. Leave your hiding places. Show yourselves in the open streets. You will be fed and watered. Work is needed from you... but the Daleks offer you life. Rebel against us and the Daleks will destroy London completely. You will all die. The males, the females, the descendants. Rebels of London, come out of your hiding places. Cyberman: You must come and live with us. Polly: But we cannot live with you, you're different! You have no feelings! Cyberman: Feelings? I do not understand that word. Doctor: Emotions! Love! Pride! Hate! Fear! Have you no emotions, sir, hmm? For every good hero, there must be a good villain. And early Doctor Who gave us two of the best and most memorable. I’m not saying that the Daleks and Cybermen are the only baddies Hartnell Era Doctor Who produced that’s highly memorable. The Monk, the Celestial Toymaker, the aliens in Galaxy 4, there is a long line of baddies that are just teething with possibility. But these two are the most famous. The Daleks are a frightening force in the galaxy. First brought onto Skaro in The Daleks, they quickly established themselves as a universal threat with The Chase and finally The Dalek’s Master Plan. During both of the latter stories, the Daleks relentlessly pursued The Doctor and companions and carved a bloody gash through time and space that would forever leave audiences shaking at the core at how terrifying the Daleks could and ought to be. The Cybermen, while primarily famous for later serials, also had such a strong start. Trapped in a base in the antarctic, the first ever Cybermen are sympathetic and mean to the core. Mondas is dying, and they are desperate to save their home and survive. They have no emotion, for they do not need them. They resist the heat, the cold, and suffer no pain.  The humanity has been stripped by the early Cybermen, but ghastly images still remain. A human eye clearly visible, the human-hands and the bulk machines. The Cybermen were a representative of what humanity could become if pushed far enough to the brink. Their first and only outing with the 1st Doctor is bone-chilling. Marvelous work.

In Conclusion... Doctor Who started out as an educational show. That’s why the shift between historical and science fiction was so great, and why ultimately a science and history teacher (Ian and Barbara respectively) were the first ever companions because their job was to teach the audience. But Doctor who grew into something more than that, and through the years of William Hartnell’s time as the Doctor we visited breath-taking locales, explored strange and wonderful ideas, and in hindsight, saw the birth of a series that’s still going strong to this day.  Please watch the 1st Doctor’s run, I had thought that I would despise it, that the special effects would be old and hokey and the acting would be of similar quality. How wrong I was. If you’re willing to look past the budget and the cheap costumes, you will find something brimming with intelligence and life like no other.  Thank you for reading this. :)

[defliveblogs]

GUESS WHO’S BACK

BACK AGAIN

DEF IS BACK

anywhooooooooooooo here’s the situation: I haven’t done my wrap-up for Season 2

so i’m gonna do it now!!! and then i’m gonna watch as much as I can of Galaxy 4!!!

hold onto your butts because it’s been well over half a year since i watched season 2 lol

The Doctor

goddamn i wish i had done this when I had *actually* just watched this season instead of like eight months later lol

Okay, so, what I remember about the Doctor in this season: he’s a lot more paternal/amiable in this season than he was in Season One! One has of course already cemented himself as the Doctor in my mind, but in this season we got to see a little bit more of his gentler side. I think of Dalek Invasion of Earth, where we got to explore a little bit more of his relationship with Susan (to devastating effect) and also saw how instantly compassionate he could be with Vicki in The Rescue. We also got to explore his more intuitive (*cough*telepathic*cough) connection with the Tardis via The Web Planet!

Overall, I’ve grown very fond of One. He has his foibles and his faults, but don’t all the Doctors? I really enjoy Hartnell’s face, I have to admit.

Companions and Other Characters

We’ve now said goodbye to everyone we started with - we lost Susan early on in the season, as well as Ian and Barbara towards the end of it. It was sad to see Susan and Ian and Barbara go. Susan’s leaving the Tardis especially hurt, since that line has been quoted SO MANY TIMES across the fandom...

That said, it was also a ton of fun to meet our new companions, Vicki and Steven! Sadly, I don’t really think I have a feel for either of them yet. I’ve only seen two episodes with Steven (and tbqh it was more like one and a quarter) and while I’ve seen a bit more of Vicki, she’s also been tough to pin down. I genuinely forgot that she was in The Web Planet, and I barely remember anything about here from The Chase. She and the Doctor have a fun dynamic though, from what I can tell!

On the other hand.... I have SO MUCH TO SAY ABOUT THE MONK FROM THE TIME MEDDLER!!!!!! I love this guy so much! He’s such a funny and affable villain, he has weaponized evangelical Christianity (which I lol’d so hard at!) and he has such OUTRAGEOUS goals as a character!! This guy just wants to change the entire history of England apparently for shits and giggles. I love the anachronism, I love his whole character, I LOVE HIM SO MUCH. Plus, we get to see another Time Lord - the first one (other than Susan if she counts????) we’ve seen that isn’t the Doctor. I really *really* hope he shows up in other episodes, because this guy is an absolute riot!

Episodes

I gotta say, overall this season’s episodes are really strong! Four of my five favorite One episodes were in this season, which makes me wonder if Season 3 can possibly top it.... (since so many episodes are missing the answer is probably “no”)

Planet of Giants - A neat little episode. I loved the giant sets here, and the B-plot was really well executed. Apart from Barbara holding the idiot ball and a couple of dropped plot hooks, this was a really good ep!

The Dalek Invasion of Earth - Good ep! I really enjoyed a lot of the side characters introduced in this, and it was a lot of fun seeing Daleks again! The location filming was awesome, and I really liked Susan in this ep. It was awful to see her go at the end.... I’d rank this as one of my Top Five One episodes!

The Rescue - A clever episode, which I thoroughly enjoyed! I loved meeting Vicki, and I really liked the locked room mystery! Plus, as I mentioned, it had one of my favorite plot structures, with the climax of the episode featuring the Doctor confronting the monster alone and logicking him to death. (Okay not quite but still). I really liked this one!

The Romans - I couldn’t stand much more than 20 minutes of this episode, so I skipped it. The sarcasm was On Point, but the general vibe and atmosphere were too much for me to handle. I don’t usually like historical episodes like this, and The Romans continues to fit the pattern.

The Web Planet - This is genuinely one of the weirdest episodes of Doctor Who I’ve ever seen and yet I also love it to pieces. As strange and poorly paced as it was, I really, REALLY enjoyed it! I’d rank it as one of my top five favorite One episodes.

The Crusade - Skipped entirely. Next.

The Space Museum - I liked this episode! We had some fun playing around with time travel, and Vicki got a moment to shine. It was a surprisingly anti-colonial message for 1960s Great Britain, and I liked it! I don’t remember much more than that about it though...

The Chase - I had SO MUCH FUN with The Chase - especially the episode in the Haunted House! It was just so much fun seeing the Daleks again and watching this crazy chase across time and space. Plus, the episode with the phony Doctor was AMAZING! I was so tense and sure something awful would happen the entire time! We got to meet Steven... and said goodbye to Ian and Barbara. I’d say this is another one of my top five favorite One episodes!

The Time Meddler - GOD I cannot stress enough how much I loved this episode! I don’t feel like I need to go on and on about how much I liked it, because it was just SPOT-ON PERFECT. It is *easily* my new favorite One episode, and has safely ensconced itself as one of my favorite Doctor Who episodes of all time!

Favorites (Season Two)

Episode - The Time Meddler

Character(s) - The Doctor, The Monk

Line - “You’re still my grandchild, and you always will be.” I KNOW EVERYONE GOES FOR “I SHALL COME BACK” BUT THIS IS THE LINE THAT ACTUALLY *HURT* ME OKAY.

Ships - None. I didn’t get much shipping chemistry off anyone this season. Susan/David wasn’t a bad ship, though.

Favorites (Overall - ranked)

Episodes - The Time Meddler, The Sensorites, The Chase, The Web Planet, The Dalek Invasion of Earth

Characters - The Monk, The Doctor, Cameca, Barbara Wright, Susan Foreman

Ships - Doctor/Cameca

annnnnd i think that’s everything! which means I’m all set to finally start season three with GALAXY 4!!!