Update on my current Classic Who situation

[auroracloud]

My haphazard voyage into Classic Who via Twitch marathon continues. I'm still not managing to watch most of the episodes, but enough to have an idea of what I want to see more of. Things definitely got more interesting for me again as soon as Sarah Jane showed up. I loved her in the new series and I definitely love her in the classic series as well! I had good opportunities to watch a lot of early Fourth Doctor, as the episodes coincided with the Finnish Midsummer which is a big holiday I had no particular programme for. But I have a limited ability to take in audiovisual media without feeling overwhelmed and exhausted, so I didn't watch all of the episodes I could have, then.

But, I definitely like Fourth Doctor. I can see why he's so legendary. Also, I can see he's had a lot of influence over the later Doctors; I see and hear lots of things that are familiar from the New Who era Doctors I've watched previously. I particularly feel reminded by Ten and Twelve, which makes sense as Tennant and Capaldi are the ones who've been Doctor Who fanboys when they were young.

Anyway, this week I've managed to catch some episodes with Leela, and I love her, love her. Including having a major crush on her, oh my. I wonder if, when I'm done buying Second Doctor DVDs, I'll have to buy all the Leela stories next, rather than proceed in any logical order. Though we'll see how things proceed now that we've started on Romana. I managed to catch bits of her first two stories today, and I love her madly as well.

I've ordered a bunch of Second Doctor era DVDs (including the Lost in Time which has the various existing material from lost or partly lost serials). Now I just need to find time to start watching them. Oh, and find my DVD player remote control. Finding things in my home tends to be exceedingly difficult. Except maybe if the things are books, because those I just leave everywhere and the place is swarming with them. But I digress. Anyway, I also maaaay have taken advantage of the Big Finish sale for Companion Chronicles and spent about 40 € on Second Doctor era audios, especially with Frazer Hines (Jamie) and Wendy Padbury (Zoe). Oops. Heh.

I've found Big Finish audios quite recently - in the sense of actually starting to buy them, listen to them and enjoy them; I did know about their existence before. It's all because of Torchwood. There not being enough Torchwood TV canon with all the right characters, I couldn't resist buying some Torchwood audios, have discovered that I really enjoy them, and that I've got a taste for audio drama I didn't know about because my previous experiences with audio drama were limited to Finnish radio dramas which are really not to my taste, but that's because Finnish "serious literature" doesn't tend to be to my taste. So anyway, that has made me curious to try more, and the Second Doctor era also has the problem that there isn't enough material in the TV canon (because so many episodes have been lost) so all these audios became really tempting.

Hmm, this Classic Who thing might prove to be not very good for my finances.

On the other hand, it's very good for my mood, mental state, and creativity, so I win anyway.

Comments

[trobadora]

Yay, Leela! I adore her so much. She's my favourite Old Who companion. :D

[auroracloud]

She's so fabulous and so much fun. Can't wait to get a proper look at all her adventures, since now it was just bits and pieces, except for Robots of Death which I managed to see in its entirety.

I really wish New Who did more of this picking up companions from other eras and/or planets. Classic Who seems to have done a lot of it, especially in the eras of One, Two, and Four, and it's so much fun and those also mostly end up being my favourite companions, whether it's a coincidence or not. The modern producers are clearly too stuck in the mindset of "we need someone of the current era to be the audience viewpoint" although it's also immensely interesting to see how someone sees things we might take for granted when they're from a different culture, whether it's past, future, alien etc.

[trobadora]

Have you seen her first entrance yet (The Face of Evil)? That's so much fun!

And I completely agree. I'm so tired of the present-day companions, even if I do love, for example, Bill a lot. I think by this point the modern audience mostly knows what it's getting from Doctor Who, and doesn't need a companion as a entry viewpoint any more. And it's not as if a different POV would be that difficult. As you say, people managed just fine with Old Who!

[auroracloud]

Sadly not, it was on at a time when I couldn't watch. The first story I saw from her (and the only one I could see in full, because those were busy days when her episodes were on) was her second story, Robots of Death. But I definitely plan to get all of hers on DVD!

Yeah, some modern day companions are awesome, but in general that's been done to death. After 13 years of New Who, people don't need the modern day viewpoint all the time to be able to find their way around the show. I can't believe that in all that time, Jack is the only companion not from 21st century Earth. (And well, Nardole, I think? The only New Who story I still haven't seen is The Husbands of River song, so I don't have his origin. It's a bit hard to say where River is originally from, what with her complicated backstory.)

I suppose it's a mark of the rather self-centered modern day viewpoint that the show runners imagine we're unable to connect to a character who doesn't hail from our own time (and presumably cultural background, though of course there are plenty of us viewers who aren't British). Makes no sense that out of all of time and space, only 20-something women from early 21st century would be interested in travelling with the Doctor and interesting for him/her to travel with.

[trobadora]

I suppose it's a mark of the rather self-centered modern day viewpoint that the show runners imagine we're unable to connect to a character who doesn't hail from our own time (and presumably cultural background, though of course there are plenty of us viewers who aren't British).

Depressing but true.

I honestly don't understand why they're so stuck on the present-day companion thing. Jack wasn't, and Jack was hugely popular. And Missy wasn't, and she sort of counts as a companion now, doesn't she? And she's hugely popular. River sort of counts, I think, because we didn't know about her origins for so long - and she's popular, too! (Not sure if Nardole counts - he's not from the present day, but he's a pretty minor figure, all things considered.) So why did they never go for that kind of thing for the main companion? *sighs*

[st_aurafina]

Leela is amazing, so fearless and smart. I love her! And Romana is great too - there's a really good arc of stories she's in, The Key to Time. It has some of my favourite episodes in it.

[auroracloud]

Yes, she's amazing! And I love how, whenever she encounters something she doesn't understand because it's foreign to her culture, she puts it in terms that she can understand and usually grasps the essence quite easily. And I love her awesome defiance and attitude of "nobody messes with me or with the Doctor, dammit!"

I'm probably not managing to see more than isolated stories of the Key to Time arc now, because the schedules don't go well together with my time zone and a day job. But that'll at least be one clear set of stories too buy myself later. :-)