Old School Dr. Who

Amazon had a BBC video sale on last week, and I splurged. I got two more Dr. Who DVDs for my Tom Baker collection, and I watched one of them tonight. I haven't seen Planet of Evil in years. All I remembered of it was the black pool and the outline of the creature in technicolor. It was good. The jungle scenes were just as impressive as they were reported to be, and as always with these episodes, I'd forgotten so much from when I saw them as a child.

I am such a classic DW fan. The storylines were really creative, and the world the writers created had great richness to it. Even though the special effects were so low-tech and every spaceship was so obviously put together from old vacuums (something I actually love), the stories were mostly solid. Real thought had gone into creating worlds, creatures, problems, and plots. Unity was maintained. Today's writers could take some hints from DW. After all it has been for 45+ years.....

For me, the old school will always be the best. You will never be able to beat the sheer camp of the "plaything of Sutekh" or seeing the same wonderful BBC actors playing minor characters over and over in different episodes. No amount of CGI or big-budget wardrobe will replace the cheesy wonder of "space age" wardrobe choices circa 1975. Nobody else will ever be Tom Baker running around in that scarf with that particular persona. As much as I have adored David Tennant in the role, and as good as I think he's been in the storyline of the Doctor who is living in that part of the character's history, whenever someone says, "Doctor Who" to me, curly hair and unpredictable behavior always come to mind.

I enjoy the new series, too, to be sure. The writing has the same qualities that drew me to the original, especially the thoughtful planning of the four-season arc that ended recently. I don't know what it will be like when the eleventh Doctor takes over the role, but I hope that it will continue to amuse and open those worlds for the imagination to play in and for generations of new writers and thinkers to spread their wings in as well.

As I expand my collection and rediscover the mythology of the series, I am grateful again to have these DVDs. My old cassettes, diligently recorded from our local PBS affiliate so many years ago when they showed the series, have long since deteriorated, so each time I sit down to watch one, it's familiar, yet mostly new again, too. As I wait to see what happens as Tennant steps down, I can enjoy the glory years of the series and dream of looking out my own front door to see a blue police box waiting for me someday.