Doctor who original series...?
In the wake of last nights RATHER EXCITING episode, I've decided to go right back to the first ever episodes and watch the whole lot 
So I've ordered a DVD of the first three adventures - thirteen episodes - from 1963-1964. I want to get all of them right up to 1989 but it's hard from the amazon site to tell what order they come in. Can anyone tell me which to get and in what order?? Are there any TV specials / movies I should know about? By November 23rd I want to be the Doctor Who EXPERT
Comments
You might struggle a bit. Nearly all the Patrick Troughton episodes and many of the William Hartnell ones were lost under the BBC's show it once, repeat and then wipe the tape policy of BBC management in the 1970s. They used to copy many of the video recordings onto 16mm film, but management decided that these were untidy and commercially unnecessary and were taking up space, so in the 1970s these were thrown into skips and junked. A few were lifted by souvenir hunting crew, so these episodes were able to be recovered when the BBC announced an amnesty, when they realised the value of these old episodes. They were turning up in sheds, but I think they've tracked down all the ones they are going to.
I think the saddest part of this was when Peter Cook asked the BBC to buy the old recordings of 'Not Only But Also' but the BBC said that video tape was too expensive, and they should be re-used for recording football. Peter Cook then offered to buy new video tape, at his own expense, to exchange for the tapes of his show, but the BBC managers went behind his back and wiped them anyway, so Peter Cook wouldn't bother them any longer. Much of the 'Match of the Day' footage of the 1970s was recorded on tape reused after wiping historic shows.
The Wikipedia article suggests that soundtracks of all the missing episodes of Doctor Who (including the Troughton ones) were recording on home tape machines off their TVs by enthusiasts, but sadly home video did not exist then. The only person rich enough and dedicated enough to make a home video archive was Bob Monkhouse, but he specialised more in comedy rather than drama.
ok, but before you begin you should know that some old episodes are missing.
here are the episodes
1. an unearthly child
2. the daleks
3. the edge of destruction
4. marco polo [missing, but if you are from the uk, you can get a magazine with the episode shown with images to tell the story]
5. the keys of marinus
6. the aztecs
7. the sensorites
8. the reign of terror
9. planet of giants
10. the dalek invasion of earth
11. the rescue
12. the romans
13. the web planet [rubbish episode, but it is worth watching, as the effects and gaffs are very laughable
14. the crusade [see marco polo]
15. the space museum
16. the chase
17. the time meddler
18. galaxy 4 [missing]
19. mission to the unknown [missing]
20. the myth makers [missing]
21. the dalek's masterplan [missing]
22. the massacre of st bartholomews eve [missing]
23. the ark
24. the celestial toymaker [missing]
25. the gunfighters
26. the savages [see marco polo]
27. the war machines
28. the smugglers [see marco polo] [here the series gets really good]
29. the tenth planet [dvd not yet released]
30. the power of the daleks [missing, but you can get stills from it in the bbc classic series web site]
31. the highlanders [see the power of the daleks]
32. the underwater menace [see power of daleks]
33. the moonbase [dvd not yet released]
34. the macra terror [see the power of the daleks]
35. faceless ones [see power of the daleks]
36. the evil of the daleks [see power of the daleks]
37. tomb of the cybermen
38. the abominable snowmen [see power of the daleks]
39. the ice warriors [dvd not yet released]
40. the enemy of the world [see power of the daleks]
41. the web of fear [see power of the daleks]
42. fury of the deep [see power of the daleks]
43. the wheel in space [see power of the daleks]
44. the dominators
45. the mind robber
46. the invasion
47. the krotons
48. the seeds of death
49. the space pirates [missing]
50. the war games
51. spearhead from space
52. doctor who and the silurians
53. the ambassadors of death
54. the inferno
55. terror of the autons
56. the mind of evil [not yet released]
57. the claws of axos
58. colony in space
59. the daemons
60. day of the daleks
61. the curse of peladon
62. the sea devils
63. the mutants
64. the time monster
65. the three doctors
66. carnival of monsters
67. frontier in space
68. planet of the daleks
69. the green death
70. the time warrior
71. invasion of the dinosaurs
72. death to the daleks
73. the monster of peladon
74. planet of spiders
75. robot
76. the ark in space
77. the sontaron experiment
78. genesis of the daleks
79. revenge of the cybermen
80. terror of the zygons [not yet released on dvd]
81. planet of evil
82. pyramids of the mars
83. the android invasion
84. the brain of morbius
85. the seeds of doom
86. the masque of mandragora
87. the hand of fear
88. the deadly assasin
89. the face of evil
90. the robots of death
91. talons of weng chiang
92. horror of fang rock
93. the invisible enemy
94. image of fendal
95. the sun makers
96. underworld
97. the invasion of time
98. the key to time
99. destiny of the daleks
100. city of death [the best episode ever] [after this the quality get's worse]
101. the creature from the pit
102. nightmare of eden
103. horns of nimon
104. shada [incomplete episode]
105. the leisure hive
106. meglos
107. full circle
108. state of decay
109. warrior's gate
110. the keeper of traken
111. logopolis
112. castrovalva
113. four to doomesday
114. kinda
115. the visitation
116. black orchid
117. earthshock
118. time-flight
119. arc of infinity
120. snakedance
121. mawdryn undead
122. terminus
123. enlightenment
124. the king's demons
125. warriors of the deep
126. the awakening
127. frontios
128. resurrection of the daleks
129. planet of fire
130. the caves of androzani
131. the twin dilemma
132. attack of the cybermen
133. vengeance on varos
134. the mark of the rani
135. the two doctors
136. timelash
137. revelation of the daleks
138. trial of a timelord
139. time and the rani
140. paradise towers
141. delta and the bannermen
142. dragonfire
143. rememberance of the daleks
144. the happiness patrol
145. silver nemesis
146. the greatest show in the galaxy
147. battlefield
148. ghostlight
149. the curse of fenric
150. survival
151. the movie
you can also get this dvd, called lost in time which has all the surviving episodes from partially missing episodes
many episodes are in dvd boxsets with other episodes, from the series.
there is also the k9 boxset, which is made up of the invisible enemy and the tv special k9 and company.
you can bye the soundtrack from all the missing episodes.
there are also 2 films from the 1960s
ps. i forgot the 5 doctors it came after the king's demons.
pps. you are gonna have so much fun.
You are making a big commitment of time and money! The original Dr Who ran for about twenty years - certainly from when I was a young child to when I was at university - so there's a lot to get through. You might get on better if you look at the DVDs on the BBC Shop website, where they will provide more information than Amazon, who basically whack stuff on there in any old random order. You don't have to order them from the BBC site if they're cheaper elsewhere.
Don't know how they would be listed but can tell you the names of the first few doctors if that helps.
William Hartnell, Patrick Trouton, John Pertwee, Tom Baker. After that I don' t really know as I didn't watch for a few years up until the re-introduction of it a few years ago. There have been some specials and at least one film. I think the doctor was played by Peter Cussion in the film but not 100% sure, it would have been the early 60's. Bernard Cribbins was also in the film, who now pops up from time time to time in current episodes as Donna's farther.
The BBC website has the Doctors and episodes in order.