Re: Which Decade was the best for Doctor Who?

On 4/14/2024 6:07 PM, Pluted Pup wrote:

>

>
>
My first decade for TV was the 60s - aged 4 to 8 I saw TV change from back
and white to colour and half of the TV I loved was imported - The Time
Tunnel, Land of the Giants, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Lost in Space,
Batman, Spider-Man, The Man from UNCLE (not forgetting The Girl from
UNCLE), The Addams Family, Bewitched, I Dream of Jeanie, and of course the
wonder that was Star Trek and, not to mention, the Apollo space program
(the greatest TV of all for me in 1969).

>
I watched all of these on reruns when I was a kid. I know it wasn't
first hand experience but discovering all of these new shows when I was
younger was still loads of fun. And sometimes I had no idea I was
watching reruns of long canceled shows.

 And you and I got to see the real reruns! I'm told that
in early syndication the black and white seasons
were not included, so if you didn't see it as premieres,
you could not see the first season of I Dream Of Jeannie,
the first two seasons of Bewitched, the first season
of Lost In Space, etc.
 

>

But domestically we had The Avengers, The Champions, The Prisoner (which I
didn´t understand one little bit but still loved),

 I've just started Out Of The Unknown from 1965.
In this case it's the later color episodes that
are more likely to be missing, permanently. On
DVD, of course, if TV channels would ever show
this old British TV they'd go and chop off the top and
bottom of the screen, making it unwatchable.
 I first Doctor Who episode I saw was a few years
ago with the first episode of the first series from 1963,
and it was thanks to the miracle of the DVD format that I
rented it at a video store. I loved the theme tune, and I
suppose I've never heard it before. My interest into
seeing Doctor Who came from seeing a featured article on
wikipedia on Fury From The Deep (1968) with it's crazy picture:
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fury_from_the_Deep
 

>
But the 70s - the 70s (9-19) were my golden age. The UK truly shone.
Catweazle. Monty Python. Timeslip. Jason King. The Protectors. The
Persuaders. Children of the Stones. Sky. UFO. Space 1999. Doomwatch.
Survivors. The Changes. Blake´s 7. The Tomorrow People. Sapphire and Steel.
The New Avengers. And Doctor Who.

 Catweazle looks fun, so I bought that on DVD, but haven't
watched it yet. Same with The New Avengers, though what
I saw of it looks like it's been dehumoured compared to the
older Avengers. In America only one episode of the New Avengers
was released on DVD, and just the first half of a two part
episode.
 

>

The 60s were wonderful: the 80s were OK: but the 70s were my decade and my
golden age of sci fi and of Doctor Who. Even though I had loved Pat
Troughton as the Doctor,

 But we don't get to see much of Troughton so it's hard to
judge. All his stovepipeness is missing.
 

Now that you mention it...and I think I can do this from memory...the only Troughton I've ever seen were the later episodes where he teamed up, "The Three Doctors," "The Five Doctors," and "The Two Doctors."  My local PBS also aired "Tomb of the Cyberman" (I can't believe I remember these names!) when the BBC found it in some vault.

he was eclipsed by Pertwee and the earlier half of
Tom Baker (for me the rot set in with Romana II. The last great Tom story
was City of Death, the rest is just a coda).

>
I love "City of Death" it is one of my all time favorites.

 I read about that series so was sure to buy it, and again
had to get an Out Of Region DVD because Doctor Who
was so poorly served in America.
 

My local PBS station was run by a (I'm assuming) huge Doctor Who/Red Dwarf fan so we got tons of Who and Red Dwarf and they would even fly in Red Dwarf actors for telethons.  If I recall correctly, when they aired The Prisoner he would do trivia and dress up.  80s/early 90s SF Bay Area was a great time to be a Doctor Who/Red Dwarf fan.