Summary: My progress through the old episodes of Doctor Who continues. I am now about two-thirds done, which puts me (and the way I started) near the end of William Hartnell's run.
Old Doctor Who ep watching update
BLOT: (02 Oct 2011 - 02:52:51 PM)
Old Doctor Who ep watching update
When I started catching up on old Doctor Who episodes, my initial method was on a whim serial selection. I would often purposefully bounce around, and when there was a method it was either (a) one that I had recently gottenon DVD or (b) one that somehow tied into the current run on television. A bit back, about a year ago I imagine but I am not sure exactly when, I watched The Key to Time: a 24-episode, 6-serial story arc that made up season 16 of the old series. It featured Mary Tamm as the new companion and fellow Time Lord, Romana, and it had a connected quest to reassemble the eponymous artifact.
Since then, I have watched the old series from serial to serial, season to season, in order, with a few exceptions, and have made from season 16 to 26 and then went back and looped around to season 1 and have watched it and most of season 2. Combined with the previous episodes watched more haphazardly, this puts me at watching about 100 of the original 159 (give or take a Shada) serials. Now, keep in mind that many of the "serials" (some prefer to use the term episodes and parts rather than serials and episodes, whichever works for you) in the older seasons were longer in episode count. The Dalek Masterplan had twelve episodes. I cannot think of one past the time of Tom Baker, and the aborted Shada, that had more than four. In fact, towards the end there were several that only had two or three episodes. So while my individual story count is about the two-thirds mark, my actual episode count is more likely about the half.
As a side note, since I am now entering into the third season, I am coming upon the first sizable chunk of stories to have no video component, or only a small amount of video components, left surviving the BBC archive purge. Which means that I'll listen to three or four serials in a row as audio only, punctuated by occasionally video ones. Throughout Troughton's tenure as the secondard incarnation, this will only become more pronounced. By the time I get to Pertwee, it will be mostly visual. By the time of Tom Baker, it will be entirely visual, but then after about three seasons (of which I have watched half already) I will be done and will either restart or relegate myself back to random incursions into old-Who-ville.
OTHER BLOTS THIS MONTH: October 2011
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