Whosday: How to Watch Classic Doctor Who

As time progresses, watching Classic Doctor Who probably gets progressively more complicated for most Whovians.  Not only are the various tones, story tropes, and subject materials all wildly different from the Revived Series, especially the Moffat era, but it's becoming increasingly difficult to find decent prices for Classic Who stories.

Fortunately, there is a way to get them, and there is also a method to watching them properly.

First of all, one can watch them all on Amazon, as long as one applies for Britbox.  While Britbox sadly costs $8.99 a month, the fact it gives you access to a myriad of Doctor Who stories in the process, on top of other good shows like Blackadder, ensures that it is your money's worth.

Secondly, now that you have access to tons of BBC shows, you should think about where to start.  If you are used to the Moffat era in particular, you're probably going to find watching the show from the beginning a rather strenuous task.  Therefore, the solution is to perhaps watch from the beginning of the Fourth Doctor's run.  After all, for most of us, that is the main point of watching Classic Who, right?

His first serial is Robot, but I have to warn you, that even this serial will feel more like something from the Russel T. Davies era than anything from the Moffat era and the Chibnall era, which might be uncomfortable if you're an RTD-hater.  Fortunately, I wasn't when I got into the show, so I rather liked Robot.  The best part is, Robot is not even the best Fourth Doctor story by a longshot, so you only have things to look forward to.

Now that you know where to start, you have to understand something: Unlike the Revived Series, Classic Who seldom ever follows the 45-minute format.  Rather, they are serials often 4 to 6 episodes long.  Some stories are hard to sit through in one go.

So what do you do?

Not only is each episode filled with tons of information, but each episode also ends on a cliffhanger.   You ideally should probably watch them by two to four episodes every day until you have finished the story.  Let the cliffhanger "hang" in your mind until you watch the next episode.  It's actually far easier to keep track of all of the information established in the episodes that way.

A final warning is that during the 1970s, Doctor Who was not designed to catch the viewer's attention by means of raw emotional weight like the 1960s episodes or the Revived Series, but rather, through the plots and the ideas they convey.

Enjoy!

Note: Despite being completed and apparently published by the 7th, an issue involving multiple open tabs has caused Blogger to register this post as only being completed by Wednesday.  I'm sorry for the confusion.