60 Years of Doctor Who coming to BBC iPlayer

[rogue69]

Launching the 1st November the BBC will finally be adding all 60 years worth of Doctor Who to their IPlayer.
With over 800 episodes due to be made available from the  First Doctor William Hartnell right up to the 60th anniversary specials along side the spin-offs the Sarah Jane Adventures, Torchwood and Class.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/2023/doctor-who-archive-on-bbc-iplayer?

[nxylas]

That's Britbox finished then.

[Colin YNWA]

Wow that's great news. Its been a good few years since I watched the classic series. Went through a phase maybe 15 years ago (I think) watching them all in DVD. Most were available at that point anyway. Its was dead interesting seeing which held up and which didn't.

I've not watch many of the animated releases of missing episodes, I think Invasion was out when I did my watch, so very much looking forward to seeing those... even if I imagine some are poppycock.

[Hawkmumbler]

I've seen two in total of the 'complete' animations, for serials more than 50% missing.

Both The Macra Terror and and Fury from the Deep I feel actually benefit from the transition to animation, the former certainly so. Do watch them in their monochrome presentations though, it feels wrong seeing these stories in colour.

[nxylas]

I saw The Power of the Daleks, the animation was a little bit Worker and Parasite, but I understand some of the later ones are better quality.

[Pyroxian]

I miss Troughton's expressions in the animated ones though - that man could gurn!

Nice that it's coming to the iPlayer, even though I own them all on DVD...

[The Enigmatic Dr X]

I am thrilled by this.

Set nostalgia-goggle filter to "max" and ignore the sets, acting, and drawn out plots.

I am all in on watching from the start.

[Tjm86]

Well, having a pretty much complete collection already (not sold on the animated episodes unfortunately), this is not really a major coup for me.  I suppose if they are adding in the blu-ray quality releases it might be worth a nose to see how they do compare with the DVD editions. 

Again though, the updated special effects tend to grate a bit for me.  Don't get me wrong, some of the original stuff is naff on an extreme level at times, even for the tech level of the day.

It's been interesting recently doing a Baker-binge.  What did surprise me though was how quickly the Key to Time series bogged down.  I always remembered it far more fondly.  Watching some of them though, I feel like I'm watching something utterly alien.

As for Modern-Who, I'm probably in the minority being glad Ecclestone left.  He just seemed to capture some of the worst aspects of the performances down through the years.  I've tried to get on with the Whittaker stuff but despite every effort I just haven't been able to get on with it.  Plenty of folks have criticised the writing at that point and I'd have to agree.

That's always been the thing with Dr Who though, isn't it?  It's either amazing or dire.  There is very little in between.  Mind you, the same can be said of most SF really.  Star Trek, Blakes 7, B5, Space 1999, UFO, Farscape, X-Files, Buck Rogers, Battlestar Galactica ... none are perfect are they?

[IndigoPrime]

It's either amazing or dire.

The problem with Whittaker's run was quite a lot of it was just a bit dull, and Chibnall bizarrely decided to often sideline the Doctor in her own show, along with not really ever giving the audience a sense of who she was (bar, you know, her seeming fondness for genocide).

There were some good episodes. And I loved the intro theme, which was spooky rather than RTD's preference towards BOMBASTIC LOUD MOVIE THING. But too often, its own logical didn't hang together. And all that Timeless Child stuff was horrible, bar Jo Martin's Fugitive Doctor, who I'd happily see return in some capacity. Hopefully Chibnall will stay true to his word though and stay away from the property now.

[nxylas]

I tried to like the Chibnall era (mostly because of the vitriol it attracted from the most toxic sections of fandom), but a lot of it was a bit preachy and dull, like the sort of movies that used to win Best Picture Oscars in the '80s or '90s. There are some things I approved of in theory (more historicals, attempts at scientific accuracy, three companions in the TARDIS), but they often fell down in the execution.

[Funt Solo]

Star Trek, Blakes 7, B5, Space 1999, UFO, Farscape, X-Files, Buck Rogers, Battlestar Galactica ... none are perfect are they?

How dare you!

[Tjm86]

Star Trek, Blakes 7, B5, Space 1999, UFO, Farscape, X-Files, Buck Rogers, Battlestar Galactica ... none are perfect are they?

How dare you!

I dare you to try the second season though ...

[Jim_Campbell]

It's been interesting recently doing a Baker-binge.  What did surprise me though was how quickly the Key to Time series bogged down.  I always remembered it far more fondly.  Watching some of them though, I feel like I'm watching something utterly alien.

We did a Baker re-watch a few years back. The first season (12) starts off shaky, but finishes strong, but after the generally excellent seasons 13-15, all of them containing more than one absolute classic, we ran out of steam very quickly in S16 (Key to Time) and gave up a couple of stories in. With all this stuff now up on iPlayer, I think we might skip over 16 entirely and see how the rest of Baker's run holds up...

[Hawkmumbler]

Key to Time was a season I really do recall enjoying more than I do, remember enjoying all of them at one time or another (minus Power of Kroll) as a lad.
Funny, that's by some considerable margin my favourite now! Whos stealth Kaiju story.
The Armageddon Factor really is interminable drivel, isn''t it. A bloated 6 episode bore of a story.

[IAMTHESYSTEM]

The Green Death, Inferno, Genesis Of The Daleks, The Pyramids Of Mars and all the other classics in one easy-to-reach place-fantastic.