After many years of hearing about it, I finally got curious enough to sample some Doctor Who. I had heard Tom Baker, the 4th Doctor, was among the most popular and it’s his face I remember seeing on PBS briefly when I was quite young. His first story was Robot from 1974.
I really enjoyed the 4 episode story. I had been warned by people about the low budget special effects but I have never been put off by that. I have always held the view that I would rather see people film their story with a low budget and poor special effects rather than never film it at all. I believe it is the job of every science-fiction fan to not only suspend disbelief when watching science-fiction but also suspend unreasonably high standards for visuals.
Tom Baker was a lot of fun to watch. I understand now why a generation of science-fiction fans in Britain took a liking to him. Elisabeth Sladen had a prominent role as a young reporter but she didn’t impress me at all. Nicholas Courtney as the Brigadier was great. I’ve heard he became a fan favorite and returned many times to the show.
I was disappointed to see nothing in the way of information on time lords or the Tardis. As a new viewer of sorts I wanted to see how the world of Doctor Who treated those concepts. I rented the episodes from Netflix which is only prepared to show me one more story before their DVD supply cuts off. I’m very disappointed that Netflix is dropping their DVD selection in favor of streaming titles that don’t interest anyone at my house. My only other option is to buy the DVDs and I’m not sure I’m that dedicated at this point.
