Doctor Who has a history stemming back over 60 years, with the “classic” version of the series running from 1963-1989. While the modern series, which began in 2005, has become quite popular here in the U.S., the classic series is still more of a cult favorite. Fans have been able to watch the series streaming on BritBox for a number of years now, but now there’s another, free way to peruse the Doctor Who archive – on YouTube!
The BBC has created a new Classic Doctor Who YouTube channel which has been uploading a wide collection of full, omnibus length classic stories. Available in most countries outside the U.K., the new channel is a great way for fans and newcomers looking to dive into the archive for the first time. As a starter, I thought I’d share some of my favorite stories that are currently uploaded that you should give a watch.
Spearhead from Space
Doctor Who burst into color with “Spearhead from Space,” the first story for Third Doctor Jon Petwee, and the first of the 1970s. The Doctor has been exiled to Earth, and he’s reunited with UNIT (United Nations Intelligence Taskforce) who give him a home during the seasons of his exile. This story was, unusually for the period, filmed entirely on film, giving it a completely different feel to many of its contemporaries. We’re introduced to the Autons, basically anything plastic animated and brought to life by the nefarious Nestene Consciousness. The story gives us the iconic moment of shop-window dummies coming to life and smashing through the window, terrorizing the people of a local high street.
Jon Pertwee is immediately likeable as the Doctor, being perhaps a little more goofy than he would go on to be – but we’ll chalk that up to post-regeneration angst. The formula that most of his tenure would follow is here from the get-go: an alien invasion on Earth that the Doctor must partner with UNIT to solve, alongside his assistant for this season, Liz Shaw (Caroline John).
Vengeance on Varos
Following one story at the end of Peter Davison’s final season, Colin Baker made his proper debut as the Doctor in Season 25, a season that would become one of the darkest in the show’s history. It would deal with some quite harsh themes, and the violence level would be turned up higher than ever before, even on the Doctor’s behalf. With that, we come to the second story of the season, “Vengeance on Varos.”
The planet Varos has one thing going for it, the mining element Zeiton-7, however the people and government of Varos aren’t getting the full wealth from the element that they should, thanks to the interference of the Mentors. To make ends meet, the government sells videos of prisoners being tortured, which are also broadcast as the main means of entertainment to the people of Varos. Even the Governor is prone to torture, if he doesn’t survive a particular vote. These rather dark elements were criticisms of not only pornographic material, but also a thoughtful piece on what would eventually become reality TV, making this a rather ahead-of-its-time story.
“Vengeance on Varos” is perhaps best known for introducing the character of Sil to Doctor Who, one of the aforementioned Mentors. A slug-like creature, actor Nabil Shaban puts in an appropriately slimy performance making him one of the most iconic villains of 1980s Doctor Who. This story admittedly is a little dark, but if you can get past that, it’s an excellent thinkpiece on who we were becoming.
City of Death
The latter half of Tom Baker’s 7 year-run as the Doctor typically isn’t looked at as fondly as his early years, but one true standout from his penultimate season is “City of Death.” While the original story was written by David Fisher, it was heavily re-written by the legendary Douglas Adams of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy fame. In fact, during this particular season, Adams served as Doctor Who’s script editor. While perhaps too much humor worked its way into some serials, here, a perfect balance is struck.
“City of Death” was the first time the show had done overseas filming, with scenes taking place around Paris, adding a very different feel to the show. Longtime composer Dudley Simpson put in some of his finest work here, creating a truly memorable piece that plays while the Doctor and companion Romana (Lalla Ward) make their way through Paris. Location filming aside, the script is also an excellent one, involving an alien who is the last of his species, trying to travel back in time to save his race. Said alien is portrayed by Julian Glover, who has appeared in practically every franchise imaginable, from Star Wars to Indiana Jones, and from James Bond to Game of Thrones. He brings a subdued and suave performance that truly makes for a memorable one-off villain.
Tom Baker is in fine form in this serial, and perhaps at his wittiest. But it's all a ruse, to make his opponents underestimate him, something that he and Second Doctor Patrick Troughton perfected, and has become an integral part of the character. Another shoutout has to go to Tom Chadbon as Duggan, one of the show’s best one-off sidekicks of all time.
Genesis of the Daleks
The Daleks had been an essential part of Doctor Who since the second-ever serial in 1963. While these menacing pepper-pots graced our screens a number of times the show’s first decade, we never knew exactly where they came from. That was, until 1975’s “Genesis of the Daleks.” Written by the original creator of the Daleks, Terry Nation, this is one of the most ambitious, and most-beloved serials of the classic series, and for good reason!
Sent on a mission by the Time Lords to avert the creation of the Daleks, or to at least make them less aggressive, the Doctor ends up on their home planet, Skaro, just as the very first Dalek is being tested. We’re introduced to the creator of the Daleks, Davros. He’d go on to appear in many subsequent stories, but was never more intimidating and cunning than in his debut appearance. Davros and his subservients bring home the Nazi parallel that the Daleks had always portrayed in a more obvious way than ever-before. The Daleks' predecessors, the humanoid Kaleds, are locked into an endless war with the Thals. In his unhinged efforts to end the war, Davros created the Daleks, and what we see in this story is just how they came to take over.
This is a story that never gets old for me, and one I can’t believe was made on a 1970s Who budget. It truly is a blockbuster spectacle, made even better by stellar performances from the cast, specifically Michael Wisher as Davros. Just four stories into his run, Tom Baker gives a stellar performance here, particularly in a scene where he has the chance to destroy the Daleks, but just can’t bring himself to do it.
The Macra Terror
I include “The Macra Terror” as an example of an animated reconstruction of a missing story. You see, thanks to the BBC’s policy at the time to junk old stories for storage reasons, many episodes from the 1960s are missing from the BBC’s archive. “The Macra Terror” is one of those, with all four episodes completely missing. However, alongside a number of other stories from the era, the entire story was animated alongside the existing audio recording, allowing fans to view the story as closely as it would have originally appeared as possible.
The story itself is an interesting one, acting as a Doctor Who version of George Orwell’s 1984. One of the Doctor’s companions, Ben (Michael Craze) is brainwashed into becoming a part of the colony, which is really controlled by the Macra – who are an intelligent, giant crab-like species. Perhaps it's for the best that the original version of the story is missing, as the Macra likely would have looked pretty poor on a 1960s BBC budget. In the animated version, they’re animated with enough pizzazz to give them a real threat. The Macra went on to appear in a less intelligent form in the 2007 episode, “Gridlock.”
Horror of Fang Rock
Tom Baker’s fourth season as the Doctor began a shift in approach for the series, away from the somewhat violent, gothic horror approach of his first three. But that gothic horror vibe gets one last hoorah in “Horror of Fang Rock.” Written by previous script editor Terrence Dicks, this serial is entirely set within a lighthouse at night, where an alien has crashed landed just off the shore. That alien turns out to be a Rutan, a shapeshifting jellyfish type creature who infiltrates the lighthouse. The tense, foreboding nature of this story really shines, with great performances from the cast – and particularly Baker, as well as companion Leela, played by Louise Jameson.
For being a hastily written replacement for a vampire serial, which would go on to be made three seasons later as “State of Decay,” it’s a truly impressive piece from one of the defining writers of classic Doctor Who.
The Mind Robber
By this point in Doctor Who’s history, the show had deeply delved into the genres of science fiction and history, but one realm it mostly stayed away from is fantasy. “The Mind Robber” is the exception to that rule, as the Doctor and his companions Jamie and Zoe get drawn into the Land of Fiction. The first episode of the five part serial is actually somewhat different from the rest, and is a really unique episode for this era of the show. The team is trapped in an endless void which leads to a really meta and unique story. That first episode ends with one of the show’s all-time greatest cliffhangers, where the TARDIS seemingly explodes.
Upon escaping from the endless void, the TARDIS team then enters the Land of Fiction, where they come across characters such as Gulliver and Rapunzel, all part of an elaborate scheme by the Master of Fiction (no connection to the as-of-yet to debut arch-nemesis of the Doctor, the Master). This leads to a fun tale that interestingly uses these and other characters in a fantasy setting that, appropriately for Doctor Who, still has a science fiction based explanation.
During episode two, Frazier Hines, who played companion Jamie McCrimmon, was unable to appear. Instead of just not using the character, the production team fully made use of the story’s fantasy setting, where a game was devised for the Doctor to put Jamie’s face back together. Unfortunately, the Doctor doesn’t quite get it right, allowing for a different actor to portray Jamie for that episode.
For more classic Doctor Who recommendations, check out my “Getting Acquainted With Doctor Who” series of articles, written in the lead-up to the show’s debut on Disney+.