This is the first of my season reviews.
I have really enjoyed this first season and think that the ‘marathon’ is going far better than it did when I last did it in 2010. I know that there are going to be episode which I am going to struggle to pluck up the energy to sit through the episodes but I have to remember that they are only 25 minutes long. There have been some days when I have wanted to watch more than just one but I have to be disciplined and stick to an episode a day. What I have struggled with sometimes are the reviews. Normally I aim for over 600 words and I have stuck to that but sometime I have struggled and especially with Marco Polo I was writing between 400-500 words. At the end of this first season I have written just over 28,500 words which is (if I’m allowed to be modest) is an astonishing word count.
The first series of Doctor Who was 42 episodes long and it was a varied and overall enjoyable experience. Out of the 42 episodes, only seven don’t exist on DVD or VHS and that was Marco Polo. The experience of listening to an episode a day was made easier by looking at the telesnaps from Doctor Who Magazine. Out of 8 stories in this opening series, half of them had been historical stories and I must admit that this is one of the things that has changed since I started this journey. Normally historicals aren’t something I have had a negative reaction and actually I have responded well but The Reign of Terror was the exception to the rule. Half of this story was good but the other half wasn’t and it shows the limitations of doing historicals in a science fiction show. The lack of episodes on DVD or VHS is going to be an bigger issue in future series but
It’s great how the Doctor has mellowed over the course of the season. For the first dozen episodes he was a really moody character and it must have seemed odd to some people at the time as to how they were suppose to like someone who is so unlikeable. This started after Inside the Spaceship and there were several moments from this period where they are all best friends and it feels much more like a team. Barbara and Ian go from reluctant travellers to just embracing the whole experience. There are moments especially in the early stages where it becomes quite important to the story but apart from The Reign of Terror its sort of a case of if we get back then we will leave. Susan was the most disappointing part of the crew because due to the writing she goes from a strange strong woman to a whiny teenager. Occasionally the writing would suit the former but mostly that would last two episodes before resorting to the latter.
I’m afraid that I’m going to become a statatiscian and talk about ratings and stuff like that. Episode 1 of An Unearthly Child got 4.4m though this is dubiously put to the death of President Kennedy the day before. By the end of the first Dalek serial, the rating had jumped to over 10 million. Two more episode would get over the 10 million mark (Marco Polo: Assassin at Peking & The Keys of Marinus: Snows of Terror). After ‘The Keys of Marinus’ figures would start to decline due to the summer months. The lowest rating apart from the first episode would be ‘The Sensorites: A Race Against Death’. The ratings would rebound to finish on 6.4 million.
My ratings for this story have also varied. The first episode got 8.67 out of 10 and only The Daleks: The Dead Planet would get a higher rating (8.70). The lowest rated episode was actually the final episode of the season which got 6.50. Amazingly out of 42 episodes, only 4 episodes got less that 7/10.
The first season has done well in establishing the series and for most people it is the Daleks that made Doctor Who and made this season but I like to think that it’s the steady hand of Verity Lambert and David Whittaker that helped cement these characters into the public’s consciousness.
Average Ratings for Each Story
An Unearthly Child – 7.83
The Daleks – 7.65
Inside the Spaceship – 8.42
Marco Polo – 7.32
The Keys of Marinus – 7.41
The Aztecs – 7.50
The Sensorites – 7.38
The Reign of Terror – 7.14
I have really enjoyed this first season and think that the ‘marathon’ is going far better than it did when I last did it in 2010. I know that there are going to be episode which I am going to struggle to pluck up the energy to sit through the episodes but I have to remember that they are only 25 minutes long. There have been some days when I have wanted to watch more than just one but I have to be disciplined and stick to an episode a day. What I have struggled with sometimes are the reviews. Normally I aim for over 600 words and I have stuck to that but sometime I have struggled and especially with Marco Polo I was writing between 400-500 words. At the end of this first season I have written just over 28,500 words which is (if I’m allowed to be modest) is an astonishing word count.
The first series of Doctor Who was 42 episodes long and it was a varied and overall enjoyable experience. Out of the 42 episodes, only seven don’t exist on DVD or VHS and that was Marco Polo. The experience of listening to an episode a day was made easier by looking at the telesnaps from Doctor Who Magazine. Out of 8 stories in this opening series, half of them had been historical stories and I must admit that this is one of the things that has changed since I started this journey. Normally historicals aren’t something I have had a negative reaction and actually I have responded well but The Reign of Terror was the exception to the rule. Half of this story was good but the other half wasn’t and it shows the limitations of doing historicals in a science fiction show. The lack of episodes on DVD or VHS is going to be an bigger issue in future series but
It’s great how the Doctor has mellowed over the course of the season. For the first dozen episodes he was a really moody character and it must have seemed odd to some people at the time as to how they were suppose to like someone who is so unlikeable. This started after Inside the Spaceship and there were several moments from this period where they are all best friends and it feels much more like a team. Barbara and Ian go from reluctant travellers to just embracing the whole experience. There are moments especially in the early stages where it becomes quite important to the story but apart from The Reign of Terror its sort of a case of if we get back then we will leave. Susan was the most disappointing part of the crew because due to the writing she goes from a strange strong woman to a whiny teenager. Occasionally the writing would suit the former but mostly that would last two episodes before resorting to the latter.
I’m afraid that I’m going to become a statatiscian and talk about ratings and stuff like that. Episode 1 of An Unearthly Child got 4.4m though this is dubiously put to the death of President Kennedy the day before. By the end of the first Dalek serial, the rating had jumped to over 10 million. Two more episode would get over the 10 million mark (Marco Polo: Assassin at Peking & The Keys of Marinus: Snows of Terror). After ‘The Keys of Marinus’ figures would start to decline due to the summer months. The lowest rating apart from the first episode would be ‘The Sensorites: A Race Against Death’. The ratings would rebound to finish on 6.4 million.
My ratings for this story have also varied. The first episode got 8.67 out of 10 and only The Daleks: The Dead Planet would get a higher rating (8.70). The lowest rated episode was actually the final episode of the season which got 6.50. Amazingly out of 42 episodes, only 4 episodes got less that 7/10.
The first season has done well in establishing the series and for most people it is the Daleks that made Doctor Who and made this season but I like to think that it’s the steady hand of Verity Lambert and David Whittaker that helped cement these characters into the public’s consciousness.
Average Ratings for Each Story
An Unearthly Child – 7.83
The Daleks – 7.65
Inside the Spaceship – 8.42
Marco Polo – 7.32
The Keys of Marinus – 7.41
The Aztecs – 7.50
The Sensorites – 7.38
The Reign of Terror – 7.14
