I started watching DOCTOR WHO on our local Public Broadcasting Station back in the 1970s and have stuck with The Doctor–in the many regenerations–over the decades. But, in all those episodes, some silly and some serious, the most frightening episodes to me involved the Weeping Angels.
The Weeping Angels are an incredibly powerful species of quantum-locked humanoids who resemble stone statues. The Weeping Angels can only move when no one is looking at them.
This explains why the Weeping Angels often covered their faces with their hands to prevent trapping each other in petrified form for eternity by looking at one another and gave the Weeping Angels their distinct “weeping” appearance.
In the DOCTOR WHO episodes where Matt Smith played The Doctor, The Weeping Angels were presented as “kind” murderous psychopaths, eradicating their victims “mercifully” by dropping them into the past and letting them live out their full lives, just in a different time period. This, in turn, allowed the Weeping Angels to live off the remaining time energy of the victim’s life. However, when this potential energy paled in comparison to an alternative power source to feed on, the Weeping Angels were known to kill by other means, such as snapping their victims’ necks.
In this “Quick Read” story, Magic of the Angels, Jacqueline Rayner complicates a vacation in contemporary London by The Doctor and his companions, Amy, and Rory, when they witness a magic show where a young girl vanishes. The Doctor discovers the magician is using a Weeping Angel to make young girls disappear. But, stopping a Weeping Angel is complicated. Are you a Doctor Who fan? GRADE: B
I first read about DR. WHO in Calvin Beck’s CASTLE OF FRANKENSTEIN magazine in the mid-’60s, but I’ve yet to see any episodes of the series. Maybe some day.
Fred, the early DOCTOR WHO episodes where low on Production Values, but the later versions with upgraded cast and Special Effects help immensely!
My exposure has been pretty limited. I caught the Peter Cushing Amicus movie on TV while I was in elementary school. Later, I watched a few episodes of the Tom Baker episodes when it was on PBS but couldn’t get past the jarring mix of videotape and 16 mm. I confess to watching some of the made-for-television movie (that for some reason took place in San Francisco) on Fox in the nineties and that was pretty forgettable. My last exposure was seeing part of one of the Chris Eccleston episodes back in the aughts but it had way too much of a Joss Whedon vibe for my taste so I bailed.
I probably would have checked out one of the more recent incarnations of the show but the fandom surrounding the show, like all fandom, is so off-putting it has tainted the show somewhat. My library has a ton of episodes on DVD. Any particular era you’d recommend? People seem to favor the David Tennant ones but the guy comes off as a bit twitchy and a little twitchy goes a long way with me.
Being a longtime cemetary explorer I have to admit the wheeping angels was a clever idea but I’ve since read online that a lot of fans feel the framchise has overmilked the characters the same way Star Trek ruined the Borg.
Minor trivia: I was an Irwin Allen kid and remember that “Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea” had a time travelling Dr. Who ripoff character called Mr. Pem played by the great Henry Jones (because Irwin Allen never saw a good idea he couldn’t steal).
Byron, David Tennant and Matt Smith were great Doctors! And, the Matt Smith episodes feature my favorite Companion: Karen Gillan as Amy Pond.
I have to swing by the library tonight so I’ll grab the first series with Tennant and give it a shot. I’m not a big TV person but I can kill a few brain cells like anyone else. I’ve seen photos of Karen Gillan and she’s cute enough I may pick up a Smith down the road just to check her out. I’m never above watching a show for an attractive female lead privided it’s not flat out awful.
Byron, although you would never know it from all the make-up, Karen Gillian is Nebula in the GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY movies. Karen Gillian also stars in Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle and Jumanji: The Next Level.
Well, my favorite Doctor is the twitchy David Tennant, so that’s what I’m going to recommend. The problems with my choices are a) the first two are darker than usual, and may be less comprehensible than some more typical ones, with less assumed backstory. The third one stars Carey Mulligan, with the Doctor in a supporting role. But these were all on one great 3rd season disc at one point.
Human Nature
The Family of Blood
Blink
Gee, what happened to b)?
b) is the sentence about the Doctor being in a supporting role
Jeff, WORDPRESS can be as “twitchy” as David Tennant!
Jeff, I love that Carey Mulligan episode, too!
Starting in the 60s and later I visited England several times a year (to buy SF books …) and must have watched some episodes at my friend’s apartment but it seems I wasn’t impressed – don’t remember anything.
Anyway I’m not a fan of SF tv series, didn’t watch Star Trek either. We also had a German SF series on tv – it was so boring that I even forgot its name.
Now I found it:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raumpatrouille_%E2%80%93_Die_phantastischen_Abenteuer_des_Raumschiffes_Orion
There were only 7 episodes in 1966 and then it was discontinued – though successfull it was just too expensive to produce!
Wolf, I became a DOCTOR WHO fan at a younger age. I know the premise is silly and wacky, but I enjoy the various incarnations of The Doctor and his Companions.
My husband and I started watching the David Tennant Doctor Who series in early 2022 when we bought a dvd collection of all his seasons. We watched all the other current Doctors in 2022, including going back for the Christopher Eccleston season. Last month we bought the Jodie Whittaker set of all three seasons, but we haven’t started it yet.
David Tennant is my favorite Doctor. I can’t remember all the companions but I did like Amy Pond and Rory, and I liked the last companion who was with Capaldi (Bill Potts and Nardole?).
Tracy, you and your husband are quite the DOCTOR WHO fans! Plenty of fans love David Tennant who was very good. So was Matt Smith. I grew up with watching Tom Baker, so he’s my favorite Doctor.
After the Aged Computer and Tired ate my first response halfway through:
The Eastern Edcuational Network, the predecessor (in the pre-PBS National Educational Television network days and into the PBS takeover in ’69/’70) to the still very active public television syndicator American Public Television, was importing the then-current DOCTOR WHO (and back episodes) in the earliest ’70s, and I saw a couple-few of the Jon Pertwee episodes on WGBX-44 in Boston and WGBY-57 in Springfield, MA, the little sibling and western cousin of network powerhouse, then as now, WGBH Boston (on Ch. 2 when that was still important). But I started watching fairly regularly as a kid in the late ’70s in the Tom Baker years, with even more witty episodes which played well with budgetary restraints. The Peter Davison Doctor episodes which followed seemed to me to wallow a bit decadently in petty sadism, and my viewing fell off, and after the next actor’s run, the series was, for a while, cancelled by the BBC. After Steven Moffat and Sue Vertue’s success with some BBC sitcoms in the UK (and in export), most notably COUPLING, they were primary figures in the DW revival series (and then went on to SHERLOCK), and the newer, higher-budget episodes certainly have had no lack of international audience, including me, spottily. (The books, the radio series, other spinoffs, including tv series including TORCHWOOD and several other galore.) No lack of good characters and actors among the companions over the years, a few of which probably kept me watching the Davison episodes longer than I might’ve.
APT, aside from offering a number of the more popular public tv series in the US, also runs the Create and World Channel networks, the biggest of the smaller public broadcast networks in the US, in collaboration with PBS and others.
Todd, thanks for all that information!
Never saw it! Too many English TV shows look like they were made by high school kids with a camcorder!
Bob, I just use my imagination when I watch those early DOCTOR WHO episodes with low production values. The plots engage me!
Something about the speed in which they render the dialogue puts me off.
Patti, I always watch DOCTOR WHO–and all British TV shows–with Closed Captions ON.