Listened to the soundtrack today and really enjoyed it.

First time I've ever listened to any of the missing stories and it really held up well. It had a nice ensemble feel with all the regulars and the main guest stars getting something to do.

The only criticism is that the constant attempts to get back into the Tardis felt a little samey towards the end.

Going to have a go at The Myth Makers & The Massacre next.

Anyone else listened to this one?

I have, and yes, it's definitely one of the better stories of the first year. Seven episodes, and it never really seems to drag. I'd recommend The Myth Makers, too. A fun story.

I love Marco Polo. It feels really, epic, doesn't it? The Cave of Five Hundred Eyes scenes are quite eerie, and must have been very sinister to see. It doesn't drag at seven episodes (unlike the first Dalek story), and is livened up considerably when they meet Kublai Khan at the end.

The Myth Makers is wonderful. It's rather funny, and very well written, which underlines how horrible the final battle scenes are.

The Massacre is flat-down BRILLIANT. Absolutely wonderful. Tense, surprising, intelligent. One of the very best Hartnells, I think ... although it's hard to judge 100% accurately as we can't see it.

The missing story CDs are a real treat, and there is so much Dr Who out there which is unknown to the vast majority of fans because it's "only" available on CD. All those forgotten stories that open up whole new areas of DW. The Faceless Ones is great fun. The Daleks' Masterplan is huge, and Katarina's death horrifying. The Wheel in Space is better than its reputation. I felt rather annoyed when I saw that people aged under 18 voted The Savages among the bottom ten stories in the recent DWM poll (how many of them have actually heard it? None will have see it).

There's a whole new world out there, on the CD shelves ...

I would strongly recommend The Web of Fear. Atmospheric, creepy, with some brilliant performances from all concerned. And, of course, the introduction of a certain army officer who would go on to be a big part of the Doctor's life...

I have seen an episode of the Web of Fear and it was great and made the underground a frightening place.

It was scary watching it too, after that every time we used the Tube I looked over my shoulder for a while.

Marco Polo was great. I saw a reconstruction (soundtrack plus stills) and it worked very well. I wonder if we'll ever get a purely historical story in new who? Would be nice, just occasionally, to have one without aliens showing up.

I watched Marco Polo that way recently. I loved the Doctors relationship with the Kublai Khan that was great. Like has been said before, it was a good story that held the attention most of the way through. There was one episode that lagged for me Rider from Shang-Tu.

I followed up Marco Polo with The Keys of Marinus and I know it's not loved on here, probably because the special effects left a little to be desired, but I really liked that story a lot. That it was split into lots of little episodes and each one was very much an adventure in itself. Favourite bits, The Screaming Jungle and Sentence of Death, really got carried away with the those two. In fact The Screaming Jungle actually made me jump.

The Aztecs arrived today, and watched the first episode so far. It's okayish, bit bothered about the Doctor worried about changing time, when they seem to have done that from the outset. Maybe it's one of those set points in time that shouldn't be changed.

Anyway sorry for hijacking thread, but I'm really enjoying discovering Dr Who from the beginning.

The early stories are among the best, I think. And re The Keys of Marinus, I loved that one too-and actually found the Morpho very effective and quite creepy.

Yeah I think that episode was the one I struggled with.

I wasn't expecting much from Keys given its reputation (and I'm no fan of Nation stories in general) but really enjoyed it. Having Hartnell away gave us a nice focus on Ian & Barbara and when the Doctor returned Ian wasn't in it much so Hartnell got lots to do and it looked like he really enjoyed it. The first and last episodes drag a bit though.

Aztecs is a little slow in places but I really enjoyed it. I wouldn't worry so much about the time thing - they were making it up as they went along at that point so there were no set rules about what you could and couldn't do.

The voice was good, and the idea itself in that Barbara could see what everyone else couldn't. Not sure about the brains in their cannisters though, that didn't really hit the spot for me.


Glad it wasn't just me.
Yes I enjoyed the Ian and Barbara centric stories, although I was eager for his return by the end of Snows of Terror. The Doctor defending Ian was classic.
Okay I will glaze over the what you can and can't mess with time thing and go with the flow.

Stick with it. The sorry really does build up pace and the "should we/shouldn't we try and change histiory" is well portrayed. Nice comparisons there with the Doctor's actions in WOM

Yes that's what I was thinking, in comparison to what I've learnt from the new series, there are certain things you can change and certain things you can't...like Adelaide's death. So I've been putting this sacrficial element in the same category as Adelaide, it's got to happen kinda thing. Although I wasn't sure if I was seeing it right.

If you can I'd try and approach it without thinking about how the new series handles it.

Basically how Doctor Who has dealt with whether or not it is possible to change history has changed over time. This is probably their first real stab at it.

It's hard though isn't it, because what I know now, colours whatever I watch from previously. I'll bear that in mind though.

Goodness I wish I was born 10 years earlier and had watched from the beginning in chronological order. Would have been much easier.

lol. Not necessarily....they have two attempts at trying to explain Atlantis which totally contradict each other. Doctor Who has never been that good at its own continuity!

I'm not sure there's actually any contradiction, in fact. My personal feeling is that the Doctor's own unique position in relation to time has something to do with it-if he already knows something happened in a certain way, it becomes a fixed point from his perspective and he can't change it, but if he hasn't a clue what originbally happened he just gets woven into the sequence of events, so to speak. That would explain why he has trouble changing the history of earth, a planet he knows well, but blunders in and overthrows whole governments on planets he's never visited before.

Okay, I'm totally ready to become confused further down the line.

No, they don't. The time Monster recounts events which devastated ancient Atlantis, but we don't actually see it sink, just Ingrid Pitt looking forlorn in the ruins. The Daemons has a character boast that his people destroyed Atlantis, but that could have been later. And The Underwater Menace is set in a modern day Atlantis which we are told sank thousands of years before, meaning it could easily be the surviving remnant of the society seen in The Time Monster and mentioned in The Daemons. There's no real contradiction.

I Haven't listened to it yet but I'm keen to watch or listen to 'The Tenth Planet'

I'm surprised it's missing as it WH last story?

If it's missing then how come they still have the regeneration scene? How can it be that only this survives, how can that be?

The first 3 episodes are there in full. The regeneration is still in existance I think because it was copied for use in other programmes

Why don't they do a cartoon replacement for the last epsiode like they did with one of PT's stories?

Do you think they might do this in the future?

From what i understand it was far too expensive. The cost of making the cartoon episodes of The Invasion outweighed the final revenue they received from sales

I might do it myself if I can get a print of the script. I've just bought some software called ToonBoom which makes it easy to do

There was a rumour around for years that the reason part 4 went missing was because they loaned it to the Blue Peter crew, who wanted to show the regeneration scene, and it was never returned. That appears to have been debunked as a myth, however.