As someone in my mid 20's I was basically too young to watch any of the "old" Dr Who series. My first Dr Who memory is the TV movie from the mid 90's then Chris Eccleston.

I'd quite like to watch some of the older episodes but lets face it there are a lot to chose from and I have no real point of reference to decide where to start.

In terms of taste, my favourite Who episodes are Blink, The Empty Child, Turn left, the first Ood episode (the satan pit?). I generally like the smaller self contained "scary" episodes rather than large scale one's like the series finales. I'm loving this series so far.

Based on that can any ones suggest some good older stories to seek out on DVD?

Oh so many where to start????


Definitely check out the first ever story! The Beginning Box Set DVD!

Well I love the Mind Robber, War Games of the Troughton era, The Green Death and Inferno for Pertwee

Genesis of the Daleks, Pyramids of Mars, The Talons of Weng-Chiang, The E-Space Trilogy....oh so many in the Fourth Doctor's era...

Black Guardian Trilogy for Davison as well as The Caves of Androzani.

the Sixth Doctor and the Seventh Doctor tend to be more marmite, so I could suggest the ones I love/like...but you may hate them....my two favourites are Vengeance on Varos, and The Curse of Fenric....


But there are plaenty to choose from...and even going by the tastes of your new Who stories doesn't mean you will like those or not....every taste differs after all.. But enjoy the ride, because like you, being in my mid twenties....I haven't been long watching Calssic Who, only came across it tahnks to New Who!...So enjoy the ride!!

Problem with these threads is people tend to recommend everything. Take it you don't mind B&W? I'd go for- restricting it to ones that are out on dvd:

The Caves of Androzani
Genesis of the Daleks
The Invasion
City of Death
Inferno

Genesis of the daleks (Tom Baker)
remembrance of the daleks (McCoy).
The five doctors. (er all five)

you can find a lot of info on this on the web... but a few thoughts -

The old format was serial, not one-off - usually 4x25 mins, though sometimes it was 2 episodes.
The big flashy finale stuff is largely an aspect of the new series.
Some old series stuff suggests that towards the end they ran out of money (not as bad as US bottle shows, but close).
Production values are lower (special effects are very budget), but plot is usually better, since they only needed about 6 per season as opposed to the 9 or 10 they do now.

If got to MSN player you will find quite a lot of legally watchable and freely available classic Doctor Who.

Although its highly unlikely you'll ever feel like you have wasted money on a classic DVD, it does no harm to experience it for free just to get into it so to speak.

Well, Genesis of the Daleks seems to be getting a lot of recomendations so that'll be a definite one for the list.

No problem with B&W by the way, adds some retro charm if nothing else.

I'd second the following recommendations:

An Unearthly Child
The Invasion
The Green Death
Inferno
City of Death

along with the following:

The Dalek Invasion Of Earth
The Three Doctors
Carnival Of Monsters
Robot
The Ark In Space

Word of warning about An Unearthly Child... if you get to episode 3 or so and have had bloody well enough of the just skip to the next disc.

Based on your list of likes from the new series, you lean more towards the borderline horror stuff, so I'd recommend The Talons of Weng Chiang, Horror of Fang Rock, The Brain of Morbius, Pyramids of Mars, Image of the Fendahl, Tomb of the Cybermen and possibly State of Decay and Warriors Gate. Oh, and The Mind Robber (just because it's brilliant).

That and because Ep 1 is one of the creepiest things ever!

Superb stuff guys, i'll grab one of the recomendations on the way home from uni tommorrow

I'll just add my faves that haven't been recommended yet (as most of them already have):
Spearhead from Space (3rd Doctor)
The Daemons (3rd Doctor)
Logopolis (4th Doctor)
Stones of Blood (4th Doctor) It was the 100th story of Dr Who so it's got some prominence to it.
Ghost Light (7th Doctor)

I would say:

Spearhead from Space
Inferno
The Ark in Space
Seeds of Doom
Pyramids of Mars
The Caves of Androzani
Black Orchid
The Awakening

No idea why people are recommending Genesis of the Daleks. It's fine for les fan bois but for a new viewer it's interminable, IMO (but then I think City of Death is vastly over-rated too)

Nobody has mentioned Robots of death so I'll add that to the list.

Good choice.

No matter how hard you try to make a list of them, you always end up missing one gem out.

One of the most suspenseful stories ever in my opinion.
There may be better stories but those robots sure scared the **** out of me when I was a kid

Me too

Anything with K 9 in it.

Definitely the first one with William Hartnell.

Of the ones that are free on Blinkbox:

The Sensorites: OK, not great.
The Web Planet: Poor. Lots of really bad ham actors playing the aliens.
Tomb Of The Cybermen: Classic but sadly not all episodes available.
The Krotons: OK, not great.
The Talons of Weng-Chiang: Pretty good Sherlock's Holmes pastiche but let down by a really crap rat.
State Of Decay: Pretty good.
Warriors Gate: Really good.
The Caves of Androzani. OK, not great.

http://www.blinkbox.com/TV/Series/34...Classic-Series

MSN has all of Tomb Of The Cybermen. Their search interface is a mess so I can't work out what other complete stories they have.

why don't they? It's one of the few Troughton's that's still complete, and it's out on DVD.

Neel.

In all honesty your best bet will be check out a few Doctor Who top ten/20 lists via google and whatever classic ones are in there go for, but I would say get whatever is in the top 5/10 first. Many of the suggestions posted so far will feature in any top 10/20 list.

Beyond that it will be purely down to personal taste and hit and miss purchases.

nah! throw yourself in....the great thing about doctor Who is that there is the good ones and the bad ones and nobody ever agrees which is which.

think of it as a fun and don't take it seriously.

Yip, being doing a bit of google research, think i'll avoid the very early stuff for the moment but i'm definately going to try some of them later. Think i might try and pick up Talons of Weng Chiang, Genesis of the Daleks and probably the caves of Adrozani.

I haven't decided in what order.