I am wanting to start collecting more Classic Who but I'm not sure how to go about it.
I'm going to order the beginnings box set, Revisitations 1 & 3, Mannequin Mania box set, War Games and The Five Doctors and would like other suggestions.

If you want to get some bulk to your collection I would start buying the boxsets.

Key to Time (6 DVD's)
Trial of a Timelord (4 DVD's)
E Space Trillogy (3 DVD's)
New Begginings (3 DVD's)
Beginings (3 DVD's)

Thats 19 DVD's for well under £70.

the best two to get are inferno and the keys of marinus.

That's a great selection to begin with, except for the Five Doctors, which is a classic mistake people make when starting to investigate the classic series. Obviously, the logic is sound - it introduces 5 of the Doctors, but actually, it isn't really representative of the eras of any of them. None of them were very well served by it (especially Baker who wasn't really in it and Hartnell who was replaced) and it is, to someone without a fan's fondness and indulgence for all of the individual disparate elements, actually pretty rubbish.

Other than that, it's clear you've done your research and your other suggestions are all good. Only other potential niggle is War Games, which is brilliant but might be a tad epic if you're new to classic Who. But I don't know what your mileage and taste for old-fashioned television is.

One thing I would definitely not do: don't listen to people who just throw the names of their favourite stories at you. You'll get nothing but a sample of their idiosyncratic tastes, and of course, there are fans who will vouch for even the poorest of stories.

Is The Three Doctors good?

I love The Three Doctors.

I agree with what Tom Tit says about The Five Doctors but I think The Three Doctors works well as a story in it's own right.

You could start with a story from each Doctor: Hartnell - An Unearthly Child, Troughton - The Mind Robber, Pertwee - Inferno, T Baker - Pyramids of Mars,Davison - Earthshock,C Baker - Revelation of the Daleks, S McCoy - Ghost Light.

My mate's just starting to watch some Classic Who so I did a list of the best (imo) of each, and then a shortlist of one from each to start him off.

I had Tomb Of The Cybermen, The Daemons and Terror Of The Zygons instead of the three you mentioned, but all were on the longlist, and I put Tomb and Terror in with the rest of this series and the 50th in mind. I also tried to choose the shorter serials just in case he didn't like the Doc or the style. I'm also watching them again at the same time so we can chat about them.

He's finished An Unearthly Child and is half way through Tomb, he's really enjoying them. Another Classic convert!

The Time Meddler is a great Hartnell story!

It certainly is! My favourite of his, really, but that first ever episode is just fantastic.

There are a few getting re-released this year as special editions - Inferno, Green Death and Visitation, so hold off getting any of those 3 at the moment.

If you want the Three Doctors, best getting Revisitations 2 so you can get that, Seeds of Death and Carnival of Monsters.

EDIT - Just realised Three Doctors is in Revisitations 3, which you have put on your list.

Revisitations 2 is worth getting though, its Resurrection of the Daleks in it not Three Doctors, all 3 are good stories

It feels quite sad that no-one's Dr Who collection can ever be complete.

Maybe one day kid, maybe one day

Sorry, I pop in and out. I didn't mean to ignore your response

I'm not a huge fan of it and I don't think that the second Doctor is portrayed consistently with his own era (of course HArtnell is barely in it too) but I think it's a much more cohesive and interesting story than the Five Doctors. Omega is a good villain and a good concept.

But as you're getting Troughton stories anyway it's not really worth getting just for him, because he's better in his own era; Hartnell has no real role to play so really it's only good to get as a sample of a Pertwee story and there are much better ones for that than 'The Three Doctors'.

For Hartnell you really need to try his own episodes: the Beginning boxset, or 'The Time Meddler' / 'The Romans' if you want to see the more eccentric / fun side of the character.

I haven't seen it for years but I loved 1 mocking 3 and 2.

Cheers for the ideas. What Pertwee stories would you recommend?

The appelation "Classic Who" cannot be applied to any Colin Baker or McCoy episodes. It is an oxymoron of anti-matter proportions!!

Harsh, plus I think many would disagree.
'Vengeance on Varos', 'Revelation of the Daleks', 'Curse of Fenric', 'Remembrance of the Daleks' and 'Ghost Light' are all highly thought of by alot of people.

I don't find that comment true. There are plenty of stories that have merit and are watchable.

I like

Vengeance On Varos
The Two Doctors
Revelation Of The Daleks
Mindwarp
Terror Of The Vervoids
Paradise Towers
Delta And The Bannermen
Dragonfire
Remembrance Of The Daleks
The Happiness Patrol
Silver Nemesis
The Greatest Show In The Galaxy
Ghost Light
The Curse Of Fenric
Survival

Quite a few to choose from.

I just ordered the beginnings I'm so excited to Watch how it all started, not sure where I'll go after that but this post helps a lot!

See, this is what puts me off getting classic Who on DVD. There are now quite a few different sets with overlapping contents and improved "revisited" versions that it seems almost impossible to get them all without double dipping. Is everything that's known even been released yet? Are some of the oldest releases no longer available? Which version is the best (in terms of picture quality and extras)?

Navigating all of that is rather daunting to me.

One fine day, they will release a box set with the best versions of everything, either complete or chronologically, year by year.

I think it's more of a good idea to watch Pertwee from the beginning more than most Doctors because he has the whole 'UNIT family' of characters with him. So the Mannequins boxset is a good idea because it has his first appearance and also introduces the Brig (actually introduced in Troughton's era but introduced for all intents and purposes as a regular) and the Master.

After that possibly the Silurians box set because the two stories are both classics (and the Silurians is the next story after Spearhead from Space) and you can get it for a good value price as a box set.

'Inferno' is perhaps the most highly regarded Pertwee serial, again from his first series, but is probably slightly more fun to watch once you're familiar with the regular cast because it has 'evil' alternate worlds versions of them.

For a more 'traditional' type of Doctor Who story (most of Pertwee's stories are set on contemporary Earth and have ther own unique flavour) 'Carnival of Monsters' is probably most highly regarded and is a very 'jump right in' type of episode. I believe that it is in one of the 'Revistations' sets too?

Of course, the most popular Pertwee story has long been 'the Daemons' and is probably the most representative story of his era. Not my own favourite personally but it will probably give you a reasonable idea of how much you might like the era.

My advice would be pretend that peter Davison regenerates straight into Christopher ecclestone then you could jump straight from caves of androzani to rose and skip what is frankly a rubbish era.if I was rewatching Dr who would start with spearhead from space and work my way through in chronological order through to caves occasionally dipping into the Hartnell and troughton era as it is hard work trying to watch the Hartnell/troughton era in chronological order with so many missing episodes and being in black and white.

But Colin Baker is my 4th favourite doctor from what I've seen from him and Sly McCoy looks interesting

It is sad. Because of that I never had the ambition to collect all the DVD's... until I started collecting Loose Cannon to fill in the gaps. After that I became incurable.


I like watching Colin Baker and also find McCoy interesting. Sounds as if you've got a good mindset for enjoying the lot.