a a newbie 2 doctor who and enjoyed the new series and was a boarding school in the 70's/80's i missed a lot of the past 30 years worth of doctor who and would like to catch up !!!! and a lot of these series can be bought quite cheeply on ebay ect ,,,,,can you recomend some outstanding episodes i can buy???best regards bladerunner1962

Glad you are enjoying the new series enough to want to take a look back.

Can I suggest a few of the Tom Baker stories...'Ark in Space', 'Pyramids of Mars', 'Robots of Death' and 'Talons of Weng-Chiang'. The Pat Troughton story 'Tomb of the Cybermen' is worth a look too.

I am sure there are plenty of Pertwee fans on the forums who can suggest a few titles for you. I was more a Tom Baker fan!

Let us know what you think of them if you do purchase a few DVD's.

One from each Doctor, if I may recommend:

William Hartnell - Daleks Invasion of Earth.
Patrick Troughton - (agree with Black Guardian) Tomb of the Cybermen.
Jon Pertwee - Inferno.
Tom Baker - Seeds of Doom.
Peter Davison - Caves of Androzani.
Colin Baker - hmm, would have to say The Two Doctors, but Revelation of the Daleks just for the brilliant Orsini character.
Sylvester McCoy - Rememberance of the Daleks.

Obviously, others will have a different opinion, but for a period of time, again I agree with the Black Guardian and also recommend anything from the eary Tom Baker years.

My recommendations for each Doctor:

William (63-66): The Aztecs is a very good example of the show's first year and one of the few surviving historicals.
The Dalek Invasion of Earth shows the infamous mechanical mutants what they do best: conquering entire planets
In addition 'The Beginning Boxset' will be out in the new year and will contain the first 25 minutes. May be worth getting if only to get a glimpse of how it all began 42 years ago.

Patrick (66-69): The Tomb of the Cybermen shows 2006's top baddies at their most evil. Missing for over 20 years (like sadly most of Pat's stories still are to this day) the entire serial was found in 1991 in the vaults of a TV station in Hong Kong.

Jon (70-74): Spearhead from Space - a classic tale which is also a good starting point (in fact UKTV Gold often starts repeats from this series). Featuring the original Autons: you may spot a few similarities between Spearhead and Rose.

Tom (1974-77): Any DVD from these three seasons (Genesis of the Daleks will be released in March). This is seen as the 'golden age' of the entire 26 year run when the series became must-see family entertainment and kids scampered behind the sofa!

Tom (1977-81): City of Death is an excellent example of a more light hearted Tom Baker caused by the controversy over the darker, more horrific themes exhibited between 1974-77.

Peter (1982-84): Earthshock is a classic 'base under siege' story featuring the dreaded Cybermen as they try to destroy the Earth.
N.B.: There is a surprise at the end!
The Caves of Androzani: one of my personal favourites and is often regarded as an all time classic by many fans. You'll see why when you see it.

Colin (1984-86):
Vengeance on Varos - a story more than fifteen years ahead of it's time with themes which still work today particularly with the advent of reality television.
Revelation of the Daleks - the best of the Colin stories features Davros creating a new race of Daleks from the corpses of humans.

Sylvester (1987-89):
Remembrance of the Daleks - the last Dalek appearance shows the Daleks in top form: two factions battling each other in a fight in the streets of Sixties London over an ancient Time Lord secret.
WARNING! The cliffhanger at the end of Episode One may banish any preconceptions that you may have of the classic Daleks!
The Curse of Fenric - the second to last story of the classic series shows the Doctor as being a more mysterious being, asking a lot of questions which were never answered on the TV series because the series was summarily cancelled by the BBC in 1989 (although they were eventually answered in a series of spin-off novels, the so-called 'New Adventures' published during the early to mid 1990s).

Classic Dr Who's tend to pop up a lot on UK-Gold early in the day at the weekends.

i would have to say "city of death" with tom baker, "spearhead from space" with jon pertwee...

there are lots of examples of good stories featuring daleks, cybermen etc if you are interested in building the backstories to these races.. "genesis of the daleks" with TB is basically the rewritten history of the dalek race, and "earthshock" is a fine cyberman story