elleflies | Doctor Who: The Seventh Doctor

I've just finished watching all of the Seventh Doctor episodes.

I AM DONE WATCHING ALL OF THE CLASSIC SERIES.

I added it up and it comes out to 701 individual parts for a total of 155 episodes (if you consider Trial of a Time Lord to be one episode)

I'm not counting the TV movie as part of the Classic Series for what I believe to be obvious reasons. Although it is next in the marathon.

Sylvester's run was... odd. I'm not sure I'm big on the way they did his darker turn. I don't mind the Doctor being dark (I'm a big fan of it generally. I LOVED what RTD did). I think it was his overt manipulativeness that bothered me. When he's that manipulative I think it takes away from his love and joy of adventure. He wasn't as enthusiastic about humanity in this guise and I liked him much better in the first season of his run then I did in the last one.

I've got to give Sylvester McCoy credit though. He did a fantastic job, especially when he was channeling the Doctor's anger. I could definitely see the Oncoming Storm in him. I like that the new series is straddling the line better than Classic Who was at that point. They've managed to combine the storm with the earlier Doctor's buffoonery and I think it really works. I may not be a big fan of the experiment they tried with Seven, but I'm glad they tried.

Considering the plans they had for the series - making the Doctor more mysterious and slowly revealing who he is what with the comments about his history... I'm kind of glad the show stopped when it did. I don't want to know all about the Doctor's past, I think it detracts from the character. It's one of the reasons the show has survived for as long as it has - he's such a complex and mysterious character and his past is best left to the imagination of the fans. If they were to reveal too much about him, I'm sure interest would be lost. I still refuse to believe that the novel Lungbarrow is canon. I really don't like that particular backstory.

For all the love aimed Ace's way. I preferred Mel more. Although I could have done without the screaming. My GOD could that woman scream. Ace bothered me, maybe it was because she was supposed to be a teenager but there were times I just wanted to SMACK her and tell her to quit being such a brat!

Maybe I wasn't following the episodes closely enough but there were a few times I would sit up and think 'what the hell is going on?' and not because the show was trying to be mysterious, it was honestly because the writing in some of the episodes wasn't all that great. I'm still somewhat puzzled by Ghost Light and I felt like Ace's flirtation with the Russian Captain in The Curse of Fenric suddenly came out of nowhere. Even in Delta and the Bannermen if felt like they weren't setting up relationships very well. All through the episode I was baffled by how quickly Delta and Billy hit it off with so little explanation - I kept wanting to know why no one asked why the little girl was green. Maybe that was me just not paying attention, but I felt it was handled in a clunky manner. Also, Cheetah people. I'm not sure that was the best episode to end on.

I can see why the Classic Series ended when it did. I really enjoyed watching it through the 60's and 70's and even the early 80's but by the end it was becoming a bit of a slog. I think I cruised through the 6th and 7th Doctors as fast as I could just because New Who was just around the corner, and as enjoyable as those Doctors were, I'm still much more partial to Nine and Ten.

I'm really looking forward to rewatching New Who now that I've seen all of Classic Who.