Classic Doctor Who Reviews - Introduction

Welcome to my first ongoing series of entries based on a single topic, reviews of Classic Doctor Who episodes from my unique snarky perspective. What makes these reviews different from the myriad of other Doctor Who episodes out on the intraweb tunnels? Well, not much other than I'm the one writing them, oh and also while I've always been AWARE of the classic Who series, I never really watched a whole lot of it, so 99% of these episodes will be entirely new to me. I've been watching the revamped series for quite some time, and when they bring up classic characters (Daleks, Cybermen, Sontarans, etc) I usually do a bit of research on their back stories. This lead me to come to the conclusion that I really, really needed to beef up my first-hand knowledge of the classic episodes. So that said, I've been acquiring all of the Fourth Doctor stories and my wife and I have just begun to watch them in order.

Now why did we decide to start with the Tom Baker Fourth Doctor episodes? Well, really it was a capricious decision on my part as there are still several "lost" episodes during the tenures of William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton, the first two Doctors. I dislike intensely not being able to experience a work in it's entirety, so while at some point I'd like to go back and review the first three doctors stories, I don't think that they're essential in understanding the character as he is today. Plus, the Fourth Doctor episodes were aired when I was a wee-lad beginning when I was four in 1975. He's the Doctor that most audiences prior to the 2005 revival were familiar with, having the longest run of any of the Doctors. He's also consistently the most popular Doctor in viewers polls, though the current (and outgoing Doctor David Tennant is also incredibly popular).

We'll be watching the as-broadcast versions of these episodes, NOT the DVD releases, so please keep that in mind. Also as always I'll try to include some sort of collecting aspect for each story, and I'll try to include not only my opinions of the story, but also my wife's thoughts, as she hasn't seen any of this stuff, ever.