Move over Bob Ross, there’s a new perm in town…
When I was a kid, I used to wrestle with this question: which do I love more? WWE or Doctor Who? I had to have a favourite thing – but leaning towards either felt like a betrayal of the other. I lost a lot of sleep over this – and even now as an adult (lol), I sometimes ask myself which had a more profound impact in my formative years. To be honest I think the answer is neither, but the conflict certainly did and it’s the root of the neurotic mess you see before you today.
Either way, the scales were usually loaded up as follows: Doctor Who is a deeply relatable show with an excellent role model (both Chris Ecc and DavTen) and awesome sci-fi stories, but WWE is totally badass and, the clincher, is on all year round.
The lack of Doctor Who content in my young life was an issue. When you’re young, 12 weeks represents a lot of time, sure, but the remaining 40 might as well be a decade.
My passion for Doctor Who hasn’t faltered since I started watching in 2005, but the relatively short series lengths (and the couple of years where there was no series at all) means the show occupies less of my mind than it once did.
Classic Who
It’s only taken me 13 years to realise it, but the solution to this problem can only come from one place. In true time-wimey fashion, the only thing that can fill the Doctor Who void in my heart (aside from Daleks, am I right?) comes from the past – specifically the show’s 26 year run that my millennial ass missed.
There are a hell of a lot of devout Doctor Who fans out there that haven’t really given Classic Who all that much thought. We basically know that it had some interesting concepts and some cool stories, but offset that against the terrible acting and shoddy production. That’s not to mention just how alienating (lol again) the whole thing can be – Classic Who has a fundamentalist following, and the vocal minority on the likes of Twitter aren’t known for welcoming fans exclusively from Nu-Who into the fold.
Change my dear…
But perhaps that’s about to change. If you’ve thought about giving classic Doctor Who a shot but either didn’t know where to start or perhaps were put off by the myriad DVDs you’d need to track down (and their associated priceyness), then there’s been some pretty exciting news today.
It’s been announced that the BBC are to stream every single surviving episode of Doctor Who from William Hartnell all the way to Sylvester McCoy on Twitch, absolutely free of charge.
The run of over 500 classic episodes will take place over a seven-week marathon, starting on May 29th and ending with Survival on July 23rd. It’s my understanding that the TV movie will not be included (mercifully #controversialopinion).
DoctorWho.TV reports that the episodes will be streamed in blocks, three times a day, every day, and that the broadcasts will be available outside of the UK.
Friendly faces
The Twitch streams will offer more than just all those episodes however. In addition to 26 seasons worth of content, exclusive pre-show and post-show links will be shown to guide you through the years. And, if this were a sermon and you feared the Reverend Lovejoy with neckbeard types I alluded to earlier, fear not! These hosts are more like the charmingly animated Bishop Curry (who totally stole the royal wedding last weekend). Presenters include Matt Toffolo of the Yogscast and, excitingly, my good pal Billy Garratt-John.
They’ll be joined by a great line-up of guests including writer Paul Cornell, Jo Grant actress Katy Manning, writer Tom Spilsbury, Beth of the Time Ladies, and K9 creator Bob Baker.
Time’ll tell
So, while I may not have given Classic Who a fair shake in the past, with this much content made so accessible – and, crucially, for free – I think I owe it to the conflicted child in me to give it a shot. I know from Billy’s impassioned pleas in the past that there is something in these episodes beyond nostalgia, and now I’m truly excited to see for myself exactly what they have to offer.
And you never know, if I end up really liking it I could even be tempted by one of those shiny new Blu Ray boxsets that are conveniently dropping this summer…
Classic Doctor Who will be streaming on Twitch from May 29th – July 23rd.