A few months back, I scheduled a medical leave and decided that when it started, I’d subscribe to a free one-week Britbox trial and Binge-watch as much classic Doctor Who as I could.
At the time, that was my only available option, so I pulled the trigger, watched about 30 hours of Doctor Who and decided to get a paid subscription so that I could continue to revisit this childhood favorite of mine.
I’ve probably seen about 60-70 hours at this point, but today I cancelled my Britbox subscription. Why? The answer is in the title of this post.
I love Tubi. It’s probably my favorite streaming service, because it’s a treasure of so much oddball, obscure stuff across a wide variety of genres. Music docs, old sci-fi TV, B-movies, A-movies, horror movies you haven’t thought about in 30 years… it’s great.
Now, it is even greater.
The following are some of my favorite story arcs:
S5: Tomb of the Cybermen
S7: Doctor Who and the Silurians
S9: The Sea Devils
S12: Revenge of the Cybermen
S12: Genesis of the Daleks
S13: Planet of Evil
S13: Pyramids of Mars
S14: The Robots of Death
S15: The Sun Makers
S15: The Invasion of Time
S16: The Pirate Planet
S16: The Power of Kroll
S16: The Armageddon Factor
S19: Earthshock
S20: The Five Doctors
S21: Warriors of the Deep
S22: The Two Doctors
S22: Revelation of the Daleks
S26: Battlefield
Aside from the highly imaginative plots and premises of classic Who, much of its appeal for me lies in its “low-budget” production values. I don’t view it in those terms, though. To me, the lack of realism adds to its otherworldly atmosphere, and almost makes me feel like I’m watching a stage play. I’m amazed that these people managed to crank out such epic stories with so few resources. Whatever shortcomings it has is compensated for by stellar acting, creative production design and top-notch writing.
If you like classic Who, and are a fan of science fiction books, check out my Effugium series, available in both paperback and Kindle editions here.
Patrick Walts: Author 