Allow Us To Explain

For a while now, Netflix has been streaming many adventures from the original "classic" Doctor Who program, which ran for twenty-six seasons from 1963 to 1989. Folks who've enjoyed the modern Doctor Who program have sometimes tried to jump into the classic show via the Netflix online selection. But unfortunately, this has led to some confusion. For instance, the original story "An Unearthly Child" is not available on Netflix streaming and some of the stories it includes are part of larger arcs. This has led to me getting several e-mails asking for help, so I figured it would be a good idea to make a simple guide.

A few things you should know, first. With one exception, no episodes of the classic show were self-contained. All of the Doctor's stories (or "serials") were multi-episode. Also, during the classic show, the Doctor's people are alive and well, while he is considered a "renegade Time Lord" for stealing a TARDIS and interfering in the lives of other races (other crimes were hinted at but never revealed). According to the Doctor, before he left he had been "a scientist, an engineer" and a "builder of things," regarded by some as a "pioneer" despite being a poor student who barely graduated on the second try.

For the first six seasons, which covered his first two incarnations, the Doctor was a fugitive of Gallifrey. The Doctor often said during the classic series that he deliberately turned his back on Time Lord society, unable to agree with how they operated. In the first story, "An Unearthly Child," he explained that he and his granddaughter Susan (who left Gallifrey with him) were "cut off" from their home planet, "without friends or protection." Starting in that same story, the TARDIS's year-o-meter and chameleon circuit broke, meaning the ship was now stuck looking like a 1963 police public call box and there was no way at all to determine where it would land. So if you joined the TARDIS crew during the first six seasons, you had no guarantee you would ever find your way home again. The Doctor didn't get (some) control over his TARDIS's destinations until during this third life.

And that's the basics. Now let's delve into thing with more detail and talk about some of these stories that are available online . . .