Doctor Who: 5 Things To Learn From Classic Series & 5 Things That Are Better

5. The Classic Series' Universe Was A LOT Bigger...And You Saw More Of It

Some history for those who don't know: 1969 was a big year for Doctor Who. The 2nd Doctor, Patrick Troughton, was on his way out. The Doctor stopped a race from stealing soldiers and fighters from throughout earth history for their own nefarious war games (Conveniently, this story is called "The War Games", by the way). The end of the story saw him so vexed as to how to get an entire PLANET of Earth refugees back to their own times (TARDIS control wasn't dependable then) that he appealed to his own people, the Time Lords. They showed up (and named his species) for the first time ever and kind of arrested him for, well, everything. Turns out he and his TARDIS were gallivanting around illegally. They respected his good nature and exiled him to earth, after basically force-regenerating him into Jon Pertwee, the Third Doctor.

So, the Third Doctor's time begins, and he's exiled into one time on Earth, helping UNIT defend the earth from alien incursions. (Because apparently Torchwood took the 1970s and 80s off. Or were just busy infighting and sleeping with each other. Probably the latter.) His TARDIS is grounded. He can't go anywhere in time and space. This lasted exactly 7 stories. The Production team realized this show was about to hit "Monster of the Week" territory like it never had before, so after 7 stories where the Doctor got places that petrol could take him (Mind, even then one was on a parallel Earth), he got sent to do Time Lord business in "Colony in Space" on another world in another galaxy. The point? I WISH the New Series had that kind of initiative in regards to setting. Let's quantify it in an even simpler way: Here's where the ninth Doctor went in his first year with Rose - Earth, Distant future Earth before it explodes, 19th century Earth, Earth (Present Day), Slightly future Earth, Space station above Future Earth, 1940's Earth, and one more time each for Present Day Earth and the Space Station above Future Earth. I'll let you get away with a "It was the first year back, maybe they didn't want to alienate (ha!) viewers with plots and settings they couldn't relate to. Plus, Rose did seem to have some apron-string issues with Mom." OK. We'll blame the budget and Rose. Here's where the Tenth Doctor and Martha went in their year together: The Moon, 16th Century Earth, "New Earth" (The new planet following our own's natural demise), 1930's Earth, A Distant Galaxy on a Spaceship (Earth-based), Earth (Present day), Edwardian-era Earth, Present day and 1960's Earth, Malcassairo (You read correctly, an alien world!), Earth (Present day). I'm sure you see the pattern. Here's where the First Doctor went his first year (Remember, the show's survival wasn't assured, and there was a frowning upon "Bug-eyed Monsters" - So, aliens were discouraged): Earth, Prehistoric Earth, Skaro (First Dalek story!), 13th Century Earth, Marinus, 15th century Earth, The Sense-Sphere, and 17th Century Earth. So... Why can the show with the meagre budget and limited effects go to THREE alien worlds and more than 100 years outside of the 20th century on Earth more than once? (Oh, and Hartnell's ratings SMOKED the new series by his second year. They still stand above most, save a couple of Christmas specials.) The New Series Books and Documentaries actually quoted Producer Russell T Davies as saying that viewers weren't likely to care about aliens needing saving - Hence, an Earth base. This is borderline insulting, and also ignores the fact that the Classic Series did it ALL THE TIME. And sometimes they were better about it than the New Series. Here's that ONE Alien world from Series 3, Malcassairo:

And here's Zeta Minor from 1975:

Kinda sad that the one that's a STUDIO SET looks better, huh? My point is, this is Science Fiction, and we're fans of it. Most people who watch Doctor Who will fall into that group. Don't tell us we can go ANYWHERE in TIME and SPACE, and then proceed to show us stuff that "Quantum Leap" did. In his last four years, the Fourth Doctor came to Earth only FIVE times. And that's when late 70's budget cuts really started hitting hard. No, not every alien world looked as good as it could have. But they still tried, and even a lacklustre story like "The Creature from the Pit" had an alien world that looked good (including wind and mist in the air - Again, it was a studio set). The Whole of Time and Space? SHOW IT TO US. The Classic Series dared to, and often succeeded.