My rewatch of Doctor Who continued with The Daleks, the second serial consisting of 7 episodes. I watched the original Black & White version since I generally don’t enjoy colorized things but I’ll probably go back and watch it at some point.

I thought it held up very well! It was fun watching how much they really nailed the Daleks in their first story and how little they’ve changed since then, other than becoming stronger and having better special effects. It fits the story though, they had just barely survived a war and were in the process of rebuilding. The Doctor is still an asshole at this point, with the whole story kicking off basically because he wanted to explore so he deliberately sabotaged the Tardis so they couldn’t leave. I know it’s all intentional and that he eventually becomes good but I was surprised at how quickly Barbara was willing to sacrifice the Thals to leave the planet, oof. At least Ian and Susan knew it was ethically terrible. Not that the Thals are amazing either. They seem like a pretty sexist society but it beats being robot Nazis I suppose. I don’t really think it was intentional though and it’s more from the story just being a product of the 60’s.

Not really many huge complaints about this story. It has some issues with pacing, especially towards the end, but I think it’s a pretty solid one to recommend from the Hartnell era. He still continues to flub his lines since they couldn’t do retakes but he’s fun to watch. Next up for me is Edge of Destruction and if I recall correctly, some of the reconstructions after that? I would like to go through all the stories, even if it means watching animated and fan reconstructions or just listening to the audio since it seems like the audio dramas and new show will occasionally reference them.

Speaking of, I also watched the third and final special for this year, The Giggle. I won’t put any spoilers here so I’ll just say that I thought it was silly fun. I’m not really completely sold on that regeneration scene and twist, but it was a lot of fun seeing an old companion come back, I thought Neil Patrick Harris was very good as the villain, and I absolutely cannot wait to see some stories with 15. I loved what he did in this episode and the trailer for the upcoming Christmas special makes it look like a lot of fun.