CLASSIC DOCTOR WHO FIELD OF 64 COMMENCES

SAY HELLO TO MY LITTLE FIELD OF 64. 

Take a good look at Messrs Eccleston, Tennant, Smith and (not pictured) Capaldi because this is the last you'll be seeing of them this month because it's only the original Doctors # 1-7 (William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee, Tom Baker, Peter Davison, Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy) who are eligible for this Classic Doctor Who Field of 64.  The Doctors have gathered.  The stories have been chosen.  And right up front, I make no promises on finishing this before the end of March!  I'm just sayin' . . . So.  The field of 64 has shaken out like this:

Obviously, you may click on the bracket to biggify it so you may see thangs better. 

 

In this first installment of the Classic Doctor Who Field of 64 we will be focusing on the first division.  Since the iconic DOCTOR WHO novelisations put out by Target Books were such an important part of both your childhood and mine, I thought I'd illustrate this initial bracket with those wonderful paperback book covers (where they exist).  However, the extremely bizarre fact remains that the very first number one seed did NOT have a Target novelization for some inexplicable reason.  And that is . . .

#1 seed)  THE CITY OF DEATH     VS.     #16 seed)  THE MIND ROBBER

#1)  CITY OF DEATH  -  "Exquisite . . . Absolutely exquisite."  One of the most beloved stories in DOCTOR WHO history!  The Doctor:  Tom Baker.  The Doctor and Romana (Lalla Ward) drop in on 1979 Paris.  It's got a green spaghetti-faced villain, the shape-shifting woman from SPACE: 1999, the Mona Lisa, Duggan the people-thumper, the origin of life on Earth AND John bloody Cleese!

VS.

#16)  THE MIND ROBBER  -  "We may be in a place where nothing is impossible".  The Doctor:  Patrick Troughton.  The Doctor careens into the "Land of Fiction".  It's got that famous "all-white background" first episode, the Germanic muscle-bound superhero Karkus from the year 2000, white robots and toy soldiers, a doppleganger Jamie and Zoe's bum.

THE WINNER:  CITY OF DEATH

#2 seed)  THE TALONS OF WENG-CHIANG  Vs.  #15 seed) THE ICE WARRIORS

#2)  THE TALONS OF WENG-CHIANG  -  "I may have had a bash on the head, but this is a dashed queer story!"  The Doctor:  Tom Baker.  Voted the most popular DOCTOR WHO story ever in the original OUPOST GALLIFREY website fan poll.  The Doctor and Leela in Victorian London.  It's got the Doctor pretending he's Sherlock Holmes and Professor Henry Higgins at the same time, the Chinese magician and his animated "Peking Homunculus", the villain Magnus Greel from the future, the giant rat and the comedy team of Jago & Litefoot!

VS.

#15)  THE ICE WARRIORS  -  "I'd sooner live with the Ice Age than with his robot universe!"  The Doctor:  Patrick Troughton.  The debut of one of the great DOCTOR WHO villains. Our first encounters with these warriors and their marvelous hissing voices from "the Red Planet" in the frozen tundra.

THE WINNER:  THE TALONS OF WENG-CHIANG

#3 seed)  AN UNEARTHLY CHILD   VS.  #14 seed)  GHOST LIGHT

#3)  AN UNEARTHLY CHILD  -  "I know that free movement in time and space is a scientific dream I don't expect to find solved in a junkyard."  The Doctor:  William Hartnell.  The very first episode of the series and the one that set the template for everything that was to come.  I must make clear that this is a one episode story; the caveman story which starts in episode two is a separate storyline and is not part of this first story.  Got it?  It's got the debut of the Doctor and his granddaughter Susan Foreman as well as Ian and Barbara.  Plus the first instance of "It's bigger on the inside".

VS.

#14)  GHOST LIGHT  -  "I loathe bus stations.  Terrible places full of lost luggage and lost souls."  The Doctor:  Sylvester McCoy.  It also has that moody, moody atmosphere as well as incite into Ace's childhood and the first use of the word "knackered" in DOCTOR WHO.    

THE WINNER:  AN UNEARTHLY CHILD

#4 seed)  LOGOPOLIS   VS.  #13 seed)  INVASION OF THE DINOSAURS

#4)  LOGOPOLIS  -  "It's the end . . . but the moment has been prepared for."  The Doctor:  Tom Baker.  But not for long.  It's got the final adventure of Tom Baker's Doctor, the pasty Watcher, the devilish Master and a Tardis full of companions.

VS.

#13)  INVASION OF THE DINOSAURS  -  "There never was a 'Golden Age', Mike.  It's all an illusion."  The Doctor:  Jon Pertwee.  It's got dinosaurs . . . but not too much of them.  

THE WINNER:  LOGOPOLIS

#5 seed)  THE DEADLY ASSASSIN   Vs.   #12 seed)  THE WAR MACHINES

#5)  THE DEADLY ASSASSIN  -  "Through the millennia, the Time Lords of Gallifrey led a life of peace and ordered calm, protected against all threats from lesser civilisations by their great powers."  The Doctor:  Tom Baker.  It's got the first detailed look at the world of Gallifrey and the political and social structure of Time Lord society, it's got the crispy Master, it's got the hallucinatory "holodeck" of the APC net and it got Mrs. Whitehouse's goat!

VS.

#12)  THE WAR MACHINES  -  "This bird saved my life."  The Doctor:  William Hartnell.  It's got swinging 60's London, a mad computer and the new Post Office Tower.

THE WINNER:  THE DEADLY ASSASSIN

#6 seed)  TERROR OF THE ZYGONS   Vs.   #11 seed)  THE ANDROID INVASION

#6)  TERROR OF THE ZYGONS  -  "A 50 foot monster can't swim up the Thames and attack a large building without somebody noticing.  But you know what politicians are like."  The Doctor:  Tom Baker.  It's got the debut of the terrifically-designed villains the Zygons, body-snatching possession and the Loch Ness Monster (or a plastic toy version of same masquerading as a giant monster).

VS.

#11)  THE ANDROID INVASION  -  "Resistance is . . . inadvisable."  The Doctor:  Tom Baker.  It's got body-snatching of a different kind than the Zygons did via the Kralls, spooky spacesuited gents like in AMBASSADORS OF DEATH and it's got a pub!

THE WINNER:  TERROR OF THE ZYGONS

#7 seed)   THE SUNMAKERS    Vs.    #10 seed)  THE VISITATION

#7)  THE SUNMAKERS  -  "Perhaps everyone runs from the taxman."  The Doctor:  Tom Baker.  It's got one of the most fun villains of all-time with the greedy, grasping Collector (obviously an inspiration for the later Sil).

VS.

#10)  THE VISITATION  -  "Why are the people of Earth so parochial?"  The Doctor:  Peter Davison.  It's got the wonderfully designed reptilian Terileptils and their Grim Reaper androids, Richard Mace, Nyssa's fluffy ear-muffs, the death of the sonic screwdriver, one of the Doctor's best one-liners against Tegan and the fire of London.

THE WINNER:  THE VISITATION

#8 seed)  THE CURSE OF FENRIC   Vs.  #9 seed)  THE MIND OF EVIL

#8)  THE CURSE OF FENRIC  -  "And the half-time score:  Perivale, six hundred million; rest of the universe, nil!"  The Doctor:  Sylvester McCoy.  It's got the vampiric haemovores, the "ancient ones", a World War II setting, and Nicholas bloody Parsons!

VS.

#9)  THE MIND OF EVIL  -  "We believe what our minds tell us to, Jo."  The Doctor:  Jon Pertwee.  It's got the Keller machine for mind control, Roger Delgado's Master, U.N.I.T. and Nicholas Courtney's Bridadier and tons of action and James Bond-y spy stuff.

THE WINNER:  THE MIND OF EVIL

 Half a mo'.  Here, have a special detail of just Division 1 to save your delicate peepers strain.

THE END

OF THE FIRST DIVISION