All right, that was popular. Let's do "so you've seen the big hits, but what else is fun while you're homebound" from the classic series of Doctor Who. Once again, all of this is on Britbox, which has a free trial and a fairly low monthly streaming rate.
From Hartnell, let's check out The Rescue in Season 2. The first new companion introduction ever, this is a two part character piece by the best writer of the 1960s, David Whitaker. Utterly delightful and showcasing the best of 1960s Doctor Who.
Troughton... god, Britbox really does leave out a lot of good stuff there. But off in Season 6 is The Krotons, the first story by Robert Holmes. He starts out brilliant and only improves. This is one of the best "the kids are all right" stories of the 1960s.
For Pertwee, look at Season 7 and The Ambassadors of Death. David Whitaker rewritten by Malcolm Hulke, this is a thoughtful thriller that doesn't go where you expect, belonging to a weird transitional period of Doctor Who where it didn't know what it was either. A real treat.
Everyone talks about The Robots of Death, but The Face of Evil, also from Season 14, sees the same writer giving Tom Baker a strange and surprising encounter with a tribe of savages. Full of bonkers ideas and even more bonkers hats.
Later in Tom Baker, meanwhile, check out the Season 16 premiere, The Ribos Operation. This is one of my all-time favorite stories—a classic of new wave SF to stand alongside Moorcock, Ellison, Ballard, and LeGuin. Some of Robert Holmes's best characters. Binro the Heretic. Watch.
For Peter Davison, take a gander at Frontios in Season 21. A gripping, tense story that breaks a bunch of rules and offers a couple of the most "what the fuck" visuals of the series. A compromise among very different tones that works wonders. This should be an agreed classic.
Gosh, Colin Baker is hard to pick for. Let's be perverse. The Mark of the Rani is a *fucking trainwreck*. But a more stylistically distinctive trainwreck you will never see. Everyone knows exactly what sort of show they want to make. Nobody knows why they wanted to do this.
As for McCoy, it can only be Season 24's Paradise Towers. One of the most maligned Doctor Who stories in existence, where it should be recognized as an all-time classic. Utterly batshit. A children's panto J.G. Ballard adaptation. You've never seen anything like it. I promise.
And one bonus, because Sylvester McCoy is just that good. Ghost Light. Season 26. A strange and surreal labyrinth of big ideas. Three episodes that feel heavier than most six-parters. The Doctor fights a mad demiurge about evolution in a haunted house. Sheer, mad poetry.
