I am a big Dr. Who fan, but admit I was not into the program at its origin. It is very hard to put yourself into the mindset of people seeing this for the first time in 1963. But curiosity and a desire to see the program from the start drove me to watch Season One.
First, prepare yourself for the fact that this is a kinescope (I think) of live TV. When an actor flubs a line, and that happens with some frequency, there is no edit and re-take. This is how it went out over the air. The boom mike at the top of the picture happens more than once. The sets and costumes are pretty cheesy. The backgrounds are obviously painting on flats. In short, this does not show the production values and quality of more resent seasons. Chalk this up to "you have to start somewhere."
Lastly, and I suppose this is HERESEY, but Hartnel is absolutely my least favorite incarnation of the Doctor. He is unnecessarily infuriating and obtuse. Worst of all, in Season One at least, he doesn't really do the heavy lifting on the story. The school teachers carry the narrative and are the stars. And while some of the aspects lay the ground work for later events (first invention of the daleks, for example) there is too much heavy-handed foreshadowing and predictability.
In short, you will want to watch this if you are compulsive about seeing the entire saga. Otherwise, if you take a pass on this historical curiosity, you are not missing much.
First, prepare yourself for the fact that this is a kinescope (I think) of live TV. When an actor flubs a line, and that happens with some frequency, there is no edit and re-take. This is how it went out over the air. The boom mike at the top of the picture happens more than once. The sets and costumes are pretty cheesy. The backgrounds are obviously painting on flats. In short, this does not show the production values and quality of more resent seasons. Chalk this up to "you have to start somewhere."
Lastly, and I suppose this is HERESEY, but Hartnel is absolutely my least favorite incarnation of the Doctor. He is unnecessarily infuriating and obtuse. Worst of all, in Season One at least, he doesn't really do the heavy lifting on the story. The school teachers carry the narrative and are the stars. And while some of the aspects lay the ground work for later events (first invention of the daleks, for example) there is too much heavy-handed foreshadowing and predictability.
In short, you will want to watch this if you are compulsive about seeing the entire saga. Otherwise, if you take a pass on this historical curiosity, you are not missing much.