That is a chair with a panda on it: The best surviving William Hartnell Doctor Who POLL

Go Daleks!

I have seen so little Hartnell Doctor stuff.

I think The Daleks might well be the right answer here, although The Aztecs is kind of brilliant and The Time Meddler has maybe the best cliffhanger in any single episode of Who that I can think of.

Despite all that, the Gunfighters might be my favourite.

The Time Meddler has maybe the best cliffhanger in any single episode of Who that I can think of.

It's good, but the cliffhanger at the end of ep 2 of the Ark trumps it. Haven't decided what to vote for here.

The statue having the head of a Monoid? Yeah, that's a good one.

Dalek Invasion would win if it was a couple of episodes shorter.
Still haven't seen many of these.
Maybe Unearthly Child because it introduced the best, weirdest TV show theme music ever.

There's a sequence in Dalek Invasion where the Doctor and co are running through a Dalek-infested London to jarring percussive music which is fucking phenomenally eeire.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

watching The Chase and it might be my favourite yet.

the Hartnell stuff, there's so much of it, 44 episodes in one of the seasons, and the educational aspect of it sometimes grates - stop teaching me about the French Revolution.

i mean if it was any good as history i wouldn't mind it, but it's not.

anyway as of today i'd vote for "the rescue". i think it's been talked about elsewhere - it's a really effective portrayal of gaslighting, and at two episodes, it doesn't overstay its welcome!

I looked at these and didn't feel anything but I would probably vote for The Edge of Destruction

Which isn't really as good as I want it to be, but that goes for most of this era

the optimum version of Hartnell Who is probably achieved by listening to the first Radiophonic Workshop LP and looking at some blurry telesnaps

I started watching Dalek Invasion Of Earth when the eps hit iPlayer last year, and the mood and menace is impressive. But oh my that's a lot of hours to invest in a shakey sci-fi story.

i've skipped both the first Dalek story and Invasion because i am familiar with the films. later dalek things are either missing bits or have animated replacements and those are always lower done in the list.

i wonder what happened to the dalek time machine they had in The Chase? maybe it's explained in the last two episodes.

Which troll voted for The Web Planet, one of the most dull things I've ever seen?

I love The Web Planet, it's too long, but I can't think of anything else even remotely like it. I first saw most of these when I was about 13 and UK Gold would show them on a Saturday night as omnibus editions, starting at about 11.45 pm and running into the early hours of Sunday morning, I'd stay up and watch them surreptitiously in my bedroom, sometime drifting off to sleep for some of the story, I think this was best way to watch some of these, enhanced the eerie atmosphere for me in a way that I probably couldn't recreate now.

also, Martin Jarvis..

i'd go with the aztecs as best overall -- strong characterization, first doctor romance, plot progression, a bit of action, not terrible as a history lesson.

tenth planet for the sci fi stories. the daleks starts strong but then it goes in circles and ends with the daleks being defeated by rugs. the movie is much better.

soref otm - The Web Planet is so tripped out, tries hard and weirdly to achieve its premise and staging, and is so imaginative (in ways they mostly can’t pull off). I read Bill Strutton’s novelisation aged about 10 and didn’t see it on screen until my mid 40s so the story was already in place for me. But 3-4 fully different alien races, the sense of the TARDIS crew being caught up in an ongoing battle, the mind control stuff, the dance choreography for the Menoptera - it all looks goofy now but they went for it so sincerely. I’d vote for it.

I haven’t rewatched it in years but I remember absolutely loving Planet of Giants when our PBS affiliate got their hands on the First Doctor stories