Season 1: The Beginning

So with the NuPoo finally going beyond the craphorizan and into the eternal darkness of utter shite, I find my love for the classic series has been fully rejuvenated and I intend to get ever story on dvd, audio or however I can. And were better to start then at the very beginning. I already have the first three story boxset and am going to be getting collecting the dvds for the rest of this season on pay day. I'll give my opinion on the wholse season then but I'd like to get every ones thoughts while I wait.

Stories:

An Unearthly Child
The Daleks
The Edge of Destruction
Marco Polo
The Keys of Marinus
The Aztecs
The Sensorites
The Reign of Terror

Great season.
Marco Polo is a bit overlong, but it's one of the more atmospheric historicals. Reign of Terror is boring, but aside from that I'd say it's the best Hartnell season.
Ian and Babs are my favourite 60's companions by far, so that's a bonus. Although Susan can be irritating, mainly because Carole Ann Ford is a not a particularly good actress.
A lot of people find stories like Marinus and Sensorites a bit dull, but I like them a lot.

Just last week I watched Unearthly Child and the unaired pilot episode on DVD. It is interesting to compare it the Unearthly Child part 1. I was going to make a thread about it, but never got around to it.

I would say the highlights of season 1 are Unearthly Child episode 1, and Keys of Marinus. The Aztecs is one of the better historicals. I haven't seen the animated version of Reign of Terror yet.

Marco Polo strikes me as being a really well-made, grandiose affair. You only have to look at the production stills to see how wonderful the costumes and sets are. The other serials range from great to mediocre. I've always been fond of Reign, but I don't particularly like The Aztecs all that much.

An Unearthly Child is excellent and criminally underrated, often dismissed as turning into a dull historical after the creepy atmospheric first part. I respectfully disagree as we see who Hartnell is and how he works. Great start. 8.5/10

The Daleks is a fucking masterpiece, at least for the first 4 parts, the atmosphere is beautifully haunting, the menace of the titular creatures is masterfully shown and the TARDIS crew have finally slotted comfortably together performance wise. It's just a shame the last 3 parts are a tedious drag but the first 4 parts excellence rises above it. 8/10

The Edge Of Destruction is great, an underrated two parter that is very claustrophobic, disturbing and well acted for the most part. 7/10

Marco Polo is a really enjoyable historical, although I do find myself concurring with Ludders that it is a bit overlong. Still highly enjoyable though. 7/10

The Keys Of Marinus is sadly the weakest link of the bunch, a rather dull effort by Terry Nation despite the Voord being interesting. 4/10

The Aztecs sees things briefly pick up again with one of the series best historicals and some pretty good character development for Barbara. Great stuff. 8/10

The Sensorites is criminally underrated, a rather entrancing, surreal tale which never fails to grip, plus Episode 1's cliffhanger is fucking excellent. 8/10

The Reign Of Terror is okay, nothing standout but still an mostly decent affair. 6/10

All and all, Season 1 is a terrific season that kicked the original series off with style and does an excellent job at kicking off the marvelous journey of the next 26 years. A*.