Present day and alternate history episodes are pretty strange, but due to their nature relatively familiar. I find that I like episodes better the further they reach into the future. They are so utterly bizarre and fascinating!
I think I tend to prefer the Earth-based stories from the original series the best, though there are plenty of amazing off-world episodes as well. But stuff like Curse Of Fenric, Horror At Fang Rock, Inferno and so on are some of my absolute favourites.
That said, with the new series I like the off-world stuff better.
From those futuristic episodes, so far I particularly enjoyed "The End of the World" and "The Impossible Planet / The Satan Pit" - a seemingly endless, dark abyss and a science station right next to a black hole, how cool is that? Reminded me a bit of the Stargate episode in which they found a black hole. There's something transcendental about those things. I love it.
Impossible Planet/Satan Pit were excellent, particularly Impossible Planet.
I had a certain fondness for the episode with the several hundred year long traffic jam!! I've been in a few like that!!
Gridlock! Which also featured a bizarre return of the Macra (last, and originally, seen in the Troughton story "The Macra Terror"). That was the best part as it was a classic monster back plus it made for an unspoken subtext if you know the Macra Terror story.
I remember watching the first Dr. Who episodes with William Hartnell on BBC in N. Ireland must have been around 1965/6.
I still have to watch any episodes with the Daleks and /or Cybermen.
I still prefer the older Cybermen costumes, the Daleks have not changed much oner the years.
The Hartnell stuff was wonderful. I loved the presentation and the stories. That was when the show had an intention of being a semi-educational production, hence a lot of Earth history episodes which contained a lot of historical fact.
I too like the old Cybermen best, they were far more sinister than the later incarnations. When they all spoke with the same metallic drone and had a sort of zombie-like appearance. The later Cybermen were just silly. The most recent ones are ok, though I don't care for the complete re-tooling of their origin story (something tells me though that much of the current timeline is some sort of alternate timeline caused by the Time War).
I agree Tenant does a better job portraying the Doctor, the sets are pricey each season cost close to $110 in Canada.
I don't think Tennant is better than any previous actors in the role, but he does have a great energy that fits the new format. And yeah, the sets are expensive as are all BBC DVDs. I'd love to have all of Doctor Who on DVD but that's a considerable expense.
Torchwood season 1 wasn't that good but the season 2 stories have been much more consistent.
I was seriously underwhelmed and disappointed with Torchwood. The writing is terrible, the acting sub-par, the plots tedious. Torchwood Captain Jack is totally different from Doctor Who Captain Jack, there's little character consistancy. Torchwood is overseen by the people responsible for some of the worst episodes of the recent season (Daleks In Manhatten 2 parter).
Long live the British!
