New Doctor Who

I'm a relative newcomer to Who, and I like Eccleston's and Tennant's Doctors alot, since they're the first guys I've ever watched in action. But I finally got to watch Tom Baker's Doctor in "the Deadly Assassin" and I loved Tom Baker. What are some of the best Baker stories available now?

All of his stories are out on VHS, and probably half on DVD at this point, so they're all available in one form or another. Everyone could give you a list of their 'bests', but here's mine, and I'll stick with what's on DVD:

- Genesis of the Daleks
- Planet of Evil
- Pyramids of Mars
- The Robots of Death
- The Talons of Weng Chiang
- Horror of Fang Rock
- City of Death
- Full Circle/State of Decay/Warrior's Gate

I'd also add the following to that list,

"The Brain of Morbius"
"The Hand of Fear"
"The Seeds of Doom" ( not on DVD yet )
"Revenge of the Cybermen" ( not on DVD yet )
"Terror of the Zygons" ( not on DVD yet )
"The Android Invasion" ( not on DVD yet )

All the 4th Doctors era can ( for the time being at least ) be viewed here without the hassle or risk of downloading,

Planet Gallifrey TV

The guy that gave me the link says the BBC pull everything from the site every so often but the vids reappear after a few weeks so I've been doing a bit of catching up on stories I've not seen before

I've never been much of a fan of Revenge of the Cybermen. To me its always seemed one of the weakest Cyberman stories.

My Blog! Robot Shakespeare (on hiatus)

I don't think it's the greatest Cyberman story either but like pretty much all of Tom's stories I still get some enjoyment out of it.
"Tomb of the Cybermen" is my favorite Cyberman story ever followed by "The Invasion".

Mostly good choices. The only ones I'd disagree with are the E-Space trilogy and Revenge of the Cybermen. Warrior's Gate is okay, but the other two never worked for me (I almost always fall asleep during State of Decay - I've tried watching it three times now and never actually made it all the way through). Plus Adric - dear god, Adric. Revenge of the Cybermen is just pretty mediocre overall - a disappointing end to Baker's otherwise impressive debut season.

I find it interesting that neither of your lists includes much Romana. I've always felt that the Baker years peaked while Leela was around. Looks like I'm not the only one.

I might also recommend Logopolis. It's not one of the all-time greats, but I like seeing things fall into place as Davison's supporting cast and recurring adversary assemble. I'm not a big Davison fan at all, but I really enjoy a lot of his stories and Tegan is one of my favorite companions.

I don't think either incarnation of Romana was particularly bad, just not as memorable as either Sarah Jane or Leela and though Tom always remained watchable I think the consistency of the story quality definitely took a dive for the last couple of years of his run.

I've never understood the levels of hate for Adric that seems to emanate from many online fans as I thought he was OK and far from the worst companion ever. That title can only be reserved for Donna Noble.

I'll second Logopolis. I also really like The Invasion of Time and the Key to Time season.

Donna isnt even the worst companion of the new series, let alone ever.

My Blog! Robot Shakespeare (on hiatus)

Donna's actually another one of my all-time favorites. Not number one (Ace), but easily in the top five. She developed a lot as a character through her run and ended up with one of the most heart-wrenching departures ever.

As for Adric, I just find him to be incredibly irritating. He was an obnoxious little twerp whose only saving grace was that he was less pointless than Nyssa.

For me, least favorite companion usually went to Peri, but my last run through Colin Baker's years have somewhat tempered my dislike for her. With that dislike lessened, the only one I can see giving bottom place to is Adric or Mel. Maybe Dodo, but there's so little left intact with her in it (and it's been so long since I watched any of it) that it seems unfair to judge her on that. Plus it's not really fair to expect greatness from Susan mk.3.

Donna was the best of the New Who companions, I have mixed feelings about Rose and Martha was ok.