Halloween Who

October is the spooky month. Season of ghosts and distant screams. I thought a list of the Classic Doctor Who stories most appropriate for that season. I've picked eight. There are haunted houses; folk Horror and Vampires (amongst other things.) 

1. The Edge of Destruction: this two part story ends the original 13 episode block of the first season of Doctor Who. If things had gone badly this might have been the last Doctor Who story ever. It's weird, it's creepy and it only features the main cast: the First Doctor, Ian, Barbara and Susan. Something is inside the spaceship...or is it? The TARDIS crew under the pressure of events start to distrust one another. If you think of it as a haunted house story then I think it makes for a good spooky watch. 

2. Fury from the Deep: the Patrick Troughton base under siege story par excellence. Lost, but now available fully animated on DVD, I remember that the first time I encountered this story was as a pirated copy on cassette. The copying of the copying of it hide much of the dialogue behind a layer of hiss like an aural fog. But somehow the creepiness of the story broke through and I like to think of this as the Doctor Who equivalent of John Carpenter's "The Fog." Let's call it "The Foam". In the words of Van Lutyens : "It's down there. In the darkness. In the pipeline. Waiting."

3. The Daemons: This feels like a classic British horror film, but perhaps without the more gory aspects that a film might bring. An English village with its pub and Church becomes the centre of something strange and occult. There's an eccentric white witch and an existentialist Vicar, Mr. Magister. It's folk horror for tea-time telly. It is fondly remembered by the cast and everyone seems to be enjoying themselves. You could imagine this as a big screen Hammer film: Peter Cushing as The Doctor, Christopher Lee as Mr. Magister; Caroline Munro as Jo Grant and Andrew Keir as the Brigadier. 

4. Pyramids of Mars: This era of Doctor Who is well-known for taking concepts from film and giving them a Doctor Who take. Robot gives us King Kong and the Brain of Morbius Frankenstein (and the Brain of Morbius could have very easily made this list, along with Terror of the Zygons.) I chose the Pyramids of Mars, which is Doctor Who taking on the tropes of The Mummy. It features one of the great vocal performances in Doctor Who history when Gabriel Woolf's take on Sutekh. The faux-Egyptian trapping and English country house setting give it all the right vibe for a spooky night's viewing. It is, at points, generally horrifying and brutal. 

5. The Horror of Fang Rock: This would be my number one choice. We find ourselves trapped on a rocky island off the English coast in a lighthouse. Outside stalks a faceless killer. Or is it outside? Have we let it in? It's a slasher movie, but with a glowing green blob as the Freddy or Jason. The claustrophobic location, the gradually increasing body count and the quality of the performances make this one of my favourite stories. Tom is great in it, although apparently he was an utter pain in the arse on set, but Louise Jameson is the highlight for me. Plus, and here one has to admit to the effect of nostalgia, this story terrified me as a child. But seriously put this on, turn off the lights and it is, possibly, the perfect Halloween story. 

6. State of Decay: Doctor Who does classic Vampires. But with added SF. I love this story. It has all the trappings of a Hammer Vampire film (something Lalla Ward would have been familiar with). The Three Who Rule are a joy. It has spooky castles, baroque clad Vampires, villages filled with wary peasants and blood. Yes, the Great Vampire isn't quite the sequence you'd like it to be but where else but Doctor Who would you see a giant Vampire staked through the heart by a space ship? 

7. Frontios: This one might be the oddest choice but the centre of this story is dark. The atmosphere is fearful and frightening. It's played dead straight, which means in some ways it feels like Alien. The novelization makes more of the body horror at the centre of the story and yes, giant Woodlice are not the scariest of creations but it is a disturbing story. A planet that eats the dead. 

8. Ghost Light: The Doctor Who haunted house story. The Doctor and Ace arrive at Gabriel Chase and something is not quite right. The atmosphere that pervades this story is perfect for Halloween. Of course, being Doctor Who what is going on isn't supernatural but extra-terrestrial. That still doesn't stop this having a proper Victorian ghost story feel about it.  

9. The Curse of Fenric: Doctor Who takes another run at Vampires. Again, like Ghost Light this story is built on a foundation of creepiness. We have a base under siege. We have an isolated English location.  We have a fog. We have Viking runes. We have a threat from the sea. The Fenric vampires are not the Hammer style Vampires of State of Decay, even if they draw on vampire mythology and superstition. For Halloween purposes it is perfect.

So, there you are. Nine classic Doctor Who stories to watch over Halloween.

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