When did you first see these stories?

[Anthony Williams]

Well, this thread is fairly self-explanatory, so I shall start us off with:

The Masque of Mandragora - not until I was completing my VHS collection in early 2006.

The Hand of Fear - UK Gold omnibus in November 1995.

The Deadly Assassin - UK Gold omnibus in November 1995.

The Face of Evil - UK Gold omnibus in May 1997.

The Robots of Death - DVD release, which I was given for Christmas 2000.

The Talons of Weng-Chiang - DVD release in April 2003.

[Dino]

The Masque of Mandragora - BBC Video. Can't remember the year. Probably when it first came out.

The Hand of Fear - UK Gold. Again, forgot the year.

The Deadly Assassin - Do remember the episode two cliffhanger. Although I thought there was a skeleton in the drivers car, not a man with a large cloth and goggles. Eventually got the video in that glorious Christmas when it was released alongside The Sontaran Experiement/ Genesis Of The Daleks. So 199..3?

The Face of Evil - UK Gold. Shortly after the Hand Of Fear. More than likely early 90's.

The Robots of Death - First Dr Who video I got. The edited version. Late 80's probably.

The Talons of Weng-Chiang - Remember Greel forcing someone to take a suicide pill at the time, but I got the video for it when it came out. I used to be able to remember what the other story was that got released at the same time... no. Not any more!

[Awesome Wells]

Well, this thread is fairly self-explanatory, so I shall start us off with:

The Masque of Mandragora - not until I was completing my VHS collection in early 2006.

The Hand of Fear - UK Gold omnibus in November 1995.

The Deadly Assassin - UK Gold omnibus in November 1995.

The Face of Evil - UK Gold omnibus in May 1997.

The Robots of Death - DVD release, which I was given for Christmas 2000.

The Talons of Weng-Chiang - DVD release in April 2003.

I can do this fairly easily. I saw The Hand Of Fear after it came out on VHS in 1996 ... and I haven't seen any of the others.

[Anthony Williams]

... and I haven't seen any of the others.

...really!?

[Darren]

All on video except Hand of Fear which I saw for the first time on DVD and Masque of Mandragora which I've never seen.

[Jon Masters]

All on the day of transmission, though I seem to recall missing the start of Ep 4 of Hand of Fear, so never knew what happened when Eldrad went all Bullseye until the vid came out.

[Stephen Morgan]

Same here, all on original transmission, so I have fond memories of this "Golden Era" and the programmes surrounding it, Basil Brush, Gen Game, Duchess of Duke Street, The Two Ronnies, Starsky and Hutch and Parkinson.
I have a Radio Times for the week beginning with Mandragora, I'll take a look at it and report back with some other contemporary material.

[Anthony Williams]

I have a Radio Times for the week beginning with Mandragora, I'll take a look at it and report back with some other contemporary material.

Sounds good, Stephen - I look forward to that thread

[duncan]

All on their original transmission. I remember it all being so unmissable and this was the last season of my golden era.

[Logo Polish]

The Masque of Mandragora - BBC Video. Can't remember the year. Probably when it first came out.

The year it was released was 1991.

The Deadly Assassin - Do remember the episode two cliffhanger. Although I thought there was a skeleton in the drivers car, not a man with a large cloth and goggles. Eventually got the video in that glorious Christmas when it was released alongside The Sontaran Experiement/ Genesis Of The Daleks. So 199..3?

1991 again for all of those.

The Talons of Weng-Chiang - Remember Greel forcing someone to take a suicide pill at the time, but I got the video for it when it came out. I used to be able to remember what the other story was that got released at the same time... no. Not any more!

Terror of the Zygons.

[Andrew Curnow]

The Masque of Mandragora - got it on video for Christmas 1991, so would have watched it either then or very early January 1992.

The Hand of Fear - first time was an off-air recording from UK Gold in, at a guess, 2004. Most recently, we watched it in one hit last Christmas after Claudia bought me the DVD. Although, I do recall watching the very, very end as a wee kid, where the TARDIS arrives in "South Croydon"...

The Deadly Assassin - first time would be when I was 5, in 1976! I can remember seeing the white-gowned President, the superb end of part 2 cliffhanger (although it was probably 20 years or more before I realised how he "escapes" it), and likewise the part 3 cliffhanger.

The Face of Evil - bizarrely, no 1977 memory of this one at all. So the one & only time I've seen it was off-air from UK Gold... probably about a fortnight after I watched The Hand of Fear.

The Robots of Death - 1977, I have vague memories of the whole story, and more specific memories of certain moments such as the first robot killing. Of course, it was also one of the first videos we got, in 1988 I think, after which time it was watched many a times in the Curnow household. Not seen it in about 15 years now though!!

The Talons of Weng-Chiang - again, atmospheric 1977 memories. Most specifically thinking the end of part 4 was the end of the story (presumably I'd never heard of a six-parter at that time) and musing over what a bizarre ending that was...

[Dart-dodging Decadent]

I watched it all on original transmission.

[Awesome Wells]

...really!?

Yeah, I know. I'm rubbish at this being a fan lark.

[Dino]

The year it was released was 1991.

1991 again for all of those.

Terror of the Zygons.

Thank you! And Terror Of The Zygons! Now I remember!
(Well I did say I was rubbish with dates and years! Never put me in charge of the TARDIS..)

[Ssarl]

Masque of Mandragora - no recollection whatsoever except for the cliffhanger with the purple bloke. This means that I got it when I was renting 10 videos at a time from the shop and copying the lot, and I watched it while playing with lego with my cousin and not paying attention at all. I think I spent more time trying to decipher the title of this one than actually watching it.

Hand of Fear - bought it on first release in Australia, where it was never even remotely hard to get. Sold it for a decent profit in 2003. Yay! It's pretty mundane except for a few memorable bits with Eldrad. I was outraged, OUTRAGED at the ropey logic with the nuclear reactor.

Deadly Assassin - another from the mass rental spree. It bored me to tears and still does, apart from the Part Three bits which reminded me of Thomas the Tank Engine and the Bush Tucker Man (both great loves of my youth).

Face of Evil - bought on first release. Didn't have the Swap Shop bit so we took it back for another copy. Thought it was alright, have never had much of an opinion on it at all.

Robots of Death - first story! Target novelisation. Bought it home from the library for Dad but ended up reading it myself. Kept a gruesome little chart of who was alive and who was dead, and all the names of the robots. That was the first of about ten billion lists. I loved it to pieces but have never once bothered to read it again (I think I got the video about two years later). Nobody ever talks about it so it's probably one of Terrence's rush jobs and I'm best of sticking with the DVD.

Talons of Weng-Chiang: bought this one very early one, when I was 10 or so. Very confused by the movie format (lists were made!). Absolutely adored it, particularly Mr Sin and all the lovely Victorian characters who pop up for one scene. I could watch this one forever and probably will. Was pleased to eventually see the cliffhangers range from the brilliant to the utterly terrible, and are all barmy in one way or another.

[Stuart Wallis]

First memory of Face was the video, and Hand from the DVD; the rest I saw first time round.

[Jonno]

All on original transmission, bar the first part of Masque because I went to a friend's birthday party and can still remember my Mum telling me not to come home early to watch Dr Who! I never remembered much of the story subsequently - I guess due to the lack of monsters.

I remember being excited by the trailer for Deadly Assassin and the continuity announcer referring to the Doctor going to his home planet - exciting stuff! Then there was me watching the omnibus repeats of Pyramids and Brain on my own because the rest of the family knew they were repeats and weren't interested (new episodes were watched and enjoyed by the whole family).

Face of Evil I have few memories of, bar the Horda (again, it's the monster element I guess) and one memorable thing about Robots was when we were babysitting our neighbour's young girl - she was about 6, a little younger than me. She said she didn't want to watch Who as it was too scary - and my Mum, as pragmatic as ever, simply told her not to watch it then! It wasn't going to stop us.

And I have the exact same memories of those cliffhangers as Andrew - for years, I thought the train really did run over the Doctor's foot but he didn't really feel it or something, and I also thought Talons was over after Part 4 - I guess because all the other stories had been 4 parters! It seemed that the villains had got away gleefully cackling about it!

Oh, and at the real end of the story, when the camera panned up to Chang's face on the poster, I fully expected him to come alive!

[SiHart]

Right then, dredging up memories...

Masque of Mandragora was the summer of 1991 when it was first released on video. Really liked it then and really like it now. Me and my friend Richard were a bit taken a back by it that day because we weren't expecting to like it so much as we did.

Hand of Fear was end of 1992, from my pirate video dealer. It was on a tape I selected for Richard for Christmas that year. The copy came from Super Channel as I remember and was pretty good quality.

The Deadly Assassin was the end of 1991, when the video was released. I wanted to love it, but thought it was a bit average. I remember trying to watch it as my Dad rearranged lots of furniture in the living room. He got cross. That was nothing new.

Face of Evil was my penultimate Tom and I watched it with my friend Steve one Friday evening in my third term of the first year at Uni with tea and biscuits.

Robots of Death I borrowed from a friend at school who'd just bought the video sometime in 1988 or whenever it was it was released for £9.99. I remember liking it a great deal, but was surprised that Leela didn't sound more like a savage. I'd not imagined her with the BBC English accent.

Talons of Weng-Chiang I saw just after Christmas 1988 at Richard's house. We sat and watched it through together and really, really enjoyed it. Fabulous! I bought myself a copy soon afterwards at the short lived Tooley Street Doctor Who exhibition.