Doctor New

[Best First]

Have we talked about this yet?

I think it is ace.

[spiderfrommars]

Matt Smith is brilliant, much more 'alien' than the last two chaps. Amy Pond is the first companion I've fancied since the series returned in 2005. The Moffat scripts have been by and large brilliant and the most recent story about Van Gogh, magic.

However, the Dalek episode was verging on terrible, and the Silurian 2-parter rather meh. And you can tell they've cut the budget this season, which is a shame.

[Best First]

I think the way Matt Smith has managed to absorb elements of Tennant, while in ever so subtle ways being completely different is absolutely marvelous - we've not seen him tested by the really big dramatic stuff yet but i think he is well on his way to surpassing DT, which isn't to slag off DT, just a reflection of Smith's nuanced brilliance.

Karen Gillen, yes. Altho i fancied Billy and Freema as well so i am obviolsy not as picky as you. Swerved Tate though - go me. Altho Carey Mulligan as Sally Sparrow remains my Who Lady highlight.

Agree on the Dalek episode - i thought it had real potential at first but it went to pot rather quickly and the defusing of the bomb was ruddy awful. I enjoyed the Sularian 2 parter although it did seem to suffer from the regular failing of modern Who (as much as i love it) that no matter who is on writing chores when they do a 2 part story the resolution episode never seems to have the same punch as the previous one. Meera Syal was sublime either way - i like it when the 'other ' humans show as much as and wonder as the companions - Tennants run sometimes had a tendancy to showcase the brilliance of the 'chosen' partner over the rest of humanity a little.

Anyway - it's ace. Intrigued as to where the Tardis eplosion thing is going.

For the record the world feels a better place now i have your opinion on the matter.

[spiderfrommars]

I prefer him to Tennant. I like his fussy, erratic mannerisms. Really feels like the Doctors of old. I liked Tennant, but he could have passed as a cool bloke down the pub. Very human.

The first 15 mins of that Dalek episode were brilliant. Such a shame.

I've liked the use of foreign locations this year.

I think the last two episodes will be beyond brill.

Have you tried downloading the adventure game? Won't work for me, probably because my computer's harddrive is filled up to the brim with approx 1,300,045,945,847 songs. Do I really need to hold on to Jon Bon Jovi's Blaze of Glory?

For the record the world feels a better place now i have your opinion on the matter.

Right back atcha kid.

[Guest]

Matt Smith's Doctor, for me, combines the best elements of Tennant, Davison and Tom Baker.

Not so keen on the new theme. It seems a bit too far removed from the Derbyshire original.

St John's badge on the Tardis is a nice touch.

The Daleks episode, I feel, suffered from being written by Mark Gatiss. Which isn't to say he's a good writer (League of Gentlemen, Crooked House, etc.), it's just that he can be a bit of a fanboy when it comes to Who.

The new Daleks themselves, I'm not so bothered about. When the episode was aired, there were lots of complaints about how they look too bulky, and some compared them to the 60's wind-up toys (which were actually used in an original series story as a cost-effective way to show thousands of Daleks), but to me they just seem like a 'new breed' of Dalek.

The Silurians 2-parter, I think if the revamp of the actual Silurians had been, like previous revamps, closer to the originals, then it would have been better, perhaps. I mean, people wearing lizard make-up could be any generic reptilian race, whereas if they'd used something that at least resembled the rubber masks of old, then it would have been identifiable. It reminds me of the change in appearance between original series Klingons and Movie-onwards Klingons in Star Trek, although, in that, eventually, they did explain it. With these Silurians, I was just left thinking, "Where's the beak? Where's the luminescent third eye? Why don't they have squeaky voices?"

But overall, it's still good.

[spiderfrommars]

The Daleks episode, I feel, suffered from being written by Mark Gatiss... it's just that he can be a bit of a fanboy when it comes to Who

Could probably be said of Chibnall too. Interestingly, it's the non-fanboys (Nye, Curtis) who have written some of the more creative episodes.

The new Daleks themselves, I'm not so bothered about.

Hmm. I don't hate them or anything. I'm fine with the colours, they remind me of movie Daleks, but the colours + the original design would've been better. And they don't look so good from the side...

It's just the episode turned into a big loud mess and the shouty Dalek Supreme gave me a bit of a headache. I must be getting old...

Did I mention that Amy is hot?

[Best First]

Just downloading the who game now... damnit Dave i have work to do.

[spiderfrommars]

Mwah ha ha!

[Kaylee]

Not been keen on most of new Who tbh but I'm pleasantly surprised by the most recent series. Matt Smith is very watchable, reminds me of Peter Davison. Interested to see where it's going

Needs more Richard Nixon though...

[Best First]

Yaroo!

Only played the first 10 mins of the game or so - it's pitched fairly young as you would expect.

Its pretty nicely done for something that is free, so far its mainly puzzles and avoiding Daleks - which you do through the amusing medium of 'crouching behind stuff'.

[spiderfrommars]

Apparently the story is canon... (!)

[Jack Cade]

Aw man. It's my turn to be the lone voice of dissent!

I loathed Tennant's Who and the general approach to the whole series. It seems less like Dr Who and more like a maniac fan has killed Dr Who and goes round wearing its skin. Everything is raging orchestras, melodrama and reconstituted recycled reused sci-fi plots. And suddenly no one can act! Everyone is so busy enjoying running around on - yay! - a real Dr Who set that they've forgotten everything they learnt since the school play.

I haven't watched any of the Matt Smith episodes yet, although I saw the couple of minutes he had at the end of the Christmas episode and he managed to be pretty damn irritating. (Incidentally, Smith was in the year below me at university, although I only saw him once or twice. True fact about UEA drama students - when the department were running out of money, their president implored them to ask their parents to cough up!)

I also confess it annoys me that if you're one of the BBC's backslapping regular team of comics and ageing actors, you get a free pass to playing a completely unmemorable villain or writing a terrible episode. It's all a big ******* trainset to them, which is all well and good except that I just want to watch a lovable, cranky scientist baffling silly-looking aliens with his old school English charm. Or something equally appealing. I mean, I've just started watching Lost, after getting through The Wire and Battlestar Galactica, and it makes me ask this: OK, so we don't have the budget American shows do, but why the heck can't we write good TV?

[spiderfrommars]

Steven Moffat on form is up there with Josh Whedon, Jane Espenson and any of the Buffy/BSG US scifi type screenwriters IMO.

There's no point comparing it to The Wire, but I will say there's a lot of good writing over here and a lot of crap writing over there and vice versa. Spartacus: Blood and Sand isn't exactly Dennis Potter is it?

You could watch Smith's first episode The Eleventh Hour to see if you like it. If not, fair do's, but you can't really judge him on the 30 seconds in The Christmas episode.

None of it's massively different from what went on before though, so likely Nu Who is not your bag. But it's a show for the child in all of us, and it steadfastly refuses to take itself too seriously which is why some Caprica/Stargate/Starwhatever fans will always declare it ****.

Anyway I wouldn't call you the lone voice of dissent when I've already described one episode as "verging on terrible" and another two as "meh"!

[Jack Cade]

I know there's lots of crap American writing but where are the really great British shows? Maybe I'm just not paying attention but whenever I have a quick look at the Radio Times, the mindset seems to be 'love them for being a brave but hopeless stab at decent TV'.

I don't see the thing about not taking itself too seriously either. I mean, that's part of my probem with it. It's half ******* about and half taking itself really, really seriously. I can't get away from this sense that at least some of the people involved in making it want it to be an epic, sweeping tear-jerking white-knuckle ride 100% of the time.

I'll watch a Matt Smith episode at some point. And I haven't seen every DT one - the thing is, I kept going back to dip my toe in, thinking, "Maybe it wasn't as bad as all that - maybe I just need to switch by brain off" and every time I did it would floor me with its right hook of pomposity and left jab of cliche.

[Best First]

Doesn't "It's half ******* about and half taking itself really, really seriously" almost exactly describe the average Tom Baker episode? Moments when we are supossed to be on the edges of our seat, situations that expose characters for what they are, mixed up with jibber-jabba about Jellie Babies and someone who's sense of perspective is utterly juxtaposed with everyone elses.

I quite like the notion of half ****ing about and half taking things serioulsy - seems like a good balance to me.

In term of great British shows - have you tried Corrie?

[spiderfrommars]

Life On Mars? Being Human? Peep Show? The Office? The Thick of It? All of which the US remade or tried to remake at some point... And we've still cornered the market in costume dramas.

[Best First]

i really need to have a butchers at Being Human.

[Jack Cade]

Peep Show? The Office? The Thick of It?

All comedy. Sorry, I shoulda been specific. Britain doesn't make good epic drama/sci-fi anyway. We make ****-hot comedy. Haven't seen Life on Mars or Being Human, so maybe there is something out there.

Doesn't "It's half ******* about and half taking itself really, really seriously" almost exactly describe the average Tom Baker episode?

I dunno, maybe the intent was there but not the technology. I never feel the Tom Baker episodes (which I still dig out to watch every now and then) are pulling out all the 'TV producer' stops to make me care - you know, screaming violins, hold on actor's face as he looks anguished. There are melodramatic moments in the old episodes, and cliffhangers, but they tend to scoot through them very quickly and signal them with a quick blare on the synth.

And the messing about part felt more like it was for the audience's benefit, whereas I can't help getting the feeling with DT's 'famous comedian' guest stars that they're all going, "Look at me, fellow Footlights buddies! I'm on Dr Who! Fnar fnar!"

So basically, DT: half ******* about, half taking it really, really seriously; TB: just not taking itself that seriously.

And the other thing is the Doctor. I like him as a cranky scientist who survives purely through being jammy, ballsy and brainy. He could be arrogant but also fairly modest. Didn't Tennant basically declare every episode that he was the master of the Universe and no one could take him down, before saving a bit of skirt from an explosion? It sure felt like that.

[spiderfrommars]

And the other thing is the Doctor. I like him as a cranky scientist who survives purely through being jammy, ballsy and brainy.

They're definitely moving in this direction with Matt Smith.

[Guest]

Three episode season finale, featuring 'all our favourite villains' from old, new and other media. Woo.

[Brendocon]

Three part?

Matt Smith is brilliant, much more 'alien' than the last two chaps.

If I have to explain to one more person that The Doctor is meant to be slightly bewildered, arrogant and absent minded I might actually have to **** them. He's great. He's actually The Doctor, rather than some superhero with a long coat and a cheeky grin.

Going a completely different direction to Tennant (admittedly whilst still chanelling a bit of DT) is the most sensible thing they could have done... otherwise it's just somebody doing an impression of him.

As much as the Moffatt Formula Remix Story Creator is annoying me, I'll happily sit through anything that's got Karen Gillan doing... well, pretty much anything that involves her moving/talking/lying there.

Ultraviolet was probably the last quality piece of British made drama that I saw. Though people do tell me good things about Being Human.

[Guest]

Three part?

Well, yeah. Like the three parter with The Master.

Obviously not Title pt 1, Title pt 2, Title pt 3, but Title A, Title B, Title C.

[Brendocon]

I know what three-parter means.

I was asking if you meant there's three episodes left as the finale. Because there isn't.

Yeah, last night's ended in a way that clearly serials into the next one, but it didn't end on a to be continued like Utopia, so it's not the same story. If you argue that The Lodger is part 1 of the finale, you may as well go all out and say it's part 11 of a 13 part story.

Which obviously picked up directly from The End of Time, so blah blah ad infinitum.

[Guest]

Correct.

Somewhere I must've miscounted.

Oh well.

Brownie points to Brend. Have yourself an exploding cigar, etc.



Two episode season finale, featuring 'all our favourite villains' from old, new and other media. Woo.

[Best First]

Really enjoyed The Lodger.

Mild Spoilers....











The fact he was brilliant at Football instead of rubbish was sublime. I didn't know Smith had had trials as a youn un which i guess would have made it a bit more predictable. Call centre bit was also classic.

Thought Corden was fine - the level of dislike he seems to inspire is grossly disproprtionate.

Any ideas about that odd pic in the hall? Or the Pandorica itself?

[Guest]

didn't know Smith had had trials as a youn un which i guess would have made it a bit more predictable

Wasn't he picked by a scout or something but broke his leg and got into acting while he was in recovery.

Thought Corden was fine - the level of dislike he seems to inspire is grossly disproprtionate.

I don't know. As an actor, he comes across as all right, but when he's just being himself, from what little I've seen, he does seem to behave like he's full of himself with a "I'm great and if you disagree, you're a ****!" attitude. Unfairly, perhaps, I think I've described him as a mini-Moyles in the past.

Any ideas about that odd pic in the hall? Or the Pandorica itself?

Can't say I noticed an odd pic in the hall. Will have to watch it again, it seems.

Pandorica could literally be anything, but my money would be on some ancient Gallifreyan artifact/weapon.

[inflatable dalek]

The fact he was brilliant at Football instead of rubbish was sublime. I didn't know Smith had had trials as a youn un which i guess would have made it a bit more predictable. Call centre bit was also classic.

As much as it might seem the football stuff is there specifically to keep Smith happy it's actually the largest chunck of the episode taken almost word for word from the comic strip it's adapted from where it was the Tenth Doctor playing footy in Mickey's team.

Somewhere there's an alternate Universe where Smith was playing for England over on ITV instead of being in this.

[Best First]

Thought Corden was fine - the level of dislike he seems to inspire is grossly disproprtionate.

I don't know. As an actor, he comes across as all right, but when he's just being himself, from what little I've seen, he does seem to behave like he's full of himself with a "I'm great and if you disagree, you're a ****!" attitude. Unfairly, perhaps, I think I've described him as a mini-Moyles in the past.

I'm quite fond of the "I'm great and if you disagree, you're a ****!" approach, but then of course i am awesome and anyone who thinks otherwise is a whatever that word you have starred out is? Tree? Crab? Pear.

Anyway, i don't mean he may or may not be a bit of a plank, it just seems that bashing him has become a national pass time, whereas i think 90% of people in his position would act the same if not worse.

Interesting about the footie.

After some deep ponderage I think the Pandorica is Dawn French's last Chocolate Orange.

[Brendocon]

The football stuff reminded me a bit of him being brilliant at cricket in Black Orchid.

Which was good.

And yeah, Corden was good. Turned up, acted. All you can ask. More than a lot of guest stars have done.

[Guest]

The football stuff reminded me a bit of him being brilliant at cricket in Black Orchid.

Which was good.

Yes!