Doctor Who Discussion

Zambar

Zambar

Well-Known Member
15+ year member
Well, in anticipation for Season 31 (OK, Series 5 to keep it simple) starring Matt Smith and Karen Gillan as the Eleventh Doctor and Amy Pond, I shall open this thread for Who fans across the board, from those who've just been enjoying the show when it returned to those who know their Mandrel from their Bandril. To begin with, I shall just go through some of my 'Whovian stats':

First Introduced to Who: The exhibition at Longleat in 2002 and seeing The Ark in Space a couple of years later, but officially 'turned' when it came back in 2005 with Christopher Eccleston.
Top 3 Doctors: David Tennant, Tom Baker & Jon Pertwee
Top 3 Companions: Martha Jones, Sarah Jane Smith, Ace
Top 3 Monsters: Zygons, Sontarans, Silurians/Sea Devils
Top 3 Stories: Human Nature/The Family of Blood, Blink, Genesis of the Daleks (though I've still got many more to watch!)
 
First introduced to Who: I watched an episode with my dad when I was younger. There were Daleks and lots of people with shiny hair. Then there was the Dr Who Exhibition at Longleat.

I must admit, I haven't seen any other episodes of Old Who, and I know I really should but I just can't get into it. So I'll give my top one instead from New Who.

Top Doctor: The Tenth. Who else?
Top Companion: Donna Noble, for sure.
Top Monster: I loved the Weeping Angels, and am so glad they're gonna make a return in the new series.
Top Story: Midnight or Blink. Can't decide.
 
Zambar said:
Well, in anticipation for Season 31 (OK, Series 5 to keep it simple) starring Matt Smith and Karen Gillan as the Eleventh Doctor and Amy Pond, I shall open this thread for Who fans across the board, from those who've just been enjoying the show when it returned to those who know their Mandrel from their Bandril. To begin with, I shall just go through some of my 'Whovian stats':

First Introduced to Who: The exhibition at Longleat in 2002 and seeing The Ark in Space a couple of years later, but officially 'turned' when it came back in 2005 with Christopher Eccleston.
Top 3 Doctors: David Tennant, Tom Baker & Jon Pertwee
Top 3 Companions: Martha Jones, Sarah Jane Smith, Ace
Top 3 Monsters: Zygons, Sontarans, Silurians/Sea Devils
Top 3 Stories: Human Nature/The Family of Blood, Blink, Genesis of the Daleks (though I've still got many more to watch!)
Click to expand...

And to make it more confusing, they may be calling season 5/31 season 1!

Like Huxleypig, I can't get into the old series so my experience is only really since the 2005 revival, however...

Top doc: David Tennant, although Christopher Eccleston was great in "Dalek".
Top Companion: Donna, but shut up about being the best temp in chiswick already!
Top monster: Definitely the gas mask zombies, still the only DW villain to truly scare me, although the weeping angels were clever and I thought millenium fx did a great job on the empress of the racnoss and high priestess of the sybilline.
Top Story: My favourite is the Girl in the Fireplace, but everything written by steven moffat and paul cornell is great.
 
Paul Cornell only wrote Fathers Day, though, didn't he? I too like a lot of Steven Moffat's work, but on other forums, Russell T Davies has had a lot of criticism, which isn't really fair cause I think he writes the best stories.
 
HuxleyPig said:
Paul Cornell only wrote Fathers Day, though, didn't he? I too like a lot of Steven Moffat's work, but on other forums, Russell T Davies has had a lot of criticism, which isn't really fair cause I think he writes the best stories.
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Paul Cornell also wrote the brilliant human nature/family of blood two-parter. And I agree with most of the criticism towards Russell T Davies, he is a good writer of drama but his science-fiction is, shall we say, not so good. As such, the only story he has wrote which I consider to be even close to "the best" was midnight, which was principally a drama whilst his most recent script, the end of time, was not the fitting send-off tennant deserved.
 
Hmmm, fair enough. I thought it was an exceptional episode, but there we go, lol.

Human Nature and The Family Of Blood were both good, but they're not favourites of mine. But Russell T Davies did write and tidy up a good chunk of it, if you read his book.
 
HuxleyPig said:
Hmmm, fair enough. I thought it was an exceptional episode, but there we go, lol.
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Out of interest, why?

HuxleyPig said:
Human Nature and The Family Of Blood were both good, but they're not favourites of mine. But Russell T Davies did write and tidy up a good chunk of it, if you read his book.
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In my opinion, they're better than good although perhaps not in the category of "best". Then again, perhaps they would have been if davies' had not been involved ;)
 
I think RTD just relies too much on convenient plot devices, and is often anti-climatic, which is a problem when he tries to 'epic' up each finale. Take 'The End of Time', the Time Lords return, but they go back a minute later because the Master just breaks a few things! But he does characters well, and he has written some good stuff.
 
redpanda said:
Out of interest, why?
Click to expand...

I thought The End Of Time was fantastic because it had that sense of danger as well as being fun. I've always felt RTD can inject the right amount of fun into the drama to make sure it's not a sob fest.

redpanda said:
In my opinion, they're better than good although perhaps not in the category of "best". Then again, perhaps they would have been if davies' had not been involved ;)
Click to expand...

I doubt it. The Daleks In Manhattan and Evolution Of The Daleks two parter were the episodes where RTD did not tweak the script where he would have normally done. He was sick at the time, and he barely got to go through it before it had to be filmed, and that shows on screen. I think you underestimate his work a bit.
 
First Introduced to Who: The Planet of Spiders, original transmission in Australia (around 1975)
Top 3 Doctors: Tom Baker, Jon Pertwee, David Tennant
Top 3 Companions: Leela, Sarah Jane Smith, Jo Grant/Rose Tyler
Top 3 Monsters: Daleks, Sontarans, Cybermen
Top 3 Stories: Genesis of the Daleks, The Time Warrier, The Talons of Weng Chiang

:p

Hix
 
@ HuxleyPig: Oh, and don't get me wrong, I did love the End of Time, the characters (esp. Wilf), the missile battle and the ending were brilliant. Especially emotional not just because of the departure of 'my' Doctor, but because Tennant's Doctor had been there throughout my early teen life, it was an end of an era for me too.

@ Hix: Good choices, Jo's another fave of mine! :D

This was the general community's top ten Who stories in the last DWM survey, 'The Mighty 200':

10. Bad Wolf/The Parting of the Ways
9. The Robots of Death
8. City of Death
7. Pyramids of Mars
6. Human Nature/The Family of Blood
5. The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances
4. The Talons of Weng Chiang
3. Genesis of the Daleks
2. Blink
1. The Caves of Androzani
 
The Caves of Androzani was #1? There's something wrong there! It was a good story, but nothing particularly special about it.
 
It was no.1 on the previous poll too. I've only watched ep.1 on YouTube, but will have to watch the rest of the story before I can judge it.
 
Nahh, although Chris was my first Doctor, I will always consider David as my Doctor. He was awesome, and although Chris was good, David beats him in every aspect. For me, at least.
 
Considering there have been 10 Doctors then what makes a doctor the most doctorish does indeed tend to be a bit up to personal preference.

I really just enjoyed the style of the 9th doctor more, I loved how he sometimes would just flat out say "Yes" or "No" to a question and then go on as if that answers everything.
 
I do wish Chris stayed on for longer, at least three series' which is usually the default. Having re-watched some of his episodes recentley, and comparing the response/build-up of Chris' departure to David's, you do wonder whether 9 would've recieved a more honourable had he been around for longer. :(

But then he was very paranoid of the typecasting, there was even a bar in his hometown where he ordered a cocktail named after him to be changed from 'the Doctor's Orders'.
 
From what I remember, I didn't like him much because he didn't fit the stereotype of the Doctor - i.e. a bit scatty (in the head) and a dress-sense that was slightly off (or flamboyant). Eccleston wore a black leather jacket, looked 'cool' (I can't think of another way to describe him) and could easily blend in with everyone, and looked at everything like he'd never seen anything before.

Of course, I wasn't thrilled with RTD's changes to Who-lore either (all the Time Lords are dead, Daleks can now fly, and some of the silliness like the Slitheen's farting etc.)

:p

Hix
 
For a start, Daleks first flew on-screen in 1985's Revelation of the Daleks and continued to do so in 1988's Remembrance of the Daleks, and daleks were seen in places they could only have got to by flying in many earlier stories. Basically, they could always fly. :p

And who's to say the universe doesn't follow Star-Trek serious logic all the time, even early Who stories proved that, making it a fine-line between serious sci-fi films and the Hitchhiker's Guide. Farting is a natural process anyway. ;)
 
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