Has anyone been watching the new series?
Any thoughts.

I normally go to church on sat nights, but the one or two that I have caught, I have enjoyed.

People’s favourite Doctor?
How does this one fare?

Bec

Dr Who

Bec, I hope you can tape the program, so that you will keep going to church on Saturday nights, or can arrange to go on Sunday instead.

Concerning Dr Who, I think the new series is a cracker. I love it. The new Doctor and his lovely assistant are terrific, I think.

Haven’t watched it in years and the old series is on [is it still on?] when I am at work.

Of course the real Dr Who is Tom Baker.

And the real assistant is Sarah Jane Smith.

I am still in love with Tom Baker’s scarf!!  I so want one.

Thanks for your concern, re: me going to church.  I have my regular church that I go to on a Sunday. 
The Sat night church is a church plant, that I am part of a small group with.  So I try to get along there most weeks.  Unfortunately study seems to take over about 2 out of 4 weeks!
:(
- I think tonight might be one of those nights (my essay is not going as planned) -

Well at least that means I’ll get to watch it.  Unfortunately I can’t tape it as I don’t have a VCR.

I miss K-9 as well!!

Bec

It’s hard to pick a single favourite Doctor. I particularly like Patrick Troughton’s manners, John Pertwee’s dignity, Tom Baker’s humour, Peter Davidson’s gentleness and Sylvester McCoy’s quirkiness. Paul McGann was excellent in the telemovie, but the telemovie itself was a travesty.

Favourite companion? Hmm… probably Ace. She enjoyed blowing things up, and that’s always a bonus. But I also really liked Zoe & Jamie, the combination of Zoe’s mathematical genius and Jamie’s highland simplicity was quite charming, especially with patrick Troughton being like a devoted uncle for the both of them.

The new series… not bad, but not great.

I don’t like the new Doctor very much. THey’ve gone a bit overboard with the quirky behaviour, and he seems to take too much joy in trouble. In the original series, the Doctor was often jsut looking for a place to relax for a while and trouble would seek him out (I remember one where he decides to go fishing while leaving Romana to get the work done).

I don’t like Rose very much either, she irritates me but I’m not sure why. Maybe it’s her mother. I’m a bit frustrated by the soapie quality, the emphasis on Rose’s home life etc.

I was dissapointed by what the new series did to the Autons (the manequins of ‘living plastic’, who first appeared in the Pertwee story ‘Spearhead from Space’). Rather than being terrifying they were just comical, and that misses the point. Also the console room looks ridiculous, and the new take on the theme music is just horrible.

However the stories so far aren’t too bad. I liked the ‘End of the World’ one, set on the space station, and the period drama featuring an aging Charles Dickens. The real question is what happens next week when the Daleks reappear…

Oh, and I learnt that the actors playing the Doctor and Rose won’t be returning for the next season, so here’s hoping that BBC Wales make some good casting choices.

Jon Pertwee and the Brigadier!

David C Simon,

Here’s the good news:- there’s no doubt about it - you definitely have a way with words and I have so enjoyed your comments on Dr Who and on another thread (the one Chris Little authored regarding role playing). I really think you should submit reviews for possible inclusion in culture and society.

Here’s the bad news:- you are officially old. It had to happen some time and your post on this topic was your initiation into your more senior years ;-) On who’s authority can I make such a sure declaration? My 10 and 12 year old children, that’s who! They LOVE the new Dr and sidekick and for them the earth stands still for 40 minutes of ripsnorting adventure and crazy fun. My kids love the glimmer in the Dr’s eye - they just know more excitement is around the corner. And according to my 10 year old daughter “Rosie rocks”.

I’m afraid, David simply the fact that you, me and the other illuminaries on this thread are having this discussion means we are old. Mind you, I can’t think of a better bunch of oldies to share my senior years with. Your Senior’s Card is in the post!

cheers
Angela

[quote author="Angela Crittle"]Here’s the good news:- there’s no doubt about it - you definitely have a way with words

::dances with joy, falls over::

I review the occasional PC/X-box game for SA.net and somehow one of my articles ended up in the ‘thinking’ section (I didn’t expect to be published in such a lofty section). As for TV/Film reviews, AMS already has an abundance of talented reviewers - they really don’t need me :)

Here’s the bad news:- you are officially old.

Hey, I’ve been feelng old ever since my friends started getting married and having kids - and that started when I was 19! I’ve been a ‘grumpy old man’ for some time now ;)

Mr Simon
welcome, glad to have you as a fellow grumpy old man (dont tell Gordon Cheung who doesnt like me calling my self old- I think it reminds him of his own mortality)

[quote author="David C Simon"]However the stories so far aren’t too bad. I liked the ‘End of the World’ one, set on the space station, and the period drama featuring an aging Charles Dickens.

Uh oh.... I was about to ask if the other episodes were worth watching as End of Earth is the only one I have seen and I thought it was apallingly cheesy and lame for the most part. The only intelligent thing in it was the amusing dig at the extremes of cosmetic surgery. The rest was feeble 1950s B-grade SciFi storyline to me. No more intelligent than the lowest brow of Hollywood blockbusters.
However, you’ve painted this episode as one of the shining lights in the series so far (or best of a bad lot, anyway), which doesn’t bode at all well for the rest of it.

My list of reasons to consider attaching the antenna to our new TV is diminishing.

[quote author="Dave Ruys"]The only intelligent thing in it was the amusing dig at the extremes of cosmetic surgery. The rest was feeble 1950s B-grade SciFi storyline to me. No more intelligent than the lowest brow of Hollywood blockbusters.

Face it, a lot of Dr Who *was* feeble 1950s B-grade. The Daleks are a very popular villain, but I think that from Pertwee to McCoy they only had two decent stories (Genesis of the Daleks and Remembrance of the Daleks). The rest of the Dalek stories over those years had very weak plots and didn’t really do anything exciting or new. They were just pieces of fluff to keep Dalek fans happy.

And there were plenty of other weak-links throughout the series. The Horns of Nimon is currently showing on ABC at 6pm, and it is just a feeble retelling of the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur, but with rayguns and thinly disguised names (eg: the sacrifices come from Aneth instead of Athens).

Ah well.....90% of televised or cinematic or even written Sci Fi is B-grade, anyway. For a supposedly intelligent genre, it’s remarkably childish most of the time. I’d rather gnaw my own arms off than watch vacuous things like Star Trek or Babylon 5 or whatever, but I was hoping the new Dr Who might be intelligent and thought provoking. Sadly, it would appear not.
I don’t mind cheesiness in 50s Sci Fi, but you’d think they would know better these days. Tongue in cheek B-grade is good, like Starship Troopers. Smart/gritty Sci Fi is good, like Minority Report or 12 Monkeys. The rest of it tends to be pretty cringeworthy.

[quote author="Dave Ruys"]I’d rather gnaw my own arms off than watch vacuous things like Star Trek or Babylon 5 or whatever, but I was hoping the new Dr Who might be intelligent and thought provoking. Sadly, it would appear not.

Babylon 5… vacuous?!? Have you watched more than one episode? Bab5 has some of the best character development in TV history! How many shows do you know of have a four-year story arc?

Dr Who has a four decade story arc ( if Mr Simon means what I think he means)

[quote author="peter kirsop"]Dr Who has a four decade story arc ( if Mr Simon means what I think he means)

I don’t think I do :)

Dr Who just made things up from one season to the next, and if you watch earlier seasons you’ll see major contradictions with later stories. It was basically an ongoing serial which said ‘lets see what story we can tell this week...’ The closest Dr Who came to an arc story was the Tom Baker series ‘Key to Time’ where he spent a year gathering various pieces of a relic, and the Colin Baker series ‘Trial of a Time Lord’ in which the Doctor is put on trial for breaking the laws of Gallifrey.

The arc story of Bab5 was drafted at the very beginning of the project, and designed to unfold over 5 years (in the end it was compressed into 4 as there was some risk that the studio wouldn’t fund season 5). This means that ideas which begin in the first season are resolved three years later. We see key characters go through tremendous changes as the universe evolves around them. Eg: One character is lured into shady politics in season 1, over seasons 2 and 3 he realises that he has helped orchestrate the enslavement and attemtped genocide of an entire race, and in season 4 he repents and seeks to undo all the harm he has done - and he is just one part of a much grander story. This is epic story-telling at its finest!

PS: novels/telemovies/netcasts aside, Dr Who only went for 26 seasons, not 40 :P

And there were plenty of other weak-links throughout the series. The Horns of Nimon is currently showing on ABC at 6pm, and it is just a feeble retelling of the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur, but with rayguns and thinly disguised names (eg: the sacrifices come from Aneth instead of Athens).

Ok, so the TV Nimon looks like a giant squashed plum on legs. But I remember the books (particularly those by Terrence Dicks) were dynamite for a 10-year-old’s imagination. Rehashing greek myths isn’t a bad source for material at all, either.

Keen to hear what people think the best Dr Who Villain has been over the years. (Let’s exclude the Daleks).

I recall that shaggy beast he hyonotised. There was the Sultanas or Sultarens or something. There were the Ogrons… I liked these guys, particularly good in the episaodes where they came against John Pertwee and the Brigadier.

What were those guys that were all wrapped in alfoil… cybersomethings?

David C you’re sure to have catalogued all these?