Any Doctor Who Fans? **UK AIR-DATE SPOILERS ABOUND**

[spiderdj82]

Posted: 2/21/09 at 11:22pm

Let's spread the love, folks. Favorite Doctor? Favorite Season? Favorite Episode? Favorite Companion? Etc.

Updated On: 5/22/10 at 11:22 PM

[Plum]

Posted: 2/21/09 at 11:26pm

You had to bring this up in the middle of the hiatus from hell?

Spidey, I must know what you think of the casting for Eleven. Brilliant counter-intuitive move or the BBC being cheap and hiring someone they can gouge for the lowest pay possible?

[spiderdj82]

Posted: 2/21/09 at 11:30pm

I know, Plum. This hiatus is killing me.....and it is SO sad that there is only going to be 4 episodes this year and MY doctor (David Tennant) is going to be gone. *cries*

What do I think of the casting? Um...I think it is odd that they chose a younger actor to play the Doctor. I mean, so far (except for the 1980's Doctor) the companions have been between 25-40. This kid looks like he is about 20 (even though I know he is older)and they will have to pick a younger companion to balance him out, which isn't bad, but what makes a doctor 30 and up is that you can see and feel the weight of the years on him. I just hope he doesn't ACT young. But, I can't say too much until I actually see him in action.

[Chrysanthemum62001]

Posted: 2/21/09 at 11:30pm

I haven't watched Doctor Who YET, but I adore David Tennant.

[spiderdj82]

Posted: 2/21/09 at 11:31pm

Chrys - The new Doctor Who is amazing. I liked Christopher but, in my opinion, David OWNES the role. Plus the stories and interaction with Rose (Billie Piper) are better in season 2 (my favorite season)

[1937]

Posted: 2/21/09 at 11:50pm

I love The Doctor. Any Doctor, but there is definitely a place in my heart for David. I adore him.

[spiderdj82]

Posted: 2/21/09 at 11:56pm

Just a FYI....if you have Netflix, you can "instant watch" seasons 1-3. EXCITING!!!

[Mandi Moo]

Posted: 2/21/09 at 11:56pm

Love Doctor Who! Old and New.

From the Classic Series, Four and Romana are my favorite pair, though I've only begun to scratch the surface with the old stuff.

From the new series you can't beat series 4 with 10 and Donna.

I'm excited to see what Matt Smith does with the role, but I really hope that they don't get scared of casting someone older in the role in the future.

[Mandi Moo]

Posted: 2/21/09 at 11:57pm

If you have Netflix you can also watch A LOT of the older stories, which you should do too.

[spiderdj82]

Posted: 2/22/09 at 12:02am

Oh, I agree Mandi. I am TRYING to like Tom Baker but he is so bland to me. I like Peter (the 6th Doctor I think). In fact, David imitated a good deal from Peter, including wearing sneakers and glasses. He even says it in the special "Time Crash".

Ps. if you go to that certain website and put in "Doctor Who Time Crash" you can watch it. :)

Season 4 is my second favorite season ESPECIALLY the last three episodes. My favorites over all is "Girl in the Fireplace" (2nd Season)...."Blink" (3rd Season)...."Turn Left" (4th Season)

[spiderdj82]

Posted: 2/22/09 at 1:08am

You wanna see how much of a Doctor Who geek I am?


Yes, that is a sonic screwdriver. lol

Updated On: 2/22/09 at 01:08 AM

[Plum]

Posted: 2/22/09 at 1:10am

I've heard Tom Baker called a lot of things, but "bland" has never been one of them. The guy has enough personality for three people. Spidey, have you seen something like "City of Death"? It has a lot of Four and Romana running around Paris holding hands adorably. (And people say Doctor-companion romance only happened in the new series. Ha!) Baker was also really awesome as Captain Redbeard Rum in the "Potato" episode of Blackadder.

Chris Eccleston was My Doctor, I suppose. I watched his season first and was really nonplussed when the regeneration happened, since I had no background on the show at the time. But I think I would have been more open to Ten (because really, Tennant is a charming guy) if his writing didn't make me want to break things. In his very first episode he acted like an utter dick to Harriet Jones, one of my favorite supporting characters, and it was all downhill from there. The only season when I finally started to love Ten was this past one with Donna, and that ended disastrously and all too soon.

So I was looking forward to the fresh start of a new Doctor and a new showrunner, but I'm really pissed now at the Beeb for pulling a crap move like hiring a twelve-year-old to play the Doctor since he has no bargaining power and can be paid as little as possible. I'm pretty sure money was part of the Eccleston-Tennant transition, too, but at least there they bothered hiring an up-and-comer who looked distinctively different than his predecessor. I wish Matt Smith the best and I hope I'm wrong and this all turns out brilliantly, but his initial publicity photos just made him look like Ten v.2.0 - another young white skinny guy with a lot of hair. But the showrunner, producing staff, and composer are all changing, so there's a fair chance we won't be getting a total Ten retread.
Updated On: 2/22/09 at 01:10 AM

[spiderdj82]

Posted: 2/22/09 at 1:16am

The only thing I am excited about with the upcoming season is that Steven Moffat who wrote "Blink" and many other great episodes is going to be the main writer.

Plum....I really haven't watched too many classic episodes. I watched one where they were in Egypt and Tom Baker was just bland to me. Granted, that might have been just a blah episode in general.

Ten wasn't mean to Harriet Jones except when she blew up the spaceship and The Doctor has ALWAYS been against genocide. I wasn't a big fan of Christopher because his doctor was very...I don't know...mean (for lack of a better word) to Rose and others. In the very first episode he called Rose "A dumb ape" and told her to "shut up for a minute." He got better and even in the last episode of Season 4, The Doctor tells Rose that she was the one that changed him for the better. I just thought the stories got better and better after the first season.

Updated On: 2/22/09 at 01:16 AM

[nexttoelectric]

Posted: 2/22/09 at 1:22am

Ive only seen a couple episodes of season 4 (the agatha christie one) but ive watched all of seasons 1-3 on netflix through my tivo I LOVE the show. Blink was a pretty good episodes. The finale of season 2 was devastating.

I liked all the revelations we got in Season 3 aswell

[spiderdj82]

Posted: 2/22/09 at 1:24am

OMG, I cried at the end of season 2. Tore my heart out.

[yodamarie78]

Posted: 2/22/09 at 2:01am

Yay Doctor Who! I own all four New Who seasons on DVD (and both seasons of Torchwood). David Tennant is "my Doctor" because I came in on the third season. After my second time through season one I've come to appreciate Christopher Eccleston, but I don't think anyone will ever be able to replace 10 for me.

I'm trying to withhold any judgment of 11 until I actually see him in the role. I have high hopes for the next seaon though since, as SpiderDJ said, the marvelous Stephen Moffat is taking over for RTD.

SpiderDJ, my husband has the sonic screwdriver and many of the action figures. This is my best example of geekery:


My "Silence in the Library" journal.

[Plum]

Posted: 2/22/09 at 2:02am

The Ninth Doctor acted like a dick but he actually seemed to care about the individual people he was interacting with more than Ten, who was wrapped up in nothing but Rose from the get-go.

As for Ten and Harriet Jones - that was a power play, pure and simple. He deemed that he'd taken care of the problem and that was that, and he was pissy that a little human (even if she was an elected official) decided to make her own decisions about her planet and her people. What she did wasn't necessarily the right decision, but it wasn't genocide (I doubt that entire species was on that ship), and the Doctor is a genocidaire several times over, anyway. That's what got to me with Ten - he was arrogant, he treated people badly (poor Martha and Jack!) and he got away with it, over and over. Whereas Nine's season seemed to be all about facing the consequences of your actions.

As I said, though, I did love Ten with Donna, who smacked him out of his complacency and brought out his best self just as he brought her out of the world of wallowing in temp work and reading tabloids all day. Those two were brilliant together, and I wish we'd had more than one season of their teamup. But of course that had to end with the utter WTFery of clone!Ten and the inexcusable mind-wipe of Donna. *sigh*

[spiderdj82]

Posted: 2/22/09 at 2:13am

OMG, Yoda....where did you get that?

Plum - Yes, the Doctor killed some people (or let them die) but he ALWAYS gave them a choice. See, I thought Ten was more sympathetic than Nine. Have you seen the episode in season 3 where he became human to stop the Family of Blood from taking over his immortality. That episode, in itself, is the best acting in all of Doctor Who. When Ten found out who he really was and had to choose between saving the world or living out his life with the woman he fell in love with....and he BEGGED Martha not to give him that choice. GAH, I lost it.

And yes, the whole clone thing was stupid. Catherine Tate stated that since David and Russell was leaving the show, she wanted to leave as well. In fact, it wasn't even planned for her to be a companion. She was really only supposed to appear in that Christmas episode and that's it, but when Freema left they asked her to come back and she said yes.

Updated On: 2/22/09 at 02:13 AM

[spiderdj82]

Posted: 2/22/09 at 2:18am

Also, in Season 4 where the space Titanic ran into the Tardis....that episode was all about compassion. When all of those people started sacrificing themselves, you could see it on The Doctor's face that he was horrified and even tried to stop a couple of them from doing it, but it was too late. At the end where he makes Kylie Minnogue's character particles and lets them out of the vent to roam in space (what she always wanted) it was TRUE compassion.

[spiderdj82]

Posted: 2/22/09 at 2:28am

Article about the 11th doctor.....which, if we follow the lore, he only has two more regenerations before he dies.

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/note.php?note_id=42806438156&id=17882022445&ref=share

[Plum]

Posted: 2/22/09 at 2:38am

Tennant brought the acting on occasion: I hated "The Doctor's Daughter" as an episode, for example, but he was lovely when Donna confronted him about being a soldier, one of the very, very few times Ten was called out on his hypocrisy about pacifism. I saw it this way - Ten will smile and look cute even as he destroys everyone in his way. (The very ending of "Human Nature"/"Family of Blood" was not chilling in a good way for me.) Nine will scowl and call you a moron but hesitate and feel awful about killing even someone as horrid as Margaret Slitheen.

Nine said, "I'd make a very bad god." Ten got unabashed Jesus/God comparisons all over the place, which is just...disgusting, given how often he does the wrong thing. I'll happily watch a character who makes the wrong decisions and doesn't treat people well all the time (hello House), but what got me about most of Ten's era is that he did these things and then got subtextually treated as god/sacrificial emo Jesus/whatever by the show. No! Bad! Wrong! I want to like the hero of the show, not spend half my time wanting to kick him in the face. Which is what he made me want to do with his sanctimoniousness, the way he treated Rose, Martha, Jack, Mickey, and Jackie as well as Harriet, and generally the way he flew around oblivious or just not caring about who he was hurting until Donna came along.

I also found Tennant more limited than Eccleston as an actor, but that's probably at least partly the product of writing that repeatedly forced Tennant into things he isn't good at doing - namely, snarling, screaming rage. By the tenth time or so he put on his "I'm very scary" face I was rolling my eyes and just wishing they'd play to his strong suits instead. Like having intensely homoerotic conversations with John Simm playing the Master. :P

I've also watched Eccleston in a lot more projects than I've watched Tennant, so it might partly be that, as well. (If you want to see a really interesting Davies/Eccleston collaboration that came right before Doctor Who and shared a lot of the same themes, check out The Second Coming, which is available on R1 DVD.)


ETA- They can change the "thirteen regenerations" rule anytime they want, I think. It's never been made clear if that's a biological limitation or a Gallifreyan law. Just say it's the latter and the problem is solved, since Gallifrey can't exactly enforce its laws anymore, can it? Of course, at this point I half-expect the BBC to push the show to self-destruct under successively smaller budgets before we even get to a Thirteenth Doctor. Updated On: 2/22/09 at 02:38 AM

[spiderdj82]

Posted: 2/22/09 at 9:16am

That it so odd....everything you said against the Tenth doctor, I feel about the Ninth doctor. I just think it is a matter of perspective.

[kec]

Posted: 2/22/09 at 9:48am

I'm a relatively new fan of Doctor Who. I came across it by accident when I lived in Switzerland, and was flipping through channels on the digital cable box. We had BBC1 and I found "Daleks in Manhattan." It interested me enough to remember to watch the following week, but then I forgot about it till the end, when I caught the final episode of the third series three-part finale. When I came back to the US, BBCA was just starting to air series 2 of the program with a marathon of the first series, so I was able to catch up on the new series. David Tennant is pretty much "my doctor" as he's the one I first saw.

Favorite episode... I've got several -- all the ones written by Steven Moffatt, especially Blink and Girl in the Fireplace. Others include Unicorn and the Wasp, The Shakespeare Code, Turn Left and the series four two-part finale.

"Have you seen the episode in season 3 where he became human to stop the Family of Blood from taking over his immortality. That episode, in itself, is the best acting in all of Doctor Who. When Ten found out who he really was and had to choose between saving the world or living out his life with the woman he fell in love with....and he BEGGED Martha not to give him that choice. GAH, I lost it. "

These two are also favorites. Tennant's performance in the scene where he switches from John Smith to the Doctor and back to Smith again just floored me. I cried when the watch showed them the life they would have if he didn't become the Doctor again -- and I cry every time I watch that part.

Of the companions, while I did like all three, Donna's my favorite, followed by Martha, then Rose. Catherine Tate was just outstanding in the role, and the growth of the character from her first appearance in THE RUNAWAY BRIDE to the very heartbreaking end when the Doctor erases her memory, was fantastic.

Speaking of Doctor Who.... on a trip to London last year I visited the Doctor Who Exhibit at Earl's Court. Quite a lot of fun and some interesting things such as The Face of Boe above.

[kec]

Posted: 2/22/09 at 9:49am

K-9

[kec]

Posted: 2/22/09 at 9:50am

Cybermen