Any Doctor Who Fans? **UK AIR-DATE SPOILERS ABOUND** — Page 30

Sweetsiren, I find that a great episode to show Who newbies is "Blink" - no, it doesn't show much of the Doctor, but it covers the time travel aspect, it's sufficiently weird to prepare people for the full Who experience, and it's self-contained enough not to be confusing. Plus it's awesome.

"Blink" is a brilliant episode and probably is a good one to recommend to most newbies. I don't think it would have been a good one for me to start off with, but I'm weird and basically only ever get hooked into shows based on the character writing. I don't care for procedural shows, however cool, that aren't significantly character-focused. Not that that's how "Blink" is--it's strong enough to get you intrigued to watch and find out more about this Doctor guy. My ideal starting point for Doctor Who would probably have been something like "Father's Day" or "School Reunion," oddly. Some missed backstory, but a lot of character stuff going on.

My newest approach to luring people in is showing them clips of The Doctor and The Master interacting. Might not work for everyone, but knowing my friends...

Moffat's written some great episodes and seems to have a pretty good sense of restraint, which is where Davies tends to go wrong at times. Moffat's episodes seem to play as very economical and well-plotted (not to mention creepy). It'll be interesting to see how he does running the show. Also, can I just say how much I love Coupling?

Updated On: 2/7/10 at 01:51 AM

Moffat is a great writer, which makes me glad he's taking over as head writer. I mean, all of the episodes he's written make for great stories.

And I'm still waiting for an explanation of the River Song story line from "Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead".

I would probably show people one of Moffat's episodes first, like "Blink" or "The Girl in the Fireplace". Or possibly the episode "Midnight" because it, too, can stand alone and isn't too complicated. But, again, most of the people I know don't like sci-fi/fantasy. Not even subtle sci-fi/fantasy.

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Guitar Girl, you are aware that Gaiman is set to write an episode for Eleven's second season, right?

GG, are you aware that Midnight isn't a Moffat episode, but an RTD one?

With Richard Curtis writing for this series (rumours are his episode(s) will star Bill Nighy), Neil Gaimen writing for the next, and the whole thing being overseen by one of my favourite Dr Who writers ever, I have high hopes for the Matt Smith era!

"one of my friends loves "class Who" but hates the new series. How, I don't know?!?!"

They are two very different shows and the things that many (including me) love about the 'classic' series aren't to be found in the post-2005 incarnation, which is (on the whole) much more bombastic and RTD's style isn't liked by all. Personally I think that it has to be one of the best re-inventions of a television series ever seen (it's still the longest running Science Fiction series in the world!) and, some slightly dodgy season finales non-withstanding, is still so unique and unlike anything else out there. :)

Updated On: 2/8/10 at 09:43 AM

Have fun watching it! I spent the whole of Saturday on mine, but I still have to watch some of the special features on the End of Time disks.

I don't know why, but Midnight is one of my favorites. The acting is very good, but I also like the mystery.

I really want to see the classic series. Especially Tom Baker, since I heard he was very good. That might have to wait a bit though.

And I, too, am extremely excited for Matt Smith's series, much as I love Tennant. I think Moffat is going to write some brilliant episodes, and I'm thrilled about Neil Gaiman. And of course there's Matt Smith himself. I haven't seen much of him, other than the bit at The End of Time, but I did like him.

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That was just about the greatest thing ever.

I don't care about any of the companions. The Doctor + Jack = OTP.

Kec, the actress who played Skye was Lesley Sharp, who is unutterably brilliant in everything she's in. If you want to see her in another RTD project, watch Bob and Rose. Penelope Wilton (Harriet Jones, MP Flydale North) is in it, too, and it's fantastic. There's also RTD's The Second Coming, which stars Sharp and Christopher Eccleston - not as funny, but it's nice to see RTD putting out all his religion/god ideas in a forum more suited for it than Doctor Who was.

Oh, and Clocking Off. It's written by Paul Abbott (State of Play) and the cast reads like a British television all-star list: Sharp, John Simm, Eccleston, Philip Glenister (Life on Mars), Julian Rhind-Tutt (Green Wing), Sarah Lancashire (Blackpool, spider-woman in "The Runaway Bride)...it's pretty amazing.

Ah, British television. So incestuous. Erm, in a nice way.

Regarding "The Doctor and I" -- a correction, it's not on John's new CD, it's a download only: from I-Tunes UK. Which means that no one outside the UK can download it. I've asked if it will be available on US I-Tunes.

Eastwickian, I would have to say that the Battlestar Galactica re-invention was brilliant. Not taking away anything from DW---haveing watched it since the mid-seventies!

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Magdalene I think I've always done to Battlestar Galactica what I accuse other of doing to Dr Who - namely, unfairly dismissing it as sci-fi (of which I'm not generally fond) without giving it a try. Think I'll have to see if I have any friends with the DVDs...

All my favourite Jack/Doctor scenes are in 'The Empty Child' two parter - the competition for Rose's (and each other's?) affections is brilliantly written and played!

Updated On: 2/11/10 at 08:28 AM