New Dr Who

Mad Eyed Screamer said:
Always amazed how many Yanks ask me am I into Dr Who.
I always reply "yes up to Tom Baker" and they havent a clue.
They are mad on it Christopher Eccleston onwards and go to conventions etc....
One bloke had his little cubicle at work all done up with a Tardis pen holder and Dalek pencil sharpener amongst other items
Click to expand...
I have the same name as a member of the original Star Trek cast and every single time Ive been to the US I have been asked at immigration if I am related to him. Ive learned by experience that saying yes speeded up the process immeasurably even though its complete bollocks
 
The writing has been poor at times with pacing all over the place. It was either too frantic or too slow, although Barrowman was almost the most bearable that I remember, with his Shouting and Armwaving largely confined to a couple of minutes early on - having immortal characters is not good for drama.

I think 3 companions hasn't worked well while trying to give two of them a progression story, especially if they throw in guest companions as well. The Rose Tyler Show years were just as bad for sidelining the Doctor for soap level rubbish though, and some of the writing then contradicted the episode immediately beforehand.

The worst parts of this episode were the ignoring of the recent past - you have to assume that that massive invasion of daleks a couple of years ago never happened; that the entirety of the Doctor's Wife (where the TARDIS was sentient and female) has been ditched to allow a glib TARDISicide, and that even the blowing up of a common or garden TARDIS is not a big event; also, it's now possible to 3D print the Dalek casing and apparently all the antigravity boosters too.
 
Doctor Who has been political throughout its history. One of the staff writers during it 70's golden age was a fully fledged Communist.

The Happiness patrol was based on Thatcherism and rewatching now is prescient.
 
The tokenism doesn't bother me.

The fact that I feel like I'm watching Inspector SpaceTime instead of Doctor Who is what turned me off of the show.
 
flyer said:
I.ve watched Dr Who since the mid sixties and enjoyed most of the doctors, except Sylvestor McCoy who was abysmal.

But this Whiticar woman takes it down to new levels of crap and is only there to give some twat in the BBC a tick in the 'lets promote females' box. Dr Who is a time 'LORD' the clue is in the word.

Now it seems the worst comedian in the world John Bishop is joining the cast. Must be for his 'A' rating as an actor

FFS get back to the brilliant series of Eccleston, Tennant, Smith and Capaldi and lose this tick box mentality.

BTW the same goes for women on football commentaries and Match of the Day etc. Absolutely crap
Click to expand...
Not watched it for a long time, i expect the doctor is a black transgender in a wheelchair by now
 
Aba452 said:
I've watched Doctor Who since Tom Baker in the mid 70s. It was a kids show but at it's best enjoyed by the whole family. The first 3 T Baker seasons are full of classic monsters and iconic moments. But it was all underpinned by strong writing and directing and casting the best actors available. People who'd do Doctor Who followed by Butterflies maybe a Play for Today then say I Claudius. The point is actors at the top of their game taking it seriously.

Then in 1977 Star Wars happened and that changed what viewers expected of Sci Fi. As an example the Best Oscar for Special Effects went to Logan's Run in 76. In 77 it went to Star Wars and the effects were as different as night and day.
By the 80s Doctor Who looked tired not helped by in my opinion the miscasting of Peter Davison Colin Baker (bit of a self important twat according to ex bar staff at the Lowery) and Sylvester McCoy. Tom Baker had done National Theatre with Olivier films like Nicholas and Alexandra/Golden Voyage of Sinbad before being cast. Davison was famous as secondary character Tristram in All Creatures Great and Small; Colin Baker had a villainous role in The Brothers in the early 70s; McCoy by contrast was famous for Vision On/Tiswas(as phantom pie flinger) and putting ferrets down his trousers! No surprise then that the quality deteriorated during the 80s. By 1989 it was scheduled against Corrie and averaging less than 5 million viewers a week. It was quietly dropped.

The conundrum for the Beeb was that Doctor Who made far more money for them than it cost to produce so they began to commercially exploit it in the 90s with videos and books. The Paul Mcgann telefilm was a success in the UK in 1996 but not for the American backers. Eventually in 2003 Russell T Davies who'd made his name with Hollyoaks Queer as Folk and other tv projects talked BBC Wales into resurrecting the series with Eccleston which was a critical and commercial success.

For me at that time it was great that kids were talking about the daleks and the Tardis just as when I was a kid.one reason Eccleston only did one series was cos of the overbearing commercial reasons behind the show.

But the series went on to greater heights with Tennant who was a huge fan of the original series. I would argue that RTDs background in soap storylines really did the show no favours.

In the 60s 70s and 80s the Doctor was an explorer in Time AND Space. He wasn't human but he was always humane brave not cruel. Personally this is the core of the show's original appeal in that you had a heroic character who didn't use a gun and only used violence in self defence. The Doctor was a positive male role model in the says that you had the Sweeney or the Professionals as well as any number of maverick cops driving eccentric cars solving crimes. One of the original ideas behind Doctor Who from Head of Series Sydney Newman was to create a heroic character like Sherlock Holmes or Gandalf. Newman was also responsible for creating The Avengers one of the great British shows of the 60s.

Anyway Tennant was followed by Smith he kept up the ratings but with more challenging storylines from Steven Moffat. He was replaced by another great actor in Peter Capaldi. Utterly brilliant in The Thick of It. He was unpopular and ratings dived. Not because he was bad but very poor scripts that thought they were cleverer than they actually were.

By contrast in the glory days of the early to mid 70s you had writers like Terrance Dicks and Robert Holmes. These guys had written for a variety of programmes including Crossroads Moonbase 3, Knight Errant, Shoestring, Bergerac the Nightmare Man etc. They understood the importance of casting and who it had to be integrated into powerful scripts and dynamic direction.

As a longterm fan I can watch dvds of Hartnell or Troughton or Pertwee as well as the other Doctors as they all have classic adventures that bear rewatching. What's telling is that although I've bought dvds of the revival upto Capaldi I can't recall the last time I rewatched most of them.
I did disagree with Whittakers casting feeling as I've said that it was a rare positive role model. However she was a capable actress particularly in Attack the Block and had excellent reviews in Broadchurch. So I was prepared to give her a chance. It's been an unmitigated disaster. The Doctor feels utterly peripheral with her 'fam' taking centre stage. In many respects she's almost like a companion for Doctor Graham played by Bradley Walsh. Walsh is a decent actor in Law & Order, Corrie and he's been ok in Doctor Who. But the show is about the Doctor the rest are his companions there to ask him questions to advance the plot and to be rescued when required. But these ones are just so forgettable that you simply have no emotional connection. That's criminal when you think the format is literally something that you should be able to tell grand stories on. All of the 2005 onwards series have been primarily Earth set and the whole notion of time travel now merely exists so the Doctor can do whatever she likes with no consequences. In the original series Hartnell proclaimed 'You can't change history not one line!'

I think there's a lot to be said for things always being better as a kid, but when you consider the international attention the money involved as well as the talent then the present show is pretty poor. The news that John f***king Bishop is joining the show is just a complete pisstake.

There are plenty of different eras for everyone to enjoy it's just that I prefer the homely charm of the original series to the technically superior but utterly soulless revival.

If you want to rediscover classic Doctors try stories between 63 - 89; I would also recommend The Sarah Jane Adventures which starred the late Elizabeth Sladen. She was arguably the most popular of the original companions. In 1981 she got her own spinoff show K9 & Company of which only a pilot was made.Typically when screened at Christmas 1981 there was a transmitter failure in the North West so I never saw it originally. At least she had a 2nd bite at the cherry and became even more popular with a new generation of kids. Although the Sarah Jane Adventures was a kids show it felt a lot more similar in tone to the original series and is certainly worth a look.

I suspect Doctor Who will be rested very soon and I don't think there's much argument sadly. In the meantime increasing amounts of lost stories from the 60s are being done as animations so I guess the future's the past !
Click to expand...
Very good. Although I disagree it'll be rested soon. There's no way they will retire it after the first female doctor. That'd be a PR disaster
 
That 'special' was absolute rubbish. Cast was awful, script was awful and she is the worst doctor ever.

Top to bottom changes required immediately or skip the entire thing.

It's an insult to the great doctors and writers of the past and all in the name of PC wankers
 
Overplayed the Yorkshire smart arse schtick.

Clearly the Beeb were trying to reinvigorate the franchise, but time to go back to a few basics... Quirky Doctor, but not in a shouty, lowbrow way, with a sidekick that provides some interest and balance.

Sadly, it appears PC has saturated the BBC to overflowing and even historical, non-offensive norms have to be shattered.

And another old favorite bites the dust.
 
I always thought this guy should be the doctor:

360c8fa0e3ca902286ba98fb127c3e34.jpg
 
  • Like
Reactions: mat
mat said:
Major papers reporting Whittaker has quit.

Not confirmed by the BBC yet.
Click to expand...

Just been reading up on this.

The source the mirror has apparently said the same last year.

Reqding Whovians replies to the news they are kinda 50/50 on her going with many feeli g sorry for her being let down by the writers.

There is plenty who want her to stay but chibnall go and nearly all who want her gone also want chibnall gone.

Completely destroying the history of gallifrey, the time lords and the doctors origins and then destroying gallifrey and it's inhabitants in such a shit way (unlike RTD who just wrote them out, but in a reasonably good way) seems to have really pissed off fans old and new.


Best thing to do, sack the nobhead but keep Jodie, get a decent showrunner and write a story where series 12 was all set in an alternative reality created by omega so all the shit he has done can be dismissed and gallifrey and the origins of the time lords and doctor can return.
 
Last edited:
I'm With Stupid said:
I always thought this guy should be the doctor:

360c8fa0e3ca902286ba98fb127c3e34.jpg
Click to expand...

If that's Patterson Joseph I'm pretty sure he was considered for the 10th Doctor. He would be excellent as would David Harewood who's in Supergirl.

It's interesting to note some of the actors who could have been the Doctor:

1st: Geoffrey Bayldon (Catweazle and the Crowman in Worzel Gummidge)

Cyril Cusack (Day of the Jackal)

2nd: Michael Horden (always remember him as the voice of Badger in the Wind in the Willows)

Brian Blessed (Gordon's Alive!!!!!!!)

3rd: Fulton MacKay (Porridge, Frazzle Rock)

Ron Moody (THE Fagin in Oliver)

4th: Michael Bentine (the Goon Show but he wanted to write/produce as well as star in it!)

Fulton MacKay

Graham Crowden (brilliant in Waiting for God)

5th: Richard Griffiths (Monti in Withnail and I, Uncle Vernon in Harry Potter)

7th: Ken Campbell and Chris Jury!

8th: many including Robert Lindsay and Anthony Head

9th: Hugh Grant!!!!

11th: Russell Tovey

12th: Ben Daniels (Blue Leader in Rogue One)


Some interesting choices and some the we can breathe a sigh of relief that they didn't come off!
 
I enjoyed the Rosa episode but it has been a topsy turvy few seasons.

Thought they could have done something with that character from the Rosa episode who was changing history since Ryan just randomly took him somewhere
 
Aba452 said:
If that's Patterson Joseph I'm pretty sure he was considered for the 10th Doctor. He would be excellent as would David Harewood who's in Supergirl.

It's interesting to note some of the actors who could have been the Doctor:

1st: Geoffrey Bayldon (Catweazle and the Crowman in Worzel Gummidge)

Cyril Cusack (Day of the Jackal)

2nd: Michael Horden (always remember him as the voice of Badger in the Wind in the Willows)

Brian Blessed (Gordon's Alive!!!!!!!)

3rd: Fulton MacKay (Porridge, Frazzle Rock)

Ron Moody (THE Fagin in Oliver)

4th: Michael Bentine (the Goon Show but he wanted to write/produce as well as star in it!)

Fulton MacKay

Graham Crowden (brilliant in Waiting for God)

5th: Richard Griffiths (Monti in Withnail and I, Uncle Vernon in Harry Potter)

7th: Ken Campbell and Chris Jury!

8th: many including Robert Lindsay and Anthony Head

9th: Hugh Grant!!!!

11th: Russell Tovey

12th: Ben Daniels (Blue Leader in Rogue One)


Some interesting choices and some the we can breathe a sigh of relief that they didn't come off!
Click to expand...
Always thought Steven Berkoff would have been an interesting choice.
 
Aba452 said:
If that's Patterson Joseph I'm pretty sure he was considered for the 10th Doctor. He would be excellent as would David Harewood who's in Supergirl.

It's interesting to note some of the actors who could have been the Doctor:

1st: Geoffrey Bayldon (Catweazle and the Crowman in Worzel Gummidge)

Cyril Cusack (Day of the Jackal)

2nd: Michael Horden (always remember him as the voice of Badger in the Wind in the Willows)

Brian Blessed (Gordon's Alive!!!!!!!)

3rd: Fulton MacKay (Porridge, Frazzle Rock)

Ron Moody (THE Fagin in Oliver)

4th: Michael Bentine (the Goon Show but he wanted to write/produce as well as star in it!)

Fulton MacKay

Graham Crowden (brilliant in Waiting for God)

5th: Richard Griffiths (Monti in Withnail and I, Uncle Vernon in Harry Potter)

7th: Ken Campbell and Chris Jury!

8th: many including Robert Lindsay and Anthony Head

9th: Hugh Grant!!!!

11th: Russell Tovey

12th: Ben Daniels (Blue Leader in Rogue One)


Some interesting choices and some the we can breathe a sigh of relief that they didn't come off!
Click to expand...
Ohhh Brian Blessed would have been superb!!!!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Unread Posts

Don't have an account? Register now and see fewer ads!

SIGN UP
Back
Top