First Impressions of the 11th Doctor Who 379
Mirk writes "The first episode of Doctor Who's new series 5 has just aired on BBC1 in the UK. This is an important episode for the show because so much has changed: Matt Smith plays the new Doctor, replacing David Tennant, and Karen Gillan portrays a new companion, Amy Pond. Maybe most important, Russell T. Davies is replaced as showrunner by Stephen Moffat, who is known for acclaimed Doctor Who scripts including The Empty Child and Blink. Here is an early review of the new Doctor, companion, showrunner, and series."
Watched it, impressed! (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:The Companion (Score:3, Insightful)
Uh, hello, The Doctor is a mega-genius, remember? This was all part of his plan to get her into the Kissogram business so he'd have excuses for her to wear different costumes while looking hot.
William Hartnell & Patrick Troughton (Score:1, Insightful)
Were the best, by far.
Watching it on an old 405 line UHF black and white set, this was before man had walked on the moon, the TV worked on thermionic valves, back in those days it was genuinely good, the scripts were good and the stories pushed the envelope of props and effect to the limit, and often moved the boundaries.
Nowadays it is a bunch of feeble, lowest common denominator camp crap.
You only have to watch the original movie Gone in 60 seconds and the awful remake to understand what I mean.
Still on? (Score:2, Insightful)
I haven't watched it since Tom Baker
Re:The New Tardis (Score:5, Insightful)
Seriously? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:The New Tardis (Score:4, Insightful)
The Doctor and the Tardis influence each other, and the Doctor's fascination with Earth is well known, so a Tardis with lots of recognisably "Earth-tech" is hardly that much of a stretch. Anyway, the new Tardis is kinda SteamPunk, and I can't argue with that. Personally I like the new Tardis set, not sure about the "storm cloud tunnel" in the opening credits ... but I guess we'll get used to that.
It all got a big thumbs up from me. Thanks Auntie Beeb, glad to see you spending my license fee on something I actually like!
Re:Watched it, impressed! (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:His acting grew on me in the first 10 minutes (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Watched it, impressed! (Score:4, Insightful)
Honestly, I don't care what deus ex machina is required to bring the Time Lords back. I really wanted to see them again, and was kind of irritated that Russell T Davies wrote them as "The Time War turned them all evil", and then sealed them away "forever". I'd like to see the Time Lords as an actual civilization again, not something remembered in whispers.
It's not just the Time Lords, though. As much as I loved RTD's writing for the series, he had the idiotic tendency to keep committing genocide towards the recurring villains. You know you're not going to leave them "all dead", so please stop pretending like you killed them once and for all. The tricks that you need to use to bring them back get less believable every time. As a result, I accept that Stephen Moffat is going to have to do some epic hand-waving for basically every recurring villain he wants to bring back, but hopefully after that he'll have the sense to not "kill them off" every time, and we can get past it.
Re:William Hartnell & Patrick Troughton (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm with you on Troughton, but Hartnell? I was more amused by his constant messing up of his lines. They really should have chosen an easier name for Ian than "Chesterton" - did Hartnell EVER pronounce it correctly? And, of course, Barbara and Susan were pretty much relegated to sound effects (screams) - especially Susan.
Actually, in a way, it was good they never had the budget for retakes in the early years. You could see the actors and actresses were really trying hard to get it right the first time.
Still, they did a good job of storytelling in the earlier episodes, I agree. The new ones are flashier, hipper, better special effects, but lack that "the special effects suck because we focused on telling a good story" thing that made Doctor Who, well, Doctor Who. Not that I dislike the new ones, but they are a different thing for a newer generation.
The new intro looks like the Tardis is flying through a colon made of plasma, though. Just sayin - maybe they should rename it the Turdis. :)
Re:Watched it, impressed! (Score:2, Insightful)
I think the new Doctor will work out fine. He reminds me a bit of my favorite Doctor, Tom Baker (the 4th). And all through the new series with Eccleston and Tennant, there really wasn't a 'Fuck Yeah' moment (as far as I was concerned). This had that. I don't want to give anything away from those waiting for the BBC America showing, but you will know it when you see it.
Re:William Hartnell & Patrick Troughton (Score:5, Insightful)
not to mention the theme itself, go read up on how it was actually made in the days before synthesisers and music-editing computer software. It was practically made before electronics were commonplace.
And you tell that they spliced individual notes together on analogue tape to the youth of today who expect to click the 'make music' button on your favourite music package and they won't believe you... (after saying "what's analogue tape")
Re:I've never gotten Dr. Who (Score:3, Insightful)
Yeah, its definitely a children's show. that's why its broadcast on pre prime-time slot on holidays, and then on Saturdays in the 5-6pm slot. That's typically before the sports start. Incidentally, its the same time-slot that the A-Team was broadcast, so you can kind of see the target audience age (and the reason why there's always some form of totty sidekick present for the Dads who have to watch it with their kids)
However, I think the 'modern' doctor series have done remarkably well in appealing to an older audience as well.
Re:Seriously? (Score:3, Insightful)
Whilst I didn't like various of Russell T Davies work on Doctor Who, it is worth remembering that he brought it back from the dead, which was good. Whatever my personal feelings on who Also, I thought some of his scarier episodes (e.g. Midnight, Waters of Mars) were really very good at comparable to some of Moffat's stuff (hard to measure up to Blink, though).
Re:The Companion (Score:3, Insightful)
The 9th Doctor episode "Dalek" kicked ass.
Every appearance of the Daleks in the new run since has been worthless. Doubly so fr the appearances since the 9th Doctor left. Too much reliance on the fact that CGI allows the show to use far more Daleks on screen than they could in the old series. Absolutely no thought given to whether or not showing a million CGI Daleks actually substitutes for a plot.
Bring back the unstoppable sense of ruthlessness that they pulled off with that one lone Dalek in the underground bunker. *That* never gets old.
More of the same? (Score:2, Insightful)
A heroine who is the "girl next door" and strong-willed, but still somewhat naive and vulnerable.
A schmuck boyfriend/fiance of the heroine who struggles with being overshadowed by the Doctor. This Mickey #2 has been living in the Doctor's shadow since he and "Rose" Pond were children.
A Doctor who is youthful, overconfident, and presumably over-friendly with his companion as time progresses.
I am hoping that I will be proved wrong as more episodes air. I've been a fan of Doctor Who since the Fourth Doctor though, and will remain one regardless of where these new writers take the show.
My 6 year old son approves (Score:3, Insightful)
Oh and where the !@#$%! do I order up a kissogram!!!??!
Re:Proof that TPB is alive and well... (Score:3, Insightful)
...Everyone who is in the US and saw the premiere last night please raise your hand now in a two fingered salute to whoever the executives are that have decided they still can't give us same day showing of Doctor Who on BBC America!
Screw BBC America. The show should be back on SyFy where it belongs here in the States.
SyFy is usually part of the basic cable package of most providers and the HD channel is usually part of the basic HD packages. BBC America is not part of most basic packages and BBC America HD is hardly available with any of the cable/fiber/satellite providers.
Sure, BBC America promotes the series more than SyFy did but that really does not matter since BBC America cannot even equal the ratings SyFy got - with hardly any promotion - even when BBC America combines 3 different airings as a single rating statistic.
And it is totally ridiculous that BBC America, a 100% wholly owned subsidiary of BBC Worldwide, cannot televise the show on the same day as it does in the UK. They were only a day or so behind the BBC proper with the inferior Torchwood - Children of Earth miniseries a year ago.
I really do not like the fact that the BBC is allowing BBC America to use the show as a means to build a following for the entire channel at the expense of growing the show's own fan base. It certainly didn't work well for UPN a decade ago when they did the same with Star Trek Voyager...