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Post by The Escapist on Apr 23, 2016 14:52:07 GMT -5
Been thinking about it for a while (The outside world's just trees 'n' skies 'n' shit anyway....) and I'm not really up for this girl based on what I've seen. Seems like pretty much the same "quirky, sassy female" that we've had for 11 years. It's quite annoying, I think. The whole beauty of Dr. Who is that - bar age-related issues - there are no creative boundaries. The companion could be a cross-dressing bank-robber from the Jazz era and nobody would bat an eyelid (In fact, that sounds great!). We could have bored, cynical companions from the future. Insecure, lonely ones from the present. Morally objectionable, scheming ones from the past. Why do we have to have the same basic formula again and again? Everyone thought River Song would be the game-changer, but Moffat soon homogenised even her into his basic female character archetype.
Obviously, this companion still has the potential to be completely different, but there's nothing yet to suggest to me she'll be any more interesting than the so-bland-it-hurt Clara.
(And, to add insult to injury, this is the first time since Who came back that I'm not physically attracted to either the Doctor or his companion).
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Post by theyknowwhatimean on Apr 24, 2016 6:17:11 GMT -5
Really hope he stays on when the other guy takes over and carries on writing an episode or two a series. Sure, Russell didn't when he stepped down from the role, but then he did always had a problem keeping to deadlines, which isn't really on when you're getting your scripts in for someone else's show, but there's no reason why Moffat can't stay. Imagine how good series 11 could be with Capaldi staying on under the new showrunner who smashes it, writing some absolute belters to open and close the series; and has Moffat and Gatiss (back on form) padding it out; and maybe with some more cinematic direction from the likes of Ben Wheatley (and Peter Jackson?)... Hell, when the new Top Gear gets canned, they can even get a decent special effects budget from the BBC! Might finally stop people prattling on about the 'Russell T. Davies era' all the ruddy time. I agree with all that except one thing; Mark Gatiss should have no further involvement. Even when he has a good concept like Sleep No More he manages to fuck it up. He's a good actor, and seemingly a capable showrunner - but as an episodic writer he's mediocre at best. Get the likes of Gaiman, Mathieson, and Curtis back instead. Yeah, you're probably right; it's been a while now since he did a properly great episode. Although, I do think he did an admirable job making The Robot of Sherwood at least watchable. Gaiman the one who wrote The Wife of The Doctor (or whatever it was called), where the soul of the TARDIS gets encapsulated in body of a woman? Absolute belter that, one of my favourite Matt Smith episodes. And hey, I thought this'd be interesting - don't think it's been done before and I know how you love a good list: so how would you rank each series of new Who? (this is open to anyone btw) |
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Post by theyknowwhatimean on Apr 24, 2016 6:36:10 GMT -5
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Post by The Escapist on Apr 24, 2016 6:45:10 GMT -5
I agree with all that except one thing; Mark Gatiss should have no further involvement. Even when he has a good concept like Sleep No More he manages to fuck it up. He's a good actor, and seemingly a capable showrunner - but as an episodic writer he's mediocre at best. Get the likes of Gaiman, Mathieson, and Curtis back instead. Yeah, you're probably right; it's been a while now since he did a properly great episode. Although, I do think he did an admirable job making The Robot of Sherwood at least watchable. Gaiman the one who wrote The Wife of The Doctor (or whatever it was called), where the soul of the TARDIS gets encapsulated in body of a woman? Absolute belter that, one of my favourite Matt Smith episodes. And hey, I thought this'd be interesting - don't think it's been done before and I know how you love a good list: so how would you rank each series of new Who? (this is open to anyone btw) Go on then: THE GREAT 1. Series 5 2. Series 1 THE GOOD 3. Series 4 4. Series 9 5. Series 8 6. Series 6 THE BAD (Well...ish) 7. Series 3 THE UGLY 8. Series 2 9. Series 7 And as a bonus treat, my latest ranking of the Doctors: 1. David Tennant 2. Christopher Eccleston (Would have been #1 with more series, relative to time - heh - he's probably the best) 3. Tom Baker 4. Peter Capaldi 5. Patrick Troughton 6. Matt Smith 7. Jon Pertwee 8. Sylvester McCoy 9. William Hartnell 10. Paul McGann 11. Peter Davison 12. Colin Baker |
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Post by theyknowwhatimean on Apr 24, 2016 7:57:10 GMT -5
Yeah, you're probably right; it's been a while now since he did a properly great episode. Although, I do think he did an admirable job making The Robot of Sherwood at least watchable. Gaiman the one who wrote The Wife of The Doctor (or whatever it was called), where the soul of the TARDIS gets encapsulated in body of a woman? Absolute belter that, one of my favourite Matt Smith episodes. And hey, I thought this'd be interesting - don't think it's been done before and I know how you love a good list: so how would you rank each series of new Who? (this is open to anyone btw) Go on then: THE GREAT 1. Series 5 2. Series 1 THE GOOD 3. Series 4 4. Series 9 5. Series 8 6. Series 6 THE BAD (Well...ish) 7. Series 3 THE UGLY 8. Series 29. Series 7 And as a bonus treat, my latest ranking of the Doctors: 1. David Tennant 2. Christopher Eccleston (Would have been #1 with more series, relative to time - heh - he's probably the best) 3. Tom Baker 4. Peter Capaldi 5. Patrick Troughton 6. Matt Smith 7. Jon Pertwee 8. Sylvester McCoy 9. William Hartnell 10. Paul McGann 11. Peter Davison 12. Colin BakerWow, really? I know Fear Her fucking ronked, and Love and Monsters is generally perceived as one of the worst new Who eps (I quite liked it meself  ), but I've always thought 2 was one of their best. Would agree with the rest though - except maybe I'd nudge series 9 up to 'great'. Always find it hard to rank Eccleston, because I don't think you can know truly how great a Doctor is until you've seen them in a shit episode. A real Fear Her, In The Forest of the Night travesty. Tennant got a large chunk of them all at once in series 3, Matt Smith the second halves of 6 and 7, and I think Capaldi only got one truly brilliant story to work with in his first series, and yet all remain incredibly popular Doctor's. But with Eccleston, he only had great stuff to work with. D'you know what I mean? |
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Post by davidjay on Apr 24, 2016 8:03:12 GMT -5
Bring back the Wobbulator...   |
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Post by theyknowwhatimean on Apr 24, 2016 8:19:21 GMT -5
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Post by The Escapist on Apr 24, 2016 8:24:20 GMT -5
Go on then: THE GREAT 1. Series 5 2. Series 1 THE GOOD 3. Series 4 4. Series 9 5. Series 8 6. Series 6 THE BAD (Well...ish) 7. Series 3 THE UGLY 8. Series 29. Series 7 And as a bonus treat, my latest ranking of the Doctors: 1. David Tennant 2. Christopher Eccleston (Would have been #1 with more series, relative to time - heh - he's probably the best) 3. Tom Baker 4. Peter Capaldi 5. Patrick Troughton 6. Matt Smith 7. Jon Pertwee 8. Sylvester McCoy 9. William Hartnell 10. Paul McGann 11. Peter Davison 12. Colin BakerWow, really? I know Fear Her fucking ronked, and Love and Monsters is generally perceived as one of the worst new Who eps (I quite liked it meself ), but I've always thought 2 was one of their best. Would agree with the rest though - except maybe I'd nudge series 9 up to 'great'. Always find it hard to rank Eccleston, because I don't think you can know truly how great a Doctor is until you've seen them in a shit episode. A real Fear Her, In The Forest of the Night travesty. Tennant got a large chunk of them all at once in series 3, Matt Smith the second halves of 6 and 7, and I think Capaldi only got one truly brilliant story to work with in his first series, and yet all remain incredibly popular Doctor's. But with Eccleston, he only had great stuff to work with. D'you know what I mean? I think Series 2 was pretty abysmal. You're one of the few people I've spoken to who likes the Rose/Ten dynamic. I thought it was fucking insufferable. From the season, there's only really The Impossible Planet / The Satan Pit that was any good IMO, and there was plenty of absolute rubbish. Eccleston is pretty much my doctor, I remember being an obsessive Who fan at 5/6 and thinking he just was the coolest person ever. Recently re-watched the Series 1 finale and it just shows how right I was. |
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Post by theyknowwhatimean on Apr 26, 2016 9:52:18 GMT -5
"You know I'm over 2,000 years old? I'm old enough to be your Messiah!"
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Post by theyknowwhatimean on Apr 26, 2016 9:59:20 GMT -5
Wow, really? I know Fear Her fucking ronked, and Love and Monsters is generally perceived as one of the worst new Who eps (I quite liked it meself ), but I've always thought 2 was one of their best. Would agree with the rest though - except maybe I'd nudge series 9 up to 'great'. Always find it hard to rank Eccleston, because I don't think you can know truly how great a Doctor is until you've seen them in a shit episode. A real Fear Her, In The Forest of the Night travesty. Tennant got a large chunk of them all at once in series 3, Matt Smith the second halves of 6 and 7, and I think Capaldi only got one truly brilliant story to work with in his first series, and yet all remain incredibly popular Doctor's. But with Eccleston, he only had great stuff to work with. D'you know what I mean? I think Series 2 was pretty abysmal. You're one of the few people I've spoken to who likes the Rose/Ten dynamic. I thought it was fucking insufferable. From the season, there's only really The Impossible Planet / The Satan Pit that was any good IMO, and there was plenty of absolute rubbish. Eccleston is pretty much my doctor, I remember being an obsessive Who fan at 5/6 and thinking he just was the coolest person ever. Recently re-watched the Series 1 finale and it just shows how right I was. You mean there are people out there who DON'T like the Rose/Ten dynamic?   |
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Post by The Escapist on Apr 26, 2016 10:08:01 GMT -5
I think Series 2 was pretty abysmal. You're one of the few people I've spoken to who likes the Rose/Ten dynamic. I thought it was fucking insufferable. From the season, there's only really The Impossible Planet / The Satan Pit that was any good IMO, and there was plenty of absolute rubbish. Eccleston is pretty much my doctor, I remember being an obsessive Who fan at 5/6 and thinking he just was the coolest person ever. Recently re-watched the Series 1 finale and it just shows how right I was. You mean there are people out there who DON'T like the Rose/Ten dynamic? I don't know if the world is a better or worse place because of that video... |
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Post by theyknowwhatimean on Apr 26, 2016 10:13:18 GMT -5
(And, to add insult to injury, this is the first time since Who came back that I'm not physically attracted to either the Doctor or his companion). Not feeling the PCap love? You know, it's actually pretty sweet (if a little bizarre) seeing in the YouTube comments sections and Twitter and such, all the middle aged women who felt a bit insecure swooning over 20-odd year old Matt Smith, now getting someone to fangirl over. Saw one the other day, "he can check me up any time!"    |
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Post by The Escapist on Apr 26, 2016 11:01:57 GMT -5
(And, to add insult to injury, this is the first time since Who came back that I'm not physically attracted to either the Doctor or his companion). Not feeling the PCap love? You know, it's actually pretty sweet (if a little bizarre) seeing in the YouTube comments sections and Twitter and such, all the middle aged women who felt a bit insecure swooning over 20-odd year old Matt Smith, now getting someone to fangirl over. Saw one the other day, "he can check me up any time!" Amazing actor, cool as fuck, but not really my type  To be fair, Tennant / Smith is a tough act to follow (As is Gillan / Coleman). To each their own, though, we all need someone to fangirl over...Even if we are 52. With 6 cats. And a doll baby. |
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Post by theyknowwhatimean on Apr 26, 2016 13:11:40 GMT -5
Not feeling the PCap love? You know, it's actually pretty sweet (if a little bizarre) seeing in the YouTube comments sections and Twitter and such, all the middle aged women who felt a bit insecure swooning over 20-odd year old Matt Smith, now getting someone to fangirl over. Saw one the other day, "he can check me up any time!" Amazing actor, cool as fuck, but not really my type To be fair, Tennant / Smith is an act to follow (As is Gillan / Coleman). To each their own, though, we all need someone to fangirl over...Even if we are 52. With 6 cats. And a doll baby...if we are 52, with 6 cats, and a doll baby. And RE your post above on the new companion, it's been rumoured that she's from the 80s (hence the Prince tee) and not just present day London as with all the rest. Hopefully it proves true, because then if she is just another sassy 'n' streetwise young woman, at least she'll be a little bit different from what we've had before. Could even be quite a canny idea: imagine the opportunities for satire that could arise from plonking someone from a decade like the 80s that seems both a million miles away and yet also really familiar, into out own... I may be talking balls here*, but I've always thought the 80s was a time of 'image is everything'; of everything being BIG; of city boys and corporate greed; and things being... artificial. If that was the case, you could draw a lot of parallels between then and now, I think. Found that Matt Smith episode where there was a monster in the wi-fi or something, quite an interesting one. Could carry on in that vein and have the new girl amazed by people's attachment to their mobiles. "Doctor Who should reflect the times," as PCap recently said. But who's saying the image they reflect has to be a positive one?... guigsysEstring , yay or nay? Do I need to do more reading than just watching Ashes To Ashes? |
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Post by guigsysEstring on Apr 26, 2016 14:15:23 GMT -5
Amazing actor, cool as fuck, but not really my type To be fair, Tennant / Smith is an act to follow (As is Gillan / Coleman). To each their own, though, we all need someone to fangirl over...Even if we are 52. With 6 cats. And a doll baby...if we are 52, with 6 cats, and a doll baby. And RE your post above on the new companion, it's been rumoured that she's from the 80s (hence the Prince tee) and not just present day London as with all the rest. Hopefully it proves true, because then if she is just another sassy 'n' streetwise young woman, at least she'll be a little bit different from what we've had before. Could even be quite a canny idea: imagine the opportunities for satire that could arise from plonking someone from a decade like the 80s that seems both a million miles away and yet also really familiar, into out own... I may be talking balls here*, but I've always thought the 80s was a time of 'image is everything'; of everything being BIG; of city boys and corporate greed; and things being... artificial. If that was the case, you could draw a lot of parallels between then and now, I think. Found that Matt Smith episode where there was a monster in the wi-fi or something, quite an interesting one. Could carry on in that vein and have the new girl amazed by people's attachment to their mobiles. "Doctor Who should reflect the times," as PCap recently said. But who's saying the image they reflect has to be a positive one?... guigsysEstring , yay or nay? Do I need to do more reading than just watching Ashes To Ashes? The" Yuppie" culture endorsed by Margaret Thatcher was indeed greed driven with material possessions and climbing up the next rung in the class system at the expense of anyone who got in the way. Although not a socialist in the sense you would define one as I disagreed with a number of privatisation moves during that era as being long term unworkable in private hands, primarily utilities, which is sadly proving to be the case. The decade also though was a term of mass unemployment with mining or steel areas such as Corby in Northants suffering thousands of simultaneous job losses as nationalised funding was withdrawn and EEC regulations on barring import tariffs came in leading to widespread industrial closures- see also the Northern, Scottish and Belfast shipbuilding industries. It's a fascinating industrial, political and social decade to study if you want to get deeper into how the UK arrived at it's current point. I would start by looking into the key political figures from the spectrum of the era, work you way out into the effects of their decisions both politically and in a wider context and go from there. One thing I have noticed in my own readings on a side note is decades tend to "begin" midway rather than at the start, say around the 4th or 5th year in terms of the things that really define them. If you think of the sixties counter culture, seventies disenchantment and social unrest, eighties yuppie era and the nineties rebirth of optimism they all began a few years after the decade they are associated with had started. |
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Post by theyknowwhatimean on May 3, 2016 5:15:07 GMT -5
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Post by theyknowwhatimean on May 5, 2016 7:49:48 GMT -5
Matt Smith got some rotten stories, but the comic material he got was absolutely top notch. I laughed out loud at least once, in probably most of his episodes. This was a favourite of mine:  Mind you, any time the Doctor speaks Baby - or Horse: " He's called Susan, and he wants you to respect his life choices" - is a favourite of mine. |
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Post by The Escapist on May 5, 2016 14:34:53 GMT -5
 Here's a picture of Matt Smith in an Arcade Fire T-Shirt. You're welcome. |
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Post by theyknowwhatimean on May 8, 2016 6:42:37 GMT -5
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Post by davidjay on May 8, 2016 8:53:37 GMT -5
12/12. Regeneration episodes were always my favourite when discovering the series on video back in the day. That whole concept of the character cheating death and being reborn just caught my imagination. If you look back at the classic series it was a different visual effect each time too. It's more consistent and spectacular now, but I did like the unpredictability of the old approach. Some of the old regeneration scenes were pretty psychedelic. In the original outline for Troughton's first episode, the Doctor's recent transformation was described as being "like a bad acid trip." news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8616413.stm |
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Post by theyknowwhatimean on May 9, 2016 18:38:33 GMT -5
Rumour on t'interweb is that Captain Jack Harkness is coming back for the Christmas special. Will be glad if it happens, he was a fun character.
And I get the 'leave it up to your own imagination' lure, but I feel like I NEED to know how his head eventually grows to be 1000th its original size...
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Post by theyknowwhatimean on May 16, 2016 15:47:11 GMT -5
The Escapist I'm showing my old man some Matt Smith-era Who at the minute. Had the entirety of series 5 on over the last few weeks; gonna do 6 and 7 now. Only, I can remember finding some of them a drag to get though, and I'm more into the show than he is, so... I understand you'll be busy revising for all your GCSEs about now - after all, they change the whole course of your life(!), and all that other stuff your teachers tell you... - but when you've got some time spare, could you jot us out a sort of playlist of the series 6 and 7 eps actually worth watching? They don't all have to be classics - if they play some part in keeping the series arcs going, they can stay. Do this kind of thing a lot with music, myself (still don't think my dad is even aware of Little James's existence ), but I imagine you know your Who a lot better than me. But seriously, good luck with your exams. Do well enough to get in your college of choice, and then fuck 'em. After that, you'll never need think of them again. 
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Post by The Escapist on May 16, 2016 16:00:11 GMT -5
The Escapist I'm showing my old man some Matt Smith-era Who at the minute. Had the entirety of series 5 on over the last few weeks; gonna do 6 and 7 now. Only, I can remember finding some of them a drag to get though, and I'm more into the show than he is, so... I understand you'll be busy revising for all your GCSEs about now - after all, they change the whole course of your life(!), and all that other stuff your teachers tell you... - but when you've got some time spare, could you jot us out a sort of playlist of the series 6 and 7 eps actually worth watching? They don't all have to be classics - if they play some part in keeping the series arcs going, they can stay. Do this kind of thing a lot with music, myself (still don't think my dad is even aware of Little James's existence ), but I imagine you know your Who a lot better than me. But seriously, good luck with your exams. Do well enough to get in your college of choice, and then fuck 'em. After that, you'll never need think of them again. I'm a bit sketchy on 6 and 7 myself, I lost my interest in the show about then and it wasn't until the 50th anniversary that it was properly rekindled. The story arc got so complex that it's unwise leaving any episode out really - but as you say, some of them are noticeably sub-par. Anyway, I'm just finishing off a bit of Biology and then I'll have a look Btw, I heard a bit of Regeneration the other night (it's a tenuous link, but it's there) and it seemed quite good. Bad Ambassador in particular made a great first impression. It's a lot more colourful and humorous than I was expecting though and that threw me off a bit, so a second listen should yield greater results (very much like the four commercial uses of plant hormones - selective weedkillers, plants from cuttings, ripening control, and the production of seedless fruit...ugh...) |
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Post by theyknowwhatimean on May 16, 2016 16:27:01 GMT -5
The Escapist I'm showing my old man some Matt Smith-era Who at the minute. Had the entirety of series 5 on over the last few weeks; gonna do 6 and 7 now. Only, I can remember finding some of them a drag to get though, and I'm more into the show than he is, so... I understand you'll be busy revising for all your GCSEs about now - after all, they change the whole course of your life(!), and all that other stuff your teachers tell you... - but when you've got some time spare, could you jot us out a sort of playlist of the series 6 and 7 eps actually worth watching? They don't all have to be classics - if they play some part in keeping the series arcs going, they can stay. Do this kind of thing a lot with music, myself (still don't think my dad is even aware of Little James's existence ), but I imagine you know your Who a lot better than me. But seriously, good luck with your exams. Do well enough to get in your college of choice, and then fuck 'em. After that, you'll never need think of them again. I'm a bit sketchy on 6 and 7 myself, I lost my interest in the show about then and it wasn't until the 50th anniversary that it was properly rekindled. The story arc got so complex that it's unwise leaving any episode out really - but as you say, some of them are noticeably sub-par. Anyway, I'm just finishing off a bit of Biology and then I'll have a look Btw, I heard a bit of Regeneration the other night (it's a tenuous link, but it's there) and it seemed quite good. Bad Ambassador in particular made a great first impression. It's a lot more colourful and humorous than I was expecting though and that threw me off a bit, so a second listen should yield greater results (very much like the four commercial uses of plant hormones - selective weedkillers, plants from cuttings, ripening control, and the production of seedless fruit...ugh...) Interesting that, it was the anniversary episode that did it for me as well. Wonder how many people that ep brought back... Having watched the tail end of series 7 a few months back, I bet the real 'Whovians' who persevered through it all, were cacking themselves for the 50th. Watching shite like 'Cold War' and 'Nightmare In Silver', there's no clue Moffat and co. still had it in em to pull something like The Day of the Doctor out. But fair play, they pretty much nailed it in the end. And yeah, should've said. Regeneration (nice work!) is "dark" only in the sense that it's a Divine Comedy record. And Divine Comedy once has a song with the following lyrics: " If you were a tree,
I could put my arms around you
And you could not complain.
If you were a tree,
I could carve my name into your side
And you would not cry -- cause trees don't cry." It's not really like a Radiohead album at all, if truth be told. But then it's not supposed to be; Hannon is still a crooner with a sixties pop obsession, at the end of the day. There's only so far he could've taken it. Though I still think you can hear Godrich's stamp on there. And they're just good melodies at the end of the day - something I think you Oldplay fans seem to value. |
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Post by theyknowwhatimean on May 18, 2016 17:48:19 GMT -5
Just watched 'The Doctor's Wife' again.
Only Doctor Who could come up with an episode centring around the soul(?) of a time machine getting trapped inside the body of a mad woman called Idris, from a planet (that isn't really a planet) outside of the Universe, and not only absolutely clobber you when said woman (who you were only introduced to half an hour before) dies, but offer up a comment on the entire nature of existence(!) as well:
Idris/TARDIS: I've been looking for a word - a big, complicated word; but, so sad... I've found it now.
The Doctor: What word?
Idris/TARDIS: 'Alive!' I'm alive.
The Doctor: Alive isn't sad.
Idris/TARDIS: It's sad when it's over. I'll always be here, but this is when we talked. And now, even that has come to an end. There's something I didn't get to say to you...
The Doctor: 'Goodbye'?
Idris/TARDIS: No. I just wanted to say, 'Hello. Hello, Doctor. It's so very, very nice to meet you...'
Gotta be the greatest telly show ever, when it's on its game.
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), but I've always thought 2 was one of their best. Would agree with the rest though - except maybe I'd nudge series 9 up to 'great'. 
Nov 4, 2024 5:04:30 GMT -5