Doctor Who

No, I don't pay much attention to metadata. The only reason I even know who RTD and Moffat are is because these days people never shut up about them, so it's impossible to watch the show without being aware of exactly who wrote which episode and who was the showrunner for each season. It's impossible to just watch the show without worrying about behind-the-scenes anymore. (Oh, and because RTD was responsible for Queer As Folk, but that only explains why I knew his name before Who.)

But as for Classic Who, the public isn't really talking about it, so I don't follow who wrote what and who was in charge of the show at whatever point. I don't really care, to be honest—I'd rather watch the show.

Although that's... disappointing. Because Robots (and, to a lesser extent, Face) was genuinely one of the best stories I've seen in Classic Who, so hearing that it goes downhill after the next story is... saddening.

edited 6th May '15 11:54:31 AM by SolipSchism

I kind of want them to explain it just so they can apply the principle in reverse. Like, the Doctor comes across someone he met a long time ago and that person happens to be played by Paul McGann.

edited 6th May '15 11:55:22 AM by Zarek

Well, it's not all bad. There's still a great story every once in a while, and again, the last two years are some of the best stuff to ever come out of DW. It's just that you have to trudge through an overly long mixed bag to get to it.

Well, I did sit through every single reconstruction of the missing episodes from Hartnell and Troughton, so I'm not worried about being able to sit through drudgery. Still, I want more Robots of Evil. Or Death, or whatever.

I'm curious about that. I tried to do that with Hartnett and had a really hard time (even with good episodes like The Daleks and The Chase). What episodes did you enjoy the most?

Actually, I'm kind of curious about everyone's favorite episode for each Doctor.

To be honest, none of the reconstructions really blew my socks off.

Hm...

I guess...

Hartnell: The Tenth Planet, probably. I love the original Cybermen.

Troughton: OH MY GOD WHICH ONES WEREN'T AWESOME but seriously though... Maybe The Enemy of the World?

Pertwee: Eh... I'm finally starting to look back on Pertwee himself fondly, but none of the episodes are jumping out in my mind. I'd have to look at a list to really highlight a good one. Probably something with Delgado's Master. I really enjoyed him.

Baker (T): Probably Robots of Whatever, although he's quite wonderful, so I might have to look at a list just to make sure I'm picking the best one.

(Haven't seen 5-8, so skipping)

Eccleston: Hmm. Probably Father's Day; it's the only episode of his that I can recall making me have an emotional response. I can't remember much about the season finale, though, and I really need to rewatch the whole series.

Tennant: Ohhhh. I don't know. I still adore Tennant, so... Maybe... Um... Uh... All of them. Well, Girl in the Fireplace and Blink were fantastic.

Smith: The Doctor's Wife. At least, I think that was the name of the episode Neil Gaiman wrote that took place in a bubble universe (or whatever they called it) and the TARDIS was a woman. That one was great. Although to be honest Matt Smith's entire run was pretty fucking spectacular.

Capaldi: Hmm. I dunno, I kind of feel like the show's been in a slump since he took over. Not his fault—he's wonderful. The show, though... I haven't been really really impressed with any of the episodes. I guess the Christmas special with the facehuggers was pretty good. I did really like that one.

John Hurt: Well. You know. :p

I'm going to answer that question even though I've only watched like four Doctors because I like answering questions with the word "favorite" in them.

For Nine, it's definitely the Empty Child two-parter. For Ten, "Blink." "The Doctor's Wife" is still my favorite episode of Doctor Who I've ever seen, so there's that for Eleven. For Twelve...hmmmm..."Kill The Moon" was pretty good, but I also really liked "Into The Dalek"...and "Flatline"...and "Listen"...dang, I just realized how great last season was.

Oh, also I actually did watch some First Doctor episodes with a friend of mine, so I guess "The Aztecs" is my favorite First Doctor ep by defaut.

EDIT: Oh yeah, forgot War. I'm going to go against the grain and say my favorite War Doctor episode was "Night of the Doctor."

edited 6th May '15 4:32:48 PM by Zarek

Oh shit I forgot about The Empty Child and The Doctor Dances. Can I change my answer for Nine? D:

For me, it would be

Hartnell: The Chase (although I only saw the first series)

Troughton: The Mind Robber

Pertwee: Day of the Daleks

Mc Gann: Immortal Beloved (I'm counting the audio dramas because the Movie was pretty cheesy)

Eccleston: Dalek

Tennant:Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead

Smith:The Doctor's Wife

edited 6th May '15 4:45:45 PM by TricksterCal

And of course the best multi-doctor adventure is The Airzone Solution

I don't know, I would count The Curse of Fatal Death as a multi-Doctor episode.

It was a close race but only one could win by sabotaging the other's alarm clock the night before the race

Is it sad that one of Ten's best episodes barely had him in it at all?

Fortunately, Silence in the Library / The Forest of the Dead is another good one.

Ooh, actually, yeah, I might have to switch my vote to that maybe. On the one hand, Weeping Angels are rad. On the other hand, River Song is hella rad...

It probably says something that all my favorite episodes from the RTD era (except "Midnight" I guess) were written by Moffat.

edited 6th May '15 4:54:14 PM by Zarek

That won't stop me from mocking the 'look me up' thing

"Okay, which of us know how to read?"
"Uh, I think I can? So let me type... 'The Doctor' into foogle annnnnd okay that's a lot of results. Uh.... like, its not recognizing the capital D as a thing and its bringing up a lot of .... medical stuff? And some romance novels? Going to bookmark 'Doctor Dearest' for later, the cover is spicy but uh... geez this is going to take forever to sort through. What are we even doing?"
"The silly hair guy told us to look him up so we can be scared of him?"
"You know what? Screw that. I'm a bunch of air piranha corpse puppeting an astronaut. I don't have time to be dicking around with... Lets just humor him so we can get on with our lives."

I like River in Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead, but I found her annoying in all her other appearances.

Game folks: I'm available until 4:30ish Saturday and Sunday this week. Because I took all that time off to go home, my boss scheduled extra hours for the rest of the week, so I'm starting an hour earlier than usual those days.

Let's see here...

Hartnell: Tossup between 'The Tenth Planet' and 'The Daleks Masterplan'.

Patrick Troughton: The Mind Robbers.

Pertwee: Inferno

Tom Baker: Oh, this one's a challenge; he had so many good ones. Let's see here... Oh, I know! Genesis of the Daleks. There's a great many contenders for the top Fourth Doctor Story — Brain of Morbius, Talons of Weng-Chiang, Robots of Death, Ark in Space, maybe even Horror of Fang Rock, — but you can't go wrong with Genesis. Nearly 40 years later and it's still one of the best Dalek stories ever made.

Peter Davidson: Caves of Androzoni, hands down. There shouldn't even be a contest here.

Colin Baker: ...Seeing as I skipped most of this era, I can't really say much about it. Though I did like Voyager from the comics, if that's applicable in any way.

Sylvester Mc Coy: Once again, it's a tough call. Mc Coy's era was the epitome of quality over quantity, and even though he doesn't have that many stories, he makes up for it by virtue of most of his stories ranging anywhere from good to fricking amazing. It's a three-way tie between Resurrection of the Daleks, The Happiness Patrol, and Greatest Show in the Galaxy, which shows just how amazing this era was despite its' brevity.

Paul Mc Gann: Seeing as the only TV credits' to his Doctor's name are a rather lackluster TV-Movie and a 5-minute tie-in, we'll have to go into the EU for this, and while I still haven't seen a ton of Eight, I've seen some. Of the stories with Eight I've finished so far, the best would have to be Wormwood, which turns a rather mediocre long-running plotline into a tour-de-force, courtesy of the new writer. However, I've been getting close to The Glorious Dead, a 60+ page Master Story that's poised to be the culmination of another long-running plotline and, as the title implies, it's shaping to be truly glorious. So maybe that'll take the top slot when I get to it.

Christopher Eccleston: I was going to say 'Dalek', but then I remembered the 'Empty Child' two-parter, and so that gets the top slot. It showed that big stories could still work in Doctor Who, and was able to be emotional and character driven while not descending into cheap melodrama or Soap Opera. And of course, it gave us Captain Jack, who was a welcome addition to the cast after just having Rose for so long. (Shame he didn't stay on the show for that long...)

David Tennant: I've only finished up his first season so far, but among them, it's got be Girl In The Fireplace. Ten's not that much of an arse here, but it's also just a really good story, and far and away the best in Season 2.

And that's all I've got for now, seeing as I took a break after finishing up Series 2. After I've watched the later seasons, I might have some changes and additions to make to this here list...

edited 7th May '15 7:47:42 AM by kkhohoho

Marvel just cancelled Doctor Who.

Thanks Secret Wars!

We never even got a female Doctor!

Damn you Marvel

damn you to helllllllllllllllllllllll

but thank you for Squirrel Girl, it is a gift, a gift that you make me pay for

Speaking of Marvel, what is with the Triune in the Avengers? Was that, like, trying to make the writers seem less racist for not having that many POC in the Avengers? Btw, this is coming from a total comic book newbie (I usually only read serial comics like Sandman and Fables) who randomly picks out Marvel series.

Anyway, on topic, I really wish Lieutenant Dan had become a full-fledged companion. Like, I was expecting his death, but still... he has such a great chemistry(?) with the Doctor, not just going against what he says, like Clara, but actively having opposing views to him.

My list of favourite episodes will be incomplete, as I have not watched all of them. Besides, it would be somewhat easier for me to write a worst episode lists

First/Second Doctor: Missed their run, so The Five Doctors is the only episode with them that I saw (and The Two Doctors for Second). Liked them both.

Third Doctor: Saw only his two last episodes, but I really liked Planet of the Spiders, even if it was the second Doctor Who episode that I watched in my life, and my understanding of English was quite basic at the time.

Fourth Doctor: Tie between Ark in Space (the first Doctor Who episode to actually scare me to some extent, even if the bubble wrap killed it), Genesis of the Daleks (because Genesis of the freakin' Daleks) and City of Death (because watching the Doctor and Romana in the Parisian metro was quite fun, and Douglas Adams).

Fifth Doctor: I have hazy recollection of this era, mainly because of real life interfering (and still my understanding of English getting in the way). Let's go with Terminus, because of the Garm (and Nyssa).

Sixth/Seventh Doctor: Sadly missed their run because of real life interference.

Eight Doctor: ... The Night of the Doctor

Ninth Doctor: The Empty Child/The Doctor dances because Moffat.

Tenth Doctor: Tie between The Stolen Earth/Journey's end because of the rather well done Massive Multiplayer Crossover from the whole RTD era, and Midnight because it involves the scariest monster of the week in all the Doctor Who episodes I've watched, even surpassing the Moffat creations.

Eleventh Doctor: I'll go with A Good Man Goes to War/Let's Kill Hitler because that's when I finally found River Song interesting and not an annoying Creator's Pet.

Twelfth Doctor: Time Heist, mainly because that's a relatively light episode in an otherwise dark season.

But then again, it'd be easier for me to choose favourite seasons instead .

edited 7th May '15 2:13:43 AM by C105

What was the Triune? Was that Dr. Cho's hospital/lab?

@Trickster Cal: the Triune was basically a supposedly beneficial religious group that went around spreading the word about it's new fancy religion, the Triune Understanding, which... you know what, it's probably easier if you just read this link here, and this link [1] as the Triune gets rather overly complicated in its' very last issue. The second link is for the Triune's founder, and tells you why the Triune was actually formed. You'd think that would be in the link for the actual Triune, but that would just be silly.

edited 7th May '15 4:33:48 AM by kkhohoho

The Three Doctors Commentary