Doctor Who

They've animated all six episodes of Power of the Daleks? That's great! How did I miss that they were doing that?

I take some pride in the fact that it's thanks to the fans of Doctor Who that the BBC were able to do this. The systems of the 60s didn't allow for much in the way of reruns, it's true, but the BBC did not value these programs enough to save them. But fans did what I used to do when I was a kid, and used what they had to save their favorite programs: they put a microphone by the tv speaker and tape-recorded the show. If we'd had VC Rs ten years sooner, we'd probably still have every episode in some form today, because they'd have used them.

To the Doctor Who fan or fans who tape-recorded The Power of the Daleks: thanks for doing that, and thanks for sharing those recordings so the rest of us can experience the episodes in some form.

edited 7th Sep '16 1:15:04 PM by andersonh1

I think the RTD era is something that benefits when you're just remembering it, in a way that, say, Matt Smith's early episodes don't. The big emotional events stick with you, the characters. I've still got a pretty strong impression of Jackie Tyler, I remember pretty vibrantly Ten's chats with Wilf. What I don't immediately remember is that the Doctor met up with some cactus aliens and the Master ran around cheesily eating people before turning everyone on Earth into his clone.

I hated the first part of The End of Time when it first came out. But at times I get tempted to recommend it because, where everything else has faded, I still remember the big, ridiculously overblown moment when Ten said his final goodbyes to everyone, had the Ood sing him off, got a sad final line, and then violently exploded — even if this is something that is, in hindsight, completely and utterly vain of him.

I do miss RTD's era at times. I've never felt quite as attached to anyone since — I'm sure plenty here will disagree with me — even if I find the general episode quality a bit higher, so it has stopped Doctor Who from being a big immediately-watch-every-Saturday event. Part of that's just that I'm busier, though.

edited 7th Sep '16 6:23:56 AM by Lavaeolus

I remember the Eleventh Doctor's stuff pretty vividly too

His era got its own share of emotional moments

It's probably an issue of differing tastes

edited 7th Sep '16 7:01:20 AM by Bocaj

I wonder if Chibnall's era will see RTD's fanbase come back to the show? He's written very populist entertainment over the years like Broadchurch and was the head writer of Torchwood, a show produced at the heights of RTD's reign.

edited 7th Sep '16 7:12:33 AM by Zarius

Honestly? Aside from his first season, I thought RTD's era was pretty darn mediocre. Don't get me wrong; his first season was utterly FANTASTIC!, but after that, he just seemed to run out of ideas. At least a third of his fourth season in particular was just rehashes of stories from the Tom Baker years, and what may have worked in the 1970's isn't necessarily going to work as well in the 2000's. There were still some gems, but most of it was just 'Meh.'

Though of course, aside from S2!Rose, (the less said about her the better,) there's still the matter of the elephant of the room, which I think enough has been said about already. All I'll say is that he didn't make the last three seasons of the RTD years any better, and that if he wasn't so... him, then they might have been a lot more enjoyable for me . But that's all I'll say about that.

edited 7th Sep '16 10:05:51 AM by kkhohoho

That's my problem with Moffat. At one point, he was the best writer for the new series IMO, but he's long since run out of ideas and is just rehashing and struggling, and it feels stale. It has for several years really.

Davros opening his eyes. Over use of weeping angels. Ugh!

I was introduced to the Tenth Doctor at a young age. He was my Doctor growing up. So, he is probably a big part of the appeal for me.

Let's not forget Doomsday. Great episode. I loved it!

The first time the show really made me scared was - all together now - Blink. Hiding behind the sofa the whole time.

edited 7th Sep '16 9:17:07 AM by Vampireandthen

I really freaking miss the RTD era. Mostly because it had this consistent unique tone of bombastic, campy, bathos melodrama. In terms of actual story quality? I'll admit that series 2 onwards is lacking, but series 1 is simply amazing and even Steven Moffat (mega nerd) says that Parting of the Ways is the most influential episode of Doctor Who. And I have to agree with him.

Thinking about it, the melodrama of series 2-4 feels really insubstantial to me. RTD himself says that he wanted moments so unexpected and cruel they'd stick in your mind. But. I don't think in the long term I can enjoy the punishment of characters? Rose, Martha and Donna being denied the endings they wanted feels so opposed to the narrative of their actual stories.

Moffat does drama too, and the dramatic bits feel like they're integral to the narrative, but yes without the emotional tone of the RTD era it manages to be something different rather than objectively better.

I am really looking forward to the chib era, for one I'm hoping for a lot of old fans to return, and also, I'm hankering for something new. Moffat has always pushed himself to do new things, but I'm so familiar win him now that "Moffat being new" is still something I could hazard a guess at.

Edit: Army of Ghosts/Doomsday is a surprisingly well crafted pair of episodes. I hate the ending and I feel like it undermines pretty much all of Rose' character arc, but it feels like a series 1 story. The constant imperialist tone of Torchwood is really enjoyable to watch crumble in on itself. And Dales vs Cybermen was done in the only was possible; with sass. Mikey and Jackie get to be active companions! Ten's characterisation finally becomes fully realised and his destructive interpersonal personality is revealed.

edited 7th Sep '16 9:27:54 AM by Whowho

Davros opening his eyes? His closed eyes were apparently that sacred?

And here I thought he didn't have any eyes.

And really, the Weeping Angels haven't appeared since what, Time of the Doctor? I think we're good, honestly.

And I still want to know just what your problem with Bill is.

edited 7th Sep '16 9:55:39 AM by KarkatTheDalek

Well, by Angels in Manhattan, they weren't scaring me anymore.

Bill is annoyingly stupid and naive! More so then your average companion when we first meet her. She starts asking these questions about the Daleks, and it isn't funny, IT'S ANNOYING! Like, she questions why they say "Exterminate!" and is all, "why don't they just say 'KILL! KILL! KILL!'" I was just watching this, and thinking, "I WANT MARTHA BACK!"

Dude, you haven't even seen a full episode with her yet. At least wait that long before passing judgement.

Fine.

I mean, they weren't at their best in that one, sure, but that was really only their third story with them as the main villains, and they haven't had another since then, in what has nearly been 4 years (and assuming that they aren't the villains of the Christmas Special this year, that will continue). Hard to call that "overused" if we're taking the Moffat era as a whole.

I'll admit, I'm not completely sold on Bill just yet, but I'm willing to give her a chance - how much can I really glean of her character in a 3 minute short anyway? We don't know anything about her!

And Martha, specifically?

Karkat, that was this thread's one hundred thousandth post!

The Weeping Angels appeared less regularly than the Ood. Which is cool to think?

Oh, yay! I'm special.

I don't know anymore. Ugh.

Karkat, you ain't special. You are just lucky.

And actually, yes, Martha specifically. She was a fun character. She was cool, and awesome!

I know I'm not special, I was just joking.

Is Martha your favorite companion?

edited 7th Sep '16 11:33:51 AM by KarkatTheDalek

Now that I think about it, yes. She is.

Good choice! Matha deserves a more vocal fanbase.

I think I'd rank the nu-who companions as Clara > Donna > Rory > Martha > Captain Jack > Amy > Rose > Mikey.

edited 7th Sep '16 11:44:27 AM by Whowho

If I can lump the Ponds into one slot, they're my favorite

Oh if I'm ranking tardis teams it's much different

Nine/Rose/Jack > Twelve/Clara > Eleven/Amy/Rory/River > Ten/Donna > Ten/Matha > Ten/Rose > Eleven/Clara

Amy and Rory Pond are my faves. I never liked Martha because the show never gave me any reason to give a shit about her - Fremya only got cast because Billie left the show and Catherine Tate wasn't available to do a season at that point - and it showed. So much so that Fremya's run is the only one of which I never watched all the episodes of to this day. I'd rate Jenna as Clara over most of the stuff the other three did - but I still prefer Karen and Arthur's work over all of the rest's.

Y'know, I'm getting kind of tired of the way Moffat is critiqued. Like, if you don't like the guy, if you wanna complain about him, I'll probably disagree, but I've got no beef with disliking him in general or getting mad about things he's done. But there's something kinda substanceless and meanspirited about the way I've seen it done a lot of the time. Like, "Clara took way too long to die, and this new companion.....ugh"—not to single out a poster, just a post—doesn't actually tell us anything about why you dislike these people or what you think went wrong. It's just kind of generically nasty for the sake of it. And that seems to be the default state of working out issues with the guy these days—not just here, but on Tumblr and in other fan circles.

Now, obviously folks do this about other showrunners, other actors, but it keeps popping up specifically in spheres where I'm used to, if not calmness, at least basic rationale behind arguments. And it's getting old.

Also, of course—I'm not claiming I've never done this. But keep in mind that I've posted pretty sporadically since last series ended. I've had some time to think about things.

As for favorite companion—Clara. Hands down. "Companion as the Doctor's moral compass" is a narrative device that's always felt kind of inherently limiting and vaguely sexist, so I'm glad to see it get inverted, even if series 9 dropped the ball on that a bit.

edited 7th Sep '16 12:35:32 PM by Wackd

I mean, the thing about the RTD era is that the stuff people remember past the first season are mostly rehashes of older stuff, season finales which all have complicated reputations, or stuff written by Moffat.

There are occasionally exceptions, but, well, the thing that comes most readily to mind is Midnight, which stands out mostly because of how atypical it is for an RTD episode.

Did Davies write "Gridlock"?