Doctor Who

Well it is better than Trek, the other contender for best sci fi tv show. Nostalgia doesn't do it for me, mostly because the only doctors I know are 9&10. For me it's due to the writing and the funny accents (I'm a sucker for a British accent).

Part of it is that they've been unselfconsciously been doing myth-arc science fiction for decades before Babylon 5 proved that the format was viable in prime time American sci-fi.

It's fun. Also, sometimes very well-thought and heart-warming.

I liked it much, (of the two episodes I've seen) but does anyone else feel like it has a never-ending case of Mood Dissonance? I think I might be under-exposed to cheezy camp (seems like American television takes itself more seriously) but it had the feel of one of those old Star Trek episodes. I dunno. I would watch more of it if it wasn't broadcast so sporadically (As an American with no cable I don't get BBC, and as such only get re-runs fairly far outside normal viewing hours, shuffled around on channel eleven with episodes of Merlin (which got me three episodes of bile fascination before I couldn't stand it any more) and the like.

Torrents work well for what Who is out there (if you do that sort of thing). And I think the Mood Dissonance is part of the charm of the character. He's constantly in dangerous or sad situations and doesn't let them get him down.

OKAY YES I'M CONVINCED THERE ARE MYSTICAL FORCES IN THE UNIVERSE! YOU HAPPY NOW?

For those wondering, I'm a recent convertee to Who-ism and in fact one of the things I wanted to do was make a post about it. Then I come here and the pre-existing Doctor Who topic is right at the top of the page.

ANYWAY....

Here's my question (that I thought of posting as a seperate topic but decided goes best here):

If I were to decide to collect every episode of Doctor Who (going for the audio C Ds for the episodes where the video footage no longer exists), would it be better for me as an American to get them all straight from Britian, so they'll match when placed on a shelf? Or should I get what I can in Region 1 and only resort to imports for things like The Movie which are No Export for You due to rights issues?

You could always get them off Dailymotion. A user there uploaded all the episodes for the first five Doctors, and he's still working on the rest of the series and the TV movie.

edited 18th Aug '09 10:11:38 PM by Inkblot

So I finally watched some Old Who, The Pirate Planet. Written by Douglas Adams, and with the fifth Doctor this should have been among the best of Old Who. It was incredibly dull. Bad effects, low energy (except for The Captain) and just not as much fun as New Who. Was there anything better? Maybe something with a Darlek?

If you're looking for "less dull" stick with the Seventh Doctor (in particular, "Survival", "Rememberance of the Daleks" and "The Curse Of Fenric"). His episodes are probably the fastest-paced.

edited 18th Aug '09 10:57:21 PM by Inkblot

re Dailymotion suggestion:

I'm trying to collect Doctor Who, not just watch the episodes.

re Old vs New Who

Speaking as a guy who first discovered Doctor Who through the local library back in March: I like both versions but slightly prefer Old Who.

@ Oscredwin - The Pirate Planet is with the Fourth Doctor, isn't it? Not Fifth. And honestly, bad special effects and slower moving plots are just part of Old Who. I can't think of any specific suggestions for better episodes, but the later Old Who episodes are faster.

edited 19th Aug '09 3:39:22 PM by Miss Hap

It's with the guy with the big scarf. I thought he was Doctor 5.

Nope, Big Scarf Guy is the Fourth Doctor. Guy With Celery is the Fifth Doctor.

I finally got around to watching Planet of the Dead.

It was pretty good.

Meh, planet of the dead was just... There. It didn't stand out in any way. They shouldn't have wasted one of the four episodes for the year on that. Felt like a filler episode, kind of like "fear her" or "the unicorn and the wasp".

Dude, Doctor Who doesn't have filler episodes.

I liked Planet of the Dead. I like the smaller scale episodes of New Who generally, though. (Save this bus, this group, no huge arc, you know). For instance, except for maybe Season 2, I've never liked the finales.

Sure Doctor Who has filler. It's a lot more obvious with the new show, especially since a lot of the stories from the season end up being tied in with the grander events going on. The cheap episodes that don't contribute to the greater story, see Unicorn and the wasp and fear her, as mentioned above. Especially Fear Her. It was a last minute El cheapo replacement for a Stephen Fry script they ended up rejecting. They let them pad out the season while saving the budget for the big, flashy, epic episodes.

Except that Doctor Who was always an episodic show to begin with. The fact that it has these sort of interwoven story arcs now is just a bonus/ratings gimmick.

Seriously saying Doctor Who has filler is like saying Thundercats has filler.

As a matter of fact using the word "Filler" for anything that isn't anime Just Bugs Me, since anime is the only medium where it has an actual, objective meaning.

pre-RTD Doctor Who did sometimes have story arcs (it got in on the story arc game early too), like Season 12, the Key to Time, etc. and arguably even most of the Pertwee era with the Doctor stranded on Earth for most of his run, bar whenever the production team found this inconvenient for storytelling.

it interspersed this with long stretches, even entire seasons, without any arcs at all.

Even so though, its just impossible for a show the nature of Doctor Who to have "filler."

Its even weirder to claim that a one-off special is a filler.

by "filler", the other tropers on this thread have meant less-than-wonderful episodes released so that the season comes out to (in this case) thirteen episodes per year.

you mean it a different way. (I notice that the "official" definition falls in line with yours.)

'course, the sub-standard episodes tend not to advance the plot, either, which confuses the definitions further.

edited 22nd Aug '09 5:50:50 PM by Stardizzy

Doctor Who doesn't have sub-standard episodes, either

Well... the New Who might. I've only seen the first season of it and honestly the episodes I liked least were the story arc episodes, pitifully few though there were.

Agreed. Anyone who calls episodes like "Time and The Rani" substandard is an utter fool.

I would say there are good and bad episodes but even the lesser episodes are of a high quality than many other programs. My brother just watch a whole series of Star Gate Atlantis back to back and I would so chose one of the sub-standard who episodes to the best of SGA anyday.

edited 25th Aug '09 7:18:43 AM by wellinever