Who?

[artbroken]

So I've finally started watching the new series of Doctor Who. No, not new in the Matt Smith sense; new in the overall sense. I haven't watched any Who since the no-longer-mentioned Paul McGann made-for-TV movie, so I'm starting fresh with the Christopher Eccleston run.

I know, I know, terrible nerd, can't believe you don't sleep with the DVDs under

Comments

[eynowd]

On one hand, yes, it does get better.

On the other, I still feel that the one episode/one story format lacks the emotional punch of the old serial format from the 70s and 80s. I miss the episode's cliff-hanger endings.

For the most part, I find the new stuff lacks a lot of the subtle horror that the old Who has (which, may I add, I blame heavily for my love of similar creepiness these days). Many of the new enemy alien races are just dumb (Christ, I hate the Slitheen, for example). Whatever happened to things like the Zygons, or the insane plantloving madman who hatched the Crinoid and fed UNIT soldiers alive through a giant compost grinder?

Still, it's enjoyable in a disengage-the-brain, pass-the-popcorn kinda way. I enjoyed David Tennant's stuff, and the first season of Matt Smith's work (which is all I've seen to date) was very cool too.

[craigoxbrow]

If you didn't like Dalek I'm going to lean towards "not really", although The Unquiet Dead was the first episode that clicked for me and Moffat's first two-parter was the highlight of Eccleston's short run.

It's still a "family" show though, 6-7ish Saturday nights, Christmas specials, comic for the kids as well as magazine for the fans. The burping wheelie bins and farting Slitheen (who appear once more here and then go to become villains in the kid-specific Sarah Jane Adventures spinoff) are for them. The "adult" one was Torchwood, which more managed "adolescent".

And I suspect David Tennant will make you very ranty at times.

[mytholder]

Hang on at least two more episodes - the next two are the Empty Child/Doctor Dances, right? Those are well worth watching.

[jody_macgregor]

Yeah, those are the episodes that sold me on the series. It's very hit and miss, but I think I say that about every TV show. If you don't like it after that two-parter then give up, I say.

[damien_wise]

They're some of the best eps of the season.
Generally, Stephen Moffat's stories are really quite good (though I felt that "Silence in the Library" was a bit average. It's equally safe to say that RTD's writing it shite and he should have had a good script-editor to belt him around the head and fix his scripts. Oh, wait, RTD took it upon himself to be script editor. RTD might have had the connections and industry cred (goodness knows how) to get Doctor Who re-launched, and I aught to thank him for that, but he should not be allowed to have a word he writes reach screen. As an ideas-person, he he's very hit-and-miss, and that's about the nicest obli

[damien_wise]

que comment I can give him.

[Hurray for LJ sending that post, mid-rant.]

The Christmas Specials are somewhat speshle, and if you think this season gets a bit childish and sappy, and the stories are poorly written, wait till you get to RTD's final season and see his excruciating multi-part finale. Incoherent screaming.
Still too horrified to buy that season on DVD.

I actually liked "Dalek", though mostly that was for the in-references, nostalgia, and shiny. The ending left something to be desired, as though they wrote themselves into a corner and then made a hash of ripping-off the climax of best Dalek story of the lot, "Remembrance of the Daleks".

Yeah, it gets worse before it gets better. Panto-melodrama. There's a whole story that appears to be constructed around a lame rhyming pun. And another one where the monster of the week is a ball of scribble or something.
And then RTD pisses-off (or gets the boot?) and it gets a lot better. That's not to say that every story of the Stephen Moffat era so far has been brilliant, but the

[anonymous]

I sympathise. My experience was that I started watching with the first Matt Smith season, and anything I didn't know I filled in with Wikipedia.

I loved it. Amazing writing, intricate scripts, huge energy from the actors and a powerful score. So I went back to the first season (Eccleston) to see what I was missing.

And I had the same reaction as you: "What the hell is this crap?". Dumb scripts, farting aliens, cardboard sets and goddamn Billie Piper. I suffered through two seasons before putting myself out of my misery. But at least Stephen Moffat (later to become showrunner during the Matt Smith seasons) got to write a few eps during those first two seasons, and they were fantastic -- much better than any other writer, especially original showrunner and melodramatic hack Russell T. Davies.

So if you find yourself on the verge of quitting, might I recommend skipping forward and trying the first ep of Season 5 instead? It's a completely different show.