Nu Who Meta: Doctor Who surprises

[kilodalton]

Comments

[goreplz]

I only started watching Doctor Who at the beginning of the Eleventh Doctor's run so everything before that I had been mildly spoiled for (on tumblr or livejournal). Because of this, the only major surprise I have been able to discover along with everyone else was that Jenna Louise Coleman was in Asylum of the Daleks. What a well kept secret! Also, like someone above me I was super giddy at the revelation that Jack could possibly be THE Face of Boe.

[merryghoul]

That's pretty much my surprise as well, ever since I started watching the show live in S6.

[10littlebullets]

I started watching years after most of New Who had aired, so I had a general idea of which episodes had made Mt Fandom go KABOOM and prepared myself appropriately... but by some miracle I was pristinely unspoiled for Waters of Mars. I don't remember anyone mentioning it except "oh, yeah, most of the specials are kind of content-free fluff, though I guess Waters of Mars gets pretty scary." So I watched it expecting nothing but a slightly above-average monster story, which it delievered nicely until wham, Ten finally goes round the bend, and I am left screaming and clutching my face in glee.

For characters, I am intrigued by Jenna-Louise Coleman showing up in the very first episode of s7 and really like Oswin, so I dearly hope that will become a favorite.

[kelkat9]

Well, I suppose I am lucky in that I watched episodes as they aired so remained unspoiled for the most part. There have been several great twists in Classic and New Who alike. I think for New Who one of the best and most surprising twists was at the beginning when the Doctor revealed the Time Lords were dead. I watched Classic Who as a kid so for me, this was huge. I'm not sure it would impact someone who just started watching as a New Who viewer but for me, it was rather impressive. It changed so much of the expectations of what New Who would be.

I think the next big moment for me was Bad Wolf. It was very clever and changed my view of Rose Tyler and made me reassess her character. Beyond that, would be Jack's immortality and several plot points of the Doctor's Wife. I always thought the Tardis was her own character but having that addressed in such an organic way was quite awesome. The Doctor's Wife is very much at the top of my favorite episodes of New Who.

[tenthrose]

The biggest (and best) surprise for me by far was regeneration. At the end of Parting of the Ways, I was starting to cry that Rose was dying. Then when the Doctor took the energy into himself, I was thinking 'oh, it's okay, they can't kill him because there'd be no show without him, it'll all have a happy ending'. Then when it was obvious that he actually WAS going to die, I got super confused and upset because I loved him and he couldn't die and WTF you can't kill off your title character how does this WORK? Then when Tennant showed up, I was even more confused. He won me over by the time he pulled the apple out of his robe, and I've never looked back

[viomisehunt]

The Face of Boe tops the list for me as well. Second, although I had guessed earlier in the season, River's announcement that she was Amy and Rory's daughter, and Melody transforming into River was marvelous! I was truly dissapointed that Jackson Lake and Rosita were not the next team, although it had some major image problems, they were charming and I missed that aspect of the Classic show. But the reveal that he was Jackson Lake, not the Doctor, although not truly 'a surprise" was wonderfully acted so it is on my list of favorite "surprise" moments.