Doctor Who!

[s-island]

Moffat isn't directing. He's the showrunner!

 

I dislike Gold's music as well. Too much and too loud.

[Gabez]

I like Gold as well, though I know he's not perfect.

 

I can't wait for Moffat's Who. I think it will be very different, which is good. I've watched the new trailer about 500 times already.

[jonathan7]

Personally I loathe the new series of Doctor Who, which has for the most part traded sci-fi adventures, inter-woven with interesting philosophical musings to an action kids drama for the now generation. They sacrificed plot for ridiculous OMG DR Who saves the Earth AGAIN! The charm of the original series was the slow building of plot, this also helped create the tension around the monsters which the current series has no longer got.

 

Russell T Davies may have "breathed new life" into the series, but he did that at the cost of selling the shows soul. The new music is ridiculously dramatic; which matches the general series mistaking for drama with "epic" show pieces, where the earth is about to be destroyed yet again.

 

All in all there are those who will say I'm being pretentious, however I actually think Russell T Davies and his ilk are the pretentious ones expecting people with reasonable minds expect us to swallow his poo. The new music is bad for the same reason the new series is awful, it is ridiculously stupid, with a self important "We are amazing" attitude.

 

My 2 cents...

[Gabez]

I love this:

 

I actually think Russell T Davies and his ilk are the pretentious ones expecting people with reasonable minds to swallow his poo.

 

To quote Mr Threepwood, "What vivid imagery!"

 

My 2 cents is that I love both classic and new Who.

[s-island]

No.

[neon_git]

My biggest problems with RTD's Who are 1) Everything has to be epic and 2) Soap level acting/dialogue.

 

Although I expect an improvement, I can't see either of those problems being addressed under Moffat.

[Jake]

My biggest problems with RTD's Who are 1) Everything has to be epic and 2) Soap level acting/dialogue.

 

Although I expect an improvement, I can't see either of those problems being addressed under Moffat.

 

Dr Who has had great acting and dialog in the past? It seems like the big difference in the new series is that they are willing to admit that even though the large scale story is serious, everything moment-to-moment is incredibly hammy.

[neon_git]

Dr Who has had great acting and dialog in the past? It seems like the big difference in the new series is that they are willing to admit that even though the large scale story is serious, everything moment-to-moment is incredibly hammy.

 

I get what you're saying, but old Who never felt like an episode of Eastenders with a scifi/supernatural twist to me - new Who, more often that not, does. The show's not supposed to be a kitchen sink drama, it's supposed to be about big ideas.

 

Maybe my perspective is skewed by my diminishing willingness to suspend disbelief as I get older and a fuzzy/selective memory, either way I can't watch an episode without cringing and feeling nauseous.

[Darth InSidious]

If you consider that 'sub-soap claptrap' then why have you stayed on to watch new episodes?

Because being a fan means taking the crap with the genius.

 

I even read The Eight Doctors.

 

Maybe my perspective is skewed by my diminishing willingness to suspend disbelief as I get older and a fuzzy/selective memory, either way I can't watch an episode without cringing and feeling nauseous.

It's not, and the idea that the new series' acting and dialogue are both fantastic compared to the old series is as patently false as the accusation that it was a "1970s wobbly-setted embarrassment" that keeps getting bandied about on clip shows by smug journalists whose research consists of wikipedia and what Rescue T Diamorphine says was the case.

 

Dr Who has had great acting and dialog in the past?

Yes, actually.

 

I'd certainly rate lines like "Emotions. Love. Pride. Hate. Fear. Have you no emotions, sir?" over "D'you mind not farting when ah'm trying to save the world?".

 

And I'd certainly take Caves of Androzani over The End of Time.

[elTee]

The ultimate goal for you people is to stop watching Doctor Who entirely, because this extraordinary waste of the license fee greatly bothers me.

[MJ]

Russell T Davis dragged things out a fair bit, made them over the top and overly angsty. So while I'm grateful for all he's done, I'm eager for Moffat to take over.

 

Also, given the fact that my name is Matt Smith... how eager do you think I am to see the new credits start rolling?

[The Tingler]

FAVOURITE LINE: "I'm the Doctor, I'm worse than everyone's aunt!"

 

I loved it too, and while I'm still not sure about Matt Smith (he still sounds like he's about 12! Peter Davison was only a couple of years older and he sounded grown-up at least) or a few of the changes (new main theme, green Sonic Screwdriver), I'm already excited about the new episodes.

 

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World War Two Daleks! Cybermen! Silurians! Sea Devils! Weeping Angels! A lot of Steven Moffat!

 

And then of course there's this. Four new Doctor Who adventures from the makers of Broken Sword: The Angel of Death. FINALLY! Doctor Who, in an adventure game, with a superb British adventure game specialist. And... Cybermen! And not just any Cybermen, these ones don't appear to have the "Cybus" logo.

 

And they're free, which is even better!

[The Tingler]

Now we just have to find some connection between LucasArts and this other developer, and we can have Doctor Who news on the front page!

 

But..

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World War Two Daleks?

Didn't we have those already? Well, it was the 30s I think.

 

Well, Revolution and LucasArts are both well-known and popular adventure game developers from the 90s with a smattering of 3D games, and have just remade one of their most popular games into a Special Edition for the iPhone... but other than that, no, sorry, there's nothing.

 

And I can't remember those, unless you're thinking of

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Genesis of the Daleks, which had a lot of Nazi-like themes

.

[The Tingler]

Ah, no, Revolution didn't make Broken Sword: The Angel of Death, the fourth and most recent game in the series, which is why I specifically said that game. It was made by Sumo Digital with help from Charles Cecil and Revolution - exactly like these Doctor Who games. Whoops, SFX didn't actually mention that. Here's the official version.

 

What I didn't know is that most of the team behind Sumo Digital were previously the guys who ran Gremlin Interactive, a British publisher I miss very much.

[Threepwood4life]

Ah, no, Revolution didn't make Broken Sword: The Angel of Death, the fourth and most recent game in the series, which is why I specifically said that game. It was made by Sumo Digital with help from Charles Cecil and Revolution - exactly like these Doctor Who games. Whoops, SFX didn't actually mention that. Here's the official version.

 

What I didn't know is that most of the team behind Sumo Digital were previously the guys who ran Gremlin Interactive, a British publisher I miss very much.

 

I work 10-15 minutes away from Sumo Digitals offices since their based here in Sheffield and they've done well to gain a license as big as Doctor Who. I remember walking past Gremlins offices years ago many times in the city centre and they made some great games back in the good old Amiga days until they got bought out by Infogrames and unfortunatley the offices were demolished back in 2003

[Kroms]

So I've seen two episodes of the entire series. Gabez and Zaarin told me to watch "Blink". And I saw this new one.

 

First, I really liked it. I was taken in by the intro sequence; the music is working on a background level, if that makes sense, which I prefer to large, epic scores.

 

The new Doctor did a fantastic job in being a slightly crazy if brilliant almost father figure to the little girl. He's got an eerie air of being both old and new. It's great. I was sold the second he started eating fish fingers and custard.

 

I was hoping that the little girl would stay as a little girl, but I guess an older companion is good too. (I suppose having a little girl join the Doctor would be like Guybrush having a kid?) But still, and this shows the strength of Moffat's writing: everything, from his handling the girl's crushing disappointment ("5 minutes") to her new job, was impressive. It was a tad bit cliched, but he managed to make it work. Of course, he also wrote the great transition from the fish fingers/custard scene to the Prisoner Zero scene. You know. "Must be a hell of a scary crack in your wal, then." I dug it.

 

The story itself was a bit bizarre - for some reason it reminded me of Portal. I think it was the tone. I have no opinion on that - I just took it as it was. It was good if cheesy.

 

But I think my most favorite thing is how everything comes together, which happened in "Blink". The use of the apple was smart in making Amelia trust the Doctor.

 

I'm rambling, so I'll be quiet, but needless to say I'll catch the rest of the series. Someone mentioned that I should also watch the Moffat episodes from series 1-4, so I guess I will.

[The Tingler]

Yes, definitely watch Moffat's other episodes. There's a reason every Doctor Who fan punched the air simultaneously when it was announced he was taking over as showrunner.

 

Something for the old-school Doctor Who fans - this is the third time the Doctor's stolen his clothes from a hospital (Jon Pertwee and Paul McGann did the same), and every other costume change came from the TARDIS wardrobe!

 

Oh, and the TARDIS (exterior) is now the Peter Cushing movie version! You can tell by the St John's Ambulance sticker.

[s-island]

The sticker was on the original Hartnell prop as well.

[Gabez]

every Doctor Who fan punched the air simultaneously when it was announced he was taking over as showrunner.

 

Yes; the earth was actually sent slightly out of orbit by all the people hitting the air at exactly the same time. The news broke during a Dr Who convention in London, and the force of wind caused by everyone in the room punching the air sent the roof spinning off into the far reaches of space (whatever am I talking about? I don't know).

 

Loved the first episode; watched it three times. So happy it's back properly and we have a new episode every week. Love, LOVE Matt Smith. Even more than I thought I would (which is saying a lot). Loved DT as well but in a very different way.

 

Aaaah Matt Smith.

[MJ]

I loved it too. Repeat viewing is called for before tomorrow's episode.

 

In other news, my work colleagues are now regularly calling me The Doctor. I submitted a script to Big Finish recently, it'd be hijinks if they accept it.

 

I'm actually reading Russell T Davies' book at the moment. It's really interesting that he's a tortured writer, like everyone who never gets published - except everything he writes gets made.

[Darth InSidious]

I submitted a script to Big Finish recently, it'd be hijinks if they accept it.

Was that for the recent Short Trips competition?

[The Tingler]

This is a good interview about the new games. This is what sold me:

 

Moffat: They made the Tardis bigger on the inside than the outside. I don't mean by cutting. You control the little fella, he walks in... and it's bigger on the inside. That's it. That's the central magic of Doctor Who, done in only a way a computer could do. We could fake that up on television, but to be able to be physically do it and discover it really is bigger on the inside... that's the central magic of Doctor Who made flesh for the first time ever.

[Gabez]

Haha I love that I'm facebook friends with someone called Matt Smith, Matt Smith.

 

That Big Finish script... I'd love to read that sometime! I love your writing (from your radio plays but also that novel you sent me a few chapters of). The latest episode of Doctor Who actually inspired me to do some writing as well... a short story called The Garden of Time (though it doesn't have the doctor in it)

 

About RTD's book: yes, I read that too. "The Writer's Tale." I was surprised how last minute a lot of his scripts were, and also how he wasn't very disciplined sometimes. But he also knows a lot about TV polish, and about making his ideas into realities.

[The Tingler]

The Beast Below now - another excellent episode, and both Matt Smith and Karen Gillan are really coming into their own.

 

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Anyone get a Discworld vibe from that ending?

 

Next episode gets a big yay, already - but for f***'s sake, I wish the BBC would sort out their transmission times. 8.20pm? Are you kidding me?

[neon_git]

I still feel that the stories would be better told over 3 or 4 episodes rather than jamming everything into 45 minutes.

 

Don't get me wrong, the last two episodes were flipping brilliant, I just feel that a slower pace that allowed the story to breathe a little would make the series flipping brillianter.

 

Also: Matt Smith is superb