Doctor Who

[Colors]

I've only seen one or two Ninth Doctor episodes (the one where he takes Rose to the end of Earth) and the WWII one (with the gas masks). I mean to watch more, but Rose's reaction to having been "missing" a year was sort of offputting to me. Do think her chemistry with the 9th doctor was better. (I'm with Queen Victoria when she gives them the smugness smackdown in the werewolf episode.)

Beyond the obvious head banging moments (Donna's explody-brain and general extra-ness, all women want to be married off, Martha + Mickey, Wilf as a pottering-about old man, EVIL Time Lords), End of Time Part Two also made me crushingly depressed the next day when I thought the message.

 

[jenocyde]

I was very angry at part 2. It was so ridiculously stupid that I deliberately didn't write about it. I'm annoyed to have wasted any time thinking about it.

I think Rose had a better chemistry with the 9th doctor, too. But she annoyed me.

There are some pretty good episodes with the 9th doctor - very dark compared to the 10th.

 

[jenocyde]

Eccleston
Boom Town
Bad Wolf / Parting of the Ways
The Long Game
The Empty Child / The Doctor Dances
The End of the World

Tennant
The Waters of Mars
Midnight
Blink
Turn Left / The Stolen Earth / Journey's End
Gridlock

These are my favorites, as well - with the exception of The Empty Child (are you my mummy?) and The Stolen Earth. Actually Gridlock was pretty stupid conceptually, too.

I liked that Library episode - what was that, Silence in the Library (Tennant)? Or maybe it had "forest" in the title? I'm guessing you know which one I mean. I liked Father's Day (Eccleston), as well.

 

[hokie912]

I only recently started watching Doctor Who, and have made my way through the new series at lightning speed. I really love it. I watched "Rose" a couple of years ago and it didn't hook me at all, but I'm so glad I gave it another chance.

Yeah, I am a bigger fan of the 9th doctor, too. I really hated Tennant - especially his bleeding heart that ends up getting everyone killed, except for him of course. I liked it better when the doctor was a prototypical ENTP stereotype. I feel that Tennant's doctor was ENFP running in Fi overload. I just couldn't understand him or the choices he made. Of course, half of this was in the writing, but man, if I hear "I'm sorry, I am so so sorry" one more time before someone is about to die...

I adore Tennant, and it definitely has occurred to me that his Doctor is more ENFP than ENTP (which is likely because Tennant himself seems so ENFP). Or maybe he is ENTP with underdeveloped Fe? It's difficult to sort out. I liked the Tenth Doctor a great deal, but he did have a great many overly sanctimonious moments. I found him immensely fun to watch because I like conflict and contradiction, but his Doctor got away with a lot and made some of the same mistakes consistently. I think I'd fault the writing more than Tennant's acting, which I've never found less than superb -- but then the writing has played to his strengths, so I guess it could go either way.

I found the first two series the strongest, which is likely because I really enjoyed Rose as a character. Part of me wishes they'd left her story at the close of series two rather than bringing her back.

The End of Time was interesting...rather muddled/flimsy plot, and, though I did really love having Wilf as a companion, I can't get over Donna's mindwipe. I did really love the dynamic between the Doctor and the Master, and I thought that the Doctor's putting off regeneration until the last possible moment was really true to character. I loved watching Tennant in the role (and will definitely keep tabs on whatever he does next), but it's probably time for a change. We'll see!

 

[Verfremdungseffekt]

With Tennant, I rarely get there's much behind his acting. It's primarily on the surface: here he looks sad; here he looks angry and barks at people.

With Eccleston, there's the sense that his actions come from somewhere inside the character. You can see him processing thoughts, assessing the situation, leading to a response. Tennant's Doctor mostly just... does things, because they're written that way. Then to disguise the lack of genuine flavor he spices up his performance with all these affectations. Mannerisms. He's like a cartoon, or a well-trained monkey.

Sometimes it can be cute. Sometimes he drops all that, and it seems that we get something real. Most times, the yippiness annoys me.

Matt Smith, what little I've seen of him, his strangeness seems based more in a genuinely awkward and eccentric psychology, rather than "wacky" behaviorisms. He's grabbed me -- with his frustrated hands -- from first I saw him and heard him speak.

 

[hokie912]

With Tennant, I rarely get there's much behind his acting. It's primarily on the surface: here he looks sad; here he looks angry and barks at people.

With Eccleston, there's the sense that his actions come from somewhere inside the character. You can see him processing thoughts, assessing the situation, leading to a response. Tennant's Doctor mostly just... does things, because they're written that way. Then to disguise the lack of genuine flavor he spices up his performance with all these affectations. Mannerisms. He's like a cartoon, or a well-trained monkey.

Sometimes it can be cute. Sometimes he drops all that, and it seems that we get something real. Most times, the yippiness annoys me.

I get a bit different read on Tennant's Doctor. The affectations and mannerisms are obviously a huge part of his characterization, but I rarely find him one-dimensional. It's quirky manic intensity and some other emotion, or overcompensating for something. And I think the fact that he's so affected and keyed-up makes the moments that he drops all that all the more affecting. Maybe it's those moments that have led to my admiration of his acting -- he does particularly beautiful things with his eyes. I gravitate toward unusually quirky, dynamic actors anyway, though.

Of course, I loved Eccleston as well. I definitely agree with what you said about seeing his internal processes, and he brings a constant depth to the role that Tennant arguably doesn't. Even when he's being lighthearted and silly, you get a sense of the weight of his years as a Time Lord. Everything he does seems considered and organic. Tennant's more Peter Pan-misguided or misdirecting. I think they're both really interesting performances.

 

[C.J.Woolf]

I have a special liking for Doctor Nine's first episode, "Rose". When the Doctor took Rose's hand and said "Run!" I felt a thrill because the Doctor was back! And while Rose didn't know it at the time, "Run!" would summarize her future with the Doctor.

I adore Rose. Nine and Ten's special gift was to inspire others to become heroes. None was more inspired than Rose. No Doctor needed a companion more than Nine needed Rose. They were willing to die for each other. In a sense, both did.

 

[CrystalViolet]

Eccelston's Doctor, I agree was a much more intense doctor, than Tennant's. I'm a Tennant fan though, I do agree End of time, Part two was over the top, with the emotional storming. I am looking forward to Matt Smith's Doctor...Just got a feeling he's going be worth watching, Maybe a return to the old school doctor (or at least greater acknowledgment.)

 

[ProperDave]

I've enjoyed Doctor Who since I was little, and thought Eccleston and Tennant have been good Doctors. I really don't know how Matt Smith will be. =/

I've been pretty appalled by a lot of the new Doctor Who episodes though. Russell T Davies seems to write horribly silly episodes. Often his work is painfully predictable too. A Doctor Who loving friend and myself almost perfectly predicted the entire End of Time episode. I just hope the new season will be written much better, though I'm skeptical about Matt Smith's abilities to play The Doctor.

 

[stardancer]

I won't even watch the second half of the last Tennant episode. It is just too traumatic for me. I have the worst crush ever! On the flip side, I really dislike Donna. I was hoping she would have gotten stuck in the library forever.

 

[Verfremdungseffekt]

Yeah, Donna's the best. Maybe my favorite companion ever. After that, Jamie. Ian and Babs are pretty great, too. And Steven's too easily overlooked.

 

[hokie912]

Bump! What do we think of the new Doctor and his companion?

 

[jenocyde]

Oh, I was so gonna bump this. I looooove the new Doctor. I'm still on the fence about his companion, but I love the little girl (her real life niece) who played her when she was young. Such a doll.

But yeah, the story was kind of stupid, but I love the energy and ease of Matt Smith.

Can anyone answer one question though? Why did he call that big eyeball back just to tell it to run. Ego, much?

 

[Jeffster]

Ego, much?

That's pretty much my main problem with this "next generation" of Who. It's very ego-driven. Everything is BIG! HUGE! THE WHOLE WORRRRRLD! THE WHOLE UNIVERRRRSE! I think they've abused the technical abilities they have now to make everything so huge that it gets redundant. How many times can the Doctor very loudly and famously save the world and then once again nobody knows who he is?

A lot of people on the Gallifrey Base forum were spouting the notion that this Moffatt dude taking over as the exec producer was going to mean the show would be very different. It seemed like more of the same to me. Still the frenetic pace with the loud, pounding music and absolutely zero subtlety.

I think a much more bold and interesting thing to do would have been to make the new Doctor insecure and clumsy. I had hopes in the first few minutes that they might be going in that direction, but then he once again turned into the action superhero with all the answers. After Tom Baker's long run as the Doctor ended, they did just that, by having a Doctor who seemed to once again have plenty of moments where he didn't know what the heck to do and sometimes had to kind of luck into solutions. The "I know everything about everyone in the Universe and I like to strut and call attention to myself" Doctor gets tiresome very quickly. It sends me back to watching the "Everybody stop bothering me" Doctor of William Hartnell. His Doctor had an ego for sure. But he didn't use it to make loud pronouncements to the whole planet Earth or to the galaxy.

/end grumpy old man rant.

 

[jenocyde]

That's pretty much my main problem with this "next generation" of Who. It's very ego-driven. Everything is BIG! HUGE! THE WHOLE WORRRRRLD! THE WHOLE UNIVERRRRSE! I think they've abused the technical abilities they have now to make everything so huge that it gets redundant. How many times can the Doctor very loudly and famously save the world and then once again nobody knows who he is?

I had the same exact complaints. I miss the days when he would travel to other worlds/times and just get caught up in local politics. Everything now is so Earth-centric and deals with rifts in time and space that will blow up the Earth in x amount of minutes.

Why is he so obsessed with the Earth, anyway?

A lot of people on the Gallifrey Base forum were spouting the notion that this Moffatt dude taking over as the exec producer was going to mean the show would be very different. It seemed like more of the same to me. Still the frenetic pace with the loud, pounding music and absolutely zero subtlety.

Moffat has written some compelling stuff, although you wouldn't know it from this. And even though his stuff is compelling, I only really *loved* one of his episodes.

And don't get me started on the obnoxious sound design of this episode.

I think a much more bold and interesting thing to do would have been to make the new Doctor insecure and clumsy. I had hopes in the first few minutes that they might be going in that direction, but then he once again turned into the action superhero with all the answers. After Tom Baker's long run as the Doctor ended, they did just that, by having a Doctor who seemed to once again have plenty of moments where he didn't know what the heck to do and sometimes had to kind of luck into solutions. The "I know everything about everyone in the Universe and I like to strut and call attention to myself" Doctor gets tiresome very quickly. It sends me back to watching the "Everybody stop bothering me" Doctor of William Hartnell. His Doctor had an ego for sure. But he didn't use it to make loud pronouncements to the whole planet Earth or to the galaxy.

I thought this Doctor would have been a little more introspective/introverted, but I genuinely like the way Smith acts in the role so far. I hate know-it-all characters (Sean Connery, I'm looking at YOU) but I think the actor did a lot with what he was given. He just seemed at ease and has a certain charm and enthusiasm. But I really don't like the direction the Doctor is going in. The whole "I'm a bad-ass, watch out for me" thing that has been bubbling up over the past season.

/end grumpy old man rant.

 

[hokie912]

I really, really liked the new episode. The story was a little broad, but I think having rewatched it a couple of times that there's a fair amount of subtlety with regard to the character development. I say this mainly because I get the sense that Amy is really pretty stunted and...well, messed up. I definitely think there's more to her story than meets the eye. She just seems a little too adept at lying and had a little too much fun messing with the Doctor. I think she's a fundamentally sweet, but has some issues to work through. I'm reserving judgement on Matt's version of the Doctor for now, but I think he did a great job with what he had and was thoroughly charming. I wish there was more to distinguish him from Tennant's version of the Doctor, though.

I hated that the Doctor called back the Atraxi, too, but I can see why it was necessary to introduce new viewers to the idea that this is who the Doctor is and what he does. I don't think there's really any hope of getting less earth-centric stories as that was part of the proposal when RTD revived the series. I think it's a completely valid complaint, but as someone who's not generally into sci-fi, I can see the drawbacks of getting too far away from concerns that involve Earth. I agree that it's repetitive that everything somehow involves Earth being on the receiving end of some cataclysmic alien threat, yet people somehow are surprised that there are aliens and this dude called the Doctor.

I'm hoping that Moffat's episodes will be a little tighter storywise than Davies'. Moffat's episodes are among my favorites of the series (especially "The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances") and usually pretty well put-together.

 

[valentine]

I only saw the beginning and the end, but I liked what I saw. Amy seems like an interesting companion, especially after Martha and Donna. Smith has a lot to live up to obviously. The Tenth doctor was my favorite, with the fourth close behind. I think the earth-centric stories are to keep the 'human' element in it. It could just as easily be done on other planets, but I'm sure the men in suits think otherwise. I have hope for Moffat. Blink was amazing.