Disagree wit that, the show is at its most interesting when focusing on the doctor and his/her relationships
-
Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
Doctor Who Series 11 |OT|- She’s Here, and It’s About Time
- Thread starter Dwebble
- Start date
I've been rewatching Series 2 for the first time in years, and when you cut out episodes in the latter half like Idiot's Lantern and Fear Her...it's actually really good?
Christmas Invasion is really entertaining with a really energetic Tennant starting by quoting The Lion King and sword fighting, still hopeful about the future, Ten and Rose are one of my favourite TARDIS teams, the episode with Queen Victoria is inconsequential but fun with Tennant getting to use his own accent, School Reunion has the only classic companion reintroduced, Girl in the Fireplace is an early Moffat masterpiece and maybe a top 5 episode, a Cyberman two-parter in a mirror universe, the really great Satan Pit two-parter, and the two-part finale which is still one of the best.
I never hated it, but Series 11 really has made the early series seem so much better.
Christmas Invasion is really entertaining with a really energetic Tennant starting by quoting The Lion King and sword fighting, still hopeful about the future, Ten and Rose are one of my favourite TARDIS teams, the episode with Queen Victoria is inconsequential but fun with Tennant getting to use his own accent, School Reunion has the only classic companion reintroduced, Girl in the Fireplace is an early Moffat masterpiece and maybe a top 5 episode, a Cyberman two-parter in a mirror universe, the really great Satan Pit two-parter, and the two-part finale which is still one of the best.
I never hated it, but Series 11 really has made the early series seem so much better.
Honestly, when the show doubled down on this for several years in a row it was the final nail in the coffin for the original run, to the point where in those final few series' they obsessively tried to strip the character/lore back to inject some mystery and in the process arguably went too far. The companion is the audience surrogate and more often than not the show is 'about' them - certainly under RTD the show was about Rose, Martha and Donna, and I'd actually say Amy is very much the protagonist of her year - but there is a shift there where we begin to follow the Doctor more. That for me is where the show begins to meander a bit.
In the end, part of the problem is that 3 companions is a lot, so nobody can develop to become the 'sole' protagonist... and it's baked into the very DNA of the show right back to 1963 that the Doctor isn't really the protagonist, so it's not her either. I'm not really sure who the protagonist of this era is so far. Not being the protagonist doesn't stop the Doctor's relationships from being important; in fact, it makes the relationship with the companion(s) the most important thingin the show.
It feels like it started as Ryan and kind of shifted to Graham.
To be fair so where the Daleks at one point, shouldn't be too hard give them an episode that brings them back to strength
Season 2 has some outstanding highs, but I think people tend to more easily recall the unfortunate lows. Yes, Fear Her is pretty much crap (though I'll admit there's some lovely Doctor/Rose moments in there). Love and Monsters is weird as hell. Idiots Lantern and the Cyberman two-parter are average at best.
But on the flipside, The Christmas Invasion! Tooth and Claw! School Reunion! Girl in the Fireplace! The Impossible Planet and The Satan Pit! Doomsday! There's solid gold in between the few disappointments.
I like to think after the Doctor's 'arc' of becoming infallible space Jesus / moral arbiter in some of the previous series, 13 is deliberately involving others in decision making.
I hated the god/angel status 10/11 often had. Being the most brilliant person in the room can mean that you work with other people and listen to their opinions, rather than being a paternal condescending maniac.
I liked it myself, but I think there was already a deliberate turnaround from this with Moffat, starting when River lectures him on his god-like status in Good Man Goes to War.
"This was exactly you. All this. All of it. You make them so afraid. When you began, all those years ago, sailing off to see the universe, did you ever think you'd become this? The man who can turn an army around at the mention of his name. Doctor. The word for healer and wise man throughout the universe. We get that word from you, you know. But if you carry on the way you are, what might that word come to mean?"
Then with Twelve he's more contemplative, doesn't think of himself as a hero and wonders if he's a good man, with that arc culminating in him saying he's just an idiot with a box. Twelve was still great while not having the same kind of god-like status as the previous three.
Although the Time Lord Victoriousness thing does come back in Hell Bent, but he's not really acting as the Doctor at that point.
The Doctor has always been condescending to other people, since the First Doctor and Tom Baker.
Last edited:
They made the TARDIS interior look brighter than it ever appeared in the actual series.
And even there it's still too dark.
And even there it's still too dark.
Chris must have been very proud of that creation to bring him back again.
I remembered where I heard the name Tim Shaw before. In Australia, he's the Demtel man from the 90s "as seen on TV" ads.
And the ABC's Whovians post-episode panel show milked that coincidence for more than it was worth, inserting him into clips of each episode and even getting him to announce the winner of their season-long giveaway contest.
... To make this post more on-topic: the wait until sometime 2020 will be soo long :(
While some of the episodes / characters worked better than others, I have to say I enjoyed watching this Doctor and her companions (well mostly Graham, then Yaz, then Ryan).
Everyone's too hungover for doctor who. It needs the Christmas spot.
Ratings were also down across the board on all Christmas and New Year specials this year.
I cant see us getting a Christmas slot again now for good. And its such a bullshit way to lose it, considering Moffat didnt have to do Twice Upon a Time to fill the gap.
Fucking Chibnall has really soured me on Doctor Who and I never thought it would happen.
Fucking Chibnall has really soured me on Doctor Who and I never thought it would happen.
s11 soundtrack is out now:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/doctor-who-series-11-original-television-soundtrack/1445579951
Intersted to listen to it, I found it to be very amateurish during the episodes.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/doctor-who-series-11-original-television-soundtrack/1445579951
Intersted to listen to it, I found it to be very amateurish during the episodes.
Wow I feel mad for Moffat. Chibnall choosing not to air the episode a week earlier feels like some disrespect to Moffat and what he did for the show to keep the slot.
And there was no reason Resolution couldn't have been a Christmas special. Actually could have been better as one.
What, is Tim Shaw coming back again? That'll really horrify the fans.
Doctor Who not doing a Halloween special/episode seems like a missed opportunity.
Especially so if Amelia's police 'uniform' and Rory's centurion armor make an appearance.
Trivia time... The Wars of Mars was originally conceived as a Halloween special - so they would've had Halloween decor around the base & references to it in dialogue. Originally, the plan was for Easter, Halloween, Christmas to be the Tennant/RTD finale specials year. But then X-Factor finals or something was on Halloween, so they shifted the plan to be one at Easter and three(!) at Christmas - like 20th, 25th, 1st. The fact they were a sort of trilogy was part of why they leaned heavily on that cliffhanger ending of the Doctor realizing he's gone too far, etc. That's also why Waters of Mars is set around Christmas, with Christmas Decorations & Christmas video messages from family etc.
Then they changed it again because they thought like that was all their eggs in one basket, but at this point The Waters of Mars had already begun production. It got shifted back, but not as far back as it initially was due to the scheduling/rivalry worries, so it ended up going out a few weeks after Halloween. But then you had this slightly weird thing of a Christmas Episode airing in mid November. They tried to tone down the Christmas elements a bit in editing.
I listened to it yesterday. It's not good.
Will s10 ever be out?
Yup, I'd love a Writers Tale on this period of Doctor Who when all is said and done.
Agreed, from little I've listened, much like the series, its just there. Nothing special, nothing truly outstanding at all.
I hope Murray is working on series 10's, but I fear it'll take as long as it took to get series 9's.
Which is baffling considering it was on the show. Just another mistake added to the pile.
It also doesn't include the moment when the main theme plays in The Woman Who Fell to Earth. I thought that moment was great...
But I really liked Resolution's soundtrack, so I am glad they included that already.
The bonus track, Thirteen, is very nice too. All the variations of thirteen's theme are, really. It's just a shame that makes for the bulk of the soundtrack.
But I really liked Resolution's soundtrack, so I am glad they included that already.
The bonus track, Thirteen, is very nice too. All the variations of thirteen's theme are, really. It's just a shame that makes for the bulk of the soundtrack.
The soundtrack doesn't really hold up on its own without the show over it. That's just after listening to a few tracks for me.
Didn't he choose to leave?
I'm kind of happy his talents weren't wasted. The amount of material he had for ten series was amazing.
Last edited:
Yea, I'm pretty sure he left, what with Moffat leaving and it being a completely new show so to speak for Chibnall, I think he decided it was the right time to bow out.
It was mutual, I think. Gold was done but also Chibnall wanted a change. Gold had to be persuaded to stick around when RTD left anyway.
I couldn't imagine Series 5 without his themes for Eleven and Amy especially, his work was more inspired if anything
On that note if Tennant had stayed for S5 too like Moffat he would have had a really different end to his arc, I'm assuming ending in sacrifice in the TARDIS with the Big Bang. As it is he has the saddest arc of any Doctor. He pretty much starts at his happiest and ends at his loneliest.
I say it's more like Tim Shaw is the only one who is the most memorable in that season run, well till the return of the Dalek, as you had;
- Giant Spiders,
- A Stitch knock off clone,
- Humans,
- Some weird tree monster, I didn't pay attention to the Witch episode,
- A faceless monster who is the universe,
- A racist alien,
- Alien that looked evil but weren't
I have lately been listening to the Big Finish Doctor Who audio drama during commute. So far, most of it is mediocre. I did really like the Fearmonger with the 7th Doctor. But I want to talk about the Apocalypse Element. Because holy crap, it's ambitious, epic, and far reaching in scope. They don't say so, but I see thiis story as being a very plausible opening shot to the Time War. It's basically the Daleks vs various time traveling powers in the universe. The Daleks are absolutely ruthless in their task to achieve their ambition. They are nigh unstoppable, and the success of their plan has a devastating effect that is truly as horrific as one imagined the Time War would have. I will say their plans are revealed to be rather convoluted in a silly way at the end, but I can personally overlook that due to how well interpreted the Daleks are. I have also got to praise Colin Baker because he is really in his element for this story. The Doctor's growing anger and despair is palpable as the story goes on, and the big rant he does at the end is impactful. His companion, on the other hand, is not very good for this story, she was rather obnoxious actually. She is not a bad companion, but I don't think the writing did her justice for this. Overall, I loved it. I don't know canon the Big Finish audio dramas are, but I think I will personally accept this as how the Time War started.
I just watched the New Year's episode. Finally a good Dr. Who episode that reminded me a lot of the other doctors adventures. But it could've lost that family drama bit and still been a good episode. I hope during the long break they think long and hard about having one companion, and stop shoehorning Yaz into every episode without having her do anything.
I've always considered Genesis of the Daleks to be the start of the time war, but yes, I enjoyed Apocalypse Element too when I listened to it last year. It's definitely a joy to hear Colin in his element, Big Finish really did his Doctor wonders. The funny thing is that I believe Apocalypse Element isn't considered a particularly beloved story. I was a bit surprised when I learned that.
From what I remember the early Big Finish stories do start of a bit on the weaker side, and they will always be tad inconsistent in my experience. I also imagine this is only amplified by their rather enormous output. But man are the highs truly excellent, and they aren't that uncommon at all either. So uh, I guess it's just like the TV series really, just a bit more obscure. Anyway, you definitely have some brilliant ones to look forward to.
It's strange though, they have so much to listen to, and their audience isn't all that big, so there's a lot of stories you just don't hear anything about! There must be some really good stuff out there that I'm unaware of as of yet, I still have a lot of catching up to do. So I suppose that's what I'll be doing in 2019.
Been rewatching the older doctor who episodes currently on The Next Doctor but man S1-4 especially the final 6 episodes of S4:
Silence in the Library / Forest of the Dead / Midnight / Turn Left / The Stolen Earth / Journey's End
Is simply the best set of episodes i have seen now i have been able to look back in a new light.
Everything coming together, the build up, the music, the payoff, the emotion and the excitement
Silence in the Library / Forest of the Dead / Midnight / Turn Left / The Stolen Earth / Journey's End
Is simply the best set of episodes i have seen now i have been able to look back in a new light.
Everything coming together, the build up, the music, the payoff, the emotion and the excitement
Re: Big Finish quality, they range from TV-rivaling headcannon-inductees to bog-standard licensed tie-in books with voices. I feel they are capable of putting out decent stories when the mood takes them, for example when they're doing a Volume One or something prestigous from the New Series era like the Tenth and Rose set. But then inevitably they start churning stuff out and the quality usually drops. I was disappointed by River Song Volume 4 with Tom Baker. Could have been something special but ended up being one of the worst New Series sets they've put out.
Have you been listening to the recent Eighth Doctor ranges? I've heard they're pretty great, and McGann sounds especially enthused about his recent material. So I'm eager to get to those.
(But I'm still going through his main range stories, let alone his boxsets, so that's going to take me a while.)
But yes, I've definitely been disappointed by some of their sets. I think their Tenth Doctor ones have been excellent, but their take on the War Doctor in that Doctor's first set was rather disappointing to me. Just an unimaginative take on the character and the war, which is a real shame when you consider the fact that they got Hurt for those. But maybe my expectations were too high because of that.
I've only been rewatching clips but it really is a great set, even though I have mixed feelings about what happens with Rose in Journey's End. The finale has Tennant at his highest moment reunited with all his companions and then he loses them all, it's pretty sad. Donna wasn't my favourite companion (I still liked her) but her exit is absolutely heartbreaking with the music and her performance, as her mind breaks down and she can't stop repeating binary.
And Turn Left is really, really dark. And it feels more relevant than when I watched it years ago, with history taking a darker path and the labor camps. "England for the English." Wilf saying "it's happening again." This scene with the different version of the Doctor's theme and Tennant having killed himself after being separated from Rose is so haunting. Quality is awful here unfortunately.
I always skip Planet of the Dead, and Waters of Mars is one of Tennant's top ten episodes.
Last edited:
scripts available on BBC Writer's Room website.
Chibs scripts as well as older scripts
https://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/scripts/doctor-who-series11
Chibs scripts as well as older scripts
https://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/scripts/doctor-who-series11