Doctor Who

[robwebster]

I think the silence are up there. They're the only monsters who could be in our rooms with us right now!! But the weepies are properly elegant in their simplicity. I think they nail it. They're the monsters kids will still be hiding from fifty years down the line.

[ariich]

Yeah the weeping angels and the silence are probably the 2 creepiest villains the show has had. Moffat has a pretty twisted imagination.

[Heretic]

I'd say the weeping angels are certainly the scariest creatures from the series. They're definitely creepy on screen, but seriously, imagine being with one in real life. Crazy stuff.

Also, pixeled myself a Matt Smith Doctor-era avatar. I hope robwebster loves it.

[robwebster]

Oh. Ohhh.

Love it is an understatement. That is bloody brilliant.

[chknptpie]

I've started over and been watching from Eccleston. I was watching backwards in some weird fashion when I started watching the show, it was very strange. I started with season 6 and then watched 5 while watching some of 7. Then watched season 4. I then said, what they heck am I watching it in this order for?! and started from the beginning of the latest revamp. I just finished Love and Monsters which was a very strange episode, but I did enjoy it. It had some very funny moments.

[Heretic]

Oh. Ohhh.

Love it is an understatement. That is bloody brilliant.

Fantastic. I'm glad you like it.

Also--we never heard your thoughts on the Christmas special, I do believe.

[robwebster]

No! Sorry. Haven't been about. With spoilers for those who haven't seen it...

I loved it. Clever, whimsical, exciting - a wonderful, christmassy whirlwind. I wasn't expecting that much, not after last year, and the slightly... shambolic production run since 2011's left my attention to drift ever so slightly, but everything hit the right spot. Good monsters, a wonderful new iteration of Matt Smith's Doctor. The word I'd most use, honestly, would be "refreshing." It felt like a new start, a new frontier, which is something this show hasn't had in a little while now. I loved Amy and Rory, but it was time for the show to reinvent itself - and if the Snowmen was anything to go by, it's a reinvention I'm going to enjoy. A lot.

And Clara dying again was a proper, full-on shock. I already had my own theories about where this storyline was going, and how Oswin could be the same person as the person the Doctor was going to pick up, but once again, this woman, who I 100% believed was going to be the new companion... wasn't! That's a hell of a trick. Amazing. What a clever show.

The only thing I wasn't entirely sold on, honestly, was Jenna Louise Coleman! Lots of people love her to pieces, and that's great, and I envy them, if anything... but I'm finding her slightly irritating. I'm not sure what it is, because it's not like she has any significant flaws, but maybe that's exactly what's bugging me! Flawless characters can be annoying, inhuman, and a little smug, and Jenna Louise Coleman's played two of them, now. Neither character's the companion, they're just 45- and 60-minute sketches, respectively, so I'm not necessarily taking it as a sign of what's to come, but I'm finding her a little harder to warm to than any of the previous casts. That's probably more my problem than hers, though. She's a good actor.

[Super Dude]

"Those were the days."

I know it's supposed to be a silly sci-fi adventure, but oh, that got me. Cool new intro too.

[Perpetual Change]

Finally got through season 2. The finale was great even if some of the episodes leading up to it were not. Glad Rose is gone. She was great at first but became a caricature by season 2.

[robwebster]

It was, they weren't, and she was and did.

Incredible highs and disappointing lows, is how I'd summarise S2. Great eps here and there - Tooth and Claw, the Girl in the Fireplace, et al. - but the episodes I don't like leave me really very cold.

I'd also say, though, that I reckon the show only gets better and better for as long as David Tennant's in the hot seat. S3 punched higher and more often than I could ever have hoped on the heels of S1&2, much as I liked them. Not a great fan of The Runaway Bride, best enjoyed after a few pints, and I get the feeling it might not be up your street either, but S3E1 was the most entertaining thing I ever video-taped.

How did you feel about The Satan Pit? That two-parter, for me, just beat out the finale as the highlight of that year.

[Perpetual Change]

I liked Satan pit aside from Rose holding the guy at gunpoint. That just seemed weird. But good episodes.

Girl in the Fireplace was probably my favorite and in my top 3 so far.

[Super Dude]

I don't even remember any of the other episodes from that season, aside from the two finale episodes. I think that just goes to show how forgettable the rest of it was.

My favorite seasons were the Martha and Donna ones, 3 and 4. I guess that only leaves the second season, but whatevs.

[Cedar redaC]

The Satan Pit was really cool. It showed that there are some things the Doctor would rather leave unknown. Still, it would be cool to have some link back to it in the future. Somehow, if the Doctor ends up somewhere in time "before the universe", I think that it would be awesome to mention or explain the whole cave painting thing.

[jonny108]

Just re-watched The Satan Pit last week and forgot how good it was! By far the highlight of Season 2 for me.

[jonny108]

Aceeeeee!!! Doctor Who is back on 30th March! 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/doctorwho/articles/Date-Confirmed-for-the-Doctors-Return

[robwebster]

Fantastic, brilliant, molto bene!

Had a hunch, it usually starts around then, but last Easter was, I think, the first Easter not to have a new episode of Doctor Who. Glad it's back on Easter weekends, now. Easter weekends are cool.

[robwebster]

Right! Here's what we've got coming up, then. Mostly sanctioned info coming up, but it's mixed with a few rumours, so I'm putting a big picture in the middle of this post to help anyone if they want to avoid the imminent...

...SPOILERS!


I'm such a dork.

Episodes!!

1. The Bells of St. John by Steven Moffat (30th March)
2. The Rings of Akhaten by Neil Cross (6th April)
3. Episode Three by Mark Gatiss (13th April)
4. The Hider in the House by Neil Cross (20th April)
5. Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS by Stephen Thompson (27th April)
6. Episode Six by Mark Gatiss (4th May)
7. The Last Cyberman by Neil Gaiman (11th May)
8. Series Finale by Steven Moffat (18th May)

No titles are officially announced, and they could all be changed at any point like River's Run was anyway, but that's what it's looking like right now, first title's based on rumours so to be taken with lots of salt, whereas the others come from cast CVs. Good set! 18th May feels so, so much sooner than I want it to finish.

Right! I think we can start being excited, now. Bring it on!

[tapsmiled]

I just started watching Ark in Space from the Tom Baker era.  I grew up on those, so it is interesting to see them now all these years later. 

[Heretic]

rob that post made me fanboy all over the place. I heard the first episode was going to be called "Phantom of the Hex" so who (heh) knows.

[robwebster]

Ah! That's a bit of an odd one. Phantoms of the Hex and Phantom of the Hex seem to be alternate titles for The Hider in the House. One of the actors in it recently called it "Phantom of the Hex" in an interview. Lots of the crew CVs list it as The Hider in the House. Appears to be the same ep with two different names. Which happens! Nothing's locked in 'til broadcast, anyway - they gave Radio Times an exclusive scoop on all the series 4 episode titles, had Steven Moffat's two-parter down as "Silence in the Library / River's Run," and within weeks they'd changed it to Forest of the Dead. Bridges in the Sky type deal. I'm just going with the one I've seen most often, for now!

That post did initially have a big paragraph with extra details under it, that included, but it felt a little gratuitous, so I nixed it. While I'm recapping that, though, another thing's been mentioned - Caro Skinner, exec producer, has revealed that they've got some new monsters for the finale, and that she thinks they're one of the scariest things they've done. Dun dun dun...

Of those titles, while I'm being gratuitous, (we're Doctor Who fans, it's our job,) The Bells of St. John is the only one that I'm not aware has appeared anywhere credible. Rings of Akhaten, Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS and Hider in the House are all in a cinematographer's CV, and an actor left their script for The Last Cyberman on a train. Oops.

[jonny108]

SPOILERS/RUMOURS

Alas another rumour is that episode 3, Mark Gatiss' story features The Ice Warriors.  We're also getting a brand new monster for the finale which is described as 'fanboy pleasing'.  Cannot wait. 

[jonny108]

Yet again! SPOILERS/RUMOURS

Take this with a massive pinch of salt.

Series finale will be called The Three Clara's

[skydivingninja]

I think Caroline Skinner mentioned Zygons coming back this season as well.  Poor David Tennant. 

[tapsmiled]

Sorry, but when you say Series Finale, is that just for this version of the Doctor?

[Sigz]

Series = season in britspeak

[ariich]

Series = season in britspeak

Depends on the type of show. Old DW is generally referred to by "seasons" because each went on for so long, and we often use it for American shows that have 20+ episodes. Most British shows have 6-13 episodes per series/season, and so the word series is generally used.

[robwebster]

Yeah, our television doesn't come in seasons. We don't have a fall schedule and a summer schedule or however the year's divided up - runs come and go and overlap with other programmes' six-week runs, three-week runs, eight-weeks, thirteen. Different world.

We don't call them seasons because they're not seasons - Americans call them seasons because they are! Divided by a common language. We have series of a show, rather than seasons of a series. We know what a season is, but "season of a series" looks incredibly redundant to me. And yet makes perfect sense in the US!

[tapsmiled]

Got it. Thanks. 

As someone who hasn't watched any of the recent versions, what is MUST-SEE or a good place to start?

[robwebster]

Series 5 episode 1 is probably the best place to start. Series 1 to 4 are fantastic, but they gradually build, and it's a slow burn. S5E1 hits the ground running. New Doctor, new companion, new team, new titles, new TARDIS, new start - doesn't look back, no spoilers for the previous episode, draws a line under everything that came before and reinvents itself in seconds. It's what I always recommend to new fans. It's the start of the newest run, it's confident, and it's as relevant as you can get.

S1E1's not as confident - they didn't know if it was going to succeed or fail, it already looks a little dated, and the mythology builds up very slowly over the next two, three series, but it might be better for a longer term fan. Follows on from where the last one left off. I'd recommend people to start with S1E1 with the proviso that "it gets better as you carry on," and that's something I wouldn't need to add with S5. Chris Eccleston's neither an old Doctor or a new Doctor any more, he's somewhere in between, so I don't think he's any more sensible than Matt Smith for a new fan, but I think an old-school fan would be more interested in watching it change, and seeing Doctor Who in all its forms. So in that sense, you might prefer to start from the show's resurrection.

The episodes are called Rose and The Eleventh Hour, 9th Doctor and 11th respectively. They were both marketed as "Series one" when they went on air, they're both designed specifically to catch new viewers, and they're both fantastic! Take your pick.

[ariich]

Series 5 wasn't really properly marketed as "series 1", it was only really Moffat putting that about.

Other than that, I agree with everything you said. But I think if someone is intending to watch it all and catch up (especially an old Who fan) and has some patience (which, let's face it, and old Who fan would require) then S1E1 is my recommendation. That first series is definitely dated already, but the stories are good and the way the show builds and matures is great.

Can't remember if I mentioned before, but I've been watching from the start again with my girlfriend, who's never really watched DW before. We're nearing the end of series 1 and she's enjoying it quite a bit, although I do still keep pointing out that it gets better.

[robwebster]

Well! There was a bit of it on the website, and all the clapperboards listed it as "11/1." It was just called "New Series" when they broadcast it, tried to avoid using numbers on the website wherever possible - but yeah, it was "series 5" by the time anyone put a DVD out. I think it went slightly further than Steven Moffat, but it's definitely fair to say it didn't really catch on.

My brother's been doing the same thing with his girlfriend. They watched the Weeping Angels ep, the other day. She had to keep the lights on. They live in Cardiff, too, so all the statues you see at the end are on their high street. Couldn't be more perfect!

[Cedar redaC]

Fun fact: My first Doctor Who episode was the first episode of the fifth season/series, and I've been hooked since

[chknptpie]

My first episode was Blink. So amazing.

[abydos]

Blink is one of the best episodes in TV history. And the rest of the angels episode are almost as good. The only thing stopping them from being as good, imo, is the fact that we know about them and they aren't a surprise.

[ariich]

Tru dat. I think Moffat has done a great job telling more cool stories with the angels, but ultimately they'll never be as good as that first time because we know about them now.