Doctor Who

[robwebster]

It's the same font as before, but the letter spacing and aspect ratio has been changed to the season 7 version, so it does look noticeably different.

They've got rid of the DW emblem, too. From what I'm aware, it's a brand new logo, with a subtly different font, but it owes quite a lot to the previous one. I think they've got rid of the serifs, too?

Series 7 doesn't include the DW emblem with the writing, it's shown afterwards, which is what they've also done here, showing it at the end of the video.
Upon closer look, the "topology" (for lack of a better term) of the letters is the same in terms of serifs etc, but you're right that it is a brand new logo/font, subtly different to the old one. Just a bit of a refresh to spruce it up a bit.

From this I'm expecting another periodic update of the intro, and maybe the music too. The series 7B intro has actually been my least favourite so far (including the music), so I'd be ok with that.

There we go. As you say, serifs still intact - I could've sworn I saw a no-serif logo a couple of months ago. My bad! Shorter and wider. And, yes, I'm sure a new title sequence is incoming - like you, I'm not too fond of the 7B intro (like you, music aside!) so it's welcome in my eyes.

[BlobVanDam]

From a quick search on the Google, I found a serif-less logo that was fan made and labeled as series 8, which could have been picked up by wherever you saw it. Happens all the time on the interwebs.

I don't dislike the latest rendition of the theme, it's just my least favourite one of the new series. It's closer to the original, but I miss the driving drumbeat behind it of the other recent versions.

[Jamesman42]

I don't have a preference either way, as long as it's done well, and utilizes Capaldi's strengths to make a great Doctor.

So the Doctor will now curse like a sailor?

Hell yes 

Get your fucking ass back in the Tardis, cunt!

[hefdaddy42]

[robwebster]

I'm sure it's already been in this thread, but it's relevant, and worth the rerun -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Blf073f2Lc

[BlackInk]

"Run, you clever boy."
"Fuck off."
 

[Super Dude]

"Run, you clever boy."
"Fuck off."
 

[Jamesman42]

I just died of laughter

[masterthes]

Just finished Baker's second season. Not as good as the first, although Pyramids and Morbius were awesome stories. Terror of the Zygons was pretty good too, but it was hard at times to hear what the aliens were saying. Android Invasion needed to be a little bit more tighter in my opinion. That first episode seemed to drag the action, and Seeds of Doom was very meh. That should have been a 4 parter. And back to Morbius (to those who have seen it) anybody notice similarities between the Sisters and the soothsayers in the Pompeii episode?

With regards to Baker as a whole, he's not there yet, but I could easily see him replace Tennant as my favorite Doctor. Right now, my Doctor rankings go:

1. Tennant
2. Baker
3. Smith
4. Eccleston
5. Pertwee

[masterthes]

Another season in the books. I'm going to miss Sarah Jane, but Leela's not too bad. Really loved Weng Chiang. One of my favorite 6 parters of the classic era

[Scorpion]

Weng-Chiang has some problems, like Magnus Greel being rather uninteresting and one-dimensional, but the vast majority - especially the characterisation of Chang, as well the double act of Jago and Litefoot - of it so good that I find it very hard to care about the occasional missteps. I'd say it's my favourite six-parter, actually.

Another highlight for me in that season is The Deadly Assassin. I love the scenes in the Matrix, especially the more surreal stuff at the beginning, before the Doctor and Goth start to hunt each other. Robert Holmes was such a great writer for Doctor Who, maybe even my favourite writer ever - I'd say the only semi-black-ish mark on his record is The Power of Kroll... which you haven't seen yet, so don't let my opinion influence you lol.

[masterthes]

Yeah, that stuff in Deadly Assassin was very cool. I wonder what happened with the Master to make him look like that? Last we saw him he was in pretty good shape in Frontier in Space (that serial really bugged me by the way since it never really had a resolution. I don't really see the connection between that story and Planet of the Daleks. They seem like two different stories)

[Scorpion]

I think what happened with The Master was the he was at the end of his last regeneration - which is why the regeneration limit was introduced in the episode, IIRC - and thus couldn't heal some kind of weird injury, but still kept on living in his disfigured state - hence trying to to harness the power of the Eye of Harmony, in order to extend his life.

Also, while I like the premise of Frontier in Space, it is a little weird in the execution, though I don't think that's anybody's fault, really - I think I read somewhere that the Master was supposed to tie into its follow-up, but Roger Delgado died before that could be filmed, so we got Planet of the Daleks instead - which is okay, but somewhat over-long and doesn't really resolve Frontier in Space at all, like you said. I could be remembering something wrong, though.

[robwebster]

Speaking of Classic Who, here's the results of DWM's enormous poll celebrating 800 episodes of Doctor Who:

https://www.doctorwhotv.co.uk/the-top-stories-doctors-according-to-dwm-2014-63506.htm

1. The Day of the Doctor (92.06%)
2. Blink (91.87%)
3. Genesis of the Daleks (91.60%)
4. The Caves of Androzani (90.60%)
5. City of Death (90.30%)
6. The Talons of Weng-Chiang (90.15%)
7. The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances (89.48%)
8. Pyramids of Mars (88.26%)
9. Human Nature/The Family of Blood (87.90%)
10. Remembrance of the Daleks (87.88%)

I believe the percentage is a rating out of ten. DWM's got pretty wide circulation - it's Doctor Who geeks, but about the fairest sample of Doctor Who geeks you could find, so while it's early days for TDotD, that's quite a heartening snapshot of where fandom is right now.

Bottom ten:

232. The Space Museum (53.78%)
233. The Rings of Akhaten (53.44%)
234. The Dominators (50.32%)
235. The Space Pirates (47.23%)
236. Underworld (46.68%)
237. Time-Flight (45.74%)
238. Timelash (45.22%)
239. Time and the Rani (45.09%)
240. Fear Her (42.68%)
241. The Twin Dilemma (40.18%)

And here's the favourite Doctors, by share of the vote:

1. Tom Baker (21.69%)
2. Matt Smith (15.57%)
3. David Tennant (15.49%)
4. Patrick Troughton (12.09%)
5. Jon Pertwee (8.72%)
6. Peter Davison (6.11%)
7. Sylvester McCoy (5.38%)
8. Christopher Eccleston (4.39%)
9. William Hartnell (4.04%)
10. Paul McGann (3.31%)
11. Colin Baker (2.52%)
12. John Hurt (0.68%)

I don't care that he's dead last, stands to reason seeing as he hasn't put in the same time as any of the others - but it still warms the cockles of my soul to see John Hurt up there, acknowledged as a proper, real life Doctor.

Also, how close are Matt Smith and David Tennant? That's brilliant. I love that the new series has not just cast two Doctors who are both equally beloved, but are so beloved that they're second only to Tom Bloody Baker! Peter Capaldi has huge, huge shoes to fill.

[masterthes]

Kind of feel bad for Colin Baker that he got beaten by somebody who was the Doctor for less than 2 hours 

[El JoNNo]

No he didn't. ..

[ozzy554]

My bottom ten would have included The gunfighters, Creature from the pit, and The end of time.

[BlobVanDam]

I don't know much of pre-revival Who, but of the stuff I know, I don't strongly disagree with anything on the list. After multiple viewings, TDOTD is still my favourite episode, and Blink is one of my favourites. Not really familiar with the rest.

I'm not surprised to see Tom Baker top the Doctors. I haven't seen much of him, but he seemed like a great Doctor. Being a newer fan, Matt Smith and David Tennant are my Doctors, and I'm glad to see them rank so highly too.
McGann and Hurt both suffered from not having a lot of screen time to judge from, so their lower ranking isn't surprising despite them both doing a fine job with what they had.

[Jamesman42]

Glad to see Fear Her in the bottom 10. That and the Absorbaloff (sp?) episode are fucking awful episodes.

[Onno]

I'm actually surprised that Love & Monsters isn't in the bottom 10. I thought that episode was really bad.

[ariich]

I quite enjoy Love & Monsters. There's definitely a lot of classic era stuff that belongs down there before it, so I'm glad it's not in the bottom 10.

Fear Her is very meh though. Shame that Rings of Akhaten is so low - I mean it's quite flawed and doesn't really make any sense, but that can be said for whole swathes of the classic era. But it's nicely done and has some great moments in it.

And it is GREAT to see Matt Smith as popular as Tennant now among the fanbase.

[Onno]

Am I the only one then that thinks Fear Her wasn't bad at all? I remember kind of liking it 

[BlobVanDam]

I thought it was balls. Sorry, Onno.

[Onno]

  Well, I guess I'll rewatch some episodes once I've finished S7 (just watched The Snowmen yesterday, really liked it!). I'm also planning on watching all of the classic seasons... Should be great!

[Jamesman42]

Right, Love and Monsters. Fuck that episode.

The Rings of Akhaten gave two great things: an awesome Matt Smith speech, and the best song in-episode song apart from I Am the Doctor (The Long Song).

[BlobVanDam]

Right, Love and Monsters. Fuck that episode.

The Rings of Akhaten gave two great things: an awesome Matt Smith speech, and the best song in-episode song apart from I Am the Doctor (The Long Song).

I'm kind of torn on Love and Monsters. I thought it was a fun episode, but it was also a filler episode so the real cast could do something more important. I can see why people would hate it, but I enjoyed it as much as any of the other RTD silly monster episodes.

I don't much like Rings of Akhaten, but the music totally redeems its existence. The Long Song, and Infinite Potential (which got reused to great effect for The Doctor's regeneration scene) are both amazing.

[robwebster]

Glad to see Fear Her in the bottom 10. That and the Absorbaloff (sp?) episode are fucking awful episodes.

I'm actually surprised that Love & Monsters isn't in the bottom 10. I thought that episode was really bad.

I don't think it was far off. Something like 22nd from last? But I think the main difference between the two is that, while Love & Monsters tends to split opinion, Fear Her unites it.

While I'm sure it's got its fans, there are very few people who would describe Fear Her as much more than a fairly mundane and slightly twee monster of the week story. It incites apathy - I doubt many of its admirers would describe it as their favourite episode, and I think more people think it's a bit cringey and boring than hate it with the fire of a million suns.

Love & Monsters, on the other hand, people do prolifically hate... yet, it has a small but very dedicated fanbase. It's full of things that look like they were designed by children, but there's a lot of metatextual stuff thrown in, too, and for all its banal quirkiness there's also subtlety woven through. A lot of people will notice the (very silly!) Scooby Doo chase, fewer will see it as confirmation, right from the start, that Elton is an unreliable narrator, and might be a little bit damaged by his experience; anything without camera crosshairs is basically up in the air. Love & Monsters will have attracted more ire, but it'll also have gathered more than a couple of 10/10s. Less consensus.

Right, Love and Monsters. Fuck that episode.

The Rings of Akhaten gave two great things: an awesome Matt Smith speech, and the best song in-episode song apart from I Am the Doctor (The Long Song).

A lot of fun smaller things, along the way, too.

"Can you open it?"
"In theory? No. In practice...? Also no."

"I've seen bigger."
"Really?"
"Are you joking!? It's massive!"

[ariich]

Yeah Rings has some great lines.

Onno, I thought Fear Her was fine the first time I saw it as well. It's certainly not terrible, but then I wouldn't say anything new-Who is terrible. But now that I've seen it probably three times, it's just quite boring and... meh. And certain things just don't really make sense.

[masterthes]

From a classic Who perspective, am I the only one who disliked Fang Rock? I see on the IMDB page, it's regarded as the favorite from season 15, while I enjoyed it's follow up The Invisible Enemy a whole lot more

[robwebster]

Oh, fuck! I've just noticed!!

"We are completely thrilled that the amazingly talented Foxes is joining us on board ... well, you'll see. Let's just say, the Doctor is finally catching up on his phone calls."

If he's finally catching up on his phone calls, it's the Orient Express, Foxes is joining them on board the Orient Express! From the Big Bang - "An Egyptian goddess loose on the Orient Express... in space." That plus Robots of Sherwood - those leaked titles did have a bit of legitimacy. All right, fair play!

[ariich]

Nice spot!

[Onno]

Wow, that's fucking epic! Good find Rob!

[Jaq]

From a classic Who perspective, am I the only one who disliked Fang Rock? I see on the IMDB page, it's regarded as the favorite from season 15, while I enjoyed it's follow up The Invisible Enemy a whole lot more

Horror of Fang Rock has gotten something of a critical revival in recent years, for reasons that completely puzzle me. I suspect a little of it comes from the sense that it's leftover Hinchcliffe, that it isn't properly a Graham Williams produced story (which is kind of funny since it was actually filmed SECOND for the season because the original script for the story was rejected because it was a Dracula pastiche coming out at the same time as a big BBC production of Dracula. It was eventually reworked into Terrance Dicks' Season 19 story State of Decay) but even that doesn't explain how it's become such a praised episode.

I will say, without qualification, that you are the first person I've ever seen to prefer The Invisible Enemy to it, though. 

[Scorpion]

From a classic Who perspective, am I the only one who disliked Fang Rock? I see on the IMDB page, it's regarded as the favorite from season 15, while I enjoyed it's follow up The Invisible Enemy a whole lot more

While I understand not liking Fang Rock that much - I love Image of the Fendahl a lot more, for instance - I can't name a SINGLE Classic Who episode (or, really, ANY Doctor Who episode) that I would look at and say "I enjoy The Invisible Enemy a lot more". If I had to make Bottom 10 Doctor Who list - which I wouldn't relish in, because I really like the show as a whole - then that would most certainly have a spot on it. Maybe even in the Bottom 5.

EDIT: Just watched Invisible Enemy again, to see if I'm being too harsh, and nope. I wouldn't quite call it atrocious, but it's the closest Doctor Who ever got to earning that label.

[masterthes]

Image of the Fendahl is really good, I am enjoying that one so far