Doctor Who!

[tony ingram]

Re: Doctor Who is 48 Today!

Yes the Silurians have been in recent Dr Who adventures,perhaps you mean the Sea Devils who were always good at scaring kids.

I did like the classic silurians though,but they get around the massive change of appearance by saying that they are a diffrant species.Would of liked the new ones more if they kept the reptillian face instead of using it as just as a mask.Now they are as far too human to look at.

I agree (though I can see why they did it; the original Silurian masks didn't allow for much expression). I also have a problem with the female Silurians. I a may be being a bit too picky here, but I don't think there are any reptilian species with mammary glands.

[battyrat]

Re: Doctor Who is 48 Today!

Yes the Silurians have been in recent Dr Who adventures,perhaps you mean the Sea Devils who were always good at scaring kids.

I did like the classic silurians though,but they get around the massive change of appearance by saying that they are a diffrant species.Would of liked the new ones more if they kept the reptillian face instead of using it as just as a mask.Now they are as far too human to look at.

[tony ingram]

Re: Doctor Who is 48 Today!

But so much now has been written into the story which contradicts or even goes against certain important elements in the original story line it's hard to believe at times it is the same program,perhaps the people writing today have very little knowledge of the classic Dr Who series,or just wants to alter the mythology to suit themselves.

I can't really see any major contradictions between the current and old series, instory terms; both Russell T Davies (whose work I admit I didn't like) and Steven Moffat are longtime fans with an encyclopediac knowledge of the show's history. But as far as altering the mythology to suit themselves goes; several classic series creative teams did the same thing! The Time Lords as depicted in the 1970s by Hinchcliffe and Holmes bore no resemblance to the versions previously seen, and even Terry Nation rewrote the history of the Daleks in 1975!

[tony ingram]

Re: Doctor Who is 48 Today!

The new doctor does not make all that sence either,as a time lord like in the old episodes,time has no boundaries to a time traveller.The shear fact that a timeloard can excist past his own point of demise is proof enough that the extinction of his homeworld has no real importance to why he cannot visit his home world,as he can easily travel in time to the point where his home world still excists and visit it.He has no restrictions apart from those he makes himself.

It doesn't work like that. Even in the original series, the Doctor wasn't supposed to cross his own time stream and would always meet other Time Lords in the same chronological order; he can travel into the past, yes, but he cannot meet past versions of his own people. He never could, except in cases where something had gone seriously wrong (as in The Three Doctors, The Five Doctors and The Two Doctors). That seems to be just how time travel works in Doctor Who.

[battyrat]

Re: Doctor Who is 48 Today!

Matt Smith is ok but there is something I just don't like about the way he is portrayed as the doctor,perhaps it is more to do with the way the storys themselves are directed,perhaps he just needs slightly longer in each story for his character to shine more.In a way he appears to be a bit of troughton,and davidson,mccoy all mixed together.I think the idea has to be to use a doctor as far removed from the previous doctor as possible.Explains Tom Baker after Patrick Troughton,or the weeker Peter Davidson after the stronger minded tom baker,or the arrogant colin baker after davidson,etc.Not too sure about his travelling companions,rose was ok but many of them like that obnoxious bride to be companion,and the two he has now....shudders with anticipation of being sick over another love comment from roary over his bit/wife/whatever.The Doctor seems to show much more of his feelings then ever before in Dr Who which is something we don't always see that much with the classic series which is a nice touch.

But so much now has been written into the story which contradicts or even goes against certain important elements in the original story line it's hard to believe at times it is the same program,perhaps the people writing today have very little knowledge of the classic Dr Who series,or just wants to alter the mythology to suit themselves.

But then the Doctor always belongs to the younger generation as much as the doctors we remember from our youth belongs to us.

[tony ingram]

Re: Doctor Who is 48 Today!

must agree battyrat i find it hard to get into matt smith as the dr.
i cant maje sense where he is cincerned.
stories to short etc.

I wonder is it fown to money that a story is only 1 45 min episode.

No, not down to money; Doctor Who has a much larger budget now than it had in the old days. The stories are in the 45 minute format simply because that is now the format commonly used for this type of drama; nobody makes 25 minute serials anymore, except the soaps. It's felt that 45 minutes to an hour is the length the audience requires. Though to b e fair, every 13 part series of Doctor Who contains three two part stories, and with a total running time of 90 minutes, they are effectively the same length as an old four parter.

Also id like to see stories where the silurians are involved.

The Silurians have appeared in both of the last two series'.

[darren]

Re: Doctor Who is 48 Today!

check this another unused title sequence.
http://youtu.be/axZt3G6XONg

[darren]

Re: Doctor Who is 48 Today!

must agree battyrat i find it hard to get into matt smith as the dr.
i cant maje sense where he is cincerned.
stories to short etc.

I wonder is it fown to money that a story is only 1 45 min episode.

i like stories that take time to develop.
go back to pertwee, tom baker there stories where normally at least 4 episodes of 25 mins.
i also find the older stories had more atmosphere.

Also id like to see stories where the silurians are involved.
tw great pertwee stories planet of the spiders and the sea devils they where long stories.
they where both six episodes of 25 mins and they where fantastic.
think how poor they would have been if they where both just 45 mins like todays stories.

check this from colin baker.
http://youtu.be/O71Sq6v5fpQ

[darren]

Re: Doctor Who is 48 Today!

check this out.
http://youtu.be/8bfLQTOGtOA

[battyrat]

Re: Doctor Who is 48 Today!

I have to agree.These days it is short storys which in turn build up a longer story arcs like bad wolf.But they are so fast paced often the main story arc is lost or not even taken notice of,or used just to string unrelated storys together.Unless you were looking for the main story you would miss it or with younger viewers it goes over their heads.

The 1-half long storys were a feature of colin bakers time,and were BBC's attempt try to keep the program running whilst side lining the story out of it's prime time slot it used to have.Colin Baker was one of the doctors that had a real bad deal all round. His time as the doctor suffered in part due to the trial of a time lord story arc and the way the BBC were treating Dr Who as a whole,and he was not that well treated by the BBC.Pushed out long before his time.He was a real edgy doctor,and I would of loved to see him in some decent storys.Attack of the Cybermen was the best it got,possibly his best.

I would love to see the BBc concentrate on the old ideal of just developing a single story over several weeks without resorting to all the tiny individual storys to build up a larger story arc.

The new doctor does not make all that sence either,as a time lord like in the old episodes,time has no boundaries to a time traveller.The shear fact that a timeloard can excist past his own point of demise is proof enough that the extinction of his homeworld has no real importance to why he cannot visit his home world,as he can easily travel in time to the point where his home world still excists and visit it.He has no restrictions apart from those he makes himself.Other time lords unaccounted for to date are the Time Meddler,and the Rani.Wonder if the Rani will make another appearance soon,perhaps they can improve on the tetraps as well.

[darren]

Re: Doctor Who is 48 Today!

another thing i do not like is the stories are not long enough.

loads of the older stories where 1 hr and a half to 2 hrs and a half.

lots of old stories had had at least 4 25 min episodes.

when will they have stories that long again.

[battyrat]

Re: Doctor Who is 48 Today!

Since 1963 Dr Who went for strengh to strengh,and I loved the period from Pertwee to Tom baker.That was untill they introduced K9.Then it went down hill rapidly.K9 did nothing really to improve the storyline just add unnecessary humour.Producers thought the show was getting too serious and dark so K9 appeared.I really loved the darker side of Dr Who.Adric did not help matters,along with so many 80's companions.For me Davidson through to mid sylvester Mccoy were the waste years of neglect.Some ok storys,a lot of poor storys,but nothing to compare with the earlier years for quality of the actual storyline.But good ole Sylvester dispite of the BBC running the program down did pull a few cracking storys just before the original series was axed.I wished he was given another season or two as his doctor was really mysterious and dark and really played on mystery and fear.Ghost light and the curse of fenric showed what a great doctor mccoy was and could be,and what we could expect if he was allowed to continue.He matured and grew into the part very well indeed near the end.
The new Doctor who storys are good,but I still feel happier with the older doctors.Too fast paced,and very often the characters especially the villans don't have enough time to develop properly before its over all too soon especially in the individual episodes that build up the longer story arcs.

[tony ingram]

Re: Doctor Who is 48 Today!

P.S. My fave Docs are:

TOM "THE GOD" BAKER!!!!!
JON PERTWEE,
PETER DAVISION, (grew up with this one),
DAVID TENNANT,
CHRISTOPHER ECCLESTON,

For me:
Tom Baker
Matt Smith
Patrick Troughton
Paul McGann (based on the radio stories)
Sylvester McCoy.

I like my Doctors quirky and whimsical with a core of steel.

For me though, Baker really did set the benchmark for all other Who's....the mans a genius.

Agreed!

[tony ingram]

Re: Doctor Who is 48 Today!

Thats a good point. As someone of Asian descent I've often felt the programme is far too sub - conscieously racist as well. Its interesting how the Doc never fell for Martha, she was infinitely more intelligent that a 19 year old council estate blonde but lo and behold he 'fell in love with her' which was rather stupidly unbelivable given his age compared to hers...The papers at the time of Freema Agemans casting kept harping on and on about the colour of her skin as 'first Black companion' as opposed to 'NEW COMPANION'...

Which I could never quite understand, as the first black companion was actually Mickey. The papers always seem to ignore the male companions, even though there've been a lot of them over the years.

The programme won't ever dare to have a coloured Doctor, period.

In fact, according to several insiders, Patterson Joseph was shortlisted last time. Matt Smith was given the role purely because the BBC executives wanted someone younger.

On the one hand, even I think, why should it as genetically, its pretty established the Doctors a White Timelord, and I expect they had ethnicity on Gallifrey, they finally showed some on the flashback to the Master as a kid in the background after some near 50 years...Its interesting that the programme, whilst featuring ethnic characters now and again doesn't put forward too many ethnic characters in main roles...look at the current Tardis, even Idris was White, his companions are safely White, the actual production team by and large is White. Even if they realise it or not the writers etc project their own subconcious prejudices onto the show...

The Doctor Who production team has traditionally bucked those kind of trends at the BBC. Doctor Who's first ever Director, Waris Hussein, was the first Asian director at the BBC and its first Producer, Verity Lambert, one of the only female Producers at the time and one of the youngest.

[darren]

Re: Doctor Who is 48 Today!

my top 5.
Peter davison grew up with him.
jon pertwee
tom baker
colin baker
sulvester mccoy.