Doctor Who - Spoilers!

[bcm77]

Well that was sort of how the old series went kaput. The focus became the Doctor and the writing took a back seat.

If the writing took a back seat towards the end of the original run it clearly never recovered when the show returned.

Did all the decent writers retire or pass away or are there decent ones still around but due to the 1000 mph style over substance format of the new series their abilities are stifled beyond recognition?

 

[pixletwin]

JNT (being the not so smart guy he was when it came to managing a program like Doctor Who) decided to fire all the old Who writers and use a crop of writers who had never written for Doctor Who and indeed had never written Science Fiction before.

This was just one of the many mis-steps of RTD that led to the end of the classic series.

 

[bcm77]

JNT (being the not so smart guy he was when it came to managing a program like Doctor Who) decided to fire all the old Who writers and use a crop of writers who had never written for Doctor Who and indeed had never written Science Fiction before.

This was just one of the many mis-steps of JNT that led to the end of the classic series.

So basically,

JNT = Big ,gay producer with boneheaded ideas.

RTD = Likewise.

The difference being that RTD was fortunate enough to get the job at a time when most mainstream TV audiences have the attention span of a hyperactive 2 year old and possibly less intelligence so unlike his predecessor he was able to get decent ratings despite coming up with the morst abhorrent sewage ever to bear the Doctor Who name.

I just saw a trailer for the final part of the RTD era. Nice to see the "genius" is once again ripping off Star Wars with all the Time Lords in what appeared to be the Coruscant Senate Chamber

 

[pixletwin]

Just heard some vomit inducing dialogue from EoT part two. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00pclt6

Here is the dialogue transcript:

Spoiler

Master: Tell me. Where's your TARDIS?
Doctor: You could be so wonderful
Master: Where is it?
Doctor: You're a genius, you're stone-cold brilliant, you are. I swear you really are, but you could be so much more, you could be beautiful, with a mind like that, we could travel the stars. It would be my honour, because you don't need to own the universe, just see it. You have the privilege to see the whole and time and space. That's ownership enough.
Master: Would it stop then? The noise in my head?
Doctor: I can help
Master: I don't know what I would be without that noise.
Doctor: Wonder what I'd be without you.
Master: Yeah

My impression?

Spoiler

It sounds like the Doc and the Master having some post-sex pillow talk.

 

[bcm77]

Just heard some vomit inducing dialogue from EoT part two. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00pclt6

Here is the dialogue transcript:


My impression?

Spoiler

It sounds like the Doc and the Master having some post-sex pillow talk.

( Flushes vomit down the toilet )

 

[Memnoch]

Well the Doctor is still under the assumption he's the last. So in a way it makes sense. It is kinda giggle worthy though haha. And now that I hear it it sounds like the Doctor is trying to diffuse a situation. Will be interesting to see it in context.

 

[Kabukiman]

3 more days!

/me is blissfully unaware of any "vomit inducing dialogue"

Thanks for using spoiler tags!
:chew:chew:chew

 

[William Shatners Toupee]

Just heard some vomit inducing dialogue from EoT part two. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00pclt6

Here is the dialogue transcript:


My impression?

Spoiler

It sounds like the Doc and the Master having some post-sex pillow talk.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Pamgat1Wro

 

[Kabukiman]

My wife watches some goofy show where they make elaborate cakes called "Ace of Cakes"

If you turn on the Food Network *right now* you'll see them trying to make an animated Dalek cake. So bizarre...

The show is American, and nobody making the cake has ever seen a Dalek before, it's all very strange to them.

 

[barbelith]

This was just one of the many mis-steps of RTD that led to the end of the classic series.

Actually, that had nothing to do with it, as shown by the ratings trends for the final few years (upwards in fact). JNT was responsible for the classic series lasting as long as it did. The BBC always intended to kill of the show as it could no longer compete due to budgeting in a ST:TNG world. The final few seasons were scheduled in literally the single worst time slot available (opposite the heaviest hitter on the schedules) and given no promotion. It was not uncommon for fans to only find out the new season was on halfway through.

The myth that JNT killed Doctor Who really needs to die off. It ran longer than most entire series under his tutelage (as long as the X-Files for example, which is a pretty long-running show). The two most often selected examples - the casting of Colin and the overall McCoy era - are not borne out by the facts. Season 22 was actually popular with the general audience and the ratings trended up (to say nothing of critical response) during the final two McCoy seasons.

Scheduling, lack of promotion and the 1985 hiatus (from which the show never really recovered in terms of ratings) killed off Doctor Who. All three of these were down to BBC brass, which could only budget for an entire season what Paramount was budgeting for a single episode of ST:TNG.

Remember too UK audiences loved the TVM and it rated far better in comparison there than in the US. What made it work more than anything else after the relaunch was money. The BBC was prepared to budget, schedule and promote it properly. You could run the new series in the same death slot, with a corresponding budget and no promotion and it'd die just the same.

Fans should be thankful JNT staved off the inevitable for nine bloody years and managed to pull off a creative and critical renaissance. Not many can say that.

 

[barbelith]

JNT = Big ,gay producer with boneheaded ideas.

RTD = Likewise.

You certainly quack like a homophobe...

 

[bcm77]

it sounds like the Doctor is trying to diffuse a situation

IMO Venusian karate would be much more effective and it would make the Doctor seem less of a pansy.

 

[barbelith]

IMO Venusian karate would be much more effective and it would make the Doctor seem less of a pansy.

The entire point of the Doctor is that he's a pansy. Maybe you should be watching Terminator instead?

 

[barbelith]

I just saw a trailer for the final part of the RTD era. Nice to see the "genius" is once again ripping off Star Wars with all the Time Lords in what appeared to be the Coruscant Senate Chamber

I guess you haven't seen the opening shot of The Invasion of Time. Doctor Who ripped off Star Wars the moment the production team saw it. Before that, it had a storied history ripping off horror classics (hello Hinchcliffe era). The show has always been a magpie collector. To blame RTD for this is asinine. You don't like the new show. We get it. We got it 500 jibes ago. But that's no reason to be a hypocrite.

 

[Darklord Dave]

Okay, we're all annoyed by the anti-"good Who" rants - but there's no need to respond to him. Okay? We don't need bickering in this thread.

 

[William Shatners Toupee]

The entire point of the Doctor is that he's a pansy. Maybe you should be watching Terminator instead?

Well, more like over "the last several regenerations" he's become more pacifistic is more like it (since Doc...6?), but that's not the POINT of the "Doctor". The Doctor hates violence unless it's absolutely neccesary, as well he should. He should always use intellect and cleverness over physical violence when possible, but at the same time, some times you just need to fight for yourself. It adds tension to a story. It's more real that it has to happen sometimes. I'd like to see that aspect brought back. Not to be a Terminator, but to willing to/having to defend oneself if the occasion arises.

I've often felt over the years the Doctor's become a little too non-violent. He hasn't always been that way. He used to have teeth, even in one of his meekest (and my personally beloved) incarnations (Troughton), he killed several Ice Warriors himself in Seeds of Death with a special device he made when he had to to save Earth. And I mean he went Terminator on them. I laughed. My eyes almost fell out of my head when I first saw it. Pertwee did again against the Ice Warriors in Monsters of Peledon as well with the lasers in the Aggedor statue (man, he really seemed to have a thing against the Ice Warriors (laugh).

Pertwee was more than capable of defending himself against attackers with his venusian Karate and I enjoyed that immensely; against a throng of Ogron. Against a bunch of medeval warriors in Time Warrior. And just as much as he despises weapons, Pertwee used a gun momentarily against the Ogrons in Frontiers in Space because he had too, even though he turned down guns at several points during his run.

It should really change regeneration to regeneration how he acts. One wouldn't, the next one might.

 

[sueworld]

Just heard some vomit inducing dialogue from EoT part two. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00pclt6

Here is the dialogue transcript:


My impression?

Spoiler

It sounds like the Doc and the Master having some post-sex pillow talk.

And thats bad how exactly?

Okay, we're all annoyed by the anti-"good Who" rants - but there's no need to respond to him. Okay? We don't need bickering in this thread.

Shouldn't that read 'anti new Who'? I mean both 'classic Who' and 'New Who' managed to produce both wonderful stories and some right stinkers.

 

[pixletwin]

Awesome piccie of Pertwee.

And Barbelith, on the whole I agree with you to a point. But I am firmly in Tom Baker's corner in believing the downfall of Doctor Who came with the stupid "?" on the collar.

It was also hiring a leading man who wasn't really a leading man and putting him clothes that would lend no credibility to his Doctor, getting writers who new nothing about the genre all lead to a loss of faith in Doctor Who (what little it ever had from the Beeb). I agree you can't pin one man (JNT in this instance) but you can trace events back far enough to know that it was JNT who nudged the show into the direction which eventually led to cancellation.

 

[pixletwin]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Pamgat1Wro

Thanks. Clearly context is everything. I feel much better about it now... Hearing just the audio I had pictured them laying in bed having some cute pillow talk (I knew thats not how it would play out obviously).

 

[Blackhole]

Although EoT Pt 1 was an average episode for me, David Tennant's acting stood out once again...

Can't wait to see how this one plays out...