I'm back home, so I guess its time for another marathon...although, its more of a double-bill.

Episode 6

This is quintessential modern Doctor Who. Its silly. Its stupid. It tries to juggle hard-sci-fi and light-hearted entertainment (which is like juggling two balls of fire without proper protection). The exposition is rushed. Everything is clearly being made up as it goes along. The villain is lame. The final reveal is disappointing. The resolution is too simple. The Doctor is once again nothing but a Deus Ex Machina-spouting machine running on nothing but the infinite power of plot convenience.

And, most painfully of all, it has good ideas but the writers are so stunned they've come up with a good idea that they just can't handle it correctly. I really like the idea of a group of aliens investigating unusual activity in Victorian setting - even if its clearly based off-of 'The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen'. I have no idea where they've all come from, or why they have decided to gather - but I didn't see this years Christmas Special (because I didn't want my Christmas ruined) so for all I know everything was explained in that.

Anyone who says this new era of Doctor Who is totally serious can watch that 'Thomas Thomas' scene again before dining on testicles.

(OK, I'll admit that the line "Horse! You have failed your mission!" was pretty funny)

Episode 7

"Yeah sure, lets keep the kids around whilst we investigate this alien threat. Lets not even bother to keep them in the TARDIS, lets just put them in the middle of a place that we know contains a mysterious power and a dormant Cyberman. WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG?!"

I find it funny that Moffat's changed the Cybermen without actually changing the Cybermen. Yes, they look a tiny bit different and they have a really terrible bullet-time effect which they should just use all the time but don't because they are stupid.

I still don't think it makes sense that these Cybermen are in our dimension. They were created from a parallel universe, they slipped into our universe...and then they were all destroyed. Where have all these other Cybemen come from? It actually makes perfect sense for they're story to be changed as well as the design - particularly since they are in many ways more interesting than the Daleks. They are former humans, empty shells where there used to be life. Daleks are just death-machines, and the drama comes from the fact that the Daleks and the Doctor have a long history...except MOFFAT SCREWED THAT ALL UP, DIDN'T HE!!!

Sorry, its just this episode is bad. Not interestingly bad - just boringly bad. Matt Smith puts out a surprisingly terrible performance, and the episode hastily wraps up just as its starting to possibly get good. Three million Cybermen kinda deserves a two-parter...

You know, I think I'm done with Doctor Who. People say to me "Why do you watch something you know is going to be bad", to which I would normally reply "But it isn't always bad, its just mostly bad" I was going to stop watching Doctor Who a while ago, but then I saw The Girl Who Waited - which is by far the best thing the Moffat-era has produced (Vincent and the Doctor really wasn't that good, mostly because anyone who's had depression knows that its too complex for a show that makes 'Tom Tom' jokes to deal with. I wish Richard Curtis had just written a stand-alone film about Van Gough, because bits of it do pay tribute to the man, but then we have to go back to the Giant Mutant Chicken)

So, lets just get this season finale over with and then I'll spend my Saturday nights (or Sunday mornings, or Wednesday lunchtimes, or whenever I get a free moment) doing literally anything else. If you like Doctor Who and you're annoyed with me, you only have to put up with my gibbering for one more episode. I just hope that in a few years time you'll watch this show again and suddenly feel very, very stupid (like I did watching the RTD era again, but at least the RTD era gave us Blink, The Girl in the Fireplace, and The Family of Blood. I find it ironic that I enjoy the more intimate episodes where the Doctor doesn't have much power...)

Last edited by Max Butcher (May 15, 2013 (08:34am))

You're crazy Lucas. My low levels of Doctor Who respect towards you have dropped significantly after you said that. I'm not going to discuss it either, it just fundamentally disagrees with everything I believe.

I also have started to not care whether I watch Doctor Who or not, but I will watch the 50th, because it will be funny to see Matt Smiths puny, pathetic acting skills decimated by someone who can really carry the story and is generally very good, i.e.David Tennant. I also hate how the 50th monsters are the Zygons, which is another classic monster, and one of my favourites, bound to be ruined by stupidity.

Rant over.

Carousel it's not like i'm the only person in the world who thinks Matt Smith is a great actor, I mean he does have awards for his performance and is even the only Doctor to ever be nominated for a BAFTA TV Award (which is the best nomination anyone of them has ever gotten) so it's not like i'm just making stuff up.

And Max, i'm pretty sure the 50th could be entertaining but it's probably gonna be really dissapointing if we just have the 10th Doctor and... Rose... coming back. There is absolutely no reason not to bring back Paul McGann, he still looks the same as he did in the movie he was in and he wants to come back anyways so what the hell. I hope they are just keeping it all secret and then surprise us with having them all in (they really could just have recorded all of the other Doctors secretly in the studio).

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yeah so many good ones like Rose... uhm no, The End of the World... uhm no, Aliens of London... NOO, World War 3... one of the worst ones ever... The Long Game, Father's Day, Bad Wolf, Boom Town... HELL NO
The only ones I can consider great is The Empty Child, The Doctor Dances and Parting of the Ways (the only RTD episode I can call great btw but even that was ruined when they revealed the Daleks in the next time trailer for Bad Wolf)... season 2 is even worse...
And the episodes that COULD possibly have been good were ruined by Rose

Last edited by Lucas (May 16, 2013 (04:25pm))

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'Fathers Day' still has a place in my heart, despite Rose acting like a complete idiot the whole time (I was cheering for the Doctor when he said "Fine! I'm out of here! Give me the key back!") In fact, both Rose and Donna together could destroy the universe if you left them alone with the detonator. 

The only reason why I still think the RTD-era is better is because, watching it again, I was still quite scared. There is actual tension in some of the episodes. In 'Doomsday', for example, the solution to the Cybermen/Dalek crisis is quite simple: flick a switch and hold on for your dear life. It wouldn't be out of place in a Moffat episode. In fact, he copied this solution almost exactly in 'Flesh and Stone'. But its much better here because A) The Doctor takes time beforehand to explain the logic behind this solution before he does it, whilst Smith hastily explains what's about to happen then flicks the switch before one can say "Wait, what?" B) The Doctor sends everyone to safety first - indicating that this is an incredibly dangerous plan that could cost lives. Smith, meanwhile, just tells everyone to hold on C) Rose returns from safety to help. Yes, this is extremely idiotic of her, but at least it adds tension because all of a sudden there is her life at stake. Though, the tension would have been ruined if you knew that she was leaving the series (your not very good at keeping your mouth shut BBC...)

My favourite episodes are the ones where The Doctor has little to no power. 'Blink' is so effective because all the Doctor does is leave a video message giving exposition. He's completely powerless. The episode itself revolves around squishy mortals who have been caught up in something they don't want to be - and there is nothing more compelling than seeing ordinary people being thrust into something extra-ordinary. 'The Family of Blood' is so good because the Doctor isn't technically in it - he's a human who has to work out the problem without his god powers. The only episode I really like from the Moffat-era is 'The Girl Who Waited', because the Doctor does nothing. For once, Amy and Rory are forced to work everything out for themselves rather than just tag along and get kidnapped. That is why the Doctor always has a human companion. This is why RTD cared about Rose and her stupid stupid stupid family so much, because having an immortal 900 year old alien who is basically the most intelligent thing in the universe kills any tension dead.

But of course, Moffat doesn't understand this (ironic considering he wrote 'Blink'), and so every single one of the Doctors companions has to be an anomaly of science - and the entire space-time continuum has to revolve around them. NO MOFFAT! Say what you want about Rose, she meant nothing to the universe. She was only important because she made herself important. Only through strength of character does one become strong. Yes, it was idiotic of Rose to swallow the heart of the TARDIS...but at least she did something! She worked out all by herself how to do that! What did Amy ever do by herself? What has Clara done by herself? Have any of them single-handedly saved the Doctors life?

Look at Donna. She was more annoying than a car-alarm going off at 3am, but she had a brilliant character-arc. Even before she became a genius, she had gone from thicker than David Hasslehoff's chest-hair to saving the fate of humanity in 'Turn Left'. What about Amy? Watch her first episode and watch her last episode back-to-back and tell me what has changed (other than the fact she's engaged to Rory? And how much did Rory change - aside from getting kidnapped in slightly different ways?)

Of course, with the new format we are never going to get episodes like 'Turn Left', 'The Girl Who Waited' or 'Blink' again. By taking a mid-season break, the production team has more time to create the episodes (though not enough time to improve the shoddy writing). This means we won't have any 'Doctor-lite' or 'Companion-lite' episodes because the BBC won't have to shoot several episodes at the same time. But, aside from 'Love and Monsters' (Jesus Christ, I forgot how awful that episode was...) the 'Doctor-lite' episodes are by far the best. They are intimate because the budget is minuscule, and they have to deviate from the typical formula because they don't have the typical formula at their disposal. Its basically forcing the BBC to think out of the box, because give them a lavish budget and they'll just make a bloated mess. Give a guy all the Lego in the world and he will create the longest, most over-the-top Brickfilm ever. Give a guy limited Lego, and he will have to use all his skill to create an extremely inventive animation.

And this is why I'm going to stop watching Doctor Who. The RTD era wasn't as good as I thought it was (though its still much better), and I'm still shocked at how bad Moffat is writing this show considering how good episodes like 'Blink' and 'The Girl in the Fireplace' were. RTD was like a raving lunatic: occasionally making sense in his own bizarre way, but most of the time flinging his own excrement around like a monkey. Moffat is like a studio executive: Sucking the art out of everything.

No, I haven't seen any classic Doctor Who. I want to, because I want to find out if Doctor Who has always been bad, or if its just that the revival has missed the point. I'm more than willing to overlook the hilariously bad special effects and the slightly campy tone...

I didn't really like Martha either (yes, its understandable that the Doctor might be a bit upset about losing a companion he'd gotten quite attached to, but he could have gotten over it by Episode 2 at the most) - although I really like how she left. She's just like "Thanks to you, my family has endured over a year of torment. I've almost died several times, and you've been so busy mourning the loss of some women that I've barely been noticed by anyone! Screw you! I'm off home!"

I don't count that because the Doctor is still a key part of the episode. Yes, he doesn't show up until a bit later, but when he does show up he immediately takes charge and helps solve everything. By 'Doctor-lite' I mean that the Doctor has little influence and doesn't directly solve the problem. Yes, he comes back at the end of 'The Family of Blood' to blow up the ship, but that was in the last five mins or so - and the real problem of that episode was John Smith becoming the Doctor and rejecting his new, happy life.

I did like how the Doctor was powerless for the beginning of 'The Crimson Horror', but within a few moments he had transformed back (how did he do that again?) They could've at least had him gradually return to his normal state (he would have to press buttons and fix machinery slowly and painfully - and he would have difficulty communicating with his companions). I'm not saying he should be powerless every episode, but they shouldn't be afraid to let others solve the problem - or else it kind of defeats the point of having companions. Clara was basically a dead-weight in 'The Crimson Horror', though I liked how she was put in charge of the military unit last episode (the first example in ages of a companion being a friend rather than a burden)

I don't believe I did. But not every television series needs a running plot going on. See Star Trek (well, the Original Series and the Next Generation. I haven't seen any of the spin-offs...), The Twilight Zone, and almost every single British Sitcom. This being said, I've never had a problem with Doctor Who having story arcs. I just have a problem when they are really bad. (You'd think the Doctor immediately trying to find out why Amy forgot about Daleks, rushing back to see what's causing an explosion in the time-space continuum, travelling to find the identity of the Doctors killer, or heading off straight away to find out what's up with Clara and her many clones would be a better technique than pottering about space going on mini-adventures until either they accidentally stumble across the solution, or something terrible happens because they completely ignored the obvious problem. And no, the same does not apply to the RTD story arcs because Bad Wolf, Torchwood, Harold Saxon, and Rose's return were stuff almost entirely there for the audience to notice rather than the Doctor - kind of like your clever observation that the Doctor is having an identity crisis. In fact, the Doctor knew nothing about Torchwood, Harold Saxon, or Rose's return until the arc paid off - and when they finally noticed Bad Wolf, it was far too vague for them to do anything about it)

They went into space in Episode 2, although they technically just went outside Earth. If you don't count when they head to spaceships/space-stations orbiting Earth then, yes, they don't leave our Galaxy until Episode 4 Series 2 (and even then, its a spaceship that has time-doors leading to Earth). Bear in mind that the 3rd Doctor spent an awful lot of time on Earth for the same reason the 9th Doctor spent a lot of time on Earth: its cheaper to set your story on Earth. Your costume/props department doesn't have to get too creative, and you only need to employ a few guys to do the visual effects.

Though, I've always had a problem with the fact that the Doctor keeps returning to Earth. If I had a ship that could go anywhere in the Universe, I would jet off to the very edge of space and start a bar-fight with a homophobic Zortellian. Maybe its just because I'm a fan of stuff like The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy and Men In Black where it turns out Earth is just a minuscule part of an enormous Universe teeming with life. The 9th Doctor tried to explore this ("All you do is sleep, eat chips and watch the telly"), but it kind of fell apart because, as you rightly point out, the 9th Doctor remains nailed and glued to Earth.

What's wrong with the Hartnell era?

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He's actually my second favorite Doctor, the first Dalek story is phenomenal

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Yeah, the first Dalek episode was really good.

On my favourite Doctor list...

Tom Baker
Patrick Troughton
Christopher Eccleston
David Tennant
Jon Pertwee
Paul McGann
William Hartnell
Sylvester McCoy
Peter Davidson & Matt Smith (Tie)
Colin Baker

...he's seventh.