"It feels different this time..." - The new Doctor Who Thread

[Kazin]

Open to changing the thread title, especially once the "new" feeling of the new forum goes away.

Anyway, talk about Doctor Who here! I'm currently watching the entire series in order from 1963 onward, one episode per day. I started over a year ago and am halfway through the 4th Doctor's first season! There's a lot of Doctor Who lol. It's here, if you're curious.

 

[Kirin]

And I recently got inducted into the cult of New Who by my girlfriend; we're doing a re-watch for her and first watch for me. Started with Eccleston, got through all of Tennant, and we're currently a few episodes into Smith, having just got to the return of the Angels and River Song.

 

[Kazin]

And I recently got inducted into the cult of New Who by my girlfriend; we're doing a re-watch for her and first watch for me. Started with Eccleston, got through all of Tennant, and we're currently a few episodes into Smith, having just got to the return of the Angels and River Song.

Post your thoughts as you go, if you like! I always enjoy reading what people about individual episodes. As I went through the series, I went back and read the old posts about episodes as they aired.

 

[Positronic Brain]

Eccleston was my first Doctor, and I was bummed out when he only lasted one season. Several Doctors later, and even though I've settled on Tennant as *my* Doctor, Eccleston's energy for the role remains unmatched.

It's that almost-maniacal smile, methinks.

 

[TyrMcDohl]

Eccleston is reprising the role in the audio plays by Big Finish, so there's that to look forward to if you want more 9th Doctor!

 

[Kirin]

Post your thoughts as you go, if you like! I always enjoy reading what people about individual episodes. As I went through the series, I went back and read the old posts about episodes as they aired.

Well okay. I just watched "Vincent and the Doctor", which I kind of already knew about, especially the touching bit at the end, because literally everyone loves the touching bit at the end so I've seen it referenced all over the place. It was indeed touching! Bill Nighy was a fun cameo, and the guy playing Van Gogh was great.

Let's see, before that was "Cold Blood", and it's always fun when they're obviously putting some spin on a race seen in the old show to explain the difference in effects - at least I'm assuming that's what the masks on the reptile-people race are about. Speaking of effects, they're actually kind of pretty decent by this point? Which is a new development in BBC SF I've watched. I assume the whole Rory being erased from existence thing we'll be coming back to fairly soon, as I'm pretty sure I've seen clips of him that I haven't got to yet...

Before that, "Amy's Choice" was a bit of an odd one. It's obvious to viewers which "dream" has to be the right choice, since only one is plausible for this point in the overall plot (nevermind the final twist). Still, it mostly exists to be a character interaction piece, and that succeeded well enough.

"The Vampires of Venice" was pretty silly. Which is not a criticism.


Oh yeah, I forgot to mention this is about the point at which I've become totally accustomed to Matt Smith as really being The Doctor (though obviously I'm not making any personal fave calls as I've still seen way more of Tennant than anyone else yet).

 

[Kazin]

Oh god, Vincent and the Doctor always gets me, and yeah, the Van Gogh is pretty much why. He nailed that role.

I'm glad you're enjoying the Smith era so far!

 

[Ostrich]

Here I am! I'm hoping to be a more active participant in this thread this time around, as my wife and I are both in love with Doctor Who, and have hot takes.

We're also currently going back through New Who, second time for both of us. We're up to Season 7, part 2, having just finished "Cold War". I'll hold back on giving impressions of where we're at, so Kirin can catch up a bit. I also need to mull over what we've watched so I can form a decent post.

I will say, rewatching New Who has given me a renewed interest in trying the Big Finish side of things, but....there's just so much of it, and they cost a bit of money! To think there's all these Doctor Who stories I've never touched, just waiting to be discovered. As a guy with not a lot of audio drama time and money, are there any recommended standout stories I could jump into?

 

[Vaeran]

Oh god, Vincent and the Doctor always gets me, and yeah, the Van Gogh is pretty much why. He nailed that role.

Sometime last year my mom got interested in Matt Smith through his role in The Crown, and asked me to show her a DW episode he was in. I picked Vincent and the Doctor because I thought it'd be relatively easy to follow and has a real emotional heart to it. She really liked it! I also showed her Blink way back in the day when I was going through the Tenth Doctor's run for the first time, and it made a real impression on her; to this day she'll sometimes reference the Weeping Angels if there's a creepy statue or something similar in a movie she watches.

 

[Phantoon]

Nice name for the new thread, Kazin!

I've been into Doctor Who since the days of the Fifth Doctor, fell off it again when Six came around, then properly got into it after the double whammy of seeing the Doctor Who play "The Ultimate Adventure" with Jon Pertwee and the arrival of the Seventh Doctor. Which translates to "God I'm old"

Eight came around and I hated it, and finally the glorious rebirth. The great thing about Doctor Who is it constantly reinvents itself. It can do anything. Preferably something insane that nobody else in their right minds would try...

 

[Kazin]

I will say, rewatching New Who has given me a renewed interest in trying the Big Finish side of things, but....there's just so much of it, and they cost a bit of money! To think there's all these Doctor Who stories I've never touched, just waiting to be discovered. As a guy with not a lot of audio drama time and money, are there any recommended standout stories I could jump into?

I'd go for some of the older ones, if you're just looking for quality - although doing that means you won't get any New Who Doctors, none of which have stories that stand out to me as must listen anyway. Granted, I haven't heard them all, but I can tell you to avoid the John Hurt stuff - he's a great actor but the scripts he got were terrible. As for the old stuff - Spare Parts, Chimes of Midnight, and Scherzo are all favorites of mine. I also absolutely adore Damaged Goods, which is a 7th Doctor story adapted from a book Russell T Davies wrote in the 90s. I'd almost recommend that one first, as it's my favorite audio story.

Sometime last year my mom got interested in Matt Smith through his role in The Crown, and asked me to show her a DW episode he was in. I picked Vincent and the Doctor because I thought it'd be relatively easy to follow and has a real emotional heart to it. She really liked it! I also showed her Blink way back in the day when I was going through the Tenth Doctor's run for the first time, and it made a real impression on her; to this day she'll sometimes reference the Weeping Angels if there's a creepy statue or something similar in a movie she watches.

I haven't really watched the Crown, but my wife has, and every time Matt Smith was on screen, I marveled at the sheer Matt Smithiness of him. The man can act, but he has such a peculiar gait that I couldn't help but see the 11th Doctor all the time.

Nice name for the new thread, Kazin!

I've been into Doctor Who since the days of the Fifth Doctor, fell off it again when Six came around, then properly got into it after the double whammy of seeing the Doctor Who play "The Ultimate Adventure" with Jon Pertwee and the arrival of the Seventh Doctor. Which translates to "God I'm old"

Eight came around and I hated it, and finally the glorious rebirth. The great thing about Doctor Who is it constantly reinvents itself. It can do anything. Preferably something insane that nobody else in their right minds would try...

I'm still jealous you got to see "The Ultimate Adventure." Pertwee is far from my favorite Doctor, but I wish all those old guys would have lived longer. So cool.

 

[Phantoon]

The line that really stuck with me was the Daleks (shockingly) got into the TARDIS and wrecked the control console, and Pertwee with trademark exasperation semi-turned to the audience and said "it's amazing the damage you can do with an egg whisk and a sink plunger".

They had lots of amazing (in the 80's anyway) laser effects

Edit: As Kazin said, listen to Spare Parts! I need to get into Big Finish and it's the only one I've listened to, but it's really very good indeed. I'll take your recommendations on too, Kazin.

 

[Kazin]

The line that really stuck with me was the Daleks (shockingly) got into the TARDIS and wrecked the control console, and Pertwee with trademark exasperation semi-turned to the audience and said "it's amazing the damage you can do with an egg whisk and a sink plunger".

They had lots of amazing (in the 80's anyway) laser effects

Something tells me Pertwee had a blast doing that play, lol.

Also, a Big Finish recommendation for the 6th Doctor - Jubilee. It's what the 9th Doctor episode "Dalek" was based on, though loosely - Jubilee is it's own thing, really, and excellent in its own right. Colin Baker, it turns out, at least during the first few years of Big Finish, was the best Doctor on audio in terms of being consistently good.

 

[Phantoon]

Yeah, I think I need that one most, as the Sixth Doctor managed to put me off Doctor Who and his era needs some redemption in my head.

 

[Kazin]

It helps that Colin Baker is an absolutely wonderful person IRL. Met him at a convention a few years ago and he was both entertaining during his panel and vocally supportive of the (then newly cast) Jodie Whittaker. Like, he brought the casting of a woman up, not a member of the audience, during the Q&A. He also made fun of/complained about Trump. I adore him.

 

[Kirin]

Just watched the first Matt Smith season finale, The Pandorica Opens / The Big Bang. That was fun! It was very intent on being continually *twisty*, but that just meant that even though I saw a lot of the twists coming there were always some other ones I didn't as well. Also that might be the most, well, thorough cliffhanger I've ever seen. Anyway, a good season capper.

And then I had to figure out where to buy the next Xmas special (apparently in a whole "season" pack of Xmas specials, as opposed to the Tennant Xmas ones which *aren't* in that pack and I think were just tacked on to seasons. Except his final set of five non-Xmas specials which was it's own whole other package. Buying Dr. Who is weird.)

 

[Phantoon]

Yeah, that is weird

You also reminded me I don't have Twice Upon A Time and my Moffat collection is incomplete

 

[Zef]

Speaking of buying, has there been any other Amazon Prime promotion lately? During the first couple of months of pandemic lockdown, they'd drop the price of particular episodes to $0.00 to promote semi-official watch parties, but I only remember two or three of them and haven't seen any more watch parties recently.

 

[Johnny Unusual]

The Sixth Doctor was a character with potential marred in execution. I find Doctors are generally a response to the previous one in characterization and asshole Doctor following paragon Doctor made sense. And it mirrored the political cynicism of concurrent popular British sci fi like 2000 AD. But 2000 AD is also silly and fun and that era of Doctor Wgo just felt nihilistic. Even as a kid I could see the difference between "scary" Doctor Who and a grim slog.

 

[Kazin]

Just watched the first Matt Smith season finale, The Pandorica Opens / The Big Bang. That was fun! It was very intent on being continually *twisty*, but that just meant that even though I saw a lot of the twists coming there were always some other ones I didn't as well. Also that might be the most, well, thorough cliffhanger I've ever seen. Anyway, a good season capper.

And then I had to figure out where to buy the next Xmas special (apparently in a whole "season" pack of Xmas specials, as opposed to the Tennant Xmas ones which *aren't* in that pack and I think were just tacked on to seasons. Except his final set of five non-Xmas specials which was it's own whole other package. Buying Dr. Who is weird.)

I really like that finale. "We're all stories in the end, just make it a good one, eh?" is one of my favorite quotes from the show.

And yeah... buying Doctor Who is super weird. I'd caught all the way up on the show before I realized there were three Tennant episodes I'd not seen, because Netflix (where I was watching them at the time, they haven't been there in years) didn't carry them - "The Next Doctor," "Planet of the Dead," and "The Waters of Mars" were all watched after I'd finished the Matt Smith seasons entirely (actually, I think Waters of Mars was on there, but it was listed as a different "season" or something, so I just unknowingly skipped it). It was really weird!

Speaking of buying, has there been any other Amazon Prime promotion lately? During the first couple of months of pandemic lockdown, they'd drop the price of particular episodes to $0.00 to promote semi-official watch parties, but I only remember two or three of them and haven't seen any more watch parties recently.

They ended the watch parties, so I don't think there are any discounts running now. The only watch parties I'm aware of now are for the classic stuff, and even then I think those are mostly finished as well.

The Sixth Doctor was a character with potential marred in execution. I find Doctors are generally a response to the previous one in characterization and asshole Doctor following paragon Doctor made sense. And it mirrored the political cynicism of concurrent popular British sci fi like 2000 AD. But 2000 AD is also silly and fun and that era of Doctor Wgo just felt nihilistic. Even as a kid I could see the difference between "scary" Doctor Who and a grim slog.

People tend to blame Colin Baker a good deal for the era, and while I can understand his performance not being to someone's taste, he was given utter shit to perform, so even the best actor would look bad in that era (and I like his acting choices, for the most part. Again, he had to make do with utter shit). There are a few things in his era that I like, but it is because I'm kinda forcing myself to.

 

[Johnny Unusual]

Oh, I don't blame Colin at all. I feel like the showrunner needs to take the blame for that one. I'll say that in terms of casting, there never has been a misstep, though I haven't seen the Doctor Who TV movie since it aired/erred.

 

[Kazin]

McGann is the best thing in that movie, and he's great on audio, so I think they succeeded there, even if the movie itself had... problems, to say the least.

 

[Phantoon]

Yeah, McGann was perfect for the role, which adds to the tragedy of the movie. Upon being given 8 extra minutes to be the Doctor he absolutely smashed it.

 

[Vaeran]

The Eighth Doctor is adorable.

 

[Kirin]

Watched "A Christmas Carol", Matt Smith's first special. Adorable, and just divergent enough from the standard Dickens to keep things interesting. Pity Amy didn't get to do much, but this was one focusing more on the guest characters.

 

[Phantoon]

Watched "A Christmas Carol", Matt Smith's first special. Adorable, and just divergent enough from the standard Dickens to keep things interesting. Pity Amy didn't get to do much, but this was one focusing more on the guest characters.

It's jam packed with some of the Doctor's best lines too:

Young Kazran: Are you really a babysitter?
The Doctor: I think you'll find that I'm universally recognized as a mature and responsible adult. [shows him the psychic paper]
Young Kazran: ...It's just a lot of wavy lines.
The Doctor: [looks at the paper] ...Yeah, it shorted out. Finally, a lie too big.

And possibly the best, tied with "we're all stories in the end":

Nobody important? Blimey, that's amazing. You know that in nine hundred years of time and space and I've never met anybody who wasn't important before.

 

[Kirin]

The Curse of the Black Spot: Pirates! I figured out what was going on more or less about half way through, but who cares? Pirates!

Oh hey, I guess I didn't comment on The Impossible Astronaut / Day of the Moon earlier. I remember it felt odd to immediately jump into the Doctor's death and playing up the pathos when, like, it's ep 1 of a new season so obviously there was gonna be some sort of immediate reversal. I mean, there wasn't really a reversal because timey-wimey, but still. Anyway that sure was a lot of setup half of which went unresolved, guessing this season is going to be a bit more arc-heavy than some. Canton Delaware and Nixon were both fun. (Oh hey, that guy (the former) was Badger on Firefly, knew he looked familiar.)

Anyway, I'm super looking forward to the next ep bc it's the one written by Neil Gaiman. I've known of its existence for ages but it seemed silly to jump in not having seen any of the rest of the series.

 

[Phantoon]

Ooh, can't wait for your impression on that. I won't colour your first impressions with my opinion.

 

[Kazin]

Anyway that sure was a lot of setup half of which went unresolved, guessing this season is going to be a bit more arc-heavy than some.

I can't wait to hear what you think of the season as a whole...

Anyway, I'm super looking forward to the next ep bc it's the one written by Neil Gaiman. I've known of its existence for ages but it seemed silly to jump in not having seen any of the rest of the series.

Looking forward to your reaction to this one as well...

 

[Kirin]

I watched The Doctor's Wife! It was delightful! Idris was great. Figuring out tenses when you live in all times at once *would* be tricky. I thought maybe House torturing the Ponds was a little over the top for a bit, but then, it did turn out to just be quite the asshole of an extradimensional predator. Fun that they had some old sets lying around still for this. Pity The Corsair turns out to be dead, they sound fun, though being dead doesn't always stop a Time Lord from showing up again round these parts.

The Ood was kind of random, but I have a vague memory of Gaiman talking about it once (though I had no context for it at the time of course) and I think he just liked Ood.