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Doctor Who Off-Season | Hey Missy, you're so fine, you're so fine you blow my mind

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Tennant: The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit

There's an awful lot of good stuff in Tennant's era, but I can't get past this one. So spooky and so cool. Human Nature/Family of Blood would also be a contender, and the Sound of Drums three-parter is pretty great too.

I loved this story. I'm not even really a fan of the Ten/Rose pairing but still found the ending heartwarming.
 
Challenge:

Choose your favourite serial/episode from each of the Doctors eras. Only TV serials/episodes for now. Sorry McGann! :(

First: The Sensorites - really cool serial and it's the one where the First gets that bitchin' cape.

Second: The Mind Robber - I was feeling the mindfuckery of this story as an adult in 2015. I can only imagine how mind bending this must've been for the kiddies in the 60's!

Third: ...I have to admit, I just don't really care for many of the Third's adventures. Probably something with The Master in it? Colony in Space maybe? I dunno, whatever.

Fourth: Androids of Tara - This is a weird choice, I admit, but I'm a sucker for worlds that seem superficially like some past human era, but actually have incredible technology in certain ways. Also, in my head canon, the fourth doctor learned to fence in the middle of his duel with the bad guy at the end. He goes from terrible at the beginning to learning at such an incredible speed that the bad guy just can't keep up by the conclusion of the duel, ending with the Doctor smugly remarking, "Was he supposed to be good?" when the locals are astonished that he vanquished such an accomplished swordsman.

Fifth: Caves of Androzani - I hate to pick the one people always choose, but it really is the best. Also, I showed his regeneration scene to my mom and she said that she kind of hated Davison purely on the basis of his replacing her favorite Doctor, but even she really didn't want him to go when she saw his regeneration. Hats off, Davison. You did good.

Sixth: Vengeance on Varos - Not a lot of good choices for the Sixth. I liked some of the scenes where the doctor is fighting off hallucinations in this one though. *shrug*

Seventh: Easy, The Curse of Fenric - It's got alien vampires, elder gods returned for revenge against a Doctor who already outsmarted him once before, one of the first examples I can think of where the Doctor has to trick the companion into thinking he doesn't care about her in order to win. And Explosions (thanks, Ace.) It's a good one.

Eighth: Night of the Doctor - So good it gets the shout out, even though it's a short...and also his best Big Finish is Chimes of Midnight. Just saying!

Ninth: The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances - Probably the only story I liked in series one of the new stuff. The idea of a woman being patiently stalked by a monster through London during the Blitz is just too good an idea and, at least this time, "EVERYBODY LIVES!" felt earned.

Tenth: Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead - If I'd been asked a few months back, I would've said Girl in the Fireplace, but having watched this two-parter again I remembered just how crushing this story is and how scary. I'm talking specifically about Donna's half of the adventure. Holy shit, so amazing. The stuff with the Doctor and River is Ok too. The references she makes to actual adventures that happen with the 11th is kind of neat in retrospect.

Eleventh: The Pandorica Opens/Big Bang - This is probably my favorite season finale of anything ever, the end. It was so quintessentially the Eleventh Doctor: big, loud, silly, impossible and also kind of magical in a way I can't put my finger on. I love this story. All the Geronimos throughout the season feel like they're building to the one he sends back as he rushes headlong towards certain doom near the end of The Big Bang.

Twelfth: Mummy on the Orient Express - This might be my current favorite single episode. I love the setup, I love the locked room mystery aspect of it. I love the little countdown timer whenever the monster is on screen. I love how the Doctor solves the problem, I love the speech he gives during the very last scene of the episode. Capaldi is magnificent in it, Jenna Coleman is magnificent in it. The sadness of a last great adventure adds a cool melancholy to the whole episode. This is probably the episode I'd show new people to convince them the show was worth giving a shot now (not that this is usually a problem anymore.)
 
Waris in the TARDIS:

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To be able to direct the first episode of something and then come back 50 years later to find it still going, bigger than ever, must be such a mind boggling experience. The guy's a legend.
 
I don't find them that offensive to be honest. It just seems very odd that they've dropped them altogether.

Challenge:

Choose your favourite serial/episode from each of the Doctors eras. Only TV serials/episodes for now. Sorry McGann! :(

Ok, I'll give it a go. I have some pretty safe choices, but whatever haha.

One: The Dead Planet

Two: The Tomb of the Cybermen

Three: The Mind of Evil

Four: The City of Death

(Man I love how a big chunk of budget was spent on this serial, there's nothing like The Doctor and Romana running through city streets)

Five: The Caves of Androzani

Six: Trial of a Time Lord

Seven: Remembrance of the Daleks

Eight: Night of the Doctor
 
so is that skaro? Or some other dalek planet
It's Skaro. The design of the interior matches that of The Daleks perfectly, the CGI of the exterior is an updated take on the original Skaro model, and all of the scenes of muddy battlefields and mutations could have been lifted straight from Genesis.
 
Listening to the theme tunes of the modern era, how anyone can argue series 4 doesn't have the best one I have no idea.

Toss my hat in:

Nine - Fathers Day

Ten - Midnight

Eleven - The Girl Who Waited

Twelve - Flatline
 
Listening to the theme tunes of the modern era, how anyone can argue series 4 doesn't have the best one I have no idea.

QFT.

It's basically an orchestral version of the first modern one, refined and improved upon. Really pumps you up and gets you ready for the episode to get going.
 
Yeah Series 4/Specials theme is great. I liked the intro to Series 5's theme with the build up though. Capaldi's theme is like a siren and it has some crackling in it at the high notes. The middle-8 of the extended theme sounds like something you'd hear at a children's arcade.

Whatcha reckon Mission Dalek is?

A game?
 
Kinda makes sense. The "leaked" episodes of series 8 were in a cinematic ratio but the broadcast episodes were regular 16:9.

IIRC only the first episode of season 8 was intended to be matted for cinemas. That's why the episode was leaked that way, so the subtitles could be set properly.
All other episode leaks were 16:9
 
Watching that trailer has made me worried that Capaldi's era is going to be defined by Clara.

I'm really hoping she is gone at the end of this series.
 
Going to Cardiff to see the revamped Doctor Who Experience tomorrow, and it seems like they're going to be filming the finale in a diner round the corner. I'll keep you posted!
 
Insofar as the Doctor is really just the sounding board for companions to interact with, I think Clara's fine, and I appreciate that she doesn't come off as some superhuman person (which, when you're regularly assisting in saving the world/universe, is a hard feat.)

My complaints with season 7 and 8 have much more to do with ancillary stuff *around* Clara than the character or actor herself (watching on Netflix I was surprised they just killed off Danny "so quickly"—I think the downside of the UK shorter series is that it's harder to buy into these sorts of relationships without a lot of shorthand.)

With that sad, part of the churn of new doctors and companions is what makes the show so interesting to me, so swapping her out for another one seems reasonable—after all, part of what makes her unique is that she seems to have a much firmer footing in the "real world" than most companions. The Doctor could be tooling around with a bunch of other people in the interim.

(Just don't give her some tragic end. It feels like a cliche that you have to have some sad or bittersweet ending for the characters at this point.)
 
I'm hoping he breaks the standard of leaving after only a few. He can be my Doctor for years and years.

I feel like the work and hours necessary for playing the Doctor now make anything more than 3-4 years unlikely. It must just become kind of a grind after a while.
 
Yeah Clara needs to go this series and it needs to be a spectacular story that sees her go.

Moffat, more than every other writer doesn't kill people off nearly as often as a high-stakes situation like Doctor Who ought to. Davies did it perfectly.

It says a lot about Moffat's attitude when his first contributation to Nu-Who had the Doctor exclaiming 'EVERYBODY LIVES! FOR ONCE, EVERYBODY LIVES'. The Eleventh Doctor saved almost everyone and even someone like Rory and Clara have died and returned many many times.

Kill her off. Make it impactful. Have it make Capaldi's Doctor legitimately puzzled or ramped up.
 
Yeah Clara needs to go this series and it needs to be a spectacular story that sees her go.

Moffat, more than every other writer doesn't kill people off nearly as often as a high-stakes situation like Doctor Who ought to. Davies did it perfectly.

It says a lot about Moffat's attitude when his first contributation to Nu-Who had the Doctor exclaiming 'EVERYBODY LIVES! FOR ONCE, EVERYBODY LIVES'. The Eleventh Doctor saved almost everyone and even someone like Rory and Clara have died and returned many many times.

Kill her off. Make it impactful. Have it make Capaldi's Doctor legitimately puzzled or ramped up.

Just don't do it fucking with previous doctors
 
Just don't do it fucking with previous doctors

Yeah that annoyed me too. I know it was the anniversary year and all, but he didn't need to retroactively bugger that much up. The Day of the Doctor was fine.

The thirteen doctors calculating coordinates was enough of a nod. Legitimately got shivers down my spine in the Cinema when Baker said 'You know, I really think you might'.

I think I might have even gasped.
 
Yeah Clara needs to go this series and it needs to be a spectacular story that sees her go.

Moffat, more than every other writer doesn't kill people off nearly as often as a high-stakes situation like Doctor Who ought to. Davies did it perfectly.

It says a lot about Moffat's attitude when his first contributation to Nu-Who had the Doctor exclaiming 'EVERYBODY LIVES! FOR ONCE, EVERYBODY LIVES'. The Eleventh Doctor saved almost everyone and even someone like Rory and Clara have died and returned many many times.

Kill her off. Make it impactful. Have it make Capaldi's Doctor legitimately puzzled or ramped up.

Except... he's already killed her off twice, And killed off her boyfriend. And the previous two companions were 'killed off'. I actually think it'd be a bit too much if she was killed too unless they somehow acknowledge that in the storyline.
 
Except... he's already killed her off twice, And killed off her boyfriend. And the previous two companions were 'killed off'. I actually think it'd be a bit too much if she was killed too unless they someway acknowledge that in the storyline.

Amy and Rory were alive and well. I consider their ending a cop out.

Travelling with the Doctor is dangerous and more people should die.
 
Amy and Rory were alive and well. I consider their ending a cop out.

Travelling with the Doctor is dangerous and more people should die.

Surprisingly few actually have, though, this isn't exactly something new. Adric, of course, and Sara Kingdom, Kamelion, if you count him. I think there might be one other? In New Who the only 'companion' - which I'm defining as "has name in intro" - to die would be Astrid and Adelaide. And I guess the Face of Boe, but that's rather subverting the concept.
 
It has been a loooong time since I read DWM, pre No Who. Did they ever reprint all the old Archive (the really dry, detailed ones by Andrew Pixley from the mid-90s onwards) articles in one book? Did they ever go on to the new series?

I would lurve those collected. My old DWM collection was the victim of a purge (cleanout) about 15 tears ago. I even had an issue 1 of Dr Who Weekly with the letraset transfers still in it.
 
Challenge:

Choose your favourite serial/episode from each of the Doctors eras. Only TV serials/episodes for now. Sorry McGann! :(

1 - The Romans
2 - War Games
3 - Day of the Daleks
4 - The Seeds of Doom
5 - Earthshock
6 - The Two Doctors
7 - Remembrance of the Daleks
9 - The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances
10 - Blink
11 - The Eleventh Hour
12 - Flatline
 
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