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[The Elite]

This didn't lead into the Paul McGann tv-movie did it?

No, that was the Cat People episode - Survival.

 

[lunarworks]

Fixed.

Davison was great in his run. The crap begins and ends with Colin. I agree about McCoy's first season though.

I was too young to be really involved in Doctor Who when Colin Baker had his run. (It was an odd show with a cult following on TVO when I was a kid. No one else at school even watched it.) I just remember not liking him. Of course, when Sylvester McCoy took over, I wondered "Who is this short, ugly guy?" But then the show sorta disappeared.

But, even though I was young, I loved the Fourth Doctor, mostly in reruns. I found the Fifth Doctor, on the other hand, very boring. The Sixth? An angry guy who dressed like a fucking clown.

 

[mrklaw]

loved this episode. sat next to my 10 year old and he was bricking it. Freaky kids and bedrooms are the best.

welled up at the end where the dad hugs his 'son', I'm weak like that as a Dad myself.

Wondering whether to get some of the older freaky episodes for him to watch (he's new with Dr 11). Maybe Blink, the empty child, what else?

 

[isny]

loved this episode. sat next to my 10 year old and he was bricking it. Freaky kids and bedrooms are the best.

welled up at the end where the dad hugs his 'son', I'm weak like that as a Dad myself.

Wondering whether to get some of the older freaky episodes for him to watch (he's new with Dr 11). Maybe Blink, the empty child, what else?

Silence in the Library? "Hey, who turned out the lights?"

 

[mrklaw]

then find out their childhood friend who has never been mentioned before but is the most important person in their entire lives is also their daughter, then see her regenerate into the other character and try to kill the Doctor, and they react to all of this like the weatherman just said there was a 20% chance of rain.

I'll take Midnight, Turn Left and The Waters of Mars back, please.

this part can surely be explained easily enough? she wasn't their best friend, but she was inserted into their history so its natural for them to know her now, but not previously mention her. Bearing in mind she was born after they'd grown up, time travel had to be involved anyway, so they just changed their timelines

 

[wind_steaker]

Dalek would be a pretty good one too - one of the few recent good Dalek episodes.

edit: and yeah I agree with the inserting her into their timeline idea, but it's a bit subtle for your average viewer who doesn't spend as much time as we do talking about who so I can understand the distaste for it.

 

[mrklaw]

I think perhaps whether you judge 5/6 to be successful depends how much you like the River arc and Amy/Rory's stories. 1-4 had far more standalone stories, so perhaps more of a chance for your taste to be covered, whereas if you don't click with amy/rory/river, then a huge amount of 5/6 simply passes you by

 

[Clegg]

I think perhaps whether you judge 5/6 to be successful depends how much you like the River arc and Amy/Rory's stories. 1-4 had far more standalone stories, so perhaps more of a chance for your taste to be covered, whereas if you don't click with amy/rory/river, then a huge amount of 5/6 simply passes you by

1-4 also had a lot of very mediocre episodes. Fear Her and Love and Monsters are so bad thet they can actually stop people watching together.

Although, some standalones were very good. Blink is the obvious example. Midnight was also very good.

 

[mrklaw]

Dalek would be a pretty good one too - one of the few recent good Dalek episodes.

edit: and yeah I agree with the inserting her into their timeline idea, but it's a bit subtle for your average viewer who doesn't spend as much time as we do talking about who so I can understand the distaste for it.

but they do it in the first couple of minutes with the newspaper photo. First there is 'Doctor', then Doctor with a big line through it. so they're revising history in realtime.

 

[EleventhDoctor]

but they do it in the first couple of minutes with the newspaper photo. First there is 'Doctor', then Doctor with a big line through it. so they're revising history in realtime.

Not quite. The camera pans up to show us the word in real time. But The Doctor has a copy of tomorrows newspaper with Mel's line through the word. There's no revision there. The picture in the paper was taken after she made the line.

 

[kunu]

Well, I dove into this show this past summer. I started with the reboot (that is, the 1st series with Christopher Eccleston) and have been using the handy OP's guide for which episodes to watch and I've been pretty damn impressed with all of the episodes, with a few exceptions.

I'm up to the new, current Doctor now (the fifth series) and I love it so far. I can easily see him becoming my favorite of the three that I've watched. Can't wait to get caught up to the sixth series so I can discuss the new episodes with all of WhoGAF.

 

[Ripclawe]

So watching Looney Tunes movie and surprised to see Daleks against Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck.... How did this come about to use them?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnsqfbF9mbY

 

[Regulus Tera]

Best Mark Gatiss episode. Very nice to have a slow-paced story for once. Creep yet heartwarming stuff.

 

[Quick]

Having only been introduced to the series via the 2005 revival onwards, I don't have a clear grasp on previous Doctors before the 9th. I know general information about each of them, but nothing extremely detailed.

That said, I'm curious about the evolution of the Doctor character. Whenever he regenerates, it's established that he changes personalities, therefore making him somewhat like a new person with memories of the previous person. From 1-11, how huge a difference has the Doctor's personality changed over the course of the series? And what regeneration did the Doctor's personality drastically change?

 

[gabbo]

Having only been introduced to the series via the 2005 revival onwards, I don't have a clear grasp on previous Doctors before the 9th. I know general information about each of them, but nothing extremely detailed.

That said, I'm curious about the evolution of the Doctor character. Whenever he regenerates, it's established that he changes personalities, therefore making him somewhat like a new person with memories of the previous person. From 1-11, how huge a difference has the Doctor's personality changed over the course of the series? And what regeneration did the Doctor's personality drastically change?

Having just taken up watching the old shows on dvd; starting with An Unearthly Child and working my way forward, I can at least say that the first Doctor doesn't like humans at all. We are intergalactic backwater mouth-breathers as far as he is concerned and he'd rather not deal with us (at least initially). Then again he's generally an old miser with a short temper all around.

So in that sense he's gone from a general distaste for to downright loving humans. If what I've read is correct, very little interest in human women until 8th Doctor.

 

[SpeedingUptoStop]

Very good episode, although very weirdly standloneish. The most standaloniesh Moffat has ever gotten. not even a bumper or an intro. Nothing mysterious or anything to connect to any other episode. It felt weird in that respect. Everything else though, was very good. One of the best shot episodes and that's saying a bit.

 

[EleventhDoctor]

Very good episode, although very weirdly standloneish. The most standaloniesh Moffat has ever gotten. not even a bumper or an intro. Nothing mysterious or anything to connect to any other episode. It felt weird in that respect. Everything else though, was very good. One of the best shot episodes and that's saying a bit.

I agree wholeheartedly. That episode looked better than most every movie I've seen this year. Matt Smith was particulary good in this episode too.

 

[maharg]

I think the biggest shift in personality for the Doctor is some time between the third and fifth. Whether that shift is biggest from 3rd to 4th or 4th to 5th is hard to say, but to me that was the transition from the mostly curmudgeonly old doctor to the younger and more personable doctors we've had since. Obviously with shifts back and forth over time (Six was quite angry, Seven was back to a bit curmudgeonly). Eight through Eleven are all, especially, kind of variations on a theme.

And now the people playing the Doctor actually grew up watching one of the previous Doctors, and it tends to show. Particularly, Tennant borrows a lot from Five and Matt Smith, imo, borrows a lot from Two.

 

[Android18a]

I like how Smith often seems almost like a marionette. His movements have an almost thunderbirds-ish flow to them, like he's being dangled around on strings. He's almost got Jack Sparrow sea legs at times.

 

[Discotheque]

Very good episode, although very weirdly standloneish. The most standaloniesh Moffat has ever gotten. not even a bumper or an intro. Nothing mysterious or anything to connect to any other episode. It felt weird in that respect. Everything else though, was very good. One of the best shot episodes and that's saying a bit.

this is a pretty good thing, can't always have tied episodes. And they did kind of do a pullback to the main plotline at the end when they show the screen in the Tardis (like what they did with the cracks last season showing it in non-mainstory episodes as well).

 

[mclem]

child actors are almost universally terrible of course is why there's hate

But there are exceptions. I haven't seen these ones yet so I can't have an opinion

Ramona Marquez. Well, all the Outnumbered kids, but especially Karen.

 

[Raydeen]

Entertaining episode and reminded me of Survival being set on a similar council estate. Couple of niggly things, the most annoying being Murray Gold's score for this one - it just didn't fit the episode, it was almost like he was told to make a lightearted score to counterpoint the horror elements. Dolls that turn you into dolls was a great idea though. Would have been nice if The Doctor had actually *discovered* what the child was rather then knowing *yet again*. 6.5/10.

 

[33-Hit-Combo]

Ramona Marquez. Well, all the Outnumbered kids, but especially Karen.

She is a pro. I don't watch the show, but know who you talk of.

 

[Alphahawk]

I think perhaps whether you judge 5/6 to be successful depends how much you like the River arc and Amy/Rory's stories. 1-4 had far more standalone stories, so perhaps more of a chance for your taste to be covered, whereas if you don't click with amy/rory/river, then a huge amount of 5/6 simply passes you by

I think 5/6 has plenty of stand alones but it's just surrounded by this weird arc thingy...

Almost all of Season 5 was stand alone for instance with the exception of The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang and Flesh and Stone....

of season 6 roughly half the episodes shown so far revolve around an arc. (The Impossible Astronaut/Day of the Moon The Rebel Flesh/The Almost People A Good Man Goes to War/Let's Kill Hitler) with the rest being stand alones. I'd also question how much "The Rebel Flesh" two parter actually revolves around an arc while it's integral to the arc as a whole and the last scene certainly entices viewers to watch the next episode the whole thing up to that point strikes me as very stand alone.

Granted I'm kind of sick of the whole Astronaut arc but let's not kid ourselves: There are still plenty of stand alones in this season.

 

[infiniteloop]

Looks like filming for the Christmas episode starts next week.

 

[Hot Coldman]

So watching Looney Tunes movie and surprised to see Daleks against Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck.... How did this come about to use them?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnsqfbF9mbY

Apparently Steve Martin insisted the Daleks should be part of the illegal alien group in Area 52. He thought they were part of the public domain, but was mistaken. Dunno if WB ended up having to pay for the rights or not.

 

[JoshuaJSlone]

Having only been introduced to the series via the 2005 revival onwards, I don't have a clear grasp on previous Doctors before the 9th. I know general information about each of them, but nothing extremely detailed.

That said, I'm curious about the evolution of the Doctor character. Whenever he regenerates, it's established that he changes personalities, therefore making him somewhat like a new person with memories of the previous person. From 1-11, how huge a difference has the Doctor's personality changed over the course of the series? And what regeneration did the Doctor's personality drastically change?

Having just recently gone through the First->Second transition, I was surprised how much change there was. I was expecting it would be the least change of all, but he's very much gone from being the stubborn old man to someone much more quick to get in the thick of things. He's also become better at getting into false personas through accents and costume changes, certainly seems more whimsical, and he's starting to sound much more like the do-gooder hero than just a guy who keeps falling into situations he can fix. I jotted down this bit of conversation from his first Cybermen story that I enjoyed:

"Because there is something evil here, and we must stay."
"Evil? Don't be daft."
"Evil is what I meant. There are some corners of the universe which have bred the most terrible things. Things which act against everything that we believe in. They must be fought."

 

[DrForester]

I think the biggest shift in personality for the Doctor is some time between the third and fifth. Whether that shift is biggest from 3rd to 4th or 4th to 5th is hard to say, but to me that was the transition from the mostly curmudgeonly old doctor to the younger and more personable doctors we've had since. Obviously with shifts back and forth over time (Six was quite angry, Seven was back to a bit curmudgeonly). Eight through Eleven are all, especially, kind of variations on a theme.

And now the people playing the Doctor actually grew up watching one of the previous Doctors, and it tends to show. Particularly, Tennant borrows a lot from Five and Matt Smith, imo, borrows a lot from Two.

One think I really enjoy about Eccleston and to a bit lesser extent Smith is they both took a bti of #1's "Yup, I'm an asshole sometimes" personality.

 

[bengraven]

Speaking of One, I think BBC should do an animated series for kids along the lines of the original series.

The original intention of the show was to be an edutainment show and I was watching Sprout/PBS with my son the other day, a show about dinosaurs riding trains, and I was like "Doctor Who would actually make a really good kids' show".

I mean, he's basically the Cat in the Hat already.

 

[Alphahawk]

Speaking of One, I think BBC should do an animated series for kids along the lines of the original series.

The original intention of the show was to be an edutainment show and I was watching Sprout/PBS with my son the other day, a show about dinosaurs riding trains, and I was like "Doctor Who would actually make a really good kids' show".

I mean, he's basically the Cat in the Hat already.

Apparently at one point RTD was approached about doing a children's show that would chronicle the adventures of a young docter he hated the ideea of exploring the doctor's past in such detail and instead created "The Sarah Jane Adventures"

 

[gabbo]

Apparently at one point RTD was approached about doing a children's show that would chronicle the adventures of a young docter he hated the ideea of exploring the doctor's past in such detail and instead created "The Sarah Jane Adventures"

I'd rather see the Time War than go back to a young version of William Hartnell.

One think I really enjoy about Eccleston and to a bit lesser extent Smith is they both took a bti of #1's "Yup, I'm an asshole sometimes" personality.

It's one of the reasons I prefer Eccleston to Tennent and Smith. He pulled off asshole/disdain for people so well.

 

[Gamer @ Heart]

This episode was beautifully shot. I am not alone in this right?

Its probably helped that they werent stuck in corny looking sci fi sets or a factory basement.

 

[mclem]

This episode was beautifully shot. I am not alone in this right?

Its probably helped that they werent stuck in corny looking sci fi sets or a factory basement.

There's a beautiful shot right at the start where we see the Tardis materialise in a puddle. That's gorgeous.

Same director did The Doctor's Wife and Gridlock. He's one they should really be hanging onto, I think.

 

[acheron_xl]

I'd rather see the Time War than go back to a young version of William Hartnell.

The Time War should be one of those things that often alluded to, but never actually fully explained. I think The Doctor needs to keep some mystery.

I'd love to see some animated 8th Doctor stories, personally.

 

[big ander]

This episode was beautifully shot. I am not alone in this right?

Its probably helped that they werent stuck in corny looking sci fi sets or a factory basement.

Just about every other episode reaction talks about it being beautifully shot, so.

I thought it was decently shot.

 

[gabbo]

The Time War should be one of those things that often alluded to, but never actually fully explained. I think The Doctor needs to keep some mystery.

I'd love to see some animated 8th Doctor stories, personally.

They need to get back to alluding to it then.

 

[bengraven]

Apparently at one point RTD was approached about doing a children's show that would chronicle the adventures of a young docter he hated the ideea of exploring the doctor's past in such detail and instead created "The Sarah Jane Adventures"

He wouldn't need to do another aspect of the Doctor. Just an animated version of the Doctor. He wouldn't need to get into the past because the Doctor would just be a means to get the entertainment/education going.

 

[Locke_211]

I'd love to see another pure historical story. They pretty much stopped after the Hartnell era, but I think this team would be great in one!

 

[infiniteloop]

qwertee

 

[Lactose_Intolerant]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFy06YYzNCo&feature=player_embedded

was this posted anywhere yet? the doctor's new coat

 

[Nymeria88]

This most recent episode reminded me of an old Are You Afraid of the Dark? episode. It was where this girl gets trapped in a doll house she finds in the attic. Then she starts slowly turning into a doll and has to find a way out before she fully becomes a doll.

 

[gabbo]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFy06YYzNCo&feature=player_embedded

was this posted anywhere yet? the doctor's new coat

I thought he must have come across Tennant's area on the clothes rack to be honest. It is much nicer looking when it's not editing around him as quickly as an episode does. Would wear

 

[DrForester]

So I was at Day 1 of an anime convention in Denver today, and they have a balcony decorating contest with all the rooms overlooking the atrium. Someone built a TARDIS on their balcony. Will try to get a picture tomorrow.

 

[GameplayWhore]

Haha! Best cliffhanger ever.

Is any of McCoys run actually worth watching?

Delayed answer, I've been in a desert for a while....

McCoy started out a solid step up from Colin, which should still be considered rather on the low scale. His first outing involved embarrassing pratfalls and being the butt of jokes by way of amnesiatic foolishness. The actor was a physical comedian, and he emphasized that part. He was constantly spouting out misworded popular sayings, which got old very quickly. Jump to a year or two later, he dropped the poor parts of his character and started acting more intellectual and very much more serious. They started experimenting on (with Ace, his final companion) long-term story arcs of the sort you've seen in New Who (Ace was sort of special, and the storylines revolve around how much time had fucked her up). The Doctor started getting mysterious and dark, and he'd play sometimes seemingly malevolent games with Ace, but it felt like he always had a purpose at it.

In the marathon thing last year, it was at Remembrance of the Daleks wherein they drop the bad elements of the character. It might have happened before that, since I only watched a few shows out of his run. There're still a lot of quality issues with the show at this point, especially with set design and props (they went back to the First Doctor's very very first episode and set it in the same garbage dump, but they managed to misspell "I.M.Foreman" and couldn't afford to fix it before filming, for instance). I have to respect that they took some chances here and there. It was rather bold to have that setting for the episode, even if there was a bit of stumbling. "The Greatest Show in the Galaxy" and "The Happiness Patrol" were incredibly offbeat and off-kilter. I liked them more than I disliked them, but the show runners were really going all over the place.

Of the last two serials:

"The Curse of Fenric" is pretty much as great as Doctor Who gets. It's up there, imho, with the best of Moffat and with that episode where drilling too deeply into the Earth turns people into green werewolves then incinerates the planet (I love how terrible the synopsis for the wonderful, wonderful episode "Inferno" sounds!). It's arc-heavy, the relationship between the Doctor and his companion is terrifically stressed, it has an excellent treatment of its monsters and villains ... as a bonus, the characters are generally practical instead of the usual brand of stupid you tend to see when Humans in Doctor Who (and, well, in movies and television and books and everywhere else) are being hunted by monsters.

"Survival" was very, very good. The Master was present, but his actions -- for the first time in like ten appearances -- were subtle instead of the levels of Bond Villainy he'd been attaining for most of the '80s. The final scenes were pretty epic, with a great backdrop, and characters came out of it with some degree of development. I was incredibly happy with this being the ending of the series.

And then I watched the 1996 movie. Bollocks.

 

[acheron_xl]

Delayed answer, I've been in a desert for a while....

McCoy started out a solid step up from Colin, which should still be considered rather on the low scale. His first outing involved embarrassing pratfalls and being the butt of jokes by way of amnesiatic foolishness. The actor was a physical comedian, and he emphasized that part. He was constantly spouting out misworded popular sayings, which got old very quickly. Jump to a year or two later, he dropped the poor parts of his character and started acting more intellectual and very much more serious. They started experimenting on (with Ace, his final companion) long-term story arcs of the sort you've seen in New Who (Ace was sort of special, and the storylines revolve around how much time had fucked her up). The Doctor started getting mysterious and dark, and he'd play sometimes seemingly malevolent games with Ace, but it felt like he always had a purpose at it.

In the marathon thing last year, it was at Remembrance of the Daleks wherein they drop the bad elements of the character. It might have happened before that, since I only watched a few shows out of his run. There're still a lot of quality issues with the show at this point, especially with set design and props (they went back to the First Doctor's very very first episode and set it in the same garbage dump, but they managed to misspell "I.M.Foreman" and couldn't afford to fix it before filming, for instance). I have to respect that they took some chances here and there. It was rather bold to have that setting for the episode, even if there was a bit of stumbling. "The Greatest Show in the Galaxy" and "The Happiness Patrol" were incredibly offbeat and off-kilter. I liked them more than I disliked them, but the show runners were really going all over the place.

Of the last two serials:

"The Curse of Fenric" is pretty much as great as Doctor Who gets. It's up there, imho, with the best of Moffat and with that episode where drilling too deeply into the Earth turns people into green werewolves then incinerates the planet (I love how terrible the synopsis for the wonderful, wonderful episode "Inferno" sounds!). It's arc-heavy, the relationship between the Doctor and his companion is terrifically stressed, it has an excellent treatment of its monsters and villains ... as a bonus, the characters are generally practical instead of the usual brand of stupid you tend to see when Humans in Doctor Who (and, well, in movies and television and books and everywhere else) are being hunted by monsters.

"Survival" was very, very good. The Master was present, but his actions -- for the first time in like ten appearances -- were subtle instead of the levels of Bond Villainy he'd been attaining for most of the '80s. The final scenes were pretty epic, with a great backdrop, and characters came out of it with some degree of development. I was incredibly happy with this being the ending of the series.

And then I watched the 1996 movie. Bollocks.

Just watched The Curse of Fenric recently. Pretty good. I generally dig McCoy. Him, Smith and Troughton are pretty much of a type.

 

[cory.]

I generally dig McCoy. Him, Smith and Troughton are pretty much of a type.

Yes, definitely.

 

[GameplayWhore]

Just watched The Curse of Fenric recently. Pretty good. I generally dig McCoy. Him, Smith and Troughton are pretty much of a type.

Yeah, now that I think of it, the trio seem a bit more layered than the other Doctors. Troughton was this sort of cowardly fellow on the surface, McCoy came off as a clown, and Smith ... has some form of extreme intergalactic ADHD. But they all have this underlying "I'm really secretly a bad-ass with a ton of experience and wear behind me" theme which you see sometimes when you look at their eyes and which surfaces from time to time. The others tended to be generally more one note (though usually quite good at it).

 

[Fuzzy]

It's my brother's b-day and I'm about to head out so no Who for me today.

 

[electroshockwave]

I need to take screencaps of Rory and the Doctor wearing those glasses later for some type of hipster meme.

 

[Clegg]

That was amazing.

The Doctor is a bastard.