Gamer @ Heart
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DrForester said:dude....
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Doctor Who Series 2011 |OT| Wibbly Wobbly Timey Wimey Stuff
- Thread starter Mr. Sam
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USA-GAF here, and I finally decided to try and jump in on this show, GAF. Season 1, episode 1, "Rose". The one where plastic comes to life. Seriously, I thought it was probably the one of the dumbest things I've ever seen. I quit about 35 minutes in. Is this just a bad episode that doesn't properly represent the quality of the rest of the show, or is it just not for me? I was really looking forward to it given all the good things I've heard/read in general, but I'm not sure if what I've always heard/read has been mostly referring to the old show or the new one. Needless to say, I felt this episode was incredibly ridiculous for a lauded program. Should I stick with it for one or two more, or does the new series not really get on it's feet until season two or something? :/
Speculator
BioWare Austin
Sklorenz said:
Stick with it. I was a nonbeliever as well (the girlfriend finally convinced me to watch/marathon it). There are campy moments, but the show is great.
Gamer @ Heart
Member
Sklorenz said:
DUDE. I felt the exact same way. Its really hard to digest the cheese/campy factor when you first jump in. The stories and dialog will eventually win you over however.
I didnt even finish the first season till after i had watched the whole series. I jumped straight to David Tennent after giving up on "Rose," because of all the praise i heard for him. It was still rough in spots, but his over the top energy made me click with him in a way i didnt for Christopher eccleston, at least at the start.
Keep going. You will get use to it. And when you hit the Stephen Moffat episodes every season, you will be giddy for when he finally becomes show runner. So good.
InaudibleWhispa
Member
I think everybody finds the first episode embarrassing. Keep watching and you'll fall in love with the concepts and characters. You'll get used to the campness and more frequently come across legitimately great episodes. Then you'll start noticing the pattern that most of them are written by a bloke called Steven Moffat. Then you can watch with the blissful knowledge that he now runs the show and that you're working towards a time when quality episodes pop up with much greater consistency. But you'll even grow to have fun with the badly camp episodes along the way too.Sklorenz said:
If you do continue to watch (please do!), keep us up to date in here!
infiniteloop
Member
Sklorenz said:
yes
APZonerunner
Member
Jinfash said:
I wanted to address this a little bit, though it already has been, with my perspective...
4th/Specials: I think it was more of an 'end of an era' approach than anything - more about Tennant, RTD, Julie Gardner all leaving etc than the actual character but at the same time that was a big part of the very sentimental, oft-upset and emotionally movable tenth Doctor's personality anyway. Whereas other Doctors just let companions leave or dropped them off every single time was heartbreak for him (whereas if Amy left The Doctor now I imagine he'd be disappointed but move on very quickly) so I think it seemed fairly appropriate. Different approaches from each personality.
I think it's quite fitting that the key thing about Tennant's Doctor that is always his downfall is that, really, he's a bit selfish and a bit of a smug bastard. It's funny that his selfishness runs dead-set alongside his forever selflessness - that conflict comes to a head in the scene before he absorbs the radiation. In the end it's a wonderful contrast between the two RTD-era Doctors that one - the one who was arguably more tortured and had more to be angry and unhappy about - ended his life happy and content, while the other, who largely had a better life, ended it unsatisfied and upset. It's an interesting statement on Tennant's Doctor and his entire era, though who knows if that was deliberate. A huge part of it was just the team trying to pull heartstrings and also ratings - Tennant's regneration was a huge national event here, watched by something ridiculous approaching 50% of all people watching TV at the time it happened, and they wanted to acknowledge that somewhat in the story.
I'm sure this long after your orginal post you've already started Series 5, but it's worth saying, at least, that I feel it's just as good as the RTD era, really. Better in places and to me worse in a few (but not as many as where it's better.) I think the overall quality is way, way above any of the RTD series' of the show but the highs in that era are higher. The lows are also lower, as Fear Her and its kin will attest, mind.
The ratings aren't quite as healthy, but... it's a funny thing. Everyone on GAF and the Doctor Who fans and such are more appreciative of the style Moffat's bought to the show and the fact there's much less slashy action and explosions and deux ex machina resolutions unlike under RTD, but there's a difference to the average joe, I think. Speaking to a family friend who have two kids - 11 and 8, boy and girl, they said they loved the recent Christmas Special but complained that it "wasn't very epic," which while I think it was quite epic it certainly wasn't this ridiculous high-stakes action movie stuff you had going on in Voyage or The Runaway Bride and whatnot. The ratings were also effected by the World Cup, the heat etc... it's hard to say. The series rocks, though, don't worry.
Moffat, Smith and Barrowman are all on record saying they want to do it if the storyline is right, so I think it'll happen. It won't happen this coming series, though - River Song fills the role Jack was designed to fill - Jack was literally conceived in Series One as a character who could shoot stuff in the finale because the Doctor and Rose wouldn't. With her story presumably coming to an end this series based on comments she's made last series and what Moffat has said in interviews, I think he could show up in Series Seven.
It might also provide some familiarity as it's worth noting that while
Matt's contract stretches to Series Seven, Karen's doesn't. She could be signed on further, but she may also choose to go.
It's campy by its very nature. The first two episodes in particular are both deliberately very campy and have aged badly; they make 2005 seem like it was a million years ago, but it gets better. Honestly, Series 1-4 we compiled a list somewhere in this thread I think of Episodes you should watch - halves the episode count, roughly - and then you can move onto the new stuff. The CGI, the prosthetics - all that stuff is really ropey in Series 1 and 2. 3 is where they start to get it right.
JonathanEx
Member
Doubt it,APZonerunner said:
with series 6 and 7 split, and one episode being moved from 6 to 7, it'd be odd for her to, uh, leave and then come back? Unless when you say series 7 it means what -was- series 7, and will now be series 8 cos of el Splitto.
InaudibleWhispa
Member
Yeah, I'd recommend giving 1-4 a go and if he simply has to give up, then skip to season 5, or at least watch some of the recommended episodes first. Season 5 by the way Sklorenz is when Steven Moffat, the writer of the best of the best of seasons 1-4, became show runner. New cast and crew, new doctor and companion, and far better and consistent writing.Parts said:
BrLvgThrChmstry
Banned
Just wanted to chime in to say how great of a show "Doctor Who" is. initially, like many others, I was turned off by most of the cheese factor. But I eventually grew to love and appreciate it.
My viewings are very sporadic, I've watched some of series 2, 3, and 4 (in random order) and had the chance to view the entire (?) 5th series during the Doctor Who marathon on BBC America over the holidays.
My viewings are very sporadic, I've watched some of series 2, 3, and 4 (in random order) and had the chance to view the entire (?) 5th series during the Doctor Who marathon on BBC America over the holidays.
DrForester
Kills Photobucket
I think Doctor Who's cheese factor and low budget never got to me because I was a fan of MST3K, and it doesn't get more low budget than that.
APZonerunner
Member
JonathanEx said:
Supposedly the BBC Worldwide guys have said the entire split will be released in one box come Christmas as "Complete Series Six" and the episodes in their scripts, casting calls etc are referred to as 6.1-6.13 and not 6.1-6.6 and 7.1-7.7, so, yes, that's what I mean. I imagine the whole split "IT'S TWO SERIES IN ONE YEAR! ISN'T THAT BETTER!!" talk from Moffat etc will be binned the same way the "this isn't series 5 it's series 1" talk was. It's especially uneconomical to market them as two seasons as overseas sales perform better with 13 episodes; that's part of the reason Who/Torchwood were reconceived with 13 episode series' compared to something like, say, Waking the Dead or Life on Mars, which wasn't intended as much for sale abroad and as such got a traditional British episode count.
infiniteloop
Member
APZonerunner said:
they have?
Ivan A Nguyen
Member
I snagged the series off of Amazon for digital streaming. I rewatched all of Season 4 and it has some of the best moments of Tennant's run. My favorite was the call back
I had to pause the ep till I finished laughing.
he did when the Atmos system went evil and he had to put on a gas mask. He turned to the military guy and said, "Are you my mommy?"
JonathanEx
Member
APZonerunner said:
Fair enough, glad to know we all know what we're on about now.
At least the episode move/split killed the "SHE'S GONNA DIE AS THE CLIFFHANGER!" bollocks rumour.
To clarify, I 'started' with 5 then backtraced back to 1 and watched the whole thing once I was an actual fan rather than a casual enjoyer. I enjoyed them as a fan, but it took S5 to make me a fan.
I say 'skip to 5' because I find the quality to be much more consistent throughout than the other seasons which is what you need when you're not really sure what you're getting yourself into.
And the effects don't suck /bias
I say 'skip to 5' because I find the quality to be much more consistent throughout than the other seasons which is what you need when you're not really sure what you're getting yourself into.
And the effects don't suck /bias
infiniteloop
Member
?
DrForester
Kills Photobucket
Stupid lucky small kids....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tLBDkpM870
Professor Frink:
No you can't play with it, you won't enjoy it on as many levels as I do... Mm-hai bw-ha whoa-hoa. The colours children. Mwa-ha-lee.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tLBDkpM870
Professor Frink:
No you can't play with it, you won't enjoy it on as many levels as I do... Mm-hai bw-ha whoa-hoa. The colours children. Mwa-ha-lee.
mightynine
Member
DrForester said:
There's something...not quite right with the juxtaposition of smiling happy kids and "WE ARE THE SUPERIOR RACE".
Jinfash
needs 2 extra inches
That's exactly what I came in here to post. I'm a few episodes in and any doubts or concerns I had were dispelled.APZonerunner said:
Another thing I noticed, was the high number of all that is "new" lol. I mean, I know that before revival the show took drastic changes from one doctor to the other, but:
- New writer
- New doctor
- New companion
- New intro
- New title screen (or more back to the roots).
- New TARDIS interior (and a slightly different exterior). And last but not least, a freaking...
- New sonic screw driver.
That's a lot of new if you ask me lol. While some are reasonable, some seem there to, I don't know, inflict a psychological sense of newness?
lunarworks
Member
I imagine, since BBC doesn't have any studios or facilities anywhere near there, they made a deal with Warner Bros. to use theirs for the parts they filmed out west.infiniteloop said:
?
lunarworks said:
They filmed in Utah though...I wouldn't think they would ship everything to LA and then truck it out to Utah. The only reason they would do this I could imagine is due to the production office they set up last year in LA with Julie at the helm, but it would still be a lot of unnecessary work.
lunarworks
Member
Could be that they used the post facilities in Hollywood to some degree. If there's any US-based actors involved it would make sense to do it there, where they could call them up when needed.
mightynine
Member
Maybe they could tape something with Conan. And by maybe, I mean please do that.
infiniteloop
Member
PhoncipleBone
Banned
Yum.infiniteloop said:
Discotheque
Banned
'mightynine said:
Eh Craig Ferguson would be the only likely candidate. He's actually a Doctor Who fan and had Matt Smith on his show.
plus he's much funnier
Dr Zhivago
Member
Discotheque said:
He's already done Red Dwarf.
infiniteloop
Member
DrForester
Kills Photobucket
Apparently going to be featured in next issue of Wizard Magazine
Ivan A Nguyen
Member
I thought wizard was canceled. When did this change?DrForester said:Apparently going to be featured in next issue of Wizard Magazine
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