The eccelson rant just screams sour grapes to me...Gives me the impression that he didnt expect it to last more then a season so thats all he contracted for, and wanted out before he was typecast too harshly (If the new reboot had failed im sure he could have escaped the typecast role but he probably wasnt thinking about it at the time). Tom baker was very similar. after he left the role he was rather bitter about the show because he was heavily typecast and couldnt get more work. He eventually came around and appears to have lost his bitterness, but that was why he wasnt in "The Five Doctors" he refused to do it at the time.
When it first started in 2005, I thought Eccleston was fantastic and didn't want a change to David Tennant. Now I have seen everything of the new series. Tennant and Smith are easily better than Eccleston ... plus most of the story lines in the first season were a little too silly.
So I know there's something inherently ridiculous about asking a chronology question about a time travel show, but I accidentally watched the first couple minutes of The End of Time on watch instantly several days ago when I was at the beginning of the Donna Noble season, and now I'm near the end of the Tennant tenure it appears. Should I go back and watch it now? Where does it fit in?
So, finally got around to watching the second episode of Torchwood on iPlayer. It didn't get any better.
Watch "Random Shoes" from torchwood. Its...different.
Yes, "Random Shoes" is gold. Also, "They Keep Killing Suzie" and "Small World" (the fairy episode) are quite nice. "Cyberwoman" is the worst. The season finale is also great.
You got the Random Shoes and Cyberwoman part backwards. Actually, I hated Small World, and like Countrycide instead. Cyberwoman and the season finale are among the finest pieces of television ever created. Cherish them.
Cyberwoman was terrible, dudicus.
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BobCescaIs a girlBirmingham, UKRegistered Userregular
Miracle Day is still terrible (I have now watched 3 episodes).
RTD really needs a writing partner to remove all the shite he insists on putting in (the 'lol lol differences between British and American names for things' was really grating).
Miracle Day is still terrible (I have now watched 3 episodes).
RTD really needs a writing partner to remove all the shite he insists on putting in (the 'lol lol differences between British and American names for things' was really grating).
You mean like the ridiculous bio-metric security for the server room? That only one person ever could enter? That was apparently more secure than the CIA office?
God forbid they ever had a cooling issue and the guy was out at lunch or at home sleeping. "Sorry we lost billions of dollars worth of financial data and your top secret plan to take over the world because you couldn't be bothered to let me hire another employee to work the night shift in case the air conditioning went out."
darunia106J-bob in gamesDeath MountainRegistered Userregular
edited August 2011
So I finally finished watching all of the Christopher Eccleston and David Tennant run.
As much as I like David Tennant, he really got quite the send off compared to Chris. I mean, Chris is all, "Oh hey i'm regenerating." And then poof he's David. David on the other hand got to see all his companions one last time and even got a freaking choir to sing his farewell. And come to think of it he got a lot of love in the later series. Everyone in the early parts of the series almost hated the man cuz they considered him a stormcrow, something that follows wherever trouble goes. Later series just has him getting hero worship everywhere which always bugged me and there's the whole thing about him being all vulnerable and still touchable in the early parts then being all big and scary in later series. Heck I noticed the shift started in Human Nature/Family of Blood. Oh well, still love the series to bits though and will get them on DVD to watch them forever as soon as I can.
Time to move on to Matt Smith and the Steven Moffat era. I'm excited. Should I be?
Eccleston is still my favorite doctor - he managed to be both enthusiastic and low-key/down-to-earth at the same time. (Tennant and Smith are great though.) And season 1 of new who is probably still my favorite season. I didn't really dislike any of the episodes except The Unquiet Dead. - the other seasons are more hit and miss. Also Rose turns into a god! And she has to play a game of The Weakest Link hosted by Anne-Droid (who shoots the losers with a lasergun that pops out of her mouth!) Also Lady Cassandra is awesome.
I think my only chief complaint about Eccleston is that he just doesn't look like the Doctor. I don't really know how exactly to put it, but it's mostly due to how absolutely normal he looks, with the leather jacked and buzzcut. It's like if you took every incarnation and stand them side by side, he's the one that stands out and looks like he doesn't belong.
Everything else about him is great though. And yeah, in hindsight it is kind of a kick in the teeth that his death gets about 30 seconds, and 10 goes out in a symphonic explosion, but that's just the way it is.
"The sausage of Green Earth explodes with flavor like the cannon of culinary delight."
Eccelston's doctor felt like a man on war leave. Taking a break from the horrors of the universe, which is why he flys off the handle so much when he finds a dalek, and why he is so horrified by his actions causing the bad wolf saga.
I truly enjoyed his run, even though some of the stories were much, much weaker than others. Tennant, towards the end, grated. Too much jesus doctor, too much running, not enough taking a stand. The two parter with the family of blood was pretty much (in my opinion of course) the best of tennants run, along with Girl in the fireplace. Both have the doctor being so much more than human instead of just being a really smart guy who runs a lot.
Smith is fantastic, and is halfway between tennant and eccelston to me. He definately has a dark side, and it will be interesting to see how it plays out.
I dunno, I thought I liked Tennant (and I did), but Matt Smith to me is just so much better.
Smith's doctor is smart. He plans, he thinks, he cogitates and then he acts - you can follow a plot and see it happen, particularly on rewatching.
By comparison, Tennant's doctor pretty much just faffed around and pulled a deus ex machina from out of his arse at the end of every episode. "Oh but you won't succeed because of blah blah blah that wasn't really set up"
Smith's doctor is smart in a much more dangerous way, and I'm looking forward to seeing more of it.
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Mike Danger"Diane..."a place both wonderful and strangeRegistered Userregular
I liked Eccleston's costume. If I ever have the cash, I'd love to get one of the reproductions of his jacket.
I dunno, I thought I liked Tennant (and I did), but Matt Smith to me is just so much better.
Smith's doctor is smart. He plans, he thinks, he cogitates and then he acts - you can follow a plot and see it happen, particularly on rewatching.
By comparison, Tennant's doctor pretty much just faffed around and pulled a deus ex machina from out of his arse at the end of every episode. "Oh but you won't succeed because of blah blah blah that wasn't really set up"
Smith's doctor is smart in a much more dangerous way, and I'm looking forward to seeing more of it.
I think both 10 and 11 have their fair shares of deus ex'es.
At any given time, 10 is likely to wave around the screwdriver, technobabble like crazy, and solve the problem. 11 will do the same thing, but replace "technobabble" with "wibbly wobbly" and/or "perception filter".
I mean I think messing with time is a lot more interesting than the babble, but they really serve the same purpose if you step back and look at it.
"The sausage of Green Earth explodes with flavor like the cannon of culinary delight."
9 was the doctor that coined everybody lives and when he said it Ecclestone managed to convey just how rare that is for him. Just this once everybody the doctor had encountered would survive. It really spoke to the heart of the character that this was one rare happy moment .
Ecclestone played him as a jaded survivor that never knew happiness. Then he met Rose and things turned around for him. His last words "You where magnificent and you know what? so was I" bear that out. He had become a different person at the end of the series, even if he hadn't regenerated, he wouldn't have been the same doctor.
The sky was full of stars, every star an exploding ship. One of ours.
So, finally got around to watching the second episode of Torchwood on iPlayer. It didn't get any better.
Watch "Random Shoes" from torchwood. Its...different.
Yes, "Random Shoes" is gold. Also, "They Keep Killing Suzie" and "Small World" (the fairy episode) are quite nice. "Cyberwoman" is the worst. The season finale is also great.
You got the Random Shoes and Cyberwoman part backwards. Actually, I hated Small World, and like Countrycide instead. Cyberwoman and the season finale are among the finest pieces of television ever created. Cherish them.
After Cyberwoman I can't take Janto seriously, he's a good character in season 3 but before that he's a dangerous retarded psychopath that gets 2 people killed
I mean I think messing with time is a lot more interesting than the babble, but they really serve the same purpose if you step back and look at it.
Oh sure, but we're discussing styles here - all Doctors do the same stuff, after all.
Its just that I prefer a Doctor for whom I can see some degree of cause and effect in the episode for his master plan rather than `its the end of the episode, SHAZAM'.
But I did like Tennant's doctor for what his run was.
What amused me about Cyberwoman was the skimpy outfit. We went from sticking brains in robot bodies to cheesecake. It felt like a B-movie.
It would have been fine if it was like... ugh... I dont know less B movie? Like her left arm and leg are exposed, shes missing an eye, actually looks like they were doing a procedure they didnt finish yaknow?
Why the hell did they kill pizzagirlbot at the end? She's like ASSIMILATE, but just a regular human body, he just up and murders her for no reason rather than sticking her in a cell
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Baroque And RollEvery spark of friendship and loveWill die without a homeRegistered Userregular
I keep watching the end of David Tennant's run
And just crying.
Journey's End and the last bit of David on The End of Time.
I was bored with Tennant by the end of his run. The Tenth Doctor's eccentricities stopped being funny and started becoming annoying. Also I think he suffered from a mild form of flanderization or some other form of character decay, whereby he became much more... himself than before. It's hard to explain. It's like the writers started exaggerating some of the character traits we associate with the Tenth Doctor and more and more episodes relied on the more popular formulas.
Matt Smith was a breath of fresh air. The Eleventh Doctor has his own set of eccentricities and stock phrases, but Moffat is doing a good job keeping them funny. He's also better written, I think, and more consistent in that he's not been reduced to a limited set of responses and emotions. The episodes are generally much more interesting than previous seasons. This might change in later seasons, when writers are replaced or run out of ideas, but I'm really enjoying the Eleventh Doctor.
TeaSpoon on
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Mike Danger"Diane..."a place both wonderful and strangeRegistered Userregular
I'm really interested to see where this entire "war against the Doctor" / "the Doctor's public image catches up with him" thing goes.
TheWizardOfJozUnwashed and somewhat slightly dazedRegistered Userregular
My Old Who tour is now on series 17. This was a really fucking weird era. We've just had the Doctor thwart an alien whose head was made from green spaghetti in his nefarious plan to steal the Mona Lisa, which would have enabled him to secretly sell the six other Mona Lisas he already had for even more absurdly timey-wimey reasons than usual. Whilst for reasons never explained, Romana spent the entire episode in a school uniform. Now they're on a planet patrolled by apparently carnivorous and perambulatory balls of leaves, and the Doctor is in a cave being threatened by what appears to be a giant glowing green penis.
Thank you for the days.
I won't forget a single day believe me.
My Old Who tour is now on series 17. This was a really fucking weird era. We've just had the Doctor thwart an alien whose head was made from green spaghetti in his nefarious plan to steal the Mona Lisa, which would have enabled him to secretly sell the six other Mona Lisas he already had for even more absurdly timey-wimey reasons than usual. Whilst for reasons never explained, Romana spent the entire episode in a school uniform.
City Of Death is one of my fav Tom Baker stories. Co-written by Douglas Adams, too.
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TheWizardOfJozUnwashed and somewhat slightly dazedRegistered Userregular
My Old Who tour is now on series 17. This was a really fucking weird era. We've just had the Doctor thwart an alien whose head was made from green spaghetti in his nefarious plan to steal the Mona Lisa, which would have enabled him to secretly sell the six other Mona Lisas he already had for even more absurdly timey-wimey reasons than usual. Whilst for reasons never explained, Romana spent the entire episode in a school uniform.
City Of Death is one of my fav Tom Baker stories. Co-written by Douglas Adams, too.
I didn't know that. Suddenly it makes a lot more sense.
Thank you for the days.
I won't forget a single day believe me.
I'm still confused how an army, no matter how big, is supposed to stop a guy that could just erase your race from existence if he really was a bad guy
Fixed points in time and careful use of paradox to preserve your existence in the event of total chronal failure, presumably.
Eh, the doctor's proven those things are more helpful suggestions than etched in stone.
They must know he won't resort to those things. Although by taking his friend they played a dangerous game, if Rory wasn't with him he might go all megalomaniac again (which he tends to do with no human around to keep him grounded). "The laws of time are mine and they will obey me"!, etc
My Old Who tour is now on series 17. This was a really fucking weird era. We've just had the Doctor thwart an alien whose head was made from green spaghetti in his nefarious plan to steal the Mona Lisa, which would have enabled him to secretly sell the six other Mona Lisas he already had for even more absurdly timey-wimey reasons than usual.
Sounds like it was based on a real story (only it isn't real, just widely believed to be so, apparently).
[Muffled sounds of gorilla violence]
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BethrynUnhappiness is MandatoryRegistered Userregular
Was rewatching Day of the Moon since it's back up on iPlayer, and now that we have a certain revelation, was looking for specifics.
One of the interesting ones is River responding when the Doctor asks her what the Silence are doing with the child.
"Keeping her safe, even keeping her independent."
So maybe the Silence's role is to keep River away from people who would use her as a weapon. In fact, if she were given to the Silence for safekeeping, they'd be the best guards in the universe. As soon as you discover where River is, you forget about her a few moments later.
Also, it's fairly interesting now we know they took Flesh!Amy. I wonder if they simply turned her into goop to get the nanorecorder out of her (seems unlikely since it still transmits her thoughts, so we're still left wondering how they got her from the orphanage to the time engine).
I'm really hoping we get the warehouse filled in when they resolve all this (and other things like the recording in Nixon's office, etc.). There are a lot of mysteries left over from the first two episodes.
...and of course, as always, Kill Hitler.
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AntimatterDevo Was RightGates of SteelRegistered Userregular
I really liked Tennant, but honestly, by the end of The End of Time, I was kinda going "Jesus, just regenerate already, you drama queen". I appreciate that he was much loved and they wanted to give him a big sendoff, but they really milked it. It made me wish for Eccleston's "Hey, we should go to Barcelona. Hold on a sec." *regenerates* "All right, Barcelona it is!"
The actual Tennant-Smith regeneration itself was pretty great though.
The long send-off was cheesy, yes. But I didn't mind it at all. It wasn't just a send off for Tennant's Doctor. It was a send off for entire RTD era cast (and the associated spin-offs). Everyone was just saying goodbye.
Just read Touched By An Angel, my first Who book. Anyone else read who books? The dialogue felt like the characters. It was a fun book!
I used to read the Virgin New Adventures in the 90s. In hindsight, they were probably the start of Nu Who - a bridge between the old style who and the new.
Just read Touched By An Angel, my first Who book. Anyone else read who books? The dialogue felt like the characters. It was a fun book!
I used to read the Virgin New Adventures in the 90s. In hindsight, they were probably the start of Nu Who - a bridge between the old style who and the new.
and I just learned from the Comic Con panel that River Song shares a LOT in common with a character from those.
Was rewatching Day of the Moon since it's back up on iPlayer, and now that we have a certain revelation, was looking for specifics.
One of the interesting ones is River responding when the Doctor asks her what the Silence are doing with the child.
"Keeping her safe, even keeping her independent."
So maybe the Silence's role is to keep River away from people who would use her as a weapon. In fact, if she were given to the Silence for safekeeping, they'd be the best guards in the universe. As soon as you discover where River is, you forget about her a few moments later.
Also, it's fairly interesting now we know they took Flesh!Amy. I wonder if they simply turned her into goop to get the nanorecorder out of her (seems unlikely since it still transmits her thoughts, so we're still left wondering how they got her from the orphanage to the time engine).
I'm really hoping we get the warehouse filled in when they resolve all this (and other things like the recording in Nixon's office, etc.). There are a lot of mysteries left over from the first two episodes.
I keep thinking this too. Like, the Silence aren't exactly good guys, but they're not the antagonists in the big picture. Something about "The Silence will fall" and why it seems like as a normally secretive race, now they're almost trying to reach the Doctor? Or maybe just some of them are? Maybe they're a captive species, like the Ood were. I actually like that last idea the most.
Steam
3DS FC: 4699-5714-8940 Playing Pokemon, add me! Ho, SATAN!
Posts
The Next Doctor
The Planet of the Dead
The Waters of Mars
The End of Time - Part 1
The End of Time - Part 2
You'll want to watch them in that order after finishing series 4.
Cyberwoman was terrible, dudicus.
RTD really needs a writing partner to remove all the shite he insists on putting in (the 'lol lol differences between British and American names for things' was really grating).
You mean like the ridiculous bio-metric security for the server room? That only one person ever could enter? That was apparently more secure than the CIA office?
God forbid they ever had a cooling issue and the guy was out at lunch or at home sleeping. "Sorry we lost billions of dollars worth of financial data and your top secret plan to take over the world because you couldn't be bothered to let me hire another employee to work the night shift in case the air conditioning went out."
Time to move on to Matt Smith and the Steven Moffat era. I'm excited. Should I be?
Everything else about him is great though. And yeah, in hindsight it is kind of a kick in the teeth that his death gets about 30 seconds, and 10 goes out in a symphonic explosion, but that's just the way it is.
edit: and I agree, 10/11 had better hair/clothing than 9.
What? No, I'm not crying. I just have this genetic disease where salt water bleeds out my eyes.
I truly enjoyed his run, even though some of the stories were much, much weaker than others. Tennant, towards the end, grated. Too much jesus doctor, too much running, not enough taking a stand. The two parter with the family of blood was pretty much (in my opinion of course) the best of tennants run, along with Girl in the fireplace. Both have the doctor being so much more than human instead of just being a really smart guy who runs a lot.
Smith is fantastic, and is halfway between tennant and eccelston to me. He definately has a dark side, and it will be interesting to see how it plays out.
Smith's doctor is smart. He plans, he thinks, he cogitates and then he acts - you can follow a plot and see it happen, particularly on rewatching.
By comparison, Tennant's doctor pretty much just faffed around and pulled a deus ex machina from out of his arse at the end of every episode. "Oh but you won't succeed because of blah blah blah that wasn't really set up"
Smith's doctor is smart in a much more dangerous way, and I'm looking forward to seeing more of it.
I think both 10 and 11 have their fair shares of deus ex'es.
At any given time, 10 is likely to wave around the screwdriver, technobabble like crazy, and solve the problem. 11 will do the same thing, but replace "technobabble" with "wibbly wobbly" and/or "perception filter".
I mean I think messing with time is a lot more interesting than the babble, but they really serve the same purpose if you step back and look at it.
9 was the doctor that coined everybody lives and when he said it Ecclestone managed to convey just how rare that is for him. Just this once everybody the doctor had encountered would survive. It really spoke to the heart of the character that this was one rare happy moment .
Ecclestone played him as a jaded survivor that never knew happiness. Then he met Rose and things turned around for him. His last words "You where magnificent and you know what? so was I" bear that out. He had become a different person at the end of the series, even if he hadn't regenerated, he wouldn't have been the same doctor.
After Cyberwoman I can't take Janto seriously, he's a good character in season 3 but before that he's a dangerous retarded psychopath that gets 2 people killed
Its just that I prefer a Doctor for whom I can see some degree of cause and effect in the episode for his master plan rather than `its the end of the episode, SHAZAM'.
But I did like Tennant's doctor for what his run was.
It would have been fine if it was like... ugh... I dont know less B movie? Like her left arm and leg are exposed, shes missing an eye, actually looks like they were doing a procedure they didnt finish yaknow?
Why the hell did they kill pizzagirlbot at the end? She's like ASSIMILATE, but just a regular human body, he just up and murders her for no reason rather than sticking her in a cell
And just crying.
Journey's End and the last bit of David on The End of Time.
"I don't want to go." = ;_;
SteamID: Baroque And Roll
I was bored with Tennant by the end of his run. The Tenth Doctor's eccentricities stopped being funny and started becoming annoying. Also I think he suffered from a mild form of flanderization or some other form of character decay, whereby he became much more... himself than before. It's hard to explain. It's like the writers started exaggerating some of the character traits we associate with the Tenth Doctor and more and more episodes relied on the more popular formulas.
Matt Smith was a breath of fresh air. The Eleventh Doctor has his own set of eccentricities and stock phrases, but Moffat is doing a good job keeping them funny. He's also better written, I think, and more consistent in that he's not been reduced to a limited set of responses and emotions. The episodes are generally much more interesting than previous seasons. This might change in later seasons, when writers are replaced or run out of ideas, but I'm really enjoying the Eleventh Doctor.
Fixed points in time and careful use of paradox to preserve your existence in the event of total chronal failure, presumably.
Why I fear the ocean.
I won't forget a single day believe me.
City Of Death is one of my fav Tom Baker stories. Co-written by Douglas Adams, too.
I didn't know that. Suddenly it makes a lot more sense.
I won't forget a single day believe me.
Eh, the doctor's proven those things are more helpful suggestions than etched in stone.
They must know he won't resort to those things. Although by taking his friend they played a dangerous game, if Rory wasn't with him he might go all megalomaniac again (which he tends to do with no human around to keep him grounded). "The laws of time are mine and they will obey me"!, etc
Sounds like it was based on a real story (only it isn't real, just widely believed to be so, apparently).
One of the interesting ones is River responding when the Doctor asks her what the Silence are doing with the child.
"Keeping her safe, even keeping her independent."
Also, it's fairly interesting now we know they took Flesh!Amy. I wonder if they simply turned her into goop to get the nanorecorder out of her (seems unlikely since it still transmits her thoughts, so we're still left wondering how they got her from the orphanage to the time engine).
I'm really hoping we get the warehouse filled in when they resolve all this (and other things like the recording in Nixon's office, etc.). There are a lot of mysteries left over from the first two episodes.
meh
and the long drawn-out sendoff
The actual Tennant-Smith regeneration itself was pretty great though.
I used to read the Virgin New Adventures in the 90s. In hindsight, they were probably the start of Nu Who - a bridge between the old style who and the new.
3DS FC: 4699-5714-8940 Playing Pokemon, add me! Ho, SATAN!