So I watched the 60th Anniversary specials

[Gingerbread Demon]

The only highlight for me was David Tennant and Catherine Tate making a 3 episode comeback. They were great. Interesting way they cured Donna's memory plot point from all those years ago which I hated.

Aside from that I really didn't care for them that much..... The Star Beast was the best of the 3 for me.

 

[Timewalker]

I could never pin down when they were supposed to be on, so I just kept the channel long enough for the Christmas special and haven't watched anything since that wasn't Classic Who.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

I could never pin down when they were supposed to be on, so I just kept the channel long enough for the Christmas special and haven't watched anything since that wasn't Classic Who.

The three specials are not bad, they just didn't grab me like the ones that came before, and even those were not that spectacular but had fun moments I guess. The Star Beast was good. The Meep was good.

 

[Timewalker]

I'll take your word for it. For me, real Doctor Who ended in 1996.

The Ninth and Tenth Doctors weren't too bad some of the time. I'll admit that the "Dalek" episode was well done to the point where I was crying over a friggin' Dalek (way to turn the tables on genocide). I like Tenant as an actor, ditto Capaldi. But the show was crap the moment Matt Smith took over. The only part of the 50th anniversary I liked was Tom Baker and the line that John Hurt said about the sonic screwdriver about "assembling a cabinet at it".

By the time the 60th came along, I just didn't care anymore.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

I'll take your word for it. For me, real Doctor Who ended in 1996.

The Ninth and Tenth Doctors weren't too bad some of the time. I'll admit that the "Dalek" episode was well done to the point where I was crying over a friggin' Dalek (way to turn the tables on genocide). I like Tenant as an actor, ditto Capaldi. But the show was crap the moment Matt Smith took over. The only part of the 50th anniversary I liked was Tom Baker and the line that John Hurt said about the sonic screwdriver about "assembling a cabinet at it".

By the time the 60th came along, I just didn't care anymore.

I can understand that sentiment... The 13th Series was my final physical purchase. I just can't be motivated to buy the last complete season with the new Doctor and Ruby. It just doesn't interest me any more.

Oddly I did like The Flux series

 

[The Nth Doctor]

You started a whole thread just to say that? When we already have review threads for each of those episode.

...thanks for sharing?

 

[Ray Hardgrit]

I liked the 60th specials, mostly. Tennant and Tate were great and it was a relief to get the return of RTD's writing after so many lacklustre stories, but we also got his clumsiness when it comes to resolutions and a bunch of other issues.

Then the new season started and that was all over the place. The Christmas special and the first two episodes were extremely childish and drifted into fantasy, the three in the middle were very mature and serious, and then the ending was a bit of train wreck. I know Doctor Who has always had a variety of stories, but previous seasons seemed to be generally aimed at the same audience.

 

[The Wormhole]

I know Doctor Who has always had a variety of stories, but previous seasons seemed to be generally aimed at the same audience.

RTD is they guy who previously swung the pendulum to such extremes as farting aliens on one end and oral sex with concrete on the other.

 

[Ray Hardgrit]

Yeah but the farting alien story was also a story of government deception and Rose coming home to find she's been missing for a year (and was a bit of early instalment weirdness). The paving stone story had the comedy monster designed by a Blue Peter competition winner. They're both designed to keep kids happy and adults entertained.

The latest season is much more jarring, as Space Babies is as childish as any episode we've had, Devil's Chord ends in a dance scene for some reason, and then you've got 73 Yards which is bleak and horrifying, and has very little there for children.

Sure there have been dark episodes before, like Midnight and Turn Left, but they came in a season that was more mature overall, for viewers who had grown up watching David Tennant.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

You started a whole thread just to say that? When we already have review threads for each of those episode.

...thanks for sharing?

I know but I really didn't have much more to say about each one that hasn't already been said...... I just finished the Toymaker one only a minute or two ago. I've read the threads here. I really don't feel there is more I could have added to them.

 

[The Wormhole]

Devil's Chord ends in a dance scene for some reason,

I mean, the entire episode is all about music.

 

[Starkers]

RTD is they guy who previously swung the pendulum to such extremes as farting aliens on one end and oral sex with concrete on the other.

Exactly. His very first series of Dr Who starts with burping wheelie bins and ends with Daleks massacring people.

 

[Emperor-Tiberius]

I can understand that sentiment... The 13th Series was my final physical purchase. I just can't be motivated to buy the last complete season with the new Doctor and Ruby. It just doesn't interest me any more.

Oddly I did like The Flux series

Insane post.

RTD is they guy who previously swung the pendulum to such extremes as farting aliens on one end and oral sex with concrete on the other.

Fans can really, really overlook the giant elephant in the room in regards to RTD: That he's entirely capable to deliver both genuinely awesome stories (I will fight anyone who doesn't think Midnight or The Wild Blue Yonder are masterful TV) and some pretty amazingly terrible ideas (farting aliens, the entire last two acts of Love & Monsters, etc.) He's not a flawless storyteller, and his work outside Who never informed it and likely never will, so once those misconceptions are outta way, you have a great storyteller who can be hit and miss.

But is the show better under his second tenure? Absolutely! No question about it. I'm actually excited for what comes next!

 

[Ray Hardgrit]

Exactly. His very first series of Dr Who starts with burping wheelie bins and ends with Daleks massacring people.

It starts with burping wheelie bins and a dad getting shot in front of his kids and ends with Daleks massacring people on the Weakest Link. The season got darker but the episodes weren't wildly different in tone from each other overall.

The latest season has been going to one extreme for one episode and then the other extreme for the next, which leaves people feeling like half the season wasn't made for them. Also burping wheelie bins and farting aliens were some early instalment weirdness that was toned way down when as the series found its feet. Now it's started stumbling again.

 

[Emperor-Tiberius]

The exaggerated tone bullshit is exactly that. Bullshit.

How is the season more inconsistent than seasons 6 and 7? or even 8? How is it worse than anything in the Chibnall years or, for that matter, RTD's own series 2?

Its not the outstanding winner like the first and fourth were, sure, but for my money the 60th anniversary mini-series was a wonderful success and DisneyWho's (or StreamingWho, if the Disney deal falls through) first was more-or-less entertaining and at its best, as good as ever. Was the Sutekh two-parter a mess? Yes. Should RTD had thought the plot through more rigorously? Also yes. But was, at the core of it, well-intentioned and actually engaging, despite its plotting flaws? Also also yes.

As many of you know, I gave Chibnall a shot until the end of the second year. I really did. I absolutely didn't liike it but I thought it'd improve. So, can we wait until the second series of Ncuti's reign until we call it a qualified disaster?

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

I watched Midnight again and it's absolutely brilliant.

 

[matthunter]

This thread is nice, dears.

 

[Ray Hardgrit]

I watched Midnight again and it's absolutely brilliant.

I hope this is my fault for mentioning it.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

I hope this is my fault for mentioning it.

Why would that be your fault Midnight is a great episode...

I liked the idea of the bi generation too and Ncuti was really cool..... Only I can't be bothered watching a whole new series.

 

[FredH]

To my mind, “Midnight”, “Listen and “Heaven Sent” are the three best episodes of the modern series, and possibly of the franchise. And it’s interesting that out of those, two are about a possible alien encounter that the Doctor deals with but can never quite know enough to “get”, and the third is almost that, but for finally figuring it out only after an unimaginable amount of time has passed for him.

(And I’m one who overall probably prefers the classic series, if I have to pick. But the greatest classic episodes, such as “The Robots of Death” (say), are great differently, somehow.)

(I guess an analogy for this would be how my favorite 1980s Marvel Comics were Chris Claremont writing the X-Men… yet somehow Walt Simonson’s Thor brought me to unexpected tears a couple of times, as XM never did. Does that make sense?)