Getting back to watching Dr. Who

[The Mirrorball Man]

I still love Love & Monsters, warts and all. Marc Warren is, as usual, excellent in it, there are a couple of excellent scenes, especially with Camille Coduri, and the whole parallel with ELO and popular music, picturing the Doctor as a pop icon is the kind of metafictional perspective that no one had tried to use on the show before. I understand people who don't like it, but it works for me.

 

[kirk55555]

I wouldn't call Fear Her a classic, but coming after Love & Monsters my judgement of quality may have been a bit suspect, since just about anything would have been an improvement I didn't think much of Fear Her honestly, but I didn't think it was bad. I'd probably say it was a bit less annoying than The Idiot's Lantern, but in the same category of being more generic/slightly annoying than outright bad. I doubt I'd ever watch it (or Idiot's Lantern or Love & Monsters) if I ever decided to rewatch the 10th doctor's stuff in the future.

As for the emotional stuff, I just thought that the whole "guy talking to his girlfriend's face in the monster" was goofy and stupid. It seemed near the end that they were trying to make you feel sad for him/the absorbed people, but at that point I just didn't care. Compared to The Girl in the Fireplace, which I felt had a legitimately well done sad ending, Love & Monsters ending just felt like they wrote it expecting you to still care and be sad for these people, but I just wanted them to go away.

Oh, that emotional part. I thought you meant The Paving Stone and him saying they still have a bit of a sex life

Oh god I watched it yesterday and don't even remember him saying that. I think that near the end of the episode my mind just kind of wandered as a self defense mechanism so that I didn't just start inarticulately screaming in rage at the episode

 

[Timby]

^Thats odd, because Fear Her usually ranks high in people's worst episode lists!

Yea, Love and Monsters, Idiot's Lantern, and Fear Her are about the lowest point in NuWho. IMHO, it never dips back down that low again

I don't know ... I think I could sit through The Idiot's Lantern five times before a re-watch of "Pigmen in Manhattan" / "No, Seriously, Fucking Pigmen Part II."

 

[Count Zero]

I don't really get the hate for The Idiot's Lantern. Obviously, it's not the best episode of the show or even the season but it's pretty good. It has a creepy monster with creepy results of its actions - people without a face count among my base fears, and TV sets can be sinister objects with a seeming life of their own - and a number of funny and satisfying moments.
I love how Rose chews out the tyrannical Dad about the Union flag and how she and the Doctor subvert the household. The scene at the end where Rose tells the son (forgot his name) to talk to his father is quite a nice one as well.

 

[kirk55555]

To me The Idiots Lantern was just really average. The monster just wasn't that interesting, and the same can be said of the whole episode. It wasn't outright horrible, but I found it to be fairly uninteresting.

I finished Series 2 today (Army of Ghosts/Doomsday). The finale was good. It was awesome seeing the Dalek and Cybermen fight. It was also funny to see the leader of Torchwood acting so smug to the Doctor, only to find out that her organization brought not just a Cybermen Invasion to earth but a Dalek invasion, too. Having a simultaneous Dalek/Cybermen Invasion might just be one of the worst things that could happen to a planet. Its going to be weird not having Rose around. Hopefully the Doctor's next companion will be interesting. Next up for modern Who is The Runaway Bride, then on to Series 3.

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

Looking forward to what you think of Martha....most people don't like her much.
I think she is a very underrated companion.

 

[Emperor-Tiberius]

I think she's fine until the last episode of series 3, where everything was kinda ludicrous anyway. The fourth series, though.... RTD truly and well ruined the character there.

 

[intrinsical]

Then again, series 3 has one of the best episodes in Doctor Who...

 

[Thestral]

I'd say one of the strongest runs of episodes really.

I definitely agree Martha's an underrated companion.

 

[kirk55555]

I just watched The Runaway Bride. It was pretty good. Seeing the TARDIS chase a car down a highway was awesome. The villain was interesting, although she was a bit annoying at times. The episode was barely a "christmas" episode, and half its Christmas stuff was taken from the first one (The 10th Doctor's first episode) but I thought it was a good episode. Next up is Series 3.

Edit: In the last few hours I've gone through the first 5 episodes of season 5.

Smith and Jones was interesting. The Rhino aliens looked cool.

The Shakespeare Code was a good episode. Shakespeare himself was interesting. and there were a bunch of good/funny moments. It was weird/funny to hear the Doctor talk about Harry Potter, and then having them finish off the aliens with it.

I wasn't sure what to think of Gridlock when it started, but it ended up being a pretty good episode. It was cool to see the face again, and I liked the part where The Doctor is going down through all of the ships.

Daleks in Manhatten/Evolution of the Daleskwas an ok two parter. It wasn't bad at all, but it was the weakest Dalek story so far in modern Doctor Who. It was interesting to see them in that time period, but honestly a lot of the period stuff was annoying. The blonde woman was especially annoying. Every time she spoke I just wanted a Dalek to exterminate her. The Dalek/Human leader was an interesting concept I guess, but I'm glad he didn't stay around. The Daleks being outside of their suit/armor on a regular basis would be pretty lame. I still think it was an ok story, but it was a bit disappointing.

As for the new companion, Martha is ok so far. I don't really think that The Doctor needs another "romantic" companion so soon, but its not a big deal. Martha hasn't made that big an impression, honestly, but I'm not even half way done with series 3 yet, so my opinion of her could go either way.

 

[kirk55555]

Ok, I have to post an update. First off, I got through The Lazarus experiment and 42. Neither of them were particularly impressive, but they weren't outright bad. They were just kind of average adventures that didn't leave much of an impression. The only think that left an impression was Martha's Mom, who is super annoying and who I just know is going to cause problems for The Doctor.

After those episodes, I went on to watch the single worst Doctor Who episode I've seen, and the worst episode of a good TV show that I've seen in awhile, Human Nature. From beginning to end, basically every second of this episode was pure torture. It did not have one redeeming feature. It was 45 minutes of my life that I want back. The premise was really stupid. Lets spend a whole episode having the Doctor think he's a human in an extremely boring part of time. Why does he do this? Because of stupid aliens whose threat wasn't even that clear, the only thing I noticed is that they can follow the TARDIS through time. Its hard to describe how painful this episode was. The Doctor spent the whole time not acting like The Doctor and not doing much of anything. I'm here to watch the Doctor have adventures through time and space, not to see him living in a house as a human doing basically nothing. To make it worse, it was only the first part of a two part story. I'm not going to lie, there was no way that I was sitting through another 40+ minutes of that. I have watched every episode in full until now, but I skimmed through The Family of Blood. I couldn't take it, and I don't feel bad about it.

After that was Blink, which had some good ideas but was ultimately a fairly tedious episode, not helped by not starring the title character. It wasn't outright bad like the last episode to not star the Doctor (Love & Monsters) but its cool bits didn't help it be anything but cool ideas wrapped in a boring package. It would have been awesome to see the Doctor or at least martha fighting the "weeping angels". As it is, its not a bad episode, but the good ideas can't overcome the lack of Doctor and the uninteresting characters it does focus on. Honestly, the lack of the Doctor wouldn't have been so bad if Sally and friends hadn't been so uninteresting and bland. It was just a missed opportunity, although (looking online) I seem to be one of the few people whop think its a mediocre episode.

Series 3 has been a rough series. There has been the most disappointing Dalek story I've seen, the worst Doctor Who story I've seen (and I'm finding it hard to believe there could be a worse one, just because the kind of bad Human Nature/The family of Blood is tends to anger me more than just stupid stories like The Idiots Lantern. There were also two generic adventures, The Lasarus Experiment and 42. The episode started off with a decent first episode and the surprisingly entertaining The Shakespeare Code and Gridlock Here's hoping the last three episodes (that are apparently one story) end series 3 on a high note. I'm hoping it doesn't involve the "Martha's mom getting fed bad things about The Doctor by a mysterious man" subplot, but I have a feeling that's where its going. I'm not losing faith in the Doctor who series or anything, this has just been a rough patch for me. Hopefully either series 3 will end well or at least Series 4 will not have so many bad/bland episodes.

 

[Timby]

After those episodes, I went on to watch the single worst Doctor Who episode I've seen, and the worst episode of a good TV show that I've seen in awhile, Human Nature. From beginning to end, basically every second of this episode was pure torture. It did not have one redeeming feature.

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

Wow, your impression of series 3 is the exact opposite of what most people think.

 

[Thestral]

I don't even... wut.

[Ten]What? What?![/Ten]

 

[Gov Kodos]

Tennant was wonderful in this.

 

[Sindatur]

After those episodes, I went on to watch the single worst Doctor Who episode I've seen, and the worst episode of a good TV show that I've seen in awhile, Human Nature. From beginning to end, basically every second of this episode was pure torture. It did not have one redeeming feature.

^^THIS^^

 

[kirk55555]

I guess people disagree with me about Human Nature Thats fine, I just couldn't stand it. I'm watching Doctor Who for The Doctor and his adventures, not to watch David Tennant play a generic period guy for about an hour with aliens kind of involved in the story. I'm not saying that Tennant didn't do a good job with what he had, its just that what he had sucked. Its like they took a script for a serious period piece and tried to modify it for Doctor Who, only without including the Doctor for about 80% of the story and choosing a fairly weak script to adapt to Doctor who. That's obviously not what happened, but that's what it felt like.

 

[Awesome Possum]

Actually it was all about the Doctor because it sort of shows what he can never have. The Doctor will never be able to settle down, get married, have children and die a peaceful and normal death surrounded by his loved ones. John Smith is who the Doctor sort of wishes he could be but knows that it is impossible. By understanding that, you get a glimpse of who the Doctor really is. Deep down he wants to stop, but he knows that he never can because the universe needs him traveling around and saving the day. The Doctor sacrifices his normal life for the good of the universe and John Smith sacrifices his existence to bring back the Doctor because he was needed to save the people he cared about. It's the entire point of the episode.

 

[Sindatur]

Actually it was all about the Doctor because it sort of shows what he can never have. The Doctor will never be able to settle down, get married, have children and die a peaceful and normal death surrounded by his loved ones. John Smith is who the Doctor sort of wishes he could be but knows that it is impossible. By understanding that, you get a glimpse of who the Doctor really is. Deep down he wants to stop, but he knows that he never can because the universe needs him traveling around and saving the day. The Doctor sacrifices his normal life for the good of the universe and John Smith sacrifices his existence to bring back the Doctor because he was needed to save the people he cared about. It's the entire point of the episode.

Eh, he wasn't able to appreciate the episodes that set up the Overall Arc/journey of Crichton in Farscape. He'll appreciate what he appreciates.

Hopefully, when he sees what Lazarus; 42; Human Nature/Family of Blood set up, he may be able to appreciate them in hindsight, if not, well, spelling it out won't help

 

[kirk55555]

Actually it was all about the Doctor because it sort of shows what he can never have. The Doctor will never be able to settle down, get married, have children and die a peaceful and normal death surrounded by his loved ones. John Smith is who the Doctor sort of wishes he could be but knows that it is impossible. By understanding that, you get a glimpse of who the Doctor really is. Deep down he wants to stop, but he knows that he never can because the universe needs him traveling around and saving the day. The Doctor sacrifices his normal life for the good of the universe and John Smith sacrifices his existence to bring back the Doctor because he was needed to save the people he cared about. It's the entire point of the episode.

Eh, he wasn't able to appreciate the episodes that set up the Overall Arc/journey of Crichton in Farscape. He'll appreciate what he appreciates.

The Farscape part of my Farscape/Babylon 5 thread will follow me forever. I stand by that thread, though, just so you know. Farscape started becoming a giant cliche, and jumped the shark completely once it cloned Chrichton. Also, Chiana is still the most annoying character in Sci Fi history, with a possible tie going to Jool.

Tangent aside, I've finished episodes 11 and 12 (Utopia and The Sound of Drums). They're both very good. I guess you could say that Human Nature/The Family of Blood had a small role in the return of The master, but as cool as his return was they could have set up the watch in one episode, and with a better story than what those episodes gave us. Still, I'm done talking about those episodes. I've gone past them, and I won't have to deal with them again. The master's return was cool, and the set up was great. I actually ended up liking his Saxon story thing, because The master has some personality. I've only seen him before in the Doctor who movie, and he was a bit goofy and melodramatic in that. In this, he's more interesting and not too over the top (atleast so far, I haven't seen him spitting acid or getting snake eyes yet). Now its looking like a great finale for Series 3, hopefully leading into a great series 4. I just have Journey's End left to watch for Series 3.

Also, am I the only one who thinks that old age 10th Doctor looks like Old Bilbo at the end of Return of the King? The make up job makes them look similar to me.