Best to skip just to "Children of Earth," the third season. It answers the question of what happens when Humanity is too much of an arsehole for the Doctor to even intervene, much less save.
In search of a more serious Doctor
- Thread starter Sentience
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Not necessarily. TV producers often make the mistake of assuming something that may have worked once or for a time should be run into the ground thinking audiences only want more of that, hence the "manic nerd" feeling that seems to shape he perception of NuWho. One exception was Capaldi's interpretation, which was definitely channeling the more serious, fatigued Doctor from various actors from the original series.
I mean, what you're talking about has been done plenty of times. S1 "Dalek," "Father's Day," S2 "The Girl in the Fireplace," S3 "Human Nature," "The Family of Blood," S4 "The Fires of Pompeii," "Midnight," "Turn Left," "The Waters of Mars," S5 "Amy's Choice," S6 "The Doctor's Wife," "A Good Man Goes to War," "The Girl Who Waited," S7 "The Name of the Doctor," "The Day of the Doctor," S8 "Into the Dalek," "Listen," etc etc etc. What you're describing has been done before and would not be a new direction, except insofar as it would mean sacrificing the particular combination of darkness and lightness that makes Doctor Who special.
Torchwood as an attempt at a more adult take on the Doctor Who universe may be less than brilliantly successful on average, but I'm glad to have it. Just as Doctor Who has had bad runs of episodes, so has Torchwood, most particularly the fourth season. But Children of Earth was incredible and there are enough solid episodes like "Adrift" in the first two seasons to make it worthwhile.
Considering Torchwood's a bit all over the place quality-wise on TV, I'd say Big Finish's Torchwood main range of audio adventures may be one of their most consistently good series. There's some other BF material that might appeal to someone looking for more serious Doctor Who as well.
Considering Torchwood's a bit all over the place quality-wise on TV, I'd say Big Finish's Torchwood main range of audio adventures may be one of their most consistently good series. There's some other BF material that might appeal to someone looking for more serious Doctor Who as well.
I always found it sadly ironic that SJA, the show that was aimed at a pre-school audience came off as much more mature than Torchwood, the show which was aimed at a grown-up audience.
Not only that, but I also thought The Sarah Jane Adventures captured the Doctor Who spirit better than the main series at the time (I had a lot of issues with the Davies years, especially the first two series...).
I haven't watched it, but isn't Years and Years just a continuation of the theme from Children of Earth, Miracle Day, and Doctor Who's Turn Left that humanity is basically one bad day away from turning full Nazi?
Well, not exactly. It is like "Turn Left" as a "What if?" scenario but that's about it. I don't want to say more without spoiling it, but while bad things do happen, the show itself is more about how a group of adult siblings and their families are effected by such events than straight up doom and gloom.
Years And Years is basically "how that thing I forget the name of by Jed Mercurio about the sun going out or something in five years, but which never got a second season thank fuck, SHOULD have been done."
Hard Sun, and it was Neil Cross not Jed Mercurio, and yes by God it was a terrible, terrible show and it's only premise seemed to be that the end of the world would turn us all into serial killers, or something...
Years and Years was superb, very dark yet also very hopeful (and scarily prescient) and on the subject of RTD I'd heartily recommend It's a Sin as well.
Hard Sun- That's the one - So bad I couldn't even remember who wrote it, let alone what it was called! I probably thought Mercurio cos of how shite his earlier Invasion Earth was, while Luther was cool, albeit incredibly dependent on fortunate coincidences.
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That reminds me of the Tenth Doctor-Twelfth Doctor crossover comic story done last year. When the Tenth meets Yaz, he licks her cell phone and says it "tastes like 2020." Which now raises the obvious question, what did he taste on it and should Yaz be concerned?
Time Lord senses are weird
