NuWho Season 5 vs. Season 6

[Joe Washington]

Which of the Matt Smith's Doctor 11 seasons is the best?

Season 5 which introduced the 11th Doctor along with the other players and pieces of the Moffat Era, and revolved around the mystery of the haunting crack in the Universe.

OR

Season 6 which revolved around the mystery of the Doctor's death, brought the mystery of River Song to a shocking conclusion, and featured the newest addition to Doctor Who's gallery of scary aliens and monsters: The Silence.

 

[JRoss]

Season 5, by virtue of Vincent and the Doctor. Something is definitely wrong when I forget the episodes within a week of their airing, with the exception of VatD and The Doctor's Wife.

 

[Mr Light]

Season Six by a hair. It had better storyarc episodes, but worse standalone episodes. I liked how it had a strong central story, whereas Five was basically standalones with a throwaway mention to the crack in time.

 

[Caliburn24]

I give the edge to season 5. The ending felt stronger and more integrated into the season, and it felt fresher somehow. Moffat has a couple themes that pop up in his writing over and over, and they just seemed fresher in season 5 than in 6.

Both seasons are good mind you, although there is a couple clunkers in each season, but 5 is slightly better.

 

[Newspaper Taxi]

Hmm...This could use a poll.

Anyway, season 5 of NuWho is my favorite season of Doctor Who ever. (Although, obviously, my viewings of classic Who are far from complete.) I think Moffat got the story arc perfect -- interesting and involved but not to the point of being overly convoluted, as in season 6. I would also vote Season 5 as the best 'first season' of a Doctor...which is hard for me to say, considering the 9th Doctor is my Doctor.

 

[Ghost Bones]

Season 5, all day long. It was actually good in places.

 

[Gepard]

As underwhelmed as I was by season 5...season 5. Season 6 had a few episodes I liked better than any episodes on S5, but 6 was just too all over the map and inconsistent in quality for me to grade it higher. The arc episodes were almost universally terrible.

 

[Admiral_Young]

I too am gonna have to say series five. I have felt like the hiatus hurt series six. It felt disjointed like we got two different halves of the same show.

 

[Rowan Sjet]

Hmm...This could use a poll.

Anyway, season 5 of NuWho is my favorite season of Doctor Who ever. (Although, obviously, my viewings of classic Who are far from complete.) I think Moffat got the story arc perfect -- interesting and involved but not to the point of being overly convoluted, as in season 6. I would also vote Season 5 as the best 'first season' of a Doctor...which is hard for me to say, considering the 9th Doctor is my Doctor.

My thoughts pretty much exactly on both series 5 and 6, except 11 became MY Doctor with series 5, I felt that strongly about it.

 

[zarkon]

Season six, just about. Wasn't impressed by the ending, but Gaiman ep + the opening two parter were great. The cracks stuff in the fifth season were pretty poorly handled in general, and the ending was even more underwhelming then sixes was.

 

[TechnoBoY]

Season 5! I smiled a lot more in that season than the current one. I feel like some of that charm is gone.

 

[Anachronus]

Season 5! I smiled a lot more in that season than the current one. I feel like some of that charm is gone.

Well put.

 

[Worf2DS9]

I also enjoyed Series 5 more than 6. It was just more fun and wasn't a pain on your brain. There were some excellent eps in 6, no question, but most weren't part of the more complex story arc.

 

[Sadistro]

Season 5 is much better than S6, but I'm not the greatest fan of that either.

Both seasons start pretty well, but collapse about halfway through. Season 5 at least had some decent episodes in the second half , but not so this year (God Complex aside).

For me, S6 is just worse on basically every level. The storyarc was truly awful, and considering how much I disliked the opening 2-parter at the time, its a sad testament that I now consider it the best of the storyarc.

Moffat's insistance on repeating stories, situations and scares, became increasingly silly, and the man himself decided it would be a good idea to goad and confront fans, rather than trying to heal wounds in the community.

Amy changed from an annoying, loud mouthed brat with a sense of unearned entitlement, to a template damsel in distress who cried, screamed and got captured/killed/mutated a lot - who was still annoying.

And Matt Smith... well, he seemed to have taken a backward step in his portrayal of the Doctor. But he got better as time went on, and so he's pretty much the noly reason to watch 6B.


So yes, Season 5 then. Easily.

 

[bigdaddy]

I'm only up to The Almost Human, which I haven't finished, but so far season 5 by a mile.

I really loved the first several episodes of season 5, it felt new and old at the same time and was just amazing to watch. However the ending was lacking.

Season 6 had a great opener, but so far most of the episodes since have only been OK, but I have high standards and both seasosn are better than the 4 seasons before it.

 

[Orac]

Season 5. Not enough Daleks in season 6.

 

[Joe Washington]

I was glad there were no Daleks in Season 6 except the one in the finale. Moffat was right. It was time for a long break from them. I found the Silence aliens more scary than the Daleks.

 

[Kelthaz]

I'm not a fan of either season, but I'll go with Moffat's first.

 

[Starkers]

Both seasons start pretty well, but collapse about halfway through. Season 5 at least had some decent episodes in the second half , but not so this year (God Complex aside).

See I'd disagree, in particular about S6, I thought the second half was really good, in fact Night Terrors was the only lousy episode amongst em! Compared to the first half that I found a bit underwhelming at times.

And what's this about healing wounds in the community? It's a tv show, not South Africa after apartheid when we need truth and reconciliation!

As for the question. I'm not sure. In some respects I found series 5 a little bland, whilst series 6 has been a little too flavoursome at times! I'd probably go with 6 for more stand out episodes (The Doctor's Wife, The God Complex, A Good Man Goes to War and The Girl Who Waited.)

 

[Sadistro]

The cult of Moffat are a real pain IMO. They treat everything he does like the second coming, and turn extremely nasty whenever anyone makes even the most benign criticism of him. Its extremely tiresome to hear how people who don't like Moffat 'aren't real fans' etc etc. They absolutely refuse to accept that you can be loyal to this show, if you don't like the direction he is taking things.

And yes, there are certainly people who act in just as reprehensible a manner on the other side too. But all of it adds up to a wearying level of community infighting, that makes places like Gallifrey Base a real minefield to negotiate. My point was that stupid comments from Moffat about 'hating the fans' and deliberately ignoring their concerns etc, is not a responsible attiutude to take. The man needs to show some humility - his critics aren't always right, but they aren't automatically wrong either.

And each to their own of course, but I felt 6B was atrocious. If it wasn't for 'The God Complex', I wouldn't even bother buying it (or rather, I would, but only out of duty to the show).

The first half of S6 was at least focused. The storyarc was commented on, and the appropriate emotions sustained over those episodes (Amy and Rory discussing the Doctor's death and the Doctor studying that pregnancy monitor etc). In contrast, 6B felt like a series of completely seperate episodes, business as usual, despite the fact that the Doctor's death was still unresolved, and the Ponds knew they had a daughter in danger etc.

And the nosedive in quality of Moffat's episodes (that has been in evidence since Pandorica Opens IMO), really terminal levels, making 'A Good Man..., Let's Kill Hitler and The Wedding of RS' bloated, smug and just painful affairs. The amount of catchphrases, repeated tropes and 'Hey, I really love Star Wars and Indiana Jones because I'm a geek like you!' moments are killing Moffat's credibility.

And like I say, its been coming for a while now, ever since the Doctor was encased in carbonite... oh sorry, I mean the Pandorica. The fanwank is just reaching critical levels now.

What makes it more galling is that his work at the start of S5 was almost uniformly excellent. 'Eleventh Hour' was a fabulous opener, 'Beast Below' remains Amy's only good episode, and the angels 2-parter, whilst not a great showcase for the angels themselves most of the time, did feature the best use of the cracks in time, before that story limped to its miserable conclusion in the finale.