The Christmas Specials poll.

[Stevil2001]

RTD puts a really interesting piece on the storytelling board -- Jackson Lake. And it's that piece that really drives the first half of the episode. But once the Jackson Lake mystery is resolved, the energy of the episode dissipates as it turns into the Doctor battling steampunk Cybermen, and it's not very interesting.

Davies really needed another draft, because I think "TND" would have been easily fixable. Have Lake play a role in the climax, rather than standing around as a passive observer. Have Lake, not the Doctor, save his son. Have Lake discover that, while he's not the Doctor, he can still be a hero.

And finally, put Jackson Lake in the damn balloon.

I agree. It ought to be similar to how the mystery of Donna is resolved about two-third of the way into "The Runaway Bride"-- but she continues to play an active role in the story. I think it's especially crummy that Lake can't even be a hero to save his own son!

The first half is wonderful. The last half is terrible. Davies needed another draft, though he also needed someone far enough removed from the story to tell him why the script didn't work.

Unfortunately, in this case there just wasn't time. With "The Next Doctor" filmed at the end of Series Four, Rusty needed to squeeze out that script as fast as possible. As it was, they had to delay production for a week so he could have a chance to write it. The fact that it fell at the end of an intense season probably didn't help, either.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

The first half is wonderful. The last half is terrible. Davies needed another draft, though he also needed someone far enough removed from the story to tell him why the script didn't work.

Unfortunately, in this case there just wasn't time. With "The Next Doctor" filmed at the end of Series Four, Rusty needed to squeeze out that script as fast as possible. As it was, they had to delay production for a week so he could have a chance to write it. The fact that it fell at the end of an intense season probably didn't help, either.

Yeah, I know. And The Writer's Tale tells us that Rusty was seriously ill at the time, too, which also affected "Journey's End."

But in an ideal world, what might have been... *sigh*

 

[Starkers]

All the things mentioned above reflect my issues with The Next Doctor. Whilst Lake was a hero, he should have been more of a hero. As said, at the very least he should have rescued his own son, and he could have piloted his "TARDIS"even if the Doctor was still the one to defeat the Cybermen.

And the cringe worthy three cheers for the doctor at the end didn't help matters....

 

[The Nth Doctor]

I forgot about how Lake took a backseat in the second half of "The Next Doctor." I do agree that's very unfortunate.

 

[Stevil2001]

I also think that Lake should have been left with the vortex generator: he, his son, and Rosita could have adventured through time and space on their balloon. How awesome would that have been!?

 

[Allyn Gibson]

Didn't Rusty say that he was intrigued by the idea of writing a novel about the tenth Doctor and Jackson Lake? I could go for that!

 

[Stevil2001]

Yeah, in the commentary he suggests there could be a whole Missing Adventure in the middle of the closing TARDIS scene!

 

[Nerys Myk]

I voted for the Next Doctor. Perhaps because I just saw it again earlier today. It was a fun and I liked "The Doctor", reminded me a bit of Pertwee, who's a favorite of mine.