I heard about this show a long time ago but thought it was garbage, and never really payed attention to it, until it was picked up by one of our local channels. Watched the first 2 seasons on tv, then proceeded to watch back to back all the episodes on the net. I've reached the start of season 5 now. Probably one of the strangest shows I've ever seen. The only series I think even remotely comes close is Farscape. My main complaint on this series is that it doesn't know what it wants to be. It flip flops violently from serious to ridiculous, from comedy to drama, so on and so forth. It also has an annoying tendency of ruining otherwise great ideas/scrips with cheesy/cartoony effects or aliens. One example that springs to mind is that episode with the buss that ends up on an alien planet. Great premise and atmosphere partly ruined by the cheesy 1950's B movie looking fly head aliens. I mean, really? Fly aliens? They couldn't come up with anything better than that? Overall it's a mixed bag, half great, and half garbage. However it does have it's charm, after all it managed to turn a hater into a fan. I think I would enjoy it a lot more if they gave this show a bigger budget, better effects, and just tried to make it more serious, instead of treating it like some sort of glorified kid's show.
You do realise this show has been around since the 60s, right? (Stupid question really. They constantly reference the older stuff). Cheesy 50s visuals, bi-polar comedy/drama and the whole 'glorified kids show' are kind of the point. That stuff is part of its heritage. I don't doubt that they could make a better sci-fi show than Doctor Who, but one that airs at 7 O'Clock on Saturday and keeps going for 31 Series? Probably not. And anything more gritty, big-budget* and serious simply wouldn't be Doctor Who. * as far as BBC productions go, it already is big-budget anyway. I'm expecting it to come quite literally. Like the Tardis exploding somehow puts the whole universe back in order anyway. River hasn't killed someone yet.
Part of it's heritage... bah humbug. The fact that this show has been around from the 1960's is no excuse for trying to mimic the cheesy visuals now. I mean take Star Trek for example, they had no problem treating it relatively seriously, despite it's cheesy/cartoony 1960's heritage. As for the budget, I think for me it boils down to their poor design decisions. The CGI is mediocre but acceptable, and some of their animatronic puppets looked great. Oh, and BTW the new doctor looks like an annoying douchebag. The new companion is OK though. The daleks are like those cartoon villains, that no matter how may times you kill, or imprison them they always come back with some plot to destroy the world. "Hahah. What are you going to do suck me to death?"
One half was written by Moffat, one half written by Russell T. Davies As for the pandorica, very cool episode, but how the Daleks keep reappearing is beyond me lol, but I grinned largely on the remnants of the Cyberman. By far my favourite enemy apart from the weeping angels. I actually didn't expect the doctor to be imprisoned in the pandorica, still I look forward to the final episode, will be interesting to see how he gets out of it.
Russel.T was bad with that, made worse by claiming it was "the last dalek" then "the last dalek sect" so on and so forth. I think Moffat has done much better with this series as he is just generally a better writer than R.T.D. Although he doesn't seem to have actually written many eps of the latest series... Pandorica though; nice idea.
because in order for my opinions regarding how terrible i find the show to be in order for me to moan about it to my friend who loves it, i need to have seen it. so i watch it, and i hate it. got a lot of love for the old doctor who, though.
awh, the old ones were horrendously low-budget, still inventive though. I know alot of people who love the old series but hate the new. Gotta admit that the Eccleston series was really good though.
I could never bring myself to watch the old ones, the effects and everything are just too bad haha. Eccleston was the man.
In my opinion the thing is that Eccleston was believable in the role of an action hero, while these other two are not. On an unrelated note, I thought that Timothy Dalton was awesome as the "time lord" leader.
I just think his portrayal of the doctor was brilliant and so believable, he is a better actor than both Tennant and Smith put together in all honesty.
Found this little gem while browsing the DW IMDB boards. http://scifiwire.com/2010/06/nasa-discovers-crack-in-t.php?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter Did a search and the image seeems to be genuine
From what I heard he only left because he didn't want to be labelled as the Doctor, which worked. Incidentally he's starring as John Lennon in a tv show this evening (British time). And as for that link.... whaat. That's kinda awesome. Either it's a crazy coincidence or it was discovered a while ago, never really publicised and Moffat based a story around the concept...
i think you mean the new ones. the effects made sense in the old ones because of the time and budget... now, it just looks cringeworthy bad. AND EVERYTHING IS IN WALES JUST **** OFF ALREADY. YOU ARE A TIME LORD, GO SOMEWHERE ELSE
NASA says it's a large snake shaped cloud of stars that haven't "ignited" yet. I don't know about you but the fact that at the center of our galaxy is gigantic black whole is a lot more creepy than this, and we've known about that for some time now...
If you're gonna defend the crappy effects, appreciate the setting was down to the same reason; low budget. Especially in the old ones. I think because it was so strongly established, to travel alot would be kinda contrary, but they've set things in London alot and Scotland occasionally. Midlands and northern Britain yet to get a look-in though...
just **** off from britain in general. it's a shame that the concept behind a floating city in the beast below is quite interesting except for that when they actually show the interior of the places, it's still that stock doctor who warehouse with shiney grooves and panals lined with girders effect that is always used. eh, my whining is menial and inappropriate - my irk is that the rubbish cheap and nostalgic atmosphere feels so forced. it worked back then because it was the standard. i wouldn't know where or what i would like doctor who to look like now which ultimatley just leaves me thinking it's a show that doesn't hold up. i wouldn't shed a tear if it was pulled from TV. i wish it never started, everyone knows the ending of doctor who was with the atrocious movie.
Its a show that people keep watching because time to time it opens up moments of pure brilliance, overall its good I think, some episodes drag but there is always the potential for episodes as brilliant as 'Blink' to be made. Sadly none of them this season has been anywhere near that standard, still fun though and still miles better than most shit on tv at the moment.
Yeah well it's a B r i t i s h tv show. it only stayed in this country cause it couldn't afford to go anywhere else and now it wants to stick to its roots. In defence it was shot in a desert once, although I don't know if that was on location or not... And love it or hate it, its ingeniously inventive and regarded as a classic sci-fi and, as Shift said, it has moment of brilliance.
I really don't view this show as sci-fi but rather fantasy. Even though they always try to come up with a pseudo scientific explanation for everything. It's fantasy in the same sense, that movies like Star Wars and The Fifth Element are fantasy. Also speaking of The Fifth Element, that episode with the hospital that gets teleported on the Moon, and the rhino space cops, really had a Fifth Element vibe to it.
Especially the constant deus ex machina, perpetual "a wizard did it", where the wizard is the Doctor.
Fair point, I can see why you say that cause it's not like it takes the 'scientific' elements of it all that seriously, but its more time travel and black holes than it is faeries and magic. And The Fifth Element is a great film. Unfortunately that was the episode which introduces Martha which essentially doomed a series. (Aside from blink, that was awesome, she played a mercifully small role in that).
That was a cracking episode I thought, really nice idea, but yes Martha being there wasn't very cool. But there were a few good episodes during her stay, like the Dead City episode, where all the cars were driving in and endless circle beneath the city, great concept.
Aaah yeah that was a good one! I forget, I glazed over most of that series :| Kinda lost interest towards the end cause Martha was doing.my.head.in.
thats actually what really grated me about the beast below. a city with something below the surface, something that terrifies it's inhabitants! oh wait, that was also the premise of the episode grid lock.
The problem with gridlock was that they build up all this tension and mystery, only to reveal that the monsters at the bottom of the tunnel were giant alien space crabs... WTF. Sometimes I wonder what the writers are smoking when they make these scripts.
could of been worse could of been daleks. i mean that would of been fitting, too. a mystery enemy, a shadow of the doctors past... always the ****ing daleks.
I agree the reapperance of the Daleks does lead to a massive facepalm, when will they just ****ing die?
I know, the Daleks, originally, were a stroke of genius... then in Eccleston's series; THEY CAN FLY NOW!(why?)WE HAVE THE TECHNOLOGY! *facepalm*. Sooo now we need more new creative bad guys! Like the weeping angels, they were a good idea.