Half Term report

Wibbs

I don't TBH MD. I suppose it also depends on viewpoint and hindsight. It was the regeneration of the character for a whole new generation. There was an element of feeling their way into it. Trying to find the audience again, so you had swings from pretty dark to aiming more at the kids market. Even going by the first six episodes. Rose was a very nice bit of writing IMH. It's almost entirely from her perspective when a lesser, more risk averse writer would have gone for the obvious exposition route. Hell soon enough in you have animated Welsh corpses before the watershed. Never mind the best(IMHO) use of the Daleks so far. The current series has the audience and is more sure of its direction(though IMHO has still lurched in finding its feet nigh on week by week). When comparing the two I'd give more props to the first series of the New Who on that score. If nothing else the character of the Doc was far more consistent. As were the secondary characters. Clara's "voice" seems to be varying all over the place, never mind the awkward insertion of the boyfriend. No farting aliens alright, but less consistent characterisations with it.

TL;DR? For me series 1 was finding its way and hitting it more than once, whereas the current series is looking for its way and hitting it less.

Doctor DooM

Wibbs wrote: »

I don't TBH MD. I suppose it also depends on viewpoint and hindsight. It was the regeneration of the character for a whole new generation. There was an element of feeling their way into it. Trying to find the audience again, so you had swings from pretty dark to aiming more at the kids market. Even going by the first six episodes. Rose was a very nice bit of writing IMH. It's almost entirely from her perspective when a lesser, more risk averse writer would have gone for the obvious exposition route. Hell soon enough in you have animated Welsh corpses before the watershed. Never mind the best(IMHO) use of the Daleks so far. The current series has the audience and is more sure of its direction(though IMHO has still lurched in finding its feet nigh on week by week). When comparing the two I'd give more props to the first series of the New Who on that score. If nothing else the character of the Doc was far more consistent. As were the secondary characters. Clara's "voice" seems to be varying all over the place, never mind the awkward insertion of the boyfriend. No farting aliens alright, but less consistent characterisations with it.

TL;DR? For me series 1 was finding its way and hitting it more than once, whereas the current series is looking for its way and hitting it less.

Nah man, Rose was not good imo.

Doctor Who is very good in general at appealing to kids without being childish. Rose has some terribly childish moments (Rose doesn't notice her boyfriend is made of plastic and glitching? Really?) that put me off at the time let alone now. It's rose (lol) tinted glasses to say that series 8 has yet ever matched the couple of lows that the first did.

But that's ok! Doctor Who is constantly finding itself and it's constantly new and that's why some of us love it. You're allowed to have a few weak ones. Change doesn't happen without experimentation, and as you said 9 had a lot of work to do to establish the status quo.

I think you're missing the point I'm making: Every single Nu Who Doctor starts out rough, every single one of them gets attacked in this way, and every single one of them, except for possibly Tennant, and as other people have mentioned, his run has its own problems- have suffered the same.

ebbsy

Doctor DooM wrote: »

Nightmare in silver is generally not well regarded and considered a lot of missed potential.

I meant this season, however I will agree with you about Nightmare in Silver, and Closing Time was extremely bad.

Lets hope the finale this year can rectify matters.

Wibbs

Doctor DooM wrote: »

I think you're missing the point I'm making: Every single Nu Who Doctor starts out rough, every single one of them gets attacked in this way, and every single one of them, except for possibly Tennant, and as other people have mentioned, his run has its own problems- have suffered the same.

Shaky moments certainly, but IMH Capaldi's current run, even with an established audience is pretty off tune. His consistency is all over the place. I wasn't keen on Smith initially, but he won me over pretty quickly and when I later rewatched his very first outing I was "OK yep he's pretty good outa the gate"(both positions I outlined in this very forum so not a new change of heart). Ecclestons Doc is the same character and presence at the end as he is at the start, Ditto for Tennant and Smith. Capaldi's is like he's stretching out his confused regen episode.

Capaldi's first outing is pretty dire. Mumbling, bumbling, badly paced and directed with some real screwups in sound. Never mind the hammer heavy "accept the old guy" stuff. Strax's comedy turn just about elevated it above headbutt the screen telly for me. Into the Dalek? Jeeezuz and I happen to like Daleks. Robin of Sherwood? Ok in parts, but overall lacklustre and the shoot the arrow into the spacecraft speil was pretty awful. Listen was a good one, though more around Clara, with the odd Doctory bits. and so on... Orient Express was a high point for me so far. Well paced, more of the Doc and a decent script not rushing to a final conclusion before the tape runs out.

I suppose we can agree to disagree DD *waves white flag*

tritium

I must have been the only one who actually enjoyed Nightmare in Silver. Plus I thought it created some scope to make something of one of the Who enemies with the most unrealised potential (IMHO)

Doctor DooM

Wibbs wrote: »

Shaky moments certainly, but IMH Capaldi's current run, even with an established audience is pretty off tune. His consistency is all over the place. I wasn't keen on Smith initially, but he won me over pretty quickly and when I later rewatched his very first outing I was "OK yep he's pretty good outa the gate"(both positions I outlined in this very forum so not a new change of heart). Ecclestons Doc is the same character and presence at the end as he is at the start, Ditto for Tennant and Smith. Capaldi's is like he's stretching out his confused regen episode.

Capaldi's first outing is pretty dire. Mumbling, bumbling, badly paced and directed with some real screwups in sound. Never mind the hammer heavy "accept the old guy" stuff. Strax's comedy turn just about elevated it above headbutt the screen telly for me. Into the Dalek? Jeeezuz and I happen to like Daleks. Robin of Sherwood? Ok in parts, but overall lacklustre and the shoot the arrow into the spacecraft speil was pretty awful. Listen was a good one, though more around Clara, with the odd Doctory bits. and so on... Orient Express was a high point for me so far. Well paced, more of the Doc and a decent script not rushing to a final conclusion before the tape runs out.

I suppose we can agree to disagree DD *waves white flag*

Oh of course if we all agreed what would be the point

ebbsy

tritium wrote: »

I must have been the only one who actually enjoyed Nightmare in Silver. Plus I thought it created some scope to make something of one of the Who enemies with the most unrealised potential (IMHO)

it did have a lot of potential, until the sudden end.

Wibbs

Doctor DooM wrote: »

Oh of course if we all agreed what would be the point

True dat Sir, soooo true dat. *





*for me the diametrically opposed position on any topic is nearly always where the cool shít tends to come out. The point where both go "no way man, you're so wrong, but I kinda see where you're coming from, but will never admit it". You git. It shows actual and genuine interest in the subject at hand.

pixelburp

Nothing wrong with opposing views around these parts, and considering how much the show has changed over the 50 odds years - so many different actors, styles, tones and production teams - I guess it'd be next to impossible not to have differing ideologies of what 'good' series there were. And I'd like to think anyone looking into this forum would see a spirit of camaraderie and friendly debate, rather than in some of the more ... acrimonious parts of Boards

That said, you're still wrong Wibbs; 'Rose' was awful :P

Slutmonkey57b

Nightmare in Silver was the only good Cybermen episode I've ever watched. The first time they didn't come across as useless, bumbling idiot robots. Mind you I'm not a fan of Daleks either.

I think it redeemed the concept of a cyberman from the dated 50's "clunking robot soldier" into what an actual cybernetic organism might be, given our technological progress since they came on the scene. Mind you it had to copy the Borg in order to do so, but that's no surprise.