Jump to content
IGNORED

Doctor Who

FishyFish

By FishyFish
in Film, TV & Radio

 Share

Recommended Posts

So. Angry.

So. Angry.

Posted
Posted

Other than the whole of Bakers last season and Davisons first 2 seasons, a good example for me is McCoy's speech at the end of Survival, at the time it was just the last lines of a good story, 16 yrs of no Who and 70 books featuring a rather amazing 7th Doctor later, the end of Survival makes me well up on occasion. :(

Aye. That speech pretty much sums up what Doctor Who means to me.

"Somewhere else the tea's getting cold."

On reflection he probably means Cardiff...

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Boyatsea

Boyatsea

Posted
Posted

Really? Warrior's Gate? State of Decay? Keeper of Traken? All classics for me. I like The Leisure Hive too, it's very nicely shot. I think the early use of digital effects has probably dated the visuals, but some of the actual imagery from that season stands up very well (The Doctor Ageing, Meglos, Melkur, The Watcher), as well as the more serious content. Warrior's Gate in particular has a lot of interesting things going on.

Have to admit, The Leisure Hive is one of my least favourite Whos ever. It's just so slow, drab and slow (again.) The opening shot is enough to put you off. Plus, as I've mentioned before, I'm not a big fan of Romana II and the Doctor is again overly dry.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Bad Ambassador

Bad Ambassador

Posted
Posted

Have to admit, The Leisure Hive is one of my least favourite Whos ever. It's just so slow, drab and slow (again.) The opening shot is enough to put you off. Plus, as I've mentioned before, I'm not a big fan of Romana II and the Doctor is again overly dry.

I love Romana II, but I agree with the rest. Style over substance, and the style doesn't really hold up these days - it's left looking a lot cheaper than the stuff that came before it, simply because it's so over-designed. And opening the season with a 90 second tracking shot of some beach huts is one of the stupidest things they could possibly have done.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Boyatsea

Boyatsea

Posted
Posted

I love Romana II, but I agree with the rest. Style over substance, and the style doesn't really hold up these days - it's left looking a lot cheaper than the stuff that came before it, simply because it's so over-designed. And opening the season with a 90 second tracking shot of some beach huts is one of the stupidest things they could possibly have done.

Indeed, indeed, indeed.

:blink:

That's one of my favourites.

It's alright. I still like you.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Alex W.

Alex W.

Posted
Posted

Thinking of it, the end of The Army of Ghosts is one of my favourite TV moments in ages.

At first there's this reveal of what we've kind of suspected, this whole scary army of Cybermen, and I sort of think "Well, that means parallel Earth must be fucked." Then Mickey appears and there's this volte face as it hits that the Cybermen are on the run, and everyone's getting read for a massive fight. And then Daleks appear. Awesome.

And then the second part manages to live up to that. No pissy obvious "bad guys in alliance" nonsense, just two ridiculously good baddies tearing into eachother and the good guy sin the middle. And the Doctor's implied alliance with the Cybermen! Anyone else would've surely done that on screen, but nope, the Doctor turns up and we figure it out ourselves. Fantastic writing.

The Daleks get the best dialogue.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Moose

Moose

Posted
Posted

Really? Warrior's Gate? State of Decay? Keeper of Traken? All classics for me. I like The Leisure Hive too, it's very nicely shot. I think the early use of digital effects has probably dated the visuals, but some of the actual imagery from that season stands up very well (The Doctor Ageing, Meglos, Melkur, The Watcher), as well as the more serious content. Warrior's Gate in particular has a lot of interesting things going on.

o/\o! Agree. Full Circle and Warrior's Gate are arguably the deepest Who stories ever made, both sumptuously filmed (Full Circle's first ep is just gorgeous in parts, especially the cliffhanger), thoughtfully plotted and interesting enough to really make you think about them afterwards. Meglos is silly fun, State of Decay is enjoyably eerie and then there's Logopolis.

I love Logopolis. DSD is bang on - more than the sum of its parts, definitely. The Watcher, TARDIS-within-TARDIS and the drab, gloomy atmosphere that permeates (whether the scene is the alien, computer architectured stone pathways of Logopolis or a motorway layby on Earth) are all interesting ideas. Oh, and the morbid drone of the Cloister Bell... You can see a glimpse of JNT's future wayward decisions in Tegan, but as an everyday 1980s wide-eyed human companion to ask the Doctor what's happening and why the TARDIS is in fact bigger on the inside than it is on the outside, she's not half bad at all.

JNT certainly went off the rails later on, but I reckon Doctor Who would be a lot poorer without Season 18. It's definitely Who's prog rock phase, and I love it for even that alone.

Oh, and to catch up, my first Doctor Who memory is probably watching Resurrection of the Daleks on BBC1 as a nipper. I was heartened to find out on buying the DVD that it is just as hugely confusing now as it was when I was 5.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Seamonster

Seamonster

Posted
Posted

Seeing as I was starting to feel withdrawal symptoms after last week's episode, I thought now might be the time to catch up on early Who and maybe re-aquaint myself with some of the Tom Baker/Peter Davidson episodes I remember from my childhood.

Ive just had a quick surf and found a torrent of every William Hartnell episode ever made (weighing in at a hefty 32Gb).

So that's it then - I'm about to start watching 40 years of Who from episode one. Hopefully I'll resurface in time for the Runaway Bride :lol:

Link to comment
Share on other sites
tiedtiger

tiedtiger

Posted
Posted

It only has to be explained to people who aren't watching properly or who aren't thinking properly.

I'm sure there ARE plot holes in there but nobody has posted any so far.

In the last episode?

None that I can see.

There's lots of bad plotting, but that's not the same thing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Burai

Burai

Posted
Posted

Seeing as I was starting to feel withdrawal symptoms after last week's episode, I thought now might be the time to catch up on early Who and maybe re-aquaint myself with some of the Tom Baker/Peter Davidson episodes I remember from my childhood.

Ive just had a quick surf and found a torrent of every William Hartnell episode ever made (weighing in at a hefty 32Gb).

So that's it then - I'm about to start watching 40 years of Who from episode one. Hopefully I'll resurface in time for the Runaway Bride :)

I got the Hartnell torrent. The thing I've found is that most of it is unwatchably dull. Horribly paced and usually dragging out 20 minutes of action into 2 hours. It's a nice curio though, to see where it all began. You'll enjoy seeing the first appearances of the Daleks and Cybermen (sounding like Zippy thanks to Roy Skelton doing the voice of the Cyber Leader) and there's plenty of fun to be had from Hartnell fluffing his lines. Just don't expect to be amazingly entertained.

I've moved onto the Troughton stuff now and that's far more interesting.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
scottcr

scottcr

Posted
Posted

I thought the hartnell cybermen were perhaps the most disturbing. Maybe it's a combination of the black and white and the strange way they open and shut their mouthes and the crazy intonation, but they are a bit freaky.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Seamonster

Seamonster

Posted
Posted

I got the Hartnell torrent. The thing I've found is that most of it is unwatchably dull. Horribly paced and usually dragging out 20 minutes of action into 2 hours. It's a nice curio though, to see where it all began. You'll enjoy seeing the first appearances of the Daleks and Cybermen (sounding like Zippy thanks to Roy Skelton doing the voice of the Cyber Leader).

I'm bracing myself for some fairly ropey episodes, and I may not watch them all, but I wanted to go back and at least watch the pilot followed by the introductions for the Daleks and the Cybermen.

EDIT:

However, last night I watched about twenty minutes of the The Unearthly Child and so far I'm really impressed with it. Apart from a few unintentionally shaky camera movements it seems to be surprisingly well directed. Most scenes seem to be done in one or two long takes, and it just gives the impression that the director put a lot of thought into how the camera and the actors would move around the set while still keeping it visually interesting and complementing the script. It reminds me of Hitchcock's Rope in that respect.

I've moved onto the Troughton stuff now and that's far more interesting.

It's a long long time since I've seen any Troughton episodes but the ones I did see I loved. I always thought he was a great actor after watching The Box of Delights as a kid.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Garwoofoo

Garwoofoo

Posted
Posted

However, last night I watched about twenty minutes of the The Unearthly Child and so far I'm really impressed with it.

Me too. I've also decided to partake in the Hartnellathon after my Who withdrawal symptoms got the better of me. I've never seen more than a handful of episodes of classic Who (and my opinions of what was good and what was bad differs enormously from regular Who watchers, or so it seems) so a chronological tour seems like an interesting challenge.

And I thoroughly enjoyed the first episode. Amazing really how much was there from day one... the theme tune, the TARDIS, the Vworp Vworp noise... didn't really expect any of that for some reason. Hartnell's a shifty old bugger though, it's only the fact that his supposedly fifteen-year-old daughter's blatantly about thirty that's preventing him getting lynched by an anti-paedo rent-a-mob. :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Darren

Darren

Posted
Posted

Well as planned we all watched "Rose" on Saturday night in the usual Who slot. It was the first time I've seen it since it was first broadcast and I'd forgotten how good it was. The kids enjoyed it so much they made me put "The End of the World" on straight after, so it looks like we might be watching two episodes a week for a while...

Two things struck me about the kids' reactions:

- Not one of them questioned the fact that the Doctor was different (they've only seen this year's series apart from watching "Dalek" last year). They just accepted it completely. I have no idea why this is.

- Despite watching the whole of the 2006 series and barely twitching at the Cybermen, Daleks, werewolf, Satan etc., the "store dummies" as they called them scared all four kids witless. To the point where we spent most of the episode reminding them that it's not real, it's only people in costumes, they're only pretending and so on. They then spent most of Sunday playing at store dummies and pulling each other's arms off. (The next episode made very little impression apart from the bit when Cassandra exploded...)

Next Saturday: The Unquiet Dead, and if they're good, Aliens of London!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Darren

Darren

Posted
Posted

Also in "Rose" I thought the music for the quiet moments she spends with the Doctor (like when he's talking about the earth spinning around the sun) was the same as at the end of Doomsday after their separation. I found that retrospectively very touching.

I'm now seriously tempted to get that "The Beginning" DVD and start watching the real first series. I've never watched any B&W Who apart from clips so I've no idea what to expect. I'm not sure it will play well with the kids either, who found Genesis of the Daleks to be as dull as ditchwater.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Bad Ambassador

Bad Ambassador

Posted
Posted

I'm not sure it will play well with the kids either, who found Genesis of the Daleks to be as dull as ditchwater.

If they found 'Genesis' dull then there's probably no point in showing them the Hartnell stories at all.

It's worth you watching them though, as some of them are brilliant - as long as you're prepared for the sheer slowness of it all.

Did I mention that series four is apparently in the bag, with David T all signed up as well? Well, that's the 'word on the street'.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Darren

Darren

Posted
Posted

Oh, I'll be buying them for me and me alone! (Well, and the Mrs...)

Great news on series 4 although we must be at the stage where the only surprise would be if they didn't re-commission.

And am I the only one who spotted the music link between Rose and Doomsday? Or did it get discussed to death last week and I didn't notice?

Link to comment
Share on other sites
cassidy

cassidy

Posted
Posted

And am I the only one who spotted the music link between Rose and Doomsday? Or did it get discussed to death last week and I didn't notice?

I havent noticed, but Murray Gold does tend to develop and reuse themes in the show. I'll check tonight.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share
Go to topic listing

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue. Use of this website is subject to our Privacy Policy, Terms of Use, and Guidelines.

  I accept