ED209 wrote:I used to like doctor who when I was a child but never watched anything since they brought it back (with david tennant?).

Christopher Eccleston.

Is it worth me picking up now? Any particular series or episodes I should watch/not bother with?

Blink.

Fallible wrote:

ED209 wrote:I used to like doctor who when I was a child but never watched anything since they brought it back (with david tennant?).

Christopher Eccleston.

Is it worth me picking up now? Any particular series or episodes I should watch/not bother with?

Blink.

Should watch that is.
Right Fallible?

Sorry, yes.

Yeah I heard about that one, the 'statues'. Is there any particular series I should watch though? Have to say none of the actors playing the doctor really fire me up (without having seen any of the episodes) so wondering if they are any gems/duds or if the series are all much of a muchness and I might as well start with the christopher ecclestone ones.

As a benchmark, right now my alternative is watching The Strain...

My personal preference goes to Tennant, but Eccleston wasn't bad or anything, Tennant just outshone him.

Hmm, see my problem is that I like Matt Smith, but I can't stand the Amy Pond (assistant) woman, or the strand of the story featuring her and her husband. So I like Matt Smith's Doctor, but a lot of his episodes were spoiled for me by those bits. I think the best assistant has been Catherine Tate, who worked with David Tennant...but I did find him to be a bit irritating towards the end.

Am I the only one who thinks most of the recent Doctors have been decent- but the scripts have been a bit crappy and 'ooh let's make this look very complicated and hope nobody notices that we haven't thought it through properly"?
Sorry- feel I'm pissing against the wind here!

But yeh- the Pond stuff was poo and Tate was great (poetry!) as Fallible said.

Ed- I wouldn't worry about it. Catch the latest series and if you like it go back to the Tennant ones perhaps.

law of increasing returns with the doctors - eccleston was ok, tennant got increasingly irritating in the part, smith was great and my fave since the reboot (but i'm with fall - the ponds and particularly river song got on my tits)...loving capaldi but dont think he's found his niche yet but i can see glimmers of it, particularly in 'listen' and if he carries on like that he'll be vying with smith

tate has, indeed, been the best companion and converted me to her as i didnt like her before

no real series to avoid, just don't bother with 'love & monsters'....lots of people poopoo series 2...

smudge wrote:Am I the only one who thinks most of the recent Doctors have been decent- but the scripts have been a bit crappy and 'ooh let's make this look very complicated and hope nobody notices that we haven't thought it through properly"?
Sorry- feel I'm pissing against the wind here!

But yeh- the Pond stuff was poo and Tate was great (poetry!) as Fallible said.

Ed- I wouldn't worry about it. Catch the latest series and if you like it go back to the Tennant ones perhaps.

Yeah I know what you mean about the scripts. My assessment overall of the reboot has been some very decent episodes salted throughout all series, padded out with far less good/quite painfully corny stuff. My mood took a bit of a nose dive with the Robin Hood episode this series, but perked up again yesterday.

Oh god yes, River Song's irritating as all get out.

Fallible wrote:

smudge wrote:Am I the only one who thinks most of the recent Doctors have been decent- but the scripts have been a bit crappy and 'ooh let's make this look very complicated and hope nobody notices that we haven't thought it through properly"?
Sorry- feel I'm pissing against the wind here!

But yeh- the Pond stuff was poo and Tate was great (poetry!) as Fallible said.

Ed- I wouldn't worry about it. Catch the latest series and if you like it go back to the Tennant ones perhaps.

Yeah I know what you mean about the scripts. My assessment overall of the reboot has been some very decent episodes salted throughout all series, padded out with far less good/quite painfully corny stuff. My mood took a bit of a nose dive with the Robin Hood episode this series, but perked up again yesterday.

Yeh. It's just so patchy. Silly stuff which is annoying but could so easily (one would have thought) be better.
Oh well...

I suppose it's kids' telly really and on at a certain time, so they have to bear that in mind. I do however like the way they weave themes into the series, eg. your song is ending soon and the sound of the knocking/drums which led up to Tennant vs Simm.

http://www.blastr.com/2010/09/13_awesome_and_7_not_so_a.php

just found this and it's not far off my opinion though it's not up to date

as well as them i'd go for:
series 6: the dr's wife, night terrors, the girl who waited & the god complex (avoid closing time)
series 7: asylum of the daleks, a town called mercy, the angels take manhattan, hide, the crimson horror

then you've got the name, the night, the day & the time of the doctor - i liked that sequence....

Fallible wrote:I suppose it's kids' telly really and on at a certain time, so they have to bear that in mind. I do however like the way they weave themes into the series, eg. your song is ending soon and the sound of the knocking/drums which led up to Tennant vs Simms.

Well, it ought to be! Part of my problem with it is the people stand around talking rather than running about action adventure approach. Its often dialogue heavy. Don't 'explain' how clever the plot is- 'show us' in a way everyone can understand - is what I mean.
Does anyone know a 9-12 year old that loves the show? I don't. Yet when I was that age I wouldn't miss an episode.

Yes, I see what you mean. My daughter used to love it when she was about 9, she rarely watches it now as an almost 14 year old.

Fallible wrote:Oh god yes, River Song's irritating as all get out.

I have a bit of a crush for River Song. The sexy white spacesuit in Forest of the Dead

Finally got to see Listen. Good episode.

smudge wrote:

Fallible wrote:I suppose it's kids' telly really and on at a certain time, so they have to bear that in mind. I do however like the way they weave themes into the series, eg. your song is ending soon and the sound of the knocking/drums which led up to Tennant vs Simms.

Well, it ought to be! Part of my problem with it is the people stand around talking rather than running about action adventure approach. Its often dialogue heavy. Don't 'explain' how clever the plot is- 'show us' in a way everyone can understand - is what I mean.
Does anyone know a 9-12 year old that loves the show? I don't. Yet when I was that age I wouldn't miss an episode.

Well I do like science fiction - I guess, I used to anyway - but what put me off watching it before was thinking that it would be too heavy with crappy BBC-production standard action sequences and intrusive CGI. Whereas the old ones weren't like that at all. Maybe I shoud watch some old tom baker ones instead, he seems to be considered peak who

Time Heist

Doctor Who does Hustle.

Nice episode and I was relieved that the focus wasn't on Clara so much. I'm looking forward to see Psi/Saibra again some time in the future (it was a teased in the DW Extra, no?) But it looks like we'll get the whole Clara/Danny OD in next week's episode.