All posts by FH2104

At some point there should

I'm not sure what is meant by pure evil, but I'd definitely not assign it to the Cybermen. As Laura said, this is entirely down to how well it's done. A mysterious villain with unknown goals every week would very quickly become tiresome.

I really doubt it

I can try to articulate why I agree with you, and then you can decide whether it makes sense to you:

The most obvious comparison for me is The Woman Who Fell to Earth and The Eleventh Hour, via An Unearthly Child. Of the former, one is more exciting than the other, but that's not the one I prefer. That isn't the one that I've seen dozens of times to remind myself how I felt when I first saw it.

Way back in 1963 the first character we see is not the Doctor. He's not even in the first four. He's actually the last character we meet in episode 1—but what's important is that the first person we see is actually just a policeman. This serves two purposes, which are linked: one is that it's a very natural sight to see around a police box. We know there's something a bit weird about the box, but the proximity to the policeman makes you question that. The other is that it familiarises the audience. Back in the 60s police dramas were what people were watching: Dixon of Dock Green, Z-Cars, Scotland Yard etc. It subconsciously sets us (well, "us" in the 60s) at ease and makes us think what we're watching is the height of normality. The key point is that in order to show that everything involving the Doctor and the Tardis (and potentially Susan although she's more of a grey area) is extraordinary, which it is, you first have to establish "ordinary". That's the genius of Ian and Barbara.

"Ordinary" is not in Steven Moffat's vocabulary, at least not until The Return of Dr. Mysterio, or perhaps The Pilot. In The Eleventh Hour, the first character we meet is the Doctor. He's the first one we get to know, all of his likes and dislikes, with little Amy there essentially as someone for him to be weird at. This has the effect of making Amy seem like the strange one. The very next time we see Amy she's being ogled by the director, is implausibly living in the same house with no parents, and inexplicably is working as a kissogram in a village full of pensioners. Leadworth isn't even real! At no point in this episode (and for my money in any of her two-and-a-half years) does Amy feel like a real person. And Moffat knows it too, which is why he invented Rory. The Eleventh Hour is good, and occasionally thrilling, but it doesn't have an iota of the atmosphere conjured up by Waris Hussein 47 years earlier. It's still Doctor Who by name, but the spirit of the programme has been completely lost or mis-represented.

The Woman Who Fell to Earth has that spirit. It's maybe a tad long, not scary enough, and generally just not an engaging enough plot. But it does understand far better who the Doctor is. I despair when people say "what's interesting about this Doctor is how alien they are"—no: we know they're alien, what's interesting is how human they are with that knowledge. Again, the Doctor is the last of the main cast we meet in this episode. We learn about Ryan and who his family is. Then we meet Yaz, who, brilliantly, knows Ryan already, but is also a policewoman (a nice callback, yes, but also an echo of the original intent—Line of Duty was a huge thing in 2018). We know who these characters are, what their place in the world is and how they know each other, well before the Doctor arrives. The rest of the episode is great, although not one of the best—but two great things are achieved: one, we care about and are interested in the story before the Doctor's in it (ordinary achieved ✓); and two, the original spirit of the programme is re-discovered. For the first time since Tom Baker at the very latest, but probably since Hartnell.

There's more to both eras than those two episodes of course. His Chibs has had both far better and far worse than his first. The historicals are clearly crying out to be "pure" historicals without any Thijarian or Skithra nonsense. But they all align with his idea that the Doctor and the Tardis are things that happen to ordinary people; not that it's about a madman with a box and we're just along for the ride. Does all that go out of the window when it comes to Flux onwards? Arguably. But Flux is still my favourite series since the show came back, and my favourite overall since the early days of Leela. That's a story for another day. Mainly it's just that I finally felt that somebody understood the programme again.

@Kevin 'Chalky' Kaiba In science-fiction "god" doesn't have the same meaning as it does in the real world. It just means something incredibly powerful, that certain people could interpret as divine. Going right back to "Orb" in An Unearthly Child, which for any slow-wits is just the sun. So anything could feasibly be called a god, and there's no reason that shouldn't also include the Doctor. I don't particularly like the theory and I certainly don't share it, but the crucial thing is that it's not really much new.

As these things go, this isn't completely silly. Although I think it's worth pointing out that Flux doesn't confirm that the Doctor originated in another universe: it only confirmed that that was a possibility.

This rings like a triumph of circumstance, but being able to breathe life into everything would rather create the question of why there have been so many—or indeed any—deaths in the series. In my book any amendment to or re-interpretation of the Doctor's character has to be consistent with his character in The Aztecs. Because IMO that's the character at their purest. It's part of why, to me, The Fires of Pompeii is such a dismal failure. Being the God of Life would make a mockery of the debate of whether to prevent the human sacrifices or not.

I feel like a very proud parent and/or Emperor Palatine. I know of the film but didn't know Tosin was in it. Excellent find.

I'm not sure Donna can ever be considered introverted, even only slightly.

@Kevin 'Chalky' Kaiba I'm not sure I'd say "bad"—only because I'm aware that it's only my opinion and I don't expect nor am particularly desperate for the show to conform to my tastes. I do think that spin-offs in a different media might be a little bit more acceptable. But I'm not sure that I can articulate why. I'm not sure I can fully articulate my feelings about it at all. So it's a good question.

Maybe my issue is that I see Doctor Who as a TV series. An increasing number of people don't, they see it as a franchise first, and a TV show second. I'm not crazy about spin-offs, although I don't think there's anything wrong with them in principle. I just like to think of Doctor Who as the TV series, not the dreaded "Whoniverse" of which the TV show is sometimes a part (when it bothers to turn up on screen).

Not sure about this one. I don't particularly like Davison, but there's so little of McGann. It doesn't feel right voting him through based solely on the strength of his performance in Night of the Doctor. It's good, but it's no Caves of Androzani.

Not much from me here. I generally don't like the Doctor aligning himself with the establishment, but having the actual navy brings so much authenticity and credibility to the story that it more than makes of it. Other than that, I think this has Pert at one of his most patronising moments. But that's more or less it. Visually it could be a bit more stimulating, but this is one of my favourite Pert stories.

Keep Hartnell. Bin McCoy.

@Kevin 'Chalky' Kaiba I think you might be mixing your metaphors. Personally I feel no need to smell any old faces.

I think Ana made a very interesting point and it was one I'd thought as well. I don't like it when Doctor Who (or anything really) is obsessed with its own continuity. It led the series down a blind alley in the 80s, and only threatens to do so again. The odd spin-off episode is alright I reckon, particularly in a significant anniversary year. But bringing them back in the main series (or, heaven forbid, more spin-offs) would be indulgence alone, and that's what I hate. But as I say, I thought Tales of the Tardis was horrific.

It's just a bit boring. I've seen it at least twice but nothing ever made much of an impression apart from Alpha Centauri—and that wasn't the right sort of impression.

The clearest thing I can say is that I preferred The Monster of Peladon. Not sure I could say why, and I might feasibly change my mind in the future. But I found that story more engaging.

@TheCritic&RobloxMaster21 I'd agree with that but for the fact that I was absolutely sick to death of Rose by that point.

Companion departures are always the ones that do it, and the ones for me are Jo and Susan. I'm quite difficult to make cry but Susan's does it most times. Jo's doesn't but it's still very good. Ian and Barbara's are the same. Most of the others are extremely lacklustre.

@Kevin 'Chalky' Kaiba Nobody who's ever heard him is in any doubt, and should I ever get around to it he'll feature in a post about guest stars from season 23.

(P.S. it's Brian Blessed for anyone still unsure. Z-Cars (a BBC series) was one of if not his first screen role, in which I'm led to believe he was strangely...normal. I think he only really became "Brian Blessed" after Flash Gordon. Looking forward to watching the programme some time soon.)

@Joshlovesthomas You're probably right.

The actual series itself I hated, but the best story here is The Time Meddler.

1 • The Time Meddler

2 • The Mind Robber

3 • Vengeance on Varos

4 • Earthshock

5 • The Curse of Fenric

6 • The Three Doctors