Sea Devils And Die: GeroniMoffat's Doctor Who In The 2010s

xp: Oh yeah, that one. I try to pretend that episode doesn't exist (in fact, I still haven't seen several S2 episodes because "The Idiot Lantern" has made me so gunshy).

The good S2 eps are very good (the ending story is fantastic, plus "The Girl in the Fireplace" and Moffat's Doctorless episode) but it also easily has the worst nu-Who episodes in it; IMO nothing in seasons 1, 3 or 4 comes anywhere near the awfulness of "The Idiot Lantern".

yeah i agree, altho The Doctor's Daughter comes very close

i cut it some slack for actually bothering to be set on an alien planet

IMO nothing in seasons 1, 3 or 4 comes anywhere near the awfulness of "The Idiot Lantern".

The Idiot's Lantern and Fear Her are my two least favorite episodes, but the Daleks in Manhattan episodes run a close third.

The Daleks In Manhattan one isn't that bad as a whole but wow Tellulah is terrible in isolation.

Moffat's Doctorless episode

I assume you're referring to Love & Monsters, which was written by RTD.

oops

That seems to be one that most people online hate, but I enjoy it.

That was the episode that convinced me to actually watch season 2; I'd missed a bunch of episodes and came in on "The Idiot Lantern" which, well... I had decided I was done with the show until they got rid of Tennant basically, up until I wandered across "Love and Monsters" and "The Girl in the Fireplace".

I like Love and Monsters too.

Actual good RTD episodes:
The End of the World
L&M
Midnight
Turn Left

Smith & Jones and Gridlock are alright.

Oh, and all the series finales have a fair bit to enjoy, but they get progressively worse.

"Turn Left" cheats a little bit by relying so heavily on continuity set up in other stories but the execution is so great that it doesn't matter.

"Midnight" is the one where they're trapped on the bus, right? That was fucking excellent.

Yeah, that's the one. Best episode of S4.

i couldn't stand midnight it was so boring. nothing happened. no monsters no plot no special effects and a painted in background that a cybermat would have sneered at as cheap. no thank you. it was conceptually even more naff than 'fear her' though actually 'fear her' wasn't conceptually naff so much as poorly executed. in the hands of a better writer it would have been less schmaltzy and no olympics

but i didn't mind love & monsters and i liked turn left alot. cheaply done but effective what-if-ing & a good set up for a big she-bang double parter

mind you my fave of s4 was silence in the library. that's moffat at his creepy best

Silence In The Library was great up until the super schmaltzy ending of part two. Love love love the opening 10 or so
mins of part 1, such a great bit of world building with a nice bit of WTF built in. Also some genuinely creepy moments ("Ice Cream"/ Miss Evangelista's face reveal). Bit of a shame how obvious the "saved" angle was though.

I was kind of surprised by how much I liked "The Waters of Mars" after seeing some of the negative commentary here.

The Parting Of The Ways is still my favourite RTD one - the Rose Time Vortex thing never bothered me. Other good RTD eps tend to be so because the character performances are particularly great e.g. Jacobi in Utopia and under-rated Corduri in under-rated Army Of Ghosts/Doomsday.

just re-watched time crash after the 'master outing' comments here and i had to watch it twice before i caught it

can't believe i missed that before so thanks for the lol

Yeah the two-parter at the end of S1 is great but I agree they get progressively worse. Midnight is really great (daaaaark) and it's always good to see Tennant's Doctor lose control but I think Turn Left is the best Rusty episode by some distance. He's a lot better when he's working on a smaller scale.

That said, Gridlock is rubbish. The Doctor and Martha get stuck in a traffic jam. Amazing.

"Gridlock" was great! The Doctor and Martha carhopping over hungry Macra!

I reckon the Gaiman script will turn up for S6. They always overcommission and Gaimans got form for being late with TV scripts, or so I've heard.

his last one he wrote and directed and it was delivered well in advance - before that it's been 15 years since he did one, and lateness wasn't any of the top nine problems with that production

Didn't AM nearly write for McCoy? Something like that anyway.

never heard anything like this, but Moore did write some strips for the T. Baker era DWM.

The Doctor and Martha get stuck in a traffic jam. Amazing.

But it's a traffic jam enveloping an entire world! That's a cool set-up for me, with shades of Ballard/early 2000AD.

Gridlock may well be my favourite RTD ep. Adore it.

Yeah, I liked Gridlock. Had plenty of neat ideas in it, which is all I'm looking for in an hour-long bit of entertainment.

A delayed Christmas present my friends gave me tonight:

http://img697.imageshack.us/img697/5528/iphone1267.jpg http://img697.imageshack.us/img697/iphone1267.jpg/1/w480.png

Gridlock is so fucking corny. Better on rewatch tho.

Quickly going back to the Alan Moore thing: apparently it only got as far as the BBC asking him if he'd be interested in writing a 25th anniversary episode and Moore politely declining.

I forget where I read about this but it's probably in one of those birthday/tribute books that came out for Moore's 50th a few years back.

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/cult/news/a194577/matt-smith-my-doctor-is-less-tolerant.html

I wonder if he means he'll be a cranky Doctor or an angry vengeful Doctor?

racist doctor

Homophobic agendar.

The would be really awful politically but kind of fascinating from a storytelling point of view; what happens when the person responsible for saving the world turns out to be a racist, homophobic dick? (most likely ans: ppl stop watching)

There are a few shades of Colin Baker there which, you know, could be a little dangerous.

Teabag party doctor

Hopefully he just means less of a whiny hippy than Tennant's Doctor.

The episode where the Doctor romances Sarah Palin is supposed to be good.

"you can put lipstick on a Sontaran..."

http://blogtorwho.blogspot.com/2010/01/writers-tale-final-chapter-preview.html

Matt Smith looks totally high in this picture. I approve.

Amy really looking like a young Donna here

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_KTJWhtuRLac/S0cca1YvR5I/AAAAAAAAJlg/tOjxDzqiYKw/filming20.jpg

in other news, Sally Sparrow is up for a BAFTA
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2010/jan/08/an-education-leads-bafta-longlists

Would love it if this ends up with Tennant and RTD reuniting for Fox's Dr Who, US-style

I'd be cool with Torchwood if it's within the existing canon - the Adventures of Captain Jack in America kind of thing. As for Doctor Who itself, hands off yanks.

I would only support an American iteration of Doctor Who if they did it as "Fringe" crossed with "Chuck".

Torchwood is goofy enough that I could see it working as a Fox show. But a US version of Doctor Who would make me stabby.

http://blog.pennlive.com/poprocks/2007/10/Tony_Almeida_Seen_In_New_Season_7_Trailer.jpg

"U.N.I.T's on the way, Jack"

haha wait

I reckon the Gaiman script will turn up for S6.

^^^good call. EXCLUSIVE Neil Gaiman Confirms Doctor Who Episode

THIS IS SO WRONG

http://www.tonnerdoll.com/doctorwho.htm

The DT doll looks like a lesbian cockatoo.

The Martha doll looks like a man

The Torchwood dolls are lolarious as well.

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/tv_and_radio/article7026314.ece

February 14, 2010
Doctor Who in war with Planet Maggie

Sylvester McCoy, the actor who played Doctor Who for two years in the 1980s, has revealed that left-wing scriptwriters hired by the BBC wrote propaganda into the plots in an attempt to undermine Margaret Thatcher’s premiership.

His revelation will reinforce suspicions about antipathy within the corporation to Thatcher’s government. Norman Tebbit, then the Tory party chairman, claimed at the time that the BBC was in the hands of a “Marxist mafia”...

They point to "The Happiness Patrol" as an explicit example