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Underground > Film, TV & Theatre >

The New Doctor Who

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20:29 / 04.06.05

Meh. I enjoyed it well enough, certainly more than I expected to. The scenes with Mickey dragged, though, and I'm amazed at the stupidity of having Rose tell us about the planets she's been to but we've not seen and, in doing so, demostrate just how unadventurous aspects of the series have been. The Doctor's got a spaceship and yet only ever uses it to go the one planet? Oh, wait, no he doesn't. It's just that we didn't bother writing any of the stories that show him travelling elsewhere.

Fans will, I think, feel justifiably ripped off there.

Really not keen on the ending, which felt like a giant cop-out. Fair enough if you don't want to go overboard with the explanations and leave something to the viewer's imagination - as I said when we were talking about Dalek, I like that sort of thing in the right place. But to have the entire resolution work like that, it just makes it obvious that the point of the episode is the big message, not the storyline itself.

- Ah, everything's alright. Look - the TARDIS turned her into an egg.

- Cool. How did it do that?

- Dunno. Don't really understand how the TARDIS works, to be honest.

THE END.

I'm hating the look of the next one, I've got to say. Looks to be everything that I've disliked about RTD rolled into one script and turned up to 11.

Our Lady Has Left the Building

20:45 / 04.06.05

The whole thing seemed to be designed because RTD wanted to do a moral story but then realised that to take it to a logical conclusion would be foolish, he said something in 'Confidential' about how it makes the Doctor seem villainous (I'll try and check for an exact quote later) so quickly put in some action (in order to keep the younger viewers interested too) but couldn't work out how to wrap it up, again in 'Confidential' the words 'deus ex machina' were used...

And why on earth did they not keep the Daleks' reappearence next week a secret?

21:04 / 04.06.05

Might just be down to stupidity. I'll be mightily pissed off if they don't learn to handle the issue of trailers a little more sensibly next series.

The conspiratorial part of my brain, however, is suggesting to me that the reason for revealing who's behind it all within the trailer is that otherwise the premise looks and sounds unbelievably trashy and just plain rubbish. Putting them in there might, therefore, be an attempt to reassure that this won't be the case.

We can but hope. As it is, it might be that it's already dated badly, before it's even aired - at least one of the shows it's parodying died a miserable death and was wiped from public consciousness quite some time ago.

08:12 / 05.06.05

If nothing else the trailer made me think of classic Doctor Who. Clunky robots exterminating people (and I don't mean Daleks) in some warped game show.
Just because RTD decides to use some contemporary reality tv shows etc doesn't belittle the idea. If anything it gives us a bit more to laugh at now and something to reminisce on later.
These game shows won't mean a thing to the foreigners who have bought the series either.

I like it.
I like the fact it ties into the Daleks returning even more.

Withiel: DALI'S ROTTWEILER

10:40 / 05.06.05

Furthermore, who was the blue chap/chapette* with all the wires? Reminded me a little of the Dalek Emperor in the Troughton episode...

*I feel dirtied just for typing that

11:04 / 05.06.05

These game shows won't mean a thing to the foreigners who have bought the series either.

Yes, they will. Big Brother's a massive international thing and The Weakest Link was relatively high profile transfer from UK telly to the US. As high profile as these things get, anyway. I'd imagine that they're the shows chosen precisely because they *will* be recognisable to an American audience, and that'll help to sell it to US stations as a result.

What I don't understand is why they couldn't have used a bit of thought there and dreamed up a couple of gameshows that didn't directly reference real things. It's just indicative of the dearth of imagination that's characterised a lot of Davies' writing on the series, as far as I'm concerned. I hope that he pulls it all together, obviously, and that the trailer is just a poor representation of the full episode.

But a robot Anne Robinson. How we laughed. Weren't all those jokes done a couple of years ago?

tea and biscuits

12:30 / 05.06.05

Whilst it's fair to dislike the premise as shown by the trailers, I wouldn't completely hammer the episode before airing. Due to last week's trailer I was dreading yesterdays episode, as they portrayed it purely full of action which actually only took up the first ten minutes. It turned out to be a delicious (if implausibly ended) character drama.

14:00 / 05.06.05

I'd imagine that they're the shows chosen precisely because they *will* be recognisable to an American audience, and that'll help to sell it to US stations as a result.

As far as I'm aware (as of three weeks ago) the Americans haven't optioned this series any more than having it aired on their standard BBC service.
I was talking about the far east countries (as reported last week) who have (suprisingly) bought the show.

What was shown anyway? Besides Big Bro and Weakest Link? Two gameshows that are very popular in Britain but definitely lost their appeal in the states very quickly.

Oh and anyone looking for meaning in the noises on the Bad Wolf website can rest at ease. My friend made the noises with a dictaphone in a store cupboard. Even HE doesn't remember what he said!

Our Lady Has Left the Building

15:41 / 05.06.05

It would be amusing if the Americans wanted to 'Office' up 'Doctor Who'. But I have to agree with teaandbiscuits, I judged last night's episode by the preview and expected utter crapness. Instead I got a fairly good episode with a slightly contrived and badly-solved crisis.

15:41 / 05.06.05

Might just be down to stupidity. I'll be mightily pissed off if they don't learn to handle the issue of trailers a little more sensibly next series.

I don't know, reading the 'fear factor' reports on the BBC doctor who website it seems the kids love the next episode trailers as they are and are positively miffed by their absence - it seems that it is mainly the older fans that appear to be so neurotically obsessive over 'spoilers'...

As for letting the cat out of the bad re: the daleks, I imagine the production crew figured the cat was so far out of the bag that they might as well stop pretending that the daleks weren't coming back - same as it no-longer being a secret that the doctor is going to regenerate... with the big reveal blown they might as well at least make a feature out of what is going to happen...

15:47 / 05.06.05

On the subject of Americanization of TV shows apparently Footballers' Wives is going to be shown over there in a primetime slot. I found this idea slightly bemusing - isn't the name going to be a problem? I realise football features very little in the series, but wouldn't an american audience all be going on about how it should be soccer wives and then there would be the confusion between that term and 'soccer moms' which is pretty much the antitheses of what the women in Footballers' Wives are...

Not that I care particularly, but it struck me as slightly odd

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

16:46 / 05.06.05

Besides Big Bro and Weakest Link?

Not sure if it was in the trailer- I think it was, though, but (thanks to those same fucking tabloids I was talking about earlier) What Not To Wear.

Personally I think the idea's silly- however, historically Who has had a reasonably good track record for making essentially silly stuff work. (I'm obviously not thinking of the Candyman here). I'm reserving judgment until next week.

WRT this week's episode- I wasn't expecting too much of it from the trailer, to be honest- I enjoyed the previous Slitheen episodes, but from the trailer this looked like it'd be more of the same, only in Wales, by which point the idea would've outstayed its welcome. In fact, it was very different, and to my mind, very good. Except the ending. I'm not completely averse to a deus ex machina ending if done well, but this was a little too abrupt for my liking. A little too "oooh shit... the world's doomed! We're all doomed!... er, hang on a minute. Turns out we're not doomed after all. Hooray!" for my liking.

17:14 / 05.06.05

On the subject of Americanization of TV shows apparently Footballers' Wives is going to be shown over there in a primetime slot. I found this idea slightly bemusing - isn't the name going to be a problem? I realise football features very little in the series, but wouldn't an american audience all be going on about how it should be soccer wives and then there would be the confusion between that term and 'soccer moms' which is pretty much the antitheses of what the women in Footballers' Wives are...

Well, if the show actually does come to America, I'm sure it will be American football, rather than soccer. There really aren't any celebrity soccer players in America.

18:42 / 05.06.05

I probably didn't make myself clear: it is my understanding that Footballers' Wives isn't being remade for the US market; it is going to be shown in the states as is...

11:18 / 06.06.05

I quite liked Boomtown, although it's certainly not the best of the lot so far (that goes to the Empty Child/Doctor Dances two-parter), it was a bit too much like Dalek in many ways (ie bad guy's aren't always utter bad guys). I'm undecided if the Slitheen are a good enemy, but it was a nice tie into previous stories.

Personally I prefer my Doctor Who monsters to be foaming-at-the-mouth megalomaniacs, but that's just me.

Next week's episode looks a bit crap. But then so did this one in the trailer. I got a nice tingle seeing the Daleks rolling out, complete with proper flying saucer warships. Hopefully the lethal gameshow thing will be a case of aliens plundering past Earth television and regurgitating it to the humans of the 4th Empire (I did hear rumours that Bad Wolf is set on the same space station as the episode with Pegg in it).

Our Lady Has Left the Building

11:40 / 06.06.05

sleazenation reading the 'fear factor' reports on the BBC doctor who website it seems the kids love the next episode trailers as they are and are positively miffed by their absence - it seems that it is mainly the older fans that appear to be so neurotically obsessive over 'spoilers'...

But then the kids probably also would want to see all the Doctor Who episodes in one day rather than wait a week between each one. For me it's symptomatic of the idiotisation of telly, if the show is a duff one, then 30 seconds of highlights of another episode is unlikely to change your mind. It's like the 'previously' on Buffy and Angel that always manage to let the cat out of the bag about when an old enemy is about to make a 'surprise' reappearence.

ONLY NICE THINGS

12:38 / 06.06.05

But then the kids probably also would want to see all the Doctor Who episodes in one day rather than wait a week between each one

Dude, if I had the option...

Essentially, this comes down to policy - the BBC presumably wants to get people excited about watching the next episode so that they get the audience share next week. As such, the number of people who boycott the next episode because they are so disgusted at already knowing that the Daleks are in it is presumably expected to be lower than the number of people who might otherwise have missed it who think "oooh, Daleks" and decide to tune in. The BBC doesn't really have to fight too hard to get Dr. Who enthusiasts to tune in - it's the more casual viewer who's being aimed for.

12:49 / 06.06.05

Plus, as far as I'm aware, it's been common knowledge that the return of the Daleks was going to be the season finale for quite some time now. It's not like they're letting slip a big secret with that spoiler.

I was just surprised that they still looked like the Daleks of old. Presumably they're keeping the scary upgrades for next Saturday.

I'm looking forward to it with glee. They did such a good job making a bog-standard Dalek soldier look utterly badass. Unless of course Alien/Aliens syndrome sets in.

13:07 / 06.06.05

Sorry, threadrot, Footballers wives is looking to franchise out, firstly some Euro places are buying it up (italy's will be Calchio Espouso or something Italian sounding) - if they were going to do it in the US (as well as just showing the UK version) it'd probably be about Baseball players though.

I only wrote this, as I missed this weeks episode, so have nothing to add.

You can go about your thread again now.

13:21 / 06.06.05

Common knowledge about the daleks? My significant love-slave is totally unaware, due to me turning off the TV before the next-week precis, and I'm keeping zir in a Truman Showesque bubble of unreality until Saturday. That's real love.

Whisky Priestess

13:36 / 06.06.05

Got to say that, much as I love a homoerotic tension between TV characters, I was not at all convinced by the somewhat clumsy and awkward flirting going on between the Captain and the Doctor. There is absolutely nothing wrong with understating or hinting at romantic attraction (and for the record I don't reckon they are banging, or even close) rather than SEMAPHORING it with clunky do-you-come-here-often banter that both actors looked very awkward delivering.

Whatever happened to subtlety? Last episode Captain Jack was an attractive stranger with a mysterious past and some kick-ass technology, whose sexuality we and Rose were first misled(?) about, apparently for the sole purpose of getting the Doctor all jealous. His story was interesting and his character was capable of surprising us.

By Boom Town he's suddenly morphed into a plank-witted muscleboy who doesn't really have a function in the episode at all, and is being retained (by Doctor and/or writer, one suspects), simply for his decorative qualities.

14:11 / 06.06.05

I got the impression Jack was written as bi, or rather he's from a time period where they don't really distinguish sexuality in terms of het or gay. That said they are doing a pretty poor job of displaying it beyond him cracking onto Rose and also pulling various WW2 officers.

Storywise it would have been a bit much on Mikey to have yet another mysterious supercool time-traveller all over his ex-girlfriend. I'd guess it's another contrast with the Doctor that Jack holds back from showing Mikey up at every opportunity.

ONLY NICE THINGS

15:46 / 06.06.05

I got the impression Jack was written as bi, or rather he's from a time period where they don't really distinguish sexuality in terms of het or gay.

Well, yeah. That's exactly how the Doctor explains it to Rose. He's from the 51st century, where humans are as a matter of course sexually active with many other genders and species. Humans miscegenate furiously - we saw that with Cassandra o'Brien, who at the end of the Earth was the only "purebreed" human left in the universe, despite humans living all over the place.

I don't think there is much of a suggestion that Doctor and Jack are sleeping with each other, or that they are going to. They're bantering, and they both come from cultures sufficiently advanced that bantering can involve suggestions of naughting and same-sex flirting. Given that the Blue Posts at 7:30 on a Friday night usually has that, it seems credible that they would be OK with it.

15:55 / 06.06.05

Apparently we should be checking the main Who website tomorrow... my source (who wouldn't spoil anything for me dammit!) says there is a suprise for us.

ONLY NICE THINGS

16:00 / 06.06.05

What did you think of the episode just shown, Rawkusboi?

Mister Six, whom all the girls

16:46 / 06.06.05

With the theme of the episode seems to be homages to other TV pograms, including Dr Who itself with the strange 'we've seen it 99 times before' shot of the interior of the Dalek spaceship.

It'll be interesting to see how it pans out.

Whisky Priestess

17:02 / 06.06.05

Absolutely, I far preferred the impliction that Jack was bi or polysexual - but he seems to have totally lost interest in Rose and only gets to flirt with the Doctor, which is what I'm objecting to. Bi/poly raises many more interesting possibilities (like what if Jack had gone on the "date" with the Slitheen?) than gay-with-crush-on-unattainable-man.

And think of the slashtastic love triangle! Think of the pretty children!

17:12 / 06.06.05

What did you think of the episode just shown, Rawkusboi?

I'm sorry, did I not say?

I liked it, great episode.
Had no problems with the deus ex machina at all, in fact I'm getting used to the way most of this new series resolutions are very deus ex. This one stood out the least to be honest as they'd been discussing the advanced tech of the TARDIS all episode.
I didn't notice any Jack and Dr flirting but I did miss a few moments of the episode. The Mikey/Rose part annoyed me as I thought we'd get some resolution. I'm starting to wonder if Mikey will become a threat (when teamed up with the other boy from "Dalek") in the next series or perhaps even in the Christmas special.

I'm definitely excited for the final two-parter but a bit unhappy that it's all over so soon.

tea and biscuits

18:11 / 06.06.05

I don't know about losing interest in Rose, there's a lot that could be interpretated from the glance between Jack and the Doctor after he tells Rose they can wait for her to talk to Mickey. They've all bonded with each other ("Into Time! And Space!"), so much so that the main criticism of the episode so far seems to be that watchers feel excluded from the group and so can't empathise with the threesome.

I don't see anything wrong with the more sexual comments being directed at the Doctor this episode - although I suspect that a large majority of the female side of the fandom have combusted with squeeing. Being a time traveller, Jack's probably used to making quick attachments with people and then leaving. He didn't seem to mind romancing Rose or a few of the Army men in order to pull his scam off.

Despite having more romance than previous Who's, even the het attractions are rather low key and the non-het ones barely floating into existence. Whilst it is suggested that the Doctor and Jack are flirting, the following exchange between the Doctor and Mickey contains much the same content ("You sayin' I'm not handsome?"). For a show which prefers to use word play to indicate possible character attractions I'm not really sure you can make definative statements about the results of such bonds e.g. Jack's gone off Rose.

(Mmmmslashtastic.)

22:10 / 07.06.05

were my eyes bads on saturday night or did anyone else "kind of" see the shape of Satelite 5 when the rift cracked open above the TARDIS?

Oh and in regards to the bad wolf site, follow the disclaimer through to the "GeoComtex" site. I haven't been paying enough attention to the series (missed Dalek and most of The Long Game) but I'm sure other's will get ideas and maybe connections from this additional site.

15:58 / 10.06.05

I just had a flick through this week's Radio Times and, well, it seems as though the reveal in the trailer might actually be even more idiotic than you'd ever think possible. As in: not really much point in watching the episode at all now, is there?

21:40 / 10.06.05

I find it quite niaive that you'd not watch a programme because you've seen parts of it in a trailer.

Unless you've read more about said episode that spoils it more than knowing that there are Daleks in it (which is pretty much all we know right now, although we can speculate much more).

That's kinda like saying "Oh, I don't want to see this horror/slasher movie because I know everyone will die by the end and the only person that doesn't will defeat the monster".

It's not about the plot points, it's about the journey.
The last episode should cement that for us all (after such an abysmal trailer).

21:45 / 10.06.05

Dude. Have you come across hyperbole before?

21:48 / 10.06.05

"Dude"
Have you?

22:10 / 10.06.05

Well, y'see, when I said that "there's not really much point in watching it now", I was exaggerating what I actually think for effect. If you were aware of that, then I'm kind of struggling to understand why you decided to try and talk me into watching it.

Right, now these aren't spoilers, but as a loose description of a theory about the suggestion of a hint some might not want to read the next paragraph. I need to put it here, though, to counter rawkusboi's claim that we've only been shown plot points. There's nothing specific and nothing that anybody glancing at the post would pick up on, but if you read it you can probably figure out where I'm heading.

I'm being careful to avoid going into any detail here, because I may simply be reading the listing wrong. But if I'm not, and what they've printed means what I think it does, then no, these aren't just plot points that they've given away, but a condensed description of the entire journey from beginning to end. I guess we'll see.

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