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Who is watching Doctor Who tonight

886 replies

Firefly2009 · 25/11/2023 17:13

And if you've now seen it, what are your thoughts?

I'm predicting I will love it no matter what. But look forward to discussing it.

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OneFrenchEgg · 04/12/2023 22:13

Oh I'm interested and disappointed in reading some of the recent stuff. I grew up with Tom baker as my doctor and it was quite simple to me - the last time lord, gallifree destroyed, eternally travelling and doing battle. He also didn't really have many human emotions so wasn't likely to fall in love with a human companion et
Are they now not a time lord ?

ApplesinmyPocket · 04/12/2023 23:09

Ginmonkeyagain · 03/12/2023 12:45

Matt Smith is my favourite modern Dr Who. I think he was more "Dr Who" than tbe others - he was more alien, ignorant/contemptuous of human social mores and at times even cruel.

Agree with this. He still managed to be charming, endearing, funny etc. But with Matt Smith, alone of the Doctors, I NEVER forgot he was an alien. Which I think is a good bit of internalised acting right there. Definitely my Doctor.

StBrides · 04/12/2023 23:38

ApplesinmyPocket · 04/12/2023 23:09

Agree with this. He still managed to be charming, endearing, funny etc. But with Matt Smith, alone of the Doctors, I NEVER forgot he was an alien. Which I think is a good bit of internalised acting right there. Definitely my Doctor.

Show quote history

Christopher Eccleston was brilliant at portraying this side of the doctor

AbondonedThemePark · 04/12/2023 23:46

My favourite of the new Doctors is Matt Smith. He was amazing. Then Chris Eccleston, Peter Capaldi, Jodie Whitaker, and finally David Tennant.

I didn't watch Tennant's era bar one or two episodes until long after Matt Smith had gone. And I didn't watch Capaldi's until after the first season of Jodie Whitaker.

I still don't particularly like Tennant's Doctor, but the series with Catherine Tate was his best, so I don't mind these specials.

Peter Capaldi grew on me and was better than I'd thought he was in the couple of episodes I originally watched.

Angrycat2768 · 05/12/2023 06:21

ApplesinmyPocket · 04/12/2023 23:09

Agree with this. He still managed to be charming, endearing, funny etc. But with Matt Smith, alone of the Doctors, I NEVER forgot he was an alien. Which I think is a good bit of internalised acting right there. Definitely my Doctor.

Show quote history

Yes he was definitely the best at the 'alien' persona IMO. He is an outstanding actor in general. I do think with the 'Doctor Romance stuff they have over egged the pudding with Rose. For the TV she was the first companion of the new era, but for The Doctor she would have been one of many. Why is he so obsessed with her? She didn't go in any way that was worse than the rest of them. In fact she lives happily ever after with fake Doctor in an alternate universe. Even when Matt Smith married River Song you got the impression he didn't really know what was going on! I think a lot of the nonsense is the writing and not to do with the actors. Tennant, Smith and Capaldi have all had to carry some shit episodes just by sheer force of personality. I don't think Jodie Whittaker could quite carry off some of the stuff she had to do, and was often out acted by Sacha Dhawan and Jo Martin.

BigDahliaFan · 05/12/2023 07:02

I think tennant this time really shows the trauma the dr has gone through. Not just kicking the wall in the corridor but in his softness too. he looks a bit lost.

but all the actors have been very good at playing in the teeth of some spectacularly awful writing at times…. Im enjoying playing catch up with the years I’ve missed. Some of it is really dark.

MelsMoneyTree · 05/12/2023 17:07

I like Jodie Whittaker as an actor but I think the writing often let her down and became confused about writing her as the first 'female' Doctor rather than an alien iyswim. And the problem was they were rubbish at writing women - and at writing aliens Grin

Ocani · 05/12/2023 17:17

Yes, they wasted her. She's a great actor and should have been perfect for it - one of her first acting jobs was saving earth from aliens Fgs. The writing was awful and why did she have to be everybody's friend? Also they dressed her like a four year old boy.

MelsMoneyTree · 05/12/2023 17:34

Yy I thought it was interesting they made her so bouncy and friendly. They didn't do that with any of the male Doctors. And the way she called everyone 'fam' Hmm
Jodie can play dark and tormented. They just never really asked her to. Although tbh I've wiped a lot of her seasons from my memory partly because they were forgettable and partly because they were rubbish. Except for the Rosa Parks episode - which I loved. And the scenes with the Master because they bounced off each other well.

Ocani · 05/12/2023 19:28

Yy not only dark and tormented but also opaque and impossible to read with an undertone of unspecific threat (in Venus, which is the first thing I saw her in - she held her own on screen with Peter bloody O'Toole and was frankly astonishing). I was honestly really looking forward to seeing her as Who and was so upset that the only discernable character trait was Facilitating Womanliness (with a side helping of Sexually Non Threatening).

pickledandpuzzled · 05/12/2023 19:31

@TripleDaisySummer the mavity gag totally failed on me because of the words origins- women used to be gravid with child.

Angrycat2768 · 05/12/2023 19:57

MelsMoneyTree · 05/12/2023 17:34

Yy I thought it was interesting they made her so bouncy and friendly. They didn't do that with any of the male Doctors. And the way she called everyone 'fam' Hmm
Jodie can play dark and tormented. They just never really asked her to. Although tbh I've wiped a lot of her seasons from my memory partly because they were forgettable and partly because they were rubbish. Except for the Rosa Parks episode - which I loved. And the scenes with the Master because they bounced off each other well.

Maybe I underestimated her as I've only seen her in Broadchuch and DW. Both parts written by Chris Chibnall! Maybe he's just a bit of a ' soapy ' writer!

BigDahliaFan · 06/12/2023 07:40

Yes I think it was the writing that was the problem with the female dr not the acting or the concept. It was a great concept and great actress wasted….

ChazsBrilliantAttitude · 06/12/2023 08:49

Chibnall strikes me as a domestic / small scale human interaction writer where Dr Who needs more expansive thinking. I think he is the wrong style of writer.

Peter Capaldi grew on me partly because he is such a damn good actor. None of the actors were bad but the material has been patchy.

CampervanKween · 06/12/2023 11:28

I stopped watching doctor who with the female doctor I was so disappointed I wanted her to be intelligent, mad and quirky like Helena Bonham Carter perhaps would have played her. I haven't seen this new stuff, it's ruined for me with the preaching tbh. I've lost interest.

ScremeEggs · 06/12/2023 13:20

wanted her to be intelligent, mad and quirky like Helena Bonham Carter perhaps would have played her

I think HBC has already been in New Who - wasn't it her who played the human form of the TARDIS in one of the Matt Smith episodes?
Amy - "Doctor, did you just wish really, really, hard?!"
😁

idrinkandiknowthings · 06/12/2023 13:23

Wild Blue Yonder was a huge improvement on that Meep shite.

Had very definite "Midnight" vibes. Quite scary for young kids, I thought.

ScremeEggs · 06/12/2023 13:29

Argh no ignore me - it was Surname Jones, not Helena Bonham Carter who played the TARDIS!! 😚
Could have sworn it was her, ah well lol

Binglebong · 06/12/2023 18:35

I quickly lost interest with Jodi because of the writing. There were a few good episodes - there was one with a blind girl whose dad made her think there were monsters so he could go to a parallel world and one set at Partition which was tragic but generally I just lost interest. It felt like they were going for "Here is a nice lady teacher who will show you all the bad things in history (in a gentle, sanitised version)". And there were too many lackluster companions, the doctor should be the star.

Pinkbox · 07/12/2023 00:16

Was the gravity/mavity thing explained, I don’t get it? For a while the Doctor and Donna were using mavity as if that was actually the real word for the concept and I didn’t know if they were supposed to be in an alternate universe.

StBrides · 07/12/2023 00:30

Pinkbox · 07/12/2023 00:16

Was the gravity/mavity thing explained, I don’t get it? For a while the Doctor and Donna were using mavity as if that was actually the real word for the concept and I didn’t know if they were supposed to be in an alternate universe.

It'll be explained in a future episode. To me, RTD is setting something up. Something went wrong with time...Donna said mavity to the Dr & he realised it was wrong, looked concerned, but they needed to deal with immediate danger. He corrected Donna later on, and then when she was puzzled by him saying gravity he switched it back.
Basically- he knows something is up and we have to wait to find out what it is

BlueBox81 · 07/12/2023 07:50

I thought it was because they turned up and said gravity to Newton. He mishears it as mavity and that changes history so the word that was gravity becomes mavity in history so changes in Donna's head. But not the Doctor's because he's a time lord.

BlueBox81 · 07/12/2023 07:52

Also I think the Doctor sprinkling the salt has something to do with why the universe has changed but I don't know what.

BezMills · 07/12/2023 08:54

yeah he mentioned that making a superstition real was some kind of cosmic boo-boo or sth like that

Ginmonkeyagain · 07/12/2023 08:58

The ring of salt as protection thing is a well established superstition in the folk law of a lot of countries.