Regenerated Doctor Who Geeks Thread

[RustyDaviesBear]

Sorry for the delay - internet went down just as I clicked create conversation....

I thought Tennant was going to be crap. I liked Eccleston. He filled the screen up nicely, was substantial, charismatic - not unlike Tom Baker although I would like to point out I never had romantic designs on Tom Baker.

I thought Tennant was flaky and a bit thin.

I think as long as it is a good Doctor, it will be fine. Although I do fancy Tennant, I wouldn't stop watching it if he went. It is the character of the Doctor that works. I read Eccleston saying that you had to do the Doctor completely in the present tense, he had to be all there NOW NOW NOW and I think the best Doctors have had that. Really had it - not just a funny outfit and some quirks and some running about.

I could watch alien worlds no problem. Unless it got all Star Trek (I don't really watch this so generalising based on passing dh a beer while he was watching it 10 years ago) and started Exploring Themes and Making Points

I do hope that they don't pick someone 'for the mums' though in order to keep audiences when Tennant goes, as they will undoubtedly get it badly wrong.

Actually Capp, I agree with you. I would be quite happy with less overt eye candy casting. Otherwise it all begins to look a bit Buffy.

Oh, I agree he's not impossible to follow, certainly. And yup, everyone naturally takes time to adjust after a regeneration.

But Eccleston had one series. It was absolutely perfectly characterized, and he pretty much had a blank canvas to work from because, although he was Nine, he was coming into an entirely new show. Tennant took over just 13 episodes into something new, and he's now had three series (and four specials next year) to.. erm.. .

I think my only concrete wish for his successor is that he be as big a fanboy as Tennant is. It's been an absolute pleasure to listen to him display his geekery in the Confidentials.

Capp - nail on the head about my worries with that comment about 'for the mums', actually.

My concern would be that his popularity would increase the temptation to try and cast someone to catch the same demographic that he does. Which is, I think, almost impossible to predict, but wouldn't stop someone with a cynical eye having a go.

Oh, me, me, I want to do the quiz!!! (waves hand in air madly in geeky fashion)

• Did you watch it in the old days? Even the ones with Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy?

I used to watch it aged approx 10, on a Saturday morning while waiting for my swimming lesson.

• Did you think it was a bit crap? (be honest)

I found it by turns scary and confusing. Although the latter probably wasn't helped by the sound being periodically interrupted to say Can the Person with a Brown Ford Escort please report to reception

• Did people who watched Doctor Who at your school have the piss taken out of them? Was it seen as a bit sad and geeky?

Nobody watched Doctor Who at my girls' school, at least if they did they weren't saying! There was a small amount of piss taken out of the Doctor Who Society at university, but actually they were known to be fairly sane compared to certain other societies.

• If so, what has changed? Why is it OK to be one of 10 million people who now watch it, when it wasn't OK to be part of the 6 million who were still watching at the end of the 80s when it was axed?

Clever marketing by BBC. And aliens etc becoming much more mainstream eg Buffy and the like.

• Is the new emphasis on "relationship/character" drama important to you, or do you like an old-fashioned monster episode as much as the next person?

I like the character stuff... I believe this to be rather a female attitude - men seem more into guns that go ZAP and (possibly) girls wearing short skirts and screaming a lot. No offence meant to any men reading this.

• Are you less likely to watch an episode set on an alien planet and/or in the far future? Do you think the series is right to spend two-thirds of its time on Earth and variants thereof, given that the TARDIS can go anywhere in time and space?

No, I like the alien/future ones - I enjoyed Gridlock, for example. I think the historical ones are a bit silly tbh, and not even in a good way.

• Would it be a turn-off for you to watch a Planet Zog episode in which the blue-skinned Zurgs battle the green-skinned Thaargs for control of an alien device? Or is this just a myth?

Put like that, it does seem like it would be quite boring. But then again it reminds me of the Babylon 5 episode where the green aliens battle the purple aliens in a sort of religious ceremony... very funny it was too.

I finally got chance to see the last episode a couple of nights ago

I sobbed, you know, proper wracking sobs with snot and gasping breath like my 4 year old does when she is really tired and sad.

I thought DT would be crap and am delighted to be wrong

I thought CT would be really crap but she stormed the last three episodes, didn't she?

I think the casting people do a frankly excellent job, eeven when the world at large is convinced they are wrong (cf Catherine Tate). I reckon the future of DW is safe if they continue to cast it so damned well.

I was very concerned about the very idea of James Nesbitt.

but I don't utterly trust their casting. I agree that Tate worked out better than expected but I offer up the following as cause for concern

Owen
Tosh
Ianto
Martha's entire family

On the plus side, however, Bernard Cribbins. Though that was a fluke due to some other geezer dying

Marginally better than Russell Brand, though, Capp.

I loved the idea of Catherine Tate from the get-go, even though I hated The Runaway Bride as an episode.

I also like the idea of David Morrisey and Dervla Kirwan, but you shouldn't read anything remotely approaching sensible into that.

Bernard Cribbins was fab wasn't he?

I do wonder if it will be turned into a soap opera with space aliens.

I liked Casualty and the Bill much better before they started getting more about relayshunships than about hospitals or arresting baddies

Russell Brand

Actually, I liked Ianto for the first time ever in the last two episodes. And yes, all hail the Cribbins, the man is absolutely bloody fantastic and I'm as heartbroken about him not being in it any more as I was about Donna forgetting.

I tell you who I'd like to see as a new companion - Brannigan. That would be brilliant. Or Ida, I'd like Ida, too.

I think the Donna series was a fantastic break from the "ooh I love the Doctor" misery that had been building

but it is not just for adults and my dd1 loved Rose and was just chuffed to bits that she was back. Martha was okay. But she didn't give two hoots for Donna, who I thought was a fab bit of non-eye-candy casting

Ianto was fine till they got him together with Jack. I'm sorry. He had the capacity to be a really funny, dry commentator on events and he turned into the love interest of the weird bloke with the plastic face

yeah, two of my girls are always arguing who gets to be Rose when they play Doctor Who games. Girl number two can never decide if she wants to be the Doctor or the Master. But then, she always laughs like a drain at the 'scary bits'.

A skeleton in a spacesuit suddenly appearing with the 'Hey! Who turned out the lights?' thing? Hilarious, apparently. A Cyberman's head exploding? Laugh-a-minute.

Hmmm.

I think I have enjoyed series 4 best of all, largely because there was less romance - it freed up some valuable time for proper three dimensional characterisation.

Poor old Martha, for example, got a raw deal in my book - a promising character that just got flattened by the infatuation thing.

That should be 'girl number three'. The oldest and the youngest are Rose - the middle girl is... individual.

How old is your dd1 Capp?

I wouldn't let dd (4.0) watch any of it and man, was she cross about it! I was wondering if perhaps I should have let her. She is fine with monsters etc as she realises it's make believe but she gets scared by more psychological stuff

She got a glimpse of the Adipose episode and got a bit concerned about her stomach

Martha should have been written like River. She was in her first episode and she was great.

Actually, RTD should have had the balls to write her as a lesbian. So there.

Yes, River is potentially a great character, so much so that I'm almost annoyed that she has been introduced as a love interest.

If she reappears I hope she's going to spend more time doing than yearning.

Exactly. They should employ me for that. It could be a red button feature - whenever you feel like a bit of yearning during Doctor Who, press the red button and Kay appears in the corner of your screen making yearning faces at the action.

My DD1 and 2 liked Rose too, though they're Ok with Martha and Donna. They loved seeing her back.
Obviously 'Hey, who turned out the lights?' is GREAT! To be woken up with that every morning for a week - didn't get bored of it one bit......
They do noramlly get scraed at appropriate DW stuff, although afterwards it's hilarious.
DD3 has started on the 'Dalek bread' thing. It's funny but old hat. she draws remarkable pics of DW and compaions think I shall have to put them up on my profile cos they're great for a 3yo.
I can't bleieve how much DD4 talks generally but at 20 months she can name EVERYONE in a DW episode, recognise the theme tune and dance within a second. What have I turned my kids into?

Kay's yearning face, according to Google

Had to change name back as didn't have profile as OODie. Her pics ae up bless her.
It's nice that DW can be used in it's original context as an educational tool. We have just finished a unit on the Romans ( home-ed) so the girls knew what was going on in 'Fires of Pompeii'. We went to Wroxeter which was fun and bought a mock newspaper with the headline 'Volcano 'safe'claims senator'!