Doctor Who - Regeneration 9 - Part 9

[Deserana]

I'd say Moffat had a huge plan in mind for series 5 and he always knew who River Song would be, but that's about it. After "Big Bang," it feels like he's been making half of this stuff up as he goes along.

Yeah I pretty much agree with this. I adored Season 5 and the majority of season 6 but 'The Wedding of River Song' was the first time I felt that Moffat genuinely let me down with an episode. I remember reading an interview with him and he said that he had a 2 season arc planned. So when TWORS ended I just thought nope he had no plan and has probably been making it up as he went along. Now the whole thing has pretty much been abandoned and we'll likely never know some of the BIG lingering questions (who the **** blew up/took control of the TARDIS and why, who was the voice in the TARDIS? Those questions are far too big to the events of S5/S6 to just be ignored.) For me S5/S6 do slightly fall apart when you realise that Moffat had no endgame in sight and that important questions are still in the air.

Who knows Moffat may still surprise with the anniversary but I think it's too risky to tie up loose ends in an episode where a lot of people who wont be familiar with S5/S6 will be watching.

 

[The Squirrel]

Does anybody else want the show to go back to being adventures in space and time, and drop all these huge mysteries?

 

[Wesley Dodds]

Davies structured his run better. He found a really nice balance between standalone adventure episodes and the arc-heavy ones. And his forshadowing was, mostly, unobtrusive like it should be.
More "random 'Vote Saxon' poster in the background" and less "Here's a crack! Here's a great big bloody crack! Did you all see the crack? Cos there it is, see? Crack! Remember that cos it'll be important later on!"

 

[haephestus]

Does anybody else want the show to go back to being adventures in space and time?

Yes, I do! I'm currently watching some Classic Doctor Who for the first time, starting with the Fourth Doctor's adventures, and I'm enjoying it far more than I've enjoyed any of the recent New Doctor Who episodes.

Sure, the special effects are weak, but they're pretty clever for their time. And the sets and costumes may seem dated, but again, they were decent for their time. More important than special effects, sets and costumes, the stories are vastly more compelling and the characters, especially The Doctor, are far more interesting. I especially like that everything isn't solved by The Doctor simply "knowing" the answer. There is trial and error. The Doctor is not infallible, even if he does almost always save the day. And valuable assistance is provided by the companion (currently Sarah Jane Smith) instead of simply serving as eye-candy and an unanswered "mystery".

 

[Lord Valumart]

You should really start with the Third Doctor. There's only maybe one or two naff stories in his entire run. Plus there's enough action in there with UNIT, a good run of companions, some really good monsters, and of course The Master!!

Seriously, the Third Doctor is where it's at.

 

[Manic]

I think Moffat should've just dropped the mystery angle from Clara altogether. Without that hanging over the Doctor and Clara's friendship, I think the second half of this past season would've felt a lot more smooth. And with the 1-part episodes and lack of any other story arc, this would've made for a decent half-season of fun standalone adventures.

Hell, they could've even kept the part in the end about Clara jumping into the Doctor's timeline. I like the idea that some version of her has always been there, either ignored or barely remembered, helping and saving him. Imagine if we (the audience) knew that Oswin, the governess "Miss Montague", and modern Clara were played by the same actress without the Doctor realizing. He knew Clara looked familiar, but doesn't realize he's met her before until "The Name of the Doctor."

 

[The Squirrel]

I liked the idea of her just being a governess from the 1800's. They should have just kept that angle.

 

[Llama_Shepherd]

Fake, but this trailer for the 50th Special is bloody amazing:

[YT]YD997i_89RM[/YT]

 

[Doc Ock]

Does anybody else want the show to go back to being adventures in space and time, and drop all these huge mysteries?

You should really start with the Third Doctor. There's only maybe one or two naff stories in his entire run. Plus there's enough action in there with UNIT, a good run of companions, some really good monsters, and of course The Master!!

Seriously, the Third Doctor is where it's at.

I love the Third Doctor after recently watching what is available on Netflix! The Kung-Fu Doctor hehe. And the 5th. Currently the 6th, 4th and 8th are the only Doctors I haven't seen any episodes of minus the clips from the official Doctor Who YouTube.

 

[regwec]

I love the Third Doctor after recently watching what is available on Netflix! The Kung-Fu Doctor hehe. And the 5th. Currently the 6th, 4th and 8th are the only Doctors I haven't seen any episodes of minus the clips from the official Doctor Who YouTube.

You're in for a treat.

 

[THUNDERSTRIKE]

with the 4th, you get about 12 series worth of great stuffs... man, I miss those days and I miss that Doctor...

 

[Upset Spideyfan]

Davies structured his run better. He found a really nice balance between standalone adventure episodes and the arc-heavy ones. And his forshadowing was, mostly, unobtrusive like it should be.
More "random 'Vote Saxon' poster in the background" and less "Here's a crack! Here's a great big bloody crack! Did you all see the crack? Cos there it is, see? Crack! Remember that cos it'll be important later on!"

That actually sounds more like a Davies style arc than a Moffat one.

Now see I thought the crack season was actually pretty well constructed. You had a clear escalation of the threat as the season progressed and every time the Doctor directly encountered a crack it had a pretty significant impact.

The Davies arcs were unobtrusive because generally speaking for the most part they really weren't arcs but people saying Torchwood or Bad Wolf in the background ever so often.

I don't think there's any problem with story arcs or serialized story telling in Who, the problem imo was that the S6 and S7 arcs were not particularly well put together - but I will definitely stand by S5 as an example of doing it right.

 

[Manic]

I wasn't really a fan of the way Davies did his arcs. It was just a lot of mimetic foreshadowing that was sloppily connected by a last second explanation during the finale. If it wasn't us getting the words "Bad Wolf" and "Torchwood" repeatedly, we were given nonsensical explanations as to how "You are not alone" was a warning about Professor Yana just because his name is an acronym the Master would've been completely unaware of, or how the Doctor and Donna introducing themselves to the Ood as "Doctor Donna friends" meant the Ood predicted the metacrisis just by continuing to refer to them as "Doctor-Donna."

Moffat's been getting sloppy, but he gets credit for doing more than just repeating the same thing for a whole season. By the time we got to the finale for season 5, we already knew what the cracks were and where they came from because the answers were slowly fed to us every couple of episodes. Even season 6's arc (which was basically "Who is River and what is she to the Doctor?") gave us enough hints every couple of episodes to figure it out for ourselves.

I think one of the reasons I hated Clara's mystery arc was because it felt like a Davies arc. Every episode, we just had the same question over and over. There was no slow drip of information like Moffat normally does.

 

[Lord Valumart]

with the 4th, you get about 12 series worth of great stuffs... man, I miss those days and I miss that Doctor...

See, my favourate era for the 4th Doctor is from Terror of the Zygons to Invasion of Time. That's the few series when you get Tom's best stuff but there's still a fair share of naff in there.

I'm standing by there not being a single bad Pertwee story.

 

[jonathancrane]

See, my favourate era for the 4th Doctor is from Terror of the Zygons to Invasion of Time. That's the few series when you get Tom's best stuff but there's still a fair share of naff in there.

I'm standing by there not being a single bad Pertwee story.

Agreed

Davies structured his run better. He found a really nice balance between standalone adventure episodes and the arc-heavy ones. And his forshadowing was, mostly, unobtrusive like it should be.
More "random 'Vote Saxon' poster in the background" and less "Here's a crack! Here's a great big bloody crack! Did you all see the crack? Cos there it is, see? Crack! Remember that cos it'll be important later on!"

Agreed

 

[Gold Samurai]

Marcus Wilson, one of the 30,702 producers of Steven Moffat's era has quit the show

http://www.combom.co.uk/2013/06/another-producer-leaving-doctor-who.html



So who wants to try their hand at producing?


I wonder if the production crew is doing a bit of cleaning up before the 8th season/12 doctor era starts.

 

[Hyde]

I'll give it a shot

 

[Angelus_Darko]

Hey guys, well, you gave me your advice years ago when I began watching DW. Now I finally got all the 4th Doctor's episodes (I haven't seen anything from the classic series). Is there any story I should avoid?

 

[Manic]

For the 4th Doctor? Um.... Underworld kinda sucks. I'm not too fond of Meglos.

The 4th Doctor's stuff is surprisingly consistent despite going through 12,000 producers and script editors over 7 years. You might notice a marked shift in tone right around the time Douglas "Hitchhiker's Guide" Adams becomes script editor, but the stories are usually pretty strong throughout. I didn't really feel let down by the 4th Doctor era until Nathan-Turner took over (I'm not a fan of the E-Space trilogy), but even that season ends on a couple of strong ones.

 

[Angelus_Darko]

Perfect, I will start watching it this week. I definitely have to keep in mind that this will be my first approach to the classic series, so a lot of things will be quite different from what I'm used to.

 

[Lord Valumart]

Yeh, there's some naff stuff kicking around Tom's time. There's some really good stuff as well. The gothic horror stuff is my favourate from Tom's time, so things like Brain of Mobius and Horror of Fang Rock are ones I'd suggest going with if I had to say anything.

Although the last series of McCoy would feel more like the current series I think. And some Davison's would fit nicely in the mould of the current series, his Dalek and Cyberman episodes especially.

I still say start with Pertwee though. Can NEVER go wrong with Pertwee.

 

[Manic]

Yeah, those last couple of seasons with McCoy showed us what Doctor Who would've gradually turned into had it stayed on the air in the 90's, and that's pretty much what we got in 2005 but without the embarrassing CGI.

 

[Gold Samurai]

Everyone wakeup!

The greatest collaboration for charity is going to take place at the Apollo theater

http://www.northampton-news-hp.co.u...octor-Who-Sherlock-Q-Skyfall-Helen-Mirren.htm



Northampton’s Matt Smith is appearing tonight in the West End alongside a host of famous names in a one off performance of The Audience - a sequel to The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time.

Joining the current Doctor Who at the Apollo Theatre are Ben Wishaw (Skyfall), Helen Mirren, Jude Law and Andrew Scott who played Moriarty in Sherlock.

According to the Radio Times, director Simon Stephens said “It is a once in a lifetime opportunity to see all those people in the same story.

“I’m sure a lot of people have fantasied about what would happen if the Doctor did battle with Moriarty.

The Doctor fighting Moriarty with Q's gadgets to save the Queen ?

It's so British it hurts buts its a good hurt

 

[Wesley Dodds]

Seems like Jenna Louise Coleman might have confirmed something we've suspected about the 50th.

Yeah, don't read this if you've been avoiding anniversary news:

Spoiler

Coleman said to a posh man who had wondered in that "we finished [filming] about two months ago. We had three different Doctors in here and we shot on 3D as well".


When asked about this, she said "yeah, three different Doctors. John Hurt, and David Tennant was back and Matt. Three different Doctors playing against each other".

Read more: http://www.denofgeek.com/tv/doctor-...ors-in-50th-anniversary-special#ixzz2Xzt4K2EW
​

 

[The Squirrel]

That doesn't tell us anything that the season finale didn't tell us, by slapping [BLACKOUT]THE DOCTOR[/BLACKOUT] under John Hurt's name.