Dr Who Series 4!
 

Well, it's upon us again. Take that how you will...

Partners in Crime has aired, the opening episode by Russell T. Davies. I wouldn't waste 45 minutes, if you haven't seen it. "Monumentally boring" is a good description.

Next week, Carry On Pompeii.

OH DEAR GOD!
KILL THE CHANCELLOR!

I'm sorry, but I thought that it was... one of the single best things I've seen this year - This decade - This Life!
Plotwise.. yeah yeah.. weird, clever, very Doctor Who... but the real winner for me?
Catherine Tate

That woman OWNS ME

You know how they say when you don't look forward to something, it usually turns out good? and when you really look forward to something it turns out crap? I really, really, really, really, really looked forward to this - and it was so very good.

That whole through the window silent bit cracked me up..
Donna's "Aaahh you're wearing the same suit...... - Don't you ever change?!!"
The fact she'd already 'Packed' for her trip in the TARDIS.. like the first person ever to do that!
Genius!

Of course, there was 'The moment' too, near the end. That was unexpected. And fantastic too.

I love this show. I have always loved it. But somehow, this series, I love it even more.

So, um, yeah.. looking back at the first two posts - you kinda have the 'two opposite ends of the spectrum', don't you?

Shall we go through the list?

Plot - silly.
Dialogue - GRUGH
Pacing - What pacing?
Characterisation - 2-D
Special Effects - I could do better in GMax than those Flumps, and the ship was uninspired at best
Acting: Halfway-decent, to be fair.

Not... impressed. No. Not at all impressed.

What was it about April 4 this year? For some reason they stacked two premieres (DW and BSG) and one finale (Torchwood) on the same day. And naturally I couldn't catch any of them... not that this will stop me from legally doing so legally in this legal day and age.

Yeah, but in all fairness, you could be talking about most of Doctor Who with that list...

Only when it comes to the New Drivel. pre-1993, these problems tended not to turn up in the same episode - and plotting and dialogue issues were largely restricted to stories by Pip and Jane Baker.

I watched it again today. I love it even more. I just think Tate works so well against The Doctor, snappy one liners and the fact she's not love-sick for him. Funny enough though, most people I've spoken to aren't that bothered (No pun intended) about her. I guess it is just me that likes her!

Up Pompeii!

I liked bits of it, and it was a better episode than the season opener, but it was still very uneven. Donna has the makings of a good companion though, I'll give it that.

Just been watching the Sontaran Experiment? Or whatever the title was. The first part, at any rate.

Well, the killer <gadgets> in this one seem a little more... threatening... then the little fat monsters in the season opener (and less like flaming ents then the things in Pompeii), which is always a plus. Martha's cameo inspired a major 'here we go again' for anyone that remembers Rose's supposedly final episode...

Much as I hate to say it, apart from their stupid little wardance at the end, the Sontarens actually made more interesting villains then the cybermen two seasons ago. Probably felt right for padding the whole thing out to two-parter length, but wardances went out of fashion on earth for a reason (i.e. they're only effective against opposition that's close enough to see you, and opposition close enough to see you will just shoot you whilst you're prancing around.) Not the sort of thing you'd expect the greatest soldiers in the universe to indulge in. That said, someone who's watched the original series will probably tell me it's as traditional as 'EXTERMINATE!'.

Plot - approaching average.
Dialogue - so-so
Pacing - If you're sticking in a clip show, you don't have enough plot.
Characterisation - 2.5-D - I have to feel UNIT was somewhat shortchanged in this regard, but the others did as well as any do in a single episode.
Special Effects - Pretty few needed, and they were done well enough.
Acting: Seems to be improving as the season goes on.

It was better, much better. Still some wobbles, and that one particular "I'm leaving you" scene felt incredibly forced and subsequently wasn't very funny, but on the whole I think it was more reminiscent of adventures of old.

Actually, the war-dance is one of the Zygma Experiments' novelties, it seems, and really kaiboshed the episode, I felt. It removed what drama there was and made me embarrassed to be watching it.

I must agree with both the above commentaries, but I thought I'd add that Tennant's cockneyisms are still irritating, and that the badminton racket was a fun, nice thing thrown in - in all its appearances.

Oh god, you bunch of miserable old gits – Cheer up! Don’t be so hard on the show. I thought it was fantastic! The ending was dodgy, ok, but the rest was enjoyable. The second part was however, I found to be fan-bloody-tastic! That Rose flash? Priceless. The Doctor’s “Are you my mummy?” joke, Brilliant. That stupid nerd’s bit at the end… “Sonta-HA!” was great too. Oh, and they referenced the Brigadier too! I think that episode is my fav so far. And, a twist ending too!
I couldn’t really ask for more.

Yes - let's abandon all these rubbish ideas like 'quality', and go and read some lovely, heart-warming Ctrl-Alt-Del prolefeed.

The thought occurs that had the device posessed, say, a 5 second delay, they could have easily triggered it and teleported down again. Possibly not even that. Back in the new season 1 they showed the Doctor being able to slow down time temporarily in need - surely in that state it's possible to trigger teleport and device roughly simultaneously?

Then there's Torchwood's giant alien-blasting laser thing. Who in their right minds would dismantle that even after the cybermen fiasco? Surely UNIT or the remnants of Torchwood had access to it *before* having to resort to nukes?

Then again, UNIT's equipping it's soldiers with sontaran-tech-proof bullets and taking down the superior foe is one of it's finest moments. Slightly jarring compared to the fact that after the first patrol of sontarans got taken down, the others should have been shooting humans on sight (and reflex). Great soldiers, supposedly, and instead they fare worse than a human opposing force would have done once their bullet-proof tech is negated.

Giving the genius access to actual terraforming equipment if you weren't planning to let him use it is also an act of some stupidity. Surely you just give him a training sim and promise the real tech will be waiting on the new planet? Instead of handing him weapons and then telling him to his face (whilst he's standing next to a teleport pod) that you were never going to keep your bargain with him?

Then the fireball to burn off the gas... A fireball to burn off a gas that was filling up most of the atmosphere. And choking people at ground level. Mystical alien tech, yes, but *something* should have at least been scorched by that. And by 'something', read 'everything on earth in direct contact with air'.

That little frame of Rose? Quite pointless in the context of the story. Unless she's developing psychic powers that can cross dimensions that supposedly need the power of a supernova to communicate between, it's likely just to make her final return even more brainless than I suspect it will be.

The doctor, on the other hand, did brilliantly. Bit of a shame that they had to neuter the Sontarans to get the Doctor to win... would have loved to see some version of this where the foes didn't go so far out of their way to hand the doctor weapons and *still* lost.

Finally, this weekend we get the first appearance of the Doctor's Daughter (according to the trailers). I'd have preferred having Susan back myself, but that's just personal preference. The character might be interesting. On the other hand, it might just be an excuse to have someone do a lot of backflips.

*all ranted out now*

Ok, 'The unicorn and the wasp'.
Agian, I thought it was fantastic!
Huge Agatha Christie fan. The whole idea for the episode was bloody amazing - setting it in her missing 10 days. And that they kept dropping in the names of her books! I just loved every minute of it. Same goes for 'The doctor's Daughter'. I admit, I wasn't really looking forward to it. But the whole episode was just music to me. I loved how Donna was the one that figured it all out. How many companions explain whats going on to the doctor??
I still stand by my claim. Donna is one of the best companions, and this is one of the best series! (Dodges rotten fruit)

This weak, no soap - but Lawrence Miles drives the replacement bus service in style: http://beasthouse-lm2.blogspot.com/2...week-only.html.

The Agatha Christie one was pretty good, but Saturday's was rubbish. Didn't make any sense at all. What the hell was Wogan doing there, anyway? I mean, sure, it was great having a much longer episode, but not if the Doctor wasn't actually going to appear in it - at first I thought it was going to be like 'Blink, but no. It was totally bizarre, and as for the plot... well.

Interesting link, Valium I've only heard of the guy vaguely, and the drama he refers to I hadn't heard about at all, so definitely interesting.

Oddly enough, no rotten fruit heading Burt's way yet. Look back at my long complaint against sections of the 2nd part of the Sontaren arc. Now read my complaints about the Unicorn and the Wasp:

The Doctor really should have concentrated on telling Donna what he needed first, and then mocking her wild guesses afterwards.

Quite an improvement, no?

Going back slightly to the Doctor's Daughter, I have to admit that, again, I felt it was an improvement on the earlier episodes. About the only parts that really grate are the Doctor, who should know intimately just what Jenny's body is capable of, forgetting that she can do things like regenerate or (temporarily) slow (her perception of) time to get past environmental dangers. Considering that he's been declared dead by human doctors before, he should have known better than to rely on Martha's diagnosis.

Anyway, in conclusion: Season's been improving, hope it keeps it up - it'll be throwing something truly exceptional at us through the middle of the season if it does.

(before we go back to the series' Patented Flashy Davies Series End. Complete with Reset Button.)

That gimmick gets tiresome after a while, doesn't it? Methinks he's watched a little too much Voyager.

Finally got around to watching Silence in the Library.

I, as an Avatar of Pessimism Incarnate, duly declare this episode's rating to be....

Promising!
*classical music blares from a heavenly choir*

A little more seriously, I can only, offhand, think of four two-parters in the new series where I've found the first part really... impressive... And this was the fourth. (For the record, the other three were The Empty Child, Family of Blood and the year 5^10^x. *sniffs* Poor Chan'tho.)

I don't know, maybe I've just been a sucker for anthropomorphised computers since I first ran across SHODAN all those years ago. "LLLoook at you, Hackerrr..." - good times.

Now, onto my traditional nitpicking: The little bit at the end of Donna's face on the information kiosk... Works fine for giving the Doctor a clue as to what's going on, but for anyone in the audience with a passing familiarity with, say, Trek-Style transporters it immediately makes you think "Her teleport pattern is saved in the computer, and all the doctor has to do is coax it out of the data core in the second part!" In terms of building suspense, it would have been far more effective to delay telling the audience that the computer did it for as long as possible. Of course, the less Trek and related series you've been exposed to, the less likely you are to have had that particular chain of thoughts...

Heh, I completely got that too. The 'Donna has been saved' and the 4400 saved... bit of a give away...
I do like busy endings though - lots of things going on...
Donna - Still - is fantastic in my opinion. Her moan about the sonic screwdriver 'It doesn't work on wood??' and 'Did we just run away from a powercut?' Other companions just couldn't pull off these lines!
Looking forward to the next set of episodes thought. The (sadly) Donna-lite episode, then a Doctor-lite episode! (Means more Donna I'm hoping?)

Well, the preceeding two Doctor-lite episodes (Love and Monsters and Blink) tended to be companion-lite as well.

The ending would have been just as busy without Donna's face on the info robot, I think, and would have been far more tense if all we'd seen was her disappearing from the Tardis.

Anyway, since you seem so insistent on claiming Donna is the greatest companion of the new series...

Rose - Slightly grating personality and voice, frequent trips to Mary Sue-dom. Grade B-
Adam - Bland and Boring. Only lasted two episodes and that was probably an episode too long. Grade F
Jack - It's always nice to see someone who isn't quite as clueless as the average extra. I'd prefer a little less in the way of indiscriminite flirting - there's a difference between omnisexual and sex-obsessed - but overall, not the greatest of quibbles. At least not during his Doctor Who episodes, by all accounts this sort of thing can get quite excessive over in Torchwood. Grade B+
Mickey - Actually promising towards the end of Rose's run on the show. He didn't know what he was doing in other time periods but damn was he trying. I would have dearly loved to see Mickey stick around the Tardis a little longer - he seemed to have the most unrealised potential of any of the companions. Grade: B
Martha - Spent a good portion of the first half of her season strangled by the memory of Blondie Sue from the seasons before. Coming a little more into her own as the seaon went on, but left before she could really stamp herself on the role. Like Mickey, she had more potential as a character then she actually realised. Grade B
Donna - Supports the Doctor without stealing the spotlight quite so much. Has never tried to get by on her looks and has never requested the tone shift to something more Star-Trek-Esque. All plusses. Her contributions all seem to be appropriate to the character - about my only niggle is that she occasionally shows a tendancy to slip towards pantomime acting... and a characterisation flaw. Her Empathy for beings in need and new and different ways of doing things stretches about as far as Rubber Forehead Aliens but no further than that: Any time she comes across something more outlandish, it's typically disbelief or shock. I mean, she *chose* to go out and explore the universe. Is it too much to ask that someone does this understanding that *not everything is done the way it's done on earth*? Now much as it pains me to say it... Donna, Grade A-.

I actually agree with Bert. I typed out the above just to be sure... *sigh* It's a poor, poor argument when noone's taking a contrarian opinion. Perhaps Valium or PHJ would care to play Devil's advocate?

Don't get me wrong, I still think Rose was pretty great.. and that the new series wouldn't have done so well without her.. But Martha... she was too alike (In love with the Doctor and all).. Jack.. yeah he's a laugh, but to be honest, I think he's way too over the top. Embarrassing even.
Donna, I totally agree with the slipping into pantomime slightly... but as Tate said on a talk show one time, she (Donna) is excited by all this and likes the Doctor, but just for what he can show her - She knows he's go two hearts - and doesn't wanna know what else he's doubled up on...
But the lines she comes out with... how she stands up to the Doctor and tells him when he's wrong and is there to stop him when he goes to far. But I like how she still keeps that 'airhead' look on life.
I suppose it's also because she's a little older than Rose and Martha too.
Still, it makes me deeply enjoy EVERY episode because of her.

Oh and the next episode is Companion-lite, but the one after is said to be Doctor-lite, and being more about Donna. Which is nice.

I'm not going to disagree on Donna, I'm rather growing to like her. And, I liked the episode too, though there's one small nitpick - four thousand seems a rather small number of people for there to have been on a whole planet - even with heavy automation you'd surely need a few hundred thousand just as staff, let alone all the visitors the Doctor made it sound like it should have. But anyway, that's a small thing.

If they do end up having Donna falling for the Doctor though, I may very well actually stop watching - three in a row is just too bloody much.

The only bit of that episode that really impressed me was Tennants "A shared washing-machine, a shared toaster...

...A shared banana pancake."

speech. Utter gibberish, but a brilliantly performed scene.

@Bert: I'm sure Sarah-Jane did it a few times; Tegan's another likely candidate, as are Ianara and Babran.

The Unicorn and the Wasp was just too...obvious, for my tastes.

And why go for such a boring choice as a writer who would like the Doctor? Why not one who'd hate him? It would be so much more fun.

The performances were all right, though nothing fantastic, given the cast.

As for this week's...Definitely preferred Miles' offering. It was so much more engaging, IMO.

@Pointy: He wrote some of the NAs/MAs and created Faction Paradox. I think his most famous books were Christmas On A Rational Planet, Alien Bodies and Interference, which came in two parts.

I've read very few, though I have a few second hand ones. I've read three times as many of the Beeb novels, but at the rate they come out that doesn't count for much.

(new) Series 5, 2010. Head writer: Steven Moffat. Executive Producer: Steven Moffat.

Here's to a season whose first and last episodes are well-written!

I wouldn't call it good...just not as bad. It'll be watchable.

Really, Lawrence Miles is most interesting on this: http://beasthouse-lm2.blogspot.com/

Valium, I really think you should be careful about this man-crush on Lawrence Miles. I haven't read his pilot script yet, but I've read the whole blog now, and he is a piece of work. In particular, you should bear in mind that he hates you. Me too, but you more.

That said, while I have to resent his view of sci-fi fans, I agree with one of his main points in that post: Russell Davies gets a bad rap lately. It's his vision of Who that brought the franchise back to life on TV, and I'm betting a lot of the bashers will find themselves missing him when he's gone.

I haven't had the chance to see season 4 yet, but I'm looking forward to it. (There's a kinda complicated reason: I want to watch Torchwood S2 first, but before I do that I'm determined to finish my fiver of "Everything Changes", which I started before the new season hoping to take advantage of the timing.) I do have two links to toss at y'all, though.

• Paul Cornell wrote a little Who story for Christmas '07 which was published in the Telegraph: "The Hopes and Fears of All the Years". I've liked Cornell since I read his New Trek Programme Guide as a kid (backwards and forwards). The story seems written with young readers in mind, and it's too sweet for me to gripe about the very predictable ending.
• I'm a webcomic addict, but I've never seen one as ambitious as Rich Morris's The Ten Doctors. I'm halfway through and I love it; it's as big, messy, and entertaining as a story with ten Doctors should be, and the likenesses are incredible. Check it out.

Noting what seems to be a certain mild reproof in Zeke's post, I'd like to clarify a point here: My personal opinion on RTD isn't along the lines of "Hate...hate...HATE!" or anything. But I'm not blind to the fact that for all the good he may do as an executive producer, the standout episodes in the new series are typically *not* the ones written by him.

To that end, I'm actually looking forwards to the Head Writer role being passed on to someone whose own efforts have been rather stronger.

Now on the subject of executive producer I'm a little less enthusiastic - partly because I have few complaints about the production of Doctor Who and partly out of the fear that the added responsibility might prevent Steven Moffat from writing as well as he has done so far. This is why I only stated the first and last episodes to be well-written - I have no idea how Moffat will do managing the other writers, so his ascension to a higher level of employment may result in the series switching from (typically) weak at either end to (typically) weak in the middle.

Still, I'm not actually thinking I'll miss RTD - the old series survived several changes in production staff, I suspect the new series will as well. After all, with the ratings it has been getting in the UK, it can probably survive having an off season whilst Moffat gets used to the job.

Hope I didn't give you the wrong impression, whoiam -- nobody here has to edit himself (figuratively) on my account. As long as you guys don't break the rules, you're welcome to post anything you want.

That said, I do disagree about RTD. It was his "Rose" that made me a Who fan. I don't like all his episodes, and I wish he'd stop hitting us with that big hammer labelled "Maximum Gay", but in general I'm a fan. And anyone who's on the receiving end of the basher mentality has my sympathy if nothing else. Some of the attacks on RTD remind me of what B&B got. Fandom is a harsh mistress; whatever is loved will sooner or later be hated. Ask the Heroes writers. (Even Ron Moore is finally getting a taste of it over at BSG.)

As for how the show will look under Moffat, I wouldn't expect too big a change. He seems in line with RTD's ideas about the show, and it's the same writing staff and all that. I'm guessing it'll be like how Voyager changed when Braga took over in S5 or Biller in S7 -- more like fine-tuning than reworking.

Until I did, I thought he was pretty crackers.
...And why is his judgement necessarily wrong because of this?
I doubt it. His insertions are too blatant and overriding to be mistaken for those of the current script editor.

Personally, I'm hoping for a move away from rather moronic ephemera - and more specifically, English moronic ephemera, that I suspect alienate those viewers outside this sceptr'd spot who don't have our tabloids mailed over to them in regular batches.

Expect an exceptionally long rant from me in this thread, just as soon as SciFi in the States has caught up with the rest of the world and I can safely read this without spoilers.

Gorram bashers...

You... you bastard. You know now that you've linked to that I'll be able to do nothing for the next two days but read it. And I was so looking forward to sleep, too.

:rolleyes:

PHJ: I know exactly how you feel. I tried an archive binge on Irregular Webcomic over the weekend. The author kept including links to other webcomics in his annotations, damn him. Legostar Galactica and Freefall seem pretty promising, though.

Wowbagger: Looking forwards to it.

Chancellor Valium: I guess the ephemera seems a touch less moronic to those of us in the UK at times - my greatest problem with the series is how every season finale involves a reset-buttoned 'end of humanity on earth' storyline and every christmas special involves something attacking present-day London. It doesn't really help much that there seems to be an 'episode-merge' template on RTD's computer, and he just has to add the villains of choice for that season.

Zeke: I think if there ever was a code of conduct for use of the internet, one of the tenets should be 'never take a position you are unwilling to defend'. It should be just as important as 'do not hijack threads (unless it would be funny to do so)' and 'anyone writing entirely in txt or 133t should have their textin' hand broken'. Unless you ever degenerate to the stage of "Agree with me or get banned" you will never owe me an apology for either disagreeing with me, arguing with me, or making me explain myself. I would hate, HATE, living in a world where those three were considered forbidden actions.

A whole world of spineless yes-men... *shudders*

That 10 Doctors is fantastic. I stumbled across it a few weeks ago, and lost 3 hours. Amazingly good drawing though, and very like the personality of each doctor.
I really did like the forest episode.. It confused the hell out of me for about 25 minutes.. Which I love! I like not understanding... right till the end. I thought the music was just haunting too. And River... think we'll see her again? I'm sure it's all been a big set up for future storylines. I'm however very, very worried about this 'Doctor's name' thing they have going.. It's terribly fascinating, but it can't end well. I don't want to know his name! Never, NEVER tell me! It'll just... be wrong! Saying that.. I can't help thinking what the secret could be? How can a name be sooo...bad? And he said something like 'There's only one time I could tell someone my name?' You don't think they're thinking of bringing up that old not used storyline - The One?

All very excited for the end of the series too. I hope it's on par with Series 2. That had me totally hooked. Series 3... well... I see it's charm now, but I wasn't impressed when I watched it.

@whoiam: That's but one large element of my general dislike of the Zygma Experiments.

@topic: The Ten Doctors is reasonably drawn but a mediocre fanfic at best.

Ok, this weeks story. Clever, quite scary but a little thin on .. well story. I mean.. nothing happened! Still, enjoyed it.
But the build up to the big series end is great! Aprat from Rose returning.. there's the darkness? I'm not sure what that is, I know the big baddie is gonna be Davros, but I can't understand how he could conquer other universes? Then there is this comment towards Donna... 'There's something on your back.' which been said a few times in the series now. The trailer for next weeks episode (Turn Left) looks very exciting though. The start of a big finish!
Oh and I saw something today that is totally clear, but I didn't get untill now.
1st Doctor - Main thing - Daleks/ Daleks invade Earth
2nd Doctor - Main thing - Cybermen invade Earth
3rd Doctor - Main thing - The Master/ The Master on Earth
4th Doctor - Main thing - THE DALEKS AND DAVROS!

Then you look at each of the new series and... The pattern fits!