movies/tv Doctor Who General

[Moaning Myrtle 196]

Any Christopher Eccleston fans? He was my favorite Doctor because of his personality and relationship with Rose,I miss Rose ;_;

[PrymeStriker 408]

I've been addicted to the new series for quite sometime. I've posted about my views on Doctor Who before, but my opinions have changed quite a bit since then as I've watched the BBC Wales series all the way through twice at this point and have developed more analytical points of view. 

 

My favorite episode is probably "Dalek" because it's astronomically incredible story. The Doctor became more like a Dalek while the Dalek mutated into a more forgiving and human-like individual. This was an ingenious way to write characters and to give ground to the Doctor's involvement in the Time War. My least favorite episode sits with "Planet of the Dead," being an absolute mess for most of it with an absolute piece of shit ending. Not even the Doctor's incredibly hilarious one-liner could save this last scene from being toilet food!

 
My favorite companion is Donna Noble. She was hilarious and an absolute perfect match for the Doctor, especially after breaking from the previous two primary companions being essentially love interests (despite in which direction). My least favorite companion is, so far, Clara Oswald. Not because she's bad per-say, but she (story arc aside) is one of the least interesting and generic companions in the series thus far. There's no real elements to her character or personality. She just feels like a rehash of Amy, to be perfectly honest. Then again, her days with the Doctor are not over yet.

 

Ironically, given my favorite episode above, my favorite season is Series 4. Every story arc in this season was a winner and was wrapped up with an uncanny relation. The Stolen Earth/Journey's End is the best season closer of the BBC Wales series, save for part of the resolve. As I count the specials as Series 4, the End of Time is a brilliantly written episode and kicked the Tenth Doctor out of the show beautifully. My least favorite season is Series 7, given the only episodes I enjoyed from it were "The Power of Three," "The Angels Take Manhattan," and the "Name," "Day," & "Time of the Doctor." Every other episode in the seventh season was either written badly, mediocre, or just an all-around bore. I'm really hoping Series 8 is a massive improvement.

 

And finally, my favorite doctor is the Tenth Doctor. He was an eccentric and entertaining doctor from the get-go, and has one of the most interesting character arcs of any doctor I've seen after the Ninth (which was part of the Tenth's anyway). I don't hate any doctor, but my least favorite is probably the War Doctor. Again, not because he's bad. In fact, he was a brilliantly written character in "The Day of the Doctor." My problem lies with all of the continuity problems he caused that we've had to come with head-canons in order for it to make sense. I really think Moffat should have just come up with a new story after Eccleston turned down the role instead of being stubborn and going through with his already somewhat weak story. Unless it was too late in production, which I highly doubt is plausible, he should've scrapped the idea. 

 

Any Christopher Eccleston fans?

While David Tennant is still my favorite, Chris was indeed fantastic.
 

[Rainboom Dash 1,056]

Another fan here. My favorite Doctor is Matt Smith because he was my first and I got into Doctor Who watching his first series. Very excited for the Peter Capaldi's first series this month though, he's looking to be a great Doctor. And yes Tennant and Eccleston were brilliant as well.

Edited August 3, 2014 by Rainboom Dash

[Gravelord Neat-O 305]

Christopher Eccleston is my favorite Doctor, it seems like everyone has forgotten about him.

[The Coffee Pony 1,390]

  Oh yeah, big Whovian here! I started watching Doctor Who last year by watching EVERY. SINGLE. EPISODE. of Doctor Who from the First Doctor's tenure up to this point and I lov-...Oh are we only talking about the new series? Oh that's cool I guess...I'll just go now. *walks off*

 

...

 

*Runs back* OH TO HELL WITH IT!! I'M GOING TO GUSH ABOUT DOCTOR WHO (Classic and Modern) AND YOU HAVE TO DEAL WITH IT!!!

 

Jon Pertwee (The Third Doctor) is my favorite Doctor period

 

Tom Baker (The Fourth Doctor) is my Second Favorite!

 

David Tennent (The Tenth Doctor) is my third favorite Doctor and favorite Modern Doctor.

 

 

And my fourth favorite is Colin Baker (The Sixth Doctor)

And for those who are classic fans may find this to be a bit of a shock as many consider his Doctor to be the worst. I disagree, while his stories were considered weak, and actually I thought most of his stories were pretty entertaining, I thought The Twin Dilemma was his only real bad one. Colin Baker was screwed over royally! The person running BBC at the time, Michael Grade, really disliked Doctor Who (because it didn't look as good as movies in the cinema) and went out of his way to sabotage the show, including slashing the budget and putting it on a 14 month hiatus. And unfortunately Colin was always stuck with bad stories (which, again, I didn't think were really all that bad, I thought they were rather fun), he didn't get to choose his costume, the show runner chose it for him (Colin wanted a black velvet coat, the showrunner instead went with that monstrosity of a coat...which I admit I also like.) and after his second season Grade fired him because in HIS opinion he thought he was awful (the staff at BBC on the other hand have stated it was for personal reasons and at the time Grade was dating Colin's ex-wife). Yeah there was some really shady shit going on at the time. However despite all this performance-wise Colin gave it his all and I loved every bit of his tenure because of that performance and I will say that it's a damn shame that he's considered the worst Doctor because of the bad stories (which people tend to overplay). Now is his televised tenure the reason he's in my top 5? No. Actually the reason he's up this high is because of his performance in the Big Finish Doctor Who audio dramas in which he managed to redeem both his and the reputation of the Sixth Doctor among the fanbase and he still continues to do so to this day!! Six's Audio Dramas are brilliant, if you say that he was a bad Doctor you'll find some fans going up to you and telling you to give them a listen.

 

And my fifth favorite Doctor is Paul McGann (The Eighth Doctor)

Again to explain it's because of his Big Finish Doctor Who Audio Dramas (which are brilliant). Unfortunately on television he didn't get really get a chance as all he got was the TV Movie which was supposed to serve as a Pilot for a relaunch of the series...Unfortunately BBC was not in charge...Fox was. The same network that is infamous for cancelling Firefly, infamous for cancelling a shitload of other shows without giving them a proper chance, infamous for cancelling other good shows (Terminator Sarah Conner Chronicles and my other example) by shifting around the time slot (Sports are one of the most common reasons. Don't expect Gotham to last long by the way they'll cancel that somewhere down the line too) was behind this move and what happened? Well for one thing the story was a bit of a mess and introduced the notorious "The Doctor is half human scene" (He's really not, one of the Sixth Doctor audio dramas explained why this misunderstanding happened and the audio dramas are canon by the way. That same audio drama was declared as the first battle of the Time War by Russell T Davis himself) and the movie also wasn't advertised properly in America so American ratings weren't that high but rating soared through the roof in the UK but unfortunately Fox didn't care about British ratings, only the American ratings. So we didn't get our relaunch series for another nine years. I will say this though as stupid as the movie may have been I thought it was a REALLY fun movie and McGann gave it his all, I think he would have been great on Television. At least we got another brilliant on-screen appearance by him in the 50th Anniversary mini-episode "Night of the Doctor" which also canonized the Big Finish Audio Dramas by mentioning each of his companions by name.

 

In case your wondering, yes I also love the other Doctors except for one of them, these are just my top 5. The only Doctor I didn't like is Christopher Eccleston (the Ninth Doctor). I'm sorry but I found his doctor really bland in comparison to all the other Doctors. I really didn't feel that Eccleston captured the spirit and eccentricity of the Doctor and I really didn't think he gave it his all in his performance. He also didn't last long enough to really make an impression and It's also disappointing that he declined to reprise the role in the 50th anniversary special, choosing instead to play the forgettable Dark Elf in the also disappointing Thor The Dark World movie.

The 50th Anniversary special worked out without him though. John Hurt (the War Doctor) unlike Eccleston nailed it as the Doctor and I really want to see more of the War Doctor in spin-off material!!

 

As for my thoughts on Matt Smith's (The Eleventh Doctor's) tenure, I agree it wasn't really that great in comparison to Tennant's, BUT to be fair you can blame on Moffat as he chose to go and make these headache-inducing convoluted plotlines and took away what made the Weeping Angels, the Sontarons, the Daleks, and the Cybermen intimidating. I will go as far as to say that "A Nightmare in Silver" is one of my least favorite Cybermen stories as they went and ripped-off the Borg from Star Trek, villains that were already inspired by them, by adapting to any weakness immediately. You think that'd make them scarier but no they made the Cybermen so powerful to the point where they wrote themselves into a corner and had to resolve the story with a Deus Ex Machina (the moon exploding button) I wonder how they'll resolve their encounters with Cyberman after that? Are they going to keep blowing up planets to kill them? That and those kids in the episode were just god awful! I also don't like Clara either I really don't think she's a good companion in fact so far she looks like a Mary Sue. I hold the same view on Rose Tyler.

 

Now while there were a lot of bad episodes there were quite a few good ones (that one where they were in that house that played off their fear come to mind) and Matt Smith, despite the bad scripts gave an excellent performance! I really thought Matt was an excellent Doctor.

 

Also I'm looking forward to Capaldi's first season! I can't wait for it!

Edited August 3, 2014 by The Coffee Pony

[KittyTwilight 110]

Oh, so much YES!!! I love Doctor Who, it's my favorite show.

[spyke 26]

Love doctor who, the first Episode I ever saw was Blink and that episode forever made me a David Tennant fan.

[Celli 4,339]

Bumping this because of new season and I just finished season 3. Also, more people need to come in and discuss! I'd be happy to chat about the best sci-fi show on TV!

Also, Martha is a much better companion than Rose. That'll probably change with Donna, though.

[Mr. Nutt™ 146]

As a response to the previous post, I'd definitely say that Donna was the best Tennant era companion.

 

As for the new series, I personally think it started off rather well. It was also a nice change to see a companion have a little trouble getting used to the new Doctor. Mind you, it doesn't make much sense considering Clara

has seen all of his previous regenerations when she went into that time rift,

but I'm probably missing something. Speaking of Clara, before I thought of her as Amy 2.0, but it seems she may be becoming more of her own character now. So yeah, is the Doctor a good man? Let's see if he finds an answer this series.

Edited August 26, 2014 by Mr. Nutt™

[Kon 19]

I just saw the season premiere of Deep Breath in theaters. It was pretty good, I didn't like the new intro though - especially the music, it doesn't just feel right in my opinion. 

[Celli 4,339]

Aaand, Finished series 4. Sad to see Tennant go, but watching The Eleventh Hour, I know I'm gonna love Matt Smith.

[The Crimson Cross 7,532]

We need a poll option for Capaldi now.

He's awesome. Love him so far.

I have a really good feeling about the coming season.

[11th Doctor Whooves 794]

I got into Doctor Who in the middle of Matt Smiths first season as the Doctor.  The first episode I was introduced to was Blink and then Midnight.  I was instantly hooked, and went back and started watching David Tennant's Doctor from the episode he regenerated until he became the new Doctor.  Then I went back and watched David Eccleston (I always have to google his name) as the Doctor, and then got caught up with Matt Smith and have been watching the new episodes as they premiere.

 

I loved David as the Doctor, and I do think he was a better Doctor than Smith, I just loved the stories and sagas that Smith's doctor was involved in.  I like how the seasons had an over arching story that also had monster/problem of the week type episodes.  I'm gonna miss him, but I'm interested to see Capaldi as the Doctor, I'm hoping he does a really great job.  I'm also hoping that since Capaldi is the Doctor now, maybe Craig Ferguson can get a guest spot of some kind on the episode, since he's such a big Whovian

[Celli 4,339]

Yes... sorta? The new series does fairly well, but there will be references to the classic series that you'll miss, and there will come bits that won't make much sense without additional context. Whether that will damage your enjoyment of the series is up for debate though.

 

However, actually watching the classic series will take quite an effort now. A significant chunk of the very early stuff was destroyed, so all they have left is the audio and some still images. They're in the process of recreating it with animation, but there's a lot still for them to replace. That aside, there's 26 seasons of the classic series so it's going to be a bit of a slog. It gets easier when you pass Season 6, as you're then past all the lost stuff, and the seasons drop from about 45 episodes a season to about 25.

 

EDIT: Sorry, I wasn't particularly clear with my answer to your actual question. Yes, you will miss stuff, but at least early on nothing you miss is particularly important.

 

Some kind of summary of the old series would probably increase the chances of you catching those references, but I've not been able to find a good one that you can consume quickly.

Hulu plus has all the classic episodes,  minus the missing ones, obviously.

Would I miss anything important if I watch all the classic episodes, or should I wait until they remake the missing ones?

[Fhaolan 4,484]

Hulu plus has all the classic episodes,  minus the missing ones, obviously.

Would I miss anything important if I watch all the classic episodes, or should I wait until they remake the missing ones?

Waiting until they remake all the missing ones basically means you'll never watch them, unfortunately. The rate they're doing the official remakes is very, very slow. There are unofficial reconstructions that you can get though.

 

You see, all the audio tracks exist. I'm not 100% sure *why* all the audio exists, to be honest, but they do. So fans have attempted to put pictures to the audio for the missing episodes. They use any surviving clips (that were used in advertisements, previews, and the like), plus any production photos (that used to be a thing, where there would be an official photographer taking stills constantly throughout filming. Not quite sure why, as Doctor Who was 'filmed' on video tape, so it was easier to do continuity checks right off of the video.) Some of these reconstructions are pretty darn rough, I'm thinking the Macra one, for example, but it's all we've got.

 

Another option is the Target novelizations. Back in the day, Target has exclusive rights to novelize most of the broadcast episodes. I believe all the missing ones have novelizations. Those might be easier to follow than the still-picture reconstructions.

 

Otherwise, you might be better off just skipping the missing episodes and coming back to them when you feel ambitious.

[Celli 4,339]

Waiting until they remake all the missing ones basically means you'll never watch them, unfortunately. The rate they're doing the official remakes is very, very slow. There are unofficial reconstructions that you can get though.

 

You see, all the audio tracks exist. I'm not 100% sure *why* all the audio exists, to be honest, but they do. So fans have attempted to put pictures to the audio for the missing episodes. They use any surviving clips (that were used in advertisements, previews, and the like), plus any production photos (that used to be a thing, where there would be an official photographer taking stills constantly throughout filming. Not quite sure why, as Doctor Who was 'filmed' on video tape, so it was easier to do continuity checks right off of the video.) Some of these reconstructions are pretty darn rough, I'm thinking the Macra one, for example, but it's all we've got.

 

Another option is the Target novelizations. Back in the day, Target has exclusive rights to novelize most of the broadcast episodes. I believe all the missing ones have novelizations. Those might be easier to follow than the still-picture reconstructions.

 

Otherwise, you might be better off just skipping the missing episodes and coming back to them when you feel ambitious.

I think I'll skip the missing ones for now. Why did they trash a bunch of episodes anyway?

[Fhaolan 4,484]

I think I'll skip the missing ones for now. Why did they trash a bunch of episodes anyway?

No one is quite sure what *exactly* happened, but it seems that BBC Archives were cleaning out the warehouses of all duplicates to save space some time in the mid 70's, and they accidentally tossed the masters for a whole bunch of shows. Not just Doctor Who, but a lot of other shows as well. It's as if they didn't recognize the masters.

 

One theory is based on the fact that Doctor Who (and the other shows that are now missing episodes) was one of the first shows that was done completely on video tape, no actual 'film' was involved. So when they cleared out the duplicates, they were thinking only the film cans were the masters, and tossed all the video tapes. Either that, or they simply didn't label the video tapes properly.

[Kulstor 254]

I've heard some about this on the dr who podcasts I listen to, some from actual folks, like one of the ones who stopped the tossing out of tv shows.  The reason they have the audio is some fans had reel to reel audio..  Some would hold up the mic to the tv speaker.  Some others would wire the reel to reel tape mic to the tv speaker so the sound would be better. 

 

As for why so many dr who episodes are missing. The bbc and the film archives (I think it's called not sure) each though the other had complete dr who, and some other tv shows.  The media it was recorded on would be wiped and reused or tossed out.  They would send some copies over seas and by legal agreement they were supposed to send it on to the next place on the list, or destroy it.  Some neglected to destroy it.  So some stories or episodes were found decades later.  and I forgot the  names but one person who was interviewed on a podcast said that he went in one day and a woman was tossing out anything that was black and white tv since she believed no one would want to watch this old stuff.  He said he only got her to stop by going to her boss and having him send her a memo ordering her to stop.  No idea how true it is.  I guess it's embellished a bit maybe.  Some black and white british tv shows are either totally gone or just have a few episodes.  I think like season 1 of the Avengers is totally lost but some bits maybe.  Among others.

 

Sorry for the long post. 

Edited August 31, 2014 by Kulstor

[Haruhi-chan 486]

I didn't see a thread for this so...

 

Are there any Doctor Who fans out there? :3 Who are your favorite doctors? Your favorite companions? What else do you love about the series?

 

I love the tenth doctor and the eleventh doctor. They are both adorable. My favorite companions are Clara and Rose. I also love the Tardis as well because it's just so cute. XD I have a tardis phone case for my iPhone 5C.

[GammaDove 428]

The Whovians are everywhere on this site, I personally find Amy the best companion, and either Matt Smith or Capaldi are my favorite, Capaldi just seems more inhuman and more alien than the others and I love it.

[Darker 1,351]

Yes, we whovians, will conquer this site by EXTERMINATING all the bronies!

 

Bwahahahaha!!

 

 

 

Oh, wait, we're also bronies... Dang it.

[11th Doctor Whooves 794]

I'm a huge Doctor Who fan.  I'm enjoying Capaldi so far, but Matt Smith and Karen Gillian are my favorite Doctor and Companion, respectively.

[Haruhi-chan 486]

I forgot about Amy. I really liked her a lot. Matt Smith was adorable as the doctor. I really adore him. Also, I love how ten gets excited about everything. XD

[GammaDove 428]

I forgot about Amy. I really liked her a lot. Matt Smith was adorable as the doctor. I really adore him. Also, I love how ten gets excited about everything. XD

Yeah Smith and Tennant were super adorkable.

[Radiance64 7,053]

I've seen a couple episodes lately(Matt Smith era) actually

It's pretty cool I guess, it's some very thought-provoking sci-fi mystery stuff(that's the impression I get that's what it is anyway lol).