Doctor Who

[Master]

Ooh, I've dabbled in Classic Who, got round to seeing City of Death a few days ago, well worth it.

[spiraldoor]

Thanks guys. And I started with the Tenth doctor (already my favorite!) ; I've seen most of Tennant and half of Smith. When I say older episodes, I mean ninth doctor and before, as I'm only familiar with ten and eleven.

Cool.

Hartnell has some great episodes, but they're glacial in pace and were produced on a very tight schedule. Not many of them hold up.

Troughton is a really great actor, and has more exciting stories, but many of them were thrown out by the BBC decades ago because they didn't expect anyone in the future would want to watch them.

Pertwee's got some great supporting characters, but his episodes are not very Doctor Who-ish: he spends most of his time on Earth, with amnesia, driving around in a car and helping the military.

Tom Baker is an excellent Doctor and has great writing, a good supporting cast and generally solid production – if you're going to watch any of Doctor Who, it should be him.

Davison is a very good actor but the scripts don't serve him well – his era has its moments but generally isn't very memorable.

Colin Baker's Doctor is written as an insufferable, smarmy, arrogant prick, and combined with the awful production and stupid storylines, his era is very difficult to watch.

McCoy's era started off on a bad note, but he soon proves himself a great Doctor – charming, mysterious, calculating and slightly scary – and gets some great scripts towards the end.

McGann only got one feature-length episode, but for my money, he is the best Doctor in the history of the show (not counting guest star John Hurt, who is simply in another league). The episode's a bit silly, but compared to the subsequent series it's perfectly dignified. Most of the hate it gets is purely because it's an American co-production and it has a few moments that don't match with "canon". Well worth a look.

Eccleston is a better dramatic actor than Tennant, but he can't do comedy to save his life, and considering the quality of some of the storylines he had to work with, I don't blame the poor guy for quitting after the first series.

Tennant fits the role better, but also relies heavily on mugging and theatrics. It's essentially a comedy performance. His episodes are generall watchable, but he's got quite a few terrible episodes (including all of his finales). Luckily Davies still had the wit to hire excellent writers, so there's a great episode here and there.

Smith is probably the best actor in the role since the relaunch, and while his goofing around gets old sometimes, he projects an older, more alien and generally more believable Doctor than Tennant. The writing improves dramatically, as does the direction and the overall quality of the programme. (My friends do not like it when I say this.)

[Master]

Hm, think that's a pretty decent summation, Spiral.
Yeah, I know I've gotten some flak from some when I've proclaimed my preference for Smith over Tennant, but that's my taste.

[Dart]

it honestly matters on which season I watch, Tennant's first two were great, his 3rd was ok, at this point I was getting a little annoyed of his lips, if you know what I mean. Smith really was amazing to me; while i loved seasons 5 (van gogh and him renting that one room) & 6 (the doll house and the silence), his season 7.1 work along with amy's less then spectacular last few episodes really dragged for me.

Pertwee's got some great supporting characters, but his episodes are not very Doctor Who-ish: he spends most of his time on Earth, with amnesia, driving around in a car and helping the military.

true, but he probably is my favorite classic doctor (seen about 3 serials of 1, 2, 3, & 4 each)

[Master]

Meh, if I'm being honest, Series 7 was a little mixed for me, there were some fantastic stories, but there were also some which I think suffered from the ideal they went for, I'm not huge on the "movie" thematic of it though.

[Master]

Well then folks, I believe the Time of the Doctor is almost upon us, anyone want to share their thoughts before it airs?

[Dart]

how is he supposed to regenerate when he's already blown them all? I'm very excited to see Capaldi's chemistry with Clara.

[Master]

Aha, that's pretty much the point here, isn't it? To somehow circumvent that limit, and indeed, The Doctor's fate on Trenzalore.

[Dart]

I do wonder how this will fit into day of the doctor, storyline-wise. it seems that they somehow escaped his DNA and went back home to london ,but i'm not 100% sure.

[Master]

This takes place after The Day of the Doctor, this is pretty much wrapping up all the story arcs of Matt Smith's era, from the Eleventh Hour all the way to now. If there's one thing I really want to get to grips with, it's the finale of Series 5, why did the TARDIS explode, for instance?

[Dart]

Wow, that was amazing! it appears my theory of regenerations is true: the first few are just changes, but the more the doctor regenerated the bigger the effect was, such as him exploding the tardis, twice, not to mention Matts big bang!

[Master]

Hm, I liked to think the reason why his initial regeneration was so combustive was because the time lords added a little zest to ensure he could destroy the Daleks. Either ways, I'd have to say, I preferred this one over Tennant's, if I being honest, though it's a pity we don't really see much of the regeneration itself, instead, he just snaps back into Capaldi, whose intro run is nice indeed, though this is the third time in a row where the TARDIS is sent crashing after a regeneration, blimey.

[Dart]

apparently newly regenerated Doctors are the equivalent to a very Drunk guy; neither can drive their vehicles!

[Master]

All Doctors go through what's termed as a "Post-Regenerative Crisis," I think only the War Doctor, Second Doctor and Ninth Doctor didn't go through it, I'm assuming that the Sisterhood of Karn could stabilise regenerations, hence preventing the War Doctor from going through it. As for the Second, well, Regeneration wasn't really a fleshed out idea, so I guess it never was a thing yet. We don't really see much of Nine between his regeneration and Rose, so he might have gone through it, but we've never seen it.

Hm, if memory serves, the Sixth Doctor had it worst, he ended up trying to strangle his then companion! Or maybe the Eighth, who ended up with temporary amnesia.

[Dart]

its funny how much history the doctor has. right now I'm hoping I can get my hands on some John Pertwee serials until we see Capaldi in the fall.

[Master]

Hm, there's Sherlock on next week, I'm going to follow that for the few weeks it's on, then, well, I've got Adventure Time and other things as well, though I can imagine I'll be in for another long gap soon, so I might look about for some more classics, I've been wanting to watch Genesis of the Daleks, for one thing.

[Rsandee]

Just started watching Doctor Who, it's so good I'm already at the second series!
Eccleston was an amazing doctor, but I don't have time to mourn him because of Tennant's greatness.

[Imco]

I'm sorry, doctor who? Ba Dum Tsss

[Master]

(In all seriousness, that joke has gotten old years ago).

@Rsandee, neat, enjoy the ride!

[Rsandee]

Oh I'm enjoying it all right, just saw the episode "Blink", with the weeping angels!