Doctor Who TV Show • Page 20

I go back and forth between 8,9 and 10. Oh shit 4 and 5 are amazing too. The real stinkers are 2,3 and 7 imo.

Anyways, I think I'm coming around on the Timeless Child. It opens up so many possibilities I think it's probably a great gift to the show. Although I'm still upset that they destroyed Gallifrey again.

 

I love all the Tennant years, even at their silliest, but season 4 is definitely my favorite.

 

First Matt smith season

 

5 and 9 are my two favourites, soft spot for s1 though just for the scrappy emotionality

 

I think I have to go with 2, 5, and 6 as my favorites. 4 (especially if we're counting the specials with it) and 9 are up there as well. I need to rewatch 10-12 though, I've only seen all those once.

 

I find all of Tennant's run just so inconsistent (and yes I know we're talking about Doctor Who here, but the Tennant years had a special brand of inconsistency that drives me crazy)

like, just looking at S4 + the specials, which I would definitely agree was my favourite two years with Tennant in the lead. you've got a handful of absolute top tier, all-timer episodes (the Library two-parter, Midnight, Turn Left, The Waters of Mars...) you've got some truly awful stuff which ranks towards the bottom of the whole revival (The Doctor's Daughter, The Next Doctor) and then some stuff that just veers wildly between quality and tone in a way only RTD could (The End of Time is possibly the best example - no other episode in DW history has as much stuff I both love and absolutely despise as Tennant's finale, which is kind of fitting for his era if you ask me lol)

 

Completely agree, and I feel like his character just gets very grating towards the end. I feel like he stayed for a bit too long.

 

it's weird because I absolutely love the dark turn Ten takes in The Waters of Mars and was totally looking forward to seeing that play out. and then The End of Time just... undoes it within minutes of the opening credits

it feels like the idea was always to have Ten go darker over the course of his run - you can see it in The Family of Blood two-parter, Midnight, even his last moments with Donna - but someone somewhere was nervous about making him go too dark and losing some of the fanbase. so he's constantly in this weird spot where they go very adult and grim, then walk it back, then build back up to him being dark again over the course of his run. it honestly gets exhausting, which is a shame because Tennant is of course a fantastic actor and I would have loved a straightforward arc for him to play

 

I think the part i struggle with the most Re: Tennent era, esp. during the Rose era, was just how much they positioned him as the ultimate softboy lol they just constantly reinforce how special and superior he is to the point that it starts to feel weird and paternalistic and bad that he hangs around with humans. Something just feels gross about it.

 

so the New Year's ep. not bad I thought but still mired in the same problems the whole Chibnall era has had. was pretty bummed that Graham barely did anything in his last episode, but the prospect of just one companion for a while is a huge relief too

 

You say one companion but I saw on BBC that John Bishop is apparently joining the cast. I thought the episode was ok. Nice to see Captain Jack interacting with the Doctor again, but nothing special overall and agree with your assessment.

 

Pretty fun episode!

 

Good lord, this cast deserves a better showrunner :/

 

ugh, of course. I don't know why I'm even surprised lmao. I would've actually been interested in a season of Yaz and The Doctor, but it seems like they're going for Yaz having a crush on her which is not a companion trait I ever wanted to come back lol

yeah, generally my thoughts. Jodie could have been one of the best Doctors of all time but they've barely given her any worthy material. I hope she gets more episodes like the Mary Shelley one last season, that was a ripper

 

And if they need to have another companion, why do they need another middle age/ageing white man? It’s like they know a certain demographic can’t cope that there isn’t a straight white man around the tardis.

 

yep. and the fact that he's a comedian from what I hear makes me suspect they're just gonna blatantly try and do another Graham, because he was really popular with a certain set of fans. maybe we'll finally get an all female Team TARDIS when there's finally a female showrunner?

 

just gonna post Andrew Ellard's tweet notes on the episode, as usual he articulates all my problems much better than I could:

the passivity of The Doctor just sitting around for 19 years waiting for rescue really rubbed me the wrong way. (so did the Harry Potter reference, even moreso, but the episode was filmed back in 2019 so I guess there's some leeway)

 

I thought the episode was ok, but didn’t have the right emotional weight to handle it’s themes. Theme wise, the police brutality Daleks seemed way too on the nose and tone deaf for the time especially with no real strong message on the topic and I needed more than just the Doctor/Ryan discussion dealing with who she really is after last season. Spider guy was also eye rollingly bad/stupid and the inclusion of Jack showed how little personality the other companions have been given which is unfortunate.

 

Also are they reviving Torchwood with Jack, Ryan, & Graham?

 

I'll never get over how good the first seasons of this show are. Lately, I've really just been re-watching and hoping it recaptures that glory. Matt Smith is my favorite Doctor. I went through the other day and re-watched some of the bangers and man did that guy know how to make a speech.

 

I'm resigned at this point to just sit back and enjoy this era for what it is. It's never going to give me what I want, but it's still usually fun to watch.

 

I think it was filmed long before any of the events of last summer. Also, I don't think they were really aiming for a police brutality vibe with that one. It felt more like a Black Mirror-y, dystopian future they were working towards. Whereas they have nods to current events in other ones (Brexit has had a few), I don't think anything in that one was meant to be much of a comment on any real world event.

Like most episodes from this era of the programme, it felt like they were trying to cram too many themes into one episode, leaving none of them adequately covered.

 

yeah this was filmed in 2019, with the rest of the Season 12 episodes. it definitely hit a little too close to home seeing a Dalek spray gas on a rioting crowd though, that was pretty uncanny... not that the whole police state storyline went much of anywhere or paid off at all

 

I enjoyed the episode well enough. Having Jack back alone made it fun and worth it. I'm not sure that I could really say I'm all that invested in the overall story at this point, and I do think it's probably a bad sign I couldn't even remember why she was in jail, and even all the timeless child stuff took a while to come back to me.

My biggest problem with it is probably that I think they were way too harsh to the Doctor about her not coming back for 10 months.. come on guys she was in prison not on vacation. But I liked what they did with having that time period be the reason Ryan was done and the Doctor realizing she was too late, and it was a satisfying end to to Graham and Ryan's story. Watching them all say goodbye tugged on the heartstrings. I'm excited enough to see where it goes from here.

 

Rumours are that Whittaker may leave after her third series (autumn 2021). I’ll be gutted if so as she’s not had the material that has allowed her to shine.