@janetteb @winston

Series 1: up until The Slitheen.

Actually, there are plenty of parallels here with RTD2: the occasional and very deliberate bad taste, the ludicrous and self-serving nature of government, the cartoony humour (Rose, the Slitheen stories, End of The World), the seeding of the Time War arc (Unquiet Dead), the occasional…[Read more]

@whohar @winston @janetteb

Doctor Who… new directions.

What are we dealing with?

Culture Wars: there is a lot of noise. Is it it real? I prefer continuity in terms of the show’s development and its tradition. I don’t like to feel we (the fans) are being dictated to. Trouble is everyone points at the ratings. A new showrunner won’t necessa…[Read more]

@winston There were many good moments in the past two series and it surprises me that they did not get better ratings. I also really liked Gatwa as the Doctor. I always have mixed feelings about RTD. He can be brilliant and he did bring Dr Who back but at times he needs someone to tell him that bigger is not always better and the universe does not…[Read more]

@winston Halloween is a rather recent U.S. import here so door knocking has not really become widespread. We have only once had kids come to the door and we did not have “lollies”. for a few years after that we did buy some, “just in case” but they were never needed. Ours is an entirely child free street however, Plenty of dogs and cats, possums,…[Read more]

@winston We always include this episode with our Christmas re watch too. I do like it too though Rose’s costume is questionable but then, like Bill, she chose it herself. (Bill chose better)

cheers

Janette

@winston I recall enjoying this episode at the time but I don’t think I have ever re watched it. I did enjoy the diversity of aliens, and the humour. From memory it was beginning to feel as though Dr Who was really back but it isn’t one that i chose when I am going back through old episodes to watch. So many better episodes were to follow.

cheers

Janette

@whohar Well, if the 12th Doctor had been Whittaker, it would have been interesting to see how well she did with, errm, better direction. 🙂 Though by the nature of it, we wouldn’t then have seen her actual Chibz-directed performance so we would never be able to make comparisons. (But that’s a hypothetical, to my mind Capaldi + Moff = the Best Doc…[Read more]

@winston I also like the fan club in Love and Monsters so agreed not all bad.it began well but the ending was questionable. Kill the Moon however I can find nothing positive about at all.

It would be nice to be able to do a Kryten (Red Dwarf) type memory wipe. (He had his memory of all of Agatha christie’s works deleted so he could read them…[Read more]

@winston that is a noble goal. All of the episodes, even Love and Monsters and Kill the Moon!!! I always skip a few when we re watch. I do like the plan though, from Rose to Dr Rose?.

I have such happy memories of watching Rose that first time, now over twenty years ago. (making it now into our cuT TV Club criteria but I still have some series of…[Read more]

@dentarthurdent @winston

Rose is a good shout. Billie’s reappearance still seems to mystify the internet ‘World of Gammon.’ So, what’s it all about, eh?

I think Micky the bin is a good place to start. RTD has a sense of humour, something that continues with Cassandra desiccating, Slitheen flatus issues, and Adam need a hole in the head, like a……[Read more]

@winston     Rose was an excellent way to (re)start a series.   I think by then, production values (and special FX) had got ‘good enough’ (without the rather charitable allowances we have to make even for the last of OldWho).  Even Mickey’s sticky encounter with the bin was – okay.

I would say the Companion has been as prominent and as import…[Read more]

@janetteb @winston

earlier companions in opposition to The Doctor.

Not seen the movie for some time; and no plans to soon. So, I’ll start with…

Ace… *not really critical but kind of antagonistic. However, if anything, The Doctor is critical of Ace, as the first ‘supered’ companion. Ok Romana and Susan were technically Time Ladies but hardly su…[Read more]

@ps1l0v3y0u You would be thinking of Phineas Finn? I was a young teen when the family inherited a 50s vintage black and white tv set and The Pallisers, (BBC) was airing along with such classics as War and Peace and I Claudius. (oddly it was several years later that I discovered Dr Who)

@winston I love our library and try to actively support it as…[Read more]

@nerys @winston

Yes. Exposition, Comic Relief and Critique… could be a useful analytical tool. So, going back in time… criticality indicated by *

Belinda… ** really just a functional companion, being transported from a>b. But revealing of ‘The Doctor Question’ and so a little critical. Not really worked that part of the arc out though.…[Read more]

@winston I think the human companion is there to connect us to the Doctor through them and let us travel with him. I also think the human companion provides a contrast, the Doctor is a weird and strange alien and not from earth. The Doctor is also very humanoid and if not for the 2 hearts he seems a lot like us. Maybe a companion that was very…

[Read more]

@winston @janetteb

I did dispose of a K9 keyring when our neighbourhood put on a ‘yard sale’ for Oxfam a few weeks back. Bought by a kid who said his mum loves Who.

Life Preservers… I know that’s not what you mean but I immediately think of the Victorian gentlemen’s cudgels ala Anthony Trollope!

@winston  @ps1l0v3y0u   The Moment is definitely and memorably in the cell in the Tower, in the TV episode.  I remember the phrase ‘different case, same software’ and probably said by her.

BUT in the book, that was an internal thought of the Doctor (probably 11) – “The case was new, but the drives and software were the same as the old boy…[Read more]

@winston What about if we had a 3 part-er or perhaps even a limited spin-off series or special series like FLUX with a human in the TARDIS (like Oswald, but not her because I’ve had enough of her thanks) and an alien companion who isn’t the Doctor, but they’ve both met him and flown with him but somehow got access to the or potentially another…[Read more]

@winston   Well, this one, as well as Midnight, reflected the fact that a hidden monster is often scarier than one you can see.   ‘Listen’ also used this technique (and in fact, was there even a monster there)?   Still, the noises on the moonbase when there should be no life anywhere, really made my hair stand on end.   Literally.    Alien (the…[Read more]

@winston   Yes, it did have a fairytale feel (or whatever is the African equivalent of fairytale).

I’m still enamoured of my theory that it’s an allegory for the Beeb and the Doctor Who series.   A vehicle (or an entity) entirely powered by stories, constantly demanding fresh stories, sucking them out of writers and showrunners and demanding mor…[Read more]