Heads up! Dr Who starts Saturday....

[onb]

Ah. You see, being ginger myself, I took his comment to be negative. Can't think why.

You were not alone ,although I am becoming more white these days.

[citoyen]

I liked it better than the first half, but still felt there were too many longueurs and not enough plot. But some clever touches, and a nicely poignant ending.

d.

[border-rider]

I think the Christmas shows are always a bit more showy and a bit thinner on plot - maybe they're aimed a slightly different/wider audience.  Or the same audience after half a bottle of port

[citoyen]

You could be right, but then again I thought the Titanic one with Kylie had a great story.

And it had Kylie...

d.

[border-rider]

You could be right, but then again I thought the Titanic one with Kylie had a great story.

Aye, but compared to Blink or the John Smith episode...

And it had Kylie...

A good point, well made.

[citoyen]

Aye, but compared to Blink or the John Smith episode...

Blink is possibly the best Doctor Who story EVER. It's good to know that the show is in safe hands now RTD has left.

I thought Family Of Blood (the John Smith one) was also Steven Moffat but according to Wikipedia it was by Paul Cornell, who also wrote the superb Father's Day episode, when Rose goes back to her parent's wedding and the church is attacked by giant demonic bat-like creatures.

Steven Moffat did write The Empty Child ("Are you my mummy?") and The Girl In The Fireplace (clockwork robots in 18th century France), both of which were pretty terrifying.

I hope the show continues more in that vein now RTD has left. And I hope there are more Mark Gatiss episodes too - The Idiot's Lantern (Maureen Lipman in the telly) was great, as was the other one he did. And I hope the new Doctor is more like Christopher Eccleston than David Tennant - I loved Eccleston's slightly sinister, eccentric-with-a-hint-of-malevolence shtick.

Not that I'm knocking RTD - he was responsible for some superb episodes - eg New Earth (the cat hospital) and Tooth And Claw (werewolves & Queen Victoria). I even enjoyed the Peter Kay one.

d.

[border-rider]

And I hope the new Doctor is more like Christopher Eccleston than David Tennant - I loved Eccleston's slightly sinister, eccentric-with-a-hint-of-malevolence shtick.

Yes - agreed

Tennant was good but he wasn't really edgy enough, and his mockney gurning used to irritate me no end

I may be biased because Eccleston has the same accent as I do

[citoyen]

Just been reminding myself of a few more old episodes on Wikipedia...

Gridlock was another excellent RTD episode - the one with the underground traffic jam and Ardal O'Hanlon as a catperson. And last year's Christmas special with David Morrissey as "The Next Doctor".

The Lazarus Experiment is the other one that I thought was written by Mark Gatiss, but it wasn't, though he was in it. He did write the excellent Charles Dickens episode though.

And of course Steven Moffat wrote the one with the hungry shadows in the library. He does seem to have a thing about baddies without faces.

d.

[Deano]

I quite enjoyed the Christmas episodes.  It was good fun, though it's hard to see how much more they can up the ante for next Christmas.  One of the things I like most about the new Dr Who is that they get good actors in, who clearly relish their roles.  John Sim was gleefully mad as the Master, and Timothy Dalton made an impressive megalomaniac.  And Bernard Cribbins was brilliant as a cuddly old duffer.

The only problems I had with it were that the eventual confrontation between the Dr and the Timelords was quite an anticlimax, and the last half hour last night was very self-indulgent.  

[Manotea]

Ah. You see, being ginger myself, I took his comment to be negative. Can't think why.

You were not alone ,although I am becoming more white these days.

I've never understood the thing about being ginger. Maybe its because I'm black.

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

Bernard Cribbins was just fantastic. I liked the last half hour. I can see why people think it was self-indulgent, but they were all characters who were so important during the previous 4 series and people have a lot of affection for them, and I liked seeing that they were ok and knowing what they were doing - it won't matter if the new doctor never sees them again so much now.

[MSeries]

And I hope the new Doctor is more like Christopher Eccleston than David Tennant - I loved Eccleston's slightly sinister, eccentric-with-a-hint-of-malevolence shtick.

Yes - agreed

Tennant was good but he wasn't really edgy enough, and his mockney gurning used to irritate me no end

I may be biased because Eccleston has the same accent as I do

I think it's time Dr Who hailed from the North East of England. Jimmy Nail perhaps or Anthony McPartlin.

[Deano]

Jeff Stelling.

[border-rider]

Bernard Cribbins was just fantastic. I liked the last half hour. I can see why people think it was self-indulgent, but they were all characters who were so important during the previous 4 series and people have a lot of affection for them, and I liked seeing that they were ok and knowing what they were doing - it won't matter if the new doctor never sees them again so much now.

It was self-indulgent, for sure, but I think it was also making a point about the state-of-mind of the Doctor that reflects back to the darker episodes a few weeks ago

He'd been through the meglomanic phase, seen time fucked-backwards at the whim of the Timelords and decided that he was just going to get his last bit of happiness by bending the rules a bit in ways that were not going to affect things overall.

(tho' it was an interesting contrast to the Church episode that Smudge mentions above, where Rose's saving of her dad invokes the time-phage things to the damaged timeline)

[border-rider]

And I hope the new Doctor is more like Christopher Eccleston than David Tennant - I loved Eccleston's slightly sinister, eccentric-with-a-hint-of-malevolence shtick.

Yes - agreed

Tennant was good but he wasn't really edgy enough, and his mockney gurning used to irritate me no end

I may be biased because Eccleston has the same accent as I do

I think it's time Dr Who hailed from the North East of England. Jimmy Nail perhaps or Anthony McPartlin.

James Bolam ?

[MSeries]

Bob Mortimer ?

[border-rider]

Oh yes - now you're talking

Perhaps we could have a Scottish one...oh, sorry, as you were.

Or Welsh: Ruth Jones would be bril.

[MSeries]

Oh yes - now you're talking

Perhaps we could have a Scottish one...oh, sorry, as you were.



Or Welsh: Ruth Jones would be bril.

Rob Bryden

[Manotea]

How about the Chuckle Brothers as a timelord and sidekick ensemble?

[Moloko]

How about the Chuckle Brothers as a timelord and sidekick ensemble?

With the one sonic-screwdriver between them. "to me, to you"

[Moloko]

I think it's time Dr Who hailed from the North East of England. Jimmy Nail perhaps or Anthony McPartlin.

The Doctor traditionally runs from new adversaries and then works out a scheme in how to defeat them.

You can't have the Doctor instantly wading into the bad guys and kicking the ever loving shit straight out of them.

[Greenbank]

Jeff Stelling.

Chris Kamara.

[mattc]

<sigh>

Well, it had a few good bits, but overall I wish I hadn't watched. It's come to something when John Prescott can upstage David Tennent on NYDay tv.

Still, some of you seemed to love it, so I'll file it with mushrooms, and accept I just never "got" the RTD era.

I'm still optimstic about the Moffat era.

[What The F was that "Nuclear Bolt" nonsense about? Couldn't they have just killed him off 'normally'. <exits stage left tutting ... > ]

p.s. is noone going to mention all the Star Wars pastiche stuff?!?

[Greenbank]

p.s. is noone going to mention all the Star Wars pastiche stuff?!?

Kirst made a start:-

I cannot tell you how much I enjoyed the cactus woman running from side to side while the set tilted.

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

That was more Star Trek than Star Wars to be honest. It still makes me giggle.