The Doctor Who Thread

[hivemind]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

Enjoyed Time Heist, despite a really good creature the story wasn't especially gripping, enjoyable whilst on screen but i'm not sure about it's rewatch value.

I was expecting the TARDIS to be in the private vault, and was hoping the architect was the Great Architect from Paradise Towers and he'd designed another building.

Steve Thompson's best story to date but that wouldn't be hard seeing as his other two were the fun but lightweight Curse of the Black Spot and the truly awful Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS.

I had to laugh at next weeks Dr Who installment The Caretaker. Judging by what I saw in the "Next Time" trailer for the episode, we have Dr Who's equivalent to Dusty Bin, the Skovox Blitzer. The BBC synopsis states.."The terrifying Skovox Blitzer is ready to destroy all humanity." Yeah! Time Heist was ok, but nothing overly special. The episodes I'm looking foward to will be Kill The Moon and Mummy on the Orient Express. The episode will be transmitted much later because the mummy in the actual episode is toooo scary for the kids. I've heard that the make-up effects for the mummy look superb, so fingers crossed. That sounds more like a classic Dr Who episode to me.

[Susan Foreman]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

and was hoping the architect was the Great Architect from Paradise Towers and he'd designed another building.

Originally Posted by JoshuaKaitlyn

God! Wasn't that the bloody awful one with Bertie Basset as the bad guy?

No - you are thinking of 'The Happiness Patrol'

[JoshuaKaitlyn]

I stand corrected! As I said I originally stopped after Bertie and have only seen McCoy's series the once and only because I had seen/heard the entire series from the beginning on various formats.

[Mojo]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

Enjoyed Time Heist, despite a really good creature the story wasn't especially gripping, enjoyable whilst on screen but i'm not sure about it's rewatch value.

I was expecting the TARDIS to be in the private vault, and was hoping the architect was the Great Architect from Paradise Towers and he'd designed another building.

Steve Thompson's best story to date but that wouldn't be hard seeing as his other two were the fun but lightweight Curse of the Black Spot and the truly awful Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS.

I didn't rate yesterday's episode much to be honest. But , as you say Dem , I didn't like any of Steve Thomson's previous stories either. I don't think he really 'gets' Dr Who at all to be honest.
Hoping to be back on track next week.

[Susan Foreman]

Must admit that I thought 'Time Heist' was the weakest episode of the new series as well

[hivemind]

Steven Moffat should of dumped all three writers like Thomson, Roberts and Gattis altogether from Dr Who last year, and instead, gone for some more decent writers like Paul Cornell, Marc Platt, Robert Shearman , Lance Parkin and Paul Leonard. There were some great Dr Who New Adventure writers back in the 1990's, and a pool of Dr Who talent waiting to write for a future new series of Who. I know Steven Moffat want's non-Who writers just like Russell T. Davies, and it's understandable, but Dr Who also suffers in the story department all too often, Listen had elements of Blink and Midnight, but I did relish and enjoy it's creative imagination as a story. This endless repeating of some writers for Who doesn't help to be honest. I'm not at all impressed with Moffat in the fact that he constantly has both Gattis and Roberts back. It's a joke that's wearing thin with me, and Thomson should of been dumped altogether.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

I agree. I too would like writers who have some connection with Who and know how the show worked from a fan point of view rather than a commissioned writer. The writers for Big Finish or even the BBC's own Time Trips series seem to have a better idea.

Alas there were so many Virgin New Adventures which weren't Doctor Who, including Davies own Damaged Goods novel.

I would like to see Terrence Dicks have a go but he says he doesn't want to.

It's about time Moffat gave Graeme Harper the directing job too in my opinion.

[hivemind]

I couldn't agree more with you. It's a great loss for the current run of Dr Who on the BBC that these writers aren't able to access the show. Both Davies and Moffat said that bringing in fan based Dr Who writer's to the new show would alienate the audience, what bulls*** in my opinion. Dr Who is Dr Who, and altering the format to suit a certain demographic just doesn't work. Russell T. Davies to some degree was guilty of tampering with the show's format when Dr Who returned in 2005. More of a soapy feel with the Tyler's, and it didn't suit the show. Yes, times had changed, but Dr Who is pure sci-fi not Eastenders. There were many elements that RTD did right, but some stories did suffer. Farting aliens being one example. Just the title, Aliens of London had me excited at the notion of being a terrific story, dark, invasion story, but what did we get, the Slitheen. Graeme Harper was slightly over used as a director during RTD's era, but having him back to direct one or two stories would be great. Yeah, Let's hope that the Rani will be the main villan of the piece with the final two-parter at the end of this year's Dr Who series 8. And here's hoping that we get an epic end to the series. My fingers are crossed

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

I keep waiting for Moffat to give us a surprise old monster as Davies did with the Macra.

We don't seem to get great monsters anymore (I'm sure we do but the show doesn't seem to use them at the moment). Having said that last night's Teller creature was excellent but due to the wander off happily at the end now seem lost as a potential recurring monster.

The Silence were great but seemed underused in their final two stories. Perhaps try the Krilitanes or Sycorax again?

More than anything i'd like something like a Nymon or Axons or Voord to show up again. Not specifically those three but you know what i mean.

[hivemind]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

I keep waiting for Moffat to give us a surprise old monster as Davies did with the Macra.

We don't seem to get great monsters anymore (I'm sure we do but the show doesn't seem to use them at the moment). Having said that last night's Teller creature was excellent but due to the wander off happily at the end now seem lost as a potential recurring monster.

The Silence were great but seemed underused in their final two stories. Perhaps try the Krilitanes or Sycorax again?

More than anything i'd like something like a Nymon or Axons or Voord to show up again. Not specifically those three but you know what i mean.

I sure do Demdike. But unfortuantely dear Mr. Moffat has told Capaldi that the Axons won't be returning to Dr Who anytime soon. Capaldi wanted the Axons in this series, but Moffat said that old monsters from the past returning to the show (except Daleks) would be a no-no. We did get the Great Intelligence, minus the Yeti though. But I fully understand what your saying. God! I would like to see the Yeti again though, and maybe a nice Auton story. The Daleks have been overused too much, and Davros needs a decent story without Dalek intervention. Journey's End with Davros was just terrible. Never have I seen such a car crash ending. The Zygons returning would be nice. The Teller creature looked decent enough like you said. But I too would of liked to see the Teller return too, but like you said, doubtful. Series 8 really has been a very mixed bag indeed story wise. I'm surprised how mixed it's been. And I'm certainly not looking foward to The Caretaker either.