New Doctors are good, but the stories and plots are shit house. The new Doctor Who is more character-driven than the old plot driven, better special effects of course, but thats about all. How could the Docotr an advanced alien ever fall in love with Rose? It was better when he used to treat Earthlings like a favourite pet ... And its as scary as Play school - give me the old Philip Hinchcliffe era anyday
And they are too fast. 4 or 6 x 25min episode used to cover a story, now they are 1 x 45 for the whole story, sometimes it might span two episodes. Everything is action-packed, crammed together. Maybe I'm just getting old, but I preferred the slower pace, the biuld up, the cliffhanger and then the cut to credits and the woo woo wooooo music. Russel T Davies deserves to be whipped with a length of rusty barb wire for what he did to Dr Who. Steve Moffat is better, and he wrote some of the better stories in the first four new series. But not one story deserves the lick the bootlaces of something liek Ark in Space. Sure the monster was a guy in a green sleeping bag but it scared the bejesus out of me. And my kids are more freaked out by the old series than the banal new ones.
And the Doctor has a character has changed too. Before he was unobtrusive, avoided the limelight. Now he's like some god or American superhero, worshipped by half the galaxy. Admittedly steps had moved to this in the final seasons of the old series with the eighth Doctor, but the new one trumpets it loudly: The Doctor, Saviour of the Galaxy, Hero of the Universe...
And the problems are hugely out of proportion now as well. Yes the old Dcotor had to regularly save the Universe, but just about every episode now he has to save either the Earth, or the Universe (which the Earth benefits from as well). The old series had smaller scoped issues, mysteries like Robots of Death and Nightmare of Eden. In one story of the new series, he was on this spaceship where people kept dying, and I thought hullo, here we go, this looks good. But no, the ship was somehow going to destroy the universe.
Which brings me to my final point. 9/10 stories of the new series are set on Earth, either present day or future. What about the rest of fen universe? Now we have the special effects to depict strange and gorgeous alien locations, instead we see the block of flats where Rosie and her dingbat mother live or Donna Nobles' mothers house. Actually, why are the side-kicks mothers featuring all of a sudden? Somehow the old series survived without us being subjected to Sarah Jane's mum and her thoughts on the Dr, or Leela's wacky granny
To sum up: the new Doctor Who series is too short, too fast, the Doctor's too exuberant (yes, every one of them - its the same character trait in all three), the settings timid and any story moral trumpetted at high level for a dumbed down audience (probably thought it would sell like hotcakes in the US). I see similiar degradation in many BBC series over the last eight or so years. But the actors are good ... and I still watch every episode - I owe the Doctor that much at least.
Probably the single most number of comments I've ever gotten on my blog in it's history, so thanks!
Also...now I'm now sure if I should watch the modern docters now or not :-( I want to remember the classic style and yes, the scary atmosphere of the originals...will this new, dumbed down version disappoint, or taint the old? Hmmm. What to do...Ah well, too many other series to watch in my queue anyway. :-)
9 comments:
I love the new doctors
Matt smith is the latest one and i think he is great, the guy who plays sherlock audtitioned for the part but lost out
New Doctors are good, but the stories and plots are shit house. The new Doctor Who is more character-driven than the old plot driven, better special effects of course, but thats about all. How could the Docotr an advanced alien ever fall in love with Rose? It was better when he used to treat Earthlings like a favourite pet ... And its as scary as Play school - give me the old Philip Hinchcliffe era anyday
And they are too fast. 4 or 6 x 25min episode used to cover a story, now they are 1 x 45 for the whole story, sometimes it might span two episodes. Everything is action-packed, crammed together. Maybe I'm just getting old, but I preferred the slower pace, the biuld up, the cliffhanger and then the cut to credits and the woo woo wooooo music. Russel T Davies deserves to be whipped with a length of rusty barb wire for what he did to Dr Who. Steve Moffat is better, and he wrote some of the better stories in the first four new series. But not one story deserves the lick the bootlaces of something liek Ark in Space. Sure the monster was a guy in a green sleeping bag but it scared the bejesus out of me. And my kids are more freaked out by the old series than the banal new ones.
And the Doctor has a character has changed too. Before he was unobtrusive, avoided the limelight. Now he's like some god or American superhero, worshipped by half the galaxy. Admittedly steps had moved to this in the final seasons of the old series with the eighth Doctor, but the new one trumpets it loudly: The Doctor, Saviour of the Galaxy, Hero of the Universe...
And the problems are hugely out of proportion now as well. Yes the old Dcotor had to regularly save the Universe, but just about every episode now he has to save either the Earth, or the Universe (which the Earth benefits from as well). The old series had smaller scoped issues, mysteries like Robots of Death and Nightmare of Eden. In one story of the new series, he was on this spaceship where people kept dying, and I thought hullo, here we go, this looks good. But no, the ship was somehow going to destroy the universe.
Which brings me to my final point. 9/10 stories of the new series are set on Earth, either present day or future. What about the rest of fen universe? Now we have the special effects to depict strange and gorgeous alien locations, instead we see the block of flats where Rosie and her dingbat mother live or Donna Nobles' mothers house. Actually, why are the side-kicks mothers featuring all of a sudden? Somehow the old series survived without us being subjected to Sarah Jane's mum and her thoughts on the Dr, or Leela's wacky granny
To sum up: the new Doctor Who series is too short, too fast, the Doctor's too exuberant (yes, every one of them - its the same character trait in all three), the settings timid and any story moral trumpetted at high level for a dumbed down audience (probably thought it would sell like hotcakes in the US). I see similiar degradation in many BBC series over the last eight or so years. But the actors are good ... and I still watch every episode - I owe the Doctor that much at least.
ooooo...k
Probably the single most number of comments I've ever gotten on my blog in it's history, so thanks!
Also...now I'm now sure if I should watch the modern docters now or not :-( I want to remember the classic style and yes, the scary atmosphere of the originals...will this new, dumbed down version disappoint, or taint the old? Hmmm. What to do...Ah well, too many other series to watch in my queue anyway. :-)
I have this inchoate fear that something will forever mar my memories of The Doctor...so I think I'll steer clear.
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