Doctor Who: "Nu Who" controversial opinion (discussion)*

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by The Doctor, Dec 28, 2017.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. seed_drill

    seed_drill Senior Member

    Location:
    Tryon, NC, USA
    Wasn't that the workshop of the guy who got killed? Given he had about as good tech available to track the alien, I gave it a pass, though her blacksmithing, soldering "skills" were obviously being played for comedy.
     
  2. beccabear67

    beccabear67 Musical omnivore.

    Location:
    Victoria, Canada
    I think maybe some older fans are worried about stories introducing pink Dalekettes ("Redecorate!"). :laugh:

    If I had to pick a Doctor I'd like to have had more of after Paul McGann I'd have wanted more William Hartnell minus any memory issues. He could be great at times, even just delivering those few lines from a shoot at his home for the three Doctors he still had 'it'.

    The Canadian station that runs current Who followed it with a repeat of Day Of The Doctor which I surprised myself by watching all the way through again! This is the one with the redemption of John Hurt/The War Doctor, and cameo by Tom Baker (had to stay just for that after a certain point). Tom was my first Doctor, but I find something to like in almost all of them, and even the one debatable train wreck, Colin Baker, could've been brilliant (didn't help I really didn't like either of his companions either though). I was resistant to ever watching Jon Pertwee Who because I'd read about him in fan magazines and got the impression his run was all action man and U.N.I.T. wannabe 007 type stuff... I'd even seen most Hartnells by then, but so glad I finally gave him a try because I liked him a lot after all! I also found his (first two seasons anyway) Worzel Gummidge fun!

    Well, Jodie W. is off to a much better start than I'd expected, I was definitely a skeptic of this move.
     
  3. Dillydipper

    Dillydipper Space-Age luddite

    Location:
    Central PA
    Biggest issue I see with the current storylines is, the confusion as to whom the series is for. Back in the '60s (or '70s) when kids were given something to stretch their imaginations a little wider than Real Life, they hadn't yet had decades of expectations to fall back on when pressed for an opinion about something different from the last thing they saw. They didn't have an internet's worth of foreigners watching "their" television show and sounding off with "wrong" opinions about something she should have bloody well shut their yobbies about. They didn't even have a show with "Legacy"TM to respect and and entire state-run broadcast industry to help sell its' viewership that this was something endemic and crucial to the show AND TRADITION, for cryin' out loud.

    The closest thing we Yanks had to this, was a future where everybody wearing a red shirt was most likely doomed, particularly if they had a couple of lines to read. While the Beeb turned a casting change necessity into a plot mandate, we always knew which control shifrted out of Space-Normal to Warp Drive, while Darrens could changes their faces, without explaining His Wife The Witch did it one season by accident.

    Having gone through two colleges' worth of writing and media classes, I gained understanding of why episodic screenplay has to re-invent itself to keep the audience invested from time to time (although Daleks make Americans cringe as well, it's for a totally different reason, and not without a snicker or two - but I still don't understand why in this day and age, they still have to be Roombas sitting under cheese-graters.)(for my money, the best change to the Daleks over the years, was naming one of them "Clara".) But when it comes to changing the flavor of the stories, and acknowledging the "Legacy"TM that nobody gave a toss for back around Series 6, I can understand how the showrunners can be more canny about understanding who the audience was, and how different their expectations were from the Beatle-Boomers who used to be the target demo. Isolating and documenting the differences with resentment leaves you no faith that the team who don't bring you the show you grew up on, but the updated version for an updated viewing audience. They may just be aware of it too, and probably have much more skin in the game than you do, for knowing the diifferences.

    As aa totally-undeserving American without the perspective of 625-lines-of-broadcast, foreign childrens shows or even a fondness for clumsily-long men's scarves, my introduction to the Whoniverse was Christopher Eccleston. Here was the whimsey, the pathos, and Britishness I'd expected, and better-than-was-led-to-believe was better production values, and pretty tight scripting. But by the time creepy citizens started showing up in gas masks, there was really some redeemable tension worth binge-ing on. Without even a whiff of American-style "Sam & Diane" shipping to muck up the story (remember, we're still years from Amy here). This was a new flavor of clotted cream, and I lapped it up. And then when unfamiliar, 45-year-old ex-companions and robot dogs started worming its' way into the melee, I got a taste of what earlier fans loved, only through the veil of Tennant-teary-eyed reverie, much to my liking. And I could still see without having sampled the original brew, this was some pretty sophisticated stuff, and a far cry from sci-fi dictated by network budget. And no, I have no problem with Amy's legs going all the way the hell up to there, in the least.

    Nutshells being far too tardy for this post, I like what it is, I don't miss what I missed, and for those still bemoaning the loss of the leisure suits and cardboard Cybermen, I have to just chalk it up to your childhood banging wildly on the doors of your hearts, begging to get out. Most importantly, I wholeheartedly approve that these people are doing a show for the 21st Century, as opposed to your dentist retaining their dewey-eyed nostalgia for The Grateful Dead.

    If you'd like to see what sort of train-wreck myopia that could end up being, Your Honor, please allow me to enter into evidence, one Murphy Brown...
     
    Last edited: Oct 8, 2018
  4. Pastafarian

    Pastafarian Forum Resident

    Being surprised that no one now seems to have issue with a Woman doctor, I checked the Who forum. I was hoping to find those people who were outraged but unfortunately they all seem happy.
     
    BeatleJWOL likes this.
  5. KAJ1971

    KAJ1971 Ex-burger flipper/Sapper/book seller, Reg Nurse.

    Happy to oblige. Didn't watch it. One reboot too many. And the replacement of a (mostly) non-violent, thinking male 'hero' with a tick box attitude / tv by committee to rectifying the 'wrongs' of the past. Sticking a chick in won't make 'Weng-Chiang' any less racist.
    'Outraged' is pushing it a bit. Haven't bought the last two series dvd's, or re-watched any episodes more than once for a few years. After taking a show they didn't like, the BBC have gradually stripped away the programme until it resembles a soap opera for the hard of thinking. Still, at least they didn't go all BSG reboot and gives us a god did it ending. I'll be continuing my 5th Doctor re-watch instead. 'Snakedance' next! And perhaps worst of all, a DW from 'Yorkshire'? Sooner have a colonial commoner.
     
    Pastafarian likes this.
  6. Pastafarian

    Pastafarian Forum Resident

    I thought the Sheffield connection was a real plus for the reboot, although Ramsbottom may have had greater potential. As for Soap Opera she could have chosen Emmerdale or Coronation St. to fall into, so we were pretty lucky.
     
  7. I get off the Dr. Who train when the production values become noticeably better. Peter Davison was the last Doctor I really liked all that much, though I did watch most of Colin Baker's run. Gave up after that. May have seen a few Sylvester McCoy episodes, but not many, and I never looked back.

    Jon Pertwee was always my favorite (a little because his Doctor reminded me a LOT of my favorite uncle, who was an art professor (and who I owe my love of jazz to), and who was also just as eccentric as Pertwee). My mom also thought the resemblance and personality similarities were very strong. This was my father's sister's husband (so no blood relation to either of my parents).

    Tom Baker, of course, was a very close second. I was born in 1969, and my primary experience seeing Dr. Who was here in the US on PBS stations late on Sunday nights (90-minutes at a stretch, with all the episodes strung together).

    Peter Davison grew on me pretty quickly as well, and I quite liked his cautiousness, and sort of anti-cavalier nature (quite in contrast to Pertwee and Baker).

    So it's really Pertwee, Baker, and Davison that did it for me the most.

    I've sampled a little bit of modern Who, but I can barely stand the modern production values. I guess time marches on, but I always thought the lack of effects, or primitive effects, were part of the charm of the whole thing. I'm not even 50, so it's not that I grew up with them in real-time -- all the Who I ever saw as a kid was while I was in junior high school and high school -- all in the mid 80's. But what I saw then (mid 80's) was stuff from 1970-1986.
     
    tkl7, Unknown Delight and Jack White like this.
  8. Pastafarian

    Pastafarian Forum Resident

    Episode 2: I mentioned social engineering if my first post and in this episode it stood out like a sore thumb and I've no objections in fact I'm delighted. However as a adult it does distract and grate, as it's so obvious, although a child's perspective is probably very different(?).

    Story wise pretty solid with appropriation from some films I can't remember apart from a drip of Laputa Castle In The Sky. At one point I thought we were going to have The Mummy Returns, nice idea though & probably scary enough for the children

    Not sure what I make of the Tardis now it's like you came home from holiday & some ghastly make-over TV programmme invaded your home whilst you were away.
     
  9. Andy Smith

    Andy Smith .....Like a good pinch of snuff......

    For the longest time I've been wanting another companion from history. Someone like a Victoria or Jamie. Half the fun was watching them get to grips with 'the future'. As brilliant as they were, Donna, Martha, the Ponds, Rose etc all are 'now'. Lets hope Jodie gets to dump some of these new companions (especially the teenage lad!) and replace them with a Roman, or a Zulu, or someone from the Middle Ages for example.
     
    beccabear67 likes this.
  10. Pastafarian

    Pastafarian Forum Resident

    Whilst I've seen nothing about future episodes I feel I can confidently predict we're going to get the 'nows' have difficulty coming to terms with the past and I have to say your post is time centric, as the 'nows' are the future and the past.
     
  11. Tin Whisker

    Tin Whisker Forum Resident

    Location:
    North Carolina
    So, this was the only recent Doctor Who thread that was still open for replies and I didn't feel the need to start a new one....

    I'm looking to acquire the promotional vhs that came in the press kit released in the US for the 1996 TV Movie. (See Classified section)

    Doctor Who (VHS)/US
     
  12. Siegmund

    Siegmund Vinyl Sceptic

    Location:
    Britain, Europe
    I am a big fan of the classic series from 1963 to 1977. I watched it only sporadically after that, because I didn’t like the emphasis on comedy/fantasy of the Graham Williams era and have only seen bits and bobs from the Peter Davison era onwards.

    I watched the first two series of the ‘New Who’ but found it increasingly irritating and eventually just stopped watching. I have not returned to the series.

    Hst, I appreciate that the new series is not made for me - when they brought Doctor Who back, it had to be for a different audience to the one it used to cater for. The Doctor had to be young-ish (at least, initially) and he had to be involved in romantic, if not actually sexual relationships. There is no way that a mainstream audience post-Millennium could’ve accepted a central character who doesn’t have romantic/sexual feelings for other people.

    Secondly, it had to appeal to a female audience. Hence, the casting of physically attractive actors like Tenant and Smith (can’t say I personally find them physically attractive, but I suppose they float quite a few boats).

    Thirdly, it had to include elements of coarse/obvious humour, again with a view to appealing to a broader audience.

    From what I can gather, they have managed these elements very well - ‘silly’ stories like Love & Monsters (for instance) appeal to younger viewers, camp ones like Partners In Crime appeal to less committed viewers and things like The Empty Child appeal to people who like darker dramas.

    None of it appeals to me, but I’m probably the kind of person the programme-makers actively don’t want to attract.

    As faro the classic series ...the OP doesn’t mention Troughton. He is my favourite Doctor and he is (still) the best actor ever to play the character. It’s just a shame so many of his stories are missing.

    The Hartnell era may be the most interesting, because the show was working out what it wanted to be, and nothing was set in stone. The Doctor could often be cowardly, rude and unpleasant. The companions were the REAL heroes, at leat at first.

    The Pertwee era is one of my earliest memories of anything. I still enjoy it, but I think only his first two seasons were any good (season 7 is my favourite DW season of all).

    Doctor Who reached its peak during the Philip Hinchcliffe era (1974-77). This is not an original opinion, but I think Hinchcliffe’s ideas were uniformly strong and he had the great writer Robert Holmes as his Script Editor. There’s not a single story from the Hinchcliffe era that I dislike. I can’t say that about any other era of the programme.

    Too bad that when Hinchcliffe left (or was ‘moved’), Tom Baker went out of control .
     
    Last edited: May 25, 2020
  13. Siegmund

    Siegmund Vinyl Sceptic

    Location:
    Britain, Europe
    It’s actually worse than that, as he’s a member of a different (and higher) species.

    A Time Lord having a sexual/romantic relationship with a human is a bit like a human having a sexual/romantic relationship with a dog.

    I know the old series committed this solecisms when it ‘married off’ Leela to a Time Lord.
     
  14. Mr Bass

    Mr Bass Chevelle Ma Belle

    Location:
    Mid Atlantic
    I realize that is the premise that the Time Lords are a superior species but in practice it has never worked out that way. We can compare the Time Lords with say the Organians of the original Star Trek. Story wise the Time Lords seem more like a futuristic society of humans despite their supposed different innards. Even Spock acted more like a different species than the Time Lords ever do. However I do agree that romantic relationships between Time Lords and companions effectively erases the premise of different species (who could hardly get married and produce children). It also makes the premise seem silly.

    As for Leela I don't think this was the result of anything more than a quick solution to the problem of her departure since they were unwilling to kill her off. Since the action was on Gallifrey they would have to arrange a separate dropoff of Leela. So the last thing the script writers were thinking was any considered attitude about Time Lord - human marriage.
     
  15. Pizza

    Pizza With extra pepperoni

    Location:
    USA
    It’s no different in the music threads.

    As for Nu Who, I enjoyed it at first. Capaldi became a brick wall that was hard for me to climb and the latest feels like another show entirely. I’ve given up on the series, which is fine, as it’s not aimed at me and I respect that.

    The one thing I’ve always wanted them to do was bring back past doctors in new episodes. He/she traveled through time, so run with that concept and pop in a new episode/adventure with Tennant or “who” ever. Heck, I’d do an entire season like that. You wouldn’t know with Doctor or even companions you’d get from week to week. You could even sneak in Nu Whos in that scenario. I’ll be happy to produce that season.
     
  16. daglesj

    daglesj Forum Resident

    Location:
    Norfolk, UK
    I gave up with it about two episodes in with Capaldi. However, my patience with it had been strained for some time before that. I think I got fed up with Tennant's constant gurning "oh aren't you humans ammmmaaazing!"

    We watched a load of repeats on TV a few years ago that went from Pertwee to Davidson and we thoroughly enjoyed them. We didn't bother watching the Colin Baker onwards ones as I still remembered they were pretty poor by then.

    I have to say if I was an actor picked to play the Dr. I would ask they age me up by 25 years so I could effectively play the role pretty much the same for a long period. Kind of like Clive Dunn did or Warren Mitchel as Alf Garnett
     
  17. smilin ed

    smilin ed Senior Member

    Location:
    Durham
    Peter Wyngarde as Dr. Who. Now that would have been interesting to say the least.
     
    daglesj likes this.
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.

Share This Page

molar-endocrine