Topic: New Doctor Who (Read 59062 times)

Bongo Bill · « **on:** February 23, 2008, 10:22:56 PM »

Anyway, Doctor Who is neat. I like to watch it.

Detonator · « **Reply #1 on:** February 23, 2008, 10:51:43 PM »

I will keep posting in this thread so I can see the topic icon pop up over and over.

Thad · « **Reply #2 on:** February 29, 2008, 01:30:02 AM »

#1 of the new comic is out. It's so-so. I'm still not crazy about Roche's art but it looks a lot better here than in Transformers. It's actually a relief to see the characters drawn in a stylized way; few things annoy me as much as TV- and movie-based comics where the artists slavishly draw the actors. (Serenity, I'm looking in your direction.)

Not much to the plot -- it's the old "alien collects the last survivor of each extinct race" bit. Martha's dialogue seems off in a couple places; I don't recall her generally addressing people as "mate" on the show. It also seems to lack the show's racial awareness -- while Martha's race has never been a major issue on the show before, it's never been ignored, either; here we see her sharing a milkshake with the Doctor in a 1958 diner without any kind of acknowledgement that this would be an unusual sight.

Really the setup was the best part; the premise was nicely explained in a few pages, complete with shots of the destruction of Gallifrey, and then on to whimsy, adventure, and suicidal insanity aboard the TARDIS.

All in all, it's like most of IDW's books: not a bad read, but damn that $4 cover price stings.

Thad · « **Reply #3 on:** March 06, 2008, 11:21:57 PM »

Season 4 spoilers. (Remember, take everything the British press says, ever, with a grain of salt, but these sound plausible.)

Quote

[spoiler]PM Harriet Jones, played by Penelope Wilton, will pose a threat to the Time Lord - as the mother of all Daleks, according to The Sun.[/spoiler]

Oh good, another episode about Daleks becoming human, and vice-versa. Haven't had NEARLY enough of THOSE.

Quote

[spoiler]Also in the show, classic enemy Davros, played by Julian Bleach, returns to build a new race of Daleks after just one, called Caan, was left alive last year.[/spoiler]

[...]

[spoiler]Catherine Tate and Billie Piper return as Donna Noble and Rose Tyler, and Elisabeth Sladen is back as Sarah Jane Smith.[/spoiler]

sylvestermccoy.com (not an official site) has more, much of which is implausible (Robert Carlyle has already denied being in talks to replace Tennant). It WOULD be cool to see a "Four Doctors" reunion ep for the 45th anniversary, though.

Also, there's been a game announced for PC, DS, and PS2.

Thad · « **Reply #4 on:** March 13, 2008, 11:08:39 AM »

Issue #2 of the new comic series is far superior to #1. A good story, tightly told, with a lot going on. Dialogue's better, the story's much less derivative. The "people getting turned into sand statues" plot is just silly enough, and the Ancient Egypt exposition just long enough, without either one becoming a distraction.

Of course, unlike issue #1, this isn't restricted by being a single-issue story; there are a lot of threads still to be picked up next month. That's New Earth on the cover of #3; presumably it's set sometime between the two TV trips there.

Anyway. #2's good. Pick it up.

Thad · « **Reply #5 on:** March 22, 2008, 05:05:59 PM »

Beeb has a new Season 4 trailer up. Picture quality is roughly shit so there wasn't much I could draw from it, but:

1. From the couple of lines she speaks, Donna DOES seem less obnoxious this time around;
2. Confirmation: Rose is back this season. If the episode synopses I linked above are to be believed, she'll show up in Moffat's two-parter.

Still no for-sure premier date, but smart money says the 12th.

Thad · « **Reply #6 on:** March 29, 2008, 07:28:18 PM »

Quote from: Thad on March 22, 2008, 05:05:59 PM

Still no for-sure premier date, but smart money says the 12th.

Nope, one week sooner, ie next Saturday, the 5th.

Sharkey · « **Reply #7 on:** March 30, 2008, 06:49:17 PM »

Yay. Something to look forward to.

Did I ever mention that I have a weird kind of personal identification with this fucking thing? Back when we finally got electricity and eventually a TV (never did stoop to plumbing. We retained an outhouse with a bunch of repurposed stained glass church windows on account of my parents' smartassery) I used to stay up until midnight watching these things on public TV with my father while getting a secondhand high on the couch.

Then, somehow, I grew up to be a peter-pannishly horrible non-aging thing going by an intentionally alienating epithet who picks up young girls, goes on whirlwind adventures to nowhere in particular, and spends ten minutes being crushed when they disembark. Then needily grabbing an new companion and going on with something different. I almost wish the fucker would just crash somewhere and settle the hell down so I could see how that would turn out. Beyond "the life I could have had with you" dream sequences, anyway.

So there's my excuse to be watching what amounts to goofball foreign children's television. What's yours?

Thad · « **Reply #8 on:** March 30, 2008, 07:43:26 PM »

I don't think you're alone in this crowd in being an overgrown man-child in a state of arrested development (suggests the man in a Lorax T-shirt).

Suppose I've been attracted to the British cult scene since Dad rented Holy Grail and a friend loaned me a copy of The Hitchhiker's Guide, both of which happened around age 12. My love of cheesy science fiction goes back farther still, at least to the live-action Masters of the Universe movie.

I suppose the most intriguing thing about Doctor Who is how much the tiny budget forced them to be creative. The TARDIS, Daleks, regeneration...there are a lot of immensely clever ideas floating around before Tom Baker ever puts on a scarf.

All that and it's something to talk about with the other overgrown man-children (and women-children) in a state of arrested development. Or British people.

Plus, the annual Moffat episode invariably proves to be some of the best TV I'll see in a year.

Sharkey · « **Reply #9 on:** March 31, 2008, 07:05:15 AM »

Good answer.

Also, I tried to watch the first episode of this season of Torchwood, threw up a little, and shut it off.

Thad · « **Reply #10 on:** March 31, 2008, 03:39:08 PM »

Yeah, like I said, they tricked me into watching the 3 episodes with Martha, which weren't any good beyond the five minutes they spent on what she'd been up to since we last saw her. (Good recommendation on Out of Time, though; if you happen to stumble across any others that are actually decent, let me know.)

A friend of mine pointed out that there's really going to need to be a big payoff in that direction for Rose to justify bringing her back. Rose was a decent enough companion but really didn't grow all that much past Father's Day; IMO by the end Jackie was a more interesting character. (Their economic status was an interesting angle that wasn't developed a whole lot in Rose's case but was always readily apparent in Jackie's. Also it made for a neat contrast when Martha came aboard.)

The good news is that

Quote from: Thad on March 22, 2008, 05:05:59 PM

If the episode synopses I linked above are to be believed, she'll show up in Moffat's two-parter.

With any luck, Moffat's skill at characterization and simply good time-travel stories (a plausible explanation for how she comes back after all that "she can never come back" stuff would be a plus, whether any of us actually believed that for a second or not) will temper Davies's rather more simplistic desire to top himself every season and kitchen-sink his way through his swan song.

Thad · « **Reply #11 on:** April 02, 2008, 11:11:00 PM »

Blink, Human Nature/Family of Blood, and Captain Jack Harkness nominated for Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form Hugo. It should come as no surprise whatsoever that the last two have gone to Empty Child/Doctor Dances and Girl in the Fireplace.

Haven't seen the Torchwood ep; suppose it's in auspicious enough company for me to give it a look. Though in the meantime I've got a DVD of Curse of Fenric, and of course Saturday's premier, to watch. (And also, on an entirely unrelated note, a copy of Midnight Cowboy that's been sitting on my table for what I think is weeks now. And tonight's and tomorrow's Stewart and Colbert, and Saturday's Spider-Man.)

And homework.

I guess what I'm saying is I'll download it, but it is low-priority.

Thad · « **Reply #12 on:** April 04, 2008, 09:35:53 PM »

Incidentally, the season premier's the 18th on Sci-Fi for anyone who prefers to catch it there for whatever reason. (I'm assuming that'll be the Christmas show, which AFAIK hasn't aired in the US yet.) That's the closest yet to a season airing simultaneously in the UK and US. (Obviously this would have been a poor weekend to premier it in the US, what with BSG.)

Thad · « **Reply #13 on:** April 05, 2008, 06:07:00 PM »

Not a bad episode. Donna's way more tolerable this time around. Ending was fantastic [spoiler]and shows they've at least put some thought into how Rose returns to Earth-1[/spoiler], aliens were suitably silly, villain was cool [spoiler]and killed off too early -- though I didn't see a body[/spoiler]. Not one of my favorites, but it usually takes a half-dozen episodes before a season gets off the ground, and this was at least good setup.

Royal☭ · « **Reply #14 on:** April 06, 2008, 05:14:44 PM »

Just watched the season premiere, and I didn't like it that much. I most took issue with the [spoiler]cartoonish way the villain died, right down to a Wily E. Coyote scream[/spoiler]. But I think what bugged me the most was how much this episode could be categorized as "Doctor is a tool of the man".

What, really, was the overall problem with the villain's plan? From what I could tell, the entire thing was a win-win situation for everyone involved. [spoiler]People get to lose weight while a dying civilization gets to rebuild its numbers.[/spoiler] But instead of finding some peaceful resolution to this, the Doctor just steps in, declare how Intergalactic Law is being broken, and proceeds to act high and mighty about it. The only time people were actually in danger was the result of [spoiler]Donna and the Doctor causing the nanny to act defensive and rashly[/spoiler]. It seems like the Doctor took a complete 180 on this sort of issue since "The Unquiet Dead".

Thad · « **Reply #15 on:** April 06, 2008, 06:11:07 PM »

I'm not inclined to think that incubating aliens inside of people without their knowledge or consent is a generally positive thing.

Neither is tying up your employees in an office while scary men point guns at them.

Royal☭ · « **Reply #16 on:** April 06, 2008, 07:10:18 PM »

See, that's the thing, the only reason the plan is evil is because the villain is so dastardly about it. Had they sat down and hashed out a conversation for like 5 minutes the thing could have been resolved peacefully. The Doctor, however, insisted on being all "THIS IS WRONG I MUST STOP YOU" throughout.

Thad · « **Reply #17 on:** April 06, 2008, 11:32:02 PM »

The villain is psychotic and has already set up a "kill a million people" button. The Doctor's sole attempt to reason with her -- which occurs significantly after she greets him by trying to plunge him to his death -- does not work out.

And if you REALLY want to violate the "it's just a show, I should really just relax" rule of thumb and totally overanalyze, it's probably fair to note that she wasn't helping those people. You want to lose weight, you eat healthier and exercise more, period. As soon as she hit her quota and took off [spoiler]-- or tried; remember it's not the Doctor who killed her for her criminal behavior --[/spoiler], all her guinea pigs would have started sliding back to where they started.

Anyway. All that's rather beside the point, as the plot doesn't exactly hold up to basic scrutiny. If all she had to do was harvest fat cells, well, the Wile E Coyote comparison works pretty well in that her plan was hilariously elaborate for such a simple purpose.

Lady's crazy. Not much more to it really.

Thad · « **Reply #18 on:** April 13, 2008, 08:47:03 PM »

Fires of Pompeii was pretty good. I particularly liked the bit about speaking Latin and the TARDIS translating it into Gaelic.

Plot was formulaic and thoroughly predictable, but the Pyrovile were cool (though between them, the Family of Blood, Satan, and the sun in 42, we're getting a little heavy on the whole "demonic possession" thing) and Tate's overacting actually fit nicely. Not as good a "don't change history" ep as Father's Day (though, over-the-top as it is, the explanation for why Pompeii can't be saved at least seems less arbitrary than "if you change history, scary monsters will start making people disappear"), but pretty to look at and does a good job of keeping Donna's role as conscience to an increasingly cold Doctor.

The prophecy thread was interesting, and I was disappointed that they Bad Wolfed it out at the end. Would have been much better to have left it dangling for a future episode.

(Oh, and the TARDIS as modern art bit is a nod to John Cleese's cameo in City of Death, the best serial ever.)

Ood are back next week. That should be fun.

Thad · « **Reply #19 on:** April 17, 2008, 12:03:38 AM »

For those who can't wait until Saturday, Doctor Who #3 is available today at fine comic establishments everywhere.

This series is literally better with every issue. This month, Nick Roche is off the interior art, replaced by someone named Stefano Martino. I'm not familiar with the guy's work but I really like it. His inks in particular stand out, and like most people I don't usually notice inks. (I also must repeat my earlier praise on the fact that the characters are clearly, immediately recognizable as the Tenth Doctor and Martha, without being sore-thumb reproductions of David Tennant and Freema Agyeman, and to repeat my earlier criticism of the Serenity comic for the sin of populating a comic book with TV actors.) Also, Kirby dots.

So all right, the writing's not quite as good by comparison; the pacing's good, the exposition is quick, and the premise is solid, but honestly not much happens to develop the story from where we left it last month, and the Doctor's rambling technobabble feels forced.

That said, it's still better than probably a dozen episodes of the current series I could name. I'm enjoying it, and not feeling quite as bad about the cover price.

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Author Topic: New Doctor Who (Read 59062 times)