Time For doctor Who to be Rested Again.

Have thought long and hard about this. As a 45 year old saddo whose first tv memories are of Sontarans, Harry and Sarah Jane, I will not stop watching the show, no matter what.
However  it has exhausted all decent stories and character developments, the arcs are boring, the focus of assistants is cloying and sentimental to the extreme, the Doctor keeps on calling things "rubbish", the music is over the top and manipulative, and the monsters have all been satirised and de-fanged; a comedy Sontaran, a comedy Cyberman, comedy Daleks, etc etc. The Ice Warriors were brought back awfully, the Zygons are now ciphers to hang liberal social commentary onto,  and even dear old Capaldi rattles off the dialogue  a la Matt Smith, (who was similar to Tennant)-albeit in a more asthmatic style.
I like Capaldi, the stories are just rotten.The ratings are now as low as when McCoy was the Doctor. They do a Xmas Special clearly as a franchise money-spinner and it is tacky beyond belief. The budget seems to be dropping more and more, and I dread to think what it will be like when Chris "Dinosaurs on a spaceship" Chisnall takes over.
BBc Worldwide have clearly been trying to get rid of Moffatt for ages. He made the stories incomprehensible, married the Doctor to the glib River Song, made him mourn and dote over Amy and then Clara, even acting stalkerish on occasion (The Impossible Girl thread) and perving over her too-tight skirt.
Moff's fave show is the West wing, and while I think this rat-a-tat dialogue is fine for that, or "Friends", it does not suit the show. But all the bad habits seem here to stay.
REst it for 5 years,say, and find just the right actor, get some fresh blood in for every department, and start again. It's painfully formulaic.

They should make Doctor Who a post watershed show. Never gonna happen though.

I stopped watching it after matt smith left.

Moffat wrote one or two of the best DW episodes ever, but god knows where it went wrong. (Same thing is happening with Sherlock). A particular low point was vikings with electric eels, but the worst ever was the sandman one? you know - with the 'eye bogey' monsters and scenes taken directly from no less a source than the almost great scooby doo itself.

They must have completely run out of ideas.

But you know, they had a transgender actor so that just makes everything OK.

Capaldi should be a great doctor, but he can't save this rubbish

Thoughts after first episode.
Peter Capaldi gave a more nuanced style. I liked it.Less grimacing and more warmth.
Bill is a winner. let's hope she doesn't have to save the Universe to justify being an assistant.
Murray Gold's music accompaniment was intrusive but bearable.
How did Nardole become an assistant?
Another used storyline...Waters of Mars this time.Was Heather staring into a puddle because she wanted to get sucked in? There are only so many times that you can reasonably stare into a puddle.
The plot was not that good. Not sure that it made sense.
Still haven't changed the "clanging chimes of doom" Capaldi theme.
Humour was much better balanced than for years.Tongue in cheek humour all the same, the "this is ironic" humour that I hope will go when Chis arrives. Friends and West Wing are ok shows, but such a style does not suit British dialogue and Doctor Who in particular.
Please god, no more Daleks this season. We will probably see a comedy Dalek though is my guess.... Or the new Ice Warrior will have a nice line in sssssself-deprecation.
Susan will arrive at the end of the season. I guessed it anyway and the picture seals the deal. If that is in fact the ending, then I will forgive The Moff a lot..

Anyone heard the rumours of Capaldi meeting The First Doctor?

andygf wrote:Thoughts after first episode.
Peter Capaldi gave a more nuanced style. I liked it.Less grimacing and more warmth.
Bill is a winner. let's hope she doesn't have to save the Universe to justify being an assistant.
Murray Gold's music accompaniment was intrusive but bearable.
How did Nardole become an assistant?
Another used storyline...Waters of Mars this time.Was  Heather staring into a puddle because she  wanted to get sucked in? There are only so many times that  you can  reasonably stare into a puddle.
The plot was not that good. Not sure that it made sense.
Still haven't changed the "clanging chimes of doom"  Capaldi theme.
Humour was much better balanced than for years.Tongue in cheek humour all the same, the "this is ironic" humour that I hope will go when Chis arrives. Friends and West Wing are ok shows, but such  a style does not suit British dialogue and Doctor Who in particular.
Please god, no more Daleks this season. We will probably see a comedy Dalek though is my guess.... Or the new Ice Warrior will have a nice line in sssssself-deprecation.
Susan will arrive at the end of the season. I guessed it anyway and the picture seals the deal. If that is in fact the ending, then I will forgive The Moff a lot..



 

1st episode was best for a while, although that is not saying a lot. been a bit downhill since then.

What was genuinely frustrating is that in better hands stories like the frozen Thames one might have been good. It wasn't. (but hey, as long as you can tick off all those right on inclusive labels why does it matter? Surely that means that we must have someone in the main cast with a disability too... Hmmm.)

Bill... good first episode. She is likable and has good moments, but some really cringe worthy ones too. Her acting can be just terrible at times.

Have to agree with andygf on many points.

I've largely enjoyed the "reboot" of the series, starting with Christopher Ecclestone (although he never seemed like Timelord material to me). David Tennant was absolutely amazing in the role and Matt Smith nearly as good (largely thanks to his manic energy and quirkiness - a modern Sylvester McCoy?).

Even Peter Capaldi carried off the role pretty well - or at least as well as the writing allowed him to.

Which brings me to my big beef with the show. As andy said, the stories are largely re-hashes of old plots...not very well done either. Far too much time spent focusing on the assistants and their personal lives.

Possibly saddest of all, the various aliens are neither very scary or believeable. In the past this was down to the comical costumes and low-budget special effects. Now its because the storylines and scripting seem to portray them all as beings that can be either be reasoned with, or thwarted fairly easily with some clever technological wizardry. Theres never any real sense of danger.

Its like the writers have forgotten that Dr Who is first and foremost a sci-fi show and instead are trying to turn it into a regular drama, pushing modern social issues, with sci-fi elements to it.

And I'm worried future series are set to go even further down this route with the casting of the first female Doctor.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-40626224

Even if she can pull off the role, I fear her casting will give the writers licence to make it even more of a touchy-feely, relationship-based drama and push the sci-fi even further to the back.

I'd disagree totally in regards to the monsters not being scary, remember this show is at its heart a show for all the family, monsters such as the Silence, the Weeping Angels, the Dolls etc are all far scarier than any before the reboot, the Bertie Bassett monster v the McCoy Dr springs to mind, the only issue is that children nowadays are desensitized to such monsters through the imagery they see on a daily basis on the internet and on console games etc. How can Dr Who compete on the scary level when little Timmy has just completed a level on Dark Souls 2 etc?
As a result of that and the cuts to BBC shows the show has to change its dynamic to be around the relationships of the doctor and his/her companions.
The show has always had the Doctor saving the Earth etc at the last minute due to some mumbo jumbo deus ex machina plot device.
I think it's an absolutely fantastic call to bring in a female lead as the show was clearly dying on its arse, love how it's caused so many people to declare the sky is falling in when in canon the precedent has been set already with other time-lords changing sex during the regen process.

They should just rename it to 'The Nurse' now 

Hero wrote:I'd disagree totally in regards to the monsters not being scary, remember this show is at its heart a show for all the family, monsters such as the Silence, the Weeping Angels, the Dolls etc are all far scarier than any before the reboot, the Bertie Bassett monster v the McCoy Dr springs to mind, the only issue is that children nowadays are desensitized to such monsters through the imagery they see on a daily basis on the internet and on console games etc. How can Dr Who compete on the scary level when little Timmy has just completed a level on Dark Souls 2 etc?
As a result of that and the cuts to BBC shows the show has to change its dynamic to be around the relationships of the doctor and his/her companions.
The show has always had the Doctor saving the Earth etc at the last minute due to some mumbo jumbo deus ex machina plot device.
I think it's an absolutely fantastic call to bring in a female lead as the show was clearly dying on its arse, love how it's caused so many people to declare the sky is falling in when in canon the precedent has been set already with other time-lords changing sex during the regen process.

Fair point about the Weeping Angels...they were genuinely creepy. Also the Tennant era Cybermen were somewhat unsettling, but the rest were entirely forgettable. In any case, I was talking about the level of menace (i.e. actual threat of succeeding with whatever diabolical plot), rather than how scary they look or act. Unbalanced scripting IMO - strong on the character / relationship side but weak on the story side.

I'm also not complaining about the choice to cast a female Doctor (yet). I'm rarely one to judge anyone before they've had a chance to show what they can do. I actually think the actress who played Missy would have been an excellent choice...if she hadn't been Missy already.

My complaint is mainly with the writing and I was voicing a concern that having a female lead would encourage more soap style drama, at the expense of the sci-fi...which should be front and centre as far as I'm concerned. I really couldn't care less about the Assistant's girlfriend / boyfriend or family issues.

Had enough of that with Torchwood - Captain Jack Harkness snogging every man he could get his hands on and the others spending almost as much time worrying about / arguing with their significant others, as protecting Earth from various alien plots.

If I wanted that kind of thing I would watch Eastenders, Corrie or one of the Oz soaps.

I'm no expert but am incredibly old and so have watched off and on all the actors portraying Doctor Who off since the programme kicked off in 1963.

No problem in itself with the next Doctor being female but it strikes me as being more about BBC diversity targets than any genuine story development. That's a shame as it would have been genuinely innovative and much more surprising had it occurred years earlier.

Anyway, best of luck to Jodie Whittaker in the role. Thought she was very good in Broadchurch although she has some way to go to match the best ever portrayal.

Christmas episode was enjoyable though