Doctor.... Who? Spoilers! Really, don't read if ur not up to date.

[W-D Forties]

I know this is not the place really, but has anyone else just watched the series finale of Doctor Who?

And if you have, is it really HIM as the new Doctor? If so, then.... wow, I'm impressed!

 

[normanpitkin]

me too!!!

 

[W-D Forties]

I didn't even know Matt Smith was leaving, although I can't say I'm sorry. Of all the recent Doctors I preferred Christopher Ecclestone. But I really hope it's not some cruel trick ot I'll be terribly upset! What a coup!

 

[Bruce Wayne]

Tell Me! Tell Me! Tell Me!

 

[W-D Forties]

Ohhh, I really don't know if I should.....




Oh go on then, I'm terrible at keeping a secret!



IT'S JOHN HURT!!!!!!

 

[Bruce Wayne]

Please!!! PM me the synopsis! I can't find it anywhere online. Also, I was already able to figure out the John Hurt deal.

 

[W-D Forties]

I've just had a look online and it seems that Hurt is only on board for the 50th annaversary special. What a dissapointment!

 

[Bruce Wayne]

WOW!!! What an episode!

 

[doberdadinmd]

WOW!!! What an episode!

Indeed!

 

[MarkJohn]

I've just had a look online and it seems that Hurt is only on board for the 50th annaversary special. What a dissapointment!

Yes, very disappointing... Christopher Ecclestone was very good, bringing the series a dark gravitas, coupled with some great stories, which has been largely lacking since. Matt Smith annoys the heck out of me, and the writing seem hopeless in almost every episode.

Someone of Hurt's stature would be a refreshing change... but, I suppose it has to be remembered, this is a kids show [mostly]

 

[The Wiser Hatter]

I like Matt Smith I quess everyone has a favorite doctor. I started watching Tom Barker the 4th doctor so for me Matt brings some of that quirky Doctor back for me.

 

[W-D Forties]

I think the Doctor you think is the arcitypal one is the one you remember from being a kid, so for me it's Tom Baker too - what a nutter!

Tom was a bit loopy in real life too and was a big drinking partner of Francis Bacon the painter, with lots of infamous drinking sessions in the Coach and Horses in Soho. After him, Matt seems a bit lightweight!

I loved Chris Ecclestone though and the writing was superb. 'The Empty Child' was the best episode I have ever seen. It's the one set during WW2 where people's faces are morphing into gas masks.

'Are you my mummy...?'

It scared the bejesus out of me!

 

[Zombie_61]

Being an American who could never find Doctor Who on television when I was growing up, my "first' Doctor was Christopher Eccleston. As such, I have to agree with MarkJohn's comment in post #10--Eccleston brought gravitas to the role in a way that none of the subsequent Doctors have, and when he felt the weight of the universe on his shoulders you could easily believe he had 900 years worth of experience to back that up. However, I can understand why some long-term Whovians felt his Doctor was too "dark". Until very recently (i.e., after the departure of Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill from the series) I thought Matt Smith's Doctor was too manic and quirky, and I could never quite buy into the idea of him being 900 years old. But the chemistry between Smith and Jenna-Louise Coleman is different, and he seems to be much less manic since she joined the cast. While I'm at it, I thought David Tennant's Doctor was somewhere in-between--not as dark as Eccleston's, not as manic as Smith's.

 

[Hemingway Jones]

John Hurt is The Doctor and so is Matt Smith. Mr. Smith is back for season 8.

Personally, I love Matt Smith's take. He is like a manic junior professor and is the first Doctor ever to seem genuinely alien. He is just so awkward in his own body.

I grew up on Tom Baker and will always love him. Tenant is a favorite as well for his rapier wit and perfect elocution. I also like Matt Smith since he is the first Doctor that dressed like me, but that's just my personal vanity or is it?

Oh, and call your spoilers! Take a page from River Song, for heaven's sakes!

 

[Edward]

SPOLIERS, SWEETIE...

I am told that when Ecclestone Doctor regenerated, two new Doctors were created - Tenant, and Hurt. Hurt was the Doctor's anger, his negativity, his rage. The next big bad the Doctor must face is thus his own dark side. Interesting premise, but I won't be getting excited until I see it while Moffat remains at the reins.

The finale was, under Moffat, an all to rare good episode, badly let down at the end by Moffat's inability to see anything through. Clara SHOULD have gone in there alone, and not be seen again. Shame on Moffat that he had to send to Doctor in after her and 'save' her. Tedious. Bring back real Who, where people died and bad things did happen, not this namby pamby nonsense which is an utter insult to the children for whom Moffat constantly seeks to dumb the show down.

 

[Capesofwrath]

SPOLIERS, SWEETIE...

I am told that when Ecclestone Doctor regenerated, two new Doctors were created - Tenant, and Hurt. Hurt was the Doctor's anger, his negativity, his rage. The next big bad the Doctor must face is thus his own dark side. Interesting premise, but I won't be getting excited until I see it while Moffat remains at the reins.

The finale was, under Moffat, an all to rare good episode, badly let down at the end by Moffat's inability to see anything through. Clara SHOULD have gone in there alone, and not be seen again. Shame on Moffat that he had to send to Doctor in after her and 'save' her. Tedious. Bring back real Who, where people died and bad things did happen, not this namby pamby nonsense which is an utter insult to the children for whom Moffat constantly seeks to dumb the show down.

'

They can't really kill her off so soon, they've only just got her up and running.

I do watch Dr Who sometimes but I'm not of the age group it's aimed at. I liked Patrick Troughton best but he wasn't the first one I saw. I can remember watching the first episode and thinking it was allright and had promise. The first Dr was a cranky old git though. Not at all like any of the increasingly young ones who came after. I like the lesbian lizard and her maid/girlfriend, and the funny insanely bellicose little Russian doll soldier from this series. But I find Clara a bit irritating really; and they're trying a bit too hard to make her sexy in a nice girl come dominatrix sort of way.

She was in Dancing On the Edge I recall and in one of the opening scenes dressed just in a nightie she was really outstanding. She's slimmed down for this part though.

 

[esteban68]

I totally agree Edward (apart from getting rid of Clara- who used to be in Emmerdale Farm too when it was still a farm capesofwrath), DW is in danger of losing it's way....I spend an awful lot of time in schools as part of my job talking/presenting to children in year7-11 and even the year 7's don't find it scary any more they think it's too childish! yet it's too twee and as you say " too namby pamby" and quite possibly too PC for fans of that particular genre, c'mon bring back some murder, death, kill failing to do so will cause it's demise IMHO, perhaps it needs sticking on later and having a bit of a 'Walking Dead' doing on it?

Tom Baker was THE Doctor for me but done correctly John Hurt could be exceptional!

SPOLIERS, SWEETIE...

I am told that when Ecclestone Doctor regenerated, two new Doctors were created - Tenant, and Hurt. Hurt was the Doctor's anger, his negativity, his rage. The next big bad the Doctor must face is thus his own dark side. Interesting premise, but I won't be getting excited until I see it while Moffat remains at the reins.

The finale was, under Moffat, an all to rare good episode, badly let down at the end by Moffat's inability to see anything through. Clara SHOULD have gone in there alone, and not be seen again. Shame on Moffat that he had to send to Doctor in after her and 'save' her. Tedious. Bring back real Who, where people died and bad things did happen, not this namby pamby nonsense which is an utter insult to the children for whom Moffat constantly seeks to dumb the show down.

 

[Capesofwrath]

Isn't it still a farm then? The only thing I know about that show was that they wiped out the entire cast by crashing an airliner on them once. I don't think I ever saw it though.

She's obviously quite a bit older than the age she's supposed to be to Dr Who. So what was she in Emmerdale Farm? Probably playing a schoolgirl years younger than her real age I expect. They always cast midgets for parts like that. Sometimes in long running shows the results can be very odd. Like in the Sopranos where Tony who is a big heavy man ends up with a little fat grown up son about a foot shorter than him.

 

[Edward]

Yes, very disappointing... Christopher Ecclestone was very good, bringing the series a dark gravitas, coupled with some great stories, which has been largely lacking since. Matt Smith annoys the heck out of me, and the writing seem hopeless in almost every episode.

Someone of Hurt's stature would be a refreshing change... but, I suppose it has to be remembered, this is a kids show [mostly]

Smith I like, but it's the writing, and really the overall direction, which is the problem. The first half of this past series almost convinced me to give up on it entirely. Moffat doesn't appear to care any longer... Actually, he has been far more disappointing than RTD. Davies did some inexcusable things (bringing Rose back being the very pinnacle of his self-indulgence - even worse than the Peter Kaye episode. When the best thing in an episode is a monster concept made up by a Blue Peter competition winner, and then they ruin that by casting Peter "good at remembering the Seventies" Kaye, the World's Most Talentless Man, what hope is there???), but Moffat has the capability to do so much more and yet he continuously stuffs it up at every turn. I'm only really hanging on now until they get rid of him - shame Smith won't be likely to have the chance to do some good material.

'

They can't really kill her off so soon, they've only just got her up and running.

I wish they would. She's a plot device; no more, no less. She has served her purpose. Enough. Any emotional impact her saving the Doctor might have had was destroyed when he jumped into the timestream thingy after her. Very poor plot decision. To be fair, she's not as creatively bankrupt a concept as most of the increasingly formulaic assistants he's had of recent years, but still...

I do watch Dr Who sometimes but I'm not of the age group it's aimed at. I liked Patrick Troughton best but he wasn't the first one I saw. I can remember watching the first episode and thinking it was allright and had promise. The first Dr was a cranky old git though. Not at all like any of the increasingly young ones who came after. I like the lesbian lizard and her maid/girlfriend, and the funny insanely bellicose little Russian doll soldier from this series. But I find Clara a bit irritating really; and they're trying a bit too hard to make her sexy in a nice girl come dominatrix sort of way.

Yes. It's like Amy being a stripper writ large. A tedious 'joke' thrown in for the adults, but because, "y'know, for kids!", they can't commit to it. A lot of the time when they try to do anything with her to make her three-dimensional, it just feels like a poor echo of River song, making me believe that what I had thought was better writing in a previous season was simply the same poor quality drivel given life by Alex Kingston's superior acting skills. She certainly blew the rest of them off the screen in that past episode.

It's also more than time we had an older Doctor again. It has been such a shame to see it degenerating into the same Cult of Youth as everything else. Wildly insulting to even the intended audience of kids.

Vastra and Jenny would be a great basis for a spin-off - something darker, more adult. Very steampunk. Maybe they could tie it in to the 'Original Torchwood' I've long wanted to see.

I totally agree Edward (apart from getting rid of Clara- who used to be in Emmerdale Farm too when it was still a farm capesofwrath), DW is in danger of losing it's way....I spend an awful lot of time in schools as part of my job talking/presenting to children in year7-11 and even the year 7's don't find it scary any more they think it's too childish! yet it's too twee and as you say " too namby pamby" and quite possibly too PC for fans of that particular genre, c'mon bring back some murder, death, kill failing to do so will cause it's demise IMHO, perhaps it needs sticking on later and having a bit of a 'Walking Dead' doing on it?

Tom Baker was THE Doctor for me but done correctly John Hurt could be exceptional!

They really do need to revise the concept. For all his many, many sins, RTD never seemed to try to dumb it down for the kids. Moffat right from the off was all about trying to make it more of a kids' show again, but it seems his idea of that is to take away everything that I remember loving about it as a kid. It increasingly has less the feel of a show I'd have loved as a kid, and more the feel of a show my parents wanted me to love. You know, the sort of people who want you to like The Railway Children. Pfft.

 

[esteban68]

Isn't it still a farm then? The only thing I know about that show was that they wiped out the entire cast by crashing an airliner on them once. I don't think I ever saw it though.

She's obviously quite a bit older than the age she's supposed to be to Dr Who. So what was she in Emmerdale Farm? Probably playing a schoolgirl years younger than her real age I expect. They always cast midgets for parts like that. Sometimes in long running shows the results can be very odd. Like in the Sopranos where Tony who is a big heavy man ends up with a little fat grown up son about a foot shorter than him.

They dropped the farm bit from the title a while ago, it used to be about peaceful country life and often featured animals being born etc not unlike 'All Creatures Great and Small' but less humourous over time they have turned it into a countryside version of every other soap opera..... she used to play Alan Turners granddaughter? I think? she would have been around 16-ish at the time I think.