Squaxx who pretend to hate Dr Who

[Richard]

What amuses me every week about all these Dr Who threads is that about 90 percent of the people who post on them say: "this week's Dr Who, like every other episode since 2005, was utter rubbish, and Russell T. Davies is a total retard and should be banned form ever writing another one." Then the next week they watch it again. And as soon as it finishes they rush to their computers to discuss it.

Every week. For three years.

And somehow you just know that the guy on the other thread who said Dr Who "jumped the shark" this year will still watch every episode next year (and the year after that).

Now, if I watch a program and I don't like it, I stop watching it. I might bear with it for a couple of weeks in case it gets better, but if it doesn't then I soon stop. I don't persevere with it for three years and then religiously post my in-depth analysis of everything that was wrong with the script, plot, acting, continuity etc..

This all leads me to the inescapable conclusion that secretly, in the darkest recesses of your souls where you don't want to look, you actually (albeit perhaps masochistically) LOVE Dr Who and couldn't bear to miss a minute of it. Not in a nostalgic "it was good until the 1980's" sort of love, but in a "I can't get enough of the new series, it's like crack" sort of love. And you are living in denial.

I want no excuses now. None of your "well the kids watch it, so I have to," or "the BBC will thank me for my comments one day," or any of that unconvincing flannel. They say the first step on the road to recovery is to admit you have a problem. So take a deep breath and make a clean breast of it: for all its faults, all its niggling little plot holes or cheesy bit of dialogue, you can't get enough of the Ecclestone/Tennant series.

As therapy to help you get into the spirit of the exercise, I propose that all those afflicted by this strange new mental illness list their favourite three Dr Who episodes/stories sine 2005. The alternative is daily medication and a straitjacket. I'll get the ball rolling:

1) That Satan story.
2) The one with the stone angel statues.
3) The one with the werewolf.

I know it's a long, tough struggle at first, but you'll thank me one day.

[Richmond Clements]

I love New Who.
I watch it every week and enjoy it. Indeed, I find myself commenting or thinking many times during an episode 'This'll annoy them on the board'.

But for what it's worth, Richard, I agree with you. If you like it watch it, if you don't then don't.
I tried that dinosaur thing ITV did for an episode and hated it, so I stopped watching. What I didn't do was continue to watch every week and explain why I did not enjoy continuing to view it.

Favourite three episodes..?

1) Dalek
2) Tooth and Claw
3) School Reunion

[Rob Spalding]

I enjoy most of Doctor Who.  I've only ever disliked 1 whole episode, Fear Her.
But I do find odd bits in it that just bug me.
I do enjoy it though.

[Noisybast]

Yeah, you're right. Sort of.

There have been some really good episodes over the last three series. I'll opt for "Dalek", "The Satan Pit" and "The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances". There have been others Lots of good stuff.
 
But then to balance it out, you've got some really shit stuff, like "Boom Town", "Fear Her" and "Evolution Of The Daleks".

More common are the "pretty good with irksome clunky moments" episodes - the ones that make you wish there had been someone in place to edit out the wanky bits.

It's just not as black & white as you'd like to think it is. Maybe next series, eh?

[I, Cosh]

Was never a big Who fan, couldn't understand what the fuss was about the (poor) first series and the only one I've seen since (with Peter Kay) was on a par with Blood of Satanus.

[Steve Green]

I think people still watch it because there are good episodes occasionally.

Blink
Dalek
The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances were the best ones for me.

I think it's best when it's not so panto as some of the RTD episodes tend to be, but I'm not the target audience.

- Steve

[W. R. Logan]

the beauty of Sky+, recoed it, hit play when you have some time, if its a bit slow hit fast forward, if you're falling asleep hit stop and save it for another time or if its really dire just hit delete.
Over half this eries ive hit delete after less than 10 minutes, skipping towards the end and then giving up.
One thing this series has shown and thats Paul Cornell needs to be asked to write more episodes.

[Queen Firey-Bou]

i think its magic, occasionally theres those bits that people anyalse in great depth as being offensive to them, which i briefly laugh at as being really silly or just pure daft, however this only lasts seconds as the entertainment coasts swiftly on.

i think it helps that i utterly lack the nostalgia gene, & take stuff here & now for what it is, and its great, i've programmed my legs to stand up & walk off if something gets boring for half a second, so i never have to watch or listen to anything i don't like, certainly not to sit & write lengthy reviews about why i hated it.

...if only this worked for comics & i didnt have to read some god awful written by retarded monkeys shit in the prog every week recently...

[Bico]

"This all leads me to the inescapable conclusion that secretly, in the darkest recesses of your souls where you don't want to look, you actually (albeit perhaps masochistically) LOVE Dr Who and couldn't bear to miss a minute of it. Not in a nostalgic "it was good until the 1980's" sort of love, but in a "I can't get enough of the new series, it's like crack" sort of love. And you are living in denial."

I've watched tv shows and movies, and read comics and books for years that are clearly awful, yet I derive pleasure from their sheer badness - Sunset Beach, Smallville, Hercules: the Legendary Journeys, Loeb and Liefeld's Onslaught, the books of Clive Cussler, etcetera.  Or what about Escape To Victory, Krull, and Flash Gordon?  Are these now 'good' because people revel in their badness, or are they just plain bad films that people like despite them being bad movies, *because* they're bad movies - or, as you'd have it, despite themselves?
Without accepting the notion that many viewers can enjoy watching Who just to laugh at how shit and ham-fisted they find it IN THEIR OPINION, your arguement seems just as flawed as you claim the Who-bashers' is.

[Eric Plumrose]

I haven't watched new Who since 'The Shakespeare Code'. And unless he's been watching on the sly, PVS gave up after Season 2. Infuriatingly, most of new Who would be quite palatable but for RTD's mistaken belief that his trite soap operatics constitute good (melo)drama.

Favourite episodes? Although not without their niggles, I'd plump for:

1) Dalek
2) The Idiot's Lantern
3) The Girl in the Fireplace

And because I'm feeeling charitable, my favourite RTD episodes are:

1) Tooth and Claw
2) Uh . . .
3) That's it.

[Bolt-01]

I watch the doc every week with my three kids and absolutely love it. It is just entertaining TV. Sure there's bits where I think "ooh, that could've been done better if..." but I love it and will miss it till December!

Bolt-01

[VampiraJen]

i liked the first year with christopher eccleston, but i thought the second year was rubbish.  david tennant could be a good doctor, but i dont think the writers did a very good job of seperating his doctor from eccleston.  there were times in his first bunch of episodes where i could hear eccleston saying tennants lines, like they had written it with him in mind, then couldn't be arsed changing it when they got a new doctor.  i always thought the idea of the cybermen and the daleks in the same episode together would be really cool, but when it actually came i realised i didn't give a toss and i haven't watched it since.  despite hearing that this year has been really good i feel totally unmotivated to watch it.

i'm also a little surprised to find that everyone is listen 'dalek' as one of their favorite episodes.  it's probably a sentemental thing/excitement at seeing the daleks return.  i thought that episode was lame as hell.  sure the killing spree it goes on was cool and all, but at the end where it goes all 'woe is me' and kills itself, are we suppose to feel sorry for it?  w.t.f?  Humanising the daleks?  piss off!

So no, i don't really like new who all that much.  but having said that, except for a few sixties ones i have on dvd i haven't watched the old ones in years and am not that bothered about them either.

[Steve Green]

The humanising of the daleks thing has a precedent in the old series, so it's not something that bothered me as much as it did others.

I'm sure the sentimental aspect of seeing the daleks had something to do with it though.

[Peter Wolf]

    I dont watch Doctor Who at all now   but i think the latest  Doctor   [someone Tennant ?] is fine indeed.    He has the right charisma for the job.        My time watching Dr.Who began and ended with Tom Baker.     I did catch an animated Dr.Who on saturday morning kids tv that was quite watchable yesterday.

[Eric Plumrose]

>> i'm also a little surprised to find that everyone is listen 'dalek' as one of their favorite episodes.

Time-travellers' DNA and mawkish sentimentality aside, 'Dalek' is great fun taken to another level by Ecclestone's "I MADE IT HAPPEN", a delivery so chilling that Tennant's inability to play against RTD's macho-posturing dialogue is even more embarrassing in comparison.

 could only hope to aspire to.