...NEW DR WHO TONIGHT, 20/04/06. 7.20pm, SCHOOL RE-UNION...

[Dudley]

Agree with The Satanist - this was the poorest New Who episode I've seen.  Lovely acting from all concern3ed, but the plot was weaker than anything I've seen.  For crying out loud, why would a bunch of British schoolkids be able to crack a conundrum that's defeated every intelligence in the Universe?  Because of intellectual chip fat?

[Leigh S]

i think the problem is not just confined to Doctor Who to be honest - Hollywood have been serving up ill thought out plots for years, with little comeback, so it's symptomatic of a wider "anything goes" attitude to storytelling.  

Which is why you'll see many defenders iof the new series will actually say that the plots don't really matter, or that making them in a way that has either yer Deus ex ~Machina or plain doesnt add up is actually intentional on the part of the production team.

[Roger Godpleton]

Noel Clarke is the most underused asset in this show, and I hope his new role will enliven this series, as thus far this series has been flatter than a pancake. I liked some parts, Tennant kept his end up well, but I generally found this to be quite annoying. I see that no one here has mentioned the "fat kid" subplot, which is enormously telling.

[Leigh S]

Well, the fat kid was RTD wasn't it? In fact, i think you could do a pretty interesting thesis on how every single character in the new Doctor Who is RTD... Rose, the Doctor, Jackie, the fat kid...

[Adrian Bamforth]

"for me, the Dalek episode was the prime offender - timetravelling DNA(?) absorbed through metal(???) to enable a genetic cleansing machine to alter its DNA (???) and repair its casing(????) only to want to touch the sun and do this ridiculous "because the Doctor opposes monsters, he is a monster" schtick"

Cringeful stuff, though I respect what the writer of that episode was broadly trying to do - to show how lethal just one dalek is alone;  actually taking an element of the show and studying it further, rather than just copy-and-pasting daleks all over the screen and floating into space, which doesn't involve any ingenuity  at all (and is especially annnoying when they've already implied that that 'chapter' is closed.)

ADE

[Keef Monkey]

I thought it was great this week, but then I've never been a hardcore Who fan(although I did watch it when I was a kid) so maybe amn't expecting too much. As such I also didn't have a clue about the back story with the old companion and K-9, but enjoyed it regardless. K-9 seemed a little silly to me, but his self-sacrifice made my girlfriend cry even the 2nd time she watched it so I guess it struck a chord with her.
I think maybe not having been a hardcore fan is allowing me to enjoy it more, I'm not analysing or scrutinising any of it, just enjoying a fun and exciting sci-fi show, and there's not much of that on these days.

[scutfink]

 'Kay, I told myself I wasn't going to do this but, screw it...

 (See I'm a selfish, insensitive, cold hearted cynic, so even if you genuinely empathise I won't believe a word of it...)

 A couple of weeks ago, Good Friday, my dad died. (We'll get on topic in a bit, just hang in there :) ) Ever since my Girlfriend has been walking on eggshells trying to avoid any references to death or parents.

 She even got worried by the recent fueneral on Corrie (True, I didn't want to watch it, but only because Corrie sucks :) ), you'd think after 13 years she'd've cottoned on that I'm a selfish, insensitive, cold hearted cynic... Women eh? :)  

 Then K9 'died' and I was bawling like a baby for the rest of the night. (Probably 'cause the last time he was a regular on Who was the last time I had any kind of functional relationship with the old man :) )

 RTD : Evil Hearted Manipulator of the Hearts and Minds of Aging Emotionally Fragile Geeks? Discuss.

:)