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

[Adrian Bamforth]

"Generally, shes been more ineffectual than 90% of previous companions in terms of helping resolve things. But to counter that, the scripts constantly tell us she's one in million."

The problem for me from the very start is it just isn't really clear to me why The Doctor asked Rose along in the first place and what her role as a companion is - which is particularly unsympathetic since she's so much younger, is  being taken away from her family and life and regularly put in danger seemingly just to keep him company on his time sightseeing trips. I know there wasn't always that much thought put into it before, but then if you're starting again you may as well do it properly especially since the chemistry isn't really that strong between them.

ADE

[The Amstor Computer]

especially since the chemistry isn't really that strong between them

Huh? Perhaps not so much between Eccleston & Piper, but I'd say that Piper & Tennant have quite a bit of chemistry onscreen.

As for the backlash - I don't think we're going to see any kind of serious push back against the series anytime soon from the general public. It seems to be attracting incredibly strong ratings (and high audience appreciation) and garnering very strong reviews. A certain segment of the audience may kick back against it if it carries on as it is into series 3, but I suspect that the wider audience would be happy enough with it for some time to come.

That said, I am finding myself drifting closer and closer to Watcher & Paul's take on the show & I think the faults that I was happy to overlook for the first run are now becoming more & more of a problem for me.

[paulvonscott]

I think the point will come when people stop being just grateful to have it back and not embarrassingly bad, the novelty wears off and people have a choice to go and do something else, and the show isn't grabbing them, then they will.

The hardcore doctor who fans will watch it regardless of how good or bad it is.  I know I had to stop before McCoy's run ended because the show was depressingly shite.

This show looks great, it has a largely excellent cast, an amazing new doctor who, it's on the telly.  There's so much that's good and fun about it, with absolutely nothing that can't be fixed with a bit of work.  I don't want to sound like I can't stand the show or I want it to fail, I certainly don't.

The first review I read this year said RTD was a tosser. Okay that was a tabloid sunday paper, but it's the start, and if doctor who becomes a joke again, it's finished.

What I'm hoping for is that the stories improve this series beyond the doctor finds something bad is going on, they run away from it, then it explodes after coming into contact with substance X.  The story isn't a trivial element, it's always going to be backbone of the show.  And the idea that it's okay to have duff stories in a kids show is disgraceful, we may as well bring back rentaghost!  Although I believe Joe Pasquale has already done that.

There was lots I enjoyed about the most recent show, in fact I sat there and just took it all in, waiting to see what happened next.  Sarah Jane Smith and the Doctor resolve their issues, and meet up with K9 - enjoyed watching it.  But it looks floppy when you have a story that seems to be stolen from one of the fan made spin offs (the yeti/great intelligence one at the school) and has very little substance.

I did like the joke about eat more chips though.  And I particularly liked the doctors quip that mickey should remember to leave the window open a little (but not for K9's sake).  SJS was great, the scene where she sees the tardis was the best one yet and I've grown to like Mickey now he's stopped being so pathetic.

A  big part of me doesn't mind if the show is n not for me, a shame sure, but I would rather it was for the kids.  But what doctor who has done is said that its okay to do science fiction on the telly again, and I rather fear if it goes, then it will be seen as science fiction failing again, and we enter another 20 year drought.

Sorry for all of that waffle :p

[Radbacker]

I loved the last season and know I'll love this one.  My only complaint is only 13 episodes per season and I'd like a couple more multi parters.
And does anyone remember how naff and pathetic over half the original episodes were 2 part stories padded out into 6 parters and the absolutely shitest acting from most of the support cast, sure the doctors were usually good but some of the bad guys...cringe

CU Radbacker

[DavidXBrunt]

"over half the original episodes were 2 part stories padded out into 6 parters"

No, the majority of stories were four parters. You could argue there was padding but 6 parters were rare, and didn't appear at all for the last ten years. There was a trend in the 70's to make a 6 parter a 4 parter with a twist at the end of part 4 leading into a connected 2 part story but that wasn't so much padding as a deliberate production decision.

[TordelBack]

On the rewatchability angle, the good woman and myself have been casually watching the repeats of the Ecclestone season on UK Gold/BBC3 for some time now, and by-and-large they bear up very well.  

Some I actually enjoyed more the second or third time out - the second Daleks sequence in particular was good, and the Empty Child just gets better and better (any surprise that these are both two-parters?)  

There is no doubt however that the first three episodes of this curent season have been plagued by having essentially the same plot and 'Dock-Leaf Effect' resolution - zombies, werewolves and  vampires(?) defeated in the last two minutes by a substance/item left readily to hand.  

If this central cop-out wasn't enough, there are the twin get-out-of-jail free cards of the sonic screwdriver and the over-used psychic paper.  Tighten these elements up, quieten the music down a lot, and things would be a lot better.  But i still maintain that even as it is, this is a great show, literally bursting at the seams with glee and energy, and broad-based appeal.  

Incidentally, I have no problem with a bit of mandatory corridor-running.  It'd hardly be Dr Who without it.

[House of Usher]

The School Reunion episode had two good things going for it: Sarah Jane Smith and K9. The story was feeble.

I don't want to over-romanticize vintage Dr Who, but it seems to me that alien invasions aside, the world in which the stories were set was very similar to our own and generally consistent with reality, leaving aside UNIT, Wotan computers, etc.

In the world the new Dr Who inhabits, children go missing and no-one notices, school dinners are 'compulsory' (?), nuclear power stations are built in centres of population, and irradiated ruins make better energy sources than mined uranium.

It feels like watching a kids' show not because it's fantasy, but because the writers and producers are not afraid of insulting the viewers' intelligence.

I can't remember ever dissecting Buck Rogers in this way as a kid, because they made some effort to make in consistent and convincing. Scooby Doo, however, never convinced me, because the explanations for the hauntings orchestrated by counterfeiters and jewel thieves using a helium balloon and a movie projector just didn't add up.

So it IS a cop-out to say we should expect less from kids' drama because kids don't know when they're being treated like idiots. They know.

[McNulty]

I have to say that this has been by far the best episode yet in this current series. As a fan who started watching in the Tom Baker years, I would of course been in favour of this reunion episode, but there was the nagging doubt that this could have turned out very badly indeed. There HAD to be a story to back up this reunion, or it would have looked too artificial, only there because it was possible to have been done. Thankfully, when I watched this, this was not the impression I got. Alright, there were some emotions involved, but for Pete's sake, Sarah Jane was an important part of the Doctor's travels for a long time. She was there when he regenerated, and she stayed with him long into the Baker years. And importantly, unlike most of his companions, she didn't decide to leave him.
It was good that she had this episode to get some closure, and it was great that K9 was there and played an important role in the story!
And while I agree that the defeating of the aliens was a bit of a cop-out, I didn't think that the whole alien threat was an afterthought to the story. It presented the Doctor with a choice - the change the Universe to suit himself, or to continue working to make the one we have better. Of course, no matter how tempting it might have been to take the easy option, he couldn't. He wouldn't have been the Doctor if he had.
This episode did give me cause to wonder how Rose is finally going to be written out of the series, when her time finally comes. Somehow, I don't see her and Mickey walking off into the sunset together...

[Quirkafleeg]

There's the sonic screwdriver, the psychic paper AND  the mobile phones that can operate over all space and that's at least two magic plot solving devices too many...

[IndigoPrime]

:: Somehow, I don't see her and Mickey walking off into the
:: sunset together...

Likewise. Of course, there's the distinct possibility that Mickey comes a cropper on their travels at some point.

[Quirkafleeg]

I'm just hoping that this series throws up somthing as good as the first Dalek story, 'I want my mummy' or the Rose's dad stuff, otherwise...

[Leigh S]

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

[Quirkafleeg]

... but it wanted to the be ... human! (sniff)

[Quirkafleeg]

Plus I thought it was actually tense and exciting

[Satanist]

So am I the only one who thought this weeks was the weakest since Who came back?

K9??? That was piss poor when I was a kid!

K9,old assistant,bloke from Buffy & touchy-feely doc. It was like some sad spods fanwankfic.


Saying all that I was never into Who as a kid so maybe missed out on loads.

Oh Aye and if I was Rose I'd be avin words with Dr, So the Tardis can go anywhere anytime but every two weeks we land back at my old council estate. Twat!