An anniversary Dr Who special? Based on comic by Pat Mills and Dave Gibbons...? And there's no thread for it? Jeez... they'll come round and take your geek cards away, folks!
Anyway... I enjoyed that. A whisker short of an hour, and zips along at a decent pace. Meep, the spaceship, the Wrarth, are rendered with remarkable fidelity to Gibbons' original designs and the plot maintains the broad strokes of Mills' story.
I suspect a big part of the success (or not) for the viewer will be how one takes (or not) to Catherine Tate. I've never particularly cared for her, but I always liked Donna as a companion, not least because it finally took out the unwelcome romance aspect between the Doctor and his companion, so I really enjoyed seeing Tennant and Tate back.
I'm sure there are gammon all over the internet losing their shit about the non-binary/transgender representation in the story but, hey, I'm OK with that. :D
It was great fun, and I'm very much looking forward to next week's special.
Just watched it on Disney+
Weird use to watching on ABC. I enjoyed it, good to see Tenant and Tate back. Looked like it had some decent $ spent on it, putting that Disney money to good use. Not read the original Mills story which Doctor was it. Looking forward to story 2 now we got the reintroduction out of the way.
CU Radbacker
It's good! Nice to see Pat Mills and Dave Gibbons in the follow-up Unleashed program. I liked the Tennant-Tate pair up in the first place, they do seem to be enjoying themselves if the behind-the-scenes stuff is to be believed. I stopped watching during the Matt Smith era, which got too convoluted for me, and didn't manage to catch any of Jodie Whittaker's. They keep asking during the show why the Doctor's come back with his old face... well it got me watching again!
Quote from: Le Fink on 26 November, 2023, 04:11:30 PMI stopped watching during the Matt Smith era
You should watch Peter Capaldi's final year, it got much better then.
Quote from: Jim_Campbell on 26 November, 2023, 10:58:31 AMI'm sure there are gammon all over the internet losing their shit about the non-binary/transgender representation in the story but, hey, I'm OK with that. :D
DOctor Who has been committed to diversity since at least 2005, when it first returned, but I thought it felt less forced and more true-to-life than it often did in the Chibnall era, apart from that slightly weird line about the "male-presenting Doctor". Did Donna even know about his regeneration into Jodie at that point?
Quote from: Radbacker on 26 November, 2023, 01:38:08 PMNot read the original Mills story which Doctor was it.
It was around 1982 according to Mills (in one of the emails he sent to his subscribers recently, an excerpt from his forthcoming
Pageturners book), when Peter Davison was the Doctor.
This was just a tv script, not a published story.
Quote from: Richard on 26 November, 2023, 04:32:17 PMQuote from: Le Fink on 26 November, 2023, 04:11:30 PMI stopped watching during the Matt Smith era
You should watch Peter Capaldi's final year, it got much better then.
Ack, completely forgot about his stint. Thanks! Just shows how little attention I've been paying.
Quote from: Richard on 26 November, 2023, 04:38:30 PMIt was around 1982 according to Mills (in one of the emails he sent to his subscribers recently, an excerpt from his forthcoming Pageturners book), when Peter Davison was the Doctor.
This was just a tv script, not a published story.
Star Beast...? That's definitely not correct — the story was published in Marvel UK's Dr Who Weekly in 1980, featuring Tom Baker as the Doctor, with Dave Gibbons providing the art. Script is credited to Mills & Wagner, but John and Pat wrote all their stories separately for those early Dr Who issues. (John has said he was contacted by the BBC about this specific episode but declined the credit (and money) because he wasn't involved with the story at all.)
There might be some confusion because a quick google suggests that the story was
originally a Mills/Wagner pitch for the actual TV series, but it didn't go anywhere.
But, regardless, it was definitely a published fourth Doctor story in the weekly comic.
(https://i.imgur.com/E0W8zR6.jpg)
Quote from: Richard on 26 November, 2023, 04:32:17 PMYou should watch Peter Capaldi's final year, it got much better then.
I quite liked Capaldi's first season — his spiky and decidely
alien Doctor was a pleasant departure from the cuddliness of Tennant and Smith. I
loathed the 'cool uncle' iteration of Capaldi's second season, but his professorial turn in his third, coupled with the surprisingly effective dynamic with Bill and Nardole, was genuinely great. I would happily have watched a couple more seasons of that, TBH.
Quote from: Richard on 26 November, 2023, 04:38:30 PMQuote from: Radbacker on 26 November, 2023, 01:38:08 PMNot read the original Mills story which Doctor was it.
It was around 1982 according to Mills (in one of the emails he sent to his subscribers recently, an excerpt from his forthcoming Pageturners book), when Peter Davison was the Doctor.
This was just a tv script, not a published story.
I suspect you may be thinking of
Song of the Space Whale, which started life as a Tom Baker story, later becoming a Peter Davison story, then a Colin Baker one before finally being recorded by Big Finish starring Colin.
Thank you both for the correction!
My understanding from memory is that Wagner and Mills had worked up a pitch to the Beeb with those Early WDr Who Weekly stories in the late 70s, which were rejected (as too unfilmable?), but there was enough interest for them to ask Mills for more pitches, hence the Space Whale?
Dez Skinn, upon hearing that Mills and Wagner had some unused Who stuff approached them to do the comic strip for the Weekly
Enjoyed it. The thing zipped along. Didn't lag. Didn't feel full of logic holes. But that the hell was going on in the credits music? Sounds like a choking raspy frog throughout. Oh well. I liked the rest of it.
Not a good start for me I found the story quite dull but the biggest problem with the overall story was that their was no tension. The other problem is that I just do not like the companions/side characters which form an important part of the Doctor. This problem for me was running back to Capaldi's Doctor. Apparently Catherine Tate played one of the doctor's companions we could not remember her at all and I think the problem here was that from Tenants days are that after Rose I just didn't find here compelling or interesting enough. I will see the last two specials but not sure if I want to continue with the Doctor.
It was pretty good and used Mills + Gibbons story to support the theme of the episode really well. Better than a lot of recent Who, but not as good as I hoped. Though fair to say I was pretty hyped for this one so it had a lot of work to do.
But again with the annoying sweeping score!
I have just watched it, and found it to be fun, well-paced, funny in parts, and just what I was hoping it would be.
I liked the plot twist in the middle.
My only gripe is that the new version of the theme tune is almost unrecognisable.
I don't mind the intro theme. It's OK, despite being the usual RTD Hollywood bombast. It certainly sounds better than the pure orchestral version that we'd all previously been able to watch. But that outro/credits arrangement is just dire. (Well, it's the mix more than anything. That raspy grinding rhythmic instrument doesn't work at all and is the most prominent sound.)
Have to say the boy child hated it. As we settled down to way he exclaimed "What is that? that's nothing like the proper theme!". He was disgusted. I just huckered down waiting for Murray Gold's inevitable assault on my earnodes.
If the Star Beast is anything to go by, RTD2 is going to be very much like RTD1
It reminded me why RTD Who is so mhuch better than Chibnalls - he understands that character is shown through dialogue and action not "how doess that make you feel?" conversations. Theres a bounce to it Who hasnt had for years
It also reminded me why I fell out with RTD1. He has absolutely no interest in tidying up any plot points - loosy goosey catchy meepy. Just a minute or two devoted to the plot nd beefing up some of the connective tissue (the Doctor realising the Meep was a risk, the Meep - or reining in destruction - the giant fiery blasts across London just reverse themselves - any chance of RTD explaining the curent state of the post Flux universe were obviously very optimistic!
He also has the devil in him - the Trans angle was handled really well, until it wasnt. The Doctor cant understand "letting go" because he is "male presenting"? Really? Way to undo the good work up til then in fitting the theme into the story. When you have Gallifrey Gals, Council of Geeks and MR TARDIS himself raising their eyebrows in unison with the Nerdrotics of this world, you may have just given in to your button pushing impulse a little too far!
So, it seems RTD will be picking up where he left off, which was to be honest me cheering him out the door. I'm sure there will be some good individual episodes, but RTDs wilful "plot is for M**g-M**gs" will likely just grate on me, sadly.
Oh, and I do think the best Star Beast material was the stuff cut out - the Wrarth Warriors sitting down for tea and cake was prime RTD you would have thought, but again, the plot is stretched as thin as it can be to fit around the Doctor/Donna stuff
Quote from: Jim_Campbell on 26 November, 2023, 10:58:31 AMAn anniversary Dr Who special? Based on comic by Pat Mills and Dave Gibbons...? And there's no thread for it? Jeez... they'll come round and take your geek cards away, folks!
Anyway... I enjoyed that. A whisker short of an hour, and zips along at a decent pace. Meep, the spaceship, the Wrarth, are rendered with remarkable fidelity to Gibbons' original designs and the plot maintains the broad strokes of Mills' story.
I suspect a big part of the success (or not) for the viewer will be how one takes (or not) to Catherine Tate. I've never particularly cared for her, but I always liked Donna as a companion, not least because it finally took out the unwelcome romance aspect between the Doctor and his companion, so I really enjoyed seeing Tennant and Tate back.
I'm sure there are gammon all over the internet losing their shit about the non-binary/transgender representation in the story but, hey, I'm OK with that. :D
It was great fun, and I'm very much looking forward to next week's special.
This^^^ with the caveat that the music was annoying as feck!! really don't need emoting music to tell me its exciting or sad!