Metamatic Forums Socialising The Green Room Doctor Who?

I think since 26 March 2005 the show's spent so long in not taking itself too seriously it would definitely have to go into hiatus to return with a changed attitude, but I agree, it's all too lightweight.

Are you sure that Torchwood is serious? weren't the original cast meant to be played by Kenneth Williams, Hattie Jacques, Charles Hawtrey, and Sid James as Capt Jack Hardon.



And I'd love to know what Alan Yentob's vision was!

I remember there was an article in SFX or some sci-fi magazine with a short interview and some 'new' 3D renderings of slightly revamped Daleks trudling about.

I wonder if I still have it. It excited me at the time!

”Squeaky bum time"

”Double squeaky bum time"

what the..? did the Doc’ really say those cheesy lines during the second episode of the ‘it started out ever so promising but ended up ever so disappointing’ recent two-part story about the reptilian Silurians.

But first, lets travel back in time to three weeks ago and Amy’s Choice, which was a story that couldn’t be awarded any points for originality, as the whole ‘is this real, or is that real instead’, no wait, it’s only a fiction of someone’s psyche, has as a plot been done to death, (particularly in Star Trek where it usually involves a Holodeck or Transporter malfunction).

However, I was happy to go back to the theme of strange goings on in sleepy village’s where nothing ever happens, and the theme of advancing oldies as a threat, and it’s similarity to the Mighty Boosh’s ‘Nanageddon’ episode actually went straight over my head though. Whenever I see a plot involving slow-moving people ambling about in a kind of daze amidst a setting of everyday normality I usually think about Simon Pegg’s Shaun Of The Dead film, well, it’s either that or it’s August in the year, and nearby to me in Edinburgh the Festival Fringe has brought the usual annual influx of performing zombies to town.

Amy’s Choice didn’t advance the bigger picture by much, but it brought a few more comedy moments with Matt, where we learned about his new Doc’s attitude to his companions while his dilemma was projected through a seemingly Freudian dreamscape. It’s only a light-hearted TV show, but couldn’t the viewer have been given a bit more deeper delving into the dream thing, or were we just left to amuse ourselves by reading more into it than the scriptwriters probably never bothered to intend in the first place.

When the psychic pollen was revealed as the catalyst to the events, and the Doctor as the instigator, was Amy’s pregnancy meant as a symbol of her hidden potential and the forces of change which she is no doubt scheduled to bring about in a future story. And Rory’s naff ponytail, did this mean that the Doc’ rather cynically views him as a donkey, or just an eager to please little puppy dog following Amy around. The Doc’s slightly seedy ‘pier-end entertainer’ alter-ego in the form of the Dream Lord was interesting, but his gloating over the Doc’s preference for surrounding himself with the young over the old, and casting his companions aside could have been explored in more depth.


The Hungry Earth/Cold Blood

I haven’t seen the Silurians since Pertwee encountered them in the dark back in the 70’s, so I was surprised when it became obvious that they were the ones journeying up to towards us from below the ground. This was a good episode up to a point, with mysterious holes in the ground and the enclosing bubble of darkness above ground creating an intense aspect to the events, and I was even hoping that Meera Syal was going to eventually join the Doc’ as a travelling companion as she seemed to be quite a potentially good character, but when the female Silurian was captured and had her mask removed I felt something of an anti-climax. I liked the idea of the Silurians having two faces, a scary fake warrior mask, and a real face below, but they were just too human looking under the mask. The subsequent story unfolding in the second episode involving the scientist, and the more enlightened Silurian, both being at odds with the military Silurian, just reminded me of a similar plot from Star Trek Voyager about space-going reptilians, who were also the former advanced species on earth before we upstart apes came along. And why was the scientist portrayed like an apparent sadist, initially eager to cut us open, and then latterly he became a kind of good guy in the proceedings?

The weakest part though was the inane scenes of fluffy 'debate' that took place between the chief Silurian and Nasreen, together with a stupidly bored Amy in an attempt to find common ground. This really was poor writing, and none of this lameness was helped as throughout the episode the Doc’s incessant harping on about how much better we can all be as humans, etc, was really grating. The worst episode so far, saved only at the end in the final moments by the somewhat disturbing erasure from existence of poor Rory.

Eccleston speaks out:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment_and_arts/10312426.stm

Interesting. "The culture of the programme" - it's good he has been able to voice his real reasons for leaving. He may have had a few 'wooden' moments, but on the whole, I thought he was a brilliant Doctor - perfect for a modern interpretation.

The current series is frustrating me. It's been getting less Who-like every week.

The episode with Van Gogh was interesting though a real let down for Richard Curtis. But they could have done so much more with it.

Why did the (rubbish looking and invisible, presumably to save money on CGI) monster have to even be in it. Can't they write an episode with genuine mystery and suspense, without aliens having invaded, or gone back in time?!

I'm tired of Earthbound stories.

And I'm not even going to mention the pointless and confusing mess of an episode with James bloody Corden in.

Totally lost direction

You just did! :p

Oddly enough, I felt that episode wasn't nearly as bad as I feared, although the football thing was cringingly bad

Mx

That was probably just so Matt Smith could show off, as I think he was training to be a pro footballer before he injured his back and got into acting.

Alex, sadly I know deep down that I’m beginning to agree.

In Vincent And The Doctor I found myself losing interest about a quarter of the way through. We had Tony Curran playing a reasonable if predictably clichéd Van Gogh, and a plot element that drew on his alleged Synesthesia but never took full advantage of the idea. We also had Bill Nighy as an Art expert, and Amy meanwhile just started to get annoying, it was all a tad boring. The bird creature was like a disfigured Muppet that had escaped from Jim Henson’s show, and Matt’s cumbersome and comical ’steampunk mirror machine’ was the only sci-fi highlight in the story. The idea of taking Vincent into the future to see the exhibition of his work was almost like an after-thought, it would have had its emotional content raised so much more higher if we’d not had to previously sit through a naff story about a giant invisible chicken running amok in the cornfields.


The Lodger didn’t feature David Bowieee, shame, or indeed anything remotely with his visual uniqueness masquerading as the villainous force behind the mysterious goings-on in the room at the top of the stairs. We had no physical adversary for the Doc to pit his wits against, what we had instead was a mild domestic comedy about flatmates, with the over-rated, and over-exposed James Corden being typecast as a fat bloke unnoticed by the woman he loved. Corden’s part could have been played by any other actor, and I suspect he was cast in this episode solely to time neatly with the World Cup, with his fantastic vocal contribution to the National Footie Anthem presently in the charts.

Again this was an episode that relied on Matt’s charms, and much more than ever before in this one, as without his witty performance there really was no story here. Because of Matt I enjoyed this episode much more than the Vincent one. I liked the Heath Robinson Scanning Device that the Doc built in his bedroom, in fact, I liked it so much that I’m going to make one of my own, and I’ve already started collecting junk to build it


In essence it’s a children’s show, but I think it’s losing the edge it needs to have to allow us adults to continue in sharing in the wonder of childhood imagination -

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/showbiz/ar...f-british-tv.do

And one day there will be a ‘Doctor Who On Ice’, coming to a skating rink near you soon -

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/showbiz/article-23834722-doctor-who-to-go-on-uk-tour.do