Dr Who

More of a love if you really look at it, but a great story can't wait for next weeks ep.

(20-04-2013 20:09 )kalel76 Wrote:  More of a love if you really look at it, but a great story can't wait for next weeks ep.

Overall another good episode but.....I know I keep harping on about it but tonights episode was a great example of what is wrong with Dr Who in my opinion.
It had all the ingredients for a classic episode, even to the point of having a fairly scary storyline if you were a very young child. It was going along great for 40 minutes then what to we discover in the final 5 minutes...oh the bogieman aka the evil monster terrorising the ghostly apparition is actually a sweet, harmless and lonely, love sick creature. Ah how nice, another happy ending thanks to the Doctor. Can't they just leave it that there is evil afoot and the Doctor will vanquish it!
Still can't have children being scared in this modern pc world I suppose.

The bad points out-weighed the good. The tacked-on monster ending felt like a schmaltzy rewrite of the Van Gogh episode. The need for an ultra-science show to tackle a haunted house means an inevitable letdown with the spooky explanation. And whilst Matt was channelling Michael Palin for once, he does often seem to strike all the wrong notes. And then there was the bit with Clara going to use the TARDIS which was a complete lift from Eccles' last episode.

Dougray Scott and Jessica Raine were good, though.

I can see where bytor and doddle are coming from. While I generally still enjoyed last night's episode to a degree, I was also frustrated by the insistence to reveal the alien / monster / ghost as a harmless pitiful thing who's just missing his soul mate.

Its clear why Doctor Who is now on earlier in the evening - more pc, less death involved, a focus to a much younger audience. For me one of the things that I always enjoyed about the show was there was always a threat. It was an appropriate theme to a show which should be about good vs evil. I just don't sense that same threat level anymore and the pandering and pussy footing around is letting it down. A ghost story should have been a fantastic adventure - instead it was only average. 'Average' is not why I became a fan.

A long, long, time ago in a decade far away I was a child. Doctor Who was on Saturday nights at about 6pm. It was the Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker era and was well before society was mind controlled by Looney lib dem ideals and mumsnet type pressure. I really did watch half the episode peering over the back of the sofa...and the other half getting ready to run behind the sofa. I loved every minute of it
Yes the monsters were basic and amateur looking but the sense of menace and suspense and the fact the Doctor always won through were what made the programme. These days half the stories are half-baked and the Doctor just runs around appearing clueless, firing off his sonic screwdriver at everything. Now it also seems the Tardis is a sentient, living being that communicates with the Doctor and his companion. I remember when it was simply a means of travel...or not, if we are talking a large part of the Pertwee era!
Last nights episode had great potential but was ultimately so flawed that it was disappointing.

And the same menace and threatening air to the show was there when I was a kid watching Davison, McCoy and even Colin Baker as the Doctor. It was great! As I got older there was threat all the way through the movie with Paul McGann and in the spin off media that he has appeared in as the Eighth Doctor. Christopher Eccleston pulled off the terror brilliantly, and seemed to be genuinely as terrified as his companions were when faced with the Daleks. David Tennant's story 'Blink' is probably one of the scariest I've ever seen. And yet here is Matt Smith - an actor of his undoubted quality deserves better stories - not just running around like a fool, waving a screwdriver and ending everything with a loved up conclusion.

A ghost story and the Doctor should have been wonderful, but not enough threat and ruined with a lovey dovey ending. Even last week's episode with the Ice Warrior disappointed. What could possibly be more terrifying than an alien soldier with his hands on a nuclear submarine with devastating weapons - should have been able to take us back to that time we know of hiding behind the sofa - but it doesn't quite get there. Desperately needs rethinking. At the moment the main reason I'm watching is because if I don't find out what Clara's story is all about I'm going to go bonkers wondering what happened. I just wish the main star had better, scary stories.

On the plus side we haven't had River Song....yet

(21-04-2013 13:15 )Regenerated Wrote:  And the same menace and threatening air to the show was there when I was a kid watching Davison, McCoy and even Colin Baker as the Doctor. It was great! As I got older there was threat all the way through the movie with Paul McGann and in the spin off media that he has appeared in as the Eighth Doctor. Christopher Eccleston pulled off the terror brilliantly, and seemed to be genuinely as terrified as his companions were when faced with the Daleks. David Tennant's story 'Blink' is probably one of the scariest I've ever seen. And yet here is Matt Smith - an actor of his undoubted quality deserves better stories - not just running around like a fool, waving a screwdriver and ending everything with a loved up conclusion.

A ghost story and the Doctor should have been wonderful, but not enough threat and ruined with a lovey dovey ending. Even last week's episode with the Ice Warrior disappointed. What could possibly be more terrifying than an alien soldier with his hands on a nuclear submarine with devastating weapons - should have been able to take us back to that time we know of hiding behind the sofa - but it doesn't quite get there. Desperately needs rethinking. At the moment the main reason I'm watching is because if I don't find out what Clara's story is all about I'm going to go bonkers wondering what happened. I just wish the main star had better, scary stories.

Totally agree with what you say. What annoys me the most is that the cast is great. They just need some well thought out scripts to work with and some decent direction. Doctor Who went off air with McCoy at the helm because the BBC did not know what to do with the programme. Should it be more adult or more childrens tv. It's rebirth with Eccleston was fantastic. I now fear it is slipping back into old habits.

Poster and Plot Synopsis Revealed For Neil Gaiman's Return to Doctor Who:

Hedgewick’s World of Wonders was once the greatest theme park in the galaxy, but it’s now the dilapidated home to a shabby showman, a chess-playing dwarf and a dysfunctional army platoon.

When the Doctor, Clara, Artie and Angie arrive, the last thing they expect is the re-emergence of one of the Doctor’s oldest foes. The Cybermen are back!