Be Excellent To Each Other

Written by a certain S Moffat. I think we'll be ok.

Yes, but I feel guilty wanking to it.

I don't.

One of my fav episodes...

Same here - along with 'Girl in the Fireplace' for me. Both written by the same person.

Hahah, I *knew* someone was about to say that

I like Billie though.

They should've got Baracko to be the new Dr. He'd rule.

Define older... I have been watching Dr Who since i was a youngster.

Plus it is on between 6-8 pm so never too late

I remember watching Sylvester McCoy's Doctor before it got cancelled. I can't have been older than 6-7.

I was born in 1974, and I remember Tom Baker

I was implying that Doctor Who is written with the thought that there is a sizeable adult audience, where SJA I suspect, isn't.

Also, Sally Sparrow... would

It is silly to view women as objects of desire and this sought of behaviour is not to be encouraged.

Bring back the real Mali A

Jesus wept.

Well done.

Who?

Look I have dificulty remember my name... so it is brilliant I can remember my first Dr Who

Of the five best stories in New Who, the bloke who's just taken over as head writer's been responsible for three (The Empty Child as you say, Girl In The Fireplace and Blink. The other two would probably be Father's Day and Human Nature for my money).

Obviously, Head Honcho Producer is a different role to Writer Of The Best Episode Each Series - maybe he'll be up to it, maybe he won't but I'm just saying this might not be the time to give up on Who.


I gave up on the series just after the Godawful Daleks In Manhattan 2-parter, only catching up relatively recently. You're right, it's rarely thrilling but personally I've found it pretty good fun most of the time. Obviously RTD wants to be Joss Whedon so much it hurts, but as unashamedly populist family drama goes it's miles ahead of anything else British TV's put out in recent years (see: Merlin, Robin Hood And His Merry Boyband, Primeval and so on).


I don't know anyone who thinks the emotionally mature themes are the best bit about the series. The best thing about the series is that it often does nice little sci-fi stories pretty well, with a generally engaging couple of central performances (depending on your personal feelings about Donna / Martha, natch).

Surely someone who wants emotionally mature themes is better served by, well, almost every other drama series on TV, with the possible exception of Heartbeat?

I was born in 77 and remember Tom Baker. And I was sad when he turned blonde after falling off the scaffolding thingy.

Merlin's brilliant, you fool.

Was a different actor ... he he..

Fuck me I am 35 this year......

new page and never work

I remember Jon Pertwee and wrote a letter of complaint to the Beeb when he changed to Tom Baker and I got a response!

And I'll raise your "Fuck me I am 35 this year...." to I'm 40 in six days

So you are 5years and 2 days older than me

Hello, Mrs A!

Outstandingly Good stories in nu-Who:

Dalek: Robert Shearman
Unquiet Dead: Gatiss
Empty Child: Moffat
Father's Day: Paul Cornell
Tooth and Claw: RTD
Girl in the Fireplace: Moffat
Idiot's Lantern: Gatiss
Human Nature, Family of Blood: PAul Cornell
Blink: Moffat
Utopia/Sound of Drums: RTD
Silence in the Library/Forest of the dead: Moffat
Midnight, Turn Left, Stolen Earth, Journey's End: RTD

Woefully bad episodes in nu-Who:

Aliens of London/WWIII: RTD
Love & Monsters: RTD
New Earth: RTD
Fear Her: Matthewe Graham - this was a one-off.
Rise of the Cybermen, Age of Steel: Tom McRae - another one-off
Gridlock: RTD
Daleks in Manhatten: Helen fucking Raynor
Voyage of the Damned: RTD
Last of the Time Lords: RTD
Sontaran Strategem/Poison Sky: Helen fucking Raynor (keep her away from the main baddies FFS, in fact just keep her away)


so really, RTD is gone, responsible for most of the howlers and a good few of the betters episodes. Other shite pedellers are one-off issues, hopefully never to return, it's just Helen Raynor we need to find some means of preventing from writing for Who again.

The first special this year is RTD and Gareth Roberts, who did the Shakespeare/Agatha Christie eps, which were whimsically decent. Though I suspect RTD will smash Tenth Doctor to pieces in these coming months ready for Moffat to take over.

Is K-9 still knocking about?

Not really - they can use him in Who but not the SJA due to him not being quite owned by the beed, much like your Daleks.

Whoops, seems I didn't know how to end that sentence so went for a mixture.

Seriously?

Utopia was okay but the resolution of Sound of Drums was terrible and Stolen Earth / Journey's End were part okay part a complete mess and saved mainly by Bernard Cribbins being awesome - new companion please.

The only concern I have about Moffat as chief bod, is that his episodes have tended to be the more clever/tricksy ones and a whole series of them probably wouldn't work. I'm pretty confident he knows this though so won't push it too hard - given he's the only writer to really play with the concept of time travel properly could mean the series arc gets a bit more coherent and less Deus Exy.

Not just the casting by all accounts, my source tells me that things have got quite unpleasent down in Wales and and that the shit is about to hit the fan.

He's a coprophiliac as well?

he doesn't like signing autographs?

There's abit of a theme running through that list as well. If Doctor Who had run through the 1990's, all of those writers (RTD included) would have been writing for the TV series then. Father's Day was so close to being a McCoy episode it hurt (you literally could have dropped 7th Doctor and Ace into there and it would have worked just as well). Family of Blood was also adapted from a 7th Doctor New Adventure.

The other theme is that most of those stories are traditional Doctor Who stories (aside from the Doctor-less ones) that fit nicely into the canon.

C'mon, spill the beans man!

This. Also: The Idiot Lantern might be the single worst episode of the whole of NeWho. And, The Sontaran two-parter was stupid but decently good fun, you fool. NeWho does Old Who.


Also this. Although I'm also slightly worried that the Silence In The Library 2-parter in S4 felt a wee bit like a compliation of Moffat's Greatest Hits (someone who's met the Doctor in her timeline but not his? The Doctor appearing on a TV to talk to someone? See Blink. The repetition of an innocuous phrase taking on a sinister connotation? See The Empty Child), leading to a slight concern he might be running out of ideas.

Yup, the resolution to Sound of Drums was fucking shite, which is why I put it in the fucking shite category above. But the set-up was amazing. Game of two halves.

I was impresssed with the end of series four - I'd no idea how they were going to resolve alll the loose ends, the Doctor/Donna business, the Doctor/Rose relationship (broke my fucking heart to see them parted, LOVED how it ended for them, well, two thirds of them) and all the other companions. You had Davros and the plot went some way towards making there be a point to all that Daleks in Manhatten shit. All in all I thought it was a much better job of doing what it did than I thought RTD would be able to do... and I cried about five times during the last episode. Wonderful stuff, imho. And yes, utterly ridiculous.

I've found rewatching the whole four series has seen the worse episodes improve a bit, with the exeptions of Fear Her, Love & Monsters, etc.

Basically there's been an awful lot of "jobs for the boys" going on, if you get my drift.

And I'd like to add that I'd like to see a new composer working on the series and Murry Gold having his eardrums extracted so he can never inflict his overloud bland shite on me ever again.

Mark Ayres said that he pitched for the series when it re-launched, and I'd love to hear him have a shot at the new series.

At the BBC? I'm flabbergasted!

Also, Murray Gold - I'd sooner they got Murray Walker to do the soundtrack. And Pendulum or Megadeth or Biotron Shelf to do the theme.

When you say "resolution to The Sound Of Drums", don't you mean "Last Of The Time Lords"?

Yes, see my lists above. Last of the Time Lords was gash. The build-up was ace.

Repetition?

Exterminate! Exterminate!



Also - Chinny, I'd like to see some more of the novels brought into it - fancy a bit of Lungbarrow when these specials come along? Or maybe the Moff is keeping that one back?

Let's see which episodes I thought were really good.


Really good:
Human Nature/Family of Blood (better than any Moffat)
Girl in the Fireplace
Father's Day
Utopia
Turn Left
That one on board the shuttle craft with the repeaty thing
And controversially: Love & Monsters

Quite good:
Martha's first episode
Most of series 1
Blink
Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead
Impossible Planet/Satan Pit
42
Planet of the Ood
Stolen Earth/Journey's End (Utterly stupid and preposterous but strangely good fun)


Good grief that was awful:
Idiot Lanter
Fear Her
Daleks in Manhatten/Evolution of the Daleks
Shakespeare Code
Sound Of Drums/Last of the Timelords

Anything else was just bland.

I haven't read any of them partly because many of the people who wrote them were insufferable cunts of the highest order on the old Usenet forum.

In other Who related news, on the wey back from Weymouth the other day I drove past a load of the huge quarries used in Doctor Who, including the planets of Segonax, the Cheetah people and Androzani minor. Oh and the house from Ghostlight as well which is on the front at Weymouth (they used a exterior shot) and is currently "Under Offer".

We should, as a forum, have purchased the house. I for one would welcome a BETEO commune in the style of Gabriel Chase. Including the monster in the cellar.........

LOL.

According to an article on the Register yesterday they looking at Lily Allen, Kelly Brook or ahem Rachel Stevens for the assistants role.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/01/05 ... octor_who/

I think Lily Allen would be great. The mind boggles at the other two suggestions.

Lilly. Fucking. Allen.

I was won over by Catherine Tate, I admit, but at least Catherine Tate is an actor. Lilly Allen is just a fucking rich brat who wants a new job every week and is terrible at them all. If that mockney hound appears on Doctor Who... all hope is lost.