Has anyone else fallen out of love with Doctor Who?
- Thread starter NakedMoleRat
- Start date
NakedMoleRat
Master Member
Pure gold.
NakedMoleRat
Master Member
I’m still cracking up over ‘Sentient McNuggets’ eating people with extra pickle!
Richard Baker
Sr Member
I liken it to watching the home across the street buy a classic vintage car, then each day you see dents, some left wing bumper stickers added, some cheap aftermarket chrome donothings,...
You try to remember how nice that car used to be and want walk over and ask the owners wtf are they thinking!?!
You try to remember how nice that car used to be and want walk over and ask the owners wtf are they thinking!?!
Cephus
Master Member
They're not, that's the problem. It's not the car, it's the owners.
Which is what I think the problem with Doctor Wno. I blame the BBC, not the writers and actors.
NakedMoleRat
Master Member
I sort of agree, but the show runner is responsible for the stories told.
Jodi Whittaker just doesn’t do it for me as the Doctor. She seems more like one of the “Almost People” trying to be the Doctor.
To be fair and so you don’t think I’m sexist, I was not a huge fan of Sylvester McCoy either. He was not a great Doctor in my opinion, as well as his stories seemed more like Saturday morning cartoons than Doctor Who.
Jodi Whittaker just doesn’t do it for me as the Doctor. She seems more like one of the “Almost People” trying to be the Doctor.
To be fair and so you don’t think I’m sexist, I was not a huge fan of Sylvester McCoy either. He was not a great Doctor in my opinion, as well as his stories seemed more like Saturday morning cartoons than Doctor Who.
cboath
Master Member
Ironically, both were done when the BBC didn't care one iota about the show. Coincidence? I don't think so.
As for the showrunner, it's hard to know how much to lay at his feet when you don't know what requirements/agenda they're forcing upon him either. If it's nothing, that's reaaaalllllly bad. If they're super controlling, doing better stories gets much harder.
Per the current way they've been doing things, you'll get at least a new doctor soon. Tennant's the only new doc to pass the three season mark, and his is Jodie's third, whenever they decide to fit it into their not packed schedule.
NakedMoleRat
Master Member
Right?!?
(Insert actors name) has been The Doctor from 2015-2021, completing 3 seasons.
(Insert actors name) has been The Doctor from 2015-2021, completing 3 seasons.
Cephus
Master Member
I do too. Always have. The actors can only do what they're told to do. I like Jodie as an actress in general. I just don't think she's a good Doctor. I like Chris Chibnall as a writer. He's just a terrible showrunner. The writers, who knows? I don't know how much of the crap comes from them and how much comes from above. I don't think anyone does.
The one thing that's certain is it needs to stop.
Jodie Whittaker hasn't put me off Doctor Who (though I don't think she's right for the role, even if she's a fine actress in her own right), but the dross writing and overt socio-political commentary taking precedence over storytelling has been painful. Poor writing, poor show-running, and sub-optimal casting is killing the love!
I've long maintained that the greatest female Doctor that never was, was Joanna Lumley. Then she appeared in the Comic Relief special and I was (i) overjoyed that I got to see her as the Doctor, even if it wasn't exactly canon (though it was a BBC production so maybe it counts lol), and (ii) crushed because I knew it meant she was unlikely to ever get the real role!
If you've never watched it before, track down Sapphire and Steel. Bravely written, challenging sci-fi from the late 70s/early 80s with Joanna Lumley and David McCallum - who I think could also have made a very good Doctor - that showcases her ability to be feminine, otherworldly, but with the spine of steel and ice that the Doctor needs to tap into when occasion demands.
I've long maintained that the greatest female Doctor that never was, was Joanna Lumley. Then she appeared in the Comic Relief special and I was (i) overjoyed that I got to see her as the Doctor, even if it wasn't exactly canon (though it was a BBC production so maybe it counts lol), and (ii) crushed because I knew it meant she was unlikely to ever get the real role!
If you've never watched it before, track down Sapphire and Steel. Bravely written, challenging sci-fi from the late 70s/early 80s with Joanna Lumley and David McCallum - who I think could also have made a very good Doctor - that showcases her ability to be feminine, otherworldly, but with the spine of steel and ice that the Doctor needs to tap into when occasion demands.
yaris
Sr Member
Off topic, but Sapphire and Steel was such a great and different show, from memory quiet eerie and interesting.....similar to X Files in a way, but the agents are elements assuming human form.......read the wikipedia on it, really intriuging....
"All irregularities will be handled by the forces controlling each dimension. Transuranic heavy elements may not be used where there is life. Medium atomic weights are available: Gold, Lead, Copper, Jet, Diamond, Radium, Sapphire, Silver and Steel. Sapphire and Steel have been assigned."
p51
Sr Member
DW is like Star Wars and Trek, it's polarized as what 'version' you fell for. The odd thing among the new DW fans, some I have encountered don't even know there was a show from the 60s to the 80s!
It took me a season or so to get used to a DW that had a decent FX budget as it always looked someone's audition reel for film school in regard to how much was in the budget for it.
Then the new series came out, which for the most part I liked.
I have noticed trends in the show in the new version over the years. For a while, the episodes were amazingly sad and depressing in nature. Then for a while, they were mostly horror stories. But the last season I saw (when I caught them, as I never could tell when new ones were airing as there was never a cohesive schedule, you never knew when they'd air), it was comically preachy and PC in nature. It really felt like the writers had a checklist of things they wanted to address with an agenda, whereas the series used to be neat stories in sci-fi and not a show for social messages. Whitaker wasn't what soured me on the show, but her inclusion was a symptom of what had; PC-centric writing.
In short, it hasn't been the fun sci-fi shows I used to love. It hasn't been for a very long time. Then there's the 'let's undo everything that ever existed on the show' mindset that has been around for a while. You start undoing everything the show was, then what's the freaking point of watching at all?
Recently, they've release three random seasons of Tom Baker episodes on Blu-ray and I have bought and enjoyed them all. Just the other night I watched, "The Talons of Weng-Chiang," and it made me sad how far out into left field the show has gone. It's almost as sad as watching the 80s version as it devolved into an unholy mess that the BBC apparently steered it toward so they could kill it at the time.
I used to be one of the biggest fans of the show. Now? The way things are now, I really wouldn't care much if it got cancelled again, and I can't believe I actually feel that way.
It took me a season or so to get used to a DW that had a decent FX budget as it always looked someone's audition reel for film school in regard to how much was in the budget for it.
Then the new series came out, which for the most part I liked.
I have noticed trends in the show in the new version over the years. For a while, the episodes were amazingly sad and depressing in nature. Then for a while, they were mostly horror stories. But the last season I saw (when I caught them, as I never could tell when new ones were airing as there was never a cohesive schedule, you never knew when they'd air), it was comically preachy and PC in nature. It really felt like the writers had a checklist of things they wanted to address with an agenda, whereas the series used to be neat stories in sci-fi and not a show for social messages. Whitaker wasn't what soured me on the show, but her inclusion was a symptom of what had; PC-centric writing.
In short, it hasn't been the fun sci-fi shows I used to love. It hasn't been for a very long time. Then there's the 'let's undo everything that ever existed on the show' mindset that has been around for a while. You start undoing everything the show was, then what's the freaking point of watching at all?
Recently, they've release three random seasons of Tom Baker episodes on Blu-ray and I have bought and enjoyed them all. Just the other night I watched, "The Talons of Weng-Chiang," and it made me sad how far out into left field the show has gone. It's almost as sad as watching the 80s version as it devolved into an unholy mess that the BBC apparently steered it toward so they could kill it at the time.
I used to be one of the biggest fans of the show. Now? The way things are now, I really wouldn't care much if it got cancelled again, and I can't believe I actually feel that way.
NakedMoleRat
Master Member
Well said.
phez
Sr Member
I think they the changed the dynamic between the Doctor and the companions and it sucks . I don't think I would have liked the dynamic even if they would have had a male actor play the Doctor as sort of a member of the team. I used to look forward to each new episode (don't get me started on the wampus release schedule) the last few seasons have been Meh.
NakedMoleRat
Master Member
I hated the whole Clara is the star of the show and the Doctor is her sidekick crap with Capaldi.
phez
Sr Member
Capaldi's run was a mixed bag (well I guess all doctors have good and bad). The final episodes of Capaldi (Mondasian Cybermen) were some fantastic DrWho. I really have seen nothing that grabbed me like that in anything since those episodes. It does not feel unique, It sort of feels like any other current series with DrWho characters put in instead of something unique. Maybe it's just me
MattBlack
Well-Known Member
Russell T Davis is returning as the showrunner.
Interesting. The BEEB must be throwing some serious cash to bring him back. They clearly know they need to course correct.
Interesting. The BEEB must be throwing some serious cash to bring him back. They clearly know they need to course correct.
INTO THE VOID
Member
I did not watch further more after the end at trenzalore
but the news today of the davis kind may make me leave that decision well behind
nothing but madman in a box love for doctor number ten --- the dream would be for him to come back again
yes it would be to be revist the past as i really dislike that current cast
but the news today of the davis kind may make me leave that decision well behind
nothing but madman in a box love for doctor number ten --- the dream would be for him to come back again
yes it would be to be revist the past as i really dislike that current cast
