Rate 'The Next Doctor'

Yeah - you know what to do No posting until the episode has finished airing please... and if you don't watch teh credits then u iz not a tru fan!

Cheers,

Kate

minus 10 quadzillion out of 5!

Neil Tennant was miles better when he was in the Pet Shop Boys, and Morrissey wasn't even miserable enough by half.

I knew this series would take a nose dive the moment Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber wasn't announced as the new show runner.

To say I'm bitterly disappointed would be somewhat accurate.

You are a very naughty boy Sid....

a good fun romp, can't wait for Planet of the dead now, I've just finished the Mammoth Book of Zombie Comics so I've got Zombies on the brain.

Mmmm braaaaaainnnnsssssssss

3/5

Not bad. The Cybermen were a bit underused and were taken control of too easily. These are the second nastiest baddies in Doctor Who and they just fell too easily. Loved the flashback bit, very fanwanky. I liked the whole concept of "The Next Doctor". Wasn't too sure about the Cyberking. It seemed more like a DWM comic than an actual Doctor Who story. It really really did have its good moments but I'm afraid that Voyage of the Damned is still the best christmas special so far.

Gave it a four.

I reckon that The Christmas Invasion is still my favourite.

Johnstone McGuckian wrote:It seemed more like a DWM comic than an actual Doctor Who story...

I hadn't thought of it like that, but yeah!

Still, it was nicely atmospheric, Morrissey got better and better and better as the show went on, there were a couple of nice gags, Dervla Kirwan was incredibly sexy, and Baysan Tulu choked on his turkey.

All in all - it was okay for Christmas Day. Davison out of ten.

'A Matter of Loaf and Death', on the other hand - at least McGann out of ten...

I gave it 3/5 - which is pretty good for an Xmas Special!

I just felt the whole thing could have done with a good few extra minutes - it just seemed sketchy to me. The villain, Miss Hartigan wasn't particularly well-developed, although Dervala Kirwan was very good.

And an opportunity was missed into making this truly special, by making Morrissey just another human. RTD should have bitten the bullet and made him a future Doctor (not necessarily 11), because the reveal when it came was pretty ho-hum. Unfortunately it came halfway through the episode as well, I lost interest pretty quickly after that.

It wasn't bad, but it was a bit too simplistic - I know that these Xmas Specials are a different breed to the regular series episodes, but thats precisely why I don't really like them.

Still I wouldn't call it a total write off - it was good to see the Cybermen again, I liked the Cyber-King, and David Morrissey is always good value. And we saw all ten Doctors - that was great!

i thought it was fantastic actually- the best xmas story since the xmas invasion.

and wallace and gromit was excellent as well.

happy xmasxx

4/5!

Thoroughly enjoyable The ticket with the Xmas Specials appears to be keep the action big, fast paced, visual, entertaining. Don't worry too much about the actual sense of the thing, just keep it rolling.

It gets 4 for Tennant and Morrisey, who were damned fine Doctors. It also gets a 4 for things like "You make me into this". There were a lot of little moments, scattered throughout the story, that made me grin or want to applaud, and while it's not the best thing BBC Wales or even RTD have ever produced, it is a lovely bit of Christmas fun. Which is exactly what I came to it looking for, and I was definitely not disappointed.

Planet of the Dead next, then? Can't wait.

I have to say that as the end credits rolled my feeling was one of disappointment. 'The Next Doctor' started really well, indeed I throughly enjoyed the first 20 - 30 minutes. All the principals were right on the money with their performances , especially Dervla Kirwan who was clearly relishing the role. In particular the set piece in the graveyard worked excellently

But then it felt like RTD went into auto-pilot mode, and that he'd only given himself 24 hours to write the script from start to finish. Was there any explanation at all about the Cybershades? Why did the Cybermen made the kids from Oliver work for them? (and sone of those scenes were so lifted from "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom"). Miss Hartigan becoming the Cyberking was also pretty obvious. The giant Cyber thing was just the Pyrolvile reimaged a bit. And that's probably just the tip of the iceberg.

Yes folks, I really did feel let down last night, and still do this morning. And what about the amazing and brilliant ending Rusty? TND just sort of faded out into nothingness. It's getting to the stage where he really can't tell the truth from fiction.

So there we go, another Christmas Day episode fails to live up to the hype, and 'The Christmas Invasion' still stands head and shoulders above its successors.

*points upwards*

What Tony said.

It was good so long as they maintained the interest with the amnesia subplot. Once that was resolved, it just went into RTD-by-numbers. Deeply unsatisfying.

Still, I bet people on DWF are wetting themselves over the classic series clips...

Overnights 11.7 million. Amazing numbers for 6pm.

I went for 3/5 - it started well, but then seemed to just wander around looking for something to do until the Cyberking rose. I think the Doctors should have had their first encounter with Miss Hartigan a lot earlier as it would have made her a more interesting threat.

Perhaps for the first time in the last few years, Who wasn't the best thing on Xmas Day - A Matter Of Loaf And Death took that crown.

I thought it was entertaining enough....lovely production values.

and a giant robot that would make Prof. Kettlewell wet his pants !!

The Royle Family was the best thing on by far though.

Well, that was rather good. Wasn't it.

It was, wasn't it? Not quite as classic as Voyage of the Damned, but enjoyable, rompy, and the Cyberking was ace. As was Morrisse

And as for the fanboys who thought it didn't live up to the hype, because Morrissey wasn't a future Doctor, or because the Time Lords didn't whisk the Doctor off to Gallifrey or wherever, or because the 11th Doctor didn't steal the TARDIS... well, don't believe the hype in future, suckas!

Ooh I'm not a sucka Rich. I thought the second half was poorly thought out, hugely derivative and just - well disappointing. RTD clearly knocked it off in a hurry.

The Co=Ordinator wrote:Ooh I'm not a sucka Rich. I thought the second half was poorly thought out, hugely derivative and just - well disappointing. RTD clearly knocked it off in a hurry.

Well, according to The Writers Tale, he did!

The Co=Ordinator wrote:.... RTD clearly knocked it off in a hurry.

At the same time, it wouldn't have taken much to make it more interesting, in my opinion. Keep the mystery of the "11th Doctor" going longer, and give him a heroic send-off destroying the Cyber-King, and the story would have been better. And the villains really did need fleshing out. As it was, it kind of felt inconsequential.

I thought it was good, if quite predictable. I kept on irritating the woman's family by telling them what was about to happen and getting it right (the identity of the cyber-king, the nature of the next doctor, the use of the balloon, etc)... which, sadly, is the first time I've been able to do that consistently for a full hour....

Good first half. The story of the 'two Doctors' felt as if it should have had an episode to itself. The final 20 minutes was, to be polite, a bit of a mess. To quote Jim Royle: 'Ferocious ending, my arse!'.

Full review on the blog.

I kept waiting for Doc11 to appear...

Frank wrote:Good first half. The story of the 'two Doctors' felt as if it should have had an episode to itself. The final 20 minutes was, to be polite, a bit of a mess. To quote Jim Royle: 'Ferocious ending, my arse!'.

Full review on the blog.

You're right, but I have assorted disagreements about the ending.

Full review on the blog, at some point today. Read both, you know it makes sense.