The RTD Era

Yeah, down with big and exciting things happening in Doctor Who!

Beatly wrote:
I can justify it by adding a reminder that all posts should have "in my opinion" at the end, because that's what it is: my opinion. In my opinion, that's the worst story yet.

I tend to add an "in my opinion" to people's posts automatically. I think that after three years of DWF, it's been conclusively proved to me that the vast majority of posts don't deal with piffling little things like fact.

I mean, we all know that The Runaway Bride is the worst story of RTD's reign, don't we?

In the bottom twenty, maybe...

The Runaway Bride? Didn't think much of it at first, but it gotbetter over repeated watchings. Mainly because of Donna.

stanmore wrote:I tend to add an "in my opinion" to people's posts automatically. I think that after three years of DWF, it's been conclusively proved to me that the vast majority of posts don't deal with piffling little things like fact.

A smart chap once said "Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth." I think this often applies rather well to episode discussion.

stanmore wrote:I mean, we all know that The Runaway Bride is the worst story of RTD's reign, don't we?

Nope.

Zoltar wrote:A smart chap once said "Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth." I think this often applies rather well to episode discussion.

It's my opinion that Timelash is one of the best serials of the entire original run and therefore I believe it to be some breed of fact. More opinions, however, regard it as a fact that it's actually a load of rubbish. Opinions can differ, facts can't.

Beatly wrote:
It's my opinion that Timelash is one of the best serials of the entire original run and therefore I believe it to be some breed of fact. More opinions, however, regard it as a fact that it's actually a load of rubbish. Opinions can differ, facts can't.

I like Timelash. That's a fact...

stanmore wrote:
I mean, we all know that The Runaway Bride is the worst story of RTD's reign, don't we?

I can't dislike anything with that motorway chase...

Exterminieren wrote:I can't dislike anything with that motorway chase...

Quite right too

I have been known to garotte people who dislike The Runaway Bride... but apparently we're trying to get a reputation as 'the nice forum'...

i like timelash- although probably not for the right reasons...

Stick a motorway chase in the middle of Timelash, and you've got six better minutes of padding than random bitching.

And Donna was rubbish in The Runaway Bride. Go on then, garotte me. Dares ya.

barnaby salton wrote:i like timelash- although probably not for the right reasons...

Well, I'm sure you enjoyed being in it.

Timelash sucks by the way. Big time.

stanmore wrote:And Donna was rubbish in The Runaway Bride. Go on then, garotte me. Dares ya.

I can't possibly garotte you. You're far too nice.

I shall kick this chair instead.

*stubs toe*

Owwww!

I love the Runaway Bride It's my favorite Christmas special actually!
And Donna was brilliant (in my opinion!)

Another fan of Runaway Bride here. And Donna in it.

Zoltar wrote:Another fan of Runaway Bride here. And Donna in it.

Yep^^
actually, Donna's my favorite NewWho companion, which makes series 4 my fav', for all the fun she brought to the show, and how her relationship with the Doctor was very different from before, with Rose and Martha. Donna liked to confront and challenge the Doctor--and to slap him!--and sometimes she had such funny lines that I can't imagine working with any other companion, maybe it was also Catherine Tate being a brilliant, very talented actress, too, but the result is here:
DONNA ROCKS !! LONG LIVE DONNA!

Rich Flair wrote:Yeah, I thought the stuff about the kid and his dad was awkward and confused. Fair enough that we are suposed to hate the Dad for being mean to the family, but it seems like we're also being told that he's bad for ringing the police about his faceless mother in law. Which was surely the sensible thing to do.

...not in the context - a police force that was clearly dodgy and employing a cover-up, rather than trying to help the people involved.

Dingdongalistic wrote:...not in the context - a police force that was clearly dodgy and employing a cover-up, rather than trying to help the people involved.

Actually, a Police Force employing a cover-up under the orders of a mysterious but powerful organisation known only as "Torchwood", who have clearly moved to contain and study the phenomena.

Dave Webb wrote:

Dingdongalistic wrote:...not in the context - a police force that was clearly dodgy and employing a cover-up, rather than trying to help the people involved.

Actually, a Police Force employing a cover-up under the orders of a mysterious but powerful organisation known only as "Torchwood", who have clearly moved to contain and study the phenomena.

I salute your attention to detail!

The era started off very well with series 1, but just hasn't sustained itself. I've often suspected that RTD really shot all his creative bolt on the first season, and has more or less been going around in circles (and ever decreasing circles at that) ever since. I think he should have left at the end of series 3, actually, I'd probably be feeling much more generous to the era than I am right now, when I just can't wait for it to be over.

codywillis1 wrote:The era started off very well with series 1, but just hasn't sustained itself. I've often suspected that RTD really shot all his creative bolt on the first season, and has more or less been going around in circles (and ever decreasing circles at that) ever since. I think he should have left at the end of series 3, actually, I'd probably be feeling much more generous to the era than I am right now, when I just can't wait for it to be over.

I think creatively, some of the ideas in Series three were quite good - particularly the disturbing undercurrents of the final episode. I think the problem was to quite a large extent structural with series three, and that it had the potential to be as creatively interesting as series 1 was - certainly, I found it more interesting as a whole than series 2.

However, the overall direction of series 4 I found uninspiring, to say the least (and I did - I even desisted from reviewing Journey's End, something I think I deserved a medal for!). That said, I thought Midnight was brilliant.

Dingdongalistic wrote:
I salute your attention to detail!

You mean you watched that season without playing "Spot the Torchwood reference"?

The simple truth is, it was a Gatiss script and I'm very partial to the writer's other work, so I was paying careful attention. Mark Gatiss is the one of the few Y2K5+ writers who's prone to Old School behaviour; for example, both Unquiet Dead and Idiot's Lantern could have been 2 parters, and possibly 4 parters with a 25 minute run time.

I also thoroughly enjoyed Season 4; the "arc" was subtler than normal, but present, and the possibility that it was Donna's story we were following (with the let-down of Moffat's Annual Doctor Worship) interested me.

But that's just me. I can generally find something I enjoyed in any season bar 23.

I was, as you'll doubtless recall, hugely disappointed with Series Four - 'The Unicorn and the Wasp', 'Silence in the Library', and 'Turn Left' were okay, and 'Midnight' was fantastic, but the rest* was pretty poor (apart from 'The Doctor's Daughter', of course, which was just, just, awful).

Series Three, however (and taken on the whole), could well be my favourite series/season of Doctor Who ever - and I'm including the Hinchcliffe/Holmes era in that...