TheOldBill

TheOldBill / Member

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Doctor Who??

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Stats 25 June 2006

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I can't qute put my finger on the reasons why, but the latest season of Doctor Who is neither as good as the last season, nor as satisfying as Classic Who. The lead actor is every bit as talented as Eccleston, and is able (has been allowed) to portray a wider range of emotional responses, his character is much more in line with the Doctor's traditional English middle-class roots, and the production values are better than ever. Moreover, the season has included two of the finest Who stories ever, a comedy romp, trips to other worlds and a two-parter very much in the classic mould, and yet…

Pushed to an explanation, there are some major changes from last season to this.

  • There are too many two-parters for a 13-episode run, especially when one lot of villains feature in two of these. And the fundamental flaw at the heart of the new "Cybermen" upset this purist beyond measure.
  • A conscious policy shift away from last season's insistence on having the Time Lord in every scene has radically altered the feel of each episode. Last season, Eccleston dominated every scene while Rose looked on in wonder. We could go for long periods without seeing the Doctor in Classic Who, but the 45-minutes-including-recap-and-trailer format doesn't lend itself to this approach. When we do see the Doctor, it is commonly through the eyes of Rose or others, preventing us from getting to know this incarnation.
  • There is no end to the Torchwood references. We all know that RTD has been creating a Who spin-off for post-watershed broadcast, in which he can indulge his broader sexual fantasies, but Captain Jack won't be back on our screens until 2007, so why reduce Doctor Who to the status of a promotional device?
  • When did the screwdriver get its makeover? They got rid of the screwdriver in the 1980s because it presented too convenient a method of escape from locked rooms. Last season, Jack ridiculed the Doctor's equipment. (Ooo-err, missus!). The Doctor appears to have taken this criticism to heart, and redesigned the screwdriver as an all-purpose weapon. I'd like to see the odd episode in which the Doctor used his intellect or technical know-how to save the day, rather than have him use the screwdriver to blow things up, or else rely on rescue by the indefatigable and ever-resourceful Rose. Hey, give her her own show!
  • An overemphasis on the relationship between Number Ten and Rose. Squirmy in its own right – he's an extraterrestial, FCOL, and we are as pets to him. The Doctor doesn't need to be saying "Ooh, you've threatened Rose, now I am going to have to really sort you out!" He is the Doctor, and meddling and interfering is what he does!
  • Last, and by no means least, an experienced writer such as RTD should have been able to steer clear of such laboured foreshadowing of this year's "shock" ending.
Well, that's me off my soapbox. I wonder how things are going down at Dock Green? Perhaps RTD could be persuaded to do a Dixon for the emotionally-incontinent/sexually-liberated (delete according to taste) 21st century. No, Paul Marquess beat him to it with The Bill!
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