Doctor Who: From Edwardian grump to Malcolm Tucker and back again

Re: It is not an unknown incarnation

Beyond the fact that he's The War Doctor, he's still an unknown - unless you've travelled to Saturday to watched the new episode, and have popped back to be smug about it?

Re: See also "The Valeyard"

This is very much what I am hoping for.

Re: Unmentionable?

He played a human called "Doctor Who". There is an entertaining speculation that he might be an aged Tennant-Hand (10.5 version), though...

Re: Excited to see what Capaldi brings

He does occasionally have a bit of a twinkle to his eye, when he's making fun of something, which I fully expect to be deployed as the Doctor.

Re: Doctor Who stopped with Sylvester Mccoy

With lot of running down corridors to pad the time ;)

What you mean is a good 4 parter like Day of the Daleks, The Dadly Assassin or Robots of Death

Re: Doctor Who stopped with Sylvester Mccoy

As somebody who is in his 40s and thinks of Tom Baker as "my" Doctor - I watched Doctor Who die under terrible scripts and pathetic budgets from Colin Baker onwards, Sly McCoy's episodes were truly dreadful (and not his fault at all).

I now have kids of my own and have very much enjoyed the rebirth of Doctor Who. As for story arcs - well I'd consider the lead ins to "The Silence" and the continual cross-overs with River Song's character to be incredibly complicated and equal to anything in the "original" shows.

I think you need to climb into your TARDIS and jump forward a few years and indeed move with the times, Doctor Who has moved on, although apparently you haven't.

Failing that - stop bloody watching it...

Re: Doctor Who stopped with Sylvester Mccoy

When the most acclaimed drama shows on TV are all long form story telling, it is indeed odd that 'new' Dr Who chose to go the other way.

Hint: when your leading actor won't do more than one series, you have a problem.

Re: Doctor Who stopped with Sylvester Mccoy

Mmm! I sort of agree, I like the new doctors Tennant & Smith. Not such a fan of Eccleston, but the writing is often infantile and non-sensical. It's a tough job writing for such a broad audience, but - please a bit less sponge-bob.

"This episode is going to have to be a blockbuster of epic proportions to live upto the hype being created by all the free publicity being given out for it."

Well it's tempted this Whodlum* into seeing if there's a reason to watch again.

Expecting the worse, hoping for the best.

*Whodlum - A fan of the series that was in it more for the OTT villains than the Doctor incarnations. (Cheesy, rubber suited monsters, the chewing the scenery Master, the monomaniacal Daleks and Cybermen... Ah, Heaven!)

Re: 80's Doctors

This.

Tom Baker had a few great episodes, but his theatrical acting style hasn't aged well. And there were a hell of a lot of duds too, not to mention an over-reliance on 'homages' to old gothic horror movies.

In fairness to Michael Grade, I think Colin Baker's portrayal suffered mainly from coming after Peter Davison's. Colin gave it his all – a little too much so – but the problem is that he and Tom Baker both have a strong theatrical acting background and it *really* shows when watching their stories on DVD. They both come perilously close to channeling Brian Blessed at times.

Peter Davison was very much a TV actor first and foremost and understood the medium's strengths and weaknesses. He gave a much more subtle, nuanced, portrayal. Casting Colin felt like a step backwards. Despite some decent episodes – I'm very partial to "Vengeance on Varos" and "The Two Doctors"* – Colin's tiresome schtick of repeating the same word three times, each louder than before – "Hammy? Hammy?! HAMMY?!!!—grated very quickly. Davison basically made the two Bakers' theatrical acting style obsolete.

McCoy was an inspired choice though, so it's a shame he was saddled with a bunch of scripts originally written for Colin Baker's portrayal for his first season. (And some very odd choices of scripts for the second.) His final season, on the other hand, holds up pretty well despite series' shoestring budget and the BBC's utter indifference to the series itself.

All that said, I'm still amazed the series survived the casting of Bonnie Langford. Poor Colin Baker. He never had a chance.

* (Patrick Troughton and John Stratton were clearly having a whale of a time, and we also got Jacqueline "Servalan" Pearce thrown in as well.)

Re: 80's Doctors

I grew up with Tom Baker's doctor; Davison's stories didn't start airing in the US until I was in high school. But I enjoyed Davison's nonetheless. True, that was at the height of my engagement with the show: a friend whose father ran a TV station got us a copy of The Five Doctors on VHS before it aired in the US (ha!), and I got to meet Tom Baker in person at one of his Boston-area appearances. So perhaps I'd've been happy with any actor playing the Doctor.

I didn't see all of the Colin Baker or McCoy stories as by that time I was in college and had other things on my mind (and for some years didn't even have a TV of my own, come to think of it). But when I caught the occasional episode I generally liked it.

Clearly opinions will differ, but so many writers - in the articles and comments - seem to believe that their low opinion of Davison's doctor is some sort of objective fact.

Re: The Goons, really?

Depends...

The original 23rd November 1963 broadcast was indeed followed immediately after by an episode of the Telegoons ("The Canal" episode).

Evidence: http://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/doctorwho/6405.shtml

The first episode of Doctor Who was also repeated the following week, on the 30th of November, due to the assassination of JFK on the 23rd overshadowing the first broadcast. The next episode of the Telegoons was not broadcast until the 7th of December – skipping the 30th. I can't find any scans of the Radio Times for the 30th though, so I'm only speculating that it was likely a casualty of the decision to show the repeat.