Doctor Who IV - Everything Whovian - Would you like a jelly baby?

[protege]

A'ee A'h like me a bit'ah wooed A'h doo, doon tha be meen tah wood!!

Yeah, but they all kind of talk like that. I think I missed the part where graham got his revenge on Tim-Shaw.

[Elden]

River Song is set to meet Ian, Barbara and Susan in the sixth volume of her Big Finish series

https://www.bigfinish.com/news/v/riv...-final-chapter

To meet the god-awful recasts.

"Sexist Codger" Doctor, "generic overly posh woman with no personality or emotion" Barbara. Urgh, what a waste. They should've got back the actual original Ian and Susan even if it meant no Barbara that would be better than the terrible recast insult to the original.

[Jim Kelly]

I have nothing against the Doctor having a no-kill policy in normal circumstances, although it contradicts the Doctor in the original run where he may not have killed a lot but he was rather indifferent to people dying, I thought the Doctor was a jerk to Graham over Tim Shaw. This space-dude is like a million times worse than Adolf Hitler and Osama bin Laden combined--if he's allowed to continue doing what he's doing, Tooth-Face will destroy billions more. If killing him is the only way to stop that happening then he needs to be killed.

I could see the argument that Tim Shaw needs to be kept alive because he has information they need to restore the natural order. But the Doctor was unkind to Graham in saying he would become Tim Shaw if he was to kill him--as if people who are forced to kill assassins in the line of duty should feel guilty for trying to protect themselves and others from evil mass murderers. And it's really the Doctor who should feel guilty, because by being clever (recalling Tooth-Face to his home planet, instead of just killing him straight), she visited untold horrors upon the people of several planets.

The Doctor really is a two-faced polly-anna who creates more suffering for the people she interferes with and yet doesn't have the guts to own up to her own failures. Graham is just a normal Earth guy, he doesn't deserve her messing up his mind over doing the right thing. I'm glad he didn't kill Tooth-Face and found a better option--but he's the real hero, not the Doctor.

[Indian Ink]

This series has been both better and worse than recent previous ones. Out have gone the borderline Mary-Sue or at least all cosmically important companions, one which almost made the Doctor redundant. In have come more realistic human characters. Unfortunately I think the Doctor herself is now too human. I now have no sense all now that we are dealing with a character that appears human but seems 'off' in some vaguely scary way. A monster of sorts; but a good moral monster.

The acting has gotten somewhat spotty. I feel sometimes that we are viewing some young actors workshop whom have won some artist's grant to work amongst experienced established actors. I often find the Doctor and companions to be either overacting or seeming like cardboard cutouts. Only one stands out giving glowing 3D reality to the team, though also making the others seem worse by contrast, and that is Bradley Walsh. When Bradley Walsh's character Graham feels, I feel what he is feeling. I had no desire for there to be some random guy thickened with middle age on the show, but he's completely won me over. Demons of the Punjab was Mandip Gill's episode, but Walsh sole it from her with ease when Graham said goodbye to a man he knew was going to die but wanted to appear happy.

The stories have been, I'm not sure, good to OK I guess. The better ones though have barely seemed like Dr Who. The aliens often seem wedged in there as an afterthought. It's as though, with historical ones of them at least, that the drama were written and then they went; "Now, we have to stick some aliens in there."

[The Whovian]

I was petty underwhelmed with the whole season to be perfectly honest. Nothing really stuck out to me and makes me want to rewatch. It was not bad it was just boring.

Oh, it was bad. I have absolutely NO desire to watch this season ever again. NONE.

This will be the first season I feel this way about a DW season. So disappointing.

[ChrisIII]

I have nothing against the Doctor having a no-kill policy in normal circumstances, although it contradicts the Doctor in the original run where he may not have killed a lot but he was rather indifferent to people dying, I thought the Doctor was a jerk to Graham over Tim Shaw. This space-dude is like a million times worse than Adolf Hitler and Osama bin Laden combined--if he's allowed to continue doing what he's doing, Tooth-Face will destroy billions more. If killing him is the only way to stop that happening then he needs to be killed.

I could see the argument that Tim Shaw needs to be kept alive because he has information they need to restore the natural order. But the Doctor was unkind to Graham in saying he would become Tim Shaw if he was to kill him--as if people who are forced to kill assassins in the line of duty should feel guilty for trying to protect themselves and others from evil mass murderers. And it's really the Doctor who should feel guilty, because by being clever (recalling Tooth-Face to his home planet, instead of just killing him straight), she visited untold horrors upon the people of several planets.

The Doctor really is a two-faced polly-anna who creates more suffering for the people she interferes with and yet doesn't have the guts to own up to her own failures. Graham is just a normal Earth guy, he doesn't deserve her messing up his mind over doing the right thing. I'm glad he didn't kill Tooth-Face and found a better option--but he's the real hero, not the Doctor.

It seems that sometimes the Doctor's feelings on killing (and even weapons) are sort of are a bit inconsistent over the years, and I think it sometimes depends on the incarnation as well. Even the Fifth Doctor, despite being the "nice" Doctor, collected a lot of collateral damage in his final season, so much that Tegan left because of it.

[Jim Kelly]

With the Fifth Doctor that gave him some pause. Even with the First Doctor, when Steven chewed him out and left (temporarily), it made him reflect on his past actions. But we don't see the Thirteenth having those moments of self-reflection and questioning her moral authority. And I wonder if we would--since she has to put this face to the world that represents strong female heroes--the writers might not feel they can give her those cracks in the armour that previous incarnations had, for fear of being blamed for undermining a feminine archetype.

[Miles To Go]

James Marsters will be reprising the role of Captain John in a full audio spin off series from Big Finsih

https://www.bigfinish.com/news/v/captain-john-returns

[The Whovian]

Anyone know why the collection boxed sets are only available in the UK? It stinks not having them in the US.

[Somecrazyaussie]

With the Fifth Doctor that gave him some pause. Even with the First Doctor, when Steven chewed him out and left (temporarily), it made him reflect on his past actions. But we don't see the Thirteenth having those moments of self-reflection and questioning her moral authority. And I wonder if we would--since she has to put this face to the world that represents strong female heroes--the writers might not feel they can give her those cracks in the armour that previous incarnations had, for fear of being blamed for undermining a feminine archetype.

In retrospect, the Fifth Doctor was (apart from the Eighth) the one that suffered the most - Adric was killed on his watch, Nyssa caught Lazar's Disease (eventually dying in the audios), he was forced to destroy Kamelion, pushed to the point that he considered outright assassinating Davros and Tegan being sickened by all the death leading to her leaving. All of these experiences weighed on him heavily and that is why he went the distance in saving Peri.

[ChrisIII]

http://www.doctorwhonews.net/2018/12...-spoliers.html

New mini-trailer for the special, not much new footage but a soundbyte which pretty much confirms the villain.

[Somecrazyaussie]

http://www.doctorwhonews.net/2018/12...-spoliers.html

New mini-trailer for the special, not much new footage but a soundbyte which pretty much confirms the villain.

Yay! Yet another Dalek episode. FML looks like I'll be sitting this one out. Sick and tired of them being used all the bloody time.

[Kintor]

Yay! Yet another Dalek episode. FML looks like I'll be sitting this one out. Sick and tired of them being used all the bloody time.

I suppose this turn of events was inevitable. If anything can save Doctor Who from audience apathy it's the Daleks. Although I think the return of the Daleks so soon speaks volume of Doctor Who's credibility problem right now, for a show that only months ago prided itself on eschewing all familiar Doctor Who trappings and motifs.

It will be curious to see if the rumours of another Dalek redesign turn out to be true. Personally I didn't mind the 'New Paradigm' Daleks, helped to make Dalek scenes more visually interesting, over copy+paste CGI Bronze Daleks until they filled a room. But I do concede their softer edges and matte finish only served to anger fans. Yet that's not to say a new design over the 2005 Bronze Daleks is impossible.

I think an update of the Peter Cushing movie Dalek designs would be ideal:

[Jim Kelly]

Apparently the BBC has to use the Daleks or else lose the rights. But I'm not sure how that works. There were decades where no Daleks appeared on screen and yet the BBC was able to use them when DOCTOR WHO came back in 2005.

It's always seemed strange to me that in the 1960s, when it was the "Wild West" as far as respect for creative rights went, that Terry Nation was able to gain a legal strangle-hold on the characters when he was not the creator of Doctor Who.

I'm sure there's a dark, twisted history to all this that I probably don't want to know about. Most things with DW are.

[Miles To Go]

There were decades where no Daleks appeared on screen

Not true. The Daleks appeared every decade of the classic series, just not every year.