Quote: zooo @ June 8 2010, 11:45 AM BSTHaving a different writer for each episode (except for Moffat writing a few) is just really distracting for me.
Have you always felt that? Because it's always been that way.
Doctor Who... Page 521
Quote: Matthew Stott @ June 8 2010, 1:25 PM BSTHave you always felt that? Because it's always been that way.
Yep!
I knows. It annoyed me in the Tennant era too, but I felt that RTD was more in control over them than I feel Moffat is. (Although I have no idea of how it is or was in reality.)
I guess the difference now is that there's an over-riding story arc, rather than just individual stories with, generally, no connection. If it's the latter it doesn't matter how many different writers you've got. Unless two of them are Pip and Jane Baker of course.
Quote: john lucas 101 @ June 8 2010, 1:18 PM BSTOh, and any contemporary pop songs should not be allowed anywhere Who. Never. Not not no.
Haha.
Weirdly though, in one of the Master episodes a year or two ago, I LOVED when Here Come The Drums came in with no warning, when the thingies were released in their thousands to attack Earth. No idea why, as I hated the song beforehand.
I should have hated it, but it totally worked.
Quote: zooo @ June 8 2010, 1:31 PM BSTHaha.
Weirdly though, in one of the Master episodes a year or two ago, I LOVED when Here Come The Drums came in with no warning, when the thingies were released in their thousands to attack Earth. No idea why, as I hated the song beforehand.I should have hated it, but it totally worked.
I laughed when Eccleston boogied to Britney Spears, too; even though in principle I hate the very idea.
There was another brilliant scene with the Master singing along to something in his boardroom, or maybe just entering to it. What the hell was that...?
Probably bloody Scissors Sisters. Or something.
Oh it might have been, actually.
It was the Scissor sisters.
I can't decide.
Ah, thank you! Well I liked that bit. Maybe modern music worked for Simm's Master, or something.
Quote: zooo @ June 8 2010, 2:32 PM BSTAh, thank you! Well I liked that bit. Maybe modern music worked for Simm's Master, or something.
Never warmed to Simm as master. The old chap before I liked. But Simm just seemed to Doctor-ish. Wasn't threatening enough.
Bleach haired villain, never a good sign.
Quote: zooo @ June 8 2010, 11:34 AM BSTYep, she's brilliant. She just, at first, looks like she's going to be a bimbo.
Of the two two pints girls, she was the weaker one for me. Natalie Cassey definitely got more out of the script, although Smith was good. I do think she is over-exposed now though.
I agree, Natalie is funnier. I think they're both great.
I want Natalie to get her own show - I always thought she was the natural one to, until Sheridan got them all.
Quote: Nogget @ June 8 2010, 9:29 AM BSTI'm wondering whether the stories are originally much better, but at some point plot gets sacrificed in favour of action, during the editing. Take the last episode; there could have been resonances made between Van Gogh fighting his internal demons, and the external one, but this wasn't capitalised upon. Also, the comparison made between the misunderstood monster that was the alien, and the unappreciated 'monster' that was Van Gogh, was dealt with only superficially.
Everything about the episode was defiantly superficial. No contrast was made between the alien being blind and Vincent being a man who lives through his eyes. Incidentally the alien race appeared to be an updated Wirrn (ark in space) in that they swarmed parasitically through the galaxy. How one came to be on Earth was not explained. (Blindness doesn't keep you on one planet if you are used to travelling through space.)
Very little attention was paid to Van Gogh's real biography. I didn't expect to see him on the job, but no allusion was made to his addiction to prostitutes - or absinthe. He had two good ears and he wasn't even shown holding his famous pipe - let alone smoking it. This pretence nowadays on TV that no-one smokes (or has ever smoked) is completely ridiculous.
I kept expecting Dr. Gachet to appear and looked forward to some humourous exchanges between him and the Doctor about medicine (Gachet was herbalist - very discredited then). The script even called Van Gogh an impressionist, when he is in fact a post-impressionist.
To be honest it had the feel of something written by someone who had seen a Van Gogh exhibition on holiday and thought; "Wouldn't it be great if..."