Quote: sootyj @ September 4 2012, 4:20 PM BSTStott is an enigma wrapped in a riddle buried in a pile of crosswords.
Stott genuinely doesn't like people criticising stuff. It's a trait I've never seen in anyone else. It's not the logic of the criticism, or the perceived fairness - he just doesn't like people criticising stuff.
Quote: sootyj @ September 4 2012, 4:20 PM BSTThere's almost some fun is swinging between a stinker like the one with Agatha Christie and a stone cold classic like the Drs Wife.
I think New Who fans have battered wives syndrome. You get constantly beaten, but there's always a promise that it'll change. Just when you are about to leave for good, you get thrown a little present and an apology and are made to feel special again.
And then the beatings resume.
Quote: Godot Taxis @ September 4 2012, 4:16 PM BSTI note Matthew that you haven't expressed your view on Asylum. Only told us that it was well reviewed.
I liked it, but I didn't love it; at least not on first watch, but there was a lot of good stuff in it. Felt like if it had more time it could have been much creepier, they should have a harder time of it amongst all those 'insane' Daleks; but with the episode length being what it is, and the way Moffat writes, there's barely time to pause. It wasn't up to the standard of the previous two series openers, but was a shite lot better than any of the series openers we had under RTD.
It was good, if not great, Doctor Who.
And Smith, as per usual, was perfect.
Quote: Matthew Stott @ September 4 2012, 4:29 PM BSTI liked it, but I didn't love it; at least not on first watch, but there was a lot of good stuff in it. Felt like if it had more time it could have been much creepier, they should have a harder time of it amongst all those 'insane' Daleks; but with the episode length being what it is, and the way Moffat writes, there's barely time to pause. It wasn't up to the standard of the previous two series openers, but was a shite lot better than any of the series openers we had under RTD.
It was good, if not great, Doctor Who.
And Smith, as per usual, was perfect.
That's a pretty fair review. I imagine under RTD an 'insane' Dalek would be one full of love and compassion and the Doctor would have to save these new caring, sharing, cybernetic life forms.
Quote: Godot Taxis @ September 4 2012, 4:26 PM BSTStott genuinely doesn't like people criticising stuff. It's a trait I've never seen in anyone else. It's not the logic of the criticism, or the perceived fairness - he just doesn't like people criticising stuff.
Not ture. I'll comment if I think the other person is way off. As does everyone else on here.
And I also criticise things. I've criticised this very show on this thread many times.
i remember an RTD opener with autons that was poor. The impossible astronaut wasn't good though and I believe that was an opener - or was it a season finale?
Quote: Renegade Carpark @ September 4 2012, 4:26 PM BSTI think New Who fans have battered wives syndrome. You get constantly beaten, but there's always a promise that it'll change. Just when you are about to leave for good, you get thrown a little present and an apology and are made to feel special again.
And then the beatings resume.
Except it aint a dinner for 2 at the Harvester or the nicest handbag at TK Max.
An episode like Dalek, Fathers day or Silence in the Library.
Is more like the keys to an MG with a pony in the back seat.
How ever shit it maybe Dr Who has the ability to blow all the opossition out of the water. With a rye smile, wit, bargain basement effects when it can be bothered.
nb with dialogue for companions. I think series 1+2 Rose and Mickey were actually pretty damned good. With Rose as a sort of engaging chav companion and they even had a proper naughty companion who was sent home as a punishment.
Quote: Godot Taxis @ September 4 2012, 4:36 PM BSTi remember an RTD opener with autons that was poor. The impossible astronaut wasn't good though and I believe that was an opener - or was it a season finale?
It was the first proper Who in 10 years of course it was rough.
Rough but fun.
Bit like your good self.
Quote: sootyj @ September 4 2012, 4:37 PM BSTHow ever shit it maybe Dr Who has the ability to blow all the opossition out of the water. With a rye smile, wit, bargain basement effects when it can be bothered.
There is no opposition at the moment. But if you want to go back a few years, the best episodes from ST:TNG, Stargate, Firefly, X Files, etc. are far, far better then any recent episode of New Who.
Just like lifeboats, the script editing is 'women and children' first, which means we have to get dumbed down storylines and emotion filled cliches instead of decent sci-fi.
That's not to say that the newer sci-fi shows don't owe a huge debt to Classic Who, they all do and most acknowledge this fact.
I'd say as good.
The Problem with Asylum and moffat's writing in general is what I was trying to allude to in my writing exercise post earlier. If you give Moffat a character who has one leg, he'll find some way of not using him or making the character bipedal again. He never works with what he's got and that's bad technique.
Given the character of the Daleks and their established convention of mind-controlling humanoids for slave labour, he introduces a new concept of 'nanoised' corpses with ridiculous head stalks. And seemingly mixing up the Daleks with the cybermen he introduces a ridiculous sequence of the new assistant being 'turned into a dalek' by shouting and neuro-linguistic programming and wearing Dalek hair curlers.
Asylum isn't really about the Daleks at all. You could easily replace them with the Cybermen. The point is a good writer doesn't just constantly invent things - even in SF - but uses what he has. The end result is more satisfying and powerful - and it it's not like the original Who material is limiting.
Quote: Godot Taxis @ September 4 2012, 2:37 PM BSTDid anyone notice how the dialogue of the new assistant is exactly the same as Amy's or indeed Riversong's.
'Coupling' suffered from that, too. Most of the girls spoke like the blokes.
Quote: Renegade Carpark @ September 4 2012, 4:52 PM BSTif you want to go back a few years, the best episodes from ST:TNG, Stargate, Firefly, X Files, etc. are far, far better then any recent episode of New Who.
The movie version was just about tolerable, but every single TV episode of Firefly was utter guff.
Quote: Kevin Murphy @ September 4 2012, 6:06 PM BSTThe movie version was just about tolerable, but every single TV episode of Firefly was utter guff.
This I belive to be true, though in fairness after episode four I hurled the boxset in the dustbin.
As for who, I think it is no coincidence that the best episode of last season was written by Gaiman, this is because this stuff is what he does - he is not a sitcom writer or an author of gay soaps or turgid luvvie romcoms. Just as the best episodes of Star Trek were written by Harlan Ellison and Theodore Sturgeon, and the best episodes of Blake's Seven by Tanith Lee.
That is not to say RTD or Moff have not got it very right on occasions, but they both ran out of ideas very quickly, and ideas, intriguing twists of reality, are what makes Who work.
Finally I feel safe to say.
Firefly was boring and Dolls House was boring and incomprehensible.
Quote: Tursiops @ September 4 2012, 6:20 PM BSTThis I belive to be true, though in fairness after episode four I hurled the boxset in the dustbin.
As for who, I think it is no coincidence that the best episode of last season was written by Gaiman, this is because this stuff is what he does - he is not a sitcom writer or an author of gay soaps or turgid luvvie romcoms. Just as the best episodes of Star Trek were written by Harlan Ellison and Theodore Sturgeon, and the best episodes of Blake's Seven by Tanith Lee.
That is not to say RTD or Moff have not got it very right on occasions, but they both ran out of ideas very quickly, and ideas, intriguing twists of reality, are what makes Who work.
To be fair to both Moffat and RTD, they have written many, many episodes of Who, Gaiman has written one. Yes, a brilliant one, but we'll probably never know if he would be still knocking it out of the park every time by the time he gets to his eigth story. (He's brilliant of course, so there's a good chance he would, but it's speculation)