Doctor Who... Page 862

Quote: sootyj @ September 10 2012, 9:49 AM BST

At it's best it's equal to New Who, at it's worst it's some what worse than Buck Rogers. But this idea it was a mythical wonder of scifi is just well bollocks.

View original

You've officially turned into a young person, the kind of spindly little dweeb who upon seeing the original Star Wars for the first time says: 'It was boring'.

The reason that Classic Who is so venerated is three fold - the storytelling was great, the acting was top notch and finally, they were putting out fresh new ideas, a lot of them based on actual science.

If you transposed the production values and special effects of New Who onto Classic Who, it would become abundantly clear just how good the older episodes were.

But I guess it's down to a matter of taste - you can sit there terrified as the Doctor and Teela are trapped in a Victorian lighthouse watching everyone around them die or you can watch men kissing, gay robots, dinosaur riding hi-jinx whilst receiving a lecture on gender politics.

I think it was just a fun episode. Made me chuckle. I think theres room for different sorts of stories.

Quote: Marc P @ September 10 2012, 11:35 AM BST

I think it was just a fun episode. Made me chuckle. I think theres room for different sorts of stories.

View original

BUT HOW DID AMY UNDERSTAND THE WRITING ON THE SILURIAN GUN???

Because of the psychic powers of the Tardis, been done loads of times before.

Quote: Marc P @ September 10 2012, 11:39 AM BST

Because of the psychic powers of the Tardis, been done loads of times before.

View original

My problem with the psychic translation argument is that I'm sure I've seen episodes where the Doctor or the Companions can't read an alien sign or computer or whatever to further the drama. Amy Pond couldn't even read what was written on River Song's cot.

Once the writers forget the rules or make up new ones for the sake of getting across their confused plots, the whole thing starts to unravel.

Well the cot wasn't in the Tards or was it ? Or the alien signs and computers??

Quote: Marc P @ September 10 2012, 12:11 PM BST

Well the cot wasn't in the Tards or was it ? Or the alien signs and computers??

View original

The tranquiliser ammo wasn't in the Tardis either. I'm confused now. Does the translation stuff only work when you are inside the Tardis, does the Tardis send out a psychic wave if you are in close proximity and what about when the Tardis disappears, which it frequently does, do you lose the translation ability? Or does it stay in your brain permanently?

'In the classic Doctor Who story 'Masque of Mandragora', the fourth Doctor tells Sarah that translation is a 'Timelord Gift' that he 'allows her to share'. This could possibly suggest that at least some of the translating ability comes via the Doctor himself. This is not entirely unlikely, as we know that he has some telepathic abilities.

I've always understood that the power came from the Doctor himself, not from his TARDIS. It's probably worth mentioning that according to the Two Doctors, the Doctor has Symbiotic Nuclei with the TARDIS, so perhaps there's some biological link between the two.'

Quote: Renegade Carpark @ September 10 2012, 12:00 PM BST

Once the writers forget the rules or make up new ones for the sake of getting across their confused plots, the whole thing starts to unravel.

View original

It's 50 years old, there's a lot that contradicts other stuff over the years. But the translation thing has been explained in the series before. Sometimes it doesn't work, like if the language is 'too ancient', as with the satan monster episodes.

Quote: Matthew Stott @ September 10 2012, 8:55 AM BST

He didn't write that one, he wrote '42' and the crappy Silurian 2 parter from a couple of years back.

View original

Thanks. Have amended my post. The Silurian story was not very good but it was probably better than the vampire one.

Quote: Marc P @ September 10 2012, 12:35 PM BST

'In the classic Doctor Who story 'Masque of Mandragora', the fourth Doctor tells Sarah that translation is a 'Timelord Gift' that he 'allows her to share with his pink sonic screw driver'. This could possibly suggest that at least some of the translating ability comes via the Doctor timey wimey jizz it's self. This is not entirely unlikely, as we know that he has some telepathic abilities and he's a dirty basterd..

I've always understood that the power came from the Doctor himself, not from his TARDIS. It's probably worth mentioning that according to the Two Doctors, the Doctor has Symbiotic Nuclei with the TARDIS for which he needed some cream from the clap clinic, so perhaps there's some biological link between the two.'

View original

Good grief MarcP what have you been watching?

Oh sorry, yes... that was DOCTORS.

Quote: sootyj @ September 10 2012, 9:49 AM BST

It's the veneration of old Who that still puzzles me. Who used to be a fun old scifi show with some fun USPs. Some times like Genesis of the Daleks, the darker edge, fun characters and wide open imagination allowed to be the best. Plenty of other times it was poor over used, over ambitious and frankly silly FX. Mixed with uneven tone, drab characters and leaden dialogue made it far worse.

At it's best it's equal to New Who, at it's worst it's some what worse than Buck Rogers. But this idea it was a mythical wonder of scifi is just well bollocks.

Sorry but true classic scifi golden age TV; Quatermass, Twilight Zone, Season 2 of Startrek, STNG 2-5.

Dr Who occaisonally makes it into that company. But most of the time it was a silly kids show and the bulk of the writers and actors acknowlege this.

View original

It's not veneration of 'old Who'. Sure there's lots to cherish - Philip Hinchcliffe, Tom Baker's first three super-creative years in the role, the scripts and script-editing of Robert Holmes, the production design of Roger Murray Leach, the mask and creature design of John Friedlander...

It's just that when you look at this, in the context on when it was written and broadcast and the resources with which it was made you realise what a thin piss-slice New Who mostly is. The best New Who shows I've seen were Midnight and Blink - if the show was like that more often I wouldn't be posting on here about classic Who or calling the Moffat a c**tmonger.

Who seems a victim of the almost socialist policies of the BBC of the 60s and 70s. Where directors and producers were encouraged to borrow old sets and costumes from other shows. No one cared how good the script as long as it went out every week and everything was very cosy and wanky.

I think the contemporaneous shows like Star Trek (which also had a tiny budget). Showed how even at the time Who boxed under its weight.

Quote: sootyj @ September 10 2012, 4:43 PM BST

Who seems a victim of the almost socialist policies of the BBC of the 60s and 70s. Where directors and producers were encouraged to borrow old sets and costumes from other shows. No one cared how good the script as long as it went out every week and everything was very cosy and wanky.

I think the contemporaneous shows like Star Trek (which also had a tiny budget). Showed how even at the time Who boxed under its weight.

View original

This is just ignorant crap, Sooty. Star Trek had a much bigger budget than Doctor Who, was made on film not video, in colour from the very beginning and had expensive special effects produced on an optical printer unlike Who which had 'live' model effects and subsequently fairly ropey early CSO.

Despite this Who is significantly better in terms of production design: Where Star Trek gives most of its aliens a mask, gloves and a long flowing robe to hide the absence of the rest of a costume, Who has full body prosthetics that were cutting edge for their time and are still remarkably good. This happens to be an area I know something about.

Look at the work of John Friedlander who designed the Ice Warriors, Sontarans, Zygons, Kraals, Draconians, Sea Devils and Wirrn and sculpted the original Davros mask. Compare his first Sontaran mask with those that came after or his Draconian mask with Moffat-era Silurian for example. The modern designs look very poor by comparison. The Zygon design is 38 years old and would still look good in the show.

The problem with most of you lot is (with the exception of kenneth) you don't actually know much about 'classic' who. You might have seen a dozen DVDs but that's it.

Dinosaurs on a Spaceship is more-or-less a rehash of a classic who story and none of you has even noticed. Now that I've told you you still probably can't even spot it.