Y’know what? y’know what? Special 2 was actually pretty good. I’m really tickled that these specials, instead of being some big elaborate overaching super serious story are low budget goofy side stories that are reemphasizing character drama and writing over big story beat revelations, while bringing back two great actors with great chemistry having a blast.
Like this isn’t essential but it’s definitely reminding me of why I got into Doctor Who in the first place. It’s kind of stupid, has cool art direction, and is so incredibly cheap, but still a little scary.
thinking i will spend my Disney+ trial sub on binging these specials and then a bunch of the new series episodes i remember liking and then by the time it runs out i’ll have stolen the Chibnall years and can see how bad they are for myself
Everything ive read about these has me doctor who starved, its pathetic, i havent thought about this show in like 5 years lol. I just want to see david tennant and catherine mug a lot i guess and look theres a funny alien
the Chibnall years (and before them, the Matt Lucas year) were truly terrible. the last episode that was honestly worth watching was (appropriately also directed by Rachel Talalay) heaven sent, 8 years ago
Jodie Whitaker is great and was severely let down by the writing in her era. honestly, Jenna Coleman was at first too, and it was shocking how much better she was opposite Capaldi than Matt Smith.
the Matt Smith years were like one good episode for every five terrible ones but he was great on House of the Dragon so I don’t blame him either
Yeah matt smith had a good weird vibe that would have been really fun if he did a lot of weird fucked up adventures instead of just american-superhero comic esque The Greatest Threat Ever, Shocking Revelations you Never Saw Coming that will CHANGE DOCTOR WHO FOREVER stuff every ten seconds.
He’d have like, been really good in more episodes like Special 2.
Heaven Sent was the dark souls episode where the doctor was like dying a million deaths to punch through a crystal wall right? that episode completely slapped ass
I liked Capaldis last season a lot idk!! I liked Bill! All of his seasons take big swings which is what i want out of Doctor Who
BUT ive also seen 80s doctor who so if Whittaker’s seasons at least get fascinatingly bad that can work? for me?? the Amazon episode i quit at was infuriating but not-un-fascinating
Davies writes the Doctor as a sort of worldly travel show host, where as Moffat was into this whimsical aloof outsider vibe. Capeldi was way more likable pulling that off than Smith, whom I legit kind of hated.
Iiiiii really liked matt smith but i think i otherwise agree, i think because i never quite liked how Moffat in particular wrote him. he wants him to be the old man with a young mans face but… i like a lot of Moffatts writing and instincts for the show and even jokes, but he does have an obnoxious laddish Men Are From Mars Women Are From Venus streak and that means making the eleventh doctor both aloof whimsical and yet also kind of lecherous? like he had a handsome (though very distinctive looking, smith has uhh a very oblong face) young dude as his first showrun doctor and he leaned into some weird impulses
I really love Amy & Rory and think so much of that era hinges on those 3 characters/actors holding down the fort. but golly there is some weird shit with them reflecting on marriage and pregnancy and childbirth and parenthood and it’s all extremely het
the last time i had a “I’m off this show” moment (before the 50th anniversary special won me back!! fuck like clockwork every ten years!!!) was during series 7 which was split into a weirdly unsatisfying sendoff for Amy & Rory and a weirdly unsatisfying onboard for Clara. Who then grew into probably my favorite companion ever during Capaldi’s seasons lol, chemistry really makes this show so much of the time
Yeah it was weird to go from “The Doctor is literally flirting with another man, there’s gay people just ambiently around everywhere just existing but also being very gay in way that doesn’t feel token” to “Look we have a lesbian couple sometimes, meanwhile the Ponds have a baby who’s also the doctors baby because time stuff, this is central to everything and also the baby wants to marry the doctor this is one of the most important story beats in the series.”. Just a hell of a drop.
i couldnt tell if it was deliberately reactionary or if it was the show being passed from a gay dude writer* to a straight dude writer who decided “well shit i guess i’ll write what i know. and maybe the doctor kisses rory as a gag sometimes”
I can also kinda see again him wanting to lean into “the doctor is young and sexy now” for publicity’s sake… only so he could could then go “the doctor is old and sexy AGAIN” cue Capaldi THE PRESTIGE
which has less to do with the het thing more with the. having to do lots of flirty stuff with the doctor and amy and river and rory (as a gag sometimes) and doing that as a straight comedian writer guy
the show did take off in the US during that era so maybe it’s ultimately a slam on my stupid homophobic country* idk
*two of my favorite episodes in the smith era were written by a gay british guy who is also a raging transphobe so i promise im being tongue in cheek
You see how easy it is for me to start yammering about this show again?? Ive been activated. Is Donna’s subplot a metaphor for me, the lapsed Doctor Who fan??? Fuck it totally is
watching the second of these now… they’re cute enough but tbh they give me very little desire to start watching the new show again. the capaldi run pretty much ended it for me
see im into the specials nostalgia tour but im even moreso curious what gatwa is going to be like and what 2023-24 rusty davies wants to do with a new doc (and also more money than this show has ever had lol)
A ton of the classic series is on fuckin Tubi i guess! i am way more into slow pans across black and white stage sets than i was when i first tried to watch The Daleks like a decade ago. its actually got really great atmosphere. Also the Doctor causes the whole dilemma by being a petulant little shit and deliberately sabotaging the TARDIS (as seen above) and i love that
there some rights kerfuffle with the first Doctor Who serial apparently the son of the writer made a copyright claim. Hes also a racist homophobic transphobic antivaxxer. so yeah fuck that guy heres a pilot cut of “An Unearthly Child” the very first episode of Doctor Who
if you have 30 minutes and even a modicum of interest it’s well worth a watch. I love this episode it’s so eerie and bizarre. entering the TARDIS isnt a moment of wonder or a gag, its fucking scary! the Doctor basically kidnaps his first two human companions and electrocutes one of them! at one point he even does an evil laugh! when they undergo their first warp it knocks them the fuck out! (overlaid by a bunch of rad trippy 60s visual FX)
IIRC the following story is a bit of a slog about cavemen but maintains a weirdly grim atmosphere that’s like nothing else the shows done since. This was ostensibly meant to be a kids edu-adventure programme – the initial companions are even two teachers and their pupil. Its kinda hilarious that the series setup is brutally press-ganging them into the role
Ahh fuck i finally caught up on all these specials and i loved them and have way too much to glurge about and im already worried to turn this thread into sleepysmiles posting alone about Doctor Who so i’ll keep this post brief. for me at least my favorite non-cartoon* TV show is BACK BABEY and i was self conscious going in that this would be true – theyd get me by hiring back the showrunner who got me in the first place – and coming out, im just as self conscious because dammit it worked they fucking got me
just for fun though i’ll be a bitchy fan instead of a happy one: Murray Gold in 2023 is STILL MIXING HIS SHIT WAY TOO FUCKING LOUD there are pleasures in his big bombastic scores, im a sucker for the 11th Doctor Theme (overused as it was), but i really didnt miss being slammed over the head with an orchestra pit to the point that i can barely hear the dialog
also the first 30 seconds of “the star beast” are pretty funny for how frantically they try to summarize “hey remember when the Doctor waa played by David Tennant and he was buddies with Catherine Tate and he ‘had to’ mindwipe her for stupid technobabble plot reasons?? …no? Well, shit then the climax of this one isn’t going to make a lot of sense sorry just go with it i guess”
*i realized while watching these, and rewatching clips of my favorite old/new who bits that this shows ideal is as a fuckin live action cartoon. and not just the doofy slapstick or Doctor gurning and eye boggling like a literal cartoon character. I also mean like the big melodramatic finales and technobabble deus ex machinas, theres a baseline of acceptance i have for that when its already in an exaggerated animated world. Like some of my favorite dramatic storytelling and character arcs ever were in Adventure Time (my favorite yes-cartoon TV show); for me, Doctor Who is at its best when its only separated from that by the thinnest membrane.
Also when “wild blue yonder” ended i yelled “THAT FUCKIN SLAPPED ASS” one of my favorite doctor who stories ever. it most directly reminded me of an Eighth Doctor audio drama of all things, didnt expect that from these specials
and bigeneration rules i was so goddamn happy i hope a thousand old series continuity grogs shut off the episode in disgust. bring on Ncuti Gatwa
