Series 7 of Doctor Who commissioned

"Sherlock's success means less Doctor Who in 2012"? That's not a headline anyone here wants to read.

Meanwhile, BBC Head of Communications Sam Hodges has tweeted, "situation stays the same - 14 episodes commissioned, starting in 2012. How they will play out will be revealed at a later date."

Don't be so sure.

I love the good Doctor, but I adored the Sherlock series as well! Can't wait for a new series of that.

GET OFF MY WORLD!

Tin whistles are cool. (just like bow ties and fezzes).

Originally Posted by Back Alley Brawler Did you just use "casual gamer" and "purpled-out warshade" in the same sentence?

This makes perfect sense to me: Doctor Who is best watched in winter, in the dark.

I will never understand that outlook, because Doctor Who was never scary to me even as a kid. A bit creepy in a couple of episodes, but never outright scary.

As the disclaimer goes, "your mileage may vary". There's also a difference between watching, say, Tom Baker during the Philip Hinchcliffe-produced years vs. Tom Baker during the Jonathan Nathan-Turner-produced years (to say nothing of Patrick Troughton or Sylvester McCoy).

I doubt that new Who, for all its pleasures, will ever be as frightening for children as it once was for the simple reason that the new format simply doesn't generate as much suspense as the old serial. When there were at least three guaranteed cliffhangers in a story that drew the viewers in for over a month, the opportunity to get worked up about the show was much greater.

At least the new scheduling evens out the show over the course of the year. Moffat is correct in saying that waiting for many months between series feels a lot longer to children.

I dunno, I consider NuWho to have some genuine nightmare fuel, the Ganger's episodes are a good example of this I feel. If kids weren't scared by those monsters, I worry for this generation.

There's definitely nightmare fuel in NuWho, e.g. the Weeping Angels, the Silence, "Hey, who turned out the lights?", but those tend to rely more on shocks (though it's notable that those, like the Gangers, feature in two-parters). Consider the Daleks, which NuWho rarely does well*: They work better in an atmosphere of extended suspense, in which their implacable plotting mounts, e.g. Dalek Invasion of Earth, Genesis of the Daleks, rather than delivering shocks, e.g. Victory of the Daleks, Daleks in Manhattan.


* "Dalek" is the only first-rate episode featuring the old nemesis.

Hmm, I don't know about that...

While I certainly agree with you to a degree, I'm not sure about your examples.
Dalek Invasion of Earth certainly has it's "shock" moments, such as the Dalek rising from the Thames (a truly iconic moment), the Dalek spaceship trying to kill Barbara in a van and the final assault on the Dalek base. Also, Genesis of the Daleks, ironically was barely even a Dalek story, with Davros completely stealing the show. The Daleks were basically just background props for that story.

I also think Daleks in Manhattan gets a lot of undue flack and I would consider it to be pretty close to a classic Dalek story, with the Daleks working from behind the scenes on an unknown plan in part 1 and then the backstabbing in part 2.

Everyone agrees that Victory of the Daleks was pretty bad though.

Those shock moments, though, were all in the context of the overarching suspenseful story, something that the new Who achieved only occasionally with the use of the "Big Bad" trope.

In the case of Genesis, that's probably the best example of the show's use of suspense - keeping the familiar villain offstage for as long as possible while introducing a new antagonist for the Doctor. (It's only a shame that Michael Wisher played Davros just once as none of his successors were up to his performance.) As for the Dalek Invasion of Earth, the emerging Dalek was the cliffhanger cap on the eerie scene of post-invasion London, where it was clear something awful had happened but the Doctor didn't know what. Once the Daleks appeared, the question became what they were planning for the Earth and how to stop them. That kind of scenario becomes awfully compressed in new Who's single-episode doses, so consequently those have a lot more running and less investigating and planning.

Your summary of Daleks in Manhattan does at least fit it into the classic Dalek story structure, even if compressed into two episodes. Maybe I'll give it another chance.

Tennant's Doctor was not a pacifist. He was the "believes in the Devil" Doctor. The "acts like Jesus" Doctor. The "tyrannical God of Morality" and probably the most evil Doctor ever, since the first doctor (who once tried to kill a wounded ally because it would have been convenient for him). The Tenth Doctor was at his best (most honest) in the episodes where he locked up the Blood dudes for all of time in inter-dimensional pockets, and during the time where he decided to go full evil and screw the rules and literally play God in the end. I wouldn't be surprised if his 10.5 clone (with Rose) is the partial regeneration fated to become the Valeyard.

I actually liked Tennant a lot with Donna Noble tho. She put the big sister / mom style restraints on him, and he needed it. I think I'd have liked him a lot more if they'd have just made him overtly evil instead of evil with a veneer of happy/goofy.

As for Matt Smith's Doctor, I do think he is a lot different from Tennant's. Tennant's was loud and "whee" and bubbly energy crazy (veneer over the evil of course, lying to himself) whereas Matt has a distinctly absent-minded professor vibe. If he is channeling anyone, it is Pat Troughton (2nd Doctor). This definitely worked for him at first but the youth of his shared cast (Amy, Rory) as well as the general immaturity of Amy overall, kinda killed the "old beyond his years" aspect a bit due to, in my opinion only, the behind-the-scenes chemistry of the cast (which is probably just a delusion that I have, but it feels that way).

I wish Rory were the only companion this season and not Amy. I mean she is OK, but something about her character changes the tone of the relationship for me.

Lewis

I really liked it, actually. The space-planes and Sentai Daleks amused me.

On the other hand, I didn't care for the pig-men or hybrid Dalek from the Daleks in Manhattan episode.

The only highlight of that episode was:

WOULD. YOU. LIKE. A. CUP. OF. TEA!!!???


I kinda liked the Manhattan episode. And yes, mainly because it was more in keeping with Dalek nature rather than 'let's just bring them back because everyone loves the Daleks'. Really wish they'd do more with the Cult of Skaro.

I'm prepared to say that the first half is okay, with everyone in the bunker, then it just kind of all falls apart once the "new" Daleks turn up, with their horrible designs and a bomb that disarms itself with the power of love.

I liked the ep but I think your first half/second half critique is pretty accurate, the more I think about it. I liked the pirate ep too, just a bit of silliness thrown in amongst the heavy story arc plotline and the fans went ape... Neither are stand-out stories, but they weren't Horns Of Nimon level trash.