I skipped forward to Dalek. I feel like there is some back story here that I've missed but it was easy enough to figure out the the story since they basically told it. The Dalek was annoying because of the voice. The episode was the best of Dr Who I've seen so far, not that it means much. I did like it though.
Apparently Dr. Who used to be really interesting in the 60's. And by interesting, I mean people only had three channels so you really had no choice but to like the show.
Well, that part's at least plausible if the writers had only watched the very first William Hartnell episode. I mean, the first (1 of 3) companion(s) is the Doctor's granddaughter, who apparently lives on Earth most of the time.
Yeah, now it's so much better with 1'000 channels of "bukkake on the stars", and "watch the fat man eat pure capsaicin, and cry".
All the Doctors I have seen have something interesting to offer. My favorite episode is "Genesis of the Daleks". I really like the way the classic episodes drew you in. In today's ADD culture, it's easy to see why the pacing seems so slow. I personally find the pacing of the modern episodes somewhat frenetic. However, back to "Genesis" I found it genuinely compelling and creepy. Sure the FX are cheesy, but it's a measure of the quality of the writing and acting that after a while you forget about that and just get sucked into the story. Something like what happens in Japanese puppet theater where the puppeteers are dressed in black as a signal to the audience that they are "invisible" and the audience in turn completely tunes them out.
Genesis is regarded as the best of the Classic serials and could have easily slot into the early seasons of TOS for it's social commentary.
I find the modern episodes quite tedious. In classic Who, the Doctor had to work and investigate and innovate. Now, the eps revolve around the sonic (screwdriver) miracle device that does all.
I suspect that there is a modern trend to have a trade-off of characterization over plot. (Possibly because 'all the plots have been done already', but that's a generalization for another thread.) This shows up in the current series of Doctor Who in the tendency to pick on the Amy/Rory relationship every few episodes. So you're right that the plots haven't tended to be very intricate or involved, but at the same time I think the main characters have been more "up close and personal", for lack of a better phrase, than in what little I've seen of old Doctor Who.
It is funny, going back to rewatch the old episodes as a grownup--especially after the later Baker years ones. I remember The Doctor as a bit of a clown, but when he'd show up, even if he was initially suspected of whatever the menace of the week was, he immediately conveyed an air of authority and took charge of a situation. (Heck, as a kid, I thought Sgt Schultz on "Hogan's Heroes" was an idiot. As a grown-up, I realize he knew EVERYTHING that was going on. But if he knew, that made his life more complicated, so he just looked the other way. ) That said, a good parallel between nuWho and Who Classic is Sherlock Holmes. Read the books. Or watch the Jeremy Brett "Mystery" episodes. Then compare it to the Robert Downey Holmes. I was literally shaking my head as they showed the trailer. " Because when I think 'Sherlock Holmes' story, I think 'lots of explosions.'"
It might interest you to know that the guy currently running Doctor also launched another series.... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherlock_(TV_series) I'm told they cast the new Doctor and the new Holmes at the same time.
If you're talking about Tennant Who, I can see that, but that's not the case with the Eleventh Doctor. As for Moffat Sherlock being Moffat Who, he said in an interview that they're completely opposite and he's right. One loves humanity while the other is a sociopath.
Examples where Matt Smith has waved his magic wand and problems are solved, cause in the last few episodes alone we've seen solutions as highly technical as a loss of faith and two cases of a father's love.
You obviously haven't yet watched the festering turd that is "Closing Time".....oh but you have haven't you, and killing Cybermen with love is better than the sonic?
It wasn't the sonic now was it. And besides, Craig rocks. You could certainly benefit from one of the Doctor's lifestyle makeovers.
This season, the Doctor has saved the day by -Using the Silences abilities to turn humanity against them -Letting the "siren" do it's thing, then letting Amy perform CPR -Building a makeshift TARDIS and tricking the House into activating a TARDIS failsafe -Using the sonic screwdriver to destroy some gangers -Assembling a team to save Amy -Psychology -Solving the puzzle -Letting Rory save the day -Solving another puzzle -Letting the guest star save the day The season before that, the Doctor: -Wrote a computer program and scolded the aliens -let Amy solve the puzzle -bluffed the Daleks with a cookie and let Amy solve the puzzle -let the artificial gravity fail and save the day -used the sonic screwdriver -solved the puzzle -let the guest star save the day -let Van Gogh defeat the alien, let Amy try to save Van Gogh -let the guest star save the day -used the sonic screwdriver to rig a universe-saving device/sacrificed himself/let Amy save the day by remembering So, barely any sonic there.
Are you kidding. He may not do the final solve with it always. But it has become an all around tricorder deluxe. He walks into a room and scans the place, looks at a non existent screen and gets most of his answers. It's a medical scanner too. Back in classic Who the sonic screwdriver opened doors and locks and had a lance attachment.
I just assume the old one was an old one, and he got an upgrade from the future. Possibly in the Time War. Now, apparently, the TARDIS makes them as well.
How is that different from waving around a big magnifying glass? It's also worth pointing out the the 11th Doctor is almost always wrong the first time he guesses what's going on, making the readings he gets from the sonic pretty much useless.
Anyhoo, Tex, I recommend taking a look at the Tom baker "Genesis of the Daleks" episodes. It's classic, like they say, and is full background on the Daleks. And yeah, they all talk like that.
The biggest tragedy of Who is that so much of Troughton's run was lost. Tomb of the Cybermen is my favorite of all time, and Troughton was a great doctor, one of my very favorites.
I haven't had a chance to catch up on my regular shows that I already like, so this is on hold until then. It's hard to watch something like this right after you watch a phenomenal show like Breaking Bad. I know it's apples to oranges but the apples are the best apples ever grown, picked and hand delivered by super models and the oranges seem like they're from some kind of weird orange slice can and loaded with unnatural preservatives that you get at a really low end supermarket, scratch that, gas station.
I've finally gotten into Breaking Bad. Found a streaming site, and started with season 1, episode 1. I'm now up to s02e11.
