A headline without Matt Smith hate? That's about as rare as a good Colin Baker episode.

Woah! Two Doctor Who threads in one day? Do we have a Whovian for a mod on duty?

Sh*t. Dalek. RUN!

ghost_who_walks: Woah! Two Doctor Who threads in one day? Do we have a Whovian for a mod on duty?

Wasn't the other WHO article about the World Health Organization ?

Jackpot777: ghost_who_walks: Woah! Two Doctor Who threads in one day? Do we have a Whovian for a mod on duty?

Wasn't the other WHO article about the World Health Organization ?

No, it was about that British band with the rock opera Tommy....

/if you are missing it, it's over here^

UNC_Samurai: A headline without Matt Smith hate?

A certain someone must have decided to lay off the trolling headlines for the holiday.

angrymacface: I don't know how I feel about the series being split up.

I'm happy to see how it goes... but then, I was raised on a very different style of Doctor Who to the one we get these days... more, shorter eps in small serials, with only occasional "over-arching" plots. So this new, Buffy-esque style Who was different for me... but it works, and I'm confident in Moffat's ability to do something else again.

I was worried about Torchwood when it was announced that it was going to have just five eps mini-series style... I though it I was going to feel cheated with only that for a year. Then we go it, and I ended up thinking that would could not have had more; it was just that intense. So change can be good for a show, if it's done well.

Let's face it, we're all already pretty keen to see what Neil Gaiman puts together - so that's a good sign, surely!

I'm greedy. For any show I watch, I want a new episode every week of the year.

Shows that shut down for 6-8 months tend to lose me as a viewer.

/Doctor Who is a notable exception, but I still resent the wait

Unsung_Hero: I'm greedy. For any show I watch, I want a new episode every week of the year.

Shows that shut down for 6-8 months tend to lose me as a viewer.

/Doctor Who is a notable exception, but I still resent the wait

you must really hate top gear, the only show .... in the world, that makes you guess how long each and every season will be... in the world

I'm torn on my feelings for a split season.

I am already waiting almost a year for even the first half only to wait another six months for the second half. The mid season cliffhanger will probably end on a note that is akin to blueballs to boot.

But what if this split season scheduling becomes regular? Would that mean that waiting for any new Doctor Who episodes would effectively shorten from, say, 9 months to 6 months? That could be viable in the long run if we can just get used to it.

And furthermore, what if #11 regenerated as a midseason cliffhanger? Tell me that you would be friggin' hyped for the next half.

I'm interested to see how Moffat is going to handle the two series year thing. I get the feeling he wants to make the series number match the number of years the new show has been on, but also it means breaking with the RTD style of Big Bad and the lead up to it. Honestly, I'm interested to see how it's done. I'm a big fan, and even I stop downloading tune out after the first five episodes until the end.

Confabulat: I still don't know what the hell was going on in the season finale.

My only problem with the season finale is that the Doctor couldn't have escaped the Pandorica - that's the only part that I'm not keen on, but I found the rest to be a fun ride.

As for explaining it, I'll leave that to someone better than myself; I think that I'd botch part of it somewhere. I understood it when I watched it and I still understand it in a broadstrokes way but I forgot the details.

itsdan: It's bad enough when shows with 20 episodes per season do this, but Doctor who which is what like 13 or 14? I guess it's still better than IT Crowd who muster up the courage to make 6 20 minute episodes a year.

Someone pointed out recently that the Vicar of Dibley takes the cake: they've produced 24 episodes (of varying lengths) over 13 years.

Doctor Who has uniformly been thirteen episodes since its return, and that's what we're getting in 2011.

/I'm trying to get over the fact that they only produced three episodes of Sherlock and that I have to wait another whole year for the next three.

itsdan: I do appreciate the British style of not killing a show by writing more than they can do well just to meet an arbitrary episode count, but it still ticks me off when they want me to get hyped up for a handful of episodes then say "okay hope you enjoyed that, we should have a few more episodes in say 7 months".



Last seen whistling and walking away from this post.

/Only three freaking episodes of Sherlock?! Are you kidding?
//The wall had it coming

Lord Binky: My only problem with the season finale is that the Doctor couldn't have escaped the Pandorica - that's the only part that I'm not keen on, but I found the rest to be a fun ride.

Actually, the only part that didn't make sense was Amy getting out of the Pandorica. I don't get how the past version of her touching the Pandorica caused it to open.

loonatic112358: Unsung_Hero: I'm greedy. For any show I watch, I want a new episode every week of the year.

Shows that shut down for 6-8 months tend to lose me as a viewer.

/Doctor Who is a notable exception, but I still resent the wait

you must really hate top gear, the only show .... in the world, that makes you guess how long each and every season will be... in the world

I only know two facts about Top Gear's season each year. And both of them are wrong.

Outshined_One: itsdan: I do appreciate the British style of not killing a show by writing more than they can do well just to meet an arbitrary episode count, but it still ticks me off when they want me to get hyped up for a handful of episodes then say "okay hope you enjoyed that, we should have a few more episodes in say 7 months".



Last seen whistling and walking away from this post.

/Only three freaking episodes of Sherlock?! Are you kidding?
//The wall had it coming


Liked the players in Sherlock, but Moriarty is a bit of an unsophisticated whiney knobend. Only hate I have on the series, though the second episode was a bit weak.

Matt Smith needs some sharpies to fill in the strange lack of eyebrows look.

MadSkillz: Lord Binky: Confabulat: I still don't know what the hell was going on in the season finale.

My only problem with the season finale is that the Doctor couldn't have escaped the Pandorica - that's the only part that I'm not keen on, but I found the rest to be a fun ride.

As for explaining it, I'll leave that to someone better than myself; I think that I'd botch part of it somewhere. I understood it when I watched it and I still understand it in a broadstrokes way but I forgot the details.

Deus Ex Machina and other lazy writing devices are par for the course of Doctor Who. That being said, I love the action, the fun, and the fact that you have this character that's seen so much shiat, good & bad, over 900 years yet still he approaches everything with this childlike optimism. It's endearing and catchy.
That one little paradox is my only complaint about The Big Bang, but it sets the whole rest of the episode up so I forgive it. Season 4 of the new series had the only rubbish finale IMO.

Besides, I look at Doctor Who as a sort of "Clarke's Law Fantasy," or, put another way, "Fantasy dressed up as Sci-Fi," so when paradoxical things like that happen, well, as #10 said, "wibbly wobbly, timey wimey stuff."

Ooh, hey, Rory's actor is pulling down name-credit! Awesome.

/What? He's amusing.

As was pointed out on another forum, one long-term reason for the split season might be to either continue to do them for the next few years, or switch the full season to the later part of the year, which in both cases will likely mean an increase in overall viewing figures for the season.
It also has the advantage of meaning there'd be an episode shown on November 23, 2013.

Dalrint: Ooh, hey, Rory's actor is pulling down name-credit! Awesome.

/What? He's amusing. kinda cute in a weird way

FTFY

NeoCortex42: loonatic112358: Unsung_Hero: I'm greedy. For any show I watch, I want a new episode every week of the year.

Shows that shut down for 6-8 months tend to lose me as a viewer.

/Doctor Who is a notable exception, but I still resent the wait

you must really hate top gear, the only show .... in the world, that makes you guess how long each and every season will be... in the world

I only know two facts about Top Gear's season each year. And both of them are wrong.

Guessing when a series of Top Gear will begin and how many episodes it will be is an ongoing, zero-sum game.

MadSkillz: Deus Ex Machina

*facepalm* He's a 900 year-old immortal alien with a time machine; the character itself is deus ex machina, so that's not so much a critique of the show as it is stating the blindly obvious.

/fish custard

Lord Binky: My only problem with the season finale is that the Doctor couldn't have escaped the Pandorica

Ah, but the Doctor from the future showed up and freed himself. Which creates a casual loop- the Doctor was free to rescue himself because he had already rescued himself. See also: "All You Zombies" and "By His Bootstraps".

rynthetyn: I'm still trying to decide whether all of Moriarty's behavior and mannerisms were supposed to be an act or not.

They were. He was shifting into and out of various persona, either to keep Sherlock off-balance or to simply piss him off. I've a feeling the next time we see him, the sing-song voice will be gone.

I also really liked the fake-out in the first episode; it wouldn't have surprised me if that actor had been cast for that part.

And Moffat deserves props for making something awesome out of what has to be the worst Sherlock story: A study in Scarlet is just a terrible, implausible introduction to the character.

I have to admit the whole split season thing has me a little ragey. Especially since I grew up on the classic show which managed to crank out something like 24 episodes per season, and that was with older actors like Troughton and Pertwee.

If I have any gripe with the new series, its that the stories barely have time to breath, or have time to really flesh out the guest characters or monsters.


GungFu:

Liked the players in Sherlock, but Moriarty is a bit of an unsophisticated whiney knobend. Only hate I have on the series, though the second episode was a bit weak.


Yeah, I couldn't tell where they were going with that character. Mentally deficient, or just batshiat crazy? I really hope they dial it back a bit when the show returns next season.

Old enough to know better: I have to admit the whole split season thing has me a little ragey. Especially since I grew up on the classic show which managed to crank out something like 24 episodes per season, and that was with older actors like Troughton and Pertwee.

...butthose episodes were only 20 minutes long and their "special effects" consisted of flash powder and "Man-in-suit!"

t3knomanser: Lord Binky: My only problem with the season finale is that the Doctor couldn't have escaped the Pandorica

Ah, but the Doctor from the future showed up and freed himself. Which creates a casual loop- the Doctor was free to rescue himself because he had already rescued himself. See also: "All You Zombies" and "By His Bootstraps".

I've heard of 'em, but not yet checked 'em out; I like a good time travel story.

That said, I'm sorry 'bout this, but I still don't see how that would work under scrutiny. Wouldn't the Doctor first need to escape the Pandorica before having the time travel device to go back in the first place? I may be overthinking this, which is why I just ignore that detail and enjoy the rest.

Dwight_Yeast: Old enough to know better: I have to admit the whole split season thing has me a little ragey. Especially since I grew up on the classic show which managed to crank out something like 24 episodes per season, and that was with older actors like Troughton and Pertwee.

...butthose episodes were only 20 minutes long and their "special effects" consisted of flash powder and "Man-in-suit!"


True, but thats because they barely had a budget to work with, and they didn't have all those fancy computers like now.

Though I guess you have point on running time. Since current episodes are roughly twice as long as classic ones, it still comes out to about the same amount of on air time.
I guess it boils down to story length. The average current story, unless its a two parter, is only about half as long as a classic adventure. So things do seem a bit rushed.

Btw, they're still doing basically 'man-in-suit' stories. Just that the suits are a bit better.

Old enough to know better: Btw, they're still doing basically 'man-in-suit' stories. Just that the suits are a bit better.

I was thinking more of the fact that modern special effects mean longer post-production time. The special effects take longer to create than the episodes take to shoot.

Old enough to know better: I have to admit the whole split season thing has me a little ragey. Especially since I grew up on the classic show which managed to crank out something like 24 episodes per season, and that was with older actors like Troughton and Pertwee.

If I have any gripe with the new series, its that the stories barely have time to breath, or have time to really flesh out the guest characters or monsters.


GungFu:

Liked the players in Sherlock, but Moriarty is a bit of an unsophisticated whiney knobend. Only hate I have on the series, though the second episode was a bit weak.


Yeah, I couldn't tell where they were going with that character. Mentally deficient, or just batshiat crazy? I really hope they dial it back a bit when the show returns next season.


That's how I felt too. The other characters are so well played and yet you have this maniacal, weird, and rather off-putting - albeit, sufficiently dastardly and clever - characterisation of the main protagonist. It just didn't feel right compared to how Sherlock and Watson were portrayed. Moriarty seemed way too over-the-top cartoonish. That being said, it's still early days, and I have high hopes for a better showing when he next returns. Great show, and I was pleasantly surprised at how engaging it was as I'm not really much into the Dr.Who side of things by the writer/ producer guys.

Dwight_Yeast:

I was thinking more of the fact that modern special effects mean longer post-production time. The special effects take longer to create than the episodes take to shoot.

Another good point. Curses, you got me again. *shakes fist*

Old enough to know better: Another good point. Curses, you got me again. *shakes fist*

I could never get into Doctor Who as a child (I grew up in the Baker/Davidson era, so I don't know why), but I've gone back and watched a most of the Tom Baker serials, and while many of them are awesome, some of them have moments that make me cringe. It's not so much the bad special effects or the no-budget sets -I can overlook those things and they're a good reminder of how dismal the 70's in the UK must have been: it's the writing. There are episodes which are weak and there are lines in episodes which are frankly terrible. I've actually felt myself feeling sorry for some of the things Baker had to say as the Doctor.

cretinbob: At least Fox isn't going to sodomize Torchwood.

Torchwood would most likely be into that action.

SilentStrider: Squee.

Actually, Jhonen Vasquez used to have an outspoken hatred for all things Gaiman.

BTW:

Oops, image failed to post: here is the link.

http://members.tripod.com/syko_pyro6669/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/ s quee.jpg

after drinking the heady wine given us by Russel T. Davies/David Tennant, it is ever so hard to even care how big of a cluster fark the new season might become.
CGI will never take the place of brilliant writing acted spoken by passionate actors.
hire more good writers and go back to low budget sets and more episodes. I loved the Daleks in all their plumbing glory.

darkvstar: CGI will never take the place of brilliant writing acted spoken by passionate actors.
hire more good writers and go back to low budget sets and more episodes. I loved the Daleks in all their plumbing glory

Do you know how I know you've only seen the cherry pickings of old Who?

I'm sooooo getting this.

I never watched the old Doctor Who when I was younger. I recently watched all the new Doctor Who episodes off Netflix and caught the most recent ones online.

There are an insane amount of Doctor Who episodes from the old series on Netflix. Since there are so many Doctor Who fans on here, which episodes are the really good ones from the pre 2005 series?

BadgerJoe: cretinbob: At least Fox isn't going to sodomize Torchwood.

Torchwood would most likely be into that action.

Approves: