My rewatch of New Who

[burrunjor]

I decided to have a rewatch of the first 7 seasons of new who which I've not watched back properly barring maybe the odd episode here and there for close to ten years.

I didn't think I'd last long, but I just finished The End of Time today and overall the RTD 1 era was a lot more enjoyable than I thought.

Okay my overview of the era. Basically I think the first 7 years of new who are fine as a tv show, indeed as a version of DW in its own right. It does NOT work as a sequel to the original, despite the odd reference and character. It's written for all intents and purposes as either a clean reboot, or a loose sequel. It has a new core characterisation of the Doctor and all of his enemies, apart from the Daleks. Most are even given new origins like the Cybermen and the Master, it's also more of a mix of a soap opera and sci fi/ fantasy, like say Buffy or Spider-Man, where as old Who was more HG Wells and Dan Dare. It's also got a bit of a supernatural twist to it with the science being more like magic, as well as other fantasy tropes like curses, prophecies, ancient lovecraftian horrors etc, it's also in some ways a lot darker, others less so. On the one hand there is considerably less visceral horror, the Doctor overall is a lot less ruthless, and he doesn't get his hands dirty when fighting bad guys as much in terms of killing them directly or even just inflicting actual acts of violence on them, (I'm baffled for instance at how little fighting Eccelston and Tennant two of the youngest, tallest and fittest actors in the role did. Okay the Doctor's not exactly Bruce Lee, but still all the classic era Doctors did a little bit of fighting if they needed with some like Pertwee and Tom Baker being full blown action heroes. Eccelston throws one guy into a wall, Tennant has two sword fights and that's it in 4 years. Hartnell's Doctor who was played by an older, less fit actor, who was playing the role as someone older than him did more fighting than that alone. Well not so much fighting as smashing people over the head with sticks and shovels but still LOL.) However the new series is much darker in that the Doctors life is a lot bleaker and characters story arcs tend to end on a more pessimistic note and the universe feels more like a broken shell of its former self than classic who.

Again wanting to reinvent the idea of DW that way is not bad at all, any more than making Dracula more vicious and sexy in Christopher Lee's time was. I'm the very person that says classic who's continuity can't go on forever and it's stupid to want it too, and that the only way DW will truly reach the level of say Sherlock Holmes or Dracula is if we are allowed to do remakes, alternate sequels etc, that give subsequent producers a chance to be more creative, not be bound by classic who's continuity if they don't want to, and for classic who to stand as a work in its own right. That's the only way to save DW.

Sadly the makers of new who didn't think that far ahead and tried to make their version a remake, a sequel and a reboot at different times which ultimately caused it to rip itself apart in the end, as all of these different mediums inevitably pulled at it from different angles. Still for its first 7 years at least it remained largely consistent within itself and like I said if taken as just a loose sequel to the original, then yeah it's fine in its own right. More than fine. Love it or hate it the RTD era at least was very original when it aired.

It created quite an interesting blend of the slightly more cynical, low key British sci fi series like Quatermass, classic who and B7, and the then contemporary angsty, sexy, soapy, melodramatic American genre shows like Buffy/Angel/Xena/Smallville. That ended up being a good mix, as both styles surprisingly complimented each other by limiting the others worst traits. On the one hand the cynicism of the British style stopped it from getting too wangsty like some American genre shows can be, on the other the angstyness could maybe stop it from being too dry like some of the British shows were. This style would later be used by the likes of Primeval, Merlin and Being Human ushering in a new golden age of genre shows in the UK.

Overall I still wouldn't rate the Davies era as highly as the best eras of classic who. The Pertwee era is more consistent, the Tom Baker, Troughton and Sylvester McCoy eras hit greater heights, the Hartnell era is immeasurably more creative and indeed even the subsequent Matt Smith era I find to be more consistent, but I can't deny that RTD 1 was an era that kept my interest right the way through.

I'd say in a way it's probably most like the Pertwee era with a more earthbound setting, a more straight forwardly heroic Doctor in David Tennant, who is also a bit more dashing, greater reliance on recurring enemies, and a big family of people the Doctor works with back on earth. In a way Matt can be seen as the modern day Tom to Tennant's Pertwee being the more alien Doctor who took us back into space again after a period of the Doctor being too cosey and domesticated on earth (and who brought the show to America.)

In terms of rankings I'd say.

Best Doctor: Overall David Tennant. I'll be honest here, I actually don't think there's much difference between Tennant and Eccelston. It's funny for all RTD pushed the all about change mantra, 9 and 10 are by far the most similar Doctors of them all. Really can anyone point to any major differences in characterisation between them? Other than minor quirks like Allonsy vs Fantastic? I suppose you could say that Eccelston hated the Daleks more, but so did Tennant up until Evolution of the Daleks. Eccelston could easily have gone through that development. I mean again I think the Doctor should always have the same core characterisation and they did in classic who (more than New Who eventually would.) Still ironically I think at first RTD just wrote the Doctor as completely the same from 9 to 10. He basically always wanted a brooding, sexy Angel/Xena style Doctor and that wasn't going to change when Eccelston left. Both really are about the same for me with that in mind, as both actors did a good job playing that type of hero, but since Tennant was there longer and had better stories I'll give it to him.

Best Companion: Martha, though I really liked season 1 Rose, but since she became the unlikable character in season 2 and an annoyance later, I'll stick with Martha. Mind you Martha's arc came to a dismal end, being made into a looney who was going to blow up the earth, and then she became Rose rebound again for Mickey. Still that's only at the tail end and throughout I found her to be the bravest, kindest and most down to earth and likable of the companions with the most natural chemistry with the Doctor as it wasn't too overwritten. In all honesty though I liked all the companions. Apart from season 2 Rose, and Donna near the end of season 4 where she became the ultimate creators pet, I found them all likable throughout. Even the one offs like Lady Christina.

Best supporting character: Captain Jack by a country mile. Sorry Jackie LOL, I do LOVE her actress who I've met and was so cute, sweet, charming and lovely I wanted to marry her. Still Jack is a really interesting character who had a great arc from coward to hero, was extremely likable, had great chemistry with all the leads from Mickey to Sarah, to Rose, to Martha (though again I preferred him with Martha.) Jack seemed like the type of guy you wanted as a friend, as he'd be there for you no matter what. Even when the Doctor abandoned him he was still willing to help him. They didn't use Jack enough.

Best of the classic era villains: The Daleks again by a country mile. You can tell RTD LOVED these guys and really went out of his way to make them the ultimate monster in the series. They also were reinvented in a really cool way as Lovecraftian horrors trying to rebuild their forces, yet unlike other villains such as Missy, this reinvention didn't change what they were and represented. Also the redesign is surely one of the most successful. Combining the cooler swish of the Cushing Daleks, but also the dreary conformity of the classic era Daleks, again with a little bit of the lovecraft element tossed in via the symbols and markings on their casings and the cthulu like Dalek mutants.

Best new villain: This is very, very hard for me to choose. I suppose the Angels as they were the most iconic and creative (though I think the Flood was the scariest by far.) Still I'm going to say that the Beast is my favourite thanks to the concept (before the universe is a subject that has always terrified and fascinated me) and the spectacular effects and Gabriel Wolf's voice. I think he could have carried season 5 with David Tennant and Lady Christina in 2009.

Best episodes: In no particular order, Utopia, Midnight, The Next Doctor, Dalek, Tooth and Claw, Army of Ghosts, Doomsday, The Satan two parter, Waters of Mars, Library two parter, Blink, Smith and Jones, The Lazarus Experiment, Fires of Pompei, Daleks in Manhattan/Evolution of the Daleks, Initial Cyberman two parter, Gridlock, Sontaran two parter, Planet of the Dead, School Reunion, The Unquiet Dead, The Sound of Drums, The Runaway Bride.

Episodes that are a hot mess but I like them anyway: Last of the Time Lords, Stolen Earth/ Journeys End, Parting of the Ways, The End of The World.,

Best writer: Can't believe I'm saying this, RTD but only when he is writing a story about at least one of the following things.

Monster possession (The Beast, the Flood, the Midnight Entity.)

A borderline supernatural creature. (Werewolf, vampire lady in Smith and Jones, his best light episode, the Beast, the ghosts from Canary Wharf, again the Midnight Entity.)

Set in earth's past. (Tooth and Claw, Next Doctor.)

Journeying into the unknown. Again it's hilarious to say this, but RTD for all his not wanting to do a story about the planet zog, was actually brilliant at doing stories about the Doctor and other characters venturing into somewhere, or something that they had no clue about. For all we rip on him as Mr Heat magazine, he actually could be quite a thoughtful guy when it came to things like life, death, why are we here, what awaits us etc. He did more stories that really took the Doctor out of his element than a lot of other writers, where the Doctor didn't have the answers and encountered something that challenged his beliefs like the Midnight Entity or the Beast, even Waters of Mars plays around with that by showing him break the rules and go into new territory. When he has that subject on the brain it brings out the best in him as a writer.

Worst companion: Donna at the end of series 4. She's fine when it's just her and Tennant going on adventures (though I do think Tate is the weakest of the three main female leads at times like in Pompei when her shouting undermines the tension.) Still I hate the way they undermine all the great companions like Martha and Sarah and the Doctor himself just to make her the most important woman in all of creation and all the gushing other characters do about her. At least Rose was meant to be arrogant and annoying in universe.

Worst supporting character: Definitely Donna's mother. To be fair she was meant to be unlikable, so mission accomplished I guess LOL, but yeah Jackie was a sweetheart with the actresses cuteness shinning through (plus let's be honest here who wouldn't react like her if some weird guy in his 40s showed and took your teenage daughter away for a year. Again reminds me of another joke from Married With Children when Kelly asks Al if he's going to be mad at her 40 year old boyfriend and he says with a psychopathic look in his eyes "Oh don't worry Kelly I'll show him the same respect any man would show a 45 year old who dates his teenage daughter" LOL. The Doctors lucky Kelly wasn't his companion as hilarious as that would have been.)

Martha's mother whilst more antagonistic than Jacke meanwhile was less intrusive and more involved in the actual Saxon plot than just wallowing in soap opera dirge, whilst Sylvia seemed to combine the worst of the two mums, of it was soap opera crap when she was around, but she was less likable than wonderful Jackie LOL. I know she got better but eh it was too late for me.

Worst classic era villain: Sadly the Cybermen. They weren't quite as bad as I remembered. In some ways New Who improved on a few things from their late 80s appearances like focusing back on the body horror theme, and two of their stories are among the best, but sadly them being made into the bitch boys of the Daleks in the season 2 finale undermined them too much and made them longstanding jokes with the GP until the Capaldi era. It's also a shame that they're the only badguys not to get a season to themselves like all the others did.

Worst new villain: The Abzorbaloff. Just awful in every way. Nasty, mean spirited jab at Ian Levine, unpleasant to look at, and both revolting and too silly to be taken seriously. To be honest though it's hard to pick out the worst as sadly there were a lot to choose from in the first two years with special shout out also going to the Slitheen and Lady Cassandra.

Worst episodes: In no particular order, Love and Monsters, Partners in Crime, Unicorn and the Wasp, New Earth (which I skipped actually as it's so bad.) The Christmas Invasion, the Slitheen two parter, The Idiot's Lantern.

Episodes that are well done but I can't stand them anyway: The Madame De Pompadour one and the Gas mask two parter. Again both have great plots and some moments of inspired horror and imagination, so they aren't bad, but I just find them both far too mawkish and sappy. I also can't stand Moffat not being able to get over his raging heterosexuality to the point where has to turn the Doctor into more of a jack the lad, making jokes about having a craving for blondes and having a girl of the week love interest. (Unlike a lot of fans I'm consistent as I call this out and RTD turning Ncuti's Doctor into an avatar for him having a guy of the week love interest and dancing around in night clubs.) Never mind classic who which it is obviously completely inappropriate for, even the more sensitive romantic new who Doctor I don't think it's a good fit for either. I also cannot stand the EVERYBODY LIVES ending for the Gas mask one. Again I have 0 problem with a happy ending, it's just oh dear god the way it's so overdone takes it to a level of mawkishness I didn't think was possible. Eccelston annoyed me so much with his gurning and the "I just remembered I can dance again, I can dance" I wanted to be sick into my own scorn.

Worst writer: Incredibly enough RTD, when he is writing stories about the following things.

Set in modern day..

Political in nature.

Invasion earth stories where everything is at stake.

Religious imagery.

Most of the time these bring out his absolute worst traits as a writer. Not always. Again he's done some good modern day stories like Smith and Jones and Doomsday, and like I said even though they are complete messes there are things to enjoy in Journeys End and Last of the Time Lords. Still the modern day setting often makes him indulge too much in the soap opera at the expense of the sci fi, celeb cameos that date it (this is where he is Mr Heat Magazine) and it also often forces him to use a deux machina as he can't destroy modern day earth either. He also really doesn't have anything to say about politics I'm afraid. His takes are often just the current thing and he has nothing new to say about them and they are not well integrated into the plot. The religious imagery meanwhile is just..... weird? I don't know why he is so obsessed with it as he's an atheist, and it's not like he does it to mock religion (which I'm glad at, as even though I'm agnostic I can't stand edge lord atheist crap.) Still again it just comes over as weird like he's trying to turn the Doctor into Jesus?

Even in his better stories like Gridlock, what is that bit where everybody starts praying about? Why does Martha cry?

Overall I'd give the era a 7/10. Not my ideal take on DW by any means, but I can enjoy it for what it was. Honestly it's a shame that RTD came back and has kind of overshadowed his legacy.

Onto Matt Smith tomorrow.

 

[Bop]

It created quite an interesting blend of the slightly more cynical, low key British sci fi series like Quatermass, classic who and B7, and the then contemporary angsty, sexy, soapy, melodramatic American genre shows like Buffy/Angel/Xena/Smallville.

Yeah Moffat's era is a lot less grounded and I think that's why it's only RTD's era that reminds me of Buffy/Angel. Moffat wasn't as interested in the companion's families, season 5 is purely a fairy tale in some ways, some people prefer that style over the soap opera stuff. There isn't a Jackie or Wilfred character in the Moffat era.

Really can anyone point to any major differences in characterisation between them?

Eccleston's Doctor is fresh out of the time war so he's struggling with PTSD a lot more and that feeds into why he's angry, Rose helps him with it so by time he regenerates into David he's struggling less and that's partly why Rose is so special to him.

Still that's only at the tail end and throughout I found her to be the bravest, kindest and most down to earth and likable of the companions with the most natural chemistry with the Doctor

Donna is my favourite but I agree that Martha is the bravest and most competent companion, she kind of had to be because The Doctor put her in situations where she had no choice but to save the day with only herself to rely on. She protected The Doctor and saved the world in Human Nature/Family of Blood even though she was also fighting racism because The Doctor chose to hide in a 1910s English boarding school and she was placed in that era as a maid. Not to mention in the season 3 finale The Doctor told Martha to 'walk the earth' and tell people about him, while she was doing that she had to pretend she was actually walking the earth to build a gun in order to kill The Master. Her family was enslaved, and through all this Martha is still clearly the least loved by The Doctor in comparison to Rose and Donna. So even though I love all three RTD companions, Martha deserves extra love.

Mind you Martha's arc came to a dismal end, being made into a looney who was going to blow up the earth, and then she became Rose rebound again for Mickey.

That last part annoys me to this day because Martha chose to leave The Doctor because she's tired of being in Rose's shadow but then she ends up marrying Rose's ex-boyfriend so that kind of defeats the point. In season 4 they said Martha was engaged to the medical doctor who tried to save Martha from The Master so I don't know what happened to him. Suddenly he's gone and she's with Mickey by Journey's End.

 

[Cohen]

I decided to have a rewatch of the first 7 seasons of new who which I've not watched back properly barring maybe the odd episode here and there for close to ten years.

I didn't think I'd last long, but I just finished The End of Time today and overall the RTD 1 era was a lot more enjoyable than I thought.

I’m so glad to hear your thoughts on these seasons, and to see that you found them more enjoyable upon reflection. There are definitely some out there episodes, especially in the first 2 series, but I think overall it’s a good show.

I agree that by bringing it back “in canon,” but so far different from Classic Who, it does lose its integrity over time. I definitely think starting with the Capaldi era, it just went off the rails. By jumping many sharks and rewriting canon beyond comparison, especially with the Timeless Child storyarc from Chibnall.

Interested to see your Matt Smith reflection!

 

[burrunjor]

This actually marks the end of my rewatch in general. I'm NOT watching the Capaldi era or the two parodies that came after. You think I'm going to sit through 3 years of "FAAAAM" and, "OH BAAAABES" you have another thing coming.

Overall the Matt Smith era holds up brilliantly for the most part. Better in actual fact than I remembered, though granted that might be because what came after was so terrible across the board. Still I found the Silence arc a lot better this time round. The resolution to it is a bit rushed, but it actually flows a lot better than you'd think over Matt's three years. I was expecting it to come over as just a complete "making it up as he goes along" but no it serves as quite a nice bookend for Matt, without taking over the bulk of his era. It's not like Trial or even the Key To Time where every story gets taken over by an arc to some extent. You can if you don't like the Silence just enjoy most episodes, and each series arc stands on its own with each season still having a different lead villain and a different focus. It also manages to incorporate and introduce a very wide variety of settings, characters, monsters and villains too.

In some ways the quality of writing went up from the RTD era. There's no denying in my opinion Moffat is just a better sci fi writer than RTD. He has a wider imagination, and has more of an interest in the genre, at times perhaps a bit too much, but I'd rather in a sci fi show a writer get lost in his imagination than soap opera.

Improvements? Greater variety of stories. Not anywhere near as many invasion earth stories, greater amount of exploring other worlds, the humour was also more subtle and fitting for the show. At times it went too far, like Matt slapping Clara on the bum, but in others I think it relied more on the natural eccentricity of the Doctor like the Williams era which is how you bring humour into DW. Other light eras like the early McCoy stories, or misfires like The Romans or the worst RTD era stories tried to make it funny by making the actual story and monster silly which I don't think is a good idea at all as it turns the show into a parody of itself. Plus Matt had better comic timing and a greater natural eccentricity than either Eccelston or Tennant. At times it just felt like he was improvising LOL rather than being overwritten and mannered. Compare Matt not being able to sit still in Vincent and the Doctor to Tennant pretending to be drunk for instance.

I also think this era was far more stunning visually. It's hard to describe the look of the Matt Smith era at times, it's almost like a combination of Ray Gun Gothic (a pretentious name for that classic 50s/60s sci fi look like the Hartnell era, Lost in Space, Star Trek TOS etc, when the inside of spaceships were cosey, technology of the future was giant and robots even if they were supposed to be scary were cute and chunky) and the Brothers Grimm like the planet in The Doctors Wife that is chalk full of old 50s style sci fi tech and creepy gothic ladies that look like witches from fairy tales, or the Pandorica or the Dalek Asylum or the Papal Mainframe. It's actually probably my favourite era of the show visually. The designs of certain planets and creatures like the Whisper Men also managed to at times be both beautiful and horrific.

Also no tedious soap opera baggage focusing on the companions families, or if there was it was worked into the adventure like Rory standing outside the box for Amy for 100000s of years. That's a romantic, schmoopy moment, but it's also a really cool fantastical idea that can make your imagination wander thinking about all he got up to in the 10000s of years he stood guard and how this world was different, unlike say RTD that will either have ridiculously thin sci fi ideas like the Meta Crisis Doctor to get to the romance, or just wallow in complete soap opera dirge to flesh out his companions.

Areas it fell short however? I didn't like River Song. To me she is the embodiment of the WORST traits of Moffat as a writer. She is nowhere near as strong as other supporting characters like Jack or the Brig. I don't hate her like Donna at her worst or Missy, but yeah she was annoying and episodes that revolved around her were always weak to awful like Let's Kill Hitler or Wedding of River Song. She was okay at best as a supporting character in episodes like the Weeping Angels two parter, but that's it. Also it must be said that Moffat is extremely weak as a writer in the following ways.

1/ He is mind numbingly pretentious in terms of dialogue. As I've said before there are so many times where it sounds like he is desperately trying to get an iconic "tears in the rain" type quote, without realiizing if you have every character talk that way it just becomes the writer trying to show off how clever they are with big phrases. Sometimes his dialogue can work well if it's natural like the 11th Doctor talking about life being like breath on a mirror. That's fine as it makes sense he'd talk like that when he is dying and it's quite poetic and thoughtful (and even made me think about my own mortality in a scary way for a second.) However other things like the Demons Run poem, River's barbarians speech to the Romans, or even phrases like Raggedy man drive me up the wall they are so overblown and unnatural.

2/ He can't write women and is too thirsty. It's hard for me to admit this as I used to sneer at the STFU Moffat crowd (does anyone remember them?) To be fair I do think some of their criticisms were still a bit too full on, like accusing Asylum of the Daleks of promoting killing mentally ill people (seriously) or even just calling him a misogynist. He obviously doesn't hate women, but he definitely tends to write them as his sassy dominatrix fantasy girls who at some point force themselves on the male heroes and almost every word out of their mouths has to be a flirtation or innuendo or reference to bondage of some kind, and he thinks that making them empowering is just having them insult men in stereotypical ways like boys and their toys or saying men are sex obsessed, he also tends to write the men around them as being jack the lads who are still henpecked, yet he also tends to make his female characters story arcs revolve entirely around getting off with the hero and he is very unoriginal with his female characters too. Amy's story is basically the same as Madame De Pompadour, whilst Clara's arc is in turn the same as Amy via the mystery the Doctor wants to solve, whilst River, Missy, Irene and Tasha are all the exact same character as each other, with the exact same arc. I remember when Time of the Doctor aired everybody thought that Tasha was supposed to be River and Alex Kingston was busy, so they just changed River's name to Tasha, but no she was never meant to be River. He really was that unoriginal.

3/ He is too obsessed with time paradoxes and ties himself up in knots.

The third of those is at its worst in the Matt Smith era, whilst the former two I'd say are at their worst in the Capaldi era, but they are still present in Matt's time too.

Still the greatest advantage this era has is ultimately Matt Smith. He is by far and away the best of the new series actors to play the part. He is arguably the best Doctor of them all in some ways. Like I said he is the only one who embodies the three overall styles for the Doctor across the franchise. He embodies the old Professorial, alien qualities of the classic ere Doctors in so many ways. (Even little things like his costume fit in more with those Doctors.) At the same time there is still a touch of the more romantic, conflicted, emotional Doctors from the revival era in him and finally he even captures the best aspect of the Cushing Doctor from the two movies, the characters affinity with children which honestly I don't think any other tv Doctor ever did. In some ways I think Matt was wasted as whilst he had a good solid era, he could have gone on for at least another three years. I'd so much rather Moff leave in 2013 than Matt. To me Matt Smith was as well cast as the Doctor as Kevin Conroy was as Batman.

Meanwhile other highlights and low points of the era.

Best companions: Whilst I loved Matt and Jenna's chemistry and even shipped them, at the end of the day the Ponds are the companions for Matt. All three just worked together so perfectly, (though I wasn't keen on that awkward love triangle between them, thankfully that died down quickly and was gone completely by Amy's Choice.)

Best supporting characters: The Paternoster Gang by far. Loved every episode with them in it and they complimented Matt so perfectly. To me they are the classic example of something that only DW can do, to take characters from so many different eras and genres together and it seem perfectly natural. I love the way they are like a family with Strax being the annoying son and Jenny and Vastra the parents and the Doctor the uncle that plays with the mad son and encourages him a bit too much at times haha.

Best new villains: The Silence. They had a wicked design, were a cool concept and again their arc holds together better than you think. I guess I'm still bugged by the big plot hole that them blowing up the TARDIS was enough to destroy every universe. It kind of makes them look incompetent that in trying to stop a war on a little planet, they destroyed all of reality. Also how is a type 40 TARDIS blowing up powerful enough to do that? Still good villains overall and a welcome addition to the series.

Best Classic era villain: I think probably The Great Intelligence. Hard to say really. I loved all the Dalek romps, Vastra and Strax were cool new twists on the Sontarans and Silurians, but overall as a villain the Intelligence had the best arc and Richard E Grant was fantastic.

Best episodes: In no particular order (apart from Vincent and the Doctor which is number 1.) Vincent and the Doctor, The Pandorica Opens, Amy's Choice, Vampires of Venice, The Angels Two Parter, 11th Hour, The Girl Who Waited, The God Complex, A Town Called Mercy, Asylum of the Daleks, Angels Take Manhattan, The Snowmen, The Bells of Saint John, Cold War, Rings of Akhatan, A Christmas Carol, The Doctors Wife (Neil Gaiman can piss off though.) The clone people two parter, The Day of the Doctor, The Name of the Doctor, The Crimson Horror,

Best writer: Surprisingly NOT Moffat. Toby Whithouse. All 3 of his scripts for Matt were brilliant. Furthermore I feel he gets the show and the character of the Doctor more than Moffat. He doesn't turn the Doctor into his own avatar, he writes him as the mysterious, alien scientist who can be both compassionate and ruthless, he also wrote the best supporting characters. Rita is the best companion that never was, Jax from A Town Called Mercy is one of the most genuinely grey villains in the series and the late great Helen McCrory's villain in Vampires of Venice was similarly one of the better villains of the week, though granted that was probably because of her, but even then the script gave her a lot to work with. Jesus when you compare Whithouse's female characters to Moff's it's tragic LOL. Honestly he should have been showrunner from 2014 on with Matt in the role.

Episodes that are a mess but I liked them anyway: Time of the Doctor, The Big Bang, Nightmare in Silver, the season 6 opener.

Worst supporting character: River Song. Already been over this. The distillation of everything I hate about Moff's writing. His inability to write female characters, timey wimey paraodxes that make no sense and so much of her dialogue is pretentious and overwrought.

Worst new villain: Madame Kovarian. I didn't think Frances Barber was very good in the role. Good actress and Jenny Mutant was a good sci fi role for her, but yeah let's just say Whithouse got more out of Helen McClory than Moff did Barber. She also didn't really have much of a backstory and whilst A Good Man Goes To War did make her seem formidable, her arc wasn't really resolved. She wasn't atrocious. I mean it's not like she was the Slitheen or anything, but yeah underwhelming as the head or face of the Silence.

Worst classic era villain: Once again the poor Cybermen come off badly here. On the plus side they don't get undermined by other foes. Indeed this era fixes a lot of what was wrong about their portrayal in the RTD era in that it has them be an intergalactic force in the universe again after being earth bound, establishes them as being on the level of his other enemies etc. However they still get nerfed in a lot of ways and turned into jokes like the Doctor blowing up a fleet of them in the intro just to send a message, James Corden's baby beating them up and the atrocious line "I blew the Cybermen up with love" one becoming a comedy sidekick to the Doctor (though I did find Handles adorable.) Also they don't really take part in any huge arcs and their one off episodes are pretty poor. Closing Time is the worst Cyber story apart from the season 8 finale and the Timeless Children, whilst Nightmare in Silver is fun, but a total mess with the single laziest ending of any DW story ever made, where it turns out that Warwick Davies could have saved them at any point but just didn't because? Also Matt Smith's performance as the Cyber planner is awful. His worst by far.

Worst writer: Gareth Roberts: Let's leave aside all the controversy surrounding him. I'm sorry but Gareth just isn't a very good who writer based on his tv work at least. His episodes are like the worst of RTD, focusing on tedious soap opera with the barest of sci fi elements. The Lodger is only saved by Matt being a one man show. The actual sci fi is as poorly thought out as you can imagine.

Worst episodes: Closing Time, The Power of Three, The Doctor, The Widow and The Wardrobe, Let's Kill Hitler, Wedding of River Song,

Overall I'd give the era a 9/10

Well that's me finished my rewatch of New Who now. 7 seasons done and dusted. I'm glad I did not only because it was enjoyable, but because I'm glad I can put new who in perspective now and see what the problems with it really were. Basically as I've said before it works better as a reboot than a direct sequel, though I do think that the Matt Smith era bridged the gap between the old and the new and it may have been possible to link them during his time. If Capaldi had been a proper classic era style Doctor who'd faced off against a proper classic era style Master and they'd moved on then yes. New Who and old could have just about existed as one big happy show together, with the out of characterness of 9 and 10 being as a result of the Time war, but now that was fixed it could just be a weird one off period in the Doctors life like when he was exiled to earth.

Sadly however we all know what they did instead during Capaldi's time.

Still for a while at least thanks to the Matt Smith era it did to me at least feel like DW was back and I'd like to personally thank Matt as ironically I feel he was the most responsible for that. As I've said before, despite claiming to be super fans, I don't think David Tennant, RTD, Moffat or Capaldi have watched DW in years. I think they all loved it as children yes, but grew out of it, and have some nostalgic affection for it, but haven't actually returned to it in years and probably look down on it. Therefore when it came to writing and playing the Doctor they did it from vague memories from their childhood, but didn't actually care if they got a lot of it wrong as in their mind the whole thing was stupid and contradictory anyway. Matt however being a newcomer, who hadn't grown up with "official fandom" and all its insecurities and so on, went back and did actually watch the classics to get a handle on the character. Hence why he picked out the more Doctorish costume, had a more alien persona etc. He actually cared about following on from the classic era. It's also very telling that he was the only one who made Tom Baker feel welcome on the set of the 50th.

"Matt Smith is a darling young man -- he made me very welcome," Baker said. "[But] he was the only one who welcomed me -- I drove through the night to Cardiff, and Matt Smith came seeking me out, so full of joy and so happy to see me! He made it very, very easy acting with him, and I'm so glad he's going on to tumultuous success. Nobody else bothered with me at all. I was a bit nettled about that."

He was the best ambassador of the show in the 21st century. For all the overhype about Tennant, the pseudo intellectual pretentiousness about Capaldi being the thinking man's era and Jodie and Ncuti being the supposedly groundbreaking Doctors, Matt was the one who took it around the world a second time and is most beloved by classic era fans too and therefore I think will have the biggest legacy.

Well question is what do I watch next? I'd be lying if I said I wasn't tempted to have an abridged watch through of classic who. Only thing is I did that last year, so maybe it's too fresh in my mind? I might watch another early 21st century British sci fi, fantasy classic in the same style. Being Human? Merlin? Or Primeval? Whatever the case I've enjoyed New Who and I am sad it's done.

 

[Bop]

Try Sarah Jane Adventures- it's basically an extension of the RTD era.

 

[Bop]

I think the first three doctors (Troughton, Pertwee and Hartnell) are the best, in that order from Classic Doctor Who.

 

[burrunjor]

I think the first three doctors (Troughton, Pertwee and Hartnell) are the best, in that order from Classic Doctor Who.

The best for me have to be Pertwee and Tom in that order.

I think Pertwee captured the characters intelligence, gravitas and authority better than anyone else, whilst Tom embodies the characters wild, eccentric, crazy, alien nature better than anyone else ever could.

Matt is by far the best out of the new boys and it's not even close in all honesty. Also again you could view him as the best overall, considering he was the only one to merge all of the characteristics of the Doctor together.

As I've said before there are three basic types of Doctor. This is not to do down all the actors who played the role, whose performances are all unique, but overall when looking at it as a franchise, then they all broadly can be seen as variations of one of the three types. (Same is true of most long running characters. There are three types of Batman, the campy comedy one, the darker gothic hero and the gritty, more down to earth crime fighter.)

In the Doctors case meanwhile you have the eccentric, somewhat grandfatherly, professorial, Jules Verne, Holmesian, type of hero played by an offbeat character actor. The type you couldn't imagine playing say James Bond (at least at that point in his career.) Your ideal Doctor actor should be known prior to playing the part for playing villains, eccentric character roles or outrageous comedy parts. This is obviously the type we saw in Classic Who, though Peter Davison was a bit of an outlier, being a more conventional leading man, but he still played it that way.

The other is the type we saw in the two Peter Cushing Dalek movies of the 60s and other spin off material. He is a more straight down the middle hero who stars in more straight forward boys own adventure stories and he has a real rapport with little kids, being almost like a space Santa.

Finally the third type that's in New Who, is a more romantic, tortured, conflicted, emotional hero and the stories tend to be about him, rather than him just being someone who gets caught up in them like the other two. He is played by an actor who isn't a completely conventional type. He certainly has an edge, but he's what you call conventional unconventional. He's the type who can play villains and heroes, but you can still imagine him as say the lead in a rom com. Maybe as the charmingly befuddled or geeky lead, but still he is at least leading man potential that way. This is the type that the 9th and 10th Doctors embodied and that I think Jodie and Ncuti tried to embody but sadly just weren't up to it acting wise compared to Eccelston and Tennant.

Matt however like I said has elements of all three merged together. He is alien and professorial, dresses more like the old Doctors, captured his great age, yet there is that romantic element to him and he also got along better with children like Cushing's Doctor. To me he is comparable to Kevin Conroy who similarly could be funny, dark and gritty as Batman all at the same time. It's just such a shame Matt didn't stay longer and truly cement himself like Conroy. Still in that respect Matt was the best.

That said however I still prefer Pertwee and Tom Baker as my favourite style of Doctor is the old professorial type. I think that is truer to the character and has a longer life span in all honesty. As its a character that can be slotted into stories unlike the revival type that has to shape them and constantly be tragic.

In that respect Pertwee and Tom embody that type of Doctor better than Matt as they don't have any of the romantic stuff, but still you can make an argument for Matt being the best based on that.

 

[burrunjor]

In terms of the big bads of the first 7 years (something new who took from Buffy.) I'd rank them like this.

The Cult and the GI are the two best villains.

Overall I loved the Cult's story arc. They were actually one of the first things that got me into New Who. I was a classic era fanboy since before I can remember. I was born in 1991 but introduced to it via video tapes. Sadly I didn't like the Eccelston year when it aired, and Tennant at first didn't win me over, but as a Dalek fanboy the Cult were so badass and so fascinating that I ended up getting into the story and actually for the first time cared about what would happen next when Sec escaped. It made me more open to New Who's style of having the villains be a bit more emotional, big public earth invasions, ongoing story arcs and I went into series 3 with a more open mind and loved it.

The cult were not only a really cool concept, but have one of the best arcs of any villain. I LOVE seeing Sec go from this unstoppable, cocky badass who mows down Cybermen and humans alike to the desperate creature skulking in the sewers of Manhattan, struggling to survive, who eventually has an epiphany and is then turned on by his own people. Also his relationship with the Doctor is fascinating too. He went from his worst enemy, responsible for the worst tragedy since the Time War, to his ally and someone he called a great man, and finally someone who ended up sacrificing himself to save him.

Caan meanwhile has an even more varied arc. He goes from lackey, to Dalek purist who turns on his own leader, to insane prophet, to surprise hero all in the space of six episodes. Also again it's great watching Caan go through what he put Sec through from the other Daleks in Journey's End. Locked up, considered an abomination, a freak and a reject by his own people. It also shows you how disgusting the Daleks are that the guy who saved their entire race gets that treatment, with even Davros himself being appalled by it. However at the same time I like the way Caan is more wiley than Sec as he knows they can't be redeemed because of what he and the others did to Sec, so he just destroys them.

The GI meanwhile has a short, but interesting story. It maybe could have had an extra episode, but even then he didn't outstay his welcome, all his episodes are really good and both actors who played him were excellent, though Richard E Grant really made the part his own. I only knock points off because he doesn't fit in with the classic version, BUT given the same is true of most New Who versions except for the Daleks, I won't hold it against him. I think that the modern GI in some ways was better than the original. I prefer the Yeti, but the modern GI was a lot scarier.

The ending of Bells of Saint John where we learn that woman was snatched by the GI and made into its servant as a child is one of the most genuinely horrifying scenes in all of DW. Imagine being her. You're a child one minute, and like any child your parents are you entire world, then you wake up in an office in the body of an old woman with several people holding guns at your head who are about to arrest you for the murder of thousands of people and your parents are long dead!

She instantly goes from a smug, evil snake you laughed seeing the Doctor take down a peg or two to the most tragic character in the series.

After these guys I'd rank the Simm Master, the Cybusmen, Davros and the season 1 Daleks at about the same level. All overall are good, threatening villains, all have some classic episodes, but all are let down in some way or another. They're a mixed bag.

Davros' new look and the actor playing him and how his relationship with the Daleks is handled are all fantastic, and I love his master plan. Sadly he is disposed of too easily (and by Donna and Mickey) also Journey's End itself is a mess.

The Simm Master, again great Callisto/Joker style tragic crazy villain, Simm is very good in the role, but he doesn't mesh with the classic era Master, started a bad trend where the attitude became "the classic era Master was lame, let's just do our own villain." Also whilst it might be enjoyable Last of the Time Lords is one of the worst stories of all time its just so ludicrously over the top with the Jesus Doctor.

The Cybusmen have a fantastic introduction, and the Next Doctor is an amazing episode, but they are sadly undermined in their own special season and made into the Cult's bitch boys. I think the Cult should have had their own story in season 2 that could have explained that's where the rip came from and then had the finale just be the Cybermen.

Finally the season 1 Daleks, well I'm sorry to say they are hugely overrated.

Speaking as an insane Dalek fanboy from childhood ironically I remember being very unhappy with how they were portrayed this year as a young un. I didn't like a Dalek being an object of sympathy in its first story, or it bonding with the female companion. Also having them use Big Brother and the Weakest Link to take over the earth I thought was humiliating and ultimately I don't think the season 1 finale really did anything new with them at the time either. Invading the earth has been done to death, and them turning humans into Daleks had been done too. In fact ironically one of the things I was most pissed off with when I first saw the Eccelston series was how it handled the Daleks.

However in hindsight I can see the appeal of certain aspects of how they are used that year and there are some classic Doctor/Dalek moments, scary scenes like Lynda with a Y's death, the Emprah is really cool visually and in terms of his voice, and Dalek is a classic story overall that I really enjoyed on rewatch. Plus this also did introduce the Bronze Dalek look which ended up being arguably the most iconic look for the monsters alongside the grey look from the 70s (though to modern viewers it is the default Dalek design.)

Next up would be Rassilon and Madame Kovarian in that order. Both fairly bland, boring villains, but I'll give Rassilon a place above, as Timothy Dalton is much better and his relationship with the Master is pretty cool, with Simm's final showdown with him being the best part of The End of Time. Kovarian meanwhile I don't think has anything to offer. Not terrible by any means, but just kind of there and her story is still unresolved.

The Alliance would be at the bottom. I don't mind the idea of the villains teaming up. It's stupid and Saturday morning cartoon stuff, but hey I like Saturday morning cartoons. The cliff hanger for the Pandorica Opens was one of the best for the new series, but it just went nowhere in part 2. I remember being so annoyed when part 2 aired and the alliance were written out like that. All an alliance of the Doctors biggest enemies ended up doing was help Amy and Rory's relationship.

I will say though the Cyber attack in Pandorica Opens was cool too, but yeah they are the biggest disappointment out of the first seven years of the revival.