To the guys who have watched classic who, what do you think about the seventh doctor's tenure? Are they worth watching? (from what I've read, his characterization seems to ne really interesting, just don't know about the execution )

 

The show kind of went through a lull during 6 and 7's tenure. Save for the few eps that featured other Time Lords, most of it is completely forgettable.

Colin Baker, despite having some really fantastic writing to work with, was a terrible actor. Sylvestor McCoy on the other hand, despite being a decent actor, worked with absolutely dreadful writing.

 

Christopher Eccleston will always and forever be my Doctor. I found his performance pretty much summed up everything the Doctor was.

But for the 12th Doctor, if not Idris Elba, then Indira Varma. She was Suzie Costello on Torchwood, which is fine since they reuse actors all the time. Plus she's a woman of colour.

 

Soo, all that dark, chess master Docotor, shamelessly using everyone for the greater good, is only something that's good on paper but they executed poorly?

 

Yeah... sort of. The scripts were just total shit.

And... I wouldn't really call 7 dark. Manipulative, absolutely... but not dark. He never used violence against his enemies. He just talked them down, occasionally using his superior intellect to outwit them.

Just watch it. You'll see what I mean.

 

Sooo....someone wants to put a TARDIS in space.

Something awesome.

Ok, so it's not a full sized TARDIS, but still...damn!

 

Ben Daniels. You heard it here first.

 

The only place I remember him from is DOOM. It might be fun to have a religious zealot Doctor.

 

Doctor Who Plot Generator. Disturbingly plausible thus far, and quite funny.

 

It appears to be quite focussed on Jessie J, for some reason.

 

I got "Sir Ian McKellen is revealed as a new incarnation of the Master." Now that would be an episode worth watching.

 

Finally got around to watching the last two episodes.

Nightmare in Silver was decent enough, though I haven't liked any of the young actors in Doctor Who since The Empty Child. Putting them into a coma half way through was alrightish as a way to solve that, but pretty ham handed.

Actually, I could say that about a lot of this episode. It's hard to pick out specific examples, but I kept being thrown out of my willing suspension of disbelief, which is quite an achievement when we're talking about Doctor Who.

I did enjoy quite a few parts of it though. The Cyber Planner and the chess match played extremely well to Matt Smith's Doctor. The mad old man part of his character came heavily into play and was acted out splendidly. I don't mind the kinetic acting that Smith goes in for; it works very well for the broken Willy Wonka that he's been trying to portray the Doctor as since Eleven.

Spoiler

The Name of the Doctor, on the other hand, just plain bored me. I liked the explanation about the Doctor's grave, didn't like River Song. Liked John Hurt, didn't like River Song. Liked Clara being thrown throughout the Doctor's timeline, didn't like River Song. See a pattern yet? I especially didn't like that we didn't get to hear the Doctor's name in that way. What a gigantic asspull. Being able to touch River was just as rectally tugging, but given that the Doctor is essentially a wizard I was willing to accept it as just another part of the show.

Vastra and the rest barely pipped on the radar during this episode either, which is a shame. Hopefully the continuation will have them play a bigger role, otherwise their place in this season will have been a bit of a waste.

That said, I'm giving it 10:1 odds on John Hurt playing the Valeyard and 4:1 odds on him playing an 8.5/9th regeneration from during the Time War. The Doctor had to do a lot of things he regrets during that stage of his life and it wouldn't surprise me if he had to become a different person to do so. I recall Romana choosing to do something similar during the Classic Who era; voluntarily regenerating when she became President because the Time Lords needed someone harder than she was at that point. The 8th Doctor wasn't, I think, the type of person who could end the Time War in the way it did.

Finally, I've come up with a bit of a theory. Since the Doctor's grave is essentially his entire timeline, and anyone willing to step into it is able to alter events pretty much as they want to. It could be used to undo the Moment and bring back the Time Lords as they were during it. Tennant's Doctor claimed that the Time Lords became something terrible because of the Time War (which we saw during the End of Time), but I'm beginning to wonder if it wasn't John Hurt's Doctor that led them to that point.

All in all, I think I agree with the criticism of Moffat's show running style. This season has been a definite low point for me. I can recall going through Tennant's (and Smith's first season) practically as they came out, whereas I was able to leave these last two episodes for weeks before watching them. For all RTD's flaws, he knew how to keep me hooked for the season.

I don't know, maybe Moffat is just better at shorter projects. Sherlock is awesome mostly because it doesn't have any filler. Every episode does exactly what it needs to, for better or worse, and has very little extraneous stuff attached. Maybe that's why he's tried to separate the 13 episode long season into segments so that he can do mini-arcs rather than season long ones. I don't think it's worked very well, but with luck we'll see some of Moffat's old magic come back with the 50th Anniversary. He's good with single episodes.

 

Twelfth Doctor to be announced on Sunday.

 

Oh my God, that is amazing news kind of brightened up my week for me. Thanks for that wonderful news.

 

Strange way to do it, but wow. Roll on Sunday then.

 

Best (outlandish) guesses everyone? My money is on benedict cumberbatch with RDJr as a close second.

 

Those are rather outlandish guesses, can't see Downey because (I'm very likely to be wrong here) If I'm right in thinking, hasn't every Doctor actor been from Great Britain? As in, people who play the Doctor.

Still, Cumberbatch would be interesting, but unlikely given his commitment to Sherlock lately. Talk about a weird Doctor come to think of it.

My friends have good money on a female Doctor, not sure as to why. I'm expecting someone from out of nowhere, at least that's what Smith seemed to me when he got the job. I'd almost love for it to be a hoax and have the show end/fade to black as they draw a curtain up or something.

 

I honestly hope for Idris Elba. He would be really interesting plus a nice departure(physique wise) from the others.

 

Continuing the outlandish guess theme.