New Doctor Who: The Matt Smith Era

[starlord]

In the Daliy news of 8-14-11, in the t.v. section they have a big story about Dr.Who, it's named "The Doctor is IN and it's about Matt Smith starting to play the part and that HE is the 11th iconic time lord. and the photo of him is in the west desert area with some desert hills behind himand in tha far background is a track and trailer and a usa flag flying. over here it is shown on BBC america at 9pm saterdays.

[ALPHA ONE]

Time for an overhaul me thinks!:yes: This new series has all the menace and excitement of cold rice pudding!

[fireflashfive]

I prefer rice pudding cold!

[Crimson Binome]

I think its getting too smart for its own good
The recent stories don't add up plot wise and even my 4yr old prefers the Tennant era

[Captain Sci-Fi]

I find this series of Dr. Who to be truer to the eccentric, zany character I remember from the original series Doctors but it looks to be a difficult job to get the pitch right. One thing that really appealed to me was the counterpoint of an ancient being in a young body. Matt carried this brilliantly quite early in the first season and showed some great potential to add depths to the Doctors character. All that promise is still there but never quite enough to push through.

The scripts in the series are just great, with the full range of plot devices, story arcs twists and turns. The American angle was inevitable and for me a welcomed turn of events, he maybe modelled on a British character but the Doctor is from another planet so it's a fair bet he can acclimatise to any culture.

[starlord]

yes it is still runing. and in a local newpaer they where talking about the 11th Dr.Who.

[ALPHA ONE]

I stand by my previous statement this new series of Dr Who needs an enema or should that be an enemy!

I was watching Revenge of the Cybermen last night.

Tom Baker Rocks!

Much better than the latest drivel! it's de-generated into a soap-opera!

And as for Tennant I heard he was evicted!

[Richard Baker]

I have not cared much for the current Doctor, but this new season is winning me over. The first two parter with the Apollo 11 Moon thing (I forget the two titles) was very well done IMO, and that last episode I saw here in this market with Amy being stuck in two time periods in the medical care facility was wonderful, dark and showed an edge to the characters.
Tom Baker has been my favorite of the classics and the Matt Smith version is slowly getting his sea legs. I do not eagerly look forwad to the show as when Tennant was the Doctor, but I am also not hitting the fast forward button on DVR.

[Conrad Turner]

This new series is totally predictable, to my mind at least.

<Spoilers, Doctor!>

I had Worked out that River Song was in Stormcage because she killed the doctor way before they confirmed it at the end of the first half of the year, ant the fact that Melody Pond = River Song was not that surprising to me either.

I find more and more often that I am looking forward to watching some of the classic series on DVD more than the next episode of the new series. I don't even care that they have actually killed off the doctor this year, after all, you just know that they are going to get out of it somehow - probably in the finale!

And don't get me started on Torchwood either! I was really looking forward to it this year, after the amazing story that was "Children of Earth". Then I started to watch it and thought I had slipped into a time-warp and was watching the first series all over again. Load of Drivel. Give me classic stories like "Invasion", "The Sunmakers", or "Happiness Patrol" anyday!

[Richard Baker]

I missed the entire story arc with River Song-Melody Pond. There was a disruption in the BBC cable feed for several days and so all I know is what has been posted online. I did not catch it if they reran it again before starting the second half of the season.

[scatta]

The second half of the current Matt Smith series has opened very weakly - to a point where I haven't enjoyed any one of the three new episodes at all. These episodes seems to have moved towards a younger viewer.

This seemed more evident when I catched an old Christopher Eccleston episode, 'Father's Day' which was highly emotionally charged and the scene with Rose's Dad purposely running in front of a speeding car certainly wasn't aimed at young viewers.

[ALPHA ONE]

Yep! Like I said, Bland, Predictable, PC Drivel!!

Come Back Tom all is forgiven!

[Captain Sci-Fi]

Did you see the new Dr Who episode? Apart from the obvious plot holes I loved it. Plenty of eye candy with the parliament scenes, nice twists and turns with intense action. Remember the days when we said we wished they had the money to improve the production values of the show, well here we are at last..!

The puppet scenes made my kids look for cover exactly as I remember an episode used to make me feel.

The whole concept of the Asylum was intriguing, Oswin made a good impression and I thought the twist in her situation was excellent.

If this has passed you by, go watch it on catch up TV, you won't regret it

[Slate Mcleod]

Must admit Captain, I was really looking forward to "Asylum" after all of the hype, but was actually really disapointed. The episode was supposed to feature "every type of Dalek the Doctor has ever encountered". Well despite the fact I know that many daleks were borrowed from fandom (and one on loan from Russell T Davies) I think most ended up on the cutting room floor ! I spotted the Special Weapons dalek prop (doing nothing) but I didn't see any of the others ! It was almost all NSD's (2005 Dalek's) and the horrible new Paradigm design. I've only watched the episode once as yet so maybe I've missed a few others but they were certainly not in the forefront of any shots.

if you look a this (admittedly artwork) promo shot that was widely circulated by the Beeb ...it really does give a false impression of what dalek's we were hoping to see...

[Ham Salad]

One thing about asylum...the' insane' daleks act pretty much like every other dalek. I would have liked to see some sort of distinction...

Also, the 'dalekized' people would seem to be contrary to established dalek mentality: they haven't been interested in other life forms, they were always pretty straightforward about the idea of wanted to destroy all forms of life but their own. IF they had nanobots that would turn people into zombies, you would just think they would used them on ALL their enemies..which, come to think of it, is pretty much everybody.

[ChrisofEDF]

In the end if i remember correctly, the classic Daleks visible where. One from The Daleks, the Evil of the Daleks, Several from genesis, a few renegade Daleks. and the SWD. They had a Death to the Daleks one in one of the documentaries.

I thought it was a great episode marred mostly by the false advertising. I really thought the "Intensive care ward" was going to be something special but was really a missed opportunity. New designs are warming on me and just wish they'd pick a color other than gold for the subordinates.

[Exterminator]

I liked it, but the one thing that jarred with me was the Daleks in "Intensive Care" were supposed to be survivors from earlier encounters with The Doctor (Spiridon, Exxilon, etc.), BUT they were all NSD Daleks, not the designs from the 1960s and 1970s!!

[ALPHA ONE]

I really wanted to like this episode but I don't think it lived up to all of the Hype!
There were plot holes big enough to fall through and the Daleks didn't really do very much, Too much talk not enough action for my taste & way to much focus on the companions and their relationship issues Dr who is supposed to be a Sci-Fi show and Not a Soap Opera!!

Again another dissapointment a few flashy CGI effects can't compensate for a Bad story

[Captain Sci-Fi]

It sounds like I was pretty lucky to have missed all the hype and enjoyed the benefits more than the broken promises of non classic Dalek appearances.

I thought the direction of the episode was very good, the image of the Dr carrying an unconscious Amy Pond and answering the question "Who killed all the Daleks" really hit the spot. My 11 year old son couldn't sit still at this point he was deep into the story.

Maybe this is where the some of the compromises start in order to bring in a new wave of younger viewers there has to be companion interaction and other "drama" moments. There were plot holes, but why let that spoil a fast paced and rich looking story? Once you accept the fact that the plot is for a new audience of teenagers it becomes more palatable.

I thought the CGI was excellent, the design of the parliament chambers was spot on and Matt Smiths script interaction with Oswin was sharp and interesting.

Talking of Oswin, whats not to like?

[Slate Mcleod]

Originally Posted by ChrisofEDF

In the end if i remember correctly, the classic Daleks visible where. One from The Daleks, the Evil of the Daleks, Several from genesis, a few renegade Daleks. and the SWD. They had a Death to the Daleks one in one of the documentaries.

I thought it was a great episode marred mostly by the false advertising. I really thought the "Intensive care ward" was going to be something special but was really a missed opportunity. New designs are warming on me and just wish they'd pick a color other than gold for the subordinates.

I didn't spot them Chris. I saw them in behind the scenes shots and production pics but failed to see them in the actual episode !