I'm really interested to see what you think of the 11th Doctor. I've also loved reading your opinions on the different episodes. I wish I could compose a longer/proper post in reply, but I'm posting from my phone and can't think of anything proper to ask. XD
First impression is positive, but I've only seen "The End of Time" with him in it so far, which isn't much to go on. I can kind of see why people hate the Tenth Doctor's last line, but I'm pretty indifferent to it. I don't think it was that bad, given the context - it's not like regeneration is just growing another body; it's really becoming a completely different person, and in that context, it's pretty close to outright dying, so Ten dreading it is perfectly understandable.
The episode overall was pretty great;
Rassilon
was an entertaining villain and John Simm was great again. I also appreciated the closure brought to several RTD-era characters in the epilogue, and it was nice to see Donna again, even if only for the few minutes she was in the episode.
I'll probably write up impressions of some of my favourite earlier episodes later, but I have work tomorrow, so it'll have to wait.
I wasn't entirely sure about Matt Smith until this scene
But that scene established that he completely owned the character. No doubts in my mind since then. If anything, he established his ownership of the character more quickly than Tennant did for me. It took awhile before I realised how much Tennant had grown on me.
The Eleventh Hour: Nice intro episode. Moffat has already started sprinkling hints about the overarching threat from basically the beginning of the episode, although not all of them are obvious at the time. This is significant evidence that these two latest seasons have been the two most meticulously planned out episodes of Who yet. Suspect Zero was kind of creepy, though nowhere near as nightmare-inducing as some of the other threats Moffat has come up with, but the real highlight of the episode was the banter between Smith, Gillan and Darvill anyway. Caitlin Blackwood was also good as a young Amelia Pond, and looks quite a bit like Gillan which is clearly no coincidence since she's her cousin
The Beast Below: There were a few sloppy things about this episode and they probably pounded in "the Doctor is the space whale" message a bit more than was strictly necessary, but this episode did a hell of a lot to establish Amy Pond as one of the Doctor's more memorable companions. The ending managed to be heartbreaking and heartwarming all at once, and makes up for any flaws the rest of the episode might have had.
Victory of the Daleks: This episode gave us exactly what it promised it would. People have complained about the new design of the Daleks but it seems pretty obvious that they were trying to make one of the galaxy's biggest threats as brightly coloured as possible, just for the sake of cosmic irony. I liked the hammy Winston Churchill as well. Still, I've seen better Dalek episodes.
The Time of Angels/Flesh and Stone: Oh yes. I have one gripe and one gripe only with this episode: what's with being able to see the Angels move towards the end of "Flesh and Stone"? It spoiled the fourth-wall breaking effect of the Angels not moving because we were looking at them. The banter between River and the Doctor was fantastic, and the Angels were convincingly built up into an even greater threat than they were in "Blink". I'm quite thrilled that they put the call-forward of the Doctor showing up when Amy had her eyes closed, and this episode went a long way towards establishing just what a problem the crack in time is. Couldn't really have asked for much more from this episode.
The Vampires of Venice: I guess we needed a breather episode after the last several. This is a pretty fun episode, if slight. I'm glad the "vampires" turned out not to be actual vampires. Vampires are so overused these days.
Amy's Choice: Quite an enjoyable episode, this. Moffat seems to want to leave us with nothing that will not creep us out; here birdsong manages to do it. The Dream Lord's gloriously hammy performance was a boon to this episode and I liked the way the episode ratcheted up the sense of menace in both settings.
The Hungry Earth/Cold Blood: The political allegory in this episode wasn't really very subtle, and the ending didn't leave us with much closure given all the horrifying things that happened. I guess we're not supposed to like that, though. This didn't strike me as one of the strongest stories in the series, but it was still mostly enjoyable.
Vincent and the Doctor: Superb episode. Tony Curran looks exactly like Vincent Van Gogh, and the acting was pretty convincing all around (apparently no one pronounced Van Gogh's last name correctly, however). The ending was probably a bit emotionally manipulative, but it worked spectacularly and was one of my favourite moments of the season.
The Lodger: Pretty fun breather episode, although it turns out to be a lot more important than it first seems. There are a few subtle very call-forwards to season six when the characters are on TARDIS-like second story ship - there are a couple of shots where characters act like they see something and then act as if they've seen nothing a few seconds later, which means it was probably
a Silent
. The romantic subplot was well handled, which is a nice treat for sci-fi (although Gareth Edwards has a history of doing these pretty well), and you can't fake football skills like those Matt Smith shows off in this episode.
The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang: This may be the best series finale in NuWho yet. All four major characters got plenty of moments to shine. I think my favourite may have been River making a friggin' Dalek beg for mercy. And then not showing it. It was nice to see an episode where all the major characters got an unambiguously happy ending, and what could potentially have been a mess of non-linear time travel was handled supremely well by Moffat. I can see why this won him yet another Hugo - it's a doozy of an episode.
A Christmas Carol - Can't find this on Netflix, haven't seen yet.
The Impossible Astronaut/Day of the Moon - I'm not 100% sure I've figured out the chronology here, but I'm pretty sure
the astronaut is a young River, and she obviously is part Time Lord. It's also obvious Rory and Amy are her parents, and I'm guessing she must have gotten kidnapped when she was young, but I'm not 100% sure where the Time Lord part comes in. Maybe it comes in from Amy spending so much time on the TARDIS while pregnant? But that's just a guess.
The Silence are possibly the creepiest Who villains yet. Moffat is supremely gifted at taking a basic psychological concept and making it terrifying. The characters' solutions to the problem were ingenious and the ending was a glorious thing to see. Something tells me this is nowhere near the last of the Silence we will see, however.
There's no way the future Doctor is actually dead. Or if he is, it must be a clone.
The Curse of the Black Spot - Far from the best Who episode ever, but far from the execrable level of "Love and Monsters" either. I definitely did not see the resolution coming at all.
The Doctor's Wife - Neil Gaiman, I love you. This is probably in my top ten Who episodes - I really can't think of anything to complain about. The concept is a fantastic idea, but it could have been disastrous if it hadn't been pulled off well. Thankfully, it was.
What freaks me out most about the Weeping Angels is from the behind the scenes where you see that they're all real actors just holding still in every scene. Knowing that somehow makes them even more terrifying to me.
My favorite part about this season is when you start getting a good feeling for the internal struggles that The Doctor is dealing with. HOW the Doctors deal with everything is what makes 9, 10, and 11 the most different to me.
I have to ask: What do you think of Rory's character, and how he changes from when you first meet him up to being The last Centurion?
Also, The Doctor's Wife changes the way I think of EVERY episode where they show up somewhere by accident, and it also makes The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang so much more sad when you think about the TARDIS being destroyed.
I'm glad you're well on your way to being caught up in NuWho.
What freaks me out most about the Weeping Angels is from the behind the scenes where you see that they're all real actors just holding still in every scene. Knowing that somehow makes them even more terrifying to me.
My favorite part about this season is when you start getting a good feeling for the internal struggles that The Doctor is dealing with. HOW the Doctors deal with everything is what makes 9, 10, and 11 the most different to me.
I have to ask: What do you think of Rory's character, and how he changes from when you first meet him up to being The last Centurion?
Also, The Doctor's Wife changes the way I think of EVERY episode where they show up somewhere by accident, and it also makes The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang so much more sad when you think about the TARDIS being destroyed.
I'm glad you're well on your way to being caught up in NuWho.
Wow, I had no idea the Angels were actors holding still; I assumed they were CG or something. I was in a drama production where I had to hold still for significant portions of the production. I was not very good at doing this, which needless to say gave me an appreciation for anyone who can.
And yeah, the differences between Doctors are pretty profound already, but it's not entirely clear what Eleven's internal issues are. Amy's Choice made it pretty obvious that he has a lot of them, but there's a lot of room for exploration.
Rory has grown a lot since he was first introduced, there is no question. Him being the last Centurion was particularly badass.
And yeah, the Fridge Horror quotient introduced by The Doctor's Wife is profound. Given that the episode explicitly says the TARDIS is being destroyed across all times and space, it seems like River and the TARDIS both would have been being blown apart for almost two thousand years straight, if not more.
-And now you know why the only time I've ever changed my username on forums was on FFOF (after being forced to) for a Doctor Who-themed thing, and I chose "The Last Centurion"
11's entrance is in many ways a mirror to 3's entrance (As is 9's, what with the use of the Autons/Nesteen, 3's introductory villains.), especially the malfunctioning Tardis, appropriation of clothing in a hospital, and some great staredown of the enemy.
Of course, 11's opening is in many ways a bit of everyone that has come before, some of Hartnell, Troughton, Pertwee, Baker, Davidson, Baker, McCoy, McGann, even Eccleston and Tennant get their references, though in different ways.
Once you get caught up to the 'present' I recommend going back to the beginning. ALL the way back. You don't have to watch all of the first two doctors, but I would recommend watching the First episode, all of the Daleks, all of their old appearances, the Cybermen's old stuff, and Lethbridge Stuart's first appearances.
Much of the rest is skippable without issue, but I have compiled a list of all the earliest episodes, which exist, which are mostly missing, which are watchable, and which are less watchable, and which are less than watchable.
I have now seen every episode of the revived series except "The Doctor, the Witch & the Wardrobe" and the two animated specials. I will post comments soon, as well as a revised list of favourites. Maybe after I've seen the aforementioned episode.
What are some good early series episodes to watch? Preferably ones available on Amazon Prime or Netflix. I've started watching "The Caves of Androzani" but since it's two hours long I haven't seen the whole thing yet.
I started watching Doctor Who...I'm only on season 2 and I believe it is episode 8, I have to admit I miss the 9th Doctor but 10 is pretty cool as well and I am sorta asking myself "When is Captain Jack Harkness coming back?" What I miss him...
You can always get more of him on Torchwood Though you probably shouldn't watch that until you've seen season two of Doctor Who in its entirety, since it starts after that. Captain Jack does return for one of the finales though; I can't remember which one. I think series three and maybe series four as well.
Anyway, a number of posts on tumblr have been saying that Tennant did in fact light the Olympic torch but we didn't see it because the Silence were there.
I'm not 100% sure which of these variants I like the most, but I think the last one, even though I'm pretty sure it doesn't use the right font
There were a number of other Dalek variants but none of them were dramatically different from this one, with the exception of the colour and clipart used
I tried to find a Vashta Nerada variant as well, but I couldn't
I've saved a large number of other images as well but cba uploading them all right now.
I started watching Doctor Who...I'm only on season 2 and I believe it is episode 8, I have to admit I miss the 9th Doctor but 10 is pretty cool as well and I am sorta asking myself "When is Captain Jack Harkness coming back?" What I miss him...
Harkness mostly goes over to Torchwood. It flounders a lot. I still haven't seen Miracle Day, but it seems to have officially divorced itself from DW continuity at that point.
I started watching Doctor Who...I'm only on season 2 and I believe it is episode 8, I have to admit I miss the 9th Doctor but 10 is pretty cool as well and I am sorta asking myself "When is Captain Jack Harkness coming back?" What I miss him...
Harkness mostly goes over to Torchwood. It flounders a lot. I still haven't seen Miracle Day, but it seems to have officially divorced itself from DW continuity at that point.
Also, Aaron, that chart is incomplete. It doesn't have Evil/Evil, Stupid Evil, Lawful/Chaotic, and the other all important incomprehensible alignments.
May I also say Aaron, your new sig is mesmerising. Like seriously scrolling down to real that last post it was impossible to read any words and not be drawn to the assplosion.
The first episode of series seven premièred last night to limited audiences in select theatres. Initial reviews are starting to be posted. Here is one. No spoilers.
I have heard September 1 bandied about as the magic date, but I haven't seen it on the official BBC site so I'm assuming it's just a rumour.
edit: It is September 1, at least in Europe. It is assumed that the series will air later the same day in the U.S., as happened last year.
Though you probably shouldn't watch that until you've seen season two of Doctor Who in its entirety, since it starts after that. Captain Jack does return for one of the finales though; I can't remember which one. I think series three and maybe series four as well.
