Who?

[kokamoa]

I just watched the Paul McGann movie from 1996, for the first time ever just now. Because Universal never took up the option to make a series, I'd always assumed it must have been really bad, but there was a lot of good stuff in there and it fairly rattled along. Episodically, I've decided to start the deep dive by watching The Curse of Peladon and The Monster of Peladon. There's an element of "Well, I really should get this over with," in my thinking with both the TV Movie and the Peladon stories, but I thought the movie was great and Part 1 of The Curse of Peladon has managed to be both entertaining and funny.

[Jobi1]

I didn't mind the movie. I think my issue with McGann's Doctor is the same as with Eccleston - they start off playing it really like they're doing kids' TV (badly), something really patronising in their delivery, and to me comes across as really inauthentic. I'm sure younger audiences probably like them and it's only because I like and know their other work that I see it that way, but for me they only really come into the role in the more serious, angry, darker moments. McGann's best turn as the Doctor for me was the pre-50th anniversary mini episode 'The Night of the Doctor'.

[Levin]

Are Children's in Need specials canon?

[Patrick Thistle]

Depends whether you want to count Joanna Lumley as the first female Doctor.

[Levin]

That was comic relief wasn't it?

[Patrick Thistle]

Ah yes I think so, now you mention it.

[Levin]

This Tales of the Tardis [sic] is a bit weird. Davidson and Fielding retell Earthshock, but in character? Maybe I'm misunderstanding it. Is any of the celebratory stuff worth watching?

[Levin]

Oh no, this had better not be a new permanent theme tune.

Very RTD prologue.

I'll come back to this later rather than posting through.

[Levin]

Ok, one thought. This had better not be lilo and stitch

[Jobi1]

I think that might well be my single least favourite episode since the reboot. By some distance.

[Eggchaser]

David Tennant! YAY! Still the best Doctor.

Almost everything else. Jesus wept, laboured as fuck.

I liked the disco ball TARDIS, though.

The heavy breathing on the closing credits sounded like me after about 500m of a run.

Right, time for The Curse of Fenric to see if it disturbed me as much as when I watched it first time around.

[Eggchaser]

Yes, it was still weird as hell, and I still feel sorry for poor old Nicholas Parsons.

[kokamoa]

I discovered today that BBC Sounds is hosting a load of Doctor Who content as well as iPlayer. Some of it is the documentaries and concerts you may already know about but it looks like there's a lot of Big Finish content together with the audio soundtracks for Marco Polo, The Daleks' Master Plan and The Wheel in Space.

[Jobi1]

David Tennant! YAY! Still the best Doctor.

Almost everything else. Jesus wept, laboured as fuck.

I liked the disco ball TARDIS, though.

The heavy breathing on the closing credits sounded like me after about 500m of a run.

Yes, seriously, what on Earth (or Gallifrey) was that!? Absolutely finished me off, and not in a good way.

I get the feeling I'm going to have to just grit my teeth and power through these three episodes and hope that what follows is more interesting. And also desparately hope it's got a different theme for the credits.

[Eggchaser]

It will probably turn out to be a plot device.

[Levin]

I don't want a mythic being who we're constantly being told is mythic and amazing. And I don't get how the Donna will die thing resolved apart from women are amazing.

[Levin]

Why are these SFX and green screen worse than Lexx?

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

That was a proper nightmare inducing one for the kiddies tonight. And, er, me.

Was it CGI to bring Bernard Cribbins back as Wilf at the end? I was fairly sure he was, er, dead.

[Levin]

That was much better than last week. Nice use of editing techniques, some creeping dread and and decent effects for the baddies.

The green screen and matteing still reminds me of Lexxx though.

What's with the big 'sets'? Are they using the same green screen/rendering first system as the Star Wars TV series'?

[Lymeswold Snork]

That was a proper nightmare inducing one for the kiddies tonight. And, er, me.

Was it CGI to bring Bernard Cribbins back as Wilf at the end? I was fairly sure he was, er, dead.

They filmed that bit just before he died. It was on "Doctor Who Unleashed" (the little "making of" documentary accompanying these episodes).

[Discordant Resonance]

That was much better than last week. Nice use of editing techniques, some creeping dread and and decent effects for the baddies.

The green screen and matteing still reminds me of Lexxx though.

What's with the big 'sets'? Are they using the same green screen/rendering first system as the Star Wars TV series'?

Disney are part-funding it now, so eminently possible.

[Eggchaser]

Much more enjoyable. The best Whos are generally the "weird shit WTF is going on in an unfamiliar place the Doctor needs to figure it out with his big brain" episodes. Robbing him of the Sonic McGuffin helped.

[Gangster Octopus]

What a shame that Bernard Cribbins didn't live until the last bit.

[Levin]

I think that you shouldn't be involved in making Doctor Who if you like it too much. You should like it, you should want to make a good TV program, but you shouldn't revere it.

[Levin]

I mean, it was a good enough episode. But giving Tennant another good-bye?