Who?

[jason voorhees]

Who?

Don't worry, you don't need to as long as your Muse-rray Gold is supplying the tunes.

What can I say, I live in Nawlins.

(And I'm not saying "what the fuck are you doing here" in terms of being offended, I'm saying it in terms of "why the fuck are you not charging major loot for your ass-tonishing writing talent. Can't you send something to Simon Pegg or something ?")

[ian.64]

Who?

Now I'm confused.

Arse-hungry lecher or word-play indulgent madman, ladies and gentlemen, please tell me where the fuck I'm going wrong.

No, on second thoughts, don't as I get the suspicion that I'll look at all this in the morning and be absolutely horrified with myself.

Goodnight and take care.

[ian.64]

Who?

Aaaaaaaahhhhhh, now I get it!

Sorry, Jase. The context of your two original phrases was hard to divine.

Lordy, I look forward to when I get an IQ allowance.

[jason voorhees]

Who?

I was saying "brilliant post" wouldn't have cut it.

[ian.64]

Who?

Jase, my thanks. Bloody hell, I certainly made a car-crash out of all that.

Actually, to go out into the wide world with a writing career would be a lovely idea, but then I'd soon find myself running out of lovely ideas and staring at a blank page for more time than is absolutely necessary, so being an ordinary working stiff will have to suffice for now.

Only on OTF would the subject of a Time Lord battling flying metal sharks veer into Michelle Ryan's hindquarters and a transatlantic literary misunderstanding.

And the beauty of the word 'budunkadongs'.

[Ginger Yellow]

Who?

So is anyone going to explain what this show was or not?

[Purves Grundy]

Who?

One off Easter special with David Tennant and Michelle Ryan as the one-off (the wrist, it seems) companion.

Very bad indeed. Not worth watching.

[Eggchaser]

Who?

They really are just filling up the slots allocated to them by the BBC until the new Doctor comes along, aren't they?

It's reminiscent of a Championship team that knows it won't get promoted or relegated so just chugs along gently until they can start again.

A terrible waste of Tennant's ability. And I stand by everything I say about fucking feisty fucking companions. And it looks like it's going to be just as feisty in the next episode (although that looked intriguing, I think the "We're trapped and can't get out" episodes tend to be better).

[Guy Profumo]

Who?

ian.64 wrote:

Oh, for God's sake. I am sick to the back teeth of clever, assertive and strong-minded companions. Frankly, we need some stone age dullard who needs everything explained in small words to them for a refreshing change.

Let's have a change and give him a pet instead of the usual companion, thick, strong-willed or not. Let's join Tennant in another adventure with Francis the Ferret, who'll save the day by strolling around in the Doctor's trousers and nipping him in the charlies to awaken him from a neuro-stasis trance placed there by the dastardly Cybermen.

Or have a drunk assistant. Doctor: "An intersystronic multifasic bug resounder! They think of everything - Trevor, get that Holaric plasma gun from over there, we've got work to do!" Trevor: "Nah, fack off and gerrit yourself! You...you wanna fight, you...lanky spaz? I...I'm sorry (weeps), didn't mean it...got no friends..."

Well, Planet of the Dead. Hmmm. Moments of enjoyment interspersed with quarter-hours of excruciating blah. First off, the pleasures of old Doctor Whos were that the stories weren't obliged all that much to have large stretches of breathless running about and physical movement in order to capture the viewers' attention. Watching Doctor Who now, it's as if Paula Radcliffe has been brought in as script consultant, so there's so much breathless action it's a bit like watching a telly version of a physical fit, all flapping about in every direction, no rest, no suspense, no feeling of the momentum of a story going on.

Was it a story? Lots of people bunged in a bus, go to strange planet, meet people with large fly heads, find anti-gravitational clamps, fly out before metal sharks invade the Earth. Chuck in snotty girl cat burglar and gratingly irritating Woman With Strange Gift (requirements: looking horrified and getting on everybody's tits with frequent 'we're doomed' outcries) and you have a mess that entertains at times, yet is a complete dog's dinner the rest of its hour's running time.

Dog-dinner elements. Michelle Ryan. She has a tremendous bottom. I'm sorry. Yes, I do apologise for this dropping of standards of discretion, but those buttocks were made to oscillate beneath black nylon leggings. I'm sure at one point that the moment she sat down on the edge of that alien hole, the BBC Orchestra of Wales almost provided a thump of percussional triumph to signify the meeting of rear-end against otherworldly metal. Lordy.

But she wasn't much cop on the character front. Her 'I'm in charge' speech to the other worried bus occupants invited a huge 'fuck off' from them and the audience. You're on a hostile world and the last thing you want is to be spoken down to from some stuck-up cow with a Tara-Palmer Tonkinson attitude to life. I'm glad this 'companion' business is only temporary - if she was in it for the long haul, I'd be crestfallen. But not from a Gluteus Maximii angle, obviously. Oh, bugger, I'm regenerating into a Time Dirty Old Man.

Lee Evans. Christ. I'm sure he's a nice bloke, but his character was like adding a dripping tap to the sound of fingernails scraping down a blackboard and a car alarm all at once. Like the rest, it was like having an hourful of Caricatures Of The Week, no real strong characterisation, just jokey two-dimensional cut-outs. Only Tennant deserves exemption because, as much as his stint encapsulates a lot of shouting, gurning and other business, he's been in those shoes for quite a while and, moreover, he's just very good, bringing real actor's craft and strengths to what might just be a half-arsed comedy turn without them.

Murray Gold.

That's Murray Gold, destroyer of sound, murderer of theme, enemy of mood and strangler of any worthwhile emotions that the art of music can conjure or create. I spent an hour hating this tosser, due to the usual relentless clatter of sonic wank that passes for music. Who knew how damaging small dots on lines could ever be to the nerve system when placed in the hands of Murray Gold? Even a quiet theft in a museum turns into a sub-Bond crapfest, complete with wah-wah horns, and soon we're off again, the train of chuntering, suspenseless, moodless aural bollocks assails the ears once more. No evocation of mood or feeling, just a progression of pounding ostinati that makes one feel that the BBC Orchestra of Wales have the strongest arms of any symphonic outfit with all the eternal shoving and swinging that Gold's cacophonous gubbins requires.

The worst came with the flying bus sequences at the end, and it's significant that a previous post referred to the Wrong Trousers, as the music brought to mind Julian Nott's superbly comic marches for the Wallace and Gromit films, only Nott brought a wealth of ideas and invention to just one of Nick Park's half-hours than Gold brought to an entire series of Who.

And to think that people paid for tickets to fill the Albert Hall last Christmas to listen to that crap. Ideally, Gold's music should be included in a music version of a police identity parade ("Now, madam, could you go along and pick out which piece of music ruined your entire bloody evening?").

Michelle Ryan's bum, Lee Evans's hysterical panto turn and a story that appeared to have been devised by writing plot points on pieces of paper, chucking them into a hat, shaking them about and picking them out again to see what could be made of them.

This got beaten in the ratings by Britain's Got Talent. When that malignant barrel of pus-ridden anal warts that passes for a human being by the name of Piers Morgan gives you a ratings run for your money, you know that bucking up your ideas is first item on the agenda.

Thunderous applause for that man there!

Nail firmly hit on head.

[Dink]

Who?

So, Karen Gillam is the new companion for series 5



She has previously been in Dr Who, in the Fires of Pompeii, playing a soothsayer. Well, she's very cute, there's not much more to say at this moment as I've never seen her in any previous role.

[David Agnew]

Who?

Excellent choice, in the fact that she's an unknown, so doesn't overshadown Matt Smith. And the fact there's two unknowns in the main roles suggest the Moff era is going to be less about big names as with starfucker Rusty, and more about well, plots and acting.

[David Agnew]

Who?

And I've decided that The Doctor's daughter isn't a plotless pointless pile of shite, but more of a critical savaging of the Russell T Davies era.

[Dink]

Who?

I have to confess that my first reaction to the announcement was one of "Thank fuck it isn't another series of Catherine Tate" as some of the more excitable types on DWF had been predicting. A series with none of Tate's overacting, RTD's guest stars and his constant referencing of his own mythology has the potential to be very good indeed.

[Lucy Waterman]

Who?

A series with none of Tate's overacting, RTD's guest stars and his constant referencing of his own mythology has the potential to be very good indeed.

Equally it has the potential to be shite, or mediocre.

The show needs Series 5 to be really, really good, especially after the mess at Easter. I quite liked Jekyll, but keeping a whole Doctor Who season together is going to require Moffat to take a step up. I have a paranoid feeling that while he may be unarguably the best writer the new series has had, running the whole ship may be too much of a stretch.

[Mumpo]

Who?

There have been rumours going around for a while now that Matt Smith's first companion would be a read-headed Celt. I wonder how long they've kept the lid on this decision?

Anyway, yeah, good choice, on the face of it. Let's hope she can act a little, but not too much, because we don't want another companion in the Piper or Tate mould that overshadows the character of the Doctor. No, we want someone who can be feisty when required, but who spends most of the time either in mild peril or demanding exposition. And who does not have a family in tow.

So, we're just waiting for the big one now - the publicity shots of Smith and Gillan together, in costume.

[Eggchaser]

Who?

She'd better be an orphan from the 18th Century at the very latest, that's all I'm saying.

Sadly, another feisty, independent minded, feisty and fiery blah feisty blah strong blah looks on the cards.

[Disco Child Ballads]

Who?

Can't we have a companion who's not from contemporary earth for a change or is that too much too ask?

[Lucy Waterman]

Who?

They don't tend to work very well, the sainted Lalla excepted.

edit - just to amplify, the problem is that the companion usually needs to act as the viewer's window on the Doctor. Making the companion as exotic as the lead removes the viewer further from what's going on. That isn't a problem when you've got a lead as well-established as Tom was when they started bringing in alien sidekicks, but is when you don't. You end up in danger of having (for example) Peter Davison talking technobabble with a refugee from the planet Katebush and a git in yellow jimjams for what seems like an eternity.

[David Agnew]

Who?

Yes and no, it's a case of how the character is written and played.

Nyssa did well because she was a good popular character (despite the fact Sarah Sutton couldn't act), but she had Tegan as the viewer's reprasentative. Both Romanas worked, despite them being the Doctor's intellectual equal, even thought that meant there was no-one to ask questions (which was the downfall of contemporary Liz Shaw). Zoe also got away with being the super-intelligent character because she was likable (which did for the annoying Adric) and had almost savage Jamie to do the questions, something Leela had going for her, despite the fact that the was the one viewers could identify with the least.

And don't forget Catherine Tate and Bonnie Langford were by far the most irritating companions of all time (unless we're including Michelle Ryan as a companion) and they were comtemporary earthpeople.

[jason voorhees]

Who?

Finally got to watching S4. Just finished Doctor's Daughter.

So far, so great.

Catherine Tate is spectacular - especially in her great timing of her snappy lines (which surprised me greatly as she turned in the worst performance in the entire series with that stupid Christmas episode,) Tennant is great as usual, RTD has found a not great/not horrible balance that really has worked wonders in the first few episodes, and Freema Ageyman proved me correct beyond a shadow of a doubt as a great actress (especially in the meetup of the clones scene in the Sontaran episodes.)

I'm simply loving it. A great season that mrs. v is also enjoying immensely. Not a sour note, with Doctor's Daughter taking the best aspects of Girl in the Fireplace and wonderfully expanding the story in a wonderful and exciting way.

And being that everyone raved about the Library and the last 4 episodes, I can't wait.

[Lucy Waterman]

Who?

I didn't think Catherine Tate was all that good, but she's nowhere near being the most irritating companion of all time. Not even top ten. Have you never seen Four to Doomsday?

[jason voorhees]

Who?

Partners in Crime - ***

I saw this a few months ago, and I remembered liking it, but I don't remember shit about it.

Fires of Pompeii - ***
A much bigger improvement over some other "second episode must contain the companion wanting to go back in time" episodes. I also loved the explanation for the British accents-in-ancient-Rome (the Tardis translation service,) which I would've loved for the other Rome.

Planet of the Ood - ****
I'm a sucker for Doctor-in-the-snow episodes, (perhaps because of the lost Patrick Troughton cyberman episode,) but this episode had a great no-frills script in addition to the best tweener (half baddie and babyface, or in this case squidface) alien in the show.

I loved the constant revelations, the sweatshop dig that the Doctor has at Donna, and the collection of brains. Beautiful episode.

Sontaran Strategem/Poison Sky - ****
Yes, the Sontarans could've bulked up a little, but with Ryan Sampson turning in one of the greatest whacked-out wacky crazy-eyed performances since that bottle-clicking guy in The Warriors (I half expected him to scream "Doooooooooctorrrrr, come out and plaayyyyyyyay") and Martha being excellent as usual, it was a great episode.

I always loved Martha because she was understated and slightly shy and brave, and brought a zen-like calmness to the show. Of course this got translated by many as bad acting, but RTD obviously gave her a better script this time. The scene of the clone and her was one of the most touching around.

I loved the Death-by-ATMOS because it was one of the classic Who Deaths (broken-down hoopdee from junkyard - 200 quid. Film for one-take camera angle - 25 quid. Car crashing into lake to kill meddling whistleblower - Priceless.)

The Doctor's "are you my mummy" joke was also outstanding because (A) It's something the Doctor would say to amuse himself, (B) It amuses us, and (C) It would piss off the militar.

My only regret is that the Brigadier didn't show up on the Nick Fury S.H.I.E.L.D ship.

Doctor's Daughter - ****
First off, I'm happy they clearly explained that the Doctor did have a daughter by whatever Timelord biological reproduction that they use on Gallifrey. But the crackhead breakneck pace of this episode was outstanding, as was the premise.

We got Speed Parenting, and Speed Multi-Generational Warfare. Fine, you the audience have a short attention span, so we'll give you a centuries-long war in a few minutes. A great example of conforming to the audience and having that work. I wish they showed more bodies piled up to show how much carnage there was, but what can you do.

It brought in a great new character for the Gen Yers (Davidson's daughter is brilliant,) and Donna was at her best in using her Temp Skills and her new-found social services parental counseling.

Unicorn and the Wasp - ****
H-O-O-T.

Absolute HOOT.

I loved the 1920s filmmaking (the dream filters and harps for flashbacks,) the pacing of the scripts, and especially the 1920s puff-of-smoke FX for the transformation into the wasp.

The Agatha Christie actress was great, and the "should I sit down now?" joke was second only to "Are you my mummy ?"

The scriptwriting and filmmaking vastly improved this season. While there were no real highpoints, the consistency meant that there would be no embarrasing moments as well. It's the "it's better to win a small hand than lose a big one" philosophy from poker.

When the writer for Shakespeare Code turns out something this good, you know you're doing the right thing.

Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead - *** 1/2

Unfortunately, it couldn't stand up to the hype. But still great nonetheless.

As everyone said, a mashup of all of Moffat's stories, with a bit of the Matrix and that virtual reality Star Trek ep thrown in as well. Nothing wrong with that, but it kept me from that China White immaculate high that Moffat usually hooks me up with.

I never really could hit the overdrive high of fear, either. It was freaky, but the "hey who turned out the lights" sample was a little too goofy, especially as the fishtank skeleton was moving too slow. Like Shaun of the Dead slow.

The ghosting effect was nice, as was the Sopranos-style silouetted woman in black. (Purves, the Sopranos is like a mix of Moffat and The Wire. It's not a simple mafia story, there's a lot of fantastical elements in it.)

Donna was brilliant again, as was the Speed Suburban Life she experienced with Stuttering John.

The ER lady was great, and it's always neat when the Doctor runs into problems or people that his future self created/met.

Midnight - ****
Absolutely hilarious in that this is one of the first games you do in an acting class. You stand apart from someone, and repeat everything they say as they say it. It's something that every actor in the world has done, and here they use it for an outstanding sci-fi premise. Theatre Game + Twilight Zone = Brilliant. Something like this could work wonders on stage.

Again, another brilliant script with perfect pacing. The actress was great, and I loved the inner logic of the alien picking up on how these humans acted, and the unavoidable march to death and destruction and fear that the humans had. I wish the world had more shows and theatre performances like this.

Turn Left - ****
Donna was beyond outstanding, and truly showed why Tate lobbied hard to get a role on the show.

Again, the filmmaking and pacing came a long way. It was a dark and dreary march to nothingness, and contained some really heavy Mike Leigh-style acting by Donna's Mum and Dad.

In this case, I liked the return of Rose. It made sense that the universes were breaking down, and that she would become someone with a lot of intelligence and power who could help Donna.

The only unfortunate part was that I thought the Darkness was the bug, or the beetle was an agent of the darkness. I had no fucking idea it would be the motherfucking Daleks again. Here I thought we'd get a new villian, or it would be one that the Daleks and Doctor would team up against. No such luck.

Stolen Earth/Journey's End - ** 1/2

Davros was the shit. An example of improving immensely on the old version. When that bitch was cackling for way-too-long, it crossed the line from "man, that's creepy," to "man, that's really fucking creepy and I may remember this creepy cackling shit for way too long."

Mickey/Rickey is the shit. I never realized how important he was to the success of the early seasons, and seeing him here I alternatively missed him and hated to see this bootleg depressed version.

And in Mickey, I realized how bootleg and seedy this whole finale was.

In Doomsday, Mickey had found himself. He was so powerful, so confident, and that was the end of his character. He wasn't a clown anymore. Here we see that he's found that his newfound power and confidence can't buy him happiness. Who the fuck wants to learn that lesson ?

And in Doomsday, we get one of the greatest endings, the greatest finales, the greatest character departures in any show of any time. It was so pure, so innocent, and so soulful. It's something that haunted me everywhere I went. (I mean, for a while I was toying with dropping out and leaving America, giving up my dreams and leaving all of my friends and roots and connections, and being on a beach in New Zealand or Australia.)

An now, am I supposed to be happy that Rose ends up with a seedy smarmy snakeoil salesman lizardskin-boot-wearing Fredo-at-Mo-Greenes-casino version of the Doctor, instead of the man she loves ? I mean I was afraid of what they'd do to ruin Rose's character, and man they couldn't have done a better job of that shit. I know that's what happens in real life, but who the fuck needs to learn that lesson ?

(and we don't need Nick Cave singing "now Rose is getting porked by my RED RIGHT HAND.")

And then Rose's mom not teleporting all of those people out of there, and just saying "I'm sorry, but you're going to have to get atomized while my ass is going to be hugging my former future son-in-law." Smarmy bitch.

The worst thing is, it goes against all of their natures. It's against everything we learned about them. It's as if all that they learned has gotten washed away on that beach and that alternative world; "...and they lived smarmily-ever after."

(The only good thing is it was only 2 years before they trashed their legacy. Phantom Menace had 3 decades of buildup before they trashed everything. I think I'll just give this the fan-fiction treatment and ignore it.)

The Daleks were cool, back to their old school selves. (Hopefully we'll get more of the German version sometime, but I'll really die to hear the Hindi or French or African tribal click language version.) Loved Davros's ribcage.

The Shadow Proclamation was crap (so it's two albinos and a bunch of rhinos ? Neh-eh.) The greatest hits package was a nice idea (Harriet Jones was nice to see again, and I will never get tired of Captain Jack getting killed,) but once the Tardis pulled the earth (I had these hillbilly neighbors growing up. They were once my cousins. My uncle was the only survivor in his unit at Iwo Jima. When he was recovering, his survival instinct kicked in and he fucked the first nurse that treated him, who turned out to be a hillbilly Tabacco Road nurse from North Cackalacky. They got married, and she didn't tell him she had an illegitimate daughter when she was 13. My grandmother, who owned land in central New Jersey, allowed the illegitimate daughter and her husband to live in the shack next door {the illegitimate daughter also had a bastard son when she was 12, and he went on to get convicted of picking up a female hitchhiker and raping and murdering her. He died of AIDS during a life sentence.} Growing up, their daughters told me the parents once claimed that after God made the Earth he took it for a walk around the universe like a dog. That was the closest that I've seen this hillbilly version of the Bible in cinematic form,) it was over for me.

I loved the last scene with Donna. It was her at her most obnoxious self, the one that had everyone shaking in their boots when they announced that she'd be the new companion. Here she is, so stupid and loud and dumb and ignorant and obnoxious after achieving so much understanding and confidence and epiphanic intellect, like the Timelord version of Charly.

Season 4 - Best all-around season since 1.

I'd have to rank them:
1) 1
2) 4
3) 2
4) 3

[David Agnew]

Who?

Yes, yes I have, and he's not as annoying as Tate was in the Runaway Bride, let alone any of her other appearances.

[jason voorhees]

Who?

Having just recently finished season 4, I think that (much to my surprise), it might be the best overall season yet.

There aren't any absolute best episodes, but there aren't really any episodes or stories that are completely useless and that I nearly ignore as it plays(like the other seasons have).

And I didn't hate Donna. She was actually a very good companion, I thought.

In short, I pretty much agree with matej.

I have to wonder if the Murray Gold thing is a British v American thing. The music is certainly Hollywoodish, but that's not all that bad to me. The only time I could really see what everyone was saying was at the end of Dalek. And the theme for Martha.

But on a whole, I fail to see the ruckus.

[Uncle Ethan]

Who?

SPOILERS

Just seen it this week and the bus one was rubbish, what was the point?

And why did the horsefly aliens have human shaped communication ear pieces lying around?

One also wonders how far the completely pointless burglar got in a getaway bus.

If she was chased by the deaf and blind security service from the museum she may escaped.