Well, that has to be the shortest stint as a companion on record.

I really wish they would get out of the solar system. Seven episodes so far and they've all taken place on earth or in earth orbit.

Watched The Long Game last night..... definitely a different beast, this one....... and overall, I like it quite a bit.

I thought Eccleston was great here. There wasn't any of the crazy grin behavior. In fact, I think he wore a frown during most of the episode. He spent much of the episode suspecting something being not quite right about the space station, and trying to figure out what was afoot. I thought that was quite Tom Baker-ish. The Editor was superb too... definitely the best villain to date in the new series. No cheesy lines, and he was quite chilling too (pardon the pun). I know this episode wasn't that well received from the Gallifrey crowd but sometimes I think they're just out to slag on RTD. Viewing figures were great again. Next episode looks promising.

Mr. Valeyard, you seen this one yet?

My rankings so far:

1) Dalek
2) The End of the World
3/4) The Long Game & The Unquiet Dead (tie- I'll need to rewatch them both)
5) Aliens of London
6) WW III
7) Rose

All have been enjoyable, I must say.

Not yet. I'm gonna track it down tonight and probably watch it tomorrow. I did watch the trailer for next week's episode and have to agree that it looks very promising indeed. Great to hear the viewing figures for Long Game were higher than original thought.

Also, from Gally - Doctor Who knocking out the competition:


Lookin' good!

Andrew

I just saw the Dalek episode too. They seem to be making the Doctor and his companion more complex and I love what they are doing with them. I am hoping the other guy stays. I think he would be a nice addition.
Anyone know where I can get a toy Dalek?

Watch the next episode and I think both statements might be re-evaluated.

Well, I wondered if they were going to use Simon Pegg for anything other than a narrator. That was fun.

I would have liked to see Companion #2 stick around too; I'm not sure I like how Rose-centric the series has become...

Next-season spoiler


I take it she's some bubblegum pop idol in the UK? I don't mind her really, but I don't much like her being as important as the Doc himself.

"Father's Day" - 5-14-05

I won't see this til the middle of the week. Anyone catch it?

Ratings look good this week:

I finally watched The Long Game this weekend and agree with Autotelik's above comments. I definately like the angle they took with Adam's character - pretty much taking advantage of the Doctor's generosity by trying to "hi-jack" future technology. Not all companions can be winners.

Rankings so far (IMO):

1) Dalek (Yes!!)
2) The End of the World
3) The Unquiet Dead
4) The Long Game
5) Aliens of London
6) Rose
7) World War Three (Man, what a let down)

Andrew

It's hard to post in this thread! Everybody seems to be on different episodes. Anyway, I watched "Father's Day" yesterday. Although the CGI on that side of the pond needs a lot of work, I thought this was another great episode. The resolution was pretty obvious, however.

I think that Father's Day was the best episode in the series so far. The character development was excellent, the writing was great and even in light of the expected ending it was entertaining from first to last. No complaints!

That being said, why can the Doctor not simply go back in time to when they were alive? When Galifrey was thriving?

Well he did have potential. Ashame he had to screw up but he got that nice little thing at the end that he'll never forget.
Enjoyable episode!! I am really liking this new version!

I was originally going to start a seperate thread for each episode but since most are seeing the episodes in a sporadic nature, I thought a unified thread would be the best way to go. But if anyone wants to break off into seperate episode threads, I'd post in those too.

One of the old rules of time travel for the show is you aren't allowed to go into Gallifrey's past. No going back 10 million years to tell off Rassilon.

Andrew

I'm not so sure on this one. I thought Rose had started to get a hang of "time travel" and understand the complications.
I guess the desire to meet her Dad was too strong, but that wasn't what I got.

Looking to see next week and WW2.

Father's Day was probably the best episode so far. I really enjoyed it.

I thought the CGI was just fine. Way better than the monster stuff I've seen on Buffy or Voyager.

Haven't had a chance to catch Father's Day yet, due to a very hectic weekend of moving house. Then I'm off to England for a couple of weeks, so I'll be able to catch Doctor Who on live broadcast!!!! (I hope I'll have time to do that... a travel schedule can make it hard to catch a TV show at a specific time). The next few episodes sound promising.

yes, a few years back she was a bubblegum popstar. then it all got too stressfull and she married a well-known tv/radio millionair and went on holiday for 3 years.

I hate you.



Andrew

I saw Father's Day Last night. I have to say it's the first time a Doctor Who episode made me cry. Very powerful and writing was top notch.

Well, when A time lord has a fatal injury they can regenerate... but of course if thier body is blown up or he gets his head cut off or something like that they can't regenerate of course. The Doctor's home planet got blown up (so they say in the new series) so thier bodies were burnt up and destroyed for good.

For example in the past the Doctor had regenerated after being shot with a gun, getting poisoned, old age, falling off a radio tower... that sort of thing.

I always thought the gunshot wasn't fatal. It was when Grace punctured the Seventh Doctor's heart with the camera/probe that triggered his regeneration.

Okay. Fanboy mode off.

Andrew

Does anyone have a list of why each Doctor regenerated? That would be interesting.

First Doctor: Natural causes, old age.

Second Doctor: Forcibly regenerated as part of his sentence, carried out by the Time Lords.

Third Doctor: Radiation poisoning.

Fourth Doctor: Fell off a radio telescope.

Fifth Doctor: Poisoning by some toxic fungi.

Sixth Doctor: (Presumably) Banged his head on the console after the TARDIS was jolted about.

Seventh Doctor: Invasive surgical procedure carried out after he ironically survives from a pair of gun wounds.

Eighth Doctor: Not seen, nor explained (yet).

I have this false hope that RTD has already filmed the McGann/Eccleston regeneration and will use it as a "flashback" later on...

I caught the first 3 episodes and the last two (8,9). Overall I like the show very much. I'm torn between my favorite episode being Ep2 "The End of the World" or Ep8 "Father's Day". The only thing I dislike about the series is that it seems a bit too goofy and silly at times. It's not so much the writing, or the jokes, but the performances. For instance in the first episode, near the end, there is a moment where the Doctor and Rose are running down the street off the find the bad guy/save the world and the have the biggest goofy grins on their faces.
I'm all for black comedy or humor at inappropriate times, that's part of the Doctor's character, but when they both act so goofy it really undercuts any dramatic tension.

The Doctor is a bit too young and energetic/hyper as opposed to the humorous eccentric I recall from previous doctors, but it's not enough to put me off him. He handles the dramatic and action parts fine, along with the occasional one-liners. I also enjoy Piper's performance as Rose. The episode "Father's Day" wasn't exactly original, but she, and the rest of the cast, gave excellent performances and made it a touching episode.

The newest episode was interesting, but too "British" for me to follow. And what I mean by that is: the accents were a lot thicker, especially for the child actors. I didn't catch a lot of the dialogue.

I guess I like the way they're doing cliffhangers: you never know going in whether it's a one parter or two.

I still stand by an earlier complaint: too much earth-bound adventure! It shouldn't cost that much more in the budget to go to another planet.

I haven't been that impressed with the season thus far, but the last episode was top notch. It felt very much like an older episode.

I agree with the complaints about everything being earthbound. This worked very well for the third doctor, but it's getting tiresome here. They did explain it a couple episodes ago (apparently, The Doctor is keeping the adventures on earth at Rose's request), but still.

My other complaint: do they need to give Rose a romantic interest so frequently? One thing I've always liked about the series is that it wasn't bogged down with that sort of thing.