3 weeks till new Who!

[Mark CMG]

Whereas I would consider the inability to distinguish between, say, Transformers: Dark Side of the Moon and The Avengers because you don't spend any time thinking critically about your entertainment to be rather missing the point.

A poor analogy, IMO, but I won't spend time discussing it further as it runs contrary to my point.

I enjoy adventure stories and exciting romps and all that sort of thing. But none of that requires me to check my brain at the door.

Sometimes it is for the best.

 

[sabrinathecat]

This is it here: http://youtu.be/-L4dJ8n64HE

i think what may have occured is they realized more people in other countries were starting to watch the show, so they added that in to make it easier for those who started watching in the middle of the season or were not familiar with the concept. Right now though they just go straight into the normal intro.

The problem being that Doctor Who never had any of that before, in any version or iteration of the show. The closest thing was the TV movie intro. We just jumped in with both feet and ran with it, and everything was fine. Including this intro is horrible, and detracts from the mood. It changes the emphasis from being The Doctor Who show to the AMY POND show. And it is just totally unnecessary. You could argue the the intro is in the same flavor as the SJA intro, but the target audience for DW doesn't need that.
Really wish they'd get rid of it.
I remember it being on the DVDs too.
Sadly, NetFlix is buying the stupid 1/2-season sets, so no Christmas special, and none of the other extras.

 

[Herschel]

RTD opened teh "rebirth" in 2005 from the standpoint of Rose rather than the Doctor also. He commented that for new viewers he wanted to give them someone human to relate to and discover the Doctor from that context.

 

[geradarys]

...enjoying it as always!

 

[Aeolius]

Tennant and Smith - Photos!

 

[sabrinathecat]

Neat photo.

The companion is always there to help the audience relate to the Doctor. But the Show is about The Doctor, not The Companion. It wasn't necessary before. The intro babble is not necessary now.

 

[Bedrockgames]

Neat photo.

The companion is always there to help the audience relate to the Doctor. But the Show is about The Doctor, not The Companion. It wasn't necessary before. The intro babble is not necessary now.

Meh. If it helped bring in a few extra viewers or provided some context to new folks, I dont see the harm of an intro like that.

 

[jonesy]

The show might be about the doctor, but it's not as if the companion being the opening focus is a new thing.

 

[MerricB]

The show might be about the doctor, but it's not as if the companion being the opening focus is a new thing.

Susan is the trigger to bring Ian and Barbara into the Doctor's world and is only the focus of the story for about 10 minutes or so. Then the Doctor comes on screen...

Ian and Barbara take the part of the audience identification figures. You're introduced to the Doctor's world through their eyes. And, because there are two of them, they discuss with each other their reactions to what's going on.

As people became more used to the Doctor, this wasn't so essential, and by the end of Season 2, with the departure of Ian and Barbara, the figures were gone for the next year. The next time you get these sort of figures is with Ben and Polly - especially in the Power of the Daleks, where they have to deal with the regenerated Doctor.

Once again, you get the companion meeting the third Doctor in Spearhead from Space: Liz Shaw is - for that story - our bridge into the world of the Doctor. This only really lasts for this serial, though. Sarah Jane Smith is probably the best audience identification figure to come around, and she keeps the role pretty much throughout her run. It's very obvious in the Time Warrior.


Looking at the "story of the companion", which is a key feature of the new series of Doctor Who. It's mostly absent from classic Doctor Who serials; the first real attempt at it came with Leela, but the change in production team gave us only one real story where her potential arc was explored (the classic Talons of Weng-Chiang). The next attempt was with Turlough, and we got a really great arc through his initial three stories (the Black Guardian trilogy: Mawdryn Undead, Terminus and Enlightenment), but the character was then basically forgotten about.

The first companion that really had a large focus of the story around them was Ace. It might not be on the level of the new series, but certainly with the Curse of Fenric, Ghost Light and Survival you have the Doctor actively seeking out things that have to do with his companion. (Or at least, dealing with).

The trouble I'm having with Clara at present is that she isn't the Clara I fell in love with - the Clara of "Asylum of the Daleks" and "The Snowmen". She's not done yet. I'm really looking forward to seeing where the series takes her.

Cheers!

 

[JustinAlexander]

Re: "Hide".

Probably the best episode of Series 7 so far. Unfortunately, that's a low bar to clear at this point and the episode suffers from the same problem we've seen in virtually every other script this season: Strong concept, intriguing opening, fantastic production values... and an ending that falls flat and doesn't make much sense.

You can pinpoint the moment where the episode goes off the rails pretty much precisely to the moment that the cloister bell sounds. (Well, technically to the moment when the Doctor takes off the harness.) Up until that point they'd established a set of rules and stuck to them. (Although if you look back at certain points they don't make a lot of sense.) After that point, however, they start breaking the rules they've established and everyone starts yelling very loudly in the hope that you won't notice that the writer didn't actually have an ending.