Nothing's better than Tom Baker. RESPECT THE THING!
[TV] Doctor Who
- Thread starter Krug
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Mouseferatu
Hero
Eh. Honestly, I prefer all three of the "modern" Doctors to any of the older incarnations.
Baker was certainly one of the best of the prior crowd, I'll give you that. But "nothing better"? Yeah, not so much.
horacethegrey
First Post
I must respectfully disagree. A number of the classic series serials trump the new series episodes in many ways. For all his brilliance, Moffat has yet to craft something as ingenious as City of Death or Shada (both written by the late Douglas Adams and both Tom Baker stories). And nothing in the new series has matched the darkness of the old series' grimmest outing , the Fifth Doctor story The Caves of Androzani.
Yeah, the production standards and effects look crap by today's standards, but Doctor Who is a rare gem of a scifi series where a good story can overcome said limitations. Which is probably why for all special effects razzle dazzle, I didn't care for Russell T. Davies season finales after season 2.
Mouseferatu
Hero
Keep in mind, I'm talking the Doctors specifically, not the episodes they were in. I'm less a fan of old Who than some, but I'm not claiming every modern episode is better than every old episode.
Plane Sailing
Astral Admin - Mwahahaha!
I'll admin that I've not seen the episodes you quote there (although looking up references to them it seems that City of Death wasn't all that well recieved at the time, and Shada wasn't even finished!)
From my Doctor Who viewing over the years, the scariest 'old' Who stories for me were the green death (with the maggots) and the Planet of the Spiders, and I always liked the twist in the tale of The Mutants - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
However, I can't think of anything which matches up to the power of "Blink" and "The Empty Child", which were for me the apex of the reborn Who stories.
Cheers
horacethegrey
First Post
You haven't seen City of Death yet?
That's a shame, as I still think it's the greatest Doctor Who tv story ever broadcast. As for Shada, yes I do realize it wasn't finished, which is unfortunate. It would have easily topped City of Death and been Tom Baker's finest outing. As such I had to content myself with listening to the audio version starring the Eighth Doctor (Paul Mcgann), but it's still brilliant either way. I'm afraid you misunderstood me, The Caves of Androzani isn't a scary story, though it does have a number of suspenseful moments. It just happens to be the bleakest and most dreadful (in a good way!) story in the show's 40+ year history. When I first watched it, I was shocked by it's dark tone that I thought I was watching the wrong program. It didn't feel like Doctor Who at all! Aside from the rather crap monster, there's nothing to laugh at here, it's as grim as they come. The only other story I think that can match it's dark tone would be Midnight.
Though I agree with you, as much as I like the classic series, no classic story has scared the piss out of me as much as Blink.
Yep, lots of the old episodes were great. Pyramids of Mars is a personaly favorite. The new episodes kind of efface themselves with the characters' rather inane cheekyness and bickering when the credible response is apprehension.
In this most recent episode, we don't get too much of that, with the almost singular exception of "Did you shush me? Are you shushing ME?" And then Amy does correctly respond with fear when her defiance gets her gassed. That's how it works.
In this most recent episode, we don't get too much of that, with the almost singular exception of "Did you shush me? Are you shushing ME?" And then Amy does correctly respond with fear when her defiance gets her gassed. That's how it works.
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Plane Sailing
Astral Admin - Mwahahaha!
That was something I really appreciated.
Mustrum_Ridcully
Hero
Did you read Douglas Adams Dirk Gentley books? The story is similar to one of those (not sure if it was the first or the second - the one with time travel.)
It was definitely a stand out episode. Lots of witty and smart dialogue. Fantastic. Definitely one of my favorite Doctor Who episodes.
So glad a co-worker of mine got a ton of Doctor Who DVDs.
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