Dr Who: The Russel T Davies Years

[andrewducker]

Year 1:
RTD: Dr Who should be exciting and emotional.
Audience: Yes. Although it would also be nice if more of it made sense.

Year 2:
RTD: Dr Who should EXCITING and EMOTIONAL.
Audience: Yes. And some more sense please.

Year 3:
RTD: Dr Who should be EXCITING and EMOTIONAL
Audience: Actually, I'm feeling a bit excited out. And now none of it makes sense.

Year 4:
RTD: Dr Who should be EXCITING and EMOTIONAL
Audience: Stop shouting! Please stop shouting! I don't even care if it makes sense any more!

Year 5:
RTD: Dr Who should be EXCITING and EMOTIONAL
Audience: He's going soon, right? Has he gone yet? Is it safe to come out?

Comments

[andrewducker]

Latest theory - The End of Time was designed to make anything that Stephen Moffat does look good.

[johnbobshaun.livejournal.com]

Fun game: try to explain in a sentence the story of that episode.

It works for non-RTD eps quite well:

"Donna and the Doctor visit a planet that's a library, are attacked by carniverous shadows and meet the Doctor's future wife".

Best I can manage for End of Time:

"Some really self indulgent shit happens for two hours and the music tells me I should be crying".

[broin.livejournal.com]

You're following that Phantom Menace review!

And yes. It's not that if you can't squeeze the plot into a sentence it's a bad plot. I couldn't summarise The Godfather or Goodfellas beyond 'some guy rises to the top and has some reservations'. But if you can't even *start* to summarise the plot...

[momentsmusicaux.livejournal.com]

The Godfather: Guy tries to leave his Mafia family behind and live a wholesome all-Amerkan life. It drags him back in.

[lizw.livejournal.com]

Our eldest (16) missed part 1 and asked his sister (10) for a summary, which he then related back to me as "So the Master comes back as some sort of cannibal dinosaur..."

[tanngrisnir.livejournal.com]

On Twitter, Sarah Millican's come up with one: "It's very simple. James Bond has put a drum in Sam Tyler's head, and Bernard Cribbins from the Wombles has to stop him."

[tanngrisnir.livejournal.com]

Actually, I think that was Caitlin Moran. Should put glasses on.

[nmg.livejournal.com]

So, are you saying that we should expect the 2010 Nobel Prize for Literature to go to Moffat on the grounds that he isn't RTD?

[andrewducker]

I could get behind that!

[cybik.livejournal.com]

This is probably the best summing up there could be.

[olliecrafoord.livejournal.com]

This.

[cheekbones3.livejournal.com]

I've missed most of the last couple of series, I'm not sure this is a bad thing now. Seemed at least to tie up a lot of the characters that have been hanging around since the Ecclestone days though, maybe the new bloke will get on with travelling round the universe and battling with carnivorous plants, ghosts and the like. I got bored of Earth being so important!

[the-gardener.livejournal.com]

RTD justified the Earth fixation with the statement that "the Zogs on Planet Zog are being threatened by the Zog-monster -- but who cares?" Moffatt may reject that line of argument, of course.

[andrewducker]

The answer being, of course, "Anyone would care, if a decent writer gave them a good reason to."

[momentsmusicaux.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's bollocks -- we care about Hobbits and Luke Skywalker, as RTD clearly knows since he rips them off.

[cheekbones3.livejournal.com]

Fair enough I suppose, but I thought it was the Doctor we cared about.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

Only because he's Doctor Super Mega Jesus, and only he can hit the History Eraser Button, and only after enough people pray to him.

Or, at least, that's what all the Rusty Davie-penned season finales tell me.

[tanngrisnir.livejournal.com]

It worked well enough in the original series. The Thals on planet Skaro were threatened by the Daleks and we cared about the Thals... And that's just the first example.

[undeadbydawn.livejournal.com]

it's quite brilliant until the end of the third. The moment Cathy Tate appears it gets... bad. She really is staggeringly awful, brings down the whole 4th series

[telegramsam.livejournal.com]

I never watched the 3rd or 4th series because the 2nd pissed me off so badly. All of it, really, but the finale especially. Way to completely emasculate both the Daleks and the Cybermen in one go, Rusty! The first series had its moments and I guess there were a couple okay stories in the 2nd but... ew.

*cries*

I'm gonna go watch my Hartnell-era Dr Who DVDs now. They may have had cardboard sets but at least it doesn't leave me wanting to bleach my brain out to get rid of teh stupids.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

Generally, *none* of the season enders are worth watching.

[andrewducker]

Well, I have enjoyed bits of them. The Dalek/Cyberman smack-talk was good fun.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

It was, but it also happened fairly early on, before things got really absurd and SuperMegaJesusDoctor had accumulated enough Power Of Prayer to hit the History Eraser Button and erase history back to normal again.

I was actually impressed, slightly, by The End Of Time Part 2: While it had not one but TWO uses of the History Eraser Button, in both cases it didn't actually erase history, just solve everything instantly. And it was a Rusty Davies story that *didn't* entire revolve around Time Lord Regeneration! It's a genuine Christmas Miracle, that's what that is.

(And since when can The Master throw bolts of lightning from his hands and fly? Oh, I know, "since part one, last week," but seriously, the fuck?)

[andrewducker]

I agree that it was good he didn't just rewind time. On the other hand, the entire episode was a series of deus ex machinae. Which wasn't surprising, but it was, well, bad writing.

[multiclassgeek.livejournal.com]

Since when has RTD ended a series with anything except a DXM?

[multiclassgeek.livejournal.com]

(And since when can The Master throw bolts of lightning from his hands and fly? Oh, I know, "since part one, last week," but seriously, the fuck?)

Maybe he was resurrected with Midichlorians in his new body?

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

Sadly, that makes perfect sense.

[rhythmaning.livejournal.com]

Excellent! Hee hee! Spot on!

[undeadbydawn.livejournal.com]

I believe the entire fourth season can be summed up thusly:

'Who the FUCK cast Cathy Tate?'
If I were a cynical man, I'd suggest David Tennant quit because he was as bloody sick of her as I am

[andrewducker]

I really liked her. She grew massively on me.

[undeadbydawn.livejournal.com]

she started off merely being horrid, rapidly became a distraction and ended up ruining the 4th for me near completely

[0olong.livejournal.com]

I'm with you, for what it's worth. In many ways she was a better companion than either of her predecessors, I thought.

[momentsmusicaux.livejournal.com]

Another year and it'd have been a BANNER tag.

[andrewhickey.livejournal.com]

Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant.

[lizw.livejournal.com]

This post is made of win.

[moniqueleigh]

Oh, dear gods, yes, this.

[shishmish.livejournal.com]

Brilliant! I have to agree with this wholeheartly ♥

(came her via miss_s_b)

[studyofrunning.livejournal.com]

I don't know you, but I just wanted to pop in and say: lol!

Have a nice day.

[multiclassgeek.livejournal.com]

"A Timelord Is You?"

[studyofrunning.livejournal.com]

:D

"Eleven! That's ridiculous. It's not even funny."

Actually took me more time to make the icon than it did to get over that opinion, but still.

[multiclassgeek.livejournal.com]

There needs to be a TARDIS-related IotM that meddles with the fabric of Space-Time (but only a certain number of times per day)

Or maybe a familiar? After all, it's well known that TARDISes are grown, not made...

[studyofrunning.livejournal.com]

This conversation is making me want to start playing again.

A TARDIS familiar makes perfect sense, it really does.