The End Of An Era - a completely unbiased poll

[andrewducker]

[Poll #1507047]

Comments

[swisstone.livejournal.com]

I go for 'liked it' because it wasn't as over-the-top and self-important as it could have been (q.v. 'Last of the Time Lords'), and because some moments were as good as the show's ever been.

[marrog.livejournal.com]

I liked Eccleston, but I could never get over the fact that from the first ep on he was obviously a little embarrassed to be there.

[cangetmad.livejournal.com]

I thought the last 20 minutes were horrendous, and made me embarrassed for everyone involved. The rest of it, though, I enjoyed, while devoting 20% of my processing capacity to ignoring how it could have been better so easily.

I voted in the RTD question as if it were "really a bit of a wanker" versus "not at all a wanker".

Yeah....

[zornhau.livejournal.com]

RTD has taken Dr Who a little too far down the PC-in-your-face road (nothing specific, just a general vibe), and - more importantly - the science resonates more with Power Rangers Mystic Force(tm) than Star Trek, so I'd have voted "a bit of a wanker". On the other hand, the series is vibrant and fast moving with vivid characters, so I'm enjoying what I watch. I still prefer SG1!

Re: Yeah....

[nickys.livejournal.com]

It's his tendency to write slash fiction instead of actual stories that bugs me.

Re: Yeah....

[zornhau.livejournal.com]

Something like that. It's not any individual story, so much as the absence of other stories... mind you I've only dipped in and out.

Re: Yeah....

[a-pawson.livejournal.com]

He got actual slash made into a series. It's called Torchwood.

Re: Yeah....

[nickys.livejournal.com]

Yes, I had the misfortune to see a couple of episodes.
You have to wonder what the BBC were thinking of when they employed him.

Re: Yeah....

[andrewducker]

"Here's someone with a track record of good quality drama who wants to take an old show that nobody else is interested in and turn it into a household name again."

They were right...

Re: Yeah....

[0olong.livejournal.com]

fwiw, 'Children of Earth' was better than about 80-90% of the last couple of series of Who.

He has actually done some really good stuff in the past. I was often surprised by the dreadfulness of his Who scripts, but even those weren't always bad.

Re: Yeah....

[nickys.livejournal.com]

I did like 'Queer as Folk'... but then that was supposed to be a relationship drama. :-)

Re: Yeah....

[heron61.livejournal.com]

'Children of Earth' just seemed to be grim nihilism for the point of grim nihilism, which is something that Davies is clearly quite fond of. As for it being better, I thought most of the season with Donna Noble as the companion was the best series the 10th Dr has has and that it was quite good. The ending sucked, but that's fairly predictable with Davies, who has managed 1 moderately good ending out of 5 (the season-ender for the first new season, with Rose and the 9th Doctor).

Re: Yeah....

[undeadbydawn.livejournal.com]

in defense of Torchwood, Children Of Earth was really very good. It's also the only series I've seen, so I don't know how it compares to the rest

Re: Yeah....

[momentsmusicaux.livejournal.com]

Science? You call what RTD uses as a means to describe the universe SCIENCE?

I voted for 'Saviour of Doctor Who' because he did after all manage to bring it back from the BBC scrapheap. Credit to him for that. He just should have got more and better writers to do the actual stories.

Re: Yeah....

[miss-s-b.livejournal.com]

I voted both saviour and destroyer...

Re: Yeah....

[matgb]

Moi aussi...

Re: Yeah....

[heron61.livejournal.com]

As did I.

Re: Yeah....

[andrewhickey.livejournal.com]

I don't think it needed 'saving' though - there were 26 years' worth of old episodes for anyone who wanted them, and regular books, audio dramas and comics. By bringing it back to TV he made all those unimportant (and destroyed some of them altogether) - secondary material rather than 'the new Doctor Who'. Which wouldn't be bad had the new show not been so godawful (excepting the Eccleston series, which was pretty good).

Re: Yeah....

[shannon_a]

I don't understand. Did he kick in the door to your flat and smash your old DVDs? The last time I rented an original series DVD it looked just the same as it always did.

Re: Yeah....

[andrewhickey.livejournal.com]

I don't see what you don't understand - I just said it didn't need saving...

[andrewhickey.livejournal.com]

My 'good' there is for Doctor Who, but not for The Welsh Series...

[andrewducker]

I pretty much assumed :->

[davesangel.livejournal.com]

Those of us who watched it together thought it was brilliant. There were one or two moments that weren't great, but the acting was superb, the twist on 'he will knock four times' was also good, and it was a really fitting end to Tennant's reign as the Doctor.

I chose 'no' for the final question because although I think Matt Smith will be fantastic as the Doctor (even in those few moments he was onscreen he was brilliant), and I can't wait to see him in action properly, I am not looking forward to Moffat's tenure whatsoever (especially after reading the article on Moffat and sexism which someone linked to on your LJ yesterday/day before)

[laserboy.livejournal.com]

Clearly my laptop's went nuts and said I liked it when I picked really fucking awful. I blame skynet there. I'd have picked REALLY really fucking awful were that an option.

[andrewducker]

You can click on the poll header to change your choice if you like :->

[laserboy.livejournal.com]

Fixed. It was godawful.

[xquiq.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed it, but the last part was a bit schmaltzy & self-absorbed for my tastes. I thought that detracted from some really positive aspects & an overall plot that had been built very successfully.

I do like Tennant, in Dr Who & some of his other work. I think in some ways Davies was fortunate because he had an actor who could by and large make some of the more overblown aspects of the scripting work.

I will reserve judgement on Matt Smith: though my first impression was 'who's that young David Tennant impresonator', I will try to approach the series with an open mind.

In terms of Dr Who generally, at the risk of offending many, I would not go out of my way to see quite a chunk of the older material. Not necessarily because it was poor in concept (though there was some of that & tbh I was glad to see fewer craters this time round...), but because the execution simply hasn't IMO stood the test of time.

[shannon_a]

Enjoyed the ep to the point that I'm entirely mystified by the whining and the bitching.

Those who think that RTD destroyed Doctor Who really don't remember the original that well. I enjoyed it greatly through my teens, but now when I rewatch the show, it's clear that the new series is an entirely different pedigree, particularly for its inclusion of actual characters.

[andrewducker]

Sadly, the plots frequently make very little sense, with the worst idiot plotting I've seen in some time.

When the new series is good, it's excellent, but the finale was rubbish.

[heron61.livejournal.com]

Wow, all of those poll results make sense to me, except the Eccleston/Tennant one, from my PoV Eccleston was the best Doctor ever. The episodes weren't always the best (specifically, 2, 4 & 5 were all pretty dodgy), but he was utterly amazing as The Doctor, while Tennant was merely (on average) moderately good to a bit overdone. In any case, I'm very much looking forward to seeing what Moffat does, since he's IMHO well better than Davies.

[undeadbydawn.livejournal.com]

Now that I've seen it...

Yes the first episode was just fucking stupid. It had a few vaguely nice moments, but in general it was a whopping pile of arse.

Second episode I enjoyed a bit more. I like the vague redemption of The Master [even though a MASSIVE opportunity to explore TimeLord culture and Galafray itself was unforgivably ignored] and the long goodbye. All things considered it could and should have been whacking great shitload better. Especially given CofE.

I will miss Tennant as Dr Who.

[colour me deeply surprised that most of your voters preferred Donna. wow]

[andrewducker]

It was better than the first, largely because it had at least some good ideas. But it should, as you say, have been massively better.

I thought that result might surprise you :->

[verlaine.livejournal.com]

The End of Time is growing on me. I defended Part One against the "hatas" on the grounds that "WAIT AND SEE, IT MIGHT ALL MAKE SENSE". I lambasted Part Two even when everyone else was saying how much they loved it, on the grounds that "RTD YOU TRICKED ME -- for at least the third year running -- IT MADE NO SENSE AT ALL". On balance, I'm coming round. It could have been a lot better, from a plotting point of view - you know, RTD was being paid big bucks to be head writer, it would have been nice if he hadn't started delegating that role to the audience - but hey, it was a RTD grand finale, what did any of us expect?

To the people who really really really loved it, I still feel tempted to ask "if you take out the tacked-on regeneration half-hour and viewed the story purely on its own merits, do the unfunny comedy cactuses and the lightning-bolt-flinging super-Master still add up to one of your favourite episodes of all time"?