I like Torchwood, but I agree that many of the episodes that Davies wrote have been bad. Love & Monsters was maybe THE worst Who episode in history.

Moffatt should be an exciting executive producer.

They've been repeating the Christopher Ecclestone, Billie Piper episodes here in NZ... My, she makes a great sidekick and he did make a bloody good doc.

Some of his episode had a lot of potential, Gridlock for example. But the fix for this is he just goes up, plugs in Face of Bo and bingo all is fixed. (Gee and Bo couldn't tell Nurse Cat this? Oh, you can plug me in before I get too tired and I'll open the doors, it's an easy fix, look the cables over there, and opening a door is a lot easier that powering a city....)

Even as exec producer he should have sent some very near classics back for finishing. Remember Family of Blood? Doc's been running away from the family of blood across the galaxy, transforms to escape them, and at the end, flips a few switches and bingo fixed. What?

That could have been an amazing story, there should have been something he learned as a human that finally enabled him to win, maybe the camaraderie of humans, they would sacrifice themselves in large numbers in some horrible fashion and that would enable him to win. But no, he knew how to flip switches at the start, so why didn't he simply flip switches at the beginning and win?

And the ending? He wanted that human life so why didn't he live it? (no he had a duty to live it, after they sacrified their lives for him!) He could have lived that life, watched his wife grow old and die, and an old rinkled Dr Who could have stood over her grave, a moment of weakness/pain, (is that a tear?) a shaking off of the old age, he's young again, the Tardis comes into the background with Martha and a unsmiling Doctor, ripped apart by the experience of loss, heads to the Tardis. Perhaps a nod back to the Sarah Jane episode with a 'human die but I live on' comment.

Damn I watched that and thought Russel should have told the writer he sooooo nearly has a mega story there if only he could fix the last 2 minute ending and lose the scarecrows.

And the final episode of that series, if enough people wish and you can magically do anything? Oh you lazy ****, another half finished episode with potential but bad delivery. Someone else should have told him to go back and rethink that ending.

Anyway enough of my rants, Davies was spread too thin, he should get back to writing and expend more thought per story, just think of what gridlock could have been! What if people found they PREFERRED gridlock because it was what they were use to, it was less scary??

Perhaps Moffat will do better, but perhaps he will be spread too thin too. Moffats episode is on this week I think.

Perhaps the next series will have fewer men in silly masks going 'gurrrrr'?

/rant

Praise be to RTD for bringing back the good Doctor with Chris Ecclestone.

But RTD needs to go - his increasingly cloying, overly sentimental, generic, American style sci-fi is becoming increasingly threadbare. Also his ability to extract ham from talented actors and over reliance on the sonic screwdriver is painful.

All it needs is for Tenant, Tate and Piper to go and I might start watching it again.

loved the idea of a new doctor who.

Loved the high(er) production values, and there have been some really good moments, but overall it's a just a bit... oh, I dunno.. piss poor..

lets not forget the little pilsbury doughboys from the start of season 3

nor the arrival of Catherine Bloody Tate.

Nor the piss poor storylines that have marred every single episode this season (so far)

I never really understand why Britain can't do good Sci-Fi... it doesn't have to the "mickey mouse" genre that we seem to make it.

I for one welcome our new Time Travelling overload, he can't be worse than the current one surely!

I'm sure he's a lovely guy and all but he really has churned out some tripe. Funny how the only episodes worth watching are the ones he wasn't involved in.

It's a shame they didn't push him before he eventually got round to jumping...

Can they replace the casting director next pleeease?

And it appears the Reg employs a few of them.

RTD did a spectacular job in bringing back Doctor Who. Unlike that tiny minority of very loud fans who like to whine[1], he knew that for the series to succeed, it had to be *popular television*, not just designed to appeal to hardcore fans.

The problem with those loud fans[2] is that they make a level of noise completely out of proportion to their numbers, which leads to journalists thinking that they represent a significant proportion of the population, which they don't.

A lot of these people (for an arbitrarily "12" value of "a lot") spent the time between the 1989 cancellation and the 2005 return reading a pile of Doctor Who books which took more adult and mature routes than the TV show ever did (or could, given its intended audience). So when the show came back and dared to be, well, *fun*, some of them got upset and whiny. And unlike the 80s, when whiners were confined to fanzines that nobody read, now they have the internet, and they get to expose many more people to their nonsense.

Steven Moffat is the best possible choice for a successor to RTD, but without RTD's work to date there wouldn't be a job for Steven to take.

And I give it half a series before the whiners start complaining about Steven Moffat.

[1] In the 1980s, John Nathan-Turner was the target of the same kind of tedious whining

[2] I had a computer with one of those once, it was very annoying

Dr Who used to be good when i was a child, actually I think the whole being a child thing helps as it really does stink now.

Does that mean no more Torchwood ? please god it really is god awful.

How about some Dr Who bashing it would make a change from the ass-kissing drivel usually printed on the BBC site about it.

Most over hyped crap since boy-band reunions

I thought it was the BEST news until I read the article and learned that Moffat is taking over - that was the perfect trump to an already brilliant bit of news.

I want to turn handsprings and cartwheels but my manager's in the office - CURSES!

What are those things near the console that David T sits on every other week then?

Mine's the one with a stick of celery in the lapel.

Yes, yes, frick yes!

Admittedly, I quite enjoyed Love and Monsters, although not for Peter Kay. Thought the casting of Marc Warren and Shirley Henderson was brilliant.

Stephen Moffat's writing has long stood out high above the others (loved Blink, and Family of Blood was fantastic), and it'll be interesting to see where he takes the series.

Love Live Doctor Who!

... actually, the Abzorbaloff was created by 9 year old (at the time) Blue Peter competition winner William Grantham.

Human Nature/The Family of Blood was written by Paul Cornell, not Steven Moffat.

The TARDIS does have seats. And a pool, and some huge storage areas, and bedrooms...

And anyone else remember that funny little food dispenser thing?

As for RTD saying good night... Hooray! Good on him for bringing the series back, but I really think they should have watched a few stories from the old days before they got going again.

I'm also hoping the doctor might wake up from a dream at some stage and realise the entire lot of new episodes were a dream... Gallifrey and the Time Lords should still be out there, and things like aliens in London in the current (our) time period are silly.

...to revisit La Stob's sublime "Under Torch Wood"?

http://www.regdeveloper.co.uk/2006/11/06/torchwood/

I must confess to being somewhat underwhelmed by the Dokta Oho revival, the more so once the sublime Ecclescake was replaced by a gurning muppet. Also, there haven't been enough Daleks.

Lorks a'mighty: since when did El Reg open a Children's Section????

"Doctor Who" is a TV series for kids and simpletons who believe in Crop Circles starring (if that's the word) actors who failed to negotiate adolescence, still less drama school, and centres upon the journeyings of a device whose name derives from the word "retard".

We watched it a couple of times when the man with the funny voice and a long scarf was in it. Then the series vanished, much like Dixon of Dock Green and Z Cars.

By accident we encountered it again last year when some actor called Tennant was trying to recover from a personality by-pass operation and a monster called The Piper was struggling, but failing, to manage any kind of credibility.

The only reason "Doctor Who" gets any kind of mention is thanks to Caitlin Somebody or Other who set up the puerile PopBitch website and has a job on the nowadays pre-pubertal Sunday Times writing about the other parents she meets when she picks up her kids from primary school. Apparently, half the cast of "Doctor Who" is associated with that school, though whether as parents or pupils isn't always clear.

Lots of journos are in thrall to Caitlin PopBitch because she seems very sophisticated and also because they live in the same part of Norf London and next door to BBC drama commissioning editors.

Well, fair enough, but that's no reason for El Reg to start mentioning "Doctor What?" in its esteemed pages.

I've no idea who RTD is and couldn't care less but am happy for him to feature here as long as El Reg makes room for mention of programmes of infinitely greater worth.

"Magic Roundabout", for example, was always superior in its narrative arc, dialogue, acting, and production values.

As was Shaw Taylor in "Police 5".

"The Girl in the Fireplace" - another Moffat special - was an absolute blinder; I'd have hired him on the strength of that one alone, or indeed "The Empty Child" from series one. Top notch. I look forward to more actual plot substance and less tremble-puny-Earthlings-before-the-might-of-the-Sontarans-muahahaha.

Russell T Davies ..... YOU WILL BE EXTERMINATED!

Frankly I think RTD gets far to much credit for 'reviving' Dr. Who.

The fact that so many people had fond memories of the series from their childhood (and will therefore get their own kids to watch it) and the fact that it is just clearly such a great idea/concept for a TV series, meant that it would have taken an massive amount of incompetance to make the 'come back' a failure. I'm not saying anyone could have done it, but pretty much anyone with a modicum of talent could have.

My biggest grip with RTD is that he clearly does not really understand the sci-fi genre, as can be seen with his attempts to turn the series into sort sort of time travelling 'soap opera'. i.e. too much time spent exploring Doctor/assistant love stories, attemps to 'humanise' the doctor and make him 'vunarable', painful polical correctness, 'bisexual' characters, all taking up so much time that the plot has to be cramed into some gabbled technobabble spewed by the Doctor while running away from monsters.

And don't even get my started on why a time lord with a ship that can take him to anywhere in the universe spends every episode on earth!

Lets hope things improve.

Andy.

I hope Moffat breaks us away from these soap opera episodes, and gets Billy Piper back in. And it may be time for David Tennant to move on... I liked him at first but he's beginning to grind on my nerves now. How about a real actor - James Nesbit?

I remember Dr Who being pretty scary when I was a kid, and that was the beauty of it. Kids still love scary, fear sells. The next episode looks like Moffat may show his penchant for natural fear again (Stay out of the shadows!) - it's all very nice, but can he craft a season into a cohesive story.

Wouldn't it be nice to have a solid story without filler episodes?

totally agree with Les.

fans cried out for years for the return of the series, when we eventually got it the fanboys came out in their droves, yes the series felt scary when I was six , but then that was 1974 and Tom Baker was(is) god.

the new series is a different doctor and a different Doctor Who, its success, despite the BBC constant interference is scheduling is continuing. At the end of this series we'll have long gaps as the specials are aired and bugger all to watch bar the repeats on BBC3 - moan all you want then.

I think you will find that there are at least 1 if not 2 seats in the current incarnation of the TARDIS.

Mines the one with the miniture K-9 in the left hand Pocket

His episodes (1 a series) are dark and much more gritty than the norm, which is what you want. Blink scared the "£$%£"$% out of me and I am 32. :)

I think doctor who is more of a kids program, and you have to bear that in mind when reading this and other forums. My four year old Nephew thinks it is the best thing ever and he hides behind the sofa.

So Russel did something right.

..when I was a kid. They laugh at the funny bits and get scared at the scary bits. So it's pretty much doing it's job then.

A fair few of Russell T Davies scripts have been toss, but the show overall has been great. All credit to him and his team for making it fun and bringing some drama to Saturday nights, instead of Ant and bloody Dec. (Bringing back Dr Who also gave us Primeval, which is good fun as well.) Also, just think about the utter shite the BBC show on a Saturday night when Dr Who isn't on.

I like Catherine Tate in Doctor Who as well and Torchwood has improved immensely since it's first season. So there.

Isn't there something inherently contradictory about someone who can travel in time constantly whining that he's the 'last' of something? Hey Doc, just pop back a few millennia...

And as for Billie Piper as 'companion', the only good thing I can say about her is that Catherine Bloody Tate is worse.

Does this mean we can get some plots that don't centre on humans in some way?

Absolutely. Top notch. Deserved the BAFTA for Blink, and Jekyll was cracking.

Creating something that atmospheric with nothing more than a bunch of statues is a work of pure genius.

Always found RTD's episodes had an unfinished, rushed feel to them. Like he got bored halfway through writing them.

Many, many great films owe Tarantino a great deal, but his own films generally aren't that good. Same with RTD. Dr Who was brought back wonderfully but now it's back others can do his thing better than him.

By the way, there are supposed to be six chairs in the TARDIS control room. One for each crew member, only a total maniac would try to pilot a TARDIS solo.

Oh, and for the person waiting to make the inevitable snipe about the gay influence in Dr Who, I will remind you that the title of gayest companion ever sill remains with Harry Sullivan.

Girl in the Fireplace gets overlooked because of how scary Blink was, but for me it is the best episode of Dr Who in the programme's history. It was a Moffat one too.

I do worry, however, as to whether being a great script writer makes someone a great script editor. I guess we'll find out.

While RTD had quite a big hand in bringing back Dr Who (yay, thanks), some of the story arcs/progression drive me nuts. If you have a craft that can travel anywhere in time/space (as the TARDIS is), then why more often or not does it end up somewhere in London (usually a South-East London housing estate)? AAAARRRGGGHHHHH! Just once it would be nice to dump them in a quarry somewhere and claim it's the planet Squargos 9 in the Foozbane system.

The other big annoyance of RTD's tinkering is the obvious soap-opera type facination with the Doctor's female 'companions' and their bloody families. I don't watch Dr Who to see if he will/won't get off with Rose Tyler (whichever dimension she may be in) but to outiwt nasty aliens (or sometime humans) out to do bad things in the universe*.

Some of this is a bit academic for me at the moment as I'm boycotting the current series due to the inclusion of Catherine Tate, who I loathe with a passion. This wasn't helped by the fact that a few months back every time I went to the cinema there was the BBC ads that consisted of a Tate-centric Dr Who trailer and that git Chris Moyles attepting to be funny by jacking off to the sound of his own voice (business as usual then).

*Note that universe does not always have to be within the congestion charge zone or even the M25.

The fanboys whinging on about how bad Doctor Who is now really p*** me off.

I didn't like the Peter Kay episode much, but my kids loved it, and guess what, it's a kids show. Well, a family show anyway.

RTD has done a great job, and I'm fascinated to see what SM does with it because Blink and The Empty Child were so good.

It's better sci-fi now than the classic show as well; far more intelligent stories than it

used to be and of course better production values.

I even like Catherine Tate (miles better than Martha Jones). And Torchwood.

Thanks RTD.

Problem is that those of us 30+ who were children for the Tom Baker and earlier doctors nothing new is ever going to be as good as we remember it used to be. If you re-watch old episodes you will probably find they aren't as good as we remember them either though.

Christopher Ecclestone did a really good job and I was surprised at how well Billie Piper performed in her role.

But I am not that keen on Neil Tennant and I cannot stand Catherine Tate so I have mostly lost interest.

I did like John Simm as the Master but there just haven't been enough Daleks.

What do we want? Daleks.

When do we want them? Every episode.

More Daleks, fewer cockneys. New Doctor.

Smallbrainfield is spot on - Dr Who does what it's supposed to do - and it's the one programme on Saturday nights that we can watch as a family. Blink was as scary as I'd want it to get for my boys. Furthermore, a drama that doesn't have an entirely predictable story arc is welcome. (Excepting that the Dr always survives).

Regarding Torchwood - amazingly, I think lots of people have a 'thing' about it being set so ostentatiously in Cardiff. It's of mixed quality, but if the choice is potentially-mixed-home-brew vs mass-production-US-based imports, I'll take the local product. Certainly it doesn't (can't) have the huge investment that a Firefly would get, but then neither is it going to get cancelled halfway through a season because it might not turn a dime.

Not that this will change DW.

They brought it back. They filled the thing with pathetic, stupid politically correct nonsense, and gay heroes, garbage stories, appallingly bad effects. I know - I know, DW is reknown for it, but its not excusable today.

Its a BBC primetime blockbuster, or should be. It lacks totally the true quality of real sci fi - by that I mean the sets and effort applied to other sci fi. Battlestar G and Star gate show far more depth and quality in the sets they use - the equipment, and backdrops.

The real problem is the BBC thinks its making a drama, and all the card board toilet roll and gaffa tape special effects are cute. It meant to be sci - fi not drama, and the bog roll and gaffa tape went out in 1970.

They struggled to sell Dr Who with the sci fi channel taking it in the end with reluctance. That says it all.

It reflects fully everything that sucks royally about the stinking BBC.

I only wish they'd put some decent people into it, make longer shows, and darken the thing up. Oh, and real special effects, backdrops and a little effort would not go amiss. There is so much rich background that could be used in the WHO universe, and all they serve up is this garbage. They did bring a few things back, like the daleks, but even then, their insipid desire to meddle lead to caring, sharing daleks, and stupid idiocy. The BBC is a global media monopoly, its one sci fi show looks like it was made by a bunch of playschool children in their art class, with story lines little better.

And yes, Tom Baker was the best doctor.

Came from this letter to Viz magazine a few years ago:

"If I was Dr Who, I'd have that Billie Piper bent over the Tardis console and given what for before you could say Jack Robinson. Then I'd use my time-twiddling powers to constantly repeat the time I was in the vinegar strokes, keeping me in a delicious state of eternally-looped space-time ecstasy. Do any other readers waste their valuable time dreaming up frankly unlikely sexual scenarios involving timelords and their beaver-faced sidekicks?"

Genius.

@ I had that William Hartnell in the back of my cab once.

mannn, if you dont like it dont watch it. and as for the 'why does el reg have to mention this' what do you want? just loads of articles on linux and phorm?

the reason el reg is so well viewed is that it doesnt just cater for geeks who cant wait to get home to program and play with the latest linux distro.

most of us (i guess) work in IT but out of hours i couldnt give a shit. do builders go home and study new types of brickwork?

am i the only one who thinks david tennant is actually good? and i think billie piper was the best dr who stooge i can remember (not that i can remember much from when i was 10)

its simple escapism... light and accessible. if it wasnt it would have died after series 1. the fact is its probably the best thing the beeb has done for ages. i am glad we can see our license fee going towards something other than bloody come dancing and period drama!

my main gripe is catherine tate (much better than expected) and it not being on the HD channel (ffs torchwood is in HD/dolby digital!)

of course its not scary! i mean kids watch films like saw now, how can that compete? and come on - the blink one? was that really scary? how big a pussy are you lot :)

anyone else slightly worried how many people know all the episode names? :)

of course there is gay references. RTD is as camp as a row of tents. what do you expect?

"And don't even get my started on why a time lord with a ship that can take him to anywhere in the universe spends every episode on earth!"

That would be due to the dark machinations of his ultimate nemesis, The Beancounter...

Even accepting the limitations of the format, the RTD-penned shows have seemed to be generally, weaker, sillier and more reliant on a McGuffin of the week than others. He's good at setting up a two parter but does seem to have problems with wrapping up the second part. He still deserves kudos for getting the show revived.

More Moffattt should be a very good thing :)

"meant that it would have taken an massive amount of incompetance to make the 'come back' a failure"

Good job RTD was up to that challenge then and could inject a suitable amount of incompetence. Like George Lucas with Star Wars, he simply doesn't realise how bad a writer he is. :-( And to be honest, anyone could have restarted Doctor Who at any time over the last 15 years. There was *never* any lack of enthusiasm with the viewing public; the only strange things were (a) that it got cancelled in the first place, and (b) that no-one thought to restart it before now.

I actually like the fact that there's some kind of relationship going on between the Doctor and his companions. And the fact that if he holds onto anyone for too long, he'll have to watch them die - that's an important new idea that the original series never covered. But the whole "Doctor as Jesus" thing which RTD persists in putting in every episode - no. Just no.

As for comedy - there should be some, but the whole thing shouldn't be played for laughs. "Blink" was a classic of that type - the humour is more edgy because what's going on around is so dark. Yes, it's always been a kids programme - but it was always a *scary* kids programme. The moment it stops being scary, it's lost its reason for existing. And the Peter Kay episode was probably the worst piece of TV I've ever seen.

The ratings tell us that people like Dr Who as it is. It's fab.

The ratings tell us that people like Torchwood as it is. It's fab too.

I think the silent majority will not really care about RTD's departure too much other than to thank him for bringing Dr Who back.

Keep the show evolving as it has been and all will be well and we can ignore the whining comments from fan boys and those that over-analyse a kid's show.

Paul

(one of the silent majority having a rare non-silent day)

WOW! With this news I reckon Doctor Who could be bumped up from: "A show I quite like and will make the effort to download (I pay my TV license but I'm not staying in on Saturdays for it!)" to "Possibly one of my top two shows."

RDT was a clunky writer, and a little nauseating with some of his approaches.

I for one also welcome our new Over(time)lords.

Surely a small alien made out of Adipose would be more appropriate ;)

To be fair to Torchwood, it got an awful lot better in Season 2. Other than that, good riddance to running, sonic screwdriving, explosions and reset switches :-)

"Apparently the poor wee lad was upset that it was only the size of Peter Kay, and not the size of a double-decker bus as he had originally imagined."

Now, I knew that..but I have a Tardis USB hub on my desk (that makes the noise when you plug a device in), I'm about to build Tardis doors for my workshop that it took me years to build because of illness, and I remember the first episodes with William Hartnell, ie I'm a saddo...like I said, I knew that piece of information regarding the Absorballoff, the question is how did YOU know it?

RTD has profoundly mishandled the Doctor Who model, turning it into a saggy Home & Away with a time machine. Steven Moffat has demonstrated what it *could* be - The Girl in the Fireplace et al - let's home he's up to sitting in the big chair. RTD wasn't.

It's only a TV show. I enjoy it, and am interested to hear this news (also the news that the new Lead Writer wrote some of the more interesting episodes), but c'mon. Working yourself into a froth over a TV show? I bet most of the "angered" readers haven't touched a woman since they were breast fed (if indeed they were at all).

"how many seats the Tardis has, along with their approximate dimensions and the name of the designer,"

1. No seats, or an infinite number of seats. The TARDIS has a room that has a door that leads into the TARDIS...

2. Probably a small park bench dedicated to the memory of Mrs.Trellis of North Wales. 6ft long, 3ft high, 2ft deep.

3. The designer's name would probably be unpronounceable.

Christ at last someone else can see the light! DS is taking sensible pills!

I've been harping on about the quality of Dr Who vs. stateside shows for so long and against so much resistance I was beginning to think I'd fallen through a bloody rift in the universe and landed in stupidland.

Sure enough Dr Who's a kid's program, but that's zero excuse for Torchwood - which could have been bloody fantastic, instead it's "not as bad as the first season" lol. Makes me cringe. Bad sets, bad scripts, bad lighting and direction, bad effects, all ruin what was a great opportunity to do something 'over here' to compete with the unbelievable production standards being shown 'over there'.

Dr Who seriously suffers from Star Wars syndrome. I love Star Wars but the majority of people hate it and Jar Jar Binks but the kids love it as they were the intended audience.

The number of times we apply adult ideology and subtext to something which is aimed at kids and is family entertainment.

Dr Who like many shows has its ups and downs and but I go with it and enjoy it for what it is. I have a film degree and deconstruct to a subatomic level but what's the point in that? (Please refer to the Simpson's episode staring Poochy the dog!!)

RTD did a good job and was part of a wider team, who also did a good job. David Tennant is regarded by many as the most popular doctor so that says something about the how the show has developed.

Moffat is an excellent choice to take over and I think Blink was brilliant for its simplicity. It didn't have to have amazing special effects is was just brilliantly executed, but to keep the show going it does need to go to a new direction and maybe explore the time wars more.

There is a dark side to the doctor, but then again if we go too dark it stops being family entertainment which whether we like it or not is its intended audience.

Lets not view the show the adult eyes but appreciate it for what its worth.

At the end of a day a cake is sometimes a cake! (Special browney points if you know where the reference is from!!)

I think the fifth Doctor got rid of it when it leaked. Can't quote the episode, which may save me some credibility.

Back on topic - I'm terrified of a 'Jenny in Space' spin-off with the 'daughter'. If ever an episode had a rubbish ending that hinted at a ghastly misbegotten and malformed series coming from it, it was "The Doctor's Daughter".

Clearly you and Our Dear Leader, the Moderatrix, are both scary Dr Who geeks.

You should get married.

Hope that helps,

Steven "liked Blink too - and that other one, 42, with the videos/dvds - more of that please" Raith

***"And the Peter Kay episode was probably the worst piece of TV I've ever seen.*"""

Never seen "Lost", then?...

Personally I thought that "42" was the worst DW episode. Interestingly that was written by by Chris Chibnall who also wrote the "Countrycide" Torchwood episode which, IMHO, does deserve a nomination for worst piece of TV ever.

Strange that Chibnall's DW and Torchwood episodes are so dire as his writing for Life on Mars was very good...

There was also an exceptionally dire "alien invasion" mini-series (from the 1990's, I think). It started off with an alien craft being shot down by the RAF and ended with a giant, pulsating, mutant blob being nuked in the Scottish highlands. Can't recall the name but it was *truly* awful.

Dr Who is aimed at a family audience. I suspect many fans grew up with the series as kids. If the series was too serious and dark then it might not captivate the younger audience.

As a long time fan of the show (I've been watching it since the first episode in 1964 (or was it '63?)) I have really enjoyed the new series from RTD and gang.

Sure, not every episode has been "the best ever!!!", but name one TV show that has lived up to that - there aren't any.

Dr Who is what it is - a great deal of fun and laughter set in the magical realm of Sci-Fi.

Real fans know this - I doubt if the whiners are "real fans"

Cheers.

"Sure, not every episode has been "the best ever!!!", but name one TV show that has lived up to that - there aren't any."

Firefly.

:-)

Steven R

Very glad that RTD is leaving. Some kudos to him for reviving the series, but since then he's just been turning it into a big gay space opera, for which there is absolutely no need, especially when there is Torchwood.

To whoever said that it looked like it was filmed on a London housing estate: most of it's filmed in Cardiff.

And keep David Tenant as the Dr, us girls like some eye candy in our sci-fi!

-- from a girl geek in Cardiff --

"How about a real actor - James Nesbit?"

You sir should be a stand-up comedian. Hell forget that, Jamie Oliver for the next doctor who! W00t!

"I've been watching it since the first episode in 1964 (or was it '63)"

November 23rd 1963 was when the first episode (An Unearthly Child) was broadcast. Some minor political figure was shot in Dallas on the same day, but that was nowhere near as important as the start of the Doctor.

Dr. Who is aimed at children but enjoyed by adults. A bit like Billy Piper then.

Er, I am already severely married and have been for nearly 30 years, I just think young, it's good for you.

Actually, Sarah is nearly as formidable as Herself thinking about it, DNA or summat.

just re-bought firefly to watch with the mrs (leant my dvds to someone and forgot who!) its a great series. kind of like the a-team cowboys in space :)

..You Could BE Stuck Watching American Teevee!!

AdamT - The 'unbelievable production standards being shown "over there"...

Where? You mean the Hollywood big-budget CGI that replaces what in drama used to be known as 'writing'?

Hollywood sci-fi productions are ALL big budget effects and little else.

Battlestar Galactica? Good lord, it was rubbish in the 70's and now it's a hoary melodrama with guns. Stargate? The only decent one was the movie. Stargate Atlantis? Unwatchable.

I think a LOT of guys that will take the piss out of Dr. Who just don't like that it isn't filled with Jeri Ryan-shaped and dressed sexy bimbos.

Science fiction CAN be about more than a perpetual hard-on, guys.

Who cares if the special effects are a bit pokey and sometimes the writing isn't what it could be. It wasn't written for 35 year old men living in the basements of their parents' homes. (How did that SNL skit w/ Shatner go.. "You! ...Have you ever kissed a girl?")

Come on, FFS, it's a CHILDREN'S show!

Quit whingeing. You could be stuck watching American programming 24/7. It is mindless, banal, pointless, and filled with adverts 18 minutes out of every hour.

You don't know how good you've got it.

Deb.

Yeah, yeah, I know it's a Brit show and we Yanks should just be thankful we get to see any of it at all, but...

Quite honestly, I still love the cheesy sets from the old shows. Blowing money on all the super-dooper mind blowing special effects leads to crap like that dog of a show despite the millions it raked in where the apple laptop uploaded a virus to a completely alien ship and save the earth... What was it called, oh yeah, Inpedendence Day. No real story line, just a lot of gee whiz special effects. The last couple of seasons of the old Doc series suffered greatly from this. That and over loud music.

As for the new show, my only gripe about the first Doc is that he didn't stay around long enough. I really didn't care for him at first, but as the series went on, my liking for the character did. He quit just about the time I was looking forward to another episode with him. In retrospect, I think this may have been tied more to what I regard as the most unforgivable action taken in starting the new series than the character itself - blowing up Gallifrey and giving Doc a bad case of survivors guilt. The newer Doc is wearing pretty well. I don't pirate the Beeb episodes, so I'm only now catching the Tate episodes. She hasn't worn badly yet, but yeah, Piper was still better. Personally, my favorite companion is still Leelah (sp?, the janis thorn carry, not afraid to kill the bad things companion.) I cut my teeth on the Baker episodes when PBS used the show to milk money from donors for their other crap by pitching the Doc and he is still my favorite. Either Pyramid of Mars or Invasion of Time for my favorite episode.

...and raise you "Fear Her".

Paris, cos I fear her an' all.

erm... IT'S FOR KIDS!!!

chris ecclestone was pretty good... hes a proper actor too (been in some decent movies). thing is he buggered off to yankyland to be in heroes (bet he gets loads more cash)

@ Tom - yeah - who would have thought aliens have USB/firewire connections in their space ships eh? :) (independance day)

Kids come in all ages, that is those that have not closed their minds.

“We do not stop playing because we grow old, we grow old because we stop playing.”

-Benjamin Franklin

I want my alien! (I live very near to gillian anderson so I want to torment her). Failing that I'll have a register T-shirt or mug... Or maybe you can give me the website for probing purposes :).

Quote http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TARDIS

The TARDIS wardrobe from "The Christmas Invasion".Once through the doors of the police box, the TARDIS interior has a vast number of rooms and corridors. The exact dimensions of the interior have not been specified, but apart from living quarters, the interior includes an art gallery (which is actually an ancillary power station), a bathroom with a swimming pool, a medical bay, and several brick-walled storage areas (all seen in The Invasion of Time, 1978). Portions of the TARDIS can also be isolated or reconfigured; the Doctor was able to jettison 25% of the TARDIS's structure in Castrovalva to provide additional "thrust".

Despite a widespread assumption that the interior of the TARDIS is infinite, there are indications that it is not. In Full Circle (1980), Romana stated that the weight of the TARDIS in Alzarius' Earth-like gravity was 5 × 106 kilograms (5000 tonnes). This presumably refers to its internal weight, as the external part of the TARDIS is light enough for it to be lifted or otherwise moved with relative ease (although most real police boxes were concrete and hence quite difficult to move): several men lift it up in Marco Polo, a group of small blue maintenance workers on Platform One push it along the ground in "The End of the World", and a quartet of Weeping Angels are able to rock it back and forth in "Blink", to name a few. If the exterior of the TARDIS is moved, the movement is transmitted to its interior.

In the tie-in novels, the interior of the TARDIS has been known to contain an entire city (Cat's Cradle: Time's Crucible), used to encompass an entire parallel Earth (Blood Heat), and is big enough to dwarf Gallifrey itself when turned inside out (The Ancestor Cell). It is also seen to exist in multiple timelines.

A distinctive architectural feature of the TARDIS interior is the "roundel". In the context of the TARDIS, a roundel is a circular decoration that adorns the walls of the rooms and corridors of the TARDIS, including the console room. Some roundels conceal TARDIS circuitry and devices, as seen in the serials The Wheel in Space (1968), Logopolis, Castrovalva (1981), Arc of Infinity (1983), Terminus (1983), and Attack of the Cybermen (1985). The design of the roundels has varied throughout the show's history, from a basic circular cut-out with black background to a photographic image printed on wall board, to translucent illuminated discs in later serials. In the secondary console room, most of the roundels were executed in recessed wood panelling, with a few decorative ones in what appeared to be stained glass. In the new series, the roundels are built into hexagonal recesses in the walls of the new console room.

Other rooms seen include living quarters for many of the Doctor's companions, although the Doctor's own bedroom has never been mentioned or seen. The TARDIS also had a "Zero Room" — a chamber that was shielded from the rest of the universe and provided a restful environment for the Fifth Doctor to recover from his regeneration in Castrovalva — which was among the 25% jettisoned. However, the Seventh Doctor spin-off novel Deceit indicated that the Doctor rebuilt the Zero Room shortly before the events of that novel. In some of the First Doctor serials, a nearby room contains a machine that dispenses food or nutrition bars to the Doctor and his companions. This machine disappears after the first few serials, although mention is occasionally made of the TARDIS kitchen.

Although the interior corridors were not seen in the 2005 series, the fact that they still exist was established in "The Unquiet Dead", when the Doctor gives Rose some very complicated directions to the TARDIS wardrobe. The wardrobe is mentioned several times in the original series and spin-off fiction, and seen in The Androids of Tara (1978), The Twin Dilemma (1984) and Time and the Rani (1987). The redesigned version, from which the Tenth Doctor chooses his new clothes, was seen in "The Christmas Invasion" (2005) as a large multi-levelled room with a spiral

staircase. Designer Ed Thomas has suggested that more rooms may be seen in coming episodes.[16] The Doctor also mentions in "The Shakespeare Code" that the TARDIS has an attic.

------------

No mention about seats, I know the one at the BBC doesn't have any.

I get tired of comparisons between DW effects/sets to stateside programmes like BSG. The fact that DW has to have completely different effects/aliens/sets to BSG every week doesn't seem to matter. BSG just reuses the same 3d models and sets which they created in the pilot.

One things which does get on my nerves is extras in DW who can't act or act like they're in a CBBC programme.

You forgot about The Cloister....the bell rings when there is serious trouble.

Lee, I think you hit the nail on the head there:

"If you re-watch old episodes you will probably find they aren't as good as we remember them either though."

And I think that applies not just to the good Doctor, but any show that us 30+'s used to watch as children. Prime example being Terrahawks. Anyone else remember that one? (for the uninformed, a kids tv series made in the early 80's by the infamous Gerry Anderson of Thunderbirds fame). Absolutely fantastic to watch (and just a little terrifying) as a child. A friend of mine managed to get hold of the whole series on VHS at a carboot sale, so a group of us sat down to watch it one evening.

Worst mistake ever. Got halfway through the second episode and completely shattered all my childhood memories. My advice? Don't do it.

And while I'm here...

@ Steven Raith

Not all the episodes of Firefly were "the best ever". They were all fantastic, except "Jaynestown", which was the best ever!

Alien Face, because there is nothing else appropriate to use....

1. Thanks, RTD for bringing back the good doctor. I hope Torchwood will still continue now.

2. If Steven Moffat only brings 10% of the pure genius of an episode like Blink to the complete series, then I am so gonna love that fifth season.

3. fifth season is only due spring 2010? :-( :-( :-(

1m high cone top 0.1mm bottom 150mm.

Like the tardis it makes you bigger on the inside.

Please stop mentioning Firefly before the prancing unemployed loon decides to remake that with Mal and Jayne as two sides of a complex ,ever changing, love triangle.

My biggest beef is his dismissal of established cannon and replacing it with his own version that is then never expanded upon to my geeky satisfaction. I demand detailed descriptions of RTD's version of the timewar dag-nabbit!!

I really liked Billie piper as the companion and Christopher Eccleston as the doctor really was an inspired choice. It would be nice of the next doctor was in a similar mold with a nice dark edge and the ability to display complexity of character while gurning like a demented monkey that just caught its nutsack in an alligator.

Bring back piper and the daughter (echo of the susan character?) and give us a doctor who looks like he could take you in a pub fight (though apparently he never would ;-) for looking at his pint in a funny way.

Oh and we should make them have a public vote before creating any more spinoffs.

satanswombat

...but even so it's still more entertaining than anything else on the box. And I like the 'Gay Welsh X-Files', sorry, Torchwood, although, granted, the series just gone was rubbish.

Is it the sort of schmaltzy or puerile panderings to an imagined provincial working-class twentysomething mum / six-year-old girl demographic, a sort of over-feminising, which has maybe overbalanced some of the recent episodes? And yet, the same quality, enriches the same and other episodes, maybe there's just been an overdoing or so, and an omission of the really scary shit, or an underplaying of. How cool was that stuff with Derek Jacobi - and how crap was that stuff with the young, 'hip' master character?

And as for Russell T, so, yes, not every episode of Doctor Who was awesome, but he still deserves a bloody statue on the fourth plinth of Trafalgar Square!!!

but I'll take that over any Reality TV/Big Brother/W@nking With The Stars crap that floods televison here in the States.

That's why I have netflix and no cable. I get my shows late, sure-but then I choose what I want.

So I get the Doctor, and no "Torchweird" and no "Battlestar Craptacular".

p.s.-send more Daleks. At least twice a season? And maybe the new Cybermen again?

p.p.s.."Blink"...*checks to make sure garden sculpture is stationary*...the kids loved that one too. That and the Slaveen (sp?) F@rting aliens, now that's comedy!

"Not all the episodes of Firefly were "the best ever". They were all fantastic, except "Jaynestown", which was the best ever!"

I concur - that was utter, utter class. Although the 'cunning hat' had me cracking up too.

I must admit, I have missed a lot of the new Dr Who series [Eccleston onwards] but thankfully I have a mate who has all the DVDs - must borrow them at some point.

WRT to special effects/BSG references - please note that the special effects in BSG [and Firefly, for that matter] were designed by artists who realised that the key to *good* special effects was to introduce human error to the sequences. To quote the DVD commentary from Firefly, why has no-one had a camera behaving as though it was mounted to the side of a tracking 'spaceship' that shakes so much you can barely see the action? Likewise whip pans*, missing the target, over-and-under focus, etc.

This is the sort of thing that more CGI-rich shows should really be taking a long hard look over...rather than having special effects that look 'ultra-clean', and as such, look out of place with hand-held camera work.

</rant>

Steven R

*Ms Bee, a whip pan is not a BDSM move with kitchen implements - it's when a camera tracks from an obscure point, to the point of action, overshoots, and snaps back - like in motorsports coverage, live news footage, etc. Just so you don't get too excited...

"There was also an exceptionally dire "alien invasion" mini-series (from the 1990's, I think). It started off with an alien craft being shot down by the RAF and ended with a giant, pulsating, mutant blob being nuked in the Scottish highlands. Can't recall the name but it was *truly* awful."

I remember that - $DEITY, I wish I didn't - and it was a bowl of dicks from beginning to end. Also the female lead looked like a hamster.

I think it went downhill when William Hartnell left. Bill Frasier wasn't half as good a sergeant-major. Whoops! wrong programme.

Strangely, Dr Who (William Hartnell) was the kids' grandfather in the original, so he must have had children before his daughter turned up in this series..

Dr Who has suffered from the fact that RTD does not understand the difference between science fiction and science fantasy. Science fiction is imaginative but tries to stay logical; it may extend science, but it never should really contradict it. Science fantasy on the other hand keeps the appearance, language and trappings of science but throws logic away and replaces it with inconsistent make-believe. It is a shoddy second cousin to real science fiction.

The Doctor on a rooftop, hit with a massive lightning strike? No problem, not a scorch. Why wasn't he vaporized? You see, he's an alien, that explains it away. Doctor frozen cryogenically but he doesn't shatter? No problem. He's alien, his molecules don't have to follow the laws of physics. A human transformed into an Ood through his daily beverage? No genetic problem there! The Doctor's hand gets cut off, and a new one just pops back out in a twinkling! Well, we don't have to be logical here, we're producing for 12 year olds, it seems. Nothing wrong with cringe-worthy pseudoscience! If something's impossible, let's resort to alien technology, or as we sometimes call it, 'magic'. But certainly not science. Fantasy, not SF.

In the RTD formula, glossy special effects too are a panacea that trumps logic. Dug yourself into a plot hole? No problem, sonic screwdriver as deus ex machina.

Goodbye, RTD. Perhaps the viewers can stop cringing now.