Sarah Jane Adv started series 3 a couple weeks ago. So far it’s pretty good. Yeah, it’s for 12 year olds. But, I’ve never got over my crush on Sarah Jane from 1977. That women certainly caught my 14 year old attention back then. :eek: She’s always been my favorite Doctor’s companion. Elisabeth Sladen is 60 now, but in my mind she still looks pretty good. She’s aged well, like a fine wine.
Doctor Who The Waters of Mars airs sometime in Nov. Next to last David Tennant episode. Watching him wrap up the role will be difficult. I’m more worried about the writer Russell T Davies leaving. He did a brilliant job breathing life into this old series.
Who is your favorite Doctor? I still have a soft spot for Jon Pertwee the third Doctor.
Tom Baker (4th) was good too. Sarah Jane Smith traveled with both of them. New series, David Tennant and Rose will be my favorites for a long, long time.
Big fan of the new series here. (Not too keen on the old ones, I must admit. Just too cheesy/low budget for me.) But the revamped series has been brilliant! My favorite pairing has to be Ten & Donna. Those two just worked so perfectly together and Series 4 is my overall favorite. I’m so sad that Tennant is leaving, but since Moffat has been my favorite writer on the show I’m hopeful he will take it in a good direction, and since he was who fought for Matt Smith I trust his judgment.
There are actually three Tennant episodes left to air: The Waters of Mars, and the finale The End of Time which is to be a two-parter.
My twins have tee-shirts, “You never forget your first Doctor.” As a guy, you never forget your first companion. In my case, the plucky Sarah Jane.
“Plucky.” In a dictionary you will see her picture next to the word. Sure, she screamed, as one might when first encountering homicidal aliens, but she, in the spirit of her mother and grandmother and others who survived the Blitz, quickly gathered herself and Did What Needed to be Done.
Russell T Davies was always better as a showrunner than a screenwriter. I’m optimistic about Steven Moffat being the new showrunner. The best episodes of the new Dr. Who were written by him.
I’m curious to see what Moffat does with the show in the next season. I’m a little concerned about having such a young guy play the Doctor. But, I’ll keep an open mind and give him a chance. I still think of the Doctor as an older or middle aged guy like Pertwee or Baker. Tennant sort of reversed that and now fans expect a younger portrayal.
Sarah Jane Adv has brought back the rhino-like Judoon from Smith and Jones in the third season of Dr Who. That’s the one where the Doctor meets Martha.
I didn’t realize the Tennant last episode is a two parter. I’m looking forward to them.
Oh, for heaven’s sake, can we end this meme? He is 27 years old. That’s not significantly younger than 30 year old Peter Davison when he started. The difference between him and Tennant (who was 34) is notable, but not nearly enough to explain the ‘Augh! So young!’ reaction. Especially compared for the 10 year drop from 45 year old Eccleston to 34 year old Tennant.
Ecclestone/Piper for me. I like Ten well enough, and Martha and Donna, but prefer Ecclestone’s brand of raw rage (with the flying spit and all) to Tennant’s sharper version. And Rose…well, I could go on all day.
A friend and I watched (and liked) the first season of Sarah Jane when it aired (I think on SciFi) several years ago. As far as I’ve been able to tell, the second series hasn’t aired in the US yet. Does anyone have any idea when (if) it ever will?
Looks like the next Children in Need special (Nov. 20) will have a preview of the Doctor Who Christmas special. (I’m not sure if that refers to Tennant’s last episode or next-to-last.
The difference is that Smith SEEMS young. Davison and Tennant both seemed YOUTHFUL, but I would have actually guessed both were older than they actually were.
If I’d been asked to guess Matt Smith’s age before I knew, I’d have guessed early twenties. He looks like a kid to me (and I’m only 25!).
That said, I DON’T hold it against him. I’m interested in seeing his take; but I think he’s definitely the youngest-seeming portrayal of the Doctor by a fair margin.
When I was introduced to the Doctor, the local PBS showed only the Tom Baker run, so I am a bit biased. He always had good Companions. The others seemed meh to me when I finally saw them.
Of the new stuff, I gotta go with Tennant and Martha, although the Bride was terrific in her appearances.
He was in the Sally Lockhart films (with Billie Piper) and in those, though he had a youthful way about him, he actually seemed more mature, if a little dopey, than he does in the promo pics for Doctor Who. I think he will surprise a lot of people.
I have been a Doctor Who fan for over 35 years now, I accept that the current series has better production values, but the old stories were just as good, they just moved at a slower pace.
I have high hopes that Matt Smith will be a good Doctor, this is based upon my faith in the production team.
Every time the Doctor regenerates there is a debate about whether the replacement will be any good and they always have been so far.
My only worry about Waters of Mars is that I will miss it as I am in Florida in the middle of November and sod’s law says that will be when they show it.
Looking forward to the Christmas specials and the:
Return of John Simm as the Master.
Although I’ve enjoyed Tennants run I thnk his acting has been limited in the role, he only seems to have two facial expressions, his goofy slight manic happy face and his “you don’t want to mess with me” serious face. Hopefully Smith will have a greater range.
My first exposure to Doctor Who was the Tom Baker/Liz Sladen adventures. I remember watching them on the local PBS station every day at 6pm just before dinner. The episode in which she was possessed by an alien consciousness and forced to take a crystalline hand to a nuclear reactor in order to help it regenerate. She kept saying “Eldrad must live!” and that became a catch-phrase among my brothers & I.
For reasons that remain unclear, for his first few serials, Doctor #4 was saddled with an additional sidekick named Harry - who had to be the most useless companion ever. He never did anything other than stand behind either the Doc or Sarah, or occasionally stumble over something. I’m glad they got rid of him fast. He even made Adric look good in comparison.
But with all due respect for Sarah-Jane, I do believe that the greatest companion of the original run had to be her successor Leela. Leela was probably conceived by the series producers as little more than an excuse to have the companion character run around in the skimpiest outfits possible. But in the capable hands of the vastly under-rated actress Louise Jameson, she actually turned into a 3-dimensional character.
A lot of the time, the companion had little else to do but ask “What is it Doctor?” and scream whenever the monster went boo. Leela however was an actual foil for the Baker’s Doctor. She challenged the Doctor’s judgements and wasn’t afraid to voice her own opinions, which sometimes turned out to be more accurate than the Doctor’s. She was pro-active, even aggressive about confronting menaces. She could have come off as extremely silly, but Jameson gave her a real dignity and made her a believable person - this despite some of the silliest scripts in the history of the show (instant adult clones of the Doc & Leela - complete with clothing accessories - go exploring in the Doctor’s brain to hunt out a parasite that infected the Doctor through a radio transmission!)
Watching him wrap up the role will be difficult. I’m more worried about the writer Russell T Davies leaving. He did a brilliant job breathing life into this old series.