Yes real vampires from another dimension who fought the time lords in the first time war.
I was hoping for a follow up to this an instead got a lame story about fish.
True the story looked good visually, but it didn’t really work overall (for me anyway).
I really wanted to give the new Doctor a chance and I have, but this series just isn’t working. To prove it to ourselves my family and I watched the two “library” episodes from DTs tenure and they were great. They were well done, internally consistent (as much as DW ever is) and you felt the threat was real. This just seemed like another filler episode.
I hate having to be negative about it as DW is still one of my favourite series ever, but sadly it’s becoming more of a nostalgia thing.
I predict one or two more seasons tops and then back to BBC limbo for this.
I disagree. The audience numbers are still astronomical, and it would take a serious misstep to impact them in any way.
I have seen much worse “filler” episodes than this week’s in the series, and also forgive them the occasional low point because the new regime are still finding their feet. And I think the season overall will be looked on very well once they’re all out there.
Maybe people just have low expectations. I have yet to see a really good story this season and we are half way through. Even the two part Weeping Angels story was let down by a weak second part.
Not looking forward to the return of the Cybermen (unless they turn out to be the original Mondasian type, the Cybus ones have been done to death like the Daleks) and I’m very dubious about the upcoming “Silurian” storyline.
Plus the whole explantion for the crack is bound to be a complete letdown. Doctor Who has always been a children’s programme enjoyed by adults, but now it seems to be aimed solely at the audience of the Sarah Jane adventures.
Normally I record each episode and only erase it once I have bought the DVD, this season I haven’t bothered to record a single episode. I will probably buy the DVD release but only because I am a completist.
I accept that viewing figures are against me, but think that these will fall over time. I know a number of people who have either stopped watching DW or who don’t like the new series (myself included), whether this is indicative of a trend we will have to wait and see.
I really wanted to enjoy this, but sadly I don’t. On the positive side, I love the redesigned TARDIS (inside and out), but that’s about it.
You’re joking, right? That’s like saying McDonald’s is going to stop making hamburgers because you and your friends went vegetarian. This is the BBC’s flagship series. It’s already spawned two highly successful spinoff series, and has a huge international fanbase that is bringing in major dollars from American broadcasters, not to mention books, action figures, and bubble bath. It’s also (unless I’m mistaken) the most popular show on UK television. Even if viewership dropped by half, they wouldn’t cancel it. If the new series ran off every viewer over the age of five, it would probably still be a successful program, and if the five-and-unders stopped watching again, they’d just fire everyone who ruined it and retool it again. It’s way too valuable to just abandon.
Besides, the new series has been brilliant, Vampires in Venice excepted. The response overall has been very positive. Not everyone has your tastes.
Not by any usual measurement of popularity, no. It’s currently not even the most popular show on Saturday nights (that would be Britain’s Got Talent).
It is doing very well indeed, but it still has to battle the phenomenally popular weekday soaps (as well as BGT, which is generally No1) for a place in the weekly top 10. And with four episodes of Eastenders and five each of Coronation Street and Emmerdale each week, you can see that getting into the top 10 (as Doctor Who managed more often than not in Series 4) is an impressive achievement.
Still, I think the best you could fairly say it that’s possibly the most popular non-soap drama.
Of course, how could I forget the Simon Cowell juggernaut? I do tend to ignore the soaps just because they’re not really on my cultural radar screen. I know enough about UK pop culture to have remembered that Britain’s Got Talent is the number one show, though.
They do, but overseas viewership doesn’t count towards audience figures in the UK. If you’re talking about the most popular show on UK TV, you can’t disregard the soaps.
Sadly your first point is probably correct, they will just market it to death until it is a tired reflection of what it used to be.
I don’t agree with your second point about this series being brilliant though and if you read the early posts here neither do a lot of other people.
Ep 1 was slow and derivative
Ep 2 was good although predictable
Ep 3 was almost universally panned, although I enjoyed the Churchill scenes.
Ep 4 Brilliant return of the Angels
Ep 5 Started well and as with so many recent Whovian eps ended badly.
Ep 6 Looked good but had generic monsters and wasn’t remotely scary.
and it’s not looking too good for eps 7-9 IMO.
I’m not complaining because I want this series to fail, because I don’t. I really wanted to like the new series, but so far it hasn’t grabbed me. I wasn’t the greatest fan of Tennant but, barring one or two duff episodes, his adventures were much better than these on the whole.
I don’t think the problem is Matt Smith, but I could do without Karen Gillen (even if she is easy on the eye).
The real problem is Moffat, the power seems to have gone to his head and he’s turned the Daleks into 1960s technicolour movie monstrosities. The theme music is dire and no longer catchy. I think he’s trying to bring in too many elements of the classic series too quickly. I love the “new” TARDIS, but it’s not really new, it’s basically the same as the TARDIS used in The Chase externally anyway.
I will watch the rest of the series and try to keep an open mind.
Vampires of Venice was a comedy, not a horror; it wasn’t supposed to be scary. Doctor Who episodes come in many different styles - drama, action, comedy, horror, etc.
Oddly, I think the opposite of all of these statements. I loved the first episode, I’ve watched it multiple times, I disliked the second quite a lot, and thought the third was rollicking fun.
And that’s the key, and always has been with the restarted series; that there are as many differing reviews of each episode as there are viewers, which means it will run and run for a long time yet.
The thing is I don’t want to quit watching, I want them to write episodes of Doctor Who that are consistent and that I enjoy, so far this series has not delivered (for me anyway).
As for where I got the info from there are several website that give a few indications as to what to expect from later episodes.
Hopefully I will enjoy the next few episodes despite my misgivings, if so I will come back and say so, if not this is my last word on the matter and the good Doctor and I shall go our separate ways. And I may have to change my name (at least here anyway).
In no way am I trying to suggest your opinion isn’t valid or any such thing, but I just wanted to comment on how odd some of your comments seem to me. Perhaps some of this is cultural, me being an American adult just now tuning in to an “All Ages” British show, but I find my “gut reactions” to most of these episodes to be darn near a complete reverse of yours.
To me, the very reason I love Doctor Who is that it’s NOT incredibly consistent or self-serious. It’s goofy, charming, and witty. It’s FUN, and the characters tend to be loveable in an understated hero sort of way.
Again, not trying to imply you’re wrong at all – I just find it interesting how differently one can approach this sort of thing.
Well I thought the vampires episode was really cool, and the promo for next week looks frickin’ awesome!
This season has been pretty good overall so far:
#1: This was a really great introduction to the new characters. #2: I liked it but parts felt rushed. #3: Weak. Not a big Dalek fan, felt like half a story, Spitfires in space was stupid, the cyborg guy being saved by twoo wuv was stupid. #4/5: Creepy and mysterious. I enjoyed these two very much! #6: Funny and I liked the monsters. This one reminded me of “Tooth & Claw.” The special effects were crap though. I don’t remember them being that poorly done last year.
So that’s five I enjoyed and one I thought was poor so far. The preview for #7 looks like it could be very cool!
Really? After the amount of contrived bullshit RTD subjected us to, the deus ex machina after deus ex machina, story after story that was almost fantastic but fell short at the last second, Tennants two-dimensional acting - you’re really complaining about the color of the goddamn daleks?
Give Moffat a full series or two before complaining about such plot-irrelevant trivialities.