Less Russell T. Davies, more Stephen Moffat. Davies’ “worlds” never convince me that they exist outside the set, and his frantic soundtracks and rapid cuts give me a headache. Moffatt, on the other hand, does eerie restaint like no-one else.
A companion without a family: Sally Sparrow {see under Stephen Moffatt} was a genius character, and she’s an orphan… Jackie Tyler and her grotty chav estate was bad enough, but did we really need Martha’s entire brood thrown in too? This isn’t Eastenders, y’know.
The “off his meds” Master was rubbish. The Master was always more aloof and self-contained than the Doctor, and what was that shit about him fleeing the Time War? The Master isn’t scared of a few Daleks: he might conspire with them to sell the Time Lords down the river for his own selfish gain, but the man who destroyed half the universe to refuel another regeneration isn’t to hide at the end of time inside Derek Jacobi. Bring back Anthony Head, and make him the next Master: he has the requisite sardonic wit and suave politeness masking pure self-serving wickedness.
While we’re on the subject of being off one’s meds, could David Tennant please dial down the mania a notch? He’s a fine Doctor, but he’s much better when he’s not punching the air and shouting “Oh, YES!”. More dark “I used to have so much mercy” Doctor: what happened to “You get one warning. That was it” or wreaking fearful vengeance on the Family of Blood when it came to taking down the Master?
Give the Daleks a holiday, OK? We all know they’re never going to be wiped out, there’s always going to be a clutch of them plotting universal domination in some obsure corner of time, so why not let them do it at the beach for a couple of seasons? Bring back some of the other old villains instead: let the Sontarans and the Rutans carry out their campaign of whacking hell out of each other.
I seem to remember it being mentioned in another thread, but if the actor who originally played the Brigadier is still around, it would make for a great reunion.
I know we’ve seen UNIT in passing, but I’d like to see a few episodes centred around them, maybe with a whole story arc.
Oh yes, and Sally Sparrow instead of “Am I Bovvered!”
Nicholas Courtney, and he’s still around, although he’s nearly 80 now, so they’d better hurry up. And I always assumed that UNIT had been pretty much wiped out in Downing Street by the Slitheen, of whom I sincerely hope we’ve seen the last.
Bring back The Rani. If not this season (so they can give the Time Lord thing a rest, maybe) then after. For all I dislike most of the Colin Baker years, there’s a lovely scene in ‘Mark of The Rani’ where she gives The Master a hard knee in the appropriate place for daring to touch her TARDIS console. (He just gave her this dumbstruck astonished look.) She had nothing but contempt for both The Doctor and The Master, and for Time Lord society in general as well; she wouldn’t have gone anywhere near the Time War. Pick a better actress for her this time round, though…
So fannish, I know. But I’d love to see what they could do with the character in the context of the series as it is now.
I guess fan opinion has pretty much resolved that RTD’s episodes are shite. That’s a shame – I thought the Last of the Time Lords arc was brilliantly resolved and brought out some very interesting and satisfying drama between the Master and the Doctor. [I agree Moffat is better, but give the producer his props.]
For the Fourth Season, I think the show has to finally break away from being Earth-bound and, like the old show, head out into the universe to meet some new races and see some new horizons. I think with so many stories being set on earth, history is already starting to seem “cluttered” with the Doctor; he’s touching so many lives it begins to seem absurd that he isn’t a household name, or at least the subject of the occasional “History’s Mysteries”-style doc.
I gather that the next season will have Catherine Tate, Billie and Freema (and possibly Liz!) as sort of revolving-door companions. I think the next hurdle the show needs to overcome is the solidifying pseudo-romantic dynamic between the Doctor and the companion. The show won’t last if everyone the Doctor meets falls in love with him, so I think it’s important that before much longer they introduce a strong companion (pref not young, female and gorgeous) who can relate to the Doctor in a different way, yet still have a deepening relationship.
The only old series baddie I miss is
The Sontarans, who I gather are already scheduled to reappear.
I bought that. I always figured that deep down, the Master is a coward; he can kill others with impunity, but the corollary to that is that his own life is the only thing he values, as the Doctor so astutely pointed out. Faced with overwhelming odds, he would turn tail.
Umm, not sure about that. The Christmas special that introduced David Tennant had Harriet Jones as PM after the Slitheen were defeated in Downing Street. I’m pretty sure that the military personnel advising the PM were all UNIT, and the command centre at the Tower of London seemed to be a UNIT facility.
That’s right. The UNIT officers killed by the Slitheen were just a few of their top specialists, I think – enough to cause confusion, but not enough to cripple a large international military organisation for long.
Besides:
Martha, when she appears later in the new series of Torchwood, is apparently working for UNIT, and the trailers for Doctor Who Series 4 seemed to show UNIT troops in action.
We never saw the original UNIT operating outside of the Home Counties, though: for a supposedly large and well-funded international operation, their personnel seemed to consist of the Brigadier, Sergeant Benton, Captain Yates, and a bunch of anonymous squaddies whose job was to be killed in quarries in Surrey - writing condolence letters must have been a full time job - and, of course, their scientific advisor.
Perhaps the Brigadier could have a consultancy role with UNIT, then: Nicholas Courtney is the only actor to have appeared opposite every Doctor in the original series, right back to William Hartnell - although his character then was a space pilot, not the Brig. They owe him, dammit!