What I Don't Like About the New Doctor Who

Cafe Society
1

Okay, okay, calm down, the truth is I actually do like the new show. The folks who run it obviously cared about the old series, and are doing a very good job on the new. And I think both Christopher Eccles and David Tennant did and do just fine as the Doctor.

But there’s a couple of complaints from this old Whovian:

1 The new episodes are too short. At ninety minutes, there was time to develop an interesting villain and an intriguing plot. The show’s main plot now seems to be “There’s the Monster! Fight and/or run!” Especially now that so much time is spent on the Doctor’s angst with his companions. Which brings me to:

2 The Doctor’s new found sex drive. Okay, I don’t mind the the Doctor and Rose so much, I suppose it was bound to happen with some assistant. But now, when they brought back Sarah Jane, they imply that he’s been banging his girl companions all along. I mean, who is he, Capt. Kirk? Plus with all the mooning around that’s being done, it’s taking up valuable villain time.

3 Why kill off the Time Lords? I mean really, why? The Doctor’s not trying to avenge them or anything. I know they’re implying recently that a couple of other Time Lords may have escaped the Time War (the Time Meddler, etc) but it seems to have been done for no other reason than to give pathos to the Doctor, and he doesn’t need it. Plus the Time Lords used to drop the Doctor into interesting places to do interesting things. Which brings me to:

4 We’re spending too much time on goddamn Earth. I know the Third Doctor (Jon Pertwee) spent most of his time there but he was in exile, so he had a good reason. And any time we leave Earth, we’re on some dark claustrophobic spaceship. Aren’t there any other planets in this universe?

5 The new Tardis interior is ugly. Sorry, it just is. I want to take a gallon of Pine-Sol to it, it looks so gross.
Well, there you have it. Feel free to flame away.

2

Well I’m a bit behind on it, but from what I’ve seen I agree entirely.

3

I am a new Whovian–I was born too late to catch the original stuff, and I’m only into the new series because of a recently discovered love for British television. So I can’t really attest to how the old versus new Who compares. That being said…

Yeah, a lot of the time I feel like a 45-minute episode, give or take a couple minutes, is pretty short, although I feel like Steve Moffat is the guy who can consistently pull off a brilliant, action-packed episode within that time span (although I take issue with the Doctor and Reinette, but I’m getting to that). However, there’s a enough two- or three-episode story arcs mixed in with the quickies that I’m content with the balance of one-shots and longer stories that take up season time.

As for the Doctor and the ladies…I was impressed by how willing the writers were to not make him and Rose an explicit couple–they even made it a bit of a stretch to believe that they were involved, especially during the first season. I could easily believe that their kiss at the end is their first. Second season, the Doctor has gotten visibly waaay more flirty. But still, it’s more of an innuendo-tossing buddy-type relationship than any sort of huge sweeping romantic story.

But then onwards to Season Three and the next companion–wow. Okay, now we’re getting into the moony angsty territory. There’s still enough banter and teasing that I don’t mind, but I couldn’t say I’d complain if they toned it back to the old level. Also, even in Season 2 and the whole Madame de Pompadour thing, and again in Season 3, we have the Doctor falling in love with people that he’s known for exactly half an episode or so. This is the unfortunate crossroads of the short episodes and the new focus on him having a sex drive–we’re expected to believe that he’ll fall head-over-heels for a woman he’s just met, even though we had to wait an entire season to work up to that kiss.

I’m still finishing up Season Three, so here’s where I fall off the radar. It ain’t perfect, but I love New Who, and when I have time I might go back and explore the old stuff.

4

Partially agree with point 1, though I think it mitigated by having two-parters. Also, the old serials where the entire story was spread over 4 episodes or so often seemed to have episodes where nothing actually happened.

Agree with point 2, especially during the Rose years. It sometimes felt like a soap about the blummin’ Tylers.

Disagree with point 3, because I hated the Time Lords.

Agree with point 4. Way too much time spent on Earth. Actually, make that way too much time spent in contemporary London. I enjoy the historical episodes, more so when set someplace other than that London.

Sorta disagree with point 5. It’s odd looking and I do miss the old interior, but this one has grown on me.

5

Not just the Tylers. We’ve seen too damned much of the companion’s families. I don’t mind seeing them once or twice a season, but not every other episode. Sheesh.

I don’t mind this too much. My biggest complaint was the threats were too big. One of the charm of the Pertwee years was that the Doctor would nip the threat to the Earth in the bud before people were running around the streets of London. It was almost plausible that the stories could be happening in our world, but we never saw it happening. But, c’mon, a massive alien invasion at least twice a year? It’s a miracle anyone gets out of bed anymore.