Ranters room

[Toothy Grin]

They won't even show it on their home channels in the UK! You'd think with the success of the new series there'd be a big demand for repeats of the classic series. BBC 4 did show a repeat of The Hand Of Fear last week, but only as a tribute to Elisabeth Sladen - do we have to wait for stars to die before we see any classic Dr Who on tv?

[Graceful Leonard]

Maybe it has something to do with the licensing of material for third party DVD releases.

Just a guess.

[MCH]

Yes, and why do they not sell the DVDs as boxed sets? Twenty dollars for just one show is way too much money. Come on beeb give us a break here! Purty please with gold dust on top?

MCH

[MCH]

Agh !
The temperatures have been in the nineties for a month now and there has been no rain at my house. I get so bummed about weather that is too hot or too cold or too dry. It's upsetting to watch the weather on doplar radar when I see good rain bearing clouds veer away from me. My hubby says to just stop looking at the radar, lol.

And then there are the squirrels. The goofy critters keep eating up the birdseed despite my dumping cayenne pepper on them. The seeds not the squirrels, lol. But I finally have gold finches at my sock thistle feeder. It's amazing how bright their yellow feathers are.

One of my four foot furry boys brought a fully live chipmunk in the house. My attempts to get them to take it back out failed utterly. I searched for it and couldn't find it. We set up a live trap. After a week in the house it finally walked into the trap. I took it back outside and let it go. Hopefully it won't get caught and brought back in again.
Those boys ! They have brought two baby bunnies in as well. The strangest thing they did was bring a live shrew into my bed. I wasn't happy at discovering the shrew walking up next to my leg under the covers. The shrew wasn't very happy either.

MCH

[bcm77]

After the standalone brilliance that was "The Doctor's Wife" the following week's episode was back to following the overblown story arc and finally killed my opinion of the modern show for good.

Aside from the aforementioned masterpiece by Neil Gaiman, as well as "Amy's Choice" & "Vincent & the Doctor" in the previous series I've found Steven Moffat's Who to be mediocre and the overly convoluted storytelling style he favors is neither big or clever.....it's just confusing.

My short term memory isn't great and remembering all the little threads of an episode to connect the dots the next week rarely happens and the 1000mph format means that for me everything plays out like a visual stream of white noise.....there's possibly something coherent in there but I'm not inclined to try and find it.

Like RTD before him Moffat also makes the companions appear more important than the Doctor and it's such a shame that a decent actor like Matt Smith constantly gets shoved to one side in favor of Amy Pond or River Song who are completely without redeeming qualities.

Moffat's era was the last chance I was willing to give Nu-Who and I'll never waste time on it again.

In many ways it's a good thing as there's still lots of the Classic run I've not seen and the Big Finish audios are becoming increasingly tempting but it's also a bit of a shame as I like Smith's Doctor.

[MCH]

At least you've given it a shot.

I do agree that Amy Pond does over shadow EveryOne! It gets really annoying. I still like to watch the show. It's The Doctor Who that I know the best after all.

TCH, I'd like to see a different kind of traveling companion as well.

MCH

[tch]

Anybody else getting tired of 'girl from now' companions'?

They new girls have been for the most part good characters, and easy on the eyes, but man, I'd sell my soul for an alien companion, a future companion, a historical companion, or a tin dog!

I'd settle for it being just the Doctor and a 'guy from now' companion.

[MCH]

I watched the Nu Doctor Who episode tonight. It was finally revealed who River Song is.
Now it has been said that she has known the Doctor for a long time. She even knows his Galafreyan's name. Which brought up a speculation that she and the Doctor had been married once and possibly had kids.
And it was hinted at that she killed the Doctor and that was why she was in prison.

Now we know that she is AMY POND and RORY's daughter. And, that since she was conceived inside the TARDIS and had a lot of access to it as Amy travelled with the Doctor. All that added gave The baby Time Lord DNA. Amy named her baby girl, Melody Pond. A gal from another place and time made her a present for her and the baby girl. It was written in that gals native hand writing. The gals language didn't have a word for Pond but they did have river as a word that they could use. And a melody is a part of a song. Hence the baby girls name becoming River Song. I suppose by that logic she could also have been called Babling Brook!

And, at the end of tonights episode, the Doctor will be traveling alone. This should be fun.

MCH

[The Cloaked One]

I'm still not ready to touch the new season despite having watched nearly all of Doctor Who. I've gone off watching other anime and reading manga for the moment. I've even picked up watching Voyager, starting on season 4. I hear the first three were really terrible. So far, being basically the first of Star Trek I've seen, the season has been far more enjoyable than any season of Nu Who I've seen so far. I'm not saying this season doesn't have its drawbacks, and it is by no means better than most every season of old who, but it is fairly enjoyable. I keep wishing Seven of Nine would be a bit more like Leela though, more action, less words.

Doctor Who, old who specifically, has the best formula for any show I have seen to date. Having serials instead of 26 individual episodes and occasional two and three parters allows for more exploring of a set of ideas. It also can allow for a lot more action from characters. There can be padding issues at times, but it's rarely been a problem for me (except War Games XD). The biggest thing is that having serials in essence is having fewer writers write more episodes causing less inconsistency. While Voyager can boast 26 45 minute episodes, Old Who has 26 20 minute episodes with less loop wholes, character inconsistencies, etc. Kind of a quality vs quantity issue.

There have been a handful of episodes in Voyager where I just shake my head and said, a great episode, just a bit too rushed. Another episode and it could really have been amazing. Or. Why didn't they make this one into an arc! A spectacular idea, now explore it!

It's amazing how a two parter in Voyager (90 minutes) can be so very different than a 4 parter in old who (80 minutes). In less time, it feels that Old Who could stuff so much more into those minutes than Voyager can. Taken further, it feels more could be put into those 80 minutes than when the sixth doctor did the 45 minute episodes or Nu Who in general. Exceptions being Moffats episodes before he became director.

[The Cloaked One]

Frankly, I'm concerned for Nu Who. I'm happy to hear they finally got rid of Rory and Amy. Maybe I will check out the new season. From what I saw, Moffat was ruining more and more of what he did right in his pre-producer era. The angels in Flesh and Blood did not add up to Blink, River Song's sudden reveal to be a criminal and her personality change form 'The Forest of Death' I realize that episode was the 'end' of her character, after she'd undergone character development, but the 'old' river was just very disappointing (I have not seen the current season, my opinion might still change). Nu Who in general with the Daleks screaming blasphemy, multicolored Daleks, Love and Monsters, a hooker for a companion trying to seduce the Doctor, etc.

Too much controversy, not enough entertainment has been the problem in general which was not as stark in Old Who. It's sad to say this, but Nu Who might not even make it to the 13th Doctor at this rate unless there is a shift. I don't have facts and figures to back this up. I feel that many fans of Old Who want to keep watching to the thirteenth Doctor for a kind of 'completion' of the show even if the directors decide on a 14th. I just don't feel that will be enough. I don't know about the new found fans for the show starting with the Ninth on, but I imagine that their number is dwindling. This show is beatable, easily. There's probably loads of shows with more entertainment value and less political points and red buttons to push.

Well, at some point, I'll have to grit my teeth and push through this season as well. It's not the worst out there, but it could be greatly improved. Let the Doctor travel alone for a bit. He's got character and personality, he can be good. If he gets a companion, please no more hookers. Get a robot, not like Chameleon, get some aliens, liven things up. Get someone to give character contrast like Leela did. A good friend like Sarah Jane, Joe Grant, Romana, Jamie, etc.

And goodness please, no more Tardis's dragging planets, Tardis explosions ending the universe, Dalek armies being destroyed with flips of switches, fighting Satan, Doctor is some kind of God or the ultimate good, and that nonsense.

Now that, is a rant. XD It was originally all one long post, but I decided to split it in half to be easier on the eyes.