Doctor Who has had me quite riled for a while now. I would like to say though, before I get started, that I think Matt Smith is a great Doctor. He's put his own little clumsy spin on it which I think works for what they've done with the show, and Amy Pond is a character that has gradually grown on me, but never had anything agaisnt Karen herself, she seems lovely.
Anyway, getting to the nitty-gritty stuff. Think back to the days of series 1 of Doctor Who. The Eccleston days. Remember the episode Dalek? When we discovered they could levitate? Were you scared? Yes. Yes you were. Everyone was. Were you gripped by how gripping it was? Yes. We all were.
Now think a few episodes forward to The Empty Child & The Doctor Dances. You know, the shit-your-pants-creepy-one-with-the-creepy-child? Yeah, that one.
Now jump forward to series 3. Blink. With the Weeping Angels and Sally Sparrow. Yeah, the one where everyone who watched it was terrified to blink for days and you stared at every statue because you were scared it was going to kill you or something.
Those episodes stand out to me as being properly good, slightly scary, utterly gripping episodes.
Now, for the point of this rant, name an episode that comes close to the terror and brilliance of any of those. Stuck, aren't you. And don't go saying the episodes where they brought the Weeping Angels back in series 5. That was awful. THEY CAN'T MOVE. And don't even get me started with the whole Pandorica thing. That was a sham.
Now, I'm not saying there haven't been good episodes, James Corden was great in his 2 episodes and Neil Gaiman wrote a brilliant episode that I adored the concept of (The Doctor's Wife). And that episode introduced me to the works of the brilliant writer and I'm currently reading American Gods, which is bizarre but brilliant. But again, none of those episodes were scary, none had you on the edge of your seat.
I think the parting of RTD definately had something to do with it. Series 5 was, in my opinion, god-awful. I think it must have had something to do with people taking on new roles and getting comfortable without RTD (still, not a great excuse). And then series 6 came and it was much, much, much better. And so people raved. And so did I.
But then I watched series 1 and 2. And I realised that series 6 only seems so brilliant is because it was so much better than series 5. But that still puts it below series 1-4. I'm not complaining about the new series' for the sake of it; I'm upset that they're not as good, I'm longing for a terrifying storyline that puts the Doctor's life properly in danger to the point you think he is going to die. (I get that there's the ongoing storyline of the Doctor dying because of the astronaut, yadda yadda yadda.) But it's just not the same. And it makes me sad.
It would be interesting to know if anyone shared the same opinion, or think that I'm talking utter tosh. Comment below :)
Anyway, getting to the nitty-gritty stuff. Think back to the days of series 1 of Doctor Who. The Eccleston days. Remember the episode Dalek? When we discovered they could levitate? Were you scared? Yes. Yes you were. Everyone was. Were you gripped by how gripping it was? Yes. We all were.
Now think a few episodes forward to The Empty Child & The Doctor Dances. You know, the shit-your-pants-creepy-one-with-the-creepy-child? Yeah, that one.
Now jump forward to series 3. Blink. With the Weeping Angels and Sally Sparrow. Yeah, the one where everyone who watched it was terrified to blink for days and you stared at every statue because you were scared it was going to kill you or something.
Those episodes stand out to me as being properly good, slightly scary, utterly gripping episodes.
Now, for the point of this rant, name an episode that comes close to the terror and brilliance of any of those. Stuck, aren't you. And don't go saying the episodes where they brought the Weeping Angels back in series 5. That was awful. THEY CAN'T MOVE. And don't even get me started with the whole Pandorica thing. That was a sham.
Now, I'm not saying there haven't been good episodes, James Corden was great in his 2 episodes and Neil Gaiman wrote a brilliant episode that I adored the concept of (The Doctor's Wife). And that episode introduced me to the works of the brilliant writer and I'm currently reading American Gods, which is bizarre but brilliant. But again, none of those episodes were scary, none had you on the edge of your seat.
I think the parting of RTD definately had something to do with it. Series 5 was, in my opinion, god-awful. I think it must have had something to do with people taking on new roles and getting comfortable without RTD (still, not a great excuse). And then series 6 came and it was much, much, much better. And so people raved. And so did I.
But then I watched series 1 and 2. And I realised that series 6 only seems so brilliant is because it was so much better than series 5. But that still puts it below series 1-4. I'm not complaining about the new series' for the sake of it; I'm upset that they're not as good, I'm longing for a terrifying storyline that puts the Doctor's life properly in danger to the point you think he is going to die. (I get that there's the ongoing storyline of the Doctor dying because of the astronaut, yadda yadda yadda.) But it's just not the same. And it makes me sad.
It would be interesting to know if anyone shared the same opinion, or think that I'm talking utter tosh. Comment below :)
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