Boooo! I really like Rose. I haven't seen any of the new series yet, but I'm looking forward to it, even though I really dug Christopher Eccleston as the Doctor.

Whew, thank heavens. Please get off the romance. I don't watch Dr. Who for the soap opera. She's certainly been a good companion, but I'm not up for watching Buffy in Space.

I never watched Dr. Who until I caught the episode from the Eccleston season with the Dalek, and it was actually pretty good. Will going back to watch from the beginning seem too cheesy? And what's with the high turnover rate?

Definitely watch last season--i loved Rose--and i liked that doctor much much better....Tennant is really (hammy and) cheesy, i think.

I've been feeling this second series has been a let-down. None of the tensions and links through the entire season. Unless I'm missing this years "bad wolf" thingy.

This series, Rose has really grown and I wonder where she would go with the character. Maybe a new Dr needs a new sidekick. OH, and I want that sassy tin dog back!

P.S. I thought the Cyberman episode really sucked hard.

i thought the TV episode, New Earth, and the werewolf/Queen Vic ones were the most disappointing--i really dislike the new Doctor.

Rose has grown, but her interaction with the doctor has gotten sillier--they giggle at deaths and stuff now.

I'm really backed up on my Dr. Who watching, I'm afraid. At this point I've only seen the first two eps with Tennant as the Doctor and the Christmas Invasion. Now that it's summer and I still haven't found a second job (*sigh*) I should catch up.

Really amber, the werewolf one? Well, yea, the Dr and rose where a bit like school girls in that one but the cinematography was excellent and well, at least these days, the effects are brilliant.

There always was a kind of insanity lurking behind a DR's eyes but not this DR. He's too little. Not enough scope about him. MEH. Whatever. It is a kids show, after all. And even at its worst it's legions better than Hollywood TV.

I've watched all the episodes up to The Satan Pit, and Rose was ok, but a little too... princess-y. And the constantly-going-after-her-dead-father thing was REALLY starting to grate. I haven't watched The Satan Pit, but maybe Satan slaps a bit of sense into her. Tennant isn't bad, a little overdramatic at times with the Tormented Timelord thing and the glaring "You don't want to make me your enemy, jerkass, coz I'm a Timelord™." even though a good right hook'd shut his noise down for a while. I'm glad Mickey finally found a pair and told the Dr. (who never liked him, you know that) and that two-timing slag Rose ("...but The Dr., he's got this sonic screwdriver that's just... magic!) where to stick it. :))
That said, it's still all great fun, and I'm loving watching them.

I liked the new season (though nothing quite lived up to the empty child/the doctor dances), and the Satan Pit is definitely good, I hope it's an indication that the writers are finally willing to let go of all these earth-bound episodes and willing to go back to the classic strange-alien-world formula.

Though Rose was a surprisingly excellent companion, perhaps it is getting a bit soapy (I liked the I'm-so-british-I-don't-know-what-romantic-love-is brand of doctor who), and I'm sure a change of companion will be interesting (*spoiler* though I'm already very grateful they more or less got rid of Mickey already, he was annoying and pointless on a grand scale).

And if "No-one stays dead in science fiction", that means there's still hope for Adric, heaven knows we've waited long enough.

And jelly, I think this year's Bad Wolf (which was a major disappointment incidentally) is Torchwood. Apparantly it's going to mean we get to see more of Captain Jack, which can't be a bad thing. No idea on when that'll reach our screens though.

Torchwood. But the cat's out of the bag on that one. We know what it is. *spoiler* Just don't know how Jack gets to Balmorow (sp?). I read somewhere that Torchwood airs Octoberish.

Adric: hehehehe had a little crush on him.

Micky: complete tosser.

Torchwood debuts in the UK beginning in October (Dr Who won't be back until March).

The average Doctor has stuck around for 3-4 years -- Tom Baker's 7 was the big exception. The average companion has only been around for a couple of years at most, so that's normal. I guess this means that when Jack comes back there won't be a threeway ...

I hated Mickey, as Mickey and as a character. It was nice to see him get some balls, of course, but then they haven't dealt with his missing-ness yet. I agree one big problem with the series has been going back to the same well, especially of the deadly-threats-to-Earth variety that always involve London, and the declining BBC ratings have apparently reflected that.

As for Tennant, I think he's brilliant. Seriously, in The Christmas Invasion, he had me at "Sorcery!" "No. Time Lord."

And I'm not opposed to them exploring his emotional life -- it's sort of like the geeks that girls don't like anyway saying sex isn't important. It's harder for them to get away with the old-school, arrogant U doctor, so this one is going with winning -- sort of Bakerish at times. The shorter episodes don't let him inveigle or bullshit people quite so much, though, and the psychic paper is a cute tool that Davies introduced to get around that. It was always fun to watch the Doctor disarm people ("Jelly baby?"). And yes, if they spend time on the character arcs, they run out of time to tell details of individual stories.

On the whole though, I think some of the episodes in both this and last year's are some of the best Who I've ever seen. "Dalek" in particular is a deep favorite, as it deconstructs the relationship. And if they keep coming up with smashing ideas like a rotating fireplace which is also a time machine, I ain't goin' nowhere soon.

Don't get me started.

Adric: Just, thank God I'm not the only Dr Who Geek here.

I think Tennant is a good doctor, and I'm liking the new series a lot. Girl in the Fireplace was excellent, and the Cyberman episode managed to ...
(a) cram more science fiction into a 45 minute show than some series' manage for a whole seven year run.
(b) had the best conclusion to a "reattach your emotion circuit" arc that I've ever seen on T.V.

Satan Pit was good. I'm not going to spoiler it, but it's a turning point for Dr Who/Assistant relationships methinks.

There have been poor episodes, but the same was true with the last series too.
Keep it coming.

/Geek.

Plus - The only audience that matters (My friends 9 year old boy) thinks Tennant is better than Ecclestone. And that's all I need.

Dr Who has never been the same since Patrick Troughton stopped being the doctor and they starting making it in colour instead of black and white.

I've only ever seen it with Tom Baker as Who, a million years ago... and I used to adore it. I'd love to see the new ones - or any of them, really.

I could see the end of Rose's arc coming. But the Doctor has become so fond of Rose that it's hard to see how their parting will not be sad. I hope they don't kill her, that'll make me sad. I like Rose.

I can't disagree with Eideteker more. It seems rather juvenile to object to an exploration of the characters' emotional lives, especially in the context of science fiction. It's an up-is-down adolescent male fanboy perspective which thinks of Asimovian hard science fiction with cardboard characters to be "mature" and love stories to be "boring". You can watch reruns of TNG if that sort of thing appeals to you. DW was always written as a kid's show, which is a very different thing than an adolescent male science-fiction show and that's part of why the science-fiction fanboy contingent was always ambivalent about DW—it was too "cheesy".

But this incarnation of Doctor Who, though nominally still a children's show, is a different sort of beast, coming from the creator and writer of "Queer as Folk", among other things. Russell Davies seems determined to literally flesh out some of the characteristics of the Doctor that previous writers have ignored, chiefly the possibilities for and implications of a romantic relationship with a companion. He's moving closer and closer to dealing with the matter directly, as the kiss and "Tell Rose..." in the most recent episode indicate. I don't think there's any question at this point that there's a mutual romantic relationship between the Doctor and Rose. So what does that mean with regard to Rose leaving the show? I dunno.

I'm loving the new season, although I liked Eccleston better as the Doctor. (long-time geek, have a photo of me at 15 with the Tom Baker waxwork at Mme Tussaud's) I think they got rid of Mickey in the right way at the right time, as I was getting sick of watching that triangle, too. But man, so far they've had werewolves, ninja monks, zombies, evil killer robots, and satan? It's a geekapalooza! Although frankly it'll be hard to top the empty children, the Wire didn't do a bad job. And I love the last living human ('moisturize me!'). In brief, this season isn't as compelling, no, but it's pretty damned good. And I can see why Eccleston quit, although it made me weep--poor Tom Baker never got a serious part after his stint, as far as I know. Tennant doesn't have the same edge, but he's not bad at all, and better than some Doctors of the past.

As for Rose, well, the Doctor's assistants have generally been reasonably intelligent t&a and mild romantic interest, so why should she be any different? I like her, for the most part.

"No-one ever stays dead in science-fiction," he said.

Oh christ. They're going to replace her with Adric, aren't they?

Crap. fvw already beat me to it.

It seems rather juvenile to object to an exploration of the characters' emotional lives, especially in the context of science fiction. It's an up-is-down adolescent male fanboy perspective which thinks of Asimovian hard science fiction with cardboard characters to be "mature" and love stories to be "boring".

It's a fair point, but often emotional and romantic development is tacked on to what could've been a very strong genre piece in an overshot bid for greater legitimacy. For instance, Robert Charles Wilson's books -Spin was especially guilty of this- are often larded up with utterly vapid scenes of boring characters exploring their feelings and trying to understand why their fathers were always disappointed in them or what have you. Wilson's true strength is working on a grander, Stapledonian scale. While there certainly are counter examples (Delany and Le Guin immediately jump to mind), I tend to find a lot of science fiction with "genuine human interaction" in it is painfully bad, in a way that an Asimov piece with cardboard characters and clunky dialogue is not.

I just want DVD boxed sets, collected by individual Doctor. Baker's would be huge, of course, but I'd buy Davison's first.

I hear Eccleston is going to star in the Prisoner remake? (Which should rock)

I see this new doctor not really caring about Earth or any other people at all, and only getting angry when it comes to Rose being in trouble, but he's totally not her type, i don't think. /romance

I loved the mickey leaving part and that he was always third wheel and being used by them all the time, but this doctor seemed not to even care at all about him, while i got the impression that Eccleston did underneath it all (esp. when Mickey had to blow up Downing St. last year)

I liked the mix of relationship with story last year, and this year it's not working for me at all. I need that emotional hook to be really involved in scientific or scifi stuff--i loved that Spin book. It's very hard to write good relationship stuff, and then to mix it well with outofthisworld stuff makes it even harder. I don't see any real chemistry bet Rose and this doctor at all.

grabbing, make some disk space, and go torrenting--i've gotten tons.

(i do love that, on Dr. Who Confidential, the whole crew is gay) : >

What PST said. It's not the romance I object to, it's the same cutesy "will they won't they" shit we've seen over and over. It's not a relationship; it's a shortcut to good story telling. I agree you can't have too much character BS without sacrificing the episodic story, but I think they could do better with what they have. The kiss in the New Earth ep? Total cheat, done for ratings. I'd rather a thousand awkward moments where their hands touch briefly and then pull away than such a blatant tease. It's all the more reason to keep the writers on their guard, because if Dr. Who is going to have romance, it's got to be good (as the Paul McGann Doctor showed; and I liked that because it felt organic and not forced, but the reaction was terribly negative).

But yeah, lightyears better than most everything else on TV.

It's a fair point, but often emotional and romantic development is tacked on to what could've been a very strong genre piece in an overshot bid for greater legitimacy.

And by the same token, excellent character work is ignored because of the genre ghetto. Harlan Ellison being a primary example.

I'm serious, because I well remember fully grown hard sf types making a big deal out of the fact that Who was deliberately asexual, yet as I realized the T&A factor in so many of the companions (heck, they actually put Tegan in her underwear crawling through a duct in one of her last shows, as a "gift" to the fans, she put it), that rang hollow. And as much as I love Asimov, stuff like Caves of Steel is so frighteningly emotionally empty that it becomes not just self-parody but a kind of New Socialist Man motif. No, give me real literature any day, and I don't feel bad about insisting that my sf live up to a higher standard.

They should make it so that he and Capt. Jack are lovers (but it would have been better to do that last year). : >

oh, SciFi's doing a marathon tonight of the first season.

i'm watching, and last year's Doctor apologizes when people die--he cares. the new one doesn't seem to at all, unless it's Rose in danger.

I'd say there's precedent for less caring doctors (anyone remember Colin Baker?), and it's a good thing, keeps things interesting. What I really miss is Eccleston's bulging-eyes tom-baker-brand madness, but you can have it all. Still hugely enjoying this season.

amberglow - no, the Dr doesn't care that much any more. If you remember the Xmas special where he's trying to figure out what kind of a man he is, and when he gets attacked by the baddie a second time, he kills him and says in a grim voice, "No second chances: I'm that kind of a man." Also in the episode 'School Reunion' Anthony Head says to Tennant, "Fascinating. You people were peaceful to the point of indolence. You seem to be something new. Would you declare war on us, Doctor?"
Dr replies, "I'm so old now. I used to have so much mercy. You get one warning. That was it."

I like the slow progression in the entire Doctor character - from the first actors being peaceful and nice (well, mostly, John Pertwee's Dr. looked out for everyone, but didn't suffer fools gladly) to Sylvester McCoy being quite a bastard. And now we have Tennant who has been alive for such a long time and has seen not only the glory of the Time Lords diminished to the point of stories and legends, but has seen them wiped out almost completely.* All those good works and there's always something bad going on that needs fixing - my fuse'd be running pretty damned short at that point too.

* I think that killing off every single Time Lord was a mistake, and thay can fix it easily enough should they want to. Really, why there'd only be one survivor left out of an entire time-and-universe-spanning race doesn't sit well with me. What if there were others but they got held up in traffic or in the line up at the bank, and couldn't make the genocide?

Well, it seemed like he cared last year. Now it reads to me as callous, and that he's even amused by death sometimes, only getting angry when it comes to Rose. (i find the new doctor much colder in general than last year.)

You're right about the Time Lord thing--it doesn't make sense, if he could just go back in time and get some people, or find others around the universe, or even just go back in time himself.

Seriously, most Doctors have been high-functioning curmudgeons. Tennant's actually got an intentional schtick that he's rude and doesn't realize it. And he's definitely a changed man, but he's overcome the (probably regeneration-induced) mania that the Ninth had. I loved it when he went bad-ass on Harriet Jones, PM, after she crossed him -- you couldn't have seen that one coming. It actually illuminated both characters (and I do hope they get to fence again, but maybe next season, with Torchwood in full swing).

I think it's clear that the Time War managed to eliminated the Time Lords from "everywhen", because it was engaged against the Key of Rassillon or some such. We haven't had answered why the Doctor survived, of course, but if he were involved in the destruction of the Daleks (he thought, anyway), it might have been a thing where he was "elsewhen". But the Dalek loophole, of course, means that there could be a Gallifrey loophole. Personally, I bet they bring back the Master before any other Time Lords, but I want them to deal with this in some way -- show us how it happened, how it affected him, why he didn't just give up and retire to a house in Hempstead.

this newest one (Love and Monsters) wasn't bad, but it's more Dr. Who-adjacent than Dr. Who itself...extra weird and completely unbelievable tho. Maybe the less he's in it the more interesting, for me?