So, the new Doctor Who wrapped up its first season. *SPOILERS*

[trotsky]

What did everyone think? Rose was the "Bad Wolf" - interesting plot twist, or not? She looks into the time vortex of the TARDIS, and develops godlike powers to disintegrate the entire Dalek fleet. Deep, meaningful development or convenient plot device?

Overall, I was impressed with the season. The whiz-bang special effects didn't detract from the stories, and the acting was top-shelf at best, better-than-average at worst.

I will say that I'm very disappointed Eccleston couldn't go another couple of years. He was a great choice to re-launch the franchise. I thought he brought a really interesting new angle to the Doctor. Plus the new one just seems way too young and "cute" to be the Doctor! Oh well, at least season 2 is on deck.

Once again, I thank BitTorrent for being my link to great Science Fiction!

[Ravenseye]

1. I liked it but it's season 28 :)

I"ll be honest. I downloaded the last three eps last night and just watched Boom Town. I still have to watch Bad Wolf and The Parting of the Ways, though I couldn't resist and snuck a peak at the last scene and the intro of Tennant.

I really liked this season. I have a warm place in my heart particularly for the Tom Baker Doctor and that era of cardboard boxes intent on destroying the world only to be stopped by a man in a silly scarf...

Still. I'll be honest. I think this may be my favorite Doctor Who series of them all. Baker still remains my favorite Doctor, but Eccleston was great. I wish he could have stayed on for a few years. He might have given Baker a run for his money in my head as best. Still one season 'greatest ever' does not make.

I'll tell ya. Tennant looked...dunno. Maybe too much makeup in his brief cameo.

"Hello. Ok...New Teeth, that's weird. So where was I? Oh, that's right! Barcelona!"

He said it with that little "I'm British and just a little wrong in the head" look that makes me excited for season 28. I can't think of it as season 2. :)

Anyway apparently he's signed, and the BBC also, for two more seasons. Billie Piper, contrary to rumor, will be appearing in every episode of season 2, and after that they're still negotiating.

I'm just angry I have to wait till freaking Christmas.

[Lisa]

5. remember the episode where he tripped someone up with that scarf

He tied the blasted thing across a corridor! Those were the days.

[Lisa]

2. I don't think they're telling us everything about his departure ...

It just seemed kind of weird, him being apparently enthusiastic about the role, then deciding to leave (on the grounds of being typecast, was it?). Given that there aren't as many episodes per season as for other shows, one would think that he could stick around for another year at least without running into that problem.

Given that Doctor Who is a pretty well-known show (particularly in England), I'd be surprised if he didn't look into the good and bads of its being a cult classic, before trying out for the role.

[trotsky]

3. I had heard it wasn't so much the typecasting, but...

the time commitment. Apparently it took up nearly all of his schedule, not leaving time for any other projects. Still, John Davidson (did I spell that right? - the 5th Doctor) said that for the sake of re-anchoring the series for a new generation of fans, it would have been much better if Eccleston had stuck around for at least 3 years.

[Lisa]

4. I think it's Peter, not John ...

But anyway, that's kind of what I'd been thinking, too. If he'd at least stuck around for another year, that would have given the new show a good start. Plus it would have been that much more effective when the Doctor "changed bodies", since the audience would have gotten more used to his personality. And at Eccleston's age, one or two years isn't that big a chunk out of one's career (after all, the main actors who did Lord of the Rings were on that project almost exclusively for longer than that, weren't they -- and as a result, they're probably now better-known internationally than if they'd done something else).

[Deja Q]

9. Peter Davison.

I also heard Davison would love to be in the new series.

I'd like to see that happen; I love a lot of his era, even though I'd question how some stories were produced. (even then, I also understand the monetary and political upheavals at the time - unlike most of the new series' audiences who are spoon-fed on so many good looking pieces that if it doesn't look good or isn't even in color, they won't give a frig about it.)

[bullimiami]

6. i agree about eccleston. i was really getting to like him.

oh well.

[salvorhardin]

7. I think Daivd Tennant will be great

but I too think that Eccleston should have gone another season at least. I don't know what it was about him, but he nailed the part. He *was* the Doctor. I'll really miss him.

BTW: I got an unexpected Christopher Eccleston fix last night when I watched E=mc^2. It's a dramatized historical account of the ideas that influenced science and were important to Einstein's theory. Christopher Eccleston was the narrator. I really recommend this one. It's out there on bit torrent if you look.
http://www.channel4.com/science/microsites/E/e=mc2

[Deja Q]

8. My two cents...

I think it's called deus ex machina. Where the writer allows a machine to save they day. This time it's the TARDIS itself. Whatever happened to wit, intellectualism, and cleverness anyway? Just like American jobs, they're being replaced by machines that magically do all the work.

The idea Rose was Bad Wolf is immensely clever. Especially in its presentation, assuming you kept up with it... Setting up her own future. A+++ for the idea. However, the execution of the revelation is utterly laughable and doesn't tie in with the vast majority of BAD WOLF sightings. Just how does Rose-with-the-blurry-eyes get some brat to scribble the letters with chalk all over the place? Never mind the one who spraypaints it on the TARDIS? We don't need VCRs to tape and re-watch the incidents, especially for stuff so pointlessly obvious. Or get it written on Jack's big bomb, as I recall? Why does the Nestene Entity call the Doctor the Bad Wolf?!!! Great idea, but RTD (Russell T Davies, writer and producer) failed at the necessary continuity. Which is one of his problems as a writer, he needs a decent script editor - to say the very least.

But, in "The Parting of the Ways", and ~20 minutes in: Rose, Mickey, and Mum are in a restaurant. They have two camera shots of Rose. Behind Rose's head is a blue piece of paper. It starts to read BAD WOLF, but only four letters can be seen: B,A,D, and W. This isn't an ordinary bad wolf reference. RTD was slamming *. (Most of his other penned stories slam * as well, but they aren't as directly obvious...)

Eccleston vamoosed even before the 3rd episode aired, claiming typecasting. However, he himself said he was just reading the lines and putting nothing of himself into the role. And it shows. Good riddance.

Many series 1 stories were poorly written and, worse, underachieving in scope. Some take the sci-fi slant and treat it as an irritant - not even something as banal as a plot device just to get them to all that melodramatic drivel. "Father's Day" being the most atrocious piece of pablum ever scribbled out; it doesn't even bother to keep continuity with its own sci-fi concepts. It just grabs you by your emotional genetalia and keeps strokin', hoping you don't think about how incoherent the writing is. Never mind the dues ex machina aspect that recurs; it's worse than a mere copout to have a machine save the day all the time. It's sloppy writing.

The stories are well produced, but very poorly written.

Indeed, the previous producer (John Nathan-Turner) is getting jerked around by fans while praising RTD. Yet I've seen many of the same problems being committed BY RTD.

And 5 years from now, the masses will see the new series for the mindless pablum it is. It doesn't present anything of intellectual intrigue, it just wants you to emote and do nothing else. It's trash television, little better than Maury Povich.

Series 2, from what I've read about so far, looks less than promising too. Far more (potentially) campy, far more fanwanky, and even Rose's dad returns because one story is a parallel universe one. (so forget about any sense of threat; they're all going to live at the end.) It's said that one or two actors from series 1 are also going to make a return visit (I know who and won't say.) A couple of Classic Series actors are also returning for a one-off. If all of this isn't fanwank, then I don't want to know what is.

http://www.gallifreyone.com/ - their forums have a great amount of discussion as well.