|
Post by terri on Jul 1, 2011 21:18:35 GMT -5
Nah, what killed the Classic series was that at times BBC management didn't like the show. So they destroyed the archived episodes, and shifted day and time of the currently running shows. More specifically, Michael Grade (then Director General of the BBC) doesn't like Sci-Fi, so he put it up against one of the top soap operas on ITV so it would fail. The Queen, incidentally, is a huge Dr Who fan. And Michael Grade is the only former Director General not to have received a knighthood....... Ooooh, I remember that. And I think some of the blame was directed at producer John Nathan-Turner. If nothing else, at least he was the first Doctor Who producer to really acknowledge the show's growing American fanbase. (I met him at a convention; he was already infamous for his Hawaiian shirts.) I recall Michael Grade (ptui) put the show on hiatus for several months, acting like a total prat all the while. A group called "Who Cares" produced a Band Aid- style recording called "Doctor in Distress" which featured many Doctor Who cast members (such as Colin Baker, Nicola Bryant, Anthony Ainley, Nicholas Courtney) and several British musicians (including Justin Hayward and John Lodge), originally recorded to help save the show.
|
|
|
Post by malicious_bloke on Jul 1, 2011 22:32:07 GMT -5
Nah, what killed the Classic series was that at times BBC management didn't like the show. So they destroyed the archived episodes, and shifted day and time of the currently running shows. The destruction of the archives happened in the mid 70s, a good 15 years before the classic series was cancelled. Also it was a space saving measure and not restricted to Doctor Who. Loads of old Dad's Army, Z cars and Steptoe & Son episodes suffered the same fate (plus a load more classic series).
|
|
|
Post by shadowpanther on Jul 2, 2011 8:15:07 GMT -5
Yeah, the Slitheen were stupid. Dalek is my favorite episode. Because romance and dark!Doctor and OH SHIT FLYING DALEKS. Eccleston's performance in that episode is amazing. the Slitheen were so bad I'm surprised Michael Bay didn't come up with them. This is one of the reasons I wasn't sad to see Davies go. I'm willing to overlook the Slitheen as Davies wrote the episode Midnight which was fucking fantastic. Not quite Blink tier but still...
|
|
|
Post by Amaranth on Jul 2, 2011 8:31:54 GMT -5
Eccleston's performance in that episode is amazing. the Slitheen were so bad I'm surprised Michael Bay didn't come up with them. This is one of the reasons I wasn't sad to see Davies go. I'm willing to overlook the Slitheen as Davies wrote the episode Midnight which was fucking fantastic. Not quite Blink tier but still... If Farting aliens were all he did, I'd forgive him based on Midnight. However, there's the Adipose. Which sort of brings back RTD's fascination with bodily functions. There's "Love and Monsters." easily the worst episode of the new series. There's "Voyage of the Damned," Which is not consistently bad, but its worst moments are completely cringe worthy. There's the whole "Bad Wolf" resolution, which struck me as an asspull. And "I don't want to go," for which he should he shot, resurrected, and shot again.
|
|
|
Post by Smurfette Principle on Jul 2, 2011 9:02:40 GMT -5
Yeah, the Slitheen were stupid. Dalek is my favorite episode. Because romance and dark!Doctor and OH SHIT FLYING DALEKS. Eccleston's performance in that episode is amazing. YES. YES IT IS.
|
|
|
Post by Amaranth on Jul 2, 2011 11:16:20 GMT -5
Spoilers for the mid-season finale and all...
Okay, if you're still reading, it's on your head. I really think the mid-season "cliffhanger" wasn't much in the way of suspense, all things considered. It does leave things in kind of a dark place, yes, but we know that Melody is okay, based on the revelations at the end of the episode.
Since Melody is River, and River shows up and is alive and well. We've also seen her juvenile form, made pretty clear by the little girl regenerating. Time can be rewritten, but rewiting that would surely be a massive paradox.
|
|
|
Post by malicious_bloke on Jul 2, 2011 12:45:04 GMT -5
I don't think you could really call a sweet little girl turning into a horrid, squeaky, annoying middle-aged woman "regenerating". It's more "nature taking its sad but inevitable course
|
|
|
Post by scotsgit on Jul 2, 2011 13:22:06 GMT -5
More specifically, Michael Grade (then Director General of the BBC) doesn't like Sci-Fi, so he put it up against one of the top soap operas on ITV so it would fail. The Queen, incidentally, is a huge Dr Who fan. And Michael Grade is the only former Director General not to have received a knighthood....... Ooooh, I remember that. And I think some of the blame was directed at producer John Nathan-Turner. If nothing else, at least he was the first Doctor Who producer to really acknowledge the show's growing American fanbase. (I met him at a convention; he was already infamous for his Hawaiian shirts.) I recall Michael Grade (ptui) put the show on hiatus for several months, acting like a total prat all the while. A group called "Who Cares" produced a Band Aid- style recording called "Doctor in Distress" which featured many Doctor Who cast members (such as Colin Baker, Nicola Bryant, Anthony Ainley, Nicholas Courtney) and several British musicians (including Justin Hayward and John Lodge), originally recorded to help save the show. Grade also made it quite clear that the show's suspension had nothing to do with its ratings (it was doing quite well against Coronation Street and that's quite a feat), but everything to do with his general dislike of Sci-Fi. When he came back to the BBC, he had to admit this and the show managed to stage a come back.
|
|
|
Post by Amaranth on Jul 2, 2011 15:31:19 GMT -5
I don't think you could really call a sweet little girl turning into a horrid, squeaky, annoying middle-aged woman "regenerating". It's more "nature taking its sad but inevitable course *rimshot*
|
|
|
Post by wmdkitty on Jul 2, 2011 19:57:27 GMT -5
Borrowed Doctor Who series 1 and 2 boxsets off a friend and just finished watching series 1. THOSE. FUCKING. FARTING. ALIENS. what the fuck were you thinking RTD? Oh, dear god, the SLITHEEN are fucking hilarious!
|
|
|
Post by scotsgit on Jul 3, 2011 4:02:21 GMT -5
Borrowed Doctor Who series 1 and 2 boxsets off a friend and just finished watching series 1. THOSE. FUCKING. FARTING. ALIENS. what the fuck were you thinking RTD? Oh, dear god, the SLITHEEN are fucking hilarious! RTD missed a trick there: Telling the rest of the UK (As well as Wales, come to that) that there was a plan to blow up Cardiff has the rest of us looking on in pleasurable anticipation.
|
|
|
Post by Amaranth on Jul 3, 2011 7:34:31 GMT -5
RTD missed a trick there: Telling the rest of the UK (As well as Wales, come to that) that there was a plan to blow up Cardiff has the rest of us looking on in pleasurable anticipation. Or he could just market his programming to stoners and leave the rest of us alone.
|
|
|
Post by dakotabob on Jul 3, 2011 16:20:17 GMT -5
Oh shit, I just realized: I'm on series 2 of new Doctor Who and the next episode on this disk is Love & Monsters....NO YOU CAN'T MAKE ME WATCH IT I WON'T WATCH IT AAAAAAAAA
|
|
|
Post by Amaranth on Jul 3, 2011 16:25:37 GMT -5
Oh shit, I just realized: I'm on series 2 of new Doctor Who and the next episode on this disk is Love & Monsters....NO YOU CAN'T MAKE ME WATCH IT I WON'T WATCH IT AAAAAAAAA But it has the cousin species of the fartin aliens! And he has a HI-LARI OUS "GIT IN MAH BELLEH!" Style routine!
|
|
|
Post by Amaranth on Jul 3, 2011 21:34:58 GMT -5
I like Eleventh Doctor best. But he's the first one I'd seen, so...yeah, I'm late. I've caught up on all the new series, though, and I'm waiting on the classic series on Netflix (can't watch it streaming because there's no subtitles and the sound quality's kinda crappy). What are you using to stream? I only ask because I finally got my PS3 hooked up to the internet again, and several of them have subtitles as an option on the PS3 now. My buddy just said he saw the same on the Wii. It's odd that it doesn't seem to apply to the PC, though.
|
|