All New Who

{{ "I live in a very leftist, liberal bubble. And in fact, there's a really great episode coming up next year where we lean into that."- Ncuti

Now I see two possibilities here, one take it at face value and we are going to get force-fed RTD and Ncuti personal politics, or RTD is being actually brave and the episode challenges the 'bubble' mentality. I hope for the latter and fear the former. }}

Its going to become pure queer propaganda then.

Got around to seeing the giggle. That was... a lot. Fun. Weird. Very odd. Ncuti seems nice.

I have no idea where this is heading. It is better than Chibnal, so I'm cautiously optimistic.

{{ I thought this might be fun and interesting if anyone wants a go, list if when you rewatch NuWho, or if you dont if you were going to, which episodes would you watch, and which would you skip.
Shouldnot skip does not necesarily mean I think an episode is bad, some are just outright bad, others are just very run of the mill or have that filler quaity to them, others may have excellent individual momets, performances or scenes but dont work for me as whole pieces. And the odd few are prefectly good epiosdes but they lack any extra layers or depth that would warrant a rewatch.

I've included in spoilers at end a list of episodes you can copy and paste so you don't have to type them all out yourself if you want to share your watches and skips of NUWho (but if you want to include 13's run in your list you'll have to type all her episode names out yourself - and good luck there as Chibnall often seemed to pick episode titles via random scrabble letters!).

Series 1

Rose-                                       skip
The End of the World-               watch
The Unquiet dead-                    skip
Aliens of London-                      skip
World War Three-                     skip
Dalek-                                     watch
The Long Game-                       skip
Fathers Day-                           watch
The Empty Child-                    watch
The Doctor Dances-                watch
Boom Town-                           skip (has one great scene in the restaurant I do rewatch sometimes)
Bad Wolf-                               skip
The Parting of the Ways -        watch (a rare case where its a two part story I only watch 1 part of).

Total out of 13 episodes - Watch 6 Skip 7

The Christmas Invasion         - skip

Series 2

New Earth-                             skip
Tooth and Claw-                      skip
School Reunion -                    watch
The Girl in the Fireplace-         watch
Rise of the Cyberman-            skip
The Age of Steel-                   skip
The Idiot's Lantern-                skip
The Impossible Planet-           watch
The Satan Pit-                        watch
Love and Monsters-                skip
Fear Her-                               skip
Army of Ghosts-                     skip
Doomsday-                            skip

Total out of 13 episodes- Watch 4 Skip 9


The Runaway Bride-               skip

Series 3

Smith and Jones-                       skip
The SHakespeare Code-              skip
Gridlock-                                   skip
Daleks in Manhattan-                 skip
Evolution of the Daleks-             skip
The Lazarus Experiment-           skip
42-                                          skip
Human Nature-                         watch
The Family of Blood-                  watch
Blink-                                       watch
Utopia-                                     watch
The Sound of Drums-                 skip
Last of the Time Lords-               skip (another rare case where I will rewatch part 1 of this, Utopia not the remainderl)

Total out of 13- Watch 4 Skip 9


Voyage of the Damned-        skip

Series 4

Partners in Crime-                    skip
The Fires of Pompei-                watch
Planet of the Ood-                   watch
The Sontaran Strategm-           skip
The Poison Sky-                       skip
The Doctor's Daughter-            skip
The Unicorn and the Wasp-      watch
Silence in the Library-             watch
Forest of the Dead-                 watch
Midnight-                               watch
Turn Left-                              watch
The Stolen Earth-                   watch
Journeys End-                        watch

Total out of 13 episodes- Watch 9 Skip 4

Specials

The Next Doctor-              skip
Planet of the Dead-           skip
The Waters of Mars-          watch
The End of Time pt 1-        skip
The End of Time pt2-         skip (but I do rewatch the scenes with Wilf, so a half watch?)

Total out of 5 episodes- Watch 1 and a half Skip 3 and a half.

Series 5

The Eleventh Hour-             watch
The Beast Below-                watch
Victory of the Daleks-          skip
The Time of Angels-            watch
Flesh and Stone-                 watch
The Vampires of Venice-       skip
Amy's Choice-                     watch
The Hungry Earth-               skip
Cold Blood-                         skip
Vincent and the Doctor-       watch
The Lodger-                        skip
The Pandorica Opens-          watch
The Big Bang-                     watch

Total out of 13 episodes- Watch 8 Skip 5

A Christmas Carol-                   watch

Series 6

The Impossible Astronaut-        watch
Day of the Moon-                     watch
The Curse of the Black Spot-     skip
The Doctor's Wife-                   watch
The Rebel Flesh-                      skip
The Almost Poeple-                  skip
A Good Man Goes to War-        watch
Let's Kill Hitler-                       watch
Night Terors-                          skip
The Girl Who waited-              watch
The God Complex-                  watch
Closing Time-                         skip
The Wedding of River Song-    watch

Total out of 13 episodes- Watch 8 Skip 4

The Doctor, The Widow and the Wardrobe-      skip

Series 7A

Asylum of the Daleks-            watch
Dinosaurs on a Spaceship -    skip
A Town Called Mercy-             skip
The Power of Three-              skip
The Angels Take Manhatten - watch

Total out of 5 episodes Watch 2 skip 3


The Snowmen-           watch

Series 7B

The Bells of St John-                        watch
The Rings of Akhaten-                      watch
Cold War-                                        skip
Hide-                                               watch
Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS- skip
The Crimson Horror-                         watch
Nightmare in Silver-                          skip
The Name of the Doctor-                   watch

Total out of 8 episodes- Watch 5 skip 3


The Day of the Doctor-           watch

The Time of the Doctor-          watch

Series 8

Deep Breath-                            watch
Into the Dalek-                         watch
Robot of Sherwood-                   skip
Listen-                                     watch
Time Heist-                              watch
The Caretaker -                        watch
Kill the Moon-                           watch
Mummy on the Orient Express-  watch
Flatline-                                   watch
In the Forest of the Night-         skip
Dark water-                             watch
Death in Heaven-                     watch

Total out of 12 episodes- Watch 10 Skip 2

Last Christmas-                    watch

Series 9

The Magicians Apprentice-    watch
The Witch's Familar-             watch
Under the Lake-                  watch
Before the Flood-                watch
The Girl Who Died-              skip
The Woman Who Lived-       skip
The Zygon Invasion-            skip
The Zygon Inversion -          watch (another 2parter I tend to only watch one part of)
Sleep No More-                   skip
Face the Raven-                  watch
Heaven Sent-                      watch
Hell Bent-                           watch

Total out of 12 episodes- Watch 8 Skip 4

The Husbands of River Song-            skip

The Return of Doctor Mysterio-          watch

Series 10

The Pilot-                                          watch
Smile-                                               watch
Thin Ice-                                           watch
Knock Knock-                                    skip
Oxygen-                                           watch
Extremis-                                          watch
The Pyramid at the End of the World-  watch
The Lie of the Land-                           skip
Empress of Mars-                               skip
The Eaters of Light-                            skip
World Enough and Time-                     watch
The Doctor Falls-                                watch

Total out of 12 episodes- Watch 8 Skip 4

Twice Upon a Time-                          watch


There is no point for me doing 13's run as there is not a single episode of that era I would wish to revisit, and the same for the 60th anniversary episodes. From end of 12th Doctor's run to present day it's all 'Skip' for me sadly.

Looking at my choices my least favourite series are series 1,2 and 3 are all pretty bad for me, with a majority of episodes in each being skipped, but then series 7b comes in bad too and 7a is not far behind.
My favourite series is series 8, whcih actually slightly surprised me even though Ive always liked it I didn't realise it was my most watched. And of RTD era series 4 comes in reasonably solidly, which isn't a surprise, pity it slumps so badly in the mid-series. Outof the xmas specials its Moffat all the way for me, he just did a xmas special better, i dont rewatch any of RTD era xmas episodes, but I do rewatch the majority of Moffat era ones. Of other recurring writers Gatiss only scrapes one episode into the rewatch pile and Chibnall gets none unsurprisingly. Jamie Mathieson, a late edition to the rosster I rewatch the majorty of his episodes (but there are only 3), but those are among my favourites of 12's era.
Overall I definitely watch more back per season of Moffat era than I do RTD era, but it's not a complete whitewash. }}

Spoiler:

Too bad they didn't take it all the way through the construction of the theme song.

{{She was a total pioneer.
You might find this interesting Halfy as they interview surviving members of the Radiophonic Workshop at the BBC and go more in depth on how things were done, it's not specifically about the Who theme, just her work more in general.
The Radiophonic Workshop 'sound' was a big part of my childhood, they did Who and a lot of children's dramas soundtracks, as well Hitchhiker's on radio and TV, and they are a huge part of the Hitchhiker's 'feel' for me.}}

Rose-                                       watch
The End of the World-               watch
The Unquiet dead-                    watch
Aliens of London-                      watch
World War Three-                    watch
Dalek-                                    watch
The Long Game-                     watch
Fathers Day-                          watch
The Empty Child-                   watch
The Doctor Dances-                watch
Boom Town-                          watch
Bad Wolf-                               watch
The Parting of the Ways -        watch

Basically Watch ALL Eccleston and Tennant episodes

{{ Even the farting Slitheen two parter and the big brother/weakest link escapade? You have a stronger constitution than me then! }}

I love the farting Slitheen she reminds me of Therese Coffey

{{Well yes, but not sure if that's a reason to enjoy those episodes more and their farting aliens And surely you cant rewatch every RTD era episode? What about Fear Her with its bad child actor, squiggle monster and curl your toes cringe of 10 lighting the Olympic Torch at the end? It's not just bad Who it's bad British cultural propaganda }}

Even Fear Her is 1000 x better than anything from fake Jodie Doctor to anything that will yet be done by Ncunti Fatwah and company.

If you want to put a bet on it, I'm game.

For what it's worth I watched the first 5 episodes of the Eccleston series with my girlfriend a few months back, I don't think she's watched the show properly since Series 5 she's very much a casual fan. She enjoyed Eccleston's performance and seemed to enjoy 'The Unquiet Dead' the most, but her overall reaction was 'meh' I think she found the tone a bit too camp/cheesy for her, and she found Rose a bit grating as a companion

I later showed her a few clips of Tennant (scenes from the Titanic episode, and some bits and pieces of Series 3) she actively cringed/laughed at some of the acting/cheesy slow motion and the weird Jesus complex of the Doctor...she dosen't seem eager to revist the RTD era lol, though she's less irratated by Tennant's performance than I am lol.

I later showed her 'The Pilot' and some other scenes from Smith/Capaldi which she much preffered-she's a sci-fi/fantasy fan but I think the more grounded/camp RTD years aren't really to her taste...she's expressed interest in watching the Moffat episodes somewhen with me, but seems rather less keen to revist the Tennant era.

Maybe a future fan in the making? I'm not sure maybe she'#s just humouring me...

Finally someone else who find's Tennant's acting grates on the nerves. He's a perfectly good actor in anything else, but in Who he feels like marionette attached to a billy goat.

I haven't actually watched all of Smith's episodes, and some of the Tennant/Smith eps I haven't seen in years, so my memory of some episodes is quite vague-I may end up enjoying or disliking certain episodes more on a rewatch (I do want to rewatch the whole series eventually), but  based on how i feel today i'll give it a go anyway:


Series 1-I'm tempted to say I'd rewatch all of them as I enjoy Eccleston's performance so much, during the recent rewatch even the farting aliens weren't quite as grating...but Aliens Of London/WW3 was alot more cornier than I remembered not keen to rewatch again, 'The Long Game' was quite weak from what I can vaguely remember so I'd skip that as well.


The Christmas Invasion-skip

Series 2...this was a bit shit wasn't it? As much as I liked Rose in series 1 I hated her by the end of this season.

New Earth-skip
Tooth and Claw-skip
School Reunion - watch
The Girl in the Fireplace- watch
Rise of the Cyberman- watch(maybe?)
The Age of Steel- watch (maybe?)
The Idiot's Lantern- skip
The Impossible Planet- watch
The Satan Pit- watch
Love and Monsters- burn it with fire
Fear Her- skip (even my girlfriend remember how awful this one was)
Army of Ghosts- skip
Doomsday- skip


The Runaway Bride- skip

Series 3

Smith and Jones- can't remember anything about this, i think i enjoyed it
The SHakespeare Code- skip
Gridlock- watch (I think i liked this one)
Daleks in Manhattan- hell no
Evolution of the Daleks- nope
The Lazarus Experiment- skip
42- watch
Human Nature- watch
The Family of Blood- watch
Blink- watch
Utopia- watch (just for derek jacobi)
The Sound of Drums- skip
Last of the Time Lords- laugh at the corny deu ex machina climax then skip


Voyage of the Damned- I thought this was absolutely awful the one and only time I watched it through in 2007 I have never felt the need to rewatch it

Series 4- I definitely enjoyed this the most of the Tennant seasons and would probably rewatch most eps-the Doctors Daughter is the only episode I recall being geuninely bad, though the front half of the season is weaker and I'd probably skip most of those, I think Tennant/Tate's chemistry goes some way to masking the issues with the scripts. 'The Stolen Earth/Journey's End' has all the worst and best of RTD and it very much leans into the cheesy melodrama side which I'm not a fan of so I'd probably skip that as well.

Specials-these weren't very special, cheesy melodramtic crap

The Next Doctor- I have a memory of accidentally loudly proclaiming how bloody shite this episode was and being told off by my religous grandmother  for swearing   kind tempted to rewatch it to see if its as bad as I remember
Planet of the Dead- skip
The Waters of Mars- watch
The End of Time pt 1- skip
The End of Time pt2- skip (I remember EOT being a boring drawn out mess)


Series 5 I think the only ones I'd skip are 'The Hungry Earth/Cold Blood' (recall it being very generic and forgettable) and 'The Lodger'-the episode itself is fine but I utterly detest James Corden  


A Christmas Carol- watch

Series 6

The Impossible Astronaut- can't remember anything about this
Day of the Moon- ditto
The Curse of the Black Spot- watch
The Doctor's Wife- watch
The Rebel Flesh- watch
The Almost Poeple- watch

...I think 'A Good Man Goes to War' (which I wasn't keen on) may have been the last Episode I watched until 'Cold war' I don't think Ive ever actually watched 'Asylum of the Daleks-The Rings of Akhaten' if I have I remember nothing about them.

Cold War-watch
Hide- not seen this one as far as I know
Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS- watch
The Crimson Horror- remember nothing
Nightmare in Silver- remember nothing
The Name of the Doctor- watch
The Day of the Doctor- watch
The Time of the Doctor- watch


The Capaldi era is easily my favourite of New Who and he's my joint favourite Doctor so I treasure this era, there's only three episodes I actually dislike all in series 8:

'The Caretaker' was just rather shit, 'In The Forrest Of The Night' has a interesting central premise but just dosen't work as a whole i.m.o. 'Kill The Moon' has some good character moments but very on the nose social commentary and even for Who 'The Moon is a space dragon egg' was just silly it ruins the episode for me.

Sleep No More was on the weaker side, and the 3-parter in Series 10 kinda falls apart at the end but I'd probably still rewatch them maybe just the one more time though.

The Jodie Whittaker seasons...only seen a few random clips and scenes...and those were bad enough to put me off actually watching it properly so far lol. I hate the 'Timeless Child' revelations as well so this era will never become one of my favourites.

The 60th anniversary specials were rubbish (esp The Star Beast), not sure I'll ever rewatch them.

As for Tennant's performance I often found it to be too broad/loud, the catchphrases face gurning and cheesy humour were annoying rather than endearing, and i often find myself annoyed by the 10th Doctor's vanity and messiah complex. Tennant's charisma and comedic timing go some way to hiding the flaws in his weaker stories but the 10th doctor himself is just too human/vain for my liking, I like my Doctors to act like the ancient mysterious alien he is.

Tennant rarely makes you feel like you are watching an ancient alien and I don't think he has Smith's natural eccentricity, Eccleston's intensity or Capaldi's fury backing him up, it's a generic performance(?) and comes across as a bit bland, I get that's why so many like 10 so much...but oddly the more obviously likeable they try and make the Doctor the less I enjoy it. Hartnell and Capaldi are amongst my favourites because they have a dark abrasive harder edge to their performance and can be as scary as the Daleks they are facing.

As annoyed as I am that Tennant came back as the 14th Doctor (the hardcore 10th Doctor fan are already annoying enough as it is) I will say I found his performance in the specials less irritating, Tennant dialed back on the cheesy humour/mugging facial expressions this time around it felt like a more genuine performance, an older more mature and wearier 10th Doctor rather than a new man but still a more interesting performance I think.

That said I don't think we should equate acting skill to how interesting a Doctor is... Sylvester Mcoy (judging mostly from the 7th Doctor audio dramas Ive listened to) strikes me as a very erratic actor with limited range-find him the right story and the 7th Doctor is brilliant, give him the wrong script and it dosen't work. Jodie Whittaker is a brilliant actress in other thing I've seen but as the 13th Doctor...well I'm still not convinced she was right for the part...

{{ The Caretaker is an episode I will defned to the grave! I enjoy and appreciate it the more I see it. Who has for decades hopped genres but as far as I can think, this is the one and only time it does a romcom. It's got some good character stuff at the heart of it, setting up the three way dysfunctional relationship triangle of Doctor, Clara and Danny, none of whom are bad people, none of whom are good for each other. But at same time it plays to the romcom tropes very well, the Doctor's mistaken of the teacher that looks like 11 for her boyfriend, Clara's increasingly desperate attempts to keep her two lives separate and the inevitability of them colliding, and it's a rare outright comedy episode, and Capaldi is great at comedy.
It's got some great back and forth banter-



(love the Doctor whistling Pink Floyds "We don't need no education' in response to Clara admonishing kids for playing football on the chess board, that's just perfect )



and it mixes in the character stuff well,



granted you have to be in the mood for a romcom, but as it's the only one Who has ever done I'd say it's a pretty good stab at the genre with a Who twist. It's an episode I put on when I want a 12 ep but light for the most part and that will make me smile.

I've never had an issue with the moon's an egg thing just because the moon in Who has never been like ours, what with flying itself from parts unknown into our system when the Silurian's ruled the planet then mysteriously parking itself in a perfect orbit around our planet. So I quite like that it answers a mystery first posed in 3rd Doctor era about Who's moon and why it's so weird. }}

{{ Malick- I am much the same on Tennant, I've never disliked his performance, but nor has it ever really screamed Doctor at me either. He has moments that are pure Doctor here and there, but for the most part he's like your super cool, super friendly older brother that takes you to all the cool gigs and get you in the cool places, but not an ancient alien being basically presenting to be human like. And the longer his original run went on the more they seemed to rely on repeated Tennantisms to get by on, lots of face pulling, "whats!" and staring sadly into the middle distance.
And if I think of my very favourite 10th Doctor era they are nearly all written by someone other than RTD, Moffat for Girl in Fireplace, Silence in Library, Cornell for Family of Blood, Ford for Waters of Mars, there is really only Midnight and Turn Left of RTD written Tennant episodes I like, and in the first he loses his voices for most of it, and it's really about all the other characters in the bus, and for the second he's only in the opening and end scenes, so that doesn't say much for his writing of 10! }

Tennant in Blink was one of the great episodes in TV history imo.

{{ Yup Blink is on my watch of Tennant era, but then it's written by Moffat and Tennant is only in about ten minutes combined, it's another one of those 10 episodes I like from his era where 10 either isn't really in it like Blink or Turn Left, or he isn't really 10, like Family of Blood or half of Midnight.
Of all 10's episodes I have on my fav list only Waters of Mars is really a proper 10 as 10, the only other exceptions, Girl In Fireplace and Silence in Library are because I prefer Moffat's writing of 10 and I also prefer his plots.
But RTD writing 10, only Midnight makes my fav list where 10 is arguably himself (and he's not really for half of it) the other is a Doctor-lite episodes he's not really in (Turn Left).

For me if you compare which show runners wrote best for their Doctors it's not a contest, if you're talking just about how well the Doctor is written it's Moffat all the way, arguably he wrote the best Doctor stories of 9,10,11 and 12's runs let alone his own era.}}

 wow, All The Diversities. It took all the worst soap opera elements and tripled down on the cheese. It was horrible. The filming seemed to spend most of its time 2 inches from his mouth, as it seemed to take up most of the screen. She was just a dumb blonde.

I'll probably watch the xmas special later or tomorrow, judging by the initial reaction on reddit/facebook etc it seems its leaning much in a camper fantasy direction aimed at a younger audience, which isn't necessarily a bad thing but not really the kind of Who i like, will share my thoughts when i watch it.

Mrs Figg wrote:  wow, All The Diversities. It took all the worst soap opera elements and tripled down on the cheese. It was horrible. The filming seemed to spend most of its time 2 inches from his mouth, as it seemed to take up most of the screen. She was just a dumb blonde.

The Soap opera cheese was front and centre in RTD's first era, always assumed he'd bring it back again...thought you liked it the first time round?

{{ Um....I'm processing that, and double-checking some of it actually happened and I wasn't having buckie hallucinations, again. I will say this, took 2 minutes for RTD to get his first shoehorned completely unnecessary diversity hire into proceedings, about 5 minutes to get his first pop culture shoehorning in (and does RTD owe Davina McCall something that he keeps shoving her into Who?) and less than ten to fill the screen with subpar Eastenders, baring in mind normal Eastenders is subpar to start with. Fuller thoughts to follow, but that was certainly a different sort of Who than anything the show has been before, not the sort that requires you to bring much of a brain along for the ride either and even by previous RTD standards cheese was at maximum, cringe was high and again I thought a lot of the dialogue was really clunky, sadly particularly a lot of Ncuti's lines, I didn't mind him in this, though at times he did seem a bit smug, and nor was there really a moment where I felt, 'yup, that's the Doctor' .
I have a rule with new Doctor dialogue, I run it through my head in the voice of various previous Doctors, if it still sounds good no matter which Doctor says it, it's good 'Doctor dialogue'. But if it's not a catchphrase or some rare thing very particular to a Doctor, just general Doctor banter, and it doesn't sound natural or right in any other Doctor's mouth, it fails- 99% of Jodie's dialogue was like that, and so was a lot of this. }}

Sounds like an average RTD xmas special then.