Thought I would start a new thread as the series is about to begin, (and yes I know it’s not technically series five, but it is of the new run).
The BBC “reviewed” the first eppisode but doesnt give much away. The only things I’ve picked up are (spoilers in black) The Tarids gets its redesign and the sonic screwdriver gets destroyed.
I have grown on Smith the more I see of him and I’m now totally looking forward to the new show.
Spoiler free Review of eppisode 1.
Really looking forward to this. Everything I’ve heard suggests that this is one of the strongest seasons of New Who yet and Smith, in the clips I’ve seen, seems to be crafting a very unique vision of the Doctor. He’s like a weird hybrid of Troughton’s buffonery, Colin Baker’s wickedness and Tennant’s fascination with things.
I read in an interview with Matt Smith that he beased his Doctor on Troughton, which will be fun to watch. Apparantly the console room in the Tardis is 3 times the size of Tennants one, with 3 seperate floors. By all accounts its a lot less grubby looking as well.
Quote:
| Originally Posted by Ken Savage View Post I read in an interview with Matt Smith that he beased his Doctor on Troughton, which will be fun to watch. |
Any amount of Troughton will go a long way for me, so that’s great to hear. As I think I may have said around here before, Troughton is my favourite Doctor (and likely always will be).
Hoping Karen keeps her Scottish accent for the most part, I always thought it was a bit of a shame Tennant didn’t use his. Except for that one time.
Looking forward to this, although we have to wait 2 more weeks for it in the US. I’ve caught up with the Tennant shows in the last few months & I have to say he made a great Doctor, really sad to see him go.
On a side note, a couple of years ago I asked here about an old episode from the Pertwee era. I was maybe 6 years old when I saw it but I always remembered this little brown doll-like creature that scared the hell out of me! I couldn’t remember much else about the story & asked for help. Well, someone (I forget who) suggested it involved the Autons but I was sure it wasn’t the case. Happy to say I recently tracked it down on Youtube & it was indeed “Terror of The Autons!”
So, whoever did give me the correct advice 2 years ago I say thank you very much & forgive me for doubting!
Roll on next month & long may DW live!
That review sounds promising, do we know yet when exactly it’s starting?
Quote:
| Originally Posted by Nate K View Post That review sounds promising, do we know yet when exactly it’s starting? |
The BBC still haven’t confirmed it, they like to wait until the last moment so that ITV can’t programme around it, but it’s all but confirmed for the 3rd April at this point.
They really shouldn’t bother themselves, ITV is shit.
Also I just noticed that April 3rd is only a fortnight away, Awesome.
ITV literally can’t compete with Who, they’ve tried and one show was destroyed by Who and The X-Factor had its ratings mauled, so it tends to try and schedule stuff around Who. One of the reasons TV Burp managed to hang around is that it’s a show which gets watched for its repeats, so they can let it get decimated on Saturday and then get the ratings back on the repeat.
Quote:
| Originally Posted by Spike Marshall View Post He’s like a weird hybrid of Troughton’s buffonery, Colin Baker’s wickedness and Tennant’s fascination with things. |
Well this I definitely like the sound of.
The only slight concern I have is that the show is testing VERY well with grown ups. I know that we all love the show, but it’s strength and resiliency has always been due to a devoted kid audience. Matt’s testing very well as a darker, more complex Doctor, and I’m wondering if that might alienate the kids who took to Tennat’s Doctor so well.
Are there any numbers on how its testing with kids?
It’s not been shown to kids. Screeners are usually only shown to professional reviewers. I think about three episodes in total (Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Partners in Crime and The End of Time Part. 1) had ‘public’ pre-screenings.
Then I guess we’ll see.
I’m not familiar with how ratings are dealt with in Britain, but what’s the outlook for the show if it appeals more to adults than to kids?
This is all conjecture, but the way the BBC works is that it’s got a government remit. It’s paid for by our taxes and every show has to Educate, Entertain or Inform. Essentially shows on the BBC are insulated from ratings in the traditional sense, which is why Spooks (or MI5 as you Americans know it) has lasted so long.
However Doctor Who has a massive budget (for what it is) and the BBC is going to be under pressure over the next few years to manage its budget. The BBC can justify the expenditure due to the fact it’s got such a wide viewer base. However if the kids get disinterested then the audience is probably going to shrink (due to the fact that family viewing figures are LIVE viewing figures, whilst adult viewing figures can be DVRed, Tivo’d or Sky anytimed).
Like I said it’s conjecture, but Doctor Who NEEDS its young audience.
Hopefully they hold on to it then. The review that was linked on AICN seems to indicate the show hasn’t lost all the trappings of the RTD era, so hopefully it will remain kid friendly.
The review I posted above seem to indicate the same thing. BBC Wales is kind of built around Dr Who so I doubt it’s going anywhere for a very long time. After all it managed 30 odd years on its last run.
If you can put up with the interviewer there is 30 seconds of the first eppisode in this link, nothing with spoilers I might add.