Friday, July 25, 2008



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If you write "The flashback in the extended Two Towers was ill-judged because it retrospectively changed Boromir's motivation, making him a less interesting and less admirable character, and contradicting what we've already been told about him", a certain proportion of the Interweb will hear "I morally deny this scene's right to exist because it contradicts the footnote to the unpublished appendix on the use of the dative in middle-Quenya."

Similarly, the magic rhetoric fairy will take the words "I don't think you should criticize things without reading them first" out of your mouth and turn them into "You cannot possibly appreciate Glamourpuss unless you have read and memorized the minute details of all 300 issues of Cerebus."

(I'm Andrew Rilstone, and I used to read to RPG.Net, but I've been clean for over a month.)

So, whatever I am about to say, certain segments of my fanbase will interpret it as meaning "I wish that spaceships still looked as if they'd been made out of old hair-driers and I'm still sore at Jon Pertwee for quitting."

But I think it would be really helpful if before going any further, we all sat quietly for a moment, and said in our hearts some of the things that we really like about Doctor Who.


The redesign of the TARDIS interior.

Destroying the Time Lords.

Powerful, scary Daleks.

Daleks with personalities and dialogue; slightly sympathetic Daleks.

The Time War

Billie Piper.

The Doctor as a darker figure.

The Doctor as a lonely figure.

The Doctor as capable of romance.

Showing the creature inside the Dalek.

Re-imagining the programme as taking place in a real world setting.

Recurrent scenes involving the companions' family.

The Ood.

Billie Piper.

The re-design of the Cybermen.

Use of CGI to do stuff that previously only happened in TV Century 21

Billie Piper.

Use of real world cameos to give impression that big stuff is happening.

The re-design of the Sontarans.

Making companions equal partners with the Doctor.

The idea of the Doctor as a tourist.

Sense of a Doctor Who world – Harriet Jones, UNIT, Torchwood, etc...

45 minute episodes

Dalek

The Satan Pit

The Empty Child

Human Nature

Blink

The Girl in the Fireplace

Father's Day

The title sequence

Does anyone else want to share?



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11 comments:

Unknown said...

Airships!

The Weeping Angels

Derek Jacobi in a wholly un-John-Cleese-like cameo

The family of blood

and of course Billie Piper, bless her

clarrie said...

I've just had a long think, and am surprised to realise that my list reads

Mickey.

NickPheas said...

Interesting. I would have had 'Insisting on showing us the creature inside the Dalek every story' as one of the mild annoyances.

I rather like the Judoon, but I've always had a soft spot for rhinocerouses.

Sylvia said...

I quite liked "The Shakespeare Code".

Andrew Rilstone said...

Interesting. I would have had 'Insisting on showing us the creature inside the Dalek every story' as one of the mild annoyances.

At this stage, we only want to hear nice things.

Gavin Burrows said...

I actually did like that scene where the Daleks all go 'exterminate'.

Ken Shinn said...

Billie Piper leaving...

Martha Jones

"Hey! Who turned out the lights?"

Adam (the companion who SHOULD have been, second only to...)

Wilf

The sound of Cyber-footsteps

Lady Cassandra

Eccleston dad-dancing

Pandora Caitiff said...

Doctor Ecclestone cheerfully suggesting "Run for your life".

The return of Sarah Jane Smith.

Helen Louise said...

Sarah Jane Smith. I want to be her.
The bit in The Doctor Dances when the Doctor mocks Rose's accent "Of course I've darnced"
Catherine Tate. Yeah, I know, apparently I'm weird.
The Jackie/Pete "reunion scene". "I'm rich" "It doesn't matter. (Pause) How rich?"
"Half human! Blasphemy!"
The concept of Human Nature - the Doctor being a human who only dreams of being the Doctor.
The bit in the Long Game when Adam goes off and gets into trouble.
The bit where the Master dies but the Doctor's the one who's crying.
Daleks. I like Daleks.

Norrin said...

DonnaNobleMarthaJonesRoseTylerTARDIStheMedusaCascade.

Are you my mommy?

Random Gamer said...

sontaroons

freema

billie piper is not the doctor

john simms is the doctor

beetles

turn right (not wrong) (horrible pun intended)

more of the tardis

the doctor sleeping

the doctor having a nightmare

doctor who meets davis tennant

CO2 poisoning

a planed kiss

river phoneix

and for the randomness of it

the doctor in japan drinking sake'