Thursday 1 July 2010

Who goes there...?


And so another series of Doctor Who (BBC1) reaches its conclusion. Watching as a general viewer, the Show has been entertaining, engrossing and enjoyable. However the Whovian within me stirs violently. As enjoyable as the Fifth Season has been, there’s a few little niggles (yes, I used the word ‘niggle’ in a serious sentence) that have perhaps left me questioning my enjoyment of this Series. Doctor Who is my all time favourite TV Show to the extent that I once told a Girlfriend to get off the phone to me because Doctor Who was starting (the relationship ended soon after that, in a rather violent manner as well). A new Head Writer, new Production Team, and a new Cast, including a new Doctor meant this new Season was going to have to work harder than ever to not only please the existing Fan-base, but also bring in the newbie’s. Instead of my usual rant, here’s my wish list and to-do list for Season Six:

1. First of all, Death!! Series Five has been pretty much bloodless, with a grand total of fifteen deaths this Series (not including characters that have returned to life)!! FIFTEEN?!!! Compared to previous Seasons, the Body Count this Season has been more than halved!!! C’mon, this is Doctor Who. Not a Children’s Show on Cbeebies. It thrives upon death and gruesome stuff, and taking that out of the equation is like neutering a Dog you’ve just bought to breed with your other Dog!! Is Steven Moffat afraid of writing nasty things now he’s in charge?!! He needs to get over it and kill some people properly on screen, and fast!!!

2. Sex (god, this wish-list is beginning to get X-rated). Season Five is best described as the Series that got raunchy, and whilst I love to laugh at innuendo and sex jokes as much as the next guy, this type of humour just doesn’t fit well within Who. Perhaps for Season Six they can cut down on the innuendo and try come up with some more clever jokes.

3. Matt Smith!! Brilliant Actor. Excellent choice to play the new Doctor. Keep him. Nuff said.

4. Scale!! The Stories this Year seemed to lack scale compared to previous Years, especially the Series Finale The Big Bang, which had promised to be a huge, powerful, dramatic Finale, but ultimately came across as an average Episode that could have easily been placed anywhere in the Season. Enjoyable stuff, but lacking that extra something that makes Doctor Who a cut above other TV Series!! Up the scale and take some risks next Series, and we’ll be guaranteed some fantastic Television Drama.

5. Story Arc. This year the running storyline of the Cracks in the Universe and the Pandorica was solid storytelling, but was too forced. A bit more subtlety next year would be nice, we Viewers aren’t brain dead!!

6. And finally, Monsters!! How about a whole Season WITHOUT the Daleks coming back. They’ve become overused, and what with the new Daleks being introduced this Year, perhaps giving the Skaro nasties a Year off will surely do them more good. Build up their return and make Viewers desperate for their return. Instead, how about a whole Season of entirely new Enemies, or maybe a few returnees in the form of recent Monsters and Enemies, like the Dream Lord, or the Weeping Angels. C’mon, it worked during the Tom Baker Years...

So there we go. It’s out of my system. I’ve complained about this new Season of Doctor Who enough now. So I’m now going straight to BBC IPlayer to watch every Episode of Series Five again!!

What?! I’m a Fan, I’m allowed to complain and contradict myself...!

2 comments:

  1. Good points, Matt.

    All pretty much agree with what you got there. Although, as a long time Doctor Who fan, I can certainly say that Moffat has made the perfect choices for each story. Although, he could have made more perfect choices. Mind you, I guess we can put it down to him going from a story-a-season writer to a full blown head writer and Moffat maybe playing safer cards than what he could have done. I feel that every story in this season was spot on. The RTD era had some great stories, but far too many of the stories were filler (eg Fear Her, Idiots Lantern could have been easily done away with imo), so the Moff has made a great series of choices, and I trust him to do the same for the rest of his tenure.

    Brilliant season, brilliant Doctor, brilliant cast, brilliant stories and brilliant monsters.

    Except for the fact that the Daleks do resemble Power Rangers somewhat. And yes, I certainly think the Daleks should give season 6 a miss.

    And proper Cybermen need to be introduced. Not these Cybus pussies.

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  2. Hate the new daleks! Absolutely cannot stand them. Appalling redesign for the sake of redesign.

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