All right, well I was away when this thread went on and so could not take part. However, I have just watched Blink and am a-scared. Moffat is some kind of genius.
I am eagerly looking forward to season four, though, as I think Donna Noble does a good job of taking the Doctor down a peg, which he badly needs. I love Martha, though, and was glad to see her in Torchwood.
Bewitched, bothered and bewildered? BBC America just started showing Season 4. I've been meaning to watch again because SciFi cut it pretty badly, so I may start tonight. On the other hand, I have Claws of Axos, with Jon Pertwee and the original Master, waiting for me at home courtesy of Netflix so I may watch that instead.
I do think that Donna shaped up to be one of the best companions ever. I'd definitely put her in my top 5 with Sarah Jane, Jo, Leela and I don't know who else. I've never thought much about it before. I thought Rose was great with Eccleston, but that she had no chemistry with Tennant. I liked the first Romana, but then I also liked Harry a lot. It's hard to pick a fifth.
By the way, e-mail me your new address. I have Betty Davis stamps and need people to write to so I can use them.
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"freedom to differ is not limited to things that do not matter much. That would be a mere shadow of freedom. The test of its substance is the right to differ as to things that touch the heart of the existing order."
- Justice Robert Jackson, West Virginia State Board of Ed. v. Barnette
I rather liked Rose with Eccleston- but thought the whole I lurve Her/Him line detracted, rather than added to the Tennant story. I would also put Donna on the Faves list - along with Mickey (mostly because of the development from scared to doing what needs doing), and of course Sarah Jane - who until Donna was my absolute fave, now she has to share top spot. I also liked both Romanas.
I want to go back and see the old ones - some are at the library. The child is not so much into them as he is the new ones, which I attribute to the pacing and level of special effects. It's funny to think of what we used to see and enjoy as "primitive", but I also think it had a lot of charm - not in the patronizing, "oh, look, they try so hard" kind of way. More in the "work with me and we'll suspend disbelief together" kind of way. I have long been a Tom Baker gal, and probably always will be. I did like Pertwee, but hated Peter Davidson for some reason.
The other thing about Doctor Who while growing up was that we got them about 5 years behind, it seemed, on PBS so a lot of what I remember as being 80's style was actually 70's-made.
I had given up by Davidson's time, but I was never thrilled with what little I did see.
Claws of Axos was very different than what I had seen of Pertwee before. He always had a bit of a cranky edge, but here he was quite the jerk.
It starts of with some Ministry of Defense functionary demanding a background check on The Doctor. The first thing The Doctor says is that if he could leave, he would. (This was the period when he was grounded on Earth by the Timelords and they had blocked his memories of how to fix the TARDIS.)
Later in the episode he joins forces with The Master so The Master will fix his TARDIS. Then they both take off in it and leave Earth to its fate. Naturally, The Doctor is still planning to save Earth and capture The Master, but he doesn't plan to come back. As he leaves, with all of UNIT and Jo there, he says to Jo, "I'll miss you," making it pretty clear that she's the only one he'll miss. In the end he comes back and Jo and the Brigadier make him admit that he wasn't going to come back, but the TARDIS did it on his own. The last line of the episode is him complaining about being a yoyo. I was a bit surprised that he would just take off and abandon them like that. It was very different from anything I'd seen even from Pertwee before. Guess he really was always a bit of an antihero back then.
Watching it did remind me of two important things. First, that Roger Delgado was absolutely brilliant as The Master and none of the others has ever lived up to him. Second, I was reminded of just how much I love Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart. I don't know if he really counts as a companion, but if he is I have the last of my top five. The Brigadier is simply brilliant and I do wish they would reflect that, or have someone half as cool in the new UNIT. I also wish they would bring in Benton or Yates, much higher up in rank than they used to be. That would be lovely continuity. I heard once that Nicholas Courtney had written an autobiography. I think I need to track that down.
__________________
"freedom to differ is not limited to things that do not matter much. That would be a mere shadow of freedom. The test of its substance is the right to differ as to things that touch the heart of the existing order."
- Justice Robert Jackson, West Virginia State Board of Ed. v. Barnette
Yah, I've been surprised by the lack of UNIT in the new show - it seems a passel of them got offed by the Slitheen early on. Doesn't Martha Jones work for them, though? I think they mentioned that in one of the Torchwoods.
One thing that may have led to UNIT being downplayed in the new show, was that the real world UN has tried to stop the use of its name by fictional agencies. IIRC, the meaning of the UNIT acronym has been changed due to this. Wiki: UNified Intelligence Taskforce
I don't have cable and haven't seen the last season(s) but what I've read about the treatment of UNIT hasn't really impressed me much - detainment, respect for human rights etc... The constant reimagining of things as darker and more realistic in fiction is one of my pet peeves. It bugs me when truly good characters and organizations from escapist fiction get redone as dark and sinister. If the writer needs a proxy for 'War on Terror' or whatever, fine, but leave other people's creations alone.
OT: Besides the low quality of writing and high quantity of hype, this is one of things that drove me out of comics in '90s. Dark Knight Returns was good in its way, but it really screwed the industry up.
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Much of MADNESS, and more of SIN, and HORROR the soul of the plot.
Actually, I was struck by how similar the old and new UNITs were. Both running around with guns planning a military solution while The Doctor sniped from the sidelines about their "shoot first, ask questions later" approach. I swore they might have used some of the same script in the Sontaran episode of (new) series four.
__________________
"freedom to differ is not limited to things that do not matter much. That would be a mere shadow of freedom. The test of its substance is the right to differ as to things that touch the heart of the existing order."
- Justice Robert Jackson, West Virginia State Board of Ed. v. Barnette
This is from the Wiki page on UNIT and is pretty much what I was referring to, again with the caveat that I haven't seen the episodes of the last year or two:
"Beginning in the later Torchwood episode "Fragments" UNIT is depicted as having little regard for law or human rights. After a young Toshiko Sato becomes unwillingly involved with terrorists, she is captured by UNIT soldiers and subject to an indefinite term of imprisonment without trial, until she is rescued by Jack Harkness and recruited to Torchwood."
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Much of MADNESS, and more of SIN, and HORROR the soul of the plot.
I have got the fourth season. You know, I like Donna more and more. And Catherine Tate is doing a rather god job of both funny (to be expected), and a rather subtle job with the more emotional elements than I expected. I like their relationship best of all the new companions.
Bailey (and Simon Pegg) earned my everlasting interest with Spaced/Black Books. If either of them are in something, it's worth at least an investigation imo.
I first saw him in a program with stand-up comedians. He would play the guitar and sing silly songs and tell jokes. Then he was one of the regulars on Never Mind the Buzzcocks, a music quiz that was mostly a joke-vehicle for host Mark Lamarr, Bill and the other regular whose name I forgot. They usually had musicians as guests. It was a pretty funny show for a while.
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