In this 'Doctor Who favourites' article I will discuss my top 5 Post-Regeneration stories. By this I mean stories just after a regeneration, so it's the debut of a new Doctor, a new era. This story has a lot to live up to, probably one of the most important stories in that Doctors tenure. Not only should it properly introduce us to a brand new lead actor but it must tell us what kind of man he is whilst also reminding us that this is still the same show as before. 5) The Movie. A tricky one this one, I find the 8th Doctor amazing here giving us all the qualities The Doctor should have (mystery, alien, unpredictable) but I don't really like the plot of this story. Saying this, his regeneration was incredible. It hinted back to the first regeneration but more modern and I love those iconic scenes of the 8th Doctor standing up in the morgue, some fantastic music here creating a sense of fear such as him banging on the mortuary door. But on the other hand I really didn't like The Master or the love story really. But the regeneration scenes were brilliant making this number 5. 4) Deep Breath. I thoroughly enjoyed this story - don't want to give too much away as I'm yet to review this properly, but I really liked the introduction to the new Doctor. There was a lot of scenes where you didn't quite know what the Doctor was going to do such as leaving Clara with the Clockwork droids and holding her breath making the story quite tense but then of course he came and helped her. I felt the story lacked the whole trauma of the regeneration and I didn't like Clara's reaction to the regeneration as surely she more than anyone should understand regeneration, but apart from that, fantastic monster and acting all round and I won't say anymore until the review. 3) The Christmas Invasion. A sort of Christmas romp which could have been a sort of downside to the story, I don't think Christmas is the best time to have a post-regeneration story as you may get too caught up with Santa and Tinsel but it actually just made the story better as I loved how it still included Christmas themes such as the amazing killer Christmas tree and Santa Robots but also showing the effects of the Doctors regeneration better than any other story. It also set's the new Doctor up brilliantly with a straightforward plot that tells us what kind of man he is, even including him debating it, but finally discovering he's a 'no second chances' kind of man. The alien threat is also quite good with the Sycorax and their spaceship over London. The Sycorax are definitely in need of a return. And in this story we are basically Rose - it was the first regeneration in new who and Rose was kind of the audience which I think regeneration stories definitely need. 2) The Eleventh Hour. A complete revamp with almost everything changing, it's just the perfect introduction to my favourite Doctor. This episode needed to do a lot after the negativity of Matt Smith's casting as he was so young and after the fan favourite David Tennant, I think some people thought the show wouldn't last. Right from his first scene we see what a fun, enjoyable Doctor he is, and the 20 minutes to save the world provides the perfect scenario to see how he deals with threat as well as testing Matt's acting abilities which he totally surpassed. Also I loved how he kept getting the wrong times with Amy, it meant that while he put trust into Amy, he was also putting trust in the audience so quite an intelligent story. 1) Spearhead From Space. Like 'The Eleventh Hour' a lot had changed and, for the first time ever, Doctor who was in colour bringing it into the 70's. Somewhat of a fan favourite, this story perfectly set's up the 3rd Doctor, clearly showing the viewers what the new Doctor's going to be like with an iconic, memorable alien threat of the Autons which would return again the next season and in New Who. What a brilliant idea to have UNIT there, helping the audience to get know the Doctor and giving people the Doctor could bounce off. The only downside is Liz Shaw who I felt was a bit stuck up but by the next story she was brilliant. So overall an amazing entrance to a lot of people's favourite Doctor. So as you can see New Who is much better in my opinion at introducing us to a new Doctor, almost all Post-Regeneration stories of the classic era were rather average in my opinion apart from the fantastic 'Spearhead From Space' which is the clear winner for me.
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With Series 8 just a few hours away, I will discuss as the title suggests my thoughts on everything we've heard so far including episode titles, opening titles, Peter Capaldi's Doctor, Clara ect... Series 8 isn't any ordinary series, it's a debut series of Peter Capaldi which means as usual with a debut series I am really on edge as to whether I'm going to like it. And that's basically why I'm doing this article. I am going to talk here as if you have seen all the recent trailers, episode titles ect... If you haven't, scroll down to the bottom to see all the information you need. Enjoy! The Doctor: "Clara, be my pal, tell me, am I a good man?" As we should all know, he's going to be a 'dark Doctor', a 'Snarling Beast', 'Less user friendly'. Quotes like these appear in almost every interview about Capaldi's Doctor. On my favourite Doctor's list I did a few weeks ago, I put Matt Smith, Sylvester McCoy and Patrick Troughton at the top of my list. These three are pretty known as the comical and light Doctors, sometimes showing their darker sides but mostly supressing it. On the other hand I put Colin Baker and William Hartnell at the bottom of my list. These two are both notoriously the Darker or the angrier Doctors, again they of course had a lighter, friendlier side and I thought they both mellowed after time. So I think you can see where I'm going with this, the 'darker' Doctor's are both at the end of my list and I really don't want Capaldi to end up there two. This is probably my biggest worry with series 8, as I really want to like Capaldi. Clara: "You said renewed. He doesn’t look renewed, he looks… older." To be honest I'm haven't been a fan of Clara in any of her previous stories, in series 7 I found her annoying, cheesy and boring, in Day of the Doctor she mostly just stood there but in Time of the Doctor she began to finally become a Character the viewer could like and relate to, after all the companion is the one the viewers look to ask the Doctor questions, I hope to see more of this in Series 8, challenging the Doctor but not being a nuisance, I don't want the Doctor to not like her either, I like there to be some kind of chemistry, I would like their relationship to be kind of like Sherlock and Dr Watson. She also will probably be quite independent since the new Doctor seems like he may not even notice her. Also... just one small thing... NO. MORE. ROMANCE. Episodes and writers: Some really good and intriguing episode titles for series 8 such as 'Mummy on the Orient Express' which is my personal favourite. This year we only have 12 stories not including the Christmas special as well as a two part finale finally! So technically 11 individual stories but of course the first story 'Deep Breath' is a feature length at 80 minutes which is basically two episodes but I'll talk about Deep Breath in the next part. We've seen a few teasers of all the episodes which if you want to go into this series blind I won't go into but so far I would say 'Listen' which is episode 4 written by Steven Moffat is the best. Steven Moffat has written 2 stories this series as well as the two part finale, interestingly he has also co-written 3 stories with Gareth Roberts, Stephen Thompson and Phil Ford. These episodes are 'Into the Dalek', 'Time Heist' and 'The Caretaker'. I think that him co-writing stories is a brilliant idea, it allows him to input his ideas as well as another writers ideas which should create some interesting ideas. Also one of the things I thought series 7 was missing was collaboration between writers which I thought was one of the reasons Clara wasn't as good in some stories. Overall it sounds like a really good series. All the stories sound very good let's just hope none of them are rushed and hopefully less usage of the Sonic Screwdriver. My favourite story from what I've heard is probably 'Listen', my least favourite from what I've heard it 'Robot of Sherwood' by Mark Gatiss featuring Robin Hood who I don't really find interesting. Deep Breath: I'm actually quite surprised at how many spoilers have been released on this story as well as the rest of Series 8 (not including the recent leaks). Because of this I've already got a fair idea of what's supposed to happen in this story and so far it seems like a pretty generic post-regeneration story but from the people that have seen it early seem to quite like it but personally I'm doubtful I'm going to like it that much, just hoping I'm wrong and I hope I don't get bored since it is almost double length finishing just after 9:00 (Watershed) which could mean we see a rise in violence... This story is also being shown in Cinema's which personally I think is a bad idea as I think Doctor Who isn't for the big screen it's something you should watch in the living room. Also they might for some reason give people at Cinema's extra content which they did with Day of the Doctor so I feel by not going I'm missing things but sadly I still won't be going even though I'd love to see what it's like.
The fact it's based off something fan made I think is brilliant, I've seen other fan made openings that are all worthy of representing the show also it shows that fans are involved and are what make the show. As I've said it's probably one of the biggest changes to the title sequence and since we're starting the next 50 years I think it's a good idea and it will also represent Capaldi's dark doctor well. Conclusion:
So after reviewing everything about the new series, I'm confident it's going to be just as good or better than previous one's. It sounds to me like they have worked on things that didn't work last series and I just hope I'm going to like this darker take on my favourite show. Also I hope the stories can be watched again, I can barely make it through the series 7 box set, after seeing all the stories they are really boring to watch again for some reason, especially stories like 'The Rings of Akhaten and 'The Power of Three'. Hopefully this series won't be like that. If there's anything I've missed post it in the comments and I'll add it. If you want to see all the episode titles, recent trailers and news then look down the news section of this site to catch up (Link). Take a Deep Breath, and enjoy the new series! |
About this areaThis area will be where I discuss things, give my opinion on things or just tell you about things going on in the whoniverse. Enjoy! Archives
January 2015
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