Doctor Who - old vs new

[fintytin]

I got into this fine show in the Colin Baker era and have watched many episodes since,my personal fave is the late great Pat Troughton but given the miraculous revival of the show in recent times i was wondering what everyone thinks of the new style show ??.



Dave Tennant is great allthough i preffered Chris Ecclestone

[wearysloth]

I too was happiest with Pat Troughton, he was 'my doctor'. Am very happy with the new stuff though, the episode entitled 'Blink' is as good if not better than anything else on the telly.

[BristolUK]

I always liked Patrick Troughton too...he used to show fear rather well.



I can't help but think David Tennant is the best...though I wonder how much is down to better writing and how nothing at all looks amateurish like it used for past Doctors.

[James Fox]

Both versions have classic episodes...and some clunkers as well lol



The one thing I think the new series really has going for it is it tends to provide much better roles for the Doctor's companions. For example, pretty much any actress from the original series would have been thrilled to have Billie Piper's "Father's Day" script or Catherine Tate's part in "Turn Left."

[Dai Bando]

Jon Pertwee was always my favourite Dr, but since watching the repeats I'm surprised it wasnt Tom Baker who was excellent.



I think Tennant has done a brilliant job.



I agree with Mr Fox too, there is so much better roles for the Dr's assistants nowadays.

[CaptainWaggett]

Doctor Who and its sinister anti-Thatcherite agenda is discussed on tonight's Newsnight

[dremble wedge]

Doctor Who and its sinister anti-Thatcherite agenda is discussed on tonight's Newsnight

Well, I've long had my suspicions about the Iron Lady...



Possibly a Slitheen under the skin?

[batman]

The Jon Pertwee years were the best years IMHO. 'New Who' started off really well with the early Ecclestone episodes, but quickly disappeared up it's own jacksy. The Sarah Jane Adventures are much better, reminding me of the aforementioned Pertwee era. I have high hopes, however, for Matt Smith, as he does appear to have that something special.

[James Fox]

name='batman']The Jon Pertwee years were the best years IMHO.

I agree. In the Pertwee era "Doctor Who" suddenly changed from a show about companions being menaced by the "monster of a week" to a show that was more about the Doctor (granted there was still a lot of companions being menaced by monsters of the week lol).



The biggest problem I've had with the new show has been that Russell T. Davies wrote too much of it and a lot of his scripts just weren't very good. Really looking forward to seeing what Steven Moffat/Matt Smith do with the series.

[wellendcanons]

I watched "Newsnight" last night. I'm inclined to agree with Sylvester McCoy that Margaret Thatcher was much scarier than any of the monsters appearing on "Dr Who".



I certainly thought "The Green Death" was a political story and well ahead of its time. It's very topical even today!



wellendcanons.

[jaycad]

i'm surprised that fans of the original 'dr who' series actually like the new show as it seems like a parody to me?

i liked the tom baker 'dr who' but that's only because i was about 5 years old,overall i think the show is poor.

[GoggleboxUK]

I grew up with Pertwee and Baker and will always see them as the best era of Doctor Who.



I completely disliked the Colin Baker, Peter Davison & Syveste McCoy eras and didn't watch more than a half-dozen of each before giving up entirely.



Eccleston did a great job of reviving the character as was reminiscent of both Tom Baker and Jon Pertwee but, as Bats said, the stories didn't really measure up to the glory days.



David Tennant was a fantastic Doctor, I thoroughly enjoyed his time in the Tardis and I seriously doubt that Matt Smith will be a patch on him. I suspect Tennant's decision to leave the show will have a dramatic effect on audience figures and the show may well not survive until it's next regeneration and Sarah Jane and her Chronicles may well be all that remain.

[Carl V]

I also grew up with the Tom Baker editions, and these as well as Pertwee, Troughton and even William Hartnell are the ones I've been collecting on DVD. I reckon I stopped watching about the time when Baker finished, around 1981.



I did watch Christopher Eccclestone at the beginning, but somehow I just couldn't really get into the stories - I don't really know why. I haven't seen any of the David Tennent episodes so it would be unfair of me to criticise them. I suppose the old Dr. Who episodes have a certain nostalgic factor in them, but the scripts and stories were much better - complete with wobbly sets and rubber aliens.



With regards to the DVD's I have, the BBC have done a very good job with them considering the age of the material. The transfers are good and the extra material provided is very welcome.

[taffy1967]

Doctor Who and its sinister anti-Thatcherite agenda is discussed on tonight's Newsnight

We actually watched that episode this evening (I've got it on VHS Video as it hasn't been released on DVD yet). It's the 1988 story 'The Happiness Patrol' and Sheila Hancock stated how she loathed Thatcher and played the character much like the Iron Lady herself.



A very bizarre adventure and I believe the BBC got into hot water due to the evil Kandyman which looked almost identical to Berty Bassett.

[James Fox]

I suspect Tennant's decision to leave the show will have a dramatic effect on audience figures and the show may well not survive until it's next regeneration and Sarah Jane and her Chronicles may well be all that remain.

I suspect you're correct about the ratings. However, I do think the show will survive and we'll see several really good stories over the next few series. I've got faith in Steven Moffat because the stories he's written for the show so far ("Empty Child/Doctor Dances," "Girl in the Fireplace," "Blink," "Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead") have all been pretty outstanding imo.

[m35541]

A lot of the Pertwee stories had quite explicit political content.



Curse of Peladon - all about our entry into the EC



Green Death - evil capitalists polluting the environment and UNIT ally with Greenpeace hippies



Invasion of the Dinosaurs - reverses the above and makes the greenpeace lot out to be quasi-Nazis (as does Robot)



The Mutants - all about Britain's colonial heritage and decolonisation.



Colony in Space - evil capitalists exploiting the third world





A lot of the concepts and ideas in some of these are very good. Unforunately the f/x are terrible and many stories have been padded out far too long (6 episodes instead of 4).



I'd like to see some of these quasi-remade now with better f/x and a shorter running time.

[HammerDave]

I thought the new series started out reasonably well, but it soon became clear that the parts Davies was interested in - Rose's awful sub-Easternders family, constant stupid pop culture references to reality shows - were taking over. Plus that Davies only has one villain, and it's EVIL GLOBAL COMPANIES!!! I lost count how many times his villains were nasty business concerns, from the guy who owned the 'last' dalek, to the various aliens who wanted to break the Earth up and sell it, to the rebooted cybermen that were manufactured by a global conglomerate, to the space bank in 'The Long Game' that was a giant mass of flesh with a giant fanged mouth (nice job Russell, very subtle). Plus the dreadful unconvincing romance between Billie Piper and Tennant, which culminated in one of the worst deux ex machina endings I've ever seen ("I can't be with you, but luckily I just happen to have this crap half-human Doctor who looks just like me, will he do?"). Haven't watched any of it since then, and even that episode I tuned into to see how badly they'd managed to mess up Davros. That was after I'd mostly given up after the atrocious introduction of the Jon Simm Master, the finale of which is the second worst thing I've ever seen on television. And that was only beaten into second place by the episode 'Love and Monsters' with Marc Warren and Peter Kay, which was the TV equivalent of root canal surgery.



At this point I don't think even Moffat can save the show, given that he's cast someone who looks like a 15-year-old as the Doctor. Oh well, I'm sure the Twilight crowd will like it.

[taffy1967]

I have to admit that I didn't know what to think when the new series arrived on our screens back in 2005.



I wasn't impressed with the poor usage of a barely seen classic monster, i.e. the Autons. The way they emerged on to the streets to surprise and kill innocent people in the final episode of Jon Pertwee's first story is still one of the most chilling moments in Dr Who's history.



So for me, the new series launch just couldn't compare to what got shown some 35 years earlier and I imagined Dr Who was going to stall and disappear yet again.



I kept on watching and by the time the Dalek story came along, it felt more recognisable and I actually started to enjoy the show.



I was gutted that Christopher Ecclestone announced he was leaving straight after the shows ratings were revealed and how it was going to continue. I thought again that it would mean it would stall again.



But David Tennant came up trumps and did a fine job in the part. Right now I'd say he was one of the best Doctors.



So okay there's been a few duff stories, but that's nothing new because there always were some that didn't appeal to everyone. But there's also been a lot of great stories too.



It is still one of the few programmes that I bother to watch on TV, okay I'm a Dr Who fan but apart from getting addicted to it again during 1988 after seeing a Dalek chase Sylvester McCoy up the stairs, I'd had little time for it during most of the 1980's (although I've caught up and have to agree that there were a few gems from that decade too).



So I hope it remains popular and continues to be essential viewing for many. Because there's bugger all else worth watching on the other side. (As in ITV).

[david6]

My favourite Doctor is William Hartnell - well he was the one that started it off and I remember that well. I enjoy the new series and it is pleasing that the production values are so high with top rate starts taking part.



I'mm looking forward to seeing what the new actor does with the role

[retrospecta]

A new trailer was posted up on YouTube over the weekend:



New Doctor Who Trailer featuring the Doctor and Amy! - BBC One