Saturday, August 12, 2006

Astonishingly Positive: What RTD Has Taught Us Part 2

[I wrote this at the same time, but obviously taking another tack.]

Rose

  • Taught us that you don't 90 minutes to tell a full length old-style Who adventure - just cut out all the padding.
  • Taught us that there can be more to a new companion introduction than simply deciding to join the TARDIS on a whim.

End of the World

  • Taught us that that the aliens in the new series will look really cool.
  • Taught us there's more to new Who than just random adventures - now there are consequences.

The Unquiet Dead

  • Taught us that RTD should be doing all the scripts.

Aliens of London

  • Taught us that no-one need be embarrassed by the special effects in the new show.
  • Taught us that New Who wasn't afraid to have a laugh.
World War Three

  • Taught us that RTD isn't afraid to change the rules of the show in a major way.

Dalek

  • Taught us RTD knows who the best Big Finish writers are.

The Long Game

  • Taught us the new series really wouldn't be a series of unconnected stories, but one with a season long thread running through it, for those observant enough to see it.

Fathers Day

  • Taught that RTD knows who the best Virgin novelists writers are.

The Empty Child

  • Taught that RTD knows who the best writers full-stop are.
  • Taiught us that RTD remembered that scary is part of the Who experience.

The Doctor Dances

  • Taught us that RTD is willing to give scope to really talented writers.

Boom Town

  • Taught us that lack of cash need not be a hindrance when RTD can pull a thoughtful and intelligent script out of the hat.

Bad Wolf

  • Taught us that RTD there was a point to the Bad Wolf motif after all.
  • Taught us that RTD can really write death scenes.
  • Taught us Daleks can be terrifying even when you can't hear them.

Parting of the Ways

  • Taught us that RTD knew what he was doing all along.
  • Taught us the Doctor and Rose are almost equals, but that the Doctor makes the ultimate sacrifice as befits the Hero.

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11 Comments:

Blogger alienvoord said...

yay!

8:36 pm  
Blogger Stuart Douglas said...

I know, I'm just so reasonable :)

8:48 pm  
Blogger TimeWarden said...

The Doctor's "new" suit teaches us that RTD still thinks he can pull the wool over our eyes when said "new" suit is actually the old one dyed blue! How cheap is that?

Even the budget on the original series stretched to a change of clothes once in a while! You can still see the pinstripe and the rain-crumpled lapel from a year ago on Tennant's jacket!!

Like the DJ in "Revelation" said, "It would be nice to know what they're really spending the money on?"!!!

1:22 am  
Blogger alienvoord said...

There's no way anyone would dye a suit. You can't even dye a suit blue from brown.

Maybe there's a story reason why it looks the same.

4:13 pm  
Blogger Stuart Douglas said...

Thats's very true - I once tried to dye a blue suit black for a wedding and it came out a disasterous muddy colour with patches of blue, and black along the creases.

6:13 pm  
Blogger TimeWarden said...

Maybe there's a story reason why you can still see the pinstripe beneath the blue? Perhaps Jackie has an accident when the Doctor pops across to parallel Earth to give her his laundry! It sounds like another terrific script to me...

I expect they had a spare can or two of spray paint left over in props. They reused everything else. Fairylights, at the end of "New Earth", reappear as Jackie walks down the stairs in "Rise of the Cybermen". The Doctor looks through the same magnifying glass in "Doomsday" as did Toby in "The Impossible Planet".

Locations are poorly disguised too. The Sphere in "Army of Ghosts", for example, is held in the same room, supposedly Canary Wharf London, as the "Dalek" in Utah.

11:10 pm  
Blogger alienvoord said...

I'm not sure what the problem is with reusing stuff. And yes the new suit has pinstripes but there's nothing weird about that.

4:42 am  
Blogger Stuart Douglas said...

Tim: "Maybe there's a story reason why you can still see the pinstripe beneath the blue? Perhaps Jackie has an accident when the Doctor pops across to parallel Earth to give her his laundry! It sounds like another terrific script to me..."

lol - I like that idea - Who goes totally soap opera.

I have to agree with John though - I have no problem with re-using props. It went on in the old series without comment after all.

6:23 pm  
Blogger TimeWarden said...

I have no problem with intelligent reuse of props either as long as I don't notice when watching, especially on first viewing! Otherwise I can't suspend my disbelief. I mean did Tennant's Doctor take the magnifying glass from Sanctuary Base 6 as a keepsake then decide he didn't want it after all and leave it at Torchwood?!!

I didn't notice it was the same bit of corridor Colin Baker was running up and down in "Terror of the Vervoids", for example, until I read the set designer had cleverly made it to interlock in various combinations.

7:51 pm  
Blogger Unknown said...

I wonder if there's any chance in hell of seeing a new producer before the series is put to rest a second time?

2:13 am  
Blogger Stuart Douglas said...

Isn't the suggestion that next season will be RTD's last?

Of course, replacing him with someone of the quality and talent of someone liek Gary Russell would be too horrible to imagine. Steven Moffat for me, if he wanted the gig (but then again, I thought he should have got it first time round)

6:18 pm  

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