Gavin WintersRTD always cleverly made sure any references to the past work on two levels, for fans and casual viewers. The Doctor here talking about leaving Sarah Jane and then how the Time Lords “all died” makes it sound like she was with him immediately before the Time War. #DoctorWho
Anthony Stewart Head makes a brilliantly slimy villain in Finch. I like his poolside confrontation with the Doctor, and his description of the Time Lords as “dusty, ancient, Senators” is the perfect summation of their classic series appearances. #DoctorWho
Rose’s petulant jealousy over Sarah-Jane is another step towards her character becoming annoying and dislikable, even if it does ultimately end up being very funny between them.
And as for her annoyance at Mickey coming aboard… bloody hell! What a miserable cow. #DoctorWho
The Girl In The Fireplace: or, as fans have sometimes dubbed it, “The Fire In The Girly Place” 😆. Moffat’s first go at a type of plotline that will become familiar later - the Doctor imprinting himself on a young girl who then grows up obsessed with him. #DoctorWho
The mystery of what exactly is going on plays out well, with more oddities and strangeness added bit by bit. Just when you think you’ve got a handle on it, a bloody horse turns up on a spaceship. #DoctorWho
The Clockwork Droids are a fantastic, iconic design, and the jumpscare of the one under the bed must have spooked lots of kids watching. #DoctorWho
“We can’t use the TARDIS, we’re part of events now!”
Um… yes, just run that one by me again?
*cough!* Handwave! *cough!* #DoctorWho
It’s more of ‘Moffat’s Malfunctioning Tech’ (TM) at fault. I mean… putting aside the time windows… the droids massacred the crew and chopped them up to use their organs!
I hope there was some kind of 51st century inquiry after which the manufacturers were jailed. #DoctorWho
Rise Of The Cybermen / The Age Of Steel: inevitably the other ‘big bad’ of the classic series was bound to return. It’s a typically smart RTD move to make these old monsters resonate with today’s kids by likening their conversion process to ‘upgrading’ your phone. #DoctorWho
At last the Cybermen look and act in the uniform way they were always supposed to. Actors of the same height, in identical costumes, all marching in sync with each other. #DoctorWho
This right here is one of the worst moments in all of #DoctorWho - the Doctor forgetting about Mickey holding the button… then he and Rose snigger about it like a pair of smug, giggling pricks…🙄
Honestly, you feel like reaching through the screen and giving them both a slap.
By now the pattern of each season in the new era was becoming clear - the first two-parter was always a kid-friendly runabout with lots of chases by monsters (who are then conveniently marketable as toys for Xmas!) with the later two-parter having more adult appeal. #DoctorWho
Alt-Jackie is clearly written as being more selfish and unlikeable than the regular version, so we don’t feel too bad when she gets Cyberised. And of course it then leaves alt-Pete free to be paired up with real Jackie in the finale. #DoctorWho
I’m sorry, I know it’s meant to be poignant but… I can’t help but laugh at the death of Cyber-Sally Phelan. 🤭
It’s just… Nick Briggs doing his deep booming Cyber voice while saying “WHERE’S GARETH? ITS BAD LUCK FOR HIM TO SEE ME BEFORE THE WEDDING…!”
😅😅😅😅#DoctorWho
The Idiot’s Lantern: not much to say about this one, a middling episode for the middle of the season. The faceless people are a suitably creepy image. For those of us of a certain age, reminiscent of Sapphire And Steel.
Rose got over Mickey’s departure fairly quickly! #DoctorWho
Why exactly do the TV aerials look like swastikas? Bit on the nose. And you’d think people in Britain in the 1950s might notice and have something to say about that… #DoctorWho
Only certain Doctors can get away with doing the angry shouty thing without looking a bit silly (mainly Tom, Eccleston and Capaldi). Tennant tries it here and, well, he’s probably better at doing the quiet, hissing-through-his-teeth anger… #DoctorWho
I like the end where Tommy is encouraged to go after his Dad. It’s at least an acknowledgment of the real-life complexity of such a situation, rather than going for a simplistic “Oh he’s just evil, forget him!” ending. #DoctorWho
The Impossible Planet / The Satan Pit: this is one of the best stories of the modern era so far, and on this season two rewatch, one of the few that still holds up to how I felt about it at the time.
Notable for the introduction of the Ood… and that orange spacesuit! #DoctorWho
Pity we have to open with more of the Ten/Rose smugfest - the over-the-top laughter at the suggestion of getting back in the TARDIS and leaving… 🙄 #DoctorWho
Lol at Rose’s face when an Ood randomly says “The Beast and his armies shall rise from the pit to make war against God.” 😄 #DoctorWho
A proper old-school #DoctorWho quarry… but with some CGI enhancements made to look about a million times better than they ever have before.
The multi-threat cliffhanger of the pit opening, the Ood turning evil, the planet starting to lose orbit, etc, is excellent.
The gigantic Satan is the most impressive CGI creation in the new series up to this point. Especially when you think it was a last minute addition that they weren’t sure they could pull off given the time and budget. #DoctorWho
Having the TARDIS make a triumphant return after a long period of the Doctor being cut off from it is always a winning plot device. Androzani is probably where it was done most effectively in the old show, and this has the most air-punching example of the new era. #DoctorWho
“I couldn’t save the Ood. Only had time for one trip.”
You’re in a time machine! Just go back a bit earlier and bundle them all in the TARDIS ffs!
Poor old Ood. No one gave a shit. 🤷🏻♂️ #DoctorWho
Love & Monsters: well here we are, the most RTD of all RTD episodes. Peak RTD. The ultimate litmus test of whether you’re on board with his vision of #DoctorWho or not. A brilliant love-letter to fandom accompanied by a warning of its obsessive side.
Best episode of the season.
It’s still staggering to me that this became the “controversial” and “divisive” episode. It’s overflowing with greatness. The characterisations of the whole LInDA gang and their growing friendship. Elton falling in love with Ursula. The flashback about Elton’s mother… #DoctorWho
Not to mention it’s Camille Coduri’s best performance as Jackie, as we get an insight into “those left behind” in the Doctor’s world.
Oh, but a minute of Peter Kay running around in a green fat suit and it’s “Worst. Episode. Ever!!!” 🙄 #DoctorWho
To be fair, that chase sequence at the end is slightly cheesy, but it’s a minor moment in an otherwise superb story.
And then we have the audaciousness of that ending with paving slab Ursula… 😅 It’s that sort of ‘not-giving-a-fuck-ness’ I want to see again in RTD2. #DoctorWho
Fear Her: the other great “unloved” episode of season two (Ludicrous that Love & Monsters always gets lumped in with this). Watching it again it’s not that bad, it’s just… there. Nothing particularly gripping or exciting happens. #DoctorWho
I like the gag of the TARDIS materialising between those two containers, forcing the Doctor to rotate it 90 degrees just to get out. #DoctorWho
Even given the wild extremes of the #DoctorWho universe, perhaps the sight of people turning into a child’s drawings, which then move on the page, was a bit much for the main show. Might have been more suited to the Sarah Jane Adventures.
All the shit that Chibnall got for having 13 enter people’s minds without permission, and here the 10th Doctor just casually mind-melds with a child and puts her in a trance, in front of her mother, without asking either for consent… 🤷🏻♂️ #DoctorWho
“Not you too Bob!”
The commentary on the Olympics throughout is utterly mental, some of the most bizarre dialogue ever in #DoctorWho, especially “the Olympic dream… is over!”
Just because the runner dropped the torch??
People seem to hate the ending where the Doctor runs with the torch and lights the Olympic flame, but actually… I like it. Best part of the episode for me. It’s goofy but fun. #DoctorWho
Army Of Ghosts /Doomsday: RTD takes the ‘TV show references’ bit from the season 1 finale and tweaks it into his patented trick of a montage of actual celebs reacting to whatever wacky events are going on.
And why does Jackie’s TV pick up French and Japanese channels? #DoctorWho
Hard not to see Yvonne Hartman’s Torchwood through a UKIP/Brexit-y lens now, with all its guff about “Britain being truly independent!” #DoctorWho
Can’t believe it’s taken me 17 years to notice that Mickey first appears at a distance, as just some bloke in a corridor that Rose follows to the room with the sphere, before he’s properly revealed. 😳 #DoctorWho
The surprise reveal of the Daleks emerging from the void ship was the most thrilling thing. Finally, the long held fan fantasy of Daleks and Cybermen blasting the crap out of each other was to become reality. #DoctorWho
But first, their bitch-off was quite entertaining too…
“You are superior in only one respect!”
“What is that?”
“You are better at dying!”
Generally I don’t think season 2 has aged that well. At the time the barnstormingly popular casting of Tennant carried it through, but a lot of it isn’t as rewatchable as season 1 was. Or as I suspect later seasons will be. For me it’s the weakest year of RTD1 #DoctorWho
And it’s not helped by the fact that there are no words to express just how much I. Do. Not. Give. A. Shit. about the Ten/Rose “romance”. 🙄 It leaves me completely cold.
Top comedy moments here. Should have had a laugh track. 😜 #DoctorWho
The Runaway Bride: right from the off Tennant and Tate have fantastic and funny chemistry together, perfectly in keeping with the ‘1930s screwball comedy’ tone they were going for with this one. #DoctorWho
Donna pulling the Santa mask off the taxi driver to reveal a robot is a nod to Terror Of The Autons, surely?
That whole motorway chase sequence is still brilliant. Pity the poor guy whose car roof gets bumped by the TARDIS. How do you claim that on the insurance? #DoctorWho
It’s a feature of RTD’s #DoctorWho that he always kept in mind how kids / casual viewers might only have general memories of previous stories, not specifics.
People don’t care about the exact details of the Robot Santas, they’ll just remember “Oh, the bad guys from last Xmas!”
Unfortunately we’re now into the era of the Tenth Doctor moping over Rose every bloody episode.
Cheer up mate, it’s Christmas! 😜 #DoctorWho
Lol at the Wile E. Coyote moment of Donna swinging on the rope, missing the Doctor and clattering into the wall. #DoctorWho
The Racnoss Queen is such a crazy character, with her peculiarly mannered way of speaking and a seeming fascination with Christmas, weddings, etc.
And the creature itself looks great, just a shame they couldn’t stretch to a single CGI shot of her scuttling about. #DoctorWho
Smith And Jones: I love the confidence of how this opens. The question the media always asked in season 1 was “Can #DoctorWho work for modern audiences?” With season 2 it was “Can it work again, with a new Doctor?” But by now it’s like ‘Screw you, we’re a success and we know it!’
It’s a brilliantly economic bit of writing from RTD that in the first sixty seconds we get to know Martha and all her family, even down to the Dad’s new girlfriend, and immediately understand the dynamics between them all. #DoctorWho
“Where are they from, the planet Zovirax?”
The single most dated reference in all of #DoctorWho! 😄
Only in this show could the monstrous alien villain be little old Anne Reid in a nightdress, threatening people with a bendy straw. #DoctorWho
Martha gets one of my favourite ‘bigger on the inside’ moments, with the Doctor mouthing it along with her.
Welcome aboard, Miss Jones! 😀 #DoctorWho
The Shakespeare Code: you get a slight sense of the show expanding its visual capacity around this point, with the repeated CGI shots of medieval London. Even adding some tiny CGI people running about near the end. Just makes the scale a little grander. #DoctorWho
There’s still a tiny lingering worry that kids may not connect with an historical episode, so you get the Doctor’s quick summary of how “similar” everything is to the modern world - ‘recycling… global warming’, etc. #DoctorWho
They literally do the “there was only one bed” thing from fanfiction. 😄
Honestly Doctor, Freema Agyeman in bed next to you, looking longingly… and you go and ruin the moment blathering about bloody Rose…
You idiot! #DoctorWho
“Oh, 57 academics just punched the air!”
There it is - Russel’s favourite number! Is that the first time it was used in dialogue? #DoctorWho
To be honest, the technobabble (or bafflegab) explanation of how exactly the Carrionite technology works is a bit weak. It’s really just an excuse to have a fantasy concept like witches in #DoctorWho’s sci-fi universe. Best not to think about it too much and just enjoy the story.
Gridlock: always loved this one, definitely the best of the loosely-connected ‘New Earth’ trilogy. Very inventive how they just redress the same set for all the cars, but done so well you don’t really notice. And with such a crazy variety of different characters. #DoctorWho
CliffChapman@gavinwinters That's always bothered me because it's treating the show as a one shot and not doing as good a job as the 60s and 70s often did (or respecting the audience members that DID care) whilst being made in an era with endless repeats on BBC3, plus near-instant DVDs for rewatches, with iPlayer and streaming only just round the corner. It's rather contradictory.
@gavinwinters Like, yeah, some of your audience are thick goldfish that don't really care that much and it all goes in one ear/eye and out the other, but THEY'RE the ones you respect? ;)
@cliffchapman Well, they do make up the majority of the millions watching… 🤪
@gavinwinters The sweet spot is keeping the grunting, mooing proles interested and entertained whilst still keeping Doctor Who genuinely brilliant and rewarding for those paying attention. It is possible. RTD and Moffat managed it frequently, albeit not all the time. :)