Gavin WintersOne thing that always seemed to rub certain fans up the wrong way is RTD’s tendency to write his sci-fi ideas with broad brushstrokes. Everything’s handwaved with a lot of technobabble. It might irk those fans but always seemed to work for kids and the general public. #DoctorWho
I’ll grit my teeth again to get through the last stage of Ten and Rose. Right… blah blah, you and metacrisis Doctor, off to your parallel universe, etc. Done. Now stay there this time!
Back to the proper drama of poor Donna’s fate. It only happens to the best, Donna! #DoctorWho
Despite some brilliant episodes (some of the all-time best in fact) and that storming Marvel team-up style finale, season four doesn’t quite hit the heights of season three for me. Only by the narrowest of margins though. I’d rank them 3, 4, 1, 2. #DoctorWho
The Next Doctor: since it was now in the public domain that Tennant was leaving, RTD was blatantly teasing the viewers and the press with that title. And the episode itself continues to play the game for as long as possible. #DoctorWho
Always liked Dervla Kirwan’s performance as Miss Hartigan. There’s a very dark backstory there, hinted at in a few lines. Same with Rosita.
All the crap Moffat got for how he wrote women, and RTD writes the only #DoctorWho episode ever where all the female parts are prostitutes!
Another big step in acknowledging the show’s past with the images of all the former Doctors. No John Hurt of course, but you could retrospectively imagine the War Doctor left an impression on Jackson Lake due to him wearing the strip of info-stamps like a bandolier. #DoctorWho
There’s a sort of reverse-Human-Nature thing on, with “The Doctor” discovering he’s actually a normal human man rather than the other way round. #DoctorWho
Do the Cybermen really need kids to push those cogwheels, shovel coal, etc? Wouldn’t it be more efficient to do it themselves? They only seem to be there to provide a Christmassy image of Victorian Urchins in distress being heroically rescued. #DoctorWho
I bet Russell was giggling to himself imagining the boggled “WTF?!” reactions from fans upon seeing this… 😄 #DoctorWho
Planet Of The Dead: my eyes! It’s HD! 😵
In another timeline this could have been a decent opener for the 2009 season. As it stands it’s a fairly normal “special” before things start to ramp up next time. #DoctorWho
Isn’t it kind of overkill for that museum to have four guards (armed with machine guns!) surrounding that exhibit all night? And they still don’t notice someone descending from the ceiling! Doh! #DoctorWho
Once again the Doctor is portrayed as that annoying twat on the bus who ignores all the empty seats and sits next to someone to try to engage them in conversation.
Seriously, who ever thought that was a good personality trait to give him?? #DoctorWho
Malcolm is a prototype Osgood, but while both are clearly fans of the Doctor, Malcolm does that RTD-character thing of gushing, over-the-top, *worship* of him.
Really, Russell, calm it down a bit! #DoctorWho
Even after Davros’ jibes about the Doctor turning people into soldiers, he literally then tries to do that by getting Nathan and Barclay jobs with UNIT.
Good spot by the casting director getting a young Daniel Kaluuya, but should have given him a bigger part. #DoctorWho
Finally… this shot, presented without comment. 😳 #DoctorWho
The Waters Of Mars: for my money the best of the 2009 specials, and a solid contender for one of the best episodes of Tennant’s entire run. Top 5 at least. A great concept to put the Doctor in this type of situation, that the show doesn’t often explore. #DoctorWho
Usually the mechanics and implications of time-travel are handwaved away, so it’s interesting to finally see it dealt with here. The Doctor can’t turn up in a real historical catastrophe that might be too close to home, so a fictional future one is a good workaround. #DoctorWho
I know it only bothers the nerdiest of us nerds, but it’s a bit of a continuity error to imply that Dalek left young Adelaide alone because it knew her death was a fixed point…
…while at the same time it’s carrying out Davros’ plan to destroy the entire universe…🤷🏻♂️ #DoctorWho
The whole final act, as the tension ratchets up and everything spirals to its inevitable conclusion, while the Doctor is leaving and hearing the desperation of the others over the radio, is among some of the very best #DoctorWho ever put on screen.
The only part that’s perhaps a bit of a stretch is Adelaide’s death at the end. If a man claiming to be a time-traveller turned up and told you everything the Doctor told her, would anyone really be so quick to kill themselves to ensure things happened the “right” way? #DoctorWho
The End Of Time pts 1 & 2: this buckles slightly under the weight of expectation, and everything it’s trying to do, but in the end I think RTD manages to pull it off as a finale to his entire run. Some of the fan criticism at the time was ridiculous and over the top. #DoctorWho
I like how Russell always writes the encounters between the Doctor and the Master on this grand, epic scale, as if it should really be happening off-world, and the entire human race is in danger if they start battling each other here on earth. #DoctorWho
Bernard Cribbins is bloody great as always, and how fantastic that he finally got to take a trip in the TARDIS.
And then a Star Wars style dogfight with laser cannons too! Who could have ever predicted that? #DoctorWho
It’s a pity the budget or the ability of the CGI at the time couldn’t stretch to giving us the nightmarish vision of a few children or babies with John Simm’s laughing face… #DoctorWho
“That guard is one inch too tall…” the Doctor says of the disguised Vinvocci bloke, who’s actually about a foot taller than John Simm… 🤷🏻♂️ #DoctorWho
Something that I think has been a bit lost or forgotten or not really noticed by people watching nowadays is what a huge reveal it was/is when the President is named as Rassilon. They avoided mentioning his name until then, a big ‘WTF!’ moment for us old school fans. #DoctorWho
And so, after a whirlwind tour of old friends, in the end he had to go…
As much as I loved Ten at the time, I don’t feel much watching this now. Sadly I’m a bit soured on his Doctor due to 14 years of “Oh it was only PROPER #DoctorWho when he was in it!”
Boils. My. Piss…🤬
But anyway, on a brighter note… “Blimey!” 😃
Everything’s fresh and new again, and onto a new era… #DoctorWho
The Eleventh Hour: one of the best ‘soft reboots’ the show’s ever done. An easy jumping on point for new viewers. Matt hits the ground running, literally in fact as he spends most of the episode dashing about being suitably Doctorish. #DoctorWho
The new, more ethereal, ‘fairy-tale’ style is evident from the start, and Murray Gold adapts his music appropriately.
Plus ‘I Am The Doctor’ is the best theme for the character there’s ever been.
🎶 “Doo-do-doo, da-doo-do-doo…” 🎶
#DoctorWho
Amy working as a kissogram is a prime example of Moffat’s cultural reference points always being years out of date. Who did that job in 2010?? (Okay, 2008, to be pedantic) #DoctorWho
Shame that Moffat starts his new era by again having the Doctor ‘quote his notoriety’ to get out of a sticky situation - saying “Basically, run” to the Atraxi.
Have him actually *do* something! Not just go “Ooh, see all the stuff I did in the past? Now run away!” #DoctorWho
The new console, upgraded for HD, looks lovely and shiny, but they did go a bit far with the self-conscious wackiness of including taps, typewriters, and so on. Thankfully they came back to sanity a bit with the next one. #DoctorWho
The Beast Below: a slight misstep for the new production team. In hindsight it’s not that bad, it was just a bit of a disappointment at the time coming after the enjoyment of the opening episode, and being the first Moffat story not to be seen as an instant classic. #DoctorWho
I have to remember with this new era to slip in all the minisodes, extra scenes, deleted scenes, DVD extras, etc, that go between episodes.
RTD had two (Born Again and Time Crash). Moffat had approximately 15,794 of the bloody things. 🫤 #DoctorWho
Amazing that Magpie Electricals is still going, all those centuries into the future. And hasn’t changed its logo since the 1950s! #DoctorWho
Some of Moffat’s favourite themes and ideas are already starting to make early appearances - manipulation of people’s perceptions and memories, or their experience of time, such as Liz 10 doing the same things every ten years and then getting mind-wiped. #DoctorWho
Amy having Sherlock-like powers of deduction at the end, comparing the Star Whale’s motivation and experience to the Doctor’s, would be a bit implausible anyway, but even more so when you consider she hasn’t actually known the Doctor and been around him that long. #DoctorWho
Victory Of The Daleks: this is a noticeably more cartoonish depiction of WW2 than, say, The Empty Child. Everything’s a bit more rushed, details skimmed over. All a bit light and insubstantial. Plus the comic book fantasy of Spitfires flying into space. With lasers. 😐#DoctorWho
I know #DoctorWho is not a show that can delve too much into real-life tragedies or controversies, but nonetheless the uncritical hero-worship here of Churchill would probably be a bit different, or reconsidered, if this were made today.
I like the callback to Power Of The Daleks with the Daleks playing innocent and saying “I-AM-YOUR-SOLDIER…!”. Except that story had weeks to wring all the drama and tension out of the situation. Here it lasts ten minutes before they reveal their true colours. #DoctorWho
Speaking of true colours… And things being cartoonish… 😬
They just didn’t need this “upgrade”, did they? The Cybermen change every few years. The Daleks, apart from a few tweaks, don’t. #DoctorWho
It’s hilarious how quickly they backtracked over the whole thing, with Moffat saying they’d just given the Daleks “commanding officers” and the old Daleks would remain.
And then they were quietly shuffled into the background, never to be spoken of again…😄 #DoctorWho
The Time Of Angels / Flesh And Stone: after a bit of a wobble with the last couple of episodes, things pick up again here, as Moffat really starts to stamp his mark on the show. Inevitably both River and the Weeping Angels return, and we learn a lot more about both. #DoctorWho
The Doctor claims he’s only encountered the Angels once before. So… no incarnation before Ten met them, right?
Meanwhile, at Big Finish…
Love the slow motion chase of the statues creeping up the cave tunnels, eventually becoming the Angels climbing into the ship.
I’m still not sure if the bit where we, the audience, actually see them move is brilliant or a betrayal of how they fundamentally work. #DoctorWho
On first broadcast I noticed how, in the scene where the Doctor comes back to comfort Amy, you could see he had his coat on when it was missing before, and I thought it was a bit of a continuity error.
Should have realised it wouldn’t be that simple! #DoctorWho
Even Moffat admits now that the final scene, with Amy coming on to the Doctor so heavily, was a mistake and should have been cut. Such a bizarre character choice. #DoctorWho
The Vampires Of Venice: between the sumptuous location filming, the costumes, and the advances in using CGI to make extensions and improvements to an image, this is the most elaborate and realistic looking historical #DoctorWho’s ever done up until this point.
Rory’s such a welcome addition to the TARDIS team. Arthur Darvill is so good at reacting to the crazy goings-on as well as all the put-downs he keeps getting from both Amy and the Doctor. And I love his attempted Bruce Lee moves with a broom when fighting Francesco. 😄 #DoctorWho
David 🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️NB they/them@gavinwinters I thought Rory was going to be a cliché doormat of a character but he ended up be written with strength and heart and played wonderfully by Arthur Darvill.
Matt is honing his performance as the Doctor, bringing in a touch of quieter, darker menace during his confrontation with Rosanna. Much better than the random bursts of angry yelling he was sometimes prone to in the previous episodes. #DoctorWho
There’s a bit of an info-dump as to how the mechanics of the fish-people’s illusion works, how your brain can’t perceive them in a mirror and so on (would that really work on the Doctor, who’s seen far weirder things?). It’s all just an excuse to go “Wahey! Vampires!” #DoctorWho
The shot of Guido wearing Rory’s stag night shirt has no business being quite as funny as it is. 😆 #DoctorWho
Amy’s Choice: like RTD before him, Moffat had his first season structured and plotted to within an inch of it’s life, so now Rory’s joined the team this is the appropriate point to do a story where Amy has to choose between the two ‘lives’ she’s dithering between. #DoctorWho
The scenes of possessed old-age pensioners shuffling along like zombies (some with zimmer frames!) makes for one of the funniest threats ever. Lol at Rory’s reluctance to wallop an old woman. 😄 #DoctorWho
Sometimes Moffat lets his desire for a quirky, witty quip override realism and character - Amy’s line about ‘looking like a Peruvian folk band’ is one such example. #DoctorWho
Amy deliberately crashing the van (choosing to kill herself and her unborn baby) is a pretty dark concept to suddenly throw in, given that the tone’s been fairly light and comedic up till that point. #DoctorWho
It’s mostly other writers in Moffat’s era that give us proper villains, as he prefers to use malfunctioning tech or alien races. Toby Jones is a standout as the Dream Lord.
Headcanon: He was a pre-Hartnell Doctor, whose image still lurks in the Doctor’s subconscious… #DoctorWho
Andy Mackay@gavinwinters That would make up for him not ending up being The Master.
David M.@gavinwinters I REALLY REALLY wanted him to be the Valeyard.
@davscomur Yeah, a lot of us were making that connection at the time. It seemed the obvious interpretation!
The Hungry Earth / Cold Blood: the far-off futuristic year of 2020… yet strangely no one’s worried about Covid.
I always wonder if they chose that year because in 1970 (UNIT dating notwithstanding) the Silurians went back into hibernation for 50 years… 🤔 #DoctorWho
In fact with the giant drill burrowing into the Earth… the Silurians underground… a domed energy barrier covering a village… this couldn’t be more Pertwee-like if someone ripped off their face to reveal Roger Delgado. #DoctorWho
shauny@gavinwinters
The Time War or the Crack in the Wall can explain any contradiction away!
The Time War or the Crack in the Wall can explain any contradiction away!
Nicklas Johnson 🏳️🌈@gavinwinters There's not a thing in the world wrong with Ray Cusick's original design. Not one thing.