Comments on: The new Doctor Who

By: Reinder

Reinder — Tue, 10 May 2005 19:08:06 +0000

(I cut and pasted that from a longer article on my own blog. E’s review is here: http://tachyontv.typepad.com/waiting_for_christopher/2005/05/adherence_to_th.html )

By: Reinder

Reinder — Tue, 10 May 2005 19:05:36 +0000

If the Dalek episode was “Hollywood”, the Dalek would have been redeemed by Rose’s compassion. It would have embraced its newfound humanity and set off for the stars to seed a new, peaceful Dalek civilisation, inspired by the shining example set by the cute human and by the benign ways of its distant ancestors. It would have been able to embrace its humanity because the human DNA was so damned speshul that it, and only it, would make that change possible in the first place. And the Doctor would have bowed to that speshulness and said that that’s why he liked humans so much. They are the species that has the future, and they have shared that future with the Daleks now, unlike the Timelords who have nothing but a past (Gallifrey would become a metaphor for Old Europe instead of, as e described it (in an excellent, excellent piece), Cambridge in Space). Then the Doctor and Rose would kiss, not for the first time.

Instead, thankfully, we get British pessimism, in which humans are just stupid apes that the Doctor happens to be inordinately fond of, the Daleks would rather die than change into something other than a Dalek and the Doctor himself has grown to resemble his worst, deadliest enemy. Exterminate!

I used to watch Star Trek and now I don’t. You can tell, can’t you?

By: Backword Dave

Backword Dave — Mon, 09 May 2005 23:24:17 +0000

What Ria said.

The BBC have a splendid Doctor Who archive, which includes summaries of all stories. If the Doctor shunned the rich and powerful, I suspect it was for budgetary reasons rather than political ones.

I simply don’t understand your comment about the new series being middle class, I’m afraid.

Both Rose and the Doctor seem to be “working class.” So far they’ve stood up for enslaved corporate hacks against unnamed bankers, overthrown a despotic billionaire who considered his staff “disposable,” supported an honest (and Labour seeming) MP against a corrupt system, visited a Victorian funeral parlour (where the most likeable characters were a maid and Charles Dickens). In the second episode, the sympathetic character was some kind of maintenance worker, and in episode 1, Rose worked in a department store. Where is the middle classness?

Incidentally, in Episode 1, Rose asked the Doctor why, if he were an alien, he had a Northern accent, and *he* said “Lots of planets have a north.” She recycled the line in a later episode, which is one of the ways the new series holds together better than the predecessor.

By: Ria

Ria — Mon, 09 May 2005 21:56:03 +0000

The Doctor didn?t circulate among the rich and powerful – he always moved in working class circles

Huh??

Well, I suppose the TARDIS did spin a bit.

By: Edward

Edward — Mon, 09 May 2005 16:32:22 +0000

Why is it that when I think about the future, about Kurzweil, about bio-technology, I can’t help thinking about Daleks .

Incidentally I have the impression that the whole ‘philosophy’ AI debate overlooks the possibility of a fusion between biology and inorganic chemistry (the micro chip).

By: ZF

ZF — Sun, 08 May 2005 22:33:34 +0000

As a fan of the old Dr. Who, I found the Dalek episode (the only new one I have seen) just pathetic. It was a weak, totally Hollywood plot line, the characters were entirely cardboard cut-outs, and the cheap production values consequently had no redeeming context at all.

It doesn’t seem to take much to persuade Brits they have another world-class success on their hands!

By: vaara

vaara — Sun, 08 May 2005 18:00:34 +0000

I’ve been enjoying the new Who too, though I never watched the old series, so I don’t have much of a frame of reference.

And though the “Dalek” episode might have been “fan service,” it wasn’t hard to discern political content there too… it was about an implacable foe with a single-minded devotion to destruction, and seemingly impervious to negotiation, against which the full might of the U.S. military was deployed, and then –

but I don’t want to spoil anything.

By: Reinder

Reinder — Sun, 08 May 2005 17:45:18 +0000

I love the new Doctor Who, and write about it extensively on my blog (category Tardis-Jockey). I enjoy the political references but found the latest episode weak overall.
I’m not sure if your description of the new series as “aimed more at the middle class” rings true – in any case it’s exactly what Christopher Eccleston wasn’t aiming for. In his memory, the old series was middle-class and he’s been trying to get away from that (hence also the scuffed leather jacket instead of foppish accessorizing).
As someone new to the series, I think “Dalek” was the best episode so far, because of the tight direction and sustained suspense. The original intent may have been to throw fans of the homicidal dustbins a bone, but the result was enjoyable for everyone.