I am cautiously approving. I don’t think that Moffat has an idea of the Doctor as stone-cold action hero (fisticuffs and dramatic firing of pistol aside), but the eleventh doctor certainly seems more actively inclined than some Doctors (and frankly if you’re going to cast Matt “I am older than twelve” Smith as the Doctor, you might as well make his Doctor be active) and that seems a nice change of pace.
On the other hand, I’m pretty sure that in that brief one-minute montage Moffat promised to reference or refeature every single plot he’s contributed to the previous seasons of Doctor Who barring a child in a gasmask saying “are you my mummy,” and that’s always a bit of a worrying sign even if the ideas were good ones. Then again, he’s never written about the Doctor versus swordfighting vampires before, and… swordfighting vampires! Versus the Doctor! How can you not be willing to give that a go?
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I don’t know. I only saw the Weeping Angels (which were great, but hopefully won’t be overused) and River Swansong (about whose importance we were beaten mercilessly).
We didn’t see anything that was definitively the Vashta Narada, the gas mask kid, or the clockwork robots from “Girl in the Fireplace.” Even better, we didn’t see the Doctor’s “Daughter,” who supposedly survived at Moffat’s request.
Two out of six ain’t bad.
On the other hand, we saw a Dalek. That’s the annoying bit for me.
Oh, ditto. The Daleks have been ruined for me as a dramatic villain.
GERONIMO!
Personally, I’m willing to give Moffat the benefit of the doubt. As far as Matt Smith goes, I hated Tennant at first after Eccelston, as well, and he grew on me. My only issue with Smith is the giant freaking hair that I just don’t think works for him. I swear, you could turn him upside down and use that thing as a mop.
All things aside, I’m still pretty stoked.
Hell this may be as close as we’ll ever get to a Captain Kronos sequel…sword fighting vampires. Gotta love it.
I’m cautiously optimistic myself.
So far, my impression of Smith (from the trailer and the end of End of Time) is sort of William Hartnell 40 years younger and with the knowledge that he’s hot shit. A really old guy who thought he was done shoved in a brand spanking new body with complete and total confidence in his abilities. I kinda like that. After the 10th Doctors emotional breakdown, there’s a sense of “regeneration as catharsis” in that.
Weeping angels.. wow.. That episode, Blink I think it was called, scared the hell out of me. I’d love to hear one talk in the dark before the lights come back on.
Daleks are too impervious, then always show up in too great a number, and finally beaten too easily to be seen as interesting adversaries. Granted, Daleks will always be around – its like trying to remove the Joker from Batman.
Should be interesting. I think the BBC knows enough not to toss away one of their best series on someone who isn’t qualified to play The Doctor. His jaw is a bit over-pronounced though.
I just hope they try something novel with the Companion. The cute young bird having a crush on the Doctor is getting very tired. “Donna” was a valiant attempt at bending the trend, but the writers didn’t keep her level of sass and brass up thru the character’s run. To me, this one episode with Grandpa Wilf as a stand-in Companion showed how such a change could make for some fresh plot and character angles.
Blaze:
Although I doubt they’re going very far afield from what’s come before, the new companion looks to be a former police officer. Despite a trailer which is clearly meant to push some fanboy buttons, I suspect she’ll be doing the heavy lifting while the Doctor does the thinky bits.
thatnickguy- When he regenerated, he had a feel of his hair and thought he’d become a girl.
The link to the regeneration is in my username, altohugh this doesn’t cover the twenty minutes he spent seeing off every character they could get a hold on…
Alex Kingston is in the same camo as the people fighting the Angels, so it’s reasonable to presume that they’re in the same episode
It’s becoming a cliché to note how cute the new companion is, but at around 36 seconds or so I pretty much melted.
According to Bleeding Cool, the trailer also hints at the returns of the Silurians and Sea Devils, and perhaps even Magpie Electricals, the front company for the villain in “The Idiot’s Lantern.” So at least there’s other stuff mixed in with Moff’s remixes. And really, given that he was the one who introduced River Song to canon, it’s only fair he follow up on her, no?
Lyle Lovett is from Gallifrey? WICKED!
(Though in all seriousness, I am optimistic.)
I’m still incredibly upset at the 10th doctor calling the lord president “Rassilon”, as well as his weird emo fear of regeneration.
“I’m still incredibly upset at the 10th doctor calling the lord president “Rassilon”, as well as his weird emo fear of regeneration.”
What, the Time Lords can’t have brought back Rassilon in order to lead them in their darkest hour? It’s canon that they can give Time Lords a new cycle of regenerations, and would anyone really put interfering with history (plucking Rassilon out of his place in the timeline) beyond these Time Lords?
And the ‘weird emo fear’…well, this has always been the HUBRISTIC Doctor, whose self-confidence generally outstrips his abilities and causes him great upset when this becomes apparent. I mean, this is the Doctor who imprisoned the Family of Blood for all eternity pretty much just because they pissed him off; is it that unrealistic that he’d be a bit upset about inevitable, impending, unstoppable doom?
I thought the hubristic Doctor was Colin Baker…or was he the conceited git?
I’m quite glad we won’t have any of RTD’s childish non-plots anymore, nor any weak villains such as the Simm-Master, or should I say Animal from the Muppets?
Plus, hopefully this time the Daleks won’t be completely wiped out in a gigantic spectacle all over again, just like the last three times. They’ve always been my fave villains, they deserve a stylish hairsbreadths escape.
I don’t get the hesitation on this incarnation of Doctor Who – I’m totally excited for this.
My reaction was a decidedly gleeful “ooh!” to the Renaissance vampires and a “roll on spring!” in general.
Also, Karen Gillan went to my college.
“I thought the hubristic Doctor was Colin Baker…or was he the conceited git?”
No, he was the bastard Doctor. Not so much hubristic as, well, unpleasant to be around or to know.
I think the change between how the Ninth and Tenth Doctors deal with impending death says very interesting things about their characters, or would, if we were in the mood to massively overthink this.
Is Geronimo the doctor’s new saying now?? :/
I am uncertain to which new decade you refer?
2001-2010?
2011-2020?
BlackMage is certainly right – it’s interesting to note that as Ten had been considerably bigged up into a mythic, godlike figure by RTD (mistakenly, in my opinion), he had to have an epic, emotional sendoff – and as he was so appealing in the affections of the modern audience, his last words had to reflect on their feelings as well. Certainly “I don’t want to go” makes strange comparison to Nine’s happy “You were fantastic and so was I”, Four’s solemn “It’s the end…but the moment has been prepared for”, and even One’s portentous “It’s far from all over!”.
I am not optimistic, I think he is too freaky looking, BUT i am a long lived Who fan, who survived the worse McCoy (ugh) and grew ta love Tennant(sp). I’ll still watch, hopefully with a weekly showing not a special there and here. bah! More Who less Blah!
“BlackMage is certainly right – it’s interesting to note that as Ten had been considerably bigged up into a mythic, godlike figure by RTD (mistakenly, in my opinion), he had to have an epic, emotional sendoff – and as he was so appealing in the affections of the modern audience, his last words had to reflect on their feelings as well. Certainly “I don’t want to go” makes strange comparison to Nine’s happy “You were fantastic and so was I”, Four’s solemn “It’s the end…but the moment has been prepared for”, and even One’s portentous “It’s far from all over!”.”
Well, that’s not necessarily all RTD’s doing — the two stories where the Doctor saves everyone (well, four, they’re both two-parters) are classic Moffatt, and the big speech about how the Doctor is ‘like fire and ice and thunder and…he’s wonderful’, or whatever, is Paul Cornell. Admittedly, the Earthbound moment at the end of Last of the Time Lords WAS RTD (pray, Paula, pray for your life!), but that’s just because RTD is much, much, much better at thinking up interesting situations than making them work as stories, or finding any way to resolve them.
RT seems to have recognised that Ten WAS getting too godlike and to have made it into a character flaw, in a way that it never really was when Sylvester McCoy was destroying races and overthrowing governments. The ‘epic, emotional sendoff’ seems, to me, as much about RTD as it is about Tennant, but that’s a very uncharitable reading.
It’s just bit…melodrama. I mean, Four was able to recall all of his old friends and enemies in a vision as he died, but never before have we had the Doc tracking down every single character for a goodbye and then dying with gigantic explosions and opera music. There’s other, more modest ways for a writer to let go.
Besides, people give RTD way too much credit – essentially he’s all spectacle and no substance, and often a rather gruesome spectacle at that – this year’s Christmas Special teatime entertainment includes graphic cannabalism, last time was gruesome mass murder in space…
The best episode he ever wrote was Gridlock, if only because the characters were treated as more important than the overarching plot. Otherwise we’ve just had pointlessly childish work from him thusfar, as can also be evidenced by Torchwood – I.E., the stuff he’d have liked to do in Doctor Who if it wasn’t also aimed at kids.
As long as the Moffat/Smith era is a return to form after the complete crapfest that was “The End of Time,” I’ll be satisfied.
Hear hear!
The nerd-chic look is not encouraging… at this point, Doctor Who needs a complete break from the Tennant/Davies years. And Smith’s first scene at the end of “The End of Time” doesn’t show any signs that the scenery-chomping will be ending any time soon.
Also, this is probably just cursing the darkness given the current media climate, but it would be nice to have a Doctor who actually looks older than the average viewer, not younger. (And certainly not one who looks like he’s *trying* to look younger–see again Tennant years, need for a complete break from.)
On the other hand, swordfighting vampires!
@Stig, agree for the most part, although Children of Earth was excellent and showed RTD can pull the finger out when he needs to.
“but it would be nice to have a Doctor who actually looks older than the average viewer, not younger”
Um…you are aware the show is AIMED at a family audience? It’s for kids as much as anything — that’s how the show started out, after all, and the show’s worst era (the mid-80s) was arguably when they most lost sight of that. You’re not the target audience. They are.
I’ve been behind Smith’s look all the way because – and no offence intended – he has a very strong resemblance to what an alien would look like if it was pretending to be human in order to calm humanoids and yet still want to give off the impression of being otherworldly.
I’m cautiously optimistic; I didn’t like ‘The End of Time’, and I thought Davies overstayed his welcome a good bit. The last two “proper” season finales were both very weak as well, and he feels like he’s been repeating himself a lot. Nowhere moreso than the Tennant/Smith regeneration, actually; people who feel like Smith was watered-down Tennant should remember that he was basically reading Tennant’s lines. 🙂
But Moffat has not put a foot wrong yet in any of his episodes, the other series he’s run have been spectacular (although the ending to ‘Jekyll’ works better as a season-ending cliffhanger than a series finale, but I don’t blame him for not being able to get that cast back together) and the trailer gives me hope that Mophead McChinburg and his sidekick, Felicia Day, will rock the TARDIS. 🙂
Being stuck with broadcast TV, I’m a few years behind the rest of you on all things Doctor-related, so I only have a vague idea of what’s going on at this time. But isn’t Stephen Moffat the guy who wrote ‘Coupling’? That should mean that he’ll be great with humour, and character interraction, and he can do innovative stories told out of sequence, which can work really well for time-travel stories. And I loved that one with the weeping angels.
“It’s for kids as much as anything — that’s how the show started out, after all,”
And that’s why the first seven Doctors were all spunky little children. No, wait…
@John Seavey: Yeah, I hoped that was just a case of Smith reading Davies’ lines, but it still wasn’t encouraging. But the trailer isn’t encouraging.
On the other hand, “Geronimo” is a slight improvement over “Allons-y”–but they’re both just the verbal equivalent of those John Nathan-Turner question marks, aren’t they?
They were going to cast an older Doctor, but Smith nailed the audition.
And I actually like the geeky look because it makes him look older. It offsets the youth of the actor.
“And that’s why the first seven Doctors were all spunky little children. No, wait…”
That’s not what I said — I was saying that the median viewer ISN’T older than Matt Smith, and may in fact be a good deal younger (and look it). I was responding to that aspect of your statement, not necessarily the criticism as a whole. Reading through, I should have rephrased it to be more clear.
“And I actually like the geeky look because it makes him look older.”
I think it has just the opposite effect, actually. He looks like he’s just had a growth spurt.
This ship has sailed, but I heard that Bill *Frikkin* Nighy was actively campaigning for the role, and I think it’s a great pity they didn’t go with him.
That said, swordfighting vampires!
Cosign @ Marc. He actually reminds me of a much younger version of the teacher from “Glee,” only (hopefully) without as much melodrama.
@ julianyap: If BILL NIGHY was turned down to play Doctor friggin Who for this guy, he’d damn well better impress me. To be fair, SWORDFIGHTING VAMPIRES has already earned points for being awesome.
…Still, I hope he is yelling at the actual Geronimo or something, because I despise the use of Geronimo as a catchphrase unless you are planning on fighting both Mexico and the US. Or at least jumping off a cliff. It’s as irritating as and less clever than overuse of “I am Spartacus.”
@ Stig:
“I thought the hubristic Doctor was Colin Baker…or was he the conceited git?”
I always figured the Sixth Doctor was a bundle of bluster and anger covering a heart of gold to essentially counter what he was as the Fifth Doctor: a sensitive and noble man who could also be quite a large dick at the same time.
It’s a lot more clear in the Big Finish audio adventures, though, as Colin Baker’s Doctor was able to mellow out quite a lot.