There were some excellent McCoy audio dramas produced where he got to go a little bit darker to great effect.
BUT it’s Colin Baker who was either not ready when it happened, or criminally wasted. He just kills in some of the Big Finish productions.
I don’t know if McCoy could have been better…maybe. The show had devolved into pantomine by that point though, even though Andrew Cartmel did his best to get the ship back on course the last 2 years.
Colin Baker was a real lost cause, even though he was certainly earnest. I’m not surprised to hear he’s better in the audio stories - he certainly couldn’t be worse, and he probably felt a hell of a lot less pressure than on the show.
The companions were pretty dreadful after Tegan as well.
So it looks like Doctor Who is taking a year off, after the 2008 season. Apparently it’ll definitely be back in 2010 for a 5th season of the relaunched show, but in 2009 they’ll take the year off aside from three specials (which’ll be similar to the x-mas shows).
Tennant will remain the Doctor at least for the entire 2008 season and the 2009 specials, and Russel Davies will similarly remain involved at least until then. No details have been announced concerning the 2010 season, so perhaps they’re considering a transition then to allow Davies to step down, which is why they want the production gap.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2007/09_september/03/who.shtml
I just saw that.
It’ll be interesting to see what this season is like, now that they’ve run out of things to recreate.
Maybe it’s just me, but the show feels like it’s at a cross-roads.
Indeed it does. When they announced Tate as the new companion, I was pretty saddened, and am kinda not really looking forward to next season … I thought that they did a good one with this season, much better than the previous one. I guess I’ll see. :)
Okay, so Peter Davison’s Fifth Doctor was not my favorite. He even bugged me a little. But this can theoretically be overlooked.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/news/cult/news/drwho/2007/10/21/50016.shtml
Who Needs Another Doctor?
The Tenth Doctor meets the Fifth Doctor.
David Tennant’s Tenth Doctor is set to meet Peter Davison’s Fifth Doctor in a special scene commissioned for BBC One’s Children in Need.
The scene, entitled Time Crash, was written by award winning Doctor Who writer Steven Moffat, and will transmit as part of the Children in Need fundraising evening on Friday 16 November 2007.
“It is an honour for me to be able to make the connection between the Fifth Doctor and the Tenth Doctor,” noted Peter Davison. “However, now is not the time for sound-bites. I can feel the hand of history on my shoulder, even if I can’t do the buttons up!”
Look out for more coverage on the site nearer the time - and don’t forget to support Children In Need and donate on the night!
(Edit: and for the record, Christopher Eccleston was the the only Doctor I liked almost as much as Tom Baker).
The photo of the two standing next to each other on the linked page makes me interested in hearing how the kids will take to the 5th Doctor, considering how old he looks compared to Tennant.
And then there’s those conversation where the parents will mutter about how he (and they) used to look as young as David did a good 20-something years ago.
It’s too bad this meeting isn’t part of the actual season.
I feel the same. Tennsnt isn’t bad, but I did liked CE better.
Tennant’s real downfall is that he’s playing the role as Russell T Davies wants him to, at least in my personal opinion. Tennant has shown that he can breath life into a character as he did with John Smith in The Family of Blood / Human Nature, but as soon as he goes back to being the Doctor at the end of the story, it showcases his performance as the Time Lord as being more cliche than character.
An even worse example of this is the latest Master. Everyone raves about John Simm as an actor, but he flat out admits in the behind the scenes footage for The Sound of Drums / Last of the Time Lords that he played the character exactly as written by Davies.
I like what Davies did with the show on a larger level as he brought it back, but I look forward to a day when he has far less control over the show than he currently does as writer and producer.
/agree x3
Like Tennant though. Liked each season in the relaunch less than the one previously, however.
I totally agree with that. It’s really impressive what Davies did with the show, but at this point it just feels like it’s spinning its wheels. For years I wanted to like Doctor Who, because it seemed like a great concept, but I just could never get into it. Then the reboot comes along, and the first few episodes were just astoundingly good.
You could tell that they loved Doctor Who, and wanted to make it fun above all, then genuinely scary and exciting, with plenty of continuity and the occasional stab at sci-fi. That was the perfect combination, but that spirit can only last so long, and it started not just repeating the original series, but itself.
I read a rumor somewhere that Steven Moffat was the obvious choice for next show-runner after Davies left, and that would be awesome. The “Blink” episode is one of the best hours of television of any kind that I’ve ever seen.
All of Steven Moffat’s episodes are great, arguably the best shows in each season of the relaunch.
I <3 Steven Moffat.
I guess the Master’s laser screwdriver made the Fifth Doctor chunky.
Everyone together! Think hard! “DOCTOR!”
In a way, we’re getting 3 Doctors, because age has made Davison’s 5th look more like McCoy’s 7th.
I just picked up the season 3 dvd at best buy.
Watched the episodes I’ve missed.
Not a bad season, but my lord, what strange episodes.
Especially Gridlock, good but really strange. (trapped for 23 years on a highway?)