1581

It’s certainly always had gunplay. It’s odd how there this recent fanon (not accusing you, I see this all over online) that The Doctor never uses guns or never uses violence. That’s bunk.

The Doctor certainly dislikes violence as the first resort, or pointless violence, and he’s particularly sensitive about genocides and ethnic cleansing, but the Doctor has used plenty of guns and killed plenty of enemies in various other ways (I mean direct, intentional kills, not “oops, I guess they came to a bad end” type deaths where the villain brings it on themselves), and the companions have killed plenty more (K-9, Leela, Ace, and the Brigadier come to mind especially as perfectly willing to kill shit).

1582

As for innuendo and flirtation, it’s always had some. Originally it was a kids’ series with innuendo and beautiful women added to keep dad and teenage brother happy, back i n the days when families watched TV together. It’s certainly had a lot more since RTD revived it , but that’s just a reflection on modern times.

Jokes about gender politics are new though.

1583

Plus, the end twist was neat. Like Armando, I’m not really sure what purpose it serves, since I doubt The Doctor will have no further run ins with the Daleks. He’ll soon become Public Enemy #1 and start the cycle once again.

Well the guy in the second episode’s valuation machine didn’t know who he was either, which may be significant. Has he been somehow erased, not just from those daleks’ memories, but from the universe’s - which has of course been done before on Who.

1584

Nah, the show has had those, here and there.

You had them occasionally with Leela, because she was this warrior woman and people would try to make her be submissive or ladylike and she wasn’t having it. Sarah Jane Smith was directly characterized as a feminist, so you got it with her from time to time. Also with Zoe and the Romanas because of their genius IQ’s and scientific knowledge.

1585

Qt3ers, guidance please!

My friend said I can finally watch his Dr Who Dvd’s now that he is done with his “Summer of Who”. He has Series 1-6 , from what I can understand on wikipedia has 3 different doctors in it?

Should I start from series 1? Or should I just watch the newest doctor in series 5 onward? Or what?

1586

You could easily start with the 11th doctor, which is series 5 I believe, but honestly, for the full effect, I’d start with the 9th doctor in series 1.

1587

Hilarious, especially the tag at the end.

If you want to be part of the conversation with the recent episodes but don’t want spoilers, start with the first of Matt Smith’s episodes. Otherwise, it’s preferable to start with Eccleston in series 1 (season 27).

1588

Yeah, start at the beginning. The Eccleston season is great, and it sets the tone for the rest (in comparison with old Who). Though it lacks a really standout episodes like most of the later seasons have.

1589

I’ve seen it referred to as “Doctor Who (2005)” – of which we’re in Season 7. Season 1 was Eccleston. The only drawback of the first few years is…Rose.

1590

It is very worthwhile to start from the first season. It helps tie things together a bit, and you will better appreciate just how amazingly awesome the show gets over time. Each doctor change brings a feeling of “No way anyone will top this Doctor” - and 5 minutes after you get to the current Doctor you’ll be shouting “THIS IS THE BEST DOCTOR EVER”.

No way anyone will top this Doctor.

1591

Okies, well then first season it is , It will probably take me till Christmas to get them all watched. When does Season 7 start?

1592

It started last week.

1593

The Empty Child/Doctor Dances I think are pretty great.

1594

As somebody who was late to the party too, I can safely support the recommendation given above:

Start with season 1. The new Dr Who is a show almost without weak episodes.

1595

In addition to “The Empty Child”/“The Doctor Dances” 2-parter mentioned before, “Dalek” is one of the best I’ve seen and really sells Eccleston’s simmering rage and pathological guilt. I don’t really see any way around it: he’s by far the best actor in the new series. Maybe not the best Doctor, but absolutely the best actor. Definitely start with him and go through. There are some episodes weakened by lower budget in the first season, but it’s generally solid. As you move into 2-7, it only gets better :D

If you have free time, I strongly think you’ll finish a lot faster than that. I could scarcely stop once I started; ditto for my girlfriend and my mom. . . I’ve been through the whole thing three times now!

1596

Caught up on this season last night.

Asylum was fine. I haven’t watched the old series, so I don’t know much about the Daleks, for instance, I didn’t know that they were weird eye-brain-squid-things. Is it well-established that Daleks assimilate people? I’m trying to decide how out-of-the blue that was. I just figured she was converted like the others but somehow unaware of it. When we saw the Daleks I was all “Aren’t they extinct or something? Oh, wait, didn’t they un-extinct them also? Whatever.” Also, don’t cybermen assimilate people? Is that like, a thing, in the Doctor’s universe?

I haven’t seen any of the preview material, but I gather from this thread that Oswin is the new companion? She feels a little too pandering to me, being a gorgeous adorable bubbly nerd-genius. I guess I can’t really complain that much when Rory pretty much directly represents the audience.

I didn’t really get the dino’s episode. That felt like a slightly awkward mix of wacky children’s adventure (wacky droids, dinosaurs, Brian’s balls) and too-serious lore (Silurian genocide). Also it felt a little odd that he straight up murdered Solomon, although I don’t think it was out of character per se.

There was also a weird moment early in the episode when the Silurian recording said something like “all species are surviving well…except one”, which I assumed was some kind of hint about why the Silurians were dying. But then they were all just killed by Solomon, so that didn’t amount to anything. I wonder if it was just a throwaway line or some other kind of foreshadowing.

It would be interesting if deleting the Doctor from the Dalek database ended up propagating to remove him from the valuation database, but I don’t think that necessarily makes sense. I’m never clear how prominent the doctor is in history, but it seems reasonable that if he isn’t known as an individual, there’s nothing to compare him to (no other time lords). Also, note that it didn’t ID the Tardis either, which I think you were supposed to expect when he talked about evaluating Nefertiti, so it’s not just the Doctor that’s missing there. I think that was just a chance for a sad-clown “poor worthless me” moment.

While I didn’t have much use for Rory’s dad in general, the final shot of him eating lunch while staring at the earth was worth it.

1597

Not really,as others pointed out earlier, the Doctor can be quite ruthless when he thinks it is deserved, Solomon was guilty of genocide and had tried to kidnap and exploit a friend of this, so killing him was within the Doctor’s moral compass

1598

Especially considering he gave Solomon a number of opportunities to back down. That’s his typical modus operandi. Give them a chance to walk away, then if they don’t, it’s no holds barred.

An example from an episode I re-watched recently (School Reuinion) is the Krillitanes. The Doctor confimed who he was and told them to leave. He didn’t take direct action opposing them until they refused.

1599

I often have trouble figuring out the tone of Doctor Who, especially the Moffatt seasons. Especially as I mentioned in this episode, which had a lot of more kid-friendly elements, so it seemed a little out of place there at the end.

Then again, I’m not personally against villains being killed in children’s fiction either, really, but its almost unheard of in the US. I don’t know what the British view on sanitizing childrens’ stories is. So, it isn’t something that bothered me so much as just something I noticed.

1600

That’s a fair point. Dr. Who has always been a bit interesting in that regard. It clearly has an intentionally playful fairy tale structure, but also doesn’t shy away from some pretty dark themes and truly grey moral areas. It’s that juxtaposition that appeals so strongly to me, personally. It’s bedtime stories for grownups.

I mean, the guy committed genocide twice over. Or tried to, anyway. Then there’s The Doctor Goes to War, where he blows up half a fleet of Cybermen just to get their attention sufficiently that they’ll answer a question.

I suspect you’re right that there’s a certain amount of cultural difference going on.