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Doctor Who Series 8

Daleks in Manhattan,
Dinosaurs on a Spaceship
Fear Her
The Rings of Akhaten
The Lazarus Experiment
The Idiot’s Lantern
And that stupid one with Agatha Christy and a giant wasp.
And any christmas special, aside from the 1st one.

I also note, any episode where the doctor prats around on a moped, anti gravity bike, or space trike. The one thing the dire American movie taught us is the Doctor should not piss about on a bike.



 
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I found the ho-ho farts slitheen way more stupid a monster tbf. Not much in it though. I probably let the slitheen slide because farts are intrinsically funny
 
DotCommunist said:
I found the ho-ho farts slitheen way more stupid a monster tbf. Not much in it though. I probably let the slitheen slide because farts are intrinsically funny
Click to expand...

The farts were shit, the CGI was TERRIBLE. The costumes were like something from the 80s.
 
Adipose was terrible. It was really bad. And wasn't it around the time of the genuinely freaking terrifying "Donna what's that on your back" which sends shivers down my spine to this day, and it suffered in contrast.
 
TheHoodedClaw said:
The director of that block of episodes hasn't worked on the programme again
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TV doesn't work like that a Director on TV show is someone who shoots the episode and delivers a cut and then lets the producers have their wicked way. The producers commission the script, hire the actors etc etc....

I've worked in British SciFI action telly like Doctor Who and worked with many of the crew of Who, and blaming the director is deflecting attention that this was a very childish episode.

Simply put a director couldn't have introduced the farting without prior producer approval, would be well off the show before final CGI effects were delivered, and couldn't be responsible for the worst aspects of the show. Seriously TV directors, particularly UK TV directors shoot the scene they were paid to shot, and if they have professional pride they cover the scene the way they want it, and edit it that way, and after a few days editing they need to let it go and give it to the producers who will mess with it for months.
 
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I hated Katherine Tate.

1. I disliked her as a actress/comedian before Who.

2. It's quiet clear she made zero effort to learn about the show outside her lines (The Elizabeth Taylor school of acting). Seriously watch her on the Doctor Who Buzzcocks episode, she's fucking baffled. Joe Wiley is disgusted by her complete ignorance about Doctor Who (For fucks sake Tate admits thats she didn't realise that his name wasn't who, after FREAKING SHOOTING A BLOODY SERIES OF WHO.)
 
8115 said:
She was being funny. She was absolutely great, she was a second lead, not just a companion.
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No I've watched the buzzcocks thing a few times, she's genuinely ignorant and laughing about her ignorance, throughout the show. And since new who launched the companion is always behind the doctor in the credits ergo always second lead. Your argument isn't pedantry it's just stupid.

Tate was shrill stupid and annoying. She was, I'll give you this, a million times better than Martha. And she had some of the best scripts. But I'd have loved to see a better actor take on turn left. Imagine if someone sensible in the BBC saw Blink and snatched Carey Mulligan to do ONE series of who. Just imagine the apidose episode with Sally Sparrow instead of Donna Noble. Just imagine any Donna Noble episode with Sally.

Anyone going to argue with me that Carey Mulligan would have been worse than Katherine Tate?
 
She's just prettier?

Katherine Tate had so much depth as Donna Noble, she was great. Like a proper, girls, you don't have to flutter your eyelids, you can be genuinely awkward, clumsy and completely tactless and still be queen of the Tardis better than anyone else. Proper feminist companion.
 
joustmaster said:
Tate is one of the worst things to happen to TV. (until Mrs Browns Boy's, any way)
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The only non-Who thing I've seen of hers was the film Starter for Ten, and she's good in that, so I didn't really have any pre-conceptions to bring to her portrayal of Donna Noble. I thought she was great tbh, and I'm still a bit peeved about how her arc ended.
 
8den said:
I hated Katherine Tate.

1. I disliked her as a actress/comedian before Who.

2. It's quiet clear she made zero effort to learn about the show outside her lines (The Elizabeth Taylor school of acting). Seriously watch her on the Doctor Who Buzzcocks episode, she's fucking baffled. Joe Wiley is disgusted by her complete ignorance about Doctor Who (For fucks sake Tate admits thats she didn't realise that his name wasn't who, after FREAKING SHOOTING A BLOODY SERIES OF WHO.)
Click to expand...
I liked the fact that she was honest about her ignorance it made the show funnier sort of, and I wasn't keen on the idea when I heard that she had been cast. but she turned out to be my favourite New who companion so far
 
8den said:
I hated Katherine Tate.

1. I disliked her as a actress/comedian before Who.

2. It's quiet clear she made zero effort to learn about the show outside her lines (The Elizabeth Taylor school of acting). Seriously watch her on the Doctor Who Buzzcocks episode, she's fucking baffled. Joe Wiley is disgusted by her complete ignorance about Doctor Who (For fucks sake Tate admits thats she didn't realise that his name wasn't who, after FREAKING SHOOTING A BLOODY SERIES OF WHO.)
Click to expand...
Hang on - hold the phone.

Acting is what I *do* know about. From a purely qualitative perspective, Tate not researching the series beyond her role is *exactly* what the very best actors should do (not that this is why she did it, necessarily). Donna doesn't know anything about the doctor beyond what she experiences with him, therefore to play her more convincingly, more in line with Stanislavski's 'system' (or the Method, as it went on to be developed in the States), researching the series is not only unnecessary, it would be actively harmful. As a fan you might be offended that she has never been into Who as a wider entity than the role she played - but there's bugger all reason why an actor *should*.

I love that Buzzcocks episode. Yes, she's completely fucking clueless - though she plays up to it, and it's obv part of her offscreen personality... I also suspect she's a bit pissed... but Tennant (a massive Who geek) clearly adores her for it. They went on to do Taming of the Shrew together in the west end. It received rave reviews. I fully expect that Tate doesn't know a great deal about Shakespeare or the canon. She didn't need to, though, even if i think it's really interesting. As an actor she needs to know one part really well. That's all.

Donna is an extraordinary companion. Far and away the best of new Who. Mostly that's the scripts - but they were created for her, the plot arc written with her in mind after working with her on the runaway bride a year earlier. Her delivery is... full on. Probably quite annoying, in some ways (appropriately to the character)... but the emotional pitch varies throughout the series and the stuff at the end is nicely at contrast with the comic overstatement at the start.
 
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