WARNING: Mild spoilers for the new Doctor Who series
Just three years in, and the new Doctor Who series already seems to be cannibalizing itself. The season opener felt remarkably similar to the second-season opener: there’s a hospital, and a bunch of nasty aliens, and a female evil mastermind. And the Doctor and his friend run around corridors a lot.
And then this week’s Shakespeare episode felt like a re-hash of the Dickens episode, with just a dash of the Queen Victoria episode stirred in for flavor. Except there were witches instead of ghosts, and the people-terrified-in-an-old-theatre bit happened at the end instead of towards the beginning.
On the plus side: this year’s hospital episode had more genuine dramatic tension than last year’s. And a few parts of the Shakespeare episode were genuinely funny, including Shakespearean actors reciting technobabble. On the minus side, the Shakespeare episode ran the same few jokes into the ground, over and over.
I’m a big believer in the conventional wisdom about Doctor Who: the show does well when everyone involved thinks of it as a Serious Drama that plays to adults as well as kids. And it flounders when the makers start thinking of it as a silly sci-fi show for kids. (Not unlike the Gene Coon Star Trek era.) But Russell T. Davies has forced me to add a codicil: Doctor Who is also sunk when it staggers too far into the drunken mists of sentimentalism. I’m wondering how many episodes will invoke the sacred name of Rose, before we’re finally allowed to move on.
[...] Charlie Anders: “Just three years in, and the new Doctor Who series already seems to be cannibalizing itself.” [...]
I’m just glad that when the Doctor went to expel the radiation from his body, we weren’t treated to another fart joke. The way Tennant was gyrating his hips, I was sure that’s where the whole bit was headed.
Ack. Good point, Brian.
charlie,
the new DW has been a great disapointment to me.
the first season had some really good moments, the second season had “girl in the fireplace” and that was it.
RTD thinks he can write; he’s an idiot.
the sentimentality and innuendo are risible.
on the plus side, i agree with you that the rehashes this season are at least being done better. and while i liked billie piper a lot, i think that this new gal works better with tenant (who by the way i rank in the lower middle third of the ten doctors).
cheers!
xox
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