The Tenth Doctor (Who)

[firecat]

I finished watching the David Tennant Doctor Who episodes. Should I put a spoiler cut even though all these shows aired 2006–2010? Might as well.



I liked the Tenth Doctor, but I kept thinking that he was like the kind of manager who ignores a problem until it's a huge problem and then gets his department to run around like a chicken with its head cut off to solve the problem and then gets a lot of kudos for it.

I also didn't like the constant emphasis on someone (usually a woman) dying to solve the problem.

I mainly kept watching because I thought so many of the female leads/guest stars/characters were great. Agatha Christie (though the story was dumb), Captain Brooke (though I didn't like the ending)...

Mostly I just liked little moments. The references to various Agatha Christie novels. The scene where a cell phone holds remnants of a dead woman's consciousness. People in Donna's family's temporary home singing "Bohemian Rhapsody." Daleks in German going around yelling "EXTERMINEIREN." Naming the Mars base Bowie Base One. The church with the little Tardis in its stained glass window.

I'm starting to watch the Eleventh Doctor now, but I'm worried because I don't trust Steven Moffat.

Comments

[firecat]

You might like "Midnight" or "Turn Left"? They're more psychological horror than "ugly monsters" horror. (I think most Doctor Who episodes have some horror tropes though.)

[houseboatonstyx.livejournal.com]

Psychological horror is worse! The one about Paris and going into the past to meet a painter who was duplicating paintings was not horror, but did have the bewildered companion, and didn't hang together very well.

Maybe my expectatations are too high?

[firecat]

I've only watched rebooted Doctor Who (2005 and on). I would say if you don't like horror tropes or companions, you might not like much of the rebooted stuff.

[houseboatonstyx.livejournal.com]

That's helpful, thanks! I'll try pre-2005.

[graymalkin13.livejournal.com]

There are a lot of horror tropes and companions in Classic Who as well. They're part of the Doctor Who universe/formula.

[graymalkin13.livejournal.com]

"Midnight" (in which the companion isn't along for the adventure of the day) and "Waters of Mars" are probably my favorite Who episodes of all time. I find them both genuinely scary and disturbing (in a good way), unlike the Ugly Monsters episodes.

[houseboatonstyx.livejournal.com]

I was very impressed with "Waters of Mars"; I just dislike that repetitive horror motif -- seeing the same fate slowly approach and destroy one character after another. It was used sometimes in the old Avengers, which I love otherwise. Maybe I should learn to use the fastforward. ;-)

I'll try "Midnight". Anyway some kind of sidekick and/or lesser heroine is a trope of nearly every storyverse. I just thought the girl in the Paris story was especially badly treated.

Just saw "Tomb of the Cybermen" and liked it! Now I see what the mystique is about.

Tvtropes catalog of the stories is very helpful.