Has Doctor Who always been this amateur?

[user09876543]

I'm assuming it isn't doing very well since the BBC is plugging it massively but has it always been this poor? I haven't watched since Christopher Eccleston but thought I'd give it a go. It's like watching a bad village Am Dram performance. Am I missing something? Is this intentionally part of it now?

It's awful now.

We have a family of Who fans here. I sat with my father watching, and my dc sat with us rewatching new Who.

They loved Eccleston, Tennant,Smith and Capaldi (though they found some of the latter's more boring that the others). They completely lost interest during Jody's era.

I was hoping we could get together and watch again for this new season...it was turned off within 15 minutes. Dull. Boring.

Agree.

It is absolute shite now.

Wokeness is in everything and it seems that it can't convey a message with good plotting, characterisation, acting and dialogue (you know - they way writers got a message over in the Good Old Days) - instead it just has to berate.

I don't care what sex, colour or gender the Dr is. I do want exciting and involving storylines. And I don't want them re-writing the history of the Dr either. Or the history Davros.

Just leave me my dreams, will you. 😠

It’s become camp and hammy. And childish.

DH is a lifelong fan, deeply committed. I asked if he was going to stick with it and he said he wouldn’t be rewatching it 🤣.

So the old series have been watched multiple times. Jodie Whitaker and the current one, no. He had high hopes for russel davies’ return, too.

I had such high high hopes for jodie and they flubbed it

I've not really tried the new one the clips I've seen are off-putting

I liked Ecclestone, and loved Tennant (the SDTG in my name stands for Staying David Tennant's Girl - I adopted it when Matt Smith replaced David because David was simply the best Doctor, in my view). Matt Smith was OK, but I really didn't like Capaldi or Jodie Whittaker.

I haven't bothered to watch this new series - I didn't like what I saw of Ncuti Gatwa in the regeneration episodes or in the trailers for this series - too much running around being wacky and madcap for me (that pissed me off about Capaldi and Whittaker too) - and the unsubtle preachiness put me off massively.

I'm watching reruns of David Suchet as Poirot - I'd rather watch repeats than give this series a go.

Matt Smith was the end for me. It turned into twee convoluted nonsense. I tried the Jodie Whittaker but couldn't get back into it.

It hasn’t always been this amateur (not sure that’s the right word, but any depth/drama/subtle characterisation has been squeezed out of it).

i fear it’s heading in the same direction as the last season of GofT.

Just watched the first two and was very disappointed.
The Space Babies was just an awful script.
The babies looked as bored, depressed and bewildered as me most of the time.
As for a literal Bogey monster, I have enough of lads shouting out Bogeys! as a dare at school (some kind of TikTok challenge, it's like Dick and Dom never left. I'd call them Dick and Dick bit I'd lose my job and they wouldn't get the reference).
I had such high hopes for Ncuti but he sometimes comes across as smug, unstable and unsure tonally, with an accent/delivery that's all over the place.

The second one had more promise, as there is still a lot of goodwill left in me from Neil Patrick Harris's Toymaker, so his villainous son Maestro - played by a very camp but effective Jinx Monsoon - hit some high notes (pun intended).
Not put out by enby pronouns or lesbian laments, neither bother me at all but the final twist song did my head in (and this is someone who got on board with the goblin song at Xmas ffs). But if you are doing that at least do an homage to Twist and Shout, given you've used The Beatles as your denouement . Love so didn't mind Shirl and Jojo's cameos. The episode was a little inconsistent though.

Then Ruby - I mean no ill will against the actress - but she's a bit shrill and, to say she's meant to kick ass, a bit shrieky at times.
Her and the Doctor had great 60s costuming though. I'll give them that.

Maybe a few things become ironed out along the way but not the best start to a reboot.

It hasn't always been this bad at all but it has definitely gone down hill!

Eccleston & Tennant were Brilliant, Smith I dropped off of it for a bit as I didn't like the actor, but I got back into it with Capaldi and it was still good then -
Wanted to give Jodi a shot as the first female, but it was so painful to watch I had to give up. She just didn't... Work well in the role imo.

Tried to watch the specials with Tennant's return and Neil Patrick Harris in (as I adore NPH as an actor) and I just... It was absolutely horrendous.

I also didn't really understand the need for Ncuti's regeneration to be in his pants :S Maybe that's just me being prudish though, Idk.

TBH I hardly watch any TV now, and when I do 9 times out of 10 it is something like Poirot, or Judge Deed, or DVD box sets of much-loved series.

There is very little original drama that I find myself enjoying.

You only watched the Ecclestone ones @user09876543 ??? What kind of Doctor Who fan has never watched the David Tennant ones?! He is the best one! EVER!!! Also, the Matt Smith ones are good.

I wasn't a fan of the Peter Capaldi ones, or the Jodie Whittaker ones, but could watch the ones with Eccleston, Tennant, and Smith over and over.

These new ones are a pile of shite. Embarrassingly poor and cringe. Every Doctor Who fan I know refuses to watch it any longer.

it was good when it relaunched about 20 years ago? with Christopher Eccleston, followed by David Tennant, who was a brilliant Dr.
Stopped watching after Matt Smith left as it was going downhill. Didn’t watch a single episode with Jodie, as to me, the Dr is a man.

It's 90% the scripts. Christopher Eccleston is an incredible actor. David Tennant really isn't, but they were both great doctors because they had great scripts.

It has been downhill all the way since.

Jodie Whittaker is at least as good an actor as DT - in fact, they have in common that they constantly twitch and fidget instead of actual acting. But DT's episodes were good and JW's were a pile of shite because of the script quality.

I tried a few times to watch her, but just found it so childish

This is apropos of nothing but no Doctor has ever worn glasses, is that right? Did Hartnell wear specs? I imagine as he's an alien they might not be necessary or they might humanise him/her too much.

I suppose I sympathise about the 'woke-ness' - I'm not anti woke exactly but we had something similar in the last Bond movie, it's like it's meant to suck the joy out of everything.

True. Also Tosin Cole who was one of the Assistants was a dreadful actor. Monotone and dull and expressionless. Fuck knows how he got the role. (I have my suspicions but I won't say on here.)

I agree Jodie was a good doctor but the story writing was so boring.

I’m really not a fan of bringing out a sonic screw driver to fix the situation in place of having an actual plot line.

Debating whether to watch it. Loved Christopher Ecclestone, David Tennant and Matt Smith. I did like some of Peter Capaldi - once Clara had buggered off, it became all about her far too much at one point and was yawnsome - loved Bill though. I was bit peeved that they brought in Jodie Whittaker as a the first female doctor and then decided she needed a whole "fam" 🙄 as companions. It seemed a bit like them saying a woman couldn't carry it off on her own. So I kind of gave up then.

I've not seen Ncuti Gatwa in anything except the two he's done so far. He was ok. But then I was devastated when DT left and was prepared to hate Matt Smith, but he's my favourite now.

It was awful. I was so looking forward to watching it.

I remember watching the “are you my mummy “ episodes with my son ,we loved it.
now it seems to be a ceebeebies programme, mixed with lectures.

The first episode with the babies was rather creepy: poor little souls. The second one was just plain dull. I will wait for the third episode, apparently written by Russell T Davies, to decide. But I'm not optimistic. (I've been watching it since 1963, good, bad, or indifferent...)

It’s a true kids show now. Can’t watch it anymore either. John Pertwee had the necessary gravitas

I never claimed to be a doctor who fan. I watched it when I was younger (I’m 50) and then watched when it was relaunched and have seen some random episodes of each of the doctors but thought I’d try again. I was quite shocked. It really was like watching something from CBBC.

We stopped watching after a couple of Jodie W ones. Dr Who is quirky but flawed, but she didn't seem to have any flaws (sneaky feeling that was because she was a woman). She may have gone on to develop/show some, but we'd gone by then. Thought we'd try the first episode of the new series but switched off half way through. Lots of overacting, silly dialogue and seems to be aimed at kids. Thought the babies were different and funny.

I don't think I'm the right demographic audience for this new incarnation. I'm too old and remember much better script writing. I think no-one has told Russell T that his script was rotten. He's resting on his laurels, I fear. The space babies was poor. The villain in episode two was quite scary but the ending was much too smug and lovey.