Doctor Who

Not definitive figures, but IRN is reporting:

"EastEnders has won the Christmas Day battle for the nation's favourite
television show.

Ten-point-one million people watched Alfie Moon prepare to leave Albert Square.

The Doctor Who Christmas Special came second, followed by Coronation Street."

I thoroughly enjoyed the Christmas Invasion. I had my doubts about Ecclestone's replacement because Chris was superb as the Doctor. But David Tennant fitted in perfectly and gave an excellent performance. It was great family entertainment. Top stuff. Nice sneak peek at the return of Sarah Jane, K9 and the Cybermen too.

Sorry about the rant before with regards to program/programme - to me it's not a point of grammer it is a point of dumbing down and to me we shouldn't follow the American way and we should keep English as it is (unless texting on mobile!!!!!!). Do we really want to follow the same path as ITV??????????????????

Right! Doctor Who -

Good Points:-
Good introductory story for a new Doctor!
Liked the new warbrode in the Tardis
Introduction to the future spin-off series - TORCHWOOD
Re-introduction of UNIT

Bad Points :-
Continuous joke with the Prime Ministers ID and ID Card
No real depth to the story - some of the scenes were not fully explained
Whilst UNIT were around no subliminal reference to Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart
Lacklustre CGI - nowhere near as decent as the first series stories

On the whole it was good Christmas light entertaining drama - but if was part of a full series it would be have been very disappointing.

Why should there be a reference to the old Brigadier for? No one other than the fans have a clue who he is.

Was your rant about "program" versus "programme" intended as irony? I only ask because you go on to spell "grammar" incorrectly, and fail to use the apostrophe correctly.

with the spelling, it is my error - didn't fully check it before submitting, but with the apostrophe, all were used correctly

it's instead of it is

shouldn't instead of should not

both in their correct respective places

that is the teacher within me done!!!!!!

Anyway, the Brig!!! Why shouldn't he be mentioned, as he was a major character for all UNIT based stories within the whole series.
And if past characters are still talked about or even brough back (such as Daleks, Cybermen, Sarah, K9) why not mention the Brig ?

Because it's just fanw*nk. To be honest, i think there's been enough of that already. Bringing back the Daleks and the Cybermen is fine, but bringing back Sarah Jane and K-9 is a bit too much in my opinion. Of course i can't wait to watch it seeing as though i am a fan lol

Don't forget that this is not NEW doctor who (i.e. starting fom Doctor Number 1) but a subsequent series to the old-style show, therefore past characters are bound to pop up or be mentioned - if it was meant to be a complete brand new Doctor Who then why hang up outfits of the previous doctors in the wardrobe, as seen in the Christmas special.

Does anyone know how many of the 9 million are actually new fans/viewers?

I wonder if they would ever do a "Two Doctors" type episode, now that would be cool. Of course there would have to come up with some reason why the other Doctors had aged!

I wouldn't say scrap the 2005 series - the new Doctor Who is working very well. That said however, I don't think the 1996 TV Movie deserves the criticism that it gets, and no one quite knows whether a series of it would have seen the downfall of Who - the American influence may have ended up doing things which a purely British production would never have done and ended up making it more popular than ever (note: I stress *may*).

After all, it worked for another great 60's institution, The Avengers. In it's pre-Diana Rigg incarnation as a purely British TV drama, John Steed, although still being socially well connected and able to move around in the upper classes, was actually quite a dark, mysterious character, often running around chasing people with a gun in action-man type scenarios and man-handling women in a most ungentlemanly fashion. In one episode, he openly mocked the type of clothing which his character would end up wearing. Then in moves the American influence, and Steed becomes a quintessentially British gentleman, with bowler, brolly and all, whilst the style of the programme became lighter and more accessible and that ended up in the series connecting with viewers in *this* country in a way which it never had done before. The American influence which did this to the show ultimately ended up improving it beyond all recognition of it's original conception.

Now I'm not saying that an American-influenced Who series (which is what we would have got had the TVM grown into a fully fledged series with Paul McGann as the Doctor as was hoped at the time) would necessarily have been better, nor am I knocking the wonderful new incarnation which we have now, but maybe it would have taken the programme in directions which a purely British production team would never think of, and maybe it's now missed out on what could have been a very positive experience for the cast, crew - and viewers - of Who - I refuse to subscribe to the assumption that a series in the mid-90's with US collaboaration would automatically be horrible, American trash and that a programme made solely within the confines of the UK with no outside input must represent the zenith of high quality Doctor Who - had a series gone ahead then I think many people may have ended up pleasantly surprised when they saw the result, and who knows, if the BBC Wales series of today was still made, there may have been a few new interesting concepts introduced as a result of that mid-90's series which they would have been able to draw on, which they don't have now.


Although I see where you're coming from, you could extend the same argument to re-introducing UNIT, the Cybermen, the Autons, and pretty much every other element of the previous series except for the universally recognised police box TARDIS and the Daleks.

With particular regard to Lethbridge-Stewart however, he wasn't just some army officer who happened to show up during the UNIT stories (except the very first one with Patrick Troughton's Doctor of course), he was the commander of UNIT, and although he probably would not still hold the position now, he would doubtless have made sufficient mark on the post to be remembered by present day UNIT staff.


Indeed, this is supposed to be a continuation of the old series, not a whole new one. The DVD box-set might be marketed as 'series 1' but all non-marketing sources identify the Christopher Eccleston series as Doctor Who series 27, and the yet to be aired David Tennat series as series 28, there is no reason why the past can't be referred to.

Indeed, the very fact the the TARDIS is still camoflaged as a police box shows very much how much the series draws on it's past - Doctor No. 9&10 *still* haven't fixed the thing that broke in the very first story and stopped it from changing appearance to fit in with it's surroundings as it once did in a time before we saw it.

8,914,356

I counted each one personally.

now, why am i not surprised at that answer!