Category: Doctor Boo

Various musings regarding anything involving perennial BBC sci-fi franchise Doctor Who

The Davies/Miller Comparison

Once upon a time, there was a famed comic book writer named Frank Miller, who wrote a Batman miniseries that got fairly popular called The Dark Knight Returns. People wanted a return to that universe and the closest thing we got was a Spawn/Batman crossover comic in the mid-90s. But then Miller delivered a proper sequel to his Bat-magnum opus called The Dark Knight Strikes Again… and it was shit.

A couple years later, there was a fellow named Russel T. Davies, who was charged by the BBC to create a new version of long dormant sci-fi cult favorite Doctor Who for the telly. The first series ended up being a success and Davies would eventually leave the show after the conclusion of Series 4. And when Davies returned to Doctor Who, people were excited that the man who brought Who back to TV would eventually steer the ship right after it had been derailed by the previous showrunner who isn’t Steven Moffat. Three specials were promising, but the two series that had followed turned out to be utter shit.

I was browsing some site somewhere and someone made the comparison between Davies and Miller, where both had successful first runs with a popular character and then years later, they would return for a second run that would end up being less than stellar. The only difference between the two is that Davies never achieved his Goddamned Batman meme moment, which would’ve made the whole thing worthwhile.

So, I’m somewhat exaggerating here. I’ve only seen a handful of episodes of this past run and to tell the truth… I haven’t seen a single one that I would consider good. There are little moments here and there where maybe – just maybe – there was a shot at the story turning a leaf and actually start to be GIT GUD… but it never happens. And the more I watch of these episodes – mostly out of some misplaced sense of obligation rather than any genuine interest – the more I’ve come to realize that maybe comparing Davies to Miller might be pushing it. Sure, Miller has had some duds in recent years, but I thought DKIII wasn’t all that bad (though that might be due to Miller having a co-author in Brian Azzarello, who generally puts out quality work). Maybe Davies needs a co-runner to compliment his eccentricities. Someone who can get him to pull the reigns and result in better stories.

Or maybe just put the whole franchise on ice for a few years, give the reigns to someone new, and let them start fresh. Leave the silly Billie Piper stuff to Big Finish and give someone else the Doctor role. Or just reboot the whole damned thing and start from scratch. I mean, why not? Everyone seems to be on a goddamned multiverse kick, so why not doing a new series that wipes the slate clean and gives us a new First Doctor? Anything to clear out the mess that the past few years worth of utter garbage had left behind.

I swear to dog, this is the last Doctor Boo post I’ll be doing for a while. Tomorrow, I’ll bitch about something else…

P.S. Yeah, they never followed up on the Susan cameo from a couple episodes ago… but considering how they treated everything else that’s a legacy element, that’s probably for the best.

The War Between The Land And The Sea

The first teaser for the upcoming Doctor Who spin-off miniseries, which features UNIT and friends going up against the Sea Devils and possibly the Silurians. Naturally, going by the somewhat darker tone, there have been comparisons to ancient Doctor Who spin-off series Torchwood, which lasted a couple series and one mini.

I don’t know. There’s not enough here for me to be interested in giving this a watch. That, along with the last two series of Doctor Who proper having soured me on this current regime, gives me no expectations in this turning out to be anything less than average fare… actually, no. I take it back; average fare in this regime’s case would be a best case scenario. I expect this to be really bad… but who knows? Maybe this will be a surprise.

I leave it to you folks to see the show for yourself. Chances are you’ll get more out of this than I would.

I Asked ChatGPT To Write A Doctor Who Script… This Is The Result

In the further adventures of Doctor Boo – hence the recycling of yesterday’s banner – I’ve asked ChatGPT to write a brief scene for a Doctor Who script. Granted, it’s an unlikely doctor/companion combination, but it’s already a better script than anything that the show has put out since Steven Moffat stepped down as showrunner.

Minor spoiler, here: but bonus points for not including any crying.

Continue reading “I Asked ChatGPT To Write A Doctor Who Script… This Is The Result”

Isaac Newton Discovered Crapity

So I just figured out why I wasn’t too keen on going back to Doctor Who in its current incarnation – the stories coming out of that camp are kinda shit.

For those who need a refresher, I was one of those folks who got into Doctor Who on a regular basis during the Matt Smith days. I’ve seen some Doctor Who beforehand, I knew of it, and I was even able to catch the revival of the show back in 2005, but never really got around to following it until much later. Man, those were the days when you had a kooky Time Lord in a blue box going on some fun adventures that were also smartly written and thought provoking.

I stuck around for a few years – sat through the majority of the Peter Capaldi run, who ended up being “my” doctor if you want to go there. And then once that was done and we went to Jodie Whittaker, I just sort of lost interest and moved on. Or at least, that’s how I’m framing it nowadays. I honestly don’t know why I didn’t stick with it… or at least, I don’t recall.

When David Tennant came back for the specials, I figured why not? Give it a shot. They were fine and then we went from Tennant to Ncuti Gatwa, who seemed like a promising Doctor at first. And with the return of Russel T. Davies behind the scenes – the man partly responsible from bringing Doctor Who back from the wilderness, it seemed like a no-brainer… but it’s on Disney Plus and Disney Plus as a streamer is fucking horrible. So no buys.

I did end up watching an episode or two. One took place in a barber shop and then there was the last one where they went to a singing contest of some kind… my god, those shows were awful.

Granted, I see a lot of clips of these shows and none of them are the least appealing. One episode has the Doctor fighting a cartoon, another had an evil podcaster (played by a white dude – of course), there’s talk about something called “mavity” that makes my head hurt. As for the Doctor… well, you cast the guy from Sex Education and he’s going to lean into what he knows best, right? Lots of touchy-feely, mushy-mush stuff. Not at all like the Doctor of old who’s supposed to be detached and alien – this guy feels like another lame ass human intended to be relatable… except the Doctor isn’t supposed to be relatable. He’s supposed to be the outsider commenting on the state of the human condition. That’s what worked best about the character. And now you don’t even have that.

See, you’ve got it all wrong, love. It’s not “mavity” or “gravity.”

It’s “crapity.”

I suppose I should be excited that they brought back Susan for a cameo (Susan – played by Carole Ann Ford – one of the original companions and also the Doctor’s granddaughter) or that we have a new version of the Rani (an old Time Lady villain from the classic show that would occasionally pop up in Big Finish stuff) to throw us off the fact that the story housing those bits are fucking atrocious. Hard to imagine that the guy who once spearheaded the return of Doctor Who has become this marble-mouthed idiot who can’t tell a good story to save his own ass.

If the rumors of Doctor Who going on hiatus are true, then it’s a hiatus that is desperately needed to find someone who knows some actual science fiction and is good at telling decent stories worthy of this franchise… if such people even exist anymore. I’m not sure anyone these days knows how to spin a good sci-fi yarn; they’re more interested in going “outside the box” and doing stupid shit like having musical episodes or cosplay sessions aping other forms of entertainment. As if they’re ashamed of being the thing that made those franchises popular and enduring in the first place.

I wish an apple would fall on my head and I can suffer partial amnesia so I can forget this entire dreadful period of Doctor Who and go back to the days when the character was played by Tom Baker. I could use a jelly baby right about now.

“Family Friendly Turned Antagonist” Says Whovian Person

Source: https://www.doctorwhotv.co.uk/doctor-who-antagonistic-103806.htm

I came across this fan opinion piece regarding the recent Who offering and I’ve little to say on the matter, but it makes for an interesting read if nothing else.

I will say that the site’s Dr.Who joke for April Fools is actually intriguing and is a shame that it’s only a harmless April Fools’ prank.

Nice To Meet You, Rose. Run For Your Life!

Hard to imagine that it’s been twenty years since Doctor Who made a return to television. A far different take on what had come before, but still very much part of that long-lasting lore. I adored Christopher Eccleston’s take on the Doctor, I thought Billie Piper’s Rose Tyler was a perfect companion for this new, brooding Doctor fellow. I liked that stories were resolved in one or two episodes rather than four or five like in the old show. I liked that the video quality was actually consistent as opposed to the old show where the outside scenes looked grainer than the inside scenes.

This was my entry point into this now six-decade plus old franchise that had, up to that point, largely eluded me. I knew of Doctor Who, I heard of it, but my exposure to the franchise had been fairly minimal. Even now, I’m still playing catch up with the older stuff while ignoring the newer stuff due to its current choice of streaming home. Whatever happens, here’s to another six decades of zany Doctors and stuff.

For Anyone Who Cares… New Doctor Who Begins Next Month

Source: https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/doctor-who-season-two-date-b2702782.html

For anyone who still watches the show, the next season/series/whatever of Doctor Who will begin on April 12th, despite rumors that the series was set to air later this year. Included in this post is the recently released trailer, so you can decide for yourself if it’s something to look forward to.

If there is a physical release of the previous season that I can pick up for dirt cheap, I’ll probably go for that in an effort to catch up. As it is right now, I have no desire to sign up to Disney+ because I have no interest in subscribing to more than one streaming service at a time. Right now, I’m sticking with Netflix because of the WWE deal and that might last up until Wrestlemania comes and goes. After that, though… we’ll see… but it won’t be Disney+ or anything like that.

Telling A Really Disposable Ignorable Story

Spent the better part of the day celebrating my mother’s 77th birthday today with family and friends. Despite a couple health scares over the past year, she is in good spirits and always bursting with energy… sometimes to her own detriment considering the oxygen support and other things that she should be taking care of.

It’s also today where Maya got to play with one of her siblings and the results were truly wonderful.

At some point, though, I got a PM from a friend of mine. They’ve been asking if I knew about The War Games In Colour and if I had seen it. For those who don’t know, The War Games is the final Doctor Who story to feature Second Doctor Patrick Troughton before he would pass the reigns over to Jon Pertwee’s Third Doctor the following season. (Troughton would reprise the role in later multi-Doctor stories before his eventual passing.) News of The War Games being made into a colour film surprised me and I looked into it a little more.

Turns out that this “colour” version is a re-edit of the original ten-part story (which clocks in at a total running time of four hours) into a much more brisk ninety-minute film. From what I’ve seen of clips online, the project not only gives the old serial colour, but also adds some additional music bits, some annoyingly anachronistic modern special effects, and perhaps most of all, a new regeneration scene from Troughton to Pertwee done via CG and stuff like that. The only thing I’ve seen is the regeneration scene, which I thought was well done for the most part and certainly a far better take than that one fanfilm thing where some Doctor Who fan put on a Second Doctor costume and somehow got a much older Jon Pertwee to reprise the Doctor for said regeneration. (I’m not begrudging said fan film – later Star Trek fan films would also adopt the practice of bringing in actual Trek actors into the fold before Paramount put the kibosh on that practice.)

At the moment, The War Games In Colour can only been seen on BBC’s online player, which is region locked. Apparently, there’s going to be a Blu-Ray release somewhere down the line and will even include the original serial so people can compare the two works. There’s a part of me that’s actually looking forward to this thing when it becomes more widely available. I’ve always wanted to sample more Classic Who, going so far as to track down a Plex channel that’s showing nothing but vintage Who stuff. It also gives me a chance to sample these more modern takes on classic material… maybe if this turns out to hit the sweet spot, I might consider the season sets that are being put out at the moment.

In other news… I have yet to touch a single lick of modern Doctor Who ever since the David Tennant run… the second one. Apparently, from what I’ve heard, the new Doctor is fine at times, but the stories are kinda rubbish… which, coincidentally, is the same sort of thing I’ve heard when Jodie Whittaker took over the role. I’m sure some people would want to blame the actor for the series going on some proverbial downswing, but you have to cast blame on creative as well. I’ve not seen Jodie’s run yet, but I’ve seen clips and she seemed fine in the role. Hopefully, the Big Finish stuff will give her more juicy stuff to play with and that’ll be a much better sell. Maybe Ncuti Gatwa might have a better run on Big Finish. Maybe you should sell the franchise to Big Finish and let them do all the good Doctor Who stuff.

Maybe one day, I’ll give these things a shot… but that would require resubbing to Disney Minus… and I really, REALLY don’t want to do that.