Rate & Discuss 4.14: The Next Doctor

[Pip Madeley]

It was 5th July when we left the rather damp Doctor staring into space in the TARDIS console room. A lot has happened since then, not just for us, but for him too...

It's almost Christmas when the TARDIS lands in snowy Victorian London and the Doctor soon finds himself in another exciting adventure with an old adversary... no, it's not the Planet Skaro Audios' Christmas Special!

No voting or spoilers of any kind until 7pm on Christmas Day please.

[shada pavlova]

To be honest, it was a real letdown. What's the MATTER with you people?

Nice "classic clips" though.

[Larry]

8.5/10 - just how I always like my christmas specials to be drama emotion and a good helping of fun..

oh and all 10 Doctors in one episode

[Dino]

8 for me. Some dodgy effects, the "doggy Cybermen" didn't work considering they get more money that the original series and the conclusion was the usual convienance.
But it was a gripping hour. I loved it.
A pity we only have the title of the next story, I would have preferred a cliffhanger.
And also, is this the lowest body count ever recorded in a Cyberman story?

[Dirk Gently]

I've given it 7/10. It was great fun but I'm sure repeated viewings will show it to be a little lacking in substance. But on the whole it was great fun.
But I must say that 14 minutes in & I was thinking "Minuet in Hell" about the Next Doctor character. I had no idea 'how' the transfer was going to be done but up until that point I thought i was going to be a remake of The One Doctor. Funny how the audios are getting used as a basis for TV stories.

All in all great acting all round with the low point in the story telling being the end which seemed to be odd, how is disconnecting Mercy from the Cyber consciousness make her act like a terrified girl when she willing joined the Cybermen?

Still, great Christmas TV.

Oh, an I'd love to see the McGann haters try & come up with a convincing argument to still say that McGann isn't canon.

[Dino]

Oh, an I'd love to see the McGann haters try & come up with a convincing argument to still say that McGann isn't canon.

Oh McGann is canon...he just made one story!

[sugartongs]

I loved it right up until the Cyber King rose up. Oh dear. I didn't understand why the needed children and i thought the whizzy-zappy thing that disposed of the Cyber King was a typical bit of RTD pseudo-science end of episode wrap-it-up-in-10-seconds nonsense.

I did punch the air when McGann appeared though, because it'll finally silence those idiots who claim he's not canon. Also nice seeing Eccleston again.

When David Morissey walked into the TARDIS at the end i did kinda wish he'd be the next companion. Ah well.

[Larry]

I loved it right up until the Cyber King rose up. .

ok that was a bit of nonsence and more jules vern then Doctor Who but I thouhjt it was fun and IMO you can get away with it in a christmas special but I'm not sure you could in the normal serie.

[Dave Lewis]

FFS!

OMG!

Anti-squee!

-0/10

[Philipnet]

6 / 10
A good enough drama for Christmas day.

I wonder how Wallace and Gromit will stack up comparison.

[Pip Madeley]

I can never make up my mind about any Doctor Who until I've had a chance to sit down and watch it again (there were a few things I didn't understand but may have missed in all the excitement), but on initial view it was a good piece of television - not quite the big, balls to the wall Doctor Who of Christmas 2007 but the CyberKing wasn't far behind...

I'll vote later.

[Llordllama]

I really enjoyed it, one of the better Christmas specials; and for me maybe one of the better uses of the new Cybermen. Even if those black-sheep things just made me laugh - poor jobbing actors underneath! Liked the guy playing Lake, who seemed to be acting David off the screen at times.

And, unlike the Runaway Bride, at least it looked like it was filmed at Christmas - not July.

(Randy also enjoyed it and has produced his usual "Doctor WHeasel" review for the fans, just waiting on YouTube to process it...)

[Lissa]

I watched it through Banana and her new bicycle and so there were a few things I didn't quite get -

Who was the woman in the red dress?
Why was she able to take over the Cybermen using just her brain?
Why did she need all those children?
Why did the Cybermen want her to be their new king?

And it was awfully convenient that the one bit of significant alien technology in the episode was both a way of (literally) info dumping AND a weapon that kills Cybermen.

But it was still great because I think I've finally understood RTD epics. Last weekend I finally summoned up the reserves to watch Last of the Time Lords and it was far better than I remembered. As was Voyage of the Damned. And the Runaway Bride. And Army of Ghosts/Doomsday. Basically, all the ones I thought were bollocks. It's a bit late in the day but better L than N. The Next Doctor was big, silly, over blown, funny, spectacular and wacky. It was great.

The only bad thing was that I was recording too many things at once so the padding on my V+ didn't work and it stops just after the other David has been freaked the hell out by the TARDIS.

Banana likes her new bike too. If I hadn't been expecting Chiwetel Ejiofor to steal the Tardis at the end (bloody internet whispers) it would've been perfect.

[duncan]

Transformers, Robots in disguise

A cyber-tastic romp for a Christmas special. 7/10

[Llordllama]

Oh it's finished processing - feast your eyes (as I'm sure your stomaches will have had enough) on Doctor WHeasel and the Next Doctor

[Alex]

I really enjoyed that, for the first time in ages the Cybermen seemed very threatening villains - I think the Victorian setting suited them perfectly and made them more effective than ever. I was also surprised by how much I enjoyed David Morrissey's performance, it was far more nuanced that he usually manages, and whilst I guessed what the situation was (roughly) as soon as it was mentioned that a body hadn't been found, it still made for fascinating stuff.

As for the ending, well, a big **** off robot stomping around Victorian London? I couldn't have asked for more, it made me squeal in an over excited manner and I loved it a lot, especially when the Doctor went up in the hot air balloon to defeat it!

It gets a strong 8/10 from me, and I just hope the rest of the specials are as enjoyable.

[Jon Masters]

6.5 / 10 - probably my favourite Christmas DW so far, but defnitely a story of two halves - a brilliant, almost faultless first half (though how the Next Doctor came along was pretty obvious near the beginning), but a very disappointing second half which lost its way, jammed in as many Victorian Christmas ideas as it could and produced a pretty poor (but yet typical RTD) conclusion.

The kids loved it up until the last 15 minutes and then got bored.

[sugartongs]

And later on we saw a hot air balloon in the latest Wallace and Gromit story. Wallace should definately be the 11th Doctor

[Mike Saville]

Worked for me. Mostly.
My gripes were all minor. And I'll live.

[Llordllama]

Who's to say Wallace ISN'T the next doctor. It would explain all those mad contraptions he builds if it turns out they're all TimeLord science!

[Larry]

Unofficial overnight figures show The Next Doctor was watched by 11.7 million viewers

[Andrew Curnow]

Is my screen giving in to some kind of entropy field, or is it snowing on Planet Skaro today? Marvellous!

Anyway, I think I enjoyed it. I didn't feel disappointed by it, I didn't nearly doze off like I did quarter of an hour into VotD last year, and we were all held and entertained by it. With my fan hat on, I'd say the only weak element was the Cyber King, which just looked like CGI, and which I therefore never believed was stomping across London - just a couple of shots with people on the ground being crushed, or narrowly being missed, by a giant foot would have really helped sell it. Maybe like the unseen Racnoss children in 06 money or time prohibited it. It's no biggee though.

On the plus side, it was by turns fun (we all eight of us laughed throughout the first few minutes, especially the 'up the wall & across the floor' scene which is still making me grin today); and moving (I'm not really a David Morrissey fan, but I found myself really warming to, and feeling for, him as the episode progressed); and exciting (the graveyard sequence is destined to be picked up in clip shows for years to come).

Zel guessed that 'the Doctor' was actually Jackie Lane (or whatever the name was) a few minutes before we found out, and then again guessed that the Cybermen had also stolen his son (sister-in-law theorised that maybe they had stolen one of the Next Doctor's hearts - maybe she's been reading the EDAs?!).

I don't particularly want to go and watch it again and again, but it's left me feeling warm & fuzzy, and fully enchanted by the tenth Doctor (when he first appeared in the pre-credits moment, and grinned that grin, I found myself grinning too). Favourite line of the night has to be, "Did you put your legs on silent?" which was just hilarious, with "This is nonsense!" a good runner-up. And it was simple but somehow very touching to see Jackson change the Doctor's mind at the end - I would have rather enjoyed seeing something of that Christmas meal.

High ratings is the icing on the cake (I did wonder if 6pm was a bad idea, as it's more teatime than peaktime) and I'm looking forward to the specials... although Planet of the Dead is a very dull title indeed!!!

Merry Christmas!

[Andrew Curnow]

How could I forget - the short sequence of clips of the other nine guys was just a delight. It wasn't essential, it wasn't long, but it warmed the cockles of my heart to see them all there. A touching little nod.

In a similar vein - was it just me, or was there a little hint of 'classic Cyber march' to the incidental music when the Cybes first turned up at the cemetary?

[WhiteCrow]

They're always odd - I don't think the Christmas specials tend to be the best of episodes. That said they're a welcome relief in what is otherwise a dull schedule.

I have to say I wasn't looking forward to this one. David Morriseys delivery of "I'm the Doctor, the one, the only ..." seemed like this was going to introduce us to a pompous buffoon.

Far from it - he really excelled within the role, and the character as someone who'd faced great tragedy and lost himself within the identity of the Doctor was superbly written and played. A bit of a warning to fans about losing themselves in the Doctors adventures?

Having a human with the identity of the Doctor really gave us the opportunity to explore the Doctor a bit more. The problem is it's been all done before and I hate to say it, much better in Human Nature. It's also a bit hard to explore the Doctor the new series is keen to maintain the mystery of the character, and so we just got a repeat of how lonely the Doctor was.

I have to say, heart and soul this belonged more with David Morissey than David Tennant. Their scenes together ironically had a kind of tenderness and sympathy I've not seen with any other companion, perhaps simply because with David Morissey, there was a character who understood him perhaps better than he understood himself (the closest being Donnas line in the Doctors Daughter "Is 'I'm alright' Timelord speak for 'I'm not alright'?".

I'm sure the philistines will relegate these scenes to proof of the "big gay agenda" theory.

[Milky Tears]

More on Larry's earlier post.


'Wallace & Gromit' leads Xmas Day ratings

Wallace and Gromit top TV Ratings

Top Programmes by Audience

1 - 14.3 (53.3%) Wallace and Gromit: A Matter of Loaf and Death (20:30) BBC1
2 - 11.7 (50.5%) Doctor Who (18:00) BBC1
3 - 11.5 (44.9%) EastEnders (21:00) BBC1
4 - 10.0 (41.7%) The Royle Family (21:30) BBC1
5 - 9.9 (40.6%) EastEnders (20:00) BBC1
6 - 9.5 (47.1%) BBC News (17:45) BBC1
7 - 8.6 (35.0%) Strictly Come Dancing Christmas Special 2008 (19:00) BBC1
8 - 7.4 (30.0%) Coronation Street (19:00) ITV
9 - 7.2 (39.8%) Wallace & Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (16:30) BBC1
10 - 6.4 (42.6%) The Queen (15:00) BBC1
11 - 5.6 (30.9%) Blackadder Rides Again (22:30) BBC1
12 - 5.2 (20.4%) Dancing on Ice at Christmas (20:00) ITV
13 - 4.8 (20.5%) Emmerdale (18:00) ITV
14 - 4.7 (31.1%) Shark Tale (15:00) BBC1
15 - 3.8 (15.9%) It'll Be Alright on the Night (21:30) ITV
16 - 3.7 (30.6%) Top of the Pops Christmas Special (14:00) BBC1
17 - 3.6 (17.7%) ITV News and Weather (17:45) ITV
18 - 3.3 (20.0%) Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (15:00) ITV
19 - 3.1 (22.1%) BBC News (23:30) BBC1
20 - 2.8 (24.2%) BBC News (13:45) BBC1

Doctor Who peaked with 12.58m (51.6%) in the final 5 mins. Wallace and Gromit peaked with 15.88m (58.1%) right at the end/when folk appeared for the second EastEnders.

At least Cowell doesn't have the top programme of 2008 now.

ETA: Just noticed that Doctor Who has a higher audience share than last Christmas.